Succinct (Extinct Book 5)

by Ike Hamill

  “Hey,” Corinna said. “I’m going to take a quick look around to make sure everything is safe.”

  Ashley shrugged. She leaned back against the concrete wall and studied the map. Lisa said that when she was growing up they used to calculate travel time as a mile per minute. It had taken them all night to cross Connecticut and get into New York. Everyone said that the bridge over the Hudson River was about to fall down. Once it did, the trip might take multiple days. Brad said that boat travel was going to be the only viable transportation before long. People who lived up in Donnelly didn’t agree. They were breeding big herds of horses for the days when the roads finally became impassable. Well, some of them were. Others were working hard to maintain a small network of important roads.

  “Don’t move,” Corinna whispered.

  Ashley lowered the map.

  “I wasn’t,” she said.

  “Shhh!”

  “Get up here, right now,” Corinna whispered.

  Ashley reached behind herself to find the lip of the loading platform, jumped, and scooted back so she could get to her feet. Corinna practically dragged her backwards through the door. They both looked out through the rectangular window of the steel door. Corinna was pointing at the shadow of a bush. A moment later, with a flash of yellow and tan, Ashley saw what she was pointing at. The giant slinked to the long shadow of the vehicle and flopped down on its side. It folded its ears back and flicked its tail as it licked a paw.

  “A second later and it would have pounced on you,” Corinna whispered.

  “Why are you still whispering? It’s not going to get through this door.”

  “They usually take to bed at dawn. If it’s here, then its bed is probably close.”

  “Shouldn’t we be making a lot of noise then? To scare it away?”

  Corinna pulled back and gave Ashley a look. “Scare it away? I was going to try to put an arrow in it.”

  “You don’t eat meat.”

  “Times change. I’ve been on the road for a while. I’m like that cougar—I’ll eat whatever I come across.”

  “Remind me not to fall asleep,” Ashley said.

  “Don’t worry about. You’d probably be too stringy. Not worth the effort.”

  “Keep an eye on it,” Corinna said. “I’m going to grab that bow. Your father usually leaves them near the equipment, right?”

  “Yeah. If there’s a shelf, look on top of that. He likes to hide weapons up high.”

  Corinna slipped off, deeper into the building.

  While Ashley watched, the cat perked its ears up and glanced around. She had never seen a live one up close before. Deer came pretty close to the house to try to get at Lisa’s garden. Up north, she had seen both moose and bears. But the big cats didn’t seem to spend much time in Gladstone. Maybe they didn’t like all the people around.

  The cougar stood up and started to sniff at the door flap of the four wheeler. It laid its whiskers back and made a face.

  Corinna came back empty-handed.

  “You couldn’t find it?”

  “I found it. The problem is the other thing I found.”

  When she waved, Ashley followed. Through the sorting room, Corinna led Ashley to the lobby and then over to a window. On the front porch of the post office, a bush had grown so large that its branches practically blocked the whole window. Bending down, they could see beneath the bush.

  Corinna pointed at a spotted brown lump of fur. When the kittens stirred Ashley smiled. There were three of them in the pile.

  “They’re pretty young,” Corinna whispered. “They’ll stay with their mom another year or two. I can’t take her.”

  Ashley nodded. The smile disappeared from her face. She wanted to say that the kittens would be fine. The father or other family would step in to take care of them. It wasn’t true though. That kind of thing didn’t happen with animals. At the edge of the leaves, Ashley saw the mother slinking along the side the building to return to her kittens. She tapped Corinna on the shoulder and the two of them backed away from the window so they wouldn’t spook her.

  “I’ll keep an eye on them if you want to go forage,” Corinna said.

  Ashley nodded.

  With a bag over her shoulder, Ashley headed down the road toward the park. The rising sun turned everything pink for a moment and then real color seeped into the world. When she saw a thin trail through overgrown grass, she veered to follow it. The deer would have a network of trails that would lead to all the good gardens. She followed them from yard to yard, looking for areas contained by fences and gates.

  Behind a sturdy wire fence, Ashley found a patch of carrots and green beans. She let herself in and started to collect. The back door the house was open. Romie would have closed the door. The kids made fun of her, calling her the Mad Shutter.

  Ashley didn’t make fun of Romie. Looking that the darkness beyond the open door, Ashley understood the compulsion. It seemed like there might someone inside, hiding in the darkness, watching her. She didn’t turn her back to the door as she bent and picked more carrots.

  Part of the fence had been absorbed into the trunk of a tree. On Ashley’s side, some yellow shelf mushrooms were within reach. At home, Ashley would have brought them back to the house. On her own, she wasn’t confident enough to say they were edible. Plenty of people had gotten sick from misidentification. Lisa even theorized that some species were changing and becoming poisonous over time. Ashley didn’t care about them enough to take the risk.

  In the next yard she found some small potatoes that were just big enough to cook. She had plenty of weight in her bag and turned her eye toward flavor. Herbs were easy to find. Her favorites were cilantro and chives and she could find them almost anywhere if she looked.

