by Linda Jordan
He’d put Jax in charge of the group, but was still worried the man didn’t have enough experience. He’d grown up in the Zoo. Not out in the world.
Still, Damon knew he could trust Jax. Three of the other men had been Roosevelt’s men and he didn’t know them as well. The last was a local, Anna, who at least knew the surrounding area, but Damon didn’t know her at all. Evangeline had said she had tracking magic. Damon hoped she was right.
“We’ll be back in five days,” said Jax.
Then they were off, disappearing into the drizzle coming down. The rain smelled good, but that was the only good thing Damon could say for it. In a week, he’d be feeling like his clothes would never be dry again.
He walked back to the center of the village. They’d taken to calling it the Cap, because the building they’d built was just that. A cap over some log uprights. Open at the bottom for airflow and vented at the top to let the smoke out. Crude but effective. It mostly kept the heat of the fire inside and the rain off.
All the tables the villagers abandoned had been moved inside. That still left a large open space dry and usable. Much of the fight training had moved indoors as the rain returned. Damon had staked out his own table, although now he’d found a wooden box to contain them.
He should have been more firm with Jack. He’d suggested the group return in a week before they set out. Just to check in. He should have ordered them to. Not that Jack would have heeded him. He was Roosevelt’s man, not Morrigu’s. Damon should have put one of his guards in charge of the mission.
Then again, it was possible that Jack was the spy. If he was, then he might have found an easy way out and taken it. Damon needed to talk to him about any local arms buyers. And if he was the spy, well Morrigu would take care of him.
He wanted his two guards, Morgan and Enrico back unharmed. They were both good, dependable men. And Talia and Kassim had skills that would be helpful in the months to come. Damon was angry at himself and madder at Jack. There was no excuse for him staying away for this long, unless the group had been captured.
He went over to where the cooks were working. They liked being in the Cap, but had made Carlos give them the first dibs on power. They needed light, heat and refrigeration to do their work. Carlos had cobbled together things the best he could at the time and was continually upgrading their equipment.
The scavengers had brought back heaps of equipment, Carlos and Martina now had an indoor workshop. Carlos had built the cooks’ stoves and ovens from spare parts. And the scavengers had found old refrigerators and even freezers. Carlos had gotten several running and improved their energy efficiency somehow.
Damon didn’t even remotely understand how Carlos’ and Martina’s minds worked, but he was very grateful. Their work would help the village survive the winter. Not just heat, but keeping a steady food supply preserved was priceless.
He poured himself a large mug of whatever hot tea the cooks had brewed today. He didn’t even bother to ask what it was. Some days he didn’t want to know. He missed coffee, but hot tea was at least hot. Then he stood by the fire burning in the center of the Cap, trying to dry off.
He’d heard that people who lived in this area in the old days had clothes that were waterproof. Somehow, they’d found a coating of plastic or something to put on fabric. What a luxury that must have been. In a time when life had been filled with luxuries. Civilization had fallen far, but people were the same. When he’d read those old stories, the day to day relationships and struggles that people had were like the ones most humans still lived out.
He sipped the hot tea. It tasted lemony and herbaceous, but Damon still didn’t know what it was. Turning away from the fire, he dried his backside. Few people were up and about yet. Just the cooks, busy at work cooking breakfast for everyone. The search group who’d just left had been satisfied with day old muffins and dried meat.
Damon’s stomach growled. He’d skipped dinner last night. Too busy dealing with more new recruits. And checking out the new houses being built. Barracks actually. Meant to house the influx of people who would be coming. Who’d already begun to arrive.
Yesterday, there were five more. All of them under twenty. Dissatisfied with the small villages they’d grown up in. Villages with restrictive rules and petty minds. Damon had lived in such a village once. It had been hell. Which was why he ended up in the Zoo.
Where everyone was treated as equal, but different. The only exceptions had been Morrigu, Roosevelt and Little Roosevelt. The three people who ran things. It was a given that they got whatever they wanted, but they also didn’t treat their people as lesser beings. Even though Morrigu was a goddess. Humans may or may not be lesser beings than deities.
Damon had never really worked that out. Morrigu knew things and could do things that most humans couldn’t but she also couldn’t do things that humans could. Couldn’t read or write. Damon had repeatedly tried to teach her, but her brain couldn’t grasp the symbols and letters to make words out of them.
The Goddess also had no sense of human time. She had learned how to use the wristbands, back at the Zoo. That was the only way she’d been able to track time. Now, cut free from that, Damon rarely saw her. She wasn’t on any sort of schedule. She’d left the village to get on with the business of surviving and training her army, while she wandered the nearby woods.
Damon often saw her speaking with other deities. He’d never seen another deity before living here, but there were two others that Damon saw frequently now. One of them, a goddess, walked the woods draped only in flowers. Another goddess, waded in the cold salty water of the Sound. Damon had no idea who either of them were and neither acknowledged his presence.
