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“The Traveling Market has been ruled for three years now by the King of Merchants. The story goes, he was traded as a toddler to a merchant in the wastelands. The fool brought the child back to the market, caged like an animal. He was eager to show his prize; he possessed a mutant child, after all. The four founders of the Traveling Market were not happy. They followed tight rules of honor and trade. They didn’t dabble in human trafficking. They punished the man and cared for the child. He was raised in the market, and years later became its ruler when the founders died one by one. Do not let his title fool you. He’s far from what you must imagine. He’s not a kind merchant sitting on a throne surrounded by wares. He’s a ruthless ruler who has ensured for years that the market survives against all threats, even before he was crowned. Alastair the First is to be respected and feared.”

Extract from The Traveling Market and its King by Nolan Sigmond, published in 2062.

Jude points at me. “Help me get him in the Firefly! We’re leaving.”

Stellan doesn’t hesitate to grab me under the arms while Jude gets my legs. The indignity of being carried like a sack of potatoes almost makes me forget my wounds for a moment. Almost. I grind my teeth as pain shoots through my entire body.

Once we get into the hangar, Perri looks up from his computer screen. They installed a desk for him to work while being plugged into the Firefly.

“What?” he asks, confused by our sudden arrival.

“Unplug everything!” explains Stellan. “The King is coming.”

To his credit, Perri doesn’t miss a beat.

“Dang it!” he says, pulling the wires out. “I didn’t even get into its core!”

The men throw me irreverently on the passenger’s seat.

Jude jumps on the pilot’s chair. “Dumdumb, start the engines!”

“Welcome back, Mr. President. Mr Jude,” says Fyfe, lighting up.

The engines come to life, and not a second too soon as men pour into the hangar, armed to the teeth.

“Fuck! Dumdumb, go! Go!” shouts Jude, just as the King of Merchants walks in.

My brother is too famous and recognizable. He’s Afro-American, with an under-shave and dense white locks. I can’t see them from here, but I know he has silver eyes. And those eyes must be stormy as he orders at his men to fire.

Bullets ricochet on the Firefly’s windshield and hull as it backs out of the hangar. Thankfully, it’s bulletproof.

“Aero engine number four damaged,” announces Fyfe as we take to the sky. “Low altitude advised in case of imminent failure.”

Jude swears as the Firefly dives toward the ground. We leave a cloud of dust behind us.

“What have you done to anger the King of Merchants?” I can’t help but ask.

Jude groans loudly. “Remember when I said I came to the market years ago? Well, we were lovers for a time, after I hooked up with Perri. And I might have stolen one of his vehicles one night, with food and stuff, and disappeared into the wastelands without a second glance.”

“You stole from the King of Merchants?” I say, dumbfounded.

In the code of merchants, stealing is one of the worst offenses.

“Yeah… Not my brightest idea,” Jude admits.

I’m held prisoner by a fucking moron.

“Will Perri and Stellan be okay?” I ask.

Jude offers me a quizzical look, certainly surprised that I care. To be honest, I couldn’t care less about Stellan, but Perri was kind to me. He reminded me of Helios years ago.

“Yeah. They’ll be fine. They’re the King’s best hacker and mechanic. He needs them.”

“A few vehicles are following us,” Fyfe informs us.

A video feed appears on one of the screens, showing us rovers and cars giving chase.

“Fuck. He was ready for that eventuality,” says Jude, biting his bottom lip. “What are you smiling about?” he says to me when he notices the grin on my face.

“I kind of wish they get us now, just to see what he’ll do to you.”

“And what do you think he’ll do to you?” he retorts. “I’ve heard that encounters among mutants rarely end well. You’re as territorial as the old gods you were created from.”

I nod. I have wounds in my gut and chest that attest to that. But at this point, I don’t fucking care anymore.

“As long as he lets me watch while he kills you first, I’ll die happy,” I say.

Jude snorts. “Motherfucker.”

The Firefly flies low among the rocks. Alerts light up the screens and control panel as more vehicles join the chase from their hideouts in the wastelands. The Traveling Market’s entire defense forces are after us. It must cost an arm in fuel.

“I really pissed him off,” Jude muses. He almost sounds proud of himself.

I have to admit, he has balls. It seems that antagonizing mutants like the King of Merchant or me is a past-time for him.

Luckily, the Firefly is faster than the vehicles, thanks to the fact that it’s not being slowed by the terrain, even with a damaged aero engine.

As we crest a rocky hill and drop to the other side, the wastelands expand to the horizon. But the horizon is blocked by an armada of military trucks, cars, and rovers. I gape, amazed by the King of Merchants’ resources.

“Shit!” shouts Jude. “The Highwaymen!”

I frown. He’s right, those are not the King’s men. The blood-red flags of the infamous group of nomads, the Highwaymen, fly in the wind on top of most vehicles. I’ve heard rumors lately that they’ve been more active. They were always the biggest threats to traveling merchants, and it looks like they are now in an open war.

I’ve killed dozens of them over the years myself.

“You need to fly us higher, Dumdumb!” says Jude.

“Impossible. The damaged aero engine might explode and kill the President in the crash,” says the AI.

Jude groans. I can’t help but laugh.

Behind us, the King’s little army crested the hill, still giving chase.

“Dumdumb, do you have weapons?” asks Jude.

