Author's Note: Thanks for the review, I had half of this chapter written already but didn't think anyone was interested in reading this story. Nice catch on Israel, I was so busy doing research on the atomic timeline that I had taken for granted that it hadn't been founded yet. I'll see if I can go back and change the prologue while keeping the plot intact.
Erin could scarce resist running all the way home to share her earnings with her family. Rafe followed behind, snickering every time she forgot herself and bolted a few steps.
"C'mon, let's race," he said with a wink. "I know you want to."
"But you'll win!" Erin accused.
"Only because I'm faster." Rafe said, puffing himself up.
"No," she countered, "it's because your house is closer. So that means..."
"Means what?" Rafe asked.
The sound of loose dirt flying as Erin pelted away meant he'd been duped.
"It means I get a head start!" She shouted back over her shoulder.
Rafe cursed under his breath as he sprinted to catch up. He set into an easy lope, his greater height and longer strides eating up the distance between them. Erin was only a few feet away, dancing just out of his reach, when something caught her attention that made her freeze in her tracks. Too far gone to reduce his speed, Rafe crashed into her, toppling them both to the ground.
"Hey, what gives?" He complained, disentangling his long limbs from hers.
"Look over there." She said, and raised an arm from the dust to point at the unusually busy train station.
Unfamiliar boxcars stamped with the Capitol insignia waited on the tracks. Men in white stood guard while the longshoremen dumped whole tunas, ice and all, through the open doors.
"What are they doing with our fish?" Erin hissed.
"Uhm...taking it?" Rafe said, pointing out the obvious.
"You saw that bag, it only had the town seal on it, the Capitol didn't pay for anything."
"They probably paid the Bursar and the Accountant already, and we just didn't know about it." Rafe was tired of Erin's attitude in all things regarding the Capitol. Her anger had flared hotly ever since their issued Accountant had replaced her father and left him jobless. Since then, she never missed an opportunity to tell him how awful their lives were now that the Capitol was in charge.
"How could they?" Erin asked. "They didn't know how much we were bringing in, and no one from the Capitol showed up with a big sack of Cash when the Accountant was writing up his totals."
Rafe gave up, there was no point arguing with her when she got hold of an issue. He stood up and dusted himself off, holding out a hand to pull Erin up. "Fine, the Capitol came to steal our fish, and it's the first step towards martial law, and soon they'll go to war, draft all the able bodied, and enslave the rest."
"See," she said, a spark in her eyes, "now you see it too, right?"
"Erin," Rafe protested, "I was joking, they're probably doing that Tithe thing that all the adults keep complaining about."
"Oh," she said, her tirade stalled, "I guess you've got a point... But look at how much of it they're taking!" She took his hand and stepped toward the rail cars as she said this, gesturing toward all the partially loaded cars in a broad sweep. This motion caught the attention of one of the Capitol guards.
"Hey!" He shouted, trotting up to them and unshouldering his weapon. "Is there a problem here?"
Erin took a breath, ready to deliver a long winded sermon, but Rafe, sensing real and immediate danger, cut her off.
"No sir, no problem here, we were just admiring our catch." Rafe said, his tone respectful and subdued.
"This is all property of the Capitol." The guard stated, his voice brooking no argument.
Erin started to barge forward, her seething anger threatening to spill forth. Rafe put out an arm in front of her. He was trying his best to keep Erin from an all out confrontation with the guard, who was starting to look at them suspiciously.
"The two of you haven't seen anything...unusual lately, have you?"
"Unusual?
"No strangers show up in town lately?"
"Oh absolutely." Erin replied, managing to break through Rafe's blockade. "We just saw one, in fact."
Now the guard looked intensely interested, he pulled a notepad and pencil out of his shirt pocket and scratched lead to paper.
"Would you care to describe them?" He looked at Erin intently, waiting for a description.
"Tall," she said, "about..." Erin stepped back and raised an arm up into the air. She made a tapping motion just slightly above the pristine dome of the guard's white helmet, "This high," she cocked her head to one side and regarded the Capitol official, "and the same build as you."
A moment of silence as the man scribbled furiously. He finished and then looked up at her, his dark eyes glinting sharply behind shaded lenses. "What was he wearing?" He asked.
"White." Was her immediate response.
The man wrote out a few letters before the full meaning sank in. Erin watched in fascination as fury took over his features. The veins on his neck and forehead stood out, throbbing, and his face purpled with rage as he took in a huge breath to shout.
"Erin," Rafe reacted instantly. Clutching his coins tightly, he used his free hand to grab Erin by the heavy canvas of her clothing and tug her away from the guard, "Run."
The two teenagers sprinted down the path as the first syllables of a command hit the air. Neither one could make out the word, but they knew no good could come of it.
"What the hell was that, Erin?" Rafe asked, panting heavily. His eyes, normally a light sea green, were dark and stormy emeralds.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Erin apologized. "They're so serious, maybe they could use a little humor."
