by Wade Adrian
He was accustomed to places with a better variety of tools, but he managed to find two C-clamps that would work. A large one and a small one. A few old screwdrivers and a coffee can of various screws, each of them sure to be a health hazard in its own special way. He lucked out when he found a wooden box with drill bits and a handle. Old school, but he wasn’t likely to find many batteries for the power tools anyway. A hacksaw and a hand saw where the last of what he found.
Unfortunately they weren’t the last of what he needed. There was no means of measuring to be had. No tapes, no yard sticks, not even a ruler.
An old heat gun for drying paint was hanging on the wall, but it wasn’t going to help much without a generator… or an act of god.
“Okay… found this one.” Miles drug a long two by four across the floor. At least eight feet long. “The middle bit seems straight.”
Unfortunate. One cut would have been better than two. “Awesome. Thanks.”
Miles looked over the odd assortment of things. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the game plan here?”
“Building a rig for making bows.”
“Bows? Really?”
Smith nodded. “There a generator around here?”
“Ye…ees?” He tilted his head.
Smith gave him a level look. “You kind of hesitated for a second there.”
“Yeah, sorry. Not sure what I’m supposed to keep wraps on for security reasons and all. No offense.”
“Understood.”
A pair of pliers-multi tool… thing had some inch markings on the handles. Smith tried to use them to measure on the wood, making scratches with the hacksaw then moving the four inch ruler and doing it again.
“Alright, next thing I need, short of a generator, is some… well I’d say aluminum foil, but that’s probably out. Any thin strips of metal will do. Three of them about four feet long and two or three inches wide would be ideal.”
“On it. No promises though, that’s kind of specific.” Miles wandered away again. His voice carried from across the room. “So, what, you are going to use that to bend the pipe and string it up?”
“No. I’m going to use the heat gun, or whatever else I can find, to heat the pipe in a channel we’re going to make from the metal bits you’re looking for. Once it’s malleable, we’re going to use this bit of wood and the table to taper it from the center to the end. Normal round in the middle, flat as can be on the end. We’ll put in screws or bolts to keep one side elevated around the pipe, heat it up, smash it, then put these clamps on to keep is there. Once it cools, we take it out and do it again for the second limb.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“And then once both limbs are done, we heat the last few inches of each again and flatten them perpendicular to the first flattening direction, making siyahs. A siyah is a stiff section at the end of a bow limb that reduces how much of the limb is actually bending. Makes it stronger.”
“Perpendicular. Got it. I heard that in math class once.”
“It’s 90 degrees.”
“If you say so. Found some shiny stuff.”
“Cool.”
Miles carried over a few bits. Some were too short, but Smith set those on the table anyway. He might need to fill a gap or something.
The piece de resistance was a chunk of aluminum. It was too wide and too long, but it had promise. “Give me a hand, would you?”
“All I been doing so far.”
“True, and I appreciate it.”
“Make me a bow, we’ll call it even.”
They lifted the piece of aluminum and placed it on the edge of the bench. Smith shifted the yet uncut board on top of it. “Okay, so… if we bend this one down the center like so, it will do for the channel. No other bits needed.”
“Cool.” Miles tilted his head as he looked down at it. “How do we do that?”
“Yeah, working on that one. If we… no.” Smith tugged on his beard. “Hmm.”
Miles crossed his arms. “Step on the board, and we’ll beat the hell out of the bit hanging over with hammers. It doesn’t need to be pretty, does it?”
“Well, no. But there is noise to consider.”
“Bah. It’s not eight yet. Can’t be.”
Smith glanced around. “We could get another board. Clamp this one down, place the other one on the excess, and try and force it down ourselves.”
Miles rolled his eyes. “Okay, clamp that one down. I have an idea.”
Smith raised an eyebrow, but he moved the clamps. Needed to be done anyway.
Once the board was secure over the metal, Miles nodded at it and prodded the overhanging metal with his foot. “Right, seems like it will hold.”
He stomped his foot against the metal.
Smith drew in a sharp breath… but he let it out a moment later.
The aluminum had bent a bit.
“Huh. Well, okay, I suppose.”
The pair of them alternated kicking down at the metal, forcing it to bend inch by inch. Smith put a block of wood over it before applying pressure. His shoes had some problems kicking sheet metal wasn’t going to help. Miles had a set of steel toed boots. He was fine.
Just when it seemed like this silly notion had worked flawlessly… a final kick from Miles ended with him slipping forward. His knee hit the wooden table and he bit off a curse.
The bent piece of aluminum had broken off and was lying on the floor.
“You okay?” Smith helped Miles get his balance.
The young man sucked in air through his teeth. “Oww. Fuck.” He shook his head. “I’ll be fine. Hurts like a bitch.” He frowned when he noticed the broken metal. “Shit.”
Smith waved dismissively. “Don’t worry about that. Try to take a few steps. See if you can put weight on it.”
“Umm, no?”
“You need to see if you cracked a bone or something. Letting it relax will only make it stiffen up.”
