Story Nia and Noah

[Kathy in FL]

Another story that I'm putting here while in progress. Dystopian. In the future but not so far into the future that I would categorize it as sci-fi.

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Chapter 1​

“Nia, did you get it?”

What the heck was a boy doing in the dorm?

“Nia, wake up. Did you get it?!” He hissed quietly.

Geez, what was in the koolaid at dinner last night? I didn’t even change into night clothes. I didn’t even take my freaking shoes off apparently. I know this day was supposed to start differently. What is going on?

I heard, “Forget her man. She’s too drugged up.”

“I am not drugged up,” I slurred. “At least not … I don’t think …” I leaned over the bed railing and saw about three-quarter of the beds were empty. “What’s … what’s going on?” I asked Noah, the guy that had just been shaking me awake.

“Nia, listen carefully,” he repeated slowly and carefully. “Did you get the shot?”

“No,” I answered, sure of at least that much. “I’m allergic to the thermal stabilizer it’s grown in. It’s in my records. That’s how I’ve been getting out of it. Now what’s going on? Why do all the rest of the girls in the dorm look like we had a party we didn’t have and where is everyone else and what the heck are you doing on this side?!”

“Quiet,” he ordered. I listened because he was the alpha of our “family.” “Is your stuff ready to go?”

Brain fog was lifting, and stuff was starting to fall into place. I sat up so fast my head nearly hit the ceiling but I caught myself in time. Other people hadn’t over the years and there were dents and cracks up there that had been poorly repaired and painted over. I was shaky but was able to come down the ladder from my fourth level bunk after Noah dropped down like an oversized jungle cat. He was just as quiet too and before my feet hit the floor he lifted me off the ladder and had me backed against it.

“You swear that place is where you say it is?” he said, getting in my face and shaking me a little. I knew why he was doing it. That didn’t mean I appreciated it.

Pulling my act together I answered, “It was there three years ago just like I told you. The summer camp facilities are probably a little worse for wear, but it will still be there and will hold everyone. I re-checked the records on Sunday when staff were out of the library. The lawyers still have it tied up and the developers that wanted it have gone bankrupt, and pulled out of the lawsuit. Now it is just the environmental whack jobs, and they can’t touch anything right now because they got busted for some other crap they were doing over in Charlotte and are tied up in the new case defending themselves.” I was feeling crowded and Noah had my arm a little too tight. “Please back up. I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m not Trina. I will not let you down.”

He looked uncomfortable just long enough for me to know my point was made but it didn’t stop him from crowding me though he did let go of my arm. “Where’s your stuff?”

I reached over towards the thumb ID lock on the cubby hole that I’d been assigned, and he moved out of the way a little. The cubby was an old gym locker. Instead of solid “walls” it was covered in flat, openwork grating painted some bilious shade of gray-green. The thumb ID lock only gave the illusion of having some privacy and security for your stuff. I’d learned the hard way to keep all my belongings inside my state-issued backpack or risk it being pulled out through the grating an item at a time. That’s how I lost most of my socks and underwear and my gym clothes the first week I’d been reassigned to this facility. But as bad luck as that was, it gave me the chance to apply for, and start working, a couple of hours before and after school because the feds operating this facility believed in us kids, at least the high school population, learning to support ourselves. They say they believe it builds character and prevents you from being more of a burden on society than you are inevitably going to be. They also like it because you have fewer hours to screw around and be a problem. I’d heard they use to have on-site workhouses but that changed when someone sued the Facility System on behalf of all the residents to stop what they termed “slave labor.” One of the few good things to happen for those of us forced to live in the Facility System.

Noah brought me back to the present by asking, “Where’s your coat?”

“I’m wearing it,” I answered referring to the second hand, oversized fleece jersey I had on.

“They never replaced the one Trina stole?”

“No. But I’ve got one at work.”

“Are you fit?” Noah asked with a searching look.

“To take care of business? Yes.” I wanted to ask if that is what we were doing or if this was another drill because plans had changed. But it didn’t feel like a drill, it felt like points were converging, so I kept the question to myself.

Apparently that earned me some brownie points. As he helped me to put my backpack on he noticed how light the pack was compared to normal. “Where are your books?”

“They made me turn them in yesterday for some reason. They probably found something in the textbooks they didn’t like. I’ve got my notebooks and school supplies but that’s it.”

The other boy said, “Good. Less for us to dump before we can get out of here. Noah I know … look, we need to move it. We’ve wasted more time than we should have coming for her. Staff will be here for the next batch any minute. Plus, we need to get to the busses.” I finally placed the voice and would have before if my brain had been firing on all pistons. Froggie’s voice – Noah’s beta, or second in command – was pretty distinct.

Noah turned me to him by grabbing my arm again and told me, “We’ve already lost several of the remaining family. Mostly the fresh and soph girls. Nothing we can do, they went off like lambs to the slaughter when they got promised a trip to the salon for getting their boosters.” I made a face and he nodded. “That means you need to stick close to me until the guys figure out you aren’t a party favor. Some of them were hooked up with those others. Unless that’s what you want.”

The “let-‘em-try-and-then-die” look on my face must have surprised Froggie because he gave Noah a concerned look. Good. The sooner the message was received and believed the better and fewer problems tried. While I did what I could to control the rats’ nest on my head before pulling on a beanie to cover the stupid green dye job Trina and her crew had forced on me two months ago when they’d cornered me at school I said, “I’m low man on the totem pole. I get that. And I get the chain of command. But I bought my way in, I ain’t gonna keep paying just so some guy can get his rocks off. I’ll leave and make it on my own.” That message wasn’t just for Froggie, but he took it that way.

Froggie wanted to be mad, but Noah nodded in agreement before anything else could be said. Out of all of them Noah had seen me fight and knew that I could and would if left no choice. And leave the other person down and bleeding if necessary, as I just walk away with zero remorse. Five years in the system had taught me how to fight dirty whether I’d wanted to learn or not. My first year stole whatever remorse I might have once felt.

None of the others knew me as well as they thought they did because I’d come from a different facility last year. The hair attack wasn’t worth losing my camouflage over, especially as I was under threat of being sent to a hard lockdown juvie facility until I turned eighteen or twenty-one depending on offense if there was any more trouble of the kind I was capable of creating. But I always get my own back and all those skanks had paid in various ways and Noah knew that too. Trina had been his long-time girlfriend until he’d caught her giving family secrets away to the Monitors in exchange for privileges. He’d found out about that from yours truly a month before the hair attack.

When I’d been accepted into the Barbarians, I’d promised to follow the family laws even if it meant ratting out a family member. Any promise I bother making, I bother keeping. That’s my way. But I do keep it my own way. I took what I found to Noah directly, going around Froggie because I already less than trusted him and Froggie didn’t like it. Why bother? First, I didn’t want to be a dead messenger because of the interpersonal crap involved. And second, Froggie gives off vibes that I never cared for, and gossip told me he was Trina’s boyfriend before they broke up and she eventually went with Noah after Froggie started dating some other girl. The other girl is no longer in the picture and there was a story there but all I cared about for now is that it is one less complication I must plan for. What was immediately problematical was a big enough mess.

Trina’s betrayal caused a breach in the Barbarian family. A real schism and not just a small one. She’s been picking us off one by one ever since. There were only a few strong ones left and the other remaining two were standing beside me. Mostly there are weak and weaker members like the stupid freshman and sophomore girls who took the bait all too willingly. Too many had gotten used to what Trina could give them in exchange for “favors.” It was a close thing, nearly destroying the entire Barbarian family before plans of retribution could be made and acted on. But Noah is the strongest alpha I’ve run into since entering the system. Problem as I see it is he is too loyal to those that spout off that they are loyal to him. He doesn’t cover his own back enough, is too willing to take the hit to protect the weaker members. My grandfather would have said, the buck stopped on his desk. The problem was that Trina was attempting social assassination on him and there was someone close willing to do her dirty work.

Froggie should have been covering Noah’s back more, keeping family members in line, and putting a stop to Trina’s crap, but I am pretty sure Froggie is part of the problem. I’m also pretty sure that Froggie’s loyalties are split. Noah set the example and took care of the family and Froggie’s job was to take care of Noah. I didn’t see that it was happening that way however and started making plans of my own with Noah being a big part of them. Mercenary? They’ve called me worse in my mental health records but oh well, like I give a crap what Central and their stupid little minions think of me so long as what they think of me doesn’t interfere with my plans. Froggie? He started being an interference.

Froggie makes too many excuses for Trina. He should have been beating on the disloyal ones instead of making it easy for them to get away and go to the Dark Side. I’ve even heard him suggest to Noah – when they thought they were in private mode – that the Barbarians should blend with Trina’s crew so they at least retain some autonomy, he and Noah could be her lieutenants and then make a play for taking the crew over. Noah gave him a definitive no and told him not to bring it up again. Period. The Barbarians were a family, not a crew, and that was the end of it. That’s when I made my final choice though Noah doesn’t know it. I figured easy enough that Froggie wishes he went with Trina at the split. She is a rarity. A strong female alpha and popular enough that she has drawn a lot of people to her side. She is so good she could be someone only she’s a selfish bitch that only works for herself long term. Short term she acts like she is all good and crap, but she’ll cut her best friend’s throat in public if that is what it takes to get what she wants. Some staff may suspect her real motivations, but for the most part she is treated like today’s It Girl. She has the staff on her side, I mean she’s golden, and turned them against the Barbarians which has caused those of us who remain with Noah unnecessary grief. Me included which I owed her for “bigly” as my dad used to say. And payment was coming due.

That’s when we heard people in the corridor. Froggie looked like he was going to panic but I grabbed Noah’s sleeve and pulled him towards the bathrooms at the end of the room. Froggie balked but I kept moving and Noah with me. Froggie didn’t have any choice but to follow because if he got caught in the girls’ dorm it was an automatic criminal charge that would send him to juvie, and it would make him a three-striker and those kids go to a federal re-education level facility and most of them wind up with their brains blenderized and only fit for human-testing research along with the rest of the livestock.

I opened and then locked the door with the makeshift and non-regulation bolt after pulling them in to the room covered in tiles of the same bilious green color as the lockers. Geez, they acted like the girls’ bathrooms had cooties. After having to help clean the boys’ bathrooms once as a punishment I knew it was definitely the other way around. I went to the third stall and opened it. Using the toilet tank to climb up to the ceiling I removed the vent panel up there. Instead of having to use the rafters to pull myself up I felt Noah boost me. Once I was up and in I turned to give him a hand but he motioned me to move and he climbed up easily followed just as swiftly by Froggie. Once they were up, I ran a finger across my throat to indicate silence. I put the vent cover back in place and then grabbed a couple of bags that I keep stored up there … hygiene stuff mostly but when I pulled the big knife out of one of the bags Froggie’s eyes got wide and Noah’s brows came down in agitation. Oh well. A girl needs her survival gear. And she sometimes needs to make a point even to family members.

It was dark up there but not bat time dark. Plus, I knew the way and had practiced it enough that I could have found it with zero light. Froggie was small and wiry and followed me easily. Noah was seventeen and despite being in the system his entire life was a big guy. Instead of going down like most would have expected, I took them to a roof hatch that was part of the old fire safety codes. The hatch had been sealed shut when I’d first found it. Needless to say, it wasn’t sealed anymore. We climbed out and wound up between the big HVAC systems on the roof that kept the staff offices comfortable. The units were running so we didn’t need to stay silent but did stay quiet.

Froggie ordered, “Finish the map to the camp. Now.”

I looked at Noah but he was starting to look a little messed up. “Something is wrong with Noah.”

“Nothing is wrong with Noah. He just should have gone when I told him to go.”

“He says when it is time to go. He’s the alpha.”

“Is he? You can only be alpha when you have someone to be the alpha of. He’s supposed to look after people. Ain’t no people that listen to him anymore. And look at him now. The drugs have him messed up like they did you. We could have been on the bus by now, but he just had to go back for your crazy ass. No family member left behind. Crock of shit. There ain’t no family no more.” That’s when he pulled a gun. “You gonna finish this map,” he said pulling out the road map I’d been piecing together for them for the last few months. It was one they found when they’d gone through my personal belongings when they first invited me to join the Barbarians, back when Trina thought I was going to be easy to manipulate and be her stooge.

I was debating how to play the hand before me when Froggie showed he was willing to pop Noah to get what he wanted by putting the muzzle against Noah’s head. I told him, “You’re a jerk.”

“And you’re a dumbass slitch for throwing Trina’s offer in her face.”

“She never made an offer. She told me what I was going to do for her. Well screw her. Even if I do finish this map … oh shut up, she’s stealing my idea so you at least owe me an explanation … how is she planning to get there from here?”

Froggie was a bragger. Ask any girl he is with … and they’ll tell you he doesn’t have near as much to brag about as he thinks. Same characteristic holds in other areas of his life. He gave a proud smile. “You a fool and never have given Trina enough credit. She’s got it all arranged like a real alpha. We’re all getting on one of the school’s busses and we’ll knock out the driver and just keep going. We’ll get there faster than the stupid on-foot plan Noah had. Trina knows stuff and she knows people that can get us more stuff. And some of that stuff is already stashed and waiting for us.

If that was really the plan Trina was dumber than I gave her credit for being. There is a tracker on every student, on the buses, and tracking drones specifically for monitoring student movements. There were holes big enough in that “real alpha” plan to drive a Dispose-All truck through. At that point I didn’t even bother asking what the rest of their plan was because it didn’t matter. They’d sealed their fate. I took the map and pointed to “Camp Recovery” that was already there.

“You’re shitting me,” Froggie griped when he put two and two together and realized everyone had been stupid, including Trina.

Ignoring what I knew he was thinking I played dumb as well and said, “No. It’s been there the entire time.” I didn’t call him some of the names I was thinking because I didn’t want to antagonize him, I just wanted him gone. Time was of the essence.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 2​

“See ya! Wouldn’t wanna be ya!”

I looked over at Noah who was laid out like a side of beef. Froggie, gleefully stuffing the map and gun into his coveralls, never even looked back at his alpha as he sprinted to the roof ladder and started to go down.

“We need to move Noah,” I said quietly while I reached into one of the other bags and took out a handheld radio like the facility’s security team wears.

Suddenly Noah sat up scrubbing his face, no drug-reactions in sight, trying to hide how furious and heartbroken he was even though he’d been prepared for things to play out like I’d told them they would. The only thing he said when he saw the radio was “Do it.”

We moved to a quieter and more discrete location so the HVACs wouldn’t be heard when I keyed the mic. In a voice I bet St. Paul would have had a hard time recognizing as mine I said, “Male, name Joshua Benning, housing number 10748. Age, Seventeen. Spotted entering female adolescent dorm. Attempting to evade detection via Building 3 fifth-floor roof ladder. Suspect is carrying what appears to be a P380 or similar small, old-style handgun in side-waistband of his uniform.”

After a moment we heard, “Spotted. Now entering the line for Bus 37012.”

I then said, “Central says this is one of the students planning the terrorist activity. Let him get on and then add three more monitors in full battle rattle. Pull that bus, as well as the two in front of it and the two behind, off into the search lot and do a strip-search skin-deep of everyone on each bus. Buses are to be searched after students removed. Anyone found with weapons take into Code Red custody. Zero contact with anyone else. Use of automated interrogation cells authorized by DOJ rep. All remaining students split between next four busses exiting the facility and then question them one by one after they arrive at the education hall and go to class. Avoid creating suspicion. We want the entire leadership this time, not just the flunkies. And as a reminder to all staff, when the leak is found, you won’t just be fired, you will be taken into custody, your personal assets seized, and minors in your household sent for re-education.”

After a telling moment a different voice, one I recognized as the Facility Commander, said, “Understood Central. Two adult staffers already in custody and being interrogated.”

I didn’t bother responding with good job or anything else. Central was scary and powerful even to those that kept the rest of us under their jack boots. I should know. I spent the first year in the system in one of their special re-education facilities and I am not ashamed to admit it broke a piece of me that likely won’t ever grow back. I’ve had to become a different person to survive. I’m sixteen and the me I know myself to be feels a lot older and experienced in life than even the oldest teacher at the education centers I’ve attended. People blind themselves to what is going on. They don’t know because they don’t want to know. All they care about is that it isn’t happening to them. Similar to what the old history books said happened in places like Germany during the second world war.

I looked up to find Noah staring down at the busses as they pulled out. I told him, “There’s nothing you can do. They made their choices.”

“They’re just kids.”

“The law says we are too. They could have chosen differently. They didn’t. Let’s. Go.”

He turned and growled. “I’m alpha.”

“And I’ll be a hella lot better Beta than Froggie would have ever dreamed of being.”

“You sure all the drugs are out of your system?”

“That crap I wasn’t counting on,” I admitted. “I’d like to know who did it and give them some pay back.”

“Does it matter?” He asked.

“Yeah. It does. To me.” Feeling the need to be careful as no one was right all the time I asked Noah, “And you didn’t get dosed how?”

He sighed. “They put it in some watered-down red sports drink crap. I don’t do red dye if I can help it. Gives me a crazy bad headache. I used a slight of hand trick to keep the clean-your-plate brigade off my back. I knew something was up when they kept refilling my cup.”

“Got it. The no-second-helpings rule. They’re getting sloppy and obvious which is never a good sign. Let’s just get out of here before they do a surprise head count.”

Part of me knows Noah is hurting. Part of me even wishes I still had those kinds of feelings, but I don’t. But then again, this is better. Let Noah do the leading and feeling, I’ll do the fighting and surviving. I’m good at it, as good as Noah is at the other. I would have preferred if we could have saved some of the family but for different reasons than Noah. A small group has a better survival chance, more people to carry the load without creating overload. Two can do it but we’ll be stretching our time and energy to pull it off. Then again two will be easier to feed and I’ll be less likely to have to choose who survives and who gets cut loose which would create conflict with Noah.

I wasn’t going to take a chance going down the outside of a building, not with security watching for that now. Instead, we let them watch the outside while we went back inside and then all the way down to the basement and used the utility access to cross under all the buildings until we got to the steel building that acted as the parking garage.

I took note of the bandaids people were wearing and dug through my stash to pull out two similar ones. I handed one to Noah and we both put them on the top of our hands where they’ve started to give the boosters in the large veins there when they aren’t taking blood for their research projects or for the vampires that only want young blood that has been filtered and have the money to pay for it. It’s the next best thing to pureblood cells. Noah and I used to be tagged as purebloods (and still are except I made sure our records got changed) and we’d both been nearly syphoned dry a few times. But for whatever reason they recently decided to “cash out” all the purebloods at this facility and force the vaccine on anyone that wasn’t already in the system. I suspect it is to hide some verboten research by Feldman and his minions, but no way for me to find out for sure.

We got in line like normal to sign out and head to our jobs. We were assigned an ebike which we had to turn into a charging station at the people mover station and then ride the people movers to the closest drop off to our jobs. Noah and I had first become aware of each other because our jobs had us riding the same people mover and getting on and off at the same station. He mistook me for someone that needed looking after. Ha! Yeah right. It was good camouflage but eventually he realized either I was a fast learner, or I was hiding something. He found out it was both, but we still didn’t really have anything but an alpha and pack/family member relationship. Until I got suspicious about Trina and decided I was tired of waiting to turn eighteen and be thrown out on the streets with less than nothing except a fast ticket to another re-education farm if I breathed wrong and that is the type of place I’ll never willingly go again. A year of that nearly killed me. I’ll kill myself before heading there for the rest of my life.

There was nearly trouble at sign out. No one was giving Noah any respect. In fact, they were doing the exact opposite. It got noticed. They let Noah and the others through and on their way. Me? One of the female monitors grabbed my hand. I remembered just in time to act like it hurt but that I was being careful not to draw the ire of the other guards by making an issue of it.

“What’s going on? And I don’t have time for any lip. Just spit it out.”

I blinked and looked around and then leaned in like I didn’t want any of the other kids still hanging around to hear me giving up information. “Barbarians are … are over. Froggie turned on Noah sometime between yesterday and the vax line this morning. Noah is just … you know … heartbroke to have them all … you know … turn on him.”

“And you?”

I shrugged carefully. “I don’t count. I’m nobody and I want to stay that way. I learned my lesson, and this is my last chance. Whatever Froggie and Trina are doing? And it has to be her because no one else could pull all Noah’s people away like happened. Even if it isn’t, I don’t want no part in it. If I get another demerit … I mean … once was enough.” I referred to the fact that it would be easy for the guards to find out my past troubles through my ident bracelet and create an issue for me.

She didn’t smirk which I was expecting. “Stay clean,” she ordered, surprising me. “No one wants to go to the re-education centers.”

“No ma’am. I mean yes ma’am. That is the plan. Stay clean and clear. I’ve only got a year before I go terminal. I don’t want anyone screwing that up, especially not me making socially unacceptable choices.”

She nodded. “Get going before you miss the people mover,” she told me with what was supposed to pass as a friendly tap from her baton.

“Thank you,” I said and took off at a sprint to get the last ebike and go.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 3​

While I turned in the bike by putting it on the charger, I could see people were still ganging up on Noah and it looked like they were too stupid to realize they were being watched.

I jumped on the mover right before they closed the doors and headed straight for the knot of people that hadn’t found a seat yet. “Knock it off,” I whispered hurriedly. “Guards are wise to the sitch. Yep, here comes a couple of monitors.”

In the momentary confusion my words caused, I crowded in and got Noah and I to the back of the mover using civilians to block the path of anyone trying to follow us. Just in time too. The monitors made everyone on the mover uncomfortable and they rightfully blamed the other kids for it. The other kids finally wised up and shut up. Unfortunately one of the monitors came down to sit by us.

“Understand there’s a problem.” He was playing good cop. Geez, though I supposed it is better than the other.

Noah is not a good actor but the vibes he was giving off sufficed to fit the narrative so I answered, “Please. It’s … it’s not a problem. We aren’t doing anything.”

“You plan on keeping your heads down … clean and clear?”

“Yes Sir,” I answered. I elbowed Noah and he nodded then said, “Yes sir.”

“Good. We appear to have a … mutual problem. You’ll get some understanding but only if you let us know if they try and provoke you into unwise reactions. We have some important people that want to visit the facility. It would be unfortunate for you if there are problems you didn’t warn us about.”

“I can’t get in trouble,” I whispered breathlessly. “I can’t.”

“Relax Nia,” Noah said, finally getting into the swing of it. “You won’t go back there.”

“Ha! Says you. Um. Sorry. Sorry Noah just … you’ve never been in one of them. You don’t know what they are like. It messed me up until last year when Dr. Feldman … I mean … finally all the crap in my head cleaned up and I started thinking clear and straight. He’s the only one … I mean … um …”. Everyone thinks I have a crush on Dr. Feldman, including Mr. Narcisstic Pedo himself, and since it has been useful, I let people think what they want. I visible swallowed to make it seem like I was trying to not give myself away and added, “His treatment is why I got let out of the last facility and sent here to Research Facility Gamma. This place is so much better than the other places. I don’t want to lose my spot.”

The monitor insinuated himself into the convo. “You were eleven weren’t you.”

I shuddered. “I … I don’t remember a lot after getting the electro therapy that cleaned my thought processes. I know something happened. But Dr. Feldman said I wasn’t supposed to think about it or talk about it except to a Facility Counselor he assigns. Please don’t make me break the rules,” I begged.

