Scorched: The Last Nomads

by Melanie Karsak

  The four of us headed back down the pier to the trolley. Sparrow had moved some of the barricades around a bit to get the trolley parked closer to the gate at the end of the pier, in case of emergency, I presumed.

  Manderly motioned for me to follow her. We headed up the ladder to the roof of the trolley.

  “We lock metal panels around the solar panel and the speakers. We got tagged at night on the road without them up. That’s how we lost the speaker you repaired. I figured you’d want to protect your work,” she said then undid the bindings on some metal plates lying flat on the roof.

  She handed some of the panels to me and took a pile herself. She then got to work setting them in place. The metal panels made boxes that covered the equipment but had to be constructed one panel at a time. I pulled out my socket wrench and got to work. I’d seen the slots for the panels as I’d worked but hadn’t known what they were for. The design was smart. The walls of the panels locked into the roof of the trolley and then were bolted together. The metal shielding was robust enough to take a hard hit but easy to install and uninstall. We worked quickly but quietly. I could see Manderly wanted to say something, but she hadn’t yet found the right words. We covered the solar panel then finished protecting the speakers. Someone let out the hydraulics, and the trolley lowered to the ground. Sparrow, Legba, and Bodi worked quickly installing metal shielding on the windows. In no time, the Dead Troupe’s trolley looked like a metal storage container.

  When we were done, Manderly and I both rose. I looked back toward Hell’s Passage. It was strange to see the city from this vantage point. All my life I had looked east. Low Tide, I realized then, was a lot closer to the city than The Park. Tonight could get very bumpy. We’d have to make sure all of Low Tide’s security was still in place and get everything locked down well before nightfall.

  “I think you’ll be joining us,” Manderly said.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s good,” she said with a nod. “The Park is not doing well. You should come see everything, the good and the bad. In the end, you may be able to help more people than just your sister.”

  I stared at her. “Even if there are good places, the wailers still own the night.”

  She nodded thoughtfully. “We need a smart person to riddle that problem out. Might be good if a person like that, with a mind like that, has the chance to look around.” She smirked at me.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  She nodded then motioned for me to follow behind her. We climbed back down.

  With the trolley fortified for the night, we headed back down the pier. As we went, we closed and locked the gates. I checked the walkway for any signs of weakness. Finding none, we walked back to the community. I looked over the drawbridge. The design was simple and based on medieval castle design. Just inside the walls of Low Tide was the windlass to lift the bridge. From the look of it, they usually used two or three men to raise. I was very glad Tiny was there.

  “I need your help,” I called to him.

  Tiny joined me.

  “I’m going to remove the pins locking the bridge in place. After I do, you turn the crank. The pulley should activate, and the bridge will come up,” I said, following the lines of the equipment. “Make sense?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  I waved to Legba and Bodi. “We may need extra muscle here.”

  Looking doubtful, the two men joined Tiny.

  I went back outside and removed the bracing pins from the bridge then returned, signaling to Tiny.

  The big man worked the lever. Slowly, the massive gate started to lift.

  Despite their earlier hesitation, Legba and Bodi soon joined, and all three worked the crank. I watched as the bridge lifted, closing our view—and our escape route—to the outside. Once the bridge was up, I headed back and locked the brake in place.

  “That will do it. Thank you,” I told them.

  “It was heavier than it looked,” Bodi said, panting.

  Even Tiny was sweating.

  “Not easy to get up. How about getting it back down?” Legba asked.

  “Well, if we need to do it in a hurry, we just release the brake, and she’ll bang down on her own. Quick, if it needs to be.”

  He nodded.

  The others had worked hard getting the rest of Low Tide in order. Protected by the water below and walled on all sides, it was practically impenetrable. Only the area facing the sea on the other side of the tourism building had any weaknesses. But unless the wailers had started swimming or wanted to come by boat, there was no risk. Everyone at Low Tide knew the wailers avoided the water. That was part of the reason the pier had proven so safe even this close to the city.

