States of War

by Kevin Partner

  He shook his head and focused on the road ahead.

  "You okay, Sol?" Ross said. He was sitting in the front while Wally snoozed on the back seat.

  "Yeah. I'm just not sure how this is all going to work out."

  "Is it Alison?"

  Solly glanced across at the boy. "Yep. She says I can't leave her. I'm her father, apparently."

  "But she's only a computer. I mean, you wouldn't worry about leaving an Alexa behind, would you?"

  "Despite what Amazon might have you believe," Solly said. "Alexa won't save the world. Alison might."

  Ross shrugged. "I still don't see how. She's just a talking tube."

  "She? Not it?"

  "Well, yeah…" Ross said, his voice trailing off.

  "Exactly. Spend five minutes talking to Alison and you forget she's not flesh and blood. That's a hard connection to break. And as for how she's going to prevent this supposed second wave, I haven't got a clue. But she is next generation tech, Ross, so she's going to be capable of things we can't imagine. I worked with AI during my app development days, did I tell you?"

  Ross smiled. "Once or twice."

  "Well, that stuff was stone-age tech compared to Alison. Whoever created her was a bona fide genius."

  "Doesn't sound as though you want to leave her behind. I reckon you've gotten attached, Sol."

  Solly glanced again at the boy and saw the slight smile. "Very funny. Yes, I would find it difficult to let her go, but I need to get back to the farmhouse."

  "I miss that place," Ross said, wistfully.

  "But if by leaving her behind I compromise her in some way, so she doesn't work properly or refuses to work, then maybe I've condemned everyone, including our family."

  "Maybe we'll meet the dude who created her when we get to Arbroath? Maybe he'll take over."

  Solly nodded. "That's what I'm hoping. We need to go home, son."

  He was half asleep when Paulie slammed her brakes on, flooding the gloom with bright red light. Cursing, he watched her get out and look along the road.

  "What is it?" he said, joining her.

  "Smoke," she responded, pointing ahead. "Good grief, I think it's coming from Arbroath."

  Solly could see a thick, black column rising into the air ahead of them. It was late in the day, but there was no mistaking it against the darkening sky.

  "We need to move," Paulie said. "If you can't keep up, follow the signs and meet me there. I can't wait for you."

  With that, she jumped back in her car and was pulling away before Solly made it back into his seat.

  "What's goin' on?" Wally said, wide awake now, his rifle resting on his lap.

  Wally and Ross lurched back as Solly jabbed his foot on the gas and tried to keep up with Paulie. He didn't want to get separated having finally found someone to share the responsibility of Alison with and he felt that whatever they might encounter in Arbroath, he'd rather do it with Paulie by his side.

  It took ten minutes to reach the approach road to the town and there was now no doubt where the smoke was coming from. Paulie had parked up and turned to watch as Solly and the others joined her.

  "I've been away for less than a week. What have they done?"

  "We'd better go and find out," Solly said, checking his weapon before slipping it back into his inner pocket. "Why not drive in?"

  Paulie shook her head. "Because I don't know who's in charge. It might have been a hit and run, but it might just as well have been a takeover. We've been threatened a couple of times. And Solly, my daughter's in there."

  "Let's go," Solly said, and the four of them marched along the approach road to the rear barricade.

  They were within a few hundred yards of the entrance, about where the militia vehicles had parked that day she'd watched them from above, when a voice called from one side.

  "Sheriff!"

  All four of them went for their weapons. The light had almost entirely gone now and they didn't dare use flashlights so close to the town, so they were reduced to squinting into the darkness, pointing their guns vaguely in the direction the sound had come from.

  "Who is it?"

  "Nicky. Nicky Friedman."

  Paulie turned to the others. "It's okay, she's a deputy."

  A shape emerged from the gloom by the side of the road.

