by Gavin Zanker
Aiden studied the stranger through narrowed eyes, trying to decide how much of a threat the man could be. As if reading his thoughts, the old man turned to him and said, ‘These old bones are too tired to do you any harm even if they wanted to, young man. I only carry a dim candle inside me these days, not the raging flame of youth like yourselves.’
‘I think we should let him sit with us,’ Leigh said, tilting her head and smiling at the man. ‘We’re about to make camp anyway, right?’
Hitch sniffed around the stranger cautiously, then sat beside him at ease. The man seemed to pose no threat, but it was still a risk to extend trust to anyone. Aiden looked at Leigh who smiled and raised her eyebrows hopefully.
‘Okay,’ he said with a sigh, not understanding why she wanted this so badly. ‘You can join us for dinner, old man.’
‘Mighty kind of you. I know of a sheltered hollow not far up ahead that I was planning to hunker down in for the night. Seems like it would be plenty roomy enough for the three of us.’ He looked down at Hitch. ‘Sorry, make that four of us.’
‘We’ll walk ahead and set up,’ Aiden said. ‘We’ll meet you there.’
‘Right you are. Look past the ferns on your left once you pass the bend in the trail.’
Aiden nodded and strode forward, and they left the old man to make his own way.
‘Thanks,’ Leigh said, hopping over a tuft of grass in the trail.
‘Just keep your wits about you, don’t make me regret this.’
They soon came upon the hollow the man had described. A rocky overhang hidden from the trail by growing ferns where the scorch marks of previous fires stained the ground. Aiden set about starting a fire while Hitch trailed after Leigh who gathered fern leaves for bedding.
A few moments later, the horizon of the ocean was lit in brilliant orange fire by the falling sun, silhouetting the old man as he hobbled into camp. Aiden felt a strange sense of kinship with the stranger then, as if they had known each other for a lifetime.
‘Here, I made this spot for you,’ Leigh said, pointing to a collection of ferns.
The old man moved to where she directed and heaved himself down to the floor with a loud grunt. ‘Oof, these bones aren’t what they used to be. Enjoy those young bodies of yours while you still have them, that’s all I can tell you.’
Leigh set about hanging the cooking pot over the growing flames on a tripod of sticks lashed together with cord. ‘You like stew?’ she asked, shooing Hitch away from the food in Aiden’s pack.
‘I do, but at this point I’d be a fool to turn my nose up at any edible meal, little one.’
‘Do you have a name?’ Aiden asked as he sparked the fire to life. ‘Or shall we just call you, “old man?”’
The stranger laughed, quickly followed by a bout of raucous coughing. ‘Pardon me,’ he said, holding his hand to his mouth. ‘You can call me old man if it makes you happy. I would say it’s an apt description, and I imagine it gives you some reassurance about the time you have left.’ The man eyed the food that Aiden pulled out of his pack and handed to Leigh. ‘But if you want a name, you can call me Isaac.’
‘Isaac,’ Aiden repeated. ‘You don’t get many of those these days.’
‘I like it,’ Leigh said thoughtfully, pulling out her knife to prepare the vegetables. ‘It sounds… ancient. Like it has history to it. Definitely beats Val the Viper, Stonewall, or whatever other stupid name people think sounds good these days.’
‘Val the Viper? She sounds like someone I wouldn’t want creeping up on me in the dark. What about you two, what names do you go by?’
‘I’m Leigh, and this grouch is Aiden.’
‘It’s nice to see not all the old-world manners have been forgotten. Not many would invite an old man into their camp these days, most would sooner bash my head in and watch me bleed for sport.’
‘It’s an unforgiving world,’ Aiden agreed, watching Isaac across the flames.
‘True enough,’ Isaac said. ‘I’ve seen old friends kill each other stone cold dead for misguided ideals, or even petty arguments. I’m not one to spread suffering if I can help it, but seems to me that some people deserve to be locked away to make the world a better place for the ones who just want to get along in peace.’
‘I think people are good deep down,’ Leigh said. ‘Sometimes they just forget and need to be shown how.’
