Reconception: The Fall (8 page)

"Nothing will happen to me," he repeated, stopping
long enough to draw her close and kiss her wet cheeks. "I promise
you."

"Garret, I love you, and I want you to have
everything you want, but it's just too dangerous. You can't go! If
you insist, then I'm going with you."

"I am going, and you are staying here. You know you
want to. Didn’t you say you wanted to find out everything there is
to know about this place?"

"But not like this! Not with you out there!”

"I'm going, Evie, even though you don't want me to.
I'm sorry. I just have to do it."

Hurt more than she'd ever dreamed was possible, Evie
pulled herself together, spun around, and walked toward the van.
Garret watched as she shut the door behind her, feeling a vast
emptiness explode in his chest. To fill it he called to Eye of
Eagle and told him he was going along.

Eye of Eagle was pleasantly surprised by this turn
of events. He hadn't thought Garret to be much of a man. It
appeared that there was more to him than met the eye. But then,
even though he seemed so weak, didn't that demonstrate his bravery?
How many others of his kind would dare to venture out into the
sunlight as he and the woman had?

He hoped Garret would be all right. Despite the
distance he'd put between himself and the couple while they'd
discussed what Garret wanted to do, Eye of Eagle had heard every
word. When he'd chosen his name, it had been a toss-up between Eye
of Eagle and One Who Hears, since both of these senses were
especially acute in him.

While finishing the preparations, he took Red Deer
aside and told him to take special care that nothing happened to
the stranger. Red Deer assured him that he would look after the man
as he would his own child.

Eye of Eagle snorted and said, "Don't let appearances
deceive you, Red Deer. The man is very brave to go without his
van."

"Or very stupid."

"Maybe a little of both, but then who among us
isn't?"

"This is true. Don't worry. I'll watch out for him.
Are you sure you don't want to go?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

Red Deer eyed his friend critically. "She is very
beautiful."

Eye of Eagle tightened the fastenings on the
pack.

"Don’t you think so?"

"Yes, she certainly is."

"What do you think the Mother thinks of her?"

"I don't know. I guess we won't know until she tells
us."

"You don't think they can hurt us, do you?"

"No. Whatever they could do to us was done a hundred
years ago. These people are well meaning and harmless. I
believe."

Evie watched through the small window in the van as
the men mounted their camels. Garret looked powerful and proud, a
stranger to her, sitting astride the beast. He looked at the van
and seemed to pierce the glass with his eyes. She wished she could
stop him, or go with him. The small caravan turned and the camels
loped out of the yard, Garret looking a bit ridiculous bouncing up
and down. Suddenly, she couldn't let him go without saying
goodbye.

Leaving the van, she ran toward the group rapidly
shrinking into the distance and yelled out, "Garret! Garret!
Goodbye! I love you! Goodbye!"

At first, it didn't seem that he'd heard her, then
he turned and waved and even at the distance she could see his big
grin and feel the wound of their disagreement heal. "Goodbye
Garret," she repeated softly. "Goodbye."

Eye of Eagle strode up beside her. "How long do you
think they'll be," she asked him.

"Probably fifteen days there and fifteen days back,
if all goes well. Don't worry; our men are smart and tough. Why
don't you come inside for a while?"

Evie had never seen so bewitching a man. She loved
Garret, of course. They'd been together all their lives, but this
Eye of Eagle was so ... so powerful, so potent, he made her knees
weak. She both welcomed and dreaded his attentions. She would like
to visit with Teller and the other women, though. "All right," she
said. "That's a good idea."

The mountain people had begun raising camels when
they'd first settled in the area. Since they didn't know what was
coming, they'd wanted the most adaptable creature they could find
as a beast of burden, and that was the camel. Able to endure
extremes of temperature, lack of food and water, what more could
one ask in uncertain times? In any case, they'd known that soil
erosion would continue, that desertification was probable in many
formerly agricultural areas and for that they were determined to be
prepared.

