Gears of war, p.11
Gears of War, page 11
“What is this place?”
“Started as a Rack—a ‘resident accommodation’ camp. Back when the COG functioned they brought in food and clean water. Then that stopped. Diseases swept through, killed a bunch. Now folks drift in.” Brandon shifted in the saddle. “It’s been my home since I was small enough to hide in these grasses.”
He led Marcus down the hillside. A couple of dogs barked at their approach, then a couple of children emerged from makeshift shacks to watch them. Most retreated when adults yelled at them, but a few headed out to greet the newcomers. A knot of men and women formed up, looking as if they expected trouble. Their number shrank by half as Brandon waved and some folks waved back.
“Why do they stay here?” Marcus asked, glancing warily left and right. “You’ve told them about other places, right?”
“They don’t trust, Marcus. The Coalition brought supplies, then just stopped. The government sank Jacinto. And the Hammer of Dawn strikes still generate nightmares. The people are sure that if they go out and take over an estate, someone will show up and kick them out or fire will descend from the sky and roast them. Better the devil they know…”
“I had no idea.”
“This is their world, Marcus. They do what they can, just waiting for the Locust to come and get them… Most of them, anyway.” Brandon shrugged. “Some get away, but not many. Come on. There’s someone I want you to meet.”
Brandon cut back along the face of the hill and headed toward one of the larger tents—one which also appeared to be in good repair. A couple of teens came out and took the horses’ reins as the men dismounted. They led the animals off and Brandon held the tent flap open. Marcus entered and gave his eyes a moment to adjust to the dim light. Brandon came in on his left and a dark-haired woman came through an opening on the right.
Brandon swept the woman into a hug. “I told you I’d be back without a problem.”
“This time, Brandon, but it won’t be forever.” The woman freed herself from Brandon’s embrace and offered Marcus her hand. “I’m Adira Turrall.”
“Marcus Fenix.”
“Pleasure to meet you. Brandon is my little brother.”
“She got the brains in the family, I got the looks.” Brandon draped an arm over her shoulders. “Adira was in her first residency after medical school when E-Day happened. The COG made her the chief medical officer here, and when they went away, she was pretty much the only authority figure left.”
She tucked a lock of hair behind her right ear. “You saw it riding in, I bet. This place isn’t going to be viable much longer. We’re lucky the well works, but we’re shy on food, and my medical supplies are whatever Brandon can find or trade for, so a bad pox will kill half the people. We need to get everyone to move…”
Marcus nodded. “…but they’ve heard there are Locust out there.”
“That’s the long and the short of it.” Adira’s brown eyes narrowed. “Brandon says you’re the man for the job.”
“I’ve killed my share of grubs.”
“You’re a damned Gear. You’ve killed your share of us, too.” An emaciated man stood in the entrance. He pointed a quivering finger at Marcus as two more held the tent flaps wide, and a half-dozen other people stood behind him. “We don’t want him here, Doctor. It ain’t safe. Where Gears go, the Locust show. True in Char. True in Hanover. Gonna be true here.”
Marcus shook his head. “It’s not like that.”
“Not for you, maybe, all big and strong and in your armor. We ain’t that. Our kids ain’t neither. You couldn’t keep us safe, and you damned sure ain’t killed all the grubs. They’re out there. We know.”
Marcus’ hands curled down into fists. He wanted to yell back at the man. You’re not the only one who lost people, people who should have lived. The fireball that consumed Dom blossomed in Marcus’ mind again. A lump rose in his throat, choking off any words.
Adira marched over, eyes blazing, and stabbed a finger in the man’s chest.
“Bert Stanfield, how dare you? You haven’t managed to do a damned thing in this camp for the last ten years, other than eat and complain. You don’t farm, you don’t scavenge, you don’t help teach the kids, you don’t do anything. This man here, he’s come to help us. You’re afraid the Locust are going to eat you? This is the man the Locust are afraid will eat them. And frankly, right now, if he wanted to stake you out on a hilltop as bait for them, I’d hand him the rope and sharpen the stake.
