by Alice Sabo
Lily slid her hand into Rosa’s to skip alongside her. “Yes, it was very scary, but Wisp helped us.”
“Why was it scary?” Rosa asked. Her steps slowed. Tilly could feel the tension coming back to the adults.
“Because of the men with guns. But they’re not here. Wisp brought us here because it’s safe.”
The tension lifted, and then they were at the cafeteria. Tilly guided them to the food line. She saw them served and settled at a table. Stepping back behind the steam tables, she took a careful look at the room. Most of the people, she knew well. They sat in predictable clumps, the Growers Committee at one table, the Housekeeping Committee at another. Elsa and Dieter had a table on a raised platform so that they were on an even level with the rest of the adults. The few newcomers from Riverbank and the children from Barberry Cove were scattered across the room. All the unfamiliar faces suddenly gave her an odd premonition of danger. Then a handful of the Watch arrived, joking and elbowing each other on their way through the food line and her fears evaporated like fog under a hot sun.
Chapter 17
“We all made the mistake of thinking that we could cure the flu. That we could think our way out of this crisis.”
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
NICK WAITED UNTIL THE new folks had finished eating before he refilled his coffee and ambled over to them. “Hi, I’m Nick, the trader for High Meadows.”
Rosa gave him what looked like a practiced smile in a polite face. A teenager sitting next to her stood at her gesture to offer Nick his chair. Istvan turned an attentive look on him. “Please sit. We are always happy to talk with traders.”
“I wonder if you know of any open settlements that barter,” Nick said amiably. He gave them the option of sharing information. Wisp had assured him that these folks were harmless, but he liked to make that assessment for himself.
“What sort of things do you barter?” Istvan asked. He had a kind open face and warm brown eyes that twinkled with interest.
“It varies,” Nick said. “We grow some crops. I travel. Sometimes I find things that have worth to others. Sometimes I can get more than we need. We have some extra cheese right now.” Nick watched for their surprise, but only saw cautious looks.
“Cheese. You make it yourself?” Rosa asked. Her forehead creased in a worried frown.
“No I bartered for it.”
“Goat?”
“Um, no cow.”
That got several looks back and forth. “You know where there are cows?”
“Yes.” Nick thought it over. These folks were cautious, so they shouldn’t mind if he was cautious in return. “A settlement that was attacked not too long ago. You’ll forgive me if I say no more than that.”
“Attacked?” The question came from a man that hadn’t spoken yet. He had sandy hair and blue eyes. He looked about the same age as Rosa and Istvan.
“Raiders,” Nick said. “We sent men over to help them set up some better defenses.”
“That was very good of you,” Rosa said.
“They make good cheese and that stuff’s hard to get these days.” Nick kept his face amiable, but caught more careful looks among them. “We can spare a few men to help them out.”
“Do you eat like this every day?” Rosa asked with a wave toward the kitchen.
“We have been very lucky lately. Sometimes the chickens don’t lay.” That got a knowing nod from a few of them. “Sometimes the crops don’t do well. We have some people that forage. I travel and see what I can find. Now that the train stations are closed, we need to do better.”
“Why are the stations closed?” Istvan asked.
“We don’t know,” Nick said. “Frank is our stationmaster. He got a couple days warning to move out, and that’s all we know. He’s hoping to get some kind of recall, but...” Nick shrugged. “This year’s flu was bad.”
The skinny woman with the scowl purposely turned her back on him.
“We lost a lot of people,” Nick said, looking out over the busy room.
Istvan bowed his head. “We, too.”
Nick felt it was time to make the offer. He had Angus’s permission to invite anyone that he thought might be a fit. “We welcome people to stay for a few days, see if they might like to join us.”
“We thank you, but we are travelers. We will rest until the storm passes then be on our way,” Istvan said in a kindly but firm manner.
That gave Nick an idea. “Travelers. Without using the trains?”
“We prefer to see the countryside,” Rosa said. Her smile seemed a little forced now.
“That’s great. Do you have a regular circuit? Because if you pass through here every year, I think we would like to become one of your stops.”
Rosa’s wariness seemed to lift a little. “We have some places we visit every year or so. I cannot promise that we will return at a specific time.”
“Not a problem,” Nick said waving away her concern. “We like to get news of the world, and maybe you can selectively spread the word that we’re looking for more people.
Rosa gazed around the cafeteria. “You want more people?”
They were interrupted as Lily arrived with a pack of children. “Nick, can the kids come play?”
Nick didn’t need Wisp’s skills to feel the instant resistance in the adults. He took Lily’s hand to hold her still for a minute. “What are you going to do?”
“Play ball in the gym.”
“You go ahead, and I’ll bring them over to see the gym,” Nick said releasing her. Lily and the others sprinted off. “I guess now would be a good time for a tour?”
Despite hesitant looks among them, the Travelers agreed. Nick showed them where to put their dirty plates and utensils. Then he showed them the basic layout of the settlement. The big auditorium where they had town meetings. The front doors, covered by the storm shutters. The infirmary, guest quarters, showers and laundry. The last had Rosa exchanging quiet words with the young woman carrying the baby.
