The Harmony Paradox

by Matthew S. Cox

  Luna seemed less than pleased with the idea and made an irritated grunt before declaring in Spanish, “I don’t wanna join with Halcón. I don’t wanna join with anyone yet. I’m too small!”

  “No,” said Halcón, the eldest, in Spanish. “Luna is right. I have too much to wait for her. That one is better. She is my age.”

  “Oh that feels awesome,” said Hayley. She basked in the sun, dripping. “No more slime…”

  “Are you okay?” Kathy poured water on Alyssa.

  “Ugh. My stomach hurts from horfing, but yeah.” Hayley twisted side to side to look herself over. Pink marks on her thigh indicated where she’d been bitten, but the stim-bot had mended it. “Couple’a bruises.”

  “That’s not a bruise, Hale. This is a bruise.” Alyssa showed off a giant purplish mark that wrapped around her back and chest in the recognizable shape of her armored vest. “That bug powerbombed me into the wall.”

  Kathy insisted on checking Alyssa’s nose, fussing at some dried blood at her nostril. “You’re lucky you didn’t break anything.”

  Kenny ambled over and patted his daughter’s shoulder.

  She jumped, red-faced, but relaxed at seeing Eldon had not snuck up on her.

  “That ’pede banged you up a bit.” Kenny touched a finger to her ribs, one after the next. “Let me know if this hurts.”

  Standing in a patch of sunlight, Hayley stooped to the side and ran her hands through her hair over and over, flinging water.

  Alyssa tolerated his prodding for a moment before she pushed him away so she could bend forward. “My ribs aren’t broken. It doesn’t hurt to breathe. Mom… hair please. Feels like I’m wearing a snot hat.”

  Kathy dumped water over Alyssa’s head. Hayley caught a glimpse of bug gut slime stranding off in the flow over the pavement and retched.

  “So what are we going to do with those kids?” asked Kathy.

  “Depends on what their story is I guess.” Kenny handed Alyssa a stimpak from his belt, and put his hands on his hips. “Either give them a ride home if they still have parents out here, or take them back to the city and let the police deal with it. Scrags usually send children on scouting parties ’cause they can get into places easier, but usually the families aren’t too far behind. I’ve a feeling these four might be on their own.”

  Kathy nodded. “Okay, my turn.” She handed Alyssa the water jug and started removing her clothes.

  Kenny headed over to the truck and asked in Spanish, “So… why are you in my truck?”

  “We found it,” said Halcón. “We thought it was scavenge.”

  “What about the man inside?” Kenny gestured at Nasir.

  The teen shrugged. “We didn’t see man.”

  “Sorry,” said Nasir, also in Spanish. “I was kinda busy keeping four thousand bugs off you guys. Wasn’t paying attention to the outside world… and they were kinda quiet.”

  The smallest boy snuck up behind Alyssa and picked up Hayley’s discarded underpants as if to steal them for himself. He grimaced in an instant and flung them away. The wad of cloth hit the side of the pickup, and stuck. The boy stuck out his tongue and gagged. He touched her jeans for less than a second before jumping back and waving his hand with a disgusted expression.

  Halcón glanced to his left, watching Kathy rinse off.

  “Hey. That’s my wife,” said Kenny. “Eyes front.”

  “She is too pale.” The teen kept looking at her. “I did not know people could be that color.”

  Kenny grumbled, relaxing a bit that the boy’s interest seemed curious rather than sexual. “You have a home to get back to? Parents? If you tell me where, I’ll make sure you get back safe.”

  The smallest boy climbed the tire and slithered over the wall into the truck bed while Luna mimicked Kathy’s hair-washing gestures. After a second’s consideration, he moved to the edge of the truck bed and peed over the side with a finger two knuckles deep in his nose.

  “We are not afraid,” said Halcón.

  “You’re all kids. Where I’m from, kids don’t run around dangerous places alone.”

  “Ken?” yelled Kathy. “Grab us some fresh clothes?”

  Kenny reached to one of the storage bins close to the side and opened it. The Scrags gasped in awe at the stock of clothing within, an incalculable treasure to them. Kenny took one of his spare t-shirts and tossed it to the smallest boy, who grinned and wriggled into it without hesitation. He handed Luna a shirt as well.

