Chapter 9
After the citizens were moved into their temporary homes, the town fell into a groove and February passed into March with a daily pattern of work, clean up, and planning. After two more grueling neighborhood clean outs, Mother had to call it quits. The daily cleans and lengthy burns had taken their toll, and she needed to delegate. She selected two people to join the clean out crew, put Chuck in charge, and turned her attentions to the other matters of the town. She still insisted on handling the burns personally. Chuck joined her for the second one, and he took entirely too much pleasure in it for Mother's peace of mind. Though he was disappointed with her decision, he bowed to her authority. She burned once a week, or if the truck filled up before then. As it turned out, people who died in their living rooms left far more rotten furniture, and that took up space. Sometimes it was necessary to do more than one burn a week, and she did it without complaint. Every burn behind her meant fewer ahead.
The garbage from the town was collected and burned as well. Coraline made a snappy comment about pollution, but no one paid her any attention. They still had all their meals in the barn, but having designated living space in real houses instead of the barn had calmed the group and they were harder for Coraline or Fred to rile. They'd roll their eyes and shake their heads and head to their own homes where they didn't have to listen to bad attitudes sour their days.
People worked where they were needed. As the days and weeks passed, peoples' skills became clear and Eve assigned tasks Mother needed done accordingly. Every night Mother would gather what she considered her core group, Eve, Gus, and herself, to discuss the growing list of issues they suddenly thought of that needed to be addressed.
In mid-March, when the only snow that remained were the fat, icy, dirt covered berms that lined the streets from the plows, all talk turned to farming. Though they were taking any canned supplies from the houses as they cleaned, and sending out daily convoys to raid stores in the area, they could not be so short-sighted as to rely solely on what they could snatch and grab. They needed to plant crops. They needed to have a food source. They might be set for the moment, but it could all change so fast.
The major problem with farming was that there wasn't a farmer among them. There were great gaps in professions Mother believed they should have. They didn't have any doctors, either. No medically trained people at all, unless you counted Cindy, and the most she could do was tell if someone was dead. They'd done the best they could for the few incidents, but the day would come when something major would happen and they'd have to know what to do.
Arlington didn't have any engineers, either. Mother wanted to keep her technology. She wanted to get everything off the internet she could that might be useful. All of the knowledge they needed was out there, somewhere. It was just a matter of finding it, of getting it before it was too late. She had no idea how to do that, and there wasn't a damn techie in the bunch.
If Mother let herself think about all they lacked, she would make herself nuts. She decided to put it all in the boxes of her head and open them one by one. Spring would be on them soon, and that meant crops. Food. Future. She would open that box, make the plan, and then open the millions of other boxes of mental files in turn.
They had no farmer. "Does anyone here garden at least?" Mother asked the group at dinner one night. Coraline looked around, then raised her hand and rolled her eyes. Mother had to stop her own eyes from doing the same. "No one else? Anything. Tomatoes or lettuce or even potted plants?"
"I temped at a florist one summer, but that was years ago," a woman named Denise said.
It would have to do. Mother nodded her head. "Fine. If you two ladies would join tonight's meeting in the house, I'd appreciate your input." Coraline rolled her eyes again and waved a hand, and Denise nodded enthusiastically. Mother addressed the group at large. "Starting tomorrow, our goal here is going to shift to getting ready to plant some crops. Any suggestions will be welcome, but please don't come tell me you'd love to eat a fresh radish again. We're going to have to raise essential crops, at least until we figure out what the hell we're doing." The crowd laughed, and Mother was pleased. They were with her. More and more, she felt like they were truly behind her. "Now, finish this fine meal and get a good night's rest. That was good work out there today, and you've earned a mellow evening."
A tree had fallen across the road, blocking access down the hill. It had taken the many inexperienced hands a long time to get it cleared away, but they had done it. The road was open and the people learned they were capable of yet another new skill. All in all, it was a successful accident.
Mother turned and headed to the house to prepare for the meeting. She hated the fact that Coraline was the only one with gardening experience. "Of course it would be her," she muttered to herself as she walked in the door.