"Erin," Rafe replied, exasperated, "these are Capitol trained attack dogs, what did you think he would do, just laugh it off?"
Erin was abashed, "I thought he'd get angry, sure, but how could I know that he'd call for reinforcements? Anyway..." She paused, praying for her friend's forgiveness and desperate to change the subject. "What was that whole thing about strangers in town?"
"I have no idea," Rafe said, "but if it takes the heat off of us, then the more the merrier." He turned slightly and looked to the sparse forest around them. "We should split up," he suggested, "whatever description he gave is going to include the two of us together."
"You're right." Erin said, "Do you want to take the forest trails, or should I?"
Rafe evaluated her, "Probably you...I'm thinking you made a more lasting impression than I did."
Erin at least had the decency to look ashamed. "Right again." She stepped off the path and moved into the trees, "Give my regards to your family, won't you?"
"Always," Rafe promised, "I know there's at least one person who'll be sad that you're not stopping by today."
"Uggh, I totally forgot." Erin groaned. "Tell Amelia I'll make it up to her, and soon, before the girl gets so big she can't fit through the door." She stuck her arms out and waddled, pantomiming a huge belly.
Rafe had to laugh at her antics, he could never stay mad at Erin for very long. "I will, now get going or that mile long sprint will have been for nothing." He waved her away and watched as she disappeared into the foliage before resuming his trek home.
"Dad?" Erin shouted as she popped her head through the front door, "Danny?"
"EFRINH!" Came the muffled, though enthusiastic response as a lanky boy, still growing into his limbs, rose up from the kitchen table and rushed to hug her.
"Danny!" She laughed, embracing him tightly, "Swallow your food or you'll choke, and then how could I show you my surprise?" Erin took a step back and looked at him, watching his jaw muscles bunch as he took his requisite chews and swallowed. "You're growing like a weed." She reported, as the boy seemed about a head taller than he had been when she left.
"No way," he argued, "I've seen the weeds around here, they're stunted from salt, I'm growing like a sea weed!"
"Okay sea monster," Erin laid a hand on his shoulder and steered him back towards the table, "you wanna see what I got?"
"Uhhh," he pretended to consider it. "Duh, of course I wanna see." He responded, pulling out a chair for her and resuming his place at the table. "Spill." He said.
"Your wish is my command," Erin said as she opened her hands and let the polished coins tumble to the table in a glittering waterfall.
"Holy crap." Danny exclaimed. "That's all yours, for one trip?"
"Oh yeah," Erin bragged, "and Captain Squid said that it was just apprentice pay."
"Wow." Danny agreed. "Did you tell Uncle Ray yet?"
"Nope," Erin said, "You're the first one I came to." She thought for a moment, "Well, except for Rafe, but we got our pay at the same time, so that doesn't count."
"You mean Rafe got this same amount too?" He asked, disbelieving. "Wow, that's gonna help a lot with his Mama and when Amy's baby comes." Danny looked thoughtful, "No wonder everyone wants to go out on the boats. I wish I could be a fisherman." He grumbled.
"Dan-ny," Erin tried to soothe him, her voice singsong, "It's really dangerous out on the open sea, you know that." Both of them were silent for a moment, as they remembered the storm his parents were lost in. "And besides," Erin said, needing to break the melancholy that was threatening to settle over Danny, "you'd be the greenest fisherman there ever was." She swayed back and forth, looked dizzy and clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Erin! I don't get that sick!" He argued.
"You didn't see those waves, my boy, and that was only a small trip, could you imagine the long ones?"
Danny imagined being on a boat for a month straight, rocking on the waves for weeks at a time, he looked a little ill just thinking about it.
"See, you've got a way better job over at the lookout tower." Erin told him. "And besides," she pointed out, "Dad's grooming you to learn all the radio doodads and take over running the town's communications when he's old and curmudgeonly."
"I guess," Danny still looked distraught, "but it doesn't pay like fishing does." He shook his head towards the pile of coins on the table.
"Radio towers don't sink, Danny." Erin pointed out, her voice gentle. "What's on your plate there?" She asked, to distract him.
"Oh, the usual," he responded, "biscuits and smoked cod."
"Weeeeell," Erin said, "why don't you get me a plate of that, and then we'll take some of these coins into town and I'll buy back some of that fish I worked so hard to wrest from the ocean."
"'Kay." Danny said, rising up to grab another plate.
"And mayyyybe we'll spend a few extra coins in the market and get something special for you, what do you think about that?"
In answer, Danny piled her plate twice as high, trying to hide a huge grin while he worked.
The marketplace sprawled across both sides of the roadway leading up to the dock. Each stall flew a different colored flag, the two and three colored bands denoting the vendor's household. Some market stalls specialized solely in one item, but others chose to branch out, becoming a veritable general store in miniature. Erin stopped in front of one of the older shops, Danny in tow. a banner of black and purple snapping in the wind.
