Outland (World-Lines Book 1) (22 page)

Aug 5                            Suzie

Suzie woke up to her sixth morning in what most people were now calling
Rivendell
. A few people referred to it as
the Colony
, but that wasn’t as popular since it implied a certain level of permanence. Most people hoped that their time here was temporary, and once things cleared up Earthside, they’d be going back to something like normal life.

She had heard a more pessimistic undercurrent of speculation, though, that the world they knew was finished. The news that they’d been able to get through satellite TV mostly supported this viewpoint. Suzie fervently hoped they were wrong. Among the many problems she had with a pioneer lifestyle was the fact that her nearly-complete history degree would be less than useless.

Suzie was amazed at the amount of equipment and supplies that the gate owners— people were calling them the
G.O.
— had accumulated in the sheds. She’d heard the story they were telling, but she found it a little hard to believe. After all, who assumes there’s going to be an event like Yellowstone? How paranoid do you have to be? The answer of course was
as paranoid as Bill Rustad
. Apparently, he watched a little too much TV, or something.

The story of the G.O. had by now been told and retold around the camp. Between Greenhouse Earth, the gold expeditions, and the visit from the Mafia, Suzie wasn’t sure how much was exaggeration or outright fabrication, and how much was for real. Made for a great story, though.

As part of trying to survive on this side, the G.O. had created a committee to organize duties. People were asked to volunteer for tasks that they were good at. Otherwise they would be assigned to a rotation for less desirable duties. People were being assigned tasks like scouting, guard duty, gathering wood, tending to the livestock, fence building, maintenance—including latrine digging—and cooking. Suzie was very happy that they had an excavator thingy for digging— she did not in any way look forward to the idea of digging latrines, or worse yet filling them in when they got full and needed to be replaced. Ugh!

Suzie and Joy had volunteered for cooking duty. They were determining what food was available in the mass of supplies, and how long they estimated they could feed the entire colony. It took very little time to determine that the stocks weren’t intended for several hundred people and wouldn’t last long with that many mouths to feed.

Someone pointed out that there were tons of protein running around in plain sight on this Earth, so
hunting
was added to the list of urgent tasks. Then someone else pointed out that
hunting
went with
gathering
, so another group was organized to look for edible growing things. The agro students would know what to look for. Soon the entire colony was buzzing like a bee hive.

The days were fine. Everyone had lots to keep them busy. The nights were far more difficult. Every night, Suzie could hear the occasional sob over the sounds of quiet crying. People worried about their families, their friends, and their future.
Camping is one thing; living in the Stone Age forever is something else completely.

Suzie found herself trying to be wherever Richard Nadeski was, perhaps a little too much. Hot or not, she didn’t want to be one of those desperate girls who followed a guy around.
He hasn’t even talked to me, for crying out loud. Get a grip!
In fact, he seemed to pay far too much attention to that Italian woman— the loud one, Monica something.

In the end, Suzie decided the best thing to do would be to just keep her head down, stay out of trouble, and ride this out. Hopefully soon things would start to return to sanity.

Aug 9

The steady stream of refugees from the states most affected by the Eruption has prompted the governments of surrounding states to enact border controls and create refugee camps. Civil Rights groups are appalled. “These are US citizens, in their own country, and they’re being shoved into fenced camps like illegal immigrants. This contravenes basic constitutional guarantees on so many levels…”

Government officials counter that they simply
don’t have the infrastructure to absorb the influx. “A complete economic breakdown would benefit neither the existing citizenry nor the refugees.”

---

There are confirmed reports that Israel has retaliated against Palestine with missile attacks. Israel has declared that they are moving in to “quell the Palestinian uprising.” Said one unnamed source, “In these uncertain times, we cannot afford to have an enemy on the doorstep who will take advantage of our perceived weakness. It is time to end this.”

---

Washington military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have told us that there are indications of one or more nuclear strikes in the Middle East.

Aug 9                            Bill

Bill was looking for Monica, ostensibly to remind her about dinner. In fact, he was hoping to sit with her tonight before Richard moved in. It seemed to Bill that every time he went looking for Monica, he found Richard with her. It was getting old. Bill was honest enough with himself to admit that he was trying to do the same thing. But all’s fair…

Eventually, he found her at the back of the second shed. Walking up to her, he said in a light tone, “Hey Monica, it’s almost dinner time. You don’t want to miss it. It’s your favorite again: food!”

Bill belatedly realized that something was wrong. Monica had turned her head away from him and wasn’t speaking. He sat beside her and took her hand. “Hey, kid, what’s up?” he asked as gently as he could.