“And the rest of you know better, too.” She gave the crowd behind the old man a hard stare. “Locust don’t show up where the Gears are, the Gears go to where the Locust are. Now, are there really Locust out there, or are they just the foolish stories you tell each other because being afraid of Locust is easier than dealing with what’s outside this little valley? I don’t know, but he and Brandon are going to find out. So, if you want to act like children, do it somewhere else.”
“I… I… I…” Bert Stanfield retreated, his face red.
Before he could express a wholly coherent thought, a small boy walked past him and up to Marcus. The child reached out with both hands to tug at Marcus’ fist.
“Hey, mister. Are you a Gear?”
It took Marcus a second as he looked down at the boy’s dirty face, and the earnest expression on it. “Yes. I was… yes, I’m a Gear.”
“Really?” The boy’s expression opened.
“Yes, really.”
“Good.” The boy nodded solemnly. “Then you’re the one who’s gonna find my sister.”
2: HIGHWATER AUDITORIUM
MINISTRY OF SANITATION, EPHYRA, SERA
8 BOUNTY 18 A.E.
It struck Anya that she’d seen the same sort of factional uneasiness before. Back during the war, when command had brought together multiple units for a combined operation, each seemed to feel that everything hinged on its performance. Those same units would be convinced that all the other units would buckle under the pressure. The same sentiments flowed within the various groups assembled in the auditorium.
They’d come at Jamila’s invitation. Thomas had stood the folding chairs in a semicircle in front of the stage, with small groups of them on each wing, and a wedge of general seating in the middle. He sat off to the right, along with Anya. All the way across the floor, Aaron Griffin and some aides sat facing her. Raul Hasterwith and Nathan Pendergast sat with their contingents on that side of the room, as well.
Closer to Anya sat Diana Egami from Hanover and Cara Lima, who appeared to represent several Stranded settlements in the Timgad Valley. Anya herself nominally represented the Westmarch district of Ephyra, and Jamila the City district. The rest of the people in that middle wedge had come as observers, many of them from small settlements or neighborhoods within Ephyra.
Jamila mounted the stage and took her position behind a podium. She graced everyone with a smile.
“Welcome to all of you. I am very pleased you were willing to accept my invitation to attend, much as many of you did at the museum nearly a month ago. The series of catastrophes which has beset our people threatens our very existence. It is my wish that through frank and open discussions we can identify the problems we face, and find a way to work together to rebuild all we have lost.”
Immediately Aaron Griffin rose. “What’s this we? My home is Char. What can be done in Ephyra that benefits me and my people?”
Jamila appeared unfazed by his question. “You raise a very good point, Aaron. As yet, I do not have an answer for you. However, I would hope all of you will agree that we have problems in common, whether here in Ephyra or in the outlying cities and settlements. We seek solutions to those problems, and the ones you find workable may well apply elsewhere. The first order of business for all of us, it would seem logically, is to assess and stabilize the current situation.”
Nathan Pendergast II stood. “I think it’s patently obvious that the critical issue is one of economics. Not only did the Locust kill billions of people, but they wiped out untold trillions in wealth. Without that, we have no ability to rebuild. We need to reestablish the monetary system and reinstate the wealth that was lost. Then we can move forward with establishing credit, property rights, taxes, and the ability of the people to band together and rebuild.”
Cara Lima, a tall, rangy woman with her dark hair plaited into one long braid, shook her head. “Speaking for people who have been carving something out of nothing, money isn’t the issue. We work, we barter, everyone gets what they need. If someone needs a house or a barn, we get together and pay for it with our sweat. What concerns us more is making sure that we have power, water, food, and getting our children educated so they can do more for the world than we ever did. That’s more important than you having a bank balance that means none of your family ever has to work again.”
