Tom wasn’t sure if it was the cold, the ache in his bones, or the pressure in his bladder that woke him. Either way, he saw the sky growing lighter in the east. Time to start moving again.
He stood to go behind a tree, probably a short distance away from the others. There was no need to disturb their sleep; they all needed the rest and the day would be long.
He jumped and turned when he heard, “You’re up too, eh?”
Carlos stood, leaning against the tree where he had rested the night before.
“Yeah,” Tom answered after regaining his wits. “I’ll be back in a bit.” He made a slight waving motion and moved off into the woods a bit.
By the time he returned, the others were stirring, stretching the night’s stiffness from their achy joints and muscles. “I guess we should eat and drink anything we plan to and then get going. Now that we got light, we should be able to make good time.”
Juanita and Pedro each disappeared in a separate direction to find their own trees. While they were gone, Carlos fished some deer jerky and walnuts from some bag.
Tom had always been impressed with Carlos’ practicality. It made sense, Carlos was a bit older and, therefore, more mature. Nothing seemed to throw the man; he was always ready. Tom guessed that Carlos must have been born shortly after the Storm, maybe even as the Storm was going. He would have been one of the earlier people born with spots. Who knows what that would have been like.
From the stories Tom heard, people first thought the spots were a sign of disease or poisoning. The spots always meant the baby would grow up small. They called it a birth defect. For some people, the spotted babies were just in need of care. Other people decided that the spots meant the baby was wrong somehow and needed to be destroyed. As time passed, that all blended into the separation of the two groups: those with spots and whose without. The ones without caused the massacre in the camp down in the valley.
He gnawed on a piece of jerky, trying not to think of what he had seen the day before. Nancy and the others would want a description. He would have to relive the imagery, look at it again in his mind. When she finally heard it all, when she made it clear that he described it enough, he would bury those images in the depths of his head and never think about it again. The Plainos often used alcohol to make memories go away; he may have to try that.
With breakfast over, the four stood for a moment to signify that the rest period was over.
“We should probably go,” Juanita said.
They each shouldered their bundles and started uphill through the woods.
On the Hill
Oliver and Noah woke and joined Will and Jimmy. They looked out over the hilltop.
The two second-shift guards were still there, sitting on the ground, each facing away from the hole. They held their bows across their laps, an arrow ready but not nocked.
“There are a few others in the ground that have bows,” Will said. “I think the total, including the guards, is five. That shouldn’t be too much trouble.”
He gave a moment for the others to add anything relevant. With nothing coming, he continued, “It’s almost sunrise.” He nodded to the brothers, “You two go get the horses and lead them up here as quiet as you can. If we can ride out there quick, we can take them by surprise.”
The Vanier brothers rolled back into the woods and were gone.
“What’s the plan, Will?” Jimmy asked.
“Boss Henry brought us down here to wipe out a Spotty menace. There’s a bunch of them down in that hole. It would take a lot of valuable bullets if we shot all of them. I got a better idea. We’ll get them when we open that door..”
Jimmy nodded his understanding. He didn’t smile, or show any other emotion. It was just a job to be done.
Nancy had lain awake for a while, watching the dawn slowly drive out the stars. At the end of her guard shift, she found a place near a small fire, but that had died to ashes. The morning air chilled her nostrils, and the thought of getting up seemed unpleasant. Still, there were things to do and no one else was going to do them.
A shot echoed through the hole. A firearm!
She jumped to her feet, grabbing her bow and feeling for an arrow in her quiver.
The sound of horses, hoofbeats and neighing, surrounded the ground above the hole. That’s where the gunshot came.
All around, people screamed and either stood to find what was happening or curled up to hide.
Herman Junior fell into the hole, knocked by a man on horseback.
In a matter of minutes, four Plainos on horses had taken position at each wall of the hole. Every one of them carried a rifle.
One of the men called down, “Throw your bows out or we will shoot every damned one of you!”
Nancy pointed her bow at the one that spoke. She was sure she could take him. Just loosening her fingers would put an arrow through his neck and he would be done.
Looking around, she saw that she was the only one in a position to fire on the attackers. Mary and Oak held their bows, but not ready. Herman Junior was still recovering from his fall. Heman stood where he had been on guard, but with no bow in his hand.