The monitor gave off vibes that said he thought he was fully in control. “You continue to follow the rules – stay clean and clear – and you don’t have to worry about going back.” Jerk got his rocks off on watching me play act my fear and gratitude that I was trying to hide from the other students and everyone else on the mover. What a rube. The monitor looked up and said, “This is your stop isn’t it?”

“Yes. Thank you,” I whispered. Then as Noah was heading to the off-loading ramp I leaned toward the Monitor and said, “Please be careful. I don’t know what is going on but some of the kids are acting weird. Some of us in the adolescent wings got food poisoning or something and everyone is just acting weird … weirder than normal. I … I don’t want trouble. Please … I …”

Noah using his alpha tone called, “Nia. You’re gonna be late.”

I gave a wide-eyed panicked stare, but the Monitor nodded me off and I fast walked to the exit, shaking my hand when I played hitting it on the edge of the bench but not stopping until I was off and walking toward my job site. The people mover pulled back onto the magnetic strip and my prayers to the Creator were answered when none of the Monitors got off to follow but continued to crowd the other students that had a couple of more stops to go before they got off in the ritzier part of town where the Monitor Administration Building was located.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 4​

Noah and I had agreed that the plan from this point forward had to be flexible. One, today was payday and we needed whatever we could get. Two, today was our off-day meaning we were off school to devote a full workday to our worksite. Except this was the one day every few months when Payday, Off-day, and City Half-day on our work block all fell on the same day. What this meant was that we got paid, didn’t have to go to school, and only had a half workday which meant no one would miss us until head count at Evening Lectures. The headcount would theoretically be later than normal as well because school was an exam day for most students and there would be no meal count because there would be no evening meal as today was also an intermittent fasting day at the facility.

There was going to be no better day to make our escape, but life happens and the surprise vax/booster/drug combined with the Trina/Froggie/Uberstupid crap meant that all of this could blow up in our face at any moment.

Noah worked at a city food warehouse moving and stocking what came in and then distributed to the city licensed food stalls. I worked at a large recycler and thrift store. What the authorities didn’t know is that the thrift store was a front for a local black-market dealer. I’d allowed them to “corrupt” me almost immediately only I wound up being able to teach some of their people a thing or two about hiding in plain sight. In appreciation they let me pick through some of the stuff that came in the thrift store and the old Army-Navy Store they ran out of the backdoor. They also kept quiet about the large pack of stuff I was building and hiding in their basement storage room.

As screwy as the day had started it turned nearly normal boring until lunchtime. I didn’t slack off though. The people running the shop had been decent to me in a way no one had in a while, and I felt I owed them. And while I’d miss the job with its connections, it was time. Jock, the store’s floor manager, started dropping the security roll downs one at a time letting people know that it was getting closer and closer to closing time. He then would tap someone’s shoulder and they knew it was time to clock out. Then it was down to Jock and me. “Pay Day,” he said.

“Yes Sir,” I responded. I didn’t really hide my real self from Jock, but I was polite because he’d earned my respect.

“You taking your stuff today?”

He’d asked a couple of times before, but it had been a while. I looked at him and slowly answered, “Yes Sir.”

“Good. Boss says we are moving locations tonight. Story is something big is coming down.”

“Pass along that there has been weird things happening at the Warehouse,” what most people called the minors’ living facility. “I don’t know, they might be shutting down the research stuff. And I just heard there are some important people coming for a visit.”

“You sure about that?”

I shrugged. “It’s not like they are going to come out and tell us anything, but I’ve got no reason to doubt what I heard.” He’d seen the bandaid earlier and smirked when I ripped it off and there was no bruise beneath it. I continued, “They just drug us and do whatever. There might be trouble coming from the school too. Don’t take anyone in, especially anyone claiming to be a friend of mine. I got no friends, you know?”

“Figured it might be something like that. We’ve got some ears on the hill that have been saying some of the facility kids were jonesing up for something unsmart. Some of the university students that live on the other side of town have been quietly gearing up for another round of riots as well.” He sighed like there were too many idiots in the world and I agreed with him. “C’mon and let’s get this over with so I can transmit the payment and call in the moving crew.”

He’d never offered to help me with things before. I was always just supposed to pull a few things out of the trash barrel.

In the basement I found a surprise. “You change into them recycler clothes. The permit on the trolley dolly is good and will give you the rest of this month to get towards wherever you are going. No one should question your age, you look rode hard and hung up wet and unlikely to draw attention, especially with that blind eye though why you don’t put a patch on the falsey so it don’t freak people out I don’t know. Stick to the pedestrian lanes and you should pass any casual inspection, but nothing is going to cover you if they go skin deep and put a drop of your red stuff in the system.” That’s what he thought. “You got a way to scramble your ident chip?” I nodded without giving my secrets away. “Good. You got someone to travel with?” Again I nodded, this time more slowly. “Thought so. Told the Boss it was probably that big guy that’s been walking with you since you been picking through clothes that would fit him. Load your stuff up and get outta here. Don’t stop until road curfew. Get as far as you can. Gotta feeling in my bones that things are gonna bust out again real soon, at least around here. Do what you gotta to stay outta the system until you are twenty-one. If you can make it that long, you got half a chance more than most of the other warehoused kids.”

I stuck my hand out and we shook. He snorted. His way of agreeing that we were unlikely to ever see each other again, at least not this side of the Pearly Gates, but wanted the best luck for each other while our feet still walked this side of the cemetery sod.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 5​

I may have looked casual as I scoured the roadside for recyclables but I was sweating bullets on the inside. Despite the cooler than normal temps, my pits were damp. Noah was late. I was going to give him another fifteen minutes and then I would start moving south.

When I saw him ten minutes later, I didn’t recognize him at first. He was dressed as a Trash Man, the counterpart to a Recycler. It was the job of the Trash Man to pile up all the debris left along the roadside … cars, household trash, broken furniture, whatever … for the city crews to pick up using prison labor. Recyclers went through the piles – sometimes making a mess of them which was why the piles were constantly getting reorganized – and took small time items unless they were part of a larger crew that could pull off recycling larger pieces of glass, metals, wiring, chips, and any stuff like that. Recyclers were also charged with turning in any contraband they found.

Trash Collectors and Recyclers often travel together in teams. I wanted to know why he’d picked his disguise since he hadn’t known mine, but his eyes said to get moving. As I pulled the battered, over-sized trolley dolly with its stair-climbing wheels, Noah pushed what looked like a two-wheeled garden cart. The cart was covered with a beat-up tarp that was more duct tape than tarp but it was obvious there was something under it.


As we walked, I realized his limp wasn’t due to the broken roadbed but to the boots he was wearing. One boot had a heel that was much thicker than the other. I didn’t get to talk to him for several hours. By silent agreement we hustled to get on our way; there were a lot of Monitors, more than I thought normal. Noah kept up a ground-eating pace, but I could see it cost him. It cost him at least as much to let me lead by directions and him not know where we were going.

I’d already mapped the quickest way out of town and to the first Rest Stop months ago, well before I’d figured Noah was worth cultivating for more than just temporary cover. The Rest Stops weren’t what they were when my grandparents were young. The Rest Stops these days are where pedestrian travelers can pull over for the night before curfew locks everything down. There are space limits, but they offer a relatively safe space to get some rest with sanitary bathrooms and potable drinking water. If you have food and you are careful, you can even eat it in peace as long as you don’t show off what you have.

Sucked to be us but the first Rest Stop was full. So was the second. I thought we’d have to make do with a slab of roadway but then the authorities opened an extra aisle for anyone willing to share space and since Noah and I were, they let us come in together and we got one of the last spots they were going to open. We still didn’t talk until I got a ratty two-man tent set up. The sides were nothing but mosquito netting at that point but that’s all we needed right now. And, it let me keep an eye on what was going on around us.

“Grab some rest,” I told him. “Get the boots off and I’ll do some first aid if it’s needed.”

“Nia …”

I looked and I’d been waiting for this. “Are you getting cold feet?” He doesn’t remember living anyplace else but that facility. We were just outside the city limits, and I could tell all the natural green was on the edge of freaking him out.

“No,” he said quietly but angrily, letting me know I’d poked his pride. “But we need to talk.”

“About?”

He gave me a scathing look before sighing and forcing himself to settle down. “You promised to give me some answers once we got out of the city.”

“First, where’d the get up come from?”

“You aren’t the only one that can take advantage of possibilities.” I let him tell it. “A couple of months ago this old Trash Man got hauled off by the City Monitors for sifting through dumpsters inside the city line. The warehouse manager felt sorry for him and told me to move his stuff into one of the empty storage lockers for when he came back for it. Only he never did come back. I moved it to a new spot and … started figuring things out that dovetailed with some of the things you told me.”

“Did you tell any of this to Trina or the others?”

“It happened right after Trina … after I found out what Trina was doing.”

I relaxed. “Good. I’m glad you were thinking about survival and not a broken heart or lonely gonads. Wish I had known, and I would have helped you out. As for where we are going, it’s where my dad and his brother used to go hunting. It is in north Florida.”

“It’s … where?!”

“Keep your voice down please,” I told him calmly. “I told you it was south of here.”

“And how the hell are we supposed to … I mean … okay, let’s not even talk about how long it is going to take to get there. Even if we can get there to cross the territory line, how long before you think their Sunshine Militia Is going to pick us up?! You have to know what they are like to illegals down there. It is all over the Tri-V.”

“I won’t be an illegal, and neither will you.” He just looked at me like I was nuts, and maybe I am. I explained, “I was born in Florida even though we lived in Georgia. Dad always took Mom over the state line for stuff like that because he refused to risk an A-bort or euthanasia order. I have a copy of my original birth certificate and all the papers I need to live there and be protected by signing a loyalty pledge. You will be my guest … or something more if we can get the right paperwork.”

“What do you mean something more?”

“The more is going to depend on how things turn out on this road trip out of hell. The how long there is something more is going to depend on how long it takes to get your permanent residency. After that it is up to you. Stop worrying about that part of it for now, you’ll only get indigestion. Are you hungry?”

His stomach answered before he could. I dug a bag out of the top of the trolley dolly and pulled out two mugs and a bag of freeze dried soup. “I’ll be back with some water.”

“Now just a …”

“Noah, you are bigger than I am. If someone thinks about taking our stuff your size will make them think twice and move on to easier pickings. You look older … what did you do, skip the depilatory? You look rough enough to scare off most that would bother thinking about picking us clean, and that’s what we need. I really don’t want to have to kill anyone right now if I don’t have to. Too many witnesses.”

Noah closed his mouth slowly and I saw his attitude shift. Most people wouldn’t have noticed it, but I’ve survived this long by watching people and he definitely found his feet. He asserted himself by saying, “We still need to talk this situation out. Just get the water and come back. Next time though we get it before we have to get split up. Easier to guard with two than one.”

As I took a five-gallon water jug – a piece of “junk” I had recycled out of the trash barrel – I said a prayer of thanks to the Creator that Noah wasn’t going to throw a hiss fit. Some guys can be sensitive about things. I wasn’t sure what I would have done had he acted like he could have. I take that back. I was prepared to walk away, I just didn’t want to have to kill him to do it. I’m glad I won’t have to, or at least it is a concern I can put away for a while.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 6​

Five gallons of water isn’t lightweight, but it isn’t impossibly heavy either; little more than 40 pounds and I’m stronger than I look out of necessity. Carrying it with a moving strap made it even easier to carry and faster to return to the tent. On my way back I noted that most people were already asleep even though the sun was just beginning to set. That meant a crowd of them would be up and preparing to be back on the road as soon as the sun rose, and the leader robo-EV trucks start down the highway.

Noah said much the same thing, but it was between sips on soup that wasn’t nasty cold. “Cool toy,” I told him tossing my chin towards a bag that I now knew held a usb-charged heated stirrer.

“It was in the guy’s personal gear bag. Used to be covered to look like a ceramic spoon. I took the casing off since it was cracked and just wrapped the handle. Heats faster and better that way. Charging will be a problem so enjoy it while we can.”

“Thanks. And charging won’t be a problem. I got an old solion charger we can hook it to when you need to.”

And then Noah and I both knew that it was time to talk. I raised a finger to tell him to hang on just a sec. I rolled down the tarp sides of the tent to give us some visual privacy and then reached into the pocket of my jacket and pulled out something that made Noah jump.

“Where the frack did you get that?!” he hissed. “There could be a locator on it.”

“No locator. Proof positive on that. And where it came from was out of a box of stuff donated to the thrift store by someone with more money than sense. Some ding bat piece of arm candy that likes to think she’s making up for being the town oligarch’s slut. And no, I’m not jealous just in case you are wondering. I just found out for sure who she was to make sure it wasn’t a set up.”

“Does it work?”

“Yep,” I answered and proceeded to demonstrate the “it” in question.

It looked like a large egg with a flat bottom and a couple of buttons. I scooted to the middle of the tent and laid down then motioned for Noah to do the same with his face in front of mine. I sat the egg between our foreheads and then pushed one of the buttons until our heads were encircled by a barely visible bio ring. “No one will be able to understand us. All they’ll hear is muffled talking. But keep it down, the less we do to attract notice the better.”

“Hell yeah,” he whispered before looking at me again and asking distrustfully, “Are you really a student or a plant by the Monitors?”

“I’m really me. I finished all the school I need to get into a uni a couple of years back, but I’ll never see the inside of one because of … stuff. But because of that and my age I was still required to go to the education centers; no way were they letting me out of the system early. And I’m no one’s plant. I’d acid wash every Monitor if I could whether they think they are just doing a job or not. They can all die and go to hell for what they did to my family.”

“That’s a lot of hate Miss Clean and Clear,” Noah told me and I could hear some distrust in there as well. Time for some honesty.

“You have no idea. But I try and keep it under control most of the time. My fam wouldn’t want me to play archangel and spend my life avenging them.”

“But?”

I shrugged. “If the Creator puts an opportunity in front of me to do His work, I’m not going to turn it down.”

“You look like a Muzz, how come you talk like … you aren’t.”

“Because I’m not. My Dad’s bio dad was Christian-Armenian. Speaking of, hang on. This might gross you out.”

I took a container out of another pocket of my jacket and sure enough Noah was kinda grossed out. I leaned back and popped my left eye out and disconnected the wire from it and then plugged in the new eye that was normal looking compared to the “blind eye” I normally wore. I had to squirt in some lubricant because it had been a while since I’d done anything more than a general cleaning, but I finally got it back in and looking normal. I’ve always kept the muscles in my eye and face within normal range with exercises so this eye wouldn’t just sit like the “blind” eye does. I then changed the contact lens on the right eye so that both of my eyes were a natural brown.

“What the hell?” he said nearly gagging. That was disappointing but not unexpected.

“Let’s just say there is good reason for me not wanting to go back to a re-education center.”

“But …”

“Like I said Noah, you’ve never been in one, so you don’t know what they are like. And you sure as hell don’t know what it was like for me. And this is one of the things I guess we said we were going to talk about. Our real stories.” He nodded. “They were trying to get my uncle to talk and … they went too far. My uncle had a heart attack after watching what they did to me and his daughter. It didn’t help they’d kept him dehydrated too long and on some kind of truth serum drug. My cousin died being waterboarded, she had asthma. I … was just a little maimed but there was a lot of blood and biologicals.”

“What. The. Hell.” Noah hissed. “They aren’t supposed to do that shit to kids.” I could have said a lot in reply, but I kept it simple.

“They aren’t anymore. Or so says the law. The law came about because of what happened to the kids in my family and some from other ones five years ago.”

We’d just had to cover that particular era in our Civics and Civility course – it is the law – and I’d been told I was not to share anything with anyone. I played dumb and asked them what they meant. Dr. Feldman steamed in and wanted to know what they were doing talking to his patient and then I played confused and scared. Saying over and over that I didn’t break the rules. Dr. Feldman is a narcissistic douche and believed my act because he couldn’t conceive of being so wrong about me since I was one of his pet social experiments. I was “carefully” re-educated to the point he didn’t think I remembered my past at all, only the manufactured one that he created for me that just so happened to also make him the hero of the story.

While I’d been thinking those thoughts, Noah’s finally aligned. “Are you telling me …?”

“Yeah. My family was one of the ones taken when there was the nationwide manhunt for those people that attacked the Capitol and killed all those politicians with that nerve gas.”

“Shit.”

“You have no idea,” I chuckled darkly.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 7​

“Relax. None of us had anything to do with it. It was an inside job gone bad by a couple of rogue agents. Wrong side got gassed due to an unknown change in a conference room. However, I doubt you’ll ever get anyone to believe it even if you told them how you know.”

“One, I don’t know. I only know you believe it. Or say you do.”

I nodded. “Pretty smart there Alpha. But here is where I offer an olive branch. If I tell you my story, you’re going to have a lot of power over me, something I haven’t willingly given to anyone ever. At least not since that night. Think on that while I give your mind block a blast. My uncle’s oldest stepdaughter was a law clerk that got killed in the attack. She was dating someone that wasn’t who he said he was and instead of going in the right direction and going after him, the investigators went the other and came after our family. Most everyone died the night they supposedly just took everyone into custody for questioning. Another bodacious screw up of excessive force and legal overreach with lies told to cover it up. And when the truth trickled down over the next couple of months, several fed agents blew their brains out or “accidentally” OD’d or died of SADS (surprise!). Either they couldn’t live with the torture they committed or more likely they just didn’t want to go to trial or be thrown under the bus by their superiors that had given the cover up order. Some were probably off’d as well.”

“Nia …”

I kept steamrolling him with the truth. “The few Media Heads that learned the truth, the real truth, were ordered to shut up or risk being accused of treason and taken into custody themselves … or worse. The very few that didn’t follow orders were picked off in quick succession in whichever way was the easiest. Many of them and their families got taken for tax evasion. Some ‘died suddenly’. A couple simply disappeared like Jimmy Hoffa.”

“Like who?”

I snorted. “Old gangster that disappeared, likely assassinated by the Mob, and his body never has turned up.” He gave me a look like I was being strange, and I suppose I was. I continued, “Like I said, now you have something on me, not that you’ll ever really get the chance to use it. As soon as they realize I remember what they tried to torture me into forgetting we’ll both have giant targets on our backs and no place will be safe. You’re free to go or stay. Your choice.” I waited but it didn’t take long.

He shrugged and like I hadn’t just told him the combination on the gates to hell he said, “My parents were European grad students that overstayed their visas. They were deported to prove something about the government not being racist and I went into foster care because they couldn’t get an inbound visa for me before they had to fly out. I was too young to remember that part. They supposedly were given their parental rights back by their home countries and they were supposed to come get me. Story goes they disappeared someplace between Norway and Mexico. Or that’s what my file says and why I was never put into the adoption pool despite the whole blonde hair blue eyed boy baby thing.”

“If you were in foster care, why did you wind up at a facility? Froggie said you’d been there longer than any other kid.”

Painfully matter-of-factly he answered, “My only set of foster parents made some kind of stink and … I got warehoused.” He shrugged like it was no big deal, but I had a feeling it was a big deal to him.

“And the Barbarians?”

“They were the gang I was taken in by when I was first sent there. Back then kids were divvied up into the gangs to spread around the burden of taking care of the youngest ones. Time happens and it is all I remember. The Alpha treated me right and taught me things. He and his Beta left the facility two years after I left the nursery wing. The last we heard they got drafted. Most of the older kids did that cycle. The rest of it just happened.”

“Sure it did. Just don’t try any of that Polly Anna and Dudley Do-Right crap on me. ‘K?”

He slowly grinned. “So we’re doing this.”

Guys. Always about the testosterone and adventure. “You sure you wanna come along?”

“I’ve … never been free and on the outside. Seems it’s about damn time I give it a try.”

“We’ll build a family if you need one.”

“Maybe. I think we need to just work things out between us first. But … what the hell is that noise?” He asked.

I had a hard time not laughing. “Relax, you aren’t in a sensory deprivation tank. There’s no EVs or Gas-Guzzlers. No people up moving around. No monitors walking the halls. No lights. Just a little wind in the trees to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Think of it like white noise.”

Snark time was over, and it was time to get back to our day-to-day reality.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 8​

Seven hundred miles. It’s just a number. A hella big number though.

“We’re going to have to look the part by playing the part,” I said.

“Yeah,” Noah muttered running his finger down the map I had laid between us with the fastest path marked to get where we were supposed to be going. I had pieced it together by cutting out pictures I’d managed to sneak out of the library. “Any idea how many miles we are going to be able to walk a day?”

I answered the best I currently had. “Some days more, some days less. And no, I’m not being a smart ass on purpose. There’re just too many variables right now. Assuming we stay on foot and lots of other things like elevation changes, shoe repair, having to do what you say … play the part … let’s stick with a conservative fifteen miles a day.”

He muttered a curse. “What’s that? Like 40 days of walking?”

“Closer to forty-six. Almost seven weeks straight. But you know we are going to have to take at least one day off a week, and maybe more as the weather changes and all that other happy crap.”

“So add another week, maybe two. That’s close enough to two months that we are going to hit bad weather before we can get far enough south that we avoid snow.”

“Yeah. I got us what gear I could but there might be some issues we’ll have to take care of as we go. And food.”

“I’m not stealing from road people.” I could hear the zero negotiation in his tone.

“It would not be a smart thing to do,” I told him acting like it was more about strategy than emotions regardless of what he was thinking. “That’s one of the reasons why we planned the way we did, to get one last pay day.”

“Where did the soup come from?”

“I made it.”

“Pouring the water into a mug and dumping in a mix is different than …”

“I said I made it.”

He looked confused, then stunned. “How?”

“The facility operators are stupid. Throwing kids out on the street without even teaching them to cook … yeah, that’s going to work to keep people off the dole. Do you know how to cook? Wash your clothes? Anything?”

“I worked in the laundry back in middle school. Before we started having to wear the disposable jumpers to save on water.” I curled my lip at that. Not at him but at the stupid uniforms. Supposedly it was for hygiene and saving water but what it was really for was to keep kids from being able to run away. The uniforms start melting after three days if not dipped in sterilizer. Every other day you signed out another uniform and threw the one you had been wearing into a solution vat that was packed off to a plant where robo-workers turned the resulting glop back into material and then cut and sewed them into fresh uniforms that were hermetically sealed until needed. Underclothing wasn’t like that and that’s why they were hot ticket items to be stolen. Same for heavier items like coats. The staff didn’t stop it unless someone was caught red-handed. It was supposed to be motivation to get a job. Personal hygiene items cost points unless you bought them or earned them through your work. Points were earned by behavior, in counseling sessions, and through grades and behavior at school. Some kids did just enough to get by and some were booking points to have a nest egg when they were kicked out at eighteen. On the surface it sounds like a reasonable system but there’s lots of abuse.

“Yo, are you listening?”

I blinked at Noah and then said, “Kinda thinking and got lost.”

“You still have some of the drugs in your system.”

“Nah. Floor manager gave me a rinse and wash kit at work because I kept setting the damn door sniffers off. Nearly made me puke. I could peel my sweat off my body where it was pushing the crap out like tar, so I had to take a shower. I was pizzed for being so stupid I didn’t think about being drugged.”

“You had to sit with the elementary level at dinner. No one would have thought about them drugging that age. I think it was just a knock ‘em out and nothing really serious. We don’t have many that age at Gamma anymore.”

