Chapter 246: The New Currency of the New World

Smoke still hung on the air around the dilapidated barn like it was trying to set the mood.

The last truck to have been burned made a weird popping noise as it cooled, the metal settling into a new shape that no one recognized. Dead bodies were scattered around like fallen leaves. Some of them had a zombie or two eating them, but there were almost more dead than undead at the end of the day.

Alexei watched his step, keeping an eyes on the zombie in front of him eating intestines like they were sausage links.

He came back inside the barn with what passed for prizes: a half-melted flare case, a notebook that looked like it had drowned, and a roll of tape that would be sticky until the next ice age.

He set them on the tarp Elias had already turned into a small altar of neat rows—magazines, shells, water, cord—then squatted across from the man they hadn’t burned yet.

If the man wasn’t organizing and reorganizing his supplies, then he wasn’t Elias.

When he finally made his way to where the rest of his family was, Alexei could feel some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

Sera was safe, the dead were becoming the undead, and the world had still ended.

Everything was just as it should have been.

He looked down at the prisoner, a scrawny man with weird goggles on his face and a bright red bandanna around his neck and cocked his head to the side.

"Name?" he grunted.

The man’s mouth opened and closed a few times like he wasn’t sure what the right answer was. "G—Gabriel. Gabe for short."

"Gabriel?" Lachlan asked, cheerful. "Do you smite?"

Gabe blinked at him like he’d misheard on purpose. "Just... Gabe."

"Fine," Alexei sighed, crouching down beside the man. "Gabe it is. Here is how this goes. You tell true, you get to die fast. You tell lies, then I get one of those zombies over here to make you a bit more honest."

He rested his forearms on his thighs, his posture relaxed, and his voice friendly enough to make the words worse. "Where are we."

Gabe swallowed. His throat bobbed under the red and white triangle of cloth. "County line, maybe two past it. North of the big river. West of the tower town. The... the red towers. We don’t use their name. Brings company."

"Vague," Alexei sneered, looking up over his shoulder at Zubair. "And completely unhelpful." He turned his attention back to the prisoner, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Define the edges of your little world so we do not color outside them."

Gabe’s eyes flicked to Sera, then away. "Grain elevators south. A refinery that died before the sky did. Old plant east, the one with the blue pipes... the cartel runs that... you don’t want to go near it. The bridges on the big road are also theirs. Rail bed is ours until the quarry. After that, the mud eats it."

"Much better," Alexei purred. "The Cartel. Do you call them that or do they?"

Gabe hesitated. A twisted smile appeared on Alexei’s face as he let out a piercing whistle that cause the zombies to look up from their meal.

The man’s breath shortened.

"Sometimes we call them the Family," he said. "Sometimes the Outfit. But... cartel, yeah. Everyone knows what that means."

"Arms, fuel, teeth," Elias put in, almost to himself. "Tax as protection. Theft framed as law. Really it’s a tale as old as time."

Gabe nodded too fast. "We pay, they don’t burn us. We don’t pay, they take—" He caught the word and tried to cage it.

"What," Alexei prompted.

"People," Gabe whispered.

Lachlan’s grin lost a tooth of shine. He said nothing. The machete kept drawing circles.

"Your crew tonight," Alexei went on, as if he wasn’t actually talking about people that had been taken, "came with cages. Clever trick, if you want teeth to go the other direction when you say so. Who taught it to you." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Gabe’s gaze ticked to the yard and back and to the very zombies that Alexei was talking about. "Men from the blue pipes plant. They drilled us. How to weld the doors so they fail when you hit them right. How to move with the trucks so the herd doesn’t turn on the driver. How to throw meat when they hesitate."

"Stupid zombies like meat," Lachlan agreed. "File that under shocking revelations."

"We were going to run them at you," Gabe continued, his voice thinning. "Let ’em go wild. In the confusion we grab the girl."

He meant Sera. He didn’t look at her when he said it. That was his smartest choice of the day. Maybe even his entire life.

Alexei let the silence sit. "Why."

Gabe took a shaky breath.

He had the look of a man who didn’t know what answer to give that would keep him alive.

"Women don’t live long out here," he started, staring at the floor. "Not unless they’re... attached to someone who can hold onto them. We bring one in, the boss’s stock goes up. More men stay. More men work. Better trades with the Cartel. He... he looks strong. Folks stop asking if they ought to take his place."

"Currency," Elias said, neutral. "Females are currency."

"Better than ammo," Gabe blurted, like he wanted them to understand the math. "Ammo runs out. This... this keeps the engine turning. Men will do anything for a fuck."

The crude words that came out of Gabe’s mouth caused Sera’s head to cock to the side. It was clear that he wasn’t comfortable with the word ’fuck’, but he had heard it enough times to just repeat it.

Zubair’s heat edged red. Alexei didn’t bother to look back at him. He didn’t need to. Zubair was a wall very good at pretending to be a man until someone touched his reverse scale.

"Your boss’s name," Alexei said, still friendly.

Gabe licked his lips. "Cain ran the trucks." He flicked a glance toward the field where the truck Cain had once stood on now lay in the posture of a dead beetle. "Anson sends orders. He talks to the Family. We don’t see him much."

"Blue pipes plant," Alexei said. "Describe it."

"Big skeleton," Gabe said. "Big fence. Dogs and zombie dogs. Watch posts with flags on the hour. They carve their sign on the trees—two lines and a circle. Means stop or bleed. They don’t keep... stock long." His voice failed again on the word stretched too far.

Alexei watched his face while he said it.

Gabe knew that place. He had seen the inside. The combination of fear and practice took a certain shape...people who had learned to frame horror as weather because, like rain, it didn’t ask their permission.

"You are very cooperative," Alexei said softly. "I approve. It saves us time." He tipped his head in approval.