  The others scavenged for food as I rebuilt the fire in the brazier at the center of the community. I cleared off the uneaten food that had been left behind when Low Tide’s residents had been taken. Their food stores seemed untouched, which was very odd. I prepped the fire and began pulling out cooking tools. It seemed Low Tide used a community kitchen. Pots and pans hung from hooks on a line, plates were stacked in a cupboard, and there were bins for washing. In fact, there was a lot of clean water at Low Tide. And from what the others had scavenged from the houses, still a lot of food. Whoever had come here had not taken much—besides the people. Besides my sister.

  Whenever the shipments from Low Tide arrived at The Park, food always came with them. Last year, Lomax, one of Low Tide’s people, had cooked a dish made with salted fish, tubers, and sea beans. I remembered watching him prepare it over an open fire with fascination. It had smelled awful but tasted amazing. I’d been thinking about that taste for the last year. It heartened me to find the ingredients here.

  Grabbing a large pan, I replicated the man’s work. I cut the tubers and prepared the sea beans as he had done. A container with salted fish already waited. I mixed them all together in a large pan, relishing the salty smells. Sparrow produced a pouch of barley, which we cooked as well. Nara and Lyra mixed up some flour with other ingredients and quickly baked flatbread. We all grabbed a plate and took a seat nearby. As the sky dimmed, the first of the wails echoed across the city. But to my surprise, they sounded very far away.

  While the others ate, I stared back toward Hell’s Passage. The tall skyscrapers still loomed large on the horizon. More and more yips and howls echoed, but they were far off. I stared down at my dish. I tried not to think about my sister, or the fact that Low Tide was abandoned, or just how bad things really were. The salty fish and fresh bread smelled beautiful.

  As the night drew on, some of the Dead Troupe took their rest. Once I’d washed my plate and cleaned up the rest of the cooking station, I took a seat beside Enrique. I pulled out Nasir’s satchel and handed it to him.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  “It belonged to Nasir.”

  Enrique’s eyes grew wide. “Where did you find it?”

  “Near the tourism building. It was under a bench.”

  Enrique opened the satchel and looked inside, thumbing through the map, notebook, and other items therein.

  “Did the Dead Troupe tell you what they think happened here?” I asked Enrique.

  “Yes.”

  “Ramsey knew this was happening. Did you?”

  Enrique shook his head. “No. Of course not.”

  “All the elders know,” I said.

  “That can’t be. Then why aren’t they doing anything? Why didn’t they tell us we are in danger?” Enrique asked, echoing my own frustration.

  “I don’t know. But when you go back, you must warn the others. If Ramsey, Carrington, and Gutierrez will not, you must. You have seen with your own eyes what’s happening. You need to warn them.”

  “When I go back?” Enrique said, looking at me. “You mean when we go back.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not going back without Ash.”

  “But Keyes, she might be—”

  I pulled out the little Bozo’s cap and handed it to him. “We have proof that
Nasir was here, and I know Ash made it here too,” I said, pointing to the cap. “Besides, there is no way Nasir would be here without her. Whatever happened to Low Tide, Ash and the others got caught in the middle of it. I’m not going back. I’m going to travel with the Dead Troupe.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that each member of the Dead Troupe had suddenly found something else that required their immediate attention far away from where Enrique and I sat.

  “Absolutely not,” Enrique said. “When Ramsey learns you were here, he will be furious as it is. But if I don’t bring you back with me, Carrington will never forgive me. You have to come home.”

  “No. I’m not going back. I’m going on with the Dead Troupe to find Ash and the others. And to be honest, I don’t give a damn what Ramsey thinks. There are marauders at work again, and Ramsey didn’t tell us. Someone took Ash, Nasir, Lordes, and Faraday. I need to try to find them. Maria is pregnant. The others’ families need to know what is happening. Everyone needs to know what is happening. You need to get Ramsey to tell everyone the truth. And if he won’t, you need to tell everyone the truth.”