  "Thank God you're here, Sheriff," Friedman said, before collapsing into Paulie's arms. "It happened yesterday. I've been hiding out here. I just didn't know what to do. He's dead, Paulie. Jon. He held them off while a few of us got away."

  "Hold on right there," Paulie said, holding Friedman at arm's length. "Where's Luna?"

  Friedman wiped her eyes and nose before sucking in a pizzicato breath.

  "Nicky! Is she …?"

  "She's alive. We were trying to get people out. Some escaped. Jon stayed behind. Me and Marvin got out. Jon told him to take care of Luna. Told me to wait here for you. Said you'd be coming back this way. Didn't want you to walk into it. I saw them shoot him. Point blank." Now the tears flowed fully.

  Paulie shook Friedman desperately. "Nicky—where is she now? Where is she?"

  Friedman shook her head. "I don't know. They sent men after us and he took Luna off. The dog was with them.”

  "Dany?" Paulie said. "So, she's with Marvin and Dany?"

  Solly could see Friedman nod.

  "Right, let's get you back to the car and you can tell us the whole story."

  The militia had returned. This time, they'd not even waited to talk, but had come in the night and blown the barricade away before flooding inside. Pastor Smith had been grabbed from his bed and dragged away. There had been some resistance from the deputies and others, but it had been short-lived and brutally put down. Fessel and Hodges had died in the firefight, and Graf had led the remnant in a desperate rearguard action, making for the ruined barricade. He'd held the enemy back while Nicky, Tucker, Luna, and a few others had escaped, before being gunned down.

  Nicky had made it out, and she'd seen Tucker scurrying off into the tree line with Luna.

  "The following day, yesterday," Friedman said, "I watched them forcing people into trucks and they drove off along the Seattle road."

  "I've seen where they take them," Paulie responded.

  Solly watched as her expressions reflected the rage and despair fighting within her. Paulie and Nicky were in the front of the Cherokee and Solly sat on the back seat. Ross and Wally were reluctantly keeping a lookout. The dim yellow of the interior light did nothing to hide Friedman's exhausted grief.

  "He was a good man," Nicky said. "He didn't deserve to die."

  Paulie put her hand on Nicky's shoulder and shook her head. "No, he didn't. And yes, he was one of the good guys." She dabbed at a tear running down her cheek, and fought to suppress the guilt she felt.

  "Said I was too young for him. But he was kind and gentle. I just wish we'd had longer."

  They sat in silence for a moment before Paulie finally snapped.

  "Dammit! All that we built destroyed in one night. I guess the militia leader didn't believe what Smith said to him, after all. Something changed his mind. But why destroy everything? What is wrong with people?"

  She straightened up and punched down on the steering wheel. "I'm going to see for myself."

  "Are you mad?" Solly said. "Look, we need to decide what to do with Alison."

  "Who's that?" Friedman asked.

  Paulie's eyes narrowed as she twisted in the driver's seat to look at Solly.

  "It's just a code name for a package Smith sent us to get," Paulie said. "Did he get taken to Seattle? Or is he still in Arbroath?"

  "I don't know."

  "We can't do anything until we know where he is, and I plan to find out. I'm going to get into position tonight, and find a way to sneak in."

  "Seriously?" Solly said, exasperated. "Your town's been taken over by a heavily armed militia and you're going to try to break back in?"

  Paulie gave a curt nod. "Sure. And we have one advant
age over them."

  "What's that?"

  "It's our town and we know it better than they do."

  "Who's we?"

  Nicky Friedman turned in her chair, having been staring out into the night. "I'm going too. I know how to get us inside."

  #

  "How come I didn't know about this?" Paulie said as she and Nicky slipped through a thick wooden door and into the stockroom.

  "Plausible deniability," Friedman replied, with a hint of a nervous smile. "You're the sheriff, after all."

  "So, this is Wiseman's?"

