Wilders

by Brenda Cooper

  “Did you see that?”

  “Yes.” Blessing’s smile had gone grim as he pushed off, struggling for two pedal strokes in order to get started on the uphill slope. They took the exit they’d planned, spiraling down off the elevated roadway in a tight vertical donut with mesh walls. The chaos felt visceral. People blocked the bike paths with dogs and children and companion-bots. A teenager grabbed for Coryn’s bike, and she kicked him away. After that they went a little faster, even though it felt unsafe.

  “Do you know where you’re going?” she asked him after it looked like they had made the same turn twice.

  “Sort of. South.”

  She sighed. “Follow me, then.”

  He laughed and they ended up side by side for about a mile, heading generally south, on a street that must have been almost empty when the grid went down.

  They found the Squak Mountain parking lot halfway full of stuck cars and confused and angry people and far calmer robots. They stayed off the lot itself, walking the bikes, sometimes lifting them over rocks or long-downed trees. She let Aspen out to walk close to them, since that seemed better than spilling him out of her pannier.

  “Why don’t we leave the bikes?” she asked.

  “We will. Look for a hidden place.”

  The forest was pretty thick. Maybe they could put the bikes into trees. “You don’t think it’s a glitch, do you?”

  Her wristlet lit up again. Threat: Water is next.

  “That answers my question.” She tapped it, again a reflex, and again the message disappeared. She glanced at Blessing to make sure he had seen it. His face had lost all of its ease and invisible laughter. “How are we supposed to find Pablo?” she asked. “Ask anyone we see in the woods?”

  “We were supposed to have a day or two to find him. I think we’d better be faster than that.”

  Her wristlet again. 6 Hours. You’d think Julianna could overhear them. “That’s no time at all. Maybe we should just lock the bikes to a tree.”

  “And then what?” Blessing seemed to be trying to see in all directions at once. “Wander around with Aspen and hope Pablo sees him?”

  Neither of them were usually this snappy. She reached out and touched his hand. “It’s a good day.”

  His return smile looked relieved. “All right, let’s put the bikes up. I’m tall.”

  They found a place where he could balance on a rock and she handed him the bikes, which he hung on a cut limb high enough inside of a cedar tree that they probably couldn’t be seen unless you were almost under them, looking up. They took their drinking water and a cup for Aspen, a few snacks, and some dog treats. She marked the bikes’ location on her wrist map.

  “This could fail completely,” she said.

  He took her hand. “I know. And we can’t separate, especially not with systems going down. So keep my hand.”

  She blushed. “You’re silly.” But she didn’t take her hand out of his. This was becoming a habit. Holding Blessing’s hand. “What do we do now? Walk around and call Pablo?” She called out as if for a dog. “P—ablo!”

  Blessing grinned. “Let’s take some of the main trails and see what we can learn.”

  They stayed above the parking lot. Looking down into it, she spotted at least ten parked vehicles, including an RV and a converted school bus that looked like it hadn’t gone anywhere in a while. The other cars were the more standard all-wheel-drive squares that could start off in any direction.

  The crowd in the lot had grown to more than thirty, people and robots.

  Last fall’s dried leaves crunched under their feet. Cedars, alders, and vine maple crowded them. They startled two rabbits, who hopped quickly under a bush and froze.

  This would be a good spot to hide a small army in. There was public to mingle with, forest to obscure numbers, and bathrooms. The army would probably be on foot, just like when Coryn had first seen them. That matched the intelligence Julianna had passed on.

  The edge of the weather dome was a few miles away. Issaquah couldn’t have more than about a hundred thousand people in it. It wasn’t so small that a few strangers would stand out or so big that a group of people unfamiliar with the city could lose each other. A perfect place. Julianna had shown them drone footage of tents in ravines where camping wasn’t allowed, and had suggested the tents belonged to Pablo and his people.

  Of course, they knew little. Julianna had admitted they were operating on hope and educated guesses about where Pablo might be.

