by Alice Sabo
Angus pointed into the basket. “There are letters in there, so I guess it’s been there for awhile.”
Tilly had mixed feelings about the mail service. On one hand, she was delighted that someone had taken the initiative to start it up. On the other hand, she hated that something like this had been put into motion without any input from her or Angus. Now that the settlement had grown out of its bounds, this sort of thing would probably happen more often.
Chapter 21
Once the trains started running again, we were able to barter with our most distant partners.
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
GENERAL DUNHAM HAD called for an assembly. Bridget knew what he was going to say. She’d helped him write the speech. And it scared her down to her bones. He was going to say that they had enough food to get through the winter if they reduced rations. The very thought made her stomach hurt. They were already on limited rations. The first time the train station didn’t have food in the storeroom, he cut back on rations. Cutting them even further was going to cause trouble. But they didn’t have a choice.
They had tried raising crops. First year, they lost them to hail. Second year, was cold and rainy, and everything got moldy. Third year, a tornado came close enough to flatten everything. After that, Dunham said it was a waste of seed.
He made the announcement as he did everything, with gruff sincerity. Standing there in front of all of them, worn clothes on his too-thin frame, he spoke from his heart. Bridget cleared her throat against the ache at the sight of him. He barely ate enough to stay alive. She made sure everyone knew that. His clothes came from the same motley rag pile as everyone else. And his sacrifices were part of what held them all together.
On the bright side, Dunham had agreed to the request for a new hunting party to be formed. She knew that was a risk. The last one hadn’t come back. No one knew if they had walked away or died out there. But if they were the only people left, who could have killed them? Unless there were crazed animals out there. She shivered at the thought of mad beasts tearing apart her comrades, then huffed at the absurdity of it. No one knew what had happened. But now that they had a new hunting party, maybe somebody would find out.
“You gonna apply?”
Jace’s question stirred her out of her musing. “I’m a good shot,” she bragged. Although the lack of ammunition had her worried.
He punched her shoulder, but not hard enough to hurt. “You’re one of the best. If we’re going to get any meat in here, I’d bet on you.”
With the threat of reduced rations hanging in the air, the hunting party left by early afternoon. Bridget and three of the best shots were sent out with the best guns and plenty of ammunition. Going outside the perimeter fence gave her a shiver. It had been too long since she was this far away from the building. As soon as they entered the cool shade of the woods, she called for a halt.
“Let’s be smart about this,” she said, keeping her voice down. “Something happened to the last group, and they didn’t come back. I think we treat this like a patrol into hostile territory.”
Gary grunted his agreement. He was one of the oldest with spiky white hair and a grizzled gray beard. “Who’s the best tracker?” he asked, looking around the group.
“You are,” Bridget said with a snort.
He gave her a wink. “I’ll take point. We move quiet. Don’t advance into an area until you get the all-clear.” He waited until each one gave him a nod before he moved out into the shadows.
Bridget followed with the other two, moving as silently as possible. They crossed a clearing and stopped at Gary’s hand signal. He slid between two great pines and vanished. She looked at her companions and gave them hand signals to watch in different directions. She examined her own section of the woods. Birds sang, there was no movement in the trees other than a slight breeze. She strained her ears for the sound of anything beyond that.
Gary returned to signal an all-clear. They followed him through another section and waited there while he checked ahead again. The day got hotter despite the shade under the trees. Bridget was regretting that she hadn’t brought a water bottle. Gary came back and signaled an alert before disappearing into the trees again. They all crouched, ready to fight.
Sweat ran down her neck and biting insects swarmed around them. Bridget bit her lip wanting to scream in frustration as something buzzed incessantly around her ear.
Gary sprinted back to them. “I found ‘em. I don’t see any recent tracks, but I think we oughta mark this area off limits.”
Bridget followed when he beckoned them on. They came through the trees to find waist-high grass flanking an old road. She eyed the tree line on the other side of the old highway. Anyone could be hiding in those shadows. The road was fractured with frost heaves and potholes. Weeds and sapling sprouted here and there. By her estimation, no one had used that road in years. In a shallow gully by the side of the road were bones baked pale by the sun.
Gary squatted by the first skeleton. “Shot in the head.” He pointed to the skull.
“You think this is our men?” Jace asked. He was keeping his distance and looked uncharacteristically pale.
“Here.” Gary pulled free a piece of uniform from the jumble of bones and twigs and leaves.
A moment of silence bore down on them as Gary held out the name tag for each of them to read. Bridget knew the name. One of theirs. The hair on the back of her neck bristled, forcing her to squint into the shadows across the road again.
Gary rattled the skull until a bullet rolled out into his hand. “Not our ordinance,” he said darkly.
“So we’re not the only people left,” Bridget said with a dizzying mix of relief and dread.
Gary spat just past the bones. “The only real people. This was probably biobots.”
“You think there are any of them still around?” Jace asked.
“They were made to be superhuman, what do you think?” Gary snapped.
“They’re not all bad,” Bridget said.