Garret's camel was named Cashmere, and he was an
even-tempered beast, as camels go. His coat was surprisingly soft,
and he moved at a steady lope through the wasteland, carrying his
load without complaint. Red Deer led the party and Cries at the
Moon covered the rear. Nightstalker moved back and forth between
them. They'd traveled a long way since they'd left early that
morning, and Garret was very tired. Nothing in all his life had
prepared him for riding a camel in an oxygen poor atmosphere for
hours and hours.

His body was not used to the heat, the glare of the
sun, the exercise, the air, any of it. He knew what the mountain
men thought of his weakness, but he meant to see for himself what
had happened to the world, and he wasn't about to be intimidated by
a bunch of aborigines.

Well, of course, they weren't really aborigines. Far
from it. They were sophisticated, civilized people and he was very
grateful to them for helping him to bring the food to Southeast.
They were so competent, it made him feel weak and foolish, and that
made him angry. All his life he'd been the best, the brightest, the
most skilled. Here, he knew so little; he was like a baby.

Nightstalker pulled up alongside him and matched his
camel's pace to that of Garret's. "Red Deer wants to know if you're
all right? Do you need to stop?"

"I'm all right. How much farther does Red Deer think
we will go today?"

"We'll stop to eat in a while, and to rest the
animals. Then we'll ride until sundown. It's hard going for the
camels, up one slope and down the next, but if we can keep up this
pace we'll be able to get to your peoples' habitat in about two
weeks."

They rode together in companionable silence for a
while, and then Nightstalker spoke. "We're very curious about you.
How do you stand to live underground, to never see the sun? It's
almost like being buried alive."

Garret smiled wryly. "Actually, Evie and I have been
going outside since we were eight when we discovered an unsealed
exit. As for the others, I don't know how they stand it. We've
tried to suggest opening the doors to a few of them, but no one's
interested. I guess what it comes down to is that people can adapt
to just about anything. How about you? How is your life?"

Nightstalker smiled. "Oh, we have a good life.
Except for the sickness and the ... trouble ... with intruders ...
."

"Intruders?"

"Sometimes people from the cities discover our farm,
and then we have a problem. We are a peaceful people, you see; we
don't want to fight. We would be glad to share with the less
fortunate, but they are wild and brutal, and won't share with us.
They only want to take. When they come, we have to fight."

"Is that often?"

"Oh no. We're well concealed. Only three times in a
hundred and twenty years have we had to deal with intruders. Not
counting you and Evie."

"Evie and I? We're not intruders. You invited us. I
mean Eye of Eagle did."

"I said not counting you. You are different. For one
thing, you're not savages. You're not suffering from mutations or
brain damage as many of them are, and it's unlikely that you'll
want to take over our farm ... .The first time the intruders came,
they ended up setting fire to the farm. They destroyed our solar
collectors. By the time they were finished, only the Garden of the
Goddess and our concealed stores were left. But that was enough.
We've learned not to be so friendly."

"Well, I'm glad you were friendly to us," Garret
said.

"By tomorrow, we'll be out of the valley, and it
will be harder going, more mountainous. We'll have to pick our path
with care. After that, we'll have to watch for people. Have you
received any training in fighting? Do you know how to defend
yourself?"

Garret wondered why they hadn't asked that question
before leaving the settlement. He looked into Nightstalker's dark
eyes. The man was not very tall, but stocky with powerful shoulders
and arms. Garret wouldn't want to tangle with him. He had a knife
tucked in the belt of his robes, and a rifle slung across his back.
A belt of ammunition hung over the neck of his camel. "Well my
physical training included fencing and karate. I've shot a gun in
simulators, so I guess I could handle one. The fact is a New
Scientist has to learn everything, develop a well-balanced outlook,
and that includes physical strength and development. So I guess I
could fight if I had to. There wasn't anyone my age to match me
against, you see, except Evie."

