Forager (9781771275606) (12 page)

“
Pay attention, Dillon,” Sawyer said. “Quit
woolgathering.”

How did he do that? Every time my mind wandered from our
current task, he knew it without even having to look at
me.

“
I was a kid once too, Dillon. It isn’t hard to imagine what
you’re thinking. Quit worrying about finding that alternator.
You’ll either find it or you won’t.”

Easy for him to say. His hide wasn’t on the line. I needed to
prove to this town, to the mayor, and to myself that I could be
more than just a lookout. I needed to find that
alternator.

About twenty defenders had gathered to hold off the impending
attack. Their restless wandering and quick backward glances spoke
loudly about the need for reinforcements.

Despite what Sawyer said, Scavengers always raided. I wasn’t
putting a lot of faith in this being anything other than an
attack.

Craig called from the window, “They’re starting to
move!”

“
Are they in any kind of formation?” Sawyer asked.

“
No, they’re all still bunched together. It almost looks like
the whole lot of them is out for an afternoon stroll.”

“
Keep your weapons down. Nobody fire unless I say so.” Sawyer
said.

“
What are you talking about? They’ll slaughter us if we don’t
defend ourselves!” the mayor yelled.

“
I don’t think they’re going to attack,” Sawyer argued. “Ask
yourself this—what are they waiting for? You can bet at least one
of them out there has a pair of binoculars. They know we’re
undermanned right now. Why would they wait? They’re hungry and
desperate, but they’re not stupid. This is not an
attack.”

“
It doesn’t matter what you say, Forager. I’m not lowering my
rifle,” the mayor said. “I’ve got a town to protect.”

“
If you want to protect this town and the people in it, don’t
shoot at the Scavengers,” Sawyer said.

I could hear by tightness in his voice Sawyer was losing his
patience. For once, I agreed with the mayor. If we weren’t ready
for the Scavengers, we’d be annihilated.

“
Three riders are breaking away from the rest of the group,”
Craig called from the window. Looking up, I saw the binoculars
glued to his eyes.

“
Wait…the last horse…it’s carrying two riders. I can’t tell
much, they’re still too far away. The bulk of the group is hanging
back.”

Sawyer sighed and his body relaxed in relief. “They’re not
attacking. I’m not sure what they are doing, but nobody attacks
with four riders.” Sawyer turned to the mayor. “Put that gun
down.”

The mayor grudgingly lowered his rifle, a frown wrinkling his
face.

“
What’s going on?” I asked.

Sawyer shook his head.

“
The riders are about half a mile out!” Craig called. “There
waving a towel, a white towel.”

“
So that’s it,” Sawyer said. “They want to parley.”

“
Huh?” I asked.

“
They want to talk.”

“
What about?”

“
I don’t have a clue. Maybe they’ve got something they want to
trade. Who knows, maybe they want to reform and come live here. It
could be anything.”

The mayor looked over at us. “Somebody get me a horse. I won’t
be the only one out there on foot. I suppose you better come along
too, Sawyer. You are a Forager, after all. Leave the boy. He might
try and shoot one of them.”

Would he ever let me forget about the deer? He didn’t seem to
have a problem with the townsfolk killing Scavengers. Why was
killing a deer worse?

Sawyer reached in one of his saddlebags and pulled out his
wide-brimmed green hat. The silver clover on the front of the crown
gleamed in the bright sunlight. “Dillon’s just fine where he is. It
never hurts to have an extra pair of ears when your enemy is
talking.”

The mayor shook his head in frustration

Was Sawyer intentionally using me to aggravate him? I decided
I didn’t care. As long as Sawyer was offering me a chance to do
something important, I wasn’t going to question his
motives.

The mayor climbed on the back of a gray workhorse one of our
defenders had ridden. I watched in dismay as Jason climbed on
behind him. The mayor gave an irritating smile. “As you said,
Sawyer, it never hurts to have an extra pair of ears.”

