The Survivors of Bastion (Fall of Earth Book 1) (6 page)

              ‘Hey!’ I shouted up to him, and he turned his head.

              ‘Hey yourself. Can’t believe I’ve got guard duty while you throw the best feast this town has had in ages.’

              ‘Come on down,’ I said. He did a double-take, looking at the plate of food in my hand before climbing down the ladder, the rifle strapped over his shoulder shaking as he took each rung. ‘Here.’ – I handed the plate of food to him, taking off the extra portions I had brought for myself. – ‘Go have a good time with everybody else. I’ll look after your post till the end of your shift.’

              ‘Seriously?’ Robbie asked incredulously. ‘Why?’

              ‘Because you’re my little brother, and this is what big brother’s do.’

              Robbie took the plate from me and smiled, admiring the food before looking back up at me.

              ‘Thanks, Tommy…’

              ‘Go on, get out of here,’ I smiled, ‘before I change my mind.’

              Robbie handed me his rifle and I took it, and my food, up to the lookout post, getting myself seated.

              Over the space of the next ten minutes or so I made my way through the portions of food that I had brought, savouring each bite and wondering how the hell Sam and Laz had cooked the deer so well.

              The information I had from the past came only from the many books that we had salvaged from buildings over the years. Out of all of these, the history one’s were always my favourite. We had become comfortable beings only to find ourselves devolving, and when we returned to the old ways of survival of the fittest, like I used to read about, most people were fucked. I didn’t even consider anybody in our place to be the most evolutionarily fit – Marcus, maybe, but genetics wasn’t what civilisation was about. It was about helping each other, and anybody was capable of that. The citizens off Bastion kicked ass at it.

              Many of the books I had read talked about hunters and gatherers, and the methods they used. That was what we were at heart, and there was something enjoyable about that. We had gone back to a more authentic point, even if we had had to sacrifice numerous luxuries in order to get here.

              I finished up my food and took up my rifle standing up on the small, fenced lookout post and examining the land. The sun would be up for a few more hours, but when darkness came there was little way to tell what was happening. We didn’t have nearly enough resources to run electrical lights all night – if anybody thought they saw anything approaching we had high-powered torches that could be turned on brief periods to check, and a sketchy alarm system that seemed to decide of it’s own accord whether it wanted to work or not.

              But I had no doubt it was better than what most people still alive in the world had.

              I took the rifle off from my over my shoulder and raised it slowly, looking through the scope.

              The world magnified again, and my surroundings brought themselves closer as I examined the place for any sign of movement.

              ‘Playing make-believe, are you?’

              I jumped from the sudden sound of the voice, unquestionably female, smacking the scope against my eye before spinning around and looking down to the base of the ladder.

              Hayley stood below, two plates of food in her hands as she laughed at my misfortune.

              ‘Smooth,’ she said. ‘I was gonna get some shut-eye after my shift, but I couldn’t resist coming for some food. Asked Robbie where you were and thought you deserved an extra helping.’

              ‘Thanks,’ I said, leaning over the guardrail and taking the plate from her as she held it up. The food was piping hot and smelled delicious. ‘Aren’t you gonna head back to town?’

              ‘Well, I
was
gonna leave your ass here all alone, but then I realised that we haven’t had an actual conversation in ages. And seeing as talking is one of the only recreational activities in this world of ours, that seemed like a bit of a crime.’

***

I hadn’t laughed like I did that night with Hayley in a long time.

              ‘You remember when we got that old TV working for a little while?’ She laughed, running a hand through her hair, ‘Only we would end up finding that it belonged to some black and white movie aficionado. What was it that we watched? That one where the guy gets turned into a giant and goes crazy and throws the giant syringe at the doctor and it ends up impaling him?’

              ‘
The Amazing Colossal Man
’ I laughed, ‘and Rudy had already fucking seen it!’

              ‘Oh, God, I know…’

              ‘It was a good day, wasn’t it? Half the town grouped around that TV with the sound turned up all the way.’

              ‘Yeah…’

              We both went quiet, and in the evening light we caught each other’s eyes. Hayley took a deep breath and smiled at me.

              ‘D’you ever think…’ She started, trailing off. ‘D’you ever think anything might have happened between you and me?’

