“I know you don’t trust us fully. I don’t blame you. But it might be wise to travel together, with those men around,” Kirby said. “You can head your way when you need to.”
“We might be able to learn some things from each other,” William added.
“You’re heading north, then?” Flora asked.
Kirby paused. They hadn’t made a decision, but north seemed as good a direction as any, and it was certainly away from Brighton. “Yes.”
Flora looked like she was torn. “All right, I’ll come with you. But before we go, I have one more favor I’d like to ask.”
Chapter 11: Kirby
Kirby grunted as she helped Flora carry Anya’s body—a body that would’ve been too heavy, if the dead girl hadn’t been so skinny—through the rusted hull of an upright ship, next to the one that had been overturned and had once held her guns. They headed up a flight of stairs and toward the deck. Outside, Bray and William were hiding the bodies of the dead men from Halifax. They didn’t need others following them, seeking revenge.
“I’ve known Anya my entire life,” Flora said, as she carried the girl’s limp legs. “Our mothers gave birth within a few days of each other. My mother died in childbirth, and my father passed on when I was six. Anya’s parents raised us together. She’s like a sister to me. It will hurt her parents deeply to hear of her death.”
“I’m sorry,” Kirby said. She didn’t know what else to say. “What were you doing this far from your home?”
“Originally, we were out looking for food and supplies. Those men chased us for days, much further south than we intended to go. That’s when we came across this place. We’d never seen it before. We thought we were going to be safe until they left.”
Kirby nodded.
Reaching the ship’s large deck, they had a full view of the ocean. The deck was a degree warmer than the frigid bowels of the ship. An expression of wonder shone through the grief on Flora’s face as she surveyed the horizon, with water stretching as far as they could see.
“The ocean is beautiful. Anya was always fascinated with it. She deserves to rest away from the teeth of the Savages.”
“As do we all,” Kirby said. “Hopefully she’ll find peace here.”
They carried the body around some small, rusted boxes on the ship’s deck that held broken navigation equipment. Kirby would never need it again.
“What is all this for?” Flora asked.
“Most of it was used to sail these ships, when we came across the sea.”
Flora looked amazed. “Across the sea? I assumed you came from another part of this land.”
Kirby shook her head. “We came from a land on the other side of the ocean. A place that was perhaps worse than this one. These ships carried us to this shore, where we built this settlement that we called New Hope.”
“How many lands are outside of this one?” Flora asked, disbelief written across her face as she looked out across the stretching sea.
“Many, many lands.”
“I can’t imagine that. And I can’t imagine being out on the water on something like this,” Flora said.
They headed toward a square room on the ship’s deck, a cabin that a crew had once occupied.
“It was amazing to sail over the water,” Kirby said. “Even more so now that I can look back on it, and realize I won’t get that experience again.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t have the knowledge or the materials to fix these ships, and I doubt I’ll ever find another boat like this one.”
“I’ve seen a few ships like these,” Flora said.
“You have?” Kirby asked, surprised. “Where?”
“Up north, closer to my home, but they were destroyed by the sea. And they weren’t as large.”
Kirby nodded, her hope falling. She expected that would be the case.
“How did you know to come here?” Flora asked.
Kirby said, “We didn’t. We were just trying to escape. Our people spoke of a golden palace in the clouds, where people were at peace and no longer warred. We thought we might have found it here, but our hopes were dashed a long time ago. I still think it might be out there. I’m just not sure how to get to it.”
“Perhaps it is out there,” Flora said. “And perhaps Anya will find it.”
Having set the body down near the cabin, they stared at it for a moment. Flora watched her friend’s body with an obvious look of grief. Kirby recalled the dead people she’d cast off her ship on the way over, after illness or injury had taken them. She remembered watching them sink beneath the water, food for scavenging ocean creatures. Hopefully, they could prevent that same fate for Anya.
“I will miss her,” Flora said.
Gesturing inside the cabin, Kirby said, “The cabin will be better protection than on the beach. The glass shattered years ago, but she’ll be safe from the mutants in here for a while longer.”
“And she’ll have a view of the ocean,” Flora said, wiping a tear from her face. “Thank you for helping me with this request.”
They lifted Anya inside, propping her on one of the seats so she could face the ocean. Then they shut the door, watching her for another moment.
“Your people must be wondering where you are.”
“I need to get back to them,” Flora said.
“Of course.” Kirby nodded. “And we need to leave before more men show up.”
Kirby looked at the beach, where Bray waved an impatient arm. He was stubborn, but he was a good fighter, and he had treated William well. Still, he would never understand the pain of the spore like Kirby did.
Kirby had a growing sympathy for William. The past few mornings, William had been grimacing, and although he hadn’t said anything, she could tell his joints were hurting from his infection. The pain would only get worse. Kirby would stay with them, for now.
“Let’s get going,” Kirby said.
“Maybe we’ll see some of the men from Halifax who took your weapons on the way, and you can try to get them back.”
Kirby watched the rise and swell of the ocean. “Perhaps.”
