by Alice Sabo
“If we are already changed, then we are not working from the correct standpoint.” Kyle spoke softly, his eyes still on the floor.
“Which is something the labs need to know,” Angus said. “And we will be sure to make certain that information gets through. However, Kyle has a bit more bad news for us. Please tell us your conclusions concerning the recent flu.”
“The information is anecdotal,” Kyle murmured as he shifted nervously in his seat. Tilly thought his posture looked very defensive, his arms folded tight against his body, head tucked. She felt sorry for him.
“All research right now is anecdotal,” Angus said calmly.
Kyle shuffled his feet. “I don’t want to cause a panic because it is a very small sample.”
“We will take it as incomplete data,” Angus offered.
“All of the flu victims here at High Meadow had brown eyes.”
“No,” Tilly found herself on her feet without realizing she’d stood. “Bruno has brown eyes, and he recovered.”
“I am still conducting my research, but it appears from the DNA samples on file here that all of the victims were brown-eye and had a non-brown-eyed mother. Both Bruno’s parents had brown eyes.”
Angus tapped his finger against his chin. “Can you give us a percentage of the population that will be affected by this?”
Kyle shuffled and shifted again. “No.”
Tilly heard something in her husband’s voice that she hadn’t heard in a very long time. He cleared his throat and folded his arms. She knew him too well. He was scared. “It appears that this flu may be a great deal more lethal than I had anticipated. Here at High Meadow we only lost twenty-three people, which is less than twenty-five percent. I fear that the death rate will be much higher in the general populace if Kyle’s supposition is correct.”
The formal way that Angus spoke frightened her to her core. His spark was diminished. He spoke staring at his papers as if looking for answers, or avoiding the eyes of his audience. The next time he spoke, it was barely above a whisper.
“If this is true, the country is losing a significant portion of its population this year. The kidnapping could be a conscription of some kind.”
“Leaving the children behind?” Tilly demanded. “That’s insane, it’s cruel, it’s...” she sputtered to a stop unable to verbalize her contempt for the perpetrators.
“They were taken for a reason,” Martin said calmly, but she saw a coldness in his eyes that for once, reassured her. “That reason didn’t want, or need the kids.”
“Wisp said he thought the kids were from a blow-down?” She offered hoping it made sense to someone else.
Nick took the cue. “The folks harvesting the wood. That makes sense. They’re not too far north of here.” He turned to Martin. The look they exchanged spoke volumes.
“I’ll get guards on the doors,” Martin said.
“Wisp will help,” Nick said. “He can give us warning.”
Martin nodded and left the room. Angus watched him go, then turned to Nick with a puzzled look.
“We could be next,” Nick said.
“Why?” Frank asked.
Nick shrugged, lips tight with anger. “Can’t answer that without knowing why the parents are missing. But the fact that they were taken, leaving the kids abandoned, says it isn’t a good thing.”
“What if they come here?” Elsa asked.
Tilly was amazed at how calmly the little woman spoke. Her own heart was pounding so hard, she could feel it in her ears.
“We’re well armed,” Nick said calmly. “The Watch is well trained.”
“We have a plan,” Tilly added. “The new people need to do a drill.”
Angus gave her a small smile. “That’s a good point, dear. We have a lot of new people here. And the children. We need to pair them off, so they have someone making sure they get to the shelters if needed.”
“I’ll put up a notice on the message boards. We’ll do a drill right after breakfast.” As always, now that she had tasks lined up, she felt better.
“Thank you,” Angus said with a fond nod. “However, I think this year’s flu may be a tipping point.” He looked at Dieter. “What are your thoughts?”
He waited, inspecting his audience before speaking. “A loss of even twenty-five percent may be more than some communities can absorb. Higher losses will most likely cause the collapse of many settlements.”
“People will be moving,” Angus said.
“In bandit season,” Nick added. “We need to warn people.”
“How would you do that without warning the bandits?” Elsa asked.
