To Be A Warrior

Chapter 3: Mr. Brightside

"Okay. Jody, Callista, Nicole, Janine's evacuating the peace conference," Sam reports, and I give a small sigh of relief. "The Last Riders that were waiting with their Molotov cocktail arrows took off in their big rig after you blew the World's End barrier. How's it at your end?"

"The water's gone down a bit, but we're still marooned," Jody replies. "We turned Chelsea into a lake, and we're all stuck on a concrete pillar in the middle of it."

"Yeah, I can see you on the cams. Uh, well, you could maybe try swimming?"

I stay sitting down with my knees tucked close to my chest, peering over to look at my reflection in the murky water just a few feet below the pillar. "Uh, yeah, that might not be the best idea since there's most likely zoms in there. I'd rather not have us all dragged down into the dark water below by the undead, never to be seen again."

"I'm going to have to cut down your Peter time. You're starting to sound like him now."

I roll my eyes. "I'm just saying. I mean, I'd probably make it out. That's just my style, but I'd rather not put Jody or Nicole at risk. I... wait, do you hear that?"

We all pause, and I push myself up to stand as the sound of a boat engine carriers itself across the waters.

"Ahoy, Abel Runners!"

Nicole closes her eyes and breathes out slowly. "Should have known it would be him."

"Is that-is that Brent? In the speedboat from Moonraker?" Sam asks disbelievingly.

"Samuel!" Valmont says, a smile on his face as he gets closer to us. "Yes, it is. Sorry. I hope you don't mind me hopping on your coms channel. And talking of-Jody, Legs, Songbird, hop on board."

The three of us send each other curious looks, but comply.

Not like we really have any other choice.

"What are you doin' here?" Jody asks, and Valmont smiles again.

"Well, rescuing you. Also recruiting you for a mission that's conveniently en route. You might want to hang on to something. I haven't quite got the hang of driving this thing yet. Roger Moore made it look deceptively easy."

I sit down immediately, grabbing onto the underside of my seat. The last thing I want to end up falling off this boat and into the dirty-and probably cold-water below. Even though the weather is pretty warm right now, I get cold easily and then it takes forever to get warm again. Plus the possibility of being dragged down by a swimming zombie is very real, and I actually feel like drowning and not dying would be worse than drowning and actually dying.

"Wait, what mission?" Sam asks.

"One that concerns you, actually. I would have used A.N.N.I.E., only the old girl's not quite herself at the moment." He looks over his shoulder to us, his lips pressed into a thin line and one brow cocked. "You wouldn't have any clue what's up with her, would you?"

Sam hesitates, his voice catching in his throat, so Nicole speaks up.

"No. The last time Abel's dealt with your AI friend was when she tried to kill Singer and King Jaime and Milo in that geothermal well. So, if anything's changed since then, well, we certainly haven't heard anything."

Her face stays completely neutral, almost looking disinterested. Valmont sighs in disappointment.

"Oh well. I'll get to the bottom of it eventually. But in the meantime, I've tracked down some files that might be useful. I think they'll tell us what happened to some of the missing immune women, including your sister, Sam."