Broken Lands (Benny Imura 6)

“How do you know what I can and can’t do?”

“Gabriella—Gutsy—please . . . you can’t get involved. You can’t stop this.”

“I can’t if you don’t help me by telling me what you know,” Gutsy countered, “but even if you don’t, I’m going to try.”

“That’s insane. You’ll get hurt.”

“Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

“No, you’ll get killed,” said Karen. “They—”

“If you don’t help me,” interrupted Gutsy, “and I get killed, then it’s on you. But if you do help me, if you tell me what you know, then maybe they won’t do anything to me. Maybe I’ll be able to stay a step ahead of them. And maybe I’ll stop them from hurting other people.”

Karen Peak laughed. It was a short, shrill laugh. “You have no idea what they are. You don’t understand why they’re doing this. You have no idea how many of them there are.”

“Then tell me.” Gutsy almost yelled it. Sombra growled and showed his wickedly sharp teeth. Gutsy believed that if she told the coydog to attack, he would.

Karen backed away again, shaking her head. “No. I can’t. I have a family. I have my own daughter to think about. I . . .”

She suddenly whirled and ran away. Actually ran.

Sombra quivered with a desire to give chase, but Gutsy stood her ground. Fists balled, jaw clenched.

For maybe five full seconds.

Then she and Sombra were running.

64

KAREN PEAK WAS FIT AND quick and ran with desperate energy.

Gutsy caught her less than a block away.

Quick was fine; fast was better, and Gutsy Gomez was very fast. They were still on a deserted street, but someone could come along any moment. No time to waste. She clamped a hand on Karen’s shoulder and jerked her backward with such force the woman backpedaled five steps and then sat down hard on the pavement. Gutsy had to fend Sombra off from pouncing on her.

“What are you doing?” cried Karen. “I’m the head of the town guard, I could have you arrested for—”

Gutsy slapped her across the face.

It shocked Karen to utter, aghast silence. Before she could recover, Gutsy leaned in close and spoke in a fierce and uncompromising whisper. “You shut your mouth and listen to me. We’re done with you being the responsible adult and me being only a kid. You know something about what happened to Mama or you know what’s going on with the Rat Catchers, and you’re going to tell me. You don’t want to know what I’m willing to do to make you tell me.” Beside her, Sombra growled with eloquent promise.

“You’re out of your mind,” gasped Karen as she climbed angrily to her feet.

“Maybe so. If I am, then that’s even more of a reason not to mess with me.” Gutsy put her hand on Karen’s shoulder again. The w

oman was a few inches taller, but it was clear that she knew who held the power. Gutsy was angry, but this also made her sad. She liked Karen; she liked her daughter, Sarah, too. But she was not going to back down. Now or ever. That line had been crossed and by crossing, it had been eliminated. Now they were in a strange new territory with no clear set of rules. Fine. That meant that the person in power had to make new rules, and for the moment Gutsy was in power. Even so, she did not want to be totally ruthless. “Listen,” she said, “I know you’re scared. I’m scared too. The apocalypse happened, the dead rose, there are mutants and wolf packs and bad guys. People are dying all around us. Who isn’t scared? But being scared isn’t an excuse for standing back and looking the other way. You know who these Rat Catchers are and you’re going to tell me.”

“My daughter . . .”

“Yeah, your daughter. You love her, right? What makes you think Sarah will be safe just because you keep a bad secret? The Rat Catchers are hurting people. Making them sick. Killing them. They tried to kill me and I was somebody’s daughter. They—”

“Gutsy, you really don’t understand,” interrupted Karen. “Sarah’s sick. She’s . . . infected.”

That jolted Gutsy. “Infected? With what? One of the diseases like what Mama had?”

Tears broke and fell down Karen’s cheeks, and in that moment, Gutsy understood.

“She has the plague?” she gasped.