Benny cut a cautious look around, but there was no sign of the Lost Girl.
The man with the shotgun grinned at the reunion between his daughter and wife, but he kept his shotgun pointed at Benny. They were thirty yards away, and Benny took a step toward him, raising his hand.
“Hey, mister, we’re glad to—”
“You freeze right where you are, boy,” barked the man in a voice that was hard and flat. An uncompromising voice. “If you reaper scum harmed a hair on my little girl’s head, I’ll see you dead — and it won’t be no ticket to paradise. No sir, it’ll be slow and ugly. Tell me I’m lying.”
Benny froze, and his smile flaked away like peeling paint in a stiff wind. “No,” he said neutrally, “I think you’re telling the absolute truth. But you aren’t making any sense. I think we need to—”
“I got nothing more to say to you.”
“‘Reaper scum’?” echoed Chong. “I’m real certain I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Benny—?” began Nix, but Benny cut in.
Under his breath he said, “Keep your gun on him.”
Benny shifted position again, putting himself squarely between Nix and Riot.
“Sarah,” said the man with the shotgun, “is she hurt? Did they do anything to her?”
“I’m okay, Daddy,” began Eve, but the man growled at her.
“Hush, girl.”
The woman — Sarah — did a quick but thorough examination of her daughter, then pulled her into another hug. “She’s fine, Carter. They didn’t hurt her.”
“They didn’t have time,” sneered Riot. “I told you we’d find her.”
“Of course we didn’t hurt her,” snapped Nix. “We rescued her.”
“Oh yeah,” mocked Riot, “I’m sure.”
“What’s the truth of it, Evie?” said Carter. “None of your pretend stories now. Did these people hurt you? Did they touch you?”
Eve shook her head. Her eyes were wide and filled with doubt and confusion.
“It’s true, mister,” insisted Benny. “She was being chased by zoms, and we rescued her. She’s fine.”
Riot edged forward, tightening her aim at Nix. “Rescued, huh? Don’t buy that bullcrap, Carter. I’ll bet my dear ol’ mom sent them to grab Eve so they could sacrifice her. That’s just the kind of thing she’d like.”
“Sacrifice?” gasped Benny. “What are you, nuts or something? It was like I said. Eve was being chased and —”
“We know she was being chased,” cut in Riot. “How stupid do you think we are?”
“You really want an answer to that, baldy?” asked Nix coldly.
“Well, ain’t you got a smart mouth?” said Riot, grinning a nasty little grin. “I’d love to kick it off your face.”
“Try it. I don’t mind shooting girls, either.”
Riot’s grin flickered.
“She’s not joking,” Benny said, and pointed his sword at her. “Neither am I. Don’t try it.”
“Ooooh,” said Riot, “fierce.”
“Get stuffed,” said Nix. She focused her attention on Carter. “Eve’s fine because of us, mister. I don’t know who you think we are, but you’re wrong.”
“Reapers don’t open their mouths unless they plan to lie,” warned Riot. “Believe me, I know.”
“We’re not reapers, whatever they are,” said Nix angrily. “We’re travelers. We’re looking for something.”
“Looking for what? The darkness?” demanded Carter in a tone that was heavy with disgust. Riot gave a harsh laugh of agreement.
“Darkness?” echoed Benny, but Nix ignored him.
“We’re looking for an airplane,” she said. “A jet.”
Carter’s expression changed from open hostility to doubt. He shot a look at Sarah, who frowned.
“They saw it too,” she said. “Carter — they saw it too!”
“You saw it?” demanded Nix, her tone suddenly urgent. “When? Where?”
“Don’t say anything,” warned Riot, but Sarah ignored her.
“The last time we saw it, it was heading south.”
“Last time?” echoed Chong.
“You’ve seen it more than once?” Nix gasped.
“Sarah, hush,” said Carter. “This isn’t the time or place.”
“But, Carter — look at them. They don’t look like reapers. Look at their clothes. No wings. No tassels or anything. And they don’t have the mark.”
As Sarah said this, she touched her head, but Benny did not understand the reference.
“Enough!” growled Carter.
“Look, guys,” said Benny, “I think we should all chill out and talk about this. No one wants to hurt anyone here—”
“Speak for yourself,” said Riot with quiet menace.
“—and it sounds like we have a lot to talk about,” Benny concluded, pasting on his best “aw shucks, we’re all friends” smile. The kind that used to get him a bottle of pop at Lafferty’s General Store, even when he had no ration dollars.
Carter wasn’t impressed. “If you want to talk, then tell the young miss there to put her gun down.”
“The young miss says, ‘Bite me,’” replied Nix. “You put your gun down first and then we’ll see.”
“Not a chance,” said Carter, and Riot gave a snigger of agreement.
“Look, how about you both put your guns down at the same time,” suggested Chong. “On a count of three, okay? One, two, three…”
They ignored him.
“This is stupid,” Benny yelled. “Nobody here wants to hurt anyone else.”
“Don’t bet on it,” said Riot.
“Absolutely,” agreed Nix.
“They’re reapers, Carter,” said Riot. “Maybe they even have some quads hidden somewhere.”
“What’s a quad?” Chong asked, but no one heard him.
“They don’t look like reapers,” repeated Sarah.
“Then they’re new converts,” countered Riot. “They could have taken the vow but haven’t yet done the ceremony of purity. But it doesn’t matter. They had Eve!”
“Yeah, we were keeping her safe,” replied Nix. “What were you doing to protect her? Letting her run around in woods full of wild animals and zoms?”
“Yeah, nice try, Freckles,” snorted Riot. “C’mon, Carter, don’t let her scramble your grits. My mother’s people are gonna be here soon. These punks are scouts or something equally squirrelly. Let’s put ’em down before we get overrun.”
Carter’s face was rigid with tension, but there was doubt in his eyes. “Sarah—?”
Eve’s mother looked up, and if Benny was expecting her to be the voice of reason, he was dead wrong. “She’s right, Carter, we can’t take any chances. Don’t hurt them, but take their weapons and gear. Then we have to go. We have to get to Sanctuary and—”
“Jesus! Hush your mouth, woman!” screeched Riot.
“Sarah,” Carter said with quiet horror. “What have you done?”
The woman clapped a hand to her mouth and her face went dead pale. “Oh God,” she said. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
Carter nervously shifted the shotgun barrel between Nix and Benny, as if trying to decide which of them should die first. Or maybe, thought Benny, trying to decide which one would be easier to kill without losing too much of his own soul. Benny did not believe that this man wanted to fire that gun, but he looked desperate and shoved to the edge of panic. Benny knew full well how panic could inspire the worst possible choices.
Riot’s face hardened. “Now we got no choice at all, Carter.”
In a voice loud enough for only Benny and Chong to hear, Nix muttered, “Screw this.”
