Banished Worlds Read online

  “Why not use the city for the people you have?” Roberts inquired. “Open up land for your food production, yes, but not keep everyone so bottled up.”

  “Scavs, for one reason. Scavengers don’t help anybody, not even themselves most of the time. Other compounds would raid us and take what we have, including workers and women if they could. Even now raiding parties from other compounds attack our teams sometimes.” Jenkins patted the cart of bricks. “We will process this stuff and make stronger defenses.”

  “What about Prisoner Union supply drops?” I asked. “Those should be calculated for an ever growing population. The prison system knows you get more prisoners and, of course, children from the people here.”

  “Children right, like the prison system cares if we have kids.” Jenkins shook his head and loaded more bricks into the cart.

  Roberts and I continued to load the cart, but we listened too.

  Jenkins looked to Roberts. “Did anyone talk to you about children before they dropped you here?”

  “It was kind of a last minute rush job to off load me,” she replied.

  “Most women here have their ovaries removed before they are dropped. There is no chance they will ever leave and they don’t want to have kids. Of the kids born here, there are, of course, females and so more kids. It is a bad place to breed so there are not many kids and the ones that are here, well, they start working young. The females are good trade items for upper management.” Jenkins looked Roberts up and down, then looked to me. “You’ll get offers for your woman, all kind of offers.”

  “Supply drops?” I asked again.

  Jenkins grinned. “Drops are once in a blue moon. Mostly, they just drop more mouths to feed.” Jenkins looked over at another cart, one not so full. “You’re missing stuff, pay attention!” he yelled at the crew by the cart.

  “We still have a couple hours of light left, if I’m right, and we need this stuff. Why did we stop the plow body early?” I asked.

  “We’re the demo team. We’ll knock it down and grab a load on the way back to the compound, but it is red team’s job to collect the majority of the stuff and retrieve it. They’ll haul it back and work through the night to separate it. Everybody here works, or they don’t eat.” He went on to tell us that one of our responsibilities was to watch out for scavs as red team collects the debris field. We did this on our walk back through the fresh rubble.

  We walked back to the compound, reached the entrance, and had company. Bender stood waiting at the gate with the guards.

  Jenkins stopped walking, and so did we.

  “So are they keepers, or do I dump them in the red section?” Bender was blunt and straight to the point. His eyes darted from Jenkins to me and back to Jenkins.

  “They did good, real good. Danbeu saved Bikes’ life today.”

  “He’s a plow bump that’s still walking. He needs to listen to his spotters!” Bender exclaimed with more anger than I would have expected toward Bikes. I wondered if it was because Bikes still lived, or because I had saved him.

  “I say they stay here and on my demo team, but of course, it’s your decision. If you reassign them, I need two people by morning.” Jenkins expressed his opinion and walked away.

  Bender looked to us, lingering on Roberts, then waved us toward Jenkins. “Follow your boss.”

  I nodded and pushed Roberts ahead of me in the direction of Jenkins. We joined up with him in short order.

  “I have a question?” Roberts inquired and pulled Jenkins arm to stop him.

  “What’s the question?” Jenkins started walking and went for the food line. He got his bowl with bread, followed by Roberts and me.

  “If supplies are so low and food is in such short supply how is it that Big Chin and his guards eat so well?” Roberts took a seat at the table and I sat down next to her.

  “Big Chin is our manager. His private guards are also management,” Bender said, coming up to the table.

  “So how do we get into management?” I joked and got a few laughs from the table, including Jenkins.

  Bender walked to the wall where a hammer hung from a chain, picked up the hammer, and banged it on the support beam for the wall. The beam vibrated through the building and got everyone’s attention.

  Jenkins was on his feet instantly. “What did you do that for?”

  “He wants to move into management,” Bender replied.

  “Danbeu was kidding. He doesn’t even know what you just did!” Jenkins yelled at Bender.

  Bikes came running through the crowd. “Who’s fighting, who’s fighting?” he asked, reaching the wall with the hammer.

