Lethal Seasons (A Changed World Book 1) (21 page)

“The history of the United States shows us leaders convincing the populace to back their goals. This country was stitched together by people who wanted the same things.”

History of a Changed World
, Angus T. Moss

Tilly looked out across the fields hoping to see Nick coming up the road. He said he’d be back today. She wanted to hold him to his word. Right now, she needed to keep eyes on all her people. Her gaze wandered toward the back meadow where they were digging another grave. She bit her lip as her eyes prickled with tears.

“Any sign?” Martin stood beside her, sweaty and muddy from his turn in the cemetery.

“Not yet.”

“He’ll be here.” Martin squinted at the deep blue bowl of a sky overhead. “Hopefully it’s going to stay clear. Has Angus found out anything more about the weather site?”

Tilly shook her head, not trusting her voice to stay calm.

“Strange. Maybe Nick can go check that one out next.”

Tilly took a deep breath that caught in her throat. “I don’t know how he would find that one.” Talking about stupid things like Nick’s next trip, if there even was one, helped her move a few steps away from grief. “Wisp knew about the vaccine center didn’t he?”

“Actually I think it was a brother. Maybe he has another one working for the weather forecasters.”

Tilly tried to force a smile on her trembling lips but failed. She hoped her mouth wasn’t stuck in a grimace. Her people were being whittled away. One by one, they fell before her eyes. They’d lost two more during the night. Angus said he thought they might be on the backside of it now. That everyone in the center had surely been exposed and should have gotten sick by now. But he’d said that in other years and been wrong when the virus mutated and came back to take the ones that had survived.

She realized she was gripping Martin’s hand and didn’t remember taking it.

“It’ll be all right, Tilly,” he said in soft voice. “We’ll get through this.”

“I’m fine,” she lied. Martin didn’t know her like Angus, but he was trying to comfort her, so she shouldn’t be short with him. “Thank you.”

“We found the missing chickens.”

“Do I want to know?”

“They’d holed up in an old pump house. Not sure what attracted ‘em. Bugs maybe.”

“Yes. Maybe.”

“Bruno found a grape arbor that he said will bear a heavy harvest this year. We could try our hand at some wine.”

“Yes. That would be good.”

“Lottie transplanted some more of those herbs Bruno found for her. She’s got a nice variety going now.”

“That’s good.” She knew Martin deserved more than her terse answers, but she could barely speak for the ache in her throat.

“Miss Tilly?”

She turned at Harley’s call, glad for any distraction. “Yes, I’m here,” she called to the nearly-blind man.

Harley stood on the grass patting the neck of a tall bay horse. “Jelly here is getting a bit jittery. I think there’s gonna be some bad weather. Just thought I’d let you folks know so you can cover the crops. I’m gonna take em all in now.” Harley hustled off toward the stable.

Tilly felt a smile tug at her lips. “Martin, would you sound the alarm. Seems we have a weather-horse now.”

“In the viral years, people suffered from a lack of faith. No one could be trusted. No one could be expected to live beyond the next year. Therefore, communities were rare.”

History of a Changed World
, Angus T. Moss

“Wind’s kicking up,” Wisp observed. They were passing through thick forest, climbing at a steep rate. The trees bent and shivered across the road.

Nick looked at the peaceful blue sky. “Have you tried the forecast dock today?”

Wisp obediently tried to open the dock on the dashboard screen. “Still that old forecast.”

Nick cursed under his breath. “Keep an eye out for some shelter in case we need to go to ground.”

“We might be better off down by the river.”

“Maybe. If you see a side road, let me know.”

A gust of wind hit the van making Nick correct slightly. The road was fairly decent with minimal potholes. “I think we’re going to need that shelter sooner rather than later.”

“We’re almost to the top. Maybe we’ll have a better view from there.”

Nick heaved a sigh of relief when Wisp was right. They crested the hill and found a breathtaking view before them. Storm-tossed trees littered the hillside giving them a partial view of the basin below. The river had crested its banks and was creeping across the floor of the valley. Someone had cut a path through the fallen timber. It was a tight squeeze, but Nick got the van through with only a few scratches. Kyle followed carefully behind him.

Long fingers of ink-black clouds were reaching across the sky as they started the downward trek.

“There,” Wisp said pointing to the switchback visible below them. “See that jut of stone?”

Nick slowed to focus on where Wisp was pointing. Rugged stands of rock sheltered the road from the drop off on several of the hairpin turns. Down on the left was a pull-out tucked in between the sheer wall of the mountain and the outer ring of stone. It was as good as they were going to find. The light was fading and fat drops of rain spattered on the windshield. “Let Kyle know,” he instructed Wisp.