‘I don’t give people the chance to hurt what I care about,’ Aiden said, unholstering his pistol and placing it on the ground, making sure Isaac saw the action.
‘Is that for my benefit?’ Isaac chuckled, a hoarse throaty sound full of grit. ‘If you wanted to kill me then you wouldn’t need a gun. I don’t exactly wield the same power as I used to.’ He glanced over at Leigh and winked. ‘I’m no Val the Viper, that’s for sure.’
As the stew cooked, Aiden stripped and cleaned his pistol, keeping a close eye on Isaac as he reassembled it. Afterwards, he moved on to his knife which he sharpened with long smooth strokes. Leigh saw him and did the same with her own gear, though he had to help her with the revolver. Isaac watched them in peaceful silence, a serene look on his deeply-lined face. It wasn’t long before the aroma of the simmering stew filled the camp.
‘Now that smells better than anything I’ve eaten in the last year,’ Isaac said. ‘Where did you get your hands on fresh food like that?’
‘We grew it ourselves,’ Leigh said, pride showing through her smile.
‘Oh? And whereabouts do you grow food this tasty?’
‘None of your business,’ Aiden said, interrupting. ‘We’re not in the habit of telling people where we live.’
Isaac held up his hands. ‘I meant no offence, it was just conversation.’
‘Be nice,’ Leigh said, plucking and throwing a tuft of grass at Aiden.
Soon the stew was ready, and Leigh dished it evenly into four bowls. ‘I’m sorry we don’t have an extra spoon for you,’ she said as she handed one to Isaac.
‘That’s okay, little one. Where I come from, a man is expected to carry his own spoon.’ Isaac pulled out a battered old spoon from the folds of his jacket and held it up.
‘You’re strange,’ Leigh said with a giggle as she put a bowl down for Hitch.
‘Where is it you come from?’ Aiden asked, accepting his own serving.
‘Oh, somewhere that doesn’t exist anymore. My home has been gone a long, long time.’
‘That’s terrible,’ Leigh said as she blew on her stew. ‘Having a home is important.’
‘It is, you’re absolutely right. Since I lost mine, I’ve wandered the world, just watching and taking it all in.’
They ate in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of the waves crashing against the cliffs below and the wind rushing through the undergrowth around them.
‘So where are you heading?’ Aiden asked, putting aside the empty bowl.
‘Nowhere in particular,’ Isaac said. ‘Like I told you, I wander around this way and that. Most people don’t pay any mind to a harmless old man who has nothing worth stealing.’
‘Have you been to Carson Waters?’ Leigh asked as she lay by the fire, resting her head on her pack.
‘Many times. The aircraft carrier there is quite a sight. Of course, it was even more impressive back when it floated in one piece.’
‘You remember that?’ Aiden asked, scratching Hitch’s head as the dog stretched out beside him.
Isaac nodded. ‘These bones are older than you could know.’
‘How old are you?’ Leigh asked, her eyes closing.
‘I lost track of that a long time ago. Somewhere along the way it stopped being important in this world where the Event still lingers in the soil, and in the water, and especially in the hearts of people. I would bet it’ll remain here long after I’m gone too.’
Leigh was soon snoring gently, and Hitch wandered over to lie beside her, leaving Aiden and Isaac sat watching the orange flames lick upwards, reflecting off the rocky overhand and warming the
camp.
‘How do you do it?’ Aiden asked over the crackling of the burning wood. ‘How do you keep going after all the terrible things you’ve seen?’
Isaac looked forlorn as he stared into the fire. ‘It’s true, I’ve seen many terrible things. Even committed a few of them myself back when I was younger and less thoughtful. But every now and then you get a glimpse of something good. Like two strangers sharing a meal with a lonely old man. And then you remember that the world can still be worth fighting for.’
‘I think the world is probably beyond saving these days,’ Aiden said. ‘Sharing a meal with someone isn’t going to help much in the grand scheme.’
‘If there’s even a single person left in this world that matters to you, then it’s worth trying. Believe me.’ Isaac glanced at the sleeping figure of Leigh. ‘After all, if we all laid down and died then who would look out for the important ones like her?’