“They don’t have that many at any facility anymore. And you know why.”

“Yeah, unless they are damaged they go to the highest adoption bidder.”

I snorted. As a girl I was more sensitive to the subject than the guys had been. “There’s a lot of people that are having vaccine-related fertility issues.”

“Covid-related, not just vaccine-related.”

“Yeah, and pureblood babies don’t get taken away from their families or kidnapped by the cartels because they bring the highest bids. And SADS isn’t a real thing. And they aren’t harvesting eggs and sperm from purebloods to make in vitro more successful.”

“Geez you girls make my head hurt when you start with that crap. Look, nobody knows for sure what exactly is going on.”

“And all you guys think your weekly donations are just to let you get access to the latest girly magazines so you can get your rocks off in peace and not wind up sympathizing with the incels.”

“Geeeezzzz.”

I shrugged and then went to turn the “egg” off, but he stopped me with a gentle hand. “Look. Maybe all that bad stuff is true. Probably is. But I can’t do anything about it right now. Right now, all I’ve got has to go to getting us someplace where the Monitors aren’t going to pick us up and put us someplace worse than we were.”

I sighed and conceded that I’d kinda gotten on a soap box and preaching to the choir didn’t do anything but create hot air and there was enough of that as it was.

“I’ve got almost three weeks left on the Recycling permit. Trash Men don’t need a permit so long as they are working outside an incorporated area or along a corridor inside an incorporated area of less than a population of ten thousand. Rules could change but that’s what we have to work with right now. Let’s continue to head south but work that angle, picking up as many supplies as we can before the weather turns or the permit runs out. I’ll keep my ear to the ground for a way to get the permit renewed but we may have to join a trash crew.”

“That’s a possibility. Or we may have to look for other work along the way.”

I tried not to give him a disbelieving look but felt forced to say, “Let me do the talking until you stop sounding like a city kid that’s never been outside a facility.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” he said, letting me know my toes were close to the alpha line.

“Your Alpha is showing Noah, please tune it back. You don’t remember an existence outside of the system. You don’t know how things work.”

“I had a job. I worked. I brought things in for the family.”

“Yeah. And I’m not selling that short because most wouldn’t have done it. But you were assigned the job, you didn’t find it yourself. The facility always handled all your paperwork for you, you were never allowed to do any of it for yourself. Since you avoid the subject, I’m pretty sure that means you don’t know how to cook, not really. You ate the food someone else gave you and most of that came out of a locked room us kids were never allowed to enter. Plant Nuggets, smiley fries, and applesauce and a daily Vit pill to fill the remaining space in your stomach is not gonna keep us going on the road. That’s not even the kind of stuff we’re going to find. Do you even know where real food comes from?”

“I worked in a food distribution center,” he reminded me.

“I didn’t ask if you know what real food looks like, I asked if you know where it comes from.”

He sighed. “Fine. I get it. But I know more than you think. I learned plenty at the distribution center. The butchers especially like … liked … to use me as muscle.”

“I hope so. I don’t want to lose you because you die of emotional shock out here. People do you know. They hit overload and … just shut down.”

He put his hand on my shoulder making me uncomfortable at our proximity. “I get it Nia. I’ve got stuff to learn. Don’t treat me like I’m incapable of learning or think you must protect me from all the crap we are going to go through. I’m Alpha. If that means changing so I can keep being what I need to be, then so be it.”

“Yeah well, I’m now your Beta. You are used to weak Betas whether you and they realized they were weak or not. That crap is changing right the frick now. It is my job to make it so that you can do your job. Maybe I am … overcompensating right now. Fine. Whatever. Maybe I can back off after we’ve been on the road, and you’ve seen how things are. Right now, I’m doing what I must do. I’m doing my job. You aren’t weak Noah. You are the strongest Alpha I’ve run into since my family was taken down. But you are going into something new. Get your feet under you then you can be all large and in charge and on the front battle line leading the charge. Until then, let me be the Beta I need to be. It is nothing against you or how you’ve always been. I’m just mean in a way you aren’t. I’m mean in a way they hammered me into being.”

“Nia …”

“Tomorrow I’ll put a screen over my eye in case anyone really paid attention to my face when we came in. After we leave here, I’ll take the screen off and any description they may have out on me will be out of date. Even if they stop me, not being blind in one eye will throw things off.”

“Can you really see?” he asked, distracted by my honesty.

“Yeah. I couldn’t most of the time when I first arrived at Gamma, but I finally fixed the connection. It is a little jury rigged but that’s all I could get on black market rehab circuitry.”

“You … you did that yourself?”

“Yeah. The brain work was top notch and wasn’t the problem. For one of my punishments towards the end of the second year they cut the connector off and threatened to do it to both eyes. That’s when the original falsey got damaged too.”

“What the …?!” It was obvious some of my truth was difficult for Noah to believe.

“Noah, you do not want to go into a Fed re-education facility or the step-down facilities either. They’ve got some sick people working there that will do whatever it takes to make people talk. It wasn’t like that in the beginning, but the really bad agents weren’t held accountable for their actions and the court system didn’t balance out the things it should have from the Executive and Legislative branches. John Q Public accepted all the excuses instead of demanding facts and answers. And if they find out you have no value to anyone else, they experiment on you to improve their techniques on other people. You are just a slab of grow tank bio-matter they can use as they see fit for whatever reason they see fit. I will not go back. Under any circumstances. If it looks like it is going to happen, you run. I’ll take as many down with me as I can, but you run. Don’t play hero. Already enough dead heroes in the world.”

There wasn’t a lot left to say after that. Tomorrow is going to be another day of survival. That’s the goal anyway.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 9​

“Whoa, what did you do? And when? It wasn’t that color yesterday.” I shrugged. I had taken the beanie off to try and do something with the rat’s nest and this was the first gander that Noah had gotten of the recent change. You can get used to anything and people had gotten used to seeing my hair look like cartoon seaweed.

I explained, “Whatever the chemicals were in the rinse-and-wash it crapped up the green of the dye job when I showered it off. I don’t know what you call this color but …”. I shrugged. “I needed to lose the seaweed as it drew too much notice. At least this way I don’t have to shave my head bald this close to cold weather.”

“It’s not … er … bad. Just kinda … dark. Like the soot on the incinerator stacks.”

I snorted. “At least it doesn’t stink like them. Besides that’s my natural color; flat black. I was only a light brunette when I arrived at the facility because Dr. Feldman was trying to disassociate me with my past.” I was packing the mugs away from our breakfast of grits and thinking Noah’s reaction to the food was even more surprised than he was about the sudden hair change. When he realized I had stirred a tablespoon of real bacon bits in with the powdered cheese he nearly flipped.

“Where the hell did you get meat?!” he’d yelped. “‘Cause this sure as hell ain’t soy.”

“Shhh. It was a going away present from my previous employer. There’s more where the soup and grits came from, but we need to keep our eyes out today. I got a bucket o’ supplies, the bucket ain’t bottomless.”

I had a list of things I’m going to be on the lookout for but since the Creator isn’t known for helping those that aren’t at least actively giving a good try, I didn’t expect the stuff to just drop out of the clouds. Besides, we needed to hurry and get in line, the Robo-trucks were coming.

—————-

Lunch time and ten miles had come and gone when our guardian angels decided we would get cut a break when a full trash crew had more work than they could handle and when they saw Noah’s size, they offered him a spot if I would keep an eye on everyone’s gear.

I told him, “Bring me any loose electronics or similar so I can pull the chips. We’ll share the recycle in exchange for them cutting you in.”

What no one knows is that I’d always been good with electronics, Dad taught me when he needed my small hands what felt like a gazillion years ago. It wasn’t a problem because my older sister filled the hole I would have left for mom and my younger brother was still too young to do much of anything but get into trouble when someone wasn’t sitting on him. That left me to play Daddy’s Girl and I loved it.

A couple of hours later I had a sweet pile of small recyclables and Noah and the trash crew were finished dismantling the mobile home and RV that had gotten in a fight and had been blocking the travel lanes causing a problem for the robo trucks and people movers. I bundled the recyclables like with like and waited for what I knew was coming. By the time the three buyers had left I’d shaken them down for more credits than they had thought they were going to have to part with but since I knew what they were going to get on the other end they weren’t going to move into the Poor House over it.

I signaled to Noah who came over. When he saw what I had he just looked at me then asked, “What the hell you want me to do with this? We get caught walking around with credit slips …”

“Use it to parley with the crew boss.”

“And?”

“And do your thing Alpha but … maybe if we split it 50/50 like this, we don’t owe them nothing for the favor they did us.”

Noah fist-bumped the top of my shoulder. “I like your thinks on this.”

Apparently, the trash crew boss liked my thinks too. We got to walk with them as we hoofed it down the road without having to pay protection money. We weren’t as lucky to get a spot at the next Rest Stop and had to take a spot on the side of the road. The weather wasn’t bad, so we didn’t pop the tent, just put down the pieces of tarp that I’d turned into sit-upons with trash from the thrift store. They were hard but then again so were the head mats we had to sleep on at the facility. I wasn’t going to be laying down. Noah and I had our gear between us and planned to take shifts watching over it and each other. Put us in a good position.

I’d heard about road pirates but never seen any before tonight. The Tri-V News kept real stuff off the airwaves, not that they had it piped to the school or facility anyway. Jock had a small repeater that was always running in the thrift store’s office, and he didn’t mind me standing in the doorway watching so long as that’s not all I was doing. The group that struck us must have had easy pickings for a while because they’d gotten overconfident. They had numbers on their side, but we had strength on ours … and the fact that I don’t believe there is any such a thing as a fair fight. And being a female, I didn’t have a problem beating the crap out of my own gender when attacked. I also wasn’t afraid to take on someone bigger than me when that someone tried to hit Noah from behind. The fact I hit them in the base of their skull with a heavy dose of voltage made the guy drop fast. Lucky the pop that came from inside his skull was covered by the arrival of a road patrol.

I’m not big into trusting authority, but they do occasionally serve a purpose and scraping up the remains of the road pirate crew – living or dead - was one of them. They were scanning the faces of everyone for idents and failure to appears. I signaled to Noah to play it cool.

“Newbs,” the woman sneered. “Just keep up with your sign-ins like this,” she said pointing to her screen. “And you won’t get beat on to remind you of the rules. And that’s a pretty nice eye for someone in your sitch. You steal it?”

“No ma’am. The cornea matched someone that could pay for a falsey replacement, so the parental units put it on ice when I was a kid. Most people don’t notice.”

She gave me a real smile which surprised me and then pulled her eye so I could see she had an artificial eye as well.

“Whoa. Yours is way better.”

“Yep. Lost it in battle and they gave me a Moody.” I looked suitably impressed. And to be honest I was. A Moody – named after a character in an old kids’ book – was some serious tech that gave the wearer a lot more range and other specs than a normal falsey that was limited to normal 20/20 vision. Mine was better than normal vision but nothing like a Moody that was like having drone sight. A lot of people couldn’t wear them because the training required sometimes screwed up the brain’s ability to manage visual input. There are rumors of people with two Moody eyes, but I have a hard time seeing it – no pun intended – because you lose all normal vision pathways; like depth perception.

She was about to move off when I stuck my hand out to shake hers. “Thank you ma’am. I’ve never seen a Moody in real-life before. Bodacious.”

She looked at my hand, then looked at me, then stuck her own hand out to shake. I could tell it was artificial, but I didn’t act like I could. Vets could be sensitive the few I’d met along the way, including my uncle and dad. Besides I was too busy making sure what I was passing her wasn’t seen by anyone else. I’d learned from the best to pickpocket, I’d also learned how to do it in reverse. I wasn’t planting anything this time, but I didn’t want anyone from the Trash Crew to know what I was doing either. There is an unwritten rule that I’d found out while working with the blackmarketers, that any bonafide scrip that Recyclers find must be turned in to Road Patrols or other authorities before it is discovered on you. Or else you are looking at a 1st Degree Federal Felony. Depending on the amount it could send you straight to the off-shore penal barges with no hope of ever returning to dry land. Recyclers still did it, but it was dangerous.

At the same time, I was popping the pirate in the brain pan I was feeling him up for any wallet or stash. Got it on the first pass and then nearly cussed when I felt it. I was wondering how to offload it, when “The Moody” as I called her in my head, gave me the best and fastest opportunity. She was done being friendly which told me she’d probably already suspected what I carried. That was reinforced in my mind when she barely paid any attention to Noah at all, when I know he’d picked up a couple of shivs for himself. A couple of the other trash crew were given the hairy eyeball but only a couple, their Alpha ran a tight crew.

The night got quiet after the LEOs left with all the pirates and left us with a mess to clean up come daylight. For now, we had to move it out of the road way and then set a watch to keep people from cherry picking the mess, especially the ones that hadn’t helped with the fight but wanted to benefit from the pirate’s loss.

I asked Noah, “They have a Recycler on staff?”

“I’ll ask. Why?”

“I’ve got first watch anyway, might as well make good use of my time,” I answered.

Both Noah and I had felt the Trash Crew Boss preparing to come at us. It is that same feeling you get when a teacher or monitor is about to climb all over you.

I gave Noah the look that said we play it the way he’d played it a few times under those circumstance. He got growly at me and said, “Nia, dammit. What did I tell you?”

I sighed. “I hadn’t expected the idiot to have jingles on him.”

“Jingles.”

“Yeah. I also didn’t think a Road Crew warranted a Moody.”

“The hell you say. It was the woman?”

“Yeah. I would have given it to you to give to the Boss, you know that. But she was waiting on me to turn it in without having to do any paperwork taking me in. Unfortunately, she was a straight shooter. No way could we have made a deal with her.”

“What else did you cop?”

I tried to look innocent but decided it was too much work. I rolled my eyes and pulled a zipper bag from beneath my coat. “I want the bag back. I need to replace the one they took off me in Richmond. And don’t give me that look Noah. I already admitted to being stupid for letting the Monitors cut me out and get too far from you. All they did was shake me down but I get it and …”

“All they did?” he asked getting in my face. “We’re starting back at zero.”

“I said I was sorry. But they didn’t take our gear when they could have. They had other fish to fry.”

He grabbed the front of my shirt and lifted. My toes were barely on the ground. “You don’t pull no shit anymore. You stay within sight. I don’t want to hear no more crap about bra problems. You shop on your time, not mine. And I ain’t training another damn puppy.”

“Ease up. I said I got it. Paco took off on his own. That wasn’t my fault no matter what you say. Now that means I gotta do twice the work. I got that too. Why do you think I gave the Moody what she was after? You already told me to not bring any trouble down. And I don’t want trouble for this Trash Crew either. They’re letting us camp with them. Just turn me loose and I’ll pick things over during my shifts. You can give them to the Boss and maybe it buys us another day on the road with them or maybe it just pays for this one.”

He slowly set me down but he didn’t turn loose until he was sure I was steady on my feet. I needed to warn him about any appearance of softness. A little roughly he said, “Straighten you cap. I’ll see what the Boss has planned.”

“The bag?”

“Don’t push your luck Nia. You ain’t got that much to begin with.”

Twenty minutes later Noah comes back and throws five packs at my feet. “There’s more where these came from. Do your job. I explained about the Moody, but any other contraband goes to the Boss. You do your job tonight and we’ll get an invite to maybe get as far as Fayetteville.”

I nodded obediently but inside I was spiking a football. Noah was going to be as good as I thought he would. Fayetteville was a lot further down the road than I expected any offer to be.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 10​

“Hot damn, Noah. Your Recycler is almost making me want to pick up one of our own. They usually take a good chunk for themselves. I can’t believe she gives it all to you. You ever have to shake her down? Where’d you find her?”

What am I? Some kind of inanimate object? Maybe they think I’m deaf? Oh well. I suppose they did, or maybe just “special needs” or something as I have a resting blank-face I use to throw people off or shut them out, unless I am making a deal of some type. I’ve left most of all other contact to Noah. For just in case, we’d already come up with a common story. I’d been evicted at eighteen and was about to become Pimp-Chow. He felt sorry for me and got me started. I felt grateful enough that I wouldn’t stop following him around so he decided to put me to work and get something for the irritation. “She was like a damn chigger. It was do something or she was going to drive me bug-shit.” The rest is history. Noah told it good, and I heard a couple of the crew snicker. Typical. But it served my purpose. I didn’t want to become “interesting” in any way, shape, or form.

Trash Men don’t generally have much good to say about females, biological or otherwise. The reason for the Boss’ unusual state of happiness (he was normally a dour old fuss budget as the others told it in my hearing) is because I’d made a good haul off the road pirates’ stuff and even tracked their main stash back into the woods that lined the highway. The trash crew were happy to have the second site, especially since it came with plenty of “treasure” that the Boss divvied up with all the good stuff going to his people. That hacked me off after I’d handed over some of the sweet Recycling profit. Oh well, what he didn’t know is that during the night I’d stashed two bags of high-end chips and some of the better gear from the pirate packs. Found another coin purse as well. I “turned it over” and he told Noah for me to turn it in like I had the other one, that he didn’t need the trouble or bad luck it could bring.

The Boss is cleverer than he lets on even if he is stupid-superstitious about some things. He let me do the dealing with the buyers. I know the value based on my work at the thrift store. I also showed my worth in another way. Some of the stuff they were going to leave on the side of the road in the pile I pulled out and bundled for easy handling and a different type of recycling occurred. One example was that with Winter coming, the insulation in the RV as well as some of the cushions were an easy sell. Burnables were another and I bundled them toxic and indoor-safe. I broke what was left of the appliances in the RV down into parts and some of the buyers were willing to fight over them.

“Knock it off before we draw the attention of a Road Crew. I don’t feel like being extra crispy for the rest of the day when we all have a job to do. I’m willing to parcel things out if you have a list. Smarter thing to do would be to buy from me in bulk and then go off and trade amongst yourselves. I know what these things are going for in Richmond. You aren’t going to cheat me, but I will make a deal.”

When they saw I was reasonable the noise level dropped, and I tried to make sure that everyone got most of what they wanted. I’ll be honest here, and this isn’t something that I’ve shared with Noah, if traveling with him doesn’t work out or Florida doesn’t work out or anything in between, I’ve considered being a Recycler on a permanent basis. It would keep me from being in one spot to get tagged, give me a chance to build on this alternate identity I’ve created and while I’m good at it right now, I can be better … will be better … and make enough to buy a place to squat once I get too old for the trade routes. Or maybe I’ll build myself a Solar Rider and just see the country. Part of me wants to do that now but it takes resources I’m going to be a long time collecting.

It was noon before everything was moved, organized, traded, recycled and then a lot less than expected left in neat piles for the Collectors. The Boss was about to give up on the pay out since enough had been made on the recycling, but we were in luck and not only did the Collectors come by, but another Road Patrol did and there had been a bounty on a couple of the pirates which they had him sign for. And yeah, I turned in the coin purse, but not the blobs of melted stuff that were small enough they’d be relatively easy to trade. I wasn’t going to be able to keep that on me now that I knew there was at least one bonified Moody in the road crews traveling this stretch so I needed to find a way to stash it safely. I also haven’t told Noah about everything because despite it all, he’s a little too honest for my taste.

What I hadn’t expected was skip the line tickets for the next soup kitchen. It stated clearly that if we brought our own mugs, we’d get crackers and a fruit bar in addition to the soup. Boss man’s beta said, “I’ll believe that when I see it.” It made me cautious. Cautious but curious.

There were two smaller piles to be neatened up by the garbage men. I don’t know what the Recyclers are like out this way or maybe I just had a lucky day, but I found bits and bobs in both jobs. Quite a bit of wire was the main thing but there were four suitcases thrown off into the bushes. They’d been gone through but not by a professional and I managed to locate an old digital book reader, a set of hearing aids and a bunch of batteries for them still in the packages they came in, a bottle of OTC painkiller, a golf club that had been used to repair one of the handles on a roller bag, and a small first aid kit. I stripped the zippers off the bags that hadn’t been busted, took the wheels, and dismantled everything else that I could and started storing all the screws, nuts, bolts, etc. into small bags for future trading/recycles.

None of the men said anything to me directly but I could see a couple of them giving me the look over. I don’t know what the big deal is. You don’t leave anything on the table … or the trash heap. You never know when someone might be willing to pay for it. And I’m not leaving anything for the next person to recycle because I didn’t get it all. I’m not rich enough to be that kind of lazy.

On top of the recycling, I kept an eye on everyone’s gear. Only once did I nearly get in a fight when travelers wanted to not only go through the trash piles but all our packs. I’d told several people that the gear was off-limits and this one guy decided to just push his luck. The golf club came in handy and the guy is not going to be walking too well for a while. I got him on one shin (coming up from the ground at a bad angle), his woody, and one of his quadriceps. In all honesty, the thigh is probably going to hurt the worst and the longest. After that I was left alone.

We finally made it to a Soup Kitchen, and I was left to watch the gear again. Noah told me he would bring me something back, but it didn’t work that way. One person-one ticket. I took it when he held it out and gave him a look not to make an issue of it. The look he gave me said there’d be words, but he’d keep them between the two of us.

 

[Kathy in FL]

I'll post more in a bit ... I hope. It's a Monday folks. There are 28 chapters thus far.

I've also updated my running list of stories in Millwright's index thread that he started to replace the old one that kinda broke.

ADMIN - Stories Index, by author.

If you will do a post, in this format, I'll try to keep this updated and uncluttered. Stories from the Private section should be included. Right now, Ydderf's 404 thread is as good of a place as any. https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/404-not-found.599195/

www.timebomb2000.com

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 11​

“Well, what do we have here?”

Snickers, but not like I hadn’t dealt with them in the city. Or from the facilities by people trying to put me in the place they thought I should occupy.

When they couldn’t get a rise out of me, the head Woodyhead opened his mouth to say something else then slowly closed it and moved on. I sensed, rather than saw a Monitor. I kept going through the food line and hoping there’d be something there when it got to be my turn.

Then I felt a tap on my shoulder with a metal baton. My pits got moist but I turned. “Yes Sir?”

“Your man says you are a mech-tech.”

I saw Noah not too far away give me a sign that he’d ok’d me making a deal. Quickly I responded to the Monitor. “Depends on the device. I’m not certified but I do good shade tree.”

“Don’t need certified, I just need it jury-rigged to last a couple of weeks until I can get back to Central.” He held out his hand, his artificial hand.

I gave it a good look. It was a good one, but it looked frozen. “Do you have sensation?” I asked, trying to see how advanced the thing was without insulting the guy.

“Yeah, the bugger just won’t respond. Got zapped by someone I was taking into custody,” he answered.

“Zapped?”

“Modified bug zapper. Heavy duty current, but not as strong as a taser. Latest tool that the road pirates have invented to be a pain in everyone’s ass.”

I could have applauded the pirates but having already witnessed their lack of humanity I decided to be on neither side and gloss over it. I asked him, “At what location?”

“Top of the hand.” He took his arm and rolled it over and I saw two melted spots. I relaxed. This was something I could handle without too much fuss and bother.

I told him, “If we’re lucky you might only have a melted or broken wire in one of your primary pulley mechanisms. If the pulley is bent I might be able to fix that as well. Maybe. Better for it to be the wire.”

“You can fix it?”

