Beth moved closer to Burt, intent on having a word with him. Fortunately, the two gangers holding their ropes walked next to each other, talking in hushed voices about the woman's wound.
When the leader of their captors, Leo, passed them, he glowered at Burt, but then—without a word—he moved ahead.
She waited for him to be out of earshot. "You must be mad," she whispered to Burt. "You shouldn't have provoked that guy with our medbay."
"Haven't you seen how he looks at the girl? He cares for her. He probably fucks her and will do anything to save her pretty ass. She's our chance to get out of here." His voice was as low as hers. "Just wait. I'll get you out of here." He squeezed her arm.
Yes, Leo had looked brokenhearted, the bond tying him to the woman as evident as a chain of iron. But Burt's strategy didn't convince her. The disgust and hatred on Leo's face, back when Burt had offered him the medbay, had been palpable. And his despair, too.
His had been the look of a man offered a bribe impossible to refuse yet too vile to accept — the look of a man burdened by weighing his loyalty towards his clan against his love for the woman.
The type of man who should not be pushed.
Or maybe she had just imagined that—he was nothing but a savage, after all. Why would he scorn bribery?
The prey of savages, that's what she and Burt were, caught in that gang's merciless fangs. Like cavemen, they were dragging their prey to their lair. Who'd know what they'd be doing to her and Burt there?
"Thanks, by the way."
Burt's words pulled Beth from pondering. "What for?"
"For trying to save me, back at the van, when that Leo guy wanted to shoot me." He winked at her.
Beth shrugged. "No problem. I just tried to make him vent some steam. And I had to vent some steam myself." She grinned.
"Thanks anyway."
The ruined city formed the horizon ahead. The chopper from Seaside had to come from that direction, flying across the vast ruins on its way to save them. But the sky shone in its usual light-blue laced with a dirty tinge of yellow dust.
As they ventured deeper into the outskirts of the decaying town, the dead trees and cracked earth were replaced by dreary, crumbling concrete and more ruins.
A tug from the rope binding her wrists made her look back.
The scar-faced man grinned at her. "Hey, girl, what's your name?"
"I'm Beth," she said. "And you?" The return-question had come up automatically, and she bit her lips too late. She didn't want to have a friendly conversation with her captors, and she couldn't care less for their names.
"Spike." He grinned even more now, digging wrinkles into his scarred cheeks.
The hulk walking next to him and holding Burt's rope grumbled something. If it was a curse or his name, she did not know. Nor did it matter.
"Where are you taking us?" she asked instead.
"HQ," he said. "There, you'll be shown to your... chambers."
Information could not hurt, so she prodded some more. "Where is that HQ of yours?"
"In the city, on this side." He gestured along the street. "You'll be impressed."
She turned her back on him and looked ahead. The rubble of both sides of the street held nothing to impress her.
The city was vast. Back in the age of tech, more than a million people had lived in it, she had read. Probably more people than the deserts of North America held today. The heatwaves, the fires, and the wars that broke out between states and even neighboring cities over the dwindling resources—together, they had reduced civilization to a few islands in a sea of devastation. And even these last bulwarks were falling now, one by one, going offline, ceasing to respond to radio calls. Their technology was failing, and—lacking the knowledge, skills, and tools—they were unable to rebuild it.
Civilization might soon be nothing but a memory.
It was hard to imagine this desiccated corpse of a city alive and bustling. Now it was just broken walls, rusting girders, and desert all the way across the basin and to the hills beyond—the hills of Seaside.
Something flashed up in the sky above the ruins, just for a short glimpse. She kept her eyes on the spot, squinting them against the sunlight. It was where she'd expect the chopper to come from, but all she saw now was a patch of bland blue.
The highway before them rose gently towards a bridge spanning other thoroughfares. A forking bridge—one branch heading right and the other going straight ahead. She knew that junction. The path to the right led the bypass that skirted the north perimeter of the city. It was the one they'd have taken if they still had the van. The branch going straight went into the city's core.
A territory far too dangerous to enter. Violence and greed ruled here.
But Leo didn't seem to go for neither. Instead, he headed for an exit on their left side.
Once they left the highway, the chopper would never find them.
Fighting despair, she scanned the sky once more.
Another glint of sunshine on metal rewarded her, just for a moment. The air carried a faint wail, almost imperceptible—the call of electric fans rotating at high speed.
The call of the chopper.
The exit that Leo headed for was a mere stone's throw away. She had to make their party stop, to give her rescuers more time to find them.
She took a step to the left and placed her foot in a pothole. Going with the motion, she let herself fall sideways. Her momentum carried her forward, and with her hands bound behind her back, her elbow hit the ground first.
"Ow!" The sharp pain was real and made it easy to cry out loud.
She sat up and inspected her arm, the spot where she had hurt herself. Blood dripped from her skin.
Gritting her teeth, she took a deep breath. She had to ignore the boring pain and to keep talking lest they hear the incoming aircraft.
"I was just walking," she said, glancing and Burt and hoping he'd pick up what she was doing—but he just stared with his mouth agape. "And then I fell. This blasted hole here... I do believe you people should keep your community infrastructure in better repair. It is—"
Leo stopped her short. "Something's coming! It's their flying machine! We've gotta hide." He pointed at the sky over the city. "Move!"
He had seen it.
Spike grabbed her arm and pulled her up, his grip too firm to defy resistance. "Shut up and run!" He dragged her along, following the others.
The small outline of the chopper above the city was unmistakable now.
Could they see them across this distance?
She and Spike were running now. His fingers dug into her skin, forcing her to keep up with him.
As they reached the exit off the highway, the noise of the chopper had turned into a steady whine.
Leo was ahead, with the twins carrying the woman right behind him. They made for the shadows under the bridge of the highway and would reach them in a minute or less.
"Hey!" she cried at the chopper, unable to wave her bound hands. "We're—"
The sudden jerk as Spike pulled at her arm made her stop. The man's grip tore into her flesh.
"Ouch, asshole!"
"Oh, now you're using real words," the man said and dragged her along.
She resisted and dug her heels into the ground.
"That's enough," Spike said and lifted her up.
Before she could protest, she found herself hanging over his shoulder, with her face pressed against the back of his smelly jacket. She tried to kick him, but he grabbed her legs in a vice.
Moments later, they entered the shadows of the bridge.
The fans' noise was almost upon them now, and Beth willed their rescuers to slow down and to descend.
Had her people seen them?
Spike dumped her to the ground. The impact took her breath away, but she scrambled up. He held her arm, preventing her from running back into the open. She strained against his hold, but he didn't release her, his fingers as unyielding as iron.
Were the chopper's sounds abating, moving away from them?
The twins placed Flora on the ground. Leo sat down at her side.
Yes, the chopper gained distance, its whine dwindling. Beth bit her lips.
Leo took the woman's hand, holding it between his.
The giant, dragging Burt along with him on his rope, approached Leo and placed a hand on the man's shoulder, saying something in a whisper, not loud enough for Beth to hear. Then he turned away from his boss and glanced at her—an expressionless face under pockmarked, hairy skin.