Aiden watched Leigh sleeping, her dark hair shining in the light of the campfire. Maybe Isaac was right. Maybe Leigh could grow up in a world that wasn’t doomed.
‘Well, I think that’s enough for one day,’ Isaac said, pulling his trench coat closer around his frail body. ‘I’m going to lay down and rest for a while if it’s all the same to you.’
‘Of course,’ Aiden said. He ran a hand over his face, his skin feeling tight from the heat of the fire. ‘Sleep well, Isaac,’ he added.
Isaac lay down on the bed of ferns Leigh had put together and crossed his arms. Aiden watched the man’s chest rise and fall rhythmically for a while. He wondered how many years Isaac had lived. How many summers he had watched go past. How many loved ones he had lost.
Aiden placed a few more logs onto the fire, then picked up his pistol and lay back against the rock face. His mind travelled as he stared into the dancing flames. He wondered if he would ever live long enough to be as old as Isaac. If he would ever see Leigh grow up. He tried to picture her as an old woman, but all he could see was her infectious grin and endless energy.
Deciding to sleep, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. His body ached from the day’s walk, and every night he felt age catch up to him a little more. Carson Waters was still a few days travel, and who knew how his meeting with Ellis would go after so many years since their last meeting.
CHAPTER 27
LEIGH AWOKE, SQUINTING her eyes against the harsh morning light. She stretched and yawned, brushing a loose fern branch from her shoulder as she pulled herself upright.
‘Want me to start a fire?’ she asked, poking a stick into the remains of last night’s fire. When she heard no response, she glanced around the camp.
She was alone.
She leapt to her feet as a wave of panic washed over her. She instinctively fumbled in her pocket for the music box, grasping it tightly in her palm. Had something happened while she slept? Was Aiden okay? Where was Hitch? She forced herself to focus through the rushing thoughts. What did she need to do? Firstly, defend herself from any danger. She pulled out her revolver and gripped it with trembling hands.
She heard a rustling from behind the rocky overhang, and darted away from the noise. Someone was there, she could hear them moving. She held her breath, struggling to hear anything over the sound of her own heartbeat thudding in her ears.
Footsteps approached now, from somewhere behind the vegetation. She aimed the pistol forward, squinting against the sun, ready to pull the trigger at the first sign of someone rounding the corner.
A tall figure pushed aside a branch and stepped into view. Before she could fire, a hand snaked out and clamped around her wrist, causing her to gasp.
‘What are you doing?’ Aiden said in surprise.
She dropped the gun and immediately burst into tears. Aiden released her wrist and she fell against him.
‘I thought you’d gone,’ she said between sobs. ‘I thought you’d left, or been hurt, or taken-’
‘I just went for a leak.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Leigh said, her voice muffled in his jacket. ‘I almost shot you.’
‘Come on, you pillock. Let’s make a drink and calm you down a bit before we leave.’
Leigh let him go and collected the fallen gun, which she dusted off and replaced in the holster at her belt. Hitch wandered into view from behind Aiden and sniffed around her, clearly confused at the emotional outburst.
Aiden eyed the music box she still gripped in her palm. ‘You still have that thing? I figured you’d be bored of it by now.’
‘You gave it to me,’ she said, as if that was enough of an explanation.
Aiden added some kindling then stirred and blew on the embers from the previous night’s fire to relight the flames. Leigh sat on a nearby rock and took a few deep shuddering breaths. Hitch wandered over and rested his head in her lap, watching her curiously. Soon Aiden placed a cup of hot tea in her hands, then set about packing up the camp.
‘Where did Isaac go?’ Leigh asked, blowing on her drink.
‘He was gone when I woke up. I guess you were right, he was harmless after all.’
‘I’ve never met anyone that old before.’ She sipped her tea, immediately feeling better. ‘It felt like he was from another time.’
‘That’s because he was,’ Aiden said. ‘The world was a different place before the Event. He lived most of his life back when civilisation was more than just pockets of people, fending off cannibals and dust storms.’
Leigh wasn’t sure what civilisation meant, but she didn’t want to ask and appear stupid. ‘I wish I could have seen it. What was it like?’
