Lethal Seasons (A Changed World Book 1) (13 page)

“The lack of information went unnoticed by most people as they were concerned with the simple necessities like food, water and shelter. No one wanted to stay where bodies remained, so every year when the flu hit, the population was on the move.”

History of a Changed World
, Angus T. Moss

Wisp hadn’t unpacked, so it was simply a matter of retrieving his pack. He waited under the trees at the edge of the road to the train station. One of the parking lots had been stripped down to the soil to plant saplings. From the lines of them, Wisp assumed they were for food, fruit, maybe nuts. There were people here with forethought. That was reassuring. It was possible that there might be a place here for him. But that decision had to wait until this task was finished.

Nick arrived with his pack and a frown.

“You are worried.”

“I don't know what this means. We don't get enough information. We should be connected on the ether.” Nick's frustration tumbled over into anger.

“To what purpose?”

“To know that we're not dying off!” Nick barked. The feather of fear in him grew heavier.

“The human race is very adaptable. It will change to survive.”

“It is changing. You saw Lily's eyes. Nobody ever had eyes like that when I was growing up. Now I see kids with eye color that doesn't look human. It's scary.”

“For most it is an indication that the viruses have infiltrated the body with new DNA.”

Nick stopped walking. There was a trembling moment of anger and fear and confusion tumbling in him. “Could it be the vaccines? We don't know what's in them. They send them around each year, and we pump them into people, and we don't know what's in them.”

“Lily is at least 10 years old. She may have been born before the virus was released.”

Nick's fear was flattened with a wave of surprise. “She's been engineered?”

“That is not my area of expertise.”

“What does that mean? She was changed somehow the year it was released?”

“Perhaps that wasn't the only virus. Or something more benign was released earlier that affected Lily's mother while she was pregnant. As I said, that is not my area of expertise.”

“And you don't care?”

“Is Lily a threat?”

Nick frowned at him. “She's a little kid.”

“She appears typical for her age and circumstance. I don't believe she is a threat. Therefore the possibility of changes in her DNA are not areas of concern for me.”

“But it means someone was tinkering as Angus likes to say.”

“I was printed fifteen years ago. Many people were
tinkering
at that point.” Wisp started walking again.

Nick remained on the road behind him, thinking for another minute before he jogged up to Wisp. “But the vaccines and the train food, we just accept them as safe...”

“It does not make sense that a centralized organization of human beings that creates medicine and food to be distributed across the country would do so to the detriment of the population.”

“No. I guess not. But they could be changing us.” Nick’s concern had a tinge of aversion to it.

“If it’s to help you survive, isn’t that a good thing?”

“Without asking?” Now indignation was the top note.

“If the only other option is death, do they need to ask?”

“Yes!” Nick said loudly, but there wasn't any anger behind the words. He was filled with a sadness and longing that Wisp understood intimately. But there was nowhere to go back to.

*    *    *

Wisp stretched out his senses as they approached the station. It was a convergence point and was most likely watched by someone. There were a few people around. Two in cubbies, settled, they might live at the station. Closer by, someone was hiding from them. It was a young person, male. He hid by the side of the road, fearful. Wisp stopped Nick with a hand on his arm. Nick scanned the area automatically. Good. He understood.

“There is a settlement an hour's walk that way.” Wisp pointed down the road. “It is a safe place. Open to all. You can get shelter and food there. Medical help. They will not make you stay.”

“Who is it?” Nick whispered.

“A child.”

The sound of leaves crunching gave him away. A flicker of movement in the undergrowth and then silence.

“You think he'll go?”

“He is ill or injured. He needs help but fears it. I think he will find it in Angus.”

“Wish we had a way to communicate. I could call Martin to pick him up.”

“That wouldn’t work. He must decide on his own that the settlement is safe.”

Nick shrugged. He was worried about the boy now. It drowned out the melancholy, which was a relief to Wisp.

When they went into the station, Nick felt very curious. He checked the store room. It was well stocked. Then he went to the map. Wisp noted the dark stations. He knew the ones in the desert areas had closed because of a lack of people. Every time he crossed the country, he traveled north nearly to Canada to avoid the waterless wastes of the sun-blasted plains. There were more closed on the east coast than he remembered. Storms were still pounding the beaches, eating away at any towns that tried to stay. The map hadn't been redrawn since the virus, but the dark stations told the story of towns abandoned.

“Damn.” Nick swore, but didn't feel angry.

“Problem?”

He pointed to a dark station. “This line doesn't go as far as I remembered. We'll have to go west to the next south running line and then catch the lateral here.”

Wisp nodded. It was more roundabout but much more swift than walking.

