TWO

 

 

It took her ten minutes to walk up the dirt road before she crested over a slight ridge. She was sweating and now wished she had brought along her canteen instead of leaving it on the bike. It wasn’t much after ten in the morning and it was already getting hot.

And walking with her hands in the air was never an easy task, especially going uphill as she had been doing.

Ahead she could see the five buildings of the compound, all well-maintained. Three single-story houses and two tall-peaked barns sat in a cluster with some fenced-in chicken areas to one side. The fences on those were tall and strung between solid poles, more than likely in an attempt to keep out mountain lions that roamed these hills.

She kept her hands in the air and kept walking toward the compound.

After another hundred paces, a man and two women stepped out of one house and moved to meet her. All three carried rifles, but had them cradled in their arms or down in one hand.

The woman on the right Angie recognized as Bettie Collins from photos. The woman on the left was her sister Bonnie. They had both lived in a small town to the east of here. She had no idea how they survived the Event. They must have been in a deep basement or something at the time as Angie had been.

The tall, very thin man in the middle Angie didn’t recognize, but he looked to be about her age at thirty and had intelligence in his eyes that didn’t seem to miss anything.

She instantly had a bad feeling about him. Instantly.

That was unusual.

None of them seemed at all worried about meeting a stranger. That wasn’t normal in these situations either.

All three of them were dressed in jeans, light shirts, and work boots and all their clothing looked new and clean.

As they got within ten steps, the three stopped and Bettie signaled for Angie to stop and she did.

She was about ten yards from the tree line and very much out in the open.

“Put your arms down,” Bettie said. “That had to be hard walking like that.”

Angie did, smiling and rubbing her shoulders. “I’ve done it numbers of times, but it never gets that much easier. I’m Angela Park, but everyone just calls me Angie.”

“Everyone,” the man asked, clearly puzzled and not introducing himself at all.

Angie nodded. “That’s what I’m here to tell you about. Civilization is slowly rebuilding. Portland is one of the five cities picked to be one of the centers. I’m just out trying to inform everyone about what is happening.”

“How many people are in Portland?” Bettie asked.

Angie shrugged. “Last count about forty thousand.”

“Forty thousand,” Bonnie said, breathlessly.

The man didn’t even flinch.

Angie nodded. “And your Aunt Carol is there and knew I was coming out this way and told me to send her best wishes. She survived as well.”

Angie thought both Bettie and Bonnie were going to collapse right there, but both managed to take deep breaths and then look at each other.

Angie was starting to feel that something was off here. She wasn’t sure, but her little voice was starting to get worried. These people were not reacting in the way that survivors on their own normally reacted, which was usually with fear and then relief that civilization was rebuilding.

“Since civilization destroyed itself one time,” the man said, “why is everyone so fired up to rebuild?”

“Humans had nothing to do with the Event,” Angie said. “It was an electromagnetic wave that came out of deep space and swept over the entire planet. The scientists who knew it was coming thought it would be harmless. Turns out it was at a certain frequency that fried something in our human brains and everyone who wasn’t either underground or protected behind steel died instantly and painlessly. It did not harm equipment.”

“How do you know all this?” he asked.

“May I?” she asked, pointing to her back pocket.

He nodded and didn’t raise his rifle.

He should have raised his rifle.

Something was very off.

As she pulled out three folded sheets and offered them to him, she glanced around looking for the three others who lived here to be in positions to kill her at the guy’s signal. If they wanted to, she was as good as dead. She was a good ten running steps from the nearest shelter.

Bettie stepped forward and took the sheets, then stepped back and looked at the papers, handing them to the others one at a time.

“That information was recorded from the International Space Station,” Angie said, staying on her practiced patter. “We finally got the men who were up there down a year ago, and used a couple existing rockets to resupply them in the meantime.”

All three looked at each sheet. Bonnie held onto them when they were finished.

They had no questions at all.

Under normal circumstances, they would have questions. A lot of questions.

What the hell was going on here?

Angie took a deep breath and kept going. “The third sheet is a summary of what is happening in Portland and around the world, when the first major election will be for both Portland and the United States. And so on.”

“Seems very civilized like,” the man said.

Again Angie pointed to her pocket. “May I?”

The man nodded and Angie pulled out an iPhone and charging cord and a paper list and offered them.

Bettie again stepped forward and took the iPhone, charging cord, and paper.

Then she stepped back beside the man.

No comment about how useless it was, nothing. More than anything Angie wanted to just turn and run, but more than likely if she did that she would be cut down from the hidden guns of the others.

“Cell towers are now working along the Interstate Five route from Portland down to Eugene and all around the Portland area,” Angie said. “That’s a list of numbers you can call for more information if you go down near the freeway. And your aunt’s number is on there as well.”

Nothing. Not one bit of comment at all.

Angie had every alarm bell in her body going off. She had to get out of there and get going now!

She smiled. “Nice chatting with all of you. I hope you decide to stop into the city when you get a chance. It’s very nice.”

She raised her hands and stepped backwards.

“I don’t think you’ll be leaving just yet,” the man said, bringing his rifle up and aiming at her.

Bonnie and Bettie did the same.

Behind her, she heard a man huffing. She glanced over her shoulder to see a man pushing her bike up the road. “This is a nice ride,” he said as he got over the crest of the small rise.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

“We never allow visitors to leave once they know we are here,” the man said.

“We have to protect ourselves,” Bettie said.

“We are so sorry,” Bonnie said.

But to Angie she didn’t look sorry at all. More than likely numbers of people had stumbled into this place and were buried in back somewhere, which is where she was about to end up.

Why had she ever thought she could do this job alone?