Forgotten Forbidden America | Book 7 | Highway To Hell, page 31
part #7 of Forgotten Forbidden America Series
Watching Phantom take a breath to start the controversy, Reaper jabbed a finger in Phantom’s chest. “She’s a Sin Eater,” he growled.
“Duh,” Phantom droned rolling his eyes.
Since he wasn’t behind federal lines, Reaper pulled out his texting pager and started typing. “You will stay on the route Oracle sent because those are the ones she knows are clear,” Reaper said, and Phantom started dancing around in excitement. When Reaper looked up, Phantom stopped dancing and put on a serious expression. “The angels under Oracle have only one objective, protecting Oracle and trust me; you don’t want to piss them off. They are angels, but borderline Sin Eaters.”
Snapping his fingers, “Of course!” Phantom cried out. “She has to have help moving around!”
Spinning around to keep from unloading on everyone, Reaper froze looking at his seat in the Flyer. Zeus was in the driver’s seat over the center console. All the cheese packets Reaper had tossed in, Zeus had chewed apart and was licking the cheese off. “Oh shit,” Reaper groaned.
Shifting her eyes to what Reaper was looking at, “Come on, Zeus!” Pain cried out. “How could you?! That cheese hates you more than it does Reaper!” Zeus looked up, licking cheese off his maw like he was innocent.
Agreeing with a nod, Reaper turned back to Phantom. “If Oracle was able to gather the items I requested, you’ll be picking up more stuff and you will make sure it’s secured for transport, am I understood?” Reaper asked and Phantom nodded with excitement.
“Go to the meeting point,” Reaper sighed and Phantom took off in a sprint.
“Opera! Let’s move!” he shouted, jumping in his Flyer. The new Opera ran to ATVs and another Flyer as Phantom was already pulling out and his gunner wasn’t even in the cupola yet.
“You always let Phantom do stuff, what about us?” Misery snapped, and little voices from his past again filled Reaper’s mind.
“Misery, I have more cheese,” Reaper warned, and that shut Misery up. Grabbing what he was working on from the Flyer, Reaper patted his leg, “Zeus,” he sighed and Zeus jumped out to follow. Moving over to a small table in the center of the barn, Reaper put his stuff on the table and dropped into one of the four chairs. He just glanced over at Zeus, and Zeus plopped down with a thud beside him.
“I not be kisser of ass, but you do need anything?” Ubiytsa asked coming over.
About to ask for a bamboo cane since he’d left his back at Hades, Reaper shook his head. “No, make sure everyone’s had downtime.” Ubiytsa gave a grunt in acknowledgement before he walked off. Sleep was something a Sin Eater could do on command and very few Sin Eaters slept more than five hours a day, Reaper included.
Picking up the stack of papers that detailed the ninety-day forecast, Reaper was feeling much more optimistic no matter how long the cold front lasted. Putting it to the side, he picked up another set of stapled pages Oracle had put together. In all reality, Reaper hadn’t expected his Water Well attack to already be increasing the death toll, but it was. Bacterial infections like cholera, campylobacteriosis, dysentery and others, but the worst was the protozoa infections. Amoebiasis, cryptosporidiosis, and cyclosporiasis were all running rampant among the federal area. Reaper knew destroying the water wasn’t going to make the feds die of thirst but it would force people to drink unclean water and holy shit, was it working! Looking at the near quarter of a million that had been reported two days ago, Reaper was certain there weren’t enough antibiotics or even enough IV bags of fluid on the planet to stem the tide of the breakouts, and this was only the beginning. Already the feds were reporting nearly ten thousand dead.
“I believe I’ll win my bet with Oracle,” Reaper chuckled.
The sun had already set when Phantom reached Garwood, seventeen miles south of Reaper. Yes, he was excited, but he and the Opera moved cautiously but quickly. They weren’t flying the Sin Eater flags but were flying the stars and bars of the Republic. There were a few spots where Phantom and the others felt like they were being watched, but didn’t spot anything with thermals.
Normally, they shunned roads, but Reaper had wanted to make sure there wasn’t an ambush, despite Oracle’s assurances. The last thing they needed was the president to get killed in a covert meeting with the Sin Eaters. It was Gerald who let his sister know company was coming. He, along with ten of Dallas’s family, were to the north of Garwood.
