“Yeah. South of Beaufort there is a town called Deadhorse. They had a festival. I guess they’ve been doing it for years.”
“A festival? That’s bold.”
“They’ve always had it, they said. They had it before everything.”
“And they kept it going?”
“They said it’s how they survive. They gathered the five strongest men and the five strongest women. The ten of them go to the center of Colleen Park. It’s like a dirt depression, north of town. I didn’t want to watch it, but my father said it might mean something.”
“Tell me,” Madelyn said.
# # # # #
“We climbed up from the Beaufort sand flats until we found the scrub. The buildings of Deadhorse were all low to the ground. They didn’t offer much protection at all. Instead of building up, the people dug. They all lived in a series of warrens. They only came out to hunt for food, or to have their festival.”
“How many lived there?”
“I don’t know. We only met a dozen, but I got the impression that there were a lot more. They are solitary people. It was kinda like our bases in Oslo. Even though everyone came out for the festival, they stayed in their groups. I saw a clump here and there, but it was too dark to count them.”
“It was dark?”
“Yes. They summoned the dark for their festival. It wasn’t like real night, but it wasn’t daylight. It was like everything got red for an hour.”
“So the Roamers couldn’t follow the sun,” Madelyn said.
Jacob nodded.
“The ten strongest went to the center of the park and they lit a fire. It was a burning platform. The men and women lifted it up over their heads. As you can imagine, they came immediately. The buzzing was everywhere.”
Madelyn handed Jacob her water. He looked like he needed it. He took a long sip from the jug and handed it back. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he continued.
“My father and I thought that the people would go hide underground. They didn’t. One of the old guys started to talk. He said that they used to call the Crows from the bay, back when there was a bay. My father argued with him. Dad said that he remembered when those things were invented and that the old man was crazy. The old guy smiled and laughed at us. He said that nothing is ever invented, it’s only rediscovered.”
“Your father was right,” Madelyn said. “Those things didn’t always exist, and they certainly didn’t exist back when there was water up north. The old man probably lost his mind at some point. It’s amazing what people talk themselves into.”
“I know,” Jacob said. “I studied history on the ether. But those people in Deadhorse didn’t have ether. They just told each other stories.”
Madelyn shook her head and frowned.
“They knew things though,” Jacob whispered. He sounded afraid as he remembered. “They all started to chant. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. The buzzing began to ebb and swell with the chant. It was like the people were hypnotizing the things or something. Suddenly it seemed like people were in control instead of those things. The men and women holding the fire threw it down and scattered.”
“What did the chant sound like?” Madelyn asked.
Jacob shook his head. “I couldn’t understand it.”
“Yes, but what did it sound like. Was there a melody? Was it rhythmic? Tell me what you remember.”
Jacob looked up and away as he considered her question. Finally, his eyes brightened as he came to realization.
“I just now figured out what it reminded me of. Can you tell this screen to look up something from the ether?” Jacob asked.
“Sure.”
“Ask it for a Shepard-Risset glissando,” Jacob said.
“A what?”
He repeated himself and Madelyn commanded the house to pull down the file from the ether. It took a couple of tries, but the screen began to emit a sound. Madelyn cocked her head as she listened. Jacob smiled and nodded.
“Yes! That’s it. That’s what their chant sounded like.”
Madelyn couldn’t imagine how people had managed to reproduce the sound. On the surface, it sounded like a simple descending tone, but there was more to it than that. As the pitch of the tones descended, they faded out and higher tones faded in. It was a perfect loop—it sounded like the pitch was constantly descending, but it was a loop.
“How did you know…” Madelyn started to ask.
Jacob was too excited. He cut her off. “I mean, that’s not exactly it, but it’s really close. There was also this rhythmic beat accompanying it.”
“Where did they learn the chant?”
“They had always done it. Since as long as anyone could remember. They said that the chant was thousands of years old, from when the Earth was newly born from the snow.”
“There are no natives that far north. People didn’t live there until wealth was discovered under the water.”
Jacob cocked his head. He shook off the idea and continued his story. “They chanted and we could actually see something in the night. They say that if you can see the faces of the things, you can become one of them.”
“They don’t have faces,” Madelyn said.
“The people gave the Crows metal, and diamonds, and flesh. They ordered them to turn away and follow the white bears back to the sun.”
“There are no more white bears in the north.”
“You’re not listening. This was their ritual from a time long past. The Crows were called to their group because of their numbers. The ritual turned them away. How else could you explain the fact that so many people lived exposed like that?”
“If it was so perfect—if they had everything figured out—then why did you leave?”
“Dad said we had to get to the cabin.” Jacob lowered his voice to a whisper. “And Dad believed that giving up flesh willingly was a crime.”
Madelyn nodded. Dating back to the cull, there had been people who tried to appease the new gods with sacrifice. People tried everything, and there was no shortage of rhetoric invented each time a technique proved ineffective. Some even claimed an ancient heritage to their practices. Jacob was simply too young to recognize the pattern. It was a good thing that Noah had saved him from those people.
