At the sound of the engines, Jake spun around and saw three motor bikes coming towards him, their riders dressed in dark colours and their faces obscured by helmets.
'Well, do I try to get away?' He was looking around quickly. Flat land surrounded him. Nowhere he could go on foot that they couldn't get to faster on the bikes.
I don't know. You were worried about the girl with the bat and the stray dogs.
He tried to run, but one of the bikes quickly raced forward, cutting off his path. He turned and a second one was coming right behind him. He attempted to bolt between them, but quick as a flash, the men had stepped off the bikes and tackled him, holding his arms. One of them grabbed his bag and started rooting through it.
“There's nothing but glass jars!” came a slightly muffled voice from behind the helmet. “Give us your jacket, buddy.”
Jake was still trying to put up a struggle, when another voice said, “Wait! Stop.”
The third thief was stepping off her bike, and he could see it was a woman before she lifted her helmet off, shaking her short blond hair. She peered at him.
“Jake Green?”
She looked surprised, but couldn't possibly have looked as shocked as he must have. “Emily?”
She motioned to the men to let him go, stepping towards him, almost seeming amused. “And I thought you were long dead,” she said.
“I'm glad you're fine too,” he said, regretting the sarcasm in his voice just a little when she shot him an angry look, and he remembered it was three against one.
“Look, could we talk?” he asked, glancing at her two companions.
She motioned the other two over. As they removed their helmets, Jake had another shock to see Sean Henthorne, a grin on his face as he half-listened to Emily, examining one of the glass jars from his bag at the same time. Emily yanked the bag away from him, and they had a hurried conversation. After eyeing him darkly, Sean and the other man, whom Jake didn't recognize, stepped back across the grass. The men got on their bikes and drove back the way they had come.
“You're going to drive back by yourself? Without your colleagues?” He tried not to sound too mocking because she was still shooting daggers with her eyes.
“Who's going to do anything to me on the way back to the compound? We own these roads. Despite what New Bern thinks.”
She was walking along the road, pushing her bike. She turned back to him. “What do you want Jake?”
“Just what I said, to talk.”
“So talk,” she said, gesturing with her hand. She looked at him for a moment, rolling her eyes, and started walking again.
He was a little reluctant to follow. He caught up to her after a few quick strides. “So you're back with Jonah? I thought you were never going to speak to him again.”
“I said I'd never speak to you again, and here we are,” she said, staring at the road ahead.
“And this is how you spend your days? Attacking travellers?”
“I don't hurt them,” she said. “And why do you care? You were never known for your strict moral compass.”
He shook his head, knowing she was right. She hadn't seen him since he'd left those years ago. She knew him just as well as Mimi and Heather did now. “I heard you had a whole life in town. Teaching at the school, living in a nice house, engaged.”
She laughed out loud. “Things changed. Where have you been?” For once it wasn't a real question. He didn't have to tell the Vegas story. “I take it you've been to town already. Why'd you come out here?”
“Catch up with my old friends,” he said. “I went to the Richmonds.”
She gave him a look, seeming almost impressed. “I see you didn't get your face torn off. Your charming smile save you once again?”
He put his hands in his pockets as he walked. “Stanley burned down the fields. I thought Jonah might have made some kind of deal with him.”
“He wasn't into making deals,” she said. “I'm talking about Stanley. He sees everyone going over there as a threat. Except you, apparently.”
“Well, can you blame him?” he asked.
She scoffed. “I helped him. I protected him from Jonah. If we really wanted anything from him, do you think dogs would've stopped us?”
“But I'm sensing something went wrong, since you're talking in past tense?”
“Yeah. I went to check on him, see if he was alright. I didn't care if Stanley wanted me there or not, I had to do something. I owed it to...One of those stupid dogs attacked me, and he didn't come and call it off. I shot it. He told me to get the hell out and never come back. Over a dog.”
Jake glanced over at her. “I heard what happened, with Bonnie. I'm sorry.”
She didn't look at him. Her expression seemed to waver for a second, but she gritted her teeth. “Yeah. I am too.”
They were walking towards the river now, and Jake could see the mess the explosion had made. Pieces of debris scattered across the ground, on either side and in the river, which still flowed weakly through the openings.
“So I guess you guys don't go over there anymore?” he asked.
She nodded, shielding her eyes as she looked across the bank. “Nothing left for us.”
She looked annoyed at his puzzled look. “We didn't do it to hurt people. Like my father says, it's survival of the fittest out here.”
“What about doing fair business? You could probably get tons of stuff out there and trade with the town.”
“Trade for what? Gray wouldn't let us near the salt mine, and then he made it illegal for anyone in town to do business with us. There'd been a partnership with Gracie Leigh for a while before she died, but she got herself in trouble with Gray. Then, while she was in jail for the night, someone killed her stockboy. Dale Turner. He was one of my students once. I would've stopped it, if I'd known. It wasn't Jonah's order.”
