Fiction: Afterlife Volume 3 (Chapter 3)

If you’ve never read Afterlife before, click here to go to the first chapter.

Afterlife is a sci fi/western action serial published every other week. Join us in a post-apocalyptic journey through a future where life has become little more than a struggle for survival. However, where there’s life, there’s always hope.

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Read the previous chapter here:

Afterlife, Volume 3, Chapter 2

Where:

Mavery and Big Ed have dinner with Alpha.
Ayman Ali meets up with the Wild Joe Rodeo Show.
Paul Jacobs learns what caused the end of the world.

Find the Volume 3 Table of Contents page here.

View the Map here.

Check out Afterlife on Goodreads and don’t forget to rate it.

 

Afterlife, Volume 3, Chapter 3

Big Bob the Giant and Jimmy Thumb, the dwarf, finished setting up the folding chairs as Belle the Beauty, the bearded lady, grilled the ribs.  The other performers from the Wild Joe Rodeo Show took their seats at the long plastic table they’d set up in the sand.  There were lamps all around the camp providing light.  Two were near the ends of the table.  Ayman Ali sat across from the Native American woman, whom he was strangely attracted to.  It was her big, exotic eyes and the way she’d put on her dark eyeshadow, adding to the air of mystery about her.  He smiled at her as they sat waiting for their food, but she looked away as soon as she noticed him looking at her.  She looked annoyed, so Ayman turned his attention to Wild Joe, who was sitting next to her.  “Belle makes the best ribs this side of the Rockies,” Wild Joe said, using another superlative.  Ayman was starting to realize that was just how he communicated.  “She seasons ‘em just right.  You’ll love ‘em.  Or do your people eat ribs?  I shoulda asked first, I guess.”  His voice was as big and exaggerated as the ten gallon hat on his head.

“We can eat beef ribs,” Ayman said.  “No pork.”

“Of course,” Wild Joe said.

Ayman noticed that Buckaroo Billy and Mary Cassidy were sitting next to one another.  They held hands and laughed, and Ayman realized they must have been a couple.  No wedding rings, though.  The giant sat next to Ayman on the right and the dwarf sat next to him on the left.  The giant had brown hair and a bushy brown moustache that looked especially huge under his big nose.  The dwarf had short blonde hair and was handsome in spite of his small stature.  The ancient Native American chief was sitting beside the giant, and strangely, he seemed to show little attention to his great granddaughter.  Ayman, on the other hand, couldn’t keep his eyes off her, though he tried to hide it since it was obvious that she was annoyed by him for some reason.  Belle finally finished cooking and she brought ribs to each person on paper plates with plenty of napkins.  She served Ayman first, but he waited until all of the other food was served before eating.  He also said a quick prayer before his first bite.  The ribs were delicious, as Joe had said.  They were meaty and smoky, tender, and seasoned just right with only a dry rub.  The bearded woman sat at the table beside Princess Floating Feather, a strange contrast to her beauty.  “These ribs are delicious,” Ayman said to Belle.  “Where did you learn to cook like this?”  He glanced at Princess Floating Feather, who glared at him for a split second and looked away.

“We’ve traveled a lot,” Belle said.  Her voice was as feminine as her appearance aside from the bushy beard.  Ayman had noted earlier that from behind she looked like a normal woman with her flowing brown locks, and she had a woman’s figure.  “I’ve taken the best parts of recipes from all over the southwest.  And thanks for the compliment.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Ayman said with a grin.  He looked at one of the trucks parked nearby and noticed the huge cave bear staring at him through the bars.  It seemed to be taking particular interest in the ribs Ayman was eating.

“It’s all right,” Mary Cassidy said with a chuckle.  “You’re perfectly safe.  Not only is Teddy behind solid atlantium bars, he’s tame as a poodle as long as I’m around.”

“Mary can talk to animals like they’re people,” Buckaroo Billy said with a thick southwestern accent.  He had the look of a man’s man, muscular with a square jaw.  “She can tame horses, lions, cave bears, you name it.”

“It’s a gift I’ve always had,” Mary said.  Her accent was also thick.  Golden curls fell down from her tan cowboy hat, going down past her shoulders.  She was pale, with blue eyes.  Ayman couldn’t help thinking she almost looked more like a doll than a real woman, especially with her heavy makeup.

