by Geo Dell
On the park side there were buses that closed off the entrance and marched away into the darkness. The buses were empty.
On the other side of West 110th a nearly identical line of buses marched away. The space in between was littered with corpses, burned out cars, skeletal remains still resting in the rusted hulks. Beyond the second row of buses the street lights marched away into Harlem. She could smell the river, whether the Hudson or The East she did not know. The lights and the noise of the breathers drew her attention back to the buses. She scaled a nearby tree and looked over the tops of the buses into the projects and the city beyond.
The streets inside the closed off area were clear for as far as she could see. Some places had been devastated, buildings down, but gangs of people worked there still, clearing the damaged buildings, or what was left. Small trucks patrolled the streets. Machine gun toting men in the back, riding in the open air. Everything she had hoped to see was not there. There was no disorganization of any kind at all. Whoever was in charge in Harlem had the electricity on and the peace kept. No rioting. No bodies littered the streets: If there had been abandoned vehicles they had been cleared. People strolled the streets under the lights, looking as though the world had never changed at all, or had maybe even changed for the better.
Donita watched from her perch in the tree for a few minutes longer and then dropped to the ground. She found the shadows at the edges of the road once more and began her walk back down into the park.
FIVE
The Nation: October 15th
To Mike it seemed as though the pounding went on and on.
”Baby... Baby.” Candace from beside him.
“Yeah... Yeah. I'm,” he cocked his head to the sound. The door rattled again as someone pounded on it once more. He swung his feet to the floor and started for the door. “Yeah... Yeah! I'm coming... I'm coming,”
“Baby,” Candace called. “Pants.” His jeans hit his lower legs as he began to turn back toward her. One hand shot downward and caught them before they hit the floor: As he pulled them on his eyes met Candace's own. She shrugged, but her eyes held worry. Good news didn't come pounding on your door in the middle of the night.
Mike opened the door to Bear and Ronnie.
“Hey... Sorry, Mike,” Bear said. Ronnie looked grim.
“It's all good... What... What is it? I mean what's wrong?”
Billy Jingo stepped out of the shadows of the front porch, Pearl with him.
“Something I remembered,” Pearl said quietly. “Something important.”
“Better get Candace too,” Amy said from the thicker shadows.
“Jesus, is everybody here?” Mike asked.
“Yeah... We're all here,” Bob answered. “Better get Candace up too.” Bob stepped into the light. His face was drawn and haggard. “We might just have something for them bastards,” He said quietly. He looked behind him into the darkness.
“What bastards,” Candace asked as she suddenly appeared beside Mike. Her hand slipped into his. “What bastards, Bob.”
'The dead... The dead, Candace.... Pearl thinks... Pearl saw something,” Bob finished. He looked around once more at the completeness of the darkness. “The barn... We'll be at the barn.”
“Right behind you,” Mike said to his back.
“It's not bad news,” Ronnie told him. “Jesus... Jesus, I think it might be good news, Mike.” He began to follow as Mike closed the door and then he and Amy walked with them down to the barn.
~
The lights in the barn seemed excessively bright after the darkness of the valley. People probably were getting used to real darkness all over the world, Mike though. There had always been a glow from cities, some sort of electric light somewhere, but now there was none at all. What had seemed like darkness had only been an illusion.
Everyone appeared half dressed, still hoping for a state of sleep. Mike himself had pulled on the jeans, zipped them up and shoved his feet into his boots. He wore only a cotton t-shirt and the night was cold. Candace handed him a lightweight jacket and he slipped it on. Amy wore a thick robe, bob was dressed, but his feet were clad in slippers. He turned his eyes to the thin young woman at Billy's side. “You have the floor,” Mike told her, unsure what he was about to hear.
Pearl lifted her eyes from the floor. “I know a few things, but I just didn't know if I could trust it. And I don't know if it is any use to you.” She looked at Billy.
“Just tell them,” Billy said softly.
She nodded, lowered her head as if composing her thoughts, and then spoke.
“So Billy is telling me that he came from Watertown a long while back. I hadn't known that, but then he begins to tell me about the place, and I realize he really has been there, same as I have been.” Her eyes rose to their own. “I was there when it all happened. I was living there before it happened. I worked off downtown... A mission there.”
“We met some people from there,” Candace said.
“Not long after,” Mike agreed.
“Far north,” Candace said. “Up by Canada.”
Pearl nodded and her eyes became shiny as she did. She caught her breath, as it seemed to run out on her words. “I... I was there when the first quake came... They took me with them or I might have died with the rest of them. The ones that had come at me might have killed me.” Her eyes overflowed as she finished.
“Well... Take it slowly, girl,” Candace told her. “Take it slowly.”
Pearl drew a deep breath and began. “I was on my way to work. It was just before the big quake. The power was still on...”
The Nation: October 15th
Dawn came cold and gray, barely coloring the valley. Thick, heavy gray clouds filled the skies, and a dense gray-white fog covered the floor of the valley. The whole world seemed to be made of shades of gray, Candace thought.