“Yeah. You’ll still need to get it permanently fixed but I can get you some use. You’ll need to cover the top of the hand with waterproof tape or similar after we’re done cutting into it. You got any?” He nodded. Then I asked, “You got time to do it now? I’ve got the wire and tools in my pocket and it will be better to do it in the daylight.”

Thirty minutes later, job complete, I turned to get back in line only to find there was no line. The soup kitchen had closed while I’d been concentrating on fixing a damn Monitor’s hand. I wasn’t going to be embarrassed by making a scene even if I did feel like stomping around like my little brother had on occasion when he didn’t get his way, which wasn’t often since we’d all kind of spoiled him. Oh well, it wasn’t going to be the first time I missed a meal. As a matter of fact, it was the regular practice at Facility Gamma. They were always on about how much it cost them to feed, house, and clothe us and despite that how much better we had it than many kids our age. Even the youngest had to participate in the health class that covered proper body mass, weight, caloric intake, the benefits of fasting, and all that other crapola. It wasn’t about health; it was about controlling us. While true that Facility Gamma had the best health record, it had more to do with Dr. Feldman cherry-picking residents from the system and then not reporting adverse reactions to the facility’s research projects, than it did anything else. He needed “healthy specimens” for the facility’s research division.

That was running as a quick “oh well” thought when Noah was there, and I could see he had a satchel that I didn’t recognize. He told me to keep my mouth shut and move. When we got back to the area for overnighters, I saw the Trash Crew were all already asleep except for those on watch. Noah nodded to the watchers but kept his hand on my upper arm. Before it could annoy me, he turned loose and I saw our gear. I set up the tent while he gave me cover. I covered Noah while he put everything inside including the satchel which he sat down carefully.

He asked quietly, “You need the facilities?”

I nearly snickered. It was a play on words that all of us kids had used to describe the restrooms while getting a little of our own back at where we were forced to live.

“Took care of it before I got in line,” I told him and realized he was smiling so was in a good mood. That’s when he pointed to where he knew I kept my little egg-toy. I set it up wondering just what the dealio was. He opened the satchel and took out his covered mug.

“Eat before the smell draws attention.”

Noah grinned even bigger when I wasn’t able to hide the surprise on my face fast enough. That didn’t stop me from taking the mug and starting to inhale the soup, and praise the Creator it was more than just lukewarm. I was hungry and had been trying not to think about it.

“You got mad skillz Nia,” Noah said, surprising me.

I looked at him and said, “So?”

My tone startled him. “Are you angry?”

I sighed. “No. Just conflicted.”

“Conflicted?” He asked like he didn’t know what the word meant.

“Yeah, conflicted. The guy was a Monitor. Why should I help him when his kind killed my family. That conflicted.”

Noah nodded but answered me as well. “Because he wasn’t one of them that did that deed.”

“He believes in the same things they do.”

“Does he? Or is he just as trapped as we are … were?”

Rolling my eyes and taking another deep drink of the soup I said, “You’re going to try and make my head hurt with one of your philosophical questions that I’ll just wind up agreeing with you over to make it stop.”

He looked a little disappointed. “Nia …”

“Relax. I already told you I’m conflicted which means I can see your point. But when it comes down to a battle … when, not if … it is going to depend on what side they pick. There’s no time for that touchy feely crap in the middle of a fight.”

“True. But a little ‘understanding’ might get us more allies before the battle happens.” His practicality always surprises me for some reason. It is hard to not make him all about the feelz. Doesn’t mean I didn’t make a mistake and let my irritation rule my mouth.

“Didn’t do a whole hell of a lot of good for the Barbarians. You and I still wound up on our own.”

I knew immediately it had been the wrong thing to say and I also knew I said it on purpose. Dad had insisted we take personal responsibility for our actions without waiting around to see if it got ignored. I quickly reached out and touched his arm where he was turning away.

“That was uncalled for. As you can see being conflicted doesn’t do a lot of good for my personality, which is already questionable to start with. I’m sorry.”

He looked at me and blinked, trying to hide whatever he was thinking. “You’re crazy.”

“I am. Just look at my Facility File if you don’t believe me. And before that they will tell you I belonged on a hard lockdown psych ward. Before that I was on a hard lockdown psych ward.”

“Before that?” he asked, revealing curiosity about the past he rarely does.

I shrugged. “I was an eleven-year-old girl child that watched everyone she knew and loved get killed or taken into custody in the matter of an hour, including myself. Watched everyone that was left after that die over the next couple of days, then lived through being made the scapegoat because I wouldn’t die right along with them so they could shoot, shovel, and everyone shut up about it. I’ve got a good reason for my hate Noah. I’m not asking you to share it, just accept it and stay out of the way if I start having a breakdown. I have a vat of poison inside me, and I’m not always interested in avoiding tipping it out on people.”

“Is that why you went after Trina? Because … I don’t know … she poked the bear or reminded you of the bad times?”

“No. I went after Trina because of what she did. When I promised to be a member of the Barbarians and follow your laws …” I sighed. “Look, I just don’t make many promises. When I do I want them to mean something. Trina just happened to pop up on the radar. I came to you before Froggie because of the personal crap involved. You’re loyal and you expect other people to be the same. And you were being faithful to her so …”

“And she wasn’t to me.”

“No,”. I left it at that. He didn’t need the gory details. Sex was power to Trina and she had a couple of kinks she liked to exercise in private. And I didn’t want to know if he’d been any part of that. Somehow he knew though.

“Uh … Trina and I hadn’t been sleeping together for … a while. About six months before you transferred into Gamma, they took away the mandatory birth control because it interfered with the egg and sperm harvest. They offered to ignore any interpersonal activities if we would get a Reversable but not many took them up on it. Trina did but, I don’t know, it turned me off.”

“Because she couldn’t get knocked up?!” I asked, after nearly choking on a swallow of soup.

“No. Because of the way she acted afterwards. Like she could do any guy at any time, and it wouldn’t be a problem or mean anything except what she did and didn’t want it to mean.”

“Oh. You mean you got the feeling she was already being disloyal.”

“Yeah. And even if all I had been after was some stress-relief they wouldn’t give us condoms anymore. They said it …”.

He suddenly realized that I wasn’t a guy or something along those lines and wasn’t sure how much more to say. I helped him along and said, “Let me guess. They were worried that it could reduce output on the days they wanted to shake you guys down.”

He cleared his throat. “Pretty much. When you get it regularly … er … the hospital stalls don’t exactly give you a thrill.”

I tried not to laugh but had to cover the bottom of my face with the hand and mug I had finished off.

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I guess that was still better than what happened to you girls.”

“Wouldn’t know. Dr. Feldman wouldn’t let me be in The Program because he was worried that I might not view him as the hero/father-figure he gets off being.”

“Er … so … uh …”

“No. I wasn’t doing Feldman. I played his game and gave him what it took to use his kinks against him without participating in the kinks. I don’t need more nightmares, I’ve got enough.”

I’d given Noah enough to think about. Now I waited until he gave me his real reason for wanting the muffler on.

 

[Mr Bill]

Quite the tale for sure. Thanks

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 12​

When Noah was finished I was irritated again.

He said, “You earned the bounty Nia.”

“That’s not the point. I don’t want what I can do to get around and draw attention.”

“And I don’t want anyone to think my Beta is an easy mark they can push around for free. Or that I’ll just lend you out without getting anything in return.”

That stopped my snark-mode from going into overdrive. “Someone say something, or did they just irritate you?”

“Both,” he answered divvying up my “pay” for doing a little simple-to-me mech-tech crap. “The Trash Boss reminds me of some of the gang leaders back at the facility. He’s either talking me up, expecting you to Recycle for free, or thinking about making a play to talk you away from me.”

I snorted. “Probably a little of all three. One, he’d be blind or stupid not to see you’ve got muscle, know how to use it, and work well in a team which not all big guys learn how to do. Two, he’s a leader and is always going to look for a bargain for his group. That’s natural and don’t bother me none. Three however, screw him. I’m not a dolly. No one owns me. I promised to be loyal to the Barbarians and right now you are the sum total of the Barbarians. You also happen to be why I was willing to make such a promise, so it is kinda vice versa. He can talk ‘til he is blue in the frelling face, I go where I want, when I want, with who I want.”

Noah slowly grinned. “Yeah. I got that early on.” His smiled faded. “Wish I’d had a dozen like you. We needed new blood and had for over a year. The Barbarians wouldn’t have fallen.”

“The Barbarians … or whatever you want to call us … haven’t fallen. We simply outgrew the family group as it used to be and couldn’t keep them on the straight and narrow so we could bring them along. Their choice to leave the family.”

“Pretty picture. But it was me who left them.”

“No. They left the family of their own free will and desires. You left behind people unwilling to follow the laws we all promised to live by so we could move forward.”

“They are just kids.”

“Technically so are we,” I said, repeating what I had told him on the roof.

Noah looked troubled. “They don’t understand what the path they chose means.”

I didn’t believe that so said, “Sure they do.”

“No.”

A little frustrated but trying to be understanding I told him, “Noah, they wanted what they wanted when they wanted it. You didn’t teach them to be that way. It was a choice they made. Trina didn’t help with her stupid plans and schemes. Froggie didn’t help by being a weak Beta. The family’s soldiers should have been strong enough to keep them turned in the right direction until the right choice was a natural one, but they committed treason and chose Trina though she didn’t get as many as she probably expected to. You can’t do everything yourself; you just didn’t have the right people to delegate to. For instance, Roy and Mack rolled to the Blue Bloods and you know why.”

“Er, yeah.

“Well ‘er’ this. The Blue Bloods like going to the clinic.”

“No.”

“Yeah. Dr. Feldman gave a lot of information away, stuff I don’t think he told his staff. Personal stuff. He really, really, really doesn’t like the Blue Bloods. He likes Dr. Calimeris even less. She kinda gets under his skin like syphilis. And I’ll stop dishing the soap opera so you can start explaining the rest.”

He shook his head. “I should have replaced Froggie a long time ago. He should have been on top of this stuff. I can’t believe he wasn’t gathering that kind of intel and giving it to me.”

“Yeah, that I will agree with. But you have me now and the rest is in the past. Just learn from it but leave it there. At the right time we’ll build you a new family.”

He surprised me by saying, “Don’t know if I want one. Or not one like the Barbarians. And I don’t want to talk about that right now. Let’s finish this so we can get some Z’s. Trash Boss says unless he is offered a cherry collection, he wants to get at least 20 miles down the road. You think that is possible?”

“For you and I? Yeah. We’ll be tired and maybe dangerously so, because we are still building real stamina, but we can do it unless something happens. I don’t know the others enough to say what their pace is. The younger guys? Meh. They screw around too much. That’s one of the reason the Boss likes you. You don’t. The older guys? Possibly. I just don’t know. I’ve been watching them as you all work. There are a couple … I don’t know Noah. I guess we’ll see. I’ll watch out more closely tomorrow.”

“Relax Nia. You said I don’t have to do it all myself, same goes for you. I don’t need my new Beta to burn out. I just didn’t know whether you had an idea already. What do you think of this stuff?” he asked referring to the rest of the stuff in the satchel.

I fist bumped his shoulder to let him know I thought it was good. I had recycled two Nalgene bottles earlier in the day and kept them for Noah and I to have an extra a piece. I put them between us and started making survival kits. Noah caught on quickly and pulled out some stuff from his cart and split them between the two piles I was creating. The Monitor knew what was valuable, or at least what Noah and I would find valuable. He was also careful to make it something that would get none of us in trouble for contraband. Waterproof matches are a good trade item. Noah found that out from the Trash Men. They’re spent like pennies in some places. Paracord was another good trade item. This cord was even better because it was camouflage colored. Noah placed a magnesium fire starter in each pile, a costly item that must have come from the old Trash Man’s stash. Some first aid items were split between each pile. Some homemade fire starters came out of the stuff I made from the trash barrel at the thrift store. I also put in a couple of candle stubs that would work for a mini heating and cooking element. Other items we cobbled together were emergency candles, a spool of fishing line and a couple of hooks to go with it. A small sewing kit, some water purifying tables, several coffee filters for filtering, some plastic storage bags. They were used but the zipper still worked, and they didn’t have holes in them. There were two tubes of medicated lip balm, and I was happy to have them. There was also toothpaste (no toothbrush) and toothpicks. A roll of toilet paper. Some duct tape. A small tube of what my grandfather used to call liquid nails. A small bag of mixed screws, nuts, bolts, and real steel nails. A tube of zinc and some plastic sunglasses.

The biggest thing however was some scrip we could “spend” at any of the markets that took Monitor scrip. I’d never heard of the practice, not even at the Thrift Store, but Noah said he got an ear full. Even better, the scrip is not restricted to a city or a state or even a region. So long as the business accepts Monitor scrip, we’ll be able to spend it. Of course it is traceable, so I’m inclined to get rid of it soonest but that will depend on our needs.

“So, you think this is good,” Noah said though I could hear the question in the statement.

“If you need me to tell you that you did good I will. But seriously Noah, I already knew you would do good out here on the road. You pulled off some incredible things when the family needed you to. You are the reason that I joined the Barbarians, and you are the one that I am willing to be Beta to.”

“Er … yeah. About that. How come?”

“How come what?”

“How come, since you know so much … and don’t tell me you don’t because I’ve been watching you for a while … why? You didn’t need the Barbarians. You don’t need me now. So why?”

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 13​

“Who says I didn’t need the Barbarians then and who says I don’t need you now?”

“You …”. He blinked. “I don’t know. I’m just asking.”

“You know why the Barbarians were so important to you? Because it is better to have a side to be on and other people right there with you. I was a loner since my family was killed. Even before that I’m the type that don’t need a lot of noise from a lot of people. But an army of one is unlikely to win a war. You might do some damage, but you won’t win. And surviving this life is like being in a war. You don’t get through it fighting alone. If I have to go back to being alone I can, so if you need to offload and go a different direction, I get it and won’t hold it against you, but give me some warning if you can so I can prepare.”

He looked at me then shrugged. “You’re strange.” He paused then added, “But you’re honest. I need me someone I can believe what they say. We’ll work the rest of it out as it comes up.”

I knew that was about as good an answer as either of us could come up with for now without getting so deep into stuff that we’d talk too late into the night. And it was time to get some Z’s. Tomorrow would hopefully move us further South and closer to my … our … goal.

# # # # #

Speaking of preferring fewer people to more, by noontime I was about to blow a gasket at the stink-noise the Trash Crew was making. Some were whining about how long we’d been on our feet. Some were whining about the trash piles the Boss was ignoring. A few had the nerve to complain because I darted into the bushes and pulled out a wagon I’d spotted and proceeded to go through it as I walked … basically finding work and moving forward at the same time. They really started belly aching when I managed to pull off a few trades at the same time. Mom used to call it multi-tasking and I remember Mom telling my sister that it was a necessary skill for women to have in this life. She should know, she certainly could run a three-ring circus, the Church daycare, and our family at the same time. Of course, Dad would then say they were all the same thing and light Mom up on purpose. I was hoping that one day I could think of them without seeing what they looked like that night.

Apparently most of the men in the trash crew were too single-minded to work and walk at the same time. I honest to Creator wish they hadn’t been able to walk and talk at the same time.

Trash Boss didn’t care so long as I didn’t slow him down. Turns out it wasn’t me or the whiners that slowed him down. We were commandeered late in the afternoon to move a really bad car pile-up out of the way of the Feds that wanted to use the highway the next day. We weren’t the only trash crew put to work either. It was a bad pile up because the traffic had been allowed to overcrowd the roadway and the way it was told, someone got bent out of shape and tried to jump the line and the idiot pulled out in front of an auto-driving semi who they expected to swerve … maybe … and when it didn’t it was a mess and messy all the way around. Every once in a while you would hear someone heave and you knew a body or part of one had been uncovered. Sometimes they were alive, most times they’d already expired due to shock or their injuries. It really didn’t matter as no medical staff were present. Injuries on the road went right to triage, even for monitors.

I saw The Moody again. I kept my hands clean, at least figuratively, and it wasn’t me she gave some crap to but another Recycler on another team that got caught failing to turn in the jewelry being taken off the bodies coming out of one of the more smooshed up vehicles. The Moody being around made me careful, but I still managed to stow as much of the good stuff for Noah and I as I turned over to the Crew Boss. The problem is I managed to get myself in trouble in another way.

I was crawling out of a cab of an auto drive delivery truck to the sound of some squabbling. Not unusual. Recyclers can be territorial bucks which is why I was staying away from the rest them that were around. But what I saw froze me. It was a medico, a real one that sometimes traveled in Road Crews to make sure they followed the health and safety protocols. They were usually high ranking but rarely had much to say and were kept out of direct contact with non-monitors as much as possible.

Well this medico was on the ground and his mechanical eyes were dangling by their wires. He was going to be grow tank fertilizer if they weren’t put back as soon as possible. A blind medico was worse than useless by federal standards.

“You hit him too hard!”

“He saw us. I had no choice.”

They continued to squabble but it was really me that had no choice. A missing medico and everyone on every crew would be taken into custody and unlikely to be walking away towards anything approaching freedom for years at a minimum if we all didn’t simply get chucked in a rehabilitation facility if we survived that long.

I knew The Moody wasn’t far and I created a buzz that traveled through the metal using my own eye. She’d either “see” the vibration or feel it and be forced to investigate. She was faster than I expected and had me by the throat. I kept pointing until she got the message.

Neither Recycler stood a chance. She came around the semi, still dragging me by the throat and took both out with a laser pointer. Not head shots; simply put, she took their heads off with a single slash.

I was starting to see spots when I heard, “Sarge, Sarge … she can’t breathe, and I need answers for a report.”

She abruptly turned me loose and I dropped. “Need … need alcohol, something.”

“An addict. Great,” was someone else’s comment.

I shook my head. One of the monitors there was the one that I’d fixed his hand. “What?”

“Antiseptic. My hands are dirty. We need to get his eyes back in.”

In anxious surprise he asked, “You can fix him?”

“Hardware, maybe. Software damage no chance but you’ve got techs that might could. But he’s going into shock. We gotta hurry.” Someone threw a medico bag at my feet. “I’m not sticking my hands in a monitor first aid bag. You do it.”

Someone cursed me for a fool, but I don’t care. That’s a good way to lose my hands … literally. The fed regs are tough on those that touch that kind of thing.

Finally, after the bag being dumped out with witnesses, I got to it and did the best I could. “Listen, I’ll be as gentle as I can but don’t fight me. My hands are as clean as I can make them, but the sterilizer is gonna sting like a salted razor. Hang on, here they come.” I put a silencing cord across his throat, careful not to cut off his ability to breathe but it took Noah who had shown up, helping to hold the guy without taking his shoulders out of socket.

Finally it was over with and it wasn’t just the medico who was sweating. I told Noah, “Go.”

The Moody said, “Like hell.” She signaled a couple of monitors and they grabbed him. One had a laser to his throat, another to his temple. The Moody said, “I smell a mystery. I don’t like mysteries. You don’t smell like a terrorist, but you never know.”

I quickly said, “No mystery ma’am. Noah is my leader, not my keeper. And I owe him. I don’t want him to suffer if …”

“If? Girl you gots some skillz you shouldn’t have, and I want to know how. Let’s start with why a newbie road shrimp like you knows how to vibrate.”

“I was forced to learn.”

She looked at a device in another woman’s hand and looked disappointed. Finally she said, “Fine. We’ll get back to the who taught you later, since you’re telling the truth. Why would you help a monitor?”

“It didn’t have anything to do with him being a monitor, or at least not … look, I just couldn’t walk away.”

“Listen Gidget. I will take you apart a piece at a time if what is coming out of your mouth doesn’t start making sense.”

Crap on crackers. So instead of just taking as many of them with me as I could, I looked at Noah who nodded and gave them a story that came as close to our cover story as I could while including just enough truth that my vibes wouldn’t set off the damn truthfield someone had turned on. Its buzz made my false teeth hurt.

“First … dead medico that has been sliced and diced for parts would have gotten everyone here on a fast train to deadland whether we were guilty or not, assuming we were allowed to be dead. I’ve seen the alternative and don’t want to ever get that close again. Second … I’ve seen what happens to people that get tossed into grow tanks.” I had more red dots pointed at me than I could count when I moved to pull one of my sleeves up to show grow tank chemical burns. “I was almost in one myself because the eye wouldn’t come online. I had to help … move some bodies … and then I was going to get kicked in myself. I didn’t know if they would put a bullet in my head first or not. They hadn’t for some of the ones …” I stopped and took a deep breath. “It came online at the last second and only because …” I forced myself to take another breath through my nose. “There was a man there. He wasn’t a medico … a nurse I think … but something hands on clinical. They were ramping up for the next load of what they were calling ‘fertilizer’ but I think some facility had gotten hit with something. A buncha dead and mostly dead bodies. Anyway the guy … he made me try one more time, walked me through some mind exercises with my eyes closed, then … it came online.” I was poked in the back with a prod, not juiced thankfully, when I stopped talking. “It didn’t matter that the guy could still … he could still …” I shook my head at the real memories. Mechanically I told her what everyone knew. “Blind medical personnel by legal definition are less than useless and since their parts are rarely repurposed … when the eye started working and I got returned to society, I vowed I’d never do something to get put back in a place like that. Ever. Didn’t matter who or what or why or how come. I won’t go back, not living. So if you’re going to send me at least end me first. Please.” The please nearly gakked me but it was sincere enough to pass for begging.

All the monitors were quiet until the woman running the truthfield said, “She’s telling the truth Sarge.”

“I can tell that much myself,” she said. “Her body is going into memory whiplash. So Gidget, you were paying your respects.”

“I won’t claim that,” I told her surprising everyone but The Moody.

“Hardass,” she said almost affectionately. With a nod of her head the monitors let go of Noah and she instructed him to get me back to camp and take our gear and go. “The two of you will do as you are told and get gone.” She pulled a tag out and handed it to Noah. “Hand this to the outbound guard. Tell them you are being thinned out and got your butt kicked down the road. Gonna be an accounting. Be an unfortunate event should you two get caught up in it.”

Noah nodded and we were hoofing down the road as fast as we could make it happen.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 14​

It was passed dark, and Noah and I had the tent pitched back in enough overgrowth that we weren’t visible. Even if someone had NV (night vision) they wouldn’t have seen us. Even with thermal capabilities it wouldn’t have been easy to pick us out. We were in a broken dry culvert with some kind of brambles growing over it and there was enough wildlife and vapors coming off the greenery that it would take someone willing to investigate a small blip to discover our hidey hole.

I hadn’t talked much since The Moody cut us loose. I talked even less after we got pegged hard by two beat-to-hell duffle bags from a people mover coming up fast and running hot that didn’t bother stopping. I just barely caught sight of a certain medico on a backboard in the rear of the vehicle.

“Let’s get out of here,” I grumbled. “Before someone wants to ask more damn questions.”

Noah was thinking deep thinks – I could tell – and we hoofed it on the unnaturally quiet stretch, avoiding all but the most persistent of the few others on the road looking for intel.

One particular group decided to pester Noah beyond avoidance. “How did you get away?”

Matter of factly Noah answered, “We were cut loose. Told to get out with an or-else attached. I heard they were thinning the ranks.”