  “You want to be in management, here’s your shot,” Bender said to me with a half twisted grin on his face.

  “Bender, why?” Jenkins asked.

  “He asked for it.”

  Large sections of the different teams started parting. Through the division walked Big Chin and a handful of his bodyguards. He walked straight to the area near the hammer.

  “Who challenged?” Chin yelled.

  Bender pointed to me. “Danbeu here wants to move into management.” He glanced at Roberts, then back to Big Chin. “He likes your food better than ours.”

  “Wants my food, wants my place, it sounds like a challenge.” Big Chin stared down at me. “You want my job, huh?”

  I looked over at Bender, then to Roberts, and finally to Big Chin. “You don’t seem to be using it,” I said and stood up.

  Roberts grabbed my arm and pulled me her direction. “What are you doing?”

  “He can’t back out of the challenge now,” Jenkins said.

  I leaned close to Roberts’ ear. “We can’t move around freely from this position. We have six days left and no information.”

  “I have the Taser, you don’t,” she reminded me.

  “I know, keep it for yourself if I fail. Stay close to Jenkins and Bikes.” I straightened up.

  Roberts stood up, grabbed my head in both hands, and kissed me. “Kick his ass,” she said loud enough for Big Chin and everyone else to hear.

  “It’s a fight to the death,” Bikes told us.

  “Yeah, I figured that.” I motioned Big Chin to lead the way away from the tables.

  The crowds all backed up until we had a clear circle around the two of us.

  Big Chin had wider shoulders than me and with his jacket on he looked muscular. His blond hair was long, some of it falling into his eyes, and they were predator’s eyes; the eyes of an angry animal looking to vent on me.

  We began by facing each other, circling, watching, and studying one another. I was tired from ten plus hours of running and dodging the hydraulic-driven bar. I was tired of the situation Nelson had put me in, of being bossed around since I had arrived. I knew this had to be fast, or I would be dead.

  “Come on, you called this challenge, now fight me.” Big Chin slowly moved to his left.

  I stepped right, then left and back, which closed the distance between us.

  Chin back stepped hard, his arms raised to defend against an attack.

  I backed up from him.

  He smiled and approached fast, as did I towards him, and we exchanged a couple of blows that only landed on each other’s arms and shoulders.

  The cheering section yelled for Chin to finish me. He responded and attacked again.

  I got an opening on his approach and hit him square on his big chin. And might as well have punched the plow bar.

  Big Chin hammered my right arm down, and hit me in the jaw. Before I could move, or react, he grabbed my jacket with his left hand and started throwing uppercuts to my midsection. He finished with a second hit to my jaw, and I hit the ground.

  Big Chin forgot we were fighting. He played to the cheers.

  The jaw hurt, I spit blood, but the body shots had been absorbed by the second skin armor. I punched Big Chin in the groin which made him freeze, but I did not freeze. I put my left elbow, with my weight behind it, to the side of his left knee. He sc
reamed and fell to the ground beside me. I punched the knee again as Big Chin grabbed for the inside of his jacket.

  I saw the butt of his gun and jumped on top of him. We both pulled the weapon out of his shoulder holster, struggling for control. I managed to jerk it free from the injured compound boss. Even though I still barely had a grip on the gun, I pushed it under Big Chin’s jaw and fired. He stopped his struggling, or moving at all, and the gun’s recoil caused it to fly from my hand to sliding across the open floor.

  I was tired. The gun was some ten feet away and laying at Bender’s feet. He and I stared at one another, and both of us looked toward the gun. Everyone was still and silent. They did not expect Big Chin to be dead.

  Bender bent over and picked up the weapon. He walked slowly toward me with the gun in his hand. We stared hard at one another.

  “You dropped this, Boss,” he said and held the gun, butt first, out to me. “We need to get you upstairs to a proper dinner and see how you want to start the day tomorrow.”

