Fight for Power (21 page)

“We're only thirty-six days short of having to build an ark and gather up two of everything,” Todd said.

“That could really be a problem since I don't think there is another one of you on the planet,” I joked.

“That is such a sweet compliment!” Todd said. “Are you trying to win me over? Lori, you might want to be a little bit worried here. I've always suspected that he had a thing for me.”

“I'm not too worried,” she said.

“You have nothing to be worried about,” I assured her, giving Todd a little slug on the shoulder and hitting my knuckles against his body armor.

Up ahead a little cluster of tents peeked through the trees and brush. There were more than four dozen of them—the people who were already living in the trees joined by the people from the burned-out condos. The tents were different sizes and colors, all in varying states of disrepair. Some of the tents surrounded a little fire smoldering in the rain. Four men and a woman sat around under umbrellas. Two of the men had weapons visible. Normally the sight of those would have me reaching for my own weapons, but I knew we really didn't have to be worried about them. They were desperate but grateful.

They saw us, and all five smiled and waved. Lori had been here what seemed like a hundred times over the past few days, bringing supplies, helping them set up tents and their campsite, and just offering to assist in any way she could.

I'd come with her a few times. With the rain I was grounded anyway. But I'd made a point of keeping my distance from the people. Sure, I could help set up a tent, but I didn't want to get to know them. I couldn't let it get too personal.

I remember reading somewhere about how the Inuit never named their sled dogs because it wasn't good to name something you might have to eat. Not that we were going to eat anyone, but there was no telling what might eventually have to happen. If things ever got bad for them, we wouldn't be able to do anything more than watch from behind the walls.

Lori tapped on the side of the tent. “Can we come in?” she asked.

The flap opened and Madison—the little girl she'd first met—poked out her head. She practically bowled Lori over with her hug and then dragged her inside. I pulled the flap back, bent over, and stuck my head in.

“The place is looking pretty good,” Lori said.

“Thanks to you,” Madison's mother, Elyse, said. “You really are an angel.”

Herb and the committee were fine with the tents staying, but nobody could give them any food, or medicine, or supplies of any kind without permission, and nobody from the apartments was to be offered a place in the neighborhood or even allowed in for a visit. As well, the sentries and guards had been told that under no circumstances were they to enter the forest to offer security to the tent dwellers. They may have been camped within the shadows of our walls, but those walls offered no security or support for them.

I saw Lori slyly pass something to Madison. I pretended not to see, but she saw me
not
see her. I knew what it was—food. Lori and Elyse spoke and Madison clung to Lori's leg. They were both friendly enough to me, but I think they sensed my distance. Distance was protection. It was the difference between walking through some place and flying five hundred feet above. I wanted to get back into the air and away from the realities on the ground. I hoped that tomorrow I could get back up there and away from here.

I waited for the conversation to end. They hugged goodbye, and we exchanged polite nods and farewells.

“I'll be back tomorrow,” Lori said.

“Aren't you coming up with me for my next flight if it's not raining?” I asked.

“Even if it's not raining I'm not going to be up in the air all day, am I?” she replied.

“Not all day.”

“Then I'll be back tomorrow, rain or shine.”

She and Madison hugged again, and I stepped completely out of the tent while they continued to talk inside, practically bumping into Todd. He and I walked over to a tarp strung between four trees. It offered some protection from the rain.

“Don't even pretend,” Todd said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don't even pretend that you have any free will. If she wants you back here with her tomorrow, you'll be here.”

“I can't very well let her come by herself.”

“Yeah, right, like she needs your protection to come out here. The girl is handier with a gun than you are.”

We'd both seen her taking shooting practice with the people being trained, and there wasn't much question about that. Lori knew how to shoot.

“You are
so
easy to read,” Todd said.

“Me?
I'm
easy to read? What about
you
?”

“So what am I thinking about right now?” he asked.

I smirked. “You're thinking about food.”

“Clever. You know I'm always thinking about food. The question is, what
kind
of food am I thinking of?”

“Pizza.”

“Okay, what kind of pizza?” he asked, and I couldn't help but laugh.

Food was on almost everybody's mind most of the time. The scavenging teams were bringing back some food, other items were being harvested, collection teams were out gathering things like crab apples and other edible plants, but still the rations were limited. Most people liked to think that food would be plentiful once the fall harvest happened. I knew better. That harvest was going to have to get us through the winter, and the rations were only going to get smaller.

“I can read your mind, too,” Todd said.

“Can you?”

“I know exactly what you're thinking of … correction …
who
you're thinking of.”

I wanted to argue, but there was no point. He was right. In the middle of all of this Lori was pretty well in the center of my thoughts. That bothered me. In the midst of terrible turmoil, tragedy, and death, I was spending my time thinking about her. I should have been spending more time thinking about other things—such as my father. What sort of person was I to feel any happiness when he was still out there, alone, by himself, hundreds of miles away?

Lori came out of the tent and walked right by us. “I don't even want to hear about it,” she said as she passed.

“Hear about what?” I asked.

“It was my food and I chose not to eat it, so I can do anything I want with it,” she said.

“I didn't say anything!” I protested.

“I know what you're thinking.”

“Suddenly everybody thinks they know what I'm thinking!”

“I
do
know!” Todd said. “Do you want me to tell her?” he asked. He was bouncing up and down, his hand in the air, a goofy smile on his face.

“I want you to shut up!”

“I knew you were going to say that, too!” he yelled out.

“Look,” I said to Lori. “I understand completely, and it is your food to give. It's just that you can't give them enough to feed everybody.”

