Original Fiction: The Anarchist's Almanac, Episode 8

Joshua found one of the sentries and asked where he could find some coffee. Breakfast was being served in what had once been a café. Adam was already there. He looked like he hadn’t slept much. Joshua got coffee, bacon and biscuits and had a seat across from Adam.

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“Did you sleep?” Joshua asked, scraping a fork full of eggs off his plate.

The coffee was palatable and the eggs smelled delicious. They were.

“Not much. This whole situation has got me on edge. This man we found was connected to the feeling I had yesterday, and now I have a strong sense that this is far from over,” Adam said, sipping his own coffee.

He had a half-eaten plate of eggs on the table in front of him. “Hard to think of them enslaving Dwellers like that.”

Joshua paused before replying, “I’m not jumping to any conclusions, he said indentured, but he didn’t say forced. There’s a lot we don’t know yet. After I finish, let’s head over and check in on Vernon.”

Doc walked over and slid into the seat next to Joshua with his breakfast. “Your friend is awake. He slept for about six hours and seems to be doing a lot better. Jean asked me what you intend to do with him.”

“Do? Doesn’t he need to stay here under medical supervision?” Joshua asked.

Doc ate as he talked. “Nope, his lung puncture was internal, but the rib is reset, there’s not much danger of infection, and even if there were, I don’t have the tools for surgery here. We’d have to get him all the way to north Kansas City for that."

"If he needed emergency surgery, by the time we got there, he would be dead. So, no. And our tribal court has decided they would prefer he left blindfolded and as soon as possible, and I agree. He keeps saying he thinks they might be able to see and hear what he’s experiencing, and that’s no good. If they can do that, they can damn sure trace him, and we’d prefer not to take that risk.”

“Well, I suppose we found him so it falls to us to deal with him. That’s fine. Can we have an hour or two to formulate a plan? I’m sure we’d rather not march him into our tribe’s Settling either,” Joshua answered.

Doc picked up his plate and stood. “Noon was set as a tentative deadline. He’ll be ready to talk when you get there. I’d advise we get whatever information we need from him while we can. He’s stable and seems to be on the mend, but I can’t see the future.”

Doc left the café.

“Is it just me, or does he seem decidedly less happy to see us than he did last night?” Adam finished his coffee and picked up his plate.

Joshua followed his lead and they took their dishes over to a window where Doc had left his.

“No, you’re right. Probably just had time to think. This whole situation is interesting, but it’s dangerous too.”

They left the café and a sentry joined them, watching the sky as they stepped into the open to cross the street. The clinic had been moved into a garage at the end of Main Street and was running off of battery power.

Vernon was sitting fully upright and eating breakfast.

He seemed mostly recovered, but was still hesitant to look at their faces. To Joshua’s way of thinking, this was a point in Vernon’s favor, but just because he wouldn’t cooperate with the Consensus voluntarily, it didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.

“Good morning. You’re looking better,” Adam said. “How are you feeling?”

“Better, mostly. My ribs hurt like hell, but this breakfast is awesome. I don’t remember when I ate solid food last. Inside the Mag suit, it’s all liquid nutrition to minimize solid waste.” Vernon slurped his coffee.

“So, they kept you in the suit the whole time? How long were you in there?” Joshua asked. He had formulated a list of questions last night during his star gazing.

“It’s hard to say. I was out on rounds twelve times. Each round seems like three days, but before I was in the suit, I spent some time in stasis,“ Vernon said.

Joshua wasn’t prepared for that, but it seemed important. “Stasis? What was that for? Were you sick?”

Since the mid twenty-first century, most moderate to serious illness was treated while the patient was in a kind of suspended animation called stasis. It allowed the medical practitioners to stimulate the healing centers of the brain and shut down unnecessary functions to maximize the energy available to the immune and reconstructive systems.

“No, nothing like that. It’s a kind of psychological training. To ensure you won’t turn on them as soon as they suit you up."

Vernon finished his eggs and handed Doc the plate. He put his feet over the edge of the bed and pulled on a pair of socks and some pants that lay folded near him. Doc handed him a pair of rubber slippers that he put on his feet.

“They call what happened to me “recruiting” but what really happened, was they kidnapped my family and coerced me into taking a tour of duty in their new Magistrate’s corps. I was told that after twelve rounds, my family would be returned, and we would have a home in a Consensus City.”

Joshua watched the man, although Vernon looked away, he could see tears in the man’s eyes, “So, what happened?”

“Two days before you found me, they sent me into the Jackson’s tribal Settling, to take Jackson. I blocked the protocol and allowed him to escape, then told them I hadn’t found him.” Vernon stood shakily and Doc helped him slip on a jacket.

“They knew. They didn’t say anything, but two days later, we’re sweeping the elevator and I volunteer to go up, thinking since I had successfully blocked them out with Jackson, I could prevent them finding the printer and shop."

"But, about halfway up, one of the Seekers was waiting for me and shot me in the chest with a shoulder mounted rocket launcher. I think I flatlined for quite a while, because the next thing I knew, you were there.”

“So, they left you for dead? Why wouldn’t they just kill you outside the suit?” Adam asked.

“There was another incident about two months ago. We heard about it in training, and I didn’t think anything of it until now. A Mag Corpsmen was killed on a Settling run. They said it was Dwellers, that they had managed to find a cache of weapons and killed him. It made sense to me, so I didn’t think about it that much. Now, I’m pretty sure they’re telling the same story about me,” Vernon said.

“Can we go now? I don’t want to stay here too much longer, in case they’re tracking me somehow. These people have been so good to me. I'd hate to be the reason they get raided.”

Vernon sat in the middle of the truck and Joshua drove.

They stopped every mile or so when they saw adequate cover, so they could scan the horizon for drones. They spotted one about two hours into the drive, about three miles away.

They’d arranged with Eugene and John to meet them at another location to hear what they had learned and so John could scan Vernon for possible tracking devices before they took him in.
About halfway to their meeting place, they stopped and had lunch.

The tribe from Walton had prepared sandwiches. Vernon still hadn’t looked them in the face, and they were being very careful not to use names, or say anything that might be clues to their Settling locations. Joshua was inclined to trust Vernon completely, but Adam took him aside.

“I know you have good instincts, Joshua, but I still feel really conflicted about this whole thing. I’m starting to get a picture of what this leads to. Nothing I’m prepared to share yet, but it’s personally tragic for you. I don’t know what that means, and I don’t want to sound alarmist, but I think Vernon’s right to be careful. That's all.”

Joshua took it seriously, “Look. You've never steered me wrong, and you don’t do things for your own gain, like, ever, so I trust that what you are saying is legitimate. It’s also obvious that he’s concerned for us and our safety. I don’t think it’s an act.”

“I agree, I’m just saying, until Eugene and John can be relatively certain there’s no way this is all being transmitted back to some Consensus bunker somewhere….”

While they were finishing lunch, another drone flew over, much closer than the last one.

The three men were under thick tree cover in what had once been a city park. The truck was pulled up under the trees as well. The drone circled back, but seemed focused on an area about half a mile away, then left the area.

After waiting to be sure it was gone, they continued their journey.

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