They crept down the mountain on a slick road in pounding rain. Nick backed into the shelter to keep an eye on what might come down the road towards them. He put his right side as close to the rock as possible, giving him just enough room to squeeze out of the door in an emergency. Kyle did the same, pulling in close to them. One more vehicle could have fit if carefully maneuvered. Nick was just about to say how lucky they were when the rain turned to hail. The racket was deafening. Nick worried about the windshield, then remembered it was bullet proof. The vehicle was probably safe.

A big branch landed in the road in front of them. Nick’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. He had a nasty feeling this was going to be a bad one. Hail covered the road with a blanket of white, pounding down and bouncing off rocks. Another branch sailed past, blown by fierce winds, tumbling along the ground. The temperature dropped. Nick turned off the air conditioner, but left the van running. He wanted a quick getaway if needed. The battering from the hail slowed, but rain quickly made up for it. Water began running down the road toward them, pushing flotillas of ice. The shelter was graded at a slight pitch toward the road. Both streams joined to plummet down the switchbacks gathering strength at each of the sharp curves buttressed in stone. A few small branches rushed past in a heap of leaves.

Nick was glad they were out of the main road. The water looked about ankle deep and running fast enough to knock a man off his feet. The sky was still dark, but the rain was slacking off. He took a breath hoping they’d gotten through unscathed.

“Not yet,” Wisp said softly. He was watching the sky.

Nick forced himself to relax in his seat. There was nothing to do while they were stuck here, so he might as well take a minute to stretch. Maybe get a snack.

“Get down!” Wisp yelled as he hunched over.

Something hit the van hard sending a deep shudder through it and blocking the windshield. Nick had ducked, arms covering his head. He looked up, but the van was too dark to see. Wisp flipped on the interior lights.

Nick looked around. “Everyone okay?”

Everyone was seated, looking a bit surprised. There was no apparent damage to the interior of the vehicle. Nick looked closer at the windshield, it was covered with branches, apparently a tree had come down on them. He grabbed the radio. “Kyle? You guys okay over there?”

“We are fine,” Kyle answered. “There is a dent in the roof.”

Nick listened, but didn’t hear any rain. He tried the door, pushing against another branch, but couldn’t get it open more than a few inches. “Damn. Wisp, try your door.”

Wisp’s door was also blocked. Nick released the side door which slid back about a foot before snagging on something. He squeezed out of it into a faceful of pine needles. He could feel that the branches were fewer lower and got down on his hands and knees to crawl out. Twigs grabbed at his clothes and hair as he burrowed his way toward the front of the van. He stumbled out into the road, finally clear of the tree, into a light rain. Only to find he was surrounded by the debris of a massive tree that had fallen from high above on to the road to shatter into pieces. The trunk was blocking the road, the canopy was on the vans.

Wisp wiggled out from under the branches. Kyle came out a few feet further up the tree. He looked around at the mess. “This presents a problem.”

Nick burst out laughing. “Yes it does.”

“Whenever someone, or a group of people, managed to create more than they needed for survival and started looking for communities to trade with, they opened themselves up to attack.”

History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss

Nick laughed till tears ran down his face. One by one people crawled out of the vans to stand nervously watching him. He knew it was worrying them. He could feel the hysteria building inside himself and the safest release right now was laughter. They wanted him to be a leader when all he wanted was to be on his own. All the tension and anger flowed out in great guffaws. His stomach hurt, and it was getting hard to catch his breath by the time the giggles petered out. Wisp hadn’t said a word. The biobot walked away from the group toward the rock wall on the side of the road. Nick caught his breath, brushed the pine needles out of his hair and checked the sky. The storm was moving, wind pushing the darkest clouds towards the east.

“Nick!” Wisp was standing on the wall looking out over the road.

Nick walked over to him. “Is the storm coming back?”

“People in trouble.” Wisp pointed.

He climbed up the pile of stone next to Wisp. Below he could see the final four switchbacks down to the wide river valley. He could just make out where the road should be under the river which lay muddy and bloated across the valley. To the south of the road, a horse cart was struggling toward higher ground. It was piled with crates. A man and a woman were in the bed and two men were walking. The water wasn’t dangerously deep, maybe knee high, but from the way the horses moved, the cart was stuck. The woman was screaming. He could barely hear her. She stood on the back of the cart, struggling against the man, trying to get off. Behind them, small figures floundered in the water. Children?

Kyle joined them. “If we can get the horses up here, they could help us move the tree.”

Nick looked back at the chunk of tree laying on the vehicles. There was no way that they would be able to move it without help.

“They’re stuck,” Wisp said. “And I think they can’t swim.”

“Okay, Kyle, let our folks know what’s happening, and get some guys to help. Wisp come with me.”