“I don't know when the other lines run. We might get stuck for a day waiting if we miss a connection.”

“Then we wait.”

Nick felt resigned. He checked a bag that hung from a hook on the wall. A flicker of disappointment. “No mail today.”

“Is that new?”

“Just started.”

“Perhaps it doesn't come every day.”

Nick paced a little, his emotions finally settling down. “Are you looking forward to seeing your brother?”

“Yes.”

“When's the last time you saw him?”

“Three years.”

“You don't visit?” Nick's question was innocent. He didn't feel at all cruel.

“Khi is owned by the army. I do not have a keeper. Biobots without keepers are considered rogue. To be terminated.”

Nick’s sadness crept back. “Still?”

“I do not test the law around those that once enforced it.”

“Probably a good idea.”

The train slid into the station, dust swirling up in the headwind. A chime sounded as the doors opened. Wisp reached out with his senses. There was no one on the train. He and Nick entered and took seats.

“Just us today, huh.”

“Do you see many people?”

“Different parts, yeah. Past Clarkeston more people use it.”

Wisp hoped that the people who used the train would not notice him.

*    *    *

They caught all their connections without undue delay arriving at Laurel late in the evening. Wisp suggested that they stay overnight at the station. There were people in the area that he did not like the feel of. The station provided security and relative comfort compared to camping in the open. Nick readily agreed. They settled into cubbies and slept early for an early start.

The next morning Wisp didn’t feel the dangerous people around, and so told Nick that it was safe to travel. They left the station and skirted a small settlement that had sprung up in an old strip mall. They passed by on a high ridge and were able to look down on it, while remaining well hidden in the trees. The jumble shapes were hard to identify in the pale light of dawn, but a sense of corruption tainted the area.

“That does not look like a place I'd want to visit.” Nick said in a low voice.

Wisp looked at the garbage piled behind the building. Unsanitary and dangerous. Two of the stores had broken windows. A fire was burning unattended in the parking lot. Anger and fear poured off the people hidden inside like toxic smoke. “There is cruelty in there,” Wisp warned.

Nick tasted of disgust with tinges of regret.”I don't doubt it,” he said as he glared at the dilapidated building.

Wisp touched his arm to bring him back to the present. He didn’t need to read minds to know that something down there had triggered bad memories for Nick. They crept back through the trees and moved away cautiously. Wisp kept his senses stretched. The countryside immediately around them was empty for the moment. He could feel his brother, Khi, not far to the south of them. This close, he could pick up some of his emotions. Khi was worried. Without context, it could mean anything. Wisp put that thought aside.

“Are you...” Nick made a wide circle with his finger.

“Checking for trouble? Yes.”

“How far are we going?”

“It’s difficult to translate into miles, but not far.” Wisp checked the sky and the terrain. “Perhaps before lunch.”

“But you’ve been here before, right?”

“No. The last time I saw Khi he was in the southwest.”

“Then how do you know where he is?”

“I can feel him.”

Nick frowned, but there was a grudging acceptance in him. They moved quietly down the slender remains of a neglected road. Saplings crowded the edges, sharply narrowing it in places, so that they were forced to walk single file. The day went from warm to sweltering before the sun was much above the horizon. The still, hot air hung on them like wet laundry adding weight to every step forward. Wisp appreciated Nick's ability to travel easily on different terrains. Alone, he was used to moving very quietly and quickly. It appeared that Nick would not slow him down appreciably.

The road dipped down before going over a heavily forested hill. Wisp could feel that Khi was very close now. Probably on the other side of the hill, probably a military installation. He moved off the road into the trees. Nick followed without question. Wisp slowed his pace to make less noise, forcing his way through the thickets of young trees. Nick followed his example without being told. Wisp began to appreciate Nick in a new light. The man was smart and capable. He didn’t seem put off by working with a biobot. Wisp squashed the next thought before it was fully formed. Much too early to be making assessments.

They worked their way quietly to the top of the hill. Wisp found a break in a cluster of saplings to peek through. Down in the valley below them was a massive installation. A compound of blocky buildings surrounded by high walls topped with razor wire. Guard towers perched on either side of the massive front gates. From their position on the ridges, they were high enough to see into a good portion of the compound. Wisp could make out the tops of Jeeps and trucks that appeared to be parked at random between the buildings. For the size of the complex, he was only sensing a handful of people. It was late enough in the morning that more people should be about. Sleeping people gave a slight trace. Wisp reached out searching for hints of more people.

“Wow.” Nick’s surprise was tinged with a feather’s weight of envy and tumbling down to alarm. “That’s a huge installation. What’s it for?”

Wisp shifted his position so that Nick could hunker down in the weeds next to him. “Khi does research.”

