“I have to agree this time,” Luke replied. “This is no mission for non-combatants.”
“Her technical expertise may be necessary if we are to assess their strength properly,” Lorn said. “She should go.”
Luke met his eyes briefly. Lorn did not look away or flinch. Luke nodded. “Be ready by first light.”
A fly buzzed at Amy’s face, and she swatted at it for the hundredth time. She tried to ignore it and the sweat that drew them. She struggled in vain to remember why she had wanted to come. Scouting was not what it was made out to be. She wiggled a few more inches forward through the heavy scrub.
“It’s them all right,” Lorn was saying just a few feet ahead. Amy could not see him; all she could see was Patrick’s leg shifting as he reached for Lorn’s binoculars. She struggled up between Patrick and Luke.
“Shit,” Patrick hissed. “They’re armed, and heavily. We really need those guns now.”
Luke ignored this latest jab as he peered through his own binoculars. “It’s a show,” he said.
“How so?” Lorn asked.
“The lead man is carrying a sawed off shotgun. Point guards have crossbows. The grunts have M-16s. Very suspicious.
“If they had any ammo for those M-16s, the leader would have one, mark my words. I bet the shotguns are all they have shells for. He’s got three shells on his bandoleer, and that’s a pump action, so it holds five. That means they have a total of eight rounds.”
“So that’s why Jacob chose you?” Patrick said, astonished. Luke looked uncomfortable at the compliment but said nothing.
“Good work,” Lorn said. “Crossbows can be nasty weapons, but they won’t do any damage to one of our trucks and aren’t much of a threat as long we are inside. They are also slow to reload. What about the shotgun, will it stop a truck?” This last was aimed at Amy.
“Close up with a lucky shot maybe,” she replied. “But no, it’s not much of a threat to the truck. The people inside might be in danger though. What do you have in mind?”
“Nothing more gallant than running for it,” Lorn said. “Patrick, pass her the binoculars. I want her opinion about their vehicles.”
Luke beat Patrick to it. Amy was amazed at him. She would have never noticed the bandoleer or deciphered the significance of the shotgun. She set to looking at the vehicles.
“Ford Ranger and a Jeep,” she said. “Combustion engines, either gas or diesel, I’m not sure which. Old and showing it, but I can’t tell how they run from here, other than those tires won’t take much more abuse.”
“What about the stuff they’ve taken?” Luke asked.
“They have several batteries thrown in the back of the pickup. No real order to things, so they probably don’t have a clue what they’ve got. Lexa and I looked at that wind generator and thought the same thing.”
“They did a thorough job of destroying it, trying to strip the wires out. If they actually used the technology, it would have made a lot more sense to take the whole thing.”
They crawled back out of the scrub and sat down. “Not a bad bit of recon,” Luke said.
“I agree,” said a voice a few feet off.
Both Patrick and Luke leaped to their feet, hands on their knives.
A man squatted nearby, calmly watching them. He was short with long, dark hair. He wore leather buckskin pants and no shirt. His chest was tanned and muscular. A bow was slung casually over one shoulder, and there was a knife at his belt.
“Owl,” Lorn chirped, ignoring the drawn knives. “I haven’t seen you in years.”
“I have not been in these parts for many years,” the man replied. “Nor do I think have you. Let’s retire somewhere a little farther out of earshot and talk.”
They backtracked for close to a mile before sitting down to talk. Lorn introduced Owl to the others. “This is Owl of the Forestdwellers. They live well south of here. They are the best hunters and woodsmen anywhere. Owl, this is Luke, Amy, and Patrick. They’re from the mountains. We’re traveling together on an important errand.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Owl said.
“What is a Forestdweller like yourself doing out in the day anyway?” Lorn asked.
“Ah, it is true that since mankind angered mother earth we have been leery of father sun as well. He strikes at us fiercely and we hide ourselves. But today the mother cries in outrage. I have followed seeking its cause.”
