As I Walk These Broken Roads (31 page)

Another hamlet. Wentworth had lost count of how many they
’
d visited, maybe half-a-dozen or so. Behind dark lenses
his eyes roamed suspiciously despite his relaxed stance. Vince was hawking his wares to the locals. It wasn
’
t a market day but there were enough people milling about to justify the stop. He
’
d made steady custom for the past fifteen minutes, selling and bartering away the tech items stored on the trailer, and there were still customers waiting their turn.

Raxx was playing face-man. The grubby local children seldom saw motorized vehicles, and to have two of them stop
by
was a special treat. The one-room Schoolhouse had let out for a special
‘
field-trip.
’
Raxx chatted amiably with the students and their teacher while at the same time keeping an eye open for vandals. Wentworth knew he
’
d get tunnel vision if he was forced to interact with the locals so he let Raxx deal with them on his own. There was no law out here, away from the ma
jor cities. None of them could
afford to let their guard down.

Navigating the highways of past generations was an acquired skill. The age of a
s
phalt gridlines had followed an earlier time of foot-paths and river-fords. There
’
d been compromises made as the former was built over. Large urban centres had spent huge amounts fine-tuning their transit systems, but outside of them a road might start out south-bound before gradually curving west. Other times what looked to be a major route would dwindle, becoming little more than an overgrown foot path. Combined with the social drift following the war, as well as the general neglect of the roadways, the few street signs that remained were useless.

Raxx had becom
e
almost prescient when it came to route planning, and Wentworth was no slouch either, but often enough he
’
d return from scouting ahead with a thumbs down and they
’
d be forced to backtrack.

It wouldn
’
t have been such a problem if they
’
d been travelling by animal power. Vince was well acquainted with the trade routes. What made this journey difficult was the fact that many of the roads were so torn up that few of them
were
passable in Raxx
’
s truck or Wentworth
’
s motorcycle.

The Datapad helped but it wasn
’
t a perfect solution. Its maps were out of date, and the hamlets they stopped at seldom correlated to prewar towns. On top of this the GPS kept cutting out. He had set it up to plot their line of travel but the trace was inconsistent and broken. In the early afternoon it had jumped over a kilometre east from where they were
, plotting over a lake for half-an-
hour. By evening it had failed completely. The receiver was unable to detect any satellites overhead and he had no dead-reckoning unit installed.

Despite the setbacks the journey was
good
.
The problems which arose were
challenge
s
, not frustration
s
.
The hamlets were easy to spot as
they drew near, by the green of their tilled soil. Farmers had to pump water from underground wells if they wanted to grow anything, and outside of city limits everything was baked dry by the sun. Only the stringiest
of weeds and grasses survived. T
rees
could
sent their roots deep enough to find water,
but
the underbrush surrounding them died off
during the summer months
. On either side of the road stretched rolling valleys with the colours washed out of them, pale yellow and olive drab.

At first Maria had been nervous
about
riding in the truck. The noise from the engine, the pressure from acceleration, and the constant jarring from the road
’
s surface
had
put her on edge. She tried to remain calm but Vince and Raxx could make out her distress by the white-knuckled grip she kept on
the
armrests. Raxx kept his speed to a minimum and by mid-afternoon she had started to relax. Thankfully she didn
’
t suffer from motion sickness
,
as many new to driving did.

Speeding ahead of Raxx
’
s truck, Wentworth pushed his bike to the limit, narrowly avoiding pot holes, and tearing around turns, leaning his body into the wind. The cycle
’
s engine would rise in pitch, an angry growling noise, as he shifted gears, then drop back down to idle as he slowed. The wind was on his face and flowing up into his helmet and the sleeves of his jacket, cooling off the sweat which built up under the hot sun. His face stung where bugs hit
him
and the ride took his full attention.

It
allowed him to forget the
many
weights up
on his mind. He took in the scenery. This was freedom.

It was growing close to sunset when they finally stopped for the night. They
’
d been driving down a dirt-road since leaving the last settlement, only to find that it ended in a collapsed bridge and a dried-up river. The embankments on either side were steep and the riverbed was too full of boulders and debris for either vehicle to ford. Rather than drive an hour back up the road and try to find an inn, they settled for sleeping outdoors. They
’
d find another path in the morning.

Wentworth had wanted to set a watch during the night, but Vince
chided him
. He
said
that if Wentworth would stop looking for trouble less of it would find him. Grudgingly,
the soldier
admitted that there was little reason for caution
;
they were in the middle of nowhere and
he doubted if anyone was
looking for them.

Their vehicles parked, they started to set up camp. There had once been a building next to the bridge. All that remained were a few stone walls with gaps for doors and windows. The roof had long since disappeared and grass grew where the floor had been. They decided to set up in its perimeter, using the walls as windbreaks. While Maria and Raxx unloaded, Vince and Wentworth collected wood for a fire and got it going.

