Keepers of the Flame

by McFadden III, Edward J.

  “She understands why she’s exiled, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Kat said.

  “Why?” Peter said.

  “How long were you with her?” Kat said.

  “Over a year,” Tye said.

  “Well then, you know perfectly well why. Can you walk?” Kat said.

  Tye nodded and Milly and Peter helped him up.

  “We’re going to hold onto your weapons for now. We’re bringing you back with us, and until Gerral rules on your status, you’re prisoners. Don’t worry, we’ll treat you well.” Robin and Jerome joined them. “My people have dug a hole for your person, if you’d like a few minutes, or they can handle it. Your call.”

  “Thank you,” Milly said. “We’ll do it.” She was confused. Why had they dug a hole?

  Grady, Kat and the rest hung back as the fellowship laid Vera Pendaltine to rest. Nobody knew what to do except Tye. On Respite, people were floated out to sea on a bamboo raft made by their family. As it was cast out it was set afire, and as the ocean took the dead, everyone partied until dawn.

  “You’re burying her in the ground?” Milly said. She was appalled.

  “This is how it was done in the gone world. If we left her here, the animals and virals would get her, and we’re hell and gone from the sea.”

  Tye put Vera’s body into the hole with Peter’s help and covered her with dirt as everyone watched. Then he found a stone and placed it on top and stood back.

  “May the earth reclaim you into her glory,” Tye said, and made the sign of the cross.

  “Since when do you believe in witchcraft?” Milly said.

  Tye said nothing.

  “You guys ready to hump out? We’ve got a long way to go to get to the rendezvous point,” Grady said.

  “Where we going?” Milly asked.

  “Stadium,” Kat said. “Our home.”

  “Why is it called that?” Jerome asked. Hansa hadn’t known.

  “Cause that’s what it used to be,” Kat said.

  They hiked for two days over green pasture, the grass high, with nothing but a sporadic dilapidated barn or house between them and the cloud-filled blue sky. Milly was struck by the vastness of it all. The world had felt huge to her in the forests of Mexico, but she realized now how confining that had been. The flat green plains stretched to the horizon in all directions, and Milly thought she might walk off the edge of the world.

  A loud bellow made Milly jump as she walked and everyone laughed. A cow bleated, and she still wasn’t used to the huge creatures roaming around. They made her nervous even though Kat said they weren’t dangerous. After Milly’s first steak, she wasn’t scared anymore. Grady explained that the virals, which they called zombies, were afraid of the bulls and wouldn’t go anywhere near the cows.

  They walked along an old highway, many of the concrete sections still in one piece and smooth. Other parts had been washed away, and eroded, and fields of grass and brush grew over spots where water had left large deposits of silt. They peeled east when the town of Corpus Christi came into view on the horizon and after a morning hike on the third day, they came through a thicket to a set of train tracks.

  Up on the tracks surrounded by armed men and women was a train.

  Milly froze.

  Grady chuckled. “It’s an American Locomotive made in 1908. As you can see, we made some changes. It used to run on coal. It was made in old New York, and was a tourist train in Austin before the end,” he said.

  Milly had never seen a train, but even she could identify the modifications. An oversized smokestack had been added behind the cab, and metal-spoked support bars spread around the black soot covered exhaust in a haphazard pattern. Steel plates and walkways were welded all around the nose and sides, and a gun turret with a mounted machinegun had been added before a smaller smokestack on the train’s nose. Armor plating covered the wheels and push rods, and wing-like flairs of twisted metal protected the long conical boiler. Piping ran in stacked rows atop the boiler, and there were nests where a person could hide. A supply car piled with wood was behind the engine followed by four box cars, their sliding doors open.

  “You guys get attacked a lot, huh?” Tye said.

  Grady stopped and put his hand on Tye’s chest. “You trying to be funny?”

  “Thing looks like a tank. That funny?” Tye said.

  Kat stepped forward. “You ever see a zombie nest?”

  Tye shook his head no.

  “They’re like ants. They have queens, some of which have litters of ten or more,” Kat said.