“Mitchell Cafferty?” asked Jake before he could stop himself.
Emily gave him a strange look as she answered “Yeah. Gray was in a fury after then. Vowed he'd protect the town no matter what the cost. He started his little patrol then.”
Trying to recover quickly from the shock that Dale was dead, Jake asked, “So he started his iron rule because of you?”
She sighed. “It wasn't our fault, it was the mercenaries. They caused a lot more damage then we ever did. Even after he blew up the bridge, we'd still go over there, more discreetly. We were the least of their concerns, believe me.”
She motioned to the area, farther down the river bank, where a small but sturdy footbridge was constructed of scraps of wood.
“But you don't anymore?”
She shook her head. “It's now illegal to associate with us in any way. To know anything about us and not give it up. We've lost some people to the Jericho patrol. I don't know if they're in jail or somewhere else. Jonah decided it wasn't worth it. Anyway, they don't have much of anything worth having these days.”
He looked at her closely, scrutinizing her windblown hair, her stiff posture, her toughened expression. He'd seen glimpses of this before, moments hinting at this person she could become. After Chris's death, when Jonah let her down, and after New Bern sent the first mortars. He never imagined this person could ever be fully realized and standing in front of him. Somehow, she'd always kept this part of herself at bay. “Why did you leave, though? What about your house, your friends, the teenagers that probably need someone to keep them in line?”
Her hardened smile broke for a second and she looked sad. “Everything's gone, Jake. There's no school anymore, my friends are dead or they send dogs chasing me, and my fiance...is gone too.”
He hadn't heard Roger mentioned yet, but he knew of one thing that his presence hadn't affected. “I heard he made it back to town, with a big group of refugees.”
She suddenly had a stricken look on her face, so much that he wished he hadn't brought it up. “I heard that too. Some of them came to the compound, joined us. Some of them wandered off. Some of them took over abandoned buildings, like Gracie's market. Roger didn't. He went back to our house. I was away on a raid, a little ways away. They told me he fell off the roof. Said he'd been drinking. I have no idea why he was sitting on the roof. Such a stupid thing to do. I didn't hear for weeks.”
Jake didn't know what to say next. It seemed like every question he asked just drew him into a more excruciating truth. “So you turned to Jonah? There was no one else that was there for you?
“They can barely take care of themselves,” she said bitterly.
“What about my mom?” he asked. Though he hadn't spoken about Emily with his mom, he couldn't imagine her failing to notice someone as desperately in need as this Emily seemed.
“She's more concerned with hopeless cases,” said Emily. “I can still take care of myself, you know.”
“I don't doubt it,” he said. “What about your friends? What about Mary Bailey?”
“She's got her bar- only thing she really cares about. Didn't I tell you, if the business owners associate with us, Gray makes life miserable for them.”
“What about Heather?” he asked, playing recklessly with facts he wasn't supposed to know. “Mom said she was your maid of honour.”
Emily's expression changed, though whether it was surprise or something else, he wasn't sure. “I did what I could for her. I kept the guys away from her place. My word's almost as good as Jonah's. She used to help me. She'd let me hide there if Gray's patrol was blocking my escape route.”
“Let me guess- things changed?” he asked.
“They caught her. Remember, no one's allowed to talk to us. Harboring us is a big no-no.”
“They caught her hiding you, but you got away?” he asked, trying not to sound too angry.
She glared at him. “I told her she could come with me. She wouldn't. Only so much I can do. I'm sure she's fine now. If they caught me, I probably wouldn't be here talking to you.”
“So we've covered everyone,” he said sarcastically. “Everyone's turned their back on you. Except Jonah.”
She laughed. Her voice rang loudly across the abandoned riverbank. “I can't believe you're saying that to me. You invented that song back in high school. Or don't you remember?”
“Yeah. We're not in high school anymore.”
She glanced around. “You think?”
“Have you heard about the government presence?” he asked.
She nodded. “We saw the helicopters. The humvees.”
He looked at her. “I'd watch it if I were you. I'm sure they won't appreciate how you guys are doing business. Maybe you should get out.”
She smiled again. “I think we've had this conversation before. Seems like it was the other way around.”
He held up his hands. “Fine. Listen to me or not. I know- you'll take care of yourself.”
She nodded. “You should do the same. Don't go walking down these roads by yourself. I can't come along on every job just to save your ass.”
With that, she turned and started walking back towards where she's left her bike. He turned back to stare across the river.
Lovely view, isn't it?
'Shut up, Freddie.' He didn't feel like engaging in anything.
I guess it's not a good time to mention that I'm glad I finally met that country girl of yours.
'Not good.'
There's something else we haven't talked about yet. The military presence.
'What about it?'
Aren't you wondering what's happening? How things are going for the A.S.A.? What's happened to bring them here?
A lightbulb went on in his head. 'Hawkins!'