“That is our intention. We would just as soon not tell too many people.”
“You told me.” Terry paused, thinking through the implications.
“Heh… Yeah, we did. We’re taking the chance that you will respect what we have done, and what we have to say. We’re not going to bury you in the woods. We really hope those days are over.”
“Well, my assignment requires that I go back and report on exactly what I see.”
“Is that your assignment, or one that someone else gave you?”
“It’s my job, my responsibility, sir.”
Bill turned to his brother and said, “I told you he was a good kid.”
Tom just nodded with a mouth full of asparagus.
Bill faced Terry again. “We’ll talk about it more tomorrow.”
They finished dinner among idle chat that Terry noticed left out a lot of details. He figured they were trying to give him some information without risking anything important. Eventually, Bill stood up and set his napkin on the plate. “Well, time for me to get some sleep. Talking wears me out. Aggie will get you set up with a place to sleep, and I’ll come back in the morning.”
Twenty minutes later, Terry was under a wool blanket in an upstairs room. Aggie had shown him the honest to goodness bathroom with the flush toilet and the shower. She had also given him some clothes for the night, and told him she would get his uniform washed by morning. Amazing… Even more amazing was the hug she gave him before she disappeared downstairs. People in Manchester were not inclined to touch. Too many years of disease had made public touching a sort of taboo. Handshakes had eventually come back, but hugs with near strangers… No way. He was a typical young man, in that the feel of her chest on his stayed with him through the shower, and until he finally fell asleep.
Terry woke in the cool gray of predawn. The house was silent, other than an occasional slide and shuffle from the other room. He assumed it came from whoever was on guard duty this morning. His binder full of official forms was still out on his bike, but he had a little notebook that he normally carried in his back pocket. He picked it off of a chair, and slid the charcoal pencil out of the spine, and began to take notes.
May 21, 2049. Found my assigned plot 13-403 without trouble. Discovered it to be inhabited. Everything they taught us was to report this situation and let the county handle it, but I have met them and they have me effectively caught here for now. I guess I’ll learn as much as possible and hope they let me leave.
Terry intended to write more, but he heard a door close downstairs and heavy footsteps across the kitchen floor. He tucked his notebook into the pocket of his borrowed pants and waited to see what might happen. Bill knocked twice on the bedroom door and said, “You up, Terry?”
“Yes, Bill.”
“Ok. Grab your boots and let’s get going.”
“Yes, sir.”
Terry gathered up his boots and other gear and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. Bill was sitting at the table with a hot cup of some kind of tea. He waved Terry to a chair, and got up to pour another cup.
“This is the time of day that my folks would always say, ‘What I wouldn’t give for a cup of coffee right now’.” Bill snorted an aborted attempt at a laugh.
Terry smiled and replied, “Pappy always said that too. Every once in a while, Granny would bite his head clean off for saying it, too.”
Bill set the cup in front of Terry, and took his seat again. Terry took a sip and couldn’t quite identify all the flavors, but it was good, much better than the stuff they made at home. They sat in silence, apparently both gathering their thoughts.
Finally Bill broke the spell. “You know, when we first settled on this piece of land, everything was still wild, bullets flying, and folks killing each other to keep from starving.”
“I know you said eleven years…” Terry answered.
“Well, we’ve actually lived here for that long, but we’ve been in the area since the Breakdown. We were working on parts of it long before that. We found ways to survive early on, but eventually we wanted something that felt like a real place, a way to make contact with others. We were so tired of starting every conversation with gunshots, and ending most of them with a shovel in the woods.”
“Yeah. When I was ten we had a war with Tullahoma over corn. It was crazy. They had us kids collecting rocks to throw, since only about 100 people had any guns left.”
“Tullahoma is pretty much gone now. It was always lousy for farming. There were a couple of rich maniacs over there who got the idea that they should become the lords of the manner, since it was working for them before the Breakdown. They blew up Normandy Dam to try to flood Shelbyville and conquer the remains. They managed the flood, but Shelbyville had good, well-fed farmers all around, not to mention all those horses. The Tullahoma group was pretty well eaten up before they made it halfway. Who would have thought cavalry would make the difference in the 21
st
century?”
Bill set his cup down with a solid thump. “Well… I’ve been talking about a tour for too long. How about we go have a look?
Terry took a last long swig from his own cup and carefully placed it on the table. It was an antique, and his family only had a few made from actual ceramic. Most of the dishes at home were made from baked clay, with no real finish. This particular mug had “Breast Cancer Walk-a-thon 2009” written in pink, swoopy letters on it.
Bill got to his feet, set the mugs on the counter, and headed out the door. Outside, it was still cool, with that steamy mist that promised to burn off into another hot day in the South. Terry followed Bill down the steps and turned to check on his bike. It was gone!
“Don’t worry. We just put it in the garage for safe keeping.” Bill watched him closely. At the look of open suspicion on Terry’s face, he added, “We can go check on it if it’ll make you feel better.”
Terry thought about it, and said, “No, that’s ok. I believe you.” He did think that he was being controlled just a little more than was comfortable, but he was in it now. It would either work out, or it wouldn’t.
Bill opened the big gate, and waited for Terry to step through before he closed it again. Bill raised his right hand for a few seconds, and then took it down and started walking. Terry looked around for whoever Bill was signaling, but saw no one.
“This is a just a pasture field. Its main purpose is to create a buffer between our working land and the guard houses, but a few times a year, we let in the livestock to graze here. The land on both sides, we let grow into scrub. It’s hard to see through, much less cross with any kind of force, but if someone tried it, they would find it’s full of little surprises.”
“Surprises?” Terry asked.
“I could tell you, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise, now would it?” Bill answered with an evil grin.