"Would be who?" Eve asked, the kitchen already cleaned from the meal prep and the notebooks they'd need spread out on the table.
"Stupid Coraline," Mother said, not caring that she sounded like a whiny brat. Eve laughed. "It's not funny. Almost fifty people, and she's the one with gardening experience? She's going to be insufferable, you know that, right?"
Eve sighed. "Tell me about it. At least you're out of the house most of the day. Who do you think deals with her litany of complaints when you're not around?"
Mother unclipped the walkie talkie Wolf now insisted she wore at all times and set it on the charging station he installed in the kitchen. She noticed his wasn't there. "Where's Wolf?"
Eve shrugged. "Skulking around somewhere, I'm sure."
Mother shook her head. "He still in a funk over the shooting thing?"
"You're going to have to learn."
Mother sank heavily into the kitchen chair, glad she could finally sit down. "I know."
"I think you've put it off about as long as you're going to."
Mother looked at the girl. Young woman, really. Eve had gotten color back and put on some weight in the last couple months. She was as strong and sure outside as she was in, and Mother was very pleased to see her looking so well. No one had mentioned the fact that Eve was healed, yet still lived in the house. It was accepted now that Eve was Mother's assistant, and if Eve had any trouble over it still, she never mentioned. Mother was lucky to find Eve, and she knew it.
Wolf walked in with Coraline and Denise in tow. He said nothing, but grabbed a coffee and then took his seat on the counter behind Mother. It was his standard place at the evening meetings. Mother asked him about it the first time he hopped up on the counter like a teenager. "I have a clear shot on anyone who needs it from there," was his response.
"Thank you for joining us," Mother said to the two women. "Please take your coats off and have a seat." Denise smiled and complied, while Coraline stubbornly kept her coat on. Mother took a breath to keep her impatience in check.
"I don't know how much help I can be," said Denise, sitting. "Like I said, I only temped for a summer."
Mother smiled warmly at the nervous woman. "And that's a whole summer's more experience around growing things than I have. Honestly, we're starting from scratch, here. I need an idea of what we're getting ourselves into."
"Pain, that's what," said Coraline.
Mother sighed. "I don't have time for attitude..."
"And I'm just telling you like it is," defended Coraline. "You think farming's easy? I had a small, two acre garden and that was bad enough."
Mother quirked an eyebrow. "Two acres? That's a little more than a home garden."
Coraline crossed her arms and shrugged, always unable to dump the chip off her shoulder. "We lived in an artist community."
Mother couldn't help the wry smile. "Commie." If she wasn't mistaken, she saw a flash of amusement in Coraline's eyes.
"Yeah, well. We grew a lot of veg, but nothing like what you need."
"And what is that?"
"Grain. And lots of it. We bought our grain."
Mother nodded to Eve, motioning fo
r her to start writing things down. "What kind of grains should we grow?"
"Corn, wheat, barley," Coraline answered quickly. Mother got the distinct impression that in spite of Coraline's attitude, she'd been thinking of ways to be useful.
Denise frowned. "I hate barley."
"Barley grows anywhere, it's nutritious, and you can make booze with it."
Mother frowned. So far everyone sort of accepted her "no booze" policy, and no one really pushed it, probably because she made sure there wasn't any alcohol to be had. She gathered it all and stored it in her basement behind the new walls that Steve and Gus helped Wolf construct. Just like the drugs and medicines. Addictions were a headache she didn't need. Wolf insisted that people would press the issue someday, and she'd have to make a firm law one way or the other.
"One day you're going to want to trade that booze, even if you don't want us drinking it," Coraline said with a pointed look.
Trade. It was another thing Mother hadn't considered. Coraline was smart. Mother said it before, and it struck her again then. Coraline was smart, if nothing else. "Can you grind barley into a flour?" Mother asked.
Coraline nodded. "It won't ever get as smooth as wheat, but, yeah."
Eve wrote it down. "What about vegetables?"
