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Zeke picked up the pace. “I want to talk about anything else but sex, babies and my sister.” All of those topics put acid in his bloodstream.
Chuck kept with him stride for stride. “You want to talk about food? That’s a sore topic for me, man. I miss food from out there. I dream about paella, chorizo, jamón—”
“Not food.” It would only remind him of all the coffee and sugar goodness he was missing out on.
“You want to talk about our firepower, weapons and shit?”
He stopped walking.
Chuck slapped him on the back. “Just kidding.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered walking on. “I get that you want me to trust, but I can’t stop thinking about how we’re supposed to keep this place secure with things so bad out there with just that fence and those mountains.”
“Those mountains are a motherfucker.”
“But a fence is just a fence to a tank.”
“Someone drives a tank into our fence they’re going to find themselves in an early grave.”
“I want to believe,” Zeke said in his best Fox Mulder.
The shade wasn’t lost on Chuck. “We have our ways. You don’t need to know yet.”
“Asshole.”
“What, hustler? We have to treat you delicate like. Can’t overwhelm you all at once with our magnificence.”
“I’m supposed to make a kid but I can’t know how we stay safe? How five thousand of us can fight off even a thousand people who want what we have more than they care about killing us? You’re telling me I can sleep safe at night and not worry about Rosie because we have defenses strong enough to knock out a tank, take on an army?”
“This is why you got roughed up a little, because you ask too many fucking questions. Why’d you come here if you think we’re not ready for the end of the world? This isn’t just some great experiment. We’re not waiting for the rapture to come carry us to heaven. This is real life. There’s no rapture, there’s no one going to save us but what Orrin built and invited us into. We are the future. We won’t let anyone take it from us.”
They were at the edge of the forest. Zeke plowed in. He was sure there was a weapons cache somewhere. They couldn’t break Abundance on suspicion alone. Holding a branch aside for Chuck, he said, “How do I earn a straight answer?”
“You want me to tell you we have rocket blasters and munitions and enough firepower to start our own war?”
Chuck stepped past and Zeke let the branch go. “Fuck yeah, I do.” Show them to me right now. And in one phone call this whole thing is over. It’ll be Frappuccino, Grand Master time.
Chuck threw his arms out wide. “Choose a fucking tree.”
Zeke moved around Chuck, trying to find a path through the undergrowth, holding branches back so they could pass. “You’re saying we don’t have weapons?”
“I’m saying if you don’t want your sleep disturbed again, maybe a few broken bones this time, shut your ignorant mouth. We’re going to lose the sun, choose a fucking tree for your pity fuck and then go home and screw Susan and stop worrying about things you can do fuck all about.”
That’s when he hit Chuck. He could’ve simply distracted him when he saw the blue of the parachute from the drop, but the dude was a massive dickhead and it was hard to forgive the stunt with the rifle, so Zeke dropped him instead. Nothing but satisfaction in the way it jarred his arm and made his hand sting. Why was it most of the men he’d met so far inside Abundance were entitled, sexist pricks? Did this place bring it out in them or was it something they were taught from birth?
He had enough time to rescue the package, check the phone—power, but no signal—not that he’d expected it way out here, and cut down a baby spruce before going into nurse-mode over Chuck.
The guy had an egg on his forehead consistent with a tree branch blow and Zeke’s knuckles were already a mess, so he didn’t have to hide them. He tapped Chuck’s cheek, none too gently.
“Wake up, asshole.” When that didn’t work, he tipped the contents of his water bottle over Chuck.
Chuck work up spluttering. “Wha—what happened?”
“We were arguing. You walked into a tree branch. Out cold.”
“Holy shit.” Chuck felt his head and winced. “No way I walked into a tree. How long was I out?”
Just about the right amount of time. “Few minutes. Can you sit? Want me to go for help?” Zeke extended his hand.
