The Black Rider - J.B. Trepagnier Page 0,32

and they hadn’t been around me when this happened before, but they must have recognized something on my face.

I didn’t even have to leave my seat. Aeron had a sketch pad ready, and Leif handed me a box of charcoal. As soon as I had the smooth chalk in my hand, my vision blurred. I had no idea what it was like when other Harbingers did this. I had no idea how my mother experienced this.

I never knew anything until I snapped out my trance and looked at what I drew. I never knew if it would be abstract or hyper-realistic, and I’d be horrified at what I just painted. I didn’t know if Aeron or Leif were saying anything as my hand moved across the page. I could never listen to music when this happened. I couldn’t hear a single sound in the room. There was always this ringing in my ears that didn’t stop until my vision cleared. I knew most people found ringing in their ears irritating and saw doctors about it, but there was something about the tone I always heard that was oddly comforting.

My hand stopped. The ringing in my ears went away. The last thing to come back was always my vision. I shook my head as the black started receding in my sight.

I looked down at what I had just done. I didn’t have to guess what was coming. It was staring at me right in the face. Back before the apocalypse, there was a militant white supremacist group that called themselves The Right Hand Path. They liked to violently disturb peaceful protests and set fire to minority businesses and churches. They had telltale signatures when they were out in public too. They wore red masks that covered everything but their eyes with a giant swastika in the center.

I’d drawn an entire heavily armed group of Right Hand Path members standing right at the sign that said Welcome to San Quintin. Some of them had rocket launchers aimed at what I could only imagine were the front gates.

“Seriously? The apocalypse couldn’t take out the Nazis?”

Leif and Aeron exchanged worried glances.

“Your father has been pandering to the extremist groups still left that Mexico has resources they won’t share. It fits right into their narrative. People with Erm, certain beliefs that have survived decided it was as good a time as any to let their racist freak flag fly. They were itching to do this before the apocalypse,” Leif said.

“Yes, but we have a warning now, and we can prepare. We can set more mines and traps by the signs. We’ll set an ambush. I can kill them all with just a thought, but I think everyone here who can shoot a gun would jump at the chance for there to be a few less Nazis in the world.”

“Yes, but my drawings don’t work like that. I could paint something, and it ends up on the news two hours later, or it could take weeks. I have this drawing, and we know The Right Hand Path is coming, but they could already be here right now.”

“They aren’t. I called Meremoth and had him scout. They aren’t at the gates.”

“We all have horses, Ariel. Abayomi is checking the border. You saw what it took to get into Mexico in the first place.”

“Oh, shit, we can’t just protect San Quintin. We have to help all those people at the border. You know they will kill any living person they see on the way down here. It’s pretty shitty to be a Harbinger if everything you see comes true, and you can’t change it.”

“That’s technically not true. Harbingers are just not allowed to stop anything. I know of at least three that lost their wings because they got fed up observing and did. We are using a different handbook right now, and we can totally change this if it stops Armageddon.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?”

Leif cleared his throat.

“You can’t save Mexico in your panties, Speedy. Go put some trousers on.”

Yeah, that would be a wonderful thing. It wasn’t like I could stop an army of Nazis carrying rocket launchers in a thong. Not even the sexy thongs I took from my apartment. At least I wasn’t wearing used scavenged panties.

Chapter 20

L

eif could have been working on a vaccine and a way to end this. I could have been going through emails to find out if shit would get worse. Instead, we had to go stop some white