Eagerly one of the group said, “Heard the same thing as they shuffled us out. Damn that was some sweet trash. But I heard they aren’t going to let the crews piece it out like normal. Feds were going to come in. Feel sorry for the guys that aren’t going to find out until too late. That’s going to cause trouble. Probably why they were thinning the ranks.”

To the other people Noah responded or sometimes didn’t. Depended on if he thought he could get intel in return, like road conditions. Finally sunset came and most people had stopped for the night. We continued on until I spotted this place and pointed it out to Noah who led us back to it. He needs to learn to break trail without leaving so much sign. I refuse to bring it up right now though, I just covered our back trail and checked for snakes.

“Nia …”

“I’m … sorry.”

We didn’t play twenty questions. He knew what I was referring to and he put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m not. You were right. A dead monitor, a dead medico monitor … there would have been no getting out of that one. Better that idiots like that get culled before they do us damage.”

He surprised me. I expected his anger to be directed at me, not out and away like it was. He sensed it.

“Nia you did what you had to. You protected the family … right now that’s us. It’s a shame you were forced into it, but I’ve run into similar at the Facility. You don’t want to protect certain people but to protect your own you sometimes must. You think this place will hold up to the storm that’s coming?”

I wasn’t sure whether he was talking about the literal storm that was evident in the lightning in the sky and the thunder that was growing closer, or the storm that was promised to anyone in the way of the Federal troops that would be using the road tomorrow. There were signs and flyers all over warning to get off the road and stay off or risk arrest. It must be someone high profile with media with them because I’ve already heard a big road sweeper make two passes. I know it is a sweeper because of all the gravel shooting off into the right of ways on both sides of the road. It makes me glad we are as far off as we are.

“I guess we’ll be seeing if I waterproofed this thing enough or not. The broken drain line will keep the worst off us. We’re on the upland on the other side of the ditch so hopefully the water won’t get this high and flood us out. I’m more concerned if they send troops out to flame the greenery for visibility.”

I sensed his nod in the dark. Then he asked, “You ready to talk?”

“No. But I suppose I owe you an explanation.”

“You don’t owe me one … but I want one.”

Pretty way to put it. He was Alpha and was reminding me without using teeth to do it.

“Yeah. It is the truth. It’s the only thing I could think of when The Moody had the truthfield deployed.”

“When did it happen?”

“End of my first year in the system.”

“That’s not the entire story is it?”

“No.” I sighed. “If I didn’t already hate the Monitors that would have sealed the deal. They tortured one of their own just for taking pity on a kid and trying to save her … me … from the grow tanks. Those perverted freaks of nature fed him to the grow tanks and what lives in them a bit at a time. Made sure that he and I knew it was my fault they were doing what they were doing. The white coats made sure all the brown shirts knew it was my fault and that they’d get the same for taking pity on or helping any resident of a re-education facility. Made sure they knew each one had been marked triaged, no medical help for anything, even a hang nail, until they finished their tour. I got beat on so bad that … if Feldman hadn’t taken an interest I would have given up and died just to escape the beatings and the rest of it.”

“Rest of it?”

I shook my head. “I ain’t giving those nightmares to you Alpha. You don’t deserve them. I was an idiot for helping that guy.”

“You weren’t,” he repeated. “He got the side benefit of protecting us. That’s all you need to consider it.” He put a hand on my shoulder again and said, “Let it go Beta. It only has to mean what you are ready for it to.”

I looked at him and something shifted. I’d respected Noah before; for his strength, his loyalty to his family. But now there was something I hadn’t felt in a long time. Trust. That was as unsettling as forcing myself to remember that day in the grow tank plant. The only thing I could offer in return was a fist bump. I wasn’t someone he should trust. I was dangerous. Mean. Damaged. I wasn’t a traditional sociopath, but I was close thanks to those freaks of nature. And yet …

I shook myself and toed the two duffle bags before saying, “We’ve got some time before we have to split watch to catch some Z’s. I’ll fix some chow if you want to find out what’s in those two bags.”

“Chow is fixed. It’s why I was looking for you.”

Out of the pockets of his duster he took a dozen self-heats, two large packs of protein squeezies, and pack of fruit squeezies. “There’s a couple of tubes of drink tabs too. We can divvy them up after we eat and look at the bags. And before you have to ask, you aren’t the only one that knows how to grab and stash. This came out of a food truck that was involved in the pile up. I would have grabbed more but a monitor was coming around nosing in. It was weird. He could have made me hand it all over but all he did was tell me to scram.”

“I’ve met a few like that. Don’t think he was doing it to be friendly. He just didn’t want the paperwork. Or maybe he was building up to something else, like you owed him. Did you get a good look at him beneath his face guard?”

“He wasn’t wearing one.”

That was different. “Was he young … or old.”

“Old. Had to have been 40, easy. Even under his rank tattoo his face was lined.”

“What rank?”

“Sergeant of some type. I’ve never seen the designation.”

“Draw it for me.”

He did and I nodded. “Figures. He’s what’s called a Den Mother, what my dad and uncle would have called a First Sergeant. They look after the newly enlisteds; keep them out of trouble.” I looked at Noah and once again realized he’d be prime for enlisting in the regular military that fought the foreign campaigns. Officer material even. That’s where most draftees go. Those that make it back and want a different life mostly become Homeland Monitors.

“If Florida doesn’t scratch your itch, you could do worse than enlist in the regular army.”

“Hell to the no. They’ll have to draft and catch me first. Pick your poison so we can eat.”

I grabbed a self-heat out of the pile, and it turned out to be a hashbrown casserole with, assuming the label could be believed, real cheese and sausage mixed in. It included two lumps that passed for biscuits with some squeeze on white gravy. Good food, good taste, which means it probably came out of some officers’ mess. Good deal. They’d be the only ones that qualified for the kind of credits you’d need for something like that.

Noah packed away something called Mulligatawny Stew and I pushed one of the fruit squeezies at him. He tried to object, then tried to split it with me. “You’re nearly three times my size in bulk Noah. You need to eat. Short rations don’t hurt me. They could kill you if you lose too much weight and get sick. Think of it like triage, the calories go to the person that can use them best.”

“I hear you … but I’m Alpha. It means sacrificing.”

“And I’m the Alpha’s Beta. Eat. I’m not going to risk putting you in danger. Not a second time today.”

He finally stopped fighting me. I need to start looking for forage instead of screwing around. We’ve been lucky so far; luck always runs out. After we cleaned up from the meal it was time to look at what my “bounty” had brought us.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 15​

We emptied the bags and looked at the mess in front of us. I hazarded a guess that Noah agreed with. “These bags belonged to the Recyclers that The Moody took out. They must have been stashed close. They went through the bags for potential contraband but … I think these dusters were the ones they were wearing when they met death. Look at the collars,” I said pointing out some laser burns. Giving it another think I added, “With some time I might be able to turn these two into one that will fit you. Like an overcoat, or if there isn’t enough material, a liner for the duster you have. You need better than that summer-weight duster you got when the cold sets in. Especially if we are going to be on the road longer than we want to.”

“You can do that?”

“I learned a few tricks at the thrift store.”

He shook his head. “You’re my Beta. You shouldn’t have to do that.”

I snorted. “It’s my job to cover your back.”

“Ha. Ha ha. Seriously Nia …”

“Seriously Noah,” I said back at him. “Stop with the worrywarting. Wearing more than one hat just means I can keep skillz sharp instead of lose them.”

“You’re going to teach me them skillz you keep showing.”

It wasn’t a request so I nodded. I’m thinking it might not be bad to try and make sure that he can take care of himself if need be. Life turns on a federal-era dime and next time I might have to go suicide. The memories had only reminded me why.

As for the duffle bags and coats, who ever went over them wasn’t The Moody. She would have spotted the lined and hidden compartments with just a glance. These Recyclers were holding back from someone. They were also crazy as hell. There was enough contraband that told me they were on the dark underbelly of the black market. Silver and platinum wire in the coat seams? That is some crazy right there. Dangerous stuff too, and so was the C4 in one of the hidden pockets. I only dealt with that type directly once and it was to get the repair parts for my eye connectors. I got lucky and didn’t even have to pay for them because a fight happened and there was a rush. I skimmed the parts off the guy as he was going down from a pile on. Found out he got drain bamaged and had been euthanized. He was way on the other side of a three-striker anyway. I heard, but never confirmed, he’d had a price on his head which would have meant immediate order to be euthanized due to inability to follow law and order. I felt no remorse, the guy was evil, and I had been regretting the deal I struck. If word had gotten out that I was a literal pure blood with no protectors, they would have been syphoning my eggs until my uterus prolapsed.

The rest of the stuff was posh for the way the bags looked on the outside. They must have run in different circles given whatever circumstances. This could have been a mission, one they failed, that had a high payout if they succeeded. The Moody will follow them up the chain if she’s as smart as I think she is. A slice and dice isn’t unusual. A slice and dice of a medico is. Either he had a special match for an unusual request, or it was an act of opportunity. I’m thinking he pulled up for a special match. Whatever. But whoever made the request better pray to the Creator it was buried hard and deep or they’ll wish they’d taken their own way out. The Monitors’ Interviewers are a special kind of demonic.

In one pocket they had food tabs, highly concentrated nutrition pills that you could live on for up to a month before you started losing weight. They are hard as hell on your kidneys but for a week or two here and there, and with enough fluid to keep your system flushed, they could be life savers. And speaking of fluids, each man carried an extremely high-end water filter. This thing would even filter out radiation if need be. You’d still get a dose but nothing some potassium iodide pills wouldn’t take care of, and they had those too. That told me they may sometimes travel near the Hot Zones, like Old DC or maybe near the old Texas border where the cartels made a stand before I was born. My dad and uncle got exposed during that battle and it was why there are so many years between me and my youngest sib and why my uncle’s kids – my cousins – had all been his step kids. Only one wasn’t there that night – he’d been off with his mom looking for his bio-dad to get some form or other signed for school. Who knows if Cody is still alive. They could have been swept up afterwards or any number of other things could have made him dead by now. Life is hard and cheap, even in Free States.

The rest of the stuff included some regular food … rice, oats, corn nuts, mixed dried veggies, dried fruits (mostly apples and pears), some legit ground dried meat, some powdered milk and eggs, and a few other odds and ends. There were even pemmican bars; obviously homemade but after a nibble on a corner, I could tell they were made by someone with some practice. Maybe most wouldn’t have considered it a treasure, but for our purposes it was close simply because it would help me to piece out whatever forage I could find. If the prizes weren’t food it was odds and ends, some that made sense and some that made me wonder who was fueling their crazy … carabiners, a couple of multi-tools, some high end medico gear like a tourniquet and tactical surgical kit that still had all the supplies in them, some quality folding knives (they must have had their fixed blades on them except for the spear point throwing knives that came out of one of the duffles), dry sacks in different sizes holding different style clothes like they were costume sets, ear plugs, working head lamps, zip ties and mouth silencers, each bag had a monocular NV that wasn’t cheap or easy to get for civilians, metal shears that were still sharp, a tactical compass (holy crap it was military grade), cooling towels (wet, snap, put on your neck or head, blessed relief from the heat), a camouflage camelback for each of us, belts and bunjis to keep your pants and any number of other things from falling, high end goggles that wouldn’t fog up, a whole damn box of honey straws each for an energy boost if you needed one, different color rolls of paracord, camou rain gear, a couple of canteens, and a roll of both camou and desert sand duct tape (that would give us an alternative if we couldn’t use the gray that we had), a k-bar tactical spork with hidden knife, three-fold shovel, some energy dips (herbs and crap in a pouch you dipped like old-style snuff by putting it between your cheek and gums), a couple of small tins of tinder that looked like it had been treated with something to make it burn longer, camou face paint in urban, dessert, forest, and jungle colors, a couple of high-lumen micro-lights, a couple of telescoping tactical batons that would put a hurt on anyone that got hit with them, there was a tactical one-piece sledgehammer I pushed towards Noah as it would have been too heavy for me to use effectively, a couple of microfiber towels that needed washing, a wiresaw, waterproof match boxes that actually had matches in them, rolls of hemostatic gauze, EMT shears, some lanyards, a vacuum pack of surgical gloves, survival ration bars, two collapsible camp stools, depilatory for when you want to get rid of the hair, more lip balm, one set of bolt cutters and a hand axe, magnesium fire starters, fingerless gloves (big set fit Noah but I need to cut down the smaller pair), and two tactical hammocks with mosquito netting in their own micro stuff bag, which told me they must have been setting up in the trees to avoid detection.

There are a few pieces of contraband I need to find a way to keep like the universal hand cuff key, two folding titanium mini camp stoves each with a bag o’ fuel tabs to feed them, a supply of lithium batteries, and two rifle sights. There was a case of chlor-floc, the kind the military uses to treat water with. There looked to be a case between the two duffles of Chinese, Korean, and Australian MREs which might indicate who they’d been playing for. Other food included some Keto bricks, a multispice container, a small bag of rice and a small bag of wheat, and a couple of folding bowls.

That wasn’t all however, and I took note of how well everything was packed which said the owners of all the bounty may have been crazy, but were experienced. There was a box of silver-infused surgical face masks in a hidden inner pouch; probably used to keep from contaminating any hijacked human body parts. What I wasn’t seeing was transportation vessels for body parts and organs. There had been a set of splints and a field trauma kit, lot of hemostatic agents, some topical antibiotics, but nothing serious enough for what they would have needed to harvest the medicos parts and expect to get them from point a to point b. There wasn’t even any waterproof containers. Either the Monitors had removed that stuff from the duffles or the Recyclers had a site they were carting the medico to when whatever happened to cause the fight happened. Thinking it to death wouldn’t serve any purpose and we needed to divvy up the gear between us. The new gear was welcome, but the bulk and weight wasn’t something that I had planned on.

I had blacked out the light we were making as much as possible, but it still took a moment for me to get my night vision back online when we turned it off.

“Noah?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll take first watch.”

“You sure?”

I know he was asking if I was handling my memories … and I told him, “I’m sure.” And I was pretty sure I wasn’t lying when I said it.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 16​

“What. The. Hell.” Noah whispered as we watched the fed trucks go by from our hiding spot.

I was right there along with him, but I was less surprised as I remember this sort of thing from “before”. I told him, “Someone must be politicking trying to get it some vid for exposure. Maybe playing some live media streaming. Or maybe not. Those don’t look like any fed media types I’ve ever seen.”

There were actors dressed as road people running along, excited and clapping, and pointing at the fed people mover. Some of them even carried placards supporting “LIN.” I was still figuring out whether that was a person or some committee or group.

A man who was obviously the focus of their adoration spread his arms and said, “Let them come close! My people!”

Noah said, “I think I’m gonna puke. The guy sounds like one of those theocratic groups we heard about in Civics and Civility. Robes and all though those are the strangest I’ve ever seen. What’s that thing around his neck? A voice amplifier?”

Having noticed something I said, “Mebbe. Or mebbe not. Something is off. Look at ‘em, they’re all Asian of some flavor. What are the feds doing … aw frell.” My eye caught something and I hissed, “Check out two o’clock. Crap! We need to pull back fast.”

When Noah saw what I’d noticed he turned and grabbed me by the collar and almost dragged me faster than I could keep my feet under me as the first concussion grenade hit the fed convoy.

# # # # #

It was the rest of that day and most of the night before we dared to stick our heads out of the culvert. Thank the Creator that we had earplugs, or we would have been deaf. Lucky for us the action mostly stayed focused on the road except for a little battle play further up the ditch area. That was still to close for comfort.

While we had waited out the attack, we’d finished repacking and stowing all our gear, new and old, so we could make as fast a getaway as possible, as soon as possible. We needed to get down the road before first light as that was likely when the military … the real military and not just Monitors … would spread out into the roadsides to check for any surviving or escaping combatants.

I used the NV in my eye to find a path and keep us on it. Noah used the NV glasses, but they didn’t give him very good depth perception so gave it up except for occasional use. We were as silent as we could be, but it kept us slow, too slow for our comfort. Only one time did we almost give ourselves away, and it really wasn’t our fault. And I’m not sure what to make of it.

We came up on a group of people … the actors that had been playing sycophant to those in the military transports … who were about to blitz a mixed patrol of Military and Monitors. Noah looked at me and I ground my teeth, but I knew what he wanted. I even agreed with him, just for my own reasons. They had a couple of hostages and looked like they were wanting to take more. One of them … aw crap on crackers I’m turning soft … was The Moody. She was hurt but not completely disabled, and no where close to being sent to the grow tanks. I saw she was about to call out to the incoming personnel to warn them at the same time one of the bad actors was turning a laser on her. Idiot. Me, not the baddy.

Noah and I started moving at the same time. Noah stomped the head of the closest attacker, embedding most of the guy’s face into the pine tree he’d been hiding behind. It was just enough of a distraction that I was able to get a shiv into the throat of the fem with the laser. I grabbed the hand with the laser and finished off the other baddies without a sound and turned to find Noah untying The Moody. Her mouth was last and I prepared for her to yell as the noise from down the trail was getting louder.

“Dumbass newbs,” she whispered instead of yelled. She motioned for the laser and I surprised myself by handing It over. As I shoved the laser into her bloody hands I was at least awake enough to smear any ident-prints I might have left behind, and prepared to run. She grabbed me and said like It was Irritating her, “Two hundred yards straight and then up and over the other side of the old train tracks. Now go. Fast. And stop playing in traffic you idiots.”

She didn’t have to tell me twice and this time it was me dragging Noah so he wouldn’t trip in the dark.

# # # # #

After a hundred yards we were out of the battle zone and leaving the lights of the helidrones behind. At the two-hundred-yard mark I could spot the overgrown tracks without NV because the sky was the color it gets right before sun up. There were more than a few dead … the attackers from the look of them, meaning most of them were dressed as road people but with the face of some type of Asian. Most Asians that I’d ever run across were elites, not that you’d ever find any in the Facility System. Asia got hit hard by one of the bioweapons and it left a lot of infertility behind. There are rumors about other things and reasons, but I admit my knowledge only goes so far. I do remember my Dad’s and Uncle’s opinion on the Chinese and the history that I’d been taught in school before I fell into the Hellscape.

What did we find on the other side of the tracks? Some kind of transport that held supplies. It might have been how the actors were being fed and supplied but with everything in Asian chicken scratch on the boxes I wasn’t sure. Thinking fast, The Moody must have run into trouble – maybe a crossfire – while following a trail. Maybe. Doesn’t really matter. What mattered was she was paying us back.

I didn’t have to motion Noah silent. He may have never lived outside of a Facility, but he was learning fast how to survive. We both quickly filled every empty space we had in our vests, packs, and gear haulers. Wasn’t much space as we were already running heavy, but I fixed that some by grabbing a Toter-Hauler that had been lying nearby, filling the wagon with what would fit, and putting my stair-climber bag on top and strapping it down with some bungee cords to hold everything in place. The wheels on the toter were fat and treaded which was good on the one hand but bad as we’d be easy to follow so I wanted to get going as quickly as possible.

I turned to look for Noah and felt another knot of wonder/worry untie itself. He was shaking down a few of the corpses. As soon as I could find us a slowdown spot, I’d see whether it was anything traceable and then we’d see from there.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 17​

Neither one of us said a word as we hoofed it through the underbrush on the other side of the tracks. We by-passed several near-perfect hidey holes to camp out in, because we’d both felt the tell-tale buzz of the kind of dosimeters that Monitors use to detect sound. We needed to continue south as far and as fast as possible so we wouldn’t potentially be associated with what had gone down. As dawn turned to day, and then to evening, I knew we’d outpaced any possible human pursuers, but there could always be tracer-sniffers on our trail. Those robotic Cerberus were high-end and usually remained in the urban landscape so I didn’t think so, but as a thought it made my guts watery. Another problem I needed to deal with was, in our escape, we’d left the roadway, but I didn’t know by how far.

We needed a break. I was ready to simply pitch a tarp in the tall grass when I saw a large cedar tree growing next to where the granite had been cut to make a path for the defunct tracks to stay level. Noah saw my look and then nodded. We both needed to stop and feed our faces but Noah more than me. Sometimes his size is a good thing … and sometimes not.

# # # # #

We still hadn’t said a word, no reason to since we could understand each other without speaking. We were using the Barbarian hand signals to communicate as we would have back at the Facility. He helped me to set our tent well under the lowest branches of the cedar. We put some boughs under us before putting our sit-upons down. I was prepared to hang what I could in the trees to keep us from turning into big predator-chow but Noah surprised me by taking a box out of his personal gear. I gave him a thumbs up which made him give a tired grin before setting up the device. The Trash Man must have been well-heeled at some point even if he had fallen on hard times. Neat piece of equipment and didn’t even qualify as contraband. The box was an animal repeller. It drove off most animals regardless of size. The only animal that I knew of that it didn’t work on were the specially trained Mutts used at prisons and rich men’s playgrounds. Even some people were sensitive to them. For sure It gave me a headache at first, but once the rain started to fall Noah turned it down and it was less of a problem.

Staying silent also wasn’t that imperative anymore either between the thunder and wind. We still kept it quiet and spoke in whispers. After we’d pulled everything into the tent with us, we ate. No fire needed because some of what had come out of the supply vehicle were self-heats.

Noah asked, “You think we made a friend?”

I gave him a look and then realized he was goofing a bit, probably out of relief.

I responded, “No. I don’t know what her motivations are and I’m not going to guess. But …” I shook my head in irritation. “I don’t trust Monitors. Period. The Moody? Maybe …” I shook my head again. “The less interaction with Monitors the better. This kind of thing just doesn’t happen. It is like a damn Tri-V soap story.”

“But it did.”

I sighed. “It did. We’ll have to see if we’re going to owe something for it down the road. And we need to go through all of this to make sure there are no tags.”

“I was checking as I loaded.”

“So was I but safer to double check now that we’ve got some time and the electric in the air to cover any signal.”

And that’s what we did after eating. I made the mistake of picking a carb-heavy meal. Good for energy, bad when you are tired and the dump wants you to curl up and sleep. Sloppy I didn’t want to be.

I removed anything that looked like it could be turned into a tracker … even the little inventory idents. The self-heats were all good quality if a little shy on diversity and size. I suggested to Noah that he eat a second one and it didn’t take much suggesting to get him to do it. I even got him to eat a fruit squeezy from our own supplies though he insisted I drink one of the water pods since I wouldn’t eat anything else.

“How do you see it Beta?”

That was Noah’s way of acknowledging my place as well as starting a conversation. No real reason to but it made me appreciative.

“Someone got over confident and fell for a trap.” At his nod of encouragement, I pieced it out a bit more. “That was a legit fed convoy. Too many strings attached to it for it to be anything but. The military was in on it and so were Monitors. Why they handled the break down we were working. Although that might have been staged though I don’t think so … just used to advantage. It kept all private/civilian traffic off the roadway and made for fewer loose ends to clean up. Whoever or whatever LIN was, they were creating problems. For who or what I don’t have enough data to guess. But again, military was in on this … those were legit military personnel that threw the first percussion grenades.”

“Not actors?”

“Nah. Not with the Monitors mixed in. That’s something that rarely happens. Also tells me that LIN – the who or what – was considered a national threat.”

“You see it that way?”

“Yeah. Most Asians are elites but they aren’t allowed to enlist in the military or Monitors. They were all burned out back during the Second Border War, before the Southern border turned into a Hot Zone.”

“I got the history Nia.”