              ‘What do you mean?’

              ‘You know… You and me giving things a go.’

              ‘You mean getting together?’

              ‘Yeah.’

              I took a deep breath too, looking about myself, anywhere but at this beautiful twenty-something woman sat across from me.

              ‘I read one of these books my mom had in the house a few years ago. It was a recent printing but it was written in the 1800s. There was this bit where this man asked a woman to marry him after they’d known each other for like a week. Like a business deal. When I asked my mom how that worked she said that people back then had much shorter life expectancies, and they just got on with things rather than dying alone in their 30s. Things were sped up. Now… Maybe things will be similar to how they were back then. I don’t know how long we all stand a chance of living. Pretty old, I reckon, assuming nothing gets in the way…’

              ‘That a yes?’ She asked, ‘Or are you just gonna keep spouting philosophical-historical bullshit at me?’

              ‘I think something might still happen,’ I smiled.

              ‘This is so weird,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Talk about this stuff like we’re looking in on ourselves from the outside, all these customs and stuff…’

              For a moment she paused, scrunching her mouth to one side as if she was thinking about something really complex.

              ‘Well, if you wanna muster up the balls to ask me out sometime, or you just wanna hang out, give it a go. I might say yes.’

              I laughed again, running a hand through my hair.

              ‘It’s funny,’ I said.

              ‘What is?’

              ‘Earlier today, while I was with Carl, he told me that he liked Maria. I said that going on dates in the ruins of civilisation didn’t exactly work, but tonight he just went over and shook her brother’s hand and sat down with them.’

              ‘Guys got balls,’ Hayley said. ‘For a girl with a brother like Marcus, I’d stay the hell away.’

              ‘I thought the same thing.’

              A pause.

              ‘You’re pretty sweet, Tommy. I know we’ve been friends for ages, and I wouldn’t want anything to come between that. So, on second thought, maybe we should just leave it for the time being.’

              Hayley stood up from where she sat, making her way to the ladder and setting off down it.

              ‘And this isn’t me walking away pissed with you. I’m serious. I like everybody in Bastion, but you’ve got something else to you. See you later, anyway.’

              I told her goodbye and stood up on the lookout post, watching her walk back into town where I could hear the bustles of sound.

              ‘And stop looking at my ass, you fucking pervert,’ she shouted back, a smile on her voice as she turned the corner and headed out of sight without looking back at me.

              For the record, I wasn’t. Seriously, I wasn’t.

              I looked out over the fields once again, the sun having descended considerably since Hayley had come and gone.

              I took a deep breath before smacking the flat of my palm against my head.

              ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid…’ I muttered. Why I hadn’t asked her out months ago was beyond me. Dating in the new world might have changed, but everybody needed somebody, and right then I knew that I needed Hayley. I felt the same way as she did about me – she was a small saving grace in this world, a laughing retreat from the stresses and the worries of everything else.

              Looking out towards the patch of forest, I remembered the treehouse we had built a few years ago with Robbie. It would still be there, maybe a little less sturdy, but standing.

              Speaking of stresses, though, I remembered another thing.

              The body was still in the patch of forest next to the farm.

Chapter Seven

Night Work

‘Didn’t think that you were Robbie.’

              ‘I’ll take that as a compliment, Rudy.’

              ‘How the fuck did I end up pulling the night shift, anyway?’

              ‘Everybody gets fair distribution of shifts. It’s on a cycle, you know this.’

              ‘True.’

              I jumped down from the lookout post to the ground below, checking the safety on the rifle and handing it over to Rudy. He felt the weight of the gun in his hand and a smile appeared on his weathered face.

              ‘Still a damn good meal you threw there, Tommy.’

              ‘Don’t worry about it. How’s everybody doing?’

              ‘Most are headed to bed. Gettin’ late.’

              ‘Think I’ll join them,’ I said, faking a yawn. ‘Glad you had a good night, buddy.’

              ‘Night, Tommy.’

              I made my way back through the streets, wishing goodnight to Sam through the Kitchen as he tidied up, Leah as she headed inside, and every other one of Bastion’s citizens that I passed. The tables were still set up in the street leading up to my house – they could be sorted out tomorrow. Tonight had been a night for celebration and feasting, not for more work, except for those who were already scheduled to do so at the lookout posts.

