Page 21 of The Pale Rider
I laughed. Now, we were getting somewhere.
“I’m pretty sure I have, even if I can’t remember when. Maybe we can make onion blossoms happen. Who knows? I mean, we had nachos.”
“Nachos are right up there as a top favorite food too, so let’s just settle for that. Where we are going tonight doesn’t have a generator, so it’ll be the junk food I took from the closet and cans. It’s not safe to meet with Cougar for trade that late.”
“Cougar?”
“She’s kind of the mayor. The town we are stopping in isn’t like the one we left. They’ve secured their borders to keep the Rage Heads and people like Scooter out. I had to work my ass off to be allowed inside. When we get to the gate, don’t speak unless spoken to. I must vouch for you before they allow you inside.”
“What city are we stopping in?”
“Before or after the war? Cities and states don’t really exist anymore. I gave you the city you would have known before, but it’s not called that anymore. The settlement we are going to is called Gabriel’s Haven. Cougar runs the place.”
“Does everyone go by nicknames now? Cougar, Scooter. Is your name even Aeron?”
“You’re worried about nicknames, Speedy?”
Did Aeron just make a joke? He was smirking like he did. I laughed.
“Fair enough, but everyone has a nickname in roller derby. Don’t ask me how I know that.”
“Many people decided that the world was ending, the government had fallen, and nothing was the same. Their lives would never be the same and some of them were stepping up and adopting identities they never would have before. Why not take a new name? Cougar taught kindergarten before all of this.”
I waved a Cheeto at him and started my rant. I didn’t even know where the fuck it was coming from.
“Of course, the well-run, secure city is head up by a woman and a teacher. I hope those assholes she’s keeping safe appreciate her more than people did before the apocalypse.”
Aeron dusted Funyun dust off his fingers.
“Oh, trust me. She’s respected and feared by every single person in Gabriel’s Haven. She’s a real hardass. She’s got a barter system set up, and they’ve even got crops growing. We need to get going if we will make it there before it gets dark.”
I sighed. Baby steps. I would eventually get to the bottom of Aeron with no last name.
Chapter 13
T
he ride to Gabriel’s Haven was long, but at least Aeron talked to me this time as long as we kept the conversation totally neutral. He wouldn’t talk about me, and even though talking about himself would not trigger my memories, he wouldn’t talk about himself. Instead, he told me all about the settlement at Gabriel’s Haven. It sounded like they had a marvelous thing going, but it wasn’t the norm around the world. The world had divided itself between the Cougars and the Scooters of the world, and the Scooters were always trying to take over settlements like Gabriel’s Haven.
I thought the death trap in front of Scooter’s territory was big, but it was nowhere near what they had at Gabriel’s Haven. It looked like they had raided every possible building and pulled down steel panels for their ten-foot-high fence, which was also lined with barbed wire. It spread out as far as I could see.
Aeron pulled Meremoth up to the gate and just stopped. Two large rifles popped over a break in the fence.
“State your business!”
“It’s Aeron, and I have a guest.”
He had to announce himself? How did they not recognize that fucking horse if they couldn’t see his face? I heard another voice over the fence.
“Aeron? He’s cool, Jake. Let him through, and we’ll vet his guest.”
“That you, Edward?” Aeron yelled. “Since when are you not at the fence?”
“Jake is in training. I have to sleep sometime, and we need all the eyes we can get. We found the item you wanted on a scouting trip. You got anything good to trade for it?”
“Yeah, I do.”
The gate swung open, and Meremoth took us inside. I got my first look at Gabriel’s Haven. As far as apocalypse cities went, it looked pretty well run. The houses were neat, and I didn’t see a broken window in sight. They had managed to get some vegetables growing in soil that had seen better days, and it looked like they had a water filtration system set up. In the event of an apocalypse, teachers really should run everything.
