Page 54 of The Red Rider
“This all started because of tainted water, Davis. Armilus did this on purpose. New Jersey got hit pretty hard by the Rage Mutation, as did several other states who totally adopted their water supplement. If you didn’t turn, it means you avoided the tainted water, or you have a certain blood type. We will deliver a vaccine soon in case there is any of the water left.”
“Whoareyou? None of the governments have been able to fix this so far. How did some random man in Florida?”
I bit my fist. I was sure Dice, Aeron, and Leif justlovedbeing referred to as some rando in Florida. I was trying so hard not to giggle.
“I didn’t do this alone, Davis. Wealldid this. I had help from all over the country. Several states helped with this, and Mexico was where the vaccine was produced. We’re going to fix the world. Tell me, Davis. Are you still in Georgia?”
“My brother-in-law has a house with one of those fallout shelters. We’ve been down here for years. We came down when war broke out. We’re starting to run low on rations, so your help came just in time.”
“Whereabouts in Georgia are you, Davis?” Aeron asked.
“The outer Macon area.”
“All the Rage Heads out that way are dead now, but you still have to worry about some people who didn’t turn. There’s a lot of disorder in Atlanta right now.”
A group of men stepped forward.
“We can bring a truck and go get them until we settle things. We have enough gas, and Georgia isn’t too far away.”
“No!” Davis said. “If there are bad people out there, they could have a radio and hear this. They’ll set an ambush.”
“He’s right,” Dice said. “How soon will you run out of supplies, Davis?”
“Maybe a month.”
“Can you hang tight another two weeks? By then, my people will have handled some things, and my team can personally bring you some supplies and deal with the riffraff.”
“Oh, thank you! My battery is about to die, but I’ve been listening to your show every day.”
“Take care, Davis. We’re coming.”
Now that Dice and Aeron had set the scene for personally helping people, I expected people to blow up the airwaves wanting food and help. But the line went silent until I heard a laugh I never wanted to hear again.
“Well, aren’t you just so fucking helpful? Are all four of you here this time? I know you have Ariel,” Isaiah said.
I guess now that Dice had opened up the airways, anyone could use them. It felt like someone had dumped ice water over my head, but I wasn’t afraid. I was furious. I wanted to jump through that radio and strangle him.
My gentle Leif just started laughing like a madman.
“Oh yeah. We’re all here, and we’re coming for you. We got rid of your little pets, Isaiah. America, do you know who was pulling strings at Armilus and created the Rage Heads? Your fucking president!”
What was Leif doing? He was going to cause riots. Aeron had gone around spreading the word about the tainted water, but I didn’t think anyone knew Isaiah was the mastermind behind it all.
“The rantings of a terrorist!” Isaiah said. “These men kidnapped my daughter, and they were the ones who created the Rage Mutation.”
Did Isaiah think they were keeping me in a little box, and I wasn’t allowed to speak? I mean, I was sittingright here.And I was about to clear up some shit. If it meant an angry mob with pitchforks and torches took him out instead of me, the end goal was still the same. He would be good and dead.
“Hi, First Daughter here, and I can totally speak for myself. Isaiah experimented on me and terrorized me as a child. He kidnapped me again after I ran away and kept me in a coma at a research facility trying to find a way to make those of you that didn’t turn Rage Heads too. I’ve got flash drives of the research, shit head. I’ve read the emails. Remember how pissed off you got about Hillary’s emails? I’ve got yours, and when the internet comes back up, they are going to get plastered everywhere.”
“America, can you see how evil these terrorists are? Do you see how they’ve groomed my own child against me? Do you see—”
“Hey, shit for brains!” I yelled, cutting him off. “If what I say isn’t true, then why wasn’t I mentioned during your campaign? If I was off missing getting groomed by terrorists, why didn’t you make a fucking peep about it? If you knew the water caused the Rage Mutation and knew who caused it, why didn’t you sayanythingon your radio show about it? You sent Nazis to Mexico because you knew they were working on a vaccine there, but you never warned a single damned person about the water.”
“You’re delusional, Ariel, and I’ll be praying for you. America, we do need to come together, but it’s fighting these terrorists. You see what they’ve done to my own child. You can’t trust that vaccine developed with a bunch of spics. You know we can’t trust anything and anyone that comes out of Mexico. They bring crime here, and that vaccine is going to kill you. This has been their plan all along.”
“You’re such a racist fuck,” I growled.
All of those people that didn’t want to share their stories when Dice asked were chiming in now. I heard accents from all over the fucking country.
