After the Winter (The Silent Earth, Book 1) (25 page)

“Secret,” I say, giving his leg a squeeze and then closing the door. I open the driver’s door and get in.

“Tell me,” he moans playfully, his voice hoarse and cracking from having just woken.

I hit the remote and the garage door shudders into life. The car hums and the display illuminates before me, the route already configured for a trip to work. I delete it with a swipe and adjust the map, setting a course for the highway out of the city instead.

“Can’t tell you where just yet,” I say. “But you’ll see very soon.”

“Awwww,” he complains, but he’s already craning his neck out the window eagerly to see where we might be headed. “Ooh, it’s dark.”

“Yep, we need to get up early for this secret place. That’s how secret it is.” I edge the car forward, waiting impatiently for the garage door to offer enough clearance for us to pass through. It takes forever. I’m muttering angrily at it, telling it to speed up. Then we’re out, into the driveway, the door behind us sliding downward again.

Down the hill, I can see lights in several houses. Word is getting around. As I watch, another light across the road winks on and the shadows of people moving about inside drift out into the night. I pull out slowly and turn down the hill. Two doors down I see Frank hustle across his driveway to his car, his arms laden with the weight of suitcases. He’s still in his nightrobes. He peers out at me, searching my face through the little round spectacles he wears on the end of his nose. I just stare helplessly back at him, unsure what to say. I pass by and it feels like slow motion. He begins to raise one of his hands as if to wave, but it’s weighed down by too many suitcases and he lets it drop again. I don’t stop. We coast down the hill.

The nav points me onto the nearest route to the highway but it’s already getting congested this way. I flick through a series of alternate routes but the estimated time for all of them is longer than the current option.

We stop, a long line of cars ahead. Gridlock at three-thirty in the morning.

Without warning there’s a brilliant flash in the sky to the east. I cry out and shield my eyes. The cars respond like a herd of frightened cattle, lurching forward as one and bashing into the fenders of those in front of them. One screeches out and turns, heading back in the opposite direction where the lane is clear.

“Daddy! Lightning!” Zade cries out.

No. Not lightning. I know exactly what that is, just like everyone else in this lineup of cars. But I realise with relief that it’s not close. It didn’t hit our city. It must have detonated somewhere further inland. There’s a dull red glow out there on the horizon, and it’s getting brighter.

A car in front of us pulls out and starts belting along the wrong side of the road. I do the same, putting the pedal to the floor.

“Hehe wheee!” Zade laughs. “Daddy, you’re fast!”

I’m too tense to even respond. I follow the other car for about a click. There are now others pulling out and doing the same. I can see the highway on-ramp up ahead. It’s in sight. But there must be fifty cars in front of me.

The lane ends and I put my indicator on, try to merge back in. I don’t like my chances. No one is moving, and the face of the guy in the car beside me is set, resolute. He just glares at me. He couldn’t say get behind me any clearer if he’d shouted it in my face.

I turn my head, reach back to Zade. He’s looking out at all the cars.

“Where’s everybody going, Daddy?”

“I guess they heard about the secret, too.” His hair is sticking up all over the place, little red tufts catching the glow of tail lights from outside. He looks so vulnerable.

“I hope we get there soon,” he says.

“Sure,” I say. I smile weakly. There are tears forming in the corners of my eyes. “We’ll get there. We’ll get there real soon.”

But I can’t bring myself to believe it.

27

Ellinan and Mish observed me heft the jagged rock
,
turning it in my fingers until I found the sharpest edge.  I ran my finger gently across it.

“Yeah, this will do.”

They watched me, curious, little half smiles on their faces.  They’d forgone their morning chores at my request -
Just this once
, Mish had instructed sternly - and had followed me out onto the street where I’d used the broom to clear away the accumulated dust and sand from the asphalt. I knelt and began to scratch with the rock, drawing a rough square with a single stroke in the middle.

“Know what it is?” I teased.

They gave each other a baffled look. “No,” Ellinan said. “I think you’re just making this up as you go along.”

“Give me a minute,” I said, and scratched some more. Another square joined to the first, this time with the number two inside. “There.”

“Is that it?” Mish said, perplexed.

“Come
on
, guys,” I said, disbelieving. “You’ve never seen this before?”

They shook their heads, sceptical. I kept going. A three. A four and a five side by side.
 
Still no reaction. I completed the course and stood over it proudly.

“Tada!”

“You can count to eight,” Ellinan said dryly. “Congratulations.”

“You two have
never
heard of hopscotch before?”

More head shaking.

“Okay, let me demonstrate for you.” I gathered up three stones by the side of the road and handed one to each, then took my turn. “To start, you throw on the first square.” I tossed the stone and hopped across the course, completing my turn. “Now, if you miss with your throw or step on a line, you lose your turn. Simple. So, why don’t you have a go?”

Mish stepped up, frowning and perturbed, but by the time she’d make two successful turns she was laughing, and Ellinan was attempting to shoulder his way into the game. I joined in, and we played for the best part of an hour without stopping. The kids picked the game up quickly and proved to be very adept at it, going so far as to incorporate fancy gyrations into their hops. Eventually I moved aside and allowed them play against one another.

It was a distraction meant to lessen the impact of my departure.

On the edge of the street, I picked up the satchel and slung it over my shoulder, standing there with a sad smile as their eyes fell on me, their game petering out.

