by Ike Hamill
The clicking in the distance continued. She had the sense that once Dave drove away, there would be nothing to hold the Roamers at bay.
Chapter 8
{Fire}
“HOW WE LOOKING?” HARPER asked.
“I’ve got three more loads,” Jacob said. “Maybe an hour?”
“That’s ambitious,” she said. “I’ll give you a hand.”
Jacob shrugged. They usually worked alone. It wasn’t a mandate, but people never worked in pairs on the pile. She rode on the back of the lift as he maneuvered into place. When he got it lined up, Harper jumped down to position the claw over the log. She waved when it was attached. Jacob took off with the load.
With the extra help, they finished within the hour. Jacob parked the loader back in the hangar and found Harper waiting for him near the gate. They walked side by side down the path. Harper took his arm.
“You want to take a picnic over to the safe harbor tonight? I heard there’s going to be music,” Harper said.
“Sure. That sounds good. Can I meet you over there?” Jacob asked.
“I guess. Why?”
Jacob took a second before he answered. He considered lying. His brainstorming session with the tech folks was supposed to be a secret. Then again, he couldn’t lie to Harper. They were getting pretty serious.
“You remember when I had to go do that thing about a week ago?”
“A thing?”
“I told you I was going to Mac and Elijah’s house?”
“You didn’t?”
“I did, but not for the whole time I was gone. I went to a brainstorming session with Caleb and Brook.”
“Really? What did they need your help with?”
“They were doing some research on how to utilize the ether for different things. They wanted to know the procedures we used in Oslo.”
“Weren’t those all documented?”
“Yeah, but I think they wanted a first-hand account.”
“Oh,” she said.
“Don’t tell anyone. I think it’s supposed to be a secret. Anyway, I want to go over and find out what they’ve come up with.”
“Why would it be a secret?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they don’t want to get hopes up.”
“They’ve promised us nothing short of making a safe harbor that encompasses the whole town. How could hopes possibly get higher?”
Jacob shrugged.
“If they had something to report, don’t you think they would come and find you?” Harper asked.
They stopped walking. They got to the spot where Jacob would take a left and head down to where the engineers were currently holed up. Harper would continue straight to the apartment.
He took both of her hands.
“I’m just going to ask. It can’t hurt to ask. If they don’t want to tell me what they’ve got, then they won’t.”
“Curiosity killed the cat,” she said.
“What does that mean?”
“Something my grandfather used to say.”
# # # # #
The building didn’t look like anything from the outside. Part of the brick facade had crumbled. The door hung at an angle from one hinge. Jacob stepped over it and found a trail through the dust in the stairwell. He followed the trail up to the second floor and then continued down the hall towards a room that had a light on.
He poked his head in and saw folding tables set up in a rectangle around a Q-battery stack. It almost looked like the desks were set up as prayer stations to the towering battery. Jacob walked in and began to circle the perimeter of the room.
Jacob stepped forward to look at one of the tools. At the tip of the thing a light flickered. It was entrancing.
“Don’t touch that,” a young man said from the door.
“I won’t,” Jacob said. He backed away. The young man approached quickly and flipped a switch. The light on the tool went out.
“What do you need?” the kid asked.
“I’m looking for Caleb and Brook,” Jacob said.
“They’re down the hall,” the kid said. “But you shouldn’t bother them.”
“Okay,” Jacob said, nodding. He moved towards the door.
The kid was already absorbed in his work again. He didn’t even seem to notice as Jacob left.
Jacob thought about leaving them alone, but curiosity kept his feet moving. Caleb and Brook didn’t owe him anything, but they might like to catch up again now that they had taken a week to digest everything he told them. It seemed like they had made pretty good progress in their earlier conversation. After Jacob managed to get them to understand the ether the way he did, Caleb had become very excited and had written notes for an hour. Maybe they should get back together to see if they could find any more revelations.
He found a closed door with light leaking from underneath. Jacob knocked lightly and then opened it.
Caleb was sitting on the edge of a desk. Brook was writing on a big sheet of paper that was taped to the wall.
When Caleb turned, he was smiling. The smile disappeared quickly when he saw Jacob. Caleb moved fast and turned Jacob back towards the hall.
“Hi, Jacob, how are you?” Caleb asked. Caleb shut the door behind himself. They stood together in the hall.
“I’m good. I had a few minutes and I wanted to come by to see if you had any more questions about Oslo. I felt like we got to a pretty good level of understanding the other day, but I figured you might have more things to ask since then.”
Caleb nodded.
“Yes, good thought. I tell you what—I’m going to put together my notes. Everything’s a little disjointed at the moment, but I can get it all together and come by in a few days. Are you still out at that house near the school?”
“No, actually,” Jacob said. “I’m living with Harper Saxon. We’re in a temporary place at the moment because we’re waiting to see if we can get on the…”
He was interrupted when the door opened again. Brook slipped out to the hallway with them. Jacob didn’t get a great view, but it looked like maybe she had taken down the sheet of paper that had been taped to the wall.
