Down The Path Page 15
“Many more than in my city”
“Yes, but our people have the same radiation, in varying degrees. Heck, many of them walked into this village much as you did. You know Seabee is from far away, but FZ is from up north too, Lakewood and Scoob are from way out west. Hell, I walked into this place from nearly straight east. Walked for months before I got here. Seems like lifetimes ago now. ”
“No one talks about that much, but I gathered some of the people weren’t exactly local.” Cooper was interested in hearing more about where everyone was from and what had happened to them, but he knew that was not the specific direction this conversation was going.
“Many choose not to focus on it. Almost everyone’s settlement died out, and the stragglers are what made their way here. Many lost people on their own journey on the path to get here.” Ceannt’s voice grew softer again, trailing off. Cooper assumed he was one of those that had watched people die on the journey to this village.
“Point is, we have a couple hundred people in this village. We got plenty of room to expand, why not?” His shoulders shrugged when he said it. Then he spread his arms out wide and said “Ain’t like we’re shy on space or supplies.”
This unkempt path had led them to a small spring. The water was delicious and tasted different than the rest of the water. It didn’t have the unique flavor of minerals that he had grown very accustomed to along with all the other aspects of life in the village. Cooper had not yet understood what the old man was talking about.
“I found this spring a long time ago. It’s a soft spring; the water has just enough salt in it to remove the limestone. Makes some great beer!” He chuckled, taking another hearty gulp from his own grimy hand. “You know, most of us are actually excited that we might get to save some people, rather than just hear about how they all died. These may be the last two groups to have lived this long, may as well team up, right?”
It hit him while he had accidentally calmed his mind, inadvertently using the technique that Aria had taught him. This spot was very peaceful and seemed to lend itself to that. “Wait, are you saying we can move my people here?” The idea seemed preposterous to him and he didn’t even attempt to hide it with his voice.
“Why not? Besides, we could use another project. Doc is getting bored and when that happens he usually blows up a building with one of his hair-brained ideas,” he said with a smile, but Cooper could tell he was dead serious. “Really though, that’s why he doesn’t have eyebrows.” He said laughing.
Cooper was not allowing this conversation to be derailed. “Many of my people are old, they wouldn’t make the trip, and what about the illness?”
“Our soap has an oil in it, derived from some of the plants around here as well as old yeast from the beer. It keeps most of the vast majority of the ticks off, the ones that do bite you tend to die because of those oils long before they can make you sick.” He sounded so confident in this that Cooper couldn’t help but get a little excited. “Aria wanted to tell you all this, but then you just moped out of her house instead of listening.”
“I think I need to go talk to Aria again.” Cooper said while he stood up off the rock. “Thanks Ceannt,” and with that, he ran off back the way he had come, along the nearly invisible path.
“Yeah, I guess I wasn’t looking for a hug or anything…” he said under his breathe. The old man pulled a little jar of clear ‘fuel’ from his pocket and took a light sip, hissing after he swallowed. “Gonna need to teach some more people to play the pipes if we’re going to have that many newbies,” he said to himself.
Cooper went jogging up to Aria’s little log house and found her waiting on the porch, drinking another mug of beer, apparently expecting him. “Well, ready to get to work coppertop?”
“Whatever it takes,” he said.
25
The next several months were spent preparing, not for the journey there, but for the journey back. Scoob and Doc had been spending lots of time with their crews building what they called a barge. Scoob was working on a massive engine that could push it upstream and Doc had been gathering every piece of scrap metal he could come across to weld a platform together. The whole bottom was logs to keep the contraption afloat.
Cooper went to help them as often as he could, but much of this work was done in a small bay by the river because of the weight of the thing.
Several large storms blew in, but they were able to continue preparation throughout thanks to Ash’s sturdy homes. They were gathering food, making loads of extra fuel and storing it in big tanks; Cooper had gotten very good working with the still to create fuel. They were also putting together as much of the soap as they could so that everyone could have as much protection as possible.
He knew that some people were coming with him due to the scale of this operation, they had to. What he didn’t know was who was coming. He had learned that they had only tried something like this once, and it was decades ago. With great grief, he had learned that it was how Aria’s husband had died. The story told to him by Seabee was that the people, halfway to the village, amidst much sickness had essentially gone crazy. They had attacked their rescuers and her husband had held them off long enough so the rest could escape. Tom had to be dragged by 6 men away from the fray, very much unwilling to let his friend give his life. Seabee thought that this was why he always chose to fish alone, he no longer really wanted to be around people, but he still felt the need to provide for the community. Tom had never been the same since.
It was a terrible story, and one that Cooper was certain wouldn’t happen from his people. With the exception of John, his people were mostly small and couldn’t successfully attack anything. Also, in the previous attempt, they lacked the soap that could kill the insects that spread the disease.
Still, he knew what it must mean for the village, and certainly for Aria, to be attempting something similar. He tried to talk to her about it, but whenever he brought it up, she retreated back inside herself like the hermit crabs on the beach.