“Cut the dramatics and speak English,” Lorn said.
“Okay,” Owl replied sheepishly. “But don’t let the other Forestdwellers know.” He adjusted himself in the high grass. “We usually work mostly at night, because of the ozone depletion, you know. But I have been curious about this group. I’ve followed them for several days. They’re up to no good.”
“So we have already discovered,” Luke said. He explained about the fueling station.
“Not good,” Owl agreed. “They’ve been doing stuff like that since they came out of the south. Most of the stuff they take they can’t even use, and they abandon it later. It’s disgusting.”
“Do you know where they’re from?” Lorn asked. “I thought all such people were gone from the earth.”
“Only vaguely,” Owl replied. “I’ve been following them for some time. They came out of the Deep South where, yes, such people still exist. It’s warmer, and there’s a better growing season. There’re also more cities, some still mostly inhabitable. We Forestdwellers live down there too, but we avoid them.”
“The Forestdwellers are nomadic,” Lorn supplied. “They go south in the winter and north in the summer. Have you had trouble with scavengers?” he asked Owl.
“Us? Hell no,” Owl replied. “We have forsaken that which angered the mother. No technology, nothing to interest them.”
“So you’ve never had any problems with them?” Luke asked.
“Those people are trouble no matter what,” Owl continued. “They don’t play nice. They fight amongst themselves all the time. Once in a while, one of us will get caught. They always assume we are spies working for one of their enemies.”
“You’re lucky you haven’t been killed,” Patrick said.
“Some have,” Owl said. “Like I said, they don’t play nice. When I saw these people up this far north, I got worried.”
“Do you know what they’re up to?” Luke asked.
“Unfortunately. I got close enough to hear them talking about a week ago. The knowledge comes a bit late, I’m afraid. They are seeking the Stewards. They believe they have a great wealth hidden away.”
“The Stewards?” Lorn said. “That’s nonsense. The Stewards are a monastic order.”
“I agree, they would not gather riches any more than my people would technology. But that’s what these people believe. They were just wandering when I started following them. Then they discovered an old town that was on their map. Since they’ve seemed to have gotten their bearings, they’ve headed straight toward the Stewards. I have been trying to get around them to go warn the Stewards. On foot I can barely keep up with them; there’s no way for me to get ahead.”
“Perhaps we can help,” Lorn said. “We are heading to the Stewards ourselves. We have vehicles and knowledge of the terrain.”
“That would be most appreciated. I hate to think of what such people would do to the Stewards if they got to them unawares.”
The small team, with its new arrival, made its way back to the camp. They arrived back just before noon, and they quickly explained the situation.
“Shit,” Lexa said. “These solar panels aren’t going to be fast enough. We will not have a full charge until almost nightfall. If we start out first thing in the morning, we won’t make it to the next station until late afternoon. They could easily make it before us and destroy that one too.”
Everyone groaned. “Now what?” Luke said, throwing his hands up.
Owl answered. “I could go to the Roan tribe; they maintain these, don’t they? They have horses, which are faster on this terra
in anyway. If I left my pack, I could easily make it there before evening and be back by nightfall.”
Several people nodded their approval of this plan, but Spider spoke up against it. “No. we are carrying toxic waste. We can’t just leave it.”
“Could the Roans bring us extra batteries?” Amy asked.
“That’s it!” Lexa squealed running for her truck. She came back carrying her map and unrolled it on the ground before them. “Owl, you go to the Roans. Find a man named Jodie. Tell him Lexa needs his ‘special’ charge converter. He’ll know what I want. He’s to take it to station eight, which is about here.” She pointed on the map.
“What do you have in mind?” Spider asked.
“With the charge we have, we can make it that far easily. We will meet up with Jodie there. He’s got a quick charger. It’ll completely charge our batteries in about an hour or so. We don’t usually allow them because they drain the stations something awful, but under these conditions it’s called for.”
“I think I see,” Spider said catching on. “It takes us out of our way, but this stretch here is pretty level, if I remember right.”
