Lethal Seasons (A Changed World Book 1) (27 page)

“The hope of survival dwindles with every flu season, and still we fight and kill our brethren.”

History of a Changed World
, Angus T. Moss

Tilly watched the storm shutters retract with a unreasonable fear that fluttered in her stomach and clutched around her heart. The pale light of dawn shone in through the main doors. She forced herself to walk to the doors and look out. There were no bodies on the steps. Somehow during the night she had convinced herself that they had shut out some stragglers or children. She put her hand on the cold glass and let out a sigh of relief.

Lottie marched past her and right out the door followed by Everett and Harold. A burst of cold wet air rushed down the hallway raising goosebumps along Tilly’s arms. She watched them head for the controls for the storm sheeting that covered the crops. There didn’t appear to be any damage, but Lottie would want to make a careful inspection.

Tilly looked out over her small kingdom once more but found nothing amiss. She went to the kitchen to see if breakfast had been started. All of her new helpers were there, Mary, Jean and some of the ex-prisoners. Coffee was ready and hot food was being put into serving trays for the warming tables.

“Crazy night,” Jean said as she handed Tilly a cup of coffee.

“Yes,” Tilly said. She wrapped her hands around the warm mug. “A little too crazy.”

“But we’re all here,” Jean said sharply. “All of us.”

Tilly shared a relieved look with her. Jean would carry the scars of surviving Riverbank’s massacre for a long time. It was that much more important for her to see a successful defense. They’d had no casualties. All of the men who’d been shot would survive. “Our plan worked.”

Mary startled her with a hug. Tilly hurriedly handed her mug back to Jean as the young woman squeezed her tight.

“You saved us,” Mary said tearfully. “This is why we had to leave our beautiful farm. Bandits. They were heartless. When it started happening last night, I thought I would just die.”

Tilly patted her back. “You’re safe here dear.”

Mary let her go and stepped back to look at her. “I don’t know if that will always be true, but at least it is for now. And you can’t know how much that means to us. We lost...” She shook her head breathing hard against the tears.

“We lost damn near everyone at Riverbank,” Jean said bitterly. “Didn’t have a chance against automatic weapons.”

Tilly saw the look that went between Mary and Jean. She knew the two of them would bond through their losses. “It’s become a very cruel world,” Tilly said softly. “We need to keep civilization alive as best we can.”

“Well said, my dear,” Angus said as he entered the kitchen. “We will be having a meeting in the small auditorium after lunch. Please spread the word. It’s posted on the hall boards, but let’s all make sure the children attend.”

Tilly poured a coffee for him. “I’ve assigned minders for all the new children.”

“Excellent.” Angus gave her a kiss as he accepted the coffee. “I must speak to Martin and Nick now, I’ll see you in a bit.” He twirled on his heel and strolled out of the kitchen.

“How long have you been married?” Mary asked.

“Nine years,” Tilly said with a smile at the dead silence that followed. People thought she and Angus had been married forever. And usually it felt that way to her, too. But the truth was a little stranger, as real life often was.

“We are stuck in a backward progression of civilization. As we lose the numbers needed for manufacturing, we are forced to return to cottage industries. Unfortunately, we must learn those skills from old books and manuals as extremely few living know how to build a loom or kiln or butter churn.”

History of a Changed World
, Angus T. Moss

Wisp took the bandage off his head to look at the wound. A bloody line as thick as his finger went from his temple to above his ear. It ached, but already the pain had begun to fade. He healed very quickly. There were men in pain, and people worried nearby. It made his head hurt worse. He waited for an opening in the people visiting and slipped out of the infirmary unnoticed. He took a side corridor to the north stairs and down to the back of the cafeteria. He felt Tilly in the hallway even before he’d come around the corner.

She smiled at him and held out a tray. “I knew you’d be sneaking out.”

He gave her a smile back. There was a lot of fear underneath her grin and he respected her for keeping such a tight grip on it. “Thank you, that’s very kind.”

“Angus said you took down half the bandits yourself.”

“Possibly.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thank you.”

He took the food and headed for the field house. It would feel good to have some distance between him and so many worried people. He ate quickly knowing it would be a busy day. The horses were out in the meadow, so he had the building to himself. A few people were working in the field, but their thoughts were clean and simple about dirt and weeds and sunshine. He rested the intangible muscles of his brain, relaxing in the comparative mental silence around him.

After breakfast, he walked the perimeter listening for any minds that didn’t belong. He passed the men on Watch. Some caught a glimpse of him and waved. Nothing felt out of place. He went back to the field house and ran though some martial exercises to stretch his body and warm up his blood. He was thinking about getting some more food when Nick arrived with a second breakfast for him.

