Outlaw by Dale Ivan Smith

Author:Dale Ivan Smith [Smith, Dale Ivan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Superhero Fantasy
Published: 2017-11-20T05:00:00+00:00

We caught a bus at the nearest highway, a couple of miles from where we’d emerged. It looked like a Trailways bus only it was painted brown and had letters in Farsi. Alex told me that was what the language was called. Alex took the lead, speaking in Persian to the driver, who didn’t bat an eye. Guess Alex’s accent was passable.

We sat in the back. There was a party of well-dressed people in the bus, sitting together. I tried not to stare, but I’d never seen people dressed in shiny, flowing robes in a rainbow of colors.

Alex leaned next to me, his lips almost brushing my ear, which made me feel warm and light inside. “Fire worshippers.”

“Don’t know what that is,” I replied.

“Official state religion. They must be heading to a ceremony.”

Persia was the far side of the moon for all I knew. Alex had told me I was rushing things. Well, good thing I had him there with me.

The bus was newer than I’d imagined, with an engine that rumbled as it drove.

Tehran was filled with trees. Sycamore trees that were strangely muted, like they were huddling in fear. Turns out that they were anticipating something.

We turned onto a really wide street, filled with cars, shops lining it, with tall buildings with many windows at the far end. Then the sky turned an ugly shade of brown, the wind picked up, and the bus rocked as it drove.

Ahead was a checkpoint. Men in dark brown uniforms, with other men in combat armor, examined people’s papers. The bus slowed as it reached the back of the column of vehicles waiting their turns. Beyond the checkpoint were a pair of armored cars, turreted guns pointing in our general direction.

I hunched down in my seat. I recognized security when I saw it.

“SAVAK,” Alex said. The Persian Imperial Security force, he’d told me about them. Support worked with them in this region. They provided security and Intel for the West Asian region and the South Russian Reclamation Zone. Keisha would have laughed her ass off at me knowing all this stuff.

I sounded like someone who actually knew something about the world. That’s what hanging out with Alex for a few days did to me. I really didn’t want to know about the world outside of Portland. I had enough there to keep me busy.

The fire worshippers chattered to each other and the driver. He answered back, voice calm. Trying to sound reassuring, I thought, but since I had no clue to the language I couldn’t be sure. The fire worshippers talked louder, then their speech became sing-song. Praying, maybe?

“What are they saying?” I asked Alex in a whisper.

“The wrath of the evil one,” he whispered back. “The driver says it’s just a sandstorm, but they aren’t buying it.

Evil one? I didn’t believe in the devil. I’d seen too many devils in the world to believe in one that came from someplace else. Trapped in the bus with a bunch of worshippers, not exactly what I had in mind when I’d agreed to head this way, instead of Sanctuary.

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