Soon there was a pot boiling and their sleeping bags were set up in a line next to the most complete of the walls. Vince took charge of dinner,
despite
Maria
’s protests
; he was the most experienced at field-cooking, and it frustrated her that she wouldn
’
t have been able to compete, no matter how good she was in a properly stocked kitchen.

Wentworth had found a good sitting place where the stones lay scattered. He smoked his cigarette and chatted with Maria about the wildlife,
his
jacket off and next to him. He finished his cigarette and threw it into the fire when something wet hit him in the shoulder. He looked around, trying to figure out the source. Suddenly he felt a splash of water on his arm, and watched as more drops began to darken his jeans.

“
Oh, crap,
”
he said, just as the sky opened up and it began pouring. The clouds which had been gathering all evening began unleashing a full
-
on downpour.

They scrambled around, grabbing the sleeping bags and stuffing them under the tarpaulin covering the truck bed. The rain shower quickly turned into a deluge, soaking them to the skin as the rain poured down in sheets, rippling across the muddy surface of the road in waves. The fire was extinguished and the meal ruined. They finished grabbing everything but the cooking utensils
and jumped back into the truck;
Raxx and Wentworth in the front, Maria and Vince sitting along the back bench. They closed the doors but kept the front windows open a crack, protected from the rain by a thin plastic overhang.

“
Well that came out of nowhere,
”
commented Raxx.

“
They usually do, this time of year,
”
said Vince,
“
Though really it
’
s not until September that we
’
re supposed to be getting
this much
.
”

“
Oh, you couldn
’
t wait ten minutes!
”
Maria asked, looking up at the sky,
“
Dinner was almost done.
”

“
Guess we
’
re eating it cold,
”
said Wentworth. He opened the bag which lay at his feet and started pulling out dry-rations, while the others removed their exterior layers of clothing. He handed them out, and for the next fifteen minutes they ate in silence. The rain drummed on the roof overhead and a small waterfall flowed over the windscreen. An annoying leak began by the rear view mirror, splattering the two in the front seat as tiny droplets fell and hit the dashboard. A shallow stream had started on the road, pulling bits of detritus with it and deepening the central ditch, while on either side the trees
’
branches hung low from the weight of the water. By the time they were finished eating the dried out riverbed was roaring with life once more.

“
Oh, Iain!
”
said Maria, putting down an empty tin can of tuna,
“
Is your bike going to be okay?
”
She almost had to shout to be heard over the drumming on the roof.

“
Yeah, the bike should be fine,
”
he chewed on a piece of jerky,
“
not that I can drive her in this weather.
”

Vince grimaced,
“
So we
’
re stuck here, then?
”

“
Well… I suppose it would be alright to leave it here overnight.
”

“
I hate to break it to you…
”
interjected Raxx,
“
but, well…
”
he switched on the wipers and after a momentary pause and groan they started stuttering inconsistently across the windshield. The waterfall barely noticed.
“
Huh. I
’
ll be damned. I was going to show you that they
’
re broken. They were last time I check
ed. But even with them working,
it doesn
’
t matter; just look at it, there
’
s just too much rain for them to cope with.
”

They lapsed into silence. The rain continued drumming on the roof and the darkness was growing. Raxx started the engine and turned on the heaters, but the humid air coming through the vents did little to dry them. The light continued to dim until there was nothing but the silver flash of rain drops striking, and the occasional blast of lighting. They arranged their wet clothes so they were hanging off of the seats and handles inside the truck’s cab. From the back came the sound of a match striking, and the sweet smoke from Vince’s pipe. Raxx leaned forward and pushed in the console lighter, then fumbled around for his pack, lost somewhere on the dashboard. A second later there was a click as the lighter popped out. As Raxx pulled it out of its housing all that could be seen was the deep orange glow of its coils, and the reflection off his face as he lit two cigarillos. He handed one to Wentworth
.

“
Thanks,
”
he said, rubbing his hand on the seat to try and dry it, then feeling for Raxx
’
s hand with the offered cigar
illo
, careful not to burn himself on the heater.

They smoked in silence, the glow of the cherries arcing back and forth from mouth to ashtray, blowing the smoke out the cracked windows. In the backseat there was a ruckus as Vince adjusted one of the bags lying between the seats, and he and Maria cuddled into a comfortable position.

“
See you in the morning, boys
”
said Maria, as cheerfully as she could muster.

“
G
’
nite,
”
said Vince. The two in the front responded in kind.

They finished smoking then slowly tilted their seats back, trying to get comfortable without discomforting the others. Then they lay back, in the dark, with the drum of rain and thunder rolling over them, staring at the abstrac
t patterns formed by the silver
rain. Raxx killed the vehicle. Then they closed their eyes and slept.