  Ashley felt good about her haul and only stopped once more. There were plenty of windows at the back of one of the larger houses. She saw lots of muddy footprints of small animals leading from the yard in through the back door. It seemed like a whole community used the house for shelter.

  Ashley shoved the door farther open with her foot.

  Nothing moved inside.

  Brad always talked about the way that Coke used to taste. He said that the key was that they used to make it and ship it without the bottles ever freezing or getting too hot. He never could explain how they had pulled off that feat when they distributed the stuff around the country. One time, on a trip up the coast, he had found a garage with what he called a “Drink Fridge.” Opening it, Brad had taken a step back and put a hand over his mouth as he inhaled with surprise.

  “This is it,” Brad had said. “This might be your only chance.”

  From the dead refrigerator, he had pulled a sagging paper container of tall bottles. Their shape looked strange and inefficient to Ashley. She had cocked her head and looked at the cursive writing.

  “With any luck, the refrigerator has protected these from too many temperature swings. Cross your fingers.”

  Ashley and Jim had dutifully crossed their fingers as they watched Brad clean each bottle before putting them in the cooler. They had wanted to try the drink right then, but Brad didn’t let them touch it until he had cleared it with their father.

  “Besides,” he said, “this stuff has to be ice cold.”

  In the end, Brad had declared the discovery a disappointment. The drink was strange and sharp when Ashley tried to sip it. It burned her throat and made her eyes water. Brad said it had gone bad.

  Ever since that day, Ashley had been looking for more Coke to try. Brad said that the best stuff said “Made in Mexico” on the bottle. With that in mind, she crossed the tile floor, grabbing a set of tongs from a jar on the counter. She covered her mouth and nose with her arm and used the tongs to pry open the refrigerator door.

  It opened like an old tomb, fresh air rushing in with a gasp. Ashley swung the door open and saw desiccated black remnants of old food in there. There were bottles in the door, but no Coke.

  Ashley backed out of the house
into the morning air. She closed the door behind herself. After a moment, she changed her mind. There could be animals in there. Rabbits hiding under the couch, or a fox curled up in a cabinet. She didn’t want to trap them inside. Ashley push the door open a crack and then got her bearings to head back to the post office.

  When she saw the second vehicle parked next to hers, Ashley froze. It only took a moment for her to process the implication. She broke into a run. Bursting through the rear door, she saw him and ran into a hug.

  “Dad!”

  “Hey, sweetie,” Robby said, giving her a big hug.

  “How did you find us?” Ashley asked. She didn’t wait for him to answer. “You’re the one who gave Corinna the map. You guessed that we would leave in the middle of the night and you’ve been checking the post offices up through New Jersey.”

  “That’s exactly right,” he said. “Plus, there’s a motion sensor on the consoles. I get an alert when someone is near the networking equipment. It’s mostly for animals, but…”

  “It also told you when Corinna came inside.”

  Robby nodded and smiled.

  “But why?” Ashley asked. “If you guessed that I would leave home, why didn’t you wait down at the Outpost? I was headed there anyway.”

  “Because Corinna is going to head back north. This is the end of the road for her and I thought you might want someone to travel with. It’s still a long way.”

  “You didn’t think I would make it on my own,” Ashley said with a frown. “Honestly, Dad, I don’t need to be chaperoned everywhere I go.”

  “I know, sweetie,” he said. He reached out and touched her hair.

  Ashley rolled her eyes.

  “Give him a break,” Corinna said. “Fathers are supposed to be overprotective. He won’t go with you beyond the Outpost. You can assert your independence then.”

  Ashley looked between Corinna and her father and wondered if that was really true.

  Chapter 7: Tim

  “Please forgive me in advance,” Tim said. He glanced at Gloria. “I get nervous talking in front of groups.”

  It wasn’t a huge group—it was only seven people. Still, Tim had seen what happens when the dynamics of a group turns sour. He couldn’t help but be nervous, even though the faces in front of him were still open and ready to listen.

  “Let me start by saying that I really respect and appreciate all the important research that is happening at this Outpost. I know that everyone here has made a sacrifice, putting themselves close to an unknown risk, in order to ensure the success of the group.”

  Gloria told him to butter everyone up first, before he made his proposal. He should have known that it wouldn’t work on this group. They were growing skeptical at his praise. Two people in the back narrowed their eyes and visibly stiffened.

  “Let me get right to the facts,” Tim said. He was guaranteed five minutes without crosstalk. That was the rule.

  “We all understand the reason behind our community safety guidelines. As a community, we have decided that preserving genetic diversity is of utmost importance to the long-term survival of our species. I know that a couple of you were, in fact, key members of the committee that decided on how to ensure that diversity.”

  He made eye contact with Dianne. She was his strongest opponent, so he wanted to direct his comments toward her. This group would never be swayed if he only addressed the people who were already on the fence. They would see that as a weakness in his logic.

  “To that end, I know that everyone here has either fulfilled their breeding commitment, or has had their samples frozen for the future.”

