Liberation (Remnants of Men)

Chapter 20: Where Angels Fear To Tread

   

    Canned foods, he hated canned foods. There was nothing better than chewing a roasted meat to the bones or devouring a bowl full of hot soup. But canned foods, they are cold and always reminded him that the world has turned to shit.

Runner shoved a spoonful of baked beans into his mouth. It wasn’t what he wanted, but beggars can’t be choosers. So, he forced them down his throat and swallowed a mouthful of water. He was a slum dweller. He knew it did not matter how bad a food might taste, as long as it has crossed down to the stomach, which was all that mattered…a full stomach.

Legion had led him into a tunnel below the university. A terrible air lingered down there, stale, but innocuous.  As he sat on the floor, scrapping for more beans he apparently hated, the grim faces of weary watchmen lingered before him.

Legion had told him that the men served as watchers to Last House on the Left. All day long and terrible nights, they manned their outposts, eyes keen on mutants who strayed towards their home. Their fingers were always on triggers, ready to repel those they considered unclean. But mutants were not the only problem down there.

Runner threw away the empty can and raised his gaze to the sound of light footsteps ahead. Legion was coming in the company of a woman and a man. She seemed to have let go of her black cloak and instead wore a white vest and black leather pants that revealed her shapely figure.  Her dirty blonde hair was set loose to scatter at her back and her eyelashes seemed like they were thickly darkened by eye pencils or that was her natural look, he could not tell.

“Come on,” she said, stretching an arm towards him, “the Mayor wants to see you.”

Runner grabbed her arm and she helped him up.

“Mayor?” Runner said as they walked, “what happened, Legion? You had a mission to complete. Where is Slim Jim or your friend Big Eddy? Why are you with these people?”

“These people saved my life, okay,” Legion snarled.

Runner turned around to stand opposite to her and began to walk backwards. He stopped suddenly, boldly using his right arm to clutch around her torso and restricted her mobility.

“Tell me everything you know,” he whispered far from the ears of their escorts.

Legion felt reluctant and struggled to free herself from his grasp, but he would not let go.

“I know you are hurt by whatever happened, but I need to know,” Runner insisted.

She stopped and grew calm, her eyes wet with tears.

“After you left, we continued down the BrokenBridge and caught up with the others. They told us you were dead. Ishmael found us again, we fought, but most of us were injured and scattered. They caught Big Eddy. Slim Jim managed to escape but I don’t know where. I was only left alone because they thought I was dead. That bastard, Dope, saw them coming, but instead of warning us, he lied that he was going to fetch some woods for fire and he never came back.”

“How many were taken?” Runner asked.

Legion wiped tears from her eyes, “Only Eddy, he was fat, slow, but he was a nice young man and I promised him I would have his back. They sold him to Slavers heading for somewhere called NukeCity”

She paced about in unease. Runner grabbed her by the arm and she leaned upon him, settling her chin on his shoulder as she tried to tame her tears. He wrapped his arm around her and brushed her hair gently.

“We will find him, I promise you…we will find him,” he said softly.

Legion pulled herself away from his shoulder. She looked like a dreamer forced to snap into reality. “Just so you know, I don’t always cry like this. I reserve my tears for people of…”