Chapter 453

Dambree leaned against the car, watching the last of the supplies, what little they'd been able to gather, be loaded into the cabin. She had her mask pulled down for two reasons. One, it eased her anxiety to wear it. Two, she didn't want anyone to see her expression.

There were two major problems that she had seen but she didn't think anyone else had noticed.

The first was supplies. Aunt Fenn and Uncle Inkee were surprised that she had not only had the store at the campground completely stripped of anything useable, from heavy brush cutting blades to floppy hats to fishing poles, to cans of bait, but Dambree had learned last time just how quickly people could go through supplies.

Which was the second problem. Last time it had just been the four of them, and they had to be careful and ration out the food. There were enough littles that Dambree knew the boxes of nappies they'd looted would last only a month, maybe a week longer. Personally, she'd have left them and gone to cloth because it was better to wash out cloth ones then generate the waste of the disposable. The extra people meant that the little cabin was going to be even more crowded, since it was basically two small bedrooms and one wide open room that acted as the kitchen and living area. With more people, that meant more noise, and more people going back and forth the outhouse.

Not to mention that it felt, to Dambree, like her small home she shared with her siblings and Mister Mewmew was being invaded.

She loved her aunt, uncle, and cousins, she really did. But...

and that was just it.

But.

Her aunt and uncle had spent more time fretting over the three corpses in the campground store than they had loading. It seemed like they really couldn't get it through their heads that all bets were off.

Social norms, Dambree thought to herself, remembering a phrase from class. When they are broken, shattered by war, some never recover, others seek to rebuild them, and others seek to establish new ones around their harsh new existence.

Dambree was honest enough, and had been to therapy enough, to knew that she had established what her therapist had called harsh authoritarian social norms to enable her siblings and her to survive those early dark days.

But, just as dawn follows the darkest night, the sun eventually sets and night falls again, she thought to herself, watching as Aunt Fenn dropped a box of nappies and then made a noise of fatigue and soreness as she bent down and picked them up.

Maybe a refugee camp? Try to make contact with the Terran military and get them evac'd? she thought. She shook her head, dispelling the thought. No. Nobody is coming to help, nobody is coming to save us. They're fighting for the entire planet, for all of us, we have to take care of ourselves as best we can.

Mister Mewmew tried to jump up on the hood of the but missed, landing on his butt. He made a plaintive noise, looking up. Dambree picked him and he nuzzled her arm. She sighed, pulling back her sleeve, and letting him bite again. He made a huffing noise, then jumped down, limping back into the house.

Uncle Inkee and Aunt Fenn came back out, looking in the car, closing the doors and the trunk when they saw it was empty. They looked at Dambree for a long moment then turned and started to go in.

"We aren't done," Dambree said, aware of how hoarse her voice sounded.

"There's nothing left back there," Aunt Fenn said.

"I know," Dambree said. She pushed off the car and went to the driver's side. "That's why we're not done," she said. She pulled the door open, climbing in and sitting on where she'd buckled the belt so she could sit on it. She looked at them. "Get in."

Both of them looked more than a little anxious, but they got in to the back seat. Dambree waited till the door shut before starting the car. It took five button presses, but the electric motors whirred to life. She put it into gear, heading out of the campground.

She knew that Tru and Elu would keep the others safe.

'we warned you' the can squeaked when she opened it. She pushed her mask up with her thumb, taking a few long swallows of the almost syrup Candy Corn and Pumpkin Spice Liquid Hate.

She wasn't sure what woke her up more, the massive amount of caffeine and sugar or the terrible taste.

The rain was still black, getting thicker, and Dambree knew that by tomorrow it would be raining sludge that smelled like burnt metal.

Which meant that everyone would have to go down to the basement.

She frowned, remembering the last time.

The Terran nanites removed the radiation from plants and surfaces, cleaned the water.

What if she stood out in the rain when it glimmered and looked like prisms? Maybe tilted her head back and opened her mouth? Would the nanites get inside of her and remove that radiation? Was that how it worked?

Or would she just get worse.

She had to admit, she was starting to feel a little better since the last tube of medi-nutripaste. Her stomach didn't feel bloated and full of water. Just kind of ached.

