Fight for Power (25 page)

Soon I was surrounded by the people I was going to lead, six men and four women. They were not necessarily the people I would have wanted at crunch time. I suddenly wished for Brett and his squad to be there. But once again it wasn't what was best but what was best given the circumstances, and that was me with them.

“We're going up there. Do you see them?” I asked.

There was a nodding of heads.

“What do you think they want?” one of the men asked.

“I don't know. We're going to go up and ask them. Let's go,” I said.

We started off, quickly leaving the river behind and entering the cover of the trees. That meant we couldn't see the top any longer and they couldn't see us. I had to figure, though, that they'd seen us going into the trees and knew we were coming toward them. They'd either leave or get ready for us to be there. The first possibility was so much more appealing and so much less potentially deadly.

The path we were on climbed sharply and came to a fork. Both ways angled off but were headed in the same general direction of where they were standing. I divided the group into two, sending half to the right and leading the rest to the left. As we started climbing again I couldn't help but wonder if dividing us up was the right thing or the wrong thing. Herb would have known. Brett would have known.

I could feel the climb in my lungs, straining to get air, sweat coming down my side. I wondered how much of this was from the climb and how much was from a sense of fear that was growing inside me.

The trees thinned and I suddenly popped out, standing at the top of the slope. The second crew came out to my side. They saw me and waved, and I waved back. I could see them. I could see the river, but I couldn't see anybody else. Had we come up at the wrong spot or had the watchers taken off?

“Spread out, keep your eyes open, your guns ready,” I ordered.

Where had they gone? Less than a hundred yards away was more forest. Had they reacted when they saw us coming and fled? I could only hope, although now they could be in the cover of those trees and we were here, exposed, open, vulnerable.

“Everybody back into the trees,” I ordered. “I don't know where they've gone, but the important thing is that they have gone.”

There was a sense of relief as my orders were instantly followed. Any hesitation to come up here was replaced by an urgency to get away, get back to the bottom, to our people.

*   *   *

The rest of the afternoon, I'd kept my attention focused on the ridge, to the place the watchers had been. It remained unoccupied. That didn't mean we weren't being watched, and it certainly didn't settle down my imagination, but that danger hadn't resurfaced.

The fish were almost all loaded into the bed of the pickup truck by now. I could see some of them flopping around, trying to jump out. I felt for them trying to get out, get back in the river, and I almost hoped one of them could get back to freedom, but really we needed all of those fish. Food was food. Now, with the fish loaded, the guards all went back to their position. That gave me an opportunity to do what I needed to do.

I walked over to Lori. “Can you help me with something?”

“Sure, if you don't mind being around somebody who smells like fish.”

“On you anything smells good.”

“Boy, you really are laying it on. It must be a big favor.”

We walked away from other people. “I want you to talk to Elyse and suggest that we take her and Madison's fish back with us.”

“You want to take their fish?” Lori sounded shocked.

“I don't want to take their fish. I just want them to come back with us—with their fish. Once they're safe in the neighborhood, they can take their fish over to their home,” I explained. “Those people who were watching us from the ridge are gone, but that doesn't mean they're still not around and aren't a danger. I'm afraid that somebody is going to try to rob Elyse and Madison when they head back.”

“Okay, I understand. I can talk to them.”

“Did you really think I was trying to steal their fish?” I asked.

“Of course not. I'm just worried about them, that's all.”

“So am I. Tell them they can count the fish and we'll give them the same number back. I'm going to talk to Leonard's family and tell them the same thing.”

Lori reached over and gave me a hug and a kiss.

“You were right,” I said. “You really do smell like fish.”

She tried to pull away and I gave her a bigger hug. “I like fish. The smell of any food is very appealing.”

“You're lucky you're kinda cute,” she said.

She walked off in one direction and I headed off to talk to Leonard. He and his mother and grandfather were among a larger group of tent people who now lived all around them. They'd come together, the way we had, as a sort of loose group. While they didn't have walls, the trees, the creek, and the isolation had protected them from marauders. So far.

“How are you doing?” I asked as I walked up.

“We're doing well,” his grandfather, Sheldon, said. “Although from what I can see not as well as your group.”

“We got lucky, but you probably did better than us if you think about it. You don't have nearly as many mouths to feed as we do. How many of you are there now?”

“There are forty-five of us,” Leonard said.

“I can see the camp growing as I fly over,” I said.

“We see you up there all the time,” Leonard said.

“It looks like a lawn mower with wings,” his grandfather said.

“That seems to be the general consensus.”

“I always wave at you. Do you ever see me?” Leonard asked.

I shrugged. “Not really,” I said. “I'm pretty occupied keeping that lawn mower flying. What I
can
see is that there are more tents. It's good that there are more of you. More people means more safety.”

“And more mouths to feed,” Sheldon added.

“We wanted to thank you for inviting us to come along with you today,” Leonard's mother said. “It does feel safer with all of you here.”

“I actually wanted to talk to you about that, Amy. I think it might be better if, instead of heading off by yourselves, all of you, and your catch, come with us when we leave.”

Sheldon looked all around, scanning the hills. “Did you see something else?”

I shook my head. “Sort of, but just because I don't see a danger right now doesn't mean it isn't there. We have vehicles; you can drive to our gate, and then after sunset go around the side, up the creek, to your tents.”

He looked at his daughter. “Probably best not to leave a trail back for somebody to follow. Thanks for being concerned. We'll take you up on the offer. When are you going to leave?”

“Not for a while, as long as the fish are jumping. We do want to be safely home before dark, though.”

“That's what we had hoped for, so that's perfect.” He turned to Leonard and his mother. “Can you two spread the word to the others in our group, please?”