In mid-winter, he had his first volunteer; a man named Tim. He had spoken with Tim several times over the last few months, but had never really known what he did. One day, Tim walked up to Cooper and said “Hi, Cooper, I was thinking I am up for an adventure, and I want to come along if you’ll have me.”
Tim wasn’t a large man, he was shorter than Cooper in fact, but he was thick and known to be smart and he needed all the help he could muster, so he was welcomed aboard.
He quickly learned that Tim could do just about everything, but his specialty was hunting. Tim had shown him how to easily trap the rodents and even how to build a small trap for the crawdads, baited with a dead crawdad, to make them come to you. When he checked the trap hours later, it was bulging with dozens of the little creatures.
With Tim’s help, Cooper realized that they would have to provide for his people on the journey back, as they would have no idea how to keep themselves alive outside the city. So picking up enough crawdads by hand for dinner was a much more daunting task. The simple traps made this much easier.
Since Cooper knew that Tim was coming, they spent a great deal of time together. It was really interesting to watch Doc and Tim argue about the best way to do things since both of them would just rig something up and neither would work perfectly. The arguments would get fierce, sometimes fueled with the libations from the brewery. The pair never got aggressive, just very passionate that the other was wrong. Soon enough they would be clanking their mugs together and laughing at some ridiculous idea someone else had.
One afternoon near the end of winter while he was listening to just such an argument while sipping on a mug of beer, Aria walked into the brewery with another young woman. Since the others were too busy arguing, Aria slid behind the bar and poured mugs for the both of them. She was smiling slightly, so Cooper knew she had some kind of surprise.
“Well, we have been working on something for your trip.” She said, but it was hard to hear above the arguing, which ha
d turned into a dull roar on the other side of the large, sweet smelling room.
“Hey!” Aria yelled. It was the first time he thought he had ever heard her raise her voice. Judging by the reaction of the other men, it was certainly rare. They all immediately went silent other than a few that muttered “sorry ma’am”.
The young woman with her was very pretty. She had long curly hair, but it was as black as night. The hair ran in curls down along her face and a good distance down her back. Cooper would have liked to talk to her, but it was apparent than the Aria had different plans for this meeting.
“What I brought deals with you chuckleheads too.” And with that, she slapped down seven patches onto the counter. The patches were nearly the size of Cooper’s hand and they were beautifully designed from all sorts of colored string. It appeared they were based on the maps he had looked at in the village. They showed the lake near his home at the top and the village by the gulf at the bottom, with a blue line for the river connecting them. The words ‘To Get The Rest’ were sewn above the top in a great silver arch.
“Now, Caitlin and I worked long and hard on these patches. It was her idea even, so thank her, all I did was offer up the thread. Listen though, try not to spill beer on them before you leave ok?” Aria said, making all the brewers look sheepishly at the floor.
Caitlin then handed one to Cooper and he graciously accepted it, staring at her face for perhaps too long.
Scoob slapped him on the back and said, “Mind your manners and thank the nice girl!”
Coopers face turned nearly the same color as his hair in an instant, much to the delight of all the other guys around as they laughed and joked about it. He quickly hid his face behind his mug while taking a drink and waited for the flush to retreat. “Thank you for this Caitlin, very much. It really means a lot.”
Cooper held his patch in his hands, marveling at how long it must have taken to stitch all these. He was amazed, but also confused. Why were there seven?
Just then, Doc, FZ, Seabee, Scoob and Lakewood each grabbed a patch. Cooper looked up, astonished.
Scoob said “Nobody drives the barge but me!” and the others laughed.
Doc replied “Did you really think we weren’t coming? What if something breaks? Besides, Seabee has been telling us for years how awful this carp is you have up there, I gotta try that!”
Cooper was overwhelmed. He knew some people were coming with him, but this was the heart of the village. These were the top people, they were too important to this community to leave.
Aria took a long sip on her beer and said, “Listen Cooper, this is a voluntary thing. All these men chose this, and we wouldn’t be much of a community if we didn’t do everything we could to save another, right?” She truly seemed as happy as everyone else, so Cooper believed her fully.
“I wanted to come with you lad, but I figure my days of adventuring are over. ‘Sides, somebody’s gotta drink all this beer!” Ceannt said while filling up his mug again and laughing at his own joke.
Looking again at his own patch, Cooper saw the stitching of three little letters along the bottom. The letters were ‘TKT’. He had heard this TKT mentioned a time or two, but had not given it much regard.
“What does the TKT mean?”
A chorus of men and women instantly became less interested in the conversation and more interested in the planking that ran along the walls. Scoob actually seemed to be counting the metal vats of beer on the wall suddenly.
Lakewood joined in, “When we all return from this little party, we’ll let you know.”
“Yeah, that knowledge is something you have to earn” said FZ. Then everyone raised their mugs high in the air and clanked them together. The trip would begin soon.