  I took the gun and he took hold of my hand to help me to my feet. Jenkins, Roberts, and Bikes moved in around us. “Bikes, get Big Chin’s holster for me, would you please, and check out his pockets. Anything you don’t want, bring it to me. Jenkins, Roberts, with us. Bender, lead on please and everyone else stay.”

  “Sir, what’s your name,” someone in the crowd yelled.

  “Danbeu,” Bender yelled to the crowd, “Boss Danbeu, now back to your places.”

  We all headed up to Big Chin’s quarters, now mine. The air conditioning felt great after my day, so far. Once inside, I ordered the room cleared of anyone not invited, then turned to Jenkins. “I need new bodyguards, ones you trust, and send these guys to the red section, or wherever you like.”

  Jenkins nodded and left.

  Bikes had not finished with Big Chin yet, so that left me, Roberts, and Bender alone. I turned to him. “Okay, why?” I asked.

  Bender’s eyes jerked to Roberts, then back to me; it was an involuntary reaction.

  “Understand,” I replied.

  “I figured it this way, if you lost, I got your woman.” Bender looked to Roberts. “I could make life easy for you here, you’d come around eventually.” Bender looked back to me. “If you won, which I didn’t think you would, you’d have me to thank for moving you up in the world.”

  “You have to be kidding,” Roberts said, stepping closer to Bender. It sure looked like she was going to hit him, so I cut her off.

  “He had a goal and a plan to reach it. I can see it, even if we do not agree with it, I understand his plan. One thing, Bender, you ever try something like this against me again and I’ll gut you like a fish! Clear?”

  Bender swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.”

  “Now, leave. Have Jenkins put the guards outside of the doors and you come back just before morning. Jenkins’ demo team is down until I say differently. Other than that, business as usual. Go.”

  “Yes, sir.” Bender departed, which left Roberts and I alone. I moved to the chairs at the table and sat down. Roberts followed, but remained standing.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “That was a lot of punches to the body.” She knelt down in front of me, stared up into my face with those crystal blue eyes, and I was lost in the past. “Are you in there?” she asked. Concern showed in her expression.

  “Price’s second skin armor works well. I’m fine, but tired.”

  Roberts stood up. “Come on, Chin had to have a bed up here somewhere.”

  I sat up straight. “One kiss and it’s to bed, huh? I have been out of the network too long.”

  She laughed, forced herself to stop, but took hold of my hand and pulled me to my feet. “You rest, I will be on guard. A few hours of sleep, sleep only, clear?”

  We found the bed, and like the rest of Chin’s place, it was the best of what they had to offer in the compound. There were clean, fresh sheets behind a thick drawn curtain that separated the bed area from the rest of the upper level quarters.

  “You can’t tell me that more than a handful of people know about the condition of this place, of Chin’s way of life up here, and his guards, as opposed to theirs down there. Somehow, I doubt even little Bender knew the full extent of this place.”

  “There are enough people down there that if they did, there would have been a riot. They would have rushed him and the area guards, guns or not,” Roberts agreed, as I started to sit down on the bed. “You’re filthy. First, pull your dirty clothes off.”

  “First, you want me in bed and now, you want my clothes off.” I grinned. I kicked off my boots, pulled off my jacket and top shirt, then removed my pants before I stretched out in the bed. “Your turn,” I said and patted the bed next to me.

  “I’m on guard duty and you have as much chance at anything else as Bender would have.” Roberts folded her arms across her chest with her left hip kicked out and stared down at me. “I’m going to check out the rest of this level, get some sleep.”

  I nodded, rolled to my side, and closed my eyes. Sleep came easily after the long day and the fight, but it was not restful. I woke from dreams of my past before prison when I was an agent. My partner, Marty, and I used to run around together; me, Marty and his family since I did not have one. I sat up, listened to voices out in the living quarter’s area, collected my pants from the floor, and dressed as I headed toward the voices. Roberts, Jenkins, and Bender sat at the table.