She sat just under the overhang in a small canvas backed chair with two cups of coffee and waited for Mike to come off post. She had seen George Dell leave on his way to relieve Mike, so it should be only a few minutes, she thought.
The meeting in the barn had lasted into early morning. Not sunrise, but near to it. They had all left in silence, walking back through the darkness, lost in their own thoughts. Mike had left to relieve Tim who had covered his post and Candace had given up the pretense of returning to sleep and made her way to the cave where she had found hot coffee and a few others gathered talking in low voices. The conversation had faltered when Candace had come in, blowing on her hands. It was actually cold out this morning.
The lag in conversation didn't surprise her anymore. It had been going on since they had become big enough that not every one knew everyone. But she and the other council members were known, and invariably conversation stopped or skipped a few beats when one of them walked into a room. She supposed it was a sign of society rebuilding itself. Groups forming, differing opinions being expressed. It was the way of the world. She had believed not long ago that it was a way whose time had passed, but society seemed like just another organism that found ways around the roadblocks to achieve its purpose was: Whatever that might be. She had simply smiled, poured herself some coffee and carried it out to the stone ledge and waited for the sunrise.
There were four posts. The first was on top of the mountain where you could see for miles in any direction. Post two was about a quarter mile away in the valley that lead up to the notch, situated on a ridge that kept the post well hidden, but allowed line of sight for the whole valley.
The third post was at the end of their valley where it bent into the El to the right. The valley wall fractured there, and soared several hundred feet straight up toward the ridge. There was a small cave high up on that wall. It appeared inaccessible from the valley floor, but was actually accessed through a small opening at ground level, and a set of carved stone steps that wound upward through the rock to the small cave and beyond. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of years old: Worn down in the center, but after cleaning the fallen rock
that had accumulated over the years, easily accessible and climbed.
The fourth post was on the other side of the mountain, halfway down the valley, where yet another of the small caves sat high in a rock face; accessible by the same type of stone steps carved into the rock. Worn smooth, polished by the thousands of feet that had climbed them.
Mike had the second post. The first and the second post had been made from the steel cabs of two trucks. The frames, cabs, wiring, had all been used. Even the engines had found a home in a project. Nothing was wasted. It had taken the better part of a week to winch the cabs into place and cement them there, but they had made them work. A little camouflage and you would never have suspected they were there.
The doors were operational and painted a flat gray-black to blend in to the surrounding rock. Both had been set back under ledges so that the glass would not reflect the sunlight or the moonlight. Shrubs and vegetation had been transplanted around both, so that even close up they could not be seen. They were dry, warm and allowed a level of comfort that the people that had once inhabited this valley had probably not enjoyed.
They had two more cabs, one that was earmarked for the El in the second valley, and the other at the end of the high meadow. But, Candace thought as she sipped at her second cup of coffee, it appeared as though the weather might be turning. It had been growing colder day by day, but this morning it felt cold enough to snow, and the sunrise didn't seem to be doing much to change that.
Candace liked the way the cold air made her feel more alive, awake. She supposed that by the end of winter she'd be tired of that though. Just looking forward to the heat of summer once more.
Candace shifted, waiting, sipping at her coffee and replaying the story Pearl had told in the barn just a few hours before. It made sense. Beyond making sense it answered questions. Beyond that it was downright scary and it had forced their hand too. It was one thing to suspect that the base under the northern New York city might be involved in what had happened, and yet another to find it absolutely had been.
They had planned a small trip for supplies, probably just nearby cities, before the snow fell. They had even touched on it at the council meetings, both the public and the private meeting. The real business being some collection of supplies, but the focus more on weapons. The public business being a small supply trip to test the trucks and the team before winter set in and grounded them all, the private business had been a scouting trip to Watertown to see if there was any truth to what they suspected. All of that was now out the window: If what Pearl said was true then there was no time to lose at all. The sooner that the OutRunners set out for Watertown the better.
She shifted again, trying for a better position. She felt more than a little uncomfortable. Not long ago she would have been siting at the edge of the ledge, her feet dangling off the edge. But it was too hard to get back on her feet as it was, let alone get her feet back over the ledge and under her without fearing going right over the edge. One of the fun facts they didn't tell you about being pregnant, your whole center of gravity changed faster than you could adapt. So the chair was the solution. It was a lot easier to get up from, and safer too. She peeked over the edge at the valley floor beneath the cave. It was still bathed in blackness, but the gray was starting to creep into the corners, bringing definition as it came.
She heard the scrape of Mike's shoes on the stone ledge and met his eyes as he came around the corner.
“Baby, it's cold out here,” he said.
She held up his cup of coffee. “That's why I got this for you, Honey. Careful, it's really hot,” she told him as she handed the cup to him.
“Where we going?” he asked, as he held the cup with one hand and helped her to her feet with the other.
“You promised to help with pulling wire today, remember?”
He nodded.
“I'm going to sit with Lilly today. Steve and Jess both think it'll be today,” Candace told him.
He nodded and then sipped at the coffee. “Hm... Good... “ His eyes met hers once again. “You get any sleep at all?” he asked.
