Fire in His Blood(4)

 

It's my dream to find one. Just one. Then I can get a real home for Amy, Sasha and me. Enough foodstuffs to not have to worry about where our next meal will come from. New clothes. A functioning laptop is like winning the lottery. I've found a few batteries in the Scavenge Lands before, but never one that would hold a charge. Batteries are almost as hot-if not hotter-than the laptops themselves. Any existing electronics, like guns, were confiscated by the New Militia in the shocked wake of the Rift, and people let them. Because they're banned and so rare, electronics are now the hottest things on the black market.

 

I should know; I was trying to sell a laptop battery to Tucker the Trader when I got busted.

 

"Claudia James, you know your crimes?" The mayor straightens a pair of ugly, thick glasses perching on his nose. He looks tired. There's soot on his clothing and a smear of it on his forehead. Not unusual; everyone's cleaning soot off of everything for days after a bad dragon attack … just in time for the dragons to come again. I'm probably grimy with a layer of it myself.

 

Do I know my crimes? Of course I do. I just don't think they're crimes. The question is, should I feign innocence or be forthright? I study the mayor's face, and he looks tired and annoyed. Innocence won't work, then. All right, I'll go with ballsy. "My crimes? I can take a wild stab at it if you want."

 

The mayor peers at his laptop, then frowns at me again. He closes it gently and picks up a yellowed dry-erase board. Man, I don't even warrant real paper? That sucks. "Claudia Jones," the mayor reads aloud. "Held by the New Militia for trespassing, theft, black-marketeering, and attempting to evade the law. How do you plead?"  

 

He's forgotten petty larceny, but I'll keep my mouth shut about that one for now. I give him a faint smile even though my heart's pounding in my chest. "Sounds about right, but I don't feel like it's fair to put someone in jail for stealing something from a place where no one lives anymore."

 

"You know the rules. Fort Dallas does not want people going beyond the barriers. It's not safe."

 

Yeah, I know it's not safe. It fills me with terror every time I go, and I jump at every shadow. But it has to be done, and it's either that or starve … or sell myself. So scavenging I go. "We needed to eat. I didn't have any money. So I took a chance."

 

The mayor sets the whiteboard down and rubs his tired eyes under his glasses. "You do realize, Claudia Jones, that Fort Dallas doesn't treat crimes the same as we did Before."

 

The 'Before' doesn't need explaining. I know what he means: before the dragons, before the Rift, before the endless fire and ash. Back in the good ol' days when life was normal and our biggest worry was who was going to win the latest singing competition on TV.

 

That was before the sky opened up, the hole ripped in the heavens, hell came to Earth and everything changed. That was before millions-no, billions had died and the survivors had to scramble to protect themselves from the furious beasts that now reign supreme from the skies above.

 

Yeah, I know all about Before. I nod.

 

"Then you know the penalty you are facing for your crimes is exile?"

 

I suck in a breath. My heart thunders in my breast and the world grows faint around me.

 

Exile. He might as well just say 'death.' It's the same thing.

 

If I'm exiled, I'll be tossed outside the metal barrier that makes Fort Dallas's protective wall-the barrier made entirely from old automobiles-and I'll be forced out on my own to survive. No friends. No safe places to go. I'd be out in the open, unprotected against nomad bands, predators … and dragons. I'll never see my sister or Sasha again.

 

I can't be exiled. What will happen to Amy? A vision of my sister whoring for the soldiers flashes through my mind, and I squeeze my eyes shut, wincing. Not Amy. She's still got innocence about her, and that deserves to be spared. She needs to be protected, and Sasha won't be able to do it on her own. "Please … I have people depending on me, sir."

 

"We all do," the mayor says sourly. "Which is why the rules must be enforced. If you cannot obey them, you have no place here in Fort Dallas with the law-abiding civilians of this town."

 

Law-abiding? Is he crazy? Fort Dallas is filled with scavengers of all kinds, whores, murderers, thieves-the only thing that makes us 'civilized' is that we're protected behind a wall and controlled by the murderers with the guns-the New Militia. Everyone cheats, lies and steals to put food on the table.

 

The only difference between me and everyone else? I was dumb enough to get caught. "It was just a laptop battery-"