  “That’s how these things multiply?” Tye said.

  “We think it has something to do with the disease, but the nests can have hundreds of them. Think bees,” Kat said.

  “You’ve seen this?” Milly said. Now that she thought about it, the Uruks looked a little like bees.

  Grady and Kat looked at each other.

  “No, they haven’t,” Tye said.

  “You’re a real wise-ass for someone who just had his nuts shaved,” Grady said.

  Kat said, “A guy named Tester showed up a few years ago, a greenie outcast. Turtle preacher. The greenies don’t like that crap. He told us about a lot of stuff. But, yeah, I’ve been in a nest. With Tester’s help we burn out nests when we can, otherwise eventually these things will overrun the world.”

  “We’re wasting time. Get up in there,” Grady said. He pointed at the second boxcar.

  Milly noticed everyone’s eyes on them, like they were exotic animals. She held her head high and her companions did the same. They climbed into the boxcar and were directed to a corner where they sat on the floor. All kinds of things Milly didn’t recognize sat in piles and stacked on shelves. Some she could tell were furniture, electronics and hardware, but she didn’t know what most of the stuff was.

  Men and women ranging in age from teenagers to old men packed in with them. Grady joined them. He was their guard. He wore a pistol on his hip and twirled a small club.

  “Those solar panels?” Tye said. He pointed at a rectangular piece of reflective glass.

  “Sure are. Rare finds unbroken. Usually we just salvage the circulator pumps and power packs,” Grady said.

  Kat joined them and told everyone in the car they were leaving in five minutes. The floor vibrated and Milly looked to Tye.

  “The engine is building steam pressure in the boiler, getting ready to move the train on the track,” Tye said.

  “Tye, what is all this stuff?” Milly said.

  “Is she for real?” Kat said.

  “I’m the only one among us who’s seen the gone world,” Tye said. “I was on a cruise ship with their parents, and in some cases grandparents. We self-quarantined on an island in the Pacific.”

  “So you have no idea what’s happened since things ended?” Kat said.

  “Nothing since The Day,” Peter said.

  “The Day?” Grady said.

  “The day God’s Brigade nuked LA,” Tye said.

  “Tester said it ain’t pretty up that way. Stuff at the higher elevations is starting to grow back but everything from the mountains to the sea is a wasteland,” Kat said.

  “How long will it take to get to Stadium?” Milly asked. She wanted to meet Tester the turtle preacher.

  “Not long. We’ll be home in time for steak,” Grady said.

  The train rolled on at a steady twenty-five miles per hour, and Peter and Milly told their story from first to last. Tye occasionally made a correction, or added additional information, but after two hours, everyone in the boxcar was listening.

  “Then Grady and Kat here helped us out,” Peter said.

  Silence fell. The question. Everyone waiting for it to be asked, nobody wanting to give an answer. Milly said, “So what’s this place you’re taking us to like?”

  “It’s not an easy life,” Kat said.

  “We do pretty good, though. And we’re doing better all the time. Bringing things back,” Grady said.

  “Are you free?
” Milly asked.

  “What does that mean?” Kat said. “Everything has a cost, and freedom is really just a state of mind.”

  “We eat well, have clean water, a place to sleep. Us hunters live in the first bowl, but it isn’t so bad.”

  “You’re scavengers?” Tye said.

  “Some of us. Kat and I do long range recon and bring beef on our way in. We map zombie nests, keep track of their number and whereabouts. It was Tester who said we should bring a scavenge party along with us.”

  The train whistle blew.

  “A decoy. We stop at an out station and wait and to see if the dumbasses attack us.” The train jerked to a stop. They sat in silence for an hour and let the sun sink below the horizon.

  “Train travel is best during daylight, but when we leave the train, darkness is our friend,” Grady said.

