Kennedy Hoss of Musket

Chapter 23: The Inner Ring

Song: Poison & Wine by The Civi Wars

"They can help us," Crow insists, gesturing to the other teens sitting around the campfire.

They all look me over, and I do the same, careful not to make any direct eye contact. One girl has about seven twist ties from packages of bread inserted in the cartilage of her ear. Another boy with ginger hair and a backwards hat had loops in his earlobe as wide as pennies. The loops stretch his skin in such a way that if he wanted to, he could stick a finger straight through the loop. I can't keep myself from staring at them. They're such a diverse group of people. An older girl with long wavy blonde hair in a white lacy dress smiled at me, while a younger girl in ratty overalls and bare feet insisted on staring at me like a snarling wolf. In a nonchalant fashion I tuck my shirt behind my pistol, which they all gape at.

"Really?" I whisper back to Crow, "I'd like to see how."

Redhead raises a thumbs-up in the air. "Gee, nice to meet you too, flap."

"Excuse me?"

The guy stands up and walks up to me.

"Yeah, you heard me," he jerks his arms up, "like the flaps on a lizard? Making yourself bigger than you really are?"

"Packer!" The older blonde girl shouts, "Calm it!"

Packer looks over at her briefly and then looks back at me. He begins to take another step toward me and I pull my pistol, the tip touching his chest.

"Yeah Packer," I hiss, "'calm it.'"

He narrows his eyes at me just as Crow's hand slithers in between my pistol and Packer's chest. He lowers it and Packer backs away. Crow leans over to him.

"I wouldn't call her anything other than damn 'your majesty', if I were you."

Packer steals another look at me before taking his seat beside the blonde girl.

"We'll you've met Packer," Crow says, "that's Lemay," he points to the blonde girl,"Eliana," he points to the girl with the twist ties in her ear, "Megan," he points to ratty overalls girl "Reese, Killjoy, Stuart, Brodie, Amy and Jesse..." He continues to repeat names.

"Otherwise known as the Inner Ring," Lemay reports. "I'm the head."

"Head of foreign affairs," Packer interrupts, "if you want assistance on defense, she's as good as throwing a pillow at a gunman."

Lemay sighs. "Yes well I'm sorry to say it's true I prefer to see the good in people and see them as actual people instead of monsters coming to kill everyone for no apparent reason."

"People from other places who find theirselves here and are nice, unarmed, she's your girl. She'll get you where you need to go, tell you how to get there, decide how nice to treat you and how much to give you," Packer explains. "Suppose you're not so nice, carry a weapon, pose as a potential threat, I'm your guy. I'll make sure you're questioned real thoroughly and what we do with you, how many of your fingers you'll keep by the end of the night."

"Knock it off Packer," a tan boy with dark hair named Killjoy says, "accept that Lemay has a bigger gun than you and move on already."

Packer scowls, but Lemay shoots both of them a fierce look.

"Wait," I say, "you guys have guns?"

"Yeah," Killjoy raises his eyebrows at me, "your friend told us about Musket, so I'm sure you guys get as many roamers and poachers as we do, if not more. A lot of them are killed by the waves, and they're usually carrying supplies and weapons on them. It's my job to take what we can use and give the unknown a proper burial. That's my job, I'm the doe guy."