  “Keyes, you don’t even know what’s out there,” he said then cast a glance at Legba, who stood a discreet distance away. “You are like a daughter to all of us. We are a community. We care about one another. These people are strangers. I know you have taken a liking to that boy,” he said, casting a look in Bodi’s direction, “but he is not one of us. We don’t know these people.”

  “No, we don’t. But I trust them, and they are the best chance I have for finding Ash. Aside from that, someone needs to get out in the world and see what is going on. We are blind at The Park. We don’t know what’s coming for us. The other communities are not like that. The world is changing again. We need to be ready, but we aren’t. Quite the opposite. Ramsey is sitting on secrets. You need to see this,” I said then opened the pouch Ramsey had given to Lordes.

  “What is that?” he asked, pulling out the papers.

  “It was sent from Ramsey to Opal, the leader of Low Tide. Inside are a number of papers, a list of supplies we needed, some general observations on the wailers, but there is a letter. Ramsey…Ramsey is dying. And while that is awful, there is worse. Ramsey wanted to know when he could start sending people to Low Tide, how many could send at a time, and if Low Tide had found an additional offshore haven. The letter details Ramsey’s plan to bring our community here. The Park has no future. Our land is no longer viable, and the plan was for us to join Low Tide. But Low Tide is gone. What will happen to our people now? I need to get out there. I need to find Ash, but I need to find an answer for all of us too.”

  Enrique took the letter from my hand. I watched his eyes as he read. I could see his jaw working hard, taking in the information, getting more frustrated by the moment.

  In the distant city, the wailers continued their calls, but once again, they did not come close to Low Tide. By now, with the sun fully set, they’d already be close to The Park’s gates. Low Tide was much closer to the city. Why weren’t they coming here? Maybe the end of the pier was too far away. A mile out, maybe Low Tide was much safer than The Park for more reasons than just what Ramsey indicated in his letter.

  “Why didn’t he tell us?” Enrique finally said.

  I shook my head. “If I’m being kind, I like to think he didn’t want us to give up hope until he got the news from Opal. I don’t even know if Carrington and Gutierrez are aware of the plan. It’s not clear from the letter. It looks like Ramsey was waiting on confirmation from Low Tide.”

  “He shouldn’t have kept this information from us. We all know that The Park is in trouble, but not to this extent. But to plan like this without telling us…”

  “And if he was planning for us to leave, then there is no strategy for our ongoing survival at The Park. That’s why he was acting so difficult about all of this. And why he asked me to start working on a solution for the water supply. He’d planned for us to leave. He has no plan for how we will survive if we stay. It’s not safe for anyone to come here now. So, I’m going. I am doing this for Ash, yes, but I am doing this for all of us too. There may be bad out here, but there may also be good. The Park is dying. I need to do something.”

  Sighing heavily, Enrique looked at me and said, “Then be careful.”

  “You too. Enrique, you have to tell the others what’s happening, what Ramsey is hiding. Our people’s lives depend on you forcing the truth to light,” I said.

  He exhaled deeply. “You’re right.”

  I set my hand on his shoulder. “You’re strong. And sour. And hard to talk to, but our people trust you.”

  Enrique chuckled then nodded.

  I squeezed his shoulder then rose, leaving him to his thoughts.

  I cast a glance to Legba, who nodded, then with my ears tuned, I followed the sound of a flute to the tourism building. I found Bodi sitting on the same barrel I had found outside the front door.

  “Win the argument?” he asked.

  I nodded. “It took some doing.”

  He smiled. The moon was shining brightly. The bluish glow lit up Bodi’s whole face. “I was waiting for you. Wanted to show you something,” he said, reaching out for my hand. “Wait until you see.”

  Bodi led me to the balcony that overlooked the ocean. As we stepped toward the balcony rail, I saw a blue glow. The moon? When I reached the rail, however, I realized the truth. The ocean water was alive with light.

  Even though the ocean moved slowly and seemed dead under the bright sunlight, the moon revealed a different view. The entire shoreline and the water under the pier was lit blue. Even the waves, which lapped slowly on the shore in the distance, left behind a trail of glowing blue light. Under the waves, glowing plankton and jellyfish lit up the water with a brilliant blue.