              They were going to be my biggest obstacle that night.

              Darkness had almost completely fallen over Bastion by the time I got inside. I checked on Robbie and my mother – both were fast asleep after the festivities, getting a good night’s sleep for yet another day tomorrow. I had something in the way of that right now.

              Such was the price of keeping so many people safe and away from worry.

              Quietly, I stepped outside into the garden and back around to the shed. One of the many practices we had kept the same since the downfall was where we kept our manual work equipment – every shovel, trowel and pitchfork was in there, and I needed the first of those.

              After retrieving it I returned to the house and took up a few slices of bread and a jug of water and retreated to the living room. I lit a candle and sat and waited, eating as I did.

              One of the things that had been so difficult to get used to after the utilities shut down and we had to come up with our own means of power was the silence. We had no shortage of solar panels, of course. These we had salvaged from various houses that had them installed in the area, but the power they supplied was still nothing in comparison to how much the world had consumed before. We still used them when we needed to, feeding out generators, but the candle was simply something of personal preference. I enjoyed the warm, orange light that it gave off. It reminded me of a nightlight that had kept me safe in my childhood for so many years.

              Darkness finally fell upon Bastion as I finished my meal up and took my plates back to the kitchen. I licked my fingers and burnt the candle out, suddenly finding myself engrossed in darkness. I fumbled about quietly, retrieving my gun from the lockbox and, making sure that I had a tight hold of it and the shovel, both slung over my shoulder on straps, finally stepped outside the front door.

              Without street lights you wouldn’t believe how dark the world becomes at night. During the summer months, like the one’s we were experiencing at that time, the nights weren’t as dark as those in the Winter, but without intervention from human forces you could usually only see a few feet in front of you with some clarity.

              Everything else descended into blurs – and that was going to work both in and against my favour.

              Quietly, I made my way through the streets. There was nobody about – we had no curfew, as it was something I was strongly opposed to – but at night you could usually expect people to be inside.

              Except for those at the lookout posts.

              Then again, though, being the head of the community meant that I knew a few ways in and out of town that others didn’t know about.

              Along the wall Carl and I had passed through earlier that day, I found the centre point, furthest away from both posts. Seeing as the wall was composed of the wrecks of old cars, that meant that they weren’t completely absent of holes. There were certain points where there were gaps just big enough for a human to fit through, and I knew the best.

              It was just through the door-void front end of an old Camaro, a space blocked up on the outer side by a loose section of sheet metal that I very carefully and very quietly shifted aside in order to make my way to the other side of the wall before replacing it.

              Now I was out there, something separate from Bastion, from my community. Those on the outposts, the closest to me being Rudy whom I had passed a few hours earlier, relied largely on their hearing to detect possible intruders. They were equipped with torches, of course, but these were only used in the event that they thought they had heard something.

              With Rudy being something of a weapons aficionado – I’d stretch to even call him an expert – he had a lifetime’s experience under his belt of firing guns and setting off explosions. This had left his hearing in less than great shape, much like Larry’s, although his was more a product of old age.

              Despite his hard of hearing nature, I still across the field through the corn as silently as I could, hurrying through the walkways so as not to flatten any before rushing into the forest.

              I had made it… All I had to do was complete my job and make my way back in.

              As I crossed through the forest so that I wouldn’t be seen, it occurred to me that somewhere up above was the treehouse. It had been so long since Hayley or I had been back here – it had only been two years ago, but even so it felt like a lot longer than that.

              I didn’t stop to search for it. In this darkness there was no chance of me seeing it, and right now I had more pressing matters at hand. With the view of me blocked by the trees, I plodded on through the forest, making my way to the next patch of field, across which was where I had left the body.

              At night, beyond the walls, every sound appeared to me as a threat. Above, the leaves on the branches rustled amongst each other in the wind, and every time there was a sound in the undergrowth I had to tell myself that it was just a squirrel or some other animal.

              I crossed the field in the dark quickly, unhesitatingly entering the next patch of forest. I knew where the body was, and as I approached it’s vague outline in the dark I found myself slowing down in my footsteps. The flies had already begun to buzz around it in small numbers, and while the smell wasn’t yet that bad a small part of me was thankful for the darkness that blocked my view of him.

