Botanicaust (2 page)

An angry flush obliterated the remaining green in Vitus
’
s skin. The tech covered his jolt of laughter with a cough and turned to his computer. No one liked Vitus, and it didn
’
t help that he thought he was too good to allow his own Conversion Team to oversee his treatments.
“
I want to see that paperwork before you go home today.
”
He pivoted on his heel and stalked from the room in a jangle of copper beads.

Old Order Holdout

Amarantox Plains

Levi stuffed his rain poncho into a sturdy leather rucksack resting on the foot of his bed, avoiding his brother-in-law
’
s eyes. Above his beard, Samuel
’
s solemn face was ruddy from working the fields, but Levi knew him well enough to detect a flush of controlled anger.
“
Brother
Levi, you cannot go against the
Ordnung
.
”

Levi continued packing.
“
I accepted Gotte
’
s Wille when the cannibals carried off Papa Lapp. And found peace in my son when the Lord took Sarah from me. But I will not accept the death of my little boy when there
’
s a chance to cure him. You were by my side when my brothers died. When Sarah let out her last breath
—
”
He forced himself to breathe deeply, suck back the grief.
“
Surely, you would not see Josef suffer so.
”

Samuel
’
s single-minded focus didn
’
t waver, even at the reminder of his sister
’
s death.
“
The Elders forbade it. You
’
ll be shunned.
”

“
Then shun me.
”
Levi pushed past to retrieve his shaving kit. Samuel always asserted the Elders
’
decrees came straight from God.
“
Too many children die before they reach
Rumspringa
. If it
’
s Gotte
’
s Wille that they die, let Him stop me. But don
’
t you try.
”

“
Brother Levi, you know no one will lay a hand to stop you.
”

Levi stared past Samuel at the quilt Sarah had made while pregnant with Josef. It was true. The Old Order did not believe in violence of any sort, even in the dry years, when cannibals broke past the electric fences and carried off those who didn
’
t make it to the underground passages.

Samuel continued.
“
This silly intuition of yours isn
’
t a call from God. It
’
s a selfish excuse to do as you wish. Leaving here, you risk falling to the cannibals.
Or worse yet, the atro
cities of the
Blattvolk
.
Would you leave your son an orphan?
”

The Blattvolk. Genetic abominations
who
hunted humans to drag them into Hell.
“
The green people are far to the south. I shouldn
’
t run into them at all. I
’
ll be back by harvest.
”
Levi shrugged with feigned nonchalance and looked Samuel in the eye.
“
And if it means saving my son, then I
’
m willing to risk my place in Heaven.
”

Samuel gasped at the blasphemy and stiffly turned away. Levi clenched his jaw and went back to packing. After all
their
years as friends, Samuel should be used to his irreverence. But his long-time friend
’
s mind remained as closed as the Holdout
’
s gate.

Levi pulled his notebook from the rucksack to make room for the shaving kit, and hesitated. Only a few blank sheets remained, but the rest of the pages were covered with sketched memories of Sarah and the past four years with Josef. He was already breaking the Ordnung by leaving the village and venturing into the world in search of a forbidden miracle. Foregoing shaving would be the least of his law breaking. He put the kit to one side and secured the strap over the notebook.

“
Won
’
t you at least wait until tomorrow?
”
Samuel didn
’
t turn around to ask.

Settling his wide brimmed straw hat in place, Levi stood beside his friend. The street outside the window was dead, everyone already inside for supper. He held out a hand to shake.
“
I
’
ve already said goodbye to Josef. The new moon is tonight, and I must use the dark.
”

Samuel didn
’
t take his hand.
“
We will take care of Josef for you.
”

Levi dropped his arm. The offer was the best he could hope for.
“
Thank you.
”

He exited the room that he and Josef had shared in his brother-in-law
’
s house until the boy came down with pneumonia three weeks ago. Now, Josef was in the Ward with the other cystic fibrosis children. Beds filled with listless young bodies, malnourished and fighting for every breath. Most lived until
their
early twenties, but some, like Josef, became sick early in life, and from there the slope toward death grew steep. Levi meant to level that slope.

