The Dirt Walkers

by David Joel Stevenson

  A few of them started to sprint towards the new landscape, but Reena stopped them. After weapons were discussed, she wanted to make sure that their introduction to the men and women of the surface was not hurried and breathless. She let the runners know that she was also excited, but that it would much better if they arrived together.

  The townsfolk lit torches to illuminate the dimming sky, and the light reflected against large patches of snow. Before the laborers crossed the threshold, they were met with canteens of filtered water and mugs of ginger tea – things that helped Talitha transition to surface food. When they were close enough to the outpost, the smell of overcooked beef and vegetable stew filled their nostrils. Their stomachs grumbled at the scent, realizing that they had never eaten food with a smell before.

  Soon after they were all huddled outside the building, Doc Thorton passed through the crowd. The two laborers who had been shot while rescuing Reena were given the most attention. He stitched them up, and they insisted that Talitha, as a liaison between the Facility and the surface, hold their hands during the process. She stared into their eyes, trying to avoid watching the needles pass through skin, but couldn’t seem to keep her eyes away from it. She noted to herself that the technique he used was indeed similar to the one that she used on her own flower-patched wedding dress.

  There were too many to fit inside the small outpost, so multiple fires were built under tents hastily made from the few animal skins that they had. The laborers slept on top of each other around the fires to keep themselves warm, some with blankets but most without. They would rotate their spots throughout the night, and no one got much sleep between the cold and the frequent trips into the woods to use the bathroom.

  In the middle of the night, Raymond Cowel caused a dramatic scene when he discovered one of the laborers had a Stunner. When he drew his gun, claiming that they were planning on taking over the town, Brick wasted no time in punching him square in the jaw. He was knocked out and his weapon was removed. Several townsfolk tied him up and gagged him inside the outpost, hoping that they could get a tiny bit more sleep without his outbursts.

  In all of the commotion, it was discovered that the Stunner didn’t even work. None of them did. No matter how they flicked their fingers against the controls, the sticks gave no response.

  The next morning, the townsfolk started carrying laborers to the town, with two and sometimes three riding behind them on their horses. A few wagons were brought back, so that loads of twenty to thirty started making the trek. It took the entire day, but every last laborer made it to the town. They were each assigned a house and a family that they would stay with until further notice, and a number of them slept in the chapel.

  This caused a general sense of uneasiness amongst the townsfolk, but they agreed that there weren’t many other options. “What’re they gonna do?” Schultz asked when someone first argued against it. “Steal all of yer stuff and run out in the woods with it?”

  Raymond set up signs all over his farm, declaring the laborers unwelcome, with warnings that he would shoot them on site. He accused some of them of killing a few of his animals, but it was obvious from their bodies that they had been decaying since before the new people arrived. He did his best to stir up trouble, but his protests were all but unnoticed.

  The tension with the rest of the town quickly eased, as the laborers did their best to contribute in whatever ways they could, despite the sickness and weakness they experienced. They were quite surprised at the patience of the townsfolk, and didn’t feel comfortable being served or even resting through the entire night.

  Several days later, Jonah and Talitha decided to try their wedding ceremony again – this time quickly and with whoever could attend on such short notice. Reena sat with the Whitfields and Doc Thorton on the front pew. The ceremony was as short as Brother Philip felt comfortable making it, to ensure that no further interruptions would occur. It felt a bit more complete to Talitha – even though she had never met any of the laborers before seeing them in the Deathlands, they seemed to bring a bit of her home to the chapel.

  EPILOGUE

  Four years after the laborers escaped from the Facility, much had changed. The laborers, who came to be known as Dirt Walkers even to the original townsfolk as well, did not leave to create their own community. Instead, they built houses on the outside edge of those in the town, growing the existing community by leaps and bounds.

  Whereas Talitha’s transition was difficult in all manners, the Dirt Walkers’ experiences were much easier. They had the same problems with solid food and water for the same amount of time. However, they came to the surface with their own set of skills.

  They could already farm and raise animals, and were exceptional at doing so. They were ecstatic to see animals eating grass, running around and playing with each other. It did take them a while to learn which animals ate other animals, but simply seeing them without tubes and needles protruding from their bodies made even the losses exciting.

  Schultz was thrilled that many of the Dirt Walkers understood the objects in his junkyard far more than he did. He employed a handful of them, and they helped him store energy in batteries so that he could keep his fire bulbs lit long after he stopped spinning his bicycle wheel. They also showed him how to weld with cables connected to the same batteries.

  His biggest gift from the Dirt Walkers, however, was Reena. Not long after they met each other in the town’s chapel at Jonah and Talitha’s wedding, he found himself in her company as much as he could. She never scoffed at his speech or his clothing. She was impressed in how he fixed random objects, and in the objects that seemed to simply come from his mind. She was fascinated by a man who knew so much about so many things, rather than only a single trade. They were married less than a year after she walked out of the Deathlands.

  Word came from other towns that more laborers escaped on the same day. Without a path, unfortunately, many of them died in the cold of the Deathlands. After those surviving Dirt Walkers adjusted to their new lives, many of them explored the seemingly endless desert, making new paths for anyone that might use unmarked surface hatches.

