David Robbins - Twin Cities Run

“What do you mean?” Joshua asked.

“If the mutate bit Hickok,” Geronimo cracked, “the poor mutate would be the one to kick the bucket.”

“Very funny,” Hickok rejoined.

“Where’s your Henry?” Blade wanted to know, alluding to Hickok’s rifle, a Navy Arms Henry.

“Left it in the SEAL,” Hickok admitted sheepishly.

“Next time,” Blade advised him, “don’t go into the woods without it.”

Hickok twirled the Pythons and slid the Colts into their holsters. “These babies took care of it. I didn’t need the Henry.”

“What if it had been something larger?” Blade demanded.

“I can handle myself, pard.” Hickok smiled. “You know that.”

“I know.” Blade nodded. “I also know you’re overconfident, and one day that character flaw will get you into trouble.”

“Why don’t you head back to the SEAL?” Hickok said, changing the subject.

“Aren’t you coming?” Bertha asked.

“I’ve got something to do,” Hickok told her.

“Like what?” she questioned.

Hickok grabbed the tie string. “Three guesses.”

“Oh.” Bertha turned away.

“What about you guys?” Hickok glanced at Geronimo, Joshua, and Blade. “You planning to stay and watch?”

“No. thanks,” Geronimo declined. “We left our magnifying glass at the Home.”

Blade and Bertha laughed, and all four of them strolled off, heading for the transport.

Hickok rolled his blue eyes skyward. “Comedians!” he muttered. “The world is full of comedians!”

“Wow!” Bertha declared excitedly. “I just can’t believe I’m really here!”

Blade had braked the SEAL at the edge of the cleared field bordering the western wall of the Home, the wall containing the only means of entering and exiting the compound, a drawbridge.

“You better believe it, Black Beauty,” Hickok assured her. “This is our Home.”

Blade was driving, Geronimo sitting in the other bucket seat in the front of the SEAL. Hickok, Bertha, and Joshua were seated in the back seat. A large space in the rear of the vehicle was devoted to storing their provisions. At the moment, it was filled to the roof with the items they had confiscated from the Watchers in Thief River Falls.

“The Home is so big!” Bertha marveled. “It’s even bigger than I imagined it would be.”

“Our Home embraces thirty acres,” Joshua explained to her. “It’s completely enclosed within a twenty-foot-high brick wall. We keep the area outside the walls, about one hundred and fifty yards all around the Home, free of trees and brush and boulders, anything an enemy could utilize in an assault. Notice the top of the wall.” Joshua pointed with his right hand. “That’s barbed wire.” He sighed. “We certainly exemplify the concept of spiritual love, don’t we?”

“Give me a break, Josh!” Hickok responded. “If the Home wasn’t as well protected as it is, the Family wouldn’t have survived this long after the Big Blast.”

“I suppose you’re correct,” Joshua reluctantly agreed. “Anyway,” he continued, “we receive our water from a stream. It enters the property under the northwest corner of the wall, and flows out under the southeastern corner. By digging a trench along the inner base of the wall, the Family has constructed a moat, another line of defense in case of an attack.”

“What’s it like inside?” Bertha inquired as Blade drove toward the drawbridge, which was closed.

“The eastern half is devoted to agriculture and preserved in a natural state,” Joshua elaborated. “In the center are the cabins for the married couples, and the western section has our six main buildings, six concrete blocks arranged in a triangular fashion. You’ll see them in a moment.”

The drawbridge was being lowered as they approached.

“You dummies can’t know what a place like this means,” Bertha said in a low voice. “A place where a person can be safe, where no one is trying to kill you. It’s incredible!”

“After the experiences we had in Fox and Thief River Falls,” Blade stated over his right shoulder, “I think we have some idea of what you’re talking about.”

“It’s really that bad in the Twin Cities?” Hickok asked Bertha.

She looked at him and nodded. “You have no idea, White Meat. You have no idea.”

The drawbridge was fully extended, and Blade turned onto it and wheeled the SEAL into the Home.

“Look at all of them!” Bertha cried out.

The Family was gathered for their homecoming, having been appraised of their return by one of the Warrior guards on the wall.

Blade smiled when he spotted Jenny, his intended, and Plato, the Family Leader, standing side by side. Next to Plato stood his wife, Nadine.

“Lordy! They’re all starin’ at us!” Bertha slid closer to Hickok. “There must be sixty or seventy of them!”

The gunman chuckled. “Don’t worry, gorgeous. They won’t bite you!”

Blade stopped the green transport, the mammoth tires flinging dirt and dust into the air at his abrupt braking. He flung his door open and jumped down.

“Blade!” Jenny yelled, and then she was in his arms.

Blade embraced her, emotionally overwhelmed by his affection. He had come so close to buying the farm in Thief River Falls, and now he was holding her, touching her, and delighting in the sight of her blonde hair and blue eyes.

It all seemed too good to be true!

“You’re back!” Jenny declared. She squeezed him and felt him flinch.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, stepping back, searching his face. “You’ve been hurt!”

“Just a few scatches,” Blade told her. “It’s no big deal.”

Plato, his long gray hair and beard whipping in the gusty breeze, approached and took Blade’s right hand. “It is good to see you, but we didn’t expect you back so soon.”

“He’s been hurt,” Jenny said, her lovely face reflecting her anxiety.

“Actually,” Blade corrected her, “we’re all pretty beat up. Hickok and Bertha should see the Healers right away.”

“That’s why you’ve returned?” Plato inquired.

“Sorry,” Blade said. “I know you wanted us to get to the Twin Cities as fast as we could. We reached Thief River Falls and all hell broke loose.”

Plato’s stooped, frail frame turned toward C Block, the Family infirmary. “You can provide the essential details after the Healers have examined you. You…” He paused, eyeing Blade quizzically. “Did you say Bertha?”

Blade grinned and pointed.

“Well, I’ll be…” Plato began, at a loss for words.

“It’s a black woman!” Jenny exclaimed.

“Half and half,” Blade amended. “One of her parents was white.”

The Family was clustered about the SEAL, many trying to peer in the windows for a glimpse of Bertha. The SEAL’s bulletproof plastic body was tinted to prevent anyone outside from viewing the interior, but several members of the Family were able to see Bertha through the open door Blade had exited from.

Inside the transport, Bertha was clinging to Hickok. “Why are they all lookin’ at me like that? Tell them to cut it out!”

Hickok was grinning. “You can’t blame them. You’re the first black woman they’ve ever seen, and you’re pretty to boot.”

“I don’t like people staring at me,” Bertha snapped.

“The Family had a black couple in the early days after the war,” Geronimo informed her. He was still sitting in the front seat. Joshua was already outside, embracing his parents, Solomon and Ruth.

“Unfortunately, they perished before they could bear any children,” Geronimo continued. “Kurt Carpenter, the man responsible for constructing the Home and picking the couples who joined him here right before the Big Blast, left a diary. In it, he says he tried to select people of different ethnic backgrounds. My own parents were Indian. They passed on when I was younger.”