  In the distance, Stadium’s single red warning light shone like the North Star in the blackness.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Year 2068, Houston, Texas

  Tye and company walked through the maze of old cars and trucks, rusted storage containers, and ramshackle fortifications that protected Stadium’s main entrance. They made many turns, and Tye didn’t think he’d be able to find his way out. He took mental notes, trying to print distinguishing features and anything out of place on a mental map for future reference, but he wasn’t confident. The knot on his head throbbed, and his vision was still blurry at the edges from the blow he’d taken.

  “What’s with the guns?” Tye said. Armed guards followed him with rifles leveled at his back. “We haven’t earned any trust?” Their new friends were nice enough, but it didn’t take a genius to understand you didn’t enter or leave Stadium without permission.

  “We don’t know you,” Grady said. “People have tried to infiltrate us before. There aren’t many as well off as us. We’d be overrun if we opened our gates.” He looked around to see if anyone was listening. “And one of Gerral’s guys might be watching.”

  Tye looked at Milly, who stared back at him. Gerral’s guys.

  The community of Stadium lived in a college football venue from the gone world. Tye had seen it before on TV as the Houston U regularly had a good team. Solar panels had been added to the lighting superstructure, and crops grew on the upper deck. Gun turrets, foxholes, and traps filled the space between the maze and Stadium.

  The party were stopped and padded down at the old ticket booths. Guards with guns manned the entrance, and even Grady and his team got searched. “We could be under duress, carrying a bomb or some such,” Grady said.

  Tye stared at him.

  “Bombs?” Milly said.

  “There is one constant in this world: war,” Kat said. She’d appeared before them like a wrath, and Tye hadn’t seen her enter with them.

  The interior of the arena overflowed with humanity. A commons square surrounded by shacks and tents covered field level. Paths ran between the structures, and children played on the remnants of the old artificial turf. The lower bowl had nicer shacks, and some were adorned with brightly colored murals and decorative accents. Above the first bowl, a thin second ring of houses ran around the underside of the upper bowl like a belt. The top bowl had a few structures, and was comprised of hydroponic fields, animal cages, and solar panels. Tye didn’t see many people walking around up there.

  “How many are you?” Tye said.

  “We’re just over four thousand now,” Kat said. “This way.” She motioned toward an escalator forever paused, and they headed up it.

  Guards stood at the top of the stairs, heavily armed in full battle dress. “We have newcomers here to see Gerral,” Kat said.

  “Wait here. I’ll see if the boss will see your sorry asses without an appointment,” the lead guard said, and left. The soldier returned after a few moments. “He’s in the main hall, eating.”

  Grady nodded, and they passed through a concrete tunnel that led to another frozen escalator. Patch cement covered large cracks, and all the overhead lights were out. They passed more guards as they made their way to the second level. Here the walls looked freshly painted, the air sweet, and each luxury box had been converted into an apartment with windows looking out on the subjects below. After another guard checkpoint where Kat got harassed, they moved on down the main concourse. Kat got stopped two additional times and questioned.

  “I thought you were a big-wig,” said Jerome to Kat.

  “Just a hunter,” she said, a smirk sliding across her face.

  “You need approval to come up here?” Tye said.

  “Unless you’re a guard, leadership, or approved by leadership, nobody’s allowed above the first bowl without permission.”

  “Protecting the water and food supply?” Tye asked.

  “Something like that,” Grady said.

  They passed a bathroom and someone came out, wiping his face with a rag. “They work,” Tye said, pointing at the bathroom sign.

  “We re-routed the pipes, and the supply comes from rain catchers mounted on the lighting supports, but most of the fresh water is rationed. We use gray water for the toilets. The waste pipes were re-routed and run out onto a leeching field where we grow berries and potatoes. The zombies hate the smell of those,” Kat said.

  “So if it’s yellow, let it mellow,” Grady said.

  Tye laughed. “I haven’t heard that one in…” How long had it been? “May we clean ourselves up? Drain the main vein.”

  Grady laughed. “Touché.” He looked at Kat, who nodded. “Sure. Why not? Hurry it up, though.”

  Tye took Jerome and Peter into the men’s room, and Milly and Robin headed for the ladies’ room. The interior was dark, but he still caught the sign of the turtle etched into a tile low on the wall.

