Pennsylvania Omnibus (10 page)

“The ceramic and polymer resin produces a fine and
lightweight weapon,” Pook said.  “Once you’re used to it, you may like it even
more than traditional, predominantly metal guns.  I guess we won’t know for
sure that these are perfect until we’re forced to fire one, but we’ve done this
before and I’ve never had a problem.”

“I’m anxious to try one out,” Jerry said.

“I’m sure you’ll be put to the test soon enough, Jerry,”
Pook said.

“I can’t wait!”

“Good, then this one here is yours.”  Pook handed the last
pistol to Jerry as if he were presenting a ceremonial sword to a newly
christened knight.

“Really?” Jerry said, his face beaming.

“Really.”

“What about ammo?” Jerry asked as he snapped one of the
clips into place.

“We have our own underground version of that, too.  The
ammo we’ll use is constructed of a synthesized material made up of polymer
resin, ceramic, and okcillium.  All of those materials—except the okcillium, of
course—are easy to get on the black market and, luckily for us, here in the
City I
am
the black market.  Believe me, they didn’t have anything like
these where you came from.”

“I’m sure they didn’t,” Jerry said.

“The good thing is that these guns and ammo are also
undetectable by TRACER drones, which means we can go armed and shouldn’t
trigger any aerial attack.”

“That
is
a good thing,” Jerry said.

Pook opened an antique trunk, pulling out some old
blankets and sheets and tossing them to the side before removing a false wooden
bottom.  He extracted six or seven small white boxes and then replaced the
false bottom before closing the trunk.  He tossed two of the boxes to Jerry,
who began loading clips with the special ammunition from the boxes.  The rest
of the boxes Pook stuffed into a backpack.

“Load these in the same way as you’re used to, Jerry. 
Thirteen per clip.”

“You said something like that earlier,” Jed interrupted. 
“You said ‘TRACE resistance groups,’ or something like that.  Are TRACER drones
in any way related to these groups?”

Pook laughed.  “Yeah.  Like a bird dog is related to a
bird!”

“I don’t get it,” Jed said.

“Well, Jed, there’s probably a ton of stuff you need to
know, but we’re on a short schedule here and we’re going to have to get moving,
so I’ll need you to keep your questions to a minimum—but, since you asked…
TRACE, well, that’s us.  There are a few hundred of us in the City.  TRACE is
the resistance.  So when I say ‘us,’ I mean Dawn and me, the refuseniks, and
the people like us who fight in an organized way against Transport and their
schemes.  TRACER drones, those are the aerial drones operated by Transport that
hover in and around the city in order to find and kill people like us.  That’s
why they call them TRACERs.  TRACERs are designed to kill TRACE operatives. 
They track us.  Most of the drones are probably grounded right now with this
offensive going on.  At least I hope like hell they are.”

“You say they track and kill people like you?  People in
the resistance?”

“That’s right.”

“Are they ever successful?”

Pook shrugged and nodded.  “Yeah.  Yeah, sometimes they
are.”

As Pook and Jerry were stowing the guns and ammunition in
a large black canvas bag, Jed looked up and saw a face staring at him from the
dark shadows of the stairs that led up into the antique store.  Jed was
startled at first, and his heart jumped in his chest.  He was just about to
shout when Pook, who must have noticed the face too, yelled “Billy!” in a
good-natured way.  The face smiled back and the man named Billy came down the
stairs into the basement.

“Hey everyone, this is Billy, one of my minions.”  Pook
smiled when he said this, and punched Billy playfully in the arm.  “Not
really.  Actually, Billy is my best friend.”

“Hey everyone,” Billy said.  He didn’t look anyone
directly in the eye except for Dawn, and Jed noticed that Billy seemed to be
shy and unsure of himself compared to the confident and aggressive manner of
both Pook and Jerry.

“Hey Billy,” Jerry and Jed said in unison.

Dawn walked over and gave Billy a hug.  “Hey Bill,” she
said, looking up into his face.

“Hey girl,” Billy replied, smiling.

Jed noticed that Billy’s hand hesitated for just a moment
on Dawn’s neck as the two separated.  Billy nodded his head weakly at Jed, and
then stepped over near Pook and began to brief his friend.

