Char’s feet.
Anna turned quickly, slashing her sword. Another man cried out. She raised the blade above her head, and stabbed downward.
Anna sighed, wiped off her blade, and sheathed it. She came to the window and looked down. “They’re all dead.”
Makara stood silent. It was hard to tell if she was relieved, or angry. Maybe she was both.
“I didn’t even see her leave!” I said.
“That was the point,” Char said. “Neither did those scumbags up there.”
Makara went into the building. I followed her in. The wooden interior was dark, and crowded with round circular tables. The room was narrow, but long. The bar itself sat on the right-hand side.
Two pairs of feet pounded down the steps. Anna was the first to appear. She passed us and walked outside. The second was Lisa. She was tall, slender, and had long wavy brown hair and blue eyes. Her skin was tan and slightly freckled.
Makara ran forward and embraced her. “Lisa, it’s so good to see you.”
Lisa smiled. “Why did it take a hostage situation for you to come down and visit me?”
Makara pulled back. “I’m sorry. It’s been so busy, with my brother’s condition. I guess you’ve heard about that.”
Lisa nodded. “Yeah. Bad luck. But it’s good you found him.” Lisa’s eyes turned on me. “Who’s this?”
“This is Alex,” Makara said. “He’s from Bunker 108, out San Bernardino way.”
“Long way,” Lisa said. “You’ve been taking care of Makara?”
“More the opposite.”
Lisa eyed me up and down. “I believe it.”
“Hey,” Makara said. “He’s come a long way in the week he’s been out. Holding up better than I expected him to.”
Lisa didn’t say anything: instead she stepped behind the bar. She picked up a dirty mug and began to wipe it clean.
“Lisa, stop working,” Makara said. “You were just now being held hostage.”
“This place isn’t going to clean itself. You can talk while I put this place back together.”
Makara turned to me. “I want to catch up with Lisa. Go check on Samuel?”
I knew I was getting kicked out, but I nodded. “Sure. He’ll want to know what happened here, anyway.”
I walked out of the Bounty. I found Anna standing outside.
“Heading back?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all. That was pretty cool, what you did. How did you sneak in there?”
Anna shrugged. “I have my ways.”
“Are you a ninja?”
“Are you just asking that because I have a katana?”
“Pretty much.”
“If there is a way to describe me, it’s ‘adaptable and fluid.’ It’s how I’ve survived this long. It’s how I’ll continue to survive.”
We were approaching the compound gates.
“So, where did you learn how to handle a sword like that?” I asked.
“It’s a long story, so I’ll keep it short. My mom taught me to read. And there are still real-life books out there, if you can find them. Wherever we holed up, my mother would read to me. When she came across a book she liked, she stored it in her pack for later. One day, when I was a kid, my mom came across a book about a samurai named Hideyoshi. He was a real person who lived in Japan, born to peasants, who was not strong but was able to outsmart and outmaneuver his opponents with only his mind. He became one of the best samurai in history, not only on the field, but in politics.
“More than anything that story gave me hope. If Hideyoshi could rise above his circumstances, so could I.
“I kept that book and read it so much that it became a part of me. Later on, I found this blade and some books on swordplay. I don’t use just samurai forms. Sort of a mix and match of things that fit my style.” She paused. We were in the courtyard. “But fancy swordwork is only ten percent of being a samurai. The rest is honor, manners, principle, and heart.”
“So how did you, a person of honor, end up in Raider Bluff?”
“Well…anyone who wants to live needs to go where the people are. Where the money is.” She stared ahead. “I know this place is not perfect. Far from it, actually. But it’s better than working for the Vegas Gangs or one of the settlements that could be wiped out at any point. Besides, for a Raider and an Alpha, Char is good enough. With him in charge here, this place is much better off than it would be.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“Look, I have to get going. Take it easy, Alex.”
She turned and walked toward the front doors. I supposed she was a samurai, for what a samurai was worth in twenty-first century post-apocalyptic America. I just wished I could use a sword like that.
I turned from the courtyard and made my way to the clinic. It was time to report to Samuel.
Chapter 6
Samuel looked even better than he had a few hours ago. He sat up in bed and fed himself some more of the leftover stew.
“Good to see you up,” I said.
Samuel smiled. “If Makara feeds me one more bite, I’ll scream.” He paused. “One of the Raiders came in and told me what happened. Is everyone alright?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Anna saved the day. She snuck into the building and assassinated the two guys holding Lisa hostage.”
Samuel smiled and shook his head. “You need to watch out for that one, Alex.”
I frowned. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”
Samuel ignored my question. “And Lisa?”
“She’s fine,” I said. “She seems a bit quiet, though. Pretty much your type all around.”
Samuel chuckled. “I guess we’ll see about that later. And Makara?”
“She’s fine, too. She didn’t look happy about Anna getting all the glory.”
Samuel shrugged and took another bite of stew.
“Char mentioned something about a Great Blight,” I said. “What is that?”
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s the biggest obstacle we face reaching Bunker One. Hundreds of miles of old-growth Blight. I bet the monsters in the Great Blight will make Kari look like someone’s lost pet.”
It was hard to imagine any monster getting bigger than Kari. That giant had been at least three times the size of a normal human, but at least we had escaped her.
“Great,” I said. “Tell me, why are we going through that? Char mentioned something called crawlers, and from the way he described them, I’m thinking we need to come up with an alternate route.”
“That’s the way we have to go,” Samuel said. “Nothing we can do about that. We’ll just have to hope the Recon is faster. We have the turret and thousands of rounds of ammunition if things get dicey.”
“Hopefully, that’s enough,” I said. “How’s the shoulder?”
“Feels like hell,” Samuel said. “But I’ll manage. I’ve been doing some prelim scouting.”
Samuel reached for his bedside table and picked up a tattered, folded piece of paper. He unfolded it, revealing a map of the United States, along with its cities and highways. Several points on the map had been marked already — mostly in the Mojave area. In thick, red marker, a line had been drawn from Raider Bluff to