  They didn’t see anyone until they’d been walking about five minutes. They first passed an older woman, slightly bent over, with a small brown dog and an outsized walking stick. They exchanged polite greetings. After they left her behind, Coryn suggested, “We should have warned her that her car won’t start.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe she deserves her last ten minutes of happiness.”

  “Do you think it’s that bad?”

  “Did you want to get hit with that walking stick?”

  “You get funnier the more danger we’re in.”

  “Not always.”

  “Yes, you do. You think this is bad.”

  He stopped and pulled her close to him. “I don’t know. But it could be. Think about it. People are stuck now. Fire and police can’t get around—even if their systems work, the roads are clogged. They probably have rescue robots they can deploy, but still. Any of those people out there who aren’t already hungry will get that way.”

  “I hope Lou is okay.”

  “She’s with Julianna.”

  Aspen barked to get their attention. Three more hikers were coming down the trail toward them, two women and a man. One of the women looked like she might be in her fifties, and the other two didn’t look much older than twenty. The man wore a beard, which wasn’t too common in the city, but their clothes looked like they came from a printer. Coryn looked closely, trying to remember the people she’d seen on the road by the doomed caravan weeks ago. The younger woman did look a little familiar, but maybe that was just because Coryn wished it were so.

  Blessing pasted on his brightest smile. “Hello!”

  The man answered, a cool, “Good day.”

  “We should warn you, the transportation grid is out.”

  Apparently Blessing didn’t think they needed ten more minutes of happiness.

  “Thanks,” the older woman said.

  That didn’t seem like enough of a reaction. Coryn added, “That means if you have a car, it won’t start.”

  “Okay. Can we pass?”

  Blessing held his ground.

  Coryn called Aspen up into her arms.

  Usually, people tried to pet him, but these people just looked serious, and like they didn’t quite know what to do with the couple blocking their path. “We’re looking for someone,” Blessing said.

  “Not any of us.” The man stepped in toward Blessing.

  Blessing stiffened and held his ground, but he didn’t do anything overtly physical. If anything, he just smiled harder as he blocked their way. Should she ask about Pablo?

  Aspen barked again, and Coryn looked where he looked. Three more people, all men. She almost yipped with Aspen as she spotted Pablo on the right. He looked like she remembered, round and brown and jovial. He wore black pants and a black vest over a white shirt, and he walked with purpose, his strides long.

  That had been easy. She reached for Blessing and pulled him over next to her. “That’s him.”

  The first three hikers looked from her to the ones behind them. “Who?” the man asked.

  Pablo stopped in the trail, apparently noticing the small commotion in front of him for the first time. The two men with him stopped also.

  Aspen wriggled in Coryn’s arms. She knelt and let him go. He raced up to Pablo, his tail wagging fast.

  Pablo knelt, opening his arms wide, his face full of joy.

  Aspen leapt into his hands and licked his cheeks.

  Pablo held him close. “Hello baby. Hello. How did you get o
ut here?” He glanced up, meeting Coryn’s gaze. “Where is Lucien? And the others? They’ve gone silent.”

  “It’s a bit of a story.”

  He glanced down toward the parking lot. “Then walk with us. I’m almost out of time.”

  “We know,” Blessing said. He thrust his hand toward Pablo. “I’m Blessing. You remember Coryn. We came here looking for you.”

  Aspen kept assaulting Pablo, wriggling in his arms, his whole body waving like a flag. “Okay, okay.” He was almost giggling. “But I can’t be distracted right now, not much.”

  “I only seem to be able to find the people I need when they’re too busy,” Coryn commented dryly.

  Pablo smiled at her, as friendly as she remembered him being in the caravan. “We are busy. But not too busy to find out about good friends. What happened to Lucien?”

  What should she do? Well, they didn’t have time for tea. “We need help. We’re trying to find the hackers that took down the transportation grid. We think we know at least some of them. And we think they plan to take out the water systems. We think you know that, too. At least that’s the rumor.”

  Only then did she remember that he might be a double agent. She wasn’t a very good spy at all. What if he was helping people destroy the city?

