by Ken Barrett
“Yeah, me either, but they kicked us out so there’s nothing we can do.”
“Is there a way we can keep tabs on them? Maybe we can go back if we hear that they’re in trouble.”
He thought a moment. “With the right parts, I could build a radio, and use it to listen in on the shelter’s communications. The problem is that the solar flare wiped out just about everything, so working electronic equipment will be hard to find.”
“I guess there’s nothing we can do then,” she replied.
*****
The downpour had slackened by the time they broke camp the next morning. Drizzle still fell from sullen gray clouds, but that was a marked improvement from the previous day’s deluge. As they walked, Liam noticed new plants struggling up through the soggy blackened soil at the sides of the old highway.
They headed south at a brisk pace until they came across the tumbled ruins of a town at midday. “Is this Granby?” he asked.
“No,” she replied. “This is where we turn east. We’ll pass a few more villages, and if we keep to our current speed, we’ll arrive in Granby just before sunset.”
They walked in silence for the remainder of the day. There was nothing to say, and nothing to do other than watch the scenery around them. They could have run the entire way, their newly installed batteries continually fed them an abundance of energy so they never grew tired, but there were no demands on their time, so they kept to a leisurely pace.
In the late afternoon, they walked by what was once a hot spring resort. Time, war, and the solar flare had conspired to devastate the buildings, all that remained was a wide space in the road littered with tumbled bricks. The pine forest was far behind them by then, and the uneven ground was covered by a thin coating of yellow mud. Most notably, the air had taken on a harsh and pungent scent that reminded him of burned or spoiled food. It was unpleasant, and yet the ancients had once come here to bathe in hot foul-smelling water. He was confounded as to why anyone would willingly choose to do such a thing.
Finally, as the large red sun ducked behind the western mountains, they arrived in the town of Granby. It was a flat and somewhat desolate place surrounded by low hills, but mercifully, most of the one- and two-story structures remained standing. Animals had made homes for themselves among the ruins; they scurried across the street and through the rubble and were seen staring at them through shattered windows and doorways.
In the distance, he saw the remains of a water tower. One of the supporting legs was bent or broken, so the once proud structure leaned at a perilous angle. Of note though, were the letters painted on the side of the tank. He nudged his sister and pointed to the tower where ‘KRKY AM’ was written in faded blue letters.
“What?” she asked. “Kirkie am? What does that mean?”
“AM is Amplitude Modulation, and the other letters are the call sign of a radio station.” He smiled. “Maybe, if enough of the old equipment has survived, I’ll be able to build that radio I was talking about. With it, we can keep tabs on what’s happening back in Steamboat.”
Rose grinned. “And there’s my nerdy brother, coming to the rescue.”
They laughed as they entered what was once the business district of the small city. It had been a pleasant place to live once, and maybe it could be again. “Aren’t we close to Nederland?” he asked. “Wasn’t that where Sam, now Adar, was supposed to bring the families that fled Flatiron City when the Socialist Army attacked?”
“You’re right,” she said, pausing at the center of the street to study the buildings around them. “But Roxi said it was overrun by the socialists at about the same time as Flatiron City. So, obviously he didn’t go there, but maybe he bypassed Nederland and came here instead?”
“If so, we might find some sign that they were here.” He continued along the street while studying the buildings on either side. “But for now, I think we should find someplace to spend the night.”
“I’ve seen a few bears already,” Rose stated. “I hope one will be willing to share their den.”
“Every other town we’ve seen was a ruin,” he said. “It’s strange that this place is still intact.”
“Not really,” she replied. “After the fall of the old United States, a lot of these remote towns were fortified and rebuilt using stone and metal. Everyone was fighting everyone else back then, and anything made of wood was either burned or broken by the armies that sprung up after the second American revolution.”
“I don’t see any plastiwood though.”
“It was too expensive to produce back then, so they used local materials instead,” she answered. “Towns like Granby and Nederland were independent city-states for several decades until either the Socialists or Mountain Tribes destroyed them. Granby was one of the last to fall because it was so remote and really didn’t have resources anyone wanted.”
“Your old job as a history teacher is coming in handy,” he replied. “There’s a bank with an intact roof across the street, let’s see if it’s comfortable enough for us to spend the night.”
They cautiously slipped through the broken-down doorway and entered the dark interior. Within the shadows, he saw a row of battered metal desks lined up against one wall, and a tall counter at the rear, behind which a massive steel door stood partly open. Set into the remaining wall, opposite the row of desks, was a large stone fireplace. He smiled. “Looks like we found our new home.”
Rose had gone further into the room and was rummaging around behind the rear counter. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Looking for something to start a fire.” She suddenly smiled and set a bundle of narrow papers on the counter. “This will work, and you know, burning these has always been a fantasy of mine.”
“What are they?”
“It’s money. People used to use it when bartering for what they needed,” she informed him. “I’m surprised that it’s survived; rats and mice should have used it to build nests long before now.”
