Outland (World-Lines Book 1) (20 page)

Aug2                            Bill

Bill and Monica woke up at 6 a.m. to a new day, one filled with noisy neighbors who apparently had no concept of sleeping in.

“I goddam hate nature,” Monica muttered. “Pave it all over, I say!”

Bill smiled weakly. He’d hadn’t slept as well as expected. Having Monica right there all night with no one else around had strained his self-control to the limit.

“I don’t suppose that ginormous coffee maker of yours will work without electricity?” Monica asked.

“No, although we have generators somewhere in this disaster,” Bill answered, sweeping his arm to take in the whole shed. “However, I present for your approval two important items: a Coleman stove—” Bill pointed to a pallet. “—and a camping-style coffee maker.” He pointed a little
to the left of the stove. “No need to use a backhoe for a spade-sized task.”

Monica’s eyes grew rounder. “I
knew
there was a reason I decided not to kill you!” She hugged him, making Bill’s IQ drop by half, and went over to dig out the stove and coffee maker.

It took only a few minutes to move the required equipment out of the shed to the fenced-off area. Bill brought out a couple of folding tables, and they proceeded to brew that all-important first cup.

Three known survivalist strongholds, one in Nevada and two in Utah, have declared independence from the USA. They have published an ultimatum to all military and law enforcement to leave their respective states within twenty-four hours or be declared outlaw. It is not clear if the two groups in Utah are working in cooperation or competition.

---

OPEC has announced that all oil shipments from OPEC nations will be temporarily
suspended pending clarification of the situation.

---

In more local news, there have been eight more instances of individuals or small groups going on murderous rampages. In one case, forty-two people were killed before law enforcement cornered the suspects, who reacted by killing themselves with an explosive device. In all such cases, the suspects have committed or attempted to commit suicide.

---

White House officials have released a statement in response to Dr. Kensington’s earlier comments about the eruption. In it, they deny the stated severity of the event, and refer to Dr. Kensington’s statements as premature and ill-advised.

“This is not the end of the world. This is a volcano. We went through something similar with the Iceland volcanic eruption of 2010. There were disruptions. There were inconveniences. But we’re still here.”

Dr. Kensington could not be reached for comment, and his office states that he is ‘currently
on leave’.

Aug 2                            Matt

Matt and Dick looked the situation over.

“Looks like we lost two—a cow and calf,” Dick said. “They must have panicked and run off. I’m pretty sure we didn’t let anything get close enough to take them down.”

They looked out over the scene. They still had sixteen head of cattle, including four calves. There were also a dozen sheep. The horses had been tied up in their own group. All of this menagerie had been gathered into as small an area as possible.

They’d found whatever they could that would burn and brought it across, but they only had fuel enough to keep one fire going all night. To keep the predators at bay, they had erected construction spotlights on telescoping stands that ran off the biggest generator. Outland nightlife didn’t like blindingly bright halogen lights, so harassment had been minimal.

Dick continued his report. “The pigs are long gone by now. We can only hope they’re still in one piece. They’ll stay in the general area, so if and when we’re ready to, we can just come and get them.”

“Greased pig roundup! Woot!” one of the other students said, waving his fist in the air. A couple of others laughed.

Matt shuddered.
I don’t see how that’s fun.

They looked over to the pickup, which was half-full of cages stacked as high as could be managed, filled with unhappy chickens. The rest of the pickup contained the portal hardware, which Matt had refused to even consider leaving behind.

A couple of students were getting the horses ready for the cattle drive. Dick chuckled. “Sixteen head of cattle. Yeah, we’re real cowpokes all right. This should be pretty funny.”

“Funnier than trying to get them through the gate last night?”

“Oh, much. So many more opportunities on a cattle drive. Haven’t you ever seen
City Slickers
?”

Matt gave Dick the hairy eyeball. “That isn’t a habit, is it?”

Dick just grinned.

Eventually they got everybody organized. All the riders mounted up, and four people crowded into the pickup with Matt.

Dick turned around on his horse, waved his hand in the air, yelled “Head ’em up and move ’em out!” and pointed.

“Another one. Great,” Matt muttered. “Richard will have a shit.”

As the ash falls and accumulates, it will kill all vegetation beneath it. Pasture grasses and crops begin to die, as do the microorganisms in the soil.

Domestic livestock and wild fauna within 1500 kilometers will die from starvation or respiratory illness.

Freshly fallen ash floats, and it absorbs water in the same way as sand, leaving little for animals, clogging up streams and rivers. Ash blocks sewers and pipes, further destroying infrastructure. Water supply and sewer systems are quickly overwhelmed and break down.

The Mississippi River, the Columbia River, the Sacramento River, and all other major North American waterways will become semi-solid sludge as the ash washes downstream, making them useless for transportation. With water, air, rail and road transportation all unusable or destroyed, the infrastructure of society will begin to break down.

Urban centers rarely contain more than three days food at any time. Hoarding, looting, and destruction of supplies from collapsing buildings will shrink that estimate considerably.

Aug 2

Omni

The hike was going slowly. Not everyone was a born hiker, and many of the students were wearing unsuitable shoes. A couple of dozen people were injured and had to be helped—or even carried.

Over the course of the march, people tended to spread out more as the faster walkers outpaced the slower. Fred and Anson had to stop the front group every once in a while to let the slower walkers catch up, explaining that they didn’t have enough guards to cover such a long parade. Fred also made a point of getting the fastest walkers to help with the wounded and injured, since they seemed to have the most energy to spare.