"Hullo there. Erin," old man Genner greeted her as they walked in, adjusting the half spectacles precariously perched on his nose as he peered down at her companion, "and is your companion today the young gentleman, Mister Daniel Burns?"
Danny giggled, but rolled his eyes anyway, in the manner of all aloof and serious preteens. "You know me already, Mister Genner."
"Do I?" Genner asked. "It seems to me that my good friend Danny is not nearly so tall or thin as this boy in my shop today."
"Oh, it's Danny." Erin said, laying a sheet of paper out on Genner's counter, "no one else in town is so hideously malformed that even the seagulls caw in fright."
"The seagulls caw at everyone!" Danny retorted, his face flushing with mild embarrassment.
With serious business at hand, Erin let her volley slip and turned her attention to the shop keeper. "I need everything on this list, Genner, the usual month to month supplies." She paused a moment, considering. "I've never thought to ask this, but are there any uh-" Erin fumbled for the word. "Luxury items you have laying about the place? I have a slight abundance of coin and I would love to spend it in your shop."
The old man beamed at her. "For the newly minted fisherwoman, I have just the thing." He disappeared behind a partition in the stall, and returned bearing a sturdy but tattered box.
"What's this?" Erin asked, blowing on the box. A cloud of dust puffed into the air, the light caught the motes, burnishing them to a rich gold as they swirled above them. All of them paused for a moment, taking in the wonder of the sudden golden snowstorm.
Until Danny sneezed.
"Sorry, little man." Erin apologized.
"This, I think," Genner told them, drawing their attention once more, "has been waiting for you, for your whole life." He took the box lid off with a flourish, setting it aside, and gently lifted out the contents.
It was an oilskin coat, the canvas dyed a rich dark brown that reminded Erin of chocolate and smooth driftwood. She put a hand out, asking permission to touch it, and Genner inclined his head. The cotton was smooth and supple underneath her fingertips, despite the garment's obvious age.
"Who was this for?" Erin asked, wanting to know the story behind the coat.
"A sheep herder."
"A what?" Erin and Danny asked in unison.
Genner let out a sigh. "Before you were born, before the flood, this whole area was nothing but smooth hills and vast fields of grassland. There are land animals that live off of grass, cows, goats, sheep..." He paused, making sure they were still following. "The people here used to farm them for meat, the same way you snare fish from the oceans to give us food. In addition to the meat though, sheep would supply wool, and all three animals gave milk."
"What's milk?" Danny was having trouble following all these new words.
"It's a similar substance to what new mothers suckle their babes with."
Erin made a face.
"Gross." Danny said. "Why would they want that?"
"You can make other things out of it," Genner explained, "like cheese."
"Really?" Erin asked, remembering an extremely expensive wedge of something that had turned up at the house when her father was still working. "Dad brought some home once, Pam Reason, he called it." Her brow furrowed, crinkling up her nose in memory. "It was salty, and strange, but I liked it."
Genner chuckled heartily at that, his eyes twinkling. "Parmesan, it was, and that's just one of hundreds. There are as many kinds of cheeses as there are fish in the sea, or at least there were." He allowed. "With trade the way it is now, we have no way of knowing if there are any herding and farming Districts left."
"Only the Capitol knows." Erin said, with a grudge in her voice.
"Aye, and they're not telling," Genner brought their attention back to the story at hand, "but this tale, and this coat, is something the Capitol knows nothing about."
Those words were magic itself, Genner had ensnared her complete attention.
"Who were they?" She asked.
"I don't know their full identity," he said, "but judging by the size of this coat, and the fact that herdsfolk and fisherfolk apprentice about the same time, I'd say this herder was a girl, Erin, a girl just like you."
"You don't know that," Erin accused, "they could have just been a small, skinny boy."
"Perhaps, but there's one more artifact within this coat." He reached into one of the inner, protected pockets, and drew out a small, slim volume.
Erin's eyes went wide as she saw the object, which she had never thought to behold in her lifetime. What few books had survived the flood were quickly snatched up by the Capitol and resided there, or with the super elite who could afford to buy them back. Erin's knowledge of them had only existed in the stories told from the time before the flood. "A book." She whispered, reverently.
The book was well worn, but still in good condition. Someone had taken great care to keep it safe, despite the obvious wear marks that meant it had been read hundreds of times. Genner tilted the cover up to her, the remaining flakes of gold leaf shone from their nests of embossed leather.
The Curious Adventures of the Lady Jane
Erin's fingers groped in her pocket, searching out an amount of coins that would neither break her, nor offend the generous shopkeeper. She set the metal disks on the table, bracing herself for what came next.
"I'll buy it." She said, and hoped that it was true.