“That’s quite interesting,” Ayman said, still nervous as the bear seemed to be glaring at him.  It was licking its chops.  Ayman reassured himself it was the ribs the bear wanted to eat.

“He’s harmless,” Jimmy Thumb said.

“He’s particularly fond of Jimmy, too,” Big Bob said in a deep, powerful voice.  “He loves that little fella.”

“Teddy don’t like Big Bob too much, though,” Buckaroo Billy said.

Big Bob laughed.  “Yeah, must be intimidated by my size or something.  Who knows?”

“Mr. Ali,” Wild Joe said, drawing the attention back to himself, “are you familiar with the many stories of my exploits in the uncharted territories of the deep west?”

“No, sir,” Ayman said.  “I can’t say that I am.”

“Here we go again,” Billy said.  “We all sure as hell are, Joe.”

“You only tell us every night at supper,” Mary said.

“Every night,” Chief Resting Crow agreed in a soft, raspy voice.  “And some of them are so long I’m afraid I’ll be dead before they are finished.”  His eyes seemed to be permanently squinting, almost to the point where they were closed.  Ayman thought he detected a slight accent in the Chief’s voice, though he couldn’t quite place it.  It must have been Native American.

“Well Ayman ain’t heard the stories yet,” Joe said.  “Ayman, have you ever heard of our show before tonight?”

“I can’t say that I have,” Ayman said.

“We’re only the most famous wild west show in Numurka,” Mary said.  “What have you been livin’ in a cave?  Where’ve you been the past twenty years?”

Ayman wasn’t about to say he’d been working with the Holy Warriors for the past two years, even if they had raided his village and forced him to join them at gunpoint.  “Traveling, here and there, much like all of you.”

“You’ve been travellin’ ‘round these parts and you ain’t never heard of the Wild Joe Rodeo Show?” Billy asked.

Ayman glanced at Princess Floating Feather, who was looking the other way again.  “I never have.  I’m sorry.”

“Well,” Wild Joe said with a grin, “you’re in for a real treat.  But let me start with relatin’ this story to ya.  It was thirty years ago, back before I was famous, and I was workin’ as a bodyguard in this region.  I knew the area like the back of my hand, and I escorted pretty young ladies who’d have otherwise been ridin’ alone, and we all know that ain’t somethin’ you wanna be doin’ if you’re a pretty young lady, not with all the bandits and such in these parts.”

Ayman nodded.  “Of course.”

“So this lady was particularly beautiful, one of the prettiest in Numurka, and I was escortin’ her to meet her fiancé in Tequila City, where they was to be married.  So I saw some bandits off in the distance and did everything I could to evade ‘em, but they ended up surroundin’ us.  They got us caught in a trap, down in a valley between dunes.  And there were five bandits to the right…”  He pointed up to one of the dunes next to where they were now dining.  “And five more to the left.  And there was two on sand bikes in front of us, and two behind us.  Fourteen all together.  So I stop my sand bike and start tryin’ to figure out how to get out of it.  The young lady was ridin’ next to me on a sand bike of ‘er own, so she stopped, too, and I could tell she was scared.  Now, I was armed to the teeth.  I had two laser pistols on my hips and two laser rifles strapped to my bike.  But I was in a bad situation, surrounded with ten of them havin’ the high ground.  I ain’t dumb, just like you ain’t.  You knew better than to try to fight us when we had the high ground.”

“That’s right,” Ayman said, nodding.

“So these bandits say they’ll let me go if I just give ‘em the girl and let ‘em have their way with ‘er.  A lesser man would have left ‘er there, but not Wild Joe Rodeo.  If there’s one thing I am, it’s honorable.”  Ayman noticed Princess Floating Feather put her hand up to her face like she was wiping her mouth, but she looked like she was trying to hide a snicker.  “So I says,” Wild Joe continued, “they can come down and try to get ‘er over my dead body.  Now they was all aimin’ their laser rifles at me.  I was pretty sure I was dead, but it’s better to be dead than to dishonor yourself by leavin’ a young woman to a group of bandits.  So I draw my two laser rifles and says they can come get some.”  He made a motion like he was pointing two laser rifles, one at each dune rising above the campsite.  “So they all fired at me, and I fired back at them.  There must have been at least four of them hit me right in the chest, but I was so fast, I killed all of ‘em.  The young lady was lookin’ at me, wonderin’ how I wasn’t dead with four laser holes in my chest.  So I opens up my vest and shows her my four inside pockets.”  He opened up the vest he was wearing and pointed to his four empty pockets inside.