By nature, university students tended to be optimistic and upbeat, which already showed. Many of them seemed to be treating this as a nature outing. Some were taking selfies and pictures of the animals with their phones. A couple of people had actually tried to send texts, forgetting the complete lack of service on this side. Those incidents got good laughs, at the expense of the forgetful.

***

Erin

Erin talked with a couple of students as they walked.

“Can’t believe the climate over here,” one said. “Wetter, cooler, actual trees, and what are those things sticking up everywhere? Hills? Nebraska doesn’t have hills. Or trees, come to that.”

Erin smiled. While he might have been exaggerating, it wasn’t by much.

“Different recent geological history,” she replied. “No humans, an extra volcano or two… I’m a little surprised too. I wish Professor Collins were here.”

A girl that had been walking along with them said, “His assistant is.”

Oh, shit
. “Jenson?”

“That’s right.”

Erin rolled her eyes.
Yep. Bill was right. God is a B-movie director
.

A flock of birds took off in the distance. People were still not used to the amount of wildlife on this side, and a flock of birds darkening half the sky made many stop and watch in awe. Almost as impressive was the sheer variety of wildlife. Half the species they encountered had never been seen by human beings, while more had been obliterated soon after encountering humans on Earthside.

Closer to the procession, herds of deer jockeyed for grazing position with moose, elk, and less recognizable animals. They could see some mammoths and one large cat at a distance. A pair of giant sloths a bit closer fascinated the hikers, as they were unlike anything they had ever seen on Earthside— certainly nothing like their small lethargic South American cousin, as seen on National Geographic specials. People did, however, heed Erin’s warning to stay away and to try not to appear aggressive.

At one point, Erin listened in on an argument that a couple of people were having about the portals.

“They should be handing this technology over to the government. At least they would be able to use it nationally to save a lot of lives.”

“How exactly?”

“How, what? Handing it over, or using it nationally?”

“Both! Do you have a phone number handy? 1-800-SAVE-USA? Maybe the Department of Useful Inventions for Saving the Day? Does the word bureaucracy ring a bell? If you wanted to hand over something like this, I bet it would take months of argument just to get to talk to someone who would understand you. And then, before they can use it to save lots of people, they’d have to build a bunch of portals. How? Area 51? Maybe using the alien duplicating machine?”

“Well there’s no need to get sarcastic.”

“Actually, there kind of is. Sometimes mockery is the only way to get people to think about what they’re saying. And by the way, what makes you think there’ll even be a government in a week? This isn’t Mt. St. Helens. This is the stuff that ends civilization.”

“Oh, you’re exaggerating.”

…and so on. Erin had to bite her tongue to keep from chiming in. She agreed with the pessimist, but she felt the argument was moot at this point.

Kevin meanwhile kept the warehouse camp updated on the hikers’ progress via walkie-talkie. Matt gave updates on the status of the cattle drive, which was ahead of schedule and might even catch up with the hikers by the time they reached the warehouse camp.

Erin found Fred and Anson, who were on perimeter guard duty. “Hey guys. Holding up okay?”

Fred grinned. He and Anson had stayed up almost all night, each taking only a single two-hour break.

“Pffft,” Fred said. “We did any number of double and triple shifts when we were still working. This was a piece of cake, right?” He looked over to Anson, who nodded in reply.

Erin put on her best casual tone. “I was wondering, while you were still on the force, did you ever run into an Andrew Petrelli?”

“Petrelli? Andy Petrelli?” Fred and Anson both burst into laughter. “Andy Peters you mean. If that guy’s Italian, I’m Peter Panini. He’s from Portland, darlin’. Moved here after he lost an argument with some hippies or something. Had some luck and found himself a niche. He’s always fancied himself a mobster, but he’s just small stuff. Him and those other two, the big dumb one and the black guy.”

Fred shook his head. “I kind of liked Charles Eaton. He didn’t really enjoy what he was doing, but was too good for a day job, if you know what I mean. That Bluto, though. Trevor Pavoni. The only real Italian in the bunch. Dumber than a bag of hammers. All he wanted to do was break things. Nasty bastard. So, why do you ask? You meet them at some point?”

“You might say that.” Erin told Fred and Anson about the confrontation at the warehouse. She left out nothing, and didn’t try to excuse their actions, or their half-assed rescue attempt after the fact.

Both men laughed at the end of the story. “Serves them right,” said Anson. “They should have stuck to pushing around the lowlifes they’re used to dealing with.”

Fred added, “I wouldn’t worry too much. No one will miss them. Worst you’d ever get is some variation on failing to report criminal activity or something, and only if the cops were really bored.”

Anson said, “So your boyfriend—the guy with the pickup—beat up on Andy, did he? I’ll have to show him more respect.”

Erin grinned at them. She felt better for the talk, and felt reassured that the two ex-cops now knew about the possibility of human predators out there.

***

Eventually, the refugees spotted the warehouse camp in the distance. It was hard to miss the large steel shed, with another half-assembled shed beside it. The pace of the group picked up, and in a short time they had arrived.

The area in front of the sheds was fenced off, but a section had been opened up to allow access. A man and woman sat in folding lawn-chairs inside the fence.

As the crowd got to the area just outside the fence, they developed an odd shyness. No one seemed to be willing to be the first to step into the
de facto
camp, so the crowd instead formed a half circle, watching and waiting for someone else to make the first move.

The man got up and stepped through the opened section of fence. Smiling to the crowd, he waved a mug in the air and called out, “Welcome to Rivendell. Who wants coffee?”