by Alice Sabo
“That presupposes that we will be able to do that—feed and protect a populace.”
Tilly could tell by his tone that Angus took her seriously. He might have thought about all of this already but hadn’t felt it could be put into action. “Then that is what we must do.” She leaned forward, hugging her arms tight against herself. “It’s getting worse. If we don’t create the world we want to live in, it won’t happen. The government is gone. We are on our own. We need to plan our future without expecting help from anyone.”
“We have,” Angus said, a baffled look in his eyes.
“No. We have blundered along doing good enough and waiting for the cavalry.” Tilly bit her lip to still the rising emotion that threatened to overwhelm her. “I just realized that somewhere in the back of my mind I was still hoping.” She took a shaky breath. “There will never be cavalry. There is just us. Forever. And we need to think a whole lot larger, or we will fail.”
“We can’t get there overnight.”
“I’m scared, Angus. I saw the world fall apart a long time ago. I thought I understood that. Today Bruno told me that somewhere not far away someone tore apart a house. That close to us and Martin hadn’t known. We need more patrols. We need better defenses. We can’t sit in our little safe haven and remain complacent.”
“I did have plans,” Angus admitted. “When we first came here, I had lofty plans. But the people I needed are gone now.” He poked at his papers. “I keep losing them, year after year.”
“Train more,” Tilly said, a little more harshly than intended. “We need to set up guard training and ranger training and...” she threw up one hand in frustration. “I don’t know what else. That’s your job.”
“I’ll talk to Martin.”
She forced herself to her feet before she started babbling or sobbing. Her emotions were so agitated she would have sent Wisp running. She had to trust that Angus would make a plan, or enact a plan he already had. Somehow that thought didn’t cheer her as it should. They were sliding, just a bit, every year towards oblivion, and she didn’t know how to stop it.
Chapter 53
“Most of the weapons and ammunition came from the government at some point in time. When all the ammunition is used up and the weapons past repair, we will need to start producing replacements somehow.”
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
WISP WALKED THE PERIMETER of the farm again, partly out of habit, but also because he needed some time away from everyone. There were too many worries and wants among them. And something was going on with Nick. He could feel him moving swiftly, maybe in a vehicle. Nick was tense but not in pain. He’d been traveling for awhile and felt like he was closer now than he had been this morning. Wisp didn’t know what that meant. It could be an escape, or his captors were moving him again.
Fog drifted across the trail. The night was damp and cold. He pondered the question Nixie had asked him. She’d wanted to know what Istvan thought of her. Wisp had told her, “He’s excited that you’re back but hurt that you won’t talk to him. And worried because he loves you.”
Nixie had speared him with a tormented glare before stomping out of the house. He could feel her circling the animal barns. Ted was concerned about her also. Too many worries in other people’s heads. Wisp picked up the pace to get further from them. When he reached a point where the other voices faded, he stopped to find a secure spot. With his back pressed against an old oak tree, he silenced his mind. For the next few minutes, he thought of nothing. Muscles relaxed in his neck and jaw. He slowed and deepened his breathing. Small minds flickered around him with curiosity. Standing still for so long dispelled their caution, and a few approached him, no longer startled by his presence.
At some point today Nick had crossed paths with Lambda. Wisp concentrated on his brother. Lam had been the first one sent away. He was a skilled surgeon purchased by the military. From the moment he’d left the lab he’d been happy. Wisp hadn’t tried to contact him or visit him. Like Kyle, he’d always been on some sort of military installation which would have been too dangerous for Wisp to approach. Also like Kyle, Lam had seemed to be happy with his situation after Zero Year. That had changed somehow during the last year. Wisp’s link to Lam gave him just superficial information at this distance. He knew that Lam was unhappy, but there was no pain involved. His location had changed, but there weren’t any more clues to process.
Today, Wisp felt Nick and Lam together in the same place. Nick had been injured, and Lam was a doctor, so that could be a realistic reason. But he didn’t like that Lam was in a place where Nick had been tortured. It gave him another reason to get to Nick right away. But he felt Nick moving away from Lam. Angus would want Nick found first. That had to be his top priority for now, but he worried about his brother. Lam’s situation didn’t seem to have changed. He wasn’t hurt or frightened, just upset about something.
A light drizzle spattered the leaves above him not touching the ground. The wind brought the scent of a storm. Wisp pushed away from the tree to head back to the farmhouse with its cacophony of busy minds. They would leave at first light.
Chapter 54
“The nation’s military seems to have been fragmented by various factions. It is difficult to say how many private armies exist at this point and what might be their ultimate goal.”
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
TED WATCHED THE TREES whip by. They had been traveling down a narrow road for hours. It felt like they were stuck in a green tunnel. He shifted on the padded seat, unused to sitting for so long. On one hand, he’d much rather be walking, but on the other, it would have been a long, soggy journey. The windshield wipers squealed across dry glass. Everett turned them off. There had been showers on and off all day. Wisp had suggested they take turns driving, but Ted had declined. He’d never learned and now was not the time for lessons.
