We Had Flags (Toxic World Book 3)

by Sean McLachlan

  The photo was framed in a tidy, handmade wooden frame and covered with glass. It hung slightly apart from the other photos. Some of these showed the young man in the first picture—sitting at a bar that looked ten times nicer than $87,953, lying on a blanket by a riverside, and standing with a serious look in those white medical clothes doctors wore in the Old Times. This last one was taken in front of a tent with a sign in front emblazoned with the symbol of the Red Cross, Crescent, and Star and the words “Emergency Mobile Unit, Southaven.”

  Yu-jin’s hand went to her mouth. He’d already told her he had been there, but seeing the photo brought it home to her. She wondered if he had ever met Grandfather and Grandmother.

  She looked again over the photos. The Doctor and Lucas wore factory-made clothes from the Old Times. Her grandparents had told her that even in the last days of the City-States you could still get manufactured goods, either from the few factories still working or the big warehouses from earlier, more plentiful times that were still stuffed with goods to supply a land that had once had so many more people.

  Fascinated, she studied another group of pictures further along the wall. These seemed to date to a bit later. One showed a crowd standing in front of the warehouse that was the nucleus of New City. She recognized The Doctor—looking to be in his thirties and more careworn—as well as a young and thin Roy, an even younger and thinner Clyde, a couple who might have been Marcus and Rosie, along with some people she didn’t know. Various others she didn’t recognize featured in photos setting up solar cells and building the city wall.

  The Doctor wasn’t the only one who looked more serious, all of them did. And many wore homespun. The factory-made clothing some still wore looked faded and patched, although still better than what you could find today even in a lucky scavenge.

  She stared, fascinated. This was some of the history she had never learned. It was almost as interesting as seeing the photos of the taikonauts, and more tangible. Some of these people were still alive.

  Yu-jin glanced at the door. Where was he, anyway? Should she go look for him? She was afraid to go out, though. She wished he had left her a note. Perhaps he thought she couldn’t read.

  The photos drew her attention back. She studied them again, and a feeling that had been bothering her in the back of her mind came to the fore. It was something she was sure he had never noticed in the photos but that she did.

  Everyone except for Roy was an Anglo. All those founders and leaders of New City were white people, the same people who had been in power in the old Republics and in most city-states, the same people who rallied around General Paulson at Southaven when he decided to scapegoat the Chinese. Their power had endured even after civilization had fallen.

  She leaned closer to the one photo that showed Roy. He looked about thirty, a wiry, tough-looking man who had left his youth behind but was still in the prime of life. There was an angry, defiant glint in his eye she had never seen in the old Roy.

  “How did you get into this crowd?” she whispered. “And why do you live in the Burbs now?”

  She got the feeling that if she asked him, he would be as silent as this old photograph.

  Yu-jin took a step back and studied all the photos again. The Doctor’s wall was covered with scenes from thirty or forty years ago, a timeline of his last days before the fall of North Cape and the first days of the founding of New City, and then the story stopped.

  Sadness washed over her. It was like her own family, her own people, everything ending. The Doctor lived in the past like her own parents and grandparents had, telling the same old stories of an old China they had never seen while huddling around a fire in a cave.

  Yu-jin shook her head. Who could fault them for preferring to talk about the Ming Empire or the taikonaut moon base? It wasn’t like the present was any better to live in, especially for people who were old enough to remember cities with factories and vehicles and populations in the tens of thousands.

  But living in the past never helped anyone. Oh, those stories certainly entertained her as a girl, had made the cave seem a little warmer, had made the firelight on the walls glow like gold, but it hadn’t filled her stomach or kept one of her family from having to stand watch against bandits out in the cold night. It was like going to movie night at $87,953, when Roy used his precious current of electricity from New City to turn on an old screen, slip in one of those shiny discs that scavengers used for signaling, and suddenly the whole crowd would be treated to some story from the Old Times, full of flashy images of crowded cities and planes flying through the air and people who all looked well-fed and clean despite all their fictional problems. Like everyone else, Yu-jin loved movie nights even if she didn’t understand everything she saw. She and the rest of the crowd would cheer or ooooh and aaaah at the action and the amazing sights, or make comments about what they’d like to do with those impossibly good-looking people in the films. It was fun to fantasize that you lived back then breathing clean air and having pure water come out of a little pipe in your house. It made you feel that if those things had been possible once that maybe, just maybe, they could be like that again.

  At the end, though, when the film ended and the lights came back on, the audience always grew quiet. Even though $87,953 was the best bar anywhere, with tables and chairs and lights and even a stereo playing Old Times music, it all looked a bit shabby after what they’d seen in the movies. The wooden floor was scuffed and worn, not all shiny like in the movies, and the chairs were handmade and creaky. The walls were covered in tattered old posters and pages ripped from magazines, more old images that seemed to mock their current surroundings.

  Looking at the people was worse. All those thin, careworn people in their patchy clothes, so many with rashes or tumors or eye infections or missing fingers or bent limbs. After seeing all those beautiful people in the movies, you couldn’t help but feel a bit ashamed of your friends, and even more ashamed of yourself.

