Dean nods. “Do it.”
“Bowie,” calls Nash. “Come on out now. Take it nice and slow.”
And from out of some bushes back down the road appears said child. He’s ten or so. Around the same age as Hazel. His skin is white and his hair dark, and his eyes are as wide as can be.
“Bowie?” I ask with a smile. “That’s your name?”
He nods like his head has come loose. His gaze goes to the bodies on the ground, and his face turns even whiter, if possible. “You killed Cody.”
“Cody was an asshole,” says Nash.
“Yeah,” says the boy in little more than a whisper. “But Porter’s going to be pissed.”
“We’re not going back to Porter, buddy.”
“We’re not?” he asks, and he sounds hopeful.
Charlie reaches us first, wearing pajama pants, in bare feet, carrying a pistol. His hair is sticking out in every direction. Just truly impressive bed hair. But the last thing we need is someone getting spooked and starting shooting. There’s been enough death already this morning.
“It’s okay,” I say. “We’re okay.”
Dean’s dark brows are drawn tight together. He is seriously unhappy. And he’s still pointing his gun at Nash when he says, “Talk fast.”
“Can we expect more visitors?” asks Leon.
We’re gathered in the dining room of the bed-and-breakfast. It made sense to be inside, out of view. The three children are having breakfast with Charlie and Avan in the kitchen. But the rest of us are gathered to hear what this stranger has to say. He’s seated in the corner with all eyes on him. Dean checked to make sure he wasn’t hiding any other weapons. However, tensions are still sky high.
“No,” says Nash. “I followed you from the home store yesterday. It wasn’t easy. Lost you a time or two, but by then I had the general direction figured out. Cody didn’t even tell Porter exactly where you were. The drugs he was taking made him paranoid as fuck. And he wanted all of the glory for bringing women back to the camp.”
“You were with those people,” says Reema. “Why should we trust anything you say?”
Nash’s mouth is set in a serious line. “Let me explain. I saw them last week when I was grabbing a few things in Sonoma. This pack of assholes emptying a grocery store. It would have been easy enough to avoid them. But then I saw Bowie and got a bad feeling. One of them started pushing him around and slapping him and…there were too many of them for me to safely get him out of there. But I couldn’t just leave him with them.”
“That speaks well of you,” says Natalia.
“Thank you, ma’am,” says Nash, subdued for some reason. Guess he doesn’t take praise well. “I followed them back to their camp. There were about thirty of them, and—”
“Thirty?” I ask in surprise.
“Yeah. Porter got active on the radio and putting up signs early on, asking people to join him. Most were just happy to find other survivors and some sort of organization after all the chaos. But from what I heard, about half made a run for it when they realized what he wasreallylike. How things were going to be. Anyone with a woman to protect got them the hell out of there. He’d tightened up security with people loyal to him by the time I joined. Slipping out or moving around at night was more difficult.”
“Where is he based?” asks Dean.
“He took over a winery outside of Sonoma. Stocked up on weapons, food, and pharmaceuticals.”
“If he’s down in Sonoma, why in the hell does he care about a hardware depot an hour north?” Leon shakes his head. “No wonder he doesn’t have permanent security on these places he’s claimed if they’re so spread out.”
“Anything people are going to need to survive, he wants,” says Nash. “Plus, they work as bait. His men also check the hardware warehouse to the south of them, and any grocery stores betweenthe two that they haven’t yet managed to remove all of the stock from. Guess he thinks they’re bound to come across some people they can bring back to camp.”
Natalia clicks her tongue. “Greed and power. The world ends and still everything stays the same.”
Leon gives her hand a comforting squeeze.
“You must have felt strongly about the child to have joined them,” says Reema.
“I remember what it’s like being that size, ma’am. Too small to fight back.” Nash clears his throat. “I was a bounty hunter for a while. Porter wanted my skills, but I was new, so he didn’t trust me. First opportunity I had to get Bowie out safely was when Cody told Porter we had a lead on this place. I talked Cody into thinking this would be a good chance to show the kid how things are done.”
Dean stares at the man in thought for a minute. “You want to stay here with Bowie?”
