Outland (World-Lines Book 1) (21 page)

Aug 4                            Charles

Bluto and Charles worked their way slowly through the berry patch. Charles was happy for the calories, and he liked blackberries anyway. But a diet heavy in berries was having unfortunate consequences on digestive systems that were used to a lot more protein.

Could be worse. Just ask Andy.
Charles gave a single snort at the thought. Andy hadn’t survived their first day here. All that blood all over him had been a cat magnet. Charles still shivered with horror at the memory of being chased by those two animals.
Honest-to-God saber-tooth tigers!
The animals had gone straight for Andy, giving Bluto and Charles time to climb a nearby tree. They’d had to watch and listen as Andy was taken down, then slowly eaten.
They didn’t bother to kill him first!
Charles shuddered.

Bluto had been enraged, and had started shooting as soon as he was able to get a stable stance in the tree. He’d killed one cat with a lucky shot, and the other had run off, limping. But it was too late for Andy.

They’d frisked the body for anything useful. They’d found an extra magazine, but of course the gun that went with it was still back in the kids’ warehouse. They didn’t have any tools to bury him; in the end they’d had to leave the body for the scavengers. Bluto still muttered about the whole episode.

He liked Andy. Or at least liked working for him.
It remained unclear to Charles if Bluto had ever actually liked anyone.

After that, life became a case of day-by-day survival. Twice they’d managed to shoot a young deer, and had eaten well. A Spyderco folding knife wasn’t ideal for butchering, but it did the job. The rest of the time they survived on berries and the occasional fruit tree.

Fires seemed to keep the animals at bay at night, although the two men still camped close to a tree, just in case. Fortunately a lighter formed part of Bluto’s toolkit the way lock picks were part of Charles’.

And what’s the point, in the end? Spend the rest of our lives running? We’ll run out of bullets eventually, then what?
And the answer always came back:
The damned kids won’t abandon this place just because we’re here. They’ll just move. If they can connect to a different year, then we’re screwed. Otherwise, we just keep watching.

Today, without warning, the satellite broadcasts for all of the major American network channels dropped out. Local experts are baffled. One unnamed source is quoted as saying “It would take a large infrastructure collapse for all transmission sources to be simultaneously
cut off in this manner. It is reasonable to suspect deliberate planning was involved.”

---

There were labor riots again today in France as workers express concern over possible loss of employment entitlements due to the impending economic contraction.

---

There are credible reports that Iran is preparing to invade Iraq on the tail of the US withdrawal from the Middle East. Satellite images show massive troop movements towards the Iran/Iraq border.

---

There have been several large explosions in Israeli towns near the Palestine border. Statements from Palestinian sources are threating obliteration of the state of Israel, “now that they no longer have their powerful protector to rely on.”

Israel has responded by stating, “Any attack on the State of Israel will result in retaliation. We will deliver unacceptable levels of damage to any aggressor.”

Aug 4                            Richard

“
Can I have your attention please
!” Richard bellowed at the top of his lungs. Over two hundred and seventy people sat on the ground in front of him, and many of them were more intent on their own conversations. Slowly, the background buzz died down as people turned to him.

“Okay, we don’t have a P.A. system, one of the few things Bill forgot to buy! So you’re going to have to be very quiet and listen. I’m going to ask you, if your neighbors start a side conversation, to punch them in the arm until they shut up.” There were laughs and a few loud
ouches
.

“If you really, really feel the need to have a chat, please go into one of the sheds or to the other end of the lawn so the rest of us can get this done. Thank you.”

Richard waited. When there was no immediate movement and no sign of the background buzz starting up again, he resumed, still shouting.

“There’s no point in having a meeting like this, with this many people. My voice has about two minutes of life left, so we’re going to organize committees. If you have an idea or a suggestion or want to head up a group, please meet in front of the left shed in about ten minutes. Everyone else please park it somewhere else. Thank you.”

Richard took a deep breath as he finished. There were whoops and ironic applause from the audience.
Okay, I’ll never be a politician. Sue me.

A short time later, about forty people grouped in front of the shed, a manageable number for discussion. However, everyone wanted to be a chief and many people had the same ideas.

They wrangled for hours, but ended up with some good results.

“All right then,” Richard said in a loud voice. “We will be forming groups to handle the following: scavenging, security, scouting, livestock, infrastructure, and technology. These guys will each be in charge of a section—“ Richard gestured to a group of people standing near him, “—so the rest of you, please attach yourselves to the group of your choice. We’ll be asking the general population to volunteer for a group if they have relevant skills, or to be assigned tasks on a rotating basis.”

***

“Hey, Bill, what did you want to see me about?” Richard had gone to the second shed after a runner had tracked him down with a message from Bill.

“Oh, nothing much,” Bill said. “Just…” He turned a monitor around with a flourish. “Satellite TV!”

Richard’s jaw dropped. Right there in front of him, BBC News was playing. The date on the broadcast was correct, and they were talking about post-eruption issues, so it was unlikely that it was a recording.

“Cross-dimensional TV reception? Bill, I’m impressed!” Richard’s face was a mix of surprise and pleasure. “Okay but seriously, how are you doing this?”

Bill failed to look humble. “Well it’s being received by a hacked satellite decoder so it’s technically
pirated. And I’m receiving the broadcast live through that,” and he pointed to his left.

Richard followed Bill’s gesture to a small satellite dish that pointed through the three-foot gate. The gate had a plastic cover across it to block the ash that still fell on the other side.

“It took a while to get things lined up, but now we can get the news whenever we want.”

