Scott Mackay - Phytosphere

Back in the house, she foned Gerry, and he answered on the third ring.

“I wouldn’t stay in the area,” he said. “You don’t know Buzz the way I do. He’s a vindictive son of a bitch. When I was a regular at the Crossroads, there was barely a night that went by when he didn’t get in a fight. Hanna’s right. You should have killed him when you had the chance. Revenge is one of his main motivating principles. And now you’ve gone and killed his brother. In self-defense, admittedly, but that’s something Buzz isn’t going to understand.”

“But where would we go?” asked Glenda.

“I’m told there’s still limited cell-phone service in certain parts of the United States.”

“We’re getting partial service here, but it’s a bit sketchy.”

“See if you can phone Neil on his cell. Tell him what’s happened. Maybe you can go down to Coral Cables. Do you have anywhere to recharge the car?”

“The nursing home pump is still working. At least the last time I was there.”

She followed her husband’s advice. She recharged her cell phone by shining a flashlight at it for a few minutes, then tried Neil.

She tried throughout the night, but kept getting service interruption messages.

A little after midnight, service resumed and she was at last able to get through. It turned out he wasn’t in Coral Gables at all. He was at an Air Force base, Homestead.

The change in Neil’s voice took her by surprise. He usually spoke so confidently, as if he had the world in the palm of his hand. But now he sounded distracted. And more than distracted… what was the word?

Yes… he sounded diffuse, as if all his energy and concentration had been scattered.

“I’m working on a new approach.” But his words lacked confidence. She heard what sounded like gunfire in the background. “A virus. It actually works on a kind of interesting principle. It attacks the Tarsalan genetic component of the xenophyta directly, but… I… Jesus, Glenda, you shot a cop?”

And she explained to him how Maynard wasn’t really a cop anymore but just a kind of feudal lord. Then she began to explain about Buzz.

“That idiot Gerry brought to Marblehill a few years back?” he asked.

“That’s him.” Then she explained that Buzz was a vindictive son of a bitch.

“Look…” Neil cut her off, as if the zany details of her war with the sheriff and his brother were beside the point. “I want you and the kids heading to Marblehill. One thing this whole exercise in futility has taught me… it’s all about family. I’ve got some airmen stocking the place. And guarding it. We’ve got a bit of a situation down here at Homestead. And if this virus thing… if it doesn’t pan out… me, Louise, and the girls will be heading up to Marblehill. I’ve got enough food up there to last a year. And I’ve got the place well stocked with medicine…. How’s Hanna? How’s she managing the heat?”

“She’s getting bad, Neil.”

She told him about the prescriptions she had taken from the nursing home, and that they weren’t Hanna’s regular prescriptions, and of how Hanna was buzzed most of the time and wheezing constantly.

“You remember Greg Bard?” asked Neil. “He was a friend of Ian Hamilton’s. I think you met him at Melissa’s christening.”

“The Air Force colonel?”

“Right. He’s getting things arranged for Marblehill.”

“So there’s going to be other families?”

“No. Just the airmen and us. Greg’s a helluva guy. I’ll make sure he knows about Hanna. What’s she taking?”

Glenda gave him Hanna’s prescriptions—her puffers and pills and so forth—and as he took the information down, she felt suddenly safe in a way she never did with Gerry. She could sense Neil’s masterliness, and the overall command of his personality. Neil was going to pull it out of the fire for her.

Neil was the alpha male, the king of the tribe, whereas Gerry had always been the quieter one.

“I’m going to have to drive manually,” she said.

“That might pose a problem,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because we’re getting reports of widespread erosion. No plants holding things down. Greg says a lot of landslides everywhere, especially up in those mountains, and no road crews are going out for repairs.

So you may have to feel your way along. Some roads are bound to be impassable.”

“But one charge should do, right? It’s not more than four hundred miles. And my car’s got an upper limit of four hundred and fifty per charge.”

“It depends on how far out of your way you have to go. Do you have a map? Like an old paper map?

Or do you keep everything stored online? Because the satellite feeds can’t provide maps to your car anymore.”

“Gerry’s got some old maps downstairs.”

“He’s still collecting maps?”

“Mainly old ocean maps. But I think he has some of the area.”

“Take them, just in case. You might end up on back roads.”

She had her kids pack in a hurry because she was afraid Buzz might return at any minute.

She tried to fone Gerry because she wanted to tell him where they were going, not Coral Gables but Marblehill, but she couldn’t get through.

“I don’t get it. I got through just a while ago. Now there’s nothing. And the sky’s still open.”

“Mom,” said Hanna, “things are breaking down everywhere. The shroud might be open, but do you think the people who run AT&T Interlunar are actually going to their jobs anymore? They’re just trying to stay alive, like we are. This is the new Stone Age.”

“Hey, it’s the new Dark Age,” said Jake, and laughed at his own joke.

She thought she might leave a note for Gerry, telling him where they were going, just in case he came back, and just in case their fones stopped working for good, but realized that if she left a note it might be a signpost to Buzz and he would follow them.

She and Hanna had a big fight about it.

“Mom, we have to leave a note.”

“We can’t leave a note.”

“But if we don’t leave a note, how’s Dad going to know where we are? He thinks we’re heading to Coral Gables.”

“If we leave a note, Buzz will see it, and he’ll come looking for us. He’s been down to Marblehill before.

He knows how to get there.”

“Jake,” said Hanna, “you should have shot him while you had the chance.”

“You try shooting someone,” said Jake morosely. “It’s not as easy as it looks. It takes a lot of guts.”

“Guts that you don’t have.”

“Mom, will you tell her to fuck off.”

“Jake, do we have to use that kind of language?” asked Glenda.

Hanna frowned. “Shut up, Jake. Mom and I are having a serious discussion.”

“We’re not leaving a note, Hanna.”

“Then how’s he going to find us?”

“He’ll figure it out. He’s a pretty smart guy.”

“You don’t even want him to find us,” said Hanna. “You’re thinking this is your chance to finally get rid of him.”

Glenda’s anger flared and, in her worn-out state, she felt tears threatening. “How can you say that?”

“Because it’s true.”

“It’s not true. We may have had some pretty rough fights—”

“You know what will happen to Dad if he can’t find us? He’ll die. He won’t know where we are, he’ll think we’re dead, and he’ll die of a broken heart.”

“Hanna, listen to what I’m telling you. If we leave a note for Dad, Buzz will break in, see it, and come after us. I killed his brother. He’s not going to forget that. It’s not like I keyed his car, or egged his house, or butted in front of him at the bank. I killed his brother. I dropped Maynard in cold blood right in front of him. So I’m asking you, please. Don’t leave a note. And don’t try and sneak a note while we’re getting ready. Just let me keep trying your father on the fone.”