Ch 3: On the Move
They continued to run for another forty five minutes until they were positive that they lost the guards. They also lost site of the Wall. The one place that had been their home for nearly two decades was now gone, placed behind them.
"We can never go back there," Terra said shouldering her pack. Lloyd and Caedus nodded in agreement. Amy was the only one who was a little unsure.
"What're we going to do now?" she asked. Terra gave a nervous laugh.
"Frankly, I didn't think we'd make it this far," she replied.
"We should find some shelter now," Lloyd announced, "It'll be dark soon and I doubt any of you want to be left out here." They started walking out in a north-easterly direction.
"Now I'm glad you made me take those stupid camping classes," Caedus muttered to his sister. Once a year, the Overseer held a "camping trip" where twenty of New Haven's citizens could sign up for to get a taste of the Wasteland. It also served as a deterrent against those who wished to leave the safety of the Wall and live in the harsh wilderness outside it. To drive the whole "outside is bad, inside is good" point home almost every trip had raiders, dogs with rabies and other diseases, mutants, and other dangers that staged. The raiders and mutties were guards and the dogs were trained to act diseased on command. These were sent to torment the campers and several gave up the idea to venture outside the Wall. There were a few kids who signed up for the trips nearly every year. Most stated that they wanted to learn different techniques in case raiders do overrun New Haven and they were all thrust outside on their own. But the rest were gathering information when they decided to leave. These groups of kids were watched carefully so when one or two or five of them didn't show up to their classes due to illness, the Overseer immediately sent guards over to their homes at random times for inspection. More than half were caught in the act and instantly punished. Those that weren't, escaped only to come back within a few hours later torn up, tired, or dead from a raider ambush.
Those thoughts weighed heavily on their minds as they traversed the wilderness in search of shelter. Caedus spotted a promising cave and, after an extensive inspection, it was deemed a worthy shelter. All they had to do was find something that covered the entrance and blended in with the surroundings. Caedus and Lloyd went in search for material to build the cover while Amy and Terra searched around the encampment for wood for a small fire. Once enough wood was gathered, the girls helped the boys with making the shelter. Branches were woven together, tied to each other by some twine and covered by dead leaves and other material they found. They blocked off most of the shelter with small boulders and left an opening where they could enter and exit with ease. It could also be easily guarded.
Night had fallen by the time they finished and they were all tired. Caedus got a fire going and they all huddled around it with their backs to the covering to block out the light that could potentially seep out. Lloyd was stationed as guard for a few hours but after inspecting the cave a little more and found that it ended about five hundred feet back with no other openings he laid down and slept till dawn.
The sun rose up high into the sky by the time the four escapees woke up. The fire was ash by now although a few embers still burned and with some coaxing it was brought to life again. Terra pulled out a small pack of frozen meat and metal rods which was placed over the fire cook. They left after an hour.
Once outside their cave, several footprints were spotted a few feet away from where they were sleeping.
"Shit," Lloyd said.
"Guards or raiders?" Terra asked.
"Hard to tell," Caedus replied as he stooped over to examine the tracks, "Could've come from anyone."
"I didn't hear anyone last night," Lloyd said.
"That was 'cause you fell asleep," Caedus snapped. Lloyd glared at the other boy.
"And how the hell do you know that?"
"Had to take a piss in the middle of the night. Saw you were asleep when I got up."
"And you couldn't have taken over guard duty?"
"Sun was coming up in a couple hours."
"We could have been dead within a couple hours!"
"But we're not." Lloyd opened his mouth to fire off another retort when Terra intervened.
"Enough! We are only on the second day. We can't already be fighting over something like this!" she snapped, "Look, now we know to keep a better eye and ear out. We'll switch guards every two to three hours until the sun comes up. If someone hears something, even if you think you imagined it, wake us up and we'll either investigate or leave if we can. Does that sound reasonable?"
The two grudgingly agreed.
"So," Terra began, "Do we have any idea on where we're going?"
"I thought you knew!" Amy piped in. "You were the one who suggested we'd leave Haven." Terra bit her lip. Amy glared at her.
"Solus," Lloyd said, "We're going to Solus." The other three looked at him. Terra narrowed her eyes at him.
"I... overheard the Overseer's Captain of the Guard talk about a refugee camp about thirty to forty miles North of Haven. There was talk about raiding it and killing the leader Apparently it's open to anyone looking for a place to stay. A safe haven. It sounds a helluva lot better than New Haven."
"What if it's not?" Caedus asked.
"If the captain thought it was worth his attention then it's worth going over there and ask for refuge."
"Do you have a map?" Terra asked. Lloyd gave her a grim smile.
"I was going to swipe the captain's map. It had the location marked off and everything but I was caught and had to go clean out their barracks as punishment. You know how 'clean' those guys are."
"Shit."
"Exactly."
"I got a good look at the coordinates though so if we can find a local pub or inn around here and ask for a map, I can locate it."
"Where the hell are we gonna find a pub?' Caedus asked.
"Caravans!" Terra announced and pointed at a spot on the horizon that grew closer with each passing minute. "We can hitch a ride with them and get dropped off at their next stop."
"Good thinking. Do you all have something we could use for payment?" Lloyd asked. Amy and Terra rummaged around in their packs for something that had some value. Clean water was always the best item to trade with. It's value had skyrocketed once the radiation contaminated the water. When a few of the towns that had sprouted up in the Wasteland created purifiers to filter the water, caravaners and other people instantly flocked to those areas. Many were willing to trade items for mini-purifiers that the towns' few scientists invented but there was a small percentage of people, raiders mostly that snuck in with the crowd of caravaners, who stole the purifiers. Some scientists, like those in New Haven, had rigged the purifiers to blow once the item left the town gates. Those safe guards were deactivated once they had been properly paid for.