“Once we moved away from Deadhorse and we weren’t with so many people, we weren’t really bothered too much anymore. It wasn’t until I got here that things got bad again,” Jacob said.
“Like I was saying—it’s probably the heat from the stack that drew them. It’s like a beacon in the same way that a bonfire or a village full of crazy people is.”
Jacob shrugged.
“Dad was dismissive too. I thought those people might have legitimately figured something out. They had a way of surviving that was completely different from Cosgrow’s plan.”
“And if you go back in ten years, you might find everyone dead or gone.”
After a second, Jacob nodded and frowned. “I suppose.”
“So you came south after Deadhorse?”
“Yeah. There’s an old highway. We followed it south into the mountains. I had never seen so much green. Even Oslo isn’t as green as this place. I understand why you live here.”
“You should see this place in the spring. You’re not going to believe it.”
“It’s too bad you can’t get other people to come here. It seems like the loneliness is the biggest problem, right?” Jacob asked.
Madelyn thought about it. It wasn’t an easy question.
“Maybe not the biggest, but definitely the longest-lasting problem.”
“What’s the biggest?”
“Staying alive.”
Chapter 11
{Daylight}
“What do you think?” Madelyn asked.
They were studying the breaking dawn on the screen. Aside from the occasional foraging bird, it seemed that nothing was moving.
“By now, me and my dad would already be on the trail. We used to get our best distance don
e in the morning.”
“My dad and I,” Madelyn said.
Jacob nodded.
“If you decide to stay here,” Madelyn said, “you might want to fortify this basement and redirect the heat. You might be able to rig up a liquid-cooled system for this house so the heat is distributed into the lake instead of billowing out the top.”
Jacob nodded, but she could tell that he wanted to say something.
“What?”
“I was actually wondering if you would still let me stay in your cabin?”
“It’s our family’s cabin,” Madelyn said. “It’s not up to me. Your great-grandmother left the place to all of us. If you want to stay there, then of course you’re welcome.”
He gave her another solemn nod.
“Speaking of which,” she said. “I’m headed back.”
Jacob began to gather his things.
“I hope you’re going to stay in hospitality mode?” she asked the screen.
Jacob seemed surprised by the response.
“Our mode defaults to hospitality after ten years.”
“You might want to shut down when we go,” Madelyn said. The screen didn’t respond. “Power down.”
The screen went blank. The lights above them dimmed.
“Let’s go,” Madelyn said.
# # # # #
Outside, they were quiet until they had traveled away from the house. The lake was even more beautiful in the morning. A duck came to a delicate landing on the far side of the lake. A fish jumped on the near shore. The ripples traveled across the glass surface and made spirals in the mist clinging to the surface. It was so tranquil. Madelyn wanted to slip into the water and drift to sleep in its depths.
“Mac?” Jacob whispered.
She turned and raised her eyebrows.
“You coming?”
She made her feet move again.
As they walked, Madelyn felt the need to fill the silence with narration.
“Your great grandmother never came to this side of the river. Back then, it was so deep that it was hard to cross. You can’t imagine how much water flooded through, even at the height of summer. She used to get snow so deep that it would be up above her head by spring. Can you believe that?”
“No,” Jacob said. “But I saw a picture of the glaciers once.”
“They’re not that far. You’ve walked all the way from Oslo. Getting down to the glaciers would be a walk in the park for you.”
“Dad said there were too many big cats.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard that too. Who knows though—there are more rumors than truths these days.”
“Our old neighbors said that this region has too many bears.”
“That’s true,” Madelyn said. “It’s not terrible this time of year, but yes, there are a ton of bears.”
Madelyn frowned at a sad memory. She smiled again as Jacob’s head began to turn left and right as they hiked.
“Don’t worry. They don’t exactly sneak up on you. They’re fairly territorial, too. One big male will take over this area each spring and then defend it. As long as you reach a standoff with that one bear, things quiet down. Your great grandmother had a blood feud with a giant male that she called Cowboy. Every year she would try to get a shot at him. She never did bag the old bastard.”
Madelyn tightened her pack as they climbed the hill.
“Your father used to have a crush on a girl who would come up with her family in the summer. Grandmother didn’t approve. Noah snuck out at night and walked three kilometers upstream to a place where he could cross the river. He would meet that girl just up there on those rocks.” Madelyn pointed. Jacob studied the rocks as they passed, like he expected to see his father waiting there. “It was the only time I would call Noah adventurous. He was fueled by hormones, I guess, but your father was fearless that summer.”
“What was her name?”
“I don’t remember. She had beautiful dark hair and brown eyes that had flecks of green in them. Grandmother said that she was part panther. You probably don’t want to hear this, but I think your father lost his virginity with that girl. Up here is where I dove under the water and hid from the Roamers that night to save David.”
She turned and saw that Jacob had stopped. He was staring at the rocks. The way he looked at them, she started to wonder if maybe he could see his father. He was watching his father’s ghost across the years. His father and his father’s first girlfriend.
