Aspen Vale: A Tale of the Gone

by Lopeman, Kenneth

  “Should we get the rest of the Scouts here, Cap?” asked Goat.

  Jake considered, and then shook his head. “Not yet. They’ve had as little sleep as we have. I’m hoping that the pull of the Gardens of Denver will keep most of them down there a few hours. Once the other three get here, I want them to take positions in the grass to either side of the barricade. It’s tall enough that it should provide cover. Everyone else, get off the barricade.” There wasn’t any wind at the moment, thank the Mother, so in theory the Gone wouldn’t catch their scent until they were much closer. “The key will be not being seen or heard.”

  The civilians nodded and climbed down. Jake gave them a hand, trying to make as little noise as possible. “Should we send the civies back to the school?” asked Goat.

  “No,” said Jake without hesitation. “We will need runners if the Gone do attack en masse.” If the civilians were pleased to hear him say this, they disguised it quite well.

  The two goners on the other side of the bridge wandered about for the better part of an hour. Then, one of his Scouts breathed a silent curse. Jake didn’t need a hand signal to know what that meant. “Everyone, stay down and stay SILENT!” he whispered as loud as he dared. The people around him nodded. There was silence for what seemed an eternity, and Jake began to wonder if maybe they had turned around. But then he heard some of the loose boards on the other side of barricade begin to move. He raised a finger to his lips, to reiterate that they should all stay silent. Though they were close, the goners clearly didn’t suspect that there was prey on the other side of this wall; if they had, there would have been vocalizations as they tried to work the information through whatever passed for their brains.

  Eventually, he heard less scuffing, and one of the Scouts made a hand gesture. The goners were moving off. Jake breathed a sigh of relief when that was reported to him. If it was just the two, there would have been no real threat. But if Mr. Beaupre was right, there would be many more in the Ruins. Any noise would bring them. They might have been able to take down one or two with well placed shots from a bow, but with the barricade up there was no good angle to reliably hit one in its Gone’s Sack. One wrong shot and they would have cried out, and more of the Gone would come. Now they might have some more time. Jake was going to play for every minute he could.

  A foot nudged him in the ribs. Seth groaned in protest. It seemed like every muscle in his body was clenched, and his right arm was asleep. The foot came again, and Seth begrudgingly opened his eyes, Tommy’s Dad was looking down on him. “You two comfy?” he asked.

  At first, Seth didn’t know what he was talking about. Only gradually did his sleep fogged brain register that Abby was still pressed up beside him, and his arm was asleep because she was laying on it. “Mr. Harper,” he said softly, trying to disentangle himself from the man’s daughter, “I can explain…”

  “We need to have a talk later, boy,” Mr. Larkin said gruffly. “For now you’re needed. Marty is outside waiting for you. Try not to rip that shirt you’re wearing. I like that shirt.”

  Seth’s face got even redder as he began to throw his outdoors gear on. Mr. Harper watched him, silent. “Where’s Tommy?” he asked, trying to dispel the awkward silence.

  “Already up and about. I was going to wake you at the same time, but Marty asked me to let you sleep. He said you had earned it.”

  Seth didn’t know whether to feel proud of the praise or shamed that he had gotten to sleep longer. He thought about asking how much longer, but decided against it. “I guess I should get to work then,” he said instead, heading for the door. Mr. Harper followed him out, silent once again. Seth decided that was a good thing. Tommy had gotten his temper from his dad, Seth knew. If Mr. Harper was angry, he would have been shouting. Still, he knew that a very uncomfortable conversation was in his future.

  Assuming, of course, that he HAD a future. The moment he stepped out into the light, he was forcibly reminded of why it was that he had slept in the School. A wall of hay bales now nearly surrounded the complex, twice as tall as a man at it’s tallest, and most everyone was working on stakes. Tommy was digging holes in front of the barricade at the main entrance. The big young man waved when he saw Seth, and flashed him a grin. Seth had seen that grin before. It said, “For once, you’re in trouble and I’m not.”

  For now, though, Seth put that out of his mind, too. “I’ll go find Marty,” he said to Mr. Harper. “I’m sure he has work for me.”