“Exactly,” Lexa answered brightly. “We quick-charge and travel through the night to the next station, here. Then on to here and do it again. By then we should be past the bad guys and booking.”
“Just one small problem,” Lorn said. “There’s no route marked between this station and station eight.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I know a few things that aren’t on the map,” Lexa said.
Lorn looked suspicious, but Luke said, “Well, if no one has a better plan, I say let’s go for it.”
Owl passed his bow and arrows and his small pack to Lorn. In a flash, he was gone, running full speed.
“Do you think he can really run that far?” Spider asked.
Lorn nodded. “If a Forestdweller says they can do something, believe them. They’re an amazing people.”
“You sound wistful,” Spider said. “Wishing you were a Forestdweller?”
“Me?” Lorn said. “I’d love to be that rugged and strong. Who wouldn’t? But I know the kind of harsh lifestyle it takes to build that kind of endurance. No, I’ll stay a Greenbowe and settle for a little softness.”
They set out after lunch. Everyone was nervous. The gauges read barely half power, but Lexa assured them it was enough.
Tonight’s run might be as level as she says, Amy groused to herself as she drove on, but today’s run more than makes up for it.
Lorn, sitting at her side, apparently agreed. “Another creek bed! I think we have crossed every creek and hill for miles about and are going over some twice,” he growled. “I am sure this is not part of some accepted route, and I don’t want to know how she discovered it.”
They reached station eight by dusk. They found a dozen horses waiting for them. Owl ran forward as they pulled up. “I have brought the cavalry,” he cried.
A lanky man with dark hair and a thin but muscular body came forward. Lexa rushed to him and they hugged. “Jodie!” Lexa cried.
“Brought you some gifts,” he told her, leading her over to the fire pit and introducing the dozen or so Roan tribe members who were there. They had arrived a half an hour before and had a fire started, busy preparing a meal.
Over the meal of meat, vegetables and bread, they presented two gifts. The first was Jodie’s quick-chargers. He told Lexa to keep them as long as she wanted. “That way I know you’ll come visit sometime,” he said, laughing.
Their second gift was five handheld two-way radios. “Traveling with hostile forces about, you may need to communicate,” Jodie told Luke.
They thanked the Roans for their gifts, and the Roans in turn thanked them for the warning about the station. They planned to camp for a day and then take a team down to fix it. They promised to have all their stations repaired and in good working order before the mission came back that way.
While the trucks charged, Lorn and Luke consulted. They set a new semi-permanent driving roster, abandoning the rotation. Amy and Lexa were in the lead truck, as the two best drivers. Lorn and Spider drove second to guard the front, and Luke and Patrick drove at the back as rearguard.
They set out just after moonrise. The path turned south, and true to Lexa’s word, it was straight and level. In fact, they soon turned down a long ramp onto an ancient highway, still in fair repair.
Amy found it spooky to drive on this road at night, thinking about the hundreds of cars that once went up and down it at all hours of the day and night. At intervals, large lonely signs reared up in the dim moonlight. Behind and to the sides, the broken remains of buildings stared emptily at them.
“When I was a kid I went up to one of those buildings with my older brother,” Owl said sleepily. “Out back was this huge truck, must have been forty feet long.”
“A semi,” Amy said. “My dad drove one for a time.”
“My brother told me they had once hauled things all over the country in those trucks, but I wouldn’t believe him. I couldn’t imagine that anything that big could move.” Owl laughed. “I still find it hard to believe, but riding in this truck has made me a believer.”
“You’ve never ridden in anything this big before?” Amy knew it was a stupid question as soon as she said it. She hadn’t ridden in anything this big before either.
The truth was that she was a little rattled. Owl couldn’t drive, so he wasn’t on the rotation at all. When he offered to ride up front with them, she had assumed that Lexa’s charm was at work. Lexa was already curled up asleep on his far shoulder, and Owl was showing more attention to Amy than she was either used to or comfortable with.
