Radio Hope (Toxic World Book 1) (14 page)

“City to Base Two, Clyde here.”

“Large force seen coming through the pass. Sentries report numbers in the thousands. We’re pulling back. Farmers left six hours ago. Enemy moving slow enough w
e should all get away. We’ll reach you by tomorrow afternoon. Enemy will arrive at the city by the following morning. Over.”

Clyde turned and looked at Marcus, who suddenly had the horrible realization that he was being deferred to for a decision.

“Um, yeah, tell them to come as fast as they can,” Marcus blurted out. “Send a general alert out to all outlying farms.”

Clyde stared at him for a moment before turning to the microphone.

“Base two, confirm evac. Take all food and essential supplies. Put the rest in predetermined hiding places. Don’t leave them anything. Over.”

“Confirmed. Base Two signing off.”

Clyde slumped over the microphone, then looked out the window. Marcus did too. The Burbs had gone quiet. The guards the scavenger had posted in various places were the only ones standing outside.

“Now what are they doing?” Clyde asked.

“I don’t know, but I know what I’m doing,” Marcus said. “I’m calling another citizens meeting. We got some hard decisions to make.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

They’ve found Radio Hope.

Jackson let Annette’s words sink in.

It was like a dream come true. The one pure organization in this world, a radio station that broadcast i
nformation everybody needed without asking for anything in return. No false charity like The Doctor offering medical care in exchange for acceptance of the class system, but real help for everyone regardless of their station in life.

Jackson had
always yearned to meet the people behind Radio Hope. He wanted to be one of them, learn from them. He imagined a dedicated group of scientists and engineers striving to build a better future, an egalitarian community of educated proletariat. And now he was going to really meet them!

His enthusiasm died as he
looked at the woman who had revealed this to him. Why was she on this mission? She wasn’t a citizen, wasn’t even an associate, but like everyone else in the Burbs she wanted to be.

Was that it? Had Abraham Weissman offered her a place inside the walls?

And then there was Mitch and Ha-Ram: both citizens, both working for Abe, both tools of the worst capitalist in the region.

Suddenly he realized what this was all about. Information is power. He’d told Abe that once, when the rich bastard had offered to trade for his topo. Looks like Abe had taken it to heart. If he could find Radio Hope, he’d have access to the riches of their knowledge, and not just what they freely transmitted, but their equipment and their
personal expertise.

Then another
thought struck him. Abe had the only other radio station on the air. If he found Radio Hope, he would try to wipe it out, have his own monopoly on information.

Not on my watch.

Jackson turned and continued walking back to the campsite. Annette walked beside him. She looked like she wanted to talk about it, but what was there to say? She was on the other side. Even though she hadn’t been told what the real purpose of the mission was, she was like everyone else in the Burbs, eager to please their citizen masters in order to get a place inside the walls.

He had
felt sorry for her last night when she woke up with nightmares. He got plenty of those himself. Yet that same fear inside her, from whatever crap she’d lived through in this ruined world, that would only make her more desperate to get a little more safety.

Jackson shook his head at the irony of it. The ruling class wipes out its own power structure with a century of wars, nukes, biological agents, and toxic waste, and the fear of those very things put
s them right back on top.

No, he couldn’t trust Annette.
She was the most dangerous of the three. Mitch was tough but dumb, Ha-Ram was smart but weak, while Annette was both smart and tough.

I’ll have to watch her, and when we do find Radio Hope, she’s the first one I’ll have to take out.

The next day they entered the pass. Jackson and Annette said nothing to each other or the others about what they knew. Jackson wondered how long Mitch and Ha-Ram thought they could keep their destination a secret. And what would happen when they found Radio Hope?

Abe sure isn’t going to want someone like me knowing his plans. I
wonder if he told them to off me? He’d get silence plus my topo map.

Information is power, Abe, information is power.

He checked his pistol—Annette’s pistol—and found that he only had a dozen rounds left.

I’m seriously outgunned unless I can get the jump on them.