26
The winter had been the final straw for the city by the lake. Many died in the colder months and John suspected the city was down to around 40 people. Things were rough before all this, but with Walter’s death, the only thread anyone clung to disappeared overnight.
Thankfully, this collapse had not been violent, just selfish. The people began looking out strictly for themselves and their spouses if they had one. He had even seen some women selling themselves for carp meat. John had watched most of it happen, wondering what to do.
At first, he started catching extra food, for the few that were hungry, but now he was feeding all of the elderly that lived in the city. The others had even abandoned the young ones after the last of the people that raised them died; it was as if everyone just forgot they were there. So, John took them under his ample wings as well.
Now, it seemed as if all he did was tend the garden and catch food and give it to all these people. He didn’t even have enough to sneak an extra portion or two. John had been losing weight, but he didn’t notice.
He had heard talk that the others were going to leave the city and he pleaded with them not to. Reminding them that Cooper was due back in the spring and it was nearly mid-spring. He could return any day.
His pleading seemed to work, but John suspected it was because they were actually afraid to go outside, knowing they would die. Instead they chose to stay within the city, but not help anyone else. Most had moved far away from the central housing area in order to spread out. That may have been the only thing that kept the rampant theft and violence from happening.
Even though he was growing food for many people, the others hadn’t allowed him to use any other gardens besides the one he had always tended. He knew there was only so long before fighting would happen. John could nearly smell it in the air.
A few days ago, he had overhead fishermen arguing out in the lake over ‘spots’. The lake was massive and the carp were always plentiful. John knew there was absolutely no reason to argue about such things.
The big man still had hope that Cooper was coming back, but he wasn’t sure what good it would do anymore. The order within the city was gone and even Cooper’s special red hair couldn’t fix that, he thought.
It would be nice to have his friend back though. The one thing John knew for certain was that he would help him take care of the rest of the people. It would be so nice to have another person to help. He also wanted to have someone to drink tea with and look out over the lake.
Even the old folks didn’t seem to want to drink tea with John. He would drop off food for them and then they would turn their back, some not even saying thank you. Sometimes he would find that people had passed away over the night and he would have to take the body down to the lake for burial.
He didn’t like burying people out in the lake, but he did like rowing far out into it, much farther than you had to in order to catch carp. He had taken to dreaming about rowing as far as he could, finding the other side even.
He imagined that once Cooper returned, and some of the children were old enough to take care of the elderly, the two of them should carve a path through the water to find out what was on the other shore.
That was where he wanted to move his box to, the other side of the lake.
27
The final preparations for the big journey had kicked in as winter turned into spring. They would leave in a week’s time. The barge looked incredible. It had three motors on the back that Scoob theorized would be able to push the massive structure up stream. The journey home would utilize the current, but the motors could be fired up for steering purposes.
The amount of fuel they had made for the journey was mind boggling. He knew how much fuel the motors usually took, and this seemed nearly three times that amount.
Doc explained the fuel was good for nearly everything from cleaning wounds to cleaning tools to starting fires so they needed lots of extra.
As he explained this, he dipped his mug in a vat of ‘fuel’ and took a drink, hissing as he exhaled. “Plus the other uses” he said while winking. Even after all the time at the village, Cooper had never acquired a taste for that wretched stuff.
They had entire barrels of food and whole stacks of extra supplie
s including clothing and tools to fix things if something broke along the way.
On the morning before they were set to leave, Aria once again called him to her porch. “Do you know why you have all the extra supplies?”
Cooper nodded that he knew, when really he had only assumed it was because they had ample room and supplies were always good.
“When you get there, some may not want to leave. Convince them the best you can, but do not force them, even when you know it is in their best interests.”
Cooper couldn’t imagine anyone not leaving after learning about the radiation and hearing how wonderful the village was.
“Some will be resistant, some will surely stay behind. The supplies are for them. You and your crew will take what you need, of course, but everything else will stay.”
As Cooper was nodding in understanding again, Tim burst onto the porch chasing Lupe. She ran every which direction to stay out of the man’s hands. He could see that Lupe had a rodent in his mouth, but there was no way of knowing if she had taken it from Tim or if Tim was just trying to take it from her. Just as quickly as they had burst onto the scene, then ran through the other side of the porch and were gone.
“And Cooper, be sure to bring them all back to me, ok? I am loaning you my best men for this important task, it is not to be taken lightly.”
“Of course, Aria, I still can’t thank you enough” he said while giving her a big hug. He hugged her a little longer, knowing the pain that this trip must be causing her. Finally releasing from this embrace, he saw that they both had tears in their eyes.
---
On Coopers last night in the village, the people had thrown a huge party to signify the rescue mission ahead.
It was even grander than the festivities on the night he had first arrived.
Everyone in the village had been working so hard, it was the first chance that many had in a long while to cut loose and have a good time. Some, most notably Tim, took it a little too far, but it was just more entertainment for the rest of them.