  “Follow me. I know where he is,” said Mr. Harper. "Tommy, get those ropes tighter! If they're not good and tight, the top bale will get knocked back easy as you please, and the barricade and won't do anyone any good." Tommy nodded, and the elder Harper started walking towards the Angle. Seth followed, trying not to show his despair on his face. The two of them began to walk around the oddly angled building. Once they were out of earshot of the courtyard, Mr. Harper finally spoke up. “Are you planning on courting my daughter?” he said simply.

  For a moment, Seth didn’t know how to respond to that. “I… haven’t really talked to her about it yet,” he said after a moment. “Tommy’s like a brother to me, and even though he said he’d be OK with it…”

  “Wait a minute. You talked to Tommy before you talked to me? Her father?”

  Be careful, Seth heard his father say into his mind. “Well, no, sir, not exactly. He brought it up because he thought Abby might want me to… spend more time with her. And I was going to talk to you, but with Mother Harper passing and now this,” he gestured to the project going on around them, “I didn’t think it was the right time.”

  “And do you still intend to be a Scout?”

  “I AM a Scout,” said Seth, feeling strangely proud. Forty eight hours ago, he hadn’t given much thought to what he would do with his life. Now that the decision had been forced on him, though, he strongly felt like he had made the right one.

  “And if I said I didn’t want my daughter married to someone who risks his life in the wilds day in and day out?”

  “Marriage? I don’t… I mean, it’s way too early…”

  “It is not too early,” said Mr. Harper seriously. “We’re not piggies in this valley, boy. I expect better from my best friend’s son than to go sniffing around, looking for a good time girl. If you aren’t ready to make some kind of commitment, you damn sure shouldn’t be sniffing around my little girl.”

  “But didn’t you see other girls before Mrs. Harper? My dad told me a story about you and him, and two girls from Three Ponds…”

  “Never mind that,” Mr. Harper snapped, and Seth knew he had hit a nerve. This was, in hindsight, a bad thing to do to the man who just caught you asleep with his daughter.

  “Abby isn’t a good time girl. We both know that,” said Seth. Where the hell was Marty, to save him from this? “I just want to spend time with her. I think she wants to spend time with me. If it goes further, you have my word I’ll talk to you first.”

  That seemed to placate Mr. Harper, but only for a moment. “If I find out that you’ve taken advantage of her, I’ll cut it off. No one, not even your dad, will be able to stop me. You understand me, boy?”

  Seth couldn’t help but swallow hard. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Martinez is over there. Get your ass to work.” With that, the older man turned on his heel and walked in the opposite direction.

  Seth stared after him a bit, until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Marty, who was giving him a serious look. “I’m sorry I got here late,” Seth began.

  Marty held a hand up to quiet him. “You needed some more sleep, and we were far enough along that I could give it to you. You’re awake now, though, and we have work to do.” The older man looked up in the direction that Mr. Harper had gone. “And don’t worry about Big Tom. Him and my sister had a talk about this night before Mother Harper went. They already think of you as one of the family.” Marty barked a laugh. “Which doesn’t mean he won’t cut it off if you do something stupid. C’mon,
Lark. We got a heap to do.”

  Seth smiled with more mirth than he felt, and followed the older man towards the holes that had been dug. He was just starting to help bury the latest spike when the gunshot rang out.

  Jake sat perfectly still, barely daring to breath. He wasn’t sure if the group of goners on the other side of the barricade was the same one as before, but it didn’t really matter. He could hear them again, shuffling back and forth along the makeshift wall. He looked up towards the sun. It was about two in the afternoon, he decided. He had been about to send that Holloway kid up to retrieve the rest of his men from the school when Goat had motioned for them all to get down and stay quiet. That had been a good twenty minutes ago. Apparently these goners were more stubborn than the ones that had come before. They hadn’t vocalized at all, though; that was a good sign that the creatures hadn’t picked up on their scent.