She stopped on the bridge and got out, telling Aunt Fenn and Uncle Inkee to stay in the car. She walked across the bridge, pushing the hood on her sweatshirt back so she could raise her ears up. She could hear explosions off in the distance, but she didn't see the clouds deform or any white flashes in the distance.

When she got to the road she looked both ways. If she took a right there was a town about thirty miles away. Last time it had turned into an armed camp of Black Eyes. To the left there was a small town about fifteen miles off that had only a few stores.

She had the nagging feeling that the Black Eyes were starting to congregate to the right.

When she went back she climbed down into the gully where the creek was, looking up at the bottom of the bridge. She could see where the repairs had been done to fix the bridge. Bright new boards compared to the old faded and cracked wood she had chopped apart to collapse part of the bridge.

I'll need the bridge this time, she thought to herself. I'm going to have to scout for supplies.

She sighed. Elu's little garden had given them vegetables the second winter. It had been a sad little thing, but the CMPNG 4 N00BZ book had how to can things, so they'd been able to have a can of sad little vegetables twice a week .

Nee had been the only one to gain weight that first year.

Dambree had no idea how big of a garden would have to be planted to feed everyone even the rationed meals they had lived off of the first year. She knew, somehow, that because of the five additions she'd need closer to ten times the original amount of food.

She got into the car, pushing her mask up to take another drink, then lowered it into place and took a left, heading toward the town.

It took almost twenty minutes to get there, the sun dropping low on the horizon, a baleful red eye in the sky trying to burn through the concrete gray clouds. She drove slowly through, looking at the buildings.

A main store, advertising food, drain cleaner, pet food, and alcohol. A charge station. A hardware store. A medical office. A little further down another QuikiCharg across the street from a feed store.

Dambree pulled in at the feed store, moving around it slowly twice. One side was ripped open, exposing the interior. She came to a slow stop in front of the large hole and threw the car in park.

"We need some things here," Dambree said, getting out. She walked back to the back seat and knocked on the window. "Let's go."

Aunt Fenn and Uncle Inkee got out, dressed in rain gear. "What are we getting?" Uncle Inkee asked.

"Bags of fertilizer, seeds, pesticide," Dambree said. She pointed at the whole. "There were people hiding in here, so there's going to be bodies."

Both of them nodded, swallowing thickly. They had on face masks, not grav-ski masks, neither would wear those, but cloths around their faces to keep from inhaling too much of the rain.

Dambree led the way, slowly weaving between the aisles, one hand on the pistol where the green light burned.

She counted fifteen bodies, three of them huddled down behind a counter.

She moved the bodies slightly, just in case, but didn't find any littles.

The store was a dead place and Dambree was relieved.

They made four trips, Dambree letting Uncle Inkee and Aunt Fenn do most of the work. She'd noticed she was tiring easier and easier, with rest breaks doing little to help her regain her strength.

Twice she'd gone to the side of the building to throw up, taking a pill immediately afterwards that made her stomach stop aching and burning.

The next stop was the QuikiCharg. Cleaning out the cans of drinks and food, leaving behind the stuff that would spoil of wouldn't keep. Going into the back rooms and pulling out what little inventory there was. It took three trips to clear out both QuikiCharg stations.

By the time they moved up to the all purpose store, the moons were barely visible but high in the sky. The first two loads were nothing but the canned food, fertilizer, and stuff for the littles.

On the third trip she parked in the back, at the loading dock. She opened the back door and told Aunt Fenn and Uncle Inkee to keep carrying the plastic wrapped flats of cans and bottles out to the car.

Moving quietly, she stepped into the main part of the store, moving between the aisles. She headed up to the registers, stopping and looking at the advertisement. She'd seen one on the back loading dock, but it was stained by the rain.

On the front page was a full color splash page.

!!BOBCO NUTRIFORGE 6.0!!

!!FULL FLAVOR ARRAY!!

!!HOT FOOD COLD FOOD!!

!!COMES WITH TWO MASS TANKS!!

!!GOING ON SALE FRIDAY!!