  “Hey, the new boss is awake.” This came from Jenkins, as I approached, then sat down.

  Roberts pushed a plate of food my direction. It was a steak with vegetables. “It seems the prisoner supply drops are made, but are stored for management use only.”

  I had the only plate of food with just water in front of everyone else. A stack of steaks and bowls of cooked vegetables sat in the middle of the table. “I see. We’ll have to look into that after we all eat.”

  I motioned for the others to grab plates and dig in which they did. I was going to need reliable Intel until Roberts and I found the girl, and left the planet. Buying that Intel with a steak or two, or even five was fine with me. Loyalty was priceless when you needed it. They all took a plate, loaded it up, and started to eat. I looked to Bender. “Bring me up to speed.”

  Bender took a drink of his water to wash down the mouth full of food. “Day shifts are in soon. The people that needed to know about the change in management have been informed, and I don’t see any issues there for a while. They will obey you until the next change.”

  I looked to Jenkins and thought to myself. Which people needed to know about the change in management?

  “I brought you the people I trust as guards, as you ordered. They are outside the doors right now. No one in or out, other than Bender, myself, and Bikes as Roberts said you ordered.”

  “Tell me about who had to be informed of the change in management?”

  “That would be The Highman Alquin. He owns the compounds, all of them. He is always informed of management changes,” Bender answered.

  I turned my attention to Roberts.

  “After our roll in your new hay, I started exploring this level. It would seem that all of the supply drops are on time and on a regular schedule. Drops are always to the same spot, except the one a few days ago. There is one drop that was off its mark. It came down in the dead city, no word on it.” Roberts looked to Jenkins, then to Bender. “I am told that it’s too far out and not safe that far from the compound. It is closer to one of the other compounds.”

  “Do we have contact with the management of that compound?”

  “Only with sticks and stones, Boss,” Jenkins informed me.

  I sipped my water and studied the people at the table. “Our compound only works the city at daytime because it’s the only time you can see other compound people and scavs. It’s okay, for now. Can I get in to see this Alquin, now that I’m the compound boss?”

  “You don’t want to do that,” Bender said. “Even Big Chin didn’t like to go
see him.”

  “Fine, I’ll also table that issue, for now. Run day-to-day operations as normal until I say differently. Bender, Jenkins is going to need three new people for his team. I want Bikes pulled from the team. He now works for me up here. Also, I want a tour of the entire compound. I want to see the operation I just took over.” I turned my attention back to my plate and finished my dinner or breakfast, depending on who you asked. The others finished up and waited for me.

  Bender pushed his plate away. “Unless you have something else, Boss, I need to go oversee the power systems, make sure we’re good for another day.”

  I nodded. “Come back here when you have time,” I instructed Bender, and he left the area.

  Jenkins filled his plate for a second time and began to eat.

  “Jenkins, when you’re done I want to rotate the guards through here. Let them eat, then back on duty. You are in charge of that, okay?”

  “Yes, sir. They’ll like that,” Jenkins said and filled a second glass of water. He liked that all of the demo teams got the better end of the food in the compound, but this was real food and clean water which made it even more of a tool for me to use.

  “During your exploring, did you find the bathroom?” I asked Roberts.

  “Come on, I’ll show you.” Roberts led me to a door beyond the bed area. “Inside is the bathroom, a full bathroom. Separate shower and tub, sink, and toilet.” She opened the door, but we did not enter. “I’ll leave you to your business.”

  “Our roll in your new hay?” I said and stopped her walking away.

  Roberts looked over her shoulder at me and grinned slightly. “I thought you’d like that.” She turned to face me. “After all, you made me your girlfriend to these people, all I have to do is sell it once in a while.”

  “Nelson said you were a bright young lady.”

  “Speaking of Nelson and the others, how do we get them back with us now that you are the boss? Just ordering a handful of people to get reassigned here, will raise someone’s attention. Kind of “why him and not me” question out on that crowded floor.”