“Hey,” Ellinan said, jogging over to me and grabbing my arm.  “Let’s make one that goes up to
fifty
.”

“It sounds like fun,” I said, smiling. “But now that I’ve shared the last of my secrets with you, it’s time for me to go.”

His hand dropped away and he stepped back, nodding. Mish folded her arms and kicked idly at one of the stones on the hopscotch course.

I’d anticipated this would happen, and tried to imagine ways to counteract it. Creeping off in the middle of the night was an option I ruled out immediately. I owed them more than that. I considered asking them to come with me, but what could I offer them? I didn’t know what was waiting for me back home. I might be leading them out of their safety net here and into the hands of Marauders. I couldn’t guarantee my own safety out there, let alone theirs, and in truth, I didn’t think they would want to leave. This was their home. This was everything they’d ever known.

There was really only one choice.  I had to leave, and they had to stay.  That was the way of it.

“I know I’m heading off in a hurry,” I said earnestly.  “I wish it wasn’t this way.  To be honest, this has been the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”  They looked up at me and I nodded in affirmation.  “A
long
time.  But the truth is, I have something very important that I need to do back home, and I need to be there as soon as I possibly can.  Do you guys understand that?”

They nodded dejectedly.

“So that’s why I have to leave you now. If things were different, I’d love to stay and show you how much better than you I am at hopscotch.”

Mish sneered at me good-naturedly and Ellinan grinned, saying, “As
if
.”

“Are you okay with that?” I said.

Once again they nodded, a little less despondent. I stuck my hand out and Ellinan took it reluctantly. I gave it a good pump. Moving over to Mish, I offered it to her as well. She brushed it off and pressed in unexpectedly for a vigorous hug. I patted her back awkwardly.

“Okay,” I said, drawing back.  “Remember to stay safe.  If you hear engines in the distance, find a
really
good hiding place, just like in the game of hide and seek, okay?  And listen - I’m proud of you two.  I’ve seen people much older than you who couldn’t handle themselves half as well as you can.  Your parents would be proud too.”

They nodded, the glow of that praise cutting through their sorrow. I turned and began to walk up the road, out of Carthen, pushing aside my own sense of melancholy. I was making the right decision, I had no doubt about that.

Further along the road I stopped and looked back.  They had resumed their game of hopscotch and were jostling each other, laughing and shouting playfully.  I smiled.  They
would
be all right. After all, they were perhaps the only happy people I’d seen since the Winter, these two machines who thought they were human children.

I got moving along the highway, my stride long and my steps firm. I felt the wind at my back. My passage here was swift, helped not only by my soaring spirit but by the firm footing afforded by the asphalt at my feet. Although damaged it was in good enough condition to keep me out of the dirt of the wasteland.

The plantlife was growing thicker with every kilometre I travelled.  I could see it dotting the wasteland on both sides of the highway, and even in places clawing its way through cracks in the asphalt.  How had it changed so much in a year?  The tide was turning.  Life was beginning to reassert itself and was making up for lost time. 

My long wait was coming to an end.   One day very soon I’d be free of the confines of this metal box, this artificial construct that caged my spirit like a butterfly trapped in a glass jar.  I’d be
me
again.

Night fell and the moon came out, big and yellow and round.  It shed a ghostly glow on the landscape.  That, along with the sure footing of the asphalt gave me the confidence to keep walking through the night.  I didn’t slow down or stop. 

But as morning broke, my good mood evaporated amid the growl and whine of engines in the distance. I saw the trail of dust wafting into the sky like an ominous red spectre, and the noise became louder.

They were heading my way.

28

I ran so fast I felt like I might split apart from the exertion. On the plain there was no immediately obvious cover, but I hoped that somewhere nearby I would find a gully or cavity in which I could conceal myself. I’d avoided them before with this strategy, but I just had to hope they didn’t come near enough for their scanners to detect me.

I was so preoccupied with looking behind me that I failed to see what was ahead until it was too late.

I saw the tent first, squat and broad, dappled in a camouflage pattern of brown and grey. It sat not far from the road, and was difficult to make out against the backdrop of the wasteland, which was probably why I hadn’t spotted it before now. To the right, standing in the middle of the road, was the hulking frame of a very large clank.

I stumbled to a halt and lifted the binoculars. It must have stood well over two metres tall, a muscular and imposing figure that could only be some sort of industrial clank, built for lifting huge loads. Right now, it was lifting something far smaller: a rifle, levelled right at me.

Seeing a flash of red, I glanced down at my torso, where a glowing dot twitched like a spasmodic firefly.

It had me dead to rights.

I waited for the impact of the round, punching through my chest and turning the world to black. I wondered, oddly detached, if I would even hear the sound of it before I was dead.

Instead, I saw the clank lift an arm and beckon me forward. There were no shots fired, no pain. I didn’t know who or what this clank was, but there wasn’t any other option but to comply. I did as instructed.

The engines were close now, roaring behind me like snarling beasts closing in on their prey. I didn’t look back, instead plunging onward across the broken asphalt toward the clank. It kept its eye to the rifle scope, still and steady for the most part, aside
from one crisp motion to snatch something from its belt, which it lifted briefly to its face.  As I reached it, I saw that it had the features of a female, albeit one who was three times my bulk.

“Identify yourself!” she yelled in a deep, throaty voice.