Miscreants: Next Generation (Badlands 8)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

We left at first light.

It would take us about three hours to get to the Savages’ new location. I’d known where it was since getting the invitation a while back.

I had Addy and Ice with me all the way back in the third row, while Lilith rode shotgun and Jin sat in the back. I left Amo as the keeper of the others until I gave him further notice.

I wasn’t sure how the Savages would react to him or Aurora, and I wasn’t going to risk it. Takara and Poet came off less threatening, but at the end of the day they were still under my faction and protective of Lilith. That was enough to cause hostility.

Jin was here because he was neutral. He wouldn’t react to anything or anyone unless I told him to, or my life was in absolute danger of perishing.

No one said much, too busy with our own thoughts. Lilith had asked me how I felt about going back. Honestly, I didn’t feel much of anything. There weren’t a lot of joyous occasions to recall when I thought of what was once home. The sepia tinted nostalgia had Lilith in all my memories of happiness.

I’d been away from the environment long enough to have completely moved on. I was doing this for Lilith, but the choice wasn’t entirely selfless.

It was to benefit my faction’s future. I didn’t know how well things would go until we got there. The only slight concern I had was them trying to take my queen from me.

They could try, of course.

I would never let it happen.

I’d tear that faction apart from the top to the bottom before I lost her to them. I’d just got her back—in more ways than one. I refused to lose her again. If death awaited me amid the chaos, she’d be coming with me to whatever hell came after this one.

I glanced over for a brief second, wondering what she was thinking. How did she truly feel about going back? It was hard to hold onto my anger when it came to her leaving. I’d given her the tools and laid the path, after all, but I couldn’t help but be pissed she’d chosen to utilize them.

“Whose graves are these?” she asked, pointing out the passenger window.

It was a large stretch of plain covered in wooden crosses. You could see the fresh mounds of dirt that had been used to dig someone’s final resting place. There were a lot of these makeshift cemeteries popping up lately.

“Your guess is as good as mine. There’s a faction that goes by the name Oasis. They’ve taken it upon themselves to ‘clean up’ the Badlands. They bury bodies and add those crosses to mark each plot.”

“It’s a waste of time,” Addy stated. “This is all going to get worse in the coming months.”

I kept an eye on the left side of the road, remembering what to look for as a guide: a DEAD END sign that had seen much better days.

“Hang on.”

I slowed and turned the Brabus towards the opposite plain, bouncing up and out of a ditch as we left the main road.

Lilith grabbed the handle of the ceiling to keep herself steady. “What are you doing?”

Instead of giving her a verbal reply, I let her figure it out as it happened. Romero had moved his main base further out. If you weren’t specifically told what to look for, it was near impossible to find.

You had to purposely drive off-road, through underbrush, and around a lake that was slowly drying up to find the path which led to the main gates. It took about another eight minutes by car to reach those.

On either side of the road were tiny black boxes sticking out of the ground—motion sensors that were triggered by any kind of movement in front of them. He hadn’t been fucking around when it came to safety and security.

I’d taken a page from his book when designing our new place. Further up ahead, the fence that surrounded the compound began to take shape. It was tall enough that climbing would take more than a few seconds, and even if you reached the top, you’d have to get past the curled razor wire.

Seeing the guard shacks ahead, I started to slow down.

Two acolytes came from the one on the right while another watched from the left. They were donning the customary Savage get-up: a black hooded robe and a white mask with a centered inverted cross.

I glanced over at Lilith.

“You ready?”

“Don’t have much of a choice now,” she muttered.

I began to roll the window down and brake. One of the acolytes held their arm up and made a signal of some kind; in turn, the gates ahead began to slide open. He must not have seen me as a threat.