In the front room, Samuel
’
s wife, Beth, left her loom to hug him goodbye in spite of her husband
’
s dark gaze. She pressed a fabric package into Levi
’
s hands.
“
May God be with you, Brother Levi.
”

Chest tight with gratitude, he tucked the gift beneath an arm and pushed open the light screen door to the porch. The wood frame clattered shut behind him as he descended to the street.

A breeze lifted the evening air as the sun settled below the horizon. Word of his intent had spread quickly through the township, and now people left their supper tables to stare from windows and covered porches as he passed the weathered brick homes. Cannibal dogs, trained to kill intruders in the event of a fence breach, sensed the tension in the air, taking up a howling bark that spread across the silent village. He hoped the cannibals didn
’
t know what the baying chorus meant.

He slowed as he passed the Ward. A child sang Grace, high and sweet, the piano accompaniment thrumming through an open window on the lower level. Josef would miss his nightly visit to tuck him in bed.
You already said goodbye
. Staring resolutely at the dusty street, Levi squared his shoulders and picked up his pace. He had to be through the gate before the perimeter lights came on.

Only the salt trader walked without harm through the cannibal lands beyond the fence, stopping at the Holdout once a year. He claimed he paid a heavy toll of the precious mineral to the cannibals to come and go. Levi had no such leverage. He simply hoped the cover of dusk and the moonless night would allow him to safely cross the territory that roaming bands scoured for anything edible.

After twenty minutes he reached the edge of the Holdout where a small stone outbuilding housed the gatekeeper and protected the controls for the electric fence. The generator in the methane pits kicked on, humming in preparation for perimeter lighting. High-pitched squeals echoed from the swine sheds as the animals fought over their nightly slops.

Levi focused on the gate, designed to power on and off without lowering the charge on the rest of the fence.
The only way in or out of the Holdout.
The only connection to the world.
The only hope for Josef.

On the fence directly above the gate a weathered wooden sign read,
The Gate is Narrow
, in plain, black letters to remind those inside of their salvation. Stopping at the small stone building, he knocked and waited for Peter the Gatekeeper to answer.

The old man took his sweet time opening the door. He
’
d lost both son and daughter to
cannibals
ages ago.
“
Goin
’
through with it?
”

“
Before the lights come on.
”

Peter put a finger over the switch box near the door.
“
I
’
ll watch you from here. Give me a hand up if the way is clear.
”

The shed was about a hundred paces from the gate, and Levi kept a sharp eye on the low greenery outside the fence, alert for any sign of hunting parties. Here and there, broad-leafed trees drooped over the landscape like umbrellas, holding their own against the waves of noxious amarantox
—
ideal hiding places for cannibal bands. Nothing moved in the fading light except the wind over the foliage.

He put up a hand and waited for several heartbeats to be sure the charge was down. A shock wouldn
’
t be fatal, but it would put him out of commission for a few days and leave a nasty burn.

With a tentative fingertip, he touched the metal and then freed the latch, slipping through and securing it behind him. A nearly imperceptible hum told him when the power once again flowed through the wire. His pulse roared loudly in his ears as he stepped away from the only home he
’
d ever known.

Over the last four days, between the impassible thickets of tamarisk trees and the tall sea of broad-leafed amarantox, Levi saw little in the way of edible plant life. He paused in the pale light of dawn near a stand of bull rushes at a bend in the river. Cracked and marrow-less bones, blackened by the ash of a campfire, littered the area. At the water
’
s edge, the vegetation had been recently crushed, and the distinct imprint of a human foot remained in the churned mud. But the ashes were cold, and Levi was hungry. Watching the camp in both wariness and morbid fascination, he dug up a few cattail roots and fled into the chest-high amarantox. He didn
’
t need to be far from the camp to become completely hidden behind a screen of leaves. Hopefully, the cannibals weren
’
t nearby.

Not daring a cook fire, he gnawed on a fibrous root and allowed himself a few bites of goat jerky before taking off his boots.
The air on his blistered feet cooled and hurt at the same time.
The best thing for blisters would be a few days free of boots, but he couldn
’
t afford to stop. He shouldn
’
t take off his boots at all, in case he had to flee, but he couldn
’
t bear to encase his feet in leather again.

An hour or two of rest.

At least he had Beth
’
s parting gift
—
a mottled goat-hair blanket that served well to camouflage him. He looked back along his trail in the burgeoning daylight and was pleased to see the path he
’
d cut already springing back into place in the morning breeze.