They headed off.

“Could I ask you another question, son?” he asked as they walked away.

“Sure, of course.”

“I noticed that your people have pretty well cleared out the entire forest surrounding your walls. Your crew with all them chainsaws is hard to miss.”

I hesitated for a second. I didn't know where he was going, but this was maybe an area I shouldn't be talking about. There were so many areas I shouldn't be talking about.

“They just wanted to make sure we had good sight lines from the walls,” I said.

“Those are awfully long sight lines when they're taking out trees a hundred yards away, down on the opposite side of the creek.”

“Um … I think there's some talk about planting in that field, maybe.”

“I can't see your people planting crops that they can't protect,” he said. “Besides, I've seen what they've been doing with the timber, cutting it up and bringing it back inside the walls.”

“I hadn't noticed,” I said, and shrugged.

“Son, you're not much of a liar.”

“I'm not…” I was going to say “lying,” but that would have been a lie, too. “I'm not allowed to talk about things.”

“I can appreciate that,” he said. “I'm going to tell you what I think, and you don't have to answer.”

I nodded.

“The only reason to stockpile wood is because your people think you're going to need it for heat,” he said. “And there's not going to be a need for heat until winter.”

I listened, trying to keep my face as neutral and blank as Herb would have.

“Your people think that this is going to go through the winter, don't they?” he asked.

“Nobody knows that.”

“But that's what they're thinking, isn't it?” he demanded.

I nodded ever so slightly. That was what we were preparing for, what Herb and the committee thought, but Herb kept drumming it into my head that our only real advantage was that we knew things before other people, and then acted before they acted.

“Son, you've been fair to us, decent, and I know there's not a lot of either of those things happening much these days. I need you to be fair with me now. My daughter and my grandson, all of us, we're living in tents. That's okay for now, for the short term, but we can't survive in tents throughout the winter. We need to know what's coming.”

“Look, I really don't know … Nobody does. Would you be willing to talk to somebody who might know more?”

“I'd talk to anybody who could be honest with me.”

“I'll arrange for you to talk to Herb.”

“Thanks, Adam, thank you so much.” He took my hand and shook it.

I could guarantee him a meeting. What I couldn't guarantee was that Herb would tell him the truth when they did meet.

 

23

I did a final pass over the river, low enough that I could see the smiles on the faces of our fishing team and wave back at them.

The first fishing day had been so successful that it had led to a second and now a third. Yesterday I had been back on the banks, but today I was guarding from a higher vantage point. I pulled back on the yoke and started to climb again. It was no wonder people were happy. Ernie and his crew had done masterful work, making fresh fish stew to feed everybody the last two nights. I don't think I'd ever tasted anything that good. There was more than enough for a few more meals, leaving most of the catch to be filleted and dried out for later. Which gave us more to be happy about.

I cleared the banks of the valley and kept climbing. I'd been flying for hours and needed to get fueled up. I banked toward the neighborhood, and as I did, I could see smoke rising into the sky, coming from within our walls.

Fires had been becoming more and more common. People who were used to gas stoves, electric lights, and propane barbecues were trying to get by with candles and wood fires. The fire chief and his three firefighters had repeatedly gone door to door and talked to people about fire safety, and so far we'd been lucky enough that any small fires had been quickly contained.

But this was different—bigger, thicker, darker. The smoke was rising almost straight into the air. I opened the throttle up all the way. Getting closer, I could feel my heart pounding harder. The smoke was rising from somewhere in the southern section. I was relieved it wasn't on the side of the neighborhood where my house was, but then immediately felt guilty.

Closing in, I could see that the smoke and fire were coming from a house up on Wheelwright Crescent. Any fire could easily spread to other houses. Thank God there wasn't any wind to carry the embers.

I could now see dozens and dozens of people organizing a bucket brigade from a nearby swimming pool, but the fire was already too out of control for them to fight it without proper equipment. Farther back there was a large crowd, people who had come to watch.

Slowly I circled. As I did I noticed that the guards on the nearest walls were looking in, toward the fire, instead of out. If I'd been down there I would have had Herb or Howie talk to them. Actually I could land on the upper part of Wheelwright, away from the fire, instead of on my street. There was a fuel depot in a shed behind one of the houses. I came down low, making sure the street was clear.

I eased off the throttle, pushed the stick down, and settled into my approach. This street had a little more curve to it than the section in front of my house, but it still wouldn't be any problem. One more scan up the road—no obstruction and no people. They all must have been down the street, staring at the fire.

My wheels touched down and I rumbled along the road, gently applying the brakes and rolling to a stop. I took off my helmet, undid the harness, jumped out, and ran toward the blaze.

The crowd watching the blaze was huge, with hundreds of people. I now knew basically all of them at least by face. I scanned the crowd for Lori or Todd, my mother or Danny and Rachel, or Howie or Herb. I couldn't see any of them, but the crowd was so big that they could have been somewhere within it.

The whole house was now engulfed in flames, oranges and reds and black smoke, pouring out of every window and through holes in the roof.

“Pretty amazing, isn't it?”

I turned around. It was Brett, the one person I didn't feel like talking to.

“I thought you'd be asleep,” I said.

“Soon. I couldn't miss this.”

“Do you know whose house it is?”

“No idea.”

“Did everybody get out? Is everybody all right?”

“No idea about that either. It's daytime, so nobody would have been sleeping. Everybody probably cleared out,” Brett said.

“We can hope.”

Suddenly the roof collapsed and there was a collective gasp from the crowd as smoke and embers billowed into the sky in a gigantic plume! A wave of heat washed over us.