CHAPTER ONE
Town Meeting
Chapter 9
Seth Larkin made his way to the Arena as fast as he could. Jo Marolt, John Carpenter, and a few other boys ran behind him. The Scout that had come with him (the other Scout, Seth reminded himself) had split off toward the houses on Glen Eagle, to check for people there. Thankfully the paths had been shoveled in preparation for the mayor’s announcement; it was only about a five minute run. Even so, the roar had already begun to fade when he started banging on the door. It opened, and Tommy rushed out, looking to the sky. “What the hell is that noise, Lark?” he asked.
“Don’t know. But my Dad said we need to all get to the School. Where is Mr. Martinez?“
"In his apartment, I guess,” said Tommy, as Mr. Harper took his place beside him.
“I’ll go get him,” said Seth. “Mr. Harper, my dad says he needs your help. We need to load everyone down with farm stuff that can be used as a weapon. He said he wants things with long handles, and any pairs of leather gloves you have. Then we have to get to the School.”
Mr. Harper looked confused, but didn’t hesitate. “Junior, go get your mother and sister. We'll need their help carrying. You other boys, follow me.” While Mr. Harper led them to the hay storage, Seth peeled off and banged on the Martinez’s door. Mr. Martinez answered it, still in his long underwear. “Seth?” he asked. “What the hell is that noise?”
“My dad needs you, Mr. Martinez,” said Seth, before explaining everything he knew.
After he had finished, Mr. Martinez stood there, looking nonplussed. “And you’re sure that he said goners? In February?”
“Yes, sir. Now please, we need to get going!”
Mr. Martinez yelled for his wife to put some clothes on, then turned back to Seth. “We’ll be there in ten minutes.” The sky had finally grown silent. “See? It might have passed us right by.”
“Maybe,” admitted Seth, “but the Kenoshan seemed scared. And I’m under orders to get you there.”
“Don’t work yourself up over it, kid, I’ll be there. In the meantime, get yourself there and get safe,” said Mr. Martinez before shutting the door.
Seth shook his head. He was pretty sure that no where would be safe for a while. He went down the hall to help Mr. Harper. When he got there, Mr. Harper shoved a knapsack into his hands. "There are gloves and a couple of jackets in that corner over there," he said, gesturing. "Fill that sack with as many of them as you can get stuff in there." Seth nodded and did as he was asked, while Mr. Harper loaded the other boys down with scythes, rakes, hoes, and other tools of his trade. He found the clothes Mr. Harper was talking about, and started stuffing the bag. When he was done, he slung the sack over his shoulder and headed back towards Mr. Harper. The hay farmer started handing him hand held scythes.
"Um, Mr. Harper? My dad said long handled tools. What are we going to do with these?" asked Seth.
"Hopefully nothing," said Mr. Harper. "But if we have enough time, we can put longer handles on these. And if we don't... no guarantee that we won't have to do some close in fighting."
Seth nodded; that made sense. That didn't mean he wanted to think about what "close in fighting" would entail. Once Mr. Harper had loaded himself and Seth with tools, the two made their way to the Arena door. The rest of the group was out there, including the Martinez family, all carrying as many farming tools as they could. Even Abby had an armful of brooms; those handles might come in useful. She shot him a smile, but he didn't have time to respond in kind. "Let's hurry," he said to them. "My dad looked spooked. I don't think that means anything good." Mr. Martinez's lips thinned at that statement, and nodded. They all headed back to the courtyard.
It took Jake about twenty minutes to get from the School to the outpost by the bridge. His scouts raised their hands in greeting. “Report!” he barked at them.
“Well, I assume you heard the loud noise just now,” said Lewis. “Other than that, we haven’t seen anything, but it’s damnably dark out, Cap.”
Jake cursed the clouds above. “Keep your eyes peeled,” he said. “The Kenoshan said that he heard this sound before his town was attacked. Have you seen anything drop from the sky?”
“Hell, even if it did, we wouldn’t have been able to see it. We did hear some crashes in the Ruins just now. We figure that whatever made that noise must have been enough to knock some of the old buildings down. There’s a ton that was hanging on by a thread.”