“That's why they make coffee... No... I didn't, but I'll be fine... Lilly came up just a little while ago... Two hours or so since she started having heavy pain,” she said.
“Oh,” Mike said, surprise in his voice. “I hadn't realized she was that close.”
It was Candace's turn to nod. “The pain isn't regular yet, but they are coming closer. She's really big and she's a small woman, but they think she will be okay.”
“The pain gets regular?” Mike asked. He winced, his eyes narrowing and pained.
“Yep. That's when they have to kick the men out because you want to kill them all,” Candace said.
“Ha, ha... I think,” Mike said uncertainly.
“What, my love, are you going to do when it's me and you have to be there holding my hand, if thinking about Lilly in pain now makes you wince?” Candace asked him.
“I figured I'd pass out early, like, right off the bat. That way by the time I wake up it'll all be over with,” Mike said and smiled.
“Ha, ha... I think,” Candace said.
“I'll be fine,” he told her. “I just thought that there was only pain at that moment, the few seconds that the baby was born. No one ever said anything about regular pain.”
She arched her eyebrows. “No? Well, it's like this. The pain starts, and then it comes and goes. I haven't felt it either, mind you, I asked Janna. Then, over time the pain becomes regular, contractions, which is... Never mind, I can see it's killing you already. Suffice to say, No, there isn't just few seconds of pain, there is an hour or two... Sometimes more, several hours,” she said.
“Wow,” Mike said. His face was white, even in the early gray dawn-light.
“Wow is right. You're not good with pain are you, baby? I mean, like, for real not good with it, right?” Candace asked.
“Um, no. I thought about piercing my ear once,” He colored, the red looking out of place after the white. “I had a friend do it. He pushed the needle in and I passed out.” Mike cleared his throat.
“Damn, and I thought you would get a nice tribal piece to match mine,” Candace joked.
“Ha, ha, I hope,” Mike said. “I mean, I love the way it looks on your body, but me? Whoa. I don't think I could do it, Baby.”
“Easy. Relax. I was kidding,” Candace said with a laugh. “Although I'd probably like it.” She focused her eyes on his once again and the laughter bled away from them. “The thing is, childbirth is painful. So you'll have to deal with it. And I have two of them... Two!” She said as the laughter crept back into her eyes.
“I better go pull that wire, Baby. They're probably waiting on me,” Mike said.
“Babe, do you know how many babies there would be if men had to bare them?”
“Well... Uh...”
“None. There would be none, Babe. Not one.”
“You're picking on me now, right?” Mike asked.
Candace smiled. “Kiss me now and then go pull your wire. I've got to get back to Lilly... Have you decided what to do about Pearl, Watertown?”
Mike frowned. “No choice. Like we said... Like we all decided, they have to go. I should be going with them... It's a bad deal.”
“No!” Candace said sharply. “...Never mind that... Never mind it, it's just hormones talking. … But don't you say that again or even think it. Your place is right here. They want to be there. They understand what they need to do. Not you. You belong here with me. With the babies,” she said quietly. “You promised me that... I love you,” Candace finished.
He kissed her. “I love you too... No more.”
“I do love you... I'll be with Lilly... Soon?” She asked
“Next couple of days. Bob and Tim have guys working on finishing up the trucks... The pretense is gonna be this cold... We don't know how long it will be... We have to get while the getting is good,” Mike finished.
Candace laughed. “You are such a nerd,
but I love you. Get while the gettin's good, drop that g, Honey. How are you ever gonna sound streetwise?”
He pulled her to him and kissed her longer and they both pulled apart a few seconds later with nothing further to say. Mike turned and walked down the pathway that lead to the valley floor. Candace watched until he was lost in the gray-blackness of the fog and then turned and went inside the cave.
~
Donita: Harlem
Donita watched from her tree once more, squatted on a thick limb. Harlem was an exception to her rules and she didn't understand why that was. Yes, there were dead in Harlem, but they were dead that stayed dead. She had watched them herself as they fell, knowing they would rise, and being shocked when they did not.
Unexpected was probably the word, she decided, that best explained the turn of events. And there was more. There was something more on the air. The feeling that she had missed some sort of opportunity to change everything. Harlem. The world beyond Harlem. All of it. But whatever the small thing was she had missed it completely.
She turned her eyes back to Harlem. There were men looking back at her and her army behind her. She had hoped it struck fear in their hearts. She had hoped they could see the uselessness of fighting her. Of holding out. But these men seemed unmoved. These men seemed confidant of another outcome entirely, one that Donita herself had not even been aware of until just a few days past. Loss.
There could be loss. If there could be one place where the dead did not rise to join her army then there could be another place, and another. It could change everything.
She held herself steady, her fingers tented against the roughness of the bark, her body motionless. A second later she dropped effortlessly to the ground and walked slowly back through the trees to the park proper.
There was the other thing. The knowledge on the air that she had somehow made a mistake. A mistake that she did not even know about at the time, but that was now becoming clearer and clearer. She almost understood it. Almost. Second by second she gathered it to her on the air and understood a little more.