Oops. He stopped calling me Beta. I didn’t let it worry or irritate me, we were still shaking out.

I said, “I know you do but I don’t want to take a chance we aren’t on the same page.” Something that had started to show on his face cleared up. I added, “Plus … I have personal experience. Both my father and uncle were Vets of that war … and experienced the consequences of it. So were a lot of their friends. Their prejudices were easy to understand and it likely is true of any Vets that are part of the Monitors. The Moody might be from that set of experiences. She would have been young, maybe a new recruit or draftee, but she looks like she could fit that age bracket. The military complex still holds a major grudge since it was China that sold the dirty bombs to the drug cartels.”

“The lecturers at the education building said the cartels stole the bombs.”

I shrugged. “According to my father that was just a cover. Everyone knew they were ‘allowed’ to steal the bombs. The thinkers asked why the Chinese would have a base so close to our Southern Border. I’d have to check who wrote the book teaching it the way you heard it. From before I arrived at the Facility. By the time I got there they’d trashed the latest history books, and all we had were the slideshows, not texts.”

Noah nodded and let it go. Everyone knew the old phrase “it’s the winners that write the history books” and also that our texts were constantly being re-written and there was no telling what was true and what wasn’t. You kinda had to pick your path and hope you answered the questions on the tests the way the current teachers required you to. I’d always been able to avoid demerits by asking Dr. Feldman as a way to stroke his ego. More than half the time he was the one that graded my work anyway. The man has serious control issues. It caused me problems with some of the teachers and doctors, but Feldman protected me from that so long as I continued to scratch his itches.

I gave myself a mental shake to get back on the right pathway. “I’m not sure it matters either way. I don’t want to get involved in anyone’s cause, regardless of what level it is on. Good way to lose a body part or three. Even better way to get in the way of our primary goal of getting to Florida.”

“Agreed. Let’s pull the maps and try and figure our location and where we go from here.”

“Yes Alpha.”

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 18​

Using compass and map we figured we were near Old Fayetteville. If we continued following the tracks we’d bisect the old ghost town but we needed to go around rather than through. I’d heard rumors when figuring out the best route that you did not go through Old Fayetteville, any of the ghost towns on the route, unless you were part of a team large enough to make sure you didn’t look like a target to those that inhabited the ghost towns.

We decided, as soon as the weather permitted, to head due east and grab the first highway we came to and then head south. That decided we started breaking down everything we’d grabbed from the supply and doing a mental inventory.

“Nia? Beta?”

I turned to Noah and responded, “Yeah Alpha?”

“I never saw stuff like this. Not even the few times I loaded stuff for the Oligarchs from the back of the food warehouse. You ever seen this?”

“Personally? No. But I’ve seen reports on It.”

“Reports. You’re telling me that you saw Monitor Reports?”

“I saw reports that came through Feldman’s office. He…” I looked at Noah trying to figure out how much to tell him.

“What?”

“Alpha… Noah… don’t take this that I don’t… look…”. I stopped and sighed. He’d either be able to handle It and continue to trust me… or not. “Feldman was good at hiding in plain sight. He got off on having Information on people. He never really Intended on using the Information, at least so far as I was able to determine, that wasn’t his thing. He just wanted to have It.”

“That don’t make sense.”

“Neither did Feldman. It was one of the reasons why… look, you think I was with him just accidentally? Somehow, some way, he … found me in the system. I don’t know how he found me but the notes I was able to get into and decipher …”

“You … you hacked into …?! Are you crazy?!! Where’s the damn egg? Not another word leaves your mouth about this until we get that thing set up. There could be Monitor Mutts or … we need to pack up and move …”

I reached over and stopped him from throwing things into his pack. “Storm. Thunder and lightning. If they’re out there they are non-operational until this Is over.” I stopped just shy of telling him not to panic. It would not have been well received.

“Will the egg work in this weather?”

“Not optimally.”

I could see Noah struggling. Me being able to, much less actually hacking into the computer system had brought it all home to Noah. The fact that he believed me so readily surprised me, but I wasn’t going to push him any further.

“You told me your family didn’t have anything to do with … with how you wound up in the system.”

“They didn’t. I can’t help … strike that … I chose not to lose the smarts I was born with despite all the things they did to me. As for Feldman, I was going to be his … hidden weapon. He probably would never have used me except as an Information gatherer, but the potential was there.”

“Okay, start from the beginning … and this time don’t leave anything out. Including why you picked me.”

 

[Jeepcats27]

Interesting tale, some shades of Gurl and others! Thank you Kathy!

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 19​

“Let’s get one thing straight Alpha …”

“I don’t need …” he started, and I could see his anger. I could also see his hurt, which I needed to stop before I went any further.

“I know. You never needed a suck up brigade. One of the first things I noticed about you. And maybe that is part of it too. You are Alpha … and I chose … chose … you. And yeah, I eventually chose to deal with Froggie and the others to take the Beta position because it worked in my plans. But not just because of that reason. They … offended me. Mostly because … look, when I make a promise, I need it to mean something.”

“You said that before.”

“And I meant it, still do. I haven’t lied to you. I could have. It would have made things easier on me. But … when I promised to follow the laws of the family … the Barbarians … I needed … need … those laws to mean something.”

“You aren’t making sense,” Noah said, shaking his head.

Contradicting him I said, “I am. You … just don’t trust me to mean what I’m saying.”

“Was … all that stuff about your family true?”

“Yeah.”

“About the grow tanks and the damage you took?”

“Yeah.”

“But that’s not all the story.”

“Yes … and no. You still want me to tell it?”

“Want? Hell if I know. Need? Yeah. I feel half deaf with lack of info. First Froggie, now you.”

I could compute his meaning, so I decided to fill in the blanks. I wasn’t really sure what the results were going to be but better to find out now than down the road any further.

# # # # #

“I’ve already told you about the night my family was murdered. Maybe not the nitty-gritty details but those are my nightmares and I don’t share them. Suffice it to say … they hit us hard and fast with no thought they might be wrong. They didn’t care what age or gender you were. We weren’t the only ones that were hit and it was what the old-timers call a fluster-cluck and my dad would have called a SANFU. Not many attacked survived that night. Most had zero survivors. Unfortunately for the government some did survive. I’m not sure how many are still alive and of those how many have been able to stay out of the System. I hadn’t gotten around to finding out about any others, it was just too dangerous even if I had been able to. Sometimes you just have to grok what is best for yourself.” He gave me a slow nod and I continued. “Of my family there were only three of us that survived the attack. My uncle, my cousin, and me. My cousin and I were used as a method of control to try and force my uncle to talk … but not until we were taken to some place. I’m pretty sure that it was in old DC.”

“Before or after the bomb?”

“After. The bomb trashed DC the year before I was born. Dad and my uncle were too damaged to be called to duty and they kept the family in Florida until I was about a year old. I was twelve when the attack happened if that gets the timeline straighter for you. We were in Florida for a family vacation and from what I understand Florida nearly seceded over it. It was so bad that the then government had to grant them a certain amount of independence and they haven’t been able to take it back. What I do know is the first place we were taken was deep below ground and there were old government seals from when the federal system was still in place. My uncle knew or suspected where we were but pretty sure it didn’t mean much to him by then. They were torturing him to get the names and locations of other militia groups except we weren’t part of any such group. My father and him always said things like they were all infiltrated and never to have anything to do with anyone claiming to be part of one.”

“But … if they were … are … all infiltrated …”

“Why were they torturing him for information they should have already had? That’s a question right there isn’t it. So either my father was wrong … or they weren’t as in control as they thought.”

“Did you figure it out?”

I gave a one shouldered shrug and answered, “Right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”

“Speak some sense,” Noah spat showing he was still irritated. I didn’t blame him or hold it against him.

I told him, “I am. I think … think … that they were losing control of who knew what and who was planning what. The nerve gas at the New Capital was just one of several fiascos that happened around that time. It was becoming so obvious that they had to start more wars just to hide how badly they were devolving. There were people in charge that knew what was going on, but they would play their own games with each other.”

“Nia …”

“What do you do when you’ve got all the money you could ever need? Have all the people you could ever control? All the perversities you have access to do nothing but bore you? What do you do with all that knowledge and power?”

“Pick fights and mess with the with people that are on your level to knock them off the game board,” Noah answered. “And yeah, I got that. I spent too much time watching other Alphas do that kind of stupid shit when if they had just come together, we could have made it a lot better for our people.”

I didn’t let him see how surprised I was. I thought I would have to talk him into seeing it and there he was having already figured that out well before I came on the scene.

He said, “How long did that last?”

“They had me a year, moving me around. Sometimes one group would be the ones calling the shots, sometimes another. Didn’t really matter in the scheme of things. It didn’t matter who was playing the part of the devil, I was still in hell.” I thought of that year as little as possible so I skipped to the next part so he wouldn’t ask any more questions. “I’m not sure of this next part. I do know that it had more to do with the fact they were bringing in terrorists to ‘question’ around that time so I think they just … lost interest in me since they had new toys to play with. I went to a step-down facility. Why they didn’t just pull a laser and end me I haven’t got a clue. About halfway through that year is when Feldman shows up. Sick bastard. It took me a while to clue to his dealio. He almost fooled me. I was that desperate.” I shook my head. “But he overplayed his hand one day in the lab when he thought no one was around. However, a couple of interns saw something and I overhead them talking. He disgusted them but they still laughed. They kept placing bets when I was going to rat Feldman out.”

“Why … why didn’t you?”

“Because I finally decided I was going to live and do what I could to avenge my family.”

“I thought you said your family wouldn’t have wanted that for you.”

“That was later. Right then I was … maybe I am now so you be careful of yourself. I was messed up … physically, emotionally, all of it. Feldman’s little experiments weren’t exactly gentle learning experiences. He was messing with my psyche. Then came the day the interns had had enough, and they were going to tell on Feldman. I couldn’t let that happen because I’d finally figured out that Feldman was my ticket out of hell.”

I looked at the hand that had been placed on my arm and then looked at him. “We need to work on your survival instinct Alpha.”

“You swore to watch my back.”

I had to blink to keep the absolute astonishment out of my eyes. I finally looked away. “I did. And maybe I need to protect you from me most of all.”

“Maybe down the road. Right now? I don’t consider it a problem.”

I wanted to do something to prove him wrong … but I couldn’t. Promises have to mean something.

I didn’t deny his words and just continued with the story. “Feldman figured out that I was the one that caused the lab accident that killed the interns. I let him go to a lot of effort to get the why out of me. Once he did … I had him hooked. Feldman is one seriously twisted freak, but I learned to control him. He got us out of the step-down location to the first of the Education Facilities. Every time someone would almost be on to him, we’d get moved. Then I noticed he’d started taking some injections. He wasn’t even recording it in his private journal so I knew it was something un-good. Then we wound up at Gamma so he could have access to a certain program. Pure blood. But he had to do it on the sly because he was sick.” At Noah’s look I said, “Legitimately sick, not just a freak. Some kind of autoimmune disease. The idiot gave it to himself trying to stay young … not just extend his life like the Elites do, but stay young.”

“Is that possible?”

“Extending life? Sure. The rich weirdos have been doing it for decades. Staying young? Nope. Youth is not just a function of physicality, it is also a function of mental and spiritual well-being. You’ve seen the kids over in the lockdown labs. You’ve seen how we look different than the kids that have families. None of us can fake the innocence of real youth. Not even the kids in the Kinder Kare units.”

He knew what I meant. Kids in Facilities usually hit puberty early, and not just because of the crap they put in our food, but there was some of that in there too. My father and uncle used to take in young vets that weren’t kept on the enlisted roles for some reason. Maybe they weren’t much older than my older sister, but they sure looked it most of the time. Even Noah looked older than seventeen and not just because of his size. I would have looked like an old woman if Feldman hadn’t experiment on me with the plastic surgery machines. He claimed it was a way to distance the “new” me from my original me. Was that the truth? He talked himself into it but in reality it was because he was manipulating me into a more palatable body for his purposes. That was my personal nightmare and I wasn’t sharing it.

“Where’d you go?” Noah asked.

“Sorry. Mental rabbit trails.”

“You … er … wondering what is going to happen to Feldman?”

“Nah. He’s dead or the next best thing to it.”

“What?!” I’d finally managed to shock him.

“Shhh. I said he’s probably dead. He only had at best a week worth of his formula … the stuff that was keeping him alive … when we escaped the facility. And what he did have left, I made sure didn’t do what it was supposed to do.”

“Well damn, aren’t you cool,” he said.

“So maybe I wasn’t interested in him suffering. He wasn’t one of the ones that murdered my family and … he served his purpose of getting me out of hell. Not to mention he’d programmed his lab and records to self-destruct as soon as his own heart stopped. I helped his plan along by making sure some other things would blow at the same time. Hopefully that covers our trail.”

“Damn Nia.”

He was seeing that there was ice where my feelings should have been.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 20​

“Still want a sociopath as your Beta?” For me it was a serious question, not a joke.

Noah slowly shook his head. I made to get my gear and leave but he stopped me. “You aren’t a sociopath. You’re messed up, but you’ve got it under control. Finish your story … Beta.”

I’m not sure what to call what Noah is for me at this point, but he’s a good Alpha. I respect him for that. I’ll do my best to fulfill the job I took on. Promises need to mean something.

“You wanted to know why I picked you. Simply put, because a person of one cannot win a war. That only happens in fairytales. Other thing is … I’ve had to accept that … I’m human. Maybe they didn’t want to leave me that, but for whatever reason they failed at taking it from me. But if I was going to keep my human from getting … out of control … I knew I needed a group to belong to. To align with. To create … a purpose beyond being defined by what happened to my biological family. I saw the family structure – different from any of the other facilities I’ve been in – as a way to attain that goal; keeping my human under control and functioning. I analyzed all the groups and while the Barbarians had a lot of broken pieces, so did all the other groups. What the other groups didn’t have was … you.”

“Uh …”

“I know what it sounds like but …” I sighed. “I don’t always know why I grok things. You? I saw you as a piece of a puzzle that unlocked a lot of pieces of puzzles for me, that would have otherwise stayed locked. I was willing to take on the rest of the Barbarians, but things happened the way they did. However, you are still you and my promises still stand.”

Noah looked at me a long time and I let him look. I wanted this to work, and not just for me. Noah could be somebody but he needed hardening off so he could survive in case I wasn’t around to cover his back. But yeah, I also wanted it for me. I had a plan and a goal … Florida. I haven’t completely figured out what happens after that. It depends on what I find once we get there. And I’m willing to admit it might depend on what Noah wants.

“Is this the entire story?” he finally asked.

“It’s the outline but not all the nitty gritty. I figure things will come up but I’m not intentionally holding anything back. There are just too many stories to tell all in one sitting. But I’ve never lied to you … and I won’t, even if it screws up what could be.”

He looked for a while longer and then relaxed. “Don’t. We’ll work the nitty gritty out as it comes up. I’ve got my own nitty gritty and not interested in sitting around kumbayaing it to death. So … Beta, how much longer you think this rain is going to continue? Never seen weather like this.”

Understanding what he meant I answered, “It’s natural weather. Mostly what we got at the Facility and in the town was artificial, or at least screwed around with by the oligarch so his parties weren’t messed up. As for how long? It feels like it will rain all night, but we need to be ready to move out as soon as we have any light to do it by even if the wet stuff is still falling. Your concern about potential tracking and investigation is valid even if I don’t think it is likely. Plan for the worst and you’ll never be disappointed.”

He fist bumped the top of my shoulder. “Fine. Back to this stuff. If you’ve never seen it but read about it … is it considered good stuff? Could it make us a target?”

“Yes Alpha, this is good stuff. Not officer-level meals like the stuff you took from the pile-up, but this isn’t something they’d simply throw in a trough for people to scoop up either.”

And it went from there.

# # # # #

We stowed a few of the super-hydration waterpods for emergencies but the rest we opened and spread out into our Nalgene bottles to refill them. There were some hydration gum and candies, standard fare for road people so I wasn’t too worried about it being seen, so we split them between our pockets. All the Trash Crewmembers seemed to be sucking on them or chewing them constantly, when they weren’t vaping anyway. The food was a bunch of hotpot self-heats … all Asian so we’d need to be careful and only take them out in the tent. We definitely got rid of all of the packaging that we could. There wasn’t much, it was done up in high-end enviro saving materials, but anything that identified it came off and went in a hole we dug to destroy what we could.

The meals weren’t big and were standard issue for feeding protest crowds. I could get away with just eating one for a meal. Noah would need to eat two most of the time. I figure I could eat two a day and Noah would eat three … that’s assuming that we could find a private spot to pull over and eat in privacy. I’d save a few back for emergencies but we need to get rid of the unusual food items as soon as possible. We also needed to lower the weight we were pulling as well. Too much stuff and we wouldn’t have enough space for me to do my recycling job.

“Assuming we can find another crew to shadow.”

I nodded, “Always assuming. I wish these things folded down better. They take up too much space … and weight.”

“They won’t last long if we are really going to be able to use five a day.”

“Again, that always assuming. The false bottom we rigged on the toter-hauler will help some, but we need to mess it up so it doesn’t look like a new acquisition. It stands out too much.”

It took time to do the camouflage right and by the time that was done we were both done in. This time Noah insisted on taking first watch. I didn’t complain.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 21​

The Creator must have decided to send a couple of guardian angels to look after us because it was a lot easier to get to the highway than it should have been if the stories we heard were true. We heard there was a lot of military action behind us and where there wasn’t military, there were Monitors. A lot of people were taken into custody, or from what we heard at least until they ran out of room in the transports.

Of those that were left to get hustled down the road, there were plenty of disgruntled people, especially in the Trash Crews. There were also enough recyclers willing to complain that they weren’t allowed to trade that we used that as an excuse for why we had a full load ourselves after we got a few suspicious looks. We didn’t see any military but there were Monitors buzzing up and down the highway so that none of the grumbling got particularly loud. No one was left much breath to do any grumbling with as we were all kept moving faster than normal speed. And the further down the road we got, the faster they expected us to go.

Then I got a little worried when I saw where they were herding us. We were getting forced off the road and down an off-ramp into Old Lafayette. A few didn’t want to go and out came the electric whips and prods that are one of the Monitor’s favorite crowd control toys. Most of us got the message but there were a few hardheads that seemed to prefer risking a multi-day stay in a hard labor camp. That didn’t bode well for what they thought might be coming.

By listening to the quiet talk Noah and I picked up that this old ghost town had a dangerous reputation. And that the reputation had been getting more and more deserved over the last few months. Didn’t seem to matter to the Monitors. They were forcing us through but weren’t giving anyone protection. Getting to the other side and out was going to be up to us apparently. The only purpose I could see to this was to whittle the number of people on the road even more. The only positive was I heard that designated ghost towns – like Lafayette – was a no man’s land, meaning anything went. Anyone living and working in a ghost town was considered a hard felon as they were deemed evacuated quarantine zones. Unfortunately that went both ways, it didn’t matter If you were traveler or resident. Yo-yo Dude … you’re on your own.

Noah got my attention with hand signals. He wanted me to stick close. I wanted to tell him I wasn’t stupid and not to crowd me, but knew I’d pushed my luck as far as I could go last night. On the other hand, he needed to stop worrying about me as I was likely a hella lot more dangerous than he thought. Noah knew I could fight; he didn’t know how easy It was for me to kill. Some of the nitty gritty included the volume of the kills I’d made happen and I was hoping that didn’t have to come up. Not because I was ashamed or really cared, but because I didn’t want to freak him out. However, I wouldn’t hesitate to use deadly force no matter who or what came at us. I was going to have to cover his front and his back until I was sure he had the lay of whatever battle was before us. I certainly wasn’t going to make the mistakes I’d been making up to this point.

They were pushing us through in large groups. I could tell that the trash crews were looking after themselves but that some had also made deals to go in together. The Road People were bunching up together as well, or as much as they were being allowed, but from the looks of them it would be every man for themselves as soon as anything started. We were being put into position to enter the ghost town and I was watching the group in front of us. They made it to the first turn but after the last of them had disappeared I heard a distant roar, and I knew whatever was going down was happening out of the Monitor’s view to keep them from being forced to get involved. Those were the rules. Sometimes they worked in your favor and sometimes not.

Noah looked anxious for only a moment then I saw him shift. “Forced fights.” He signaled silently. I signaled in the affirmative. He meant that is what it looked like was going on. In the Facilities it was a common practice. It got rid of the weak and supposedly taught us how to survive without being babied or supported in any way. Sometimes it forced the loners into making alliances and teaching them how to operate in a group. Maybe even trained us to enlist. It was also frequently used as a punishment and control mechanism. I knew for a fact that in some Facilities they streamed the fights and gambling went on despite it being against the law. You had to fight – you were beaten and punished in other ways if you didn’t. Often you wound up fighting people that were your “friends” at any other time. Feuds were created … and settled … all with the oversight of the adult overlords. Sometimes the fights were to first blood, or incapacitation, or in rare circumstances to the first death. They sometimes even threw little kids in there to “spice things up.”

Noah and I were pushed to the outside, to be sacrificed since we weren’t part of any crew. They were using us as cushion so they could stay inside a more protected ring of people. I knew it was gonna happen, but it still hacked me off. Everyone should have stuck together and formed battle lines, but just like during the forced fights someone always has to think they were better or more worthy of protection than everyone else. Oh well. I didn’t have to be better than everyone else, I just needed to be good enough. And if they were going to play that game? Let ‘em suffer for it.

Noah and I knew more than they gave us credit for. And Noah was a successful Alpha. He fought many times so that the younger or weaker family members didn’t have to until they could be taught how to defend themselves in the fights. The object was to live to fight another day with as few injuries as possible. I only saw him almost lose once and that was because several people … including females … played dirty. That was right before I joined the Barbarians. I hadn’t seen it at the time but there were already traitors in the family.

Gah, I still remember that day. I’d already noticed Noah and the Barbarians. I got the slitches off him and let him deal with the guys. Caught heck for it from Feldman. The forced fights were the one thing he didn’t – or maybe couldn’t – protect me from. I had to do some fast talking and make it out like I was defending his honor, that those chicks had insulted him, and I wasn’t going to let anyone do that. He was too important and brilliant and … all the other stuff that stroked his ego. But I framed it that I didn’t want anyone to be able to use me against him so I had to do it on the sly. I made it out like I hadn’t wanted to, that the fights were scary, but I just couldn’t let the insult to him pass. Oh brother. The narcissist actually believed the load of BS I fed him. He wouldn’t have been so easy to manipulate not long before, but his disease or whatever his damage was, was turning him weak and needy. Bleck.

I brought myself back from deep thoughts just in time to see that Noah had gotten us moved closer to the front but not quite ahead of the ones that planned on outrunning whatever was coming. This would help us to avoid being the first to fall to a frontal attack while getting us closer to escape … hopefully. At the same time, I moved to the outside whether Noah liked it or not. I sensed eyes all over. And I also saw blood smears. Down a couple of alleys I saw bodies in piles and they’d already been stripped. What I wasn’t seeing was enough bodies to equal the group that had been ahead of us. Either they’d run off ahead and escaped, or they’d all been picked off or been pulled into the buildings. I wasn’t sure at that point, but I knew Noah was on the lookout as well.

