Born of Silicon-Book 5 Chapter 6

Born of Silicon-Book 5 Chapter 6

“Why don’t you get out of here so I don’t have to clean your brains off my counter.” That wasn’t a question or a request. Just a flat statement.
“We need food.” I knew it was dumb, but I was desperate. “I can’t leave.”
“You’ve never shot a man, have you?” Her grin only grew wider. “Either grow some balls and pull the trigger, or put your gun down and call your mutt back before I put down both of you.”
She was right. That coyote flashed through my mind again. I couldn’t do that to a human. Not somebody I didn’t know.
Of course I should have done it. Would have saved an awful lot of people an awful lot of heartache. Even if there’s no guarantee I would have lived without her, it would have been worth it.
“You couldn’t have known.” Ivy reminds him.
“Oh no, I could have. If you saw that smile you would have put her down. Her eyes were black, irises huge with excitement. I was just a dumb kid though.”
“Rusty, heel.” I let my pistol lower, and rusty sat. Although he kept his teeth bared.
“Good boy.” She said the words slowly, savoring the taste. She leaned back against the wall, and let her rifle sit across her body. “You’re new to this. How the hell did you survive this long?”
“People attacked my father’s house two months ago. We had food and water stocked up, years’ worth.”
“And you just let them live?” Her disbelief almost matched her amusement.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
She just sat there, thinking for a while. At the moment I had no idea what was going through her head, but now I’m all too familiar with her thought process.
Is the amusement worth helping this guy?
She didn’t care about the food or water, she knew she could get as much as she needed elsewhere.
“Where’s the food stored?” She asked.
“In grain silos mostly. And a lot in the basement. We have big drums of water.”
“Get in the car.” She eventually decided. “You’re going to learn.” She stepped past us and opened up a cabinet. She pulled out a bottle of whisky with a rag sticking out the top.
I wasn’t dumb, I knew what was coming. I can’t say I wasn’t excited to get some revenge. Just a stupid kid whose emotions were running high.
I got in her car, and Rusty stayed in my lap, always staring at the girl.
“Where’d you live?”
“Take a right and just keep going.” I said. “You’ll get there eventually.”
She put the car in drive and slammed on the gas, barely even trying to stay on the road. She took the turn from the driveway to the road wide, cutting through another yard just for fun. We flew down that road, going well over a hundred. Between the wind from the windows being down, and the pounding music, we had to yell to be heard.
“You got a name?” She asks.
“Vincent!”
“Dumbass name. And your dog?”
“Rusty!”
She looked over, her eyes entirely off the road and took in my dog.
“Yeah, that one works better. I’m Mara.”
Rusty and I had been going for weeks. It’s crazy just how much faster we were in the car. We arrived quickly.
“That it?” She asked, slowing down when she saw an active house appear over the horizon.
“Yeah.” The people who lived there turned it into a full compound. They built onto the house, extending it with rooms that looked like they were already about to fall over. Tumors on my father’s well-built home.
“Good.” She turned early, hiding the car behind another house. “You got a death wish?”
“No.”
“Then we wait for night.” She stepped out of the car, kicked the back door open, and barged in like she owned the place.
“It’ll be alright, boy.” I pet Rusty, and we headed inside.
Mara found a couch next to the front window, lounged across it and watched my father’s house through the blinds.
“Make yourself useful.” She ordered.
“How?”
“Those the silos?” She nodded vaguely towards Father’s home.
“Yeah?”
“Does grain burn?”
“Like nothing else, if my father’s right. It burns slowly, but extremely hot, and is almost impossible to put out.”
That same, awful grin spread across her face. Made my skin crawl.
“How many doors does the place have?” She asked.
“Two, at least before they started adding onto it. The front door and a back one.”
She gave a small nod, not taking her eyes off the house.
“I’ve got a bag in the trunk. Grab two metal poles, two chains, and two locks.
“Ok.” I did my job. Brought everything back to her, and she showed me how to barricade a door from the outside.
We waited for sundown, and a few hours after that. The house was quiet, no lights, no movement. They didn’t even bother to post guards. She finally got up and grabbed her rifle.
“You even know how to use that thing?” She nodded to the pistol on my hip.