“One had a tin of cigarettes, and it was smokin’ from the laser blast.  One had a flask of whiskey, and it was so shiny it deflected one of the blasts back, and that’s what killed one of the bandits, actually.  The third pocket had a gold key to the room in the whorehouse where I was a regular.  That was Loose Suzie Hooker’s room.”  He grinned.  “They used to say she could get a man to do anything she wanted just by winkin’ at ‘im.  She had the hots for me, though.  Anyways, the key was smokin’ just like the cigarette tin.  And the last pocket had a stack of playin’ cards with pictures of naked ladies on ‘em.”  He was having trouble holding in his laughter.  “All the cards was burnt through except the last one, and that woman had her legs spread wide open and you could see everything.  She saved my life that day.”  He started hooting and howling with laughter as the other travelers smiled and shook their heads.

“You ass,” Princess Floating Feather said in a breathy voice.  Those were the first words Ayman had heard her say.

Wild Joe calmed down his laughter.  “So I was saved by a tin of cigarettes, a flask of whiskey, a whorehouse key, and a deck of naked lady playin’ cards.”  He laughed some more.  “And that’s how the honorable Wild Joe Rodeo took out a group of fourteen bandits single-handedly.  One less and it would have been my unlucky number and who’s to say what would have happened.”

Ayman grinned and cleared his throat.  “Well that was impressive.”  He bit off a chunk of the delicious ribs and chewed.

“Oh, he’s got way more where that came from,” Mary said with a grin.

“Wild Joe tells the most entertainin’ stories,” Jimmy Thumb said.  “Some of ‘em are more fit for the ears of respectable people, though.”

“Who are you kiddin’, Jimmy?” Wild Joe asked him.  “Ain’t no respectable people at this table.  Except maybe you, Ayman.  I don’t know you well enough to know if you’re respectable or not.  Sorry if my story offended you.”

“Not at all,” Ayman said with a grin, lying somewhat.  “I enjoyed it.”

“See, Joe,” Billy said.  “He ain’t respectable.  He’s a liar.”

“Why, you,” Joe shook a fist playfully at Billy.

“I’d like to travel with you all,” Ayman said, changing the subject, “if it’s all right with you, of course.  I’ve lost my last group of traveling companions.  They were murdered.  This area is dangerous.  It’s better to travel in groups.”  He knew if the Holy Warriors ever found him, they would torture him and behead him as a traitor and an apostate.

“They was murdered?” Joe asked.  “How do we know you didn’t kill ‘em in their sleep?”

“I didn’t,” Ayman said.  “Enforcers killed them.  They were with the resistance.”  It was a gamble.  Ayman wasn’t sure where Joe’s loyalties lied when it came to Rennock and the resistance.

“Well we ain’t no friends of Herman Rennock,” Mary said.

“Where are you headin’?” Joe asked.

“North,” Ayman said.  “I’m not sure yet.  Over the border for now.  We’ll see from there.”

Joe looked at him like he was coming up with some sort of plan.  It made Ayman feel a little uncomfortable.  “Sure,” he said.  “You can travel with us.”

Ayman was going to keep a close eye on them all.  He didn’t fully trust them, especially Joe, but he knew they could have killed him and taken his stuff if they’d wanted to.  “That’s great, then.”  He smiled.

“I’d question why you brought up joinin’ us after hearing Joe’s awful story, though,” Belle said.  Several of the others laughed.

They talked for a while longer and Joe passed around some whiskey.  Ayman didn’t drink, so he respectfully declined the offer.  Joe looked at him like he was a space alien, but nobody said anything in protest.  When they were done eating and drinking, everyone retired to their tents.  Ayman had trouble getting Princess Floating Feather out of his head as he rested in his sleeping bag, and between that and the noisy shouts and moans coming from the tent Billy and Mary shared, sleep didn’t come easy for him.  He eventually was able to drift off, though, and when he did, he slept well.