  Jonah’s town kept at least two scouts at the outpost by the Deathlands at all times – no longer preparing for an attack. They kept a stock of food, blankets and medicine for anyone that appeared on the surface in a silver suit or tattered rags. The Dirt Walkers were happy to be the ones who kept watch over the usually silent plain.

  Small groups of citizens seemed to arrive on the surface at random intervals, sometimes because of age limits and sometimes out of sheer curiosity. Because the Facility had no more laborers, many of them were forced to learn their skills and purpose assignments. Some of them became disheartened and thought that the surface would be much better for them as well. It didn’t take very long for them to realize that it was not easier. Some decided to go back and deal with the tasks that were assigned to them. They were much less brutal, considering most of the control officers themselves were assigned to such work.

  Because the citizens started working, a pseudo currency was set into place, which was required to buy things like Food Substance and fluids. Because those things were no longer freely given to them, many people ate, drank, and wasted less. In addition, because far fewer people lived in the Facility, the resource stores remained full much longer. The Deathlands slowly began to shrink once the load on the resource harvesters diminished.

  The Dirt Walkers marveled with each change of season and in the power of weather. They were thrilled to stand outside both in freezing winter and burning summer, happy to experience the variation. In their first rainstorm most of them danced outside, amazed that fluid freely flowed all over the thirsty earth. They learned of edible plants, astonished at the thought of food growing absolutely everywhere around them. They cultivated appreciation in everything that they realized the Maker actually made.

  It took Gabet and Dawkin Coomy the full four years to finally make the journey to the surface. The
y spent a few days at the outpost, dealing with the initial shock to their bodies before catching a ride to the town. They were given directions to a tiny log cabin in the woods.

  Three rooms had been added on to the small home, which more than doubled its original size. Several stumps remained at the edge of the wide open grass yard, where Jonah and a few Dirt Walkers had been clearing the forest to expand their garden and pasture.

  Talitha heard a knock at their front door, which was odd considering no one ever knocked. Everyone usually simply opened it because they knew they were welcome, but also because the Whitfield family was generally found outside. The only time people were to knock was on the bedroom door, when it was closed. And at that point, it was assumed to be an emergency.

  Talitha opened the door to see her two family members standing on her porch.

  “…Mom? Dawkin?” she said, quite surprised and excited.

  The two women quickly wrapped their arms around each other. When they let go, Dawkin awkwardly squeezed his sister. Both of them had lost a tremendous amount of weight, and Dawkin, who was now nineteen, had grown several inches taller and had a neatly trimmed beard. Gabet wore almost no makeup, and it was the first time that Talitha had actually seen her face.

  Talitha invited them inside the small home and they sat, facing each other.

  “It’s so good to see both of you,” Talitha said, beaming.

  “It’s good to see you too, sweetheart,” Gabet replied to her daughter with a sorrow-filled smile. “We were so excited when we heard rumors that you were still… That you were living on the surface now. And here you are!”

  Gabet proudly motioned her hand around the room, recognizing the life that Talitha had made for herself.

  “I’m sorry I never came back down to the Facility,” Talitha said. “I’ve thought about it for years, but I just couldn’t do it. Besides everything that has gone on up here, I’m just not sure I could face my old life anymore.”

  “You don’t have to apologize, sweetheart,” her mother reassured her, with a bit of regret in her voice. “We heard the rumors about you a while ago, and we were hesitant about coming, too. Honestly, we weren’t sure you would be very happy to see us.”

  “Of course I’m happy to see you,” Talitha exclaimed. “You’re my family!”

  “Yeah, well,” Dawkin said, “a family that didn’t treat you that great when you needed us.”

  Talitha crossed the small room, placing her hands on the shoulders of her mother and brother. “You’re here now,” she said. “A very wise woman once told me that we do the best we can with what we know. And that when I was a mother, I’d understand it. So, now that I’m a mom, I think I do – at least a little bit better.”

  “What?” Gabet and Dawkin both asked.

  “You’re a mother?” Gabet said, smiling.

  “Indeed I am,” Talitha said, beaming. “Times two.”

  “I’m a grandmother?” Gabet laughed.

  “Yup,” Talitha said, standing. “Jonah has Anastasia outside and they should be back any time, but the little one is asleep in the other room. One second.”

  Gabet and Dawkin exchanged excited glances.

  Talitha disappeared through the door and returned with a baby wrapped in a blue blanket. She handed the child to her mother.

  “Mom, meet Quilen Whitfield.”

  Gabet stared at the little boy and started crying.

  “Your father would be so proud,” she said, her voice trembling.

  Dawkin moved over and put his finger in Young Quilen’s hand. The tiny baby held on to his uncle’s finger tightly.

  “That’s really cool of you,” Dawkin said, trying to restrain his emotions.

  “You know your father really did love you,” Gabet said, fighting to get the words out. “Both of you.”

  “I know,” Talitha said, her own eyes filling up with tears. “I don’t know if either of you know it, but his last words were that he loved us, and that he was sorry for how he treated us.”

