Rescue Mission

by Linda Jordan

  She’d go help with the runway and then return to the woods outside the fence. Pick up her bag of herbs she’d been collecting. Then get some food and call it a day.

  Before she went out the door, Evangeline turned. Near Roosevelt’s bed stood a tall black man in a red and black pin-striped suit. A red tie. His long shimmery braid reached mid-chest. His skin darker than Roosevelt’s. The man had a cigar in his mouth, but no smoke came out. His eyes met hers and he held up a hand. In his fingers were green leaves. She couldn’t tell what they were from this distance. The expression on the man’s face was grim. Sad.

  It took her a full minute to realize it was Kalfu. There were rumors that Roosevelt followed him. Making use of Kalfu’s dark magic. Evangeline hadn’t really believed it. But there he stood, no mistaking it. Kalfu and Morrigu. Dark aspects both.

  When she looked back, Kalfu was gone. Evangeline shivered and went out the door into the blinding sunlight.

  There were seven of Morrigu’s men at the runway, including Damon. Moving big chunks of asphalt by hand. The single tractor in sight was a mangled piece of metal.

  Evangeline helped as best she could. She was strong at least. Although she was the first to flag. After they’d cleared a few meters, Damon handed her a metal rake.

  “This needs to be raked fairly level.”

  She went to work. Smoothing the bare soil where the broken asphalt was removed. By the time they’d finished what Damon deemed a long enough strip, a plane was buzzing overhead.

  Evangeline had a moment of panic at the thought of another attack. Then it passed. This plane was much clunkier looking than Collins’ planes had been. It was a cargo plane.

  “Outta the way everybody!” yelled Damon.

  He waved his arms in a sweeping “here you are gesture” and backed away from the runway.

  The plane landed, bumpily, and came to a stop at the very end of the area they’d cleared.

  The pilot opened his door and asked, “What the hell happened here? There’s no radio. No runway.” He was a young, red-headed man. Pale and anxious.

  “We got attacked. C’mon. We’ve got to get your plane off the runway. We still have another one coming in today.”

  The pilot went back inside the small plane and pulled out a metal tool. He hooked one end to the front wheels of the plane and took the handle. It had a battery pack and he turned it on, pushing the plane off the cleared runway towards the warehouses. About twelve meters. Giving another plane enough space to land.

  Damon handed the rake to one of the men, who raked down the runway again. Flattening it where the plane had dug up some dirt.

  The other men helped unload the plane. It wasn’t carrying much. Just a couple of paintings.

  “We’ve got to get that warehouse cleared,” said Damon. “Everything moved out, so we can move the plane in there. If Collins does another flyover, let him think he destroyed all our planes.”

  The pilot nodded and said, “Helluva thing. Looks bad from the air.”

  “It is bad,” said Damon.

  The pilot went back and got his gear out of the plane, closing the doors and patting his plane, before heading off towards the warehouse.

  “Are you done with me?” asked Evangeline.

  “Yeah. I’ll get some of the other workers to move the warehouse contents. You got things to do?”

  “I need to go back outside the fence. Get the herbs I collected. I left them when all this blew up.”

  “Take someone with you,” said Damon.

  “What? Why? You think I can’t defend myself?”

  “No. We just need people to keep an eye on each other. There’s less chance of anyone sneaking up on two people than one. I’m not sure Collins won’t follow up with a ground attack. They could be out there in the woods waiting right now.”

  “Waiting for what? We just passed our weakest point. We’ve had time to get the injured to medical. The warehouses have collapsed. Now we’re mopping up.”

  “We’re distracted. Not expecting another attack. Take someone with you. Someone with a functioning wristband. And don’t go out of range.”

  She saw his point, but didn’t like his tone.

  “All right. I’ll go get one of Roosevelt’s guards who’s off duty. That okay?”

  “Perfect.”

  “You know Morrigu asked me to work for her.”

  “Doesn’t surprise me. She fired Santoni. He was worthless. She needs a sorcerer.”