They came to a place where the land began to drop off, and in a few more steps, Terry could see the flat expanse of land below. What he saw almost made him drop to his knees. Every slope above the shelf was scattered with cattle, and goats, and sheep, and even some horses. The fences were built of split rails and recovered barb wire, and in every case, extended only far enough up the slope to guarantee that they couldn’t be seen from a distance. The flat land below was a ring of gardens and small patches of crop field, punctuated by barns and sheds, and inside the ‘crop circle’ was a small, clean, fully functional town. He could see houses, and stores, and even a small church from here. Beyond the town, crop fields extended until the land dropped again, into what looked like a river channel, judging by the heavy trees. Most importantly, there were people, and Terry could tell, even from up on the rim, that they were healthy, and clean, and busy making a community work.
“What do you think?” Bill asked.
On closer inspection, Terry saw two more aspects that pushed the sense of awe he was feeling. The first was that there were wires strung on poles around the entire valley, and the second was that there were extensive and subtle defenses woven in everywhere. Most of the work looked like it had two purposes, as if someone really smart had figured out a way to make defenses that worked when needed, but got out of the way when the fighting was over.
“Amazing.” Terry finally said.
“Yeah, it’s pretty good nowadays. It took a long time to build. Let’s go say hello.”
The men angled to the right to pick up a gravel path that led down into town, and followed it until they passed two large barns on either side of the lane. The barn was littered with small subtle doors that could only be weapon ports, and one barn supported a massive gate that could be closed against the other to wall off the town. The gate and barns were clad in metal up to about 15 feet, but it was all painted to look like the wood. Terry was beginning to appreciate the thought that had gone into it. As they passed the gate, Terry could see that the fences were much taller than they had appeared and contained enough extra layers of wire and barbs at the bottom to make it very hard to penetrate. From the inside, he could see that the barns also had fighting platforms on the inside slopes of the roofs that provided a clear shot out to the borders of the community land while giving cover with the metal of the barn roofs themselves. Clever… He looked around and saw that there were four more pairs of similar barns all the way around the town.
“Welcome to Teeny Town! You already see how it works, huh?”
“Well, sir… Bill. I see some of it, but from what I do see, I bet I’m missing a lot more.”
“Smart man. Let’s go get a drink.”
Bill and Terry walked through town where men, women, and small children were out and about. They waved sent cheerful greetings to Bill, and waved and said hello to Terry. It was far friendlier and more relaxed than Manchester had ever been in Terry’s lifetime. By now the sun high enough to cast long shadows from the east, and people were gathering into the shady areas under the constant covered porches of the various shops. The buildings seemed to follow a common pattern of stone first stories, made from the dirt-common iron chert rock of the region, and wooden upper stories made from surprisingly well finished lumber. The roofs were mostly corrugated metal, with and occasional asphalt shingle and wood shake roof. The roadway was covered with limestone gravel, river stone, and crushed iron chert of the same kind in the building walls.
Bill was talking the entire time, but it faded in and out for Terry, who was trying to see everything all at once. “…and we salvaged or traded for tools and materials from all over the region. We even set up some pretty good partnerships, which is why I want you to meet someone.”
They stepped up to the broad porch of what could only be a restaurant or bar. They passed the neatly arranged tables and walked through open glass double doors into the deep shadow of the interior. Terry blinked and waited for his eyes to adjust. When he could see again, he saw that the place was mostly empty. Bill held up two fingers to the portly man behind the bar and led Terry to an enclosed booth in the back corner. For the second time this morning, Terry felt his knees wobble.
Sitting at the booth was his boss at the Reclamation Office, Dusty Bearden.
“Well, Mr. Shelton. I see you have managed to find all kinds of trouble since yesterday.” Dusty had a harsh look of anger on his face.
“Sir, uh… well, you see…” Terry stammered, trying to get the Earth to settle under him.
Dusty and Bill both broke up into raucous laughter. It took long seconds for Terry to understand that he was not actually in trouble, and full minutes before the other men stopped laughing and snorting.
Finally, Bill said, “Relax, Terry. This is one of the surprises I was talking about.”
“It’s a surprise, all right.” Terry was angry now. “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on here?”
Dusty took his turn. “Terry, calm down. I’ve known Bill here for… well, since before you were born, and I’ve been a part of his group since before there were houses here. I sent you out here for a reason.”
“What reason?” Terry took a deep breath to calm himself. “What reason?”
Bill said, “Dusty here keeps the county out of our hair.”
Dusty added, “And I do it because, despite all they teach you about honor and duty in the county school, rebuilding works better this way. By the end of the day, you’ll know that too.”
“What do you mean?” Terry looked back and forth at the two men, who were sliding back into the booth opposite him.
Dusty replied, “I could answer that for you, but you’re here because the other thing I do is find smart young people in town, and send them to learn for themselves. I bet you could sit here right now and tell me what’s wrong with what’s going on in town.”
Terry thought for a minute and said, “I know already that these people live much better than we do in town, except for a very few people…”
“Exactly,” Dusty said, “There are a few rich landowners who were smart enough to see how to grab as much for themselves as they could. For everyone else, it’s the minimum it takes to get by, just enough to work for those landowners, so about five families can keep getting richer.”
Bill added, “I know they don’t teach history anymore, but the basic idea is that before the Breakdown, this was a country of opportunity. People could come from all over the world to work hard and make a life for themselves here. Without boring you to tears, the reason the Breakdown happened in the first place was that we lost that idea. We were living to make a few people really rich, and they were working to make it so that all we could do any more was make them rich. They took away our ability to do for ourselves, and when the breakdown happened, we were not prepared.”