His thoughts went back to the twins. Were they safe? Were they being fed? Was leaving them with a grief-stricken uncle the best solution? He wouldn’t have taken them on this hunt for Nick, so he would have needed a vehicle and a driver to go back to High Meadow. He realized he considered High Meadow as a base now. He missed his kids.
Everett stopped the van. Damp, chilly air flooded the car as Wisp got out to take a reading, or at least that’s what they were calling it now. Wisp walked into the trees at the side of the road. Ted thought about getting wet from the dripping trees and shivered. He’d been avoiding thinking about what would happen when they found Nick. If the pressgang still had him, would there be a fight? Ted was useless in a fight, but he could hand out ammunition or get them water or something. He looked over at Nixie, who was staring out the window to where Wisp had gone. She sat next to him in the third seat. Istvan and Darrell sat in the second seat, weapons in easy reach.
“This is a good road,” Istvan said into the silence of the van.
“So far,” Everett agreed. “I have to admit I prefer this to the horse-drawn wagon we were traveling in.”
“Big wagon?” Istvan asked.
“Two horses.”
“Hmm. How far did you travel?”
Everett stretched, rolling his shoulders. “We’d been traveling about a week when we ran into Nick and Wisp.”
“Did you have a destination?” Ted asked. He noted that Everett didn’t mention where he’d traveled from.
“Safety.”
“Well, you found it,” Darrell said proudly.
The door opened letting more damp air in. Ted noted the frown on Wisp’s face as he got in. “Problem?” he asked.
“This area has nothing,” Wisp said.
The passengers were silent, so Ted felt he needed to pursue it. “No people?”
“No animals, either. No minds at all.”
Ted didn’t like the sound of that. “What does that mean?”
“Flu?” Everett asked
“It means that the people and animals are either dead or moved away. We should, too.”
Ted felt shivery, and he knew it wasn’t from the cold. A whole section of the woods unpopulated. “I wish Ep were here, he might know what it means.”
“Ep?” Darrell asked.
“Epsilon,” Wisp explained. “Another brother.”
“Does he have, you know, what you can do?” Darrell asked.
“Nobody can do what Wisp does,” Ted said with a laugh.
“Ep sees patterns in things,” Wisp said. He turned to look out the side window. “I would love to hear his opinion on this.”
“Do you know where he is?” Everett asked.
Wisp turned around to look at Ted.
“Sorry. I haven’t heard from him since Year 4,” he said.
“He’s north of here,” Wisp said. “Still working for someone. He seems content most of the time.”
The van remained silent as they traveled. Another shower pattered on the roof. Everett turned on the wipers. Ted fidgeted. He didn’t know what they would find at the end of the line, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t be good.
WISP TRIED TO SUPPRESS a shiver. The emptiness felt so wrong that it hurt. He’d never felt anything similar. It was a comfort to feel the noise of his companions in the van. There had been times when he had gone days without feeling another human being, but there were always the small flickers of animals around him. He had crossed through areas that had been depopulated by a predator. That had had an odd feel to it. The few small minds he felt were subdued, hiding perhaps, but he’d felt the predator.
It was possible that a settlement had overhunted the area taking every rabbit, squirrel and small animal they could find. But there weren’t any moles or mice or even birds in the area. He couldn’t come up with an explanation.
“Istvan, you should avoid this strip of the road,” Wisp said.
“It’s a good road,” Istvan insisted. Wisp could feel a thread of anger building in him.
“There is no life here,” Wisp said. “I don’t know why. I suggest you avoid it in the future. I think we should return by a different route.”
Istvan shrugged, but Wisp felt the stubborn resistance in him. He could only warn people. It wasn’t up to him to keep them safe if they were going to ignore his advice.
A smattering of life registered on his senses. “This is the border. Stop the van please.” Wisp made Everett back up until he could feel the edge of the area. He got out of the van and stood in the road listening. Birdsong in the trees. Wind in the leaves. Other than his companions, he couldn’t feel another human mind in the vicinity.
“Those trees are blighted,” Everett said.
Wisp had been concentrating outward so hard that he hadn’t felt them get out of the van. He looked to where Everett pointed. The trees had wilted leaves touched with yellow.
“That doesn’t look good,” Darrell said.
Wisp felt a spike of alarm in Everett but waited for him to speak. “Do you think the flu could change into a plant disease?”
Ted wandered over to the side of the road to inspect a sapling. “It’s not my specialty, but I don’t think diseases can jump like that. Human to animal is one thing. Human to plant? That seems very odd.”
“I think we don’t know a lot about the flu,” Istvan grumbled.
Nixie had stayed by the van. “This is a bad place,” she stated flatly. “We need to go.”
She gave voice to the urge everyone felt. They got back in the van and sped away.
“Should we have taken samples?” Ted asked.
“No,” Wisp said. “Not unless we know what it is. We can’t contaminate High Meadow.”
“That’d be bad,” Darrell mumbled.
“How far to Nick?” Ted asked.
“Not too far. We might reach him tonight,” Wisp said.
They switched drivers twice and ate lunch in the van. The sun was low when Wisp felt close enough. “Stop here.” He appreciated that they didn’t ask questions any more. He had learned to offer answers that made sense in a general way. He couldn’t translate his experiences, so that they would understand, so he had to use a simplified vocabulary.