  To his left, he heard one of the civilian’s stomachs rumble. Jake held his breath, but the goners simply continued to shuffle. He let out the breath as quietly as he could. The man looked at him apologetically. Jake held out a hand, palm towards him, to let him know it was alright. Jake couldn’t blame him for being hungry. His own stomach felt like a hollow pit. Some folks had brought him and his men some hard rolls and dried meat as they had worked the night before, but that had been nearly ten hours ago. You need to eat, Jake, and so do the men, he thought to himself. Of its own accord, though, another voice answered the first. It’s been more than half a day since the stars came over. The attack could come at any moment now. You’re needed here. Jake mentally sighed. It was hard enough to make a decision when you were arguing with yourself. It was harder still when both sides of the argument were right.

  “Look!” said one of the civies, far too loudly. “The Scouts are coming back!” Jake put a finger to his lips, but it was too late. A goner began to moan.

  It was a low moan, and didn’t carry far, but it was a moan. Another voice joined it, and then another. Jake cursed silently and looked to the west. Sure enough, the Scouts he had sent to get some sleep were coming back in. Frantically, he made arm gestures for them to get down. The goners that were just on the other side of the barricade wouldn’t see them, but if their moaning drew any from the town, and the vantage was right for them to be seen…

  His men saw and obeyed, but too slowly. From further off, he heard a goner escalate from a moan to a scream. It was a terrible sound, a loud, high pitched wail that seemed to bubble over broken vocal chords, making a sound that could only be described as warbling. Almost immediately, the goners on the other side of the barricade joined their voices to it, and Jake could hear scratching against the metal pieces at the front of the barricade.

  “Godsdamn it!” Jake exclaimed. “Shut those goners up, men. The jig is up. Anyone who is not a Scout, get the hell out of here. Tell the folks at the school we have contact.” A gunshot rang out, and the goner across the bridge fell silent. Goat grabbed a long handled scythe and swung down from the top of the barricade. It took him a few swings, but after a time he managed to take all three of them down. Silence crashed down on them once more, at least for the time being. “Holloway, I want you to find Rory McEuon. If he’s not at the school, try the Loop. Tell him I could use a couple of Longshooters up here. It’d be easier if you talked to him before the Mayor does.”

  “Yes, Captain,” the kid said. “Good luck” With that, he ran off. The other civilians weren’t far behind him.

  Lewis and the other Scouts had gotten to the barricade by that time. “I’m sorry, Cap. We should never have left. It was a dumb move to put civilians up here.”

  Jake shook his head. “No. It was the best option we had at the time. If the goners here on the bridge had waited another half an hour, or wandered off five minutes earlier, it would have been fine. For now, let's deal with what we have. I want three men up with me on the barricade, four to either side of the bridge in the high grass. How many guns do we have?”

  “We brought four,” said Boldin. “Captain Carpenter doesn’t think we’re good enough shots for everyone to have one.”

  “Yeah, well, he’s right,” said Jake. He knew how bad with a gun he was, and he was far from the worst. “So we have six guns, and two bows. I’m hoping Rory will bring a couple Longshooters with him to help, but we can’t rely on that. Alright, new plan. Three men to each side, all with a gun. Goat, Lewis, I know you two can’t shoot for kak, so you’re on the barricade with me. The other three, I want you to stand in reserve. Goat and I haven’t slept or eaten in a while, so we may need you to take over.”

  “Quiet!” one of the Scouts called out. Immediately, every one fell silent. “Here they come,” the man continued, as he tried to hide deeper in the grass.

  “Take positions, everyone!” Jake hissed. As his men moved into position, Jake used hand signals to ask the Scout how many. He clenched both fists in front of him, and then brought them forward sharply, spreading his fingers as he did. Jake grimaced. It was the sign for “more than I can count. The herd was coming. As quietly as he could, he climbed up the barricade, crouching down on the shooting platform they had built and keeping out of sight. He made the same gesture to his men. To their credit, none of them said a word, though a few hung their head or breathed a silent sigh.

