“I get it,” the guy said. “You hate it here, but it wasn’t my doing.” He stepped closer. The bars framed his face. I saw how the dark hair on his chin was coated with frost, as if he’d just come in from the cold.
“You sure know how to treat a guest,” I said. “You gonna bust my skull open too?”
The man shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry, Mr. Miller. I heard all about it.” He held up his hands. I’m innocent. “But I wasn’t here. If I was, you can believe that wouldn’t have happened.”
“And who are you?”
“I’m Nicholas Rider. Nick, to my friends.”
I was sitting on the edge of the bed, a few feet from the door. Rider stuck his hand through the bars. Like Berretti, I ignored his attempted greeting. Unlike Berretti, he wasn’t offended—not outwardly, at least. Ramsey had told me about this man too.
I said, “I want to see my friend. I want to see Mia and the baby.”
“You the father?”
“The father’s dead.”
“You kill him?”
“No, but I would’ve. He was infected.”
Rider grimaced. “That’s tough. We’ve all had to do things we shouldn’t have had to do.”
“Just let me out of here.”
The guy was silent for a while. Then he reached down in his jacket pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He unlocked the door and opened it, the hinges creaking like a rusty cemetery gate, and stepped back.
I shot up before he could close it in my face, which was what I expected but didn’t happen, and I went through. I was free. Finally.
“I can assure you the men who assaulted you will be punished,” Nicholas Rider said. “If things go the way they should, they will be voted out of the City.”
I blinked heavily a few times. I thought I was dreaming. “It’s not the minions you gotta worry about. It’s the one who sent them.”
Rider nodded. “I can’t do anything about Berretti, I’m sorry. He’s too important, and he knows it. That’s his leverage.” He paused and shrugged. “You and John got off on the wrong foot, and maybe you want revenge, but it’s best to let him be.”
“Damn right I want revenge. We’re only a couple months removed from a functioning society. We’re not complete savages yet, are we? People should pay for assaulting someone without cause.”
“And I agree with you, Mr. Miller, but society as we knew it is gone.”
I gave no reply because I didn’t want to think about society as we knew it being gone, or what the future held for our species. It was too grim.
“I heard about your arrival,” Rider said. “You crossing through the snow with the girl and her baby in your arms, wearing only a t-shirt. You’re a hero in my eyes, kid.”
“Thanks,” I replied without sincerity. “But we won’t be staying. Least you can do is give us a ride outta here.”
Rider cocked an eyebrow. “I suppose I can arrange that, but I don’t think it’s really in your best interests to leave. Not with an infant. Here, she can receive the proper care she needs. And Doc Hart told me Mia was pretty rough when you all got here. Stitches and the like. She’s on the mend. Perhaps when she’s up and at ‘em and the baby is not such a baby anymore… But, of course, I can’t stop you.”
He had a point. Damn it, he had a point. We’d come all this way for what, to turn back? Leaving now would be beyond idiotic.
But why would I want to stay in a place that treated its citizens like scum?
Doesn’t matter, I thought, because that’s just what you’re gonna have to do.
“If a single hair on her or Monica’s head is harmed, I will not go quietly, Rider. I promise you that.”
“They were well taken care of, Mr. Miller, I assure you. Berretti can be petulant and his mean streaks can cause a good amount of damage, both physically and mentally, but he would never stoop so low as to order an infant and her mother to be—”
“Tortured? Because that’s the welcome gift I received.”
For a moment, Rider seemed on the verge of a breakdown. The sincerity in this show of emotion caught me by surprise. “Son, I am so sorry. I really am. I know, you don’t wanna hear my apologies. I wouldn’t either, but it’s all I can do for now. That, and take you to see your friend.” He started walking down the corridor. “C’mon, let’s go.”
After he got about twenty feet ahead of me, I followed.
The walk was a long one, mostly reduced to gray corridor after gray corridor, and moving was a pain, but Rider tried his best to pass the time.
“Your blood test came back negative,” he said.
“Not surprised. I’ve been close to the monsters outside, but not that close.”
“Security footage saw a fire in the bridge. Mia told us the story about what happened there.” He clucked his tongue. “Your own mother? Boy, you’re stronger than me.”
I said nothing. That was something I didn’t want to think about.
“So you’re the president and Berretti’s the V.P.”
“Something like that.”
“Who gave you the keys to the kingdom?”
“Well, son, I did. No one else seemed too keen to take on a leadership role, except for Berretti, but we’re trying to keep the spirit of democracy alive here, not give rise to another Hitler.” He chuckled. “So I keep him on a leash, but every now and then you gotta loosen up your hold on it, give him some slack, you know, or he’ll catch on.” Rider stopped, turned to me, and whispered, “He’s smart in his sciences, but he lacks common sense.”
“I can tell.”
“We haven’t had any new arrivals in weeks, so I