“You’re welcome to use them,” Nick said. “There’s a whole room full of washers and dryers. We brought them in from the homes in the area.” As he led them over to the laundry, a warm, moist breeze smelling of soap wafted past. Conversations from within overlapped the monotonous cry of a newborn. Nick brought them all in, stopping the chatter, but not the cranky baby. It had been one of the large classrooms. Now aside from the rows of machines, there were folding tables, comfortable chairs, a couple playpens and an overloaded bookcase.
“Hey Nick.” Jean waved from where she was folding sheets at a table. Her long black hair was pulled back in a braid. Her brown eyes held a warmth for Nick that made him flush.
“This is your job?” Rosa asked her.
“It is this week,” Jean said with a wink. “I’ve been working with Angus, but he’s laid up right now. So I’m doing laundry duty for the infirmary.”
“We all pitch in,” Nick said. “Everybody has to do their fair share. There’s a chore board for anyone to pick from.”
“Seems well planned,” Istvan offered.
“We try.”
The woman with the baby nudged Rosa. “This is my sister, Eliza,” Rosa said introducing her for the first time.
Nick offered her a hand. “With two little ones, I’m sure you’ve got a pile of washing.”
“Yes.” She investigated the washers lifting lids and squinting at dials. “Where do you get your soap?”
“We forage. Most of the powdered stuff from grocery stores still works okay as long as it stayed dry. There’s a settlement up on the northern spur that’s making different kinds of bar soaps. Last time I stopped by they said they might try clothes soap. Weren’t sure about a market. I said I’d ask around for them, but I haven’t had a chance.”
He saw the looks that passed between Rosa and her husband.
“I’m going back to our camp,” the skinny woman growled. “Andy, too.” She grabbed the arm of the teenager, pulling him along.
“Susanna grieves,” Rosa said apologetically.
“Grief like that’ll eat you alive,” Nick said.
“We’ve all lost people,” Jean snapped. She came over to Nick as if to show her support. “There’s no reason to be like that. Every person left on earth has lost people.” Her voice had a rough tremble. She pressed her lips together tightly.
Nick gave her a one-armed hug. He knew she still had nightmares about the massacre at Riverbank. She squirmed away from him to return to her folding, but offered him a thin smile over her shoulder. He smiled back, feeling a little wistful. Jean had barely come to terms with her losses. He didn’t think it was the right time to be getting too familiar. She needed to get her bearings here at High Meadow before she could think about...people.
He ushered the Travelers back into the hallway to continue the tour, pointing out the stairs to the areas that were residential. Then he took them to the small gym where he knew Lily would be. The sound of the kids reached them long before they got to the big double doors which were propped open. Nick couldn’t tell what kind of game they were playing. It involved two basketballs, a soccer ball, all the floor mats and the badminton net. But from the shrieking and cheering, it looked like a lot of fun.
Eliza’s baby and toddler were too young for that kind of roughhousing, but the other three looked longingly at the chaos. Lily peeled off when she caught sight of them.
“Can they come and play?” she asked. Her long hair was messy and her face was pink with exertion. “For a little while?”
Nick intervened. “Do you think they can find their way back down to your camp?” he asked Rosa.
She looked at him uneasily.
“Because if you want to let the kids play here, I can take you over to meet Angus. He’s our leader. But a bit clumsy. He’s in the infirmary. It isn’t far from here. We will probably hear the kids from there.” Nick hoped that would calm them, but he didn’t blame them if they were reluctant to let their children out of sight.
“I’ll stay,” Eliza said. The sandy-haired man stood next to her, their little boy on his shoulders.
Rosa looked torn.
“I understand. We’re strangers. It’s okay.”
“They don’t get enough chance to play,” Istvan grumbled. “Go!” He shooed the kids away. “Have fun.”
Rosa took his arm, her gaze locked on the children, as they joined Lily. “It’s good for them to meet other children.” Her statement sounded like she was trying to convince herself.
“They will all go to school soon.” Nick checked the big clock in the gym. “I think they’ve got about a half hour or so before the, um, teachers come to get them.” He fumbled, almost calling them Fonts. Although he didn’t think that the Travelers were a threat, it would be foolish to advertise their fortune to strangers.
Nick took them down the hall to the infirmary. “We have two doctors now. Unfortunately, we’re getting a little low on medicines.” He pulled some chairs along to Angus’s bedside. “Angus, I’ve brought company.”
“Excellent!”
Nick was relieved to see how well Angus looked. He was, as usual, surrounded by his notebooks and tablets and papers. “These are the folks that are camping in the tunnel.” Nick stood back to let them introduce themselves, something they’d been reticent about so far. “Angus is our leader, guide and resident dreamer.”
Istvan stepped forward to shake hands. “I am Istvan, the head of this extended family. My wife Rosa and my father Misha.” Istvan gestured to the older man who had been keeping to the back of the group. Misha nodded politely to Angus.
Nick was disappointed that he stopped there. There were three men, younger than Nick and looking a lot like guards, that he would like more information about.
Angus shot a look at Nick, asking for a tip-off, no doubt. “We are always happy to meet new people,” he said vaguely.
