Children of a New Earth (34 page)

“Jake,” James said. “Get over here, boy. These are the people from the mountains I was telling you about.” He gestured at the expedition. “Take them up to the guest houses and get them settled in. You can have the rest of the afternoon off if you look after them.”

He saluted his father. “Roger, Wilco.”

He bounded up to them. “Hey, Lexa.”

“Hey, Jake,” she replied coolly.

He studied the trucks briefly and then turned to the expedition members. “Well, I suppose you should get what you need out of the trucks. We’ll leave them here for loading. I’ll take you up to the guesthouses and show you where you will be staying. We usually use individual showers, but if you want, I can take you up to the pool.”

“No,” Lorn said. “Just show us where we will bunk and get us some food.” The men all looked relieved.

“Lorn turn down hospitality?” Spider whispered in amazement.

“Pool is not heated,” Lexa whispered back, “and none too clean. That’s why Lorn hates it down here.”

They got their packs out of the trucks. Jake grabbed Lexa’s and Amy’s packs from them, one on each shoulder. “M’ladies,” he said as he led the way.

Lexa just rolled her eyes, but Amy thought it was a nice gesture. Not to mention an amazing one. He strutted along with the heavy packs as if they were nothing.

Outside the warehouse was an old, rusted school bus. Jake opened the door and gestured them inside. “We have had this on hand for a couple of weeks, anticipating your arrival,” he said.

They piled in and sat down. Jake jumped in the driver’s seat. They were all startled when he cranked the engine.
It’s diesel
, Amy thought as it roared to life. She had all gotten so used to the quiet EVs that she had forgotten how loud a vehicle could be.

The low earthen houses of the Greenbowes blended into the forest where they lived. The houses at the ranch were mostly underground houses built into the slope. Amy was familiar with only one old-fashioned wood house, the community hall back home. That fit in because, well, it had always been there, at least in Amy’s mind. Now watching row upon row of wooden houses go by, she couldn’t help but notice how they seemed to stick out unnaturally.
They are ugly
, she decided.

She turned her attention to their driver. She could see his muscles bulge under the T-shirt he wore. She could not see his face from this angle, but that left her free to study his sandy hair and broad shoulders without embarrassment.

“Almost there,” he called, looking back. He smiled at Amy, and she quickly looked away.

They pulled into a parking lot surrounded on three sides by a collection of long wooden buildings. Each was rectangular with six matching front doors.

“Townhouses,” Jake explained, “all unoccupied and ready for travelers such as you. Take whichever you want. They each have two bedrooms, one kitchen and one bath. There’s enough you can bunk up or have separate quarters.”

“Separate quarters?” Shawn gasped. “Cool.” Shawn’s family lived in a tiny house on the edge of the ranch. Amy had never been inside his home, but she was pretty sure this was Shawn’s first experience with his own room.

“Let’s bunk up,” Lexa said to Amy, who nodded in agreement.

“Hey, everyone,” Jake said. “Me and Dad live in that white house on the corner there. Get yourself settled in and then come over. I’ll nuke us some grub.”

“What did he say?” Patrick asked as he watched Jake’s retreating back.

“I believe he offered us food,” Lorn replied.

“I’m not eating anything radioactive,” Shawn said.

“That one look okay?” Lexa asked, pointing at one of the doors. Amy shrugged. They all looked the same to her.

The others were hoisting their packs and selecting places as well. Patrick, Mark, and Shawn were each taking their own place on the left. Lorn, Kurt, and Spider were next to each other on the right. Luke and Daniel were going to bunk up in one of the middle houses.

“So, you know James and Jake?” Amy asked nonchalantly, she hoped.

“Sure, I have been coming here with my mother for years,” Lexa replied. “Jake and I used to play in the piles of junk when we were kids.”

“Is James really your father?” Amy asked.

“No. Rude is what he is.” To Amy’s quizzical stare, she added, “A father is someone who raises you, takes care of you, not some bloke your mom has fun with occasionally.”

“What about what Lorn said about your mother?”

Lexa shrugged. “Mostly true, as far as I know. Big appetite.”

“That’s an awful thing to say about your own mother,” Amy gasped.

