Reduced

by Robin Tidwell

  And she certainly didn’t know why. Since the US Marines were the ones doing the hunting, it couldn’t be good. At all.

  She lit another smoke and drained the last of her coffee, making a face at the taste.

  She was heading back in the morning. There was nothing to be done here, no groups had been reported anywhere near them and the county was so decimated that surely no one was left. There were few homes standing, a couple outbuildings, but Abby had seen absolutely nothing to suggest anyone hiding out in the woods.

  The only thing left was to discover where everyone had gone, and why. And for that, she needed to go back, first thing in the morning. She cleaned her guns and reloaded, sharpened her knife. She was ready.

  Abby traveled northeast again, bypassing Sandy Creek, until she reached a wide, open field. True, the weeds were growing unchecked, but the footing was precarious and the cover nonexistent.

  She opted to swing to her left, near Lake Atwood, and avoid the field altogether. The tree canopy wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. She’d heard no choppers all morning and was heartened by that absence.

  By noon she’d reached the far side of the lake and chose the most direct route: straight up and over Sunnytop. By dinnertime, she was back at the campsite and reporting to Cal and Pops.

  Abby gave a verbal report, then pulled out a sketchbook and drew a rough outline of her trek. She pinpointed the pertinent findings, made notes, and handed the whole package over to Pops.

  Worn out, she went to find Emmy and Juliet who, after a too-brief greeting several hours earlier, she hadn’t seen in almost two weeks.

  Juliet clung to Abby, and Emmy hovered nearby. After dinner, the three retired to their tent; Noah appeared to be out. Emmy shook her head at Abby’s questioning look.

  Finally, Abby convinced Juliet that yes, she’d still be here in the morning, and yes, it was bedtime. She tucked her in and she and Emmy wrapped up together in a quilt and sat on the tent steps, whispering so as not to wake Juliet.

  After breakfast, the entire group met. Cal informed everyone that Abby had returned safely and that there was no immediate danger in the area. However, she cautioned, there were still choppers flying over on what appeared to be regular missions. She finished by assuring them that there were, indeed, plans to gather more detailed intel.

  “So,” Cal said, “In the meantime, everyone needs to stay close to our base camp here, and undercover at all times. We’re safe enough if we don’t go wandering off, and we have the bunkers as well. Not comfortable, but safe. For now.”

  Pops spoke up. “What Cal’s trying to tell you all is that these choppers seem to be rounding up folks that haven’t come into the city yet. The point is that we don’t know why. So unless you want to take your chances, keep low.”

  The meeting was over and Emmy and Juliet went off to their lessons; Cal summoned Janey and Abby to her tent.

  Noah was already there.

  “Here’s the deal,” Cal started off immediately. “We want Abby and Janey to go up north, at least as far as Arnold; farther if you can manage it. We need to know what’s going on up there. And everywhere,” she added.

  Janey was ready. “C’mon, Abby, it’ll be fun!”

  In spite of herself, Abby laughed. “This is your idea of fun? I’m a lot more at home in the woods than on some secret spy mission—Cal, are you sure about this?”

  Cal shrugged. “Who better to send? With Janey’s military training and your background…unless you’d rather Emmy go?”

  “No,” said Abby immediately. “No. Of course I’ll go, but I’ve only just gotten back.”

  “No problem,” said Pops. “We kinda figured as much, so you two leave the day after tomorrow. Noah, give ‘em the list.”

  Noah handed a sheet of paper to Abby. “Besides what Cal and Pops have asked, this is some information that I need about the bio agent as well as a list of drugs that I’d like you to, um, acquire.” He gave a small, fleeting smile.

  “But, under no circumstances do I want either of you to risk yourselves for any of this. It’s not as important as—as what Cal’s asking. If you have any questions, you know where to find me.” He gave Abby an inscrutable look and walked out.

  Abby and Janey pored over the list, then took mental notes while Pops and Cal gave them some additional instructions. It was nearly noon when they were dismissed. As the girls left Cal’s tent, they divided up the list of supplies they’d need and agreed to meet the next evening for a last-minute assessment.