“They’re Travelers,” Nick said, hearing the capitals in the title. “Just waiting out the storm. I told them we’d like to be on their route.”
Angus picked up the clue immediately. “Wonderful. How far do you travel? Do you roam all year? No, you must settle somewhere for winter, surely, but what about summer? It gets so hot, and Wisp tells us the whole middle of the country is too hot to live in.”
Nick chuckled at the Travelers looks of alarm under Angus’s onslaught of questions. “Forgive him, he can’t keep a question to himself.”
Angus waved a handful of papers. “I am always gathering facts. I don’t mean to pry.” He pointed to the chairs Nick had lined up. “If you have some time, please sit. I would love to hear anything you are free to share.” Angus’s blue eyes sparked with excitement.
Rosa was the first to sit. “We do not give information for free, but you have shared your food and water, so we owe you.”
“And the coffee,” Istvan added as he took the seat next to her. “We travel and barter, perhaps as Nick does.”
“Excellent. We haven’t met before. Is this a new route? Did the storm throw you off?”
“We have altered our route this year,” Istvan said, giving nothing away.
“Raiders have been bad,” Nick said.
A few heads nodded, but no one spoke.
“What do you have to barter today?” Nick asked, giving them a lot of leeway.
“We have a range of items. A few tinctures.”
“Tinctures?” Angus’s eyes lit up. “That’s brilliant. With the trains down and the vaccine lab offline people will be running out of medicines. What have you got?”
Istvan looked to Rosa. She took over, as if it was a planned presentation. “We have goldenseal for infections, nettle for tonics, a good quality peppermint oil for digestion and comfrey salve for wounds.”
“That is wonderful. Do you make it yourselves?”
“We do,” Rosa said. “It is our winter occupation to make the tinctures and salves. We don’t travel the winter months.” She fussed with the cuffs on her shirt. “We also have some goat cheese, but you may not be interested in that.”
“We are always interested in food,” Nick said. “Especially high protein like that.”
“Perhaps you have some things to barter?” Istvan asked.
“We have some coffee, dried tomatoes, some canned pickles—“
“Canned goods aren’t safe anymore,” Rosa interjected.
It took Nick a moment to realize she meant the decade old stock from grocery stores. “This is fresh. We canned it.”
Rosa gave him an approving nod. “Excellent. Anything else?”
“Um,” Nick said thinking through the kitchen supplies. “We just started drying some hot peppers. Tilly would know better.”
“Those are all good possibilities,” Rosa said. “We will be happy to barter some of the goat cheese for the use of your laundry.”
“Oh no,” Angus said. “Please be our guests—“
Rosa raised a hand to stop him. “Do not offer more than we are comfortable taking.”
“Perhaps you could take a look around and tell us what might be useful for bartering?” Nick asked.
Rosa gave him a warm look. “I would be happy to.”
Chapter 18
“Lack of food became another reason for people to leave their communities. A few towns with forethought pooled resources and planned for the winter. Most large cities had too fragmented a population and too few that cared to set those wheels in motion.”
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
NICK WENT DOWN TO THE access way for the side tunnel that led to the field house and thought hard about Wisp. It seemed extremely silly, but Tilly suggested it would be a good way to find him. Nick had checked the cafeteria and kitchens. When he asked Tilly if she knew where he might be, she had told him to think hard.
He closed his eyes and thought about Wisp. He pictured him in his mind, pale blue eyes and long white hair.
He was muscular, lithe. Nick thought about the bullet wound to his arm that Wisp had gotten after rescuing William. And the graze to his forehead in the fire fight in the tunnel. He hadn’t said anything about either injury. Nick hoped he was healing.
“Are you looking for me?” Wisp startled him out of his musings. He had a puzzled look on his face.
“Yeah. Could you tell?” Nick made a point to look at Wisp’s head wound. The graze looked nearly healed.
Wisp’s puzzled look changed to amused. “Yes.”
“I wanted to talk to you about the Travelers.”
“Travelers? You say that like a title.”
“I guess they’re like tinkers or gypsies. Or, that’s what they want us to think. They know who you are. What do you know about them?”
Wisp tipped his head in thought. “There are a few groups that travel circuits bartering. I usually stay clear of them unless I need something. Bartered a good canteen once for finding a lost cousin.”
Nick frowned a question at him.
“He wasn’t that far away,” Wisp explained. “It wasn’t this group. But maybe they talk to each other. It would make sense that they wouldn’t want to cover each other’s territory unless they carry different goods.”
“There’s something about them that just doesn’t track,” Nick grumbled.
“They are uneasy about staying. The settlement worries them.”
“Why?”
“The usual. Men with guns. Locked doors. Martin’s people are very efficient. People can see right off that they are trained. That would be enough for me to give this place a wide berth.”
Nick grinned proudly. “I like hearing that the Watch looks imposing. I guess that’s a disadvantage we will have to accept. But I think there’s something else. They aren’t being totally honest with us.”
Wisp’s mouth quirked in a half-smile. “Do you really expect them to?”
Nick leaned against the wall. “I don’t know. I just keep thinking about traveling shows and how they were often a front for thieves.”
“Escaping on foot won’t get them far when we have greater mobility and firepower.”