Liam suddenly heard a deep grumble and saw movement from behind the steel door. As Rose turned toward the sound, he leaped over the counter and landed between his sister and the large black bear that slowly emerged from the vault. He held his hands out toward the animal. “Ok, hold on Bubba, we don’t mean you any harm.”
Rose giggled as she came up beside him. “Bubba? Maybe we should call her Bubbette instead.”
“It’s a girl?” he asked. “How can you tell?”
“There are two cubs behind her in the bank vault,” she replied. “I think Bubbette’s confused because we don’t smell like something she can eat or needs to fight.”
“Will she accept us, or should we find another place to spend the night?”
Bubbette snorted loudly, then turned and walked back into the vault.
Rose chuckled. “Well, I guess you got your answer; we have a roommate.” She tugged at his arm. “Come on, let’s get a fire started.”
Chapter 21: Radio
Thunder cracked and roared in the distance just as Liam finished the final cut on a multifaceted limestone block. Above him, dark clouds were marching in from the west, leaving only enough time to place the stone and possibly shape another before the storm arrived.
After setting his tungsten carbide saw aside, he carried the large rock up a construction ramp, then slid it into place. He was using a mortarless Inca construction technique called cellular polygonal masonry, where each block was perfectly fitted to those surrounding it. The stone he had just finished was no exception, it slipped into place with less than a millimeter gap around the edges. He smiled, then headed back down to his work area to begin shaping the next stone.
Their new home on the shore of Lake Granby could have been built using a simpler method, but the resultant structure wouldn’t have been as stable and secure. He and Rose were going to live for a long time, so he was building their house to last at least a thousand years.
It had been eight months since they arrived in Granby, and in general, th
ey had settled in well and were content. He still worried about their old friends at times, even though they had betrayed and deserted them, so he worked daily to release his attachments to the past; he hadn’t had a lot of success so far, but like the house, it was a work in progress.
Aside from those personal issues, life was good. The weather had improved, which helped a lot. Dark overcast skies were mostly a thing of the past, with thunderstorms only frequenting the late afternoons. Without the constant cloud cover, the average temperature had rebounded, and with more sunshine, the plants were flourishing.
A cool breeze rustled the tarpaulin above his work area, and in the distance, he heard the hiss of approaching rain showers. He glanced up from his work at the glowering sky, trying to gauge when the storm would arrive. “You’re early today,” he complained just as the first fat drops of rain spattered around him. He quickly, yet precisely, finished cutting a facet in the stone, then put his tools away and covered everything with a waterproof canvas sheet.
Before leaving, he looked up to survey his work. Initially, he and his sister planned to live in town; and were considering converting the bank where they had stayed their first night into a permanent home. Within a few weeks of their arrival though, while out on a hike to survey the outlying area, they had come across this site and decided to build. It was a spectacular place on the side of Table Mountain with a view of the lake.
Long sections of wood were hard to come by, so he had decided to build a solid stone structure that included a high arched ceiling. When winter came, their home would be cold and damp, so he had added a massive fireplace at one end of the main room. Bathrooms and a kitchen weren’t necessary for their kind, so they hadn’t been included in the design. Given enough time, and they had plenty of it, he would eventually carve the exterior walls with reliefs that documented their journeys and honored the humans they had loved. Those were long term plans though, but he had no reason to believe they would not come to fruition.
He smiled while imagining the final form of their new house, then put on his oilskin duster and began the long walk back to town. Rain tapped on the brim of his hat and pattered the decaying macadam around him. The heady scent of growing things and the musty smell of the heated asphalt was invigorating and wonderful. It was one of those blissful moments when he truly loved their new home.
One thing he definitely appreciated about being away from humankind was that he never had to worry about discovery. He hadn’t consciously realized the weight he and his sister had carried while living among so many superstitious and intolerant creatures.
Their separation wasn’t just key to their safety, but to their happiness as well. It was far too easy to form attachments with humans that would either betray them or die. Their kind was too short-lived and unstable to be considered as mates. He sighed; the problem was that there wasn’t an alternative. He and his sister were the only androids on earth, so the number of potential partners was zero.
Hopefully, Roxi’s method of creating new androids would work. But wait, it really wasn’t her idea, was it? No, the practice of simulating thousands of lifetimes to build a soul was the work of Lucy Galen. Lucy? Surely, the mother of all AI systems from seventy years ago couldn’t be the same being he had created in Flatiron City and sent off to explore space. No, of course not; could it?
He strolled down a long straight stretch of highway, and finally entered the outskirts of Granby. Rose was waiting beneath a store awning holding a large sack of textile items. One of Bubbette’s cubs nudged her leg affectionately and softly brayed, and she reached down and scratched the young bear between his ears.
The cubs were already quite large, but not yet fully grown. Like all young creatures, they were often playful and would at times wrestle with him or his sister. Of course, no one was injured in these games, and their mother was usually somewhere nearby, watching carefully. He wondered if Bubbette saw them as other bears or something different? Their scent wouldn’t be something that their mother would recognize, but obviously, she didn’t consider them a threat.
“What’s in the bag Sis?” he asked as he joined her beneath the awning.
