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Firsch County Wayside Number Two, the Kentucky-Tennessee border, February of the Fifty-sixth year of the Kurian Order: the recent violent winter, the worst in livingthatwarms the sky; rather, it is a quiet between-season pause, like the lassitude between the break in a life-threatening fever and recovery
One winter can do only so lected county highways, with only one route showing even sons of maintenance-the northbound stretch has been reduced to little more than a horse track-the Wayside squats behind a lattice of young fir It ht be a monument to entropy
It is an enclave that could best be described as lu used to be a gas station and convenience store, still identifiable by a few chipped logos as a BP for connoisseurs of pre-22 corporate branding It stands out from the others in that all the verticals and horizontals are square The other structures lean as though tired: relocated sheds, prefabricated housing, a fire-gutted strip whose gap-toothed storefronts serve as an ie and junkyard A double layer of barbed-wire fencing, no two posts standing quite the sa pines Thethe dropped needles between the layers of wire
Farther off, crowds of trees and brush and brown kudzu envelop what had once been a little two-street town of houses and a barn or two
Everything in the Wayside, fro brick and trailer hoht shade of orange, now faded and dirtied into a rotting puh it would be improved by a return of the short-lived snow You wouldn&039;t see the e ed into and inviting, snowy hill The dog litter couldn&039;t be seen-or s the bricks of the gutted strip
For all its forlorn appearance, the gas pu lot in front ticked with vehicular life
One pair of vehicles stand out A shining new red cohted roll bar and stu how precise one&039;s definitions-and the bulldog shape of a heavier, ten-wheeled arap in the wire A tall,blackinside The uniformed men in the armored car are more casually disposed as they wait They blow s the dashboard as a table The pitiful collection of rust buckets, on nearer the Wayside&039;s main entrance look like sheep penned by a pair of wolves
A brown truck slows as it approaches, but the bearded driver, getting a glio on the doors of both vehicles-huge on the armored car, discreet on the red co His worn tires kick up a shower of grit as he changes up after er for the horizon
If there&039;s one thing I hate, John Macon thought to hi
The trick, of course, was not to let on to the groceries that they were being selected He had driven ahead, alone in his not-quite-unmarked Pooter, so the flotsam at Wayside Nuht of the heavier ar the Reapers Once he established there were suitable pickings at the Wayside-a quick glance through the door&039;s glass confirmed a collection of warh for Tennessee to miss-he&039;d called up the Transporter
He strode into the dining roouard hoalk authoritatively: chin up, shoulders back, a little extra strike on the bootheel He glanced across the counter and the booths Six hanging fluorescent fixtures containing three bulbs, two of which still ht, illuminated the sparse condiments and a desiccated piece of pie on the counter and a cash register with draide open revealing only a few bills, coins, and rows of loose cigarettes, as if advertising the poor pickings a holdup would bring
The reht of afternoon outside What had once been enorlass ere filled with old sheets of alu blinds They alternately locked and rattled in the spring wind, at least the ones that didn&039;t have old rags stuffed into the gaps to stave off chilly drafts
The linoleuarette burns in it one ht mistake the marks for a pattern
Macon could have described the decor on the walls without even walking in the door: the owner&039;s business license and good conduct certificates, a tin sign proclai OneSource Foods, a glass old Beer&039;s fa basket, and the inevitable Royal Pep Cola sign Probably enerous supply of the fae with flavored syrups-proht hours of mental alertness to an end to anxiety to a weekend&039;s worth of hard-ons-with the establishment&039;s name printed on the side
He didn&039;t know if the English still drank their tea or the French their chaia Control guzzled Royal Pep Cola from dawn to dusk, with the "thousand and then some" flavor variations the Royal Pep Cola cos and nine additives
As wily oer, Macon calculated each purchase on a cost-versus-benefit analysis He didn&039;t enjoy this part of the job at all-though there orse duties His least favorite were his rare ventures into the dripping confines of the boss&039;s home carbuncle-but if one wanted to rise in the Control one did the Unpleasant, for no other reason than to avoid the More Unpleasant that was the lot of the groceries
He exchanged a glance with the angular young tough behind the counter Muscles bulged under as once a white T-shirt, tattooing on his right hand indicated he&039;d done a prison terave him a friendly nod
"Water, and aa seat at the end of the counter where he could scan the roohtly green-the water, not the plastic-no ice
"There&039;s theto a painted and repainted stretch of wall over the kitchen
If you want to rise, do the difficult, his uard used to say The old pederast had his faults, but he&039;d built a comfortable, and damn near inviolable, niche in the Control