Nick rubbed his face. He looked tired. “The folks at Creamery were already attacked. They’re setting up some defenses, but I don’t think they’re ready.”
“Priorities,” Tilly said firmly. “You have to look to yourself before you can help others. It isn’t any good falling in the quicksand alongside them. Once we are sure we can defend ourselves, we can reach out to others.”
“Well said!” Angus clapped his hands. There was just a hint of sparkle in his eyes, again. “Excellent. Let’s start planning how we should—” Angus was interrupted by an alarm.
“Fire?” Nick asked.
Angus hurried to his desk to get the radio. “No, that is the lower level access alarm.”
Chapter 53
“Every year the flu takes more people than are born. The population numbers have decreased dramatically every year since Zero Year.”
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
Nick jolted to his feet unsure of where to go. He hadn’t been here for any of the drills, so he didn’t know what his assignment would be.
“Oh dear, Wisp said he was going to sleep down there. Did he set it off?” Tilly said. But Nick knew that the trigger would be someone coming in, not just wandering the halls.
“How could anyone get into the lower levels?” Elsa asked.
“This is the local storm shelter. There are tunnels coming in from the neighborhoods, right?” Frank asked.
Nick nodded at him. “Five of them that dump into a staging area.
Angus went over to his desk and checked in with Martin on the radio.
“Southwest tunnel,” Martin responded. “Taking a look now.”
“Wisp may be down there,” Angus said.
“Got ‘em,” Martin said. “Let’s do this right. Evac to the chapel.”
“Will do,” Angus replied.
Nick turned to Kyle. “Can you or Ruth handle a weapon?”
Kyle shook his head. “I was never trained. Ruth is a doctor. She will refuse.”
“In that case, I’d like you to herd the children to the chapel,” Angus said. “Tilly will you make sure the doors are open? Dieter, Elsa, I think you should join her. Frank?”
“Give me a gun.”
Angus gave him an appreciative nod. “Go with Nick to the armory, please.” Angus handed Nick another radio. “Keep us apprised.”
Nick felt the urge to salute. As he led Frank to the lower levels, he was so proud of the orderly evacuation of the residents. People in night clothes, half asleep stumbling down the hallway to the chapel. Nick hoped everyone would fit. It was a medium size gathering room at the deepest point of the hill. It only had one entrance, so it was easily defensible. Nick figured Martin had set up some barricades and fall back points in the long hallway leading to it. Otherwise it could just as easily become a bloodbath. The hallway notice boards were flashing just the word chapel. Nick noticed that all of the signs indicating how to get there were gone.
He and Frank arrived at the new armory. Their recent acquisitions had required a larger space. Martin had taken over a teachers’ lounge and added a Dutch door. The top door was open and Nick could see two long tables covered with guns. Harley was there handing out weapons and ammunition. And so was William.
“Too young,” Harley said firmly,
“But I can fight,” William insisted.
“Yo
u’re not on the list.” Harley tapped a clipboard he was holding.
Nick stepped up and put his hand on William’s shoulder. “Here’s the deal, William, Martin has a plan. If he didn’t assign you a weapon, he doesn’t know to deploy you. I’ll let him know that he needs to add you in next time.” He tightened his grip as William started a denial. “This time, you’ll have to settle for being a runner. Harley, we got a spare radio?”
Harley gave him a tight nod and handed one over.
Nick called Martin on the radio. “William’s going to be a runner for you. Where do you want him?”
“Bottom of the south stairwell with Jim and Toby.”
Nick turned to William. “You know where that is?”
“Course.”
“William, it’s really important that you do what you’re told, okay?”
William gave him a surly nod and stomped off to the stairs.
“He’s itching for some action,” Harley said as he handed guns to Nick and Frank.
“If you’d been through what he has, you’d want to get a little back, too,” Nick said.
Frank looked over the automatic weapon. “Where’d you get this?”
“Bandits,” Nick said. It was close enough.
