It's Better This Way Read online

  “What happened to her?” Ellie asked.

  “Sandra? I don’t know, Honey. I never found her,” I said with sadness.

  Ellie jumped off my bed and ran over to my chair, climbing up in my lap and putting her arms around my neck.

  “I’m sorry, Evan,” she said, and I could feel little tears soaking into my shirt.

  CHAPTER 7 - Truth and Consequences

  When my week of rest was over, I packed my gear and headed to the main house to meet up with Tony and get our next assignment. Sometimes we would patrol the same route consecutively, sometimes we would get a different sector to range around in. The same sector a few times in a row would give us a keen eye for any changes since the last time we’d been through the area, and then we’d get a change-up to a different sector for a bit to make sure we stayed sharp. We’d talk to other scouts who were heading out if they were getting our sector or vice-versa to let them know of anything they should pay attention to.

  I mounted the steps to the main house and Jerry Glavin met me at the door before I could knock. Mom must have had him on door-greeting duty. Either he’d done something right and his gig was a promotion or a gold star of recognition, or he’d screwed up and this was to humble him a bit. I’d never bothered to listen to gossip about what went on in council or the even juicier rumors of what eccentricities Mom had. Some were about purported sexual deviances like orgies or multiple lovers at once. Some were about how Mom had a working generator and a ton of media equipment in a hidden basement and the council was privy to it. One I had overheard had to do with the council and Mom breeding some weed that could make you go blind.

  People would talk about anything, whether it was true or not. Worse, people would believe anything, true or not. Even after the bulls landed and almost wiped out our civilization, humans hadn’t learned much of a lesson. I suppose those of us at the Farm were a rung higher on the evolutionary ladder in the fact that we’d somehow found others of like-mindedness and had, even more amazingly, kept it all together and running mostly smooth for twenty years.

  But even within the borders of the illustrious Farm, humans were only one step ahead of those on the outside. The same petty arguments, gossip vines, and prejudices existed in here. We just had learned how to keep it in check to where it never interrupted the well-oiled machine of… whatever this was that we had. A democracy? A constitutional monarchy? A collective? I didn’t know. I didn’t really care. If someone couldn’t keep it in check, they were shown the gate.

  A group of nine scouts already waited in the dining room. I made ten, and was the last one to arrive. Mitch Duncan passed around sheets of paper to each scout. I was a little surprised at this, paper being a rare commodity these days with no paper mills and the fact that wood pulp products tended to have a short shelf life in this brave new world. I looked down at mine. It was blank. Confused, I looked over at Tony’s paper. It was blank as well. I thought for a second that maybe we were supposed to write down whatever Mom or a councilor told us to, but I glanced over at Shanna’s piece of paper. Her and her partner’s scouting path was clearly drawn through the Diamond Peak area, with a checklist of things to put eyes on or be aware of.

  The other scouts milled about, talking with Mom and the council members while Tony and I stood at the edge of the room still wondering what the blank sheets of paper meant. Finally the scouts herded themselves outside to begin their two-week journeys. Tony and I didn’t move from our spots.

  “Tony, Evan, come sit down,” Deena said, waving us over to the chairs closest to Mom. “You probably are wondering about the blank sheets,” she said after we sat down and the other council members pulled chairs in a semi-circle around us.

  “Have we done something wrong?” I asked. I had a fleeting moment of fear that we were about to be banished for some infraction, or maybe even for exploring the dropship crash.

  “Heavens no,” Mom said with a laugh, and everyone else joined in. “Evan, how long have you been here?”

  “I don’t know. Nine years maybe?” I replied, unsure.

  “What about you, Tony?” she asked my partner.

  “Twelve years.” He was as tight as ever with his words.

  “And have either of you ever broken any of the rules here?” Mom asked us.

  I looked at Tony, who just shrugged at me. “Yes,” I answered. I expected gasps of surprise or shock, but I decided if I was about to stripped and put out on the road, I wouldn’t go out a liar. No one gasped or even tittered. A couple of them smiled, while Ben Valera reached over and patted me on the back.

  “I figured you two would be honest enough to pass that test,” Mom said, shooting a look at Kim So. Apparently Kim hadn’t been so sure either of us would answer the question honestly.

  “And what rule or rules did you break, Mr. Galliardi?” Dana asked.

  Here it comes, I thought. The trial and the confession. Except they didn’t act like a pack of wolves about to tear us apart.

  “I punched Jed Myers in the face five years back after too much drinking and him turning me down for sex. I ate extra calories when I was a gardener.” Tony’s confession came out wooden, stilted. But he didn’t shy away from the truth.

  “And you, Mr. Greggs?” Dana asked me.

  “I beat the daylights out of Manny Rosa my first year as a gardener for getting too handsy with Cara Templeton,” I said.

  “That was you?” Tony asked me, surprising me.

  “Yep. Manny put his fingers where they weren’t welcome while in the dorms, and I put my fists where they weren’t welcome in his face.” I saw some of the council looking curiously at me, so I added, “I don’t think any person is obligated to give up something like that against their will under any circumstance.” When they nodded or just kept staring at me, I finished up my confession. “I ate extra calories all three years I was a gardener. I had sex with another man’s wife. Twice. Two different wives I mean. And I stole extra coffee rations on my third scout.”