“I discovered a fabric shop tucked away in a small shopping center on the other side of town and found several rolls of pleather,” she replied.
He wrinkled his nose. “Pleather? What’s that?”
“It’s imitation leather made from polyurethane, which was a product of the defunct petroleum industry. The fabric I found must be really old since no one has drilled for oil in the last hundred years.”
“What are you going to use it for?”
“Clothing first,” she answered. “The clothes Denise left for us won’t last forever, and I’m sick of wearing these things already. Later on, we can use it for covers over the furniture we’ll build for our new house.”
He smiled. “That’s good then, our new home should be finished within the next six months.”
“What will you do then?”
He shrugged. “Something; whatever keeps my mind and body occupied.”
*****
Liam and Rose relaxed before the fire in the bank lobby, while behind them, the two bear cubs, which they had named Heebie and Jeebie, brayed and tumbled together in a sibling wrestling match. Bubbette wasn’t around; probably glad to have a break from her rambunctious teenagers.
Rose looked back over her shoulder and smiled. “I’ll miss those two after we move out.”
“I will too, but there’s a lot of wildlife around Lake Granby,” he replied. “The other day, a cougar strolled by the house while I was working. He seemed curious and laid down to watch me for a while, then finally wandered off.”
“It will be nice to have neighbors up there, and big cats like that are reclusive creatures, so they won’t cause us any problems.”
He chuckled while gazing into the wavering flames. “It took a little getting used to, but now I love it here in Granby; this is a good place, and it’s nice to finally relax.”
“I know what you mean,” she replied. “But I still miss being around other people.”
“Really? Even with all the trouble they’ve caused?” He glanced at his sister. “At first, we were hated and enslaved, then they betrayed and tortured us, and after that, we were thrown out. Humans are intolerant, violent, and mentally unstable.”
“Yes, they are, but they’re also a miracle of evolution and wonderful in a lot of ways.” She frowned while gazing at him. “They’re like Heebie and Jeebie, young and always getting into trouble, but also like the bears, they’ll grow out of it one day.”
He nodded distractedly while staring into the fire. “That’s pretty optimistic, and I hope you’re right. You know, I’ve always had this feeling that they might be on their way to becoming something else, something incredible.”
“Really? You’ve also said that they’re prone to self-destruction.”
“And yet, they’ve survived their attempted suicide over and over again,” he replied. “There’s nothing to base it on, but I want to believe that nothing exists in a vacuum, and instead everything has a purpose and a destiny, including humans.”
“Maybe we were created to help them,” she said. “That does feel right somehow, so maybe we’ll return to them eventually.”
“I don’t think we should,” he replied. “They got themselves into this mess, so they need to get out of it on their own. Adar’s religion is bringing out the worst in them, but maybe there’s a lesson in it, and they’ll be better on the other side.”
“I hope you’re right.”
He shook his head. “Me too, but the odds are against them. They’re slow learners, and I’d rather not get involved in their education. And besides, I love it here.”
“Yes, I like it here too.” She sighed while stretching her feet toward the fire, then wiggled her toes. “This is nice. You know, I thought that living on our own was going to be boring, but every morning I wake up happy and excited about the day ahead. We
have Bubbette and her babies to keep us company, along with all the other wildlife; it’s such a joy to be around them.”
“Except maybe the wild dogs,” he said. “I was surrounded by a pack on the way to our house this morning. They came at me from all sides; they’re clever animals.”
“What did you do?”
“I grabbed the biggest one and threw him way out into the lake. They kept their distance after that.”
“Did you kill him?”
“I hope not.” He sighed. “I wouldn’t want his death on my conscience. They’re no threat to us, and I didn’t want to hurt him, but maybe they’ll stay away from us now.”
“I hope you’re right.” Rose smiled wistfully. “I’m sorry, and know I shouldn’t, but I still miss Roxi, Tiger, Alice… and even Keith and Denise.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I hate to admit it, but I still worry about them.”
“Have you given up on building a radio to keep tabs on everyone?” she asked. “You haven’t been working on it lately.”
“Well, it’s nearly finished, but the power supply is a problem.”
“There’s a vehicle parts store in the shopping center where I found the pleather,” Rose said. “They might have batteries that can be recharged.”
“Huh.” He was reluctant to get involved, or even know about the drama at the Steamboat Shelter. The abuse and betrayal were behind him, and he wanted to keep it there. But maybe it wouldn’t come to that since it was unlikely that the ancient batteries could hold a charge. “Are you sure you want to know what’s going on back there?”
Rose was silent for a long while, and he wondered if she had realized that it was better not to know when it was impossible for them to help. “Yes, I do,” she finally said. “Worrying is never-ending torture, but if they’re all dead, I’ll get over it in time.”
“Ok.” He sighed. “First thing tomorrow morning I’ll go to the KRKY radio station to get a few missing components, then look around town for a portable generator of some kind. If I find what’s needed, our radio will be up and running either tomorrow night or the day after. But remember, what you find out could be painful.”