They hiked down the road. The rain petered out to a heavy mist. As they rounded the second switchback, they could hear the woman screaming. She was calling out to the youngsters floundering in the water behind the cart. He couldn’t imagine why the man on the cart wouldn’t let her help them. The two men were at the front were trying to calm the horses who were fighting against the dead weight of the mired wagon.

The last section of road was ankle deep in cold water. Nick and Wisp splashed down the road toward the horses. The people hadn’t noticed them, being so caught up in the horses and children. Nick called out, “Hello the cart!”

Heads snapped towards him. “We’re stuck up the road,” Nick yelled as they approached them. “Thought maybe we could help each other out.”

One of the men at the head of the horses slogged toward them. He was a little younger than Nick and looked very strong. He wore a worn leather vest over a thick cotton shirt that looked handmade. He raised his hands as if pushing them away. “Nothing for you here friend.”

Nick swung wide of the man and made for the children with Wisp silently following. No one could move quickly in the muddy water. The footing was uneven and slippery, sloping down toward the river. As he splashed past the cart the water rose above his knees, slowing him even more. The people on the cart saw him

“Help them!” she cried.

Nick saw now why the man was holding on to her. The woman was heavily pregnant. As he got closer, he saw that he’d been wrong about the children, too. For a minute, he wasn’t sure what they were, until he saw the tattoo. They were biobots, but small. A tiny man and woman barely up to Nick’s waist, which put them nearly chest deep in the water. The man was struggling to hold up the little woman, who looked barely conscious. Nick slogged forward and scooped her up in his arms.

“No!” the small man yelled reaching after her.

“It’s okay,” Nick yelled over his shoulder. “We’re just here to help.”

“What do you want with us? Leave us alone!”

Wisp grabbed the man by his jacket, half dragging him out of the deep water.

Nick turned so the small man could see his companion. “I promise I’m a good guy,” he said, hoping humor would help.

“There aren’t any,” the man replied bitterly.

Kyle had arrived by then with Tonka, Lester, Quinton and Richard. They took on the stuck wagon rocking it out of its mud pit and pushing it across the rough terrain back on to the solid roadbed. Wisp and Nick brought the biobots across the road and up some rocks to dryer ground. The other men staggered up to join them. The pregnant woman was carefully helped down by her man. Muddy and exhausted everyone sat on the wet boulders catching their breath. It took a few minutes before the strangers pulled back into ranks. Nick wondered if weapons were about to come out when Ruth, Ellen and Lara came down the road with clean water and cheese sandwiches.

“Who are you people?” asked the man who had tried to stop Nick.

“Just people,” Nick said around a mouthful of sandwich. “We’re stuck up the road. Figured if we gave you a hand, maybe you’d return the favor.” He put out a hand, “Nick of High Meadow.”

“Everett,” the man responded shaking Nick’s hand. “We’ve had some tough times.”

Nick took that as an apology. They finished introductions between bits of sandwich. With Everett was his brother Joshua, Mary, Joshua’s wife and Harold, Mary’s brother. The biobots were Dieter and Elsa. Nick noticed that they didn’t even blink at Wisp. Although Dieter’s eyes did linger a bit.

“Cheese,” Mary said with such longing in her voice. “You have cows?”

“No, just traded for it. Creamery has cows.” Nick gestured behind them. “Other side of the mountain.”

“You’re a trader,” Everett said the word as if it were new to him.

“Yup. I usually travel by train, but this trip was a little different.”

Ruth snickered, a touch of scorn in her voice. “You can say that again.”

Harold had been walking around the horses checking them and the harness. Now that they were closer, Nick could see that they were some sort of big workhorse with massive shoulders and feathered fetlocks. Harold came back and accepted a sandwich from Ellen with a nod of thanks. “They look OK, but I think they’re going to need to rest.” He took a bite and his eyes got large. “Cheese?”

“They don’t have cows,” Mary said quickly.

She and Harold exchanged a look. He shrugged. She looked away. Nick felt that he’d missed a whole story in those few gestures. He looked at the wooden wagon. It had seen better days. There were a few crates tied down and a place for Mary to rest. Otherwise it looked like the men walked. Everyone was wet and the wind was whipping up again. He looked at the sky.

“I think we’ve seen the worst of it,” Elsa said. She had a soft voice with a slight accent that Nick couldn’t immediately place. “Thank you for helping us.”

“You’re welcome.”

“What do you ask of us?” Dieter asked sharply.

“Actually it would be the horses,” Nick said. “If they’re okay.”

“They are not for sale,” Everett said firmly.

“There’s a tree down on our vehicle,” Nick said gently. “We just need some extra muscle to pull it away.”