It was hopeless. She could kill the one Plaino, but the others would shoot her dead before he fell off his horse.
She lowered her bow and un-nocked the arrow. The Plainos had won. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and threw her bow out.
Seeing her action, the others with bows tossed theirs as well.
The one who had spoken earlier called out to the others. “See, boys, there’s nothing to worry about with these Spotties. Those farmers may be afraid of these diseased little freaks, but real men aren’t.”
The Plaino nearest to Herman nudged his horse toward the guard and pointed with his rifle first to Herman then to the hole. Herman took the hint and climbed into the hole.
All the spotted people were now in the pit with no easy way out and at the mercy of the horsemen.
The speaker continued, this time toward Nancy’s people. “You get the honor of helping us with a little exploration. Since you don’t have that rusty door open, I’m guessing that you don’t know how to open it yourselves. That means you get to help us open it and we all get to see what’s inside.”
Nancy knew about the door. She never really wondered about the other side of it. All the things about the house were from before the Storm, and many things from that time no longer mattered. Some were even dangerous, especially if they were damaged or if you didn’t know how to use them. If it wasn’t food or shelter, Nancy didn’t have much use for it.
“I need all of you to move away from the door, and gather up at the other end,” the man continued. “Come on, now, move!” He fired another shot into the air.
A couple of the captives screamed, but they all rushed away from the door, crowding against the far wall.
“Now all you Spotties stay where you are while my boy takes care of a few things.”
Nancy watched the Plaino nearest the door dismount. He tied a rope to the saddle of his horse and dug some packages from pouches carried by the horse. He then walked to the side of the hole and tossed the free end of the rope in.
A moment later, the man was in the hole. He stood before the door, looking it over. Stepping forward, he ran his hands along the edges and the hinges, searching for something.
Nancy assumed the large wheel in the face of the door would open it. She thought about suggesting that to the Plaino, hoping that if they could open the door they might go away. No, she thought, the Plainos always took too much pleasure in hurting her people; they weren’t going away anytime soon no matter what happened with the door.
The man took some sort of mud from his packages and packed it in around the hinges of the door. He unraveled some thin rope from another package and buried the ends into the mud. He tossed the rest of the coil up out of the hole. He seemed to inspect his work and then climbed out of the hole using the rope tied to his horse.
Nancy watched all of this, suspecting something bad was going to happen. She tried to ignore the people gathered around her. Some cried, others muttered to each other, speculating about what was going on. Still others just stared at one thing or another, having given up on hope.
The apparent leader of the Plainos spoke again. “You stay where you are. We are going back a little to work our magic.” He always liked how references to magic could keep simple people cowed. “If you go near the door, the magic will probably open you up instead of the door, and that would get real messy.”
In unison, the Plainos urged their horses away, going around the hole and back to where they had been the previous night.
Oliver, the one who had been in the hole, led his horse instead of riding. As he walked, he unspooled the fuse along the ground, careful not to pull too tight. Pulling too much might yank the detonators out of the plastic explosives. Boss Henry made sure that only trained people could handle fuses, detonators, and the like; the materials were just too rare and the good ingredients couldn’t be manufactured again yet.
The fuse spool ended about twenty feet from the hole.
Oliver stopped at that point. Noah rode by and took the reins of Oliver’s horse, leading the animal away. Oliver knelt on the ground, getting his tinder box ready and waiting for the others to get to the treeline and cover. As soon as they were there, he would light the fuse.
Looking Ahead
As they approached the hilltop, Tom and company decided to scout the situation. Leaving their bundles safely behind, they prepared their bows and stalked toward the rendezvous.
Near the treeline, they heard the shot. Freezing for a moment, they looked at each other. None of them knew any of their kind who had firearms, but they all knew what firearms were. Left over from before the Storm, they were tools of destruction, and the Plainos coveted them. A shot on the hilltop meant only one thing.
“Come on,” Tom whispered, fitting in as much urgency as he could.
They risked more noise in trade for speed.
At the edge of the clearing, they stopped and hid. From behind a tree, Tom watched as Herman climbed into a hole in the ground. There were four Plainos on horseback, another thing Plainos loved, and pointing firearms into the hole.