Terra found two full clips of bullets and Amy found a manual for creating such purifiers. Terra, Caedus, and Lloyd looked at her.
"Where did you get that?" Terra asked her friend incredulously.
"When I was cleaning one of the houses on a shift. It was on tables along with several others. There had to at least have been twenty, so I snagged it, figuring it wouldn't be missed. It had to have some worth to it. I mean, this type of invention should be open to all."
"And as long as we had someone stable and strong heading it, why not?" Terra said, "To have fresh water out here in the Wasteland would be amazing! People wouldn't have to be fighting like animals over this... well, they probably still would even if we or... or somebody managed to fix this whole thing."
"Yeah, that would be nice," Amy replied smiling.
"So, does anyone know the caravan routes?" Lloyd asked.
"I do," Caedus announced and started rummaging around in his pack until he pulled out a map. He unfolded and began tracing a finger along a route.
"This one here is the main route that they use. It branches off into other towns nearby," he explained.
"Where'd you get this?" Terra asked.
"Bought it off one of them. Had to trade in some high quality hunting supplies to get it though. They weren't too willing to part with it."
"Can't imagine why." Caedus rolled his eyes at his sister.
"But the thing is is that there is this one place that the trader refused to tell me what was there. Some highly classified information."
"Well then, if we get some time we should visit it," Terra said.
"What?!" Amy said, "Did ever cross your mind that there could be a reason as to why that trader didn't tell Caedus what was there? It could be radiated or a Muttie or Raider hideout that they have to avoid!"
"They would list those places so they could avoid it better," Terra countered, "They're hiding something and I want to find out what it is. So I guess we are in agreement then? As soon as we get settled and everything, we check the blank area?" She looked at Lloyd.
"I'm down. I'm curious as to what it may be," he said looking at the map again.
"That's three against one," Caedus announced triumphantly when he looked over at Amy. She crossed her arms over her chest and ignored him.
"So, do the caravan routes run through here?" Lloyd asked Caedus.
"Considering the fact that we're still near Haven, yeah. We'll hitch a ride when they leave to lessen our chances of being spotted."
They waited near their cave until the caravans arrived. It was well past noon when they did.
"God! Finally they're here," Terra muttered as they spotted a pack of horses and a horse-drawn carriage. The caravaners entered New Haven and began trading with the inhabitants. The four waited another three hours before the traders were done to wave them down. The caravans were at least a half mile away from New Haven before the teens waved them down.
"Hey!" Lloyd called out, "We want to get to the nearest town but we kinda forget to get horses. Could we hitch ride with you?" The leader of the pack slowed his group to a stop before climbing off his horse and walked over to the group. He wore a headdress that covered his whole with the exception for a hole for his eyes which were covered in goggles. His cloth was and dirty, skin tanned and weathered from being out in the elements. The other traders wore similar garb.
"A ride you say?" he asked, pondering Lloyd's question, "How do we know you aren't gonna try to steal our items when we aren't looking?" Five of the traders then aimed their weapons at the kids.
"Whoa! Wait! We can pay," Lloyd said, raising his arms up. He signaled for the other three to do the same.
"With what?"
"Uh, do you mind if we open up our bags? We'll move slowly," Lloyd said. The leader eyed Lloyd and the other three for a few tense seconds before nodding once. The four slowly moved to their bags, unzipped them, and removed their specific items. Terra brought out the ammo clips. The leader motioned to one of his traders to take the clips from her. He complied, took the magazines and examined them.
"These are some pretty high quality bullets," he observed, taking one bullet out of the clip. He tossed the clips over to one his friends behind him.
"You," the leader said pointing to Amy. The trader walked over to Amy and took the manual. He read the cover and looked over at Amy and then at his leader.
"Sir, I believe we can let them on now," he said.
"Why?" the leader drawled, looking at the other man. The trader held up the manual and the teens could tell, even behind the mask, his eyes bugged out of his head. He stared at Amy.
"You... are giving us this?" he asked dumbfounded.
"Yes. I figured anybody could use it," she replied. She conveniently left out the fact that she three more copies in her bag.
"Alright then. You can come with us," the leader said.
"Thanks, sir," Lloyd said hefting his pack.
"First of all: weapons?" the leader asked.
"Um, yes." Lloyd said a little uneasily, "Are you confiscating them? If so, we'll take our clips and manual back."
"Oh no!" the leader replied holding his hands up in a peaceful gesture, "I was just wondering if you four had weapons. Any extra help against the Raiders would be appreciated. They enjoy ambushing our caravans and startling our horses enough so that the wagon tips over. They're goddamned scavengers is what they are. Not even human."
"We'll help any way we can. It's the least we can do." Lloyd then turned around to the others.
"I think we all have pistols, right?" Terra asked Amy and Caedus.
"Yeah," Caedus replied nodding.
"I also have a baseball bat that's still in good shape," Lloyd said.
"Good," the trader leader announced, "You can come aboard."
"Thanks," the four replied in unison. They could see the folds of the mask lift up when as the leader grinned. They hopped aboard and the caravan started to move. Terra looked behind and could just barely make out the Wall they had to climb over only a night ago. It felt like forever. They were now on the move.