Dust by Joan Frances Turner Read Free Book Online Page A

kidding. My head exploded too—with a little help from a cracker-ass sheriff and some of his friends. See this?” He brandished his right arm, a blackened stump with the stubby memory of fingers flaking off at the ends. “They shot me, then tried cooking me extra-crispy. Lucky I woke up before my head melted. That’s the last thing I heard ’em say: ‘ There’s another one for the fire.’ Nice, huh? So you gonna be like all the other ’maldies? The little pickled hoo-lovers who think they’re God’s special babies because they start going rotten in six months instead of three? You wanna tell me if that’s fair, princess? Huh? Is that fair?”
    Her eyes widened. “Sorry,” she whispered.
    “Sorry?” Ben snorted. “Here’s sorry.”
    He hit her hard, and she went flying. Her gang baptism, no different than mine, but unlike Peachy Perfect I didn’t sprawl on the ground and wail. Mags sauntered up, shoving me aside. “Oh, poor baby—he’s awful mean, isn’t he? Let me help you.”
    Slam, crash, facedown in the dry powdery dirt. Ben yanked her to her feet, giving Mags another crack, and even Florian and Linc didn’t step in to help. Tradition is tradition. The new girl gave me a desperate glance, and I just shrugged. Kids today. “So, you gonna run off and cry, or are you staying?”
    She panted, sagging in Ben’s grip. “You mean with you guys?”
    Unreal. “Yes, with us. Would you like—to stay—with us?”
    She nodded, unhappy but also resigned. Where the hell else did she have to go? Teresa walked over and leaned in close.
    “Thing is, you’ll have to learn, if you want to stick around.” She jabbed a finger in Renee’s face, silver rings rattling. “First is hunting. You hungry?”
    “Oh, yeah,” she whispered, miserable and pathetically eager. I remember that too.
    Teresa snickered. “Oh, yeah? Well, you get last rations until you can make a good kill yourself. If there’s no meat left when it’s your turn, tough. Second, I run this gang.” Nice long pause, and a sudden throat grab that made Renee squeal and choke. “ I run this gang. Understand? You eat when I say so. You sleep, talk, think when and how I say so, you kiss my bony flyblown ass twenty-nine times a day if I tell you to, and if you’re too good for that you can piss off right now. And everyone else here is better than you, including that asshole I threw into the bushes. You’re a piece of hoo shit.” Her grip loosened. “Well? Say it.”
    Renee choked, coughed. “Piece’f hoosht,” she mumbled.
    “What was that?” Teresa shook her until her teeth snapped and rattled. “What was that? What did you say, ’maldie?”
    “Hoo shit! I’m a piece of hoo shit!”
    “What are you? Huh?”
    “Hoo shit!”
    Amid the chorus of jeers, Teresa nodded. “That’s the second rule.” Her finger traced Renee’s ripped eyelid, delicate as a spider walking its web. “You already know the third.”
    Renee went down like a cement sack, gasping as Teresa’s foot sank into her gut, and when she rolled on her side Billy grabbed her legs and tossed her flat on her back. I was feeling charitable, so I just pulled a few fistfuls of patchy blond hair and left her to Ben and Mags. They tore strips of flesh off her arms, her face.
    “Easy now,” Florian said, still sitting and watching, but he didn’t try to rescue her. Gotta happen. Toughen them up. Linc frowned, took a step forward, but when Florian shook his head Linc didn’t push it. Renee, now crawling trying to get away, flung herself recklessly at Sam’s feet and nearly got her cheekbones kicked in for the trouble. Someone could’ve fed her first, at least, but it wasn’t gonna be me.
    Mags poked her fingers at Renee’s eyes, getting within millimeters so Renee kept whipping her head back and forth to escape them; that let Billy get in punches on her left side, Ben on her right. Jab, whap. Jab, smack. Florian and Sam and Linc sat in a cross-legged choral row, just