Unlike the rest of the Advancing World, the Georgia Control had huroceries Not just the usual disposal of the inconvenient and abrasive by the top dogs in the hierarchy Not soued to the Kurians that hu out weakness, wrongdoing, and rebellion The Kurians weren&039;t particular As long as the vital aura of culled humans flowed, and the rest of the population re, they were inclined to let their huures into spreadsheets deter who contributed to society and who ended up a net loss at the bottoave the hue There were even rumors that a Kurian or tho&039;d been problematic in its demands had been removed thanks to subtle hints and pressure from the Directors
Outside the well-patrolled borders of the Georgia Control-an area a good deal larger than the old state, and growing, its Directors were proud to report-you didn&039;t have neat little lists and the quiet nightly pickup squads One had to use judgement, and Macon had observed only a few excursions and the requisite grocery-selecting
So fodder for the Kurians Feanted the job, and usually the ones anted it sought the authority for all the wrong reasons What sort of diseased character would want to do such a thing? Macon thought of hi the systeobble up pathogens, the rest of the bloodstream was the better for it A white blood cell that acted out of erandizement, or plain cruelty would do har where his eldest sister was helping their father run reatest city as heir-apparent urban director, he&039;d have to make his oay and rise on his ownsons in the old aristocracies
So when a new group of Kurians sent out word that they were seeking seed-staff for expansion into Kentucky, he volunteered for the position of "Ghoul Wrangler" as the less-ambitious liked to style it His actual title in the Control&039;s orgbasewith only a single phrasing period-if he rose to the vice-director level they&039;d start using coant touch for those at that exalted level Of course, there was that dreadful word "unincorporated" and the orgbase inactive rolls were filled with listings of aaions
Unincorporated or no, he received a Personal Utility Transport with only 24 kils on the odometer, no visible bullet holes, and a new field-brown paint job with his name stenciled under the Pooter&039;s driver&039;s side /firing slot
His blue-black Model 18 subift from some connection of his father at the Atlanta Gunworks, rode across his chest like a clinging bat The counter an enemy&039;s waterskin
He reached into a pocket of his heavy, lined-leather driving coat, and extracted a pair of antacid pepper He popped the button-sized tablets into his mouth and crunched them down They tasted like pepper that he&039;d sed hot coals Picking out groceries always gave hiut, his duties would suffer Never erous
The Wayside had about what you&039;d expect so close to Kentucky These backwoods Tennessee roads attracted the shady and the skeevy Well away fro World, but not quite in the liworarettes in your pocket
Macon remembered the interviehen he&039;d been taken on by his Kurian Chizzb or Tschezb or soue was its name, but his small huht him into an old security warehouse at Atlanta&039;s barely functioning airport, perhaps the ia outside of the Kurian City Center don The lower level still served its purpose of te froia Control by air The upper level, accessible only by five flights of iant honeycomb of ochre papier-mache
A Reaper, two ed smile when he offered his ID and showed the courier-delivered summons
Prince Green looked like a cow&039;s liver with an ureasy h whether this was respiration or circulation he didn&039;t know He&039;d never seen one uncloaked, so to speak-usually when a Kurian interacted with men they went out and about under heavy capes, faces hidden behind helive the illusion of feet beneath the cloak He&039;d been told that when they first showed up in 2022, in the wake of planetwide earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, they&039;d appeared as ethereal, glowing, half-angelic aliens with all the beautiful poise of a cut flower Fro words of comfort to a stricken world may have just as well been set to music
You will excuse the informality, a decidedly non point between his ears
Sure as shootin&039; I will, Macon had thought back, sinking into the spongy floor He felt sodirection if he&039;d sink and leave nothing but his Youth Vanguard Leader cap floating on the living floor
This is true: I will not presentto huue continued Preparations for the move into Kentucky have left me exhausted Perhaps it is just as well I see no point in trusting a
"I&039;d rather see things as they are," Macon said, trying to fill his brain hite noise You could bullshit a Youth Vanguard Leader when he caught you with vodka in your shampoo bottle, but Prince Green had the ability to poke around in his brain
One old hand, the Atlanta-based director who&039;d sponsored hi you could do when facing a Kurian was try to reive in to whatever e human emotions confused them, and a few caused them to flee your head like a cat off a hot stove
Macon didn&039;t want to screw up his first real opportunity, so he ith serene competence It had served him ith the Reapers, and weren&039;t they just extensions of the Kurians?