“In Hanover we have basic services and eat well because of the fishing fleet.” Diana Egami uncurled from her chair. “We’re cleaning up the city, but our medical infrastructure is nonexistent. Diseases we could have cured with two weeks of pills will now kill folks. We’re back to the days of bloodletting, leeches, and plucking flowers under a full moon, as far as medicine is concerned.”
“Exactly.” Pendergast nodded vehemently. “But rebuilding a pharmaceutical factory isn’t a cheap proposition. If we don’t have an economy, how will companies invest in development?”
“Nathan, you’re still out of touch, just like you’ve always been.” Raul Hasterwith waved his colleague to his chair again. “People made pills and researched cures well before venture capitalists ever existed. Barter functions perfectly well. Instead of getting paid in gold and then going out to buy food, you get paid in food. Now, do we need medicines? Absolutely. Would it be helpful to have a factory to mass-produce pills and vaccines? No doubt. But, as Ms. Lima suggests, microeconomies already exist. The trick will be in making certain they can communicate and trade with each other. Communications will require power, and since Imulsion is no longer an option, energy production would seem to be a high priority.”
Aaron Griffin gave Hasterwith a thumbs-up. “Communication makes it all good.”
“Precisely.” Hasterwith sat forward. “Seradyne Industries has a number of facilities that survived, and have been brought back online. Even with a limited power grid, we’ve established links to a variety of radio and television broadcast centers and the repeaters that relay the system. Many were part of our entertainment network. We are working to bring more online to provide the best possible coverage to communities as we become aware of them. We would be most pleased to provide people who are involved in leadership positions with the equipment necessary to work with the system.”
Jamila smiled. “That’s most generous, Raul.”
“We are prepared to go even further, Jamila.” Raul stood slowly, clasping his hands at the small of his back. “We have all suffered most grievously. So many dead. So many missing. What we are prepared to do is to use the computing power of our biggest surviving facility, located halfway between here and Hanover, to serve as a clearing house for people who are looking for loved ones who have gone missing. Likewise for people to report on the dead. Our medical insurance database is set up to handle the data, and has a great deal of it already input.”
Aaron Griffin looked over at him. “That ain’t gonna be free. What does it cost us?”
“Participation, Aaron—nothing more.”
Anya tugged at the cuff of her dress uniform jacket. And it will give you a wealth of information about how many people exist, their locations and status.
She made a quick note, then rose at her place. “That’s a very generous offer, Mr. Hasterwith. Connecting people and easing their minds would be very helpful. It strikes me, however, that such information would be valuable in so many other ways. Will we be provided direct access?”
“That would depend on what your intentions would be, Lieutenant Stroud. Are you looking to recruit people to rebuild the military? What then? Reestablish the Coalition of Ordered Governments—the COG that burned the surface of our world, and then sank Jacinto? I think anything as drastic as that would necessitate that we all agree. But perhaps you think otherwise. That you would appear in that uniform certainly suggests it.”
Anya blinked at the directness and bitterness of Hasterwith’s accusation. Her hands snapped down into fists, but she caught herself before she exploded. “Yes, I’m wearing my uniform. I was a Gear. I served proudly. I killed my share of Locust. But it’s not with the thought of reestablishing anything that I dressed this way.” Anya looked around the room. “When Jamila invited me to participate, I realized what a momentous occasion this is. I chose my uniform because it’s the nicest clothing I own. It also reminds me of all the friends who died guaranteeing that we could be here today. So it’s not a challenge or an insult, it just marks how seriously I take what we’re here to accomplish.”
Hasterwith pressed his hands together in an attitude of prayer. “Forgive me. It appears I misjudged our colleague. I let my unease at the thought of returning to the days of COG’s wanton slaughter blind me to the fact that, clearly, such horrific decisions were made well above your pay grade. It’s unfair of me to hold you responsible for actions over which you had no control and with which, perhaps, you did not even agree. At another point, however, when we discuss mutual defense, it will behoove us to guarantee that the military is aware it serves the people—and that if line personnel perceive an order to be in violation of such a dictate, they are within their rights to refuse to carry it out.”
