He scrunched his mouth up before continuing. ‘My wife, Caley, and our oldest daughter, Jade, were fishing over by the lake. It started to rain. I called out to them they best come in because the clouds looked that yellow light-acid colour? Not burn-rain but …’
Heywood nodded. ‘Rash rain.’
‘Yeah. Anyway, they had their coveralls on, and Jade and Caley wanted to just carry on fishing … so I left ’em to it.’ He sighed. He glanced again at his girl, then lowered his voice a notch. ‘I looked out on them a while later and they were both face down on the ground. Soon as I saw them, I knew it was K-N. I’d heard on the Denver digi-stream there’d been outbreaks further south reported earlier in the morning.’ He shook his head. ‘Didn’t realize until then; didn’t even think the weather was helping to carry the virus. Didn’t realize until it was too late.’
‘I’m so, so sorry,’ said Maddy. ‘We were caught up on the road heading south. It started to rain … and people began to drop suddenly. It was horrible. Terrifying.’
‘I’m lucky me and Troy were inside at the time.’ He stirred the bubbling pot for a while, silent, his lips pressed together, his eyes dewy with moisture.
Then he looked at Maddy, ready to say more. ‘So … we didn’t have much of them left to bury,’ he said. ‘By the time the rain stopped, the sky was clear and we could go outside again … they were just some of that white powder.’ He shook his head. ‘White powder … and bones and clothes.’
He stared into the flickering flames of the wood burner. ‘Still hasn’t set in yet. Doesn’t quite seem real. I keep thinking I’m going to hear their hiking boots outside and the store bell’s going to ring and the door open … Caley and Jade will come wandering in.’
Maddy patted his shoulder. ‘If you hadn’t acted when you did … none of you would have survived. You saved your daughter.’
He stirred the bubbling pot absently. Nodded. ‘Yes. I did.’
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. ‘Enough about us. How about you people? What’s your story?’
Maddy explained how they’d been caught up on the highway heading south – the military roadblock, the infection breaking out as it began to rain and their fleeing for their lives into the trees, pursued by drones firebombing the foothills behind them.
‘Scorched-earth containment.’ He nodded. ‘Last I heard on the news, other governments were trying the same thing … flame-bombing whole cities. But I guess it was too late by then.’ Duncan looked down at the bubbling pot and nodded. ‘Good enough to eat now, I think.’ He called the girls over and, with Maddy and Becks helping him, they served up the soy-flake stew into bright green plastic breakfast bowls and passed them round.
‘The virus died out very quickly, though,’ said Maddy. ‘Like somebody, somewhere, just flicked off a switch.’
‘A very cleverly designed virus,’ said Rashim. ‘Fast life cycle. Designed to wipe the slate clean, then wipe itself out.’
Duncan nodded. ‘Exactly.’
‘That seems a very precise control,’ said Maddy. ‘I wouldn’t have thought you could control something like a virus that tightly?’
‘It is not particularly difficult, Maddy,’ replied Rashim. ‘RNA strands can be programmed as precisely as any form of computer code. I imagine some very simple biochemical switch turned it off. Perhaps the absence of a particular protein? I am sure there are any number of ways to build basic on–off functionality into a pathogen.’
Duncan looked at him. ‘You’re a bioweapons specialist?’
‘Genetics.’ Rashim shrugged. ‘It is one of my many fields of interest.’
‘OK … so you’re saying, if this thing just ran out of flora and fauna to absorb, then maybe, as you say, there was some chemical trigger telling it the job was done?’
Rashim nodded. ‘Which would then stimulate it to mutate into a counter-virus to infect itself.’ He dipped a spoon into the broth. ‘We just have to hope K-N has been completely wiped out by itself and it does not have any hardy “survivors” like us hiding away in some dark and nutritious corner.’
‘The virus was active round the lake for longer,’ said Duncan. ‘I noticed that. I presume there was more life in the water to slowly digest than there was on the dry ground. Or maybe water kept it alive for a while longer. The micro-organisms in the water? I don’t know.’
‘But it’s rained since,’ said Heywood. ‘That powder ain’t come back to life.’
Duncan nodded. ‘Where it’s turned to that white powder, it’s completely dead.’
‘Have you tried testing the lake water?’ asked Maddy.