“Tilly said she already fed you, but that was at the crack of dawn,” Nick said. He put the tray on the desk Wisp used as a table.

Wisp noticed that there were two coffees on the tray. Nick helped himself to one and sat heavily into an armchair. Wisp gladly sat down to more food.

“You are uneasy,” Wisp said between bites.

“I want to know where those kids’ parents went.”

Wisp nodded. “We can leave as soon as you like.”

“I promised Martin that we would just take a look around and not engage with anyone.”

“An approach I prefer myself,” Wisp said. He could sense that Nick was armed. He wanted more than the belt knife he was carrying, but wondered if Martin would allow it. He cleared the plate and swallowed the last bit of coffee before rising to show Nick his readiness.

*    *    *

Nick drove one of the black vans up the road where they’d found the children the day before. Branches and greenery were scattered across the pavement. A large tree had come down but was far enough away that just the top of the canopy brushed the edges of the road. Nick drove over the shoulder on the far side and cleared it easily.

Wisp spread out his senses as they left the Med Center. He could feel the horses in the pasture. The chickens meandering through the fields. Further up the hill, he could feel the outliers, and then they were behind him. As they climbed into the forest, he felt a scattering of small wild animals deep in the trees, possibly foxes or raccoons, rabbits probably. There were no bright minds of higher intelligence nearby.

Nick stopped the van at the blow-down. They got out and followed the trail of sawdust back through the tumbled tree trunks to a river. Wisp thought the stream behind High Meadow must come off this larger waterway. Further down the bank, along a well worn trail was a saw mill with a working water wheel.

“Well look at that,” Nick said, excitement rising in him.

“You know this place?”

Nick chuckled and Wisp could feel the mist of memories rising in him. “It’s a museum. I was here as a kid on a school trip. Looks like they’ve got it working.”

They inspected the mill. Tools lay scattered across the floor as if suddenly dropped. Lunchboxes and jackets were in the cloakroom. Wisp carefully touched a few objects to sense the owners, but he didn’t delve into any of them. “Alive,” he said brushing his hand over a jacket. “Alive, alive.” A lunchbox, a hat, a work glove.

“Can you tell where?” Nick asked.

Wisp picked up the work glove and concentrated. The owner was a short man with a hot temper. He was furious at the moment, but the heat of his anger was faded by distance. “Far away,” Wisp said. “West, south-west of here.”

“How far away?”

Wisp tried to tie the feeling to geography. “Further than the lab. Maybe twice as far.”

“Are they together?”

Wisp went back to the hat and the jacket. “Yes. They feel like they are in the same area.”

“Any clues?”

“They are angry,” he pointed in turn at the glove, hat and jacket, “frightened and resigned.”

“Don’t like the sound of that,” Nick said with a scowl.

“I can’t say more without delving.” At Nick’s raised eyebrow, he explained. “I’d need some quiet and an article of constant use. I might be able to pick up a bit more than just surface emotions.”

Nick nodded. “Not today.” He turned back toward the entrance. “I promised Martin we’d just look around.”

They were walking down the front steps when Wisp felt it. He missed a step and stumbled. Nick grabbed his arm, flooding Wisp with Nick’s thoughts—concern, curiosity and anger. “What?”

Wisp pulled free to clear out Nick’s thoughts. “Pain.” He turned feeling out around himself carefully.

“Yours?” Nick asked with some skepticism.

“No.” Wisp replied, feeling uncharacteristically proud of Nick for figuring it out. He leaned into the pain. “It’s fading. That usually means they’re fainting. He. It’s a man.” He followed the strongest sense of pain around behind the stairs. There was a low door.

“Wait,” Nick stepped in front of him, gun in hand. “Let me go first.” He pushed the door open carefully.

Wisp hung back. Nick went into a dirt-floored storage room. Light from the door showed stacks of boxes, a pile of pallets and a few fifty-gallon drums on the left. A foot was showing from behind the drums. Wisp stayed at the door while Nick checked the man. He reached out one more time to double check the area. A group of deer was drinking from the river on the other side. A flock of starlings flew overhead. Nothing human was nearby.

“He’s been shot,” Nick said. “Give me a hand.”

They carried the man to the van and raced back to High Meadow.

“With constant uncertainty dogging our steps, we struggle in the day to day. This rarely gives us the luxury of time to plan for the future.”

History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss

Nick stood with Angus and Martin in the hallway outside the infirmary. The man from the mill was in bad shape, gut shot, blood loss, dehydration.