Anya sat slowly, emotions churning within her. Part of her ached at the losses inflicted by the Hammer of Dawn. So many people, so much destruction, in the blink of an eye. Had there been any alternative, she would have fought for it, but at the time—facing that threat—the Hammer was the only thing keeping mankind alive.
As much as it saddened her to remember that agonizing time, she also wanted to walk across the floor and drop Hasterwith with a straight right hand. If it weren’t for what she and all the people represented by her uniform had done, no one in the room would even be alive. The Locust would have destroyed everything.
In the face of that stark truth, Hasterwith’s petty comments and Pendergast’s misplaced concerns seemed laughable.
Part of her recognized the greater meaning behind Hasterwith’s attack. His goal was to remind everyone about the horrors of the war. In doing so, he hung it firmly on Anya. To hobble her, to cripple any plans she had, he’d evoke the war again. The blood of anyone who died during that time would forever stain her hands in the eyes of others.
Part of her was tempted to walk out, to leave the politics behind. She resisted the temptation because she recognized the seriousness of the issues facing humanity. She had been in the trenches. She’d fought Locust. She’d been anointed with their blood and she’d held the line against human extinction.
That again is my job here. If people didn’t get the things they needed, humanity would cease to exist. She wasn’t going to let Hasterwith or Pendergast or Griffin court disaster for people just to ease their minds over their selfish concerns.
Jamila moved out from behind the lectern and opened her arms. “Raul, thank you for your apology. We must all remember that we are gathered here to look forward. Our views will be tempered by our experience of the past, no doubt, but we cannot let our fears cripple our efforts to make the world a viable place. For my own part, I have worked the last weeks very closely with Anya Stroud. She has a first-class analytical mind. Anya is responsible for the Ministry’s ability to deliver fresh water and take away sewage in many of the city’s precincts. She and my aide Thomas have studied and collected recommendations for much of Ephyra. These recommendations have been compiled into a report which can serve as a basis for our further discussions.
“Her devotion to duty and ability to focus on details stood her in good stead as a Gear, and those same traits have made her invaluable to the work we have begun.”
Aaron Griffin folded his arms over his chest. “Okay, clean slate. Give us the goods, Lieutenant.”
“Please, just Anya.” She stood and took a deep breath. “Back during the Pendulum Wars and in the Locust War, the COG initiated a couple of doomsday scenario programs. They established shelters and stockpiled them with food, medicine, other necessities. We’ve been digging through records and have located a number of these secret stockpiles. I hope, my friends, there will be enough medical supplies to fill in until we can get some small-scale production facilities up and running.
“Another part of the program secured stockpiles of seeds for a wide variety of high-yield plants which we can use to boost agricultural output. Some of these facilities include frozen eggs and sperm for establishing and improving herds of domesticated animals. The reports you’ll be given show where the stockpiles are located, and suggest ways to use them to guarantee that everyone benefits.”
Cara Lima frowned. “How are we going to determine the ways these resources will be allocated? Do we go by actual head count? How are the tiny settlements—the ones that need the most help—going to even know about this stuff, if they don’t have people here to represent them?”
Raul nodded. “This goes back to my point about communication.”
“This is why we are here.” Jamila returned to the lectern and consulted some notes. “This is a matter for people who understand logistics, and can estimate need. Both Cara and Diana have expertise in this area. Aaron, I might suggest that you and Anya join them to figure out a plan for allocation. Nathan, if you have any King Ravens or other transportation which could help, I would ask you to get us an inventory, as well as a list of needs at your end. Raul, your communications network will be vital in assessing the needs of outlying communities.”
“I have a question for Lieutenant Stroud.” Hasterwith picked an invisible bit of lint from the sleeve of his black jacket. “You’ve not mentioned weaponry in conjunction with these repositories. Would you have us believe that there is none?”