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘We haven’t gone anywhere near it. Nor are we going to for as long as we possibly can. We have enough sealed drinking water in here to keep us going for months.’
They ate in silence for a while before Troy finally spoke. ‘I wonder if the baddies who made this virus survived it too?’
‘Most likely,’ Heywood grunted. ‘It’s the ones that least deserve to live that live longest.’ He curled his lip. ‘They’ll emerge from their bunkers with their sparkly chests full of undeserved medals, their trophy wives and well-fed, pig-faced kids … and inherit the earth.’ He turned to Maddy. ‘Now how the hell can that be the right choice for the future of mankind? Huh?’
She challenged him with a pointed look and was about to try to shush him. But he nodded … and shut up before he said any more.
‘By the way, I’ll just put this out there … you’re more than welcome to stay here with me and Troy,’ Duncan said after a while. ‘There’s a storeroom full of old canned food; it’s all perfectly edible and that’s going to keep us going for months here. More than long enough to outlast any remaining pockets of the virus.’
‘That’s very kind of you, Mr Wassermann … but we’re heading south-west.’
‘Where to?’
To meet with our maker, she was tempted to say. Instead she just smiled. What a bizarre answer the truth would make. ‘I’ve got, uh … I got some family down south. I just need to find out if they made it through this. You know?’
‘No, I get that. You want to know. You have to know, right?’ He nodded slowly. ‘What about the rest of you?’
‘I am going with her,’ said Rashim.
‘You two a couple?’
He was about to say no, but Maddy answered for him. ‘Yes.’ Simpler that way.
Duncan turned to Heywood and Becks. ‘How about you guys?’
‘I go with Maddy,’ replied Becks. ‘Always.’
‘An’ I’m jus’ taggin’ along for the ride,’ said Heywood.
Duncan looked at Charley. ‘Are you sure you want to take your daughter along with you? It could be pretty –’
‘Uh … she’s not my daughter,’ said Maddy. ‘We found her on the road …’
‘She’s not my mom,’ said Charley. ‘They aren’t my family. They’re looking after me.’
Duncan nodded. ‘Ah, OK … I thought …’
‘I’m not as old as I look,’ replied Maddy. ‘Well, at least I hope I’m not.’
‘Her parents … the virus?’
‘No. We found her on the road outside the FSA, beyond the Median Line.’
‘Jackers got ’em,’ said Heywood.
‘You people came in from the east coast? What was it like out there?’
‘Long story,’ replied Maddy. ‘Suffice to say we’d only just got through immigration … then all this happened.’
‘What about Charley, Dad?’ said Troy. ‘Could she stay here with us?’
Duncan looked at Maddy, his face a question. ‘She’d probably be safer here.’
Rashim turned to her. ‘Maybe she would be better off staying here? Food and water? It’s remote and safe up here.’
‘I guess so.’ She turned to the girl. ‘Charley? Would you like to stay here?’
She expected the young girl to shake her head vigorously at the suggestion. She’d been with them now for several weeks, g
rown used to them, attached to them. Adopted them as her new family even. Instead she looked undecided.
‘Could … could Becks stay here with me too?’
Maddy glanced at the support unit. Her brows arched and flickered ever so slightly. My God … she’s not getting all maternal and momsey, is she?
Becks narrowed her eyes for a moment and cocked her head. Thinking. Evaluating for a moment. Then she replied. ‘I cannot stay here with you, Charley.’ There seemed to be just a hint of emotion in her voice. ‘I have a mission to carry out.’
Charley nodded. She knew all about the Big Mission. ‘To meet with the walrus man and save the world?’
Becks smiled. ‘That is correct.’ She reached across and gently held one of her hands. ‘You will be safe here with these people. They appear to be non-threatening.’
‘Where are you from, Becks?’ asked Duncan. ‘There’s an accent in there somewhere.’
‘I am … from England.’
‘British? Wow. Not ever met a Brit. How much of that island of yours is there left?’
‘Above the water?’ She cocked her head. ‘Very little.’
Charley grasped her hand. ‘Will you come back here when you’re all finished?’
Maddy stepped in quickly. ‘Yes. We’ll come back when we’re all done, won’t we, Becks?’
