Shutdown Crew (Wasteland Marshals Book 4) by Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin

Author:Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin [Martin, Gail Z.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Falstaff Books
Published: 2021-12-27T16:00:00+00:00

5

Two days prior

What are you hearing? Lucas asked Rocky as he walked along the road toward the prepper camp.

You are nervous about meeting these people. They might be dangerous. And you worry about Shane.

Lucas chuckled. Yes, all of that. But I meant—what are you hearing around us? The other genius loci? Spirits?

The daemons here are sickly, not evil. They have been poisoned like the land. Until the poison wanes, they will not be right.

Since the poison in question was radioactive, it could be ten thousand years before the land was clean again. The elementals didn’t die, so they could wait for purification, but people might be long gone.

Anything that could be the “faeries” the cultists are raving about?

The energy in this place is unstable. It attracts broken things.

I think we’re all broken these days, Lucas replied. Or did you mean twisted?

Yes. Dark damage. The vibrations around the poisoned place are all wrong. Perhaps humans mistake that for magic?

Lucas knew what the stories said about faeries. He remembered that in the old tales, faeries weren’t nice. They were often petty, arrogant, territorial, and cruel. They stole children, switched babies, kidnapped people, and offered deals with a malicious twist.

Never eat their food or drink their wine. Never owe them a debt. Don’t ask for favors, and stay away from their special places. Before he left the Beaver enclave, Bauers took him to the campus library, and Lucas gave himself a crash course in dealing with the fae.

Iron was the best protection, so along with his gun and a steel knife, Lucas carried a short, sharpened piece of rebar. He considered that to be insurance, but Lucas didn’t believe the creature offering the cultists a free ride to the past was actually fae.

Maybe Shane’s recon would give them a better idea of what they were up against and how to stop it. Lucas disliked splitting up—something proven to be a bad idea both on the job and in past D&D games—but he had to agree that they were more likely to infiltrate the cult and the preppers going solo rather than as a team. He just hoped they both got back safely.

Up ahead, he saw the sign and gatehouse for the nuclear plant. Mindful of the warnings about the radiation levels, Lucas had no desire for a closer look. Movement caught his eye, and Lucas peered at the hazy figures of the ghosts that blocked the driveway.

Are they the guardians? The spirits of the shutdown crew that died sealing off the plant?

The revenants stood like sentries, shoulder to shoulder. Aside from the enclaves, there didn’t seem to be many people around to guard against, but Lucas figured that looters who didn’t understand the dangers might try their luck to find anything they could use or sell.

Rocky yelped a warning, and Lucas pivoted just in time to see an unusually tall, wizened old man with a mane of white hair and a long scraggly beard standing close behind him. Before Lucas could draw his

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