  Even Roy always looked a bit downcast, giving one last longing look at the dark screen before sweeping his gaze over the bar and its ragged denizens. Then he’d put on that broad smile of his, clap his hands and announce, “Next round, half price!”

  That always got the party going again. Everyone needed a drink. With enough of them, the bar started looking better, and the people too.

  But Yu-jin had never been much of a drinker, and she’d never been much of a fantasizer either. Scavengers had to see the world for what it is, they couldn’t afford to do otherwise. They couldn’t dwell too much on the past, and they couldn’t dwell on any future more remote than surviving the next winter.

  That had changed for her, Yu-jin realized. She wasn’t a scavenger anymore. She had achieved her dream. She lived in the Burbs now. Or did she live in New City? Wherever her place was, it wasn’t in the wildlands, and that meant that she had the luxury of thinking of a future. At first she thought her future lay with Randy, although it had always troubled her that he couldn’t have children. A sneaking part of her mind, one she silenced when she was with her boyfriend, told her she could always find someone else to settle down with, that she could have the Burbs and children too. But that temptation that she knew would have eventually grown in her had been cut short by the events of the past few days.

  Yes, it had only been a few days since she had gotten back, hadn’t it? Just a few short days and suddenly she was one of the most important people in New City, a bridge between ship and shore. Many people hated her for it, but everyone acknowledged that she had a power no one else had.

  And here she was, in the private quarters of the most powerful person in New City, sneaking a look at his private things and wondering what her next move should be.

  Just what did The Doctor think of her, anyway? He was a practical man, despite the pot pipe by his bed. He knew he needed her and tried to protect her. It went beyond that, though. It was like he assumed she was going to become some sort of leader. From what she’d heard, they’d been cropping up
a lot lately. Everyone breaking into different factions—Burb Council, Weissman’s group, scavengers group, the cult refugees, now even a Burbs militia that didn’t answer to the council.

  She supposed he was right. She had become a spokesperson for the Asians just as much as Susanna had become a spokesperson for the refugees. What puzzled her was The Doctor’s quick acceptance. She’d seen that first look of fear and suspicion when she had told him she was Chinese. It was as obvious as it was unsurprising. What did surprise her was how quickly it faded. Once they had made the deal it was like he had lost all doubts about where her loyalties lay. Not even the riot had shaken his easy confidence in her. Electing her for associate status hadn’t just been to shut up the critics; he had meant it as a message. He was banking on the assumption that if he showed her trust, he would gain loyalty in return.

  A great man, but a fragile one. That frustrated look he got when he didn’t understand a conversation, that resentment at his own limitations, and now this windowless retreat with its music and alcohol and drugs. She had always looked up to The Doctor as someone almost superhuman, everyone did, but now he had revealed a very different side.

  She wondered about that too. They barely knew each other and yet this comfortable trust he showed in her had extended to sleeping in his private chambers, no doubt causing all sorts of rumors to fly around the building.

  What were his intentions, anyway? While she knew they weren’t what the talkers would assume, they remained unclear. As much as he needed her at the moment, he didn’t need to treat her so well.

  The sound of an opening door made her spin around. She flushed with guilt and hurried out into the front room.

  He was just closing the door as she entered, his back to her. He slumped his shoulders and leaned his forehead against the door. After one or two deep breaths, he turned.

  She almost cried out to see the look of despair on his broken face.

  An instant later it was gone, replaced by the stony features he presented to the world. The transformation was so quick, so complete, she started doubting what she had seen.

  “I’m glad you’re up,” he said. “Let’s go, we have work to do.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  As they clattered downstairs, The Doctor explained the situation to her—the Giver, the drone, everything.

  “So you want me to explain to them that the Asians aren’t prisoners?” she asked.

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  “But they are.”

  He stopped and turned on the stairs. What was she babbling about now? Yu-jin went on.

  “If they try to leave New City they’ll be lynched, so they’re as much prisoners as if you kept them here at gunpoint.”

  “That’s not the same! There was a riot and we’re protecting them.”

  “But—”

  “You want them to start shelling us with that cannon of theirs? Look, just tell them about the riot and how a bunch of good people from the Burbs and New City saved them. We’re all very sorry and it won’t happen again. I’ve even punished the Burbs for it.”

  Yu-jin looked uncertain.

  “Come on!” he ordered, and hurried down the stairs without seeing if she was following. He’d learned that technique a long time ago. Give someone a sharp command and act like you had no doubt they’d follow it, and that increased the chances of their actually doing so. From the clanging on the steps behind him he could tell he’d been right once again.

  As he came out of the warehouse something out at sea made him stop short.

  From between the buildings of New City he could see a stretch of the razor wire protecting the peninsula. Beyond that lay the glittering water, and sailing away, almost a kilometer out, was the ship.

  “No!” The Doctor and Yu-jin cried in unison.

  “What do we do?” Yu-jin asked.

  For a moment the Doctor was speechless. The ship was headed out to sea at the moment, but would it turn and bring that artillery piece to bear?

  Wait, no, that was irrational. Captain Yang didn’t seem the irrational sort. As long as the Asians stayed inside New City’s walls, he wouldn’t want to bombard the town.