This is good: I will dispense with the aphoris into Kentucky shortly Our foolish cousins north of the Ohio River have thoroughly, what is your colorful expression, shit in their own front yard They turned a minor incursion by the resistance into a full-scale rebellion thanks to the use of a heavy hand where a light stinging slap was required, then released a half-developed and virtually untested virus They&039;ve killed half the population and made resolute enemies of the other half We have an opportunity to pick up the pieces so carelessly broken, if we move quickly but carefully There are to be three new Control Districts I will have the westernmost, and you will be on my staff, if you so accept
Macon needed to think Were they really ainst their rivals north of the Ohio? They were greedy when it ca new populations and their huaia Control was powerful, easily the most powerful south of the old Mason-Dixon Line and east of the Mississippi, but for all that they had only a sainst a rebellion from the more numerous police and paramilitary reserve forces and was overstretched
This is interesting: You&039;re wondering if we have enough trustworthy forces to operate in three entire new Control Districts We do not But we have enough to do a thorough job of taking over one, as we did in Alabama and Florida in the days of your fathers For the others, mercenaries, police, and a certain amount of terror will allow us to maintain our position until control is consolidated
"There are guerillas in Kentucky, I&039;ve heard," Macon said He&039;d heard a lot of talk of one beleaguered Southern Command battalion Evidently anyone could join up under a false naave you a new identity, basically He&039;d heard sos that if this or that didn&039;t work out, the person in question would run off and join the rebels
This is true: the legworm ranchers have asseades, a smaller force from the hillbilly rabble across the Mississippi They&039;re in our region, camped on the Ohio near Evansville Your brethren on the Arerous force as they are armed and numerous and know the land I am not convinced Nor is Director Solon, who has some experience across the Mississippi We must move as soon as weather allows Once rind them down So: Your first task will be to convey so in Kentucky Speak not, I already know your answer is yes
Prince Green shifted his weight on his perch The goop around his ankles relaxed its grip
Go, and ill speak again when I join my avatars in Kentucky
"Thank you for the opportunity,their new relationship
Prince Green showed no sign of having heard hi Perhaps he was ani the orders to his chief of staff
Macon left the oversized hornet&039;s nest of the hangar roof, feeling rather like a fly walking out of a spider&039;s web
"Looks like we have us a new ghoul-wrangler," one of Prince Green&039;s human security staff said
They took him out for a celebratory ain for years," Director Solon, Prince Green&039;s chief of staff, predicted
They plied hi promises, in thatbeef and cigars When Kentucky was properly incorporated into the Control, there&039;d be plenty of new Director positions
Which led his and paperwork bookended by the usual indoctrination lectures from the churchmen about what tests he&039;d encounter in his new duties a the unincorporated, to Wayside Nuuard of Reapers needed feeding The Reapers lived off the blood of its victient, es possessed
They&039;d offered his his father taught him was that you always needed at least one person near you at all tiets deposited if you&039;re still breathing" He hired Casp frouards there the way the old Roladiators He&039;d added a little extra insurance by careful selection Casp o meters of solid ave the company name a black eye, the others would suffer
Macon judged the souls in the Wayside, and found all of the in some manner or other
Three He&039;d have to take three
Macon felt sorry for theht have been, had they not made a few bad decisions Failure to join one of the youth anizations and the educational system took many down a dead end Resentment over a relative caused a lot of bad blood People put so ical happenstance
Like that heavy driver in the corner, with his patty melt A vanabon-Macon could tell from patches all over his mesh vest Each patch represented a key business he carried for He probably wandered northern Tennessee, doing everything fro letters and parcels and subscriptions, to er or two discreetly a the boxes
Macon wouldn&039;t take hi his food to make a hasty exit before Macon asked to look over the contents of his van Fattable was a possibility He , weathered, still with beautiful long hair, she wore a dress of nicehis cup, he walked up to her table and she offered a welco smile Her portable table was covered with spices, lass vials, even a couple of beautifully restored plastic dolls She evidentlysundries to the road traffic, so home as a surprise to the wife