Dambree checked her watch. It was Saturday morning. She looked at it again. It was a small home nanoforge that made food, the deluxe one came with a mass grinder to turn household waste into food. The idea was slightly repellent, the idea of dropping nappies and dirt into a 'grinder' to turn into mass to make into food.

But it could get them through the winter.

They were expensive. Not as expensive as she expected, and apparently BobCo, whatever that was, offered credit to anyone, no matter how 'broke ass hard luck' they were.

Apparently the Nutriforge came with whatever a 'Genuine Edible Head Chiapet Treana'ad'. Dambree frowned at the pictures. Smear gel and little edible 'alfalfa sprouts' grew on a brown clay Treana'ad head.

It seemed silly, but it was the kind of silly that might appeal to her siblings and cousins.

She turned around, walking toward the back, when she heard it.

An alcohol engine.

The vehicle came to a stop out front and Dambree crouched down. She hoped that her aunt and uncle were smart enough to be quiet.

Shapes, three of them, moved to the door. It rattled, then the glass shattered. The door opened and Dambree pulled her hood up, pulling down the mask.

"I'm telling you, someone's down here," a male voice said.

"So?" a female.

"This stuff's ours," another voice.

Dammit, Dambree thought to herself.

"This whole area's ours," a different male giggled. "Even the campground."

"Better not say that, the Masked Slasher will get you," the female laughed.

"Pfft, that's just bullshit. I went out there a couple times before the weirdos came back. There wasn't no slasher out there," the first male said.

Dambree got to the back door and triggered the lock, sealing off the loading dock from the main part of the store.

"If there even was a slasher, they're gone," someone else said. "They're gone, and we're here now, and this is our stuff."

Guess who's back, Dambree thought to herself. She stood up and started moving quietly.

"Yeah, someone's been here," a second female said. "Someone with littles. They took the formula."

"Well maybe," the male's voice had a leering tone to it. "They're still here."

"Littles taste good," one of the men said. "Kinda missed the taste the last couple years."

Dambree could tell they were spreading out, searching the store, by the way they raised their voices and were coming from different areas.

Passing one rack of shelves she carefully lifted up what she'd need. She stared at the female in front of her's feet, staring at the running shoes as she quickly and silently moved up behind her.

"That's because you're fat and greedy," the female in front of her laughed. "I'd..."

The axe whipped through the air silently, hitting the woman between the ears on top of her head. The woman stood straight up and Dambree kicked her off the axe.

She fell forward with a thump but Dambree was already moving, grabbing a can of fruit and throwing it the way the female had been walking so it bounced and skittered on the tile toward the front of the store.

Dambree crouched down, her eyes narrowed behind her mask.

There's always that one who's clever, she thought to herself. You'll go to the back of the store, loop around, hoping to cut me off.

She waited, still, focusing her eyes on the rivets holding the shelves across from her together, breathing slow and steady.

"Camtra's dead! Someone busted her head open!" a male called out.

The man was tall, ears up, crouched down, a knife in his hand. His clothing was stained with black rain, and his eyes were bloodshot with black bruised circles around them.

Dambree let him go by her, stepped out, took one step, and hit him hard with the axe.

He cried out as he went down, the axe pulling from his back with a crunching sound. Dambree hit him again, at the top of the crack of butt, yanked the axe free, and quickly moved away.

She threw another can, the other way she had gone.

"There! They're heading toward the produce," someone said.

Dambree could hear them running as she stopped, moving back, standing between two sets of shelves.

A flash came on, the light frantically panning around.

"Arpul's down!" another woman said. The flash and multiple feet came running.

Dambree listened to them, two of them swearing revenge, one wanting to leave, one frightenedly asking what was going on, and the last female yelling at everyone to get it together.

"Whoever it is, there's one of them and five of us!" the female yelled.

"Yeah, well there was seven of us!" a male snapped back. "We need to get out of here, get the boys, get the guns!"

"Spread out. Erverk, you and Ewfrit go to the front. The rest of us, we'll search the store. They aren't getting away. We'll string them up as a warning to anyone else," the female said.

Dambree's breath had eased up and she waited, the interior of the store perfectly lit.