Jake felt a sinking sensation in his gut. “I want you two to put everything you can into the main road. I want it completely blocked off, and make sure there are places for us to use guns and our bows. Make it as thick as you can, too.”
“What the hell do you want us to use, Cap?” asked Lewis, but Jake was already gone, running to the south. It was only a short distance to where the ancient, rusted mining machines stood, and from there Jake knew which direction to go to get to the rope bridge. Reaching it, he took out his long knife and started sawing at the thick rope as fast as he could. As he did, the wind shifted. The smell was faint, but it was there. For a moment, he was back in that cramped building in Three Ponds. When he came to himself, he started sawing even harder. The first rope finally came free, and he started on the second one.
This isn’t going fast enough, he thought to himself. If only I had my hatchet… oh, bugger me, I DO have my hatchet! Cursing himself for an idiot, he threw his knife down in the snow with disgust and reached back for the heavier blade. It made quick work of the bridge, sending his side careening down into the gorge below. “You have to focus, Larkin,” he said to himself. He couldn’t afford to make mistakes like that, not if they were under attack. He took a deep breath, then let it out. He then picked up his discarded knife and started running back to the bridge outpost. The men had moved the heavy crates that they kept in case they ever needed to block the road from nomad bands. “I don’t know what else to use, Cap,” called one.
Jake paused, looking around, though he couldn’t see anything beyond the torchlight. “The Kenoshan said they had a full day between hearing that noise and the attack,” said Jake. “I don’t know that we’ll have that long, but I’m hoping we’ll have at least a few hours. One of you stays here. The other, I want you to go back to where the mining machines are.”
“They’re rooted down in old pig rock, Cap,” said Lewis. “We’ll never get ‘em out.”
“Not all of them are. But the ruins of the buildings are there, under the snow. The wood will be mostly rotted out, but we need to make the barricade thicker before we make it taller. You’ll be getting reinforcements here within the hour. When they get here, I want every man but a couple of lookouts digging through those ruins. If they can get the machines up and over here, they should do that too.”
“Goners? It’s too cold for goners!”
Jake was getting damned tired of hearing that phrase. “Just do what I told you!” Jake snapped back. Then, without waiting for a reply, he turned and ran down the road. The snow made for slower going than he liked, but he made it to the Loop in under five minutes. He found Rory already there with a troop of Longshooters.
“Crashes? What the hell is gonna crash out here?” asked Rory after Jake finished filling him in. “It’s all fields and rutting snow. We ain’t heard kak since the sky stopped farting.”
“How many shooters do you have here?” asked Jake.
Rory turned his head and spit into the snow. “Just four. Townsend has the other twelve manning the roof of the Ell. Thirteen if you count the Captain. Hell, I had to beg to come down here and tell the boys here what was what. If we see anything, we’re to lift our skirts and run. Excuse me, report.” Rory loaded the last word with as much scorn as he could muster.
“I think the Mayor has the right of it this time,” said Jake. “That was the sound the Kenoshan heard the night before Fort Kenosha was attacked. At least, that’s what he says.”
Rory gave Jake a look, half angry and half wounded. “You didn’t s
ay shit to me about no godsdamned sound, Jake. The hell else haven’t you told me?”
“A lot,” Jake admitted. With that, he started filling Rory in. “And even that’s not the full story,” he said when he was through. “But time is at a premium. I’m sorry I lied, but I didn’t know how much to believe.” That was another lie. Jake still didn’t know exactly why, but he had believed Beaupre’s story from the beginning. He hoped the Mother would forgive him the deception, but he didn’t have time for an argument with the crotchety rifleman.
Rory considered the story for a moment, then turned his head to spit again. “Fine. But next time, treat me like a friend, damn it. Tell me the crazy stuff. Deal?”
Jake nodded, trying not to show impatience. “Deal. Now, I think that the attack will probably come from the Ruins, but that doesn’t discount multiple directions.” The Scout Captain looked out into the night and gave a frustrated sigh. “If only it wasn’t so dark tonight! Even a half moon would give us a better view of the fields!”