What made the males in that family such tyrants? I wondered if
the mayor knew that his sons tormented me. Was that why he was
bringing Jason along? I didn’t dwell on it. Jason was coming. The
four of us set off.

“
Wait! We’re coming too!” Kurt and another Bull rode up next to
us on a pair of horses. “We have to protect the mayor.”

Sawyer held Fred to a slow walk, forcing the mayor and the
Bulls to do the same. I ran through Sawyer’s suggestions about why
the Scavengers wanted to talk. He mentioned them having something
to trade. That made more sense to me than them wanting to reform.
I’d never heard of one that had. Not only that, but I was pretty
sure there was no way the mayor would willingly allow a Scavenger,
reformed or not, into our town.

Our horses drew closer. Two riders flanked a third, just as
the Bulls flanked the mayor. As we closed with them even more, I
saw that the middle horse, the one I assumed carried their leader,
held two riders.

The mounted man on the left continued to slowly wave the white
towel. He wore faded jeans and a dirty flannel shirt with the
sleeves torn off. He was every bit as big as Josh, and a few years
older. His scraggly hair and unruly red beard looked like mice
could have nested in it.

We stopped about twenty feet apart. The guard with the towel
lowered it and said, “In a moment, we’ll be bringing up the
trailers for you to fill with supplies.”

“
And what makes you think we’ll comply?” the mayor
asked.

The rider on the right wore faded denim jeans and an unkempt
shirt. He wasn’t as big as his counterpart, but the glasses resting
on his pointy nose and the confident set to his shoulders gave me
the impression he was the brain to the other guard’s muscle. “Oh, I
have no doubt that you don’t want to do it, but you
will.”

“
Why don’t you cut to the meat?” Sawyer said. “What makes you
think we’ll do anything you request?”

The leader wore black jeans with a pair of chocolate-brown
chaps. Her electric-green shirt shone clean and new. Over it, she
wore a thick black vest. It looked like it might have been
bulletproof, like what policemen used to wear.

Compared to her guards, who looked like they’d spent the
afternoon wrestling in the dirt, she was as clean as an angel. She
looked like one, too. Proud, high cheekbones cradled her oval face.
Her full lips partly hid her perfect teeth. Jet black hair spilled
down her back. This beautiful, yet somehow ordinary, woman could
have fit in our town as easily as the mayor’s former
wife.

“
My name is Rasp,” she said. “We will bring up six trailers. We
need meat, corn, wheat, cheese, and fruits and
vegetables.”

I looked over at the mayor. His face turned the same shade of
purple as when Sawyer usurped his authority back in the infirmary.
“For the last time, what makes you think that we’ll fill these
trailers of yours?”

Rasp leaned sideways in her saddle. Not so that she would fall
off, but enough so that we could see the second rider behind her.
It was Chane.

The afternoon sun glowed, turning the air a perfect
temperature. With the soft breeze arching the tall grass alongside
the road, I’d have called it a flawless fall day, if not for Chane
being held ransom by Scavengers.

“
Chane,” I choked out. Both the mayor and Jason called her
name, drowning out my desperate voice. Rasp leaned sideways to give
us a good view. Chane’s hair and clothes were covered in dirt,
leaves, and grass, but otherwise she appeared unhurt and
calm.

Relief flooded through me at the sight of her. A cleansing
sigh came up from deep in my lungs. Chane hadn’t been playing games
or hiding from her father. My shoulder width grew a little knowing
that I’d done the right thing to keep our conversation
private.

Anger replaced the relief in a single breath, and it roiled
through me making my teeth clench. How had the Scavengers caught
her? What did they do to her? Why was she so dirty? The image of a
sneaky Scavenger coming up behind her filled my head. Chane
struggling to fight him off, the pair tumbling to the ground, until
at last the Scavenger trussed her up like a chicken ready to bake.
Blood rushed through me so hard the thud of my heartbeat sounded in
my ears.