  Pablo looked at her, hesitation clear in his eyes and stance. He glanced up and down his line of people. “Please excuse us for one minute.” He stepped off the trail into the woods, clearly expecting Coryn and Blessing to follow. He stopped a few feet away from the trail near a fallen log. “You have thirty seconds to convince me.”

  Where to start? Coryn swallowed. “We know people who want to protect the city. And the Outside. They’re as mad as you are at the city people who are stealing from the wilding, and at the hackers. We were part of the first wave—the peaceful wave—that went in the gates in Vancouver. At Camas. We think we’re on the same side. You and us. Peaceful.”

  “Who is we?” Pablo looked quite dubious. “It must be more than you two.”

  She stuttered. “I . . . I . . . I can’t say. Not without permission. But they knew enough about you to send us here.”

  She saw that comment meet its mark. Blessing tapped his wristlet, apparently more capable with it than she was. “Here are our last two texts.”

  Pablo stared. She couldn’t see as well—not on the tiny screen—but they had to be the ones about water being next and there being six hours.

  Pablo hesitated, closed his eyes, and his face shifted from disbelief to acceptance. He crossed himself in the manner of a Catholic, opened his eyes, and nodded. “We’re on the same team. Even though I was never a formal Listener, I learned a lot from them in my ministry. I’m fighting to get these people inside the city and to get them a life. To get them accepted. They want the city to work for them, to be part of it. This is not so much to ask, is it?” He stared at them so hard it gave weight to the question.

  Blessing answered him before she could. “All people should have access to the city. But not everyone can have access to Outside.”

  She wouldn’t have said that, but it appeared to have been the right thing to say. “I agree.” He smiled. “We are not trying to destroy the city, but I may know who is. We’re going to meet them.”

  “Why?” Blessing asked. “Are you helping them?”

  Pablo shook his head. “I am trying to find my flock a safe place to live. That means helping the city be sure that evil is rooted out and the good prevails.” He smiled. “Perhaps God will be sure that we are paid with entrance rights.”

  It amused her that he seemed to be a priest, and to be setting a trap for the hackers using lies. She also found it heartening. She hoped he’d hand Aspen back to her, but he hung onto the dog, and Aspen stared adoringly up at Pablo without even bothering to glance at her.

  When they rejoined the group, Pablo said, “They’re with us. Trust them.” He made no introductions but merely started back down the hill. She and Blessing walked behind him and the dog.

  Where did he plan to go with no transportation network?

  Once everyone was walking at a decent clip, he dropped back beside the two of them. “So if you find these hackers, what do you plan to do?”

  “Stop them?” Blessing suggested.

  “Ah.”

  “We’re not alone,” Coryn said.

  Pablo grunted. “That’s good. You are not enough. Perhaps we can help, but that is still not enough.”

  She laughed. “No. You don’t appear to be very well armed.”

  “Sneaking into the dome carries a jail penalty. Sneaking in with a weapon makes your jail time much longer. Besides, I’m a peaceful man. Now, please tell me about Lucien.”

  There was no time to be gentle. “He’s dead. So is everyone who was in the caravan that day except you and me. We made it to Cle Elum, and I left them there. Two days later, I found them dead farther east along I-90. Someone smashed Lucien’s face. I didn’t see Liselle, but Paula did, my robot. She saw Liselle’s body, and I saw someone wearing her shoes a few days after that.” Her voice shook, but not quite as badly as it had when she told Julianna. Maybe the more often she told the story, the easier it would get. “The caravan was all on its side, and it had been looted. That’s where I found Aspen. Wandering outside of the caravan.”

  Pablo looked immensely sad, but not surprised. “I suspected they were gone after I stopped hearing from them. What about the others?”

  “Others?”

  “Almost all of the Listeners went quiet. There were a lot of them out there.”

  “I heard that almost all of them were killed. I didn’t see any more, though. I didn’t ever meet any except the ones I met when I met you, and some around a campfire in Cle Elum.”

