Chapter 2

Maudie’s eyes were just about to close and she was about to fade into sleep when she felt fingers tapping the glass window she leaned her head against. She lifted her head off the window to see a man. He mouthed something she couldn’t understand, so she rolled down the window.

         The man looked about Maudie’s age, maybe a little younger. His skin was a very dark gray and his eyes were chocolaty brown. He had big thick glasses that framed them.  His hair was curly and short and black. He was not at all fat but was a little on the chubby side. He looked to be a little shorter than Maudie.

         “Hello.” Maudie said, blandly.

         “Hello. I’m Casey. I’m horrible at basketball.” He said in response. His voice was low and full.

         Maudie chuckled softly. She liked this guy already. She knew that he was black because his gray skin was so dark.

         “Look, I’m in a bit of a quagmire at the moment. This explosion took a pretty solid chuck out of my left leg.” Casey told Maudie. Maudie looked down at his legs and saw one of them wounded badly.  “I’ve gotten the bleeding to stop but I’m still fairly worried.”

         Evangeline woke up hearing all the commotion. As soon as she awoke she was painfully aware of her missing ear. She started to scream and yell “un-ladylike” terms as she might put it. She held her ear in pain. Maudie, Roxanne, and Casey looked back at her.

         “Sorry, I have to take care of this.” Maudie said. She headed toward the back of the SUV but Roxanne stopped her. Roxanne took out a long shot, flicked it twice, and handed it to Maudie.

         “Stick this in her ear, it’ll make her feel better.” She told Maudie. Maudie looked at her a second, then took the shot and headed toward Evangeline. Evangeline flailed about. Maudie would later learn Evangeline had a fear of shots. Maudie had to wrestle Evangeline to get in a position where she could precisely give her the shot. She straddled Evangeline’s hips, sitting on her back, her arms secured under Maudie’s legs.

         “Get off me b***h!” Evangeline screamed. It occurred to Maudie that she must have been hysterical with pain, so she let the comment slide.

         Maudie used one arm to steady Evangeline’s head and stuck the long needle into the spot where her ear used to be with the other.

         Roxanne glared at Casey, not wanting another passenger inside her car. She already had one too many with her. And to top it all of he as well would need medical attention.

         “I wonder if I might travel with you. Although my current condition is not ideal, rest assured I will be healthy in a matter of days, and once I am, I will be of great power. I have trained many years in-”

         “Shut up and get in the car.” Roxanne said, rolling her eyes. She knew Maudie would beg her to let him in anyways.

         “Thank you.” Casey said. Roxanne unlocked the passenger car and he opened it and got in.

         Maudie sat on Evangeline’s back, waiting for the medication to kick in. Evangeline was flailing about in an effort to unseat her, but it was no use because Maudie was too big and too strong.

         Not that Maudie was big. She was tall, and thin in the right places. But she had been training in karate since she was 4 years old with her Aunt. Roxanne knew that the skill would one day come in handy. Maudie wanted to use it to defeat Carl E. Sudden. Maudie laughed to herself a little. It was odd; Carl E. Sudden had no clue who she was. Or did he? He couldn’t. She didn’t know too much about Mr. Sudden, but she would use Evangeline to find out. Evangeline had agreed to tell Roxanne and Maudie whatever she knew, and that would definitely come in handy.

         Evangeline screamed obscenities at Maudie, furious. Casey watched in silence, unsure of the situation. He was a man of many words, and he wanted to ask what was going on, but something told him he had better stay quiet. After a while Evangeline started to quiet down, and her flailing stopped.

         “I’m Maudie. The chick that’s driving up there, that’s Roxanne.”

         “The scary girl?”

         “Yeah, that’s her. And this is Evangeline.” Maudie said, patting Evangeline on the back.

         “I’m Evangeline.” Evangeline said.

         “Vanie, this is Casey.” Maudie said.

         “You’re black!” Evangeline said, looking up, giggling.

         “Accurate.” Casey said, amused.

         Although Maudie had only known Evangeline for a short period of time, she knew that was not something she would say.

         “What did I just inject into Evangeline’s neck Roxie?” Maudie asked.

         Roxanne chuckled. “It’ll make her feel a lot better, trust me. She just might get a little loopy.”

         “Evangeline mad.” Evangeline said. “Evangeline SMASH!”

         Evangeline pushed as hard as she could and Maudie fell off her. Casey caught her on her way tumbling down to the floor.