Amy fished the radio out of her lap. “Bad patch up ahead, potholes the size of a horse.” Spider’s voice crackled an acknowledgment followed by several others. The radios were already paying off in a surprising way. Early warning from the lead truck was allowing them to travel faster and safer than they could ever have without them.
Owl and Amy continued to converse until the moon stood high in the sky. There was a longer than usual pause and then a slight snore from the man. He barely moved when Lexa and Amy changed places at the midnight break.
Amy woke in the morning to find herself curled against his warm muscular side, his arm casually over her shoulder. She straightened stiffly.
“She awakens,” he commented casually to Lexa. They had obviously been awake and talking for some time.
“What did I miss?” she asked, still groggy.
“Nothing but dark skies and empty horizons,” Owl said.
“The next stop is just a few minutes away,” Lexa added.
Looking into the dawn, Amy spotted the wind generator turning lazily in the morning breeze. They had a quick hot breakfast, a shower, and most importantly, an hour away from the trucks. Then back in for another long haul.
Amy drove the first morning stretch, with Lexa’s guidance. They turned southwest on another old highway. This one was not in nearly as good of shape. A low river, more of a stream really, ran parallel to the road. Over the years, its course had shifted, and it had eroded most of the shoulder and at times threatened to engulf the road entirely.
“Oh crap,” Lexa said. Amy followed Lexa’s pointed finger. At the top of the next hill sat a Jeep. They could see the outline of several men watching them. There was no mistaking the crossbows.
“Everyone see that?” Lorn voice crackled through the radio. There was a chorus of “ayes.”
A voice boomed through an old bullhorn. “Pull to the side of the road,” the voice commanded.
“No way. We know what they’ll do,” Owl said.
Lorn’s voice echoed the sentiment through the radio, “We are not stopping.”
“Let me and Luke through,” Patrick’s voice said. “We will buy the rest of you some time.”
“The tires!” Amy screamed as it hit her. She grabbed the radio from Lexa’s mystified hand. “Don’t,” she said. “Just follow me.”
/> The men saw them rolling by faster. The silhouettes were gone, and the Jeep was speeding down toward them. They were on an intercept course and going twice as fast as the trucks could manage.
“They are going to block us off,” Lexa said nervously.
No doubt everyone else is thinking it as well, Amy thought scanning the banks frantically. She spied a low stretch and swerved, hoping the others would follow. The truck splashed heavily into the shallow river.
I just hope it is a shallow as it looks, she thought. If the water comes up to the engine, we’re through. To her relief, moments later she was splashing up on the other side. The heavy electric truck with its massive torque ground noisily through the mud.
“They’re almost here,” Lexa said as they cleared the bank.
The smaller and faster Jeep had made good use of the momentary slowing of the trucks as they plowed through the water. It had reached the bank about thirty feet downstream and easily plowed across the river. Then it hit the trap that Amy had hoped for. Being lighter, the Jeep’s old tires spun in the mud, gaining no traction.
The final caravan truck cleared the river. There were shouts of glee coming through the radio as Amy pulled up the far bank. A loud retort broke the celebration momentarily. Amy gasped as she noticed a small crack in the passenger-side window, only inches from Owl’s face.
In complete defiance of common sense, he peered out the window. Seeing her look of concern, he calmly said, “We’re out of range now. They’ll not waste another shot.
“Any damage?” Patrick was asking over the radio. Amy could guess who was really asking.
“Window’s cracked, but no injuries,” Lexa answered. Spider reported the same. Apparently it had been a wild shot, taken at the edge of range.
A mile or so farther on, they took a short stop. After that harrowing close call, they needed a minute to regroup and to plot a new course.
It was decided that they would continue on this side for most of the day. They did not know how long the Jeep would be stuck for, where the other truck was, or if the scavengers had any sort of means of communication. There could all too easily be another trap waiting for them.
Children of a New Earth Page 24