by Kelli Kimble
I poked my head outside and looked around. I stepped out of the tent and didn’t see anything, but Bo dashed around me and planted his paws right before the fire. Was it another pack of dogs?
Something emerged from the woods across from the fire pit. It was tall, walking on two legs, and . . . human?
“Hello?” I called out.
The man started, and his eyes met mine. He walked toward me but didn’t say anything. Bo began barking in earnest, his fur bristling all over his back. The man turned his attention to Bo and tipped his head slightly. Bo sat on his haunches and whined.
“What’s going on?” asked Tennie, her voice groggy.
Leif didn’t wait for an answer. He came out of the tent to stand beside me. “What the hell? Who is this?” he asked, gesturing towards the man.
“I don’t know,” I said.
The man turned his attention back to us and moved towards us, his empty hands raised slightly in the air.
“Who are you?” demanded Leif.
The man smiled; his face was serene. He blinked several times in rapid succession. Behind him, three more people were coming out of the woods. They were strangely dressed, draped in wild-colored fabrics that looked stretchy and thin. None of them spoke. They walked towards us with their hands raised and faint smiles on their faces.
Tennie came out of the tent and started screaming. Bo sprang to her side and resumed growling at the newcomers, while I shushed her as best as I could. “Where did they come from? What do they want?” she finally sputtered out.
The leader looked back at the others. He didn’t speak, but the woman bowed her head, as if she was agreeing with him. They retreated from us and sat down so that the fire was between us and them. The leader dipped his head slightly and indicated the other side of the fire.
“You want us to sit down?” I asked.
He smiled wider and nodded.
I stepped forward and sat across from him. Tennie and Leif hung back. The man nodded again and pointed to me.
“That’s what he wants, for us to sit,” I said. I patted the ground beside me. “Come on.”
“Do you speak English?” Leif asked them.
He tipped his head slightly to the side and looked upwards. Then, he nodded.
“Are you going to hurt us?” Leif asked.
The man frowned and shook his head.
Slowly, the two of them came to sit beside me. Bo took up residence in front of us, his fur dangerously close to the embers of last night’s fire.
“Can you talk?” I asked.
The leader squinted at me, and his face took on a look of intense concentration. Then, he shook his head.
“Where are you from?” Tennie asked. “Are you from the mountain?”
He pointed south, away from the direction we’d come from.
“You’re from that way?” I said.
He nodded. This was getting tedious.
“Can you read and write? English?” I said.
He nodded.
“Tennie, go get the tablet,” I said.
She dug around in the tent and gave me the tablet. I wrote on it, We’re from the mountain. Cache Peak, Idaho. Where are you from? Then, I handed him the tablet. “Just use your finger to write the letters,” I said.
He nodded and widened his eyes. He moved his fingers over the tablet and handed it back. From Salt Lake City. We speak internally. You can’t hear us?
I shook my head and handed it back. “Your people, they’re from before the winter?” I asked.
He nodded. He wrote, Only city to survive.
“Wow,” I said. “A whole city?” A flicker of excitement was growing in my stomach. This was someone who could prove that history was real.
The man nodded.
“Can we see it?”
His posture shrunk slightly. Maybe, he wrote. But, not now.
“Why not?” I asked.
We’re waiting, he wrote. Someone who can talk is coming.
The three of us exchanged glances. “Why are you here?” I asked.
Smoke. From your fire. We came to check for wildfires, he wrote.
“What are your names?” Tennie asked. “I’m Tennessee, but please, call me ‘Tennie’. This is Leif and Silver.” She pointed at us, then turned to the leader expectantly.
He nodded and raised a hand; I supposed, in greeting. Then, he turned to the tablet and wrote four names, indicating each of them in turn. His name was Becket. The others were Ronan, Orson, and Paisley.
“We have a sister named Paisley,” Tennie said, as she smiled at the woman. The woman wrinkled her brow.
There are more of you? wrote Becket.
“Yes. We left all our siblings and our mother behind,” I answered. “They didn’t want to leave our home. But, we’re in search of evidence to confirm what we know about history before the winter.” I started to get excited, and I leaned forward to say more. But, Becket leaned back from me—even though the dog and the smoldering fire was between us. “I apologize,” I said, checking myself. “Have I said something to offend you?”
Becket pursed his lips. No, he wrote. We don’t like to speak of the time before.
“Well, you don’t really speak at all, do you?” I laughed and nudged Tennie. But, Becket’s face remained smooth. “Sorry. That was a joke.”
“Why can’t you talk?” Leif asked.
“The implants make it unnecessary, so we never learned,” Becket wrote.
“So, you could, if you learned,” Leif said. “We could help you with that. We only learned to talk ourselves recently.”
Becket didn’t respond. He wrote on the tablet, We’re waiting for Tabitha. She can talk. She can also hear us. She will interpret.
There was a ruckus in the trees behind the telepaths. “All right, I can do it myself. You don’t have to bully me,” a female voice said. A woman dressed the same as the others crashed through the underbrush, apparently pushed along by the incredibly large man behind her. She brushed leaves and dirt from her garment. “Becket. What do you want?” she demanded, and then she looked up and saw everyone around the fire. “Who are they?”
