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“Each settlement becomes a tribe. Each tribe must join into a chiefdom of sorts to share essentials and keep the population diverse. At this point, I don’t think we can plan larger than that.”
History of a Changed World, Angus T. Moss
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NICK SETTLED INTO HIS usual armchair in Angus’s meeting circle. Coffee and sweet biscuits graced the center table. He knew that there would be some scolding, but Angus would have to admit that a good amount of information had come out of this sojourn. Over at his desk, Angus sorted through a mountain of papers and notebooks apparently unaware of Nick’s arrival.
Martin entered, talking on the radio, checking in on his men. Wisp came in behind him. They were meeting late in the evening, when most of the settlement was sleeping, so the biobot could attend. Tilly came next. She went right to the tray and started pouring coffee.
Wisp accepted a cup from her. “Thank you for the furniture.”
Nick grinned to see Tilly flush.
“It’s the least we can do,” she said before turning back to her pot.
“I haven’t had a bed to sleep in for a long time.”
Wisp’s statement sent a dark shiver through Nick. He hoped the biobot would stick around. Things were getting dangerous and his skills would be needed.
“Angus, let’s get this started,” Tilly called to him.
He limped over to take his favorite chair. Nick was surprised to see him without his walker. He sat with a grunt, dropping papers. “So where does this leave us?”
“No Stew-goo,” Nick said.
“With the grain and animals from Holly Hill and the cheese from Creamery, our crops, and the train food we’ve already stored, we will get through the winter very comfortably,” Tilly announced.
“With more refugees?” Angus asked.
“We can send some on to Holly Hill. And Istvan said that he will be in touch with the cattle rancher. They might be willing to take some people. He also said that he and Rosa might be willing to take on a few people themselves, since George is staying here.”
“And if we have more than that?” Angus pushed.
“Then we deal with it. I have the numbers worked out. I will know ahead of time when we will have to start rationing food,” Tilly assured him.
Nick didn’t like the sound of that. It was clear to him that people would be desperate to find safe haven for the winter. Without the train food to fall back on, it could get ugly. “Food will be currency.”
Martin grunted his concurrence. “I’ll be looking for more men for the Watch.”
“Dieter has requested a room to start a hydroponic garden,” Angus said. “It might not add a lot, but it would be helpful to have things growing during the winter.”
“Extremely helpful,” Tilly said giving him an annoyed look. “When did this come up?”
Angus gave her a guilty shrug. “Just after dinner. It’s just in the planning stage.”
Nick took one of the sweet biscuits. It had cinnamon in it. He wondered where that had come from but was very grateful for it. “I want to go after the pressgangs.”
Angus rolled his eyes. “We cannot be the policemen for the whole country, Nick.”
“With the plants shut down now, why would they still be grabbing people?” Martin asked.
“Stew-goo is down, but we didn’t try to find the Crunch factory. Since they never collected the grain from Holly Hill, I’m going to bet they had similar problems: lack of guards, people escaping. But we can’t be sure how many plants there are.”
“I think the call for workers will decline as will the need for the pressgangs,” Angus said.
“We need to stop them and find the parents and look for more missing children.” Nick insisted.
“We need to get ourselves ready for the winter,” Tilly countered. “That means we need everyone at home. We had trouble here while you were gone, Nick. If you or Wisp had been around to help, it might have been avoided.”
“What kind of trouble?” Nick asked. He refused to feel guilty for things beyond his control.
“Tilly had to shoot a guy,” Martin said.
Nick looked at him then over to Wisp, who gave him a stern look, and back to Tilly. “Everyone okay?”
“No,” Tilly said, her voice filled with anger. “Two dead and two wounded. People were scared. They don’t feel safe.”
“They feel safe now,” Wisp said.
Tilly shot him an angry look. “At this moment, because everyone is back.”
Nick sipped his coffee waiting for Tilly to calm down a little.
“I’m afraid I have to agree with her, Nicky,” Angus said. “We need everyone right now to put our security measures in place here, at Creamery and now Holly Hill. We’re not just on our own anymore, and we are spread thin.” He raised a hand forestalling Nick’s objections. “If as you say, the factories are failing, those people will return to their homes. The Barberry Cove parents will come back and look to us for their children.
“I spoke to Halsted again. They will be opening the lines soon. Continental first. He was alarmed to hear about the failure of the Stew-goo factory. His people get their food from the same place. That means the train people will be looking for new sources. I told him we could feed Frank and his wife.”
Tilly huffed out a sigh.
“I didn’t offer to take on anyone else, but it may come down to that.”
“We need to start new farms,” Nick said.
“That can’t happen overnight,” Wisp said.
“No,” Angus agreed. “We stumbled along here for two years before Lottie arrived to help us with the crops. And we still made mistakes. We have some farmers now that know what they’re doing. We need to train a few more and start homesteading.”