"We could grow those at our own houses," said Denise.
Mother didn't know if she liked that idea. That would put a lot of responsibility on the people as individuals. "I don't know."
Coraline took off her coat, clearly deciding to stay awhile. "I think she's onto something. If you get the big fields ready, you're going to want as much acreage as possible devoted to the big grains. You need a lot."
Mother nodded. She'd seen herself how quickly food supplies dwindled. "Can we count on people to keep up their gardens?"
Coraline shrugged. "Won't take much. If you plow right, get a good bed laid, and make sure the weeds are gone until the plants are big, it doesn't take much to make food grow. Nature grew tomatoes on her own long before we showed up with our tools."
She almost sounded happy, Mother thought. The bitterness wasn't there, the edge was dull.
"Besides, Coraline continued. "We'll have plenty of time to focus on veggies once the fields are plowed, fertilized and sit resting before planting." The rest of the group only stared. Coraline clucked her tongue. "You really haven't thought about this at all, have you?"
The next day, Wolf drove Coraline and Mother to the local library to grab as many books on farming as they could. While the rest of the town went about their regular daily chores, the two women poured over the information until they hammered out a plan Mother was proud of and Coraline didn't completely hate.
"You're still skipping steps," Coraline insisted.
"We'll figure them out on the way, won't we?"
The first order of business was to find seed. According to Coraline, the amount of corn Mother had harvested into two sacks the previous fall was pathetic. They'd need seed, and lots of it. They'd need enough to cover the three large fields they believed they could manage to farm the first year, and they had maybe enough for half of one. It was staggering to Mother. She had thought it was so much at the time. She wished she could go back in time and get more, work harder, save the corn instead of letting it rot on the stalks. Ah, but she couldn't.
They found the location of a large feed and garden center on MapMan. Coraline knew the place and said that it catered to large subsistence farmers, exactly what they needed. The store was about thirty miles to the south, and they calculated the gas they'd need to run a school bus down that way. They spent a day with a team removing all but the first three rows of seats, to give plenty of cargo room, and selected a handful of people as helpers.
As Mother loaded up the bus on the late March morning, the mood of the group was light. It was the first time any of them had been out of town in two months. Gus took the driver's seat. "Everyone got their field trip buddy?" he asked with a grin before closing the door and heading out.
Wolf settled back in his seat and tipped his hat forward to catch a nap. There was a burn the night before and he was wiped. He found Mother's excitement annoying and did his best to tune her and the rest of the group out. There weren't any security risks on the road, and if they came across any danger, he'd have plenty of warning. He let himself doze off.
Mother sat with Coraline and Eve, huddled over Eve's notes. They also had Steve with them, because he'd haul all day without complaint, and Blaze, because he was getting twitchy, as Wolf said, and couldn't be left alone in the town. They drove for awhile when the bus slowed and stopped. Wolf bolted up, but then Gus laughed.
"I stopped at the red light," he said, laughing at himself. He shook his head and took the good-natured ribbing the passengers gave him. Wolf glared and leaned back to resume his snooze and the bus rumbled on without incident.
They reached the garden center and Wolf made them sit tight while he had a look around. There was no sign of life, no indication that it had been raided. He entered the bus and let them know it was all clear, then stood outside the smashed door of the building to keep guard while the rest went shopping. He made Blaze stand on the other side, until Mother requested another set of hands to haul manure.
"I'm not carrying shit," Blaze scoffed.
Wolf touched the knife at his belt and Blaze swore, but went to do as Mother said. Gus backed the bus up as close to the building as he could, and they began stacking as much fertilizer in the bus as it could carry. They stacked it up to the ceiling and almost to the back doors, leaving enough room for sacks of seeds. Coraline found some packets of vegetable seeds in the back of the store, and grabbed several boxes of tomato, carrots, cucumber, pumpkin, zucchini, and onion seeds, as well as a case marked "mixed herbs". When the bus was as full as it could be, the tired people settled in their seats, pleased at their haul even if the manure did smell musty.
"Open the window," Blaze said. "It smells like shit."