Becket didn’t turn to look at her. He maintained eye contact with me, but from her response, he must have been speaking to her.
“You dragged me out here for this?” She released a long sigh. I stood up and went around the fire to her. Her hair was short and very red. Freckles were sprinkled over her nose, and her eyes were a green the shade of our nutrient drinks. She was beautiful.
“Hello,” I said. I extended a hand to her. She put her hand in mine after glancing at Becket. “I’m Silver. These are my siblings, Leif and Tennie. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Hi,” she said. “Becket wants me to interpret for him. He, uh, doesn’t trust you.” Her face screwed up. “Well, if you don’t want me to say things that you’re telling me, you have to say so,” she said, throwing a glare over her shoulder at Becket.
“I don’t trust Becket, either, so we’re even. Right?” I asked.
She smiled, and my heart skipped a beat. Her front tooth had the cutest chip in the corner. “He says you’re from a mountain. Nearby?”
“No, we’ve come 100, maybe even 150 miles,” I said. “We’re searching for a pre-winter city. Denver. Have you heard of it?”
“Denver was lost. Every city was lost. All but ours,” she said. “I don’t think I understand exactly where you came from. Nobody survived. The only reason our city did was because of the temperature inversion.”
“Temperature inversion?”
“It’s a weather phenomenon. It causes warm air to be trapped by the ground, despite the cold weather. Look, I’m trying here, Becket. Can you stop talking while we’re talking? I can’t hear myself think.” She cast an annoyed glance at Becket.
“Our ancestors survived by building a colony inside a mountain. When the winter began, they were underground,” said Leif. “They thought that everyone else perished. They lost communication with
everyone.”
“Your family. Are they coming, too?” Tabitha asked.
“No. They don’t want to leave our home,” I said. A tendril of suspicion began to uncurl in my stomach.
“Great. Okay. Well, then, if you’ll just follow us, we’ll head back to the city now,” she said.
“Oh,” I said. I glanced at the others. “Should we leave our things here, then?”
She shrugged. “Yeah. That’s fine.”
I was excited to see where she wanted to take us. But, their change in direction seemed abrupt. “Wait, are we safe with you? I mean, you aren’t going to hurt us, right?”
“No,” she said. “Though, we might chain you up and make you serve us fruit and cheese.”
My eyeballs felt like they were goggling out of my head. “I beg your pardon?”
She laughed and slapped me on the back. “Just kidding. Nobody is going to hurt you or do anything weird to you. We’re perfectly hospitable. Becket said you wanted to see it. So, let’s go.”
The others had risen and were already disappearing into the trees. “You guys okay with going there?” I asked.
“I guess,” Leif said.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” asked Tennie.
Tabitha laughed again—only this time, it was sharp. “They’re asking about you,” she said.
“You can hear them, even when you can’t see them?” I asked. I started walking along beside her, almost not even realizing I was consenting to follow her. Almost.
“I can hear anyone who addresses me, no matter where they are in the city,” she said. “But, they can’t hear me. That’s why I speak.” She smiled.
“Why can’t they hear you?” Tennie asked.
“I have a brain tumor,” she said. “It impinges on the part of the brain that’s required for the implant to broadcast my thoughts.”
“I’m sorry,” Tennie said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
“It’s okay,” Tabitha said. “It’s benign.”
“How far to the city?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
“It’s really just right over this hill,” she said. “You would’ve stumbled upon it yourselves if you’d walked another mile.”
Over the peak of the hill, I caught sight of strange shapes protruding into the sky. “What’s that?” I asked, gesturing towards them.
“Buildings,” she said.
“Skyscrapers?” I asked. A rush of excitement chased away the worry about going to a strange place with a stranger.
“Nah. We tore most of those down. Too much specialized maintenance required. Most of the buildings are less than four floors high. But, that sharp point—that’s the steeple of a church, and that one that’s round? It looks a bit like an onion bulb? It’s a water tower. The others are just regular buildings. Where people live and work and stuff.”
I forced myself to continue walking up the hill. I wasn’t going to be the person who couldn’t keep control of their emotions. Not today. I finally crested the hill, and the city came into full view. It was enormous, and the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. There was a large, wooden fence surrounding the city. We could see over it from our vantage point. Nearest to us, there were box-shaped houses with peaked roofs, and squat, flat buildings. Sprinkled here and there were a few taller, flat buildings. The largest buildings were clustered towards what looked like the middle of the city.
“What’s the fence for?” Leif asked.
“Keeps out the bigger wildlife,” Tabitha said. “We don’t want bears or even deer wandering around. They ruin gardens, and I’m sure you know the bears are dangerous.”
“Bears?” Tennie said.
“Oh, sure. There’s lots of bears around. Some panthers and mountain lions, too. You haven’t seen any?”
Tennie shook her head, her face somewhat pale.
“No need to worry about them inside the city,” Tabitha said. “They’re mostly afraid of humans, anyway.” She pointed slightly off to our left. “There’s a gate in the wall over there.” We headed towards the gate. Ahead of us, the three telepaths were just arriving at the wall, and I watched as the gate rolled open and let them pass. Becket gestured behind him, probably to tell them to wait for us, then he and the others disappeared beyond the fence.
