Zombie Road: The Second Omnibus | Books 4-6 | Jessie+Scarlet Simpson, A. (pride and prejudice read txt) 📖

and they could let the Mexicans know there was a new Sheriff in town. It would be a long holiday in the sun, just like in the movies. What the movies didn’t show were the giant jumping spiders or the black widows or the rattlesnakes or the scorpions the size of your fist. They didn’t show how hot and miserable it was, even in the winter. It was only March and the temperatures were already in the eighties. The ocean disappeared at low tide, it went out so far you couldn’t even see it. It stank like seaweed, the mosquitos were everywhere, and the backup generator to the backup generator was on the fritz. This place would be unlivable without electricity. Hell, it was barely livable now. With the crappy gas they were pulling out of the bottom of the tanks at the stations, no wonder the decrepit machines were breaking down. They needed to get back home. This place sucked and those assholes in Lakota weren’t going to keep him out of America. He’d been listening to their stupid radio station, and he knew there were other towns out there doing just fine. Other walled communities that maybe weren’t as heavily armed as Lakota. Other places with electric and water. He’d heard that idiot Bastille bragging about setting up trade routes and sending people to help other towns get the power turned back on. Lakota had technicians and experts. Whoopy humpy doo. He had experts, too. Experts at taking what they wanted.

He’d been working on a new plan these past few months. He had the crew, he had the guns, and he had the brains. He was tired of two-bit hood games. He had plans. Big plans. He’d take over one of those towns, make it his own. A good one, with good defenses. They just had to make sure they didn’t kill any of the important people, the ones that knew how to run the power plants and things like that. That’s how he’d start his empire, one town at a time. Once he established his headquarters, made it just as secure as Fort Knox, he’d move on to the next town, expand his network. He didn’t need to completely occupy it, he’d just make them pay taxes. Maybe leave an emissary to oversee things. Get the local leaders to play ball and keep their people in line. Make them responsible. He would get a share of everything they produced, just like in all the mafia movies. Just like a king and his baronies. People would pay, it was easier than getting half their compound torched, their men killed, and their women raped. He just had to make an example or two and the other towns would fall in line. Just like he had when he took over the prison. Show ‘em who's boss. Those assholes in Lakota couldn’t come riding to the rescue of every little town that was springing up. Even if they tried, he’d just cut them down. Teach them a lesson, too.

He had some of his best crews out running recon missions for him. Scouting towns, recruiting new members, gathering up some more slaves. His men tended to go a little too wild, he kept telling them not to kill everyone, just instill fear. Barbecue a town’s leader, let the new recruits eat a chunk of meat, but stop burning settlements to the ground. Stop killing everybody. If everyone was dead, who was going to supply them with food and gas? Most of his lieutenants understood his plan and he made examples of those who couldn’t control themselves. He was trying to build something big.

Lucinda helped him a lot behind the scenes. It had been her idea to send out the advance squads to hit little towns, kill off a few people, and start building his forces. Too many guys just hanging out in San Felipe getting drunk all the time wasn’t good for his army, she’d said. His men needed a mission and the settlements in the States needed to know Lakota wouldn’t be there to help them. If they didn’t want to be burnt to the ground, they were going to have to start paying for protection.

She snuck the young girls in his rooms, too. She insisted they keep it quiet. Remember what happened in the prisons to certain kinds of inmates? she had asked and he didn’t need to be told twice. The kiddie diddlers got a beat down. Some things were best kept secret.

She snuck the girls out the following morning, too. He’d become dependent on her to take care of everyday things. He’d asked for her to bring back the same girl a few times but she never did. Said he deserved someone new every time.

When the first of his recon teams came back with their haul of women, weapons, and food to keep San Felipe going, Lucinda had brought back a ceremonial human sacrifice to celebrate. She claimed her grandmother back in Memphis was a Voodoo Priestess and the powers of sight had been passed on to her. Casey didn’t believe in all that mumbo jumbo, but he let her do whatever she wanted. It made for good theater and it actually scared the superstitious people. Lucinda knew very little about real voodoo, just what anyone who grew up around a few practitioners and watched a few movies would know. She just made it up as she went along. About the only thing she got right was the dancing and the drums. She told him about a ceremony that included killing a chicken and dancing naked, but wanted to up the ante and kill one of the prisoners and have an orgy. That should really make the dark gods happy. They did it and it had become a tradition over the winter. She’d have her ceremonies every new moon. He didn’t know if it made the voodoo gods happy, but it made an impression on everyone,