"It is shit," Mother pointed out. For some reason, that struck Steve as funny and he guffawed.
"What a shitty job this was," he said, through tears.
Mother threw her head back and laughed, too. They took turns making shit jokes and laughing like hyenas. It was a lame joke. It was overplayed the second time it was said. And yet, it felt good to laugh. It felt damn good just to laugh.
They were nearing town, their stomachs aching from the bursts of laughter. Gus stopped at another red light, and that set them all off again. Even Wolf let out a little noise snort under his hat.
"Careful, Gus. Wouldn't want to get a ticket!" called Steve.
"Yeah," added Coraline. "You're old enough that they might just make you go through the driving test again!"
Mother laughed, more because Coraline decided to be in a good humor for once than because of the comment itself. She wiped a tear from her eye and was about to ask Gus if he needed a break from the wheel when there was a knock on the bus door.
Wolf froze and listened. Everyone froze and listened. The rap sounded again. Gus's eyes found Mother's in the big rear view mirror above him. "Uh, there's someone at the door."
Wolf stood slowly. "Stay here," he ordered Mother.
Mother looked to Eve, who shrugged. It was all so surreal. She stood and craned her head out the window. There was a man standing out by the bus door.
"I told you to stay put," Wolf said to Mother before giving Gus the signal to open the door. "Who are you and what do you want?"
Mother watched the man put his hands in the air, but grin broadly. "Whoa now, killah. I don't want trouble. I was just on my way to Arlington."
"What do you want with Arlington?" Mother called out.
Wolf turned and glared at her in annoyance, and then clenched his jaw when he saw the other people on the bus had switched sides and leaned out the windows to see as well.
The man looked to Mother. "I saw a posting that there were survivors there."
"There are," she assured h
im. "Where ya from?"
"I'm up from Greenfield."
Mother whistled. "That's a good hike."
He shrugged. "I didn't like what I saw at the army base."
Wolf needed to regain control of the situation. "You armed?" The guy nodded, and then handed over a gun and a knife without hesitation. "That all?" Wolf demanded. The guy nodded again. "What's in the pack?"
"My gear. Computers, transistors, radio equipment..."
"Wolf," Mother barked, beckoning him forward.
Wolf pointed the tip of the man's own knife at him in warning. "Stay." The man put his hands in his pockets and smiled up at the other people in the bus windows. Wolf hopped up the stairs and leaned in.
"Classic geek," Mother whispered.
Wolf nodded. "My thoughts, too."
"We need him."
"Let me talk to him first." When Mother opened her mouth, Wolf hurried on. "He said he's been to the army. Let me make sure he's on the up-and-up and not some plant."
Mother's frown deepened. "What the hell would the army want to plant someone with me for?"
Wolf looked at her like he could not believe she could be so stupid, shook his head, and left the bus. He dragged the man a few steps away, out of Mother's hearing range, and grilled him. After a few minutes of animated discussion, Mother saw Wolf nod, point at the man's chest, and issue a threat. She couldn't hear the words, but she knew that look in Wolf's eyes. The man paled, nodded quickly, and followed.
"Looks like we get fresh meat," Mother said to the group. They got back in their seats and waited for the newest member to join them on the bus.
"Hello," he said with a goofy wave when he entered.
The group mumbled their hellos, still unable to believe they had just picked up a hitchhiker. Mother stood and held out her hand. "I'm Mother. And you are?"
"Striker," he said quickly, pumping her hand with more gusto than is necessary. "I take it we're all Arlington bound?"
"Yes, we're from Arlington. I'm Mother, and I'm in charge there."
"Wow, the head honcho?"
"Sit down," ordered Wolf. Striker sat quickly in the first empty seat. Mother turned to face him.
"Interesting name you got there, Striker," she said.
He took his backpack off and clutched it tightly on his lap as the bus started forward. "It's my competition handle." He frowned and tipped his head. "Actually, my competition handle was Striker five ten, but I figure the other Strikers are probably dead, so..."