  “If I decide to work for her, and that’s a big if, I won’t take orders from you. Not with that tone. I don’t take shit from anyone.” Not like she used to.

  “I’m sorry. It’s been a bad day. I’m not at my best,” said Damon. “I should have foreseen this. We shouldn’t have done two flyovers. One was risky enough.”

  “Roosevelt was the one who demanded two, wasn’t he?” she asked.

  “Yes. I should have said no.”

  “Not your call,” said Evangeline. “Let it go. Nothing to do about it now.”

  “You’re right,” Damon said.

  “I’m always right,” she said.

  Then walked towards Roosevelt’s home warehouse. Hopefully, one of the guards would be there. Damon was right. The woods could be filled with Collins’ people by now.

  10

  Cady

  Cady stood in her doorway, her arms over the crutches, looking at the sky. It was gray. Still filled with smoke and toxic chemicals from yesterday. She’d seen the planes flying away from the Zoo after the huge explosions.

  Bombs, she guessed, although one had never gone off in her lifetime. Not big ones like that. There hadn’t been a mushroom cloud, those were the really bad ones. Or so she’d been told.

  Then Cady had seen the columns of black smoke coming from the direction of the Zoo. The explosions had rocked the village and her little house so hard, she’d almost taken it for a quake.

  What had happened there? She and the other villagers were burning to know. None of them willing to go look, except a couple of young fools. They’d taken off on foot last night at sunset. They should be back by now, but Cady hadn’t seen them yet. Her house was apart from the rest of the village. Surrounded by trees and huge bushes.

  She shifted her weight. The leg was healing, but not fast enough to suit her. She still couldn’t walk without the crutches. It hurt too much. Sharine had told her to give it another week. Not to rush things.

  The dry season was here. She couldn’t water her garden without the help of her neighbors, who took turns coming to help her water. Which irked her. She’d never needed anyone’s help before.

  But it wasn’t even that. It meant that someone was always coming around to check on her. To make sure she was all right. And the people always talked to her. They interrupted her solitude.

  She missed being able to go days without seeing a single person. Of having the only voices she heard being those of the birds, frogs and the wind. Of being able to see deities traveling through the woods.

  Now there was too much clutter in her mind. Other people’s voices. Telling her about this one’s troubles with their children, or another one’s problems with a lover. Or those two’s argument about the way to cook a piece of meat.

  They meant well, the villagers’ did, but they tired her. All of them chattering away so much. And she was so grateful for the help with her garden and the food they brought. But, since she’d left the Zoo and come here, solitude had allowed her to heal. To hear the small voice inside herself and follow its lead. Which had brought her to finding peace. She rather liked it.

  Sharine walked into the clearing in front of Cady’s house.

  “You’re up and about. Good. How’s your leg doing?”

  “About as well as can be expected. Healing. Slowly.”

  “Well, our bodies heal slower as we age.”

  “Frustrating.”

  “Yes. Mateo and Will are back. They’re about ready to tell everyone what they found. I thought you might like t
o hear.”

  Damn. Cady was curious.

  “All right, I’ll come.”

  Cady left the doorway of her house, slowly going down the one concrete step to the ground. Didn’t want to fall and have another injury. She hobbled along with Sharine back to the center of the village. Even though Sharine walked slowly, Cady was breathing hard when she got to the meeting place. Using crutches was hard work. At least they’d get her in better shape. Her arm muscles were gaining strength by the day.

  Gia saw her coming and got up from a wooden chair someone had brought out and motioned for Cady to sit. She did, not feeling guilty at all.

  Joe, Cady’s closest neighbor came running up, out of breath.

  “Sorry, one of the baby goats was tangled up in wire from the chicken pen and I had to get it loose.”

  Mateo walked to the center and began talking. “Okay. Everyone’s here. So Will and I left late last night. Walked to the Zoo. Didn’t run into any problems. The Zoo was mostly lit up. Huge overhead lights on large metal poles, like the ones you find in a lot of what used to be the city. Except the ones at the Zoo work. They give off a lot of light, almost as good as broad daylight with that full moon last night. There were a lot of guards out, so we never left the woods. Didn’t want to get shot.’

