“Thanks, that was heavy. So, you’re settled in?”
“Yes, but I need to wash my clothes. I found a washboard and tub, but no laundry soap. Do you have any?”
“Let me go ask Terrance what we have in stock.” Rena leaves, returning a few minutes later with a small box of powered detergent. “You’re in luck, this is his last one.”
“Thanks,” I say, as I take the box from her. “How does he get more?”
“Oh, he has his ways,” she replies with a sly smile and wink. “Well, I’m going to be heading out soon. Do you need anything before I go?”
I shake my head in reply.
“Well if you do, Terrance is here, but be careful not to startle him as he sleeps with a knife under his pillow.”
“Thanks for the warning. Do you need help with these?” I ask, pointing to the two crates.
“No, those are for Quin. He’ll be here in about an hour to pick them up.”
I thank her again for the soap and leave since I don’t want to be around when Quin shows up, especially if he is looking for payback from yesterday.
After scrubbing everything as best I can, I drag the few garments I managed to toss into my duffle bag over the railings to let them dry. Luckily, today is an exceptionally hot day so they dry rather quickly. I repack them, clean up my mess, and go back up to my little den to look at the tablet before it gets too dark outside.
I lean my back against the wall, bend my legs up so I can rest the tablet on my thighs, place my right palm on the screen, and watch as the screen turns blue to scan my print…then it goes black. I place my palm on the device again, but it remains off, so I toss it to the end of the mattress, frustrated. My instinct is to drop it over the rail and onto the barn floor below, but Devlan left it for me to use, so there has to be a reason behind it.
The puttering of an engine breaks the silence.
Rolling over, I crawl closer to the opening in order to see who’s arrived. Quin jumps down from the driver’s side of a large truck, moving a little too well for someone who had his knee blown out yesterday. He goes into the house and comes back out seconds later with both crates in one arm. He sets them down in the bed of the truck, then goes back inside for a much longer stint, finally emerging with Terrance in tow. The two hop into the cab of the truck and head out. I’m half tempted to jump on my bike and follow them, but just as I’m staring at my gear, thinking about getting dressed, the tablet begins to ping.
I crawl to the end of the mattress and lay on my stomach as the screen goes from blue to green to gray. On the side of the thin device a small port opens, revealing a pair of headphones. I pull them out and attach them to my ears. The voice starts speaking as a faded picture of a little girl appears on the screen.
The little girl is me.
“Meg, I’m sorry I’m not there to tell you in person. This tablet is programmed to activate every evening for five days just before dusk, but you must place your palm on the screen five minutes before or it will not turn on until the following evening. This is a security precaution to protect the information on this device from being read by anyone other than you. Also, the messages will only last for ten minutes.”
The screen moves from my picture to another of flags covered in stars, stripes and other insignia of various colors, burning.
“The country was at war with itself, class against class. The wars raged on for decades. Tens of thousands died. Those who survived were left without homes, food, or social structure. Many tried to take control, who then lost to others who had greater power or more influence. A century passed with more wars and lives lost. After a tumultuous battle, the decimated land of Sirain was divided up into three cities: Nuceira, Acheron, and Tyre.”
The screen shifts to a map displaying each city in its own quadrant: Tyre past a ridge of mountains to the West, Acheron sitting amongst a chain of lakes to the Northeast, and Nuceira on a peninsula surrounded by a large mass of open water to the South. The Wasteland sits in the center, surrounded on all sides by the cities and their outlying Boroughs.
“Workers were scarce, so the cities used their armies to collect small towns that had escaped the carnage of battle. One particularly large tent city, called Asphodel, had the largest causalities from the cities’ raids; the only recorded incident where Tyre infiltrated Acheron land. Each city sent in spies or hired criminals to cause chaos and unrest in the others’ territory.”
The map lights up, displaying different colors for each region, showing just how small the Wasteland actually is, and emphasizing that Tyre has the largest mass of land compared to Acheron and Nuceira.
“The only time the cities banded together was to protect the entire land from raiders determined to destroy Sirain; however the High Rulers in each city didn’t relish the idea of having their own citizens going off to fight, so they decided to send workers who lived in the Boroughs and outlying villages off to battle. When the Rulers realized they were losing the conflict because of the inadequacy of their troops, they decided to design them instead. They wanted an army of super soldiers.”
The image changes to a picture of a man and a woman wearing gray uniforms, their muscles bulging in the tight material.
“The cities knew they needed a defense against the hostile forces.