  Abby grabbed a sandwich and slowly walked back to the tent, thinking. Juliet came in just a few minutes later, running to Abby and jumping on her cot.

  “Abby, what do you want to do today? Can we practice my shooting? I’m not sleepy, really! Can I skip my nap?”

  “Of course, little one,” said Abby, distractedly. “Why don’t you get your case out and show me how much you remember about taking it apart, cleaning it, and putting it back together again?”

  Juliet obediently pulled out the gun case and set about laying down a cloth and disassembling the Glock. “Look, Abby, see!”

  “Very nice, Juliet, keep going.” Abby was making a list of supplies and, at the same time, wondering how to break the news of her trip to Juliet.

  “All cleaned!”

  Abby inspected the .22 carefully. “Perfect,” she said, and went back to her list, rubbing her forehead in thought.

  “Okay, Abby, see!”

  Abby frowned and picked up the Glock. “Where did you get that, Juliet?”

  “It’s a Mini-G5. Janey gave it to me. So my gun won’t make a lot of noise. She said that was the safest, so I could practice.”

  That, thought Abby, and so when you fire it no one will be able to pinpoint your location. She made a mental note to thank Janey herself and was annoyed with herself for not thinking of it. “Come on, little one, let’s head out. And remember, we have to stay under cover and can’t go too far.”

  “I remember. And Pops showed me how to hide, too, just in case.”

  Abby resisted the temptation to ask, “Just in case what?” She knew what, but wasn’t sure she wanted to hear Juliet’s interpretation.

  The two had a nice time, out in the woods, Bob staying close by as usual. Juliet had indeed learned how to conceal herself and did a pretty good job for a four-year-old. Abby gave her a few pointers, but spent most of her time naming targets for Juliet to shoot. And the little girl was accurate at least half of the time, no mean feat considering the distance of some of those targets. They went over Abby’s hand signals for the field, too, and Juliet remembered them perfectly.

  After dinner, Abby gave Juliet her bath and then sat her down to tell her that she’d be leaving again. The small child handled it well, tearing up but not having a tantrum. She was remarkably well behaved for one so young, especially so for one who had survived so much trauma.

  Abby, however, nearly came undone when Juliet threw her arms around her neck and whispered, “I love you, Abby. Please come back to us.”

  Surreptitiously wiping her eyes, Abby walked back to the fire pit not really paying attention, and sat down.

  “Oh, sorry!” She jumped up from Noah’s side. “I didn’t realize you were here.”

  Noah sighed. “It’s all right, Abby, you aren’t bothering me. We probably need to talk, anyway.”

  Abby stiffened. She didn’t want to talk, not to Noah. “Really, I can’t stay; I need to start putting together supplies for the trip . . . and I really need to go find Janey . . . or Emmy. I need to—”

  Noah reached up and pulled her back down. “Slow down. I can see that ‘anyone but Noah’ is your theme tonight, but please . . . just give me a few minutes.”

  “Fine.” Abby tried to relax, but gave up quickly. “Go ahead.”

  “Abby, I—” He stopped when he saw the look on her face. “Never mind. I’ll skip that part. Look, I don’t want you to go on this mission. For a lot of reasons. It’s too dangerous. We don’t
know what’s going on. You could be taken prisoner—”

  “I thought that’s what the capsule was for,” interrupted Abby.

  “Well, yes. But I don’t think there’s anything to gain, really. I mean, we’re okay here, we just need to stay put, keep doing what we’re doing.”

  “Noah, you know that’s not right. You know we can’t just sit and wait. If we did that, it would just be a matter of time before they come for us. At the very least, we can learn how better to be safe, stay safe; how to protect everyone.”

  He slumped in defeat.

  “Besides, we might be able to find out how to actually defeat them,” rang out Janey’s voice. She sat down beside Abby, who smiled a bit.

  “You always did want to pick a fight,” she told Janey, who lightly punched her in the shoulder. That, for Janey, was agreement.