“Is it?” Lexa wondered. “I always thought it was a compliment.”

“You’re kidding.”

“She used to always say, if you have to leave ’em, leave ’em with a smile.”

“Are you saying that she enjoyed being . . . being . . .” Amy stammered over the word, “. . . a hussy?”

“We don’t use words like that anymore,” Lexa said crossly. Amy felt bad. “I thought we had all that stupid ranch talk out of your head.” Amy blushed, but she figured she had it coming.

“Down here,” Lexa explained, “if you’re happy and they’re happy, it’s no one else’s business.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

The townhouses were spacious compared to most of the places they had stayed. Amy deposited her bag in one of the rooms, and they went back down to wait for the others. As soon as everyone had gathered, they made their way to the Armstrong house.

“Howdy partners,” Jake called as they approached, “come on in.” Many glass jars of soup were set out on the kitchen table. “Who is hungry?” 

“Me,” Shawn replied, muscling his way forward.

Jake opened a jar of soup and dumped it in a bowl.

“We usually heat our food,” Shawn said, crestfallen.

“Never fear my friend,” Jake replied. “We’ll nuke it.”

“I don’t eat radioactive food either,” Shawn grumbled unhappily.

Jake just laughed. “Not that kind of nuke; this kind.” He pointed at a metal box on the counter. With a push of a button, he opened the door and placed the bowl inside. He twisted a dial.

The machine came to life and lit up. It emitted a humming noise. After a minute, Jake cried out, “and . . .
bing
!”

The machine binged as promised. He opened the door and pulled the bowl out. It was steaming hot.

“Wow!” Shawn gasped. “What is it?”

“A microwave,” Jake said. “Standard pre-collapse cooking technology. One of the best, no fuss ways to prepare food.”

“Yeah,” Daniel put in, trying to sound knowledgeable, “My parents told me about theirs. Mom says it one of the few things she misses about the old days.”

They all took turns watching their soup get nuked. Amy scoffed at them.
Of all the marvels they’ve encountered on this trip so far, it just figures this is what amazes them.

“Any beer?” Mark asked conversationally as he ate.

Jake thought a moment. “Not enough to go around, I’m afraid. We don’t drink much.” Mark looked disappointed. Then he brightened as Jake said, “Of course the canteen will be open in an hour or so, when the early shift gets off.” The men looked excited. They had learned the joys of meeting new people on this mission.

“An hour?” Patrick said. “That gives us time to clean up a bit first.”

Jake gave them directions to the canteen as they devoured their soup. The whole village was laid out along three streets. The houses were all pre-collapse, and the community worked together to keep them in order. It was a strange setup. The village was only a tiny fraction of the city. When a new person came into the community, or a child came of age, they simply worked together to repair the next house down the lane and the person moved in.

The store and the canteen were along one of the side streets that connected the village. Anyone who worked in the community was welcome to an equal share in both. Jake assured them that as visitors they could visit the canteen for free tonight, but tomorrow they would be working.

“Well, I for one have no interest in carousing,” Lorn said, “but there is an abandoned library not far from here.”

“Yeah, it’s on Deal Avenue,” Jake said. “Just five blocks down. We put a new roof on it a few years ago so that nothing would get destroyed.”

Lorn nodded. “I saw it briefly on my last visit here, years ago. I promised myself that I would look it at more closely someday. I think that day has finally come.”

“Sounds interesting,” Luke said. “Mind if I come?”

“Not at all.”

The rest of the men excused themselves to leave as well.

“Beware,” Jake shouted at their retreating backs. “KC is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

Amy gave Lexa a quizzical stare.

“What are you on about?” Lexa asked Jake.

“See, that’s the problem with you,” Jake replied amiably. “You are ignorant of the great cultural achievements of our ancestors.”

Lexa rolled her eyes and gestured around the room. Junk was everywhere. There were electronics with parts hanging out, machines and appliances of every possible description, and open technical manuals on every available surface. “You can really see that Jake and his dad are true connoisseurs of culture,” she said.

Amy laughed. “Actually, this place reminds me of home.”

“You’re kidding.”