“That’s more than research.”

Wisp had to agree. That degree of security meant something of great importance was inside those walls. But that stood in conflict with the lack of people that he felt.

“The gates are wide open,” Nick said in a low murmur. “That doesn’t feel right.”

“The guard towers feel empty.”

“Is it abandoned?”

“No.”

“So where is everybody?”

“It wasn’t until I started trying to gather information that I discovered such a dearth. We had been transported backward to a time before statistics. Settlements and med centers were not required to keep track of people at first. Even then, round numbers were all that were required for ordering medicine.”

History of a Changed World
, Angus T. Moss

Tilly frowned at her husband, then turned her gaze to Martin. “You don’t think he’s being careless? A biobot? Really.”

Martin gave her a one shouldered shrug without meeting her eyes. “It’s weird, yeah. But Nick trusts him.”

Tilly’s eyebrows shot up. “And that’s good enough?”

Angus chuckled. “My dear, I think you are overreacting.”

“The biobot killed,” Tilly stated flatly.

“The biobot helped rescue a settlement under attack,” Martin countered.

“And we still don’t know why!” Tilly could hear the shrillness in her voice. She took a sip of her coffee, trying to regain her composure. The three of them sat in the empty cafeteria, but she was sure there were eavesdroppers in the hall. She would have preferred to be having this conversation behind closed doors.

“I don’t think it’s about Wisp,” Angus said. “He wasn’t involved with the original murder.”

“Or so he says,” she snapped. There was something about that creature that put her teeth on edge.

Angus took her hand and squeezed it. “It is worrisome, these well-armed men killing indiscriminately. But Nick thinks they got away clean—”

“And he brought us some powerful new weapons,” Martin interjected. “I’ve got extra men watching the roads and the train station.”

“But a biobot? Angus, your curiosity cannot come before the safety of the med center.”

Now it was his turn to raise eyebrows. “What are you accusing me of?”

“I don’t think he should stay,” Tilly said firmly.

Martin tapped his pen on the table. “I think I’m going to disagree with you about that.”

Tilly felt her blood pressure rise. And when she saw it, wanted to slap the grin off of Angus’s face. Sometimes her husband was as thoughtless as a child. “He’s a
biobot,
” she said as if that explained it all. And she felt it should. Angus reached for her hand again, but she pulled away. “Am I the only one that considers him a threat?”

Martin leaned back in his chair stretching his shoulders. “I’ve spoken with Bruno. He says Wisp is a true finder. That could be to our advantage. He’d be a boon to the perimeter defense. According to Nick, he’s a dead shot and highly skilled in hand to hand. At the very least, he’d be a big help with the Watch’s training. Also, he doesn’t like to be around too many people. He might settle in the neighborhood, but I don’t think he’ll want quarters in the building.”

Tilly shook her head. “I don’t like it.”

“Why?” Angus asked.

“He’s not human.”

“Of course he’s human,” Angus said  “He’s just put together a bit differently.”

“Then why all the laws restraining them?” Tilly asked. Images and headlines flashed in her memory. Biobots killing keepers. Biobots spreading contagion. Biobots at the core of every crime committed. It made people look twice even at close friends. A horrible time of fear and suspicion. Not something she cared to remember, but with a biobot in their med center, she had to consider all the repercussions. Angus would want him to stay just so he could talk to him. She did not look forward to that argument. Her husband knew her too well and usually found a way to bring her around. To her surprise, Martin was the one that answered.

“You know, a lot of that was a smear campaign.”

Angus leaned across the table toward Martin. His face had that greedy-for-knowledge look that Tilly had seen so many times before. “How do you know?”

Martin gave him a slight head-shake in a tiny denial. “There weren’t enough of them around for everything they got blamed for.” He stared at his hands, his mouth twitching with unsaid words. “I worked with some. Angus is right, Tilly. They’re just like us.”

She didn’t want to back down, but she knew that Martin would never endanger them. His terse endorsement intrigued her. Over the years, he’d given enough hints that made her assume he’d been part of some sort of special military group. “Then why all the laws?”

“That was mostly for them, I think,” Martin said avoiding her eyes.

Angus snorted. “When they declared them not human, people took the kind of liberties that we don’t allow to happen to animals. They were slaves, property. And they died in too many horrible ways until someone finally put together some laws. They were treated as a new entity, like an alien from another planet. People blamed them for everything.”

“But I saw reports. I saw people who’d been attacked,” she countered.

“Like all humans, there are good ones and bad ones.”

Tilly was silent as she thought about the possibilities. The men waited. She eyed them both, anxiously. “So how do we find out if he’s a bad one?”