“But what about supplies?” asked Blossom. I guessed that she had spent some hungry days in her life, as food was almost always on her mind, even though she had a bent for the healthier flavoured insta-meals.
“We’re good for a couple of weeks, at least, but we still need to factor in getting to the coast. I think it’s okay to hunker down here for a few days and wait for things to calm down, but we really need to get to wherever it is we’re going.” I scrubbed my face with an anxious hand, having propped my glasses on the top of my head, just to give my eyes a rest.
“It would be great if we knew where we were headed,” agreed Cedar, flicking a chunk of auburn hair over her shoulder with a distracted air. “Not to mention, how or why. I’d feel better if I knew something.”
“As long as those survivalists are far behind us and the drones can’t find us, I’m good.” It was a typical Jake style statement, but I think the Sand Walkers had rattled him. It was one thing to be all alone out in a hostile landscape, but it was something all together different to know that there were gun totting lunatics out there with you.
As we settled in for the night, the creaking and groaning of the rocks overhead made me tense and alert. I tried to talk myself into sleeping, but every faint sound brought me back to wakefulness, until I gave up and climbed out of my covers and left the tent. I stretched up and could feel my finger tips brush the roof of the cave and I was surprised when I felt a bead of moisture.
In the dark, I set up the water extractor, working mostly by feel. I really only had to connect it to its power source and find the ‘on’ button. The whir of the fan sounded loud in the cavernous space, but the only movement I heard in the tent was Jake muttering in his sleep and the rustle of the blanket as he turned over. I stepped away to the entrance of the cave and the drone of the water exchanger was barely audible by the time I reached the gap in the rocks.
The moon was waning and I could just make out the shapes of rolling sand dunes and the odd rock in the dim light. There was no sign of movement, which was a huge relief. I still couldn’t shake the feeling of being followed and it set my teeth on edge. Beads of perspiration formed on my forehead as I stood in the arid breeze and it was then that I realized exactly how much cooler it was in the cave. I turned back, half reluctant because of the musty air, but eager for the cool. It would be nice to leave the Sunskin off for a few days as it made my skin feel clammy and wrinkled.
I settled back in my place, as quietly as I could, giving the bot a slight nod, as it appeared that he’d been anxiously awaiting my return. It felt like I’d only been asleep for a few minutes, but the light in the tent had changed drastically, as brilliant sunshine bounced off a sheer, sun bleached cliff across the way and into the mouth of the cave. The others were up and about and making some sort of ruckus outside the tent.
“Can you believe it?” Blossom squealed, hushing herself at the end of the sentence.
“It’s like, almost a litre of water!” added Jake in amazement.
“But is it any good?” This was the practical voice of Cedar, but I could hear excitement hidden in her good sense. I rose and opened the tent flap and saw them all hovered around the water extractor. The telltale hum had stopped and they were peering into the reservoir.
“Only one way to tell,” answered Jake equally practical. He took his empty insta-meal wrapper and dunked it in the reservoir and then lifted the water to his lips. Before he could take a sip the packet vaporized in his hand and an irate bot hovered in front of his face.
“Family Member Jake, you must not take such risks!” Pipkin’s head shook slowly, giving a sense of disappointment laced heavily with forbearance. “Contagions could have filtered through the rocks or there could be dangerous metals in the water.”
“Well,” shrugged Jake, embarrassed to be schooled by a bot, “I thought the thing had a filter!”
“Of course it has a filter, Family Member Jake, but we do not know how refined it is. I will test the liquid.” The bunny hovered down to the machine and a panel on his chest opened, exposing a small mechanical arm with something science-y attached to the end. He dropped the small probe into the water. His processor whirred and in a few seconds he withdrew and restored his sensor. “The water is safe. There are low levels of pesticide, but well within the limits necessary for safe consumption.”
With this announcement Jake shot me an exasperated grimace and then picked up the entire reservoir and took a drink. I watched his face closely as it went through a series of expressions from wonder to surprise. He finished with an tiny “ack”, as the natural flavour of the water blossomed on his tongue.