I drank in the sight of her, but the glimpse didn’t last long
enough by far for my taste. No tears stained her perfect cheeks.
There were no frightened trembles or pleas for help. Me, I would
have been shaking so hard they would’ve tied me to the saddle just
to keep me upright.

Sawyer looked over to the mayor and his son, and then tilted
his head back toward me. “The prodigal daughter has
returned?”

“
Yeah, that’s her,”

“
I take it you’re the same group that attacked yesterday?” the
mayor asked.

Rasp managed to look almost ashamed, but she spoke in a clear,
no-nonsense voice. “Yes, we lost a lot of good people in that
attack. Fortune smiled on us in the end, though.” She pointed her
thumb back at Chane.

The mayor cocked his head to the side, trying to speak around
Rasp. “Chane, are you all right?” His voice held steady, but I
heard the wrenching of his heart in the question.

Chane poked her head out from behind Rasp’s back. “I need a
bath and a change of clothes, but I’m all right.”

“
They haven’t hurt you?”

“
No…well…I got knocked to the ground when they captured
me.”

“
Then get down off that horse right now! Get over here before
somebody does get hurt!” the mayor yelled.

Yeah, like that’s gonna work
. The mayor’s earlier purple face seemed
calm and placid compared to his now bulging, angry eyes, but I
seriously doubted he’d convinced Rasp and her cohorts to let Chane
go.

I ached to speak to Chane. I wanted to tell her that I’d been
worried about her, or that I’d spent a good part of the day looking
for her, that I’d kept our conversation private, or to tell her
she’d be okay. Maybe if we’d been alone, I’d have been able to get
some words out, but with all the people around… I couldn’t find the
courage to speak.

“
Chane is not going anywhere,” said Rasp. “Her wrists are tied.
Other than a brief struggle when we captured her, we haven’t hurt
her. As long as you comply, she will remain unharmed.”

So she
was
tied. I probably would have been blubbering like an idiot.
Chane was as calm as the breeze.

“
You let my daughter go, now!” The mayor raised his rifle and
pointed it straight at Rasp’s chest. Jason leveled a pistol at the
guard on the left. Both of Rasp’s guards drew their own rifles and
pointed back.

Everyone was armed and ready to shoot except Sawyer and me.
His weapons were still strapped to Fred’s side. We’d be the first
ones dead. I tucked in behind Sawyer as far as I could, and poked
my head out just enough to see.

“
Dad, stop it! This isn’t helping!” Chane shouted. I was
surprised at the calm forcefulness in her voice.

Rasp made a lowering motion with her hand to her two guards.
Without hesitation, they complied.

“
Your daughter’s right, you know. How good of an idea do you
really think that is?” Rasp unflinchingly pointed her finger at the
mayor’s and Jason’s guns. She sounded like a teacher, no, my
mother, as if she was instructing a child. The calm patience on her
face destroyed the threat. Being held at gunpoint clearly had no
effect on her. Or, if it did, I sure didn’t want to play poker with
her, ever.

Rasp pointed to her vest. “Bulletproof, and besides, if the
bullet has enough punch to penetrate the vest, it will go through
me and hit your daughter. That would be a shame. How do you think
you’d do living with that guilt the rest of your life?”

The business end of the mayor’s rifle nosedived. His face went
white. Not pale, not gray, but white, like the inside of a radish.
Jason, after a short pause, lowered his own gun.

My stomach was an empty pit, and weakness filled my elbows and
knees. How much worse was it for Chane’s father?

The mayor turned to Sawyer. “Aren’t you going to do something?
You’re a Forager. Kill that witch and get my daughter!”

I felt Sawyer wince. What exactly did the mayor think Sawyer
could do? Rasp surely recognized the clover insignia on his green
hat marking him as a Forager It hadn’t even fazed her. She knew she
had us by our throats, or rather, by Chane’s.

Sawyer looked the mayor full in the face. “If you want to get
your daughter killed, then by all means don’t use your brain. If
however, you would like to see her unharmed and returned to you, I
suggest you listen to what Rasp has to say.”