  This one got a gasp from more than a few council members, followed by stern looks or whispers between each other. Coffee is the one thing they keep a close eye on, and even scouts are only allowed so much.

  “Oh knock it off,” Mom said to everyone. “Like none of you have done it.” This got her some accusatory stares, as if any of the council would ever stoop so low as to steal coffee, or break any rule for that matter. “None of you would be councilors if you hadn’t sat where those two are sitting, thinking, like you did, that they are about to be banished.”

  I looked at Tony with even more confusion, but he had the beginnings of a smile on his face. A few seconds later my brain finally put all the pieces together and I realized why we were given blank assignment sheets.

  “Yes,” Mom said to both of us. “I’ve had my eye on both of you for a few years now. Why do you think I paired you together as a scout team?” We stared at her, not knowing what to say. “The fact that you two found the crashed ship sort of made us speed up a decision that we’ve been discussing for the eight months that you’ve been on assignment. The fact that you sat here and told us the truths that could easily get you banished means you at least have the integrity to be honest when it counts. Then there are our visitors.”

  “Visitors?” I asked.

  “Yes, they have necessitated that you two be pulled off scout assignment and made full council members before you were sent back into the field,” Thad said from my left.

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “Understand this,” Mom said, looking from Tony to me. “Repeat this silly little oath and join us as council members. We have a lot to talk about.”

  The oath was less than ten words long. I was almost disappointed that I didn’t get some kind of special robe or headdress to wear, even though none of the other council members ever wore anything but their normal clothes.

  “Yesterday a delegation from the United States Army showed up along the southern Willamette Highway, traveling north,” Mo
m told us after we shook hands or hugged everyone in the room. “There’s four of them, and all four are wearing real Army-issue combat gear. The word along the network is that one of them is David Hamida.”

  David had been a ten-year man at The Farm, and had just walked off one day after coming back from a scout down south. His partner Vincent Mueller had walked with him. Neither said a word to anyone, but sentries and residents sent word along the network telling us they’d kept traveling south.

  “They should be here by tomorrow. They sent word ahead on the network to let us know they want us to call a full vote,” Jerry said.

  “Why would they want a full vote?” Tony asked, breaking his silence.

  “We don’t know,” Heika said from my right. “We’ve been trying to figure that one out ourselves.”

  “The reason we pulled you two in is we need experienced eyes and solid minds fresh out of the field,” Mom said, steering the conversation around to us again. “At least two of these gentlemen appear to be career military. One is David. The fourth one… we don’t know who he is, but he carries a heavy black case with him.”

  “Like… a bomb?” I asked.

  “It could be, but we don’t think so,” Jerry answered. “Though it gives us the same concern as you obviously just had, gathering three thousand or more bodies together and whatever might be in that case. But no, we think it might be tech. And while I’m sure all of us at The Farm would kill an innocent man just to listen to a song on the radio, to see even the worst movie ever made play out in front of us one more time, I can’t help but think this is a bad omen.”

  “Omen,” Mom snorted. “This is why you two were brought on board. A few of us are getting up there in years, and both of you have proven that you are solid, rule-abiding citizens—” there were a couple of snorts from others this time “—that are honest enough, skilled enough, and wise enough to help keep this shithole running for long after we are all gone by protecting it now and picking good replacements before your own times are up.”

  I didn’t know what to say. The ‘delegation’ coming tomorrow was worrisome only in that we didn’t know what they wanted, or even where they had come from. That these people were insane enough to believe a completely flawed human being like me was worthy of being given a position of importance where others would listen closely to me and make decisions based on what I said was the real worry.

  CHAPTER 8 - Army Greetings

  The soldiers coming up from the south became the big news around The Farm. Talk was everywhere. No one was talking about me or Tony becoming council members, which was fine by me. We had been offered slightly larger quarters to live in, but both of us refused. If I had a place any larger, Branda would move in without saying anything. She’d just show up one day with Ellie and never leave.

  Part of me was all right with this, as I’d get to have a hand in raising Ellie for more than just a week at a time. The other part of me knew that I’d be trapped with a woman I only somewhat liked, and definitely didn’t love. I liked having a warm body around for sexual release, but either I wasn’t ready to settle down with a woman yet, or just not with her. And they made me a councilor.

  The council spent the entire day putting the word out that there would be a vote after sunset. Mom made it clear to us that we should make it clear to everyone at The Farm that this was important, more important than passing judgment on an offender for a banishment. By mid-afternoon the entire complex was buzzing about the vote, everyone discussing with each other what they thought the reason for it was. Most figured it had to do with the soldiers that were headed our way. I hadn’t seen a real soldier in at least eighteen years.

  The last ones I’d met were a platoon on I-5 keeping the peace around Medford. They no longer resembled the clean-shaven, fresh-faced boys that joined the military for a college education or because they had nothing else to do except look young and innocent. This group looked like a bunch of old, unshaven men with dirty surplus store uniforms. Most soldiers had either been wiped out by the orbital attack on their bases and ocean carriers, and those that weren’t wiped out had more than likely silently deserted within a couple of months of seeing there was no fighting the bulls. That is, if they hadn’t deserted right away to try to make their way home and help out their families after the EMP’s and massive plasma bombardments.