  “Bioluminescence,” I whispered.

  “Sorry?”

  “It’s the plankton, the sea creatures. They’re creating the glow. There is a place in the Maldives—I saw a picture in a magazine—where the same thing used to happen. The bioluminescence from the creatures creates the glow.”

  Bodi chuckled. “I was going to call it a sea of stars.”

  I looked up at him. “Now who is the one being poetic?” As I gazed at him, I noticed that the colorful blue lights in the water made his eyes sparkle. They shimmered with his sea of stars.

  “All that’s best of dark and bright meet in his aspect and his eyes,” I whispered, reaching out to touch Bodi’s cheek.

  “Now, that actually is poetry,” Bodi said.

  I nodded. “Lord Byron…abridged. Whoever thought the night could be so beautiful?”

  “But you’re not looking at the sky.”

  “No. I’m looking at you.”

  Bodi leaned in and set a kiss on my lips. He pulled me close to him. I felt the warmth of his body, the curve of his hips. I fell into the kiss. Swirling emotions of fear and excitement rolled over me. I gripped handfuls of his shirt and pulled him closer to me, driving my kiss deeper. I was in awe of, and a little terrified by, the depth of feeling that swept over me. We fell into each other, enjoying the moment. Finally, we stepped back.

  “Now I’m the one seeing stars,” Bodi whispered, pulling me against his chest.

  “But your eyes are closed,” I said, glancing up at him.

  “Yes.”

  I chuckled then stared out at the water. The ocean had proven so disappointing in the gaudy daylight, but at night, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen on this Earth.

  “I’m sorry about your sister,” Bodi whispered, holding me tight.

  “Me too.”

  “Don’t give up hope. We’re not far behind them. They’re following the coast. If we don’t find them at The Palms, then I have an idea where they may go next.”

  “Where?”

  “Spires.”

  “That bad community?”

  “Yes.” Bodi kissed the top of my head. “Have faith.”

  I
nodded then glanced back out at the view once more. If the stars could be in the ocean, then anything was possible.

  I would find Ash.

  Chapter 21

  We spent the night at Low Tide, passing the evening without event. In fact, the wailers hadn’t even come close to the community. Something told me that the wailer’s aversion to Low Tide had everything to do with the bioluminesence we’d seen in the water. The strange lights had, perhaps, scared them off. The yips and wails had stayed on the western side of the city all night. And in the morning, we woke to find the trolley untouched.

  The Dead Troupe worked as one packing up Low Tide’s food stores onto the trolley. Enrique loaded up the small cart as well.

  We locked up Low Tide, knowing that The Park might have to return there in the future, even if there was risk involved. With everything locked and everyone packed up, it was time to go.

  “The tank is almost full. It should be enough for the trip. I packed the notebook with the safe houses and Nasir’s map in your bag. I also had a few other shirts I found. Take one to Ronan for me, please?”

  Enrique nodded. ”I will. Thank you. Be safe, Keyes. And good luck.”

  “You too. And don’t forget what we talked about.”

  He half-laughed, half-huffed. “I haven’t been able to think of anything else since.”

  I smiled. “Please tell Carrington not to worry. And that I’m sorry.”

  Enrique nodded. Reaching out, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and gave me something that looked like the semblance of a hug. With that, he nodded to Legba in thanks then climbed on the bike. With then engine primed, it started smoothly.

  He turned and waved to the others. Passing me one last look, he turned and drove off, heading back into Hell’s Passage. I watched him go until I couldn’t see him anymore.

  “Very well then,” Legba said. “Dead Troupe, shall we?”

  Taking a deep breath, I gazed once more at Hell’s Passage. It might be a long time before I saw that skyline again. I exhaled slowly then turned and joined the others on the trolley. When I climbed aboard, Manderly—who was driving—and Legba looked back at me. Both of them smiled softly at me, their expressions so alike that you couldn’t help but know they were father and daughter.