Maddy could see Becks was struggling with telling a direct untruth. ‘Yes. We … will … come back.’
Maddy looked at Duncan. ‘If you’re sure that’s OK with you?’
He nodded. She could see in his eyes he knew they were lying, that they were unlikely to ever be coming back this way. ‘Sure.’ He turned to Charley. ‘Me and Troy will look after you until they come back.’
Charley considered that for a moment, then nodded in a slow and deliberate way that suggested she’d figured out what was going on here; that she was a liability being passed from one pair of hands to another. But she managed a smile for them all. ‘Good … I’d like to stay here for a bit, if that’s OK?’
Troy clapped her hands together happily. ‘We’ll be like sisters! If you want?’
Charley smiled and nodded. ‘I used to have a big sister … once. She used to listen to old music on a pod. She called it rock … I don’t know why.’
‘I’ve got a bunch of old-time music on my tablet. Do you want to hear some?’
With that, the girls began swiping at the glowing display, and chattering about songs and music and bands from the ‘olden days’.
Maddy noticed the first hint of a smile on Duncan’s face. ‘I don’t think she’s even begun to accept it’s just going to be the two of us … from now on,’ he said softly. ‘It’ll be good for her … to have Charley stay with us.’
‘Good.’
Duncan nodded. ‘Trust me,’ he said quietly, ‘she’ll be fine here. We’ll take good care of her.’
CHAPTER 41
2070, Blue Valley Camp,
Rocky Mountains
The next morning Duncan showed them a small two-wheel trailer that he’d found in a maintenance shed. The tyres were still good. With Becks’s help, he loaded it up with a dozen two-litre bottles of water, some of the packets of dried soy-flakes he’d brought with him and several dozen tins of the canned food that had been collecting dust up here in the Blue Valley Camp for God-knows-how-many decades. The labels on most of the tins had perished and Duncan said it would be a lucky dip each time they opened a can. He also pulled out of a storage cupboard half a dozen padded nylon hiking jackets.
‘It’s going to get colder if you’re heading any further into the Rockies. You’ll need these from here on.’
All their things stowed on the trailer, Becks and Heywood pulled it across the lumpy ground towards the rutted gravel driveway leading out of the camp. The rest of them followed and beneath the faded welcome sign they came to a halt, bid farewell and wished each other good luck.
Duncan stepped away from the others and offered his hand to Maddy. ‘I hope you find your folks alive. But look … don’t build your hopes too high. Whatever you find down south, well … just … don’t let it get to you. Chances aren’t good.’
‘I know. But I have to just go see for myself.’
‘We’ve all lost someone … but we’ve managed to survive. This is a new world now. Day Zero. For all we know there might only be a few thousand people left alive. Do what you have to do … and I wish you luck.’
‘Thank you.’
‘And if you can … do try to make it back here.’ He looked around the camp. ‘This is as good a place as any to try to rebuild something.’
‘We’ll certainly try.’
The others finished saying goodbye to Troy and Duncan. Then it was Charley’s turn. She wrapped her arms round each of them, one after the other, hugging them fiercely. Finally, she came to Becks. The support unit stooped down and folded her arms round the girl. The others stepped away and discussed directions and the weather, giving them both a moment of privacy.
‘Thank you for looking after me, Becks,’ Charley whispered into her ear.
Becks smiled over her shoulder. ‘You are welcome, Charley.’
Charley released her tight hold, pulled back and looked at Becks. ‘Please be very careful.’
‘I will.’
She bit her lip. Wondering whether to say something or not. She couldn’t help herself. ‘I know … I know something about you.’
Becks cocked her head, curious. ‘What do you know about me?’
‘That you’re not completely human. I heard Mr Heywood say something about it.’
Becks’s eyes narrowed. She frowned. ‘What did he say?’
‘You’re, like, a fake human? Like one of those super-soldiers in the army?’
‘Yes … I am a “fake human”.’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Well, it doesn’t matter … not really. You’re no different to real people anyway.’
‘Really?’
‘Really.’ She planted a kiss on Becks’s cheek. ‘And you’ve been kinder to me than most other people I met.’
Becks’s frown deepened as she let her software try to make some sense out of that. She put this memory, this moment, into a brand-new folder to be picked over later.