Morrigu also had no understanding of human body language. She couldn’t read people. Which was why it was a good thing that she could see into people’s minds somewhat. But even that magic wasn’t all powerful. She couldn’t see everything.
Which was why Damon still questioned if Jack was the spy who’d betrayed them. Then again, the spy might be dead, buried in the wreckage of the Zoo, or fled when the aerial attack from Collins had begun. Perhaps even before it had begun, if they’d been given a warning.
He finished the tea and grabbed a green and red apple from the bowl on the wooden counter. Then went to his table, taking large bites out of the sweet and tart fruit, the juices filling his mouth with flavor.
Last night, one of the new recruits had told him about a nearby village. One heavily armed with automatic weapons. Damon had the kid tell him everything he knew about the village, which wasn’t much, but it was interesting enough to send a surveillance team to investigate whether it was worth trying to relieve them of their weapons.
He’d send Rick and a couple others out tonight. Seasoned guards who could keep their heads, not panic and just gather information. They needed to begin gathering arms. It would be a long and dangerous process to skim any nearby villages of their weapons.
It was also unlikely to make them popular. He’d need to increase the boundary patrols, stressing the importance of them, especially to the new recruits.
Damon missed the relative safety of the Zoo. It had been easier to keep people safe there. They could do the same here. Cut down all the trees, build a tall chain link fence and electrify it. But the Zoo’s isolation from the nearby forest had made it easy to find by Collins from the air.
Damon wouldn’t risk such a thing again. They would stay hidden among the trees.
The rain began thundering down on the roof, sounding like the pounding of a hundred large drums. Damon looked out through the open doorway and couldn’t see even a few feet. The hard packed earth around the Cap had turned into one large puddle.
He opened the wooden box that contained his pile of papers. He needed to assign the new recruits to the tasks that needed more people. As he looked through the list of projects, Damon heard faint yelling outside.
He put everything down and ran to the door.
Damon could barely see
four people trying to herd a dozen sheep in the downpour. They were failing. Just as soon as the got them cornered and stopped, one would make a break for it. The sheep were spooked.
“What’s going on?” asked Damon.
“We found these guys wandering by the edge of the village. Thought we should bring them here,” said Callie, one of the newer guards. An ambitious young woman. “We waited until we were all relieved from night guard duty. These wooly guys weren’t moving fast then, just happily grazing. Now they’re all riled up.”
“Put them in with the other sheep and goats for now,” said Damon. “We’ll need to build a larger pen for them.”
“We need a sheepdog,” said Callie, grinning in the pouring rain.
The four people continued trying to herd the sheep towards the goats. Damon finally gave up watching and went to help them. It took a long time to get all the sheep into the pen, without letting the other animals escape. They only managed it by finally grabbing the new sheeps’ horns and dragging them inside the enclosure.
They definitely needed a sheepdog to herd the beasts. Damon was soaked from the rain and from sweating. The guards went to change into dry clothes.
Damon returned to the Cap and stood by the fire. The building was full of people now, eating breakfast.
When his clothes advanced to the stage of being merely wet and not soaked, Damon dished up a plate of eggs and onions. There was a small amount of soft goat cheese in a bowl for those wanting to try it. There was also a soft bread made of who knows what.
The cooks had been having a hard time finding grains, but they made magic in their kitchen. Damon had found that the less he asked about the food and where it came from, the better it tasted.
The goat cheese added a tartness to the eggs and onions that complimented them perfectly. He sat down at his table and ate everything slowly, appreciated the mingling of flavors and for once giving the food his full attention. There were green flecks in the eggs, some sort of herb, that added some extra zing. When he’d finished, Damon felt satisfied.
He took his plate to the kitchen and handed it to one of the new recruits, who had volunteered to wash dishes rather than help build. The young man was perfectly at home with the cooks, joking with them and keeping out of their way, but getting the work done. Damon was for anything that helped keep the cooks happy. They were by far the hardest working people in the village, sustaining everyone.
Damon poured another cup of tea and returned to his table. Where had those sheep come from? They were a different kind than the sheep they’d already acquired. These were all a dirty white, gray or brown with horns that curled. The sheep they got before were white with black heads and black and white lower legs and feet. With no horns.
This afternoon, he’d send a group of people out in the direction they’d been found. See what those people turned up. Might be more sheep. Might be angry sheepherders, looking for missing sheep.
Damon didn’t like unanswered questions or loose ends. The potential for disaster was all too real.
Damon started assigning the new recruits to various teams. Finishing building a new pen for all the animals to graze in was a priority. So was getting the new barracks done. Carlos and Maria needed more supplies, so another scavenging team should be sent out.
Breakfast had ended, so the tables were emptied. Gregor gathered at the empty side of the Cap, with most of the village. Everyone he was training. They began to go through their drills. Then they sparred. Some of the new recruits were really good. In shape and had some fighting ability.