  “We could see that two huge warehouses had been bombed and collapsed. Smoke still coming from them, although people were trying to pull debris off the heap of wreckage. Off one of the buildings. The other they stayed away from. Every now and then we heard a lot of bullets exploding from that collapsed building. Anyone working close to it ran away. I’m guessing they had a lot of ammunition and weapons stored in that warehouse and some of it’s still catching fire and going off.”

  “Wasn’t anyone trying to put the fires out?” asked Mazzy.

  “They had a couple of hoses running, trying to put them out. But they didn’t seem to be making much progress,” said Will. “The fire was too big.”

  Cady hoped that Damon hadn’t been in one of those warehouses. She quite liked him. He was someone she could have been friends with. Not that she’d ever see him again. He’d never leave the Zoo, not alive at least.

  Mateo said, “We could see clear across to the other side, where the airfield is. The tower was a heap of rubble. And at least eight, maybe more, planes were destroyed. There were piles of concrete over by the runway, like it had been bombed, too. No workable planes in sight.”

  There was mumbling between the villagers.

  “What do you think happened?” asked Beth.

  “They pissed somebody off,” said Will.

  “Are we in danger?” asked Beth.

  Everyone looked at Cady, as if she had the answer.

  Cady said, “If they were attacked, Morrigu will attack back. If their enemy isn’t completely destroyed, there will be war. Morrigu is a war goddess. And Roosevelt follows Kalfu. They won’t be content until they have revenge.”

  “So war might spill over into the surrounding areas,” said Beth.

  “Might,” said Cady.

  “Will,” said Sam.

  Everyone turned to look at him.

  “I’ve seen war come here. Our houses here burning. In our lifetime.”

  “What can we do to prepare?” asked Mazzy.

  Sam shrugged, his face looked haunted.

  “Move,” said Sam.

  “No,” said Joe. “We’ve got fresh, clean water here. Might not find that anywhere else.”

  “He’s got a point,” said Brady. “It’s easier for those of you who don’t work the land to move, than me. I’ve spent ten years creating deep, rich loam to grow food in. Food that feeds at least half this village.”

  “What are our alternatives?” asked Mazzy. “Build defenses?”

  “Walls won’t do much good if we’re attacked from the air,” said Will.

  “Can we dig underground? Make some sort of shelter far below ground?” asked Mazzy.

  “That’s possible,” said Will. “It probably wouldn’t stand up to a quake, so we’d have to keep a close eye on it. But it might save our lives.”

  “I think we should do two things,” said Mazzy. “Brady and Joaquin and anyone else interested should scout out a new home for us. One with plenty of fresh water and good soil. Will and Ryan, start exploring some high ground. A place where we might dig a shelter that won’t flood. How does that sound to everyone? We think about this first before we act. For at least a week. Make a smart decision.”

  The entire village agreed. That didn’t happen often.

  For the next week the village was a noisy place. People came to visit her every day. Speculating on whether they’d move or dig in. Brady had been sent northeast with two other men and Joaquin had gone northwest with Sam and Gia, who both thought that was a more likely direction to find water and perhaps empty land.

  Will and Ryan were searching for ground high enough to dig down and build a shelter. The water level got pretty high in the village during the winter.

  They couldn’t move until Brady’s crops came in, that was for sure. If Sam had said they should move, Cady was all for that. She’d be sad to leave her lovely home, but if he’d seen it in his visions, then he’d seen it.

  People were already beginning to build carts for their chickens and necessary belongings. Moving an entire village miles away wouldn’t be easy. Not without roads.

  She looked at her books, patting each one. She might take one or two of the small ones. That would be it.