Not yet, though. Not before we find Radio Hope. The map is too large a scale for that dot we drew to be enough. We’re going to need to use Ha-Ram’s direction finder to search for it once we’re in the area.

Jackson cursed himself for not being a better observer, and for not being as technically capable as he’d like. Ha-Ram had nearly figured
out how to use the topo just from a few minutes of looking at it. Staring at the simple radio detector, Jackson had been baffled by all the dials and switches.

Father would have figured it out. He could figure out anything with pistons or wires. Wish I had inherited more of that.

The next day they made it to the pass. They had seen no one. It was unnerving. Jackson had been to the two northern passes and the land between New City and the mountains was dotted with fortified farmhouses and broad fields. The old roads were kept clear of the biggest obstacles and there were fortified outposts in strategic locations. There were people and the semblance of civilization. You could light a campfire at night.

Here all was eerie silence save for the sloughing of the wind. Now that
they were further from Toxic Bay the land was healthier and could have been cultivated, but being cut off from the relative safety of New City it remained abandoned.

Jackson looked around. There should at least be some scavengers. Had everyone already fled from the threat of the Righteous Horde?
What if they were up there in the mountains somewhere, ready to sweep down and turn north, passing through the city, ignoring its toxins in their mad faith and then descending on Olivia’s village?

What was she doing right now? Had she done as he asked? She had an independent spirit, it was something he admired in her, but that same independence could cost her her life.

The pass was a narrow cleft between sheer mountains. The old highway snaked up the side of the northern, left-hand cliff face. The way was steep and the road blocked by the remains of several avalanches. They slogged up the incline, panting and sweating.

“You ever hear of horses and mules?” Ha-Ram asked.

“Yeah,” Jackson said.

“I wish they hadn’t been killed off in the Biowars. We could use some right now.”

“I wish that every time I go on my water run.”

Annette laughed, “
My son wishes there were still dogs. One of his kid’s books is about a boy and his puppy. Thinks it would be nice to have one in the house.”

Jackson looked at her. “You have a kid?”

Annette’s face took on a happy glow. “Yeah, his name is Pablo. He’s ten.”

Jackson’s heart sank. He didn’t know Annette had a child. She hadn’t mentioned that before, and hadn’t mentioned any husband either, something women usually did when they with a group of men.

I might have to get into a gunfight with a single mother?

They came to a point where the highway
had once crossed a deep gorge at the bottom of which a river sprayed across jagged rocks. The bridge was shattered. The little concrete that remained was blackened by some explosion.

“Shit,” Mitch said.

Jackson took out the map and studied it.

“Judging from where that point is that you’re so interested in, we’re going to have to continue on this road for a while. There’s nothing for it but to go down to the river and
climb back up again. There’s another bridge a little further on. Hope that one wasn’t blasted too.”

“Can we even cross here?” Ha-Ram asked.

Mitch scanned the bottom of the gorge with his binoculars.

“We’re in luck,” he said at last. “There are big chunks of the bridge down in the water. Looks like we can hop from one to another.”

Annette looked at the sky. “It’s already late afternoon. We won’t get to the other side before nightfall.”

“We’ll camp by the river. Give us a chance to refill our canteens,” Mitch said.

“What if the Righteous Horde decides to march along the river instead of taking this highway?” Ha-Ram suggested.

That was a disturbing
thought. Jackson looked at the map again. The river meandered through the gorge, making several hairpin turns. The elevation lines on either side ran so close together as to be almost a single black band.

“No,” he said, folding the map away. “The river is almost impassable. They
might try it, but they’d get back to the highway soon enough.”

“Assuming they’re even coming this way,” Ha-Ram said.

“I think it’s best to assume they are and to be on the lookout,” Jackson told him.

“I agree,” Mitch said. “Let’s get going.”

They picked their way down the steep slope, careful to avoid the many areas where the incline was gravelly and treacherous. It was an exhausting descent, but they made it safely to the bottom. They camped there that night, sampling the water and finding it clean.