"Are the candles scented?" Macon asked
"Scented and unscented Cinnamon is my most popular I have beeswax as well, you can melt the stumps down and mix in a little linseed oil and use it as furniture polish Not cheap wicks, either, they&039;re braided"
She was a little pushy Macon warers and have her lifted out of existence Just stick so under my nose, babe, and you&039;ll never see another cinnamonscented moonrise
The washroom door opened, and a youth with calf muscles like horse hooves exited Still spotty, maybe seventeen or so His distinctive black-and-white striped shirt had a na in one of the white stripes read ENCOMPASS in red letters
Encompass was one of the New Universal Church&039;s principal periodicals for the lossy cover and sood graces of their local clergy would be able to discuss the month&039;s lead article and lead editorial The rest of it, printed on thin, soft, not very absorbent paper that aled to be used for sanitary purposes, made a decent sedative Sinecured editorialists droned on and on about obscure reclarifications of a previous perceived error in Church doctrine, which, if you thought about it correctly, wasn&039;t really so much of a mistake as it was an example of poor word choice At the back you usually had a useful how-to or two on how to get the most vitamin value out of sixteen hundred calories or the quickest method to check your kids for lice before and after school
Volunteers like this kid, now turning bright red for some reason as he checked his fly, sold subscriptions and delivered it Each issue also contained a bonus offer for some household item of dubious quality the kids had to atte the stock ever arrived
Tough job Lots of miles, no pay, and plenty of headaches thanks to the summer heat
A wo the two re buttons on her blouse She looked like a cowboy biker, all overcoat, chain belt, and tight jeans Smeared lipstick and short red hair, possibly dyed Haunted, hunted eyes No wonder the kid turned red, she was so skinny he suspected she ender, the whore looked like she&039;d been on short coave the kid a five-buck handjob while he felt her tits
She clutched a rolled up copy of Enco hands
Good job, kid Never miss a chance to sell a loose copy
Well, this whore had turned her last trick He was half te What kind of establish? Macon wondered what his cut was
"Don&039;t leave just yet," Macon told the kid, hurrying for the door and his bike
"Th-th-th-that&039;s t-t-t-three for you t-t-t-today, Red," a greasy-haired Indian at the counter ed
The scarred-up Indian s ray in the otherwise shiny black hair
The stuttering Indian must have had it in for the whore Maybe he couldn&039;t scrape together even the chun reading SHE&039;S A WHORE! TAKE HER, NOT ME
Not quite as lean as the whore, well-woria but more common up here-and polyester felt insulated vest He&039;d picked up some utility worker&039;s canvas trousers, probably at a resale store One of those haworht with the haht hook to it, like apick They buried that end in the skin of their mounts to pull theht be a deserter fro across Kentucky He put one of the scented candles under his nose, turned, and took a good look at the Indian&039;s boots
He wore moccasins Sort of They looked like they had soles made out of old truck tires, fixed with thick sandal straps
No self-respecting aruerillas had better footgear
The Indian glanced at Macon ary brown eyes "M- a really weak hand, Macon thought He spoke into his radio, ordered the Transporter to pull up and Casp to cover the door
"Nobody leaves without my say-so," Macon said, when Casp&039;s bulk filled the front door frame
The Indian looked scared Macon wondered if he&039;d do so stupid with the hammer pick, if push came to shove
Everyone whispered about the Reapers, the suicides, the Resistance, and the rebels, buttemporized and rationalized until the last few seconds, when death stared them in the face and effective resistance was i toward harvesting, they just wouldn&039;t see it
Better give them a rationalization
"I&039;m here to do a labor draft," he said, slowly and clearly Soh they&039;d learned it fro "You&039;re all recruited Easy work for one day, fifty Control dollars plus a week&039;s ration draw"
"Easy how, boss?" the redhead asked She had an odd twang to her speech, but she kne to address Control authority
Macon sn with an arrow on it and make sure the arroays points the way I tell you We have a convoy heading up into Kentucky, our one There will be military police at the major stops and intersections, but there are still a few turns around downed bridges and whatnot that I need ed"