  Oh hell, Yu-jin’s right. They really are prisoners.

  The ship could threaten us, though, or bomb the Burbs.

  A small crowd of citizens had gathered to stare at the departing ship with mingled looks of worry, relief, and disappointment. The Doctor picked out Annette in the crowd, deep rings under her eyes showing she had spent all the previous night looking for her son.

  Pity tugged at him. Annette was a bitch, but she didn’t deserve to lose her kid. What the hell had happened to the brat, anyway?

  “Annette,” he called out.

  She didn’t hear, and he had to call her name twice more before she turned and slouched over.

  “Let’s organize a team to fan out and search for—” shit, what’s his name?—“your son.”

  Annette shook her head.

  “I’ve looked everywhere,” she husked. “I don’t know where he could have gone. One of his friends is missing too. An Asian kid. I think they ran off together during the riot, but where could they have gone?”

  This last question came out as a whimper. It unsettled him to hear such a tough woman reduced so low.

  “Wait, a young boy!” This was from Yu-jin. Both turned to her. She lowered her voice so only they could hear. “Remember how Gebre Selassie said it was a young boy on the radio and not Jessica? I didn’t really think about it because of all that was going on, but what if it was him?”

  Annette’s eyes widened. “Pablo tags along with Jessica a lot. He kind of thinks of her as a big sister.”

  The Doctor rubbed his chin. “And you say he was friends with an Asian kid too? If he was talking to the ship and then the riot happened, he’d want to protect his friend. I bet they went out into the dunes where Jessica had the radio hidden.”

  “Do you think she’ll tell us where it is?” Annette asked.

  “I’ll make her,” The Doctor growled.

  Within a few minutes, a guard brought Jessica out to where they were standing a little apart from the crowd. The ship was still making for the horizon. Yu-jin stared at it with longing.

  The Doctor was about to grill the girl when Annette grabbed her by the shirtfront, pulled her up onto her tiptoes, and poised a fist right in front of her terrified face.

  “You had Pablo radio the ship, didn’t you?”

  “I…I didn’t want my father recognizing my voice.”

  “Where is he?”

  “I have no idea!” Jessica wailed.

  “Where’s the radio you two hid?”

  Jessica tried to regain her composure. “If I tell you will you let—”

  “If you tell me I’ll let you keep your teeth,” Annette growled.

  The Doctor saw Clyde and a few guards standing nearby, watching. He motioned for them not to intervene. Clyde’s face betrayed no reaction.

  “OK, I’ll show you, but please don’t kick me out of New City,” Jessica whimpered.

  Doubt raised in The Doctor’s mind. “Wait, how do we know the kids are even going to be at the radio?”

  “It’s a start,” Annette said, giving Jessica a spiteful shake. “And on the way over, this little bitch can tell me all she knows.”

  “It’s the most logical place for them to have gone,” Yu-jin said. “We can track them.”

  Annette looked at her. “We?”

  Yu-jin nodded. “If we can get the radio I can talk to the ship. And you protected my people. It’s only right that I help you in return.”

  The Doctor was about to object when he realized that he didn’t need her as a translator any more unless the ship came back, and that wouldn’t happen unless Yu-jin could get in contact. Still, having her head out into the wildlands when there was so much danger…

  Annette let go of Jessica, who retreated a few steps until stopped by the guard. The sheriff got a distant look in her
face. “Poor Pablo. He was out there in the dark all last night. And only because he wanted to help an Asian friend.”

  “What’s this friend’s name?” Yu-jin asked.

  “Wang Hong-gi. He’s Korean.”

  The Doctor and Yu-jin traded glances.

  “With a name like that, maybe not,” Yu-jin said.

  The Doctor’s mind raced. How best to do this?

  “All right,” he said after a moment. He turned to the guard. “You, get one of the rowboats and take Jessica, Yu-jin, and Annette out along the shore. It’s too dangerous to try to pass through the Burbs right now. Go find this place with the radio. Yu-jin, if you can figure out how to use the radio, call the ship and try to reason with them. If you can’t work it or don’t find it, come back here.”

  “You’re not coming?” Yu-jin said, looking worried.

  “I can’t. I have too much to do. I’d only slow you down anyway. Speaking of…”

  He turned to Annette. The woman looked exhausted. He pulled out a packet of paper he kept in his pocket and took out a pill, an herbal speed he’d cooked up from some of the plants on his private farm. Not as good as what he used to get back in his clubbing days at North Cape, but good enough.

  “Take this,” he said, holding it out to the sheriff.

  Annette looked at it curiously. “What is it?”

  The Doctor grinned. “The secret to my success.”

  The team hurried off to the dock by the side of the peninsula. The guard carefully unfastened several layers of razor wire encircling the little concrete platform and the four of them piled aboard one of the three rowboats docked to it. A motor launch bobbed in the water nearby. The Doctor was about to suggest they take that but decided against it. They’d get to land quick enough, and fuel was scarce. If The Doctor had learned one thing in the past forty years, it was never to use a resource unless absolutely necessary.