Dread Nation (Dread Nation #1)(44)

The three dimwits staring at us don’t move, so I shake my chains at them. “Yo! You want us to get out or not?”

“Gentlemen.” Mr. Redfern’s low voice causes the louts to step aside uncertainly, and he leaps into the railcar with an easy grace. He unlocks our chains, and for a moment I think about hitting him upside the head and making a run for it. But just like before, like the many stops along the way, I don’t. I have no idea where I am and how to get back to civilization. No weapons, no food, no nothing. I will plan my escape, but now is not the time or place.

Unfortunately Jackson is not possessed of such calm and reasoned logic. Once his hands are free, he hauls back and punches Mr. Redfern in the face. The man ain’t expecting it, and he goes down like a sack of rocks.

“Let’s go!” Jackson yells before launching himself from the train car and running off. Katherine is still chained to the floor, and our eyes meet in surprise and disbelief.

Mr. Redfern climbs to his feet, fists clenched and jaw locked. I hold my hands up. “That boy is all impulse. I ain’t running nowhere.” He gives me a short nod and jumps down from the train car. “Hey, at least leave the keys so I can unlock Kate!”

The keys fly backward over his shoulder and I snatch them out of the air. I unlock Katherine’s chains and help her to her feet. “Ugh, you smell,” she says, holding the back of her hand delicately to her face.

“You ain’t a bed of roses yourself.” I jerk my head toward the opening. “Come on. I wanna see what they do to old muttonhead.”

We jump down from the railcar, unsteady after so many days locked up. Katherine and I are just in time to see Jackson tackled by the three men a little ways down the street that leads away from the rail yard. Mr. Redfern runs down to help, and I cross my arms and watch as the scene unfolds. Katherine frowns.

“Well, that wasn’t wise.”

“Nope.”

Jackson struggles against the men, finally slumping in their arms after Mr. Redfern gives him a little payback by way of a fist to the chin.

“What was that boy thinking?” Katherine murmurs, shaking her head. I wonder as well. Jackson’s had run-ins with the mayor’s men before, what does he expect in a place like this? The West is lawless as all get-out from what the papers say. I doubt a town founded by Baltimore’s no-good mayor and his Survivalist pals is going to be much better.

“Do you think they’ll kill him?”

“Naw, not yet.” At least, I hope not. I am not proud to say it gives me a perverse kind of joy to see Jackson take a few licks. After all, it’s mostly his fault I’m here in the first place. Him and those damned blue-green eyes. “They went through a lot of trouble to bring us all this way. We’re needed for something, so I don’t think they’re going to be so quick to kill us right yet.”

The men pick Jackson up and haul him toward a wooden front building with bars on the windows. I ain’t sure if the bars are meant to keep the shamblers out or people in. My accommodations didn’t exactly give me the bird’s-eye view of the town, and what I’m seeing now is just mystifying.

Everything here is new. The buildings ain’t anything like I’d imagined in a frontier town. Everything is whitewashed and a boardwalk runs along the front of the buildings, raising the foot traffic above the dusty main street. I spy a saloon, bank, dry-goods store, and a hotel. The road is flat and well maintained, and beyond the town is the flattest land I’ve ever seen. There’s a cluster of houses off in the distance, but there’s no telling how big they are or if they’re even occupied. The plains are golden yellow, fading into a sky so pale it’s like a sun-bleached version of the sky back in Maryland. It’s hotter than Hades, and the sun beats down mercilessly. Far off there’s a strange ridge, even and uniform, and I can’t make out what it is even as I squint against the sun.

Katherine shades her eyes and looks around. “Oh my. Is that a barrier wall?”

She points in the same direction as the ridge, and I shake my head. “It can’t be. A wall that large . . . how could they maintain it?”

Mr. Redfern returns to where Katherine and I stand, and he gives us a quick bow. “My apologies, ladies.”

I snort. “You kidnapped us and dragged us to the middle of nothing, and you’re apologizing for putting a hurting on Jackson? You’re a strange man, Mr. Redfern.”

He gives me what I’ve come to think of as his death glare and turns to Katherine. “If you would please follow me, Sheriff Snyder is waiting to meet you,” he says, completely ignoring me.

We make our way down the street, our passage kicking up dust that coats my skin and clogs my nostrils. If I didn’t feel like a mess before, the short walk to the sheriff’s office from the rail station definitely does the trick. In Baltimore the roads are all cobblestone, civilized and clean. Even the country roads around Miss Preston’s are a dirt so hard-packed that they might as well be stone. But even though the street here looks lovely from far off, close up the pockmarks reveal themselves. Large piles of something that looks suspiciously like feces dots the lane. I point it out to Katherine, raising my eyebrows. She shrugs.

“It’s horse manure,” Mr. Redfern answers out of nowhere, and both Katherine and I look at him in disbelief.

“Horses?” Katherine asks.