  This was a crass way of putting it, but Tim wanted the process to sound a little gross. In his opinion, forced breeding was a little gross. His dog Penny, for instance, had shown no interest in the males presented to her when she was in heat. Tim had been bullied into holding her still for the attempted insemination. It hadn’t worked. Penny had never become pregnant and Tim had felt like a monster for making her endure the process. It was for the good of future canines of the world. He understood that, but it didn’t make the process any less disgusting to him.

  “As capable adults, we are also held responsible for keeping ourselves safe so that we will be available in case we’re ever called upon to help with raising orphaned children.”

  The incoherence of this argument was obvious to Tim. There were certainly plenty of families who would gladly take in a child. Their community didn’t need these scientists to step in, when they clearly had valuable contributions to make through their work.

  “On the other hand, we’ve already decided that the work we’re doing here requires a certain amount of risk to our safety, and that the possible benefit of what we might learn outweighs that risk.”

  Dianne looked like she wanted to interrupt. It was against the rules of the special meeting—Tim’s five minutes weren’t up yet—but he wanted the debate. He knew the point that she was going to make and he felt that his side would be more impactful as a rebuttal.

  “You’ve already called for a vote to move. We voted and the idea was rejected. If you assemble evidence to support the measure, you can call for another vote at next month’s meeting.”

  “I regret my earlier measure,” Tim said. “I’m willing to admit that I was wrong—we should not pick up and move beyond the Outpost.”

  Dianne fell silent.

  “Instead, I would like to propose that we secede from the community completely. We can stay here, engaging in the research, but we should no longer trade with or support the rest of the community.”

  He only let that sink in for a moment before he started again.

  “Our goals might align for the moment, but the only way we’re going to increase our effectiveness is to distance ourselves from the core mandates. This place should maintain its own safety guidelines and its own set of mandates. We should be closely tied with the larger community, but effectively quarantined from them. With that quarantine, we will be free to fully realize the experiments that will lead to the knowledge that the rest of them need, whether they realize it or not.”

  Tim waited to see if anyone would immediately object. They didn’t.

  “I surrender the rest of my time.”

  He wanted the debate to start. Once they started debating, he thought it was clear that they would reach the same conclusion that he had. The community thought that they were doing the Outpost a favor by including them under their big umbrella. With a good debate, Tim knew this group would come around.

  Dianne stood.

  “Let’s vote,” she said.

  “No!” Tim practically shouted. “Let’s talk it through first. I want to hear what people think.”

  “You’ll hear it in their vote. All in favor of seceding?”

  Nobody raised their hand. Even Gloria sat silent.

  “Denied. Tim, I think it’s clear that you need some time to really evaluate your dedication to our mission here.”

  “No,” he said. “My dedication is the only reason I’m so passionate.”

  “I, for one, disagree. I believe that your passion stems from a deep dissatisfaction with your own path, and has little to do with us,” Dianne said. She adjourned the meeting.

  “She was hurt by your proposal. It was like an indictment of her leadership,” Gloria said. “Believe me, it’s not easy to be seen as a leader. It takes a very thick skin.”

  “Is it too much to ask that a leader of a research group value logic more than ego?” Tim asked. He rolled a shirt into a tight ball and stuffed it into the bottom of his bag.

  “I’m sure she does value logic more than her own ego, but that doesn’t mean she’s always going to act accordingly. Think of it from her perspective. It feels like you waited for Robby to leave before you started getting all antsy about the rules. Robby was her biggest supporter. Without him, she needs everyone to demonstrate complete confidence in her. Your proposals must have seemed like personal attacks.”

&n
bsp; “It breaks my heart, but there’s no way I can take Penny with me. I know you don’t want a dog long term, but would you watch her until Robby comes back?”

  “If I say no, will you consider staying?”

  Tim shook his head. “I will ask one of the others.”

  “Don’t be silly. Of course I’ll watch her. You’re crazy if you think that she’ll be happier here than going with you.”

  “It’s not about what would make her happy,” Tim said. “I can’t guarantee that I’m going to be able to find enough food to survive out there. I can’t stand the thought of watching her waste away. She’s not a puppy anymore. She needs a good diet and a nice place to curl up at night.”

  Tears jumped to Tim’s eyes when he looked at Penny. He blinked them back. Knowing that she was safe was more important than having her companionship. Besides, she would be there to come back to, if his resolve diminished.

  “I will comfort her the best I can,” Gloria said. “You’ll be able to find plenty of water, I’m sure, so I will pack you up a bunch of dried fruit and meat.”

  Tim shook his head. “I can’t. I’m not going to take anything that the community produced. It doesn’t belong to me anymore.”

  “I thought you’d say that, but you’re wrong. Everything I’m giving you comes from my five percent. It’s all documented. This is my food to give, and you’ll take it or I will give it all to Dianne.”

  “You wouldn’t,” Tim said, trying to keep a straight face.

  They laughed together. Penny thumped her tail against the floor at the break in tension.

  Tim sighed and shook his head.

  “While I finish packing, tell me all the latest information we know about the jungle.”