The next day they clambered over the fragments of the bridge. It was impossible not to get wet from the spray. At one point Ha-Ram
slipped and only grabbed onto the stone at the last minute. Even so he was soaked to the waist.

The wind had turned bitterly cold and once they got across they had no choice but to stop, risk a fire, and dry themselves.

“We’re going to be spotted for sure,” Mitch grumbled.

“Only if there’s someone to spot us,” Jackson said, trying to convince himself that was the case.

With the delay it was almost dark by the time they made it up the other side of the gorge. They found a side valley in a turn in the road and camped out of sight.

The night was frigid but they didn’t
dare light a fire. Jackson was grateful for the knitted gloves he’d traded for at the market just before leaving. They were a bit thin, so he kept his hands stuffed in the pockets of his gray overcoat and wrapped his blanket around him. The others were better equipped and he looked with envy at Ha-Ram’s warm winter coat and Mitch’s and Annette’s thick blankets.

Jackson had first watch that night. Night came quickly in the mountains and while the summits were still mantled in the deep blue
of dusk, the valleys had grown pitch black. The cold distant specks of stars peeked through scattered clouds.

A crescent moon shone through the ravine where they
lay. A little pinpoint glinted on its surface at the border between light and shadow. The International Lunar Station. Seeing it always filled Jackson with a deep sense of loss. It had been one of humanity’s greatest achievements and now it was a tomb housing a few dozen skeletons in spacesuits. To have gone so far and to have lost it all.

Jackson stood up
, feeling restless. The others had just lain down and weren’t asleep yet.

“I’m going to go to the main road and take a look,” he announced. “Back in a minute.”

“Careful walking,” Annette said.

“It’s only a quarter mile. I’ll go slow.”

He had to. The jagged rocks clawed at his ankles and more than once he almost sprained himself. He thought about turning back but decided to go on and check out the main road.

He was glad he did.

As he stepped out onto the cracked asphalt the wind moaned through the crags and he clutched his blanket more closely around him. He looked up and down the pass and stopped short. A point of light twinkled further up the pass on the opposite side. It was hard to see in the dim light, but it appeared to be located by the side of the road.

A campfire, a campfire set by someone bo
ld enough not to care if they’re seen.

Shit.

He hurried back as quickly as he dared over the rough terrain and told the others. They all came to the road and checked it out.

“Yep, it’s a campfire all right,” Mitch said, looking through his binoculars.

“Looks like we’ve found the Righteous Horde,” Jackson said.

“Not much of a horde,” Ha-Ram
said.

“Probably an advance
scout,” Mitch said. “It’s a pretty big fire, so there’s probably a big group up there. And who knows? There might be more fires we aren’t seeing, if they’re camping in a side valley like we are.”

“We should go back and warn the city,” Annette said.

Mitch looked at her. “We got other things to do.”

“The point you want to go to is beyond that campfire,” Jackson said.

“You’re the one with the topo, find another way,” Mitch said.

“Warning New City is more important than finding. . .” Jackson caught himself, “. . .than your boss’
s scavenging.”

“We got our orders,” Mitch said stubbornly. “We go back now and the deal’s off. Your toxic bitch gets to stay where she belongs.”

Jackson took two steps forward and put his face inches away from Mitch’s. The baker glared back at him. For a moment neither moved.

Annette stopped it.

“Fine, you’re both tough. You both have big dicks. Now back off. We have more important things to worry about.”

“I don’t see what we can do about it right now,” Ha-Ram said. “Let’s go back and get some sleep. We’ll need it.”

Jackson went back on watch while the others slept. After a couple of hours Annette started tossing and turning. She sat up with a curse.

“Whatever it was, it’s past,” he told her.

“Don’t pretend to know me, Blamer.”

Jackson snorted. She was polite enough most of the time, but try
to get personal and the claws came out. Did she think he was hitting on her? Olivia was the only woman he wanted. Even if he was single he wouldn’t make a play for her. Annette wasn’t bad looking but she was ten years older. Besides, there weren’t many women who could look beyond the brand on his cheek and Annette sure as hell wasn’t one of them.