Chapter 12: Kirby
After some discussion of how to travel, it was agreed that Flora would ride on the back of William’s horse. William insisted on sitting in the front of the saddle and guiding the animal, a task at which he seemed to be getting better every day. Flora, for her part, didn’t complain. She seemed grateful to have a ride on the back of the beast instead of walking, which presumably had been her means of travel for the past few days. They started riding, moving away from the settlement and getting farther from a place that held nothing but sad memories.
Kirby watched her settlement disappear over her shoulder, fighting off rehashed old feelings. Returning to New Hope had uncovered memories she’d hoped to bury. The settlement was a stripped carcass, picked over by the hands of uncaring men and left to rot. There was nothing left before, and there was even less left now.
Long ago, Kirby had dismissed the idea of a life afterwards, but she hoped for it now, if only so her people could find peace.
Having ridden deeper into the trees, and seeing no tracks from other men, they relaxed slightly. William looked over his shoulder at Flora, voicing the first of what was surely a slew of held questions.
“Do your people have horses?”
“We used to,” she answered. “But they all died from a harsh sickness a few years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” William pointed in Kirby’s direction with a thin smile. “Kirby had never seen them until a little while ago.”
“They are magnificent beasts,” Flora agreed.
“What about cars? Do you have those?”
“Cars?” Flora’s confusion was evident on her face.
William seemed happy to explain. “Cars are what the Ancients used to get from one place to another. They are machines that used to exist a long time ago. I wondered if your people might have some.” He looked sideways at Kirby, as if she
might have something to add, but she remained quiet.
The conversation was an amusing distraction from what had been a tense journey for Kirby. Over the past few days, she’d told them some things about her homeland, and a few other things about the people they called the Ancients, but she hadn’t told them everything. She would, when the time was right.
Flora answered, “I don’t know anything about a people called the Ancients, or cars.”
“The Ancients are the people that lived before us,” William said.
“The people who left the crumbled buildings in the forests, you mean?” Flora said. “The gods?”
William furrowed his brow. “We don’t consider the Ancients gods, although…I guess they are, in a way. They built things of which we can only dream. They had knowledge that we can only guess.”
“The gods abandoned the buildings and went to the clouds. They went up to watch over us. They left them so we could live in them, and be protected,” Flora said assuredly.
William looked up through the treetops, as if something might be hovering above them. “They live in the sky?”
“It is true,” Flora said with a firm nod. “They look after us.”
William kept looking for them.
“Without the gods, we might’ve perished,” Flora said. “But we can’t rely on the gods for everything. We’ve learned to protect ourselves, too.”
“Do your people turn into Savages?” William asked.
“Some of them, yes.”
“Do you…burn them?” William turned over his shoulder to look at her.
Flora was taken aback. “No, nothing like that. We turn them into the forests. That’s it.”
William fell silent a moment.
“Do your people do that?” Flora asked. “Do they burn them?”
William looked like he was working through something. “Yes. But we don’t agree with them,” he explained, after a long pause. “That’s why we left Brighton.”
“Brighton is where you live?”
“Used to live,” William corrected. “Bray and I left, and we aren’t going back. Kirby lived at the settlement that you saw.”
“Where are you headed now?”
William looked at Bray and Kirby. “We’re not sure yet.”
Kirby gave William a stern look not to elaborate any further.
“I can’t get over the power of your weapons,” Flora said, turning her attention to Kirby. “They sent fire into those men. You killed them without touching them, almost like a bow, but with no arrow.”
“I suppose it might look like that, to you,” Kirby said.
Flora shook her head in disbelief. “I wasn’t the only one to see the Halifax men with those weapons. A few of our hunters saw them, too, before I left with Anya. We thought they were weapons from the gods.”
Kirby suppressed a grin. “They aren’t from the gods. My people built them.”
“Do you know how to build more weapons, if you can’t get your old ones back?”
“Unfortunately not,” Kirby said. “They were built in the land where I came from. I don’t know how. Even if I did, I don’t have the right materials.”
They traveled north, keeping near the water and following the coast, but hiding within the trees, looking for tracks, broken branches, or other signs that they might be close to men from Halifax. For the most part, Flora led the way, remembering the area from when she’d been chased. Every once in a while Bray had a suggestion. He said he was looking for prints, but Kirby wondered whether he was trying to retain some control in a land that was now unfamiliar to him.
After riding for several hours, moving faster and farther than Kirby was used to traveling, due to the horses, and traveling much farther than Flora had in a day, they stopped and appraised the sky. Dying, golden sunlight shone over the tops of the trees.
“We’ll need to find a place to camp soon,” she said.
“Probably a good idea,” Bray said.
“I know a place that’s a little off course, at least for me, but it’s a good place for horses,” Flora suggested. “There’s a small stream there where they can drink. Hopefully I can remember where it is.”
“That sounds good to me,” Kirby said, and Bray agreed.
They traveled deeper inland, cutting over tree roots that sometimes poked from the earth, and tree trunks wider than most of the ones Kirby had seen. Finally, they came to a small stream that was flowing softly over a bed of rocks and not yet frozen. Flora seemed excited to have remembered the place’s location.