Just a few miles south was Van Buren, the first group of feds they had hit in what seemed like decades ago. Gerald was sad because he wanted to see his friend, but he knew Nelson wasn’t even here. Gerald again said a prayer that Reaper would abate and release Nelson, so Gerald wouldn’t have to do what he’d been left behind to do.
Phantom pulled up to a lone metal building in a valley. The area around the building was overgrown, but that was nearly every building now with over half the population dead.
Lifting binoculars, he saw a ten-foot bay door open and a masked figure was standing in the opening, waving him to the building. Lowering the binoculars, Phantom hit them a few times thinking they were broken. Bringing them back to his eyes, he saw an average height, athletic, masked figure in the doorway waving him up. “They starved her!” Phantom gasped.
“I told you she wasn’t fat,” Spirit said from the cupola. “Cyborgs aren’t fat, dummy.”
Putting the binoculars down, Phantom shifted into drive and pulled up to the metal building. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why it was in the middle of the small valley. It looked like it had been put up just before the collapse, but there wasn’t even a parking lot. The dirt road into the small valley was a loose term at best. Phantom had been on better deer trails.
Slowing at the bay door, Phantom gave a startle when Oracle spoke. “Pull in. The feds send drones over and I’m not in my lair.”
After the trip across the pond, Reaper had made a point to get other Sin Eaters to converse with Oracle just to put the theories to rest, but it had only fueled them. Of course, not one Sin Eater ever asked Oracle because talking about the past was forbidden. Hearing the voice, Phantom had no doubt this was Oracle.
Pulling inside the fifty feet wide by one hundred feet long building, again he was shocked to see it was completely empty except for some black boxes and a folding table with a chair. Continuing to the back and turning around so he could leave fast, Phantom realized even with the trailer he was pulling he had more than enough room. The other Flyer and ATVs pulled in, all turning around to face the door.
Even though all the vehicles were extremely quiet, when they turned off, the building was eerily silent. Pushing the camouflaged netting to the side and climbing out, Phantom saw Oracle still at the doorway looking out. He glanced at the others getting off and all were gawking at Oracle. Since all the vehicles were covered in netting and fake branches, bushes, and leaves, with a casual glance, each looked like bushes sitting inside the building. Because it was winter, granted, they looked like dead bushes.
It was a second before Phantom realized the others had turned to him. “What?” he whispered.
Nightmare pointed at Oracle, “Go talk to her,” she whispered back. “But don’t you dare piss her off because I’m sure by now, Reaper knows Ubiytsa took his bamboo stick out of his Flyer and left it at Hades. There’s oak trees here, and I don’t want Reaper grabbing an oak stick to hit with.”
“At least Reaper doesn’t hit the same fucking spot,” Spirit noted, and everyone nodded in thankfulness.
Despite being the Sin Eater feared by many, leader of the Opera, and basic bad ass, Phantom timidly eased up but stopped some ten feet behind Oracle. “Um…” he started.
“Do I look fucking fat?” Oracle asked but didn’t turn around, and Phantom cringed as memories came into his mind that NO woman, Sin Eater or not, liked fat and herself being associated in the same reference.
“AAhh, no, sorry,” Phantom stammered.
When Oracle turned around, her eyes put them all at ease. “You need to inform those who think I’m conjoined twins that I’m not. I swear, the first fucker who asks where the other half is, I’m not using a stick, I brought a bat,” she told them, but it was in a gentle voice.
They all took Oracle in and noticed a small computer strapped to her left forearm. Like them, she was wearing top-of-the-line gear. Because everyone in their world wore a mask, it was the last thing they really noticed. Captains had ten, long, needle teeth for rank, five on top and five on bottom. On Oracle’s mask there were fourteen, seven and seven, but they were short, needle teeth and it made the grinning mouth look rather sinister.
“Wow,” Phantom said with awe, finally meeting Oracle. “You need us to do anything?” he offered.