Bill lost his smile and looked down for a moment before continuing. “On the other hand, we may not be so glad we did. I watched this for about twenty minutes before I sent someone to find you. Things are way the hell worse Earthside than anyone expected. I don’t want to start a general panic. I was thinking maybe we could get the Gate Owners together and talk about it.”

Richard responded with a nod. “Good call, Bill. Turn it off for now, and let’s go find everyone else. We can discuss it when we’re all together.”

Bill turned off the gate and all the electronics, then took the controller tablet with him.

***

The group gathered at one end of the fenced compound. Richard watched the livestock with a thoughtful expression on his face. The animals were herded outside the fenced area for part of each day so they could graze. The grazing was very good in this version of Earth, so the livestock seemed happy. Guards with guns, mounted on ATVs and horses, made sure that the local predators didn’t get any ideas. A couple of confrontations with wolf packs had ended badly for the wolves, so they rarely bothered the livestock any more.

Richard turned to the others and said, “This is really
Bill’s meeting, so I’ll lob it to him.” He made a tossing motion to Bill.

Bill gave a sardonic half-smile. “I wish I had a movie reference or something to cut the tension a little, but I’m coming up blank today. Bottom line, things are going to hell Earthside. They’re saying now that Yellowstone pumped well over three thousand cubic kilometers of crud into the atmosphere.”

Erin gasped in horror.

Bill looked at Erin before continuing. “It also pumped the crud higher into the upper atmosphere than any normal volcano has ever done. So the fallout is going to be more widespread, and the very fine stuff is going to stay aloft a lot longer.”

He looked down for a second. “Plus of course,
Homo moronus
has to make a bad situation worse. Some countries have stopped exporting food and oil, so other countries are threatening to go in and take it. Israel’s enemies have taken the opportunity to attack when Israel’s allies are on their knees, and you know how well Israel takes that kind of thing. The BBC says nukes have been used.”

Bill took a moment to look around, trying to keep his composure. “Russia appears to be invading several nearby countries to ensure ongoing supplies. China has closed its borders completely
and severed all communications with anybody whatsoever. Africa is mostly self-destructing. Oh, and have I mentioned? Washington appears to have fallen. Near as I can tell, the government is operating out of an undisclosed location. Except that at least three other governments have popped up and declared independence. I’m pretty sure the USA doesn’t exist as a nation anymore, people.”

Bill looked at his friends. Haunted expressions looked back at him.

“One of the things you didn’t catch, Richard, was that I was tuned to the BBC. That’s because there are no longer any American stations on the satellite feed. No Fox, no CNN, no MSNBC. I’ve managed to get something from Western Canada, but they aren’t having a wonderful time either. Some of the European feeds have dropped out, but I can still get more than half of them. There’s very little coming from anything south of the equator.”

He finished with a shrug. “I think we might be on our own, guys.”

Monica squared her shoulders. “Okay then, this means we have to get moving with the scavenging operations. This isn’t convenience anymore; this could be life or death for us.” She gave Richard a determined look. “We should call a meeting with the scavenging team right away and crank up the heat.”

Bill turned to Erin. “What do you think that volcanic crud figure will mean for the planet?”

Erin still wore a haunted look. “It means that enough is going to get across the equator to send both hemispheres into perpetual winter for a number of years, far worse than with any of the previous supervolcanoes. It means there will be more ash, over a wider area, killing more ecosystems.

“The human race is going to experience a severe die-back.”

“How bad?” Richard asked.

“Speaking from a conservative scientific viewpoint, I can justify an estimate of a billion people at minimum. And that doesn’t count deaths from wars.

“Personally, off the cuff, I think we’re looking at as much as fifty percent of the global population by the time it’s done.”

There were more shocked looks. Three to four
billion
people might be dead within a couple of years.

Aug 4                            Richard

Richard looked over the crowd. Some people were stunned into silence, their eyes glazed. Others sobbed openly. One person had exchanged a few heated words with another, then punched him. Bystanders had ended it by sitting on the attacker.

One man stood, yelling at Richard. It wasn’t coherent enough to make out specifics, but Richard thought the gist was that he blamed Richard and his friends for all of it. A few people were attempting to shout him down, pointing out very reasonably that the gate owners had saved them, and had not caused the catastrophe.

“How do we know that?” the heckler countered. “How do we know that they didn’t cause it?”

Richard’s eyes opened wider.
You’ve got to be kidding me!

“How do we know
you
didn’t cause it?” the voice yelled.

“What?” the heckler said, momentarily derailed.

“Maybe you are responsible,” the voice continued. “Or maybe it was leprechauns! Or maybe Santa Claus got tired of delivering presents every year, as long as we’re flinging around stupid baseless accusations.”

The heckler stood for a few seconds more, his mouth working like a fish trying to breathe. Then he put his head down, balled his fists, slowly sat down, and covered his face with his hands. There were a few seconds of sympathetic silence.

Richard said in what he hoped was a reasonable voice, “Look, we’re going to have to take this a day at a time. At least we have options. We can always return Earthside once it’s safe. Meanwhile this place is at least livable.

“Bottom line, though, we’re going to have to start treating this like a longer-term situation. We have to move up the scavenging operations. Joseph Leung is the Lead for that; he’ll be coordinating.”

With that, Richard held up a hand for a moment, turned, and walked away. As he did so, the noise level rose sharply as dozens of conversations started.

He spotted Joseph, who had been forewarned and was standing nearby. Richard nodded to him and continued on to the shed.