  Noah rolled his eyes. “See, that’s just what I was afraid of—you two, there’s no telling.”

  “No sweat, Doc. We can handle it. We’ll come back with all the info and stuff you asked for, and maybe more besides!”

  Janey was confident, you had to give her that. And well- trained, thanks to the USMC. Who they seemed to be up against. Abby pondered some more, lost in thought. She didn’t notice that Noah had left.

  “So,” said Janey, “As long as we’re here, how’s the list coming?”

  “It’s coming,” said Abby. “In the morning I’ll check in at the commissary with Ted and get what we need.”

  “I assume we’re going to head pretty straight north?” “Yes,” answered Abby, “Barring any er, obstacles.”

  “Ha. Bring ‘em on!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  The whole camp saw the girls off on their venture early Thursday morning. Noah watched as they disappeared down the side of the hill and Juliet ran to him.

  “It’s okay, Dr. Noah,” she said. “Abby’ll come back. She promised.”

  Noah smiled down at her and tugged on her blond braid, just like Abby’s. His eyes were unaccountably stinging and he brushed a quick hand across them. He scooped up Juliet and took her to breakfast.

  Abby and Janey followed the creek and paused at the gates to say goodbye to Sandy. She greeted them with her customary restraint and nodded solemnly as they left. She had her doubts that they’d make it back, but it wasn’t her place to say so. Meg had given her the job of guarding those gates when they first arrived, and here she’d stay, keeping her mouth shut and her eyes open.

  Twelve miles via the highway, nearly 20 cross-country, they could reach Arnold by nightfall if everything went according to plan. Both girls were loaded down with weapons, ammo, and foodstuffs, and extra clothing, including a set each of Thinsulate, in case of inclement weather. April in Missouri could be very fickle; snowfall was not unheard of. They were grateful they’d collected enough supplies before the town had been bombed.

  They passed the old stone quarry just off Highway M, skirting the edge, and made a mad dash across the highway right after a group of choppers flew over. They stopped under some heavy cover for a brief rest before continuing on, slightly to the east now.

  As the sun climbed, so did the temperature. Abby had noticed that the choppers were flying lower now, and she mentioned it to Janey, who simply shrugged. They both knew the reason, there was no use talking about it.

  Based on what she’d seen the previous week, Abby thought travel would be more difficult when they reached the outskirts of Arnold, so she and Janey stopped earlier than planned. Abby set up camp in what they believed was a well-protected glade with a heavy canopy, and Janey volunteered to do a little reconnaissance.

  Within an hour she’d returned, pale and shaking. The town was gone.

  Janey sat down heavily and Abby handed her a beer. Warm, of course, but palatable. After a few minutes, she was more composed.

  “It’s gone, Abby, just like the other one. I thought . . . I mean, I guessed. I don’t know! What are they doing?”

  Abby shook her head. “Beats me. But that’s what we’re here to find out.”

  The girls made a quick change of plans over their cold dinner; no fires now or any time soon, they were too close to what used to be civilization. They figured they were as safe as could be, at the moment, so they’d both get some sleep for a few hours and set off at midnight, hoping to get through most of the city limits by sunrise.

  Of course, from here on in there wasn’t going to be much rural property, just more homes and businesses . . . or maybe not. But ruins, at least, afforded more protection than open space. There was no question of turning back. They came for information, and they were going to get it.

  The night was cloudy, which was a bonus. No moonlight to illuminate the pair as they stealthily maneuvered through the edge of town. Janey took the lead here, in suburbia; or what was left of it.

  They crept through the devastated town, keeping in the shadows, ducking and hiding in ruins at strange or unexpected sounds. No choppers were sighted, or heard. Or any humans whatsoever.

  Before sunrise, the two were nearly to Highway 141. They found an abandoned house, still more or less standing, and hunkered down in the basement. Sharing some jerky and a can of peaches, Janey and Abby fell asleep, exhausted.

  Morning brought the sound of choppers.