Tilly barked a harsh laugh. “You yell at Nick for trying to police the country. But you want to take over the country’s food production.”
“Do we have a choice?” Angus asked. “People will starve without the train food. Refugees will overwhelm us if we don’t have a plan. Frightened, hungry people turn into raiders very fast.”
“That’s gonna happen whatever we do,” Martin grumbled.
A gentle tapping at the door interrupted them. Nick saw Ted waiting at the threshold and waved him in. “Problem, Ted?”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping,” he said, hands raised in apology.
“The meeting isn’t a secret,” Angus said. “Your brother prefers the wee hours when most minds are quiescent.”
Ted grinned. “Quiescent. What a lovely word.”
“What can we do for you?” Nick prompted.
“Ah. I heard some of your discussion, and it dovetails with my own message. Wisp said to let him know what I needed. And I have realized that I need to be on the road. I need to continue the search for lost people. I can send them on to you, or perhaps bring them back from time to time if that is all right.”
“By yourself?” Tilly asked, her forehead creasing with concern.
“I will welcome anyone that wishes to join me. I thought of Toad, but he’s happy working with your Master Forager. Nixie might. She is still not ready to settle.”
“Everett, too,” Nick added. “He’s a little too footloose to stay put.”
“I think that will work for the nonce,” Angus said with a wink at Ted. “Please wait a day or two, so that we can see who else might like to join you. I would prefer for you to be well prepared for all contingencies. Tents, supplies, a vehicle, we will make a proper plan.”
“I, I...um...” Ted looked to his brother. “I can’t lead a mission.”
“It won’t be,” Wisp said. “It will be whatever you need it to be.”
Nick had to agree with Angus. Having Ted go searching would relieve some of his own uneasiness. Having Ted supplied well and with guards made better sense. And he would move so slowly that Nick would have chafed at the pace.
Ted took a step back, then bowed. “Thank you.” He hurried out of the room.
“I’ll send someone along to send us reports,” Martin said.
Tilly pulled a notebook out of her pocket. “I’ve got a long list of things we need bartered,” she said pinning Nick with a sharp look. “And you need an apprentice.”
“It would also be good to check in on those settlements we barter with. We can send along people if they are undermanned.” Angus tapped a paper in his lap.
Nick bowed his head in surrender. He wanted to get back out there to get more intel, but he had to admit that the answers he’d gotten hadn’t matched most of his questions. Checking in on his regular route would have to do. And now that Angus had brought it up, he worried about them. He needed to sit down with the Travelers and go over a list of settlements that might need help.
Angus dropped a paper, distracting Nick from his thoughts. The old man scooped it up from the floor without a grunt or wince. “How’s your hip?” Nick asked.
A smug smile bloomed on Angus’s face. “Nearly healed.”
Tilly sat up. “How is that possible? It’s too soon. And at your age...”
“It appears that some of the combined elements of the vaccine and virus have caused accelerated healing,” Angus said with a grin. “Nice to have a beneficial side effect come out of all of this.”
Nick checked the thin cuts on his wrists from being tied up. They were healed. He ran a thumb over the smooth skin on the inside of his wrist. There wasn’t even a scar. “Huh.”
“Ruth has been keeping records. She said people are healing at record rates.”
“Is there a counter problem?” Wisp asked.
“Increased appetite and thirst,” Angus said. “But I believe, now that my healing is almost complete, that my appetite is returning to normal.”
“That might be something we need to factor in,” Tilly said. “If we had another battle and people were wounded−“
A racket in the hall cut her off. Snowball burst through the door with both puppies on her tail. The little cat scampered under a chair, leaped into Nick’s lap, jumped to the arm of Wisp’s chair and bounded up to the back. The puppies crawled under the chair and circled the meeting yapping excitedly.
Nick grabbed one puppy, and Martin scooped up the other. “Noisy little buggers, aren’t you,” Nick said, patting the wiggling pup.
“I’m going to train these two,” Martin said smiling. “A couple of watchdogs are a great addition.”
“And both female,” Nick added. “If there are any feral dogs in the area, we’ll have puppies of our own in a couple years.”
“And kittens,” Wisp said as he lifted Snowball into his lap. “They might be barter items, also. Holly Hill grows grain. They might need a barn cat.”
“Best to separate them to prevent inbreeding,” Angus said as he made a note. He looked around the circle with a somber gaze.
Nick felt a shiver of anxiety. Now what was he going to tell them?
“I don’t want to raise hopes,” Angus began. He paused for so long that Nick wanted to shout at him to go on. “I think...with our latest connections...and with some luck...we may have a better foothold going into this winter than I had feared.”
Nick relaxed. There would be raiders and lost children and bad weather and accidents, but it looked like they would all survive until next flu season.