  Kenny collected a set of underwear for the girls and Kathy, as well as desert-brown fatigue pants and plain white tank tops.

  The dust-coated girl continued to stare at the folded shirt, but made no effort to put it on. As Kenny stood, she looked up at him, worry clear in her eyes. Her want for actual clothes warred with a deep-seated fear, and she seemed ready to hand it back to him.

  “I’m not asking you to be my wife. You are a child; I am an adult, and you need taking care of.” He smiled. “It is the way of my people. I’m giving you a shirt because you have nothing on. That’s all.”

  She stared at him for a few seconds, her distrust and hesitance melting away. After discarding her electric-cable belt and the sorry excuse for a skirt it held up, she slipped the shirt over her head. It fit her like a dress and she made adoring faces while running her hands around, feeling the material.

  “Be right back.” Kenny ran the clothes to Kathy and returned to the side of the truck while his family scrambled to get dressed.

  Hayley seemed more in a hurry to get the armored vest back on than her clothes, but forced herself to put it on after the tank top. Kenny imagined Eldon’s joke about her learning faster than new recruits that ‘armor is life.’

  “So, where are your parents?” asked Kenny.

  “You are not taking us for your tribe?” asked the middle boy.

  Kenny smiled. “Not if you still have a home. I’m not going to take you away from your parents.”

  The four of them stood less rigid, relief clear in their posture and expressions.

  “Halcón.” The eldest patted himself on the chest. He pointed at the boy next to him. “Gato.”

  Gato pulled off his comforter-turned-poncho, exposing a few scars on his left thigh that looked like they came from animal claws. “Can I have a new clothes too?”

  “I’m Luna,” said the girl, still admiring her new t-shirt dress.

  The smallest boy pointed at himself. “Cielo.”

  “My name is Kenny.” He pulled one of Kathy’s shirts out, a hot pink one with a white cartoon cat face on the front. “Sorry about the color, but… we didn’t exactly pack for a long trip.”

  The boy pulled it over his head and grinned. “Gato for Gato.”

  Cielo squatted and patted the truck bed. “What’s his name?”

  “Whose?”

  “The beast.” Cielo pet the truck bed. “He is great!”

  Luna and Gato nodded.

  “He is nice to let us ride him,” said Luna.

  “Does he eat much?” asked Cielo.

  Kenny chuckled. “It’s a truck. A vehicle.”

  “Oh.” Cielo looked down, disappointed.

  Gato leaned up and whispered emphatically at Halcón’s ear. Both boys stared at Kenny during the one-sided, and insistent conversation. Kathy, dressed and back in her armored vest, approached and took a plastic bag from the truck bed, into which she collected the slimed clothing.

  “Kenny,” said Halcón. “We want to join your tribe.”

  “You four are on your own?” Kenny looked among them, noting their evident lack of eating well. “How long?”

  “Raiders attack our village. We were away, scavving.” Halcón put his arms around Gato and Luna. “We come back, and everyone is gone. Those who not dead, forced to join other tribe.”

  “We want to be your tribe,” said Gato. “You have best power.”

  Alyssa, having changed into clean clothes, wandered over to Eldon, head bowed. They muttered for a few seconds before
he chuckled and offered a hand. She gave him a weak smile, shook his hand, and walked back to stand by Hayley.

  “All right.” Kenny put his hands on his hips and nodded at them. “Since you four are alone, it’s only right that we bring you with us.”

  The Scrag kids smiled.

  “We’ll bring you back to civilization. We are from the west, a great city.”

  “Behind the curtain of fire?” asked Halcón.

  The other three gasped in fear.

  Kenny resisted the urge to chuckle. “There is no curtain of fire.”

  They gave him suspicious looks.

  “Yo, Ken…” Eldon walked up next to him. “Tellin’ them kids there ain’t no curtain of fire is like tryin’ to convince one of them whackadoodles there’s no sky-daddy up above. Let ’em have their fantasy.”

  “Yeah… but I don’t want them thinking we’re driving them to a fiery death.”