Miles sighed. “Fine.” He winced as he took a few steps, gingerly setting his toes onto the ground. “Fuck.”
He improved as he went. It seemed to get easier, if not much less painful.
Smith picked up the broken piece of metal. It had snapped right along the edge of the table, the bend making it brittle there. Miles was lucky he hadn’t cut himself.
“Sorry, man.” Miles shook his head as he limped back to the bench. “We’ll find another one or something.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s broke.”
Smith chuckled. “Sort of. And I guess I should have seen that coming. Kind of a grain here, though I admit I didn’t think of it. More of a concern with wood.” He removed the clamps and set the two pieces of metal against each other, lifting one side with the board. Together, the two sections made a V shaped channel. “That ought to work.”
“Oh. Cool.”
“Metal can be pretty forgiving to work with.”
“Great. I’m not though.” He sighed as he turned, shifting his foot with tiny steps. “You see a bathroom around here?”
“I do not.”
“Well I need to find one. Thought I could hold it, but now I think it’s going to take me awhile to get to one.” He shook his head. “You just… stay here for a minute, okay? I’ll be back.”
Smith didn’t know if this was a test or something… so he just nodded. “Alright. I’m not going anywhere.”
Miles limped for the door. “Holding you to that.”
“Take the lantern.”
“Ugh. No. Rather chance it than have Cooper give me shit right now.”
Smith shrugged. “It’s your leg.”
“Just… stay put. Do crafty stuff.”
“Got it. Crafting.” He went back to measuring the flattest section of two by four he could get.
Good food or not… he was getting tired. Maybe there was something to people turning in at dark. He’d made a habit of it out in the wild, sure. Stupid to try and travel when you can’t see your feet, but he had never stopped work just bec
ause of the sun when he had walls around him and artificial light.
Then again, he wasn’t as young as he used to be… but just the wrong side of thirty wasn’t exactly old either. Bishop probably had a decade on him. Cooper probably had a year or two, too.
Of course, he probably looked older between all the sun, the traveling, and the beard. Maybe he could use a shave.
A soft sound outside caught his ear. He tilted his head slightly.
Part of their test? He was staying put as instructed, but this could be another test. Willingness to defend the camp, or whatnot.
Or he was just being paranoid and it was Miles stumbling around out there. Or Cooper or Stevens also keeping an eye on him. That wouldn’t be a big surprise.
The sound appeared again. Something heavy scraping… metal rattling a bit…
He set the tools down and wandered toward the open doors.
It sounded a lot like someone was trying to climb the fence.
8
Smith made his way out carefully, taking care to keep his footsteps light. If it was Miles, he didn’t want to embarrass the guy. He’d just confirm it was him and head back inside quietly.
It was hard to see in the dark, but from the long light hair it clearly wasn’t Miles. And from the silhouette he could see, it wasn’t any man.
The woman had been quiet about moving the boards, but trying to find a way over the fence was proving difficult.
Idiot. There was nothing out there. Certainly nothing worth leaving here to find.
Smith wandered over, still trying to keep his feet quiet. He’d had a year to practice. He’d gotten pretty good at it.
The young woman could get a good grip with her hands, but couldn’t seem to manage getting the toes of her shoes into the chain link with any stability.
Lucky, really. Even if she could make it to the top there was razor wire to consider. He didn’t see her carrying any tools to remove it.
The fence rattled as she fell and landed on her butt in the dirt.
“Hey.” Smith waved.
Her eyes jerked to him. She didn’t move a muscle.
Hard to tell in the dark, but it looked like the lady that had brought them lunch. She was dressed the same, too, aside from having thrown a coat on. The absolute minimum of preparations for heading out. No bag, no food, no water… it looked like this was a whim.
“I’m sure this isn’t what it looks like, but believe me when I say there is no reason to go out there.”
Her eyes shifted a bit as she slid her feet across the dirt, getting them under her. Smith offered a hand to help her up but she ignored him.
Once she was standing again she swept her eyes past him and around in the dark. With a final glance at him, she stepped back up to the fence.
“You can’t be serious. That’s razor wire. They don’t call it that for any cute reasons, either. It cuts things. That’s all it does. And it’s been up there for awhile, given the rust. So not only cuts, but a solid chance of infections.”
She glared at him over her shoulder.
He shrugged. She was trying to be sneaky. He wasn’t, not anymore. He had no reason to be quiet. “Do you think I would be in here if there was any reason to be out there?”
She didn’t respond. She was busy trying to get the toe of her left shoe to find sturdy purchase in the fence.
Unfortunately he was pretty sure it wasn’t her making the scratching noise beyond the fence.
His mind screamed for him to run, to climb… but he just shook his head. “Miss, come on down. You really don’t want to be out there. Especially not right now.”
She held back a hand and flipped him off.
The scratching got closer. Something was moving in the underbrush outside.
“Okay, jokes over.” He grabbed her arm and yanked.
She fell onto the ground again, but she was done with his antics. She had a knife in hand before she was back on her feet.