Callie had her long wet hair tied back and was sparring with Eamon. She caught him unawares and kicked his leg out from under him. That small slip of a girl had some skills. She would bear watching. Eamon got up and began to take her seriously. She couldn’t find another opening. Eamon kept his guard up and eyes on her. But she kept challenging him, wearing him down. He was older, his stamina couldn’t match hers even though he was stronger. Before she could flatten him again Gregor called a halt to the session.
“Time for lunch,” Gregor bellowed. “Good work everyone.”
Still Eamon was laughing at the end of it and shook her hand.
“You would have gotten me in the end,” Damon overheard Eamon say.
The girl laughed it off as if she didn’t believe it, but something about her manner told Damon that Callie knew Eamon was right and was being polite.
The day went on and after lunch Damon pulled together five guards, including Callie to go search the area where the new sheep had been found and find out where they came from. One of them, Tonio, was a new recruit and claimed to have tracking skills.
The rest of the day passed quickly as Damon inspected one of the new barracks.
“Just needs to have the furniture brought in,” said Karan. “I tested the wood stove this morning. I’ll be glad when all the power in the village is functional and we won’t need to scavenge more wood stoves. Those suckers are heavy.”
“This looks perfect. Are the beds done?”
“All but one. I’ll have them moved in tomorrow, while I finish the last one. Then they’ll need blankets and those dried grass mattresses that Willa’s been making.”
“I’ll see how she’s progressing. Great work.”
“Thanks. We’re getting a lot of new people aren’t we?” asked Karan.
“Yes, all part of Morrigu’s plan. These new barracks will come in handy. We’ll need to start planning the next one.”
“I’ve got the space all picked out,” said Karan. “I don’t suppose any of these new recruits have woodworking skills do they?”
“I ask everyone what they can do, what they know. No one’s come forward with that yet. I’ll keep looking.”
“Thanks. I could use some help. I might have to teach someone if we need things faster.”
“I’ll keep that in mind when I talk to people.”
They were interrupted by Callie, standing at the open door. Her face had a worried look on it.
“You’re back,” said Damon.
“You need to follow me,” she said, out of breath.
“Do I need more guards?” he asked.
“No. We found dead bodies. People.”
Damon followed her at a trot. They left the village and crossed the grassy meadow where the sheep had been found. In another patch of dark forest the other four guards were standing.
The closest body was Kassim’s. His throat cut. He’d been running towards the village.
The next was Talia. Shot and also running to the village.
The third was Morgan. An arrow in his back.
Damon noticed that all three had rope burns on their wrists.
The last body was Enrico’s. He’d been knifed and left for dead. There was a lot of blood on the fir needle covered ground. Damon didn’t see how the man could still be alive. And he was only just barely alive.
“Enrico, can you talk?” Damon asked, squatting down.
Enrico croaked. Callie knelt down and moistened his lips with some water from a bottle clipped to her belt. Enrico licked his lips.
“What happened here?” asked Damon.
“They sold us sheep. Then ambushed, took … prisoners. Not Jack, he was in … with them. Bastard. We escaped, stole sheep. They chased us,” Enrico said.
“We’re gonna take you into the village. See if we can patch you up,” said Damon.
There was no answer.
Enrico was dead.
“Shit,” said Damon.
He shouldn’t have sent the group out this morning. Damn. Well, they’d just have to find who did this and return to the village unharmed on their own. Damon couldn’t send anyone else after them.
Jack would live to regret his entire life.
Morrigu would see to that.
5
Evangeline
Evangeline stood in the Cap, watching her class spar with each other after dinner. They were getting better, but still had a long way to go.
They were drinking whatever tea was available and sitting by the blazing fire. Playing games or bragging about their exploits or whatever men in a group did together. There was a lot of laughter.
Tensions had been high since the guards’ bodies had been found. Damon was always in a bad mood, waiting for the last group he’d sent out to return. Morrigu hadn’t been back in the village in those three days and Damon looked as if he’d explode while he waited to tell her.
Evangeline rubbed her short soft hair and refocused on the class. Angie got her feet tangled up when she was trying to do a takedown of Martina and both of them fell.
The guards behind her began laughing again, whether at Angie or not, she couldn’t tell.
Evangeline’s shoulders tightened with annoyance. They’d been doing it all night. Most of it from the new recruits, but some of the older guards too. They should know better.
“Okay, everyone. Take a short break. Catch your breath. Good effort here,” said Evangeline, to her class.
Then she turned towards the fire.
“Well, it’s easy to ridicule people who aren’t good at fighting. I’d hate to eat food that any of you assholes cooked. Some of you are new here, so I’ll give you a pass. We respect each other in this village. All of us have different skill and gifts, none of them more important than any one else’s. You guards who’ve been with Morrigu for awhile should know better. Any of you disagree with me, then get your ass out here and fight me. I won’t even use magic.”