Gary gave her a sharp look. “You weren’t in St. Louis.”
She bowed her head. “No, but I lost some good friends there.”
Her words calmed Gary’s anger. “We all did.”
She wanted to tell him that a biobot had saved her life once. During the bad times, coming cross-country, her scout team had been attacked. A biobot came out of nowhere and took out half of the attackers. It gave her and her last three men enough time to get back to the main group. He saved them from a gang of humans that would probably have taken their food and weapons and then raped her. When they finally had time to take a breath, the biobot had disappeared. In her mind, that person was a hero. But this wasn’t the time or place for that conversation.
They collected two badly weathered guns, some miscellaneous equipment that might be repairable and some ammunition. When they got back into the trees, Gary notched a blaze on three of them.
Bridget peered back the way they came wondering if the attackers were still around, or if they’d just been passing through. Gary led them at an angle back the way they’d come so that they didn’t cover the same ground. She felt better now, knowing that the missing men had been killed in a gunfight. It was a simple, if brutal, explanation and stripped away the fearful mystery of it.
A rustle ahead of them turned into a deep grunt.
“It’s a boar!” Jace yelled.
Bridget dashed after him excited at the thought of a meal that would actually fill her belly. Gary stopped them with a sharp gesture.
“That’s the kind of behavior that can get you killed,” he hissed.
Bridget scanned the woods around them. Hunger made you do stupid things. Rushing, towards a possible prize, that could be a trap, was foolish. She exchanged embarrassed glances with Jace before falling back into line behind Gary. With a gesture to remain, he slipped further into the trees. The woods rustled and peeped around them. Whatever had been buzzing in her ear seemed to have found her again. She
remained in an alert crouch as a punishment for being thoughtless.
Gary finally reappeared grinning ear to ear. “You’re not going to believe this.” He beckoned them to follow.
They eagerly scurried after him. He guided them to a screen of briars. Bridget saw the sharp angles of roof lines through the trees. At some point, the forest floor turned into cracked pavement. Gary waved them down, then led them in a crawl to a break in the undergrowth.
In an overgrown yard, one of the biggest boars Bridget had ever seen, was grazing. “Holy cow...”
“Just about as big as,” Jace whispered.
“Take a look at what he’s eating,” Gary said.
She focused her attention on the ground. Something round and red was scattered in the trampled grass below a tree. It took her a minute before she looked up into the tree. “Plums,” she whispered in mouth-watering awe.
Chapter 22
It took our country decades to replace the old infrastructure of power lines, water and sewer pipes. The hub system was fairly new when the world changed. But any system still needs maintenance.
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
WISP SPENT A LOT OF time sleeping. When he woke, he found Ted at the bedside.
“How are you?” Ted asked. His eyes were scrunched up in a wince. A thread of fear wound through his concern for Wisp.
“Do I look that bad?”
Ted nodded. “You’re all scrapes and black eyes.”
That jived with what Wisp had felt. His face was stiff with scabs, and his eyes were still swollen. When he didn’t speak right away, Ted’s concern started spiking. Wisp chose to move the conversation to a topic that wouldn’t center on himself. “When did you get back?”
“This morning,” Ted said.
That wasn’t what Wisp wanted to hear. He hadn’t realized another day had passed. “What time is it now?”
“Nearly lunch. Tilly said I should eat here. Someone will bring a tray around. Did you know they harvested a whole orchard of cherries?”
“It wasn’t an orchard,” Wisp corrected. “Just a couple of trees.”
“People are fighting over it,” Ted said as his emotions plummeted. “It’s so sad. They should all be rejoicing over such good luck, but instead they’re all worried about who gets what.”
Wisp almost nodded, but remembered not to. “The whole settlement is on edge. Too many people too close together.”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? If you had asked me how many people were left in the world, I wouldn’t think this many!”
“This is only a small portion. There are a lot of people left. They’re just all spread out or hidden.” He didn’t think Ted was distracting him on purpose, but it wasn’t going to work. “I need to get out of here.”
Ted grasped his wrist. “Is it too many people? Kyle said it helps if I hold your arm.”
All of Ted’s emotions flooded thought him creating a filmy barrier against all the other emotions in the building. Wisp patted his hand. “Yes. That does help me block out other people. But that isn’t why I need to leave. Ep’s being tortured.”
Ted’s emotions ran riot. Alarm spiked, followed by guilt and fear. “Why? Where is he?”
“Not close.”
“You can’t go in this condition. What if you have to fight?”
Although he didn’t want to admit it, Ted was right. He was so dizzy that he couldn’t sit up without help. It was going to take a few more days before he was strong enough to go. He struggled to get into a more upright position. Ted helped him, then shifted his pillows.
“Tell me about your journey,” Wisp asked.
“It’s better than I hoped!” Ted said with true enthusiasm. “The guys take the van ahead and set up a camp. Then I spend the day walking. We take a day or two to clear out an area for a regular stop. This is really helping everyone with what needs to be done.”