Frank looked amazed. “Barter?”
Nick gave him a serious look. “Nope.”
“Oh.”
Nick collected his ammunition and headed for the lower levels. They met Wisp on the stairs. He saw that Wisp was armed and waited for Frank’s reaction, but the station manager didn’t even blink.
“Feels like only about ten men,” Wisp told Nick.
“You’re sure they’re bandits?”
“No doubt.”
“Martin say where he wants us?” Nick tried to summon up a memory of the warren of tunnels around here. He’d only been down a handful of times. Five tunnels came into the school from streets in the surrounding neighborhoods. Each tunnel led to its own staging area, the size of a small auditorium, that had been planned as a reception hall to sort and assign space to people seeking shelter. Each staging area then fed into a central chamber that had the access stairs for the massive shelter, one level lower. If the tunnels were secure, no one from outside could reach the storm shelter. Only certain stairways in the school had access to all areas.
Wisp took a doorway off the stairs to a short hallway that led to one of the staging areas. They passed Dr. Jamison setting up triage in an alcove. Wisp took them to the end of the corridor and indicated the steel, double doors. “Martin wants you here in the first fallback zone,” Wisp said. “They haven’t come out of the tunnel yet. They’re waiting for something.”
Nick felt his adrenaline kicking in. “For what? Do they have an inside man?”
“No.” Wisp’s tone was solid enough that Nick felt better. He cocked his head to one side and frowned. “Someone just joined them.”
“Waiting on the boss?”
Frank glanced from Wisp to Nick. “He got an earpiece?”
Nick chuckled. “No, he’s psychic.” Frank laughed, but his uneasy look said he wasn’t sure if Nick was kidding.
The sound of automatic gunfire brought them all alert. A scream punctuated another round of firing. Wisp winced.
“Ours or theirs?” Nick asked.
“Ours.”
Bruno burst through the doors with a body slung over one shoulder. Nick reached to help, but he bulled past them. “Prepare to cover, Martin’s drawing them back,” Bruno said as he headed back the way they’d come.
Nick slipped through the door to find a stack of barrels set up for cover. The Watch were shooting from similar positions. The staging area was a labyrinth of barrels and tree trunks laid out to give the defenders the most advantage. Nick gave Martin credit, he must have spent days lugging all this stuff down through the tunnels. The sides of the room had been closed off funneling anyone coming in from the tunnels into a narrow corridor of about five feet. The few overhead lights working deepened shadows and added confusion. Martin was sending men back one by one towards Nick’s door, pulling the bandits deeper into the maze. Wisp took a stance to one side and started firing. That drew fire back towards them. Over the radio, Martin called for cover. Nick crouched behind a barrel and laid down gunfire for the retreating men. There were two bodies on the floor in front of the storm door from the tunnel.
Another bandit went down, and Nick felt that twinge of regret that another human being was dead. But if they were going to come in shooting, they certainly couldn’t have good intentions.
Bruno came back, his clothes stained with blood. He crouched next to Nick. “Anyone hurt?”
“No one on our side,” Nick grunted as he reloaded. The gunfire was deafening.
The radio crackled, Martin called for Bruno.
“Where?” Bruno responded. An arm came up over a barrel just long enough to spot. Bruno crouched along the line of a tree trunk then disappeared into the maze.
Nick peeked around his barrel. The bandits were attacking blindly. They couldn’t see the High Meadow men, so they were firing indiscriminately. A waste of ammunition, in Nick’s opinion, and considering the tight, intermittent response from the Watch, Martin’s also.
Another bandit went down with a scream. Bruno reappeared half-carrying Tall Joe who was holding his bloody ribs. Wisp lay down cover fire, taking out two more men, backing along in Bruno’s wake. Then Bruno was away through the doors.
“Martin’s down to eight men in the maze,” Wisp said.
“Against how many?”
“I can only use visual right now.” Wisp said, his eyes never leaving the bandits. “About the same?”
The bandits attacked with more fervor, automatic weapon fire rattled across the drums. Wisp stood up and took out three of them. Two of the Watch scooted into cover beside Nick and Frank. Wisp stumbled and went down. Nick pulled him deeper into cover.
“How bad?” he asked, looking for the blood. Wisp was unconscious, the left side of his face covered in blood.
The men of the Watch returned fire more enthusiastically. Bruno came back through the door, saw Wisp and dragged him away without a word.
Nick was worried. Head wounds were bad. And Wisp was one of their best shots. One of...he had a few marksman awards of his own. He crawled over to where Wisp had been standing and took a peek over the barrel. Without a thought, he stood and took out two bandits that were reloading. He ducked before anyone could return fire.
And then it went quiet. There was a scuffle and one final gunshot. When he looked over his barrel, Martin was standing on the trunk of a tree, scanning the area in front of him.
“All clear!” Martin yelled. He was answered from the left and right. Then he turned to check the men behind him.
Nick stood up. “All clear.”
Chapter 54
“After several fairly mild years we had grown complacent. In Year Ten, a lethal strain took approximately 40% of the country’s population. I cannot say how it affected other countries because we have lost communication beyond our borders.”
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
Tall Joe was in surgery when Nick got to the infirmary. Martin and the rest of the Watch were sweeping the other tunnels. Nick heard Martin on the radio tell Angus he wanted everyone to stay in the chapel until they searched the entire building. Thunder rumbled faintly. Nick knew the storm had to be really bad to hear it this deep inside.
He checked for Wisp and the other man that Bruno had carried out. It made a certain sense that Bruno would want to be the one to rescue the wounded, a recompense of sorts for all the lives lost at Riverbank. And he was a big powerful man, so he could easily carry anyone.
Wisp was in bed, his head bandaged, still apparently unconscious. Kyle was standing by the bedside watching him.
“He okay?” Nick asked.
“A deep graze. Concussion. He’ll have a scar.” Kyle spoke in clipped tones.
“He was amazing.”
�
�He was well trained.”
“But not you?” Nick asked, not expecting an answer.
“My skill was obvious. I went into the sciences when I was only a few days from awakening.” Kyle shifted uneasily, reaching toward Wisp, but not touching him. “We knew what his skill was, but none of us told, so it appeared that he had no skill. He was trained in many things as Hendricks sought to discover what he was good for.”
“But Hendricks didn’t want any double Es.” Nick said softly, trying to encourage him to speak.
“No. He made that clear when he shot Gamma in front of us. Which I suppose is the real reason that Sigma killed himself.”
Nick responded automatically. “I’m sorry.”
Kyle turned quizzical eyes on him. “For what?”
“For your loss. They were your brothers, weren’t they?”
Kyle looked around the room, a puzzled frown on his face. “Yes. And we loved each other. Although we learned quickly not to let that show. We had a pact. We...” He shot a worried glance at Nick. “Forgive me. Seeing him like this makes me emotional.”
Nick clapped him on the shoulder. “He’ll be okay.”
Kyle nodded. “Thank you.”
Nick was just starting to feel awkward when William burst in. “Martin wants you in the south tunnel.”
“Both of us?” Nick asked.
William pointed to Nick as he panted to catch his breath.
“Problem?” Nick asked.
“Dunno,” William said with an eyeroll. “He just said to get you down there.”
Nick returned to the staging area to find it looking very different. All the overhead lights were on making the maze less daunting. A few key obstacles had been shifted creating a path straight through the center. Nick was half way through when he met up with Martin headed in the other direction.
“Oh good, he found you.”
Nick looked at the men working on the maze, tightening some areas, dragging branches and rocks to make the path uneven in others. “Doesn’t look too urgent?” Nick said as more of a question.
“Not sure. I wanted you to take a look at these guys.” Martin led him through the other half of the maze and out the storm doors to the access tunnel. Nine bodies were laid out, their weapons at their feet.