“Well?” I asked.
“Tastes a bit like dirt or lint or something, at least at the end, but, WOW!” He passed the container to Cedar, who smelled it carefully before lifting it to her mouth.
“Minerals,” she said with certainty, having taken a cautious sip and passing the vessel on to Blossom. I watched the girl take a carefree gulp and admired her as she managed to keep a strait face. None of us had ever had unfiltered, unprocessed water before, so it was unique experience. I finally had my turn and I rolled the water around my mouth, over my taste buds and sucking it between my teeth, trying to fully appreciate every nuance. It was musty with a strong tinge of salty compound, but also rich and loamy. I couldn’t figure out where the flavours came from, considering the scorched environment. The taste reminded me of the dream I had had a couple of nights before. Had it only been two? Maybe, but it felt longer than that. At least we could save our water packets for the trip, as it seemed the cave would provide us a fresh water source while we were here.
Pipkin did some rapid calculations for us to determine how much water the extractor could produce over a set amount of time and then presented a rationing schedule. It was more water than we normally had access to and we debated the possibilities of heating it somehow, in order to wash. We’d gone several days without being able to clean ourselves and I occasionally caught a ripe whiff of my sweat when I moved. I was sure the others could smell it too. In addition, I had dirt building up under my nails and I’m sure I looked scruffy; not having shaved since I’d been in the city. The rear view only reflected my eyes and the unkempt hair over my forehead. I passed a quick eye over the others, noting their grubby hands and faces smeared with dirt streaks. We all needed a good wash and a change of clothes. The idea kept coming back to me as we set ourselves up to stay in the cave for a few days. I set Jake and Blossom to getting the HAM radio up and running and Cedar was going through our clothes trying to find everyone a clean outfit to last the rest of the journey. The sand had penetrated through the laundry bags and infiltrated almost everything. Some of the items just needed a good shake, but others needed to be cleaned to get the grit out; damn man made fabrics. I re-inventoried the insta-meals, water tablets and packets, trying to guesstimate how long we could survive without fresh supplies. I figured we had a good couple of weeks, which wasn’t a big surprise as we’d only inventoried a couple days before. I went through our weaponry and other gadgets, coming across several hand sized curved lenses. I couldn’t imagine why they’d been packed up with the seeds, but the mystery slipped to the back of my mind while I finished my catalogue of items.
Once I was done, I noticed that the RAB-bot was futzing around with the black bar with the red light, trying to activate it.
“Do you know what it is?” I asked, picking dirt out from under my nails with an empty insta-meal wrapper. I couldn’t believe that no one had thought about dry wipes or some type of quick wash. Thank God the insta-meals had bacteria killer that kept our teeth clean. Images of toothpaste and anti-bacterial soap ads flashed through my head and I wondered at the rudimentary existence of the early millennium. The thought was fleeting, but it brought to mind the memory of the warm water from the tunnel. I couldn’t forget the luxurious feeling of the heated liquid trickling over my skin.
“I believe it to be some sort of communicator, Owner Dax,” h
e replied with a twitch of his ear, “perhaps an access key? It seems to be missing the chip.”
“You don’t say.” I looked at the unit doubtfully. I could see the port where a disc shaped chip would slide in, now that Pip had pointed it out, but I knew we had nothing in our supplies that would remotely fill the bill. The likelihood of it activating anything out here in the middle of nowhere, chip or no chip, seemed fairly remote to me and I had more pressing matter to figure out. “We need to heat up some of this water,” I said with a nod towards the water extractor.
“Fire would be most effective, but we lack the required materials and there is a chance that the smoke might be seen outside the cave.” His searched his files. “We could attempt to use solar energy to heat the water, the heat of the sun should be sufficient to warm the water, assuming you do not need it to boil.”
“Can’t you use your lasers?” Suddenly, I was literally itching to be, at least partially, clean.