The gate swung open as we approached, and two men came over to us. “Hey, Tabitha,” one of them said. His eyes raked over Tabitha’s trim figure. “These the visitors?”
Tabitha looked away from him, a bored expression on her face. “Yeah—Silver, Leif, Tennie. They’re from Idaho.”
“It wasn’t easy to get these on short notice, you know,” he said to Tabitha. “You owe me a favor.”
The other man held his hand out to me, as if to shake mine. I extended mine, and he grabbed it, but then turned my hand over and stamped his other fist onto the back of my hand. It felt like he’d stabbed me with a needle. “Hey,” I said, as I pulled my hand away. “What was that?”
“Nothing you need to worry about,” said the man flirting with Tabitha.
At the same time, Tabitha responded, “It’s a tracker.”
“I didn’t consent to that,” I said.
Tabitha shrugged. “It’s no big deal. They just want to know where you are while you’re in the city.”
“So, this won’t work when I leave?” I asked.
“Why would you leave.” She said it without the lilt of a question.
The man turned to Leif and held out his hand. “I don’t know if I want to come in,” Leif said.
“Suit yourself,” said Tabitha. He looked at Tennie. She raised her eyebrows at me.
“I’m not missing this,” I said. “I understand if you want to go home.”
“We can’t let you go home,” the flirt said. “Our orders were to bring you in with a tracker. There’s no alternative course of action.”
Leif locked eyes with the flirt. Then, his eyes slid over to mine.
“Let him give you the tracker,” I said.
Leif and Tennie each allowed the tracker to be installed.
“You’re expected at Preia’s,” the flirt said to Tabitha. He raised an eyebrow. “Maybe they’ll finally leave you alone if you cooperate.”
Tabitha sighed. “Whether they do or don’t is nothing to you,” she said. “Follow me,” she said to the three of us.
The flirt was already rolling the gate shut as he laughed to himself. The other man openly stared at us. “They don’t look any different,” he said to the flirt as we moved away.
“Why should they?” asked the flirt. Then, we were too far away to hear any more.
We continued into the city, our path paved with a smooth, black surface. The buildings we passed looked to be homes. Here and there, people were sitting on their porch or tending to the gardens planted around the buildings. Tabitha waved at many of them.
“How many people live here?” asked Tennie.
“Around 50,000,” Tabitha said.
“You seem to know a lot of people,” said Leif.
“I grew up around the corner.”
“Can you tell us something about what we’re passing, or the city?” I asked. “I’m really curious to know how you’ve been out here all this time.”
Tabitha shrugged. “These are mostly single-family houses. When we get closer to the center of the city, the residences are clustered together in one building. But, these houses have as few as one person, or as many as 10 people. They’ve all been here since the beginning—”
Leif interrupted. “These buildings look to be built from organic materials. How did they survive?”
“People here take proper care. These buildings are all original in the sense that they’ve been here since before your winter. With proper maintenance, anything can last indefinitely.”
We reached a spot where two black paths crossed, and Tabitha turned left, off our current path. “Up over here, there’s a business district. Everyone comes here for trade. We don’t use money anymore.” Sh
e looked at me. “Do you?”
“No,” I said. “We don’t have a need for it.”
She nodded. “Neither do we. But, you can trade for just about anything. Food, clothes, maintenance materials.” She looked pointedly at Leif. “Just about anything you can think of, really.”
The business district was coming into view, and it looked much the same as the residential area, except the buildings were situated closer together, and many of them were fronted with glass windows.
“Can we go and look?” Tennie asked, craning her neck to see.
“We don’t have time, and anyway, what do you three have to trade besides a dog?”
Tennie frowned in disappointment but didn’t argue. We continued on. Someone whizzed by on a two-wheeled device.
“Was that a bicycle?” I asked, staring at it openly.
“Yes. A lot of people use them to get around. I can’t ride one, though.” She tapped a finger to her head. “The tumor also hurt my sense of balance some.”
I tore my eyes away, feeling guilty. I hadn’t meant to point out her shortcomings.
“Let me tell you a bit about the mayor,” she said. “She’s in charge of the city; she makes all the decisions on infrastructure, public maintenance, crime . . . you know, government stuff. She’s very reasonable.” She glanced around before continuing, waiting until nobody was near us to resume speaking. “But, don’t provoke her. She can be unpleasant when provoked. The basic protocol here is you use your manners. You know, say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and smile. It should all be over pretty quickly. She’s busy, and I don’t know why she even cares to meet you.”
“What’s her name?” I asked.
“Preia. But, don’t call her that. You don’t need to address her at all; just wait until she speaks to you.”
“She can speak?” Leif asked. “I thought only you could do that.”
“Preia is unusual. There is a faction of people who prefer to be verbal. Mostly politicians. They think it makes them seem sincere.”
“What do you think?” I asked.
Tabitha pulled a face, then pointed to a building up ahead. The road led straight up to it. It was larger than those surrounding it and painted white. It featured a domed roof over the center and columns across the front. Stone steps, worn into a dip at the center, led up to a door with a series of small, glass panes in it.