“Everyone?”
“Well, I’ve got two soldiers with me. They look for trouble. But we haven’t found any,” he assured Wisp in an aside. “And a sort of surveyor. He makes notes about the roads and any structures we find and such. And a builder. He and his helper take fallen trees and make a little shelter where we can leave the emergency supplies. Sometimes he has to cut down a couple of small trees. And we dig a little underneath, so it’s safe in a bad storm. Then we leave one of those big metal boxes that Billy’s making for us at each one. So if someone is stuck on the road in a bad storm, they’ve got food, water, first aid and a blanket.” Ted glanced down the hall. “I wonder when lunch will come.”
“How does this help everyone?” Wisp asked. Ted’s emotions felt more scattered than usual. He wanted to get him back on track to see if he was hiding something. Being trapped in the infirmary was making him suspicious of everyone.
“Well, the surveyor gives Angus more information about the area. And the shelters are really for Martin’s men. And staying in one place for a couple days lets kids take a look at us. We found six this trip.” Ted grinned, a spike of satisfaction shining through. “Two of them were very sick. Clean water and a couple solid meals helped.”
“Now where?” Wisp asked. Focusing on Ted was hard, so he kept working at it. Listening to him seemed to be helping his brain find purchase in the real world. He felt betrayed by his damaged body. A part of his brain warned him to go find a hole to hide in until he was strong enough to defend himself. But another part reminded him that he had brothers here now, and he should be safe.
“I’ve charted out a series of trips from here to the new borders. Like spokes on a wheel with High Meadow in the center. But I’m going to choose them at random. The next trip will be in the opposite direction. I worry that if I start in one place, I might be too late for any kids hiding at the very end. And the men don’t mind. We’re all getting along very well. It’s so nice to have this proceed in an orderly fashion.”
Sleep was pulling at Wisp. He fought against the need to close his eyes. Luckily, Eunice arrived with a laden tray, bringing in the warm aromas from the kitchen with her.
Ted jumped to his feet. “Oh dear, you didn’t need to come yourself.”
“I wanted to check in with Wisp.” Eunice put the tray on a nearby table before coming to the bedside. “You look like you took a beating,” she said hesitantly.
“I fell off a cliff,” Wisp said carefully. His lips were sore.
“And landed on your face?” She huffed a soft laugh, but he could feel her concern underneath.
“But you’ve got such good balance...,” Ted began.
“I fainted.”
“Why?” Ted’s concern rose again flavored with a dark twist of fear.
Wisp thought back to the incident. His mind had been too muzzy to analyze his memories until now. “I was reaching out. Something bad happened to Ep. And I felt it.”
Eunice glanced a question at Ted.
“Our brother, Epsilon. Although he probably doesn’t go by that name either.” Ted shrugged
“And it was bad enough that it made you pass out?” Eunice asked.
“He was in a lot of pain. I need to find him.”
She pulled the table over and sorted out the servings. She handed a plate to Ted. “Where’s Nixie?”
“She went down to Creamery to check on her parents. They’re about to get back on their circuit, and she wanted to say goodbye.”
“I’m glad she’s speaking with them,” Eunice said. She put a big bowl of stew in front of Wisp. “Do you need any help with this?”
He fumbled for the spoon. His hands felt swollen and clumsy. “I’m fine.”
Eunice shared a look with Ted. He gave her a knowing nod. Wisp knew they were fussing over him when he really could take care of himself. He leaned forward to shovel the food into his mouth. Suddenly, he was ravenous.
Chapter 23
Our society is so traumatized by losing all that is familiar that when people are presented with a working community, they immediately distrust it.<
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History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
THE FLOWCHART LOOKED good to Tilly. She’d made a list of all her duties, and how they flowed through to the rest of the settlement. As a result, her desk was now completely covered with work that she hadn’t gotten to. It was past time to delegate more of this.
Just this morning the Greeting Committee had given her the list of people now able to take on real work. She ran down the list looking for potential assistants. It was, unfortunately, a very short list—only twelve people. Many of the new arrivals were still too weak from starvation and exhaustion to handle much more than simple sit-down work and only for about an hour at a time.
Those that were strong enough were willing to take on anything. After spending most of their days searching for food, doing a job had some novelty to it. She hoped that they would settle in and be willing to work as hard as the rest of her people. She looked at their skills and assigned all but three of them to her new department heads. The rest she kept for herself.
The newcomers were all waiting in the cafeteria clustered in one corner. They were a diverse bunch, but universally nervous. Tilly had written out slips for the nine that she was sending elsewhere.
“Good afternoon,” she greeted them cheerfully. The response wasn’t quite as enthusiastic. She handed out the slips and sent the others on their way. “You three come with me.”
The two women and one man followed her brusque departure in a scurry. She led them back to her disaster of an office.
“I’m putting you each in charge of a different section. I need someone to track resources in, resources out and planning.” She gave them a stern look to underscore the seriousness of the positions.
“Do you have any kind of database?”