by Jeff Carlson
“Ha!” Cam rolled his arm in a big this way gesture. Then he turned to go, wild with excitement.
Allison didn’t follow, exchanging semaphore with her sentries on either side. Cam should have waited. Instead, he scrambled down a rocky bluff.
He had to cross the nearest gully, which was thick with refugees. He stalked into the crowd with his weapon up. No one moved to stop him. In fact, four women stumbled away from their blankets and packs to keep their distance. Cam thought to apologize, but it was better if these people were afraid. Allison and her sentries would cross behind him and they didn’t need any trouble. It was a strange feeling. Everyone on this mountainside was alive and free because of one woman’s strength. They should have been celebrating. Ruth, he thought, but he wouldn’t yell her name. “Estey!” he shouted.
The three of them walked together in a way that reminded Cam of himself and Newcombe. He wondered briefly if Newcombe was alive and if he was still a friend or if he’d chosen another loyalty, like Deborah. Their days together seemed very distant, and Cam marveled at the unity he saw in Goodrich, Ruth, and Estey.
He hadn’t been sure if any of his squadmates were helping Ruth. She’d kept her phone calls to a few seconds each. Where was Foshtomi? Dead? The other two Rangers appeared to have committed to Ruth entirely during their standoff inside the bunker, and they would be a welcome addition to Allison’s group. They might help Allison reach out to other deserters, bolstering the future of the refugee crowds, but as Cam got closer, he forgot everything except Ruth.
She ran to him, laughing despite her obvious exhaustion. She was horribly pale, yet her brown eyes were alive with pleasure and hope. Cam didn’t hesitate. He stepped right into her arms and they clung to each other, their chests pressing tighter each time they spoke and drew breath.
“You did it,” he murmured into her curly hair. “You did it. You did it.”
“Cam,” she said. “Cam.” But she let go of his waist.
Allison strode in behind him with six men and women, each of them brandishing a shotgun or a rifle. Several more spread out across the hill, forming a defensive line. “We’re with him,” Allison told Estey and Goodrich, and Cam nodded quickly and said, “It’s okay, they’re here to help.”
“Great,” Estey said. “Thanks.”
The two women looked each other up and down as Cam kept his arm around Ruth’s shoulders. Then he stepped away from her toward Allison. Ruth was worn and tense, but he saw the disappointment in her eyes before she concealed it exactly as Allison had done.
“Yes, thanks,” Ruth said to the younger woman.
Cam had been sleeping with Allison again. For one thing, she was capable and smart and beautiful—and the fact of the matter was there hadn’t been any guarantee that Grand Lake wouldn’t go up in a nuclear fireball or that Ruth would escape even if she took control of the war. Regardless, Cam had decided he’d better do everything possible to entangle himself with Allison again. They needed her.
“There are some people watching us,” one man said.
“Let’s go,” Allison said. “We have food and water and a few tents out of the wind.”
They got moving. Cam and Allison walked together as the group hurried toward the ravine, but as they began to spread out he glanced sideways for Ruth. She met his gaze silently. Maybe she understood. He wished things were different.
“How are you?” he asked.
“We’re okay. We’re all tired.” Ruth glanced at Estey and Goodrich, including the Rangers with herself. We.
Not long ago she’d spoken about him the same way, but he had to be careful. Allison and the other mayors would be a major force in establishing the townships they intended to build on the plains east of the Rockies, far away from the foothills, where the summers were probably too hot for the bugs.
Allison could be the key to keeping Cam and Ruth hidden. They knew they would always be regarded as criminals by some. They hoped to keep their heads down until the situation improved, and meanwhile there were hundreds of other problems. Except for a few wild crops, there was little to feed anyone beneath the barrier. Farming would be a long-term challenge given the insect swarms, widespread erosion, and the utter loss of some plant species. The nearest cities had already been heavily scavenged during the plague year. Entire neighborhoods had been destroyed by fire, floods, bugs, and fighting. They couldn’t rely on the old world to sustain them for long.
Perhaps most importantly, there was also the next-generation nanotech that Ruth had said must be designed as fast as possible. The war was over, but there were still large Russian and Chinese populations throughout the West. They would play for every advantage as they gained and developed their own nanotech, dragging their feet to leave U.S. soil, haggling and bargaining, looting, even digging in for a new fight.
“Tomorrow we’ll make it to Highway 34 and Deer Ridge,” Cam said. “It’ll get easier.”
“Mm.” Ruth was noncommittal.
She’d stopped looking at him, and Cam felt a deep pang of his own longing and disappointment. They’d won. They’d lost each other. He couldn’t even make an effort to correct that loss. He knew her too well to believe that she would ever disappear into the ruins with him, just the two of them together. Ruth needed people because she needed electricity and food and protection. She needed equipment if they could find it, and Allison’s network might prove more useful in acquiring the basics of a nanotech lab than any raids led by Estey and Goodrich.
The sun touched the ragged line of peaks above them, casting shadows across the slope like massive teeth. They were still in the light, but Cam could see the border approaching rapidly as the shadows grew. The wind tugged at his jacket. The cold increased.
“I’ll see you in camp,” Cam said, watching Ruth’s face, and for an instant she smiled at him again. Then he turned and caught up with Allison.
They walked into the darkness to find their way safe.
Acknowledgments
More than anyone else, I want to thank my wife and sons for their remarkable patience and support.
Sweetheart, I really do love you more than my computer.
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I’d also like to express my gratitude to the experts who shared their education with me. Any mistakes are mine. Fortunately, no one really knows what would happen to the environment or to the geopolitical world if you removed all warm-blooded life below ten thousand feet. My thanks go to Mike May, Professor of Entomology at Rutgers University; Harry Greene, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University; Major Brian Woolworth, U.S. Army Special Forces; Lt. Colonel J. Brian “Bear” Lihani, USAF (ret.); and to my father, Gus Carlson, Ph.D., engineer, and former division head at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. All of these people were instrumental in shaping Plague War.
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A huge thanks also to the Ultimate Grandparents Club: Patti, Ute, Char, Bill, Byron, and my father, Gus, again. The extra days and hours you provided, whether babysitting, grocery shopping, or taking us away for a weekend of fun and rest, were crucial to finishing this book on time.
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There are other people deserving of mention—our friends Adad Warda and Charlie and Violeta Escobar, for their help and support; Judith Murello and Eric Williams, who have done a sensational job with the covers for the series so far; Meghan Mahler, for her maps; and John Robert Marlow and Janet Lewis, for maintaining my web site at www.jverse.com. Come see what they’ve done. The site offers free fiction, interviews, tour dates, and advance information on upcoming books.
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As always, I want to acknowledge my agent, Donald Maass, and Cameron McClure and Stephen Barbara in the office.
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Thank you to everyone at Penguin USA. My editor, Anne Sowards, went the extra mile, and my publicist, Valerie Cortes, has been outstanding. I also appreciate the help of Ginjer Buchanan, Cam “The Other Cam” Dufty, and the rest of the good people behind t
his novel. They say a writer works alone, but the truth is that a small army put their smarts and energy into producing Plague War. I hope you enjoyed it.