“Owner Jake, I would do anything that you command me, but use of my lasers for an extended period of time will shorten the life of my batteries and could render them useless. I am unsure as to whether I am able to modify the beam for such a purpose.” The bot looked rueful so I let the idea go. We couldn’t risk disabling one of our few weapons. “But, Owner Dax, why do you want to heat the water?” The question sounded like it was thrown in as an afterthought, but I could read the curiosity on his digitized face.
“We need to wash, we’re all starting to smell and if I feel grimy, I’m sure the girls are desperate for a good clean.”
“Humans do not usually smell?” His question was earnest and I was a bit embarrassed that he’d noticed our pungency.
“Human’s always smell,” interrupted Cedar, “especially men!” She gave me a quick jab in the ribs and despite the sharpness of her elbow, I was glad to see she’d recovered some her good humour. I surreptitiously rubbed the spot she’d poked and rose to her challenge.
“No, that’s not entirely correct. Usually, with good grooming practices men don’t stink and can even smell nice. Besides, you don’t exactly smell like a perfume factory, yourself.” It wasn’t gentlemanly, I admit, but it garnered me a punch on the shoulder and a crooked smile. “Besides,” I added, turning back to Pipkin, “I’m sure your previous owner never had this issue.”
“I do not remember, Owner Dax. Before he died, he wiped all my files relating to him – or her, I do not know.” His ears drooped a little, as if he was saddened by the loss, but perked up momentarily. “If you wish to have the water heated today, we should act quickly so as not to lose the light.”
I looked toward the cave entrance and noticed that he was right. The brightness had increased as the sun crested over the mountain and bathed us in direct rays instead of refracted light coming off the sheer granite cliff face.
We placed the water receptacle on a relatively level rock near the entrance and waited for the sun to work its magic. It finally struck me, our reliance on technology, and how it crippled us for anything resembling survival. We were only a few days outside of the domes and we were already filthy for the lack of a dry shower or Speed Clean. How did people do it? Before all the tech? It had crossed my mind to try to wash with the tepid water, but it just didn’t do the job the same way as the water we’d had in the tunnel back in Toronto.
I wanted to ask Cedar about the Sand Walkers and even about her family and how they dealt with these sorts of issues, but she’d been a bit more cheerful since we’d holed up in the cave and I didn’t want to bring back bad memories unnecessarily.
It was kind of a non-event once the water had warmed sufficiently. We all took a bit and tried to get off as much sweat and sand as we could, but the reservoir was made for collecting drinking water, not for bathing and although we came away slightly cleaner, we were also damp and dissatisfied. We all sat in the fading light, our damp skin drying quickly in the suns rays, leaving our skin sunburnt and tight. We’d have to be careful, as our medical supplies were limited and who knew how long we’d have to hide, before feeling safe enough to venture out to complete our journey.
Chapter 16 - Gone
The next two days passed slowly, it didn’t help that we were going slightly stir crazy, keeping to the cave, except to go to the bathroom. The evidence was carefully covered and the wind soughed away any tell tale smell, or so we hoped. It wasn’t hard to stay inside, as the skin peeling off our faces and hands was an alarming reminder of the sun’s intensity.
Gratifyingly, there had been no sign of either drones or Sand Walkers. Pipkin had taken to surveying the area at sunset, when it was least likely for him to be spotted and there had been no further communications on the HAM radio, which suited me fine. We started to plan our move further to the east, hoping that we could make it to the coast in a couple of days.
In our down time, we’d shown Reg’s clip to the RAB-bot and he’d run it through his processor enabling him to manipulate the video so we could stop at each frame one by one. The idea of seeing the images at any pace we wanted was exciting, but having run the clip at half speed, we really weren’t any the wiser. At least we were able to determine that we were headed to an island off the coast of Canada, called Pei. What disturbed me most were the rumours that all of the islands off the coast had disappeared during the Melt; its inhabitants never to be heard from again.