After a moment, Monica turned to him, tears in her eyes. She tried to smile. “Sorry, Bill. I’m not good company right now. I think the whole end-of-the-world thing just hit me. I’m starting to realize I may never see anyone in my family again.” She squeezed his hand and hung her head.

Bill could hear sniffles, barely choked back. He decided to take a chance and put his arm around her. She turned and leaned into him.

“You know, we’re all going through that,” Bill said in a low voice. “You can go away to university for a couple of years, but there’s always been the option of going home. Now it’s different. There’s been a lot of quiet crying at night.”

Monica’s voice was muffled, her face pressed against his jacket. “My parents are in Italy with one of my sisters. Even if no one in my family dies, I still probably
won’t ever see them again.”

Bill hesitated a moment. He wasn’t sure if he was about to be helpful or make things worse. “You’re lucky. They’re alive, and very likely
to stay that way. I don’t know what the situation is with my family. Mortality in North America is going to be significant.” He put his hand to his forehead as he realized that he was now dooming most of her siblings.

“Look, I know it’s hard. But we’re all here for each other, right?” Bill gave her a squeeze and settled down for the duration.

After a while, Monica straightened up and turned to look at him. “You’re right. I know I hear crying every night from one direction or another. I’ve always thought of myself a little tougher than this…” She smiled sadly. “Guess not, as it turns out.”

She wiped her eyes, tried to straighten herself out. “Okay. I’m better. Let’s see about that food.”

Aug 9                            Alex

Trish Lopez and Alex Shaw rode up over the top of the low hill, and they could now see the gleaming towers of Rivendell.
Well, the metal sheds of Rivendell,
Alex corrected himself.

The two were doing reconnaissance of the area around the colony on horseback. Experienced riders both, they had jumped at the chance for the outing. They had already completed a circuit roughly a couple of miles radius, crossing this side’s equivalent of Salt Creek twice. Alex had taken notes, as one of their duties was to look for a short-term water supply.

Now, late in the afternoon, they were returning to Rivendell.

Trish hadn’t stopped smiling for the entire outing. She explained that back home in New Mexico, she had been able to ride every day. Since going to UNL, she’d desperately missed the feeling of freedom that riding gave her.

Alex was more of a weekend rider, but still a dedicated and enthusiastic horse person. The two had spent the day talking and comparing notes.

“Must have been great, growing up on a ranch,” Alex said to her. “Your horse always right there, all that space…”

Trish laughed. “Sure, and if I managed to finish my chores in a reasonable time, I could actually
do something about it. We didn’t live on a dude ranch, Alex. It was a working ranch, and we didn’t have a bunch of employees to do the work. When I wasn’t at school, I was shoveling manure or fixing fences, or tending to the cattle and the chickens, on and on until I was ready to scream.

“Meanwhile, other than in school, I very rarely
got to see my friends. It’s not like I could just walk up the block. Jenny was closest and she was five miles away. And no buses.”

Alex admitted to himself that all that sounded like fun too, but he was pretty sure that saying so would just get him another lecture. Instead he said, “I guess it’s one of those
grass is greener
things. I lived in the city and only
got out to my uncle’s place on weekends to take care of the horses. I’d have killed to live closer. Honestly, I hated living in the city. Too many people, too busy, traffic everywhere. This right here works for me.”

Trish expressed agreement, and they let the subject die. As they rode towards Rivendell in the light of the setting sun, Alex started whistling the
Magnificent Seven
theme. Trish laughed and then smiled at him.

Alex smiled back, and as he turned away his smile turned into a grin.
This might end up being an even better night!

Aug 10              Charles

“Hey, Charles, look!” Charles turned his attention to the direction that Bluto pointed. In the distance, he saw horses with riders on them.

Bingo!
Charles was gratified that his logic had been correct. The kids, or
someone,
had set up somewhere else and probably somewhere close. Charles looked at his watch. Late afternoon.

“We have to be close to high ground before dark,” he said to Bluto. “We’ll need to try to spot their camp. Hopefully
they’ll have lights up or fires or something.”

“I’m not thrilled with spending the whole night in a tree,” Bluto replied. “So we’d better have our own fire ready.”

“Fair enough, but make sure it’s out of sight. We don’t want them discovering us
.
”

Charles reasoned that given the time of day, the riders were more likely headed back to their camp rather than away from it. With that in mind, the two took off in the direction that the riders had been going.

As dusk fell, they decided that they couldn’t afford to put off setting up their own camp any longer. They had by necessity become fast experts on the whole process. They found a reasonable spot, gathered fuel for their fire, and laid everything out.

