Wasteland (Wasteland - Trilogy) (28 page)

On the other side of town, Joseph was in his apartment, thinking about cat food.

Of everyone in Prin, he alone had no idea what was going on. He would only find out much later that Levi’s men had attempted to search his building for townspeople in order to evacuate them with the others. The precarious condition of his rotting stairwell, however, proved to be too daunting an obstacle and they gave up many floors beneath him.

Joseph was pondering his dwindling supplies. True, he was long accustomed to setting squirrel traps on his roof and down in the courtyard, but that was primarily for his own sustenance. His cats, however, were spoiled and preferred the food Esther brought them—dried rabbit, oat cakes, boiled rice. Yet he hadn’t seen his friend since her unexpected visit during the last storm. Joseph missed her company. His cats, however, were not nearly as sentimental. He could only imagine their outrage when they saw what was on the menu today.

Armed with a mallet, Joseph walked down the many flights of stairs, accompanied by the best hunters of his brood, a tabby called Stumpy and a black cat, Malawi. Although the felines were not fond of eating squirrels, killing them was a different matter. In particular Stumpy could be counted on to deliver the final blow if he lost courage. They reached the ground floor, and Joseph was about to shepherd his feline companions across the lobby and toward the courtyard door, where the traps were.

Instead, he stopped in his tracks, as did Stumpy and Malawi. They all heard it: There was a repeated banging and hammering sound.

Someone was in the basement.

These were not the sounds of a Gleaning; these were focused and purposeful in a way that made the boy uneasy. Joseph crossed the lobby and slipped inside the door that led downstairs; his cats followed. This stairway was not nearly as precarious, although it was quite dark and he had to feel his way along the wall, reaching out with his feet for each step.

By the time he reached the bottom, the noises had stopped.

Joseph headed down the long dark halls, where old corroded pipes lined the walls around them. Halfway through, he paused.

“Hold on,” he whispered.

Joseph was convinced that his cats knew several words of English or at least the meaning of certain human inflections. The animals halted, their tails flared with interest.

The boy could make out the muffled sound of voices. It seemed that more than one person was down in the basement, several yards ahead.

As Joseph crept onward, the cats behind him, he became aware of dim shadows flickering against the basement wall. Whoever was down there had a lit lamp, or given the weakness of the light, perhaps a candle.

Even without looking, he knew where the voices were coming from. His visitors were in the boiler room. His boiler room.

“This is it,” said a boy. He sounded excited.

“What do you think he’s gonna give us?” said a second.

Joseph tiptoed closer, then flattened himself against the wall near the doorway. The cats started to curl around his feet, bored of this game and wanting a new one.

He peered through the gap, careful to keep out of view. In the light of a candle stuck onto a brick jutting out of the wall, he saw two boys, their faces red from exertion and gleaming with sweat. Later, he would find out that these were two of Levi’s criminal recruits. Both were holding tools of some kind and were gazing down at the ground, staring with greed and wonder at what was revealed by a newly widened hole in a floor long damaged by earthquakes and decay.

It was a gently natural spring, caused in turn many years ago by a fissure in the earth. It had been there as long as Joseph had been in the building. In fact, it was where he got drinking water for him and his cats, collected in a plastic bucket he brought down to the basement.

Thoughtful, he pulled back from the sight, lightly kicking away the cats. It hadn’t crossed his mind that anyone might be searching for his water and that strangers would come in with shovels and picks to help find it. Then he realized with a start that no one had ever known about the spring. He wondered why this was so and discovered that the answer was simple.

No one had ever asked.

C
ALEB WAS UNAWARE OF THE FIRST STRAY BEAMS OF SUNLIGHT THAT
illuminated the ceiling of his cell. Unable to sleep, he had spent the night working by the light of a small fire, fixing his weapon. It still lay in pieces before him, but it was nearly finished.

It had been two days. And Esther hadn’t returned.

He rebuked himself for the thousandth time for letting her go to the Source alone, even though he knew they had no other option. Caleb realized that he was far from whole. When he tried to move his left arm, a stabbing pain seized his chest, forcing the breath from his lungs and blood to seep through his bandage, now filthy and encrusted. Yet he had seen enough of Levi and his guards to understand what they were capable of. He had to go to Esther’s aid, no matter what the cost.

Caleb fit the final piece of his weapon into place. As he tested the wheel to make sure that it spun, he recalled with frustration that he had no ammunition left. He would have to collect some on his way, a time-consuming task because it entailed finding stones that were the right shape and size.

Still, there was no other choice. He hoisted his pack onto his shoulders, wincing at the effort. The sooner he was on his way, the better.

He heard the creak of a distant wooden floorboard and Caleb froze.

The day before, Levi’s guards had come and rounded up everyone hiding in the other cells. Even though Caleb had no idea why this was being done, he knew enough to hide. He had managed to pull himself up to the rafters just as a guard peered into his stall. After a cursory glance, the boy had moved on.

Now Caleb heard the sound again, faint but distinct. Someone was creeping down the hall, someone who did not want to be heard. With a pang, Caleb glanced at the smoldering remains of his fire. The smell of smoke traveled far. He had been aware of the risk last night but decided to take the chance anyway. As a result, he had apparently brought his enemy back to his door.

Caleb lay his pack down on the floor. Without ammunition, he would have to depend on his bare hands; but in his weakened state, he was not sure how much fight was in him. He would have to strike first, and strike hard.

He moved to the wall next to the door and flattened himself against it. Out in the corridor, he heard another wooden door being swung open, then after a pause, closed. Then two more at once. Then another. More footsteps. The sounds moved down the corridor, coming closer to where he stood, waiting.

Caleb did a quick calculation based on sound. There were at least two people outside in the corridor, perhaps even three.

One of them stood outside Caleb’s cell. The door swung outward and someone stepped inside.

It was not one of Levi’s guards. It was a townsperson of medium build, wearing a hooded robe. But Caleb could take no chances. Before the stranger could turn, Caleb made his move.

He clamped his right hand over the person’s mouth. At the same time, Caleb wrenched the other’s left arm up by the wrist, yanking it up his back as he dragged him (for it was a male) into a shadowy corner.

The boy struggled but Caleb’s crushing grip warned him not to continue.

“Don’t move,” he whispered.

An eternity of several seconds passed in which the two figures stayed frozen in the dark, locked in a tableau of adrenaline and mutual fear. Then the door swung open again and a second boy, short and slight of frame, entered.

“Eli?” he said. “Where’d you go?”

There was no reply. He turned to leave but at the last second, noticed the two boys standing in the shadows. He froze in the doorway and at that moment, an older girl joined him. Turning to see what he was staring at, she gasped in disbelief.

Caleb was confused. The two were not only unarmed; they seemed surprised to see him there. If he wasn’t their intended prey, then who was?

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“We’re just looking for a place to hide,” the boy said. “Away from Levi’s guards.”

Caleb’s grip relaxed; and the person he was holding, the oldest of the three, broke free violently. He joined his friends, rubbing his shoulder as he glared at Caleb.

“What do you mean?” Caleb asked. “What’s happened?”

The boy and girl, Bekkah and Till, explained all that had happened to Prin over the past twenty-four hours. How the entire town was rounded up. The forced march. The crowded barracks outside of town where everyone was compelled to stay, without food or water. And how the three had managed to escape, by climbing up to the roof and jumping past the barbed wire when the guards weren’t watching.

Throughout, the oldest one, Eli, said nothing and stood glowering in the corner.

As he listened, Caleb realized that whatever Levi was planning, Esther was in greater danger than either of them had anticipated. If Levi had driven everyone out of Prin, this meant the situation had escalated. There was no way to tell what he was going to do next or how far he would go to make sure that nothing interfered with his plans.

“And so you came here, to hide?” asked Caleb.

The boy and girl traded a look, then shook their heads.

“We got to do something,” Bekkah said. “What’s going on ain’t right.”

“Only we don’t know what to do,” added Till in a smaller voice. He sounded plaintive.

Caleb realized that his position had improved. A few minutes ago, he had been an army of one. Now there were three more on his side.

And yet, when he looked them over, he could not help but feel dismayed. They weren’t even among the townspeople he had trained; they were inexperienced, physically slight, and at least two of them were too excitable. Yet they were all he had to work with.

“I know something you could do,” he said.

Bekkah and Till looked at him, willing to listen. The biggest one, Eli, still hadn’t lost the angry and contemptuous expression he had worn since he wrestled his way free, and Caleb wondered what was causing it.

“I want to go to the Source,” he said. “But I can’t do it alone.”

A quick glance passed among the three.

“But . . .” Bekkah hesitated to say the word, then plunged ahead. “You’re a coward.”

“Yeah,” said Till, emboldened as well. “You run away from the last fight with the mutants. We all saw it.”

Caleb knew he could not afford to get angry. “That’s something you’re going to have to judge for yourselves,” he said.

Bekkah and Till both nodded. But it was Eli who spoke.

“Why,” he said, “should we help you?”

His voice radiated a contempt that Caleb could not figure out. There was something beneath his response, something that cut deeper than the humiliation and shock of having been ambushed moments ago. Whatever it was felt personal, so Caleb looked at him and spoke without guile.

“This isn’t about helping me,” he said.

“No?” Eli was snide. “Then who?”

Caleb took a deep breath; he found he was shaking.

“Levi is holding two prisoners,” he said. “One’s my son. The other’s Esther. My new partner.” He swallowed hard; it was the first time he had said the word out loud. “I love them both,” he continued. “Before I see either one of them hurt, I’ll die. I swear I’ll die in the Source if I have to. If you’re not willing to do the same, then don’t come with me.”

To Eli, the word
partner
came as a blow to the stomach.

He hadn’t realized how much he had been hoping all this time that Esther’s infatuation with the stranger was just that: a fleeting whim, a momentary obsession. If he was patient enough to wait, he had reasoned to himself, she would surely change her mind someday and choose him instead.

To learn that the two were partnered altered all of that. Even now, his unwilling eyes took in a detail he might have noticed earlier, had he been looking for it: Caleb wore a strip of red cloth around his wrist. It was a partnering tie; and Eli did not have to look twice to recognize it as being torn from Esther’s sweatshirt.

Eli grudgingly found himself impressed by Caleb’s bravery. It was more than that: He was moved by his sincerity. Did he, Eli, love Esther any more than Caleb did? Could anyone? If Eli refused to help him now, he knew it would only be from pettiness and jealousy. He was not certain he could live with that.

Eli looked Caleb in the eye.

“Just tell me what to do,” he said. Behind him, the other two seemed ready to go wherever Caleb led them.

But Caleb was already thinking ahead.

“We need more people on our side,” he said. “Those who can actually fight. And I think I know where to find them.”

In the mansion across town, rumors were spreading like brushfire.

It began with the guards. Standing in the shade of a giant elm that dominated the front yard, they whispered among themselves of something that had been discovered in the basement of one of Prin’s buildings, something precious. Inside, a boy eavesdropped through a shattered window and caught a handful of isolated phrases and words. He passed them on to another, then another. Word spread and as it did, the rumor transformed and distorted until it was accepted as fact.