I looked behind us and sure enough the last in line was about to come around the bend in the road. I was surprised the crazies didn’t strike immediately … until I realized that the first group fell to the first set of buildings. Movement in an upper story of the next set of buildings down made me realize approximately when and where we were to be attacked by a different set of ghost town residents. I signaled Noah and he gave me an affirmative.

The crazies couldn’t control themselves and struck too soon. It created chaos in the ranks we were walking in rather than them being able to surround us and use greater numbers to subdue the group. I needed three hands. One to hold a baton, one to hold a blade, and one to pull the wagon along. Noah wound up protecting both our gear and keeping the crazies from stealing it while I concentrated on using lethal force against anyone that tried. Noah did his share, he had the reach and strength to pole ax more than a few. But all that did was give me room to not just play defense but go on the offense. I wasn’t weighed down with the idea of protecting anyone else besides Noah and myself. Why should I when I knew they wouldn’t do it for me?

I was in constant motion; covering Noah and our gear while at the same time getting us some forward motion. Noah did his share and actually had to fight off some of the trash and recycling people who were out to “make a buck” the easy way, by stealing our stuff. Like the history books say, we were fighting on too many fronts.

Then I saw Noah get hit with a homemade taser, like what the Monitor had explained was a new weapon used by road pirates. He dropped to one knee, someone jumped him, and I … lost it. Read into that whatever you want. I don’t give a crap. I hurt them a hella lot more than they hurt us. ‘Nuff said.

I came to myself being dragged backwards by Noah who was getting me out of the way of what looked like a hoard of Monitors who were taking apart anything standing that got in their way.

“Nia … you with me?” he asked when I stopped fighting him.

“Yeah. You injured?”

“I’m mobile. The m’phones are telling everyone that doesn’t want to get their butt handed to them to go.”

“Sounds like a plan Alpha.”

I couldn’t believe it, but Noah had managed to drag me and both our wagons nearly a hundred yards. I grabbed the wagon and he pushed his. Came close multiple times to being zapped with a prod or snapped with a whip but close was all it was because we were getting as fast as we could, which was faster than most. I would occasionally reach down and grab “recyclables” lying within reach but we were already heavy laden so I didn’t do It much. Not to mention, Monitors continued to harry us until we were up the highway on ramp and more than a mile down the road.

“Beta … Nia … gonna need to stop soon.”

I jerked my eyes in his direction and noticed what he hadn’t let me see up to that point. I started looking for a pull off.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 22​

Noah hissed in pain but didn’t jerk away. I tried to keep the lecture out of my voice when I told him, “Next time you have a puncture this deep don’t hide it.”

“Nothing you could have done,” he said like a tough guy. I had a difficult time not rolling my eye. My eye that usually holds the falsey was currently covered by a patch. Bastard road pirate had gotten me in the face with one of those tasers. It was only a glancing blow, but it was still enough to cause some swelling.

Trying to ignore the discomfort I told him, “Maybe. Maybe not. At least I could have temporarily plugged it and you wouldn’t have lost as much blood.”

I chose not to waste air saying anything else. Noah had a puncture wound on his shoulder. Some mouth breather had jumped him from behind while he was fighting another of their kind from the front. He hadn’t felt it at first, but he had after the adrenaline wore off. We were nearly five miles from the on-ramp before we were given a spot in a hastily erected rest area. And I’m convinced we only got that because the Creator was looking out for us.

I got the tent set up. Stuffed Noah in it as well as the rest of our gear and then did a quick recon. I thanked the Creator that they were only enforcing triage, not euthanasia of anyone they deemed too hurt to survive without wasting resources.

In the tent I got him cleaned up and did the best I could with what we had. And got him to eat three of the hot pots. “When is the last time you had your shots?” I asked.

“Little before you joined the family.”

“Before they started dumping all the purebloods?”

“Yeah, before that.”

I relaxed. The med bay had been clean – according to Dr. Feldman – at least to that point. After that point all bets were off. I was glad to have the high-end first aid stuff from the body part snatchers and even more glad I didn’t have to worry about either one of us developing blood poisoning or worse. Tetanus was a problem for road people. Vaccines were hard for the triaged to access. That and gangrene was one of the top causes of death for many who lived by the road. The “sword” or the road; both were an easy way to die.

“Get some rest Alpha so the first aid can do its job. I have a feeling that they are going to push us down the road early tomorrow.”

“Analyze the sitch Beta.”

I wanted him to rest but knew in his boots I’d want at least this much. I could tell reaction was starting to set in and I didn’t want it to turn to shock.

“During my recon I heard whispers that they must have had a snitch give up that a gang of road pirates had taken up residence in the ghost town … or maybe gossip is wrong and it isn’t that deep and they just wanted to clean out that ghost town. Depends if we hear they are doing this in other locations. We’ll need to be careful just in case. Other possibility is that the Monitors are getting tired of the new toys being used on them and we were used as bait to draw the baddies out. I’ll keep my eye and ears open. Now rest.”

“We need to split watches,” he insisted, unable to fight a yawn.

I snorted. “I don’t think we’ll need to worry tonight. A gnat wouldn’t fart with this many Monitors walking around.”

# # # # #

I was right, but I wasn’t the only one. About a quarter of the campsites were up and folding away their tents when the Monitors started rousting everyone and telling them they had five minutes to get up and get in line to hit the road, or we could do it without the bag o’ food they were using as bribe tokens. It wasn’t much, but it was something we didn’t have to provide for ourselves … English Muffin, peanut butter, and crackers with hummus. There was also a bottle of Vit C drink for each of us.

Noah was less sore than he could have been as I sprayed him with some liquid pain med. I had no Idea how long It would last so we wanted to get as far as we could as fast as we could. The only momentary concern was when a Monitor tapped me and pointed to the patch. That part of my face was obviously swollen; looked like I had been stung by a Murder Wasp.

I flipped up the patch and said, “Got tasered. Swelling just needs to go down and I’ll pop the eye back In.”

The woman used her baton to tap my chin and I raised my face for her to get a better look to make sure I wasn’t hiding anything in the socket. I was surprised when she asked me If I’d paid the pirate back. I answered, “He’s really, really sorry for his actions and won’t be doing It again. To anyone. Ever.”

She tapped the top of my head letting me know the exam was over. I tried not to let It conflict me when she gave a shark bite grin and said, “You’ll do. Just stay clean and clear.”

It was unusual for the roads to be open while it was still dark but when you were on the bottom of the pecking order you did what you were told when there was that kind of “or else” attached to it. I was surprised an hour down the road what they were pushing us off to do. Seems like the pile up that sent us in the direction of the LIN trouble wasn’t the only one. We were tapped to clean up a Monitor vehicle of all things. I looked at Noah and we signaled that we were as fast and as clean with the job as possible. I didn’t take any of the possible recycling just in case.

While we cleaned up the site I felt eyes on me. Then a baton tap.

“Yes ma’ … er …” I stood up and said more respectfully, “Yes ma’am?”

“No recycling?”

“More than our lives are worth to snitch Monitor equipment.” I reached over and showed her that I’d gotten the vehicle running. “But it needs new tires. As far as I can tell the frame isn’t bent.”

She looked at it and then at Noah and I. She gave a brief nod. “We have a couple of people that are damaged.”

Damn, I should never have shown I could mech-tech. What the heck have I gotten myself into.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 23​

A couple? Try nearly a dozen. I’d no sooner get one body monkeyed back together than someone else would take their place. What bothered me and made me think was that each Injury was slightly worse than the last one. The last one that laid out for me was …

“Oh shit. What the frell happened?! You’re a Monitor not a chew toy!”

It was The Moody and she wasn’t answering. I looked around and saw the first Monitor that I had helped. He asked quietly, “Can you help her? If we can’t get her up and running, she’ll go to the Grow Tanks.”

Frick on that. My conflictedness was reaching nuclear proportions but I owed the woman. I pays what I owe because when I go I want It to be debt free.

I was at it hours. The rest of the day and Into the early evening. I was sweating and silently screaming by the time I reached her eye. It wasn’t the work, it was that I recognized how and by whom she’d been worked over by. Frickin’ government white coat interrogators. Something wasn’t adding up. But the questions I had weren’t the kind you could openly ask.

I got down and told her, “I can’t knock you out for this. You must be awake and online so I can reset the connections. It Is going to more than just sting. I’m going to have to clean behind the eye to make sure there Is no potential Infection building. I think you need a wire splice as well.”

She surprised me by grabbing my hand and dragging It to a pocket on her vest but then got agitated.

One of the other Monitors there suddenly bent down and said, “Got It Sarge. I’ll do It myself.”

The man pulled a silencer out of his own vest pocket and started to lay It across The Moody’s throat. “Easy. Do it slow so it doesn’t shock her system or interfere with her breathing.” No one questioned me telling a Monitor what to do. The Moody was a well-respected superior and everyone wanted to avoid the nightmare of seeing one of their own going to the Grow Tanks.

I looked at Noah, refusing to use his name in case it was a problem at some point. Using a calm but firm voice I instructed, “Hold her head. Gently so she gets the feel of you, feels you aren’t a threat. She needs to use what she has to focus, not on a fight or flight reaction. But the pain Is going to be bad and you’ll actually be helping her be as still as possible.”

Noah said, “Like when you set that old fart’s leg?”

There never had been an old fart but I’d had to set Froggie’s leg after one Forced Fight. He would have been an amputate otherwise. “Yeah, about like that, but this one be gentle with. The old fart wasn’t cooperating. She will. This just … It makes It easier for her to cooperate so she can get fully back online.”

Damn. I’m not into torture even If I’m a sociopath. There’s just rarely much profit to It. But I could see those interrogators needing some payback for what they’d done … and done to one of their own for some reason. The breakage and damage to both bio and artificial parts had been bad enough but what they’d done to her eye almost went beyond my ability to address. Not only had they forced grit in the socket her Moody fit It, they’d shot something Inside the eye itself. I had to syphon It out and I knew as none of the others did, that she was seeing everything I was doing … and feeling It too.

I got the bio socket cleaned, Including removing a floating bone chip from the socket that I then had to rebuild using some titanium alloy paste to keep the edge of the socket from cutting up flesh, wires, and artificial eye. While the alloy set, I painstakingly got the crap out of the Inside of the Moody-eye and checked there was no structural damage. All I could do was assume because the difference between a regular falsey and a Moody is about like the difference between an old fashion door latch and the kind of lock that Is on an oligarch’s vault.

I got everything reattached and back where it is designed to go and then told everyone to back away. I put my knees on either side of her head and told her, “Please don’t break me. I’m just trying to help.” I carefully removed the silencer from across her throat and then took her hands in mine. I knew what was coming.

Thirty seconds later she was shaking so bad that she was almost bowing off the ground. One of the nervier Monitors was about to pounce on me when I heard, “Stand down. She’s helping the Sergeant come back online naturally. Look at her hands.”

That’s when people saw I was using pressure points on The Moody’s hands where we had our hands clasped. About forty-five seconds after that The Moody was mirroring the patterns I was using. It took another five minutes but her eyes went from blinking wildly and rolling in different directions to being In sync. Another five minutes she’d stopped shaking and in a barely there whisper said, “I’m online.”

# # # # #

I felt Noah slowly pull me away from The Moody but his touch got protective which made me concerned despite my exhaustion. I looked around and we were being crowded by Monitors. I wasn’t going to take him down with me. That’s when someone said, “Back up people and form a perimeter. I don’t want no friggin’ eyes on this spot.”

The fact that the man was in military garb - real military garb - and yet these Monitors obeyed him like one of their own was more than a little freaky. I hate that kind of mystery; it always spells trouble.

Noah had helped me to stand but was still crowding me. I hand signaled to give me some space … in case. His return signal? “Screw that.”

The man looked at Noah gave him a nod then turned to me. “You keep your mouth shut.”

“That’s a given,” I responded, realizing my camouflage was useless with this man. He saw more than even The Moody did … and I suspected that was both figurative and literal. He was some kind of artificial but I couldn’t tell, which meant some serious crap was flowing beneath the surface and I wanted Noah and I out of there at all costs. If they tried to recruit us, as the old timers say, the gig was going to be up. But apparently that wasn’t in their game plan.

With a flick of his wrist, I felt a barrier surround us. Noah stiffened but we both knew all we could do was let whatever was going down play out.

“Destination?”

Dammit, it was truthfield, this one with some sting in it. “South.”

The man snorted. “Good. You do not want to head north. Under any circumstances.” He glanced at our gear and then got a humorous look on his face. “Keep that up. You’re going to need It.” He frowned. “There’s no amount of trade for what you did today. If we give you anything It will be traceable. You don’t need that and neither do we. What I can offer is Information. But I can only guarantee that It Is good Intel as of this minute.”

I let Noah do the deal as my “conflictedness” was nearly choking me at that point.

“Some of this may mean something to you, some not. What I’m about to tell you is not a subject I would bring up … with anyone … not if you value your lives. You’re too far down the social order. But there Is coming a time when you will have to pick a side If you want to live … and regardless of the side you pick life Is not guaranteed. Things are fracturing. It has been coming for a while. Since they scrapped the Constitutional form of government after Congress fell. Things were broken before then but at least the structure was still there to work with even If it was an Illusion.”

He looked at us as If debating something then said, “Europe is on its deathbed. Australia Is a nuclear wasteland and they took New Zealand with them. Northern Africa has the only pockets of civilization left on that continent and they’re running out of women of breeding age that aren’t genetically compromised In some way so we expect them to Implode In less than five years, assuming they last that long. Their live birth rate Is less than one in two hundred. Russia Is barely holding their own and only because they have more warheads pointed out than other countries have pointed at them. The Iron Curtain Dome was rebuilt last year and now they’ve demonstrated that their space station has both laser and nuclear capabilities. Russia isn’t down or out, but they definitely want to be left alone and anyone that is smart is doing just that. Mount Nyiragongo Is whizzing and popping and its even driving the Chinese out when they need every resource they can get their hands on to continue fighting the war to keep their own control of the rest of Asia locked in place. Speaking of the Chinese, they’ve raped all the easy resources out of South and Central America and Nor Am Is their next target. They’ve made recent In-roads and it ain’t pretty. You know any purebloods, tell them to hunt a hole, fall In, and then pull It closed behind them and pray the world forgets they exist. Xi Lin was caught last week siphoning an entire Foster Facility of pureblood students. Hundreds of liters of blood taken off the market to God only knows where for God only knows what purpose. The only reason It came to light Is because the biomass furnace couldn’t handle all the bodies fast enough. That surely means it wasn’t the first time it had happened. The Oligarchs considered that breaking the Chino-Nor Am Trade Compact. They put out a hit on Lin’s son and some fool in the government ate a box of stupid pills and decided to lend aid using military and Monitor personnel and resources. There is no stopping what Is coming. Survival for all concerned Is questionable at best. The government Is already in clean up mode and they don’t care who gets caught by the sweepers. They are looking for scapegoats and are only being partially successful. Friend and foe are going to look alike and those that were friends may be foes, and those that were foes … could become, If not friends, possible allies. Now you pack up. You forget every face you’ve seen … for now. And you head … South… as soon as you hit the road at first light. Avoid entanglements. Avoid acting like you know anything or anyone. And sure as hell avoid getting drafted. If you are forced … enlist. Draftees are treated like scummer.”

With that he flicked his wrist, I felt the electronic field dissipate, and he hefted The Moody over his shoulder like she weighed nothing and they all faded. I didn’t need to signal Noah that we needed to find someplace and bed down for the night. He had us moving and I saw he had tickets to a rest area that was set up just beyond the hill we’d been concealed behind.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 24​

I was exhausted but I knew Noah and I needed to compare notes but we’d have to do It without the egg. Damn nosey super soldier. That’s what the man had to be. They were old-school. Didn’t make them anymore because if they didn’t burn out fast or go crazy, they were considered a threat by those further up the chain of command, the ones Dad used to call desk jockeys or paper soldiers. Needless to say, he and my uncle had zero respect for desk jockeys. They also didn’t have a lot of good to say about the Super Soldier program. They’d had another brother that had gone into the program and burnt out fast, hot, and mean. They used to say my little brother reminded them of him. It was more a worry than a compliment though I guess none of that matters now.

The ticket for the spot of ground wasn’t the only thing that Noah had that hadn’t been there before. He had a water filter. “Those Monitors - and damn they are strange - said water from here on out was to be treated suspect. Even water from the Rest Areas. They told me this thing will tell us If the water has been doped with something.”

We were “talking” with our signals and sign language rather than the spoken word. The problem was It was dark so we were having to do It by touch when the moon went behind the clouds which It was doing more and more as we “talked.”

Noah understood surprisingly most of what the soldier had told us. Apparently food wasn’t the only thing being distributed in the warehouse where he worked. Information was a hot commodity as well. It had been local stuff, but moss don’t grow on Noah and he’s alpha for more than one reason. He has a good brain and retained a lot of small details that meant more than most would compute. Good to know and it reinforced why I didn’t have to keep explaining every little thing and why Noah didn’t stand out as bad as I had expected him to.

We both agreed there wasn’t a thing we could do about any war that might or might not happen within this territory, but it did mean we needed to hoof It on down the road, take all due precautions, and then try and find a place to set up for the winter to keep people from trying to drag us into their fights. We both wanted to experienced freedom, not just another buttload of some type of slavery. I had a place in mind. It was the old play fort my cousins and I had called our own when we spent time In Florida. It wasn’t really a play fort however, but an old concrete geodesic dome that had been partially buried in the early part of the century during the expansion of a nearby highway only the highway went defunct, the owner went bankrupt, and CW2 pretty much emptied that part of Florida during the use of a bioweapon. Dad’s family took that section over by something called Adverse Possession. No one ever objected as it kept the illegals out of there. Uncle had lived there year-round but we’d stayed In Georgia where Dad could get work.

As far as I’ve been able to find Florida still doesn’t let that area get developed as It Is used as a land buffer. Hard to say though because Florida Is one of the more secretive parts of the Southern Territory. They don’t even like to share things with adjacent old-style states. If we can just get across the border Into the Southern Territory and then down to Florida, even If we can’t use that location, I’m sure we can figure something out even If It means working in a local munitions plant to build up a stake.

Next thing I knew was I was waking up warm and it wasn’t a blanket wrapped around me. It took a moment for me to realize It was Noah in my space and he was hand signaling In my palm not to freak and take his throat out.

“Why would I do something so totally stupe?” I signaled back.

“‘Cause and I ain’t explaining It by hand signals. That could lead to other things.”

“At least tell me … why.”

“You started zoning and got cold to the touch. Made me realize stuff. Weather don’t feel right either. Don’t … leave.”

I didn’t know quite how to respond. “I’m not Trina.”

“Good.”

I realized it wasn’t the time to try and figure that stuff out but It looked like Noah knew It too. But neither one of us asked for some space.

# # # # #

There wasn’t time in the morning for either of us to try and figure out personal Issues. I did make sure and put pain spray on his puncture after making sure there was no Infection building. He Insisted I eat an energy bar while he Inhaled a hotpot I dug out of our supplies. It meant trash but it was small enough we could crush and hide It In the latrine holes before we lined up to exit onto the road.

The swelling in my eye socket was down enough that I took the space holder screen off and reinstalled my good falsey. I tried to do It where Noah didn’t have to see the process, but he wouldn’t let me.

“Show me how.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Might need to help you at some point. Like …”. He threw a thumb towards his puncture unit. “Or how you helped yesterday.”

Trying not to make a lot of It, I did as he asked. “Next time I’ll help more.”

“You don’t …”

“Yeah. I do. Just because we ain’t exactly the same Barbarians … maybe we aren’t that at all … but we’re still something. None In the family Is ever too good to not do for any of the others. I’m Alpha. You’re Beta. Maybe we add more. Maybe not. But …” He shrugged, embarrassed the way only a guy gets when subjects get touchy.

I gave a slow nod and helped him get his pack on and settled so It wouldn’t Irritate the puncture anymore than it was already going to. He helped me to put mine on and we checked our sixes before climbing out of the tent and breaking it down.

No one looked familiar. I didn’t see the Monitors from yesterday. Sure didn’t see sign of the Nosey Super Soldier but I did feel eyes on us. Unfortunately I didn’t know If It was a who or a what so we were careful to watch our p’s and q’s.

Trashmen and Recyclers were hungry on this stretch of the road. Every small pile was swarmed and fought over, to the point of drawing blood over nothing. Not a good sign. For one thing It meant everyone was cranky. We avoided what we could but there were a few groups that tried to shake us down and take our gear. They learned - sometimes the hard way - but unlike several other solo travelers, we didn’t lose our stuff.

It was later in the day that we got tapped by a cargo transport crew to help - along with a couple of other solo’s and small teams - to follow them to an off road job. Frick.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 25​

Noah signed, “?”

I answered, “Helo of some type. Don’t recognize It.”

“Trap?”

“Maybe.”

“?! Stay close.”

Noah wasn’t just being overprotective. Three highly modified men stepped from behind the largest piece in the debris field. And when I say modified, I mean they were over fifty percent freakin’ bionics and weren’t trying to pass for anything but what they were.

The one that spoke even had an electronic hum for his voice. “You don’t see nothing. You don’t say nothing. When you find nothing you don’t touch It. Stand up, back away, turn away, and raise your hands over your head.”

We were made to leave our gear in a pile and then were set to cleaning the debris field while Huey, Dewey, and Louis stood over us with the type of weapons I’d last seen in my Pre-Feldman nightmares. I’d been an experiment for those things once. It took a lot not to start puking in remembrance.

The quickest way out of there was to simply get the job done as fast as possible. We were all sweating it. And coincidence or not, they’d put me where I kept finding pieces of “nothing.” The bigger the piece of “nothing” I found the angrier the three Modifieds would get. I could even hear their parts arcing after a while. After finding enough of the larger pieces I understood why. The Helo had been carrying at least two squads of Modifieds, maybe an entire platoon, and they all wore the same tattooed insignia on the exposed bio parts attached to what I wasn’t supposed to be finding or seeing. Frick didn’t even cover the trouble we could be In.

We were all so jumpy after a couple of hours. It was like we all had palsy. Those that hadn’t understood to start with, had figured out enough that they wondered If we’d be walking away on our feet or in body bags when the operation was over with. What the others didn’t know was a Modified could be made dead about as easy as most soldiers if you hit them in the right spot. What should not have happened was to have the Modifieds in so many pieces scattered all around. Not even the Helo dropping like a rock from the sky should have done this. The only thing I knew that might have created this kind of destruction was a sonic bomb of some type; anything with more fire would have caused the bodies to self-destruct to keep the technology out of enemy hands. It would have had to have been a small Sonic to avoid detection, but It wouldn’t have had to be big so long as it went off in a confined space, and a shielded Helo would have qualified. It would have had to be shielded to have been traveling in last night’s electrical storm. And the debris wasn’t hot so there hadn’t been a fire of any kind on board. Nothing was melted or burned that I’d found either.

No way did I want to get wrapped up with anyone with enough juice to take on an entire platoon of Modifieds, much less Modifieds of this level. The expense sheet In both credits and political power didn’t have enough room for all the zeroes this hit cost.

I don’t panic. Ever. But I will admit I was on the ragged edge. Then I sensed something vibrating. It was similar, yet not, to what I could do and how I’d signaled The Moody. Double frick. I gave the required signal that I’d found nothing … and got busted upside the head for my trouble when they didn’t see the “nothing” I was signaling. I had expected the hit, I hadn’t been prepared for how hard I was going to get hit, and then flying Into a piece of the fuselage.