Before they lit the fire, Charles examined the darkened sky. “There,” he said, pointing.

The faint glow on the horizon had nothing to do with a setting sun or rising moon. Charles made a point of poking a couple of sticks into the ground to indicate the direction. Then they turned to their camp and set up for the night.

Aug 11

South Korea’s largest news agency reports that North Korea has begun amassing troops on the border between the two countries. In addition, the North Korean Navy has positioned itself just outside of South Korea’s territorial boundary. Military experts point out that North Korea has traditionally
been dependent on China for the resources to provide for its populace— even at the sub-poverty level at which the North Korean proletariat exists. With the recent Chinese withdrawal of military and economic aide, North Korea is looking for alternative sources of supply.

---

In a shocking move, six of the most debt-ridden nations on the planet— Greece, Italy, Egypt, Portugal, Spain, and France— have announced jointly
that they will no longer be servicing their national debts. All except Egypt have also announced that they will no longer consider themselves part of the EU. World markets, which were already taking a beating due to the Yellowstone crisis, dropped sharply
from their already historic lows.

---

We have credible reports of multiple explosions in several U.S. state capitols. Several groups have claimed responsibility. At least one is a domestic American revolutionary group.

Aug 12              Richard

Richard called the Rivendell Planning Committee to order. Seated around the table with Richard were Krista Tolleffson, Joseph Leung, Bill, Fred, and Anson.

Krista represented the Medical group. She had just completed her final year of pre-med, and had been intending to transfer to University of Nebraska at Omaha for her medical training. Yellowstone had put an indefinite hold on those plans. However, like most people who are truly interested in their chosen fields, Krista’s practical knowledge far outstripped her formal educational record.

Joseph Leung was there as team lead for the Scavenging group; Bill, as lead of Science and Technology; Fred Mack, who had agreed to take on Security; and Anson Rutherford for Scouting.

And last, Dick Thompson, who had organized the livestock rescue, had become lead for Agriculture Science.

Richard looked down at his notes for a moment. “Okay, so we now have to look at this as a long-term thing. That means we’re going to need things we might not have bothered with otherwise. That will include digging a well for water, coming up with a more long-term plan for the latrines, building better pens and fencing for the livestock— personally, I’m tired of them as room-mates.” There were some chuckles around the table. No one was happy when a cow wandered through the sleeping area.

“Short-term, we need tents and tarps for all our people. Longer term, we’ll want to start building something more permanent. All of this will require significant scavenging effort.

“As time goes on, it’s going to get harder and harder to find stuff in Lincoln. Buildings will continue to collapse. Windows will break and let in drifting ash, and so on.”

“If you’ve ever seen
Life After People,”
Bill added, “you’ll know how quickly
things break down.”

Richard inclined his head in Bill’s direction, then continued, “So we’re going to have to go Earthside and start looking for things sooner rather than later. I kind of doubt the internet is still up, so in a lot of cases we’re going to have to work from memory. We’ve put together a list of things we must have. If anything is missing, bring it up.

“Joseph, you’ll need to organize some expeditions. We can’t cross the gates over, because we’ll have multiple groups going at the same time; so we’ll have to work out a protocol to open the gate at the proper spot once you find something.”

“On that subject, Richard,” Bill cut in, “I may have a partial solution. Meet me in my mad scientist lab after the meeting.”

***

Bill’s mad scientist lab was a section of the second shed where he had the satellite TV set up. Now it had been officially set aside for the SciTech Department. When Richard got there, Bill had the pole-cam going. As Richard came up, Bill handed him the control tablet. Richard looked at it. As well as the video output from the pole-cam camera, the tablet displayed a window with GPS information. The location it specified was the address of their current warehouse on Earthside.

Richard looked at Bill, his eyebrows rising almost to his hairline. “You sure like the dramatic reveal, don’t you? Same principle as the satellite TV?”

Bill nodded. “I have one of those external GPS receivers up beside the camera. When the pole-cam is turned on, I can crank the receiver through the gate with this.” Bill pointed to another piece of rigging on the pole, similar to the one that was used to tilt the gate forward and back.

Richard shook his head and smiled ruefully. “Engineers. Geez.” He continued after a moment, “So the Scavenging party can use the pole-cam to scout and to determine locations from this side…”

“And to communicate with the search parties from this side.” Bill added. “I’ve also rigged up an external antenna for the walkie-talkie. As long as the pole-cam is open, everyone has full cross-dimensional communication.” Bill smiled in triumph.