"Competition?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah. Strike Force Gamma."
"Ugh," said Eve, rolling her eyes. "It's a game," she said to Mother. "He's one of those gamer geeks."
Striker's face turned blotchy red. Mother guessed he was about as old as Eve, maybe a little older. "I'll have you know I was the top ranked squadron leader in all of the Northeast," he said defensively.
"Is that a fact?" Mother said, cutting off the biting comment she saw Eve about to make. Eve's instant reaction to Striker was very interesting.
"Sure is, and I was heading out west to the California Invitational tournament when all of this happened." He waved a hand around his head.
"I take it you like video games."
Striker gave an almost condescending scoff. "You could say that if you like understatements."
Mother smiled. Striker was like a character from some comic book, or a movie about teenage outsiders. He even had a case of acne, and stains on his teeth to indicate he recently wore braces. "Any good with gadgets outside of game machines?"
Striker didn't even hesitate before he started listing his skills. "Computers, robots, solar panels...you name it, I'm your man. The army offered me a good position, but I didn't like their...uh...restrictions."
"And what kind of restrictions were those?"
He glanced at the group and leaned forward. "I'm a bit of a hacker. They didn't, ah, like my work. Let's just put it that way."
Mother looked to Wolf. Interesting, very interesting. "So you have a unique skill set to offer my town, do you?"
Striker shrugged. "Yours or someone else's. Depends on what you're offering."
He was asking to be hired. It wasn't how Mother operated, or at least hadn't done so yet. She looked to Eve who gave a little shake of her head. Eve could get over whatever petty issue she had with nerds. Mother knew Striker's skills could prove invaluable. She sat back and studied Striker, thinking about the cliches of geekdom she'd grown up knowing. "What if I was to offer you a room in our main house to make a lab."
Striker sat back. "I'm listening," he said as coolly as possible.
"You could fill it with whatever you like. All the processing power you can scrape up."
"You have enough juice to handle that kind of set up?"
Mother shrugged. "If I don't, I'll give you whatever you need to make it happen. We need technology, you need a home."
Striker stroked his chin. Mother knew he would take the deal by the look in his eyes, but he wanted to at least put on a show. She let him. "And what would you ask in return?"
"You join my team. I mean, really join. No 'loose cannon behind my back' shit. If I need you to search for a map, you put your own projects aside and scour the internet for the map."
"Seems easy enough."
Mother didn't want him to say later she didn't warn him first. She had been making a list in her head of all the ways they could improve things with the right kind of technology, and she would grind him for months seeing it through before he could even dream of having time to his own. "It's going to be demanding at first. Right now we're wired to the power grid, but the day will come when we won't be."
"Solar or wind," he said quickly, "and I can wire either."
"Or hydro or whatever you can come up with," Mother said, pleased to see that he was very quick on the uptake. "That would be on you. Planning and rigging and implementing."
Striker really did think about that then. It would be a lot of hard work, and while he wasn't opposed, he wasn't sure he could handle it by himself. "Could I have help?"
"Yes."
Just like that she would agree? He looked at her, then. Really looked at her. She was tired. She was filthy, covered in the manure that was stacked behind them. Her hair was short and spiky like she just hacked at it with scissors, and she wore a surplus army jacket and boots. Overall, she looked like a character from a video game. He was sold. He stuck his hand out. "Deal."
"It won't be easy," she said.
"I know."
"I'm a royal bitch to work for sometimes."
A woman on the other side of the bus agreed, but he didn't care. He wiggled his hand until she took it and shook. "Deal."
"Welcome aboard, Striker."
And then he started talking to everyone in the bus, his relief at finding a home pouring out in a nonstop stream of babble until Wolf agreed with Eve that they should have left him by the side of the road. They pulled into the barnyard, and Mother told Eve to ring the large bell they rigged up on the barn to signal the town. Within a few minutes, townspeople started walking up the hill and in no time, they had the bus unloaded and the seed and manure safely stacked in the barn. Mother took the opportunity to feed Phil while Eve went with Janice to start the meal, and Wolf sent Striker in to pick a room off the den for his computer lab.
