Batteryville

Over the Wall

At Erin's house Ms. Morrison was standing on the front porch talking to a couple of guys who were standing on the lawn.

I slowed down before any of them saw me and I hung back trying to hear what they were saying but I couldn't make out any of it.

Ms. Morrison wasn't happy about something, that was for sure, and then one of the guys, now I recognized him from the meeting, he was the one saying we had to stop letting people into Batteryville, said, "It's going to happen, Marion, you might as well get out ahead of it."

Ms. Morrison said, "It's wrong, Ford, you know that."

"We have no choice."

"We have hard choices," Ms. Morrison said. "And choices have consequences."

"The consequence we have to worry about is whether or not Batteryville survives. It would be better if you convinced your people."

Ms. Morrison laughed, but not like something was funny, and said, "My people?"

"People listen to you, Marion, and it would be better if we were a united front here."

"That almost sounds like a threat."

"This is going to happen, these changes are going to happen, with you or without you."

"Are you saying we're either with you or against you?"

The man, Ford, kicked at the lawn and said, "Don't make it like that, we all want the same thing."

"Do we?"

The other guy said, "Come on, we'll talk later," and started to walk away and Ford waited a minute and looked at Ms. Morrison and said, "It would be better if we worked together on this." He waited a bit and when Ms. Morrison didn't say anything, Ford said, "Have it your way," and walked away.

I waited a few minutes before I walked up to the house. Ms. Morrison was still standing on the porch looking in the direction the two guys had walked away and when she finally saw me she said, "Hello, Walter."

I said, "Hi Ms. Morrison."

She was still looking at Ford and the other guy walking back towards Main Street and she said, "You can all me Marion."

I said, "I know. I was wondering, is Erin home?"

"No, she's at work."

"Oh, right, of course."

"Shouldn't you be at work, too?"

"Yeah, I'm on my way."

I figured Erin was probably working on the bike she'd found but I didn't know where. A couple of years ago when I got my first bike it was from the Wal-Mart out near the highway exit but that's on the other side of the fence now so I didn't think Erin was there. And that place has been picked clean, practically nothing left in it now.

There were some bikes at the Goodwill but I didn't think there were any parts or any tools and then I thought, yeah, right under my nose, and I walked to the high school.

Over the last year or so people had started using the woodshop, mostly to fix things. We didn't really need to make anything because with so few people left in the world there was a lot of stuff, so that wasn't an issue.

The shop was empty but I saw the tools had been used, a couple of wrenches were still on one of the workbenches and there was a bike pump on the floor.

But no sign of Erin.

I thought maybe she'd gone for more parts or something but then I realized there was no bike, either, and I thought maybe she'd fixed it already? Seemed too quick, but when she was determined to do something nothing could stop her. I remembered when she'd wanted to climb the clock tower on the fire hall and everyone told her not to and the next thing I knew she was standing up there waving down to the town.

And that made me think maybe she... I started running.

I ran through the halls of the school to the stairwell and then up to the roof. I grabbed the binoculars and looked out at the main gate and the road crossing the bridge. There were quite a few people there, mostly people I didn't recognize but no Erin.

Then I looked north, towards the empty subdivision and the big highway and I saw... something.

I said, "What are you doing?" out loud, but I wasn't sure. I saw something moving but even with the binoculars it was too far away to tell what it was. It could have been Erin on a bicycle.

It could have been a scavenger.

It could have been a deer. Or a bear.

All I knew for sure is that it was moving slowly along the side of the road – heading away from Batteryville.

I ran down the stairs and all the way to my house.

What did I need? There was no time. I ran to my room and looked around. I still had the tablet Roy had given me, I threw that in a bag and I had a small solar charger so I put that in and then I grabbed a hoodie and ran to the kitchen and grabbed a plastic water bottle and then—

Kara was standing by the doorway.

She said, "Are you going after her?"

"I don't know what you're talking about?"

"I saw her leave a while ago, I was glad to see you weren't with her but now it looks like you're going, too."

"I'm just..." I didn't know what to say.

Kara said, "Okay, take this." She was holding out a gun, a revolver and a bag. "I don't have many rounds, so don't waste them." I didn't move so she took a step forward and put the gun in my hand. "But it's a .22, you'll probably be able to find bullets lots of places. Do you have a knife?"

"No."

"Never mind, here, take this." She slung the bag off her back and put the gun into it and then handed it to me. "Take those too."

I realized I still had the binoculars in my hand so I put them in the bag.

"If you can catch up to her and bring back, that would be best."

I said, "I'll try."

"Don't trust anyone," Kara said. "Everyone has a gun and they're pretty desperate these days."

I started out of the house saying, "Okay," and Kara said, "And watch out for the dogs, packs of dogs. And coywolves. They're real and they're vicious."

"Okay." I was out of the house then and got my bike. I put the bags in the baskets on the rack over the back wheel, hopped on and started pedaling.

About an hour later I saw Erin and a couple hours after that I caught up to her.

She was stopped by cannibal bikers.