Free Radio Hope (Toxic World Book 1) by Sean McLachlan Page B

They didn’t understand how the deal worked and it took some time to get it through their uncivilized heads.
    Marcus told Clyde to stay at the gate and went to meet them.
    “Where’s The Doctor?” the man with the broken nose asked.
    “I speak for The Doctor.”
    “I’ve heard that said,” the man nodded.
    “So what’s your business?” Marcus asked.
    The scavenger fixed him with a cold gaze.
    “We want to move inside.”
     
     

 
    CHAPTER NINE
     
    Jackson was yawning when they arrived at his shed. He’d made an early run to the village to make sure they had enough water to last them a while, and left his cart with Olivia. It wasn’t so they could use it themselves—none of the villagers ever strayed north of the hills—but he wasn’t about to leave his cart sitting around in the Burbs where it could get stolen.
    Annette came down the dirty lane armed to the teeth. Next to her walked some big guy he didn’t know and a smaller guy he recognized as one of Abe’s technological flunkies who worked as a DJ at the radio station. Great, a mouthpiece of the system. What was he coming along for? They must be scavenging for some piece of technology.
    All three carried identical army packs. The big guy had an AK-47, one of the later Chinese patterns, while the mouthpiece had an automatic pistol in a holster at his belt. Annette had a revolver, plus a shotgun and a rifle case slung to her back.
    “Well, at least they’re well prepared,” Jackson muttered.
    Jackson wasn’t. Besides a tattered gray overcoat, its pockets stuffed with scraps of food, and a small canvas bag containing a canteen, his cleaver, and a blanket, he had nothing.
    “Hey Jackson, this is Mitch Evans and Ha-Ram Lee,” Annette said as they stopped before him.
    “You the guy with the map?” Mitch asked, not trying to hide the fact that he was staring at Jackson’s brand. Ha-Ram was staring too.
    “Yeah, but don’t spread that around. Plenty of people in the Burbs who would slit my throat to get it.”
    Mitch grinned and said in a mocking voice, “Who’s to say I wouldn’t?”
    “Very impressive, tough guy, let’s go,” Jackson replied, turning his back on him.
    “Where’s your pack?” Annette said as they headed south from the Burbs.
    “I don’t have one. Where’s my gun?”
    “ He said no to that, and I barely got him to say yes to sponsoring your friend. I got your share of the food in my pack. How are you going to carry it?”
    “I’m not, you are,” Jackson said.
    He felt bad giving this woman attitude, since she was just an unwitting and probably unwilling lackey of the powers-that-be, but he had to establish dominance from the start. Mitch he couldn’t take, Annette he couldn’t outshoot (even if he had a gun), so he had to hold firm. He was the one with the topo, after all. Information was power. Abe knew that all too well with his radio station.
    Once they were ou t of sight of the last of the shacks, Jackson stopped and pulled out the map from where it was tucked under his shirt. Even though it was printed on government-issue durable cloth paper and well laminated, he handled it with care. He unfolded it and spread it on a flat rock, using small stones to keep the wind from catching the corners. Annette, Mitch, and Ha-Ram peered over his shoulder as he crouched over the map.
    For a moment he looked at all the old place names, now wiped out by the greed and shortsightedness of the ruling class. How many millions dead in this region alone? How many streams poisoned? How many forests burned? All to enrich the lucky few.
    And now he was working for them. Fuck.
    “Here’s New City Cove,” he said, pointing to a little arc next to a blue expanse on the map, “and here are the mountains running from north to south. There’s the North Pass and the South Pass. What Abe wants us to do is check out this other pass that most people in these parts don’t know about, which is all the way down here.”
    His finger jabbed