“As soon as he is out of surgery, we will have the youngster...do we know his name?”

“Micah,” Martin answered.

“Micah, yes. We’ll have him take a look at this fellow and see if he can identify him. Martin, have you spoken to the children?”

“Just Micah. The others are too young to be much help. I can’t believe he got them all together and on the road.” Martin shook his head in admiration.

“What could he tell you?”

“Not a lot. Nine families. Most of them work at the mill. They have a small settlement on the other side of the river in an old neighborhood. There were four mothers who watched all the kids. Men showed up in black vans and took the women. Micah ran up to the mill, and there was no one there either. All the kids are told to come down here to High Meadow in times of trouble.”

“And yet we don’t know them,” Angus said curiously.

“Micah said they weren’t supposed to talk to people.”

Nick’s internal alarm went off. “Why not?”

“Don’t know, but he was wearing new jeans.”

“Who do they mill the lumber for?” Nick wondered aloud. “Most folks are in settlements like this. No one is building.”

“And they don’t advertise,” Martin added.

“Black vans, armed men, new jeans,” Nick grumbled. “Sounds like something government related again.”

“Why would they abandon the children?” Angus said shaken and angry.

“If they’re hired muscle like Rutledge’s men, they aren’t too smart,” Nick snarled. “We need to go back and take a look at their settlement. Maybe we can find something that would help make sense out of this.”

“Yes,” Angus said slowly, thoughtfully. “Also if there is clothing for the children and diapers. Tilly is beside herself over that.”

Martin nodded. “I’ll send a group over. I want them armed and with plenty of back up.”

Nick relaxed a little, glad to not have to be the one going out again. And yet, a little annoyed at not being asked. “And keep an eye out for anyone that managed to elude the kidnappers. You might want to bring Micah to coax out anyone hiding.”

“Right,” Martin said as he turned to leave.

“Be careful,” Nick added.

Martin shot him a look.

“Now you know what it feels like,” Nick mumbled.

“Problem, Nicky?” Angus asked.

“No,” Nick said with a smug smile.

“Come,” Angus said beckoning him along. “I want to pick your brain.”

They headed back to Angus’s office. When they arrived there were already a few people waiting. Nick stayed in the hall as Angus dealt with the others.

“Nick?” Leo, one of the ex-prisoners, approached with a look of conciliation.

“Hey. Settling in all right?”

“Yes. Fine. This is all that you advertized.” Leo rubbed hands together in a nervous gesture.

“But you doubted,” Nick said gently.

“I’ve got good reasons.”

Nick squeezed his shoulder. “I’m sure you do, and I’m glad you know now that I didn’t lie to you.”

“Yeah, well, I’d like to clear some things up.”

“Should we wait for Angus?”

Leo shook his head. “No, you can tell him. It isn’t earth shaking, I just thought you should know...I, um, I used to work for Rutledge.”

Nick frowned. This was a new twist. “Okay.”

“But I saw where he was going with the...um, vaccine, and I fought with him. Next thing I know you’re breaking me out.”

“How long were you in there?”

“Best I can tell, three years.”

“But no one recognized you.”

Leo chuckled, bitter sounding. “I was pushing three hundred pounds back then.” He scratched at his beard. “When I shave this off a few people might recognize me. I’m sure Rutledge told them I left. They might have forgotten me.”

“Did you recognize anyone else in there?”

“Just Melissa.”

Nick got a sinking feeling. “Did she work for Rutledge, too?”

“Nah. She’s not a scientist. Her husband, Ben, worked for him.”

Nick blinked at Leo for a minute. That linked a few things in a way he hadn’t considered. “So the prisoners might be people that didn’t agree with him?”

“Well that’s my story. Can’t tell you what got Melissa put away. Thought you should know.”

Nick nodded distractedly as Leo walked away. Rutledge was sounding more crazy than ever. And he was the man in charge of creating the so-called vaccine for the country. When in reality, he was trying to change the entire human race. Nick shivered. If he was the best they could get, his hopes for the country’s survival were shrinking.

It looked like Angus was going to be tied up for awhile so Nick headed to the cafeteria for some lunch. He saw Jean making herself a cup of coffee and went over.

“How are you doing?”

“Nick. Wow, do you get to stay put for an hour?”

He laughed. “It does seem like that sometimes.”

She gestured to the tables. “I’m taking a break, care to join me?”

He gave her a smile, grabbed some food and sat down at her table. “What are you taking a break from?”

“I’m writing up Angus’s notes for the history.”

“Really? I didn’t think he was anywhere close to that point.”