I used to feel this wasn't fair, that I could see and they can't, she remembered. But those days are gone.

She hung the axe from the loop on her belt and drew the knife.

I feel... right, she thought.

"I'm gonna grab a flash," one of the males said.

"Get me a flash," another said.

Dambree checked around her.

The flashlights were right in front of her, with the batteries.

She let her eyes go unfocused and relaxed, letting her joints go loose.

Footsteps hurried up and the person looked right at her in the dark.

His eyes were bruised, bloodshot, with bloody crust in the fur under his eyes. His ears were streaked with black from the rain.

His eyes were green.

He turned around, not seeing her in the darkness of the store.

"Found them!" he yelled out. He ripped one free of the package and turned it on, shining it into his own face and giggling.

Dambree stepped out, putting her hand over his mouth, the knife going in deep. She pulled it halfway out and shoved it in again, repeated it, then lowered him to the ground when he went boneless.

Four

She moved away, her heavy boots silent on the floor.

Everk looked at Ewfrit. They were both standing outside, making sure nobody ran out the door.

"This isn't going good," he said.

"Maybe they're just messing with us?" Ewfrit said.

"Yeah, I'm sure Camtra just split open her head and let her brains fall out on the floor as a joke," Everk snapped.

"Well, at least the slorpies won't want her," Ewfrit said.

Both of the male Hesstlan laughed.

There was a weird thump from inside.

"You guys OK?" Everk yelled.

There was no answer.

"Go check," Everk said.

"No way, you go check," Ewfrit said.

Everk lifted us his heavy knife. "Go check."

"Fine, fine," Ewfrit said. He hefted his hatchet. "It's probably nothing."

Everk waited.

"Ewfrit?" he said.

There was no answer.

"Ewfrit?" he tried again.

Nothing.

He backed up, toward the truck. He didn't like this. There had been seven of them. They'd handled groups even bigger than them, most people unwilling to believe someone would use violence against them, would be out looking for some fun like they had during the first slorpie invasion.

Thunder rumbled in the clouds and he looked up involuntarily as his butt bumped against the side of the truck. Lightning flashed and he blinked, his eyes oversensitive. When he looked down, at the front of the store, his mouth dropped open and he felt his bladder go in terror.

They stood there.

Heavy coveralls. Boots. Gloves. The Terran Army belt. The burning glowing red eyes. The blank white mask with the triangle between the two lines over the eyes.

Everk screamed, his ears going straight up.

The figure threw a hatchet a him. It whipped by and stuck in the smartglass windshield of the truck.

Everk spun around, yanking open the door and scrambling in. He got behind the wheel and hit the starter.

The engine sputtered.

The bulky figure was walking through the black rain, toward the truck, their stride long and purposeful, like their joints were stiff.

The engine sputtered again.

Everk whimpered as he pumped the alk-pedal and tried again.

The figure shattered the window and reached inside, wrapping one hand around his ear and pulling his head to the side, the other strong hand around Everk's throat.

They squeezed and Everk felt his eyes bulge.

The truck roared to life and Everk stomped on the pedal. The truck surged forward and Everk felt a blinding pain in his scalp as the hands slipped away. He barely got the headlights on before he would have crashed into the low plascrete wall, managed to swerve onto the road, and hit the gas.

He glanced in the rearview and felt his bowels go.

The figure stood in the rain, one of his ears in their hand, staring at the truck with glowing red eyes.

--------------

Dambree was staggering when she set the two heavy boxes in the trunk. She looked at Aunt Fenn and Uncle Inkee, who were staring at her.

"Get in," she said. "We're done here for a couple days."

They didn't say anything.

The black rain had not washed away the blood yet.

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"What is it?" Ullie asked as Dambree made the final connection. He and other children were mixing the gel and the seeds together, each of them with a clay Treana'ad head in front of them.

"A food forge. Like a nutripaste dispenser only better," Dambree said.

It pinged to life and sang a little jingle that ended with "BooooobCO!"

"Try the cookies!" Ullie said.

Dambree input the code for cookies.

She ignored the way her aunt and uncle stared at her from where they were sitting as she stepped back from the food forge and dug out her pill bottle.

It's good to be home.