  "Yeah. The old man died on the Long Night, but I'd been in here before when he'd caught someone thieving. I remembered the door when we were sealing everything up. It's well hidden from outside and only opens if you have the knack. Luckily, he'd shown me. I think he was showing off. If we go up those stairs, we'll be in the main shop."

  Wiseman's had been a hardware store and, since the Long Night, all its stock had been brought upstairs to be used in fixing the town. Work that now lay in ruins. Paulie found herself most angry with Scott Lee, the fake pastor whose arrival had led to this end. She couldn't help but fear that his fate and hers were now intimately connected one way or another.

  Oddly enough, she was a little less concerned about Luna. She'd been incredibly relieved, of course, to learn that her daughter had escaped, and she could think of no one else she'd rather entrust her safety to than Marvin Tucker. Once a thorn in her side, Tucker had proven himself loyal more than once and he was by far the most capable of all her deputies.

  Where would he take Luna? For all Paulie knew, he might be out there right now, looking for her, while she was sneaking around in the town that had once been hers. But he was no fool. He'd go wherever he thought it most likely Paulie would go. And, in the meantime, he'd protect Luna with his life.

  No, for right now, Lee was her concern. He was mixed up in something huge that could have an impact on all the survivors of the Long Night, Luna included.

  It was early morning and the streets of Arbroath were deserted. Smoke was still rising from the ruins of the barricade out of view to her left, but from the window of Wiseman's she could see the main square and the front of the Aldays department store that served as the focus to the community. As she watched, the main entrance door swung open and a trio walked out and stood in front of the store.

  "Petrov!" Paulie hissed as she recognized the familiar squat, swaggering figure. She watched as he talked to the other two, both in military fatigues. "He doesn't look like a prisoner. He's directing them." The soldiers moved off in opposite directions.

  Paulie swore as she watched Petrov go back inside. "I guess we know who's in charge now. What happened to the mayor?"

  "I don't know," Friedman whispered. "Maybe she was taken with the others."

  "They wouldn't have had enough trucks to transport the whole town, so they put Petrov in charge here."

  "What do you think they do with the people they take away?"

  Paulie looked at the young deputy. "They have what amounts to a slave camp. They send people out on work parties to clean up Seattle."

  Another figure emerged from the department store and walked across the marketplace. It was a woman holding a basket and she moved quickly and nervously towards them.

  Paulie crouched down and ran along the shop window until she reached the door. The blind was down so she opened the door a crack and listened as the footsteps got louder. A shadow fell across the crack in the door and she pulled it inward, grabbed the woman, sealing her mouth with a hand.

  The woman fell sideways and struggled as Paulie turned her onto her back. Recognition dawned in the woman's eyes and Paulie took away her hand. "Sheriff! Thank God you're alright! But they're everywhere. You have to get away."

  "Where's the pastor? Are they holding him in the cells?"

  The woman shook her head as she sat up. "No, they took him off with the others in the trucks. I reckon they'll be coming back for the rest of us soon enough."

  Paulie cursed under her breath. So, he was being taken back to Seattle and she'd have to follow him there. She was beginning to hate that man.

  "Sheriff?"

  "Sorry. Yes, they'll bring more trucks. You need to get away before then and hide in the suburbs."

  "Outside the wall?"

  Paulie shrugged. "They didn't amount to a hill of beans in the end, did they?"

  "I'll stay and help," Nicky said. Then, in response to Paulie's surprised look, she continued, "I know the way out, and I can help them a few at a time. At least some will get away."

  "I won't go," the woman said. "There's children. Someone needs to look after them."

  Paulie sighed. She had a duty to help the people of Arbroath, but she was just one person and she also had a duty to her daughter. But it was Scott Lee's fate that weighed most heavily on her shoulders. If he was lost, then chances were so was everyone else. So, her road led to Seattle and the militia camp. She let the woman slip out, hugged Nicky and headed back to her car.