‘Safer. Well, mostly.’ Aiden collected the now empty cup from her, rinsed it out, and replaced it in his pack. ‘You reacted well back there when you thought I’d gone. Your instinct was right, you just need to keep a lid on your panic. Remember you’re human, not a wild animal. So use your brain to solve problems and don’t give in to emotion.’
Glowing in his approval, Leigh jumped up and helped scatter the fern bedding she had put down while Aiden extinguished the fire.
‘Let’s make a move then,’ Aiden said, nodding in satisfaction at the cleared camp. ‘We still have a couple of days before we reach Carson Waters.’
Then the three of them were walking again, following the coastal trails south. They didn’t see another person for the rest of the day, not even Isaac who had been heading in the same direction and had left camp before them. Leigh wondered what had happened to the kindly old man who carried his own spoon.
As dusk approached, they set up camp in a small cluster of trees a short distance from the trail, and after a peaceful night, they set out the following morning to find the weather was starting to turn. Clouds skidded across the sun, and the sky quickly turned overcast, leaving a muted pallor over the cliff trails. Leigh pulled her fleece more tightly around her as the wind whipped the long grass along the trail. Out at sea, she spotted a spinning white column rising up out of the grey water and ascending into the clouds.
‘What is that?’ Leigh asked.
‘Looks like a water spout,’ Aiden said, stopping to watch the column. ‘They’re something to do with the wind, I think.’
‘Is it dangerous?’ Leigh asked in awe of the strange sight.
‘I doubt it. Not from here on land anyway.’ Aiden turned to Leigh. ‘You can see why people don’t take boats out too far from shore these days.’
As the day wore on, a huge metal ship became visible in the distance, half sunken and sticking up out of the waves just off shore. Aiden explained that it was part of the Hermes, the aircraft carrier at Carson. He told her that it used to float out on the ocean but at some point, probably during the weeks of darkness that followed the Event, something had gone wrong and it had broken apart. Half of it was left jutting out of the waves at sea, and the other half ran aground where the town had sprung up around it.
A few hours later as the sun was setting, they rounded a bend on the cliff and Carson Waters came into view below. Not as large as the Rim,
or as sprawling as Kiln Commons, but it was still one of the largest settlements Leigh had seen. Wind turbines dotted the landscape, their huge white blades spinning in the ocean breeze. Buildings snaked along cobbled roads, seemingly with no sense of order. None of the straight roads of Kiln Commons, or the verticality of the Rim.
From this distance she could see people moving around like ants, busily going about their day. Boats bobbed in the water as the setting sun glinted off the ocean, fishermen plying their trade out in the calmer waters near the town. The front end of the Hermes lay beached at a slight angle, most of the metal ship extending back into the lapping waves.
She turned to Aiden to ask how many people were down there, but he had already walked on ahead with Hitch while she was taking in the view. She ran after them, excited at the prospect of seeing the fishing town up close.
CHAPTER 28
AIDEN STOOD ON the uneven cobbles outside the shop, glancing up and down the dark street as a drunken shout drifted on the wind from somewhere in the distance. He looked up at the wooden sign hanging above the broad windows of the building. Ellis’ Electronics was hand-painted on the sign in clumsy brush strokes. Stepping up to the windows caked with dust, he brushed the window with his sleeve and peered inside, but the interior was dark and he could see nothing past the grime.
‘What now?’ Leigh asked, trying to look inside beside him. ‘Doesn’t look like anybody’s home.’
‘I’m thinking,’ Aiden said, taking a step back. He turned to Hitch who was sniffing around the walls nearby. ‘You got any ideas?’ Hitch looked up at him, sniffed the air, then lay down on the cobbles. ‘Lot of help you are,’ Aiden said. He turned back to Leigh. ‘I suppose we go find somewhere to sleep and check back in the morning.’
‘Oi, what are you doing down there?’ a voice screeched.
Aiden turned to see a narrow-faced woman with wiry grey hair leaning out of a second-story window across the street.
‘You looking to start trouble are you?’ she said, her tone shrill. ‘Why don’t you just bugger off!’