“I'm not trying to feed everybody, just Madison.”

“And what about her mother?” I asked.

“It would be nice to feed her, too,” she admitted.

“Tomorrow, after our flight, I want you to come with me and talk to Leonard and his family.”

“Talk to them about what?”

“About how they're doing there in the forest, living off the land. I was hoping they could help Madison and her mother understand how to live off the land, too. They could learn from them.”

“Really?” Lori asked. “That would be so nice.”

“In fact, that's more than nice—that's downright
sweet
,” Todd said. “One of us should give Adam a kiss—probably you.”

“I think that could wait until later. Here, this is for you.” I dug into my pocket and gave Lori two PowerBars.

“Thanks, but I'm not really hungry.”

“Good, because it isn't really for you. Give them to Madison when you see her tomorrow. Each bar is good for one person for one day.”

Lori took the bars and threw her arms around me, and for a moment the world seemed good.

 

19

The next day, the skies cleared and I was finally able to get back into the air. I felt like a weight was being lifted off my shoulders. Even better, Lori was at my side. Around her neck was a pair of binoculars and on her lap was a rifle, with a second strapped to the rack behind our heads. And, of course, I had my pistol on my side. Protection had a whole different meaning these days.

I banked to the left—still not as sharply as I would have if I'd been on my own but much sharper than I would have if anybody else had been with me. It was such an added bonus that Lori liked being up in the air and had no fear of flying, even in the open cockpit of my ultralight. I still felt like I had to protect her, but I had learned that having her along was also protection for me.

“I'm glad your father is okay with you going up with me,” I said in the headset.

“So am I. He says you're very trustworthy.”

“That's me, trustworthy.”

I continued the bank and kept us low. Lori had asked if we could come in over top of the tent town so she could wave to Madison. Below us was Erin Mills Parkway. As far as the eye could see in both directions the road was clear and open. All of the cars for almost a mile in each direction had been removed. Gasoline was getting more and more scarce, so even cars that ran couldn't be driven. It was also an emergency landing strip for me and would be, if all went well, where I'd be taking off and landing with the Cessna. They were still working on it, since there was much more wrong with the engine than they'd thought, but they were hopeful of putting it up in the air. I was hopeful, too, but a small irrational part of me felt like I'd be cheating on my ultralight if I flew the Cessna and I didn't want to get it mad at me.

“I can see the tents!” Lori yelled into her headset.

“You don't need to yell,” I said. “I can see them, too.”

“Can you get any lower? I want them to see us. I promised.”

“This is low enough. We need to keep an envelope of air to stay safe. They'll see us.”

I reduced air speed and went slightly lower, doing what she'd asked without compromising our safety any further. As we came over top Lori began screaming and waving. I was sure they'd hear the roar of the engine and her yelling, too. I banked slightly to the right so she could look down on them.

There were now probably seventy-five tents in the woods close to the wall on the southwest corner. Many looked like they were going to take up more or less permanent residence, but others were just there for a night or two, camping and then leaving as they continued to move farther into the country or to whatever place they thought was safer.

“The little camp continues to grow. I'm so happy for them. More people means it's safe—right?” she asked.

“Safer.” But certainly not safe.

“Brett told me he didn't like having the tents there,” Lori said. “He said they were squatters and a security risk.”

“What did you say to him when he told you that?”

“I told him he was an idiot and if he didn't like them being there he didn't have to go there.”

“I'm sure he liked that. You don't have to be bothered about what Brett thinks because he has no influence on the committee,” I said.

“That's good.”

What I didn't tell her was Herb's opinion wasn't much different from Brett's, and Herb did have tremendous influence. He'd told the committee that that corner of our neighborhood—where the tent town and forest sat—was our weakest point of defense. He said that from those trees there was cover for people to fire RPGs and that the only protection would be to take down the trees—the shelter in which the tent town hid. To remove the trees was to remove the tent people. So far he hadn't suggested removing them, but I got the feeling that topic would come back up for discussion at some point. Herb wasn't cruel, but his focus was on what was best for us inside the walls, not those huddled beyond them.

I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if we did force them out. Where would they go, how would they live, and how would that affect us? We would be the villains. Then again, if Herb was right—and he almost always was—if we didn't force them out, we might not be villains but victims.

There was no point in trying to think through the possibilities. There was enough in the present to worry about. I put my mind back onto the controls and the ground below as we continued flying south along Erin Mills.

“There's our school,” I said.

“It makes you wonder what happened to everybody, how all of our friends are doing,” Lori said.

“Some are doing fine, I'm sure.” And some were doing terribly. Some might not even be alive. Without thinking, I asked, “Do you ever wonder how your old boyfriend Chad is doing?”

What a stupid thing for me to say!

“I think about a lot of our old friends, including Chad. Actually, I think I can see his car.” She was looking through the binoculars.

“It's down there. I was part of draining the gas out of it and every other car in the parking lot,” I said. “I'm the guy who smashed the window so we could pop open his gas tank.”

She laughed. “I bet you enjoyed that!”

“I did … and I've got a confession to make. I enjoyed it so much that I smashed two other windows just for fun.”

She laughed even harder. “I guess I wonder about a lot of things, but Chad and his car are pretty low on the list. He's my
ex
-boyfriend. What I worry about a lot more is my present boyfriend being up in his plane flying around.”

“There's nothing really to worry about,” I said.

“How about the engine failing?”

“Mr. Nicholas and his mechanics keep this engine in tip-top shape. There's nothing to worry about there.”