Renegades, page 32
7
Todd wiped the vomit from his lips with his shirtsleeve and looked up. His intention was to check on Becca and Jerrick, but as he lifted his eyes, he noticed a shadow on the ground outside the back door. The shadow swayed back and forth as though it were unsure of its next move. He raced outside to find the fat creep, the bag-keeper, standing with his mouth agape, staring at the open door. Todd grabbed one ear of the man, the way his mother had done to him when he had misbehaved as a child, and dragged the suspect into the jailhouse.
“What? Who is this?” Jerrick asked.
Todd pulled the door shut behind him and spun the deadbolt. “This is our bag-man. He is the one who put the bodies in the cells and hung up the sheets.” Todd looked down at the ground next to his left foot and kicked the bolt of the second door into the floor to make sure it was secure.
“Let go! It hurts! It hurrrrts… mine!” the fat man yelled.
“Close that door, please. One of you. I don’t want him running out,” Todd said, pointing to the interior door that led to the Sherriff’s office in the front of the building. Becca obliged, and Todd let go of the man’s ear.
“What is your name?” Todd asked. He had more confidence in his own wellbeing knowing that Jerrick was right next to him.
“Name, Ehgrim, mine. Name,” the fat man stuttered.
“What is this, Ehgrim? Why did you kill all these people?” Todd gestured to the bags.
“Mine first. Mine, ‘bassador Wex. Mine. Treat her right.”
Todd felt his face get hot as anger welled in him and even surprised himself with the anger in his voice. His father’s voice was what he heard. “Why did you kill them? Stop babbling and answer the question!” Todd felt Jerrick’s large hand close over his shoulder and pull him away gently.
“Hmph, mine first. Not killed, treat her right, mine first, sleeping.” Ehgrim shrunk against the bars of the empty cell he stood before.
“Not dead? Okay,” Jerrick said. “Did you put them all to sleep, Ehgrim?”
“Ha! Mine first. Yes. Treat her right. Treat her right.”
Another spark of anger tore through Todd, and he again stepped up to the creep. “What does that mean, Ehgrim? What does ‘treat her right’ mean? Does it mean ‘be kind,’ or does it mean something else?”
“Mine first. One drop, one drop, one drop. Treat her right.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, Ehgrim! What is one drop? Did you ‘treat’ them with ‘one drop?’”
Ehgrim reacted to the intensity with an intensity of his own, delivering a rhyme that he must have used to help him remember his errand. “One drop, back of her neck! Into the bag for ‘bassador Wex. Onto the cart, don’t hesitate! Back to the barn and into the crate!”
Todd fell silent, and Becca took over for him. “So, you poisoned these people, and then packed them into a crate to bring with us on our trip. Why?”
“Mine! Mine first. Mine first. Treat her right. Mine fir…”
Todd slammed his open palm on the bars of the cell, making a shockingly loud clanking sound in the small room. “Stop! Stop saying ‘mine first.’ What the hell does that mean, anyway? What the hell does that…” Todd trailed off. He stood breathing for a moment and then rubbed his face with both hands. Without another word, he walked to the cell behind them with the open bag and kneeled down on the floor. Carefully, he tucked the girl’s hair back into the bag, so it would not drag across the floor or get caught on anything. Once he was sure she would not be injured, he pulled her and the bag off the others. There were three, and he pulled open the first. Blonde hair, female, about fifteen years old. He shook his head and moved to the second bag. Another blonde, but full-chested and probably eighteen or nineteen years old. When Todd opened the third bag, he felt a rush of adrenaline, and he stood up.
8
Jerrick could hear Todd undoing the bags behind him, but he did not want to take his eyes off the prisoner for fear he would attempt an escape. Seconds after hearing the third bag open, he felt a light slap on his ankle, but could not put the pieces together quickly enough to stop what came after.
The slap had been Todd, grabbing the hilt of the blade that Ander and Reggie had provided, and by the time Jerrick looked down to investigate, Todd was back up. He instinctively took a step back and inhaled, but he could not get his hands on Todd fast enough to stop him. Todd stabbed the fat abductor in the eye, in the chest, and in the gut before Jerrick pulled him off, but it was for naught. The first wound through the eye killed the man, and he lay motionless and bleeding on the jailhouse floor.
“Todd! What? What? Why?” Jerrick screamed at the man.
“Oh my God,” Becca said under her breath.
Todd spat on the corpse and dropped the knife. He took a few steps toward the Sherriff’s office door with his hands on his hips, breathing deeply. When he turned back, the anger had left his face, but there were tear tracks on both cheeks.
“Girls. It’s all girls. Young ones.” Todd crouched down and let his face fall into his open hands.
“How could you know that?” Jerrick asked.
Todd took a minute to recuperate, then lifted his head. “That’s what ‘mine first’ meant. The ambassador must have promised him he could have them first as they woke up. Promised them to him, so he would help him.”
