James Axler – Stoneface

The biker saw the movement, and he blew her a kiss before turning the motorcycle up the avenue and away from them. All of them saw the winged skull emblem sewn on the back of the jacket, and the legend Hell’s Angels printed above it.

Mildred pointed to the biker. “Manson encouraged bike gangs to join the family and supply the military wing. Looks like Hellstrom is playing the same riff.”

“Bullshit,” J.B. spit. “Those so-called Angels we ran up against in Snakefish a few years ago were triple stupes. Military wing, my ass.”

“Stupes they might be,” Ryan said, “but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if some of these bikers weren’t veterans of that fight. If they recognize us, we might have to fight our way out of Helskel.”

“What happened Manson?” Jak asked. “Chilled?” There was a hopeful note in his voice.

“Unfortunately, no,” Mildred replied. “The murders weren’t the catalyst for the great war he hoped for. Instead, Manson and a number of his people were arrested and sentenced to death. A change in the law commuted that sentence to life imprisonment. While he was in jail, his family of followers grewsick people who were attracted to his vision of a ruined wasteland of a world.”

Mildred paused and waved at the buildings of Helskel. “Looks like some people never forgot it and used his insanity as a blueprint. All because a depraved mass murderer had a talent for philosophy and hogwash a hundred years ago. This is the world according to Chairman Charlie.”

Doc ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “If the notion weren’t so absurdly ugly, so ludicrously repellent, I would spend my visit here laughing. Or weeping.”

“Whatever Helskel is or isn’t, it has a lot going for it,” Ryan commented. “Electricity, guns, gasoline. They’re a damn sight better off than most villes and baronies we’ve seen.”

“I must concur. But I find the amount of working predark technology in their possession rather unsettling,” Doc commented. “If not outright disturbing.”

“The question is,” J.B. put in, “where did this group of triple stupes find it all?”

They continued their tour of Helskel through the gathering dusk. Ryan spied Fleur leaning up against the support post of a building, talking to the biker they’d seen earlier. Though she kept up her end of the conversation, she watched Ryan all the while, fingering the long knife at her waist, staring at him with her single eye of cold azure.

Something knotted in the pit of Ryan’s stomach like a length of slimy rope.

They returned to the principal market square and listened to the performance of a band of minstrels. They weren’t very good, and the lyrics nonsensical, but they were drawing nods of approval and applause nevertheless. At the end of the performance, one of the musicians attributed the authorship of the song to Charles Manson.

Ryan felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning, he looked into Phil’s smiling face.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked..

“To a point.” Behind him, Ryan glimpsed Dog and Suds in the crowd. Evidently Dog hadn’t forgotten about the kicking incident, glaring at him over Phil’s shoulder. Ryan knew the man was scheming a payback.

“Good,” Phil said. “The patriarch wanted me to tell you about a Family function tonight, at midnight. You need to be in your rooms by then.”

“Why?”

“Family and novitiates only. Everybody else off the street by nine.”

As if no more could be said on the subject, Phil turned and drifted away into the crowd, Dog and Suds joining him.

Ryan repeated the message to the others.

“I say we pack up and get ourselves gone,” J.B. stated.

Ryan eyed the dimming sky. “Be full dark soon. Too dangerous to navigate the route at night. Let’s grab a bite, turn in and leave at first light.”

There was an eatery only a few steps down the avenue. It was a small establishment, but seemed fairly clean. The proprietor, an overweight woman with leathery warts adorning her face, handed them handwritten menus. There was an X scar inscribed in her forehead.

Before they could look the menus over, she said, “Serving only one dish tonight, folks. It’s all we got, so it’s the best we got.”