James Axler – Way of the Wolf

Ryan stood, not presenting his back to the dwarf in case Albert tried for a last-minute escape. He spotted Krysty coming down from the hill.

“I believe him, lover,” she said.

Ryan nodded. “Might be an idea to have a guide in the ville.” He took the panga from her. “Least until we get situated and figure out where we’re going from here.”

“Personally, my dear Ryan,” Doc said as he walked over and dusted off the tails of his frock coat, “I think we could all enjoy a few hours respite after our trip to North Carolina.”

“Yeah.” The one-eyed man turned to the upended wag. “Come on out of there.”

After a brief hesitation, Albert clambered out from under the wag. He made certain to keep his hands in view, his stubby arms not allowing him to shove his fingertips much up past his head. “You won’t regret this.”

“I don’t have much in the way of regrets,” Ryan said. “And I aim to keep it that way.” He scanned the corpses. “Okay, let’s see what we can salvage.”

Chapter Three

The companions took their time, and the warm air in the clearing filled with the stench of the corpses. J.B. and Jak set up security along the perimeter on Ryan’s orders.

When it came to scavenging, Albert proved invaluable. The little man had ridden with the gang long enough that he knew the hiding places most of the dead men had in their clothing.

Albert paused beside a fat man with half his face missing. “This is Gustuvson,” the dwarf said, grimacing. “I know for a fact he keeps a pouch with gold teeth shoved up his ass. He steals them from corpses they’ve found in areas around Hazard. Liberty was always one to poke and prod in new areas, and they found a few places back up in some caves that nobody’s been to before.”

“How do you know about the pouch?” Dean asked. The boy’s dark hair and burning blue gaze clearly marked him as Ryan’s son. He ran his hands along the dead man he was searching, his nimble fingers plucking away loose cartridges, as well as an oilskin containing tobacco leaves.

“I was with Liberty’s group a couple months back when they found a new pocket in the mountains they were searching,” Albert replied. “Quakes run through this area pretty regularly, and they shove up new stuff to the surface all the time. He took a couple teeth from a dead woman in that building, knocked them out with a rock because he was in a hurry, and stuck them in that pouch he’s so proud of. What he didn’t know was there was some residual radiation in that gold. By the time he found out, he had running sores in his asshole. He didn’t get any slack from the rest of the group for being so stupe.”

Dean grinned, thinking how stupe the man had really been. Nobody with any sense at all had anything to do with metals in a rad-hot area because they picked up radiation first and held on to it longest. Especially the precious metals, like gold. “Hey, Dad.”

Ryan looked up from the man he searched. “Yeah.”

“Do you think Albert ought to cut those gold teeth out of that dead man’s ass?” Dean opened the oilskin of tobacco and inhaled the deep, heady scent of it.

“No.”

The dwarf sighed in relief, then released the fat man. He pushed up, then walked to the next corpse.

“Doc,” Dean called, “I got some tobacco here.”

“Ah, lad, you are a prince,” the old man replied.

Dean tossed the oilskin to him, then turned his attention back to the man, who had carried a nearly full box of 9 mm shells that Dean knew would fit his father’s pistol, J.B.’s Uzi and his own Browning Hi-Power. It wasn’t enough, but it was a start. He kept searching.

RYAN SURVEYED the gear they’d taken from the corpses. Spread out on the blanket Doc had used, it didn’t look like much. But Ryan knew they were in a lot better shape than they’d been in after returning to the mat-trans unit under the hospital in North Carolina.