Kassy Tayler - Remnants of Tomorrow

“Aye,” he replies. “I have spies. The ah-fever came upon him that ah-night.”

“So what happens then? If he dies?”

“Ragnor will challenge.” Janna says.

“Can you win?”

Ragnor nods. He feels confident. I have no idea who he will have to fight. I can only pray that he is right.

“What does this mean for us?” Pace asks. “Can we have peace?”

“I ah-want peace,” Ragnor says. “I want to ah-learn.” He stops and clears his throat. “I want to … learn,” he says forcibly, and I realize he is trying to mimic our way of speaking. “I want … better.” He looks at Janna and puts his arm around her, drawing her close. “For our child.”

“Congratulations,” Pace says, and they look at him in confusion.

“It means we are happy for you,” I say. “Would you like something to eat? We have plenty.” I really don’t know the state of our food stores, all I know is I cannot send them away without something. Ragnor did not have to come to us. Or he could have an ulterior motive. I choose to believe that we can be friends and offer each other something in this new world.

Ragnor looks at Janna and she nods. They seem to know what each other is thinking at all times. We start back up the slope to the enclave.

“I have always thought,” Ragnor is careful with his words, as if he is measuring them before they come out, “that the high ground would be a wiser place to live.”

“It is,” Levi says. “When we were taken to your settlement I knew you were at a disadvantage should the Quest attack.”

“ Quest ?”

“The airship,” I say. “The boat in the sky.”

“They are your friends?”

“They are my family,” Levi says.

“Did you fight?” Ragnor asks. “Were ye … you with them?”

“We all did,” I confess. “And all of your people were killed and the bodies taken out to sea.”

He nods once more, taking it all in. I wonder if he had friends who fought, and then I think not. He would have been there with them. Wulf sent them. He sent the ones who he didn’t care about. He sent them as a sacrifice to test our power and learned from it, which is why he did not attack again. “You are at war with the dome?” Ragnor asks.

“We are,” Levi says. “They have a member of my family inside, and we are going in to get her.”

“How did you find us?” Pace asks.

“The big cart with guns,” Ragnor says. “We heard it and followed it. Then we waited.”

“For you,” Janna says to me. I am flattered that they trust me and also encouraged by their actions. If we can have peace with the rovers and free Zan and find a way for us all to live together and prosper … It is a dream I haven’t dared dream until now.

Ragnor and Janna pause at the gateway into the enclave. They look at the walls as if it is a trap, and then they step through, together. “You have nothing to fear here,” I say, as they look at the walls around the inside and the walkways above them that serve for protection. At the wells and the pens of goats and ponies and the chickens, all contained in their little yard for the night. They also look at the gate that is now in place that will be shut once we settle down for the night.

Some of our group might say that it is unwise to bring Ragnor and Janna into our enclave. They could say that they are here to spy on us and find out our weaknesses. I think not, and I know Pace and Levi agree with me, or they would have said something before we came in. As I watch them look around I know that they will know that we are prepared to fight to stay here. That we can survive.

I see nothing wrong with Ragnor knowing that at all.

I did not sleep well after Ragnor and Janna left, since I had slept most of the day. It could not be because of the apprehension over what we are about to do. Or so I told myself over and over again throughout the night. I tried my best to stay quiet so as not to disturb Jilly, who shared the bed with me, and Pace, who slept beside me on the floor, but it was hard. For a long time I lay on my back and rubbed Jonah’s ears and listened to the sound of Pace’s steady breathing and the tiny noises that Jilly made, as if she were talking in her dreams. Beyond, I heard the chorus of the night and the continued hooting of the owl outside the window.

I wished several times that Pace shared my bed and Jilly was on the floor, and finally, in the middle of the night, I slipped from beneath my blankets and joined Pace. He only stirred enough to roll to me and place his arm around me, pulling me firmly against his stomach. “I love you,” he murmurs into my ear. He is wearing his pants but his chest is bare, and I feel the heat of his body through my undershirt. Jonah joined us, curling into the place between Pace’s arm and my knees, and I finally fell asleep only to be awakened in what seemed like minutes.

“The Quest is on its way,” Pace says. He is already dressed and is wearing his weapons. I glance out the window. It is still dark outside, but I rise even though Jonah protests sleepily. “Maybe you should lock him in,” Pace suggests.

“I think I will,” I say. Jilly hears us talking and stirs. Pace leaves, and Jilly and I dress quietly, both of us thinking of the day to come and wondering if we will all survive it. I shut the door firmly in Jonah’s face as we leave, and I hear the cat digging at the door to escape. I should have shut the window too. I hope it is too high for him to jump to.

No one speaks as we pass through the large room to go outside. One small candle is lit for those few of us who cannot see in the dark. Pip is still asleep in his cage and the door is shut.

“Something to eat?” Rosalyn asks. Jonah meows loudly from my room.

“No thank you,” both Jilly and I say. We go out on the porch. I hear the sound of the tank as it walks away with Harry, Alcide, Peter, and Dr. Stewart inside and feel the slight tremors of its passage beneath my feet. Adam, Jon, Colm, and Joe wear packs on their backs. They have the explosives. George, Tobias, and Freddie stand beside a cart with one of the ponies hitched to it. It’s not Ghost, it’s the one I call Blue. I rub his nose as George helps Jilly into the cart and Ghost whinnies from his pen. Rosalyn, Bess, and Nancy come out of the cabin, and the cart takes off with Freddie leading Blue. George and Tobias both carry rifles and Adam, Jon, Colm, and Joe have pistols strapped to their hips. I wonder when Tobias and Colm learned how to shoot. So much has happened in such a short amount of time, yet it seems like it has been forever since we left the dome.

Levi, Pace, David, and Lucy are with the steam cycles. The engines putt-putt quietly in the darkness, and the lights are on so that they can see to drive. I hold up my finger, asking for a few seconds, and run to the ponies. “This will soon be over,” I tell Ghost as I rub his head. “No more battles, no more worries. Just peace and sunshine and green pastures.” I look up at the sky that has turned a shade lighter with the coming dawn. “Please God, let it be so,” I add. I run back to the cycles and climb on behind Pace, who looks at Levi and nods. I wrap my arms around Pace’s waist and we take off.

We ride on what was once a road. Occasionally we have to detour around a fallen tree, but for the most part it is clear, much like the road Levi and I rode on the night we went to save Lyon and Pace from the rovers. If only this morning will be the end of our battles. My stomach twists in anticipation and once more I have that feeling of being on a precipice, about to step off.

When we lived belowground there was this great chasm that was found when a tunnel was made. The young men would tie a rope around their waists, and while their friends held it they would leap out into the darkness and let the wind carry them upward as if they were flying. I was never brave enough to do it, because I was afraid of falling, or it was more I was afraid of the unknown.