  Janey wondered aloud why they didn’t seem to be using infrared to hunt for them; she speculated that it might have something to do with the heretofore unknown weapon that was being used to devastate the countryside, or possibly with VADER itself.

  “So long as they don’t,” said Abby, “And we’re careful, I don’t suppose it really makes any difference. Besides, we have more things to decide and discuss.

  “For instance, I propose that we split up.”

  Abby listened for some time to Janey’s tirade. Finally, she calmed down a bit. “All right, all right. I’m listening. I won’t like it, but I’m listening.”

  “I want to head over to Babler. We’ll need some kind of base camp up this direction, there’s no way we can get the info we need in just a day or two. And we’ll hardly be able to duck and cover for much longer. Surely once we get to the city there have to be people.”

  Janey thought for a few minutes. “So, you want us to set up 30-some miles from the city center and do what? It’ll take us a couple days, probably, to sneak in and out.”

  “Yeah, but we can hide better in the woods—surely they’ve rounded up any survivors that far out, and there wasn’t really anything to bomb. Better odds, really; hard telling what we’ll run into around here.”

  “I see your point . . . kind of . . . but I still don’t like us splitting up. Cal was pretty specific about that.” Janey began tapping her fingers and then got up and paced, thinking out loud.

  “You take the woods, I’m in the city . . . it’ll take me a couple days to get downtown. You can probably manage in a bit less to get to the park.

  “I don’t know, Abby, it’s not like we’d be within shouting distance. What about Emmenegger? It’s a lot closer.”

  “True.” Abby thought for a few minutes. “But it’s also smack in the middle of the county. And Babler has more hiding places, it’s ten times as big.

  “Besides, not sure I like the idea of being right on the river. Just one more thing to watch.”

  “Fine,” said Janey. “I assume you have a plan?”

  “Of course,” said Abby.

  As soon as it was dark, the girls left their shelter and hugged briefly before separating. Janey moved to the east, to the river; she was planning to be in the city limits, about 8 miles north, well before sunrise.

  Abby decided to strike off cross-country, knowing the area well, and intended to stay as much in the woods as possible. Knowing St. Louisans’ penchant for green space, this was entirely doable.

  As the moon rose, she was crossing Highway 30, very near to where she’d stopped on her way to get Emmy late last summer. She made a face at the memory and hoped that someone had at least removed the
bodies from the convenience store before it was bombed. If it had been bombed. No time to check, even if she wanted to do so.

  When she got to the Meramec, she stopped for a rest. Not loving the water, Abby was still an adequate swimmer. Fortunately, this early in the year, the river was shallow in many places; she just had to pick the right spot.

  She had sat down near the shore, well back in the trees of course, and watched the water. No signs of life, but no signs of death, either. And no traffic in the middle of the night, on the water or in the sky.

  Waiting until the moon passed into a cluster of clouds, Abby held her Mossberg high and stepped off the bank. She moved slowly but steadily, going deeper within minutes. Continuous movement stopped her from sinking into the mud and she kept going. Exhausted, she pulled herself up on the other side and crawled into the brush. She idly wondered how Janey was faring.

  Just a few more miles to go to the park boundaries; Abby knew that, normally, she could hike that distance within a couple hours or less. Things were far from normal. She looked at sky, then at her watch. Just past midnight. She stood up and stretched and hoisted her pack onto her back.

  Before sunrise, Abby had skirted the edge of Wildwood and entered the park. She knew the spot she was aiming for, right in the middle. Good cover, a spring, a few rocky outcroppings and some small crevasses; no limestone caves like those further south, but plenty of hiding places.

  She’d seen more intact homes on her trip up here, but few commercial buildings. She imagined that those responsible for this . . . round up . . . had planned, at the very least, to flush out survivors with a definite lack of supplies. But she was confident that she could find whatever they needed.

  Abby stowed her gear under an outcropping and wedged herself in with it. She pulled a few low-hanging branches down in front and ate a handful of trail mix, then leaned back and closed her eyes. She sniffed the air. Something didn’t smell quite right, but she didn’t think it was anything particularly dangerous. She slept.