James Axler – Freedom Lost

“No wags here, norm,” the mutie said, its shaded eyes surveying the surrounding landscape. The closest thing to a means of vehicular transportation were the stripped frames of abandoned automobiles.

“Don’t call me that,” the man snapped. “I’m not a norm. I’m no longer a man. I’m one of you now. A filthy, stinking mutie.”

The stickie pondered this for a long moment. “You want me to call you Lester?”

A wet rasping sound came forth as he inhaled, then exhaled. “Hell, no.”

“That was your name.”

“Not anymore. Forget you ever heard it.”

The stickie pondered this before answering. “Have to call you something.”

“Just shut up, okay? Shut up and keep walking. Let’s see if we can make that tractor-trailer rig up there. Can use it to camp in tonight.”

“Whatever you say, Norm, whatever you say.” The stickie reached down and offered a helping hand.

The newly christened Norm knocked the assistance away and awkwardly got to his feet on his own.

“Fuck you, mutie,” he said proudly.

The stickie looked at him, its expression unreadable behind the aviator’s glasses. “Saved you, Norm. Saved your life.”

“I can’t say I’m grateful, you ugly prick.” Spittle and drool flowed freely from the slash of the man’s ruined mouth, splashing out in drips and drabs and hitting the mutie in the face. The mutant didn’t appear to mind. “Did I ever say thank you? Can’t remember that I did. Wish you’d let me finish burning like a candle in that shithole.”

“Need me,” the stickie said, pointing a long bony finger to itself. The finger turned and pointed at Norm. “Need you.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve told me. Word got out before everything back at the ville went to hell, didn’t it? About the western part of Carolina crawling with muties? Fucking Lord Kaa-kaa and his plans to unite all the mutants.”

“Lord Kaa,” the mutie said in tones of reverence. “Lord Kaa.”

“Yeah, whatever. Lord Kaa sent word outhow, I have no fucking ideato all of you freaks in the baron’s mutie zoo about this place.”

“Budd wasn’t in the zoo,” the stickie said firmly, identifying itself by name.

“Excuse me, all the freaks in the zoo combined with all the mutie turds working the grunt detail on the elevator wheel with us dumb-ass norms who were stupe enough to get Willie-boy all pissed off. I was a good sec man for a long damn time for my baron, the dried-up old skank. I make one mistake, and he drops me. Just because I missed that old bastard’s blade hidden in his walking stick.”

Norm muttered all of these details in a singsong voice. Reciting the same account over and over had committed the rant to memory. Budd didn’t protest, but merely listened.

“Bet One-eye put his pal up to hiding the shiv. Yeah, I miss one old fart’s blade, and my boss fucks me up the ass in front of everybody and next thing I know I’m stuck in the basement turning the elevator wheel with guys like you.”

The mutie pondered the words. “Budd had been at the wheel for many days. Weeks.”

“And what did you do to earn your stint?”

“Nothing. Budd did nothing.”

The scarred man stopped walking and turned to face his associate. “Wrong. Budd was born with oozing hands and a strong back. Face it, all you stickies were fucked from birth. But you’d learned to accept it, right? Until you mutie bastards got the word Kaa was coming to save your sorry asses, freeing you from the fields and the wheels and the baron’s mutie zoo. Kaa might have pulled it off, too, except the cannies and the scabies and all you stickies got a serious murder lust and started killing one another off.”

“Lord Kaa couldn’t contain us all,” Budd said simply. “The blood fever came. We were unable to stop ourselves.”

“Good thing, or we wouldn’t be going north. Kaa had the right idea, but he was too weird to pull it off. Muties always have needed a strong hand.”

“Like yours, Norm.”

“Yeah, like mine. We’ll go to Winston, Budd. We’ll start over there, me and you both. Hell, guys like us, we’re heading for the promised land!”