On the Eve of Forever

Though it was perfectly legit for him to circle the garage. It wasn’t as if there was anything he could do. To Thom and everyone else in Waterfall, retainees were legal. Hank had nothing to say about it, but that didn’t mean he was letting it go. He planned on stopping it somehow, which was why he spent so much time at Younger’s encampment, trying to figure out a way to save their reservoir before it dried up. Though Waterfall owned the canals and spillway, Younger’s group controlled the dam. Hank had come up with a plan to divert a river about fifty miles away and included a contract of release for every retainee who worked on the project. The downside was getting both Younger and Waterfall to cooperate on the terms.

Getting into it with Thom and his crew over one person? It wasn’t a good idea.

So Hank sat on Trixie’s back, taking in the sparse woods and dry hills. The air stung with dust, long stripped of the piney scent of the mountains he’d ridden out of. Over the treeline, rocky peaks sheared the hard blue sky.

He sighed as Trixie shifted and patted her neck.

“What about it, girl? Should we chance it?”

They were probably in the middle of raping the guy. He gritted his teeth, the thought burning through his head, once again torn by the weird relief he didn’t have to worry about Beth and the girls. They were dead. Nothing could hurt them now. He couldn’t fail them worse than he already had. But this time?

He used to arrest assholes like Thom. He used to break up fights and put bad actors away. He’d been one of those cops who’d known the people he’d served. He’d called the derelict who rummaged in the alleyway behind the Thai Palace by name. He’d dodged a portable TV a tweaker named Brittany had tried to drop on his head from a fifth-floor window. He’d taken complaints and made reports. He’d hauled in pimps, and drug dealers, and drunk and disorderlies. He’d gone after bad guys.

But now…

People like Thom, the friendly salesman, who bounced and wobbled in the too hot sun, made the rules, and Hank was the cop who broke up squabbles and let everything else go.

Laughter floated in the air.

He squinted at the garage again. You can’t do anything. Except interrupt them. Stare them in their fucking eyes. Dare you to tell me this is okay. Though they would. The world was different since Eve had laid waste to it. Littered with the dead and the weak and the… scared.

He took a breath and nudged Trixie down the hillside.