One of the Plainos seemed to be shouting something, but Tom couldn’t hear it well enough.
“What are they doing?” Pedro asked.
Tom answered as best he could without being loud. “I think they got our people down in that hole. They’re probably holding them prisoner.”
“Why would they hold them prisoner?”
“I don’t know,” Tom answered. Images from the camp flashed back into his mind. There were no prisoners there, but there had been a lot more Plainos. Maybe with only four of them, there weren’t enough bullets to kill everybody. Tom knew that firearms can run low on ammunition. Maybe the Plainos were just waiting for more Plainos to arrive. He didn’t want to say that out loud.
Carlos slid up close. “Any ideas?”
Tom thought for a moment. His usual tactic was to run away and hide, but that was just to save himself. Trying to save a bunch of other people was a new thing. “No,” he answered. “You?”
“They’re too far away for our bows to be reliable right now,” Carlos said. “We can see if they decide to get closer and then kill them. I only see the four of them. Do you think there are any more?”
They all looked around the clearing and listened for sounds of horses.
“I think there are only the four right now,” Pedro said, “but they may be waiting for help.”
“Ok,” Tom said, “I don’t think we can do anything right now without getting shot. Let’s wait a while to see if they get into bow range. As soon as they do, well,” Then he thought for a moment before turning to look at the others. “That’s my plan, so I’ll do it. If you don’t want to, you might want to get away while you still can.”
Each met his gaze and then they all turned to look at the clearing again.
They watched as one of the Plainos climbed into the hole. A few minutes later, he climbed out again. The loud one shouted something. Then, they moved away from the hole, three on horseback and one on foot but leading his horse. Their direction brought them in the general direction of Tom and the others.
With his right hand, Tom placed one finger to his lips to suggest that they be very quiet. Then, waved his fingers, telling them to move toward where the Plainos would meet the woods.
His heart beat increased, becoming loud in his ears. It made him aware that if he made any noises, any stepped-on twig, he wouldn’t hear it. That made his fear worse. They only needed to move about thirty feet, but it was a long thirty feet but a short distance for a Plaino gun.
The three Plainos on horseback neared the treeline, dismounting as they did. Two of them handed the reins of their horses to the other. He led all four horses further in the woods. The remaining two men laid down on the ground, covering their heads.
The fourth Plaino, the one who had stayed in the clearing, did something with a thin rope on the ground, stood up, and ran toward the trees as though filled with fear.
Tom saw Pedro pull away, following the Plaino with the horses. That left the other three, one each for Tom, Juanita, and Carlos.
Faring raised his head to watch Oliver. He knew that he needed to be facedown when the explosion happened, but the thrill of watching was too much.
Oliver stood and began his run. Faring and Jimmy made sure to leave a wide, clear space for when Oliver came in, because he was going to be in a hurry.
The smoke of the burning fuse rose in the air, forming a trail toward the hole. In a few moments, the door hinges would blast away, sending shrapnel through those Spotties in the basement. A few bullets would take care of the survivors and then he and his boys could dig around in that vault.
He watched Oliver stop. The brother fell forward, clutching at his chest. That was wrong.
He heard Jimmy grunt beside him.
He tried to rise up to check his friend, but something hit him in the back. At first, it was just a pressure, like he had been hit with a stick, then the pain came. It was in his back, or maybe his front. No, it was both. He tried to push himself up, but moving his arms caused pain to flare through his back.
Carlos stomped on Faring’s head as he ran toward the smoking rope. “¡Mierda!” he cried while running. In his youth, he had seen fuses used. He remembered what waited at the other end of that burning line.
Running as fast as he could, he got to the fuse five feet from the edge of the hole. Fumbling to get his knife out of this pocket, he dropped to his knees a couple of feet past the burning end. With his knife finally out, he grabbed the fuse, and cut it.
He tossed the lit piece away from him and then slumped, his shoulders hanging down.
Tom and Juanita jogged out to him.
“What’s wrong?” Tom asked.
Carlos swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Big boom,” he said, holding up the remaining end of the fuse.