I could only nod back.
“Don’t tell me you’re too much of a pussy to kill the people who killed your dad.”
“I can do it.” I steeled myself for what was about to happen.
“I’ll put you down myself if you can’t. And leave your mutt here, I’m not going to die because you didn’t muzzle him.”
“He’ll stay quiet.”
She just glared at me and stepped out the back door.
Rusty stayed at my heels. I wasn’t that dumb.
She glided across the field, uncaring, daring anyone to look out the window and see her. She was made for the apocalypse, comfortable in it. The three of us made it to the silo without anyone noticing.
“Where’s the door on this thing?” She whispered.
“It doesn’t have one. It’s loaded from the top and-”
“Shut up.” She drew her knife and bent some of the sheet metal that made up the thing.
From her pocket she grabbed some lighter fluid, poured it in, and put her lighter up to the exposed grain. The hole glowed, red and angry, but it’d be a while until the whole thing went up.
She shoved a pipe, a chain, and a lock into my hands.
“Block the back door before someone realizes we’re here.”
I did my job, got it secure, impossible to open from the inside.
Mara came around, and in my hands she put the molotov cocktail and a lighter.
“World’s fucked. Show me you have what it takes to survive.”
I took them both. The rag lit easily. I threw it through the window, shattering against the ceramic floor. It took seconds for the entire room to catch on fire. The curtains burned, the cabinets collapsed, the hand carved dining table went up in smoke.
And then the yelling started. They screamed, they pleaded, they choked on the smoke. They ran for the doors, their hands sizzling on the hot brass. They tried to pull them open, but I did my job. And I did it well.
Louder than that, louder than the chaos, louder than the dying men and women, was the laughter. It was the funniest joke Mara had ever heard. She relished in it, lived for the revenge, the power she held over others.
A man shot out the window and jumped through, cutting himself badly on the jagged edges. Fresh air rushed in through the new hole, engulfing the room in seconds. Mara glanced at me, and while I was too stunned to move, she had no problem firing.
“At least draw your fucking gun. Pretend you’re going to be useful.” Her mirth died in an instant, replaced with only disappointment.
I drew it, the steel cold and heavy in my hands.
It wasn’t long before another person found their way out, jumping from the second floor. Their leg shattered on impact. Mara stepped forward, grabbed him by his hair and dragged him to my feet.
His clothes were still smoldering at their edges. Angry red burns covered his body, and his breathing was ragged.
“Do it.” Mara ordered.
It all comes back to the coyote. It always does. My father’s words echoed in my mind:
Once it’s safe, don’t leave him to suffer. Just because you fight doesn’t mean you can’t be kind about it, or at least as kind as you can.
I wasn’t just going to leave him to bleed out on the ground. I closed my eyes before I squeezed the trigger.
“Coward.” Mara turned back to watch the flaming building.
I’m sure I don’t have to explain to any of you how I felt. You all know how that first kill changes a person.
We stayed there for a few hours. Mara watched the building as the screams slowly died, reveling in what we did, ensuring not a single one of them lived. The barrels of water popped and hissed angrily, but did nothing to stop the fire. I watched the corpse, and both it and Rusty watched me.
The house collapsed in on itself in a spray of sparks, burnt wood giving out. Behind us the silo was aflame, steel glowing hot and an orange flame coming out of the top.
“We’re done here.” She spit on the remnants, sizzling against the coals. “You coming? Or are you gonna save me a bullet one day and join him now?”
I finally put my pistol away, and Rusty and I followed her back to the car.
The drive back was silent, other than the thumping bass, screeching guitar, and endless howling wind. Rusty stayed on me protectively, never taking his eyes off the monster next to me, not knowing the monster he was sitting on.
When we got back, the first thing Mara did was make food, opened a can of meat and threw it on a wood burning stove.
“You hungry?” She asked.
“I don’t think I can eat today.”
She just shrugged.
“Down the hallway. Room on the left is mine. Take the one on the right.”
I went inside, gave Rusty the last of our food and water, and collapsed on the bed. Once again, Rusty did his best to keep me cozy while we waited for exhaustion to take me.

Book 5 Chapter 6