“I’ve been sorting and organizing,” she said with a proud smile that crinkled her almond-shaped eyes in very attractive way.

“What do you think?”

Her smile faltered. “It’s scary. You know here it’s comfortable and well managed, and I can almost forget what life was like a decade ago. But then I read through the notes, and I’m hit by this devastation.” She stared into her cup for a long moment.

“It’s hard,” he offered, knowing there was no solace for what they had all lost.

“Yes. And this year looks really bad. Some of the notes he’s making really worry me.”

Nick put his fork down. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “Why is that?”

She licked her lips and wrapped her hands around her mug. “It’s possible that there won’t be enough people left to run things.”

“Things?”

“Like the trains.” She took a shaky breath. “Or the factories where they package train food.”

“We don’t know that.” Nick meant for the comment to be reassuring, but it sounded a little panicked to his ears.

“No. Maybe not.”

Their discussion was interrupted by an announcement to attend a meeting in the large auditorium. That startled Nick. When Angus wanted meetings, he usually planned them a couple days out and posted a message on the hall boards. They had never been compulsory before. Jean gave him a nervous look. He shrugged and forced a smile for her. They left together, without a word.

Nick stayed at the door watching people filing into the big room. Everyone had a similar look on their faces. It ran a short gamut from apprehension to flat out fear. When it looked like most of the residents were in attendance, he took a seat in the back row.

Angus stood on stage waiting for everyone to settle down. After a long moment of silence, he spoke. “Thank you for coming. I know everyone has worries and questions. Half of you have been in my office asking those questions all morning. I think it’s best if we discuss this as a community, and let everyone hear the same words.

“First of all I need to tell you that this is an extremely lethal flu season. We’ve been lucky here in our few losses. They will all be deeply missed, but our numbers were very low. I believe that it is going to hit other communities much harder, which means we probably will be taking in people again. If the settlements get hit too hard, they will not be able to sustain themselves, and people will scatter. I’d like to put together a plan to gather refugees. I’ll post a sign-up sheet, and we’ll have a meeting tomorrow to discuss our options.

“The next issue is a bit harder.” Angus paused. He walked over to a table that held a pitcher of water and glasses. Taking his time, he poured and drank some water, letting people brace themselves.

“We need to plan for a worst case scenario. That means no trains, no medicines, no train food.” He sipped his water and let the words sink in. The auditorium remained silent.

“We have some new people who can help us learn some old skills. But we need to prepare now for a winter without any outside help.”

“Are they shutting us out?” someone asked.

Angus gave the speaker a sad smile. “I don’t know. Maybe. We don’t even know who
they
are. Have they survived? Will they continue to send us food and supplies? I just don’t know any of those answers. And that is the problem. We cannot plan if we cannot rely on those things. Therefore, I think it best to plan without them. We will work on building up our self sufficiency. We will grow, barter or gather food. Distill our own medicines. We have this good sturdy building to shelter us. And Martin will be expanding the Watch to keep us safe. Food, medicine, shelter, security, I think those will be our priorities.

“We will form committees for planning and execution. Tilly will be helping with that.” He looked around the auditorium with a sad fondness. “This is a dark time for humankind. We must be smart. We must cooperate with one another. Our very survival depends on it. And as my brilliant wife pointed out, we need to plant our feet firmly before pulling anyone else out of the quicksand. Our community must have a viable plan for survival, and be acting on it, before we can assist anyone else.” He bowed. “Thank you.”

Nick didn’t move out of his seat. For a time, no one did. The tension in the room felt like a held breath. Then Tilly was on her feet yelling about committees and sorting people into groups. She had a clipboard in her hand and was directing a group of people as they moved tables on stage. Nick felt a deep love for her and Angus. He knew that this community would survive because of their foresight.

Martin scooted down the row and sat next to Nick. “Think we should still check out the mill town?”

“Since we don’t know why they were taken, or who took them, I think it’s still important to pursue.”

Martin leaned his arms on the back of the chair in front of him, staring down to where Tilly was reorganizing people. “I’ve never seen Angus like that.”

“It’s stuff like that that makes him a fantastic leader.”

Martin grunted an agreement. “Gotta check in with the Watch,” he said then squeezed past Nick to leave.

Angus wandered down the aisle looking distracted. He stopped when he got to Nick’s row.

“What do you want me to do?” Nick asked.

“If you would head the committee to search for refugees?”

Nick nodded. He’d already started planning in his head as soon as Angus had mentioned it. “Anything else?”

Angus gave him a tired wink. “Father some children.”

End of Book 1 - A Changed World

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