The Republic of Miracles

Chapter 1, in which Arnaud Riopel goes in search of a bunker

"Do you think they're going to shoot us?"

Sitting in the front passenger seat, Arnaud Riopel's client was not having a great time. About twenty meters in front of them, five guys armed with assault rifles had just blocked their way and were pointing their weapons in their direction. And Arnaud had to admit that the black hoods pulled up over their faces and the aggressive looks they threw in their direction were not reassuring. Despite everything, he smiled at his passenger.

"If they are at all intelligent, they won't shoot."

This seemed to calm her down. A little, but not that much. She really had to believe in her lucky star to feel like betting her life on the intellectual faculties of this bunch of idiots. However, in the "house raider" genre, Caitlin Lawless seemed capable of facing the worst dangers. This tall girl with an impressive build, her head topped with a mop of red hair framing a face with energetic features, gave off an impression of strength. An impression further accentuated by the two high-caliber pistols which hung from her belt.

In any case, she had no reason to worry since they were safe in the car. They had just left Quebec, heading north, in an old Tesla Special Forces, vintage 2060. These models were formerly manufactured especially for the police forces and had, among other characteristics, that of being able to withstand a rifle shot at point blank range. Which, in their situation, presented an undeniable advantage.

The security firm that employed Arnaud, Sécurpol, must have found it after the war in an abandoned Quebec Police garage. The car met all the requirements of a company that claimed to provide bodyguards to its customers "at the best price in town." Its new owners had it repainted in the company's colors and it now bore the slogan "At Sécurpol, your safety is our business!". But Arnaud himself would never have bet on that!

In 2121, everyone lived in the Upper Town. The Lower Town, which Arnaud and his client were now crossing, was nothing more than a vast unsanitary shanty town where, because of periodic floods, daily life proved untenable. Only a handful of hooligans and delinquents survived there, in rotten housing. And in fact, they had just come across a pack of these misfits, a gang of weirdos who had been waiting for their arrival, hiding between two ruined buildings.

One of them, in particular, stood in front of the car to block their way. It was not the first time that Arnaud found himself in this situation and he wondered what could possibly be going on in the head of the remnant of humanity he had in front of him. What crime was he hoping to commit today? A kidnapping? Burglary? Or just blow the face of poor strangers?

The guy pretended to shoot them, but a big muscular man who seemed to command the gang approached him and a heated discussion ensued. The leader was apparently trying to make his sidekick understand that it was not worth wasting their precious ammunition against the vehicle Arnaud was driving, onto which the bullets would ricochet, causing only trivial damage. After a moment, with their heads down, the pack returned to the sidewalk and gave way.

Arnaud started again at reduced speed and, having reached them, gave them a wink accompanied by a smile and the middle finger of his left hand raised casually towards the sky, attracting angry looks from the troop of corpses in reprieve. Leaving them behind, they went to join the Laurentian highway, the one which went north, towards the Surves country. For Arnaud, this little stroll in the countryside was going to be botched fairly smoothly, a simple round trip, in short. He moved cautiously, at a speed of forty kilometers per hour.

Near the town, the road was fairly clear, but the further you went, the more potholes and car wrecks littered it, making driving hazardous. The company responsible for maintaining and clearing the path of anything that interfered with traffic no longer saw much point in it and was satisfied with filling in the most important holes in the road. Only a narrow passage allowed movement between the wrecks scattered here and there on the road.