Nightstalker reappraised the man riding next to him.
He would try him out later to see if he would need protection, or
if he would be of help if they met with trouble. "What's a new
scientist?" he asked.

As Garret explained the philosophy to his new friend,
he studied the environment they were moving through. The
mountainous and nearly barren land seemed to go on forever. Except
for the abandoned towns, the empty ruins of houses and rusted
vehicles they passed, it would seem that man had never even been
there.

In the distance, he could see the peaks of the
Appalachians. The sun overhead was very hot, and he was grateful
for the desert gear they'd made him wear. It wasn't technically a
desert since it did rain from time to time, and grasses and scruffy
little bushes covered the land. The soil was so poor and stony and
easily eroded, however, that only the most hardy of plants could
grow.

Garret was saddened at the millions of years it
would take for natural processes to replace the billions of tons of
topsoil that had been lost during the industrial era. The 100
million years it would take to replace the extinctions was also
incomprehensible. It looked like whatever survived in this new
world had to be tough and resilient, including him.

CHAPTER 8

Mountain People: 2128

What constantly surprised and delighted Evie the most
about the Mountain people's living quarters, was her ability to
walk in and out at will. Anytime she wanted to, she could just get
up and go outside. There was so much to see, and it was all so
unlike anything she'd known before. They'd used natural materials
inside: wood, tile, and glass, and had built inside the hill for
energy efficiency. The house was cool in summer and warm in winter.
They'd arranged skylights and light wells throughout so that it
wasn't dark, except at night, and then they usually went
outside.

The house was huge, and accommodated over 200
people, she'd been told. There were many common rooms, both large
and small, and sleeping quarters rambled all through the hillside
like a rabbit warren. The best part for her were the kitchens.
Growing up as she had, where sustenance came out of a vat, she was
enthralled by the preparation of real food.

The cooking areas were communal, and everyone did
their share of the work, even Evie, once she'd found something she
could do. She liked the way they were open to the outside and soon
discovered the solar ovens that were one of the reasons for this
location. There was no rule against anyone coming in for a snack,
if they wanted one, and she did that too. Each of the members of
the tribe had to spend a portion of every day involved in the
growth, storage or preparation of food. Evie was amazed at how much
had to be done.

There were many private dining rooms in varying
sizes that gave off the main dining room. Her first meal without
Garret she ate in a private dining room with just Eye of Eagle—who,
she'd learned, was called Eagle, for short—Teller, Flowers, Iron
Hand and some others whose names she couldn't remember.

Flowers was delicate and soft spoken, deferring to
the others. Evie learned she was the mother of Holly, the little
girl she'd met the night before. The children seemed to run free
anywhere they liked, and Evie wondered about that. How did they
educate them when they were so boisterous? She'd never seen
children like that.

Children in the habitat were disciplined almost from
birth. Everything they did was programmed to be educational. Here
the children were more spontaneous and she found them charming, but
wondered if they weren't a little too wild.

After lunch, she wandered about inside, looking into
different rooms. Her assumption that they didn't use computers was
proved false when she stumbled on a room full of PC's. Apparently
they used computers, but, unlike the habitats, the machines weren't
pervasive. Behind the computer room was another door that was
locked. Since she hadn't found any locked doors before, she went
looking for someone to open it.

Most of the mountain people napped after lunch and
it wasn't until an hour later that she found Teller working with
some children on the porch. They were all singing as loudly as they
could, and Teller was, unsuccessfully, trying to get them to
produce some harmony. She laughed when she saw Evie. "How are you
doing? Do you like it here?" she asked.

"I do," Evie replied. "It's all so new. I have so
much to learn."

"Why?" Teller asked, dismissing the children.

"Because I need to know what's happening here, so
that I can do something to contribute to it. I mean, I'm working
with recombinant DNA. You know what that is, don't you?"

Teller sighed. "Yes, I know what it is. It's the
science of altering nature."