"He talks too much," said Wolf, sitting up on the stall wall.
Mother smiled. "Boy, Eve hates his guts, doesn't she? Bet she got burned by a geek."
Wolf let out his odd, sharp laugh. "Bet she was prom queen."
"You think she was a snob?" Mother stroked Phil's neck. She didn't get enough Phil time these days. "I don't think so. She dropped out."
Wolf shrugged. "Even snotty girls can open their legs."
"Wolf!"
He gave her a rare, genuine smile. "Hey, I like the kid. But you have to admit she's a little hoity-toity."
Mother laughed and shook her head. "No one's hoity-toity anymore.
" She kissed Phil's forehead between his horns and Wolf tensed. He hated it when she did that. One wrong move from Phil and there would be real trouble. He was quickly becoming a full grown bull. If she wasn't careful... "Well I think it's a good find," she continued, stepping away from Phil and grabbing the muck rake. "Poor kid has no idea what he's in for."
As soon as Mother stepped away from the bull, Wolf relaxed. He took his knife out of the sheath on his belt and began cleaning his fingernails with the tip. "I didn't like what he said about the army."
Mother began pulling the dirtied hay from the stall with the rake. "What did he say?"
"They offered him a fairly cushy life if he'd help them lock down information."
Mother leaned the rake on the side of the stall and grabbed the rope to loop over Phil's head. She'd have to lead him to the other remaining stall while she mucked the rest. She thought about Wolf's words while she worked, and leaned on the rake in thought when she came back. "Well that doesn't make any sense."
"It does. It means they want to control all the information."
Mother laughed and began raking again. "They can't control all the information, Wolf."
"They can lock it down. Change it."
Mother waved a dismissive hand. "On the internet. There's still these things we call books."
"I'm just saying, it's not a comforting thought."
Mother's raking slowed with his words. No, it wasn't. "Why didn't he join them?"
"I think he meant it when he said he didn't want to be locked down himself. He's a hacker. He'll want to get into places he shouldn't be."
Which, Mother thought, was perhaps the most valuable skill he could offer Arlington. The sheer enormity of the amount of information they'd finally have for their use made Mother feel buoyant. But, it wasn't any good if he would use it against Arlington. "Do you think he'll be loyal?"
Wolf put his knife back and hopped off the rail. "My gut says yes."
"Is your gut ever wrong?"
He shrugged. "I'll let you know if it happens."
Mother rolled her eyes and put the rake away. "You really are the most conceited man alive." She finished adding fresh hay to the stall and was just leading Phil back into his home when the first townspeople arrived to set up the folding tables and chairs they now used for meal time. Mother called her "hellos", answered a few questions about the new arrival, and went to get cleaned up, Wolf following silently behind her.
"You can talk around other people, you know," Mother pointed out as he followed her down into the basement.
"Yup."
"But you're not going to," she said needlessly.
"Nope."
"You talk in the house."
"That's different. The people who live here with you aren't the ones that need to be scared of me."
Mother opened her mouth, then closed it again. Arguing was useless. "I need a quick shower. It was a shitty day, after all." She thought Wolf laughed again, but couldn't be sure. That would have been three laughs in one day. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask if he was feeling okay, but thought better of it. Three laughs in one day? It had to be a record.
Ah, but what a day it was. They got the supplies they needed. They got out of town. They found a new member who she was sure would prove to be an asset. All in all, it was a good day, the best they had in a long time. It certainly took the edge of the burn the night before. She soaped up her hair and sang a little tune.
Wolf smiled as he sat in his room after changing out of his dirty clothes. It had been many weeks since he heard her hum or sing, and now she was belting out a show tune. Not very well, but that made it all the better. She hadn't sang anything at all since the clean outs began. He took a deep breath and something that had been wound tight inside him for weeks slowly released. She hit a particularly high note, and held it for a surprising amount of time, and he smiled as he snapped the laces tight on his boots. It was a very good day.