         “It’s okay, I got you. Are you okay?” Casey asked. Maudie shrugged him off.

         “I’m fine.” She said. She was suddenly on edge. If it were Abe, he would have let her fall, knowing that she would catch herself.

         “Maudie sing to me.” Evangeline said. She started to sway her head from side to side, like she was listening to music. Maudie and Casey exchanged a confused look.

         “I love you Maudie!” Evangeline said giggling. “I want you to be the maid of honor at Liam’s and my wedding!”

         “That’s great.” Maudie said, sarcastically. But she felt a pang of guilt in her stomach for not telling her about Liam. Then Evangeline fell asleep, sprawled across the back seat of the SUV.

         “Why does this b***h sleep so much?” Maudie asked.

         “It’s probably a result of the trauma that has happened to her in such a short time. Look at her. Just by her clothing choice and hairdo it is evident that she has never experienced such in her life before this.” Casey told Maudie. Maudie nodded in agreement. She hadn’t expected an answer but it seemed Casey had had one.

         “So Casey, what do you make of all this Suddener s**t? What’s going to happen?” She asked.

         “Well, I reckon you and your friend are headed to Right America, am I correct?”

         “Yes, and she’s my Aunt.”         

         “Well, as a fellow rebel, we should stick together. I could help a great deal in your quest to take down the Suddeners. I know you must be thinking about that, aren’t you? Although it is an extemporaneous risk, I believe with proper training and preparation and a good enough team, we might have a fighting chance. We must find more rebels to join us.” Casey said. Maudie was very happy with what she heard, for she had thought the same thing.

         “So you’ll do this with me?” She said, hopefully.

         “Yes, Maudie, I shall.” Casey told her.

         “I’m in too, Maudie.” Roxanne added.

         Maudie looked at them smiling. She thought about Abe. She would kill Carl E. Sudden for him. And for her. And for everyone.

          “What are we going to do with your friend?” Casey asked, looking at Evangeline.

         “We’ll take her back to her family I guess. I bet they’re worried sick.”

         “But wait a minute, I thought we needed her.” Roxanne said.

         “Why would we?”

         “She lives in Right America.” Maudie told Casey.

         “Oh, in that case, maybe she could be of use.”

         “We’ll see what happens.” Maudie said, her eyes trailing away from Casey, moving to the road.

         “So first thing first, we need to assemble a team. Do you know anyone Roxanne?” Casey asked, moving his attention to the older woman driving.

         Maudie closed her eyes and stopped listening. She needed this so bad, to kill Carl E. Sudden. She imagined being at her house on a cold night, sitting by the fireplace. She could just picture Abe cuddling next to her, warming her up. This happened quite a lot. While the temperate was scolding during the day, it changed drastically when the sun left. If it were anyone other than Abe, she would have pushed them away, saying that she could warm herself up alone. She would have frozen. But it was Abe, so she was okay. She would let him hold her in his shaky but strong arms. Abe knew when she needed him, and when she didn’t. Abe was perfect in Maudie’s eyes. Maudie felt empty now that he was gone, and she was beginning to hate herself for it. When did she become dependant on him?

         “Maudie?” Casey said, gently grabbing her shoulder. She shrugged him off.

         “What?” She said, her voice aloof and cold.

         “Is that okay with you?” Casey said, his voice irritated. Maudie was irritated with his irritation.

         “Is what okay?” She asked.

         Casey sighed. “Is it okay if we drive to Rebel Central?”

         “Why?”

         “What were you doing back there Maude? Can you please listen?” Roxanne said, annoyed.

         “We think that maybe we can find some survivors there.” Casey said.

         “Lets do it then.” Maudie said. Roxanne rolled her eyes. She drove towards Rebel Central. Rebel Central was the place in which most meetings were held. Maudie and Abe lived about an hour away from it, and they attended every meeting. Roxanne was about 2 hours away so she would come to most but not all. They were held every other week on Tuesdays.

         The leader of the rebellion’s name was Oliver Sadshack. He was 25, and Maudie hated him. He was pompous, sexist, and rude as hell. He had some good ideas about the rebellion, she gave him that. But other than that, she found him profoundly annoying.          He was pretty much the epitome of everything Maudie despised. He was the opposite of Abe.

         After a while of driving Evangeline woke up. She yawned.

         “I’m really sorry about earlier, that was embarrassing.” She said blushing.

         “Hey, it’s fine. This is Casey.” She told Evangeline. She then proceeded to tell her the plan.

