Deadland's Harves(52)

With her droll look, I could tell Nikki wasn’t convinced. “The Lady Amore needs fuel or else we’re dead in the water. The Aurora isn’t going anywhere, so it’s not like you need it.”

I chuckled. “We don’t need it for the boat. We need it for the generators. We’re just shooting for a couple luxuries to keep morale up: lights in the barges, some hot water, some portable heaters, and a couple working toilets.”

“Hmph.” She pursed her lips. “I don’t even understand why you couldn’t just hop in a jet and fly all your people to safety.”

My hands slid to my hips. I’d heard this all before, and it pissed me off every time. “Just because I have a pilot’s license doesn’t mean I can fly anything out there. You have a driver’s license. Does that mean you can drive a big semi-truck or bulldozer?”

Jase cut between us. “It’s all going to work out,” he said. “Don’t be so sensitive. Sheesh.”

After a moment, I sighed. “We’re all trying to just get by.”

“Say that to the river towns,” a man from the Lady Amore chimed in as he approached. I tried to remember his name.

“Hey, Bill,” Jase said as he fidgeted with his binoculars.

Ah, Bill.

Bill nodded to Jase before continuing. “Those towns that aren’t completely infested by zeds are having walls built around them. It’s getting harder and harder to find an open dock that’s big enough for the Lady.”

“The towns are closing off their docks?” I asked.

“No, they charge docking fees. Not to mention the outrageous fees for fuel and food,” he replied.

“It’s a cutthroat world,” I said, not knowing what else to say. Yeah, times were tough, but I’d seen the Lady Amore in action. They were managing just fine.

“Looks like they’re getting ready to load the pontoons,” Jase said at my side, looking through a pair of binoculars.

I lifted my rifle and looked through the scope. Everyone in the convoy, with scouts on the outliers standing guard, was busy unloading supplies around Tyler by the three pontoons. Two dead zeds floated facedown nearby.

“I wish we had a better place to secure all the vehicles,” Jase said. “It sucks leaving them out in the open like that.”

The vehicles, still laden with anything worth taking from the park, had been backed into a semi-circle around the dock to both protect the small boat ramp as well as enable efficient unloading. Soon, everything on the vehicles would be moved onto the Aurora, though I suspected loading the livestock on the pontoons would make for an entertaining afternoon show.

I pointed to the tree line near the dock. “Tyler thought we’d park them just off the road by the woods.”

“We could try to camouflage them,” Jase said. “Even so, I don’t see how we can possibly hide an entire convoy. Is Tyler planning on keeping at least one scout on land to keep an eye on them?”

“I think so.” I thought of long, cold nights outside ahead of us and shivered.

“Until the herds come,” Nikki added. “Then you’d better hope there’s no one still there.”

Being reminded of the reason for this journey quickly sobered me. “Yeah. Until the herds come.”

“Let me see, Jase,” Nikki said.

I glanced away from my scope to see Nikki holding out her hand. Jase handed her his binoculars. After several long moments, her mouth slowly dropped open. “My God, it looks like the Army is moving in. How much stuff are you guys moving?”

“Stuff?” I shrugged. “Just the usual. Anything we can eat or use, we’re bringing onto the barge to keep it safe.”

Nikki watched me for a moment before looking through the binoculars again. “You should be careful. The more you have, the more you have to lose.”





Chapter XIV


Nikki Sorenson’s words pierced any hope I had at sleeping. It wasn’t so much what she’d said. It was how she’d said it, like she was taunting us at how much we had to lose, like she knew something we didn’t. Or it could’ve been just another one of her catty remarks. Unlikely the former, probably the latter.

I tossed and turned in my bunk, trying not to wake anyone else in the crew quarters below decks, which had become the new residence of Camp Fox’s scouts. We filled up all eighteen beds, and eleven of the bunks were shared by scouts working alternating shifts. Using the crew quarters made it easier to rotate shifts than bunking with the civvies in the large, steel Number One barge, which would add at least five minutes onto any scout’s response time.