Part 1 (2/2)
The listening stickie used its other hand to adjust the cap it was wearing. The letters ”PTL” were st.i.tched in yellow on the blue hat, a souvenir of time spent in servitude in Wille ville. The creature had no idea what the initials stood for, nor did it care, since it couldn't read anyway. The hat had three things in its favor it fit snugly over long hair, it wasn't filthy like the rest of the stickie's clothing and the wide brim kept the sun off its pale face.
”No wags here, norm,” the mutie said, its shaded eyes surveying the surrounding landscape. The closest thing to a means of vehicular transportation were the stripped frames of abandoned automobiles.
”Don't call me that,” the man snapped. ”I'm not a norm. I'm no longer a man. I'm one of you now. A filthy, stinking mutie.”
The stickie pondered this for a long moment. ”You want me to call you Lester?”
A wet rasping sound came forth as he inhaled, then exhaled. ”h.e.l.l, no.”
”That was your name.”
”Not anymore. Forget you ever heard it.”
The stickie pondered this before answering. ”Have to call you something.”
”Just shut up, okay? Shut up and keep walking. Let's see if we can make that tractor-trailer rig up there. Can use it to camp in tonight.”
”Whatever you say, Norm, whatever you say.” The stickie reached down and offered a helping hand.
The newly christened Norm knocked the a.s.sistance away and awkwardly got to his feet on his own.
”f.u.c.k you, mutie,” he said proudly.
The stickie looked at him, its expression unreadable behind the aviator's gla.s.ses. ”Saved you, Norm. Saved your life.”
”I can't say I'm grateful, you ugly p.r.i.c.k.” Spittle and drool flowed freely from the slash of the man's ruined mouth, splas.h.i.+ng out in drips and drabs and hitting the mutie in the face. The mutant didn't appear to mind. ”Did I ever say thank you? Can't remember that I did. Wish you'd let me finish burning like a candle in that s.h.i.+thole.”
”Need me,” the stickie said, pointing a long bony finger to itself. The finger turned and pointed at Norm. ”Need you.”
”Yeah, yeah, you've told me. Word got out before everything back at the ville went to h.e.l.l, didn't it? About the western part of Carolina crawling with muties? f.u.c.king Lord Kaa-kaa and his plans to unite all the mutants.”
”Lord Kaa,” the mutie said in tones of reverence. ”Lord Kaa.”
”Yeah, whatever. Lord Kaa sent word outhow, I have no f.u.c.king ideato all of you freaks in the baron's mutie zoo about this place.”
”Budd wasn't in the zoo,” the stickie said firmly, identifying itself by name.
”Excuse me, all the freaks in the zoo combined with all the mutie t.u.r.ds working the grunt detail on the elevator wheel with us dumb-a.s.s norms who were stupe enough to get Willie-boy all p.i.s.sed off. I was a good sec man for a long d.a.m.n time for my baron, the dried-up old s.k.a.n.k. I make one mistake, and he drops me. Just because I missed that old b.a.s.t.a.r.d's blade hidden in his walking stick.”
Norm muttered all of these details in a singsong voice. Reciting the same account over and over had committed the rant to memory. Budd didn't protest, but merely listened.
”Bet One-eye put his pal up to hiding the s.h.i.+v. Yeah, I miss one old fart's blade, and my boss f.u.c.ks me up the a.s.s in front of everybody and next thing I know I'm stuck in the bas.e.m.e.nt turning the elevator wheel with guys like you.”
The mutie pondered the words. ”Budd had been at the wheel for many days. Weeks.”
”And what did you do to earn your stint?”
”Nothing. Budd did nothing.”
The scarred man stopped walking and turned to face his a.s.sociate. ”Wrong. Budd was born with oozing hands and a strong back. Face it, all you stickies were f.u.c.ked from birth. But you'd learned to accept it, right? Until you mutie b.a.s.t.a.r.ds got the word Kaa was coming to save your sorry a.s.ses, freeing you from the fields and the wheels and the baron's mutie zoo. Kaa might have pulled it off, too, except the cannies and the scabies and all you stickies got a serious murder l.u.s.t and started killing one another off.”
”Lord Kaa couldn't contain us all,” Budd said simply. ”The blood fever came. We were unable to stop ourselves.”
”Good thing, or we wouldn't be going north. Kaa had the right idea, but he was too weird to pull it off. Muties always have needed a strong hand.”
”Like yours, Norm.”
”Yeah, like mine. We'll go to Winston, Budd. We'll start over there, me and you both. h.e.l.l, guys like us, we're heading for the promised land!”
The stickie didn't answer as it continued concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. Norm was allowed to straggle along under his own steam now. Despite what some said, muties did possess rudimentary emotions, and Budd was both hurt and angered by his companion's caustic comments about Lord Kaa. The mutant could have broken the smaller human into pieces, if it had chosen to. Instead, Budd had accepted the responsibility of companions.h.i.+p.
”What happened to Lord Kaa, anyway?” Norm asked after a few moments, growing bored with the sound of his own labored breathing.
”Budd doesn't know. Lord Kaa was there, then he wasn't. He disappeared.”
”Chilled, most likely. Yeah, he's probably back there in Wille ville under a ton of burned brick and dead muties.”
”Budd doesn't agree. Kaa lives.”
”Budd can kiss my a.s.s. I don't give a s.h.i.+t what you think.”
”Then, leave me.”
”You wish. Of course, we both know that's the problem here,” Norm said, his voice trailing off. ”The fact is thisyou stickies couldn't find your d.i.c.ks with both hands in a stiff wind.”
”Norm helping Budd.”
The man took off the sungla.s.ses for a moment and rubbed his injured eyes. ”I guess so. Somebody has to. Navigation isn't your strong suit, and I've heard about this stickie hive where we're going. Some of the other sec men I worked with back at Willie's before the ville got toasted had pulled duty time at the human outpost near our new home. Muties have the entire city to themselves, and the norms live farther out from it, safe and snug in their own pocket of protection.”
Norm took another breath. ”Yeah, I guess we're in this together, mutie, like it or not.”
”Why?”
”Like I told youI'm mutie now. I'm Norm the half-melted mutie. Way I look, your kind is the only ones left in the Deathlands that can accept me without gagging.”
”You are a strange norm, Lester,” Budd said.
The shorter figure's one good eye flashed with anger. ”For the last time don't call me that. Call me Norm. Lester's dead. Buried back in Willie ville. If we make it to where I'm planning, I've got some plans, Budd. Big plans. Your Lord Kaa? He was a friggin' piker compared to what I'm planning to take over and rebuild. All you stickies need to take over your lives is some guidanceand me and you, we're going to give them all the lessons they need.”
Silence. More steps.
”Norm?”
”What?”
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