Out of Exodia (7 page)

When they were half a mile from their
stronghold, Bram held the rod aloft and waved the glowing tip. The
tired troops took note and the pack drifted to a standstill. He
sent two young men on ahead to inform the patrol he’d left on duty
to stand down, that the approaching assemblage was
friendly.

“
Pass the word down the
lines,” he told those closest to him, “that you’re to wake everyone
inside. Pack your things. Fill your water jugs. We’re heading north
again at dawn.”

* * *

Amal had no idea that he’d been struck
by the tall man he’d taunted when he’d stolen the beautiful girl.
When he came to his senses, he rubbed at his head, stared at the
blood on the floor, and gaped at the shards of glass under the
skylight. It was morning and the Director would be expecting him to
bring the woman to the Center. He stood up, caught his balance, and
pulled at the door. It didn’t budge.

He waited more than an hour before
finally someone heard his shouts. He pushed past the man and made
his way through the labyrinth of connecting tunnels, stumbling
around the turns, until he reached the Center.

“
Director,” he bowed his
head with the greeting and immediately grew dizzy. He was lucky
that someone grabbed his arm to steady him; it lent credence to the
tale he devised. “The woman—that Red—I went to check on her in her
cell. I saw the glass on the floor. I went to look and they jumped
me from behind. They must have broken in through the ceiling and—”
His cheeks reddened a bit, and his eyes flickered from the Director
to his assistants, but he continued, “They locked me
in.”

The Director held his gaze until Amal
looked down. “And what time did this take place?”

Amal pretended to sway while
considering a lie, but suddenly he wanted to see that woman again.
He raised his eyes and stated, “Right after the start of second
watch, Director.”

The Director shook his head and turned
to his first assistant. “Send someone out to collect the sentries’
bodies; they’re undoubtedly dead. But first bring me Koji. We’ll
divide our forces into two—one to surround the building at the
twelve springs and burn them out if they haven’t fled by week’s end
and one that I’ll lead. We’ll angle north and capture them as they
make a run for the safety of Ronel’s land.”

Amal wondered how the Director could
know where these Reds were headed, but he’d never been wrong
before. Nor had the Director’s father or grandfather before him
ever made a poor decision. Continually since before the
Suppression, when the forbidden militia and the survivalists had
joined together, these people had grown in secret wealth. Amal
placed a hand over his heart and stood a little taller, ready to
swear to the Director that he could ride scout for him.

But the Director had other plans for
Amal.

Chapter 5 From Famine to
Feast

From the eighth page of the
second Ledger:

The table set before them
was bare. As the ancients believed in manna from heaven, so these
hungered travelers believed in help from above.

BRAM’S INSTRUCTIONS WERE met with more
resistance than he thought possible given their circumstances. The
lookouts ached for a battle and those who had stayed behind had
geared up for combat, readied their supplies of ammunition during
the night, and cleaned their weapons as well as they could.
Defending the twelve springs had become a sudden preoccupation for
them, and also for Eugene Hoi and his clan of Mourners. Dawn did
not bring an evacuation, but rather a digging in and a vociferous
demand to stay and fight the people they’d begun to call
cave-dwellers. The dead body of the one named Hesser had
disappeared before first light, whether dragged away by man or wild
beast was hard to tell, but Eugene convinced his followers that
Hesser’s men were near and were undoubtedly well provisioned. Some
believed that meant there was ammunition to steal; others thought
he meant food. Food was on everyone’s mind. Fighting would be a
means to a very much needed end.

At sunrise the women and children
remained inside while the men stationed themselves around the
mall’s perimeter, ready. The morning grew hot, the afternoon
dragged, and by evening their hunger to confront and challenge the
cave-dwellers had diminished to just plain hunger.

“
We need to set up hunting
parties.”

“
What for? Deer or
lion?”

“
There must be some farms
hidden around here.”

“
I heard there are
underground storages from the Suppression.”

“
I won’t eat radiated meat.
No way.”

“
Send the women to look for
berries.”

“
Wish those cave-dwellers
would show up.”

“
Should have stayed in
Exodia.”

“
That kid, Bram, doesn’t
know what he’s doing. And his brother, Harmon, is no
better.”

The griping continued. Bram set up a
contingent of lookouts to rotate duty throughout the night, but by
the next morning half of them had ignored his orders. A revolt
seemed likely.