  The Scrags didn’t react to English other than to seem confused.

  “The green man,” whispered Luna. “He can’t be killed.”

  Eldon looked up. “Oh, I wish that were true.”

  “What did he say?” asked Cielo.

  “He’s just a man like me, but he’s wearing armor. Like I said, we come from a great city where you won’t have to hunt for food, run away from giant millipedes, or worry about some other tribe killing you over territory.”

  They exchanged glances.

  “Hey, Dad.” Hayley walked up to his side. “If I clean out the back seat, will that count as a swear jar pull?”

  “Sure.” He patted her shoulder.

  “Cool.” She grabbed some plastic bags and scrap cloth from a bin before leaning into the back seat. “Ugh. It stinks.”

  Alyssa went around the other side and climbed in to help.

  “You from behind the curtain of fire?” asked Halcón.

  “He’s not lying.” Cielo stared at Kenny for two creepy seconds before moving to Halcón’s side and tugging on his arm. “I wanna go with them.”

  “Okay.” Halcón offered a hand. “We will trust you.”

  While the girls cleaned bug guts and vomit from the back seat, Kenny handed the Scrags a ration pack each and used his NetMini to show them pictures of West City, to much awestruck gasping. Their excitement at being taken to the west grew, and soon their eagerness to see it equaled his desire to go home.

  Leaving them to finish off their ration packs, Kenny headed to the front of the truck and worked a rag over his armored coat/vest. He chuckled at the stifled gags and random noises of displeasure coming from inside. Glad I sprang for the stain-resistant seats.

  Kathy set the sealed plastic bag of dirty clothing in the back and came up behind him, encircling her arms around his chest and holding on. He grinned.

  “You know when I said let’s try for number three, I wasn’t expecting to get four at once.”

  She laughed. “Thought you wanted to drop them off at the checkpoint.”

  “I do.” He chuckled. “Just making a joke.”

  “Hmm.” She gave him the same smiling up-and-down look she’d given him after he’d promised not to buy a new truck to take to the Badlands, and wound up doing it anyway two weeks later. She knew he would.

  Kenny wiped his armor down as best he could without running water. Fortunately, the design of armored panels embedded in a flexible coat didn’t give the muck too many places to collect. Still it would be a mess to get it out of the vest portion later. “I wasn’t planning on keeping them, just bringing them to the city. They have a program for taking in found Scrags. Besides, I’m not sure I trust the oldest around Alyssa.”

  “You’re so protective of her.” Kathy squeezed him.

  “And I overheard him saying she’d make a fine wife.”

  Kathy let go as he went to put his armor back on. “I’m sure she will if she ever decides to marry.”

  “Yeah.” Kenny tugged the coat against his shoulders. “But I didn’t get the feeling he meant to wait very long or that it much mattered how she felt about it.”

  “Oh.” Kathy’s eyebrows flared. “Okay, that could be a problem.”

  “It’s how they are out here.” He added his hat and tapped it in place. “So… you still wanna try for a son when we get back?”

  “Ugh,” said Hayley in the distance. “That was so damn nasty.”

  “Yeah.” Alyssa coughed. “We still gotta rinse the floor mats. You barfed all over them.”

  “You barfed, too,” said Hayley.

  “That puddle is yours. I didn’t eat rice.”

  Hayley retched. “Stop.”

  “Or corn.”

  “Ugh!” Hayley gagged.

  “Aww, everyone knows barf always has corn in it no matter who ate what,” said Eldon.

  “Mmm!” Hayley covered her mouth and screamed into her hand. “Stop it! You’re gonna make me hurl again.”

  Kenny turned to grin at Kathy, but a foreboding sky to the east stole the smile off his face. A wall of dark grey encroached upon the perfect blue overhead. “Damn. Seems we’re in for some bad weather.”

  “What?” Kathy glanced behind her at the sky. “Oh… wow. That doesn’t look good.”

  “No… no it doesn’t.” Kenny filled his lungs and raised his voice. “Gonna try and outrun that mess. Everyone, water a bush now even if you don’t think you have to. I’d rather not stop in an hour.” He repeated the suggestion to prepare for a long ride in Spanish to the Scrags.