<>

“So where are we heading?” General Rodriguez asked Foxtrot, who was driving the sand bike.

“I don’t know!” Foxtrot shouted to be heard over the engine.  “Drummond?  Iron Town?  Rose City?”  He stopped the bike on a high dune and shut off the engine.  The moon and the stars lit up the sky over the desert.  “This seems like a nice place to camp.  You can see for miles up here.”

The two men jumped down off the sand bike.  General Rodriguez was wearing baggy black pants and a baggy black shirt.  The entire outfit was covered with big yellow polka dots.  He looked almost as ridiculous as he had when he’d been naked.  “It is a good spot,” the general said.  “I’ll let you sleep first.  I’ll keep watch, since you’ve been driving.  You need your rest.”

“Well, let’s figure out what we’re doing first,” Foxtrot said.  He was wearing more normal-looking clothes: jeans and a red t-shirt.  They’d found a broken-down circus truck that had apparently been attacked by bandits.  All of the people were dead, but after Javy shot a hungry lion with his laser pistol, Foxtrot found some clothes and costumes.  Unfortunately, the only costume that fit Javy was what he was wearing now, which had most likely belonged to a clown.  Foxtrot changed out of his uniform in an attempt to look less conspicuous, though the tan and white camouflaged sand bike still screamed of the military.

Javy unrolled a sleeping bag they’d also found in the truck, and he motioned towards it.  “Go ahead.  Get some rest.  I’ll keep us safe.”

Foxtrot nodded and sat down on the sleeping bag.  He took his glasses off, folded them, and put them in his shirt pocket.  “We should maybe do some research.  Try to figure out which towns have been hit by the IAO and which haven’t.  Maybe see if we can locate any remaining pockets of resistance.”  After leaving the camp where the IAO coup had occurred, they headed towards Vulture’s Pass.  From a distance, they observed that IAO soldiers were also attacking General Schmidt’s army, so the IAO definitely wasn’t working with Rennock.  From there, they headed west, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the IAO forces as they could, sticking to mountains, foothills, and badlands as much as possible to try to evade possible attackers.

“And how do you propose we do research?” Javy asked.

“Go around to nearby towns,” Foxtrot said.  “Observe and ask people questions.”

“We still need to be inconspicuous,” Javy said.

Foxtrot nodded.  “We can be inconspicuous.”

Javy looked down at his ridiculous polka dot costume.  “Maybe you can be inconspicuous.  Look at me, though.  Who ever heard of a legend wearing a black costume with big yellow polka dots?  I look like an insane clown!”

Foxtrot couldn’t argue with that.  “Well, we should still try to be as inconspicuous as possible.  Maybe when we reach the first town, you can get some new clothes.  The question is, which town should it be?”

“Let’s just look for a village for now,” Javy said.  “I’ll get some new clothes and we can try to figure out where the IAO is and where they aren’t.  Right now, knowing what I know, my money’s on Rose City.  Barney Chambers might be dead, but he still has plenty of people there working on his blog and radio station.  There’s a strong resistance presence there.  That’s probably our best bet.”

Foxtrot nodded.  “That sounds like a good plan.  So we’re just looking for the first village we can find for now, though.”

“That’s right,” the general said.  “Now go get some sleep before I have to knock you out myself.”

Foxtrot curled up in the sleeping bag and closed his eyes.  He was tired and he knew he only had a few hours before he’d have to wake up and keep watch while Javy got his rest.

<>

Ace lifted the two cards which were on the green felt table in front of him.  He was once again dressed in his “Honest” Abe Miller disguise, with a dark blue suit and top hat, with a wig of long, curly brown hair that matched his real goatee.  He was also wearing his trademark circular red sunglasses.  Della had finally figured out that Ace’s cheating had something to do with the glasses.  She’d been observing the gambler for a while now, and though at first she had no idea how Ace cheated, things were starting to fall into place.  Whenever Ace looked at another player who was looking at his or her cards, Della noticed him make an ever so subtle twitch with his right eye.  Then after a second or two, he twitched again.  Still, while whatever Ace was doing with the glasses explained how he knew which cards the other players were holding, Della still hadn’t figured out how Ace always seemed to get the perfect hands at just the right times.  “I’ll raise you two thousand dollars,” Ace said as he slid several gold coins into the pile at the center of the table.  Three of the other players called his raise as Della continued watching Ace like a hawk.

Della was dressed in her best silver dress as she stood next to Ace, with her afro wig and pronounced makeup.  She was getting a lot of attention from the bar’s patrons, though a lot of the looks were far from amicable.  Della didn’t know the name of the border town, but there were a lot of IAO-looking types at the bar, including several of the poker players.  Della and Ace had been hoping to find some information regarding Abby’s whereabouts, but Della wasn’t so sure how much information they’d get from bandits and IAO men.  She kept an eye on the local news show that was running on a hologram projector over the bar.  It was hard to hear, but she was barely managing.  No mention of Abby so far, as the pretty Latina anchor droned on and on about the prices of various commodities, such as oil and various staple foods.  “Part of the reason for the current wave of rationing is that the IAO is gaining more power in the Mexican Territory as we speak.  Las Colinas has already fallen to them.  A nuclear explosion wiped out Los Buitres.  There are IAO men near the border burning copies of the Qur’an to stir up trouble with local Muslims.  The world is in chaos.  The border is practically gone.  People are going back and forth as they please, but there’s no escape from the waves of murder and chaos sweeping the world.  Most of the Southwest Territory has already fallen, and the rest of Numurka and Mexico are in pretty bad shape.  Things are looking bleak overseas, too.  The IAO is everywhere.”  Someone in the bar cheered.  The reporter frowned and shook her head.  “I’m sorry. I’m just being honest.”

“It’s Armageddon all over again,” Della muttered.  She turned her attention back to the poker table.  An ace and two queens were displayed on the table, along with a two and a five.  One player had a queen and an ace showing in front of him, while Ace had two aces.

“If you’re not cheatin’,” the player with the full house shouted, “then I’m Michelle Hemingway!”  He was a fat, ugly man whose sweaty body was covered in hair.  He stood up from his seat.  He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, but there was a huge laser pistol in a holster on his left hip.  His hand was hovering over the weapon.  Four other men at the table also stood.  Two were dressed in leather and metal bandit armor.  Della couldn’t help but notice that many of the other bandits in the bar had taken notice.  Several other people were making their way to the door, and the bartender was nowhere to be found.

“I can’t help it if I’m lucky,” Ace said.  “Can’t we settle this like civilized gentlemen?”

“We ain’t civilized,” one of the bandits said.

One of the others laughed.  “And we sure as hell ain’t gentlemen.”  Della always knew it would just be a matter of time before Ace tried to cheat the wrong person.

The fat man nodded.  “Now you and your faggot friend there better kiss each other good-bye, because you ain’t gonna be profanin’ the world with your abomination of love any longer.”

Della realized the man thought he and Ace were lovers.  It made sense to an outsider, Della supposed.  Ace stood also, his hand over his own laser pistol.  Della’s hands were hovering over her laser pistols before she even realized it.  She was experiencing déjà vu.  She longed for a town where they wouldn’t have to kill anyone.  This time, there were five enemies at the table and seven bandits positioned around the bar.  It didn’t look good.  Della started looking around for the quickest way to exit.  “How would you each like a million dollars?” Ace asked.

The fat man glared at him.  “What the hell are you talkin’ about?”

“I can give each of you a million dollars,” Ace said.  “But I don’t have it on me, so if you shoot me, you’ll never get it.”

The fat man laughed.  “There are twelve of us here.”  At this point, the twelve bandits, Ace, and Della were the only people left in the bar.

“I have twelve million dollars,” Ace said.  “I can give each of you a million.  Think of all the donuts you could buy for a million dollars.  You could even get some poker lessons.”  Della felt like slapping him.

“That’s insane,” the fat man said.  “You ain’t got that kinda money.  I should kill ya for talkin’ such nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense,” Ace said.

“He’s right,” Della said.  “We can give each of you a million dollars.”  She wasn’t sure where Ace was going with this, but she figured her only choice was to play along.  If they took the bandits to their car and Ace went into one of the bags to get any money, the bandits would probably kill Ace and Della and take all of the money, which was a little over fifty-one billion all together.