  It was very still for several minutes after that. Jake set his axe down and picked up a bow. He wasn't the best shot with the weapon, but it was better suited for this sort of work than a hand weapon. He thought that the barricade should be heavy enough that the Gone wouldn’t be able to push through it, but eventually the ones in the front would get trampled, and then the next row, and so on and so on. Goners might not be able to climb well, but put enough of them in front of a barricade and they would eventually form a ramp of bodies that let them get over. Goat still had his hand scythe, and Lewis his axe. When the pile got high enough, it would be their job to keep the top clear.

  The sound was so faint that at first Jake wasn’t sure that he had heard it or not. Gradually, it started getting louder, and he could make out individual voices within the greater moan. The Gone weren’t giving their scream, but they all seemed to be vocalizing. Jake wasn’t surprised. After the Gone scream that had gone up, they had to know that something was here. He gave his scouts in the grass a hand signal, asking if they could get a count. To a man, they replied with the same sign; very many.

  Jake felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Lewis. He pantomimed a gun; should we open fire? Jake shook his head no, and mimed pushing something. He then made his hands into claws and moved them forward and back, then up and down. Hold your fire until they start to push on the wall, he signed, or until they try to climb it. Lewis nodded, and he could see the Scouts in the grass nearest him doing the signs as well, for those further out who might not be able to see it clearly.

  It may have been the most terrifying stretch of time in Jake’s life. Three Ponds had been bad. This, though, was somehow ten times worse. At least in Three Ponds, he had been doing something, facing down the threat. Now he was just hiding behind a crate doing nothing, hoping that the herd would just go away. Jake didn’t know if that was even a possibility. He had heard several stories about herds, and none of them involved one giving up when they had the scent of their prey. But a man could hope. And a man could try to keep the fear off of his face.

  The Scout off to his right was signaling frantically. Jake looked, and saw Boldin making the push sign. When Jake signed to ask how many, Boldin held up three fingers. Jake nodded, and then held out his hands, fingers together, followed by a gun sign. He then repeated it to his left side. Hold your fire for now, but if a lot more start pushing, open fire. Three goners pushing weren’t going to do anything to his barricade. He hoped that, by holding off, he’d buy a little more time for reinforcements.

  He bought all of fifteen minutes.

  Chapter 11

  “They definitely had warning. They were preparing for an attack at least twelve hours before contact.”


  “Or they’re just paranoid. If you lived all alone out here, wouldn’t you be?”

  “Yes. But I know what I’m seeing. They were warned. This is going to ruin the old man’s day, and I guarantee you we’ll get the blame. I’m going to go ahead and pull out.”

  “Wait on that, Paulson. Let’s see what happens. Corrupted intel is better than no intel.”

  When the second shot rang out, Seth was still putting stakes up outside the western defenses. Both he and Marty straightened when they heard the shot. It was followed by several more, in quick succession. “I think it just started,” said Seth.

  “Yeah. And it sounds like it’s coming from the east, like your dad said,” said Marty.

  “So we’ve been wasting our time here?” Seth asked, trying not to sound plaintive.

  It must not have worked, because Marty hit him upside the head. “Use your head, Lark. We know that barricade at the bridge won’t hold forever. It’s not designed to. Once they get through it, they will come here, and try to find a way in. That means going all around the building. We need defenses everywhere.”

  Seth rubbed the back of his head. “Right, right. I’m stupid. How much more do we have to do here?”

  “If we had all the time in the world? I’d want another row here like we have to the east,” said Marty. “If the fighting's started, though, we don’t have time. We finish this row, and then we get our asses to the Ell.”

  Seth nodded and started working faster. The steady sound of gunshots never quit, but it never seemed frantic, either. Clearly, whatever was going on at the bridge was under control, at least for now. The same couldn’t be said for what was going on around him. People were starting to get spooked; they were gathering in small groups, talking in low voices and looking east.

  “What the kak are you people doing?” came a familiar voice. “Those are rutting gunshots you’re hearing! Those sons of bitches at the Bridge are doing their damndest to keep you bastards alive! So you sure as kak better get back to work and give them a safe place to fall back to!” At that, the groups started to scatter, especially those that lay directly in the path of Rory McEoun. He gave Seth a nod before focusing his attention on Marty. “Anyone know what the hell is going on up there?”