“That may be the point,” said Rory. “If they wait for a time where we can’t see an attack, we can’t defend for it, can we?”
“You’re saying you think the triangle people are behind that sound? From the sky?!”
“Well, you’ve seen that thing at Sardy Fields, Jake, same as me. That Piggie machine the Sardians built a shrine around. The story said that the Pigs could fly about in those things, right? Well, what if someone found one that was working? Or figured out how they got built?”
Jake thought that through. “That… actually makes a hell of a lot more sense than anything I’ve come up with.” It was still fantastic. Almost all of the Piggie machines in the ruins were rotted shells. Certainly none of them had worked since his father’s time. But it was at least possible.
“Of course it makes sense. And that’s why you kakheads shouldn’t keep things from old Rory.” The rifleman had his chest puffed out with pride.
Jake ignored that for now. “I know I don’t have the authority to give your men orders, Rory, but we really need to find out what’s going on in those fields.”
“Right,” said Rory. He turned to the other three men, who had been pretending not to listen. “Hose, you hit the south fields. Clark, you got the north. I’m gonna go up the road and check out the outbuildings my godsdamned self, see if anything is heading for us from Sardy. Dan, you stay here and keep your eyes peeled for anything, you understand me? And if any of you bastards see something, do NOT engage! Fire a shot in the air and run like hell to the School. If you hear a shot and you don’t know where the hell it came from, get back to the Loop. Dan should have some idea on direction, and we can get that info to Jake. I assume you’ll be at the School?”
Jake shook his head. “No. I’m going to grab every Scout I can and get to the bridge barricade. I smelled goner when the wind shifted. I’m sure we’re gonna get hit from that direction. The rest of the defense is up to the Longshooters.”
“Lovely. Well, I suppose we’d better get it right, then.” Rory grabbed his rifle. “Go on, Jake, get to wherever the hell you need to be next. And why aren’t any of you kakheads moving?!” he yelled, turning his attention to the other men. As they scrambled, Rory turned back to Jake. “If you hear a shot, what do you plan to do?”
“Retreat to the School,” said Jake. “We don’t have enough fighters to take an attack from multiple directions.”
Rory nodded. “Let’s hope it don’t come to that. If it does, some folks are gonna die. Not everyone has a head for fighting.”
“Let’s hope. Good luck, Rory,” said Jake, clasping the older man’s hand.
“You too, Jake. Stay the hell alive. I’m not done yelling at you.” With that, Rory shouldered his rifle and started heading northwest. Jake stared at his back for a while, and then ran back towards the School.
When he got there, he found a good deal less chaos than he had thought. People were filtering in from the south and west, looking confused but calm. Longshooters had been positioned on the roof, and down below, his Scouts were building a makeshift barricade. Some of the stronger civilians seemed to be bringing hay down from the Arena. Bales of hay wouldn’t do much as a wall; the Gone would break through in a matter of minutes. But it was better than nothing, and if the Riflemen managed to thin the Gone out before they got to the barricade, it would put distance between the fighters on the ground and the ever hungry mouths and hands that would be reaching for them.
“Captain!” he heard Martinez call. Jake looked, and saw him and Tom stacking some of the hay bales. He hurried over to them. “I hear I’m not retired anymore?”
“Sorry, Marty, I was hoping to approach the subject a lot differently,” said Jake. “But I think you’ll agree we need all hands on deck for this one.” He then gave the reluctant Scout the same bullet points he’d given Rory. By the time he was done, both men’s mouths were hanging open.
“Por Dios,” Martinez breathed. “I take it you believe him?
”“It’s not a matter of belief anymore. We all heard the sound. And I’m sure I smelled goner when I was cutting down the rope bridge.”
“What do you need from us, Jake?” asked Tom.
“Marty, how many Scouts have shown up?”
“Including me and you? Eleven. Boldin and Lewis are at the bridge, I’m told, and we got three out in the wilds. Everyone else is here. Mayor set them to work straight away, getting ground defenses ready.”