“This is crazy!” said Cedar as she paced back and forth, wearing a path on the floor of the cavern. “We can’t run off half-cocked to the coast when there’s no proof that this Pei place actually exists anymore. We’ll never survive so far from the domes.” She glared at me, like everything was my fault. “Besides, if it’s not there, we won’t have enough supplies to get back. I haven’t made it this far to die on some crackpot expedition.”
“Reg would never do that!” defended Jake. “It HAS to be there. Why else would he send Dax and me out here? What’s the point, if we don’t make it?” I looked back and forth between the two, weighing the arguments; both of which were relatively valid.
“What do you think, Blossom?” Before I threw in my own thoughts, I wanted to hear from the kid with the street smarts. She seemed to have good instincts underneath the chipped nail polish and heavy eye makeup. She shrugged, using both shoulders, which meant she didn’t have a clue.
“I dunno. I didn’t really know 4Gig, but I trust Jake and he trusted Reg, but Cedar’s been living out in the Bee Zee for a long time. It seems crazy to have come this far and not see it through, but I really don’t want to starve to death out here, either.” She paused and picked off a bit more polish from her thumb nail, it was nearly polish free now. “I really don’t have anything to go back for. Nobody will miss me and I’m tired of scratching out a living on the street, so I think we should at least try to get to this Pei place. If I have to die, at least I could do it trying to achieve something good.” She dropped down her head after that and hid her face behind a waterfall of black hair. The gesture so reminded me of Jake that it hit me in the gut. “What about you Dax?” My mind was running every memory that I had of them and I knew I’d spend the rest of the day comparing the two. “So what do you think Dax?” she repeated snapping her fingers in front of my face impatiently. I startled out of my musing and tried to ignore the scowl she gave me for having stared at her for so long.
“I don’t know, either.” I ran my hand through my hair, cringing at the greasy feel. “I mean, what are our options, really?” I surreptitiously wiped my hand on my jeans and then took off my glasses to polish the lenses in a bid for time. It was pretty clear to me that our choices were few. “We can head back to the one of the domes and take our chances; we can stay hiding here and hope that we come across more supplies or we can head east, like Reg wanted, and take our chances there.” Three options and all basically ended with a huge question mark when it came to our survival. “The only one who has a chance to get back in the city is Blossom. They probably don’t know she’s even with us.”
“No!” snapped the girl, “I totally mean it, no!” She stood hands on hips and stomped her foot for emphasis. She was the only one of us that could stand fully upright inside the tent, near the outer walls, but it gave her the illusion of height. All this passed through my mind as her narrowed-eyed gaze fell on each one of us. “If you think that I’m going to go back to that pit and let you guys go save the world without me, you’re nuts.” Her statement threw me a little, but, really, that’s what we were talking about. The containers of seeds that we had stashed in the back of the cave and covered with rock might be the last plant life on the planet. This whole thing was bigger than the four of us and we had a responsibility to try and get our cargo somewhere safe. I looked at Jake and Cedar and could see the realization on their faces as well. Granted their expressions were different. Jake’s face lit up like a candle and I could just imagine the dreams of glory running through his mind. Cedar had gone a little pale, her lips set in a straight line of acceptance and her eyes closed, as if summoning the strength to take on the challenge. There were no images of victory in her mind, only of the hard task ahead.
“Okay, so we’re going east,” I stated, summing up a million thoughts in one simple statement.
“Owner Dax,” whispered Pipkin, who had perched himself on my shoulder in some odd mockery of old style pirates, “my probability calculations indicate that your chosen plan of action would have the lowest survival percentages.” I cleared my throat and tried to turn my head to look at him, without knocking him off.
“Interesting,” I replied, “but not encouraging. Did it say exactly what percentage our chances of surviving might be?” The bot looked away and shuffled a little, wobbling on my shoulder like a drunk.
“Er, yes, Owner Dax, 0.275% chance of survival, based on current and past knowledge of both the area, access to sustenance and probability of locating either favourable accommodation or friendly Outcasts.” His ears drooped in dismay, but he finally turned his face back to me.
Last Farmer: Last Farmer Series - Book 1 Page 15