  Just after sunset the four delegates arrived inside the main gate. The entire council greeted them, unarmed, but we had triple the amount of armed guards on both sides of the gates. We also made Mom wait inside the main house, just in case. The leader stood out from the rest. He was right at six feet tall, and he had a hard face with a couple of ugly scars on his cheeks and forehead. Under his helmet was a crew cut of iron-gray hair that matched the iron-gray eyebrows and stubble on his cheeks.

  I’d never been in the military, nor had much interest in military things, but I knew right away this man was a career officer. The way his eyes tried to take in everything without moving his head and the relaxed stance that would fool people into thinking there was no possibility of deadly violence that could erupt from him in less than a second told me all I needed to know. His eyes scanned each of us as he shook our hands and introduced himself and his contingent.

  “I am Colonel Eric Hardaway, United States Army, First Army Division out of Crater Lake,” he said at what I figured was parade rest. A couple of the older councilors gave him a hard look at the ‘First Army Division’ title. “The old United States military died the day of the invasion. We’ve regrouped and decided to start over since at least ninety percent of forces were killed on I-day.” He looked back briefly at the three soldiers behind him. “This is Corporal Hackett,” he said nodding to the soldier with the over-sized black plastic suitcase. “Sergeant Waters is my number two,” he said, nodding to the other soldier who looked career military as well. He looked like a killer to me. He was only slightly less hard looking than the Colonel. “And you probably know Corporal David Hamida.”

  We all nodded towards the three, then Jerry spoke. “Colonel, we are glad you have chosen to visit us, but we’d like to ascertain what might be in that suitcase your colleague is carrying.” When the Colonel gave him a frown, Jerry went on, “Seeing as how you’ve asked us to gather our numbers for a vote tonight, and we have no idea who you are or where you come from other than what you’ve just told us. No offense of course.”

  “None taken, Councilor,” the Colonel said, indicating with his tone and his eyes that there damn sure had been offense taken. “However, I’d rather not go into it here, out in the open.”

  “Colonel,” Deena Samuels said, stepping forward, “I assume whatever is in that case is what you’ve asked us to gather our numbers for?” When Hardaway nodded, she said, “Then you can understand that we have concern that it might be a bomb of some kind to wipe us out, can’t you? If not, then let me explain that the citizens of this area are not stupid, and it will be easier to gather more of them if there is something of interest to talk about as they are walking the roads to join us tonight.”

  Colonel Hardaway scowled at her for a fraction of a second, then gave a hand signal to Corporal Hackett to open the case. Hackett placed the suitcase flat on the ground and dialed in the numbers on the roller locks. The lid popped open, and all of us leaned in to get a closer look.

  “Bang!” David Hamida said loudly, making all eleven of us councilors jump back. When the Colonel glared at him, David threw up his hands in an ‘aw shucks, it was too tempting’ gesture.

  “I apologize for Corporal Hamida’s lack of maturity,” Hardaway told us.

  Jerry waved off the apology as we gathered around the suitcase again. Inside was what looked suspiciously like an old flex monitor and a notebook computer, along with a bunch of cables and what could only be a projector. Murmurs up and down the line of councilors followed as we realized that indeed these men had brought actual tech with them.

  I hadn’t seen an electrical device that functioned in almos
t two decades. We’d heard through the network that some places had been able to get their electrical grids back online after rewiring the generators and going inch by inch down the transmission lines replacing all of the hardware that had been blown out on I-day.

  I thought about ‘I-day’. Only the military would try to give it an abbreviated name that could be used in a patriotic story or song one day. D-Day. VE-Day. VJ-Day. MI-Day. The rest of us just called it ‘the day’ or ‘the invasion’. I also thought about what we’d heard on the network about the places that had put their hydroelectric generators or coal-fired plants back online. The bulls would either send a plasma bolt down through the clouds and obliterate everything within a mile or two of the gens, or they’d send a dropship that would hover above the place and slag it into molten steel and concrete dust. No one knew what they’d done to the nuclear power plants all over the world, but since Geiger counters never spiked, it seemed likely that the bulls had contained their runaway reactors after everything shut down.

  Tony and I showed the soldiers to temporary quarters to wait, eat, and freshen up before the gathering in a few hours. We figured that everyone would stop trickling in from the outlying areas by nine or so, which meant we could all find out just what the hell these four soldiers were here for by ten.

  CHAPTER 9 - Invasion Redux

  “Thank you for gathering to hear us speak,” Colonel Hardaway said in a loud, clear voice from the platform on the south lawn.

  I estimated at least four thousand bodies in the crowd, but it was dark and hard to see. We’d built large fires all around the area to illuminate both the platform and the main house.

  “My name is Colonel Eric Hardaway. My fellow soldiers and I have traveled from the new Division headquarters at the Crater Lake complex.”

  This got a grumble from the crowd. Everyone had heard of Crater Lake, but no one had suspected that it was where the remnants of the military branches had gathered to regroup.