  Tye chuckled as he watched Jerome and Peter gaze about in awe. They’d been relieving themselves in an outhouse poised over a crack in the cliffs their entire lives, and a functioning toilet was like a spaceship. Tye showed them how everything worked, and when they were done, Peter and Jerome were awestruck by the porcelain goddess.

  Milly and Robin both looked like they’d just been to Disney World when they emerged from their side. Tye smiled. He liked thinking about those frivolous things the gone world had provided. He remembered riding Space Mountain as a boy, and It’s A Small World. But it wasn’t a small world after all, it was a huge world once again. Did people live in the houses on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride? Did they hide in the Haunted House and sleep with the beauty? What was her name?

  Gerral waited for them like a king, his audience chamber filled with people. One wall was all glass and overlooked most of Stadium. Conversation fell to a whisper as Tye and company were perp-walked to Stadium’s leader. He was huge; fat rippled over his belt, and a mound of black and gray hair surged from the lapel of his old Army officer’s jacket. He wore a red beret and pulled apart a cooked bird. He didn’t look up, and as they were padded down, Tye scanned the room.

  To the right of Gerral stood a man Tye figured to be the famous Tester. He wore Army fatigues, black combat boots, a sidearm on his hip, a rifle over one shoulder, and several knives in sheathes on his legs and arms. He watched Tye, letting his gaze stray to the others with quick flicks of his dark eyes. Black hair hung in greasy strands around a rat-like face.

  They stood before the Jabba the Hut, and Tye laughed out loud at the image. He’d been amazed by Star Wars as a boy, and his current situation reminded him a little too much of when Luke came to rescue Han from Jabba’s lair.

  A man stepped forward and raised his hand to strike Tye, but Kat stepped between them. “Easy, Cruncher. He doesn’t mean anything by it.”

  Cruncher reached out to push her aside but Gerral spoke. “Leave him.” Cruncher stepped aside. “Something funny?” Gerral asked.

  “Just a memory of the gone world,” Tye said.

  “Have you eaten?” Gerral said.

  “No, sir,” Tye said.

  “Sir,” Gerral laughed, low an
d melodious. “Cruncher, bring out the guest table and fetch refreshments for our new friends. This here is Tester, my advisor.”

  The hawkish man nodded.

  Cruncher complied, and soon they were all sitting and eating charred beef and vegetables. Tye hadn’t eaten so good since before The Day. There were cakes, carrots, broccoli, and wine. Real wine made from wine grapes, not the grape juice garbage they made on Respite. They ate like they’d never eaten before; Cruncher, Tester and the boss watching along with the crowd.

  “So,” Gerral said. “What do you think of our little place here?”

  Tye looked at his companions, who appeared more than happy to let him be the spokesperson. “Very impressive. Are you ex-military?”

  Gerral laughed. “Not hardly. I worked at the U, and thanks to some medical students we self-quarantined early. It was testy when everyone died outside, though.”

  “I can imagine, especially since not everyone died,” Tye said. People trying to help their children before they died, denial as to the disease’s strength, and belief in a cure made every decision impossibly difficult as the old world fell apart.

  “Tester, can you tell us about the turtle?” Milly said.

  The room went silent. Every conversation stopped.

  Tester bailed her out. “Eat. Be refreshed. Do not speak of such things.”

  “But I…”

  Peter almost yelled, “Milly. Not now.”

  So the sign of the turtle was controversial. “How did you get here, sir?” Tye said. He didn’t know if Tester had been an officer, but what harm was there in saying a prayer?

  “Talking about shit I shouldn’t have.” He looked sidelong at Milly. “And don’t call me sir. I work for a living.”

  That awkward silence again.

  “Are we free to go?” Tye said.

  “You may leave in good time,” Gerall said. “It’s a right hard fought and fairly won that any citizen may leave and return as long as they adhere to the appropriate protocols and possess their proof of citizenship. At first we wanted to maintain the quarantine, but as the years slid by, it made less and less sense.”