Tom’s held tilted to the side, not understanding.
Juanita walked over to the smoking strand Carlos had tossed. She kicked it a little to see it better. In a matter of seconds, it had burned up.
Carlos stood and turned to the hole. Together with Juanita and Tom, they walked to the edge.
They saw Nancy and the others all gathered to the far end of the hole.
“What’s going on?” Tom called. “Were there just the four of those guys or were there more?”
Nancy took a deep breath and let it out fast. Things had just gotten better. “We only saw four of them.” The muscles of her shoulders and back loosened.
Tom heard the sound of horses from behind him and turned.
Pedro emerged from the trees leading four horses by their bridles.
Turning back to the hole, he said, “That’s how many we got. It should be over.”
A New Dawn
With a little work, everyone got out of the hole. Most moved into the shade and comfort of the trees. Pedro and Juanita led a small group to get the gathered supplies from the old camp. They took the horses to use as pack animals.
“You guys were lucky I came along when I did,” Carlos told Nancy.
“What do you mean?”
He smiled. “Don’t you know what they were doing to that door?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think it was anything good. They were going to open it somehow. I think opening it was going to kill us.”
Carlos made an exaggerated nod. “That’s right. They put plastic explosives on the hinges. It would make a big boom and send pieces of the door out at everybody. It would be like being shot by a hundred guns.”
Tom asked, “Do you know about that stuff?”
Carlos shook his head. “I only know a little. I know it is very dangerous to play with.” He smiled. “I think I have an idea.”
Five minutes later, the door fell open. Some of the people came out of the woods to see what was left.
Much of the basement was damaged. The walls, which had survived the Storm itself, collapsed. The sturdy blocks no longer held the soil back, so it flowed into the opening, pushing a few of the remaining blocks with it. The collapsed places made it easier to walk into and out of the hole, acting much like a steep stream bank.
The vault itself went deep into the hill to open into a large room. The room contained shelves and bunks made of metal. Nancy’s people looked through the materials there. Much of it had rotted, but there were still plenty of useful things. The shelves held containers labeled ‘shelf stable” foods. There were medical supplies. Some of the blankets were still useful. Large tanks contained water. The water was good but the tanks were too large to carry.
The vault also included firearms and ammunition. These guns were different from the ones any of them had seen. They seemed to be more complex, more dangerous. Noone was sure what to do with them.
“Maybe we should figure out how to use them,” Tom said.
“Are you willing to get hurt trying to figure them out?” Nancy asked. That question chilled further thought of the matter.
“But we can’t leave them here for the Plainos to find,” Carlos said. “They will use them.”
In the end, they decided to break what they could, smashing and bending the firearms themselves. For the ammunition, they set about disassembling the rounds, pouring out the powder into a large pile in the middle of the hole. Once they were completely finished with the vault and the hole, they tossed a torch onto the pile, watching it flare into the sky before burning away.
Fed and rested, the group gathered under the trees to shelter from the late morning sun. Nancy called them together to discuss what to do next.
“We all faced dangers in our lives. Now, as we get further from the Storm, it seems everyone is getting together into groups for their own survival. The Plainos build their villages. Now there are groups like Silus’ people. For a while, our camp in the valley was a good place, but we didn’t prepare to defend it. It’s gone now. From the descriptions of what was left, I don’t think we can go back there anymore.”
There was a general nodding and murmuring of agreement on that. Just the short descriptions given by the reconnaissance party was enough to put a chill in the others. It was the type of story that would cause nightmares for generations.
She continued, “Carlos says he knows of a forest to the southwest that is too hilly for farming. That means the Plainos don’t want it. We could live and hunt as we like, but we may have to put up defenses to keep it for ourselves and people like us. That’s where I’m planning to go. I can’t make you go with me, but you are welcome to come along.”
Lutz, one of the first volunteers rescued, asked, “Who put you in charge?”
Nancy rolled her eyes. This was why she always kept to herself in the woods. “Nobody put me in charge. I’m not in charge. I’m specifically saying that I’m not telling you what to do. I’m saying that I, myself, am headed to this forest. I’m telling you that you are welcome to go wherever you want, but if you want to go where I’m going, that’s ok by me.”