         “Can I help? I want all of this gray stuff to stop.” Evangeline said.

         “Of course you can.” Casey told her. Maudie gave him a weird look. Evangeline was young and probably useless besides getting information on Right America.

         Casey looked Evangeline up and down. Her hair was stuck in clumps around her face, her make up was running, and she was covered in blood. Despite all of this, Casey found her beautiful.

         Finally they arrived in Rebel Central. All over were gray bodies soaked in crimson blood. They all got out of the car, including Casey, who was limping. They looked around to see if they could find anyone, Evangeline had tears running down her face, but the rest of them just looked cold.

         Lying behind the podium where he would speak was Oliver Sadshack. He had a couple of knives sticking out of his legs and his face was badly bruised. It looked as though someone had paid him a visit, and it wasn’t the explosion.

         Roxanne, Evangeline, and Maudie ran over to him.

         “Help.” He tried to say, but it barely sounded like anything at all because he was so parched.

         Roxanne immediately got out some water from her pack and held his head while he drank it. Maudie got out a medical pack and began taking care of him. She removed all of the knives and wrapped gauze around his wounds after she sterilized them. He was crying out, in a great deal of pain.

         Evangeline watched in horror, unsure of what to do. She found herself kneeling by Oliver Sadshack, stroking his hair.

         “It’s going to be okay.” She repeated in a soothing tone.

         Casey stood behind, knowing he could not do much. He knew little about healing.

         After about an hour they had him stable. He had stopped panicking.  

         They explained their plan to him.

         “I’m grateful that ya’ll saved me, but Hell no am I going to join a pack of a bunch of whiney neurotic girls. The negro ahead of us is no exception.”

         Maudie rolled her eyes. She bit her cheek and forced herself not to open her mouth, knowing if she did, she would insult him, and that would not make him want to join their group. Casey pretended not to hear.

         “No need to insult us, a*****e. You don’t really have a choice, anyway. The rest of Left America is dead.” Roxanne said, her voice deep and formal.

        

         “Everyone?” He said.

         “Everyone.” Casey confirmed, as he walked up to the group.

         “We have agents. Men placed in Right America; spies. They will assist me in destroying Sudden.” Oliver said, seriously.

         Finally, Maudie decided to speak. “Yeah? And how the Hell do you plan to get to Right America? You a*s.”

         Olivier laughed at her, standing up. He ignored the pain in his legs as he had been trained to do.

         “You’re Abe’s lass aren’t ya? The Ball Buster. That’ll be ma nickname for you.” He said. “I’ll join your pathetic group I guess.”

         “Thank you so much sir! You won’t regret it, all these people are really strong, it’s really cool.” Evangeline said. Maudie stepped in front of her.

         “Don’t encourage him, Van. We don’t need him. Lets go, guys.” Maudie said. She looked him up and down. He looked almost like Abe. His light brown hair, his shade of pasty gray. Although his eyes were not kind, they were intense; mad. He was also bigger Abe, and less boyish.

         They all started to walk away.

         “Wait!” Oliver shouted. They stopped and turned to him. “Please.”

         “Get your a*s over here.” Maudie said. He smiled mischievously and followed them.

         “I’ve decided to give you all nicknames.” Oliver said smirking.

         “In what way would that serve a purpose?” Casey asked.

         “I’ll call you Brain. Not the cleverest, but I can’t think of anything else. You’re pretty boring.” Oliver told him.

         “I’ll have you know my name is Casey.”

         Oliver ignored him. He turned to Roxanne.

         “What’s your name?”

         “Roxanne, give me a nickname and I’ll rip your balls off.” She said.

         “We got a friendly group here! I’ll call you Roxie.” Oliver said. Evangeline laughed.

         “You, red head, you’re jailbait.” He told Evangeline.

         “It’s strawberry blonde, and her name’s Evangeline.” Maudie said.

         “Why am I jailbait?” Evangeline asked. She had never heard the phrase before.

         “It basically means that you’re hot, but too young to do.” Oliver said nonchalantly.

         “Really?” Evangeline said, excited. She blushed.

         Maudie took the time to look at her group as they walked back to the car. What a weird group of people. None of them she would ever associate herself with before this, but now she would have to. She though about Abe, what he would make of all of this. Surely he would be the group’s favorite already. Making jokes, making people feel safe.

         “Don’t dwell.” He had told her before he died. Maudie told herself she wouldn’t.