  Hayley looked up, stared at the clouds, and started shaking.

  “Hale?” asked Alyssa.

  Kenny hurried around the end of the truck to where the girls had been rinsing the rags they’d used to clean the seat. “Hayley?”

  She pressed herself into him, trembling. “Dad… I think the storm’s mad at us.”

  oments after the sun crept over the ruined landscape and sent long shadows stretching from bits of rubble, Noriko stirred. Masaru hadn’t slept much. The night had gone by faster than it should have, proving he had nodded off here and there. Whenever he closed his eyes, he’d see Shuji’s lifeless face staring at him. After one night sleeping outside, he’d expected to want to spend hours soaking in a bath to purge the filth, but his thoughts refused to release his friend.

  “You’re awake.”

  “Yeah.” Noriko grunted and sat up. “Leg feels good enough to walk on.”

  He nodded.

  She dug out two more packets of dehydrated sushi. Masaru choked down a standard selection of salmon, tuna, and some disastrous miasma he imagined attempted to be mackerel. Once they’d finished eating, she pulled herself standing and reattached the section of armor she’d removed from her thigh.

  “Well?”

  Noriko lowered herself to squat, straightened, and walked around in a small circle. “Little stiff. Lot sore, but good enough to get out of here. Are you ready?”

  “Yes.” Masaru stood and affixed the katana to his belt.

  After Noriko disappeared behind a slab of broken wall to relieve herself, Masaru found a secluded place as well. He hesitated at the horrible impropriety of doing such a thing outside, in public, though urgency overwhelmed manners within thirty seconds.

  He returned to the clearing to find her stretching, pulling her right boot up behind her butt. She nodded and reached for the case of food.

  “I can carry that.” Masaru grabbed the handles, trapping her fingers between his hands and the plastic. Her face hovered inches from his as they stooped over the box.

  “How chivalrous of you,” she said, a hint of a playful frown on her lips.

  Masaru chuckled. “I do not think you weak. You have a rifle. I have a blade.”

  “Okay.”

  He stood there for a moment in silence.

  She glanced down at his hand for a second before making eye contact again. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  He cleared his throat and released his grip long enough for her to get her fingers out from under his. Noriko checked he
r assault rifle over before leaning out the door and aiming left and right.

  “Clear,” she muttered.

  He carried the ration box out after her. In the glare of the early morning sun, the field of devastation surrounding him seemed harsher. Swirls of brown dust gathered in mini cyclones along the road. Wind whispered among the cracking ruins of old buildings, accented with the occasional clang of metal banging on metal. Dark blotches on the road indicated where tires or other things had melted during the blast. Little radiation remained from the device the Korean infiltrator had set off in 2097, 322 years ago.

  The advent of this odd return to feudalism had brought with it a resurgence in some areas of belief in ancestral spirits, oni, and the kami. Masaru never gave much thought to any of that, thinking it ‘nonsense for poor people.’ He had agreed with Joey’s opinion that his friend had not been seeing the ghost of his father, but something more mundane. Discovery that an AI had been responsible reaffirmed Masaru’s opinion that the world had an order to it, not superseded by things a rational mind had no room to entertain.

  Such fanciful things as ghosts and demons had influenced a significant enough portion of the population by the time Japan stabilized to where the city of Miyakonojo had been declared a mass grave and/or memorial site. There had been a few motions to reclaim and build, since land space remained a premium, but the superstitious crowd continued protesting. The failure of the Meiji robots to clear and decontaminate the area only further fanned the flames of fear. Enough stories of the UCF’s Badlands, and its mysterious tendency of technology to break down, had made it to Japan where everyone had seemed ready to accept an oni as responsible for the construction robots’ mass failure.

  Did anyone even bother to investigate them at all? As hard as he thought about it, he couldn’t recall a single article explaining how 2,500 Meiji construction robots malfunctioned over a four-month span. It had happened decades ago, but still, no one bothered to explore the area. Of course, Noriko’s story of the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ effect occurring more recently would send the superstitious into a frenzy.