Shaking her head, “No, I’ve made sure the president can’t leave until dark so she won’t try to get here early,” Oracle said, and all gave a silent gasp that Oracle could control the president. “If you want, you can load those cases up.”
Phantom turned around to the black boxes and now closer, saw they were fiberglass boxes. Stepping over to the cases near the wall, he saw they were about four feet wide, six feet long, and two feet deep. “Do I want to know what’s in them?” he asked, and they all jumped when Oracle laughed.
Heading over to the boxes, Oracle flipped three latches up and lifted the lid open on one. “You’ve hauled deadlier cargo,” she informed them as they all moved closer.
Stacked in neat rows were R/C cars. Each was separated by foam. “We have some of those,” Phantom stated and noticed the lid was a storage area as well. He could see trigger remote-controls, spare parts, but on the right, also in neat rows, were three-inch-long black tubes. Reaching out and pulling one from the foam that held it, Phantom saw it was a camera because they had a few of these as well.
When they were building Hades and Reaper had sent them out on scavenger hunts, R/C cars were always on the list, along with the small remote cameras. They had found remote-controlled cars, trucks, jeeps, tanks, boats, planes, drones, and even a bulldozer, but the Sin Eaters had only managed to find a few dozen of the cameras.
Shifting his eyes back to the neatly arranged cars in the case, “We need more?” Phantom blurted out, then put the camera back in the foam slot he’d pulled it from.
“You only have two hundred and thirty-two 1/12th scale R/Cs. Granted, you have a lot of 1/32nd, 1/14th, and a few big 1/8th. But you need more of the 1/12th, so that’s what I’ve been gathering along with parts,” Oracle told him and they all turned to her in awe. Oracle had never been to Hades, that they knew of, but Oracle knew what they had. “Each case holds thirty, so you can consume sins in new and exciting ways.”
Having long ago given up wondering what Reaper would have them do, all the Sin Eaters just nodded. Now they understood why Reaper had made all the Sin Eaters drive the R/C cars around Hades. Each time they came back, Reaper would put out a schedule on who was driving the remote cars on a track until he’d found ten in each section by the end of summer. Those ten had to drive cars for an hour each day, every time they returned to Hades now. It was in November when Reaper had them start driving while using a small camera on the car.
“This will be interesting,” Phantom admitted, wondering how they were going to consume sins with remote-controlled cars. He closed the lid and locked it back down and before he went to grab it, Oracle stopped him.
“They’re packed in foam and rugged, but use two to carry each one and load them,” Oracle offered.
Realizing that’d been stupid on his part, Phantom nodded as he and the others loaded the cases on the trailers. When they were done, they all turned to see Oracle sitting at the small table and headed over. Seeing the laptop Oracle was looking at had three screens, they all became awed and stood behind her.
The two side screens were divided into multiple sections and gave camera displays, and none had any idea of where, but could see federal and UN troop uniforms on soldiers. It was the middle screen that gave all of them pause. Like the side screens it was divided, but there were only letters and symbols in rows. “Looks like the matrix,” Phantom admitted.
“It’s computer code,” Oracle offered as she typed and awed them more. Oracle was moving the cursor with keystrokes and not a mouse. Phantom knew it could be done because he had seen someone he missed dearly from his past life do that, but never this fast. Lifting her left arm up, Oracle opened the small computer on her forearm.
On the display screen, they all saw an aerial thermal view and could see the building they were currently inside on the screen. “Guess you don’t need me to set up security,” Phantom said in wonder, expecting any minute for Oracle to summon a metal terminator.
“It’s dark so you can if you want, but we’ll know of anything that gets within two miles of us,” Oracle stated confidently, taking the computer off her forearm and setting it on the table.
Very slowly, Phantom reached out and lightly poked Oracle on the shoulder, just to make sure she was real. When his fingertip touched actual matter Phantom relaxed a bit, then noticed Spirit do the same thing. Going back to the computer, Oracle tried not to grin as each Sin Eater lightly poked her shoulder just to make sure she was real.
“Some of Titan’s section is engaging,” she said startling the group and as one, they all turned to the side screens, expecting to see a battle in one of the small sections. Then Phantom turned to the middle screen and saw the top right section of the screen was displaying words, real words and sentences. Reading the lines, Phantom realized he was reading a radio transmission between a group being attacked and a commander.