  “What?” Dawkin asked, surprised. “How do you know that?”

  Talitha recounted what Reena had told her, and the three of them spent the rest of the afternoon sharing tears and stories. Gabet lamented at the last several months that she had with her husband, and how they never seemed to slip back into balance after “the incident,” which is how both she and Dawkin referred to Talitha’s escape.

  Talitha told them about everything that happened since the day that she disappeared from their family unit, leaving out most of her interaction with her father while she was held in the Facility’s prison. To change the subject, she talked about her new life, and the joy of experiencing so many new things while her children discovered the same excitements. Gabet and Dawkin told her about the drastic changes in the Facility, and that Dawkin was working on resource harvesters. From their conversation, Talitha could tell that the changes were extremely hard for them, but that they were good.

  Jonah walked in the house with Anastasia on his shoulders, and more hugs and kisses were exchanged throughout the room. Stories continued well into the night, until they fell asleep with a single candle flickering as a lullaby.

  Over the next few days, the two toured the town to see what life was like on the surface. They met all of Talitha’s new friends, including several Dirt Walkers. Gabet and Dawkin had a hard time adjusting to the idea of the laborers considered as equals, but they did their best to accept them.

  On the way to having dinner with Jonah’s parents, Dawkin, who had been fairly quiet during the majority of the visit, saw a girl with auburn hair. “Whoa – who’s that?” he asked, a bit stunned. “Can you introduce me to her?”

  The girl was Lillian, and despite his desire for an introduction he was silent almost the entire time he struggled to chew his mashed dinner next to her.

  After their visit was over, Talitha and Jonah urged them to stay, and to live permanently on the surface.

  “We’re just not ready for it, sweetheart,” Gabet said to her daughter. “To be honest, I’m just not sure I could give up the wall tiles, and always having the air at the right temperature. But we can come back and visit – we’re only a handful of miles apart, you know. The Magnet Tram might not connect to your house, but it’s not like we’re living on two different worlds.”

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you to my wife, Holly, for standing by me through my many creative endeavors.

  Thank you to my family, who ask a lot of questions and continue to push me and support me in everything I do.

  Thanks always to Jeff Brinkley, Jeff Hildebrand, Brad Lawrence, Matt Lawrence, and Andy Neale for their brotherhood in Manic Bloom, and for forcing me to grow creatively.

  Thanks to Seth Ervin and Casey Eanes for sharing the experience of self-publishing and of writing a sequel at the exact same time. (Mine’s out first – I win!!) I’ve enjoyed our times at conventions, selling our books together. I hope we have more of them soon.

  Thanks to Michael Hutzel for making the cover of this book look awesome. I again thought I could create a decent design, and I sent it to him expecting him to pat me on the back and tell me I did a good job. Instead, he countered with one that made my attempt look like I was using Microsoft Paint in the 90’s. He works for FoxFuel Creative, so if you should reach out to him if you need something similar done.

  This book was both much easier and much harder to write than its predecessor. The Surface’s End was written over the course of about three years, little by little when I had time or when inspiration kept me up at night. I didn’t intend to write a sequel – the ending of that one was the final ending I’d planned on (though for a while, I did think Jonah might die at the end of that one, truth me told). I have too many other ideas I wanted to swirl around in my head.

  However, after I released the first book, the majority of its readers kept asking questions about what happened next. I realized there was a story to tell after Jonah and Talitha escaped from the Facility.
(I need to mention Jeff Hess specifically, as his were the first questions that set my mind on the path.) I outlined what I thought would happened, but it changed a lot as I wrote it out. I spent a lot more time in the Facility than on the surface, which I was a little surprised about. But that’s where the story led me.

  It took a lot more discipline to write this book, and because people had actually read the first one I felt pressure that I hadn’t felt before. I didn’t know if I would even release the first, and probably wouldn’t have had it not been for my mom. This one was almost expected, which threw me into the old “sophomore jinx” mentality. I didn’t stay there very long, though.

  In contrast to the three years on the first novel, the first draft for this one took less than two months to write. The last half of it was written in about a week. I felt spurred on by the readers, but I need to especially thank Walter Campbell and Matt Kinnamon for their encouragement. They helped me set up attainable goals, and then I got obsessed with it and finished it in about a quarter of the time I hoped it would take.

  Without my beta readers this book would far less than it is, and I owe them my deepest thanks for their feedback, corrections, critiques and encouragement:

  Jana Aplin

  Danielle Barton

  Kelly Deep

  Casey Eanes

  Eliza Grimes

  Harrison Hoffman

  Tom Hoffman

  Ann & Barney Stevenson

  Holly Stevenson

  Kevin & Nicole Stevenson

  I owe my life to Jesus Christ, and I hope that everything I do - including this book - reflects my gratitude.

  And, seriously, thank YOU very much for reading this, and for your support of me as a writer, musician, or simply a friend. If you like this book, please tell your friends, share online, and buy copies to give to everyone you know. I’ll be your best friend forever if you leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads – it seriously helps, and they’re very encouraging. Unless you hated it and think it should only get one star. In which case, I’ll still be your friend, but email me your review instead of posting it. :)