“What?” asked Chong.
“Weren’t much, just a lady singing a lullaby to her baby.” She paused as if looking into that memory with perfect clarity. “I was up in a tree where I could see over the wall. The guards don’t watch trees because the gray people can’t climb.”
Chong nodded.
“I could see into a lighted window, and there’s this gal, maybe twenty years old, holding a little baby in her arms as she rocked in a chair. Just a single candle lit on a table. It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen. The woman was so… happy. She had her baby, and she was in a safe town, and there was music and laughter in the streets. The world outside might be full of monsters and the whole world might have gone to hell, but here she was, rocking her baby and singing a song.”
“What happened?”
Riot sniffed and shook her head. “When I came back to give my report… I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. So I lied. I spun a yarn about the whole town being filled with armed men and lots of guns and suchlike. I said that we’d get ourselves killed sure as God made little green apples.”
“Did they believe you?”
She looked at Eve and smiled sadly. “No. Saint John had other people scoutin’ too, and they saw the truth, that the town was wide open, that the defenses were only good against gray people.”
“What happened?”
“They came in and killed ’em all. Every last man, woman… and child… in that town. Saint John sent his pet goon, Brother Peter, to drag me in for a talk, but I read the writing on the wall and cut bait. I was gone before sunup. Just up and went.”
“They let you just leave?”
“‘Let’? No. I had to muss a few of them ’up some, but I got away.” She sniffed again. “After that I fell in with a gang of scavengers. That’s where I got the nickname. Riot. Did a bunch of bad stuff and raised a lot of Cain. Then… I got real sick, and a way-station monk took me to a place called Sanctuary. They fixed me up right and proper. They wanted me to stay there, but I snuck out of that place like I did from my mom’s camp. Didn’t hurt nobody, though. After that I knocked around a bit, got into some more trouble. But… a year ago I found a bunch of refugees on the run from some reapers. I helped ’em slip away, but there were a lot of sick and injured, including a bunch of kids, so I took ’em to Sanctuary. Kind of dropped ’em at the door and ran. Done that a few times now. The folks at Sanctuary don’t mind people coming in for help, but they really don’t like people leaving. I think they’d as soon put a leash on me if they had the chance. I don’t give them no chance. I drop and run, drop and run. That’s what I was trying to do with Carter and his crew. Guess I kind of made it my calling.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s penance.”
“But… the stuff you did while you were with the reapers, that wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know any better, and when you did, you left.”
“Maybe. That don’t make me sleep any better at night.”
She reached over and stroked Eve’s hair.
“I got wind of the reapers planning on making a move on her town. Treetops it was called. I’d been there a few times with the scavengers. Nice folks, so I tried to get there in time to warn people, but I was about four hours too late. All I could do was offer to lead the survivors to Sanctuary.”
“You left out one part,” said Chong. “What happened to your dad?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Saint John and Mama said he up and left one night. Just took off… but I don’t believe that. I think they killed him.”
“Why?”
Riot gave him a hard look. “If you’re running a church based on killing everyone who’s still sucking air, do you really want a doctor around? Pa was all about some oath when he was in medical school. He was all about saving lives… so I guess he had to go.”
“I’m sorry,” said Chong, and he meant it. “It… it must be lonely for you.”
“Well, it’s the end of the world, you know? Kinda sucks for everyone.”
Chong smiled a bitter little smile. “Yeah, I really get that.”
Riot studied his face for several thoughtful seconds. “I don’t know much about medicine,” she admitted, “’cept how to patch a busted leg or stitch a knife cut, take out the occasional arrow. Point is, I know where we might be able to get some help.”
“Help? Come on, Riot, we both know how this ends. I get sicker and sicker and then I die. And then you… well, then you take care of me. There’s no variation on that story. Everyone who gets infected dies.”
At that last word, Eve gave a soft whimper of protest and buried her head against his chest. Chong stroked her hair. He wanted to do the same thing she was doing — curl up in a fetal position and hope the world would just go away.
“Chong, listen to me,” insisted Riot. “I think I should take you to Sanctuary.”
“And what exactly
Riot looked away for a moment, debating with herself about something. When she turned back, her face was even more tense. “Sanctuary is a lot of different things to different people,” she said. “For some — people like… ” Instead of naming Carter, she nodded to Eve, and Chong understood. “For folks runnin’ from the reapers, Sanctuary’s just that. A safe place. It’s squirreled away pretty good, and it’s got some natural defenses. Mountains and suchlike. Hard as all get-out to find.”
“It’s a settlement?”
“To some,” she said. “Mostly it’s a kind of hospital, and I want to take little Evie there. I’m not going to be any good taking care of her, and she’s going to be hurtin’ for a long spell. There’s a bunch of monks who look after people.”
“Way-station monks? I’ve met some. The call themselves the Children of God, and they refer to the gray people as the Children of Lazarus.”
“Right, right. Well, they made Sanctuary their own place, and they take in the sick and injured and tend to them.”
“Are they actual doctors?”
“They’re not,” she said, but Chong caught the slight emphasis on “they’re.”
“Are… there other doctors there?”
“Kind of.”
“And you think they could help me?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But if anyone can, they’s the ones.”
“Okay, then let’s go.”
“Well, there’s a bit of a hitch,” she said slowly, looking almost pained.
“What hitch?”
“If they let you into that other place… not the part with the monks, but the part where they can maybe help you… ”
“Yes?”
“You won’t be allowed to leave.”
“Until—?”
“Ever,” she said. “They don’t like strangers wandering around who know where Sanctuary is. They won’t kill you or nothing, but you won’t ever leave.”
Chong closed his eyes and looked into his own future. All he could see was a blank wall.
“What choice do I have?”
FROM NIX’S JOURNAL