One of the others shouted, “Sit down, Lutz. You’re the one who talked us into going with that Enoch woman.”
Lutz looked around and saw a consensus in the expressions of the others.
The one who put Lutz in his place raised his hand and said, “I vote that we follow Nancy and make her our leader. She and her friends have kept us alive so far.”
That was not what Nancy wanted. The past couple of days had been exhausting. Just realizing that it had only been a couple of days was even worse; it seemed like a long week.
The gathered people seemed to agree with the suggestion and were saying so. “Let’s follow Nancy.” “Nancy for queen!” “Nancy for president!” “I’m with Nancy.”
Carlos stepped up behind Nancy and placed his hand on her shoulder. “It looks like you have a people to follow you, whether you want it or not.” Then he stepped in front of her and held up his hands to the group. “Ok, I think we all agree, Nancy is our leader. That fact that she is reluctant about it means that she will do a good job.”
Pedro stood up and asked, “So, is it just the people here now, or can other people join us?”
This caused a murmur in the group until they slowly turned to look at Nancy, awaiting her answer.
“It looks like your first royal decree, your majesty,” Carlos said to her with a grin.
Nancy scowled at him. Then she looked across the crowd. They really were looking to her for an answer. “We may have to make a case by case decision. In general, I think we should let anyone like us join. If Plainos join, we would never be able to trust them and it would just cause trouble.” Something else occurred to her. “We also have to watch out for groups like Silus’ but we should probably warn everybody about them too. I know I would have liked it if someone had warned me.”
The heads of the group nodded agreement like the seeds on tall grasses blowing in the wind.
She knew they would keep asking her stuff and she would rather just get going. “We should probably start on our way. We’ll head southwest, but may need to adjust depending on what we run into. I don’t think any of us want to get into any fights, so let’s stay very hidden and very quiet. We want to stick to the woods and move through so nobody knows we’re there. Is everybody good with that?”
Somebody from the group called out, “We’ll be like elves in old fairy tales.”
Nancy had never heard of anything like that. “What are those?”
“Fairy tales were old stories to entertain children and teach them moral lessons. The elves were magical forest creatures that could disappear and reappear as they wanted to. My mom had a bunch of books with fairy tales that she read me when I was little.”
Nancy wasn’t a believer in magic, but she liked the idea.
Lutz piped up again, “Yeah, they used to have them in adult fantasy stories too, before the Storm. The place I grew up, some of the adults read the books out loud at night, and sometimes they played games with the same characters. Their elves had bows and swords and cloaks to help them hide.”
It was good that everyone understood the idea of hiding and living in the woods, even if that understanding came from stories about magic creatures. Hopefully that would help with their trip to the forest, if they ever got started. “Ok,” Nancy said, “We can be elves.”
Pedro added his part, “Why in English elves? We have things like that too. Why not call ourselves los duendes?”
This brought more murmuring in the group.
Nancy meant that they could emulate the behavior of the fairy tale elves, not that they would call themselves elves. The extra discussion was delaying the departure again.
Carlos saw the frustration on Nancy’s face and decided to intervene. “Everybody, listen up.” He gave them a moment to focus on him. “There is a compromise with English and Spanish that will be close enough. We can call ourselves ‘los elfos’ or use whatever you want. Either way, we should probably discuss it when we camp tonight. For right now, I think Nancy wants us to be on our way before any more Plainos show up to find their friends.”
The thought of more Plainos put a strong motivation in the new Elfos.
“Thanks,” Nancy whispered to Carlos.
“De nada, Elf Queen.” The grin on Carlos’ face stretched nearly to each ear.
Ever After
Within half an hour, the group calling themselves “Los Elfos” began their trek toward their new home.
At first, they were not as quiet or as hidden as the elves of fairy or fantasy stories. Having those stories as a model, and having a name for themselves, helped them build those skills as a culture.
They also made use of superstition and fear to keep their lands safe. Once established, few outsiders would venture willingly into the forests of these secretive beings. An intruder was sure to disappear, never to be heard from again.
By the end of the Engineer Wars, eight centuries later, the Lovelo Kingdom was a formidable power in the world, they were just hard to find.