Bram gathered his oldest and newest
allies in the back room of the jewelry store. “Any suggestions?” he
asked, looking from Malcolm to Josh to Harmon. Mira and Lydia stood
by his side and cast sideways glances at the one-way
mirror.

“
Can that thing of yours
create any kind of barrier around us?” Harmon asked Malcolm. “I was
thinking we could send out a group to look for food and you could
keep them safe.”

Malcolm let out a gruff laugh. “You
have no idea, do you? There’s no controlling that cloud. I only
carry the box.” He looked out from under a lowered brow and
snorted. “’Course, Bram here could figure out a
solution.”

Bram folded his arms against his chest,
but kept his lips tight. Malcolm continued, “Go and listen to it,
Bram. That hum. I know you hear more than we do. Maybe the answer
is there.”

“
Maybe we don’t do
anything,” Josh snapped. He appeared older than most men in their
twenties. His jaw bone popped out as he grit his teeth. “I’ve got
friends, Blake and Branson and Herb, who’ll help put down the
rebellion.”

“
Rebellion?” Mira gasped.
She exchanged a glance with Lydia and her mother, then looked to
her brothers. “We don’t need any more division.” She softened her
statement with a shy look toward Josh who instantly dropped his
hostile posture. “We just need the Mourners to, uh, behave and
reform.”

Harmon nudged Bram.

* * *

Mira’s words float in my
mind’s eye.
Behave and
reform
. They change into
bread from heaven
. I
have the answer, but I doubt myself. Harmon’s elbow wakens
me.

“
Malcolm, where’s the
box?”

“
Got some kids guarding it
near the fifth spring. Right outside this store. I’ll get
it.”

“
Josh, I’m grateful for
your support. You and your friends have been trained in Suppression
fighting, right?”

“
Not by choice. Battista’s
generals used to grab kids off the streets and use us as opponents.
Knocked us up pretty bad so we had to learn by default.”

I remember that. When I was a child I
used to watch the soldiers train. Blue on Blue, Blue on Red. Later
I trained against older Reds. I thought they were
volunteers.

“
Here it is.” Malcolm sets
the box on the nearest chair. “Hummin’ like a charm.”

I catch a funny look in Malcolm’s eye.
“What is it?”

“
Well, they’re gathering
out there in the open part. Sayin’ things like they wished they’d
died in Exodia, that they’re starvin’ here.”

Why is this my job? I barely get that
thought out when the hum becomes clear words to me. It’s God’s
voice; I know what we have to do.

“
Take the box back to the
common area. Let’s go. I’ve got some good news for
everyone.”

We emerge from the store to find a
crowd lining the first and second story concourse. The stairways
are packed. The buzz of the crowd far outweighs the hum of
Malcolm’s box, but when they see us, people hush
themselves.

I climb up one of the narrower metal
stairs, the one the older folks claim used to move up on its own.
I’m afraid I’m going to stutter, but I speak anyway.

“
You’re hungry. I know.
Tomorrow morning there will be bread outside. Bread from heaven.
Ronel has airplanes. He knows where we are. He’ll drop meat for us
in the evening. And bread in the morning.”

They erupt in so much noise that I
don’t even try to tell them the rest. They’ve grumbled and God has
heard them. That’s enough for now. Let them feast and forget about
the cave-dwellers.

* * *

For six days the Reds gathered food
that landed neatly in the weedy expanse around the mall. Bread fell
in the morning before amber rays overlaid the gray. In the evening
after the sun set, but before darkness returned, packages of
irradiated meat landed with rhythmic thumps. What they didn’t eat
rotted overnight, but the mornings always brought fresh treasure.
When Bram told them there would be no planes on Saturday and to
gather twice as much to hold over, some of the Reds refused to
believe that Friday’s rations would not go stale and wormy as the
other days’ had. When no planes came those people begged or traded
with their neighbors for their saved pieces of bread and
meat.

The cave-dwellers didn’t return. Bram
and his advisers, now including his brother, Josh, Herb, Eugene,
Korzon, Teague, and five others, decided it was safe to move on.
Malcolm brought his box to Bram for a final listen and everyone
packed up their possessions, adding pilfered items from the mall
that might be useful. Bram’s assurances that food would continue to
be dropped were only believed because Malcolm pointed out how
easily visible the electronic cloud would be for a plane to
spot.

“
Have every family ready to
leave at first light,” Bram ordered. This time the nodding heads
gave him a bit more hope that they’d comply.

Chapter 6 The Rod of War

From the ninth page of the
second Ledger: