The Foundling Saga: Revelation (5 page)

The duo walked for three days and generally at a good pace. Whenever they rested they looked for somewhere they could rest unseen. They checked the surrounding area for escape routes in case they needed to leave in a hurry, but also for any sign of life other than animals. Only then would they settle to eat. They followed the same routine when they sought out an area to sleep in. Cormic taught Keller how they could camouflage and protect themselves under lightweight pods. These pods sealed fairly tight but somehow provided enough air for each of them to sleep comfortably.

On the afternoon of the fourth day they reached the outskirts of an old town.

Cormic sat on his haunches and surveyed the town from the edge of the woods. Keller crouched behind him, clearly in awe, as the ruins seemed to go on for miles.

Some of the ruins were rectangular green lumps. Cormic said these were buildings or homes that had been taken over by ivy and other plants. These plants grabbed a foothold wherever they could to extend as high as possible towards the sun. There were acres of mounds where large areas of buildings had apparently crumbled in a disorderly fashion and vegetation had passed over the contours. However, there were buildings that were so tall that they steadfastly remained despite the overgrowth, which only reached part of the way up the building. This left the higher parts of the buildings relatively clear of vegetation. They looked like partially dressed, neglected tramps.

“These towns were never victims of the radiation but they had, nevertheless, been evacuated. The populations never returned after the sickness that followed elsewhere,” Cormic said.

In addition to medicine and certain useful basic tools, such as metal knives, the Regents did allow the issue of a small number of Geiger counters and haz-suits to trusted Outsiders. Otherwise any ‘techno’ item was denied them. These advanced items were too expensive to manufacture and the components of even a broken one were valuable.

Obtaining a Geiger counter or Haz-suit was the only time an Outsider became known to the Regents under normal circumstances. A DNA print and a name was all that was required for an adult to be issued with a suit and a Geiger counter without any charge. A pictorial instruction sheet was provided, but further training was passed on by Outsiders familiar with the equipment. Outsiders treated radiation zones with the utmost respect and normally avoided them. They carried the lightweight haz-suits on travels just in case but, in practice, once they registered an abnormal reading on a Geiger counter they retreated swiftly.

Cormic took the precaution to check his Geiger counter which fitted in the palm of his hand. No abnormal reading was detected. “I am checking this in case the wind has deposited anything from the northern cities, but this is fine. I have never had an abnormal reading this far south but it’s worth checking. You should learn to do this every mile or so as you move north. Once you detect a warning, just go back to where you came from until the warning stops - sometimes you can work around a contaminated area if you are careful.”

Keller checked his own Geiger counter. This one belonged to Nola, as did his haz-suit. Nola remarked that they were a marvel of technology but what a shame they couldn’t detect potato fungus or other crop pests.

They had been seated for an hour or so. They had already moved a few hundred yards in each direction, east and west, to see if they could detect movement in the part of the town that was visible. They agreed that they could see no movement and so they started to move towards the town.

“It’s not a problem if there are other Outsiders down there. You just need to be prepared and not surprised when you come across them,” said Cormic as he negotiated the path down the hill.

“Keep your eyes ahead now and let me know quietly if you see movement,” he continued.

In truth, Keller was still in awe at the sprawl of buildings they were approaching. Trees seemed to poke through everywhere. To his left he could see other shrubs and plants contriving to try and pull down a thick wall. In the distance, he could make out some of the roads that criss-crossed the town. These were now just narrow overgrown fields with trees and shrubs throughout. Cormic indicated that they would be heading for these.

“Come, we will ignore these buildings until we get deep into the town. The outskirts will long ago have been cleared of treasures,” Cormic said. He carefully avoided some brambles that were crossing the old path. “We need to look for a base deep in the town. We will settle there tonight.”

The pair made their way along old roads. It was heavy going. They stopped occasionally to check surroundings. They listened for sounds of life and then looked for movement whenever they reached a point that gave good visibility of the town. They continued until they reached the third of a set of four 12-storey buildings.

“Come Keller, let’s look in here,” Cormic said as he pushed through some head height shrubs. They found a wide entrance and could see an access way that led up to the levels above. They wandered carefully around the first level and found what used to be dwellings. Looking into to each doorway as they passed, they could see that the homes were damp, derelict and uninhabitable. These were evenly spread out on a narrow walkway or passage. The sunlight was shining in through the open entrances of each of the dwellings. The entire floor was a mess, with rubble and debris along the entire length. Some of this was covered in vegetation. There were signs that rain water had found its way in, leaving black stains and fungus growing in some areas, with water pooling here and there.

They moved to the second level and found the same.

“Shall we go higher Cormic?” Keller asked.

“Yes, the upper levels may be clearer. Let’s move up.” They made their way up the stairwell, past five more floors before they decided to turn into another walkway. They paused at the entrance. The plant life had not been able to get a hold too well here, the walls and floors were generally drier, with only a few patches of damp showing. The rooms were in better condition, although they still looked derelict and unkempt but at least there was less vegetation.

They made their way to the end of the walkway. Cormic looked into both dwellings at the end of the passage. Keller was looking through the window to the side of the building and marvelling at its height. He looked over towards the seemingly endless variety of buildings in the distance.

Eventually, Cormic came to a decision and indicated a doorway to the left of them. “This one will do. We can’t light a fire in here but the smaller internal rooms have no windows, so we can keep a little warmer in one of those during the night. We can see out to the south, and the east and we can always check the view opposite should we need to look north. We can take the two sets of rooms at the other end of this level for toilet purposes. There is nowhere to bury our soil here, so you take the left one and I will go opposite.”

Indeed the smaller room, without windows, was fairly clear of clutter. It had a bath in with two holes. One hole would have accommodated a tap which was long since removed according to Cormic. The other hole in the base was for drainage. A tap was the only metal part likely to be salvageable in a bathroom as all pipe work was plas-based. Indeed the only metal parts in most dwellings would have been a small number of items in kitchens and these had long since been taken.

They sat down to eat in the main room behind the remains of a partition wall. Thus, they avoided the breeze coming in through the large gaps that Cormic said had previously held glass windows. The floor was damp and green, and fungus grew near the windows. Keller felt that it wasn’t much different to sitting in the woods, but they would at least be dry if the clouds broke overnight.

“We should only rest for a short while. We can then take a look around the dwellings on this level. Let’s see if we can see any sign of life in the area before the light fades. We’ll have plenty of time to rest this evening.” With that Cormic stood up to start re-packing his backpack. He glanced over at Keller who had paused mid-mouthful “We need to keep this packed, in case we have to move quickly.” Keller nodded. He got up from the floor still chewing, but pushing some of the spare food wraps back into place in his backpack.

Initially, they stood back from the window gaps in each room and they surveyed the areas visible looking for signs of life. Then they would edge to the window gaps and look down at the more immediate areas closer to their building. Neither of them were familiar with such tall buildings, but Keller had less of a problem than Cormic, whose caution seem to betray a fear of heights.

Eventually, they returned to their base and their backpacks. They were satisfied that they were alone in the area and, since the light was now fading, they prepared their sleeping mats. Cormic, being about a foot shorter than Keller, decided to place his in the bath, to the amusement of Keller. Keller laid his own on the floor of the room nearby. Tired as they both were, they talked a little about the troopers. They were speculating that it would have been a strange sight for the troopers, on the morning they left, watching many pairs of hooded Outsiders all dispersing in the mist.

It was a good thing, thought Keller, that they could both fall asleep with a smile on their faces about that.

Keller slept fitfully. Cormic twice had to lean down to shake him. Keller was talking urgently in his sleep and seemed to be panicking in his sleeping bag. Consequently, Cormic left him to sleep in the morning as he discretely exited the bathroom.

Cormic was re-packing his backpack when Keller surfaced. “How long have you been awake?” he said, squinting towards the light coming into the main room of the flat.

“Since first light. You don’t look so awful, given that you slept so badly.”

Keller rubbed his left eye and squinted in his companion’s direction. “I seem to have had bad dreams last night. Thanks for letting me sleep. My legs are aching. I think it’s the stairs.”

“Probably is. You do enough walking so I doubt it’s that, but you don’t generally climb steep stairs.” Cormic smiled, taking his attention briefly away from his backpack. He knew that Keller had only seen high buildings from a distance at the Arpo barrier.

“Have a drink and something to eat Keller. There is no particular rush, but we may as well have a look around this area of town.”

Keller was certainly interested in investigating the ruins more closely so he pushed away thoughts of his fitful sleep and turned his attention to his backpack, deciding what rations would be suitable for breakfast. “I noticed some apple trees close to here.”

“Yes, I saw them too. We can take some apples with us.” Cormic put his backpack in the bath with his sleeping mat. He decided to just keep a water bottle handy with a small wrap of food in his side pockets. He also took out some metal tools which he placed in a small carry bag, which he would carry on his shoulder.

Keller, who was eating from a food wrap, noticed that Cormic had a fish-knife, a hammer and a bar used for levering. He was also packing what looked like a leather harness with wooden hand grips attached to long lengths of twine. He put his head through this harness, brought it around his shoulders and tucked the rolled lengths in the waistband that came with the harness. It looked like he was ready to pull a cart with it.

He told the watching Keller that it was easier to wear it than carry it. Keller also noticed that he had two solar plas lights that he had traded for at the Arpo. These powerful torches were a marvel and only needed an hour of sunshine to provide almost a full night of light. Keller knew that he would have had to sacrifice a lot during this trade. However, it extended the amount of time he could safely track down any remaining treasures whenever he visited the old towns.

Travelling more lightly the pair left their new temporary home and climbed a nearby wall, making their way over to a well laden apple tree. There was plenty of choice, and although many seemed to be maggot ridden there was enough choice to pick some decent apples. They took two each which Cormic scanned. “Just in case, you never know.”

They made their way to the old highway nearby. They paused occasionally to take in the surroundings before moving off again.

Keller wondered about a large concrete structure that sat on the side of some collapsed buildings. It had clearly been larger than most dwellings.

“What was that for?”

“That’s a vehicle storage area, Keller. It will have been stripped of anything useful a long time ago. Our best bet is to seek out the properties that had underground storage. Many of them are windowless and have not suffered the same invasion of plants, however some have filled with water and are fruitless to search in.”

“They must have had a vehicle each”.

Cormic inclined his head as though imagining this. “They probably did. Didn’t seem to do the much good in the end though”, he mused, “they had vehicles for fighting too.”

“Yes, Tanks. With giant guns on top,” recalled Keller from a story his aunt told him from one of her books. She had probably meant to teach him a sober lesson from history but in truth it just gave him nightmares at the time.

They continued along one of the old highways, sometimes following animal tracks through the undergrowth. They stopped after an hour or so for a drink and surveyed their surroundings until they came to some taller ruins.

“These ruins either side of us look like the concrete market places that I have seen elsewhere in this town. The upper floors have collapsed, but they are vast inside. Maybe the lower two floors are intact. Let’s have a look in here - but keep your wits about you as you enter as the vegetation may hide pits or holes of various kinds.” With that, Cormic headed towards the ruins with Keller keeping up just behind him and already deciding to walk in his footsteps to keep safer.

As they clambered over the ruins and into the darker areas, it became difficult to see ahead. Cormic passed Keller one of the solar plas lights. “Tuck it into your tunic for now. If you think you are going to fall, make sure this light has a soft landing as it’s probably more valuable than the two of us put together,” he remarked ruefully.