“Brooklyn!” Madelyn said.
Jacob turned.
“The girl’s name was Brooklyn. I just remembered. She was named after her father.”
Madelyn began to pick her way across the stream. She lost her balance, but caught herself with a hand on a rock. “Do people still do that? Do they name the girls after the fathers and the boys after the mothers?”
Jacob watched her cross and then seemed to float over the rocks with no effort. He joined her on the other side.
“No,” he said. “People pick names out of books. So nobody lives around here?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Dad thought that more people might have sought refuge up here in the mountains. He said we might find some trading going on, you know?”
Madelyn shook her head slowly.
“If you see any people around, expect trouble.”
# # # # #
Madelyn put her hand out and stopped Jacob in his tracks. He was smart enough to keep his mouth shut while she evaluated what they were looking at. The cabin was sitting there, right where she had left it. The door was still closed. The rocking chairs still sat on the porch.
“Someone has been here,” she said.
Jacob fell in behind her as she approached.
Madelyn circled the cabin. She seemed to sniff the air as she walked. She scuffed her shoe across some rocks on the north side of the place. She backed up and peered at the roof.
“Are they inside?” Jacob asked.
She shook her head.
They completed their tour of the outside and came back to the porch. Madelyn pointed the barrel of her gun at the door.
“There’s no sign of tampering on the door,” she said.
Madelyn dug out her keys. Electronic locks could be hacked without leaving a mark. Her grandmother’s old deadbolt had a serpent key. Those couldn’t be picked without it showing. Still, she pushed open the door and stood for a second, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells.
“Get in. Quick.”
Once inside, she buttoned up the door again. One glance around the place put her at ease. Whoever it was hadn’t gotten inside.
“You’re in there,” she said. She pointed Jacob towards the door to her grandmother’s room. He was already headed that direction. The boy paid a heathy respect to the wall of skulls as he passed. Madelyn went to check the security cameras. For years she had managed to avoid interacting with technology. She had lived in concert with it—allowing it to recycle her heat and provide water—but the past few days had brought constant fiddling with controls and viewing screens.
She ran the footage back, watching the time-codes and hoping that she was wrong. She kept backing up until she saw a view of herself leaving the compound. Just to be sure, she went back even more.
She missed the part when Jacob left.
Madelyn frowned and ran the footage forward again. She saw herself outside, and then saw herself go back in to pack Jacob a bag. She hated the way she looked on camera—she was puffy and old.
“What are you doing?” Jacob asked.
She turned, startled.
“You scared the life out of me. I was trying to see if someone has been poking around this place or not. No sign yet.”
“It would be well after that,” he said, pointing at the timecode.
“I know. I didn’t want to miss anything.”
She ran it forward again, saw herself leave, and then ran quickly through a full cycle of the sun.
“Stop!” he sa
id. “You’re going too fast.”
She was definitely going too fast to spot anyone who might have snuck around while she was away. But that wasn’t her objective at the moment. While the footage ran forward, Madelyn had decided that she wanted to find out something else. She wanted to see footage of her approach of just a few minutes ago. She wanted to see herself and Jacob walk up to the camp. She especially wanted to see Jacob on camera.
He reached forward and pushed her hand from the controls.
He backed it up to the evening when nobody was home. He slowed the playback until they could see a shadow moving from one camera to another. Finally, when the figure moved to the camera mounted on the porch, they saw a decent shot.
It was an old man. Jacob zoomed in until the man’s face filled the screen. One lens of his glasses was cracked. His open mouth showed them as many gaps as teeth.
“Do you know him?” Jacob asked.
Madelyn shook her head. She was only partially lying. She recognized the man, but she really didn’t know him.
“Who is he?”
“Nobody,” she said. The years hadn’t been kind to him. She struggled to come up with a name. None would come.
“You know who he is,” Jacob said.
Madelyn shook her head.
“Mac.” His look contained an unspoken accusation.
“I’ll set up the guns. How well do you shoot?” Madelyn asked.
“I don’t shoot people unless there’s a good reason.”
“He’ll give us a reason.”
Chapter 12
{Hunting}
They stayed inside until evening. As soon as the shadows moved over the north side of the roof, Madelyn showed Jacob how to climb up and creep across to one of the two lookout positions. By then, she had gone through her old journal and put a name to the man.
His name was Gabriel Saxon. At least that what he had called himself. David was the last one to run him off, and Gabriel had finally limped away with one of David’s bullets in his thigh.
“You’re covering Sacrifice Rock and the old access road,” Madelyn said.
“I told you that I won’t shoot a person.”
“Will you shoot if he shoots first?”
Jacob nodded.
“Good. Then you’re going to shoot. Gabriel Saxon will shoot as soon as he sees you. If you survive, I hope you manage to drill one into his skull. I should have done it years ago.”
“I thought you said that nobody lived around here.”
“No people,” she said. “I didn’t say anything about demons. Gabriel Saxon is nothing more than a demon.”