As I Walk These Broken Roads

minds — but that’s crazy because as long as they forget about the tech, and the learning behind it, everything we have is broken.

“We’re squatting on the shoulders of giants. We live in their houses, use their tools, we even keep the same names for the cities. How about the fact that I make a living by maintaining the old tech? There’s a lot of guys that do. I try and build some things, sure, but mostly what I do is just fix stuff that’s broken down — stuff that I can’t build in the first place!

“The old tech is everywhere, it’s in the roots — but nobody knows how to build it. Most guys, sure, they know what buttons to push, they know how to fix parts of it, but they don’t know the whole process. They don’t know why they push the buttons…

“Everyone’s closed their eyes to the underlying truth. It’s… it’s ignorance on purpose, and it’s everywhere. It’s like knowledge scares people — you know what? I think it does. There aren’t many who want to hear me explain what I’m doing, or how to prevent the malfunction from happening again, no matter how much cheaper it’d be. They just want it fixed and working so that they can forget about it.”

This time he did pull out the cigar and light it. “Some places actually think that being ignorant is a good thing, and that learning about this stuff is evil. It’s like; instead of examining, they ignore reality — finding out what’s going on would break whatever they want to be true. They won’t try to see the gears behind the walls, they won’t open up the black boxes, they won’t look under the rug; they just want everything to keep doing its magic.”

He shook his head. “But it won’t. One day, if nobody learns the how and why of it all, every last bit of tech is gonna rusts away to nothing. And then we’ll never have it again. And we’ll go back to the pretech days…

“That’s what I meant about it being a matter of will, not education. People don’t have the will to understand things; they’ve only got the will to be ignorant. And it’s because of that, that we live in shitty, recycled buildings — nobody wants to learn construction techniques. Any vehicles out there are antiques, because no one wants to learn how to make new ones — and socially? We’re stagnating, man. It’s a fucking mess where it’s denser, there’s even slavery out in the badlands. There’s no progress.” He let out a long sigh.

Wentworth smoked his cigarette, and the kilometres burned away.

“Heh, sorry man. Bit of a rant there. I’m just frustrated because there aren’t many people I can talk to about even the basic stuff I do. They don’t want to hear it and I get lonely.”

“No, don’t apologize. I was just thinking about what you said. It strikes a chord. I’ll have to get back to you on it, though.”

“No problem man.”

Fifth gear chugged desperately up the hill as they continued on down the highway.

Chapter 3

“Alright lads, we’re almost there. Another hour and we should be in town. Then we’ll get everything stowed away, and I can buy you some pints of that Landfall Ale I’ve been telling you about!”

Vince and his guards were moving at a steady clip, riding a two-vehicle train pulled by a pair of oxen. They were all in the lead car, a gutted station wagon, behind it the cargo trailer rolled sullenly. Vince sat centered behind the beasts, reigns in hand, while his two guards sat at the rear, back-to-back, facing the passing fields. The station wagon was a comfortable ride, and had been rigged for defence. Steel barricades with gun ports protected the occupants.

Vince wiped his brow and adjusted his wide brimmed hat. His barrel-chested frame slouched backwards in the padded seat, as he scratched at his unkempt travelling-beard. A bandanna hung loosely over his nose, protecting against the dust, while his earth-toned pants and utility vest refused to show wear.

He’d hired the guards back in Hope after leaving the Petrolia–Steeltown–Sauga caravan. Few merchants came out this ways so, as usual, he’d been forced to act as his own Caravan Master, taking care of rations and security. Billy and Verizon had seemed competent enough, and they’d come with good recommendations. As a bonus, their youthful high spirits were brightening his own.

“Ya know, Vince,” said Billy, the one with the green mohawk, “The way you’ve been talking about this Landfall Ale, if Verizon here ain’t shooting rainbows out his ass after the first pitcher then I’m going to be disappointed.”

Before Vince reply Verizon shouted, “‘Shooting rainbows out of my ass with your mother! On her trampoline! Oh!”

Without delay Billy began cussing out a rebuttal. Verizon had been repeating variations of the ‘mother on her trampoline’ line throughout the trip, but as to where he’d got it, Vince couldn’t say. The lad was dressed in a sleeveless biker jacket and aviators, and had taken up the role of resident smartass for the trip. His wisecracks helped pass the time.

But despite the laughter an undercurrent of irritation had entered the boys’ banter. They’d been on the road for two days already, and were all looking forward to getting away from the dust and the sun. Vince could already make out a line of smoke rising from the hamlet’s coal flue, and the growing sense of relief was palpable. There wasn’t much further to go, and the land on either side was flat and treeless, posing little threat of banditry. Soon enough another trip would be safely through and over with.

* * *

They’d been driving in silence, just watching the road disappear, when Raxx spoke up. “You like driving too, eh?”

“Yeah,” said Wentworth, “When you’re moving you leave your worries behind. There’s nothing you can do about anything, and no rules; it’s as close as a man gets to freedom.”

“Yeah, I hear you; just you, your skills, and the road.”

Several minutes passed before either of them spoke. “Pull over just after this hill. My bike’s in a gully here.”

Raxx eased onto the shoulder and shut off the engine. They stepped out, weapons in hand. Wentworth was wearing his jacket and helmet, and Raxx, before leaving, had donned a pair of old football pads reinforced with boiled leather and metal plates. He still had his revolver on his hip, but now he carried his shotgun as well.

“I know you said that this area’s pretty quiet and there’s not much banditry, but I’d like to scout things out before you give my bike a look-over. We made a lot of noise arriving just now, and if there’s anyone here they’ll find us pretty quick. That hill over there is the highest around, and it’s got plenty of cover. That’s part of the reason I left my bike here, yesterday.”

“Makes sense,” said Raxx, “You seem to know what you’re doing so I’ll just follow your lead.”

Wentworth replied with a silent nod. He’d been scanning the area for anything that didn’t fit, and though everything looked normal, he remained vigilant. He slid into the gully, and started off towards the hill. Raxx followed. It was fifty meters distant, but rather than walk directly to it he followed the contours of the land, so that by the time they reached it they were traveling almost parallel to the road. Once they started climbing Raxx understood the reason for their detour. The path they were taking had more brush on either side, the kind of stuff that would provide cover, while posing little impediment to their own observations. He tried to mimic Wentworth’s cautious prowl.

As they neared the top Wentworth hunched over so that his torso was horizontal, and continued at a slower pace, stepping carefully so as to avoid unnecessary noise. Raxx imitated, and soon they were both crawling.

Once they got to a good vantage point Wentworth motioned for Raxx to come closer. He said in a hushed tone, “Do you have binoculars or anything?”

“Yeah,” said Raxx. He pulled out a pair of plastic binos out of his tool pouch. He’d coloured them black with a marker long ago. Wentworth nodded. ”Don’t use them unless you see something suspicious. The glare from them could be noticed.” He indicated that Raxx should take the south-west arc, then positioned himself towards the north-east. They both shuffled to their positions, and started scanning the horizon.

Five minutes later Raxx felt a kick on his boot. He looked behind him to see Wentworth looking back at him. The man nodded and they both started crawling back the way they’d come. Once they reached the bottom of the hill Raxx whispered, “Is it okay to talk now?”

“Yeah. I didn’t see anything. I take it you didn’t either?”