“If the Savages come, we’ll hear them splashing through the water,” Flora said, pointing at the brook.
“A good way to stay safe,” Bray agreed.
Farther down the small bank, a skinny stone structure jutted from the ground, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top. The remnants of crumbled, burnt logs lay inside.
“Is that a fireplace?” William asked Flora.
“Yes,” Flora said.
“Why would someone build a fireplace in the middle of the forest, without a house around it?” William asked.
They rode the horse over to inspect it.
“If you look closely at the ground, you can see the tops of some flat stone. I think a house stood here at one time.” Flora pointed. “I came here with Anya’s parents a few times when they were teaching me to hunt, when I was younger. I didn’t think I’d find it again.” Flora seemed proud. “When I last came, I tried digging the dirt away. I had the silly thought that the house was underground.”
“You’ve never heard of underground houses?” Bray called after them, prompting them both to turn their heads.
“They exist?” William asked.
Flora looked at Bray with a quizzical look on her face. It took them a minute to see that Bray was joking.
After letting the horses drink, they tied them to the nearby trees, then put their things by the old fireplace. They managed to collect some kindling that wasn’t too stuck to the ground. With some effort, they got a fire going. Kirby warmed her hands.
“I can’t say I’m unhappy that we haven’t run into any men from Halifax,” Flora said.
Kirby sighed as she took off her boots, dumping some debris from them. “I wouldn’t mind getting our guns back, but I doubt we’ll luck on a few of them carrying them through the forest.”
“I still say we go after them,” Bray said.
Kirby watched Bray for a moment, delaying an argument that had been building since they’d found the guns missing.
“I’m not saying we rush in blindly,” Bray said. “But we shouldn’t let the guns go so easily, either. We’re already headed in the right direction.”
“Who’s going to get them back? You, with a wounded shoulder?”
Anger blazed in Bray’s eyes. “Don’t worry about me. I can handle myself. You saw the way I handled those men in Brighton.”
“Say we run into more than a couple. Will you have William fight alongside you, after everything you did to get him back?”
Bray opened and closed his mouth as he thought of a response.
“I can fight,” William protested.
“I didn’t say you couldn’t,” Kirby said with a firm nod. “What I’m saying is that we should make the decision together. It’s a risk we should all agree on. We shouldn’t risk our lives unnecessarily.”
William and Bray grew silent as they thought on it.
Flora watched the argument with a look that said she wanted to help. “I can take you near Halifax, if you want.”
“I think that would be a good idea,” Bray said. “At least get us in the vicinity and we can figure it out from there.”
“You don’t need to risk your life again,” Kirby said. “We’ll settle for directions, and the salve you offered Bray. That will be enough. And then you can get back to your people.”
Bray didn’t seem happy, but he remained quiet.
Chapter 13: Bray
Flora scraped some of the salve from her gl
ass container, transferring it onto the end of William’s sword while he held it over the fire.
“Once the salve softens, you should be able to use it,” Flora told Bray.
Bray nodded. He took off his shirt and unwrapped the bandage on his shoulder, checking the wound. He noticed that some of the scabs were thickening, but the wound still pulsed with pain when he touched it. Hopefully, Flora’s greasy paste would do something.
He watched the forest around them. After their earlier conversation, Flora had given them directions to Halifax. Bray had committed several landmarks to memory, figuring he’d be able to find the rest of the way. There were bound to be footprints.
Ever since he was a boy, Bray had been taught his sword was all he needed. But now he questioned that logic. He’d seen the fire that came out of the Tech Magic, and that fire meant a safety that was even more dependable than a sword. He didn’t care what Kirby said. They needed those guns, if they wanted a chance to survive in the wild. The men from Halifax were a reminder of the things that might be lurking out there. Bray had no intention of needlessly risking William’s safety, but if they could find at least a few guns before the Halifax men learned to use them, they’d be better prepared for whatever was out there.
Splashing footsteps interrupted his thoughts. He leapt to his feet and looked toward the stream.
“What is it?” William asked, removing his sword from the fire and holding it up.
Bray squinted to see into the darkness. Past the edges of the firelight, he saw the glint of the stream, and looking left, he saw the horses adjusting nervously in the nearby trees. The noise was coming from further upstream, opposite the side with the horses. Kirby got to her feet and aimed her rifle. For a moment, Bray entertained that the marked, filthy men in Kirby’s jackets had found them. But it wasn’t men.
Demons.
“Get back!” Bray shouted, stepping in front of Flora and William as he drew his sword.
Flora pulled her flat weapon. Three demons splashed through the water and up the bank, snarling as they chose targets.
Without waiting to be attacked, Bray ran at the closest demon, bringing his sword down on its wrist. The creature bent down, clutching its severed appendage, and Bray followed up with a slice to the back of its neck, dropping it into the stream. Another sprang at Kirby from the shadows upstream, but thunder from her gun sent the creature sprawling. Her gun boomed again, taking care of a third.
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