“The Firefly was designed to evade and protect the President of the United States. It isn’t equipped to bring the President into dangerous situations.”

Jude sighs. “Well, we are in a dangerous situation, whether you want it or not.”

The Highwaymen open fire toward the King’s men, and we stand right in the middle. The Firefly veers to the side and I find myself glued to the chair with the G force and I almost bite my tongue off.

“Please, fasten your seatbelt,” Fyfe says. “Evading protocol activated.”

Jude swears and helps me put mine on; I still can’t raise my arms. It’s some kind of harness that goes over the shoulders and chest. We’re strapped in just in time for the Firefly to swerve to avoid an honest-to-gods rocket. It explodes on one of the King’s trucks behind us. It looks like the Highwaymen have access to military weaponry. It’s not a comforting thought.

I grind my teeth against the pain. Every movement hurts.

The two armies clash behind us as Fyfe takes us away, over the rocky hills, deep into the wastelands.

“Will the King survive?” I ask.

Jude sighs. “Oh yes. That man is a freak of nature, just like you.” Freak of nature, and not monster. “The Highwaymen have been attacking the market for a while now. They never got close. And tonight, the market will relocate. And while it moves location, they will eradicate all the Highwaymen they find in the surrounding wastelands.”

It sounds like an awful waste of soldiers and resources.

“Why do the Highwaymen do it?” I say.

“I don’t fucking know. They’ve always been a reckless bunch, but it’s gotten worse lately.”

He watches the horizon, a serious expression on his beautiful face. I wonder if he’s worried about his past lover, the King of Merchant.

Fyfe flies for twenty minutes before announcing, “Safe landing protocol activated. Damage to the aero engine must be inspected.”

Jude sighs as the Firefly lands at the entrance of a wide cave on a small mountain range. I think we’re still in Nevada. The mountains are barren and depressing. I already miss Yosemite.

Jude gets out and inspects the damage to the engine. Then he walks to the cave. He comes back a moment later.

“Yeah, one of the blades is broken. Dumdumb, I think you can fit inside,” he says, pointing at the cave. “We should spend a few days here, to wait for the Highwaymen to disperse. Then we can find someone to do the repairs.”

The Firefly enters the cave and settles in the shade. We’ll be hidden from eyes in the sky. The smell of water hits me.

The suspicion is confirmed when Jude says, “There’s a river deeper into the cave.”

My genes react to the smell, and happiness bubbles to the surface. There is a reason why I decided to build an underground city, so close to a subterranean river. My mutations crave such an environment. My old god dwells deep into the underwater caves of Venezuela.

I watch as Jude sets up a camp inside the cave. The Firefly is well equipped for survival. There are thermal blankets and sleeping bags. And because the President liked his comfort, even during a mad flight, they also packed folding chairs and a table. Jude could sleep in the aircraft again. There is a bed on top of the cupboards, but it’s close to the roof and a little claustrophobic. I don’t blame him for wanting to sleep on the mossy ground of the wide cave.

“Hey, asshole,” I call out at some point.

Jude’s eyes are cold as he looks up. “Is it me you’re calling an asshole? Me, the kind soul who is feeding you and keeping you alive?”

“I have an urgent need,” I say.

“Hold it.”

“I’ve been holding it for two days. If you don’t help me right now, I’ll soil the seat of your beautiful new aircraft,” I say calmly.

To be honest, the only reason I didn’t need to go sooner was because I sweated out most of the water in my body during the two feverish nights I survived. But I can’t delay bodily functions any longer. Even though I’m still surprised that I can even have bodily functions. It looks like I’m not dying anymore.

Too bad.

Jude sighs. “Spare me from useless monsters…”

He enters the Firefly once again and pulls me out of my chair by the armpits. It takes all I have not to groan from the pain. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of my suffering.

“Gods, Stellan was right… You smell like death,” he says.

“That’s because I almost died,” I retort.

“Oh, stop whispering sweet nothings to me.”

I glare at him and he laughs.

He half carries me half drags me to the fancy little toilet at the back of the Firefly. The President wasn’t expected to shit in nature.

Surprisingly, he gives me some privacy and goes back outside. I hold on to the metal rails so not to fall headfirst as I pull my torn pants down. Once I have done my business, I let myself slide to the floor. I wait, out of breath, for what feels like an eternity. I know there are weapons in the many cupboards, but Jude wasn’t dumb enough to let me get access to them. He has locked them up; I’ve seen the set of keys around his neck.

After a moment, he comes back to check on me. He drags me outside this time. I land heavily on the cave’s floor. Before I have time to complain, he pulls me farther into the cave.

“What are you doing?” I ask, panic rising.

“Giving you a bath. I can’t stand to share a space with your rotten ass.”

He leaves me near a natural pool deeper into the cave. He goes back to the Firefly and brings back a solar lamp, a bar of soap, and a pair of scissors. He takes off the shirt Perri gave me with care, but cuts my pants right off my legs. He doesn’t hesitate to cut my underwear, either. He stares at my cock for a moment. I know I’m really big, even when soft. But what caught his attention must be the darker veins that converge to the head of my dick, turning it almost black.

“Are you done ogling?” I say.

“As if you have anything to tempt me.”

Without warning, he rolls me to the side, and I plunge into the cold water.