“Nia!”

“Argh! Vibrating! I felt … vibrating,” I said through a bloody mouth. I was really going to have to explain to Noah to stop putting his butt on the line for me.

When one of the Modifieds took a glove off and went to touch me I stiffened and yelped, “I’ve got a backfeed!”

The Modified immediately stopped. Noah said, “What?”

“That thing I told you about. When they took the eye. So I couldn’t do high end work. I told you, it’s why I got kicked out at eighteen. I was useless to the … family business… and was taking up valuable real estate I couldn’t pay for.”

The story was enough for the Modifieds. Noah acted like he was trying to hide his lack of understanding and that actually added to the story’s credibility. He was a Trashman. I was a Recycler. We were just Road People. If they knew anything else It was that I was a mech-tech but just shade tree; nothing but gears, wheels, and pulleys. Programming and circuitry was a much higher level of tech. And it wasn’t unheard of for backfeeds to be used to keep someone down, keep them from being able to compete or improve their lot. There was no fixing the kinda backfeed that went in with your transplant because, similar to a digital virus, you would Infect whatever you were working on, or anything you connected to via your transplant programming. Not even a Modified person was proof against It. And there was no cure.

The Modified had been going to make a direct connection to see if I was lying, or to “hear” and identify what I claimed to be feeling. I couldn’t let them inside my head. I might be able to fake a truthfield, but a direct attack by a mind hack? No. And I didn’t know anyone that could. It was a hard way to die.

The Modified ordered, “Find It.” He pointed at Noah. “Make yourself useful. Scrape her up and put her in motion.”

Noah manhandled me into a standing position and then I acted weak and that he had to keep me upright when what I really wanted to do was take a pickax to three brains and then recycle the rest for the parts market. Noah sensed my fury and kept me hemmed in. He knew my crazy was starting to leak out. It had been a rough couple of days for both of us.

It was like being a detector, only for vibrations Instead of metals. I couldn’t really “look” in the traditional sense; I didn’t want to see “nothing” anyway. Finally after a few passes, I knew the vibration was coming from under one of the larger piles of debris. The only way to get at It so It could be moved was to get the other Recyclers and Trashmen working together.

When they didn’t want to help I growled, “Don’t be a bunch of dumbasses. We do this one way or the other. We do this fastest and rightest and maybe they don’t beat on us quite as hard. You keep acting like a buncha ‘tards and they’re gonna get mean.”

Finally, some blessed cooperation.

The Trashmen were muscle and mule. The Recyclers would take things and bundle it in like so it could be moved out of the way. The deeper into the pile we moved the more I felt the vibrations. Noah and a couple of the other bigger men were about to move the last large piece when one of the Modifieds snapped, “Stop!”

All three Modifieds then trained their weapons on us. “Slow and easy.”

I looked at Noah and asked, “Can you lift this lower edge just enough for me to crawl under?”

Noah looked at the other men and they repositioned themselves and then put their backs into slowly and carefully lifting the edge of metal flooring. The dirt beneath was soft and mixed with mast from the forest floor. I was digging under when I touched something and nearly yelped. It was like being stung by an electric wire fence. I turned loose of what I had grabbed only to be grabbed in return until I patted the hand to let him know he’d been found.

I crawled out and sat up. “At least one nothing under there is alive and aware.”

# # # # #

It was dark. That’s about all I could tell. I was just barely self-aware enough to realize that If the Modified hit me one more time I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from killing him. I knew just how I’d do It too. He was now overconfident and just playing with me, not understanding that sharp little toy attached to his hand was loose and that I could snatch it and shove It deep into his bio-eye and scramble whatever was left of his frontal lobe.

That’s when I heard a new voice. “Out.”

“I wasn’t finished with It.”

“Go,” the voice said with a hint of impatient irritation. “And hook up and power down. Your patched adapter is leaking again.”

The Modified grabbed the back of his neck and cursed when his hand came back with a bluish-green liquid on his fingertips that I knew was coolant. He kicked out at me. “Catch you another time Tasty Cakes.”

When the Modified left the tent, a hand reached down and sat me back in the chair I’d been knocked out of too many times to count. I didn’t recognize the uniform, but I did recognize the wearer was an Asian of some flavor. He said, “Send him In.”

I was puzzling that out when Noah walked in like he was walking to his execution. He stopped short at seeing me. The Asian said, “You will exit on the other side of this tent and are both free to go. I would caution you to say nothing.”

Noah said benignly, “All we did was push a bunch of leaves around. Why the hell would I want anyone to know that. They’ll just say we are Monitor stoogies.”

“Ah. Leaves. Interesting.”

“No Sir, just leaves. Nothing Interesting about it.”

Noah helped me to cover up my bits and pieces but didn’t ask, only offered me his shirt when mine would barely stay on. I shook my head as I tied what was flapping so that I wasn’t giving anyone a show. We left the tent, both of us doing our share of limping. I wouldn’t walk away with nothing however after spotting our gear in the pile of stuff belonging to the Trashmen and Recyclers we’d been working with.

I hand signaled, “Others?”

He answered in the same way, “Most in pieces getting tossed in biohazard bags. A couple like me but with broken pieces hiding out in the woods where they were left.”

Not reacting so no one knew we were communicating I signaled, “Help me go through this stuff to see If there is anything we can use then let’s get out of here before I do more than just wish I could send a few of these bastards the same direction.”

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 26​

There wasn’t much worth taking but I found a few stashes of valuables In one of the Recyclers’ gear bags, got a patched coverall to replace my ripped clothes In another one, and got a relatively new pair of boots for Noah to replace the jacked up ones he’d been wearing since we’d escaped Facility Gamma out of a pack that had to belong to the Trashman that was even bigger than he was. The guy had been mammoth, and I had wondered why he wasn’t a member of a crew until he opened his mouth and I saw he had to have spent some time near a hot zone before he was hatched. He was gaptoothed and what teeth he did have were misshapen and crooked as old cemetery headstones. His tongue was also obscenely long and forked. It is a wonder he hadn’t choked on it in childhood or had someone trim it down so he could function better. The only thing the Trashmen were worse about than their superstitions, were their prejudices. Anything - or anyone - that looked liked It had anything to do with a hot zone fit both of those categories.

After pawing through the packs and other gear I found nothing useful that wouldn’t weigh us down.The remainder I left in a neat pile while Noah growled at me to get a move on. Most of It was for effect the few times people - some version of low authority civilian personnel - glanced our way.

When we finally started walking (limping), Noah signaled, “You’re crazy.”

“I refuse to show them fear.” At least at this point I thought to myself. There would be no profit in it.

A little further down the road when there was no one to see or hear - or at least not so it would get us in trouble if there was a drone or listening device - he asked quietly, “Was that necessary?”

I gave him a frustrated look. “You should have …”

“Should have left you? No. And you can drop it and the ‘tude Nia. You haven’t left me here on the road when you could have. Don’t forget, I saw you in action in the ghost town … you came unglued just because I got a little poke. And don’t play otherwise. I’m starting to add the sum and see the plan. You may be crazy Beta, but you’re MY crazy Beta. You took the job of your own free will, so now you’re stuck.”

“Well, you aren’t,” I told him, still feeling the adrenaline of being hacked off at the situation as It was thrown at us.

He said slowly, “No. No I’m not. I’m here of my own free will too. Let’s drop the belly aching and find someplace to try and … and …”. He sighed. “Don’t tear my head off for asking but do you need some girl space? Did … did he …”

I knew what he was trying to ask and snorted even though it hurt my nose. “You ever had to work in the preschool playroom?”

“Uh … a few times.”

“Let’s just say he was about as anatomically correct as a Ken Doll.”

I turned my head when Noah sounded like he was strangling to find he was trying to use the Inside of his elbow to swallow his thoughts about what I’d revealed. Neither one of us had enough energy to do much more than hunt up a hole to hide in after that.

# # # # #

We were forced to walk a long distance to find someplace far enough away from the scene of the Helo that either one of us felt safe enough to stop. The moon was going down and sunrise was giving a thought to happening when we found another culvert big enough and dry enough to take refuge in. Thankfully It wasn’t within any distance of a main highway but was part of a crossing area for an old frontage access. Unfortunately, we were back to following the old train tracks which is what the old frontage crossed. We fixed the tent up Inside the culvert the best we could and then pulled in the wagon and the garden cart.

I was slowly easing out of the wrecked shirt when I felt hands gently trying to help. “Nia, we need a couple of days to re-coop.”

“You mean I do.”

“I mean we do. The team.”

I finally asked. “What kind of questioning tool did they use on you?”

“Hadn’t gotten around to me before the Asians showed up. They were saving me for last because a couple of the Modifieds had some kind of game planned. That’s what I thought I was heading to when I got called into the tent. Had no Idea you were so close.” I felt him shiver when he cautiously pulled me back against his front and pulled one of the sleeping bags over us. “I … I thought you were already …”. I felt him shudder. “Frick Nia. Had I known … look it you. How …?”

“I’ve been through it all before. Enough times to be good at it.”

“No,” he said denying his own horror at the Idea.

“Yeah. And that? They were just playing. Had they been serious It would have been hella worse.”

“All this before?”

I sighed. “Yeah. Over and over. Maybe you should …”

This time It was him that said, “No. Waste of air talking about It. Waste of air fighting needing a few days to rest and re-coop as well.”

I gave it a tired think. “Yeah. Yeah It Is.”

 

[Kathy in FL]

Chapter 27​

“Nia?”

“Yeah?”

“You … you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine Noah. Like I said …”

“You’ve been through It all before. You … er … been through what … what he acted like he was after?”

“You mean like he wanted people to think he got?”

“Yeah.”

After a pause I said, “Sorta.”

Obviously confused as only a guy could be about that stuff he said, “Sorta?”

“Yeah. But you don’t really wanna understand Noah. You don’t need that stuff in your head.”

“You have It in yours. And … I wanna at least try to … to not … um …”

I guess he was right. And if we were going to do what I had planned even before leaving Gamma I at least owed him some kind of explanation. Putting it as succinctly as I could I explained, “Torture. Streamlined and assembly lined. By autobots. It saved paying a human to do It.”

“You were a kid. Those sick sons a …”. I could hear the nausea rising in his throat. Noah was Alpha born and bred and what he was starting to understand ran counter to his need to protect.

“Not all of them were males Noah. That enough for you? Can… you let it go?”

“Damn Nia. How can you let it go? How’s your head still attached?” He asked like he was in pain himself.

“For a long time … for a long time It wasn’t. They broke me; who I was, who I might have been capable of being. I … don’t really owe anything to Feldman. He was a perverted bastard with his own agenda for doing what he did. But the Creator used Feldman to start gluing me back together. Physically and mentally. I’m honestly not sure If a norm could have reached me in the beginning. I’m still broke, but not as bad as I was there for a while. At least now I don’t need to fantasize every waking moment, and in every dream sequence when I’m not, how to pay back what was done to my family with all the Interest I can imagine tacking on just to be able to keep breathing.”

“Your family?! What about what they did to you?!”

I shrugged. “Surviving has been enough because that meant they failed in everything and every way they tried. And now I’ve got …”

“What?” He asked when I paused.

Reluctantly I admitted, “You. This. Us. The Barbarians. Even if it is a family of two for now. It Isn’t starting over … It’s been starting … creating … something. Only now …”

“Now I’m in on that part and we’ll work together Instead of unplanned cross-purposes,” he said surprising me in a way with words I’d never expected. “You’re not Trina. I’m not Feldman, that’s for cursed sure. We have a plan. We’ll move South and… see where the road takes us. But where we need to go right now Is sleep. Can you handle me… like this?”

That was something I didn’t really have to think about. “Yeah.”

# # # # #

Three days. It was a good thing we’d found a spot when we did. The first two days solid It rained like the Creator was going to flood things out again. Or like some Oligarch had lost control of his weather machine. But there was plenty of fire in the sky as well so that made me lean more towards the Creator. Noah and I slept off and on most of those two days. Slept and healed. If we weren’t sleeping, we were eating or re-dressing our wounds. But we were always touching. While we slept. When we ate. The few times we were up long enough that we weren’t doing either of those things. The only time we weren’t was when we stepped out in the rain to take care of our bodily functions. Maybe all of that was a type of healing as well.

The next day was a little less snoozy. We cleaned and reorganized our gear. Took care of the personal laundry we’d hung out in the rain to run the stink from It. And we started a mental list of what we needed to be on the lookout for. Noah Is better at this than I could have ever hoped for. As the Alpha of the Barbarians, he’d learned what was a valuable trade Item around the Facility, and I found out they’d even occasionally traded with Staff and low-level personnel, something I’d avoided because of the potential Feldman complications. Bartering and trading had to be kept from the Monitors, but everyone had an Itch to scratch and that Included staff who might need something for their own homes or families. Noah would trade for things at the food warehouse so long as It was something small… a screw, bolt, tape, repair epoxy, etc… and In return the Staff would do things like give them a quick access to a place students weren’t normally allowed, pay off a gang member’s demerit to keep them out of the hots with the Monitors, a little more food or medicine If someone was hurting. Students were actually encouraged to trade out in the community for their own underclothes or jackets so long as they were nondescript.

He learned to take care of himself to an extent to keep from taking resources away from the gang … his family. Eventually that meant things like holding onto the old Trashman’s gear and then adding to It here and there like tools or things that could be turned into shivs or other Items of protection. Pieces of rope and twine that could be woven together to make a longer rope. He managed to repair some of the equipment … like the spoon … so that it was useful a little longer. Basically, he started It because he was building a stake for when he turned eighteen and got kicked out of the warehouse, but it also turned out to be useful for our escape plan.

We discussed getting back on the road. It needed to happen even though both of us would have preferred otherwise. Or at least preferred traveling out of sight of others. But we needed to be cautious and not just pop up in odd places with big gaps between our dots. A smart Monitor would get curious about where we’d been and why we weren’t showing up in the system. That kind of attention we don’t need. We are going to stick with our original cover and just add the things we’d been coming up with for extra coloring. The backfeed story would help get me out of any situations that might come about If I was asked to do more than Shade Tree. However, I was hoping that didn’t come up at all, at least not the way It had to this point. I’m ashamed to say I need to watch what a soft touch I’ve turned Into. Damn Feldman if maybe he hasn’t fixed that part of me a little too well.

The weather was still feeling changeable and damp. We had a good camp that hadn’t seen another human in some time, probably years. I’d been aching to do some foraging so that’s what I did starting late on day three. With the good camp and the forest around us, we decided to give it a full week and Noah decided It was also a good time to find out where real food came from.

I had a hard time not laughing when he said, “We pegged these things at each other In Kinder Kare. You sure you can eat them?”

“They’re acorns and no you can’t just pick them up off the ground and eat them. You need to crack them open, and process what is Inside to get the bitter tannins out.”

“Er … what the hell Is a tannin? That grub you took out of that one you tossed?”

“No,” I answered trying really hard not to swallow my own tongue if I started laughing. “Tell you what, we’ll process a few and before we leave this site, we’ll have acorn porridge[1] for breakfast. The rest we’ll dry and leave In the shell to get at when our other supplies run low or out.”

I could have gathered a fifty-pound bag, ten times that many if I had wanted to start a trade wagon of some type of large, sweet acorns, but there wasn’t space for It and It would have drawn way too much attention. I did file the idea to think about once we got to Florida. The reason I knew about acorns Is because they were part of our normal pantry Items when I was little. It meant Dad could pick and choose his jobs, or at least turn down jobs that came in from certain directions.

The other thing we ate a lot of were mushrooms. That was almost harder for Noah to wrap his head around. Not that they could be food, but because he’d grown up being told all fungi were poisonous.

“A lot of them are, but not all of them. Hen of the Woods and Brick Tops are all I see around here but we’ll gather them and dry them… at least the ones you aren’t making a pig of yourself with now.”

“Mm… mmm…m… mmmmmm.” He swallowed and said, “I could have fed the entire gang on these things.”

“Not the ones at Gamma. They sprayed them to keep us dependent on what they fed us. We’ll take these because this place hasn’t seen people In a few years, and you can tell they didn’t bother with any aerial spraying either but they did at one point.”

“How do you know?” He was dying of curiosity and not snark.

“No kudzu.”

“Cud-who?”

“Kudzu. It used to be considered a pain In the butt plant that would suffocate out trees and homesteads and anything that didn’t move fast enough, and some that did. It Is a vine that in the right weather can grow three and four feet a day. During CW2 and the starving times around it, a lot of people would eat It to keep their families from going hungry. The government figured It out and started spraying for It. They called It an environmental necessity to save the planet. It was really just a way to keep people hungry that had found a way around their food controls. One of the ways we’ll be able to tell where the government’s controls start fading out Is the kudzu vines will start showing up even along the highways. Or at least where they don’t have goats keeping it cleaned off the roadbeds.”

“Goats. There’s real goats In Florida? I’ve only seen them in books. The butchers said there used to be goats that were kept in the town parks, but something killed them off. Some kind of disease that made the people that ate the carcasses sick.”

“There’s a lot of real things down In the Southern Territories. And the goats were probably killed off on purpose. Or someone got stupid and brought in one from a Contaminated Zone. Dad said that used to happen a lot after DC and the Southern Border were bombed. Meat was hard to come by, or at least uncontaminated meat was. And in areas where it wasn’t, the government confiscated stuff for the elites or the use of the military. If people wouldn’t give It up willingly, they made It useless in some way as revenge.”

Noah said a word so rude and appropriate I’m not going to record It, but I didn’t disagree either.

Exploring not too far from camp we found a hickory nut tree and a black walnut tree and managed to knock down all we could handle. They were impossible to crack by hand, even for Noah, but I found a couple of large, flat rocks that would at least get them out of their outer jackets. I put the results in a bag so they could finish drying. Once that happened, I crack them the rest of the way and dry them and seal them in a container in some way so they’d last even longer. The squirrels were ready to start WW4 over It so that was our meat which saved our supplies for a few days. Noah was a zero on the scale of squeamishness proving that he’d worked with butchers for almost three years. In fact, he was better and faster at skinning them and gutting them than I was despite the size of his hands.

“I’ll skin, you cook,” he said with spit unashamedly rolling down his chin. Noah was getting “real food” almost for the first time in his life. Looking at him I wonder what size he could have been had he been fed the right stuff Instead of the crap they fed us in the facility warehouses. I’m smaller than average but that’s because of when they murdered my family and stole me into the program and how they broke my body. It didn’t help that Feldman liked that I was small and looked younger than I was … unless I let you see. Then I could scare the crap out of you. It was a useful talent when people Irritated me.

A green, besides dandelions that were getting almost too old and tough to be worth gathering since we weren’t starving, was chickweed. Noah and I ate enough of the stuff that we probably looked like the aforementioned goats that were out grazing. Nettle was another one though that one I used to make a green broth with. I showed Noah how we could make a green broth and keep It In a flask and sip on It If we weren’t able to get in a meal; It had a lot of nutrients that would help us to stave off colds due to the weather changes that were Inevitable. Using the wild greens in a broth also meant the older, leggier greens like dandelions and thistles were useful much longer than if we were just eating them fresh.

There was some beauty berry in the area, but they are Insipid If you don’t cook them with a lot of sweetening for things like syrups and jellies. That was going to have to wait until Florida. If I find honey, I’m not going to risk advertising it with luxuries like brightly colored jellies and other types of preserves. In the waste areas there were plenty of red sumac drupes. I showed Noah how to gather them - the dry ones - and then make a tart drink out of them. They were almost too sour plain, but mix them with the other fruits we found - Kousa dogwood fruit, fox grapes, prickly pear fruit, and Hawthorne berries – and it made it more than just a passable treat. Spicebush berries was another flavoring that was worth the effort to forage and store for future use. The fox grapes were dried like the raisins my little brother used to love as his favorite treat.

Another thing I wish I could have gathered by the tonnage were honey locust pods. They make a reasonable substitute for some high-end luxuries like carob and as a way to stretch flours, Including non-gluten kinds. I gathered and dried almost twenty pounds of autumn olive berries. They’d either be a good Item for the Florida pantry or a trade Item so we could set up some place else. If no one had ransacked the old play fort I knew where a set of airtight canisters were hidden in the underground food storage area. It started out as a first-floor garage in an earth dome home, but time and the rest of It had turned it into a basement Instead.

What kept us three days longer than the week we had planned was finding a grove of persimmons and quince trees. Looked like an old tree farm given how uniform the plantings were. Both types of trees were loaded. Noah ate so many the first day we found them he spent a lot of time In the latrine we had dug out. He laughed at himself and told me, “Next time beat me with a stick Beta. What If I had eaten them all and then squirt them out leaving none for our supplies?”

Gross. And typical guy talk. I told him, “You didn’t and it was a lesson my mother let us learn on our own to teach us moderation. What was good for me, Is good for thee. Bet you won’t be making that mistake again.”

He shook his head and made another run for the latrine.

With the ones that Noah didn’t eat I peeled, mashed, and dried into fruit leathers for long-term use. For short term use I made a jar full of quincesauce that I stored in one of the Insulated Nalgene bottles and I made two of persimmon puree. It was getting cool enough they’d last for a couple of weeks If we were careful and would be good for extra energy with whatever we could fix for breakfast. If war was coming to the land like It had before I was born, I wasn’t going to count on too many more handouts at the Rest Areas. Shouldn’t count on any at all which Is why I really didn’t have a problem overstaying our plans so we could forage.

The last Item that I foraged were fairy potatoes[2]. They weren’t big, mostly thimble sized, but there were enough that we made a couple of sautéed panfuls. The salt we had made them taste even better than I remembered and also made me add salt and salt-sub to the list of things that I hoped to find along our route. Salt was an absolute necessity In the Deep South because of the heat and humidity and in some places It was a local currency. Even animals need salt and a salt-lick could draw deer and similar from a long way off to make hunting more successful.

And then one night Noah and I looked at each other after hearing what we both took to be a drone high in the sky.

“Need to start heading South,” Noah said in his Alpha voice.

I answered, “One last gear check and a good sleep and we’ll aim to pick up the highway before first light.”

---

[1] Acorn Grits
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/foraging/comments/15twvl9 View: https://www.reddit.com/r/foraging/comments/15twvl9/foraged_fairy_potatoes_today_saut%C3%A9ed_them_in/?rdt=54024

 

[Kathy in FL]

I forgot. Ch 28 needs a complete rewrite so it is 27 chapters thus far.

 

[Mr Bill]

I have an errand to run Will be looking for more later

 

[Gardener]

Kathy, I really like this one. Loved the Harry Potter reference!

 

[Lake Lili]

Really enjoying this one! Thanks Kathy!
Lili

 

[Griz3752]

ONLY 27?

 

[Siskiyoumom]

Thank you so very much!

 

[sssarawolf]

Well, took me a bit, but it's a good read. Thank you.

 

[seraphima]

Wow! What a fascinating twist on some familiar elements- recycling, foraging, paying it forward- and relationships!
Looking forward to more, for sure. Thank you.

 

[Sammy55]

Another great story, Kathy!! Thanks!!

(Now I've got to go check out the other new ones you posted!)

 

[ydderf]

Thanks Kathy