“Um, how in the fuck can you make a computer type out a radio broadcast?” Phantom asked and the others all turned to him because until he’d said it, they hadn’t realized that.
Shrugging, “I have the frequencies and codes of all fed units the Sin Eaters are attacking monitored,” Oracle answered. “My computer just dictates what’s said so I can relay it back to Reaper.”
“Screw a duck,” Nightmare gasped, looking at the screens.
Glancing over her shoulder, “I can turn the federal units’ radio off, if you want?” Oracle suggested and moved her hands to the keyboard.
Jumping close, Phantom grabbed Oracle’s wrist, “Please don’t, unless Reaper said you could,” he said quickly, then let her wrist go. “I push my luck with Reaper, but most of the time he needs it. But… I don’t want him eating any more cheese.”
Staring blankly at the screens, “I try to push my luck with him as well, but it’s not really effective from a computer,” Oracle mumbled. When the captains reported actions to her, they would talk about those who pushed Reaper with juvenile actions. She wasn’t stupid and knew why they were doing it, hoping to ease the burden Reaper carried and sins they all consumed. “I’m sure in time I’ll be called to Hades for my time with the bamboo stick.”
Throwing up her hands, “You’ll get Reaper’s stick from him after you have to deal with Jaws,” Nightmare sang out.
“Oh, I went and had my teeth cleaned yesterday, Nightmare,” Oracle informed her. “I know checks aren’t ‘usually’ done in the field by Jaws, but I wasn’t taking any chances.”
“I’m begging Pain to do my teeth before we report back to Hades,” Spirit stated. “She hasn’t gotten hit by Jaws in months.”
Phantom looked over at Spirit and nodded slowly. “I wonder what she would take in trade to do mine?” he wondered.
Chapter Twenty
Preaching to the choir….with funk
Sitting in the back of a Stryker, Brandy glared at Isaac. They had left her home in Mountain View at 2100 with half of the marine detachment and ten Texas Rangers, but that wasn’t what had her irked. It was the Stryker. The entire back area where troops were to sit had been replaced with a plush leather interior. It really looked like an executive area from a plane and Brandy knew Isaac was responsible.
Feeling his mom glare at him, “The troops won’t say a word,” Isaac told her again, but knew damn well what was chapping her ass. There were five Strykers, two LAVs, and four SUVs in their convoy. Isaac had wanted more, but knew the fewer who knew about this meeting, the better off they were. All the Rangers knew about the Sin Eaters meeting with Fern, which Isaac had only learned about that afternoon. He had gathered the marine unit up and informed them what was going on, and under no circumstances were any to ever breathe a word of this.
The marines, like all the military, loved the Sin Eaters because they were fighting without rules. Many in the military knew lines had to be drawn, but were glad there were some on their side who ignored lines for conduct.
With the side of his face getting warm from the glare, Isaac finally turned to his mother. “My troops won’t say a word, and those at the house think we’re doing inspections to raise morale, so ease up, Mom.”
Waving her hand around at the interior, “You turned it into a pimp mobile!” Brandy cried out, making Andrea snicker.
Locking eyes with his mom, “The president deserves better than the troops because the president is always FIDO,” Isaac replied and saw Andrea frown. “It means Fuck It, Drive On.”
“Why on earth did you do it?” Brandy groaned. “I’ve ridden around in them and even fought from one in Mountain View.”
Giving a long sigh as he stared at his mom, “I’m sorry you had to do that, Mom. I was trying to kill as many as I could so you wouldn’t have to do that,” Isaac told her and that made Brandy smile, which kind of freaked Andrea out.
“At times you make me proud, but then you do something like this, and I wonder just how many times your father dropped you on your head when I wasn’t looking,” Brandy said.
All of a sudden, Isaac became very serious. “Mom, let me go and meet them,” Isaac offered again and Brandy shook her head. “Mom, I trust the Sin Eaters. I’m certain because of them, I didn’t get killed crossing the Mississippi River, but Mom… They are the coldest group of killers to ever walk this earth. I don’t want you pissing one off and having all hell break out.”