              It was as good a place as any to bury him – I was enough of the way into the forest that I could cover the place of burial with leaves and shrubbery. Even if anybody from Bastion came wandering through here, they wouldn’t find any sign of it.

              I checked the safety on the rifle before carefully setting it down nearby. I returned to the burial spot, using the blade of the shovel to outline the six-by-two foot spot, and stopped for a moment, balancing my hand on the wooden end of the long shovel and standing there in the dark.

              It had happened so fast… This man had probably been just as desperate as we had in the early days, eating whatever animals from the forest that we could find while subsisting of nettle soup and wild berries. It had occurred to me somewhere in the years leading up to this point that we may have become shades of our former selves – our life goal was to build things back up to the way they were before, to how we lived, with limitless supplies constantly at hand and so that we would want for nothing. We had all taken it for granted, and only realised how important it was to us once that it was all gone.

              My conflicted mind, of course, stemmed from the fact that the more we gained, the more we had to lose. At that point, I also realised wat my mother and father used to mean by ‘corrupt politicians’, and why they were so protective over what they had.

              In a way, I was corrupt – I was holding the truth about this intruder back from the citizens of Bastion… But did they really need to know? What good would it do? Did it even matter?

              He had threatened one of our own, though, and I looked after my own.

              I took the handle of the shovel tightly in both my hands and thrust it’s metal edge deep into the soil.

***

Hours had passed by the time I had finally refilled the hole, getting past the ominous limp feeling of the man’s body as I pushed it across the ground, before it finally toppled down. I smoothed over the ground, covering the fresh dirt with shrubbery, sticks and leaves, until, by my reckoning in the dark, it looked just like any other area of the forest.

              During this time, as I worked away with the small sounds of the shovel and my heavy breathing, the sounds of the forest around me in the dim light had largely failed to register to my ears. I had heard next to nothing.

              Right then, though, as I shifted the undergrowth about to cover my tracks, there was a sound in the forest that was too loud to ignore.

              Twigs snapped every so often, and that didn’t shake me, but the sound of wood breaking and being crushed occurred, I couldn’t help but give it my attention.

              My heart raced infallibly as I dashed over to the rifle, picking it up and swinging the barrel up to face the forest in front of me, in the general direction of where I thought I had heard the sound.

              I tried to steady my breathing, but when burying a corpse out in the forest under secretive circumstances there comes a certain level of paranoia. I waited like that for the longest time, my eyes desperately searching the dark for some sign of movement, waiting for something else… But there was nothing. My eyes had adjusted plenty during the several hours I had spent there, and with them I perceived no threat in the slightest.

              Finally I lowered my gun, keeping it in my hand as I returned to the job at hand.

              When it was all over I stood there and stared down at the ground. He would be lost, now – nobody would ever remember him. He had survived the outbreak, but now he had been killed over the hunger that had come around… And above all of that stuff, he had been out there for fifteen years. Who knows where he had been living up until now? Why had he left his previous place? Was it just food? What kind of stories would he have had to tell? What kind of man had he been?

              Had he always been like that?

              I didn’t believe in a heaven or a hell any more after everything that I had seen… But, still.

              ‘I’m sorry it had to happen like this. You must understand that killing you was the last thing I wanted to happen, but you threatened the life of one of my own, and that isn’t something that I can let slip past me. These people trust me to look after them, and I intend to do that to the best of my ability.’

              I took a deep breath as I stood there in the quiet dark of the forest. I was about to leave, before I searched in the undergrowth for a stick and planted it into the ground, up right, at the head of the grave. It was big enough to matter, and small enough not to be seen.

              Retrieving my things, I set off back towards Bastion.

***

Getting back into the town wasn’t much of a problem – I copied the same method I used to get out, and it worked just fine for me.

              It was around midnight, and all was quiet. I made my way silently into the house and, in a change of routine, took the gun and the shovel upstairs with me, setting them up against the wall opposite my bed.

              I lit a candle on the bedside table and laid on the well-worn, comfy mattress, watching the long, thin shadows of the two items flicker in the orange light, my head propped up on a pillow. Somewhere in all of that the candle went out, and around that time my eyes flickered shut, as another day in Bastion came to an end.