“Where’d ya get twelve million dollars?” the fat man asked.  “Cheatin’ at cards?”

“Robbing banks,” Ace said.

The fat man stared at him for a few seconds.  “Tell some of my friends where the money is.  They’ll go get it.”

Ace shook his head.  “I have to do it.  You can come with me, though.”

“He stays here, then,” the fat man said, nodding towards Della.  “Five of us will go with you, and if you try anything, they’ll blast your homo boyfriend to smithereens.”

“No,” Ace said.  “That won’t work.  I need him to come with me, or you don’t get the money.”

The fat man grunted.  “Then all twelve of us are comin’ along.”

“All right,” Ace said.  “I’ll lead the way, since I know where it is.”

“You lead the way,” the fat man said.  “Homo cross dresser here stays in the back, just in case you try somethin’.”

Ace shook his head again.  “I need him with me.  You seem to be missing the point.  There’s a two person fingerprint lock on the case with the money in it and you need both of us to open it.”  Now Della knew he was bluffing.  There was no such case.

The fat man snarled.  “Look here, fella.  You’re walkin’ barefoot over some red hot sand here.  You better stop makin’ up rules, or me and my friends’ll just kill ya now.  Twelve million dollars ain’t worth it.”

Della swallowed.  “Really?” Ace asked.  “Twelve million dollars is a lot of money.  A million each.”

The fat man squinted.  “You and your friend lead the way, then.  We all follow.  And if it’s any kinda trick, we’ll fill you and your lover boy so full of holes you’ll be redder than used maxi pads.”

Ace nodded.  He motioned for Della to follow him and the two of them walked towards the door, followed by the twelve men who were all pointing their laser pistols at their backs.  As Ace reached the doorway, he touched the wall beside him to steady himself.  “Run,” he whispered, and he and Della took off running through the door and out into the street as a bomb exploded in the doorway to the bar.

Lasers fired behind them as Ace and Della ran around a corner into an alley as fast as their feet would carry them.  There were shouts behind them as they approached the hover car they’d stolen in the last town.  It was a large green hover station wagon with a powerful engine.  Della quickly opened the passenger side door and got in as Ace got in the driver’s seat, slamming the door behind him.  He started the engine and took off as lasers fired behind them, missing the car.  Della turned to see almost twenty men in the town in the distance behind them as they shot off into the dunes beneath the starry night sky.  “So I guess we keep heading towards Black Rock,” Ace said as he drove.

“I guess so,” Della said.  “We don’t know anything more about Abby.  And I suggest you don’t play poker in the next town.  As a matter of fact, just stay in the hotel.  Let me handle everything.”

Ace chuckled as he drove.  “What’s the fun in that?”

“We aren’t trying to have fun,” Della said.  “Believe me, I love a party as much as the next gal, but your type of partying isn’t for me.”  Ace nodded.  “And what’s with those sunglasses, anyway?” Della asked.

Ace took them off as he drove, folded them, and placed them on the seat next to him.  “They hide my eyes.”

“Don’t give me that,” Della said.  “I saw the twitches.  Who’s to say another player won’t notice?”

“They haven’t yet,” Ace said.  “I’m surprised you have.”

“I’ve seen you play a lot lately, honey.  So what is it?”  Della thought for a few seconds.  “Magnification.  You look at the reflection in their glasses, or in their eyes.  That’s how you see their cards.”

Ace smiled.  “Thank the heavens I’ve never played poker against you.”

“What about the cards?” Della asked.  “How do you always manage to get just the right cards at the right time?  No one can be as lucky as you pretend to be.”

Ace shrugged as he drove.  “Well, let’s hope for both of our sakes that I am.  Our lives may depend on it.  Abby’s, too.”  He slowed down a little, since the car was far away from the town.  Ace and Della started looking around for a good place to camp as dark dunes whizzed past on both sides.

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Ngb6CgUOI&w=560&h=315]

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Continue on to the next chapter:

Afterlife, Volume 3, Chapter 4
Where:
Herman Rennock has a visitor.
Rennock is forced to look at how his actions have affected others.
Razor eats dinner at a saloon.

Find the Volume 3 Table of Contents page here.

View the Map here.

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Check out Michael Monroe’s page on Amazon to find other stuff he’s written.
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