It took a little more discussion and an offer of payment in cheese to get the newcomers to agree to bring the horses up the road. The farmers had axes and a couple lengths of rope with them. To Nick’s relief they also seemed to have to experience hauling big things with the horses. With all the men and the strength of the two horses, the tree was shifted quickly. Everett and Harold looked a little alarmed when they saw the vans underneath, but Nick kept smiling and Wisp handed out packaged cookies from the lab.

Harold walked the big horses over to the rock wall where a thin strip of weeds was eating away at the edges of the asphalt. He unharnessed them and left them to graze. Joshua settled Mary on a log to rest before the long walk back down to the wagon where the biobots were waiting. Everett lingered to repeat his thanks for the aid and to collect their payment in cheese. His eyes widened when he saw Nick's bounty.

“The least I can do is offer you the hospitality of High Meadow,” Nick said. “We have a doctor. You can rest there for a little while before going on.” He didn’t ask where they were going to, that was too personal a question these days.

“A doctor?” Mary frowned. “Really?”

“And horses,” Wisp added.

“You have horses? How many?” Harold asked.

“Four?” Nick looked to Wisp for confirmation. “They just arrived a few days ago. Got lost in a storm. We found their owner, and he’s decided to join us.”

“Mares?”

Nick looked to Wisp again.

“Molly’s female I assume,” Wisp said with a shrug. “I’m not sure how old she is.”

“What do you use them for?” Everett asked.

“Right now they’re recovering. Not sure that we have a plan for them,” Nick said. “Although our Watch captain might be using them for messages. But the manure’s a plus for the crops.”

“Crops?” Everett moved closer. “What do you grow?”

“Well, we’re not very good at it,” Nick confessed. “We do some grain and vegetables.”

“Are the fields safe?” Mary asked. There was a deep sadness in her eyes.

“Safe?” Nick asked trying to draw her out.

“Bandits burned us out. We fled...” Tears filled her eyes as she turned to Joshua who put his arm around her.

“We lost good people,” Everett said flatly.

“Sorry to hear that,” Nick said. “Ran into trouble a while back at a small settlement. Riverbank lost almost everyone to some well-armed men “

Everett gave him a tight nod. “We didn’t have a chance against that.”

“High Meadow has a Watch run by a soldier. He keeps us safe,” Nick said. He needed to tell Martin to beef up security. He didn’t like to hear of another settlement that had been attacked.

“We’ll have to discuss it,” Everett said, avoiding his eyes.

Wisp shifted his position. “It is a good place. Your biobots will be safe there.”

“They’re not mine,” Everett said, then backtracked. “I mean, Mary’s their keeper.”

Nick waved a hand in denial. “Not a problem. Wisp doesn’t really have a keeper.”

“Huh.” Everett looked over at the horses. “Well we’re looking for some farmland. Couldn’t hurt to have a strong neighbor.”

Nick smiled despite the sudden sinking feeling. Things had changed. He could feel it in his gut that the world had just made one more loop in its death spiral.

*    *    *

Melissa sat on a high rock by the side of the road and listened to the farmers natter on with Nick. She wasn’t interested. Something about this trip had jarred some memories loose and she was trying her hardest to pull them out into the light and get a good look at them. The tall farmer laughed and moved away, so she could see the young woman in profile. She was very pregnant. Had to be close to her ninth month or with twins. And the memories burst open.

Melissa froze, overwhelmed by the knowledge that crashed into her. She was a mother. She’d borne three children. Her husband was dead. It was only her taking care of the children, keeping them safe. They had run from the city after the riots. They had run from the small town when the people in charge tried to wall them in. Those were her last memories of them. They left in the darkest part of the night with only what they could carry. She remembered walking all night with the littlest one so exhausted. Her mouth went dry and her hands started to shake.

Where were her children?

*    *    *

Nick set about sorting everyone out and planning the route. Wisp assured him that they were only a few hours from High Meadow. They made a caravan with the horse cart bringing up the rear. He didn’t want to box them in with the two vans, it might make them feel trapped. He drove slowly enough that they could  keep up. The road out of the valley climbed a low hill and flattened for a long straight line north. The flooding had wiped out the road completely in some places. It was better on the rise, but turned into a potholed mosaic on the straight-away. After an hour of jostling along the rough road, Joshua accepted the invitation for Mary to ride in one of the vans. She was joined by Elsa, although Nick couldn’t imagine how the small woman could protect her if things went sideways.

They crossed a river on a high stone bridge then on to a dirt road that was thick with mud. It slowed the horses even more. Nick was beginning to worry that they would have to stop to rest them. He kept waiting for Everett to signal for a break. None came, and they inched along the road making painstaking progress. The sun was low behind the trees when the High Meadow train finally station came into view.