Darrell stopped the van in the middle of the road. The headlights showed them a long, narrow tunnel through tightly packed foliage. There wasn’t a place to turn off to hide the van. Wisp walked along the road, senses extended. Sometimes a well-used path gave off a vibration. He could feel a faint resonance from the road below his feet. Many people traveled this way. He realized he should have marked the dead area that they passed through to warn people. But the way the trees were yellowing, it would become obvious soon.
Wisp kept moving along the road until a narrow path appeared. It looked more like a game trail than a human path, and felt faint, like it hadn’t been used in a long time. He stepped off the road, following the trail for a few breaths. Out of the headlights, the path was deeply shaded. He reached out to locate anyone in the area. He felt Nick right away shining like a lantern in a mineshaft, just a little further west. There were a lot of animals nearby. He reached further. A group of people north of here, more than five but less than ten. Another group, larger, also east of here, but far enough away that it was hard to tell how many. When he narrowed his focus to Nick, he seemed to be alone. But perhaps not for long.
Chapter 55
“Regardless of the number of weapons or fighting men, a settlement needs farmers and cooks and healers. Those with the capacity can either take them prisoner, or keep them safe. I fear that desperation will cause some to enslave those with essential skills.”
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
THE SOUND AND SMELL of the cattle yard hit Nick long before he saw the animals. He moved into deeper brush to avoid a frontal approach. It was late afternoon on another gray day. Despite the deficit of sunshine, his clothing had finally dried, but still reeked of the river. Lack of sleep and food had him feeling sluggish as he worked his way through the tangled undergrowth of a new forest that was devouring the remains of a parking lot. After the silence of the woods, the clamor of the bawling cattle became almost physical as he got closer. The stench of manure had an underlying odor of decay that worried him.
Up ahead the trees thinned out. Nick crouched in a briar thicket, swatting at mosquitoes and gnats, to assess the situation. Cows were so rare. There had to be people around. He expected armed guards but didn’t see any. The cattle sounded mournful to him. He snuck through the snarl of weeds up to the edge of the wood to the remains of another graveled lot, then a long row of pens filled with cattle. Across another lot sat a squat building, considering the layout, most likely a slaughterhouse. Nick didn’t see any people. He wished Wisp was with him. He’d know in a minute if it was safe to approach, and he’d have someone to watch his back. Going undercover had gleaned some information, but he would bring someone along next time. He hoped that Wisp didn’t get side tracked by any of the General’s men.
After watching the building and the yard for fifteen minutes, Nick decided to get a little closer. He sprinted to the first pen. The animals were standing in filth. Their water trough was empty. They looked, to his inexperienced eye, as if they hadn’t been tended in days. A check of the next few pens found the same conditions. He looked for a way to get them water, but it wasn’t obvious.
Since being out in the open hadn’t attracted any attention, Nick headed for the building. Three stories tall, the worn facade spoke of decades of use. The front entrance was modest with an old, cracked sidewalk that led away through a small stand of trees. The body of an armed guard flung across the threshold confirmed his worst fears. He stepped over the dead man to push the door open, but the stench of rotting meat halted him in his tracks. He backed away with a brittle hope that it was just beef decaying inside the building.
He took the guard’s weapon, checking the ammunition automatically. Bullet holes across the man’s chest told the story of his demise. Nick patted down the man’s pockets coming up with a packet of Crunch. After getting clear of the stench, he w
olfed down the food. A little clean water would be nice, but until he finished his sweep it would have to wait. Having a gun in his hand made him feel a whole lot safer. With a careful look around, he circled the building watching for any movement. He found stairs that zigzagged up the outside to the roof. That seemed like an excellent view point. He climbed up, wincing at the reverberating clang of his shoes on the steel treads. He paused a few steps shy of the top to peer over the edge before climbing up on the empty roof. From there he could see that the sidewalk led to a parking area on the other side of the trees. It contained three vans and five dead bodies which made Nick assume he was alone.
Turning to check over the cattle, it occurred to him that these were the cows that Parsons said had to be slaughtered because there was no one to take care of them. And that meant someone must have gotten away to report back.
He continued his inspection of the vicinity. A field off to the left had a minor infiltration of trees with a small stream running along the far side. It might have been used for grazing at some point, but the grass was knee high now. Nick didn’t know much about cows except that they ate grass. And it seemed reasonable that they would stay where they could graze. He went back down to the pens and started opening gates.
At first the big animals just stood where they were. Nick worried that they were too sick to respond. He hunted up a piece of rope. Feeling very silly, he tossed a loop over the closest one’s head, nearly snagging it on the horns. Then he pulled. It surprised him when the animal followed. He led it through the trees, but once it saw the field, it pulled free, heading for the grass. Nick turned back to get the next one and had to dodge out of the way as a pair of them barreled past him.
He learned to stand clear as he opened the gates. The next group of cows already saw the possibilities and plowed through to freedom. Nick was grateful that there were just the hundred to deal with, but it surprised him to see that many. Creamery had been the first time he’d seen cows since the Hoofed Flu in Year 4. They were making a strong comeback somewhere.