  Chapter 7

  Paulie looked out from the window in Seattle, scanning the militia base below. Much had changed in the three weeks since she'd last been in this old storage unit. Scott Lee had been with her that day, standing here rather than, presumably, being held in the camp. Marvin Tucker was lost somewhere between Arbroath and here, looking after Paulie's daughter. Jon Graf was dead. Her throat tightened with fear as she thought of Luna, but she knew how vain it would be to try to find them with no idea where they were heading. As for Jon, well, she'd thought she'd lost him that first night and then he'd walked into town with the others from the outlying houses and farms. Now, he'd gone for good. She bitterly regretted her unjustified rage at his “betrayal” when she'd returned to Arbroath.

  Paulie put the binoculars down and wiped her eyes.

  "You okay?" Solly said.

  She'd been aware he was watching her. All she wanted right now, however, was to be alone. She had to know what had happened to Scott Lee and, if she could manage it, to free him somehow. Her experience of Solly had so far led her to believe that she would be more likely to succeed on her own.

  She gave a curt nod and resumed her scan of the base. When she'd last been here, there had been just a few old military vehicles parked in the yard out front; now there was an entire fleet. She couldn't guess where they'd come from, but, by and large, they were covered general purpose trucks that could be used for moving supplies or people from one place to another. Mixed among them were a couple of APCs and one tank that sat incongruously in the middle.

  The place seemed full of men and women in fatigues rushing back and forth, and it had the feel of being a fully-fledged military base rather than the hideout of a bandit as before. Paulie found herself wondering what had changed in the meantime.

  Again, she dropped the binoculars, and slipped down the wall to sit beside Solly and Ross. The old man they'd brought with them from somewhere out east had elected to stay with Nicky Friedman, helping some of the people of Arbroath to escape before the militia trucks rolled back into town. Last time she'd been here, she'd thought they made a pretty rag tag commando unit, but Tucker, Graf and Lee were crack soldiers compared to these two. The boy had insisted on coming and Solly had only put up brief resistance, as if he knew there was no point in arguing. And, in any case, it wasn't as if there was anywhere safe to leave him.

  "Do we have a plan?" Solly asked.

  Paulie bit back her irritation. "Not yet," she said. "I'm just getting the lay of the land."

  "Well, it looks to me as though that base is locked up pretty tight. I can't see any way in."

  She turned to him. "What was your last job, again? Stater of the obvious? I don't know what I'm going to do at the moment."

  "So, the plan is to hope something turns up?"

  "If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears!" Paulie hissed.

  #

  Solly watched the sheriff out of the corner of his eye. She was a tickin
g time bomb and he didn't want to be part of the collateral damage when she finally went off. It was cold sitting on the concrete floor of the abandoned storage unit, but they didn't dare use even the camping stove for fear of any steam giving away their position.

  He knew she had a poor opinion of him and it was annoying that she didn't give him more credit for traveling clear across the continent to deliver the accursed cylinder. Given that the person they were supposed to be giving it to had disappeared only a day or two before they arrived, he thought he'd responded fairly positively. They were now even farther away from the straight route back to the farmhouse on a mission with no defined purpose other than to see what might happen.

  These thoughts tumbled around in his head as the hours passed. For all his many faults, however, Solly Masters didn't lack self awareness and, in the end, he realized that Paulie's situation was at least as desperate as his. The community she'd helped build had been destroyed, her daughter was out of reach and, like Solly himself, she believed Scott Lee to be the key to preventing a final catastrophe that was being planned by unknown parties.

  He pulled three mugs and a thermos flask out of his pack and unscrewed the lid. The room filled with a tomatoey aroma as he poured warm beans into each mug before offering one to Paulie, who was watching again.

  "Here," he said.

  She shook her head. "I'm not hungry."

  "You have to eat," Solly said. "Whatever happens here, you have to stay strong for Luna."

  Paulie shot him a venom-laced glance as if the mere use of her daughter's name was verboten. And then she sighed, slid down the wall and tipped the beans into her mouth. "Thanks."