Page 37 of The White Rider
Leif just smiled.
“We’re moving them to better housing. The Rage Heads are dead, and there’s plenty of real estate that didn’t get destroyed in the war. Banks don’t exist anymore, and neither does money. Dead people aren’t going to get mad that someone took their house. Frankly, I think we should just let people pick a house and claim it. There’s more than enough to go around, and as long as people aren’t fighting over properties, it would solve the looming threat of post-apocalyptic homelessness. Especially in areas where people are living in parks like this.”
Pepper just nodded.
“I’ll put it to the guys, but they sure hate the Bubbas. The Bubbas know where they are and try to recruit them all the time. A few of them joined up with the Bubbas before the prison guys joined us. They hate them for that. They were supposed to ride this out together. They joined us because of our mutual hatred and because they heard you on the radio talking about Isaiah causing all this. We had been trying for the longest time, but that was their tipping point.”
“That must be why they offered the riot gear when I visited them,” Aeron said. “I just said I needed it to protect someone while we stuck it to some Bubbas. They didn’t even ask for the details.”
Pepper laughed.
“They usually don’t. They don’t care about the little details, just as long as they can stop them from hurting people. But they will have a problem giving up the roofs over their heads for these assholes. I’ll try to explain things the way you did.”
“I need to vaccinate them. I’ll go with you,” Leif said. “We need to go now because we’re making our move soon, and I’ll be needed by my team.”
I sighed. Leif was leaving me again. One of these days, I would get five minutes alone with him, and I would keep him close. We were all covered in gore, and I had opinions about that, but I still flung myself at Leif.
“I’m going to get you alone soon and make it all worth it.”
“I know, Speedy. One day, this will be over.”
I gave Leif a hard squeeze.
“I can’t wait.”
“How come he gets hugs when he’s a little dirty?” Aeron asked.
Pepper cocked an eyebrow at Aeron.
“A little dirty? You all looked like you rolled around in it! Seriously, people are staring.”
Just then, a glob of Bubba brain dripped from my ponytail and landed on my boot. Shit. I needed a shower. This was going to dry and take forever to get out. Asher knew exactly where this was going. Leif was supposed to meet with the prison, and he hadn’t mentioned washing all the gore off him.
“We need to give a little speech, and then we are going to hand out weapons. I need your people not to make a move on the Bubbas until we give the signal. Isaiah is right where we want him. We don’t want him retreating to underground bunkers that we’ll have to fight our way inside,” Dice said.
Pepper threw back her head and shrieked.
“Lurch!!!”
What the fuck? An enormous man shoved his way through the crowd with a megaphone. Yeah, I could see why he got the nickname Lurch. He shoved it at Asher.
“I hope you killed even more of them than it looks like,” he growled.
Who was going to give the speech? We had four Horsemen, all with unique abilities. I’d heard Dice’s speeches before. He was good at rallying people for battle, but we didn’t need them fighting just yet.
Asher handed the megaphone to Dice, who hopped on top of a parked car.
“Listen up, bitches! The end of the world is going to be closed for business in a few days. We need your help, but not in the way you think. We will move in with a small team to take out the president. We’ll be rounding up the Bubbas and rescuing the women who didn’t want to be there. Providing the prison allows us to hold them there, we’ll do that and then try them for war crimes and move on.”
That didn’t sit well. People started screaming about how they had killed one of their family members or friends, or stolen their women. People had lost entire families to the Rage Mutation. They wanted them dead. Dice held up his hand, and the crowd quieted down.
“You’ve never seen a trial conducted by me before, and you don’t know the results. If they are found guilty, they will pay. Trust me. We need this to heal. Don’t worry about them. Start thinking about what you want to do when this is over. I know you’re still burning Rage Heads. I know there’s still work to be done. But take a moment to consider this… what do you want to be when this is all over?
“This has changed everyone. No one is who they were before. The apocalypse has forged you into something very different. It has brought out the worst in people, but it has also brought out the good. Look at what you have here! You can be anything now. We’re going to need people from all walks of life. We don’t have to be like we were before all this. We can be better. Let’s do better this time!”
Lurch stepped forward, and man, was he stoic. Was he even going to talk?
“Are we going to be able to testify? They killed my brother, stole my wife, and our adopted son turned into a Rage Head. I want vengeance.”