“Aren’t you related to Madelyn Clarke?” Brook asked.
Jacob blinked. “Yes. She’s my aunt. Why?”
Caleb’s face lit up with recognition and then a dark cloud passed over his eyes. “Oh.”
“Come in here for a second,” Brook said. She opened the door and ushered Jacob inside. Jacob looked down as Brook took his hand and led him to a chair. The three of them sat—Jacob between Brook and Caleb.
“I’m sorry,” Caleb said. “I didn’t remember who you were related to before.”
“Could one of you just tell me what’s going on?”
Brook reached for his hand again. Jacob pulled away.
“Your aunt is missing. She left with her harvesting crew this morning and half of them didn’t come back.”
“What? That’s impossible. I just talked to her. She said she was quitting the harvesting crew. She was supposed to start with the gardeners today.”
“Maybe it’s nothing,” Caleb said. “Maybe they just got lost and they’ll show up tomorrow. We just thought you should know.”
“I have to go,” Jacob said.
# # # # #
Jacob needed to think. He could barely hear the world around him over the blood pulsing in his veins. Everything had been going too well—he should have suspected that something bad was going to happen. His aunt was his last remaining family member.
Jacob turned the corner, moving at a fast walk towards the house that his aunt shared with Elijah. He was taking a route that passed by his own apartment. Harper wasn’t family yet, but she was starting to feel just as important.
At one point, Madelyn hadn’t meant that much to him. He knew exactly when his attitude had changed. When he and Elijah had thought she was dead—digging her out from all that sand—Jacob had felt the pull on his guts. He didn’t want to lose his aunt like that again.
/> Jacob ran to his own door. Harper was closing it behind herself.
“You’re back early,” she said, smiling. “What’s wrong?”
“Aunt Mac is missing.”
Harper dropped her bag.
“Where?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to Elijah’s.”
Harper led the way. She set a fast pace.
He explained what he knew on the way.
As they made their way up Madelyn’s street, Jacob had a good view of the mountains in the distance. They were fuzzy purple in the dwindling light. She could be anywhere up there. The last time they had rescued her, they had known exactly where to look.
“Why would they know?” Harper asked.
“Huh?”
“I’m just confused about why Caleb and Brook would know that she was missing. The crew returned, they probably went to Cleo or someone, and then they told Caleb? Why?”
Jacob shook his head. “I don’t know.”
He slipped around Harper and banged on Elijah’s door. They heard the man call for them to come in.
Jacob pushed his way in and continued down the stairs. Harper was right on his heels.
Elijah was filling a water bladder from a big jug in the kitchen.
“That woman is accident prone,” Elijah said. He smiled at Jacob and Harper. With the bladder full, he capped it and stuffed it into his pack.
“You’re going searching for her?” Jacob asked. “It will be dark soon.”
Elijah shrugged. “Wyatt told me where they saw her last. When I get there, if it’s too dark to track her, I’ll just camp out until morning.”
Harper shook her head. “Too dangerous. There’s been a resurgence of Hunters up there. They’ve recommended a restriction from dusk until dawn.”
Elijah smiled again. “I guess I won’t tell anyone I’m going then.”
Jacob looked beyond Elijah to the refrigerator. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing.
Elijah turned to see what Jacob was referring to. When he saw the note stuck to the front of the refrigerator, he dropped what he was doing and snatched it. He scanned it quickly before he read it aloud.
“E, I’m going back up the hill with the crew. They’re supposed to escort our mysterious stranger and I want to find out what he’s up to. Don’t expect me back tonight. I’ll will keep my promise. See you tomorrow. -M.”
Elijah thought about it for a second while he folded up the note. He crammed the note into his back pocket and lifted his pack from the table.
“I’m going anyway,” Elijah said.
“Shouldn’t you give her until tomorrow?” Harper asked.
“You just said that it’s dangerous up there,” Elijah said. He slipped the straps over his shoulders and then tightened them down.
“And you admitted that you might not be able to track her until tomorrow. Chances are that she’ll be coming down when you’re going up. Then she’ll have to go rescue you. This doesn’t make any sense.”
Elijah studied Harper and then looked to Jacob. “You would go if he were up there. Can I ask you for two favors?”
“Anything,” Jacob said.
“First, I need you to stay here. If she comes here, tell her where I’ve gone and make sure that she stays. I’ll hunt for one day and then I’ll come back. In no more than twenty-four hours, I’ll be back. Just make sure that if she comes back, she doesn’t leave again.”
Jacob nodded. “We just finished a stack, so I could easily take a day off.”
“Me too,” Harper said. “What’s the second favor?”
“See what you can find out about this David character. He’s the guy she was referring to as the ‘mysterious stranger,’ but he was supposed to have left town days ago. If they were escorting him this morning, then there’s something going on. If she’s not here when I get back, then I’ll need to know what Mac was so interested in finding out.”