‘Don’t be so sad,’ said Charley. ‘I’ll be OK here.’
‘Hey, Becks!’ called Heywood. He tilted his head towards the road heading out of the camp. ‘We’re runnin’ out of small talk here.’
Becks released her tight hold of the girl and stood up. ‘I will be OK also.’
‘Right, folks, reckon we should go!’ said Heywood. ‘We got a full day an’ a lot more uphill to deal with!’
‘He’s right.’ Maddy nodded. ‘Thanks again … for the food and water and the trailer.’
‘Good luck,’ replied Duncan. ‘And remember. We’re here. OK?’
They turned and headed out beneath the faded sign, out of the camp and along the gravel road. Becks walked silently beside Heywood, the tow bar of the trailer gripped in her tight fists. She was busy processing her thoughts.
Sad? Charley had said ‘Don’t be so sad’ to her. She wondered what had made the girl say that. She hadn’t opened her ‘emotion folder’ for any useful gestures or expressions to play on her face. There’d just been her usual intense scowl of concentration. She felt something tickling the skin of her right cheek. Certainly it wasn’t going to be a bug. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, left alive. She wiped her cheek and felt moisture. She pulled her hand away and looked at the glistening droplet on the tip of her finger.
A tear.
Her very first tear.
Rashim studied the row of satnav coordinates on the small glowing display of his wrist-pad. It lit his face up brightly, the screen reflected in his eyes as he read the data. ‘Eight miles south-west of us.’ He touched the side of the pad and turned it off. ‘The hydro-cell charge is down to fifteen per cent. I should keep it mostly switched off now to preserve what is left.’
; ‘Yeah, makes sense.’ Maddy snuggled down in her sleeping bag, turned over on to her left side and gazed at the glowing embers of the campfire. She could hear Heywood’s deep mucus-thick snoring, and out there, just beyond the faintest flickering light cast from the dying campfire, she could hear Becks. The support unit was busy standing guard in that half-awake/half-standby mode she adopted every night. Every now and then stirring, shifting weight, taking a pace or two, then once more utterly motionless, frozen like a watchful terracotta warrior.
She felt surprisingly snug in her sleeping bag despite the cloud of vapour she was breathing out in front of her cold face. And she was feeling well fed; the soy-flake stew they’d boiled up again had been unexpectedly satisfying and filling. Warm and full now … normally she’d have been the first to fall asleep, especially after all this hiking, after all this high-altitude air. But for some reason she felt wide awake. Above her she could see the stars perfectly clearly. The night sky here in 2070 looked no different from any other time. It was only the days that looked jaundiced and sickly.
‘Rashim? You still awake?’
‘No, I’m fast asleep.’
‘Oh, ha ha.’ She wriggled around in her bag for a moment. There was a root or a stone digging into her hip. ‘So, just wondered … it must be kinda weird coming back to 2070. Did it feel like coming home for you?’
No quickly tossed-back answer from him. She guessed he was thinking about it.
‘Not really,’ he replied finally. ‘It all feels so long ago now. How long has it been do you think … since you first abducted me?’
‘Abducted? Rescued, more like.’
‘No. I was right first time. Abducted.’ She heard him laugh. He was kidding.
‘How long? You mean in us time … in TimeRiders time?’
She heard him chuckle again. ‘Yeah, TimeRiders time.’
‘Jeez, dunno.’ She tried to add it up in her head. They’d first encountered Rashim setting up those receiver beacons on that remote hillside a dozen miles outside Rome in AD 54. They’d taken him back to New York with them because, well, back then she hadn’t any idea what else to do with him. He knew too much. Then they’d found themselves on the run, having to relocate to Victorian London and set up their displacement machine. And how long had they been there? They’d been living beneath the Holborn Viaduct for about three months before she’d come up with that stupid idea to go back to 1666 to watch the Great Fire of London. Not one of her best. After she and Sal had managed to rescue Liam and Rashim, there’d been the whole unlocking-Becks’s-partitioned-mind plan. Which, of course, had eventually led them deep into the jungles of Nicaragua and that lost city in those mountains. That had been another few months of humidity, heat, mosquito bites … and horror. Her mind played a few fleeting moments of that night. The night that Sal had returned from chaos space as something corrupted, powerful, terrifying.