“The other guys are coming, but they were delayed.  I left
Will upstairs to wait for them and fill them in on what’s happening.”

Billy ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. 
No one said anything for a full minute, and Pook just stared at Billy, waiting
to hear what his friend had to say.

“It’s madness out there right now, Pook.  Resistance
lasers and ordnance were hitting dangerously close to the safe house, and we
were scared we’d be killed by friendly fire.  So we got out of there and headed
over here.  Then a TRACER showed up out of nowhere and almost got us all.  We
were huddled in close together behind an apartment building when the TRACER
found us, and if we hadn’t seen it and reacted quickly it would have ended us
all.  After that we got separated, but I know the rest of them are heading this
way.”

“A TRACER?  Damn.  I thought they’d all be down,” Pook
said.

“I thought that too,” Billy said.  “The good news is that
the TRACER that almost nailed us got hit not long after that.  I saw it tumble
and go down over by Locust and South 2
^nd
.  Took out a house over
there, not far from the river.”

“Hopefully Transport gets the message and keeps the rest
of ’em grounded until this offensive winds down.”

“You don’t think the resistance will break into the
City?”

“Nah.  They never intended to.  This offensive isn’t the
real thing, although I have to admit it’s been impressive.  TRACE couldn’t get
near this place with an army sizeable enough to take the City.  At least not
yet.  Based on the mayhem that’s being caused out there, this has to be Rover’s
unit, and the SOMA has to be hands on, calling the shots.  But on the ground? 
Ten, maybe fifteen guys tops, causing this entire ruckus.”

“You’re kidding me,” Jerry said, rolling his eyes in
disbelief.  And who’s Rover?  And who is the SOMA?”

Pook looked at Jerry and just shook his head slightly,
indicating that he had no intention of answering those questions.  In reply,
Jerry nodded his head to indicate that he understood.

“Wow.  I’d have thought the whole resistance was bearing
down on the City,” Billy said.

“That’s what we wanted it to seem like,” Pook said with a
smile.  He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a cigar, loosed it
from its cellophane wrapper, and bit off the tip before putting it into his
mouth.  “But even I didn’t know it would be
this
devastating.  Transport
has to be in an uproar, messing their diapers over all this.”

“Why the fuss, Pook?” Billy asked.  “And why now?”

Pook produced a lighter from his pants pocket and held it
up for everyone to admire.  “Okcillium lighter.  One of a kind,” he said,
grinning and speaking with the cigar between his teeth.  He thumbed a button
and a strange blue flame shot up an inch high and burned brightly.  He placed
the end of the cigar into the flame and rotated the stogie slowly between his
thumb and forefinger, puffing large clouds of smoke into the air as he did.  He
held up the lighter again and smiled.

“There is enough okcillium in this lighter to blow up a
city.”

“That’s reassuring,” Jerry said, with a sideways glance at
Jed.

“The fuss?”  Pook took a long draw from the cigar and blew
the smoke straight up into the air.  He gestured at Jed with the thumb of the
hand that clutched the cigar.  “The fuss… apparently… is all about him.”

Dawn shook her head and waved at the smoke in the air,
trying to disperse it from in front of her face.

“Smoking is illegal.  You know that, don’t you cousin?”

“Everything is illegal, Dawn.  Besides, what’re they going
to do, kill me with a TRACER for smoking?”

“That and a million other things.”

“Then I guess the smoking doesn’t matter much, does
it?”

Pook then added, “I’ll be surprised if any of us makes it
through this day anyway.”  Only this time he said it so that everyone could
hear him but Dawn.

Jed stared through the smoke at Pook.  A hundred questions
crossed his mind, but none of them seemed to want to form on his tongue, or
break forth from his mouth.  He was a long way from his home in the Amish Zone
back on Earth.

Jerry, Billy, and Pook stood talking in hushed tones,
mostly about insurgency tactics and weapons.  Dawn noticed that Jed seemed out
of place and uncomfortable in the conversation, so she walked over to him and
pulled him to the side.

“Thanks again for—well, you know… when I broke down a
little up there,” she said with a smile.  “I really appreciate it, even if I
know it made you uncomfortable.”

“That’s okay,” Jed said.

“All of this is really overwhelming.”

“Yeah.”

“Probably more so for you.”