Harper and Jacob looked at each other.
“We’ll do our best,” Jacob said.
“Thank you. Don’t tell anyone where I’ve gone. As far as you know, I’m out foraging.”
They both nodded.
Chapter 9
{Supplies}
AMELIA LOOKED UP AT the sun.
Niren looked down and lifted his small bag into his lap.
“You look like you’d rather be anywhere else in the world,” Amelia said.
“He should be here by now,” Niren said. “Shouldn’t Caleb and Brook be out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“They wouldn’t know what they were getting. Those guys are all theory and no practice. They might have come back with jars of air and expected us to do something with them,” Amelia said.
“Wait,” Niren said. “This was your idea, wasn’t it?”
Amelia tilted her head and started to make a face. “Listen…”
“You wanted to come sit out here in the woods, well beyond what we would consider safe territory, just so they wouldn’t get ripped off for a bucket of vegetables? Did it ever occur to you that we’re out here risking our butts and we have no idea if we even need whatever it is this guy is bringing us?”
“Theoretically, we need it,” Amelia said. “And this is hardly a risk. Crews are out here gathering every day.”
“And they’re trained for that,” Niren said. “They have long conversations about how to stay safe out here. I ignore all that stuff and focus on my little projects. It’s what I’ve always done. You know why? Because I hate being out here in the wilderness, risking myself for no reason.”
“You know, the more you talk, the less you can hear. If we have any chance of surviving, it will be because we used all of our energy to be aware of our surroundings instead of complaining about everything.”
Niren scrunched his mouth into a tiny circle. Amelia could tell that he was holding in some caustic remark.
They sat in silence for several minutes. Niren was afraid to talk and Amelia enjoyed the break from his complaints.
She was the one who finally started the conversation again. “Aren’t you even slightly intrigued by what he might bring us?”
Niren shook his head.
“Why not?”
He couldn’t hold it in any more. He talked fast. “Someone invented all that stuff, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well?” he asked.
“You’re saying that the people who invented the ether and the Hunters would have known about this substrate.”
“If that’s even the right word.”
“We have to call it something. It’s as good a word as any.”
Niren seemed to forget that he was supposed to be quiet. “I think a substrate is where things grow. This is more like a conduit, right?”
Amelia shrugged. “I don’t know. They might grow out of it. I’m not sure we’re ever going to get really clear answers about that mechanism.”
“Regardless, it was invented. If that’s true, then those people should have known how to disable the Hunters with it. It doesn’t make sense that we would be able to figure something out that the creators couldn’t.”
“But you’re assuming that they’re exactly the same today as they were decades ago. If what Caleb said is true, the Hunters have been through several major revisions since they were turned loose in the wild. As people became more adept at evading them, the Hunters had to optimize to attack the remainders. As a species becomes more specialized, they may develop vulnerabilities that they didn’t have before.”
Niren frowned. “If I were designing the Hunters, I would have guarded against that. I would have built in regression so that if a new variant stopped being successful, it would automatically revert to the old one. That’s why I liked our old approach. We were containing the spectra. They couldn’t evolve away from that.”
“You’re thinking about this linearly,” Amelia said. “There’s nothing to say that there’s just one variant in the wild. And you and I both suspect that the containment protoc
ol wouldn’t be effective again. There are already signs that it wasn’t going to work a second time. We burned that opportunity. It cost us twelve people and we got a two-hundred meter radius.”
“It’s something we could…” Niren started. They both looked to the woods. They heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
# # # # #
Amelia didn’t recognize the thing in his hand, but she understood the way he was holding it. Without the device, the man would have looked old and harmless. Pointing the weapon at them, he seemed very dangerous.
“I saw people following me,” he said. “You violated our agreement.”
“We’ve been here,” Amelia said.
“Not now,” the man said. “If we’re going to do business, I have to know that you’re not going to try to cross me again. If I catch sight of one more person out there, then I’m done working with you.”
Amelia allowed herself to exhale. Apparently, there was still a chance that this deal might happen.
“You’re wrong. We don’t know anything about that,” Niren said.
The man took a step back. Amelia regretted bringing Niren along.
“But we’ll pass along what you’re saying,” Amelia said. “I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding, or someone operating on their own. We have the produce you asked for.”
Amelia had never lived out in the wild, on her own. She had been raised in a community. To her, the concept of vegetables being precious was odd. But it seemed to be the first thing that wanderers were interested in. They wanted the things that they couldn’t scavenge out in the world. They wanted to find the trappings of cultivation.
“I’m going to penalize you because someone lied to me,” the man said. “I’ll give you half of the agreed amount in exchange for all the produce.”
“No way,” Niren said.
“Then you’ll go home empty handed,” the man said.
Amelia felt her heart race again. After all this, she didn’t want to go home with nothing to show.