Smith held up empty hands. “That seems a little extreme. Believe it or not, I’m helping you.” His feet practically itched from his mind telling him to run, but he knew the fence was deterrent enough for now. He pointed at the place she had been trying to climb, the exposed chain link where she had moved the boards aside.
She cut her eyes that way.
Green orbs were shining back at them.
The young woman jumped back a step and moved behind Smith, holding her knife out in front of him.
“Calm down.” He meant it as much for himself as for her. “It can’t get in.” Again, trying to convince himself. If she believed it, so much the better.
The green eyes beyond regarded them for a few moments. The fence shook as claws emerged through the links, but slipped back out a moment later. An irritated guttural sound bubbled up. It didn’t sound like any cat or dog he had ever encountered. It was something else.
She jumped when the fence shook, and the sudden movement startled Smith in turn. The girl waved her knife at the fence.
“It’s alright.” Smith’s hand was on the handle of his own knife. Calm was a great goal. Reality was something else.
The green orbs moved away, disappearing back into the dark.
Smith let out a breath.
The young woman leaned out around him, her knife still extended. She took a step toward the fence, looking back and forth for the thing.
She wouldn’t find it. Not in the dark, and he had never run across one in daylight.
Her eyes widened as she looked back at him and pointed at the fence. When he didn’t respond fast enough she pointed that way repeatedly. Really no reason to still be quiet. But good on her for not screaming. The first time he had seen one… he’d screamed.
He shrugged. “You’re not crazy. I saw it, but I don’t know what it was. Never had a good look at one, although…” He tugged at the neck of his shirt, down and to the left.
The scars were still tender and the whole shoulder was sore after the work he had done today. The marks were deep and stretched down toward his heart. He’d been lucky that night.
She was the first one he had shown the marks to, but seeing them might help her to understand the danger.
Her expression melted to neutral as she held out her free hand to touch the deep furrows.
He almost winced. They didn’t hurt… much. That wasn’t it. Her fingers were cold.
She looked up at his eyes, then back to the marks.
“I know what I’m talking about here.” He lifted his chin. “Lets get this board back where it belongs. Don’t need them looking for dinner in here.”
She nodded and put her knife away as she wandered to the far end of the plywood sheet… the part that wasn’t next to the opening.
Typical.
He grabbed his end and moved the plywood sheet at least a foot and a half from the fence itself before they set it into place. She had pried off some cross beams. The nails in them were too short. Probably all they had on hand at the time. He’d have to remember to walk the fence and look for problems, but that would probably have to wait. If he suggested it tomorrow they’d be suspicious and think he was looking for weak points to break out or let others in.
Miles found them about the time all the work was done. “What’s going on out here?” The lantern he held swayed as he limped.
Smith had gotten the cross bracing boards back in place using the butt of his knife. The wood was really only there to block the view, so it would do until he could get some better nails. The light Miles had brought showed it was about as good as it was going to get tonight.
“Uhh…” He stood up and dusted off his knees. “Well, this young lady heard something outside messing with the fence. It managed to push this board a bit, and she came to the shop to ask me to help fix it. We had a light on, after all. Closest one.”
Miles narrowed his eyes. “She asked you for help?”
“Yes? Got all sort of tools and stuff. Made sense.”
The girl stood beside Smith, her ar
ms crossed. She nodded.
“Yeah, that makes sense. I just don’t think she asked.”
Smith shrugged. “Uh… why?”
“Because she doesn’t talk.”
Well, that kind of made sense. She hadn’t said a word earlier in the day, and she hadn’t said a word since he showed up tonight, either. Huh.
“I didn’t mean ask like that, obviously.” Smith shook his head. “Poor choice of words.”
She nodded and grabbed Smith’s arm, then pulled on it a bit.
“Yeah. Like that. She lead me out here.”
Miles seemed to be satisfied by that. He lifted the lantern to get a better look at the fence. “And these boards are loose?”
“They already were.” Smith jumped at the opportunity to change the subject. “The nails are too short to be of much use. I put them back, but even with a proper hammer it won’t change much.”
Miles shrugged. “Yeah, lot of that going around. Alright, come on. If anyone asks, I helped you with this.”
Smith glanced aside at the girl, who nodded. He nodded to Miles in turn. “Well of course you did. I couldn’t move it on my own. How’s the knee?”
“Fucked up.” Miles started limping back toward the little town. “I’m pulling rank and calling it a night on your project.”
“Fair enough.” Smith glanced aside at the young woman. She looked a bit worried. He mimed zipping his lips and turning a lock. She seemed to relax a bit and followed Miles. With any luck she would at least reconsider heading outside, given what she had seen. She might not even leave the gates in broad daylight.
Smith was the last one in line. He cast a few glances back at the fence. They really were going to need work if this place was going to be safe. Mindless beasts weren’t the real problem, though. They didn’t carry bolt cutters. Maybe a moat…
A tug on his arm shook him out of his thoughts. They were waiting on him. He shrugged. “Sorry. Making a note of projects.”
“Take a damn break, man. Glad I already have a job, I wouldn’t want to be at your beck and call on a regular basis.”