  She couldn’t decide about Monster. He’d become even more friendly now that she was sitting so much. He’d even jumped up and sat in her lap a few times. She should bring him along. Maybe she could get someone to build a cage for him. He’d hate her for that, though. Would it be better to just leave him to fend for himself?

  She didn’t have an answer.

  Five days later, Will and Ryan gave up. They couldn’t find high enough ground to build a shelter except for miles away. Too far away to make it usable.

  Six days later, Brady and the other two men returned. They had found one small stream, but the plants all along it were withered and weak as if they were slowly being poisoned. The soil nearby was poor. It was covered mostly with asphalt and decaying or collapsed buildings. They met quite a few scattered groups of people, none of them friendly.

  Things weren’t looking good.

  Joaquin, Sam and Gia returned after a week. They had found two lakes. One was surrounded by a fairly large village. The village was prosperous and friendly, but there wasn’t enough usable land to absorb another village. They’d fed Joaquin, Sam and Gia and proudly showed off their own village. Then pointed them in the direction of another, nearby lake, which the three went off to investigate.

  That lake was unoccupied by people. There would be a lot of work to do. All the houses built there were too far gone to use, but the water was clean, the soil good. There was a forest nearby with enough wood to build homes from. And the lake had fish.

  There was no choice to be made, other than to stay or go.

  The village voted to go, unanimously, although everyone had regrets.

  Joaquin, Ryan, Tank, Bao, Will, Brady and Mateo left for the lake. Joaquin to guide them. Ryan, Tank, Will and Mateo to begin building houses. Brady and Bao to ready the soil and plant fall crops.

  Everyone else began packing. They would begin to leave in two weeks, after harvesting. It would take at least a day, perhaps more to move. There were no usable roads and they had to detour around places where the people were unfriendly.

  Cady found an old bike. Joe made boxes, out of wire, to put onto it that would hold her belongings. She couldn’t ride it, not on the trail they’d use, but she could wheel it. She didn’t know how to ride a bicycle anyway. Silly things. Joe added an extra wheel in the back for balance. The bike wouldn’t fall over anymore.

  Cady hoped she could walk by then. She didn’t have much to bring. A few clothes. The blankets on her bed, one of them newly woven, a
gift from Sarah for bringing Sam home. Her box of weapons, although she should put them in a bag. It would be lighter. Herbs she’d harvested from her garden and dried. Plus seeds from some plants and roots of others wrapped in wet cloth. Any food from her garden. That was about it. Very few belongings for fifty years or so. Then again, she’d never been one to collect much.

  She needed to make a decision about Monster.

  That night when he came inside and jumped up on her lap as she sat reading in bed, she petted him and said, “My friend, I’m moving. Going to a new home, along with the rest of the village. You have a choice. You can either come with us, riding in a cage, or stay here alone. You have to make the choice, I can’t do it for you. Won’t do it for you.”

  Monster purred and purred. Then curled up on the bed and stayed the whole night. And every night afterwards.

  “So be it.”

  Cady mentioned it to Sharine when she came to collect the crutches.

  “I’ve got just the thing for you to carry him in. It’s made of hard plastic and metal. Made to carry pets in, I think. It’s very old, but it still works. You can drape a cloth over it to give him some shade and make him feel safer. I’ve also got a harness and leash. You might be able to train him to wear that. Maybe. I’ve read of such things.”

  “I’ll try both. See which works better.”

  Despite the sadness of leaving her perfect home, Cady was looking forward to the adventure of a new life. She had grown to quite like the people in her village.

  Cady was bent over, tying a strip of cloth around the stem of an oregano plant to mark it. The scent of the pungent herb rose to her nose. She’d marked most of the plants she wanted to take chunks of. Wouldn’t dig them till the very last minute. Fall was a good time to transplant, but she’d need to water things well in the new village until the rains came. Each year they seemed to come a little later.

  She heard a loud rustling in the big leaf maple overhead. Dead branchlets fell to the ground. She looked up to see a dark shadow which startled her. A large, dark shadow.

  “Now who are you?” she asked, not expecting a reply.