Jake shook his head. “I need all of them. We need to get a barricade set at the bridge; what we have now isn’t going to cut it.” Martinez didn’t wait for further explanation, he simply turned and headed towards the school. Jake turned to his big friend. “Tom, do you think you could handle getting things set up here?”
Tom shook his head. “I’m a farmer, Jake. I don’t know anything about defenses.”
Neither does anyone else, Jake thought. We haven’t had to defend the town from a herd since the Awakening. “Just do your best. I can’t afford to leave anyone here. I want to get some of the old mining machines into the road, the heaviest ones we can lift.” He would have added more, but before he could open his mouth, he heard a voice shouting his name. “Godsdamn it,” Jake said resignedly. He turned, to see the mayor running towards him, red faced.
“You can NOT take all of the Scouts!” Townsend screamed as he ran up to him. “We need fighters on the ground!”
“And you’ll have them. Now stop shouting, you’ll cause a panic,” said Jake calmly. “We have a plan in motion already. We’ve already determined for sure that an attack will come from the Ruins. If we can thin them out there, the School has a better chance.”
“I have an idea,” said Tom. “Leave Marty here. He can guide the regular folks in getting the defenses up. I’ll go with you. I’m stronger than Marty, and I can get that barricade you’re talking about up faster.”
Jake considered. “Actually, I like that idea. We need the best defenses we can get when we fall back.” He didn’t mention that they might not be able to fall back. He knew he needed to appear calm and sure of himself, or the mayor would panic again. “Will that suit you, Bill?”
The mayor still looked unsatisfied, but nodded. “Probably the best I’m going to get. Do you know how long we’ll have?”
“No idea. I’m hoping for a full day, like the Kenoshans had. I’m preparing for it to come in the next few hours.” As Jake spoke, men began to gather around. His nine Scouts. Seth had come with them.
Jake started explaining the plan to them. No one had any questions; they just nodded and headed out to pack up their gear. “Marty and Seth are going to stay here. I expect fall back positions ready for us when we need them. Understood?”
“Understood, Captain,” said Martinez. He looked relieved to stay behind; his fighting skills were no doubt rusty. Jake looked to Seth, expecting to see disappointment in his son’s eyes for being left out of the action. But all he saw was determination. Jake nodded at his men. “Then let’s mo
ve,” her ordered. “I want to be ready by midnight.”
Seth Larkin wiped his brow and put his hands on his hips, looking up at the sky. It had started to get a bit brighter in the last hour. Trig raised his head from his paws as he straightened, but promptly put it back down again. Seth felt bad for the dog, but his Dad had been long gone by the time Mother and Katie had arrived. The dog could tell something was wrong, but didn't know what.
No shots had been heard in the night, for which Seth thanked the Mother. “Do you think maybe my Dad got it wrong?” he asked aloud.
“Not likely,” said Marty, swinging his hatchet. The two of them were making stakes to put in front of the hay bales. The School Complex had once had permanent stakes and a stout wall up in the years just following the Awakening, but decades without an attack had made them seem unnecessary. It was one of the things Seth had often heard his father complain about. Even without the Gone, there was no guarantee that a rogue nomad group wouldn’t attack, or even another settlement. Just because there was peace now didn’t mean there would always be.
When he had mentioned the old defenses to Marty, the un-retired Scout had given a smile and a nod. “Good thinking, Lark,” he had said. “Let’s get to work on that. We probably won’t have time to do the whole complex, but we can put some in front of the Ell and between that and the Curve. We can use the building itself as part of the barricade if we need to. We’ll start there and see how far we get.” A lot of the families that had ideas about moving to Sardy Fields come spring had already started gathering lumber, so there was no shortage of wood. Some of it had been stacked by the hay bales, to strengthen the barricade. Marty chose the straightest pieces of lumber, thin enough that they could get a good point on them but thick enough that they wouldn’t break with the weight of the first goner. Working through the night, they had managed to get a row in front of about half the Ell, stretching south to the Curve. It was slow going for just the two of them, but all in all they were making good time.
Aspen Vale: A Tale of the Gone Page 16