Becca frowned. “As they woke up? I don’t under…”
“They’re not dead, Becca. Breathe. What do you smell?”
Becca looked around as she breathed normally, trying to understand the point Todd was making. She shook her head. “Not much…”
“Exactly. Don’t you think it would smell pretty terrible in here if we were actually in a small room with two hundred corpses?”
“Yeah, I suppose it would, but…”
“They’re all under. Sterilex or Dirvex or one of the others. I don’t know all the names.” Todd walked back to the cell with the girls he had revealed and crouched down. “They’re all going to wake up, eventually. Even her.” Todd moved the bags containing the two older girls so Becca and Jerrick could see into the last one he had opened. Inside was a girl of no more than eight years.
Jerrick nodded. Becca covered her mouth and winced.
Todd stood back up. “Are you both clear about why I killed that… that little troll?”
Jerrick understood perfectly, but he also saw what could become a major problem if it were not addressed immediately. “Yeah, Todd. I get it, and I think Becca does too,” he looked at Becca, who nodded. “But we need to make something clear right now. We can’t go taking the law into our own hands on a whim. I understand that there is no system of laws in this society yet, and I understand the gravity of our present situation, but this is it. We’ll bury Ehgrim, and that will be behind us. Going forward, we will use more discretion when seeking justice.”
Todd nodded, but then stepped toward Ehgrim’s corpse and spat on it again.
9
Becca, Jerrick, and Todd calmly ascended the steps leading to the bridge. Becca was in the lead, with Jerrick close behind her. During the walk from the jailhouse to the bridge, Jerrick had made it very clear what they would do, and what they would not do, and had even gone so far as making both Becca and Todd repeat what he said. Becca was deeply torn. She wanted to kill Ander. She wanted to stab him a thousand times for what he did to those girls, but she knew that a cooler head needed to prevail, and Jerrick was the voice of reason.
She pushed open the door to the bridge and stepped through in one smooth motion, never hesitating. The moment she was in, she could hear Ander and Reggie talking in the lounge and adjusted her course.
Reggie had not moved from the chair she left him in, still with the same diagrams spread out before him, and Ander was standing, leaning against the counter in front of the coffee maker.
Becca walked directly to Ander and gently reached into his shirt pocket, removing the short blade he kept there. It was the same one he had used to murder the blue-shirted man at the first meeting of the Renegades. She then bent over and yanked the blade out of his boot.
“What is all…” Ander said before being interrupted by Jerrick.
“Ander Wex, you are relieved of your command of Lance 5, effective immediately, and you need to come with us to be incarcerated.”
Ander laughed. “Under what authority can you relieve me of command? None! There is no law yet on this ship.”
“Exactly,” Jerrick said.
Reggie stood and finally broke his silence, asking the rest of the question that Ander had started. “What is all this? Why are you doing this? What do you think he did?”
Jerrick turned to him. “I’ll explain later. For now, just stay out of the way.”
“Come with us now, Ander. If you try anything, you’ll be dead in under a minute, I promise,” Becca said, and handed Ander’s boot-knife to Todd.
“I’d rather die,” Ander said, and folded his arms across his chest.
Becca raised her weapon above her head a moment before Jerrick gripped her wrist in his massive hand.
“No,” he said. “It won’t happen this way. Ander, you will walk with us, or I will drag you. It’s your choice, but it is your only choice.”
Ander stared at Jerrick for several seconds. His eyes glassed over with tears of fury, and he ground his teeth, but he nodded.
10
Jerrick was grateful he didn’t have to drag Ander down the steps. He guessed his prisoner would put on some kind of spectacle once they were among the population, and Ander did not disappoint.
“Renegades! This band of thugs has abducted me! Please help…”
Jerrick handed his knife to Becca, closed his fist and punched Ander in the back of the skull with all his strength. The contact made a soft thudding sound, and Ander went down like a sack of flour, unconscious.
Two young men that had been carrying a chest set it down and approached the group. The taller of the two, no more than twenty years old, looked down at Ander and then back up at Jerrick. “So, what’s this about?”
Jerrick pointed down at the unconscious body. “Do you know who that is?”
The young man shook his head. “Can’t say I do.”
“You will. Tomorrow night in the theater at 21:00. Spread the word. We’re going to have an emergency meeting.”
The young man, easily as large as Jerrick, shrugged and nodded. “Alright, I’ll start spreading the word. Did you hear that, Koll? Tomorrow night at 21:00?” he asked his companion, a man several inches shorter but of about the same girth. Koll nodded, and the two picked up the chest and went on their way.
Jerrick picked Ander up and threw him over his shoulder. They walked to the jailhouse, and once Jerrick laid Ander down on the only bench in the only empty cell, he sighed. “Man, that guy’s heavier than he looks.”
“We should check his pockets,” Todd said. “Becca? We don’t want any surprises the next time one of us is in here with him.”
Becca nodded and emptied Ander’s pockets. All she found were three keys, and she handed them to Todd.
