“Yes, if it’s still standing. It’s five miles north of Hatchery Seven.”
“So even if we make it to the Dormitories, it’ll probably be too late,” Jagger states, as he slumps against the wall by the door.
“We have to try,” I say.
Braxton and Jagger work non-stop for a day and a half on getting one of the vehicles operational, while Keller, Gage, and Tobin set up a perimeter around what remains of the hatchery in case it’s attacked again. I work with Lehen on getting his skills sharpened. He and I stay away from the functional buildings and train around the destroyed Developmental Quad.
During our scarce breaks, I try and think of a way to trigger Lehen’s Quantum Stream. He’s the only Antaean left without it. Lehen seems reluctant, almost to the point of being defiant, to take the necessary steps. I drop the topic, but I continue to think of my options.
Three days after the attack on Hatchery Nine, we’re finally ready to leave.
The eight remaining Morrigan elect to stay behind and defend the complex if it’s attacked again. Superior Hersher allocates some food rations for us, though it’s not too much as she needs it for the women, children, and staff. Communications are still down with Tyre and sketchy with some of the outlying Boroughs.
Braxton instructs Hera and Duren to keep attempting to contact Tyre. In five days, when we’re near the Dormitories, Duren is to send out a transmission stating that the city’s forces are mobilizing for an assault on the Hostem from the Dormitories.
Braxton is hoping this will compel the Hostem to pull out of Acheron and the Boroughs. Of course this is a very tenuous plan.
We’re still unsure of where Tyre stands.
As I climb into the front seat of the vehicle, I notice my Levin gun and knife sitting on the floor under the dashboard, so I place my knife in my back pocket and leave the gun by my feet. Braxton takes the wheel and begins to drive us slowly down the battered road. We pass under what remains of the keystone dangling over the third gate, its stone pillars reduced to rubble. Gates two and one are almost impassable. Jagger and Gage have to leave the vehicle in order to clear a path for us. Occasionally through the trees I catch a glimpse of several metallic objects with reflective panels on their roofs.
The carriages the Hostem used aren’t big, but there are a lot of them, and they’re in good working order.
I tell Braxton to stop. He is reluctant at first, but does finally comply.
I pick the Levin gun up from the floor and exit. Jagger and Gage join me and we make our way to one of the carriages. We approach cautiously, weapons drawn in case there are any Hostem around. I peer into the window, but no one is inside. Jagger and Gage stand behind me, facing the road as I open the driver’s side door to take a better look inside.
The interior is cramped, loaded down with communication equipment, conflagration slugs, Levin guns, detonators, and a great number of other weapons I don’t recognize. I sit in the driver’s seat and flip on the monitor just above the gearshift. The screen hisses at first, then I hear voices in the background. The screen is damaged so I can’t see who the voices belong to, but it’s just as well, since it might be a two-way screen. I switch it off and exit the vehicle. We examine several other carriages and find the same equipment, along with provisions that should last us a couple of days.
I take a closer look at the crates holding the food and notice a blurry image on the bottom right corner of all the boxes.
“I wish I had a Regulator’s glass.”
Gage reaches into the front pocket of his coat and pulls one out.
“I took this off of the woman you killed before we buried her.”
I take it from him and place it over the image on the top box. The figure solidifies into a bull with a red cape: the Tyre symbol.
“How’d they get a hold of those?” Gage asks, as I hand him back the glass.
“The same way the people in the Wasteland do. They steal them.”
I close the back door of the carriage and head back to tell Braxton about the find. He suggests we take two of the Hostem carriages, partially for the equipment but mainly for camouflage if we encounter any Hostem on our way. As we transfer equipment, Braxton removes a communications receiver from one of the carriages we aren’t taking and installs it into our vehicle. I take note of the frequency numbers of the two vehicles we are taking and give them to Braxton so he can program them into our receiver.
Tobin and Lehen get into the first carriage, Braxton and I take the Morrigan vehicle, and Jagger and Gage follow at the end in the other carriage.
As we begin to move again, I turn on the receiver and call up Tobin and Gage’s vehicles on the screen. I see their faces from the small camera housed in the screen, then move their images to one side to call up the main control insignia. By manipulating the controls, I’m able to block anyone from randomly locating our frequency. I enable the feature and advise Gage and Tobin to do the same as I try to locate other Hostems, so we can have a better idea of where they all are.
Chapter 28
We emerge onto the transport road an hour later and head north, descending the ridge. Snow begins to fall as we make our way down. There hasn’t been much chatter over the receiver, so I haven’t been able to discern anything. I keep the dial on search mode so it will continue to look for any transmissions.
It takes us several hours to reach the bottom of the range.
We ride in silence, taking as
