Gary ‘Gearhead’'s Arc

Chapter 2 of 15

The stranger stayed alive through the night, which meant Gary's problems weren't going away. By morning, word had spread somehow—voices carried in the wasteland, and the case wasn't a secret anymore. Gary stood at the fence line watching a dust cloud approach from the east. The Cadillac rolled to a stop outside the fence, armored plating welded over the doors and gun ports cut into the windows. Two men climbed out but kept their distance. The one in front wore clean boots and carried a worn leather suitcase that looked older than the war. He set it down in the dirt between them and stepped back. Gary crossed his arms and waited. The man gestured at the suitcase without opening it. Steel panels, he said. Concrete mix. Enough wire to fence the whole property twice over. All Gary had to do was hand over the case and walk away from whatever trouble came with it. The man's voice stayed level, but his eyes kept moving past Gary toward the trailer. Gary picked up the suitcase and carried it to the scrap shed at the edge of the yard. He locked the door behind him and opened the clasps. Inside lay inventory lists, supply routes, delivery schedules—everything he'd need to fortify the scrapyard properly. He ran his fingers over the paper and thought about the stranger bleeding in his trailer and the locked metal case hidden under a tarp. The fortification materials would protect what he'd built. Handing over the case would end the threat before it grew worse. But taking this deal meant letting someone else decide what happened on his property, and Gary had built this place by making his own calls. He walked back outside and threw the suitcase at the clean-booted man's feet. The supplies stayed, he said. Payment for the trouble of having armed men show up at his fence. But the case wasn't for sale, and neither was his judgment about what happened in his own yard. The man's face went hard. He warned Gary that people were coming for that case, and when they arrived, there wouldn't be another offer. Gary watched the Cadillac kick up dust as it drove away, then turned back toward his trailer. He'd kept his ground, but he'd just made enemies out of the people who could have been his walls.