  Pablo ruffled Aspen’s fur. “Thanks for taking care of the little guy.” He hesitated, meeting her eyes directly. “Did they die fast? Were they tortured?”

  “It looked fast. For Lucien, anyway.” She swallowed. “I know who killed them. Lucien and Liselle at least. They couldn’t have killed all of the Listeners. I’m certain it was a hacker group run by a man named Bartholomew. He was after the plans and things they had in the trailers.”

  Pablo raised an eyebrow. “Bartholomew? Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “How did you know they had plans in the trailers?”

  “I looked. While these people were surrounding the caravan. You were out with them and everyone left me alone. I was curious. I took pictures.” She wished the data was still on her wristlet. She could show him.

  “She’s telling the truth,” Blessing said.

  Three more people jogged up behind them, then a few more. Was the whole silent army here?

  “Bartholomew works for money. I may know who he is working for.”

  “I thought he worked for Lou!” She realized Pablo may not know Lou. “For the NGOs. He helped hack the robots.”

  “The NGOs have enemies. Sometimes they pay better.”

  “Who?” Blessing asked.

  “Returners. A whole nest of them. Worse, Returners with money and ties to the city. That story will have to wait.”

  They were close enough to the parking lot to hear the babble of frustrated conversation.

  She glanced at her wristlet. It had been half an hour since Julianna intimated they had six hours before water went off. She could hardly imagine. Everything always worked in the city. The transportation grid was supposed to have four backups. Four. And look what had happened. If the water to the park got turned off, it was going to get worse.

  “Who’s attacking the city?” she asked.

  “Maybe the same people who killed Lucien,” Pablo replied.

  “Bartholomew?”

  “Not alone. I think he’s the front man.” Pablo let out a bitter laugh. “There was even a time I thought he and I agreed on some things. I should have known better. Any man who treats women like cattle is no good.”

  “Were you in the caravan?” Pablo asked
Blessing.

  “No,” Coryn said. “He never even saw it. But he’s seen the pictures I took. We’ve been trying to figure out what they mean, but I didn’t get everything.”

  Pablo looked puzzled. “I didn’t take you for a spy.”

  The look on his face made her feel like a five-year-old who had been caught in a bad choice. “Lucien asked me to spy. They had me send them pictures. Mostly they wanted to know about ecobots and people.”

  “So you spied on the spies. Maybe that’s what it’s come to.” He pulled Aspen close to him. “Where’s your robot?”

  Paula. Her name was Paula. “She died.”

  “I’m sorry.” He handed Aspen back to her. “I wasn’t a Listener. I traveled with them because it was safer, and I could find people who needed help. They liked me because I’m good at getting people’s trust.”

  They were almost to the parking lot. Pablo jogged to the front of the line and turned around, holding a hand up to stop the whole group. Blessing looked around, counting. “Thirty-one,” he whispered.

  Not the whole army then. Not even close.

  “Go quietly,” Pablo said. “And not all in a line. Look confused. Look angry. We’ll all meet at the bus. The door is around the back.” He glanced over at Coryn and Blessing. “Coming?”

  Blessing glanced down at her.

  “Yes!” Coryn replied. “We need ten minutes.” She thrust Aspen into his arms. “To get our bikes.”

  “We can’t wait long,” Pablo told her.

  She and Blessing raced up the trail. They were breathing too hard to talk by the time they reached the cedar. Blessing pulled her bike down first. “Go! Make him wait.”

  She glanced at her wristlet. It had already been ten minutes. She mounted, urging breathlessly, “Hurry.”

  “I’m trying.” He tugged on his bike. The front wheel had caught on a branch.

  She couldn’t see the bus from here, but the passing time beat inside of her. She plunged headlong down a nearly vertical drop. Partway down, the front tire slid on a rock and twisted. She got a foot down, kept the bike up, turned. Again. Again.

  Below, ahead of her, the blue bus began to move.

  It had her dog in it. And her task, her chance to help Julianna.