“My dad was a far better mechanic than housekeeper,” she told Lexa. “Better handy than neat, he’d always say.”

“Exactly,” Jake replied.

“Well, I am going to bow out of this cultural discussion and get some sleep,” Spider said with a laugh. “These old bones don’t handle camping like they used to. I have been dreaming of a real bed for over a week.”

That left Amy, Lexa, and Jake. “How about I introduce you two to some of the best of pre-collapse society?” he asked, “Like
Star Wars
.”

“I don’t remember that being mentioned in history,” Amy said.

“No, it was a movie. Come on.”

Lexa looked at her. She shrugged and followed Jake into the next room. She was glad to have any excuse to stay with the gregarious man.

The back room was a large sunken den. As with everywhere in the house, there was junk piled everywhere. At the bottom of the sunken den was a large entertainment center. Pillows and cushions were spread in a half circle in front of it. The wall with the entertainment center was covered from floor to ceiling with shelves of what appeared to be small plastic books. Amy went to inspect one. It had a hard plastic cover with title and picture, but no pages that she could find.

Jake took the plastic book from her hand and showed her how to snap it open. Inside was a single round shiny disc. “DVDs,” he declared, “state of the art technology.”

He put it back and pulled out a different one. “This is
Star Wars
.” He went to the entertainment center and fed the disk into a machine. The TV crackled to life.

“The best things about DVDs,” he told them, “is that even after thirty years, there is no corruption. They are as crystal clear as the day they were recorded . . . still will be in hundred years.”

“Really?” Lexa remarked as she looked at the fuzzy screen.

Jake banged the side of the TV and the picture cleared. “Wish I could say the same for the equipment that plays them.” He laughed. “It’s getting harder and harder to find replacement parts for TVs anymore. Luckily they are not exactly a survival necessity, so most of the other Cyclers leave them alone.”

By the time the movie was over, Amy was stiff and her eyes were sore. She felt vaguely dizzy and disoriented.

“Nothing to worry about,” Jake told her. “You get used to it after a while. I have the rest of the movies in the series, if you are interested. There are six in all.”

Amy groaned.

“I, for one, need a break,” Lexa said. “TV makes my eyes hurt. I don’t understand how you can watch it so much.”

“Call it a talent,” he answered.

“I’ll call it something,” Lexa muttered as they gave their farewell.

Amy and Lexa left him and walked to the store to get something for supper. The storekeeper was already aware of their visit and told them to help themselves. The small store shelves were mostly lined with vegetables in glass canning jars.

“The Cyclers live mainly off trade with outlying communities. They don’t raise much of their own food; hence everything in jars,” Lexa said, grimacing. 

“At the ranch, we grow all our own food,” Amy told her, “and for most of the year, this is how we eat, from our own canned goods. That’s why we need this mission so badly. We can manage without electricity or without vehicles, even though it would make planting a bitch. But without more canning jars and without the refrigerator running, we’ll starve.”

“We can some stuff as well,” Lexa replied. “You can’t avoid it in this climate. I suppose up the mountains, your growing season is shorter still. But we have had the advantage of some of the best gardeners and botanists in the world. Between proper timing of successive crops, cold frames, and greenhouses, we grow stuff almost year round.”

In the end, they selected some pasta and canned tomato sauce for their dinner. One glance at the canteen across the street told them that they would be dinning alone. The welcoming party was already in full swing.

Amy splashed the water despondently. Ever since seeing their sleeping quarters, she had been looking forward to this: a bath by herself, like at home. Privacy had been something of a luxury on this trip. As soon as they finished dinner and Lexa crashed on the sofa, she had gone to take a bath.

But it was not the luxury she thought it would be. For one thing the tub was too small. Her knees banged the sides, and the water did not quite cover her. Not that the tub was any smaller than the one she had at home.

The water went cold too quickly. She had to let some out and put more hot water in, a tedious process. For a while, it would be too hot, then too cold again. It was infuriating.

Most importantly, she was bored. She could hear the faint sounds of Lexa snoring in the other room. She wanted desperately to talk about the day, about the Cyclers, and most importantly, about Jake. Lexa seemed to know him well. They tolerated each other but didn’t exactly get along. What was their story?