Page 8 of The White Rider
T
he next thing I knew, I was in a hotel room. This one wasn’t nearly as plush as Dice’s, but it had power and possibly a hot shower. Asher didn’t give me time to grab clothes, so I’d have to put these dirty ones back on, but I had clean clothes back at my new home.
Asher still had me clutched to his chest. That was new. I knew it took just a touch to transport people, but he’d grabbed me like that. Interesting. I patted his hard chest and took a step back.
“Thanks. Where are we?”
“Where you aren’t supposed to be. With the resistance.”
“They’re in a motel?!”
“Go take a shower, Ariel. You got what you wanted.”
I skipped off to the shower. They didn’t have hot water here, but I wasn’t complaining. Not every place could have Dice fixing things. If the resistance was here, then they deserved scalding water. Maybe Dice could get on it.
Don’t ask me where it came from, but I loudly sang what I thought was my favorite song while I lathered my body with soap and washed my hair. Asher had the good soap, shampoo, and conditioner from Costco in here. I toweled off, put my dirty clothes back on, and stepped back into the motel room. Asher was standing at the door, arguing with someone.
“See? I told you someone was here. She’s a terrible singer,” a woman said, pushing her way into the room.
“Excuse the fuck out of me, but who are you? And I sing beautifully.”
Asher was scowling.
“No, you’re really pretty bad. Ariel, meet Pepper. She’s one of the leaders of the resistance. How did you even know I was here?”
I was so butt-ass offended. You couldn’t even sing at the end of the world without people insulting you. Wasn’t I allowed to enjoy the little things?
“Your friends are here administering vaccinations. They never come without you. Aeron swore you weren’t coming, but you were due to check in with us. I don’t know this one. Where did you find her? She’s not a Martha. They would have made her cut the pink out of her hair.”
“Ew.”
Of course, those Bubbas couldn’t handle a pink-haired woman. I’d kick their asses seven ways to Sunday.
“She’s not a Martha. She’s with us. My brothers brought her. She helped with the vaccine.”
Pepper finally stopped glaring at me like I’d farted. She held out her hand and smiled at me.
“Pepper. Welcome to the resistance. We heard Dice on the radio, and we’ve been burning Rage Heads ever since. Everyone is lining up for the vaccine. What’s next?”
“We’re still working on it.”
“Shut the fuck up, Asher. I know it’s gotta be something big. If you’ve got a vaccine and you wiped out all the Rage Heads, then we know it’s big. Don’t bullshit me.”
I grinned. She may have insulted my singing, but I liked her. Anyone who stood up to Asher was okay in my book. Pepper deserved to know. They’d been right here next to the stench of my father and his Bubbas this entire time. We needed all the help we could get.
“Maybe instead of destroying the thing, like we were going to do, we could relocate it here, to the resistance,” I suggested.
They had angel pockets, and Asher had a motel room that was just his. They could move the ammo they had here, then destroy the factory. I didn’t care if all the Bubbas there died. Pepper was looking at me incredulously, like I had a second head for talking in code. I expected Asher to get mad at me, but he was just scratching his chin.
“That’s actually not a half-bad idea.”
“Care to share it with the class?” Pepper said.
“Our next move is taking out Isaiah and rounding up the Bubbas to standtrial. We’re going to try to liberate the unwilling Marthas, but you know some of them are just as bad as the Bubbas. We’ll have to round up all of them and figure out who is who. We’re going to hit up their bullet factory and destroy it. Ariel thinks we should relocate the supplies we find there to here, and I agree with her. The resistance could use them.”
“We’re in. Some women are ours. They got kidnapped on raiding trips. They wouldn’t have gone down without a fight. They are dead or the property of a Bubba now. We’ve only had one escape back to us. The militant Marthas watch the kidnapped ones. They abuse them and force propaganda at them to try to make them willing.”
This was where I could come in and help. Asher was right. Dice, Aeron, and Leif weren’t going to set me loose with the Bubbas, no matter how much I wanted to be there. I knew they all would be super grateful if I drew the future again, as it would give us the solution to stopping this without a bunch of good people dying, but my skills weren’t just in drawing the future. I was a fucking award-winning artist.