“Good thinking, Todd. They look an awful lot like the keys to this building, and these cell doors,” Jerrick said.
Todd nodded and put the keys in his own pocket. His gaze shifted back to the cooling body of Ehgrim, still in a pile surrounded by a blackening pool of his own blood on the jail floor. “We need to get him out of here. Get him buried. Jerrick, I don’t think I’ll be much use to you with the labor. Maybe we should recruit a couple of young, strong guys to help. Once they see all this, I can’t imagine they would side with Ander and Ehgrim, or even question our decisions.”
“Yeah, that would help. And I’m sure you’re right. Let’s go. Becca? What is your next move?”
“Someone has to talk to Reggie and Petra. I suppose it makes sense for me to do it. So, I’ll be up on the bridge,” she said, and made for the back door of the jail.
Jerrick called to her. “We’ll meet up shortly. We need to put together a statement for the renegades.”
Becca turned back with a small smile on her face. “We should stop calling them renegades. I think we’re beyond that chapter in our story.”
Jerrick smiled and nodded. “We will, when we get somewhere we can call home.”
11
Before searching for help, Jerrick walked through the jail and relocked all the doors. The bodies were something that he would have to deal with, as was Ander, but there were more pressing matters at that moment. The Lance was without a leader. The keeper of the body bags needed to be buried, and they had to prepare a statement for the greater population.
Todd had walked out the front door of the Sherriff’s office and sat on the top step. After locking all the doors, Jerrick joined him.
“Any particular reason you’re choosing to sit here?”
Todd nodded. “Good view of the crowd, and most of the population is setting up their quarters right around here. A lot of foot traffic.”
Jerrick nodded. “Yeah, good observation.”
The two scanned the area for a few minutes. Short and tall, fat and skinny, and all hauling bags, boxes, crates, and loose items, but no one was fitting the type they were looking for.
“I’m sorry you got roped into this, Todd. Unlike Ander, I never intended to bring anyone who didn’t want to come.”
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Jer. And don’t be sorry; you saved my life. I would have ended up like Mat and Trigg if you weren’t there.”
Jerrick nodded. “Still, it shouldn’t have happened to you. I’m sure you’d rather be back on Orris, back to normal. But that’s not possible anymore.”
“At least we got away. I really feel bad for Chuck. Not so much your friend, the one who tried to kill me, but Chuck, yeah. Every time I think about it, I feel worse. Do you really think they’ll execute all of them?”
Jerrick laughed a hard, short laugh and nodded. “It’s the law. There are no exceptions when it comes to this.”
Todd sighed, still looking out in the crowd for their guys. “I’m getting used to the idea. Escaping, I mean. It’s not like I had a great life on Orris. I hated my new job. I’ve never had a serious relationship. I didn’t feel like I was going anywhere. I’m warming up to the idea of a big change. An adventure. Everything I see is new, everyone I meet. I’m feeling better about all of it.”
“Good, Todd. I’m glad to hear it. I’m glad you’re here too. The more familiar faces, the better.”
“I thought she… Becca, she was going to kill him right there, until you stopped her.”
“She would have. That is Ander Wex, the Ambassador of Nations for all of Orris until we escaped. She was his girlfriend.”
“What?”
“Yeah, she was. She knows him better than any of us, I think. Except maybe Reggie. Reggie knew him for a long time before all of this. I’m not sure how long.”
“She’s uh, um, well, she’s…”
“Attractive? Yeah, I know, Todd. She’s a lot more than that, though. She’s going to be the one to run this place now that Ander’s done.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I’m going to tell her to.”
12
“He didn’t know, Becca. He could never do anything like that. He would have stopped Ander if he had found out, right Reggie?” Petra said as she sat next to her husband in the officer’s lounge.
Reggie had gone dead pale when Becca explained why they had apprehended Ander. He seemed to stare through her, like he was recounting all the interactions he’d ever had with Ander throughout his life.
“I’m not accusing him, Petra. I was only explaining why I did what I did. There are two hundred bodies down there, and it was Ander’s doing.”
“And now he’s… where?” Petra asked.
“Locked up. We’ll tell the population what happened, and at some point, we’ll figure out what to do with him. Maybe we’ll let them decide.”
Petra nodded. “But who will lead us now? Reggie can’t. He’s not a leader. He’s brilliant and a genius and I love him, but he’s no leader. Ander was.” Petra lifted and kissed the hand of her still catatonic husband.
“Jerrick is the obvious choice to take over. He is smart and he’s a good man, unlike Ander. Plus, he’s the natural successor, being second in command of the ship. I’ll talk to him about it.”
Petra turned to Reggie and brushed the hair off his forehead. “What a mess.”
“It is,” Becca said, “but we will get through it.”
13
That evening, while Jerrick was busy with Todd and the two men they had recruited to help bury Ehgrim’s body, Becca walked up the steps of the jailhouse.