“Probably,” Jed said with a smile.

“Tell me about your farm back in Old PA, Jed.  What was it
like?”

Jed dipped his head and shuffled his feet, nervous to be
talking to a girl face to face, despite everything that had already passed
between them in such a short time.

“I don’t know.  What do you want to know?”

“Just tell me about your life there.  You know, what it
was like.”

Jed narrowed his eyes a little and looked up at Dawn.  He
wasn’t sure why she felt it was necessary to talk about his life.  He
understood that she was naturally curious, but his people were pretty private
when it came right down to it.  He was still suspicious of
Englischers
,
and although he had nothing but good thoughts about Dawn personally, she was
still an Englischer, and he still felt like he was reluctantly trapped in this
uncontrollable chain of events.

Jerry was right, Jed thought.  He’d not asked any of these
people to help him or fight for him.  Still, despite his discomfort, he
couldn’t help but feel glad that these strangers were willing to try to get him
out of the City and to his people.  It all mixed and mashed up together inside
him into a confusing puzzle.

“Well, ours was an old-fashioned farm, even for the
Amish,” he finally said.  “We didn’t have milking machines or any of the other
modern amenities that many of our wealthier, and maybe more worldly, neighbors
had.  My dad was… is… 
was
a traditionalist.  Real conservative.  We had
one milk cow and we milked her by hand.  Her name was Zoe.  Once I turned
eighteen and I was approved by the elders to emigrate here, I started training
my younger brother so he could take over the farm chores. We were a really
small family compared to most of the Amish, and there were a lot of chores to
do.  But we were a subsistence farm and not a business.  We produced what we
consumed and not a whole lot more.  For extra cash, my mother made baskets, and
on sunny days we’d sell them on the side of the road, and during the growing
season we had a little market garden.”

“That sounds nice,” Dawn said, smiling and nodding her
head.

“It was nice.  If there wasn’t such a land crush, I mean,
if there had been more land available, I would have gladly stayed.  My father
was a carpenter and made handmade furniture that we sold from the front lawn to
the tourists for exorbitant prices.  Englischers were glad to pay those prices,
and who were we to argue if God wanted to reward us for living a simple life by
having the English flock to buy our products?  Still, we were an old-fashioned
family.  We didn’t have a generator or even a propane stove or refrigerator. 
That’s simple and plain, even for the Amish.”

“That sounds so interesting, Jed.”

“Maybe.  I don’t know.  It was just the way we lived.  I
liked it.  I still do.  I can’t wait to get back to it.  After experiencing
this world over the past… however long it’s been… I think I’ll be glad to be
farming again.”

“You haven’t seen us at our best,” Dawn said.

“Haven’t I?”

Dawn blinked, but she didn’t answer.  They stood quietly
for a few beats, neither one of them knowing exactly what to say.  Dawn was the
one who finally broke the silence.

“So you’re eighteen?  I would have thought you were
younger if I didn’t know better.  You have a baby face.”

Jed scowled.  Not at all what he wanted to hear from a
pretty girl.

“I’m sorry, Jed!” Dawn said, laughing.  “I just mean that
you have a youngish look about you.  I’m not much older than you.  I’m just
barely twenty!”

“Oh” was all that Jed could think to say.

“Do you have a girlfriend back in Old Pennsylvania?” Dawn
asked, smiling and giving Jed a teasing wink.

“No.  That’s not really allowed.  At some point—
if
I’d stayed—I probably would have picked one out that I and my parents agreed
would make a good wife, and if she picked me too, we’d have gotten married. 
But I wasn’t really pursuing that kind of relationship back there.  I knew I
was coming here and I didn’t need anything holding me back or tying me down.  I
want to build a good, productive farm here.  If I meet someone down the road,
later on, then I suppose all of that will take care of itself in time.”

“Well now, aren’t you a free spirit, then?” Dawn said,
laughing.

“You tease me a lot, Dawn.”

“I’m just making conversation, Mr. Serious.”

“What about you?” Jed asked.

“What about me?”

“Do you have a… a… boyfriend?”

“Me?  No.  No.  I mean, I’ve had a boyfriend before, but
nothing now.  I’m like you—too wrapped up in this colonization business and
being part of the underground.  Haven’t had much time for love.”