The Foundling Saga: Revelation Page 5

  Eventually, they returned to their base and their backpacks. They were satisfied that they were alone in the area and, since the light was now fading, they prepared their sleeping mats. Cormic, being about a foot shorter than Keller, decided to place his in the bath, to the amusement of Keller. Keller laid his own on the floor of the room nearby. Tired as they both were, they talked a little about the troopers. They were speculating that it would have been a strange sight for the troopers, on the morning they left, watching many pairs of hooded Outsiders all dispersing in the mist.

  It was a good thing, thought Keller, that they could both fall asleep with a smile on their faces about that.

  Keller slept fitfully. Cormic twice had to lean down to shake him. Keller was talking urgently in his sleep and seemed to be panicking in his sleeping bag. Consequently, Cormic left him to sleep in the morning as he discretely exited the bathroom.

  Cormic was re-packing his backpack when Keller surfaced. “How long have you been awake?” he said, squinting towards the light coming into the main room of the flat.

  “Since first light. You don’t look so awful, given that you slept so badly.”

  Keller rubbed his left eye and squinted in his companion’s direction. “I seem to have had bad dreams last night. Thanks for letting me sleep. My legs are aching. I think it’s the stairs.”

  “Probably is. You do enough walking so I doubt it’s that, but you don’t generally climb steep stairs.” Cormic smiled, taking his attention briefly away from his backpack. He knew that Keller had only seen high buildings from a distance at the Arpo barrier.

  “Have a drink and something to eat Keller. There is no particular rush, but we may as well have a look around this area of town.”

  Keller was certainly interested in investigating the ruins more closely so he pushed away thoughts of his fitful sleep and turned his attention to his backpack, deciding what rations would be suitable for breakfast. “I noticed some apple trees close to here.”

  “Yes, I saw them too. We can take some apples with us.” Cormic put his backpack in the bath with his sleeping mat. He decided to just keep a water bottle handy with a small wrap of food in his side pockets. He also took out some metal tools which he placed in a small carry bag, which he would carry on his shoulder.

  Keller, who was eating from a food wrap, noticed that Cormic had a fish-knife, a hammer and a bar used for levering. He was also packing what looked like a leather harness with wooden hand grips attached to long lengths of twine. He put his head through this harness, brought it around his shoulders and tucked the rolled lengths in the waistband that came with the harness. It looked like he was ready to pull a cart with it.

  He told the watching Keller that it was easier to wear it than carry it. Keller also noticed that he had two solar plas lights that he had traded for at the Arpo. These powerful torches were a marvel and only needed an hour of sunshine to provide almost a full night of light. Keller knew that he would have had to sacrifice a lot during this trade. However, it extended the amount of time he could safely track down any remaining treasures whenever he visited the old towns.

  Travelling more lightly the pair left their new temporary home and climbed a nearby wall, making their way over to a well laden apple tree. There was plenty of choice, and although many seemed to be maggot ridden there was enough choice to pick some decent apples. They took two each which Cormic scanned. “Just in case, you never know.”

  They made their way to the old highway nearby. They paused occasionally to take in the surroundings before moving off again.

  Keller wondered about a large concrete structure that sat on the side of some collapsed buildings. It had clearly been larger than most dwellings.

  “What was that for?”

  “That’s a vehicle storage area, Keller. It will have been stripped of anything useful a long time ago. Our best bet is to seek out the properties that had underground storage. Many of them are windowless and have not suffered the same invasion of plants, however some have filled with water and are fruitless to search in.”

  “They must have had a vehicle each”.

  Cormic inclined his head as though imagining this. “They probably did. Didn’t seem to do the much good in the end though”, he mused, “they had vehicles for fighting too.”

  “Yes, Tanks. With giant guns on top,” recalled Keller from a story his aunt told him from one of her books. She had probably meant to teach him a sober lesson from history but in truth it just gave him nightmares at the time.

  They continued along one of the old highways, sometimes following animal tracks through the undergrowth. They stopped after an hour or so for a drink and surveyed their surroundings until they came to some taller ruins.

  “These ruins either side of us look like the concrete market places that I have seen elsewhere in this town. The upper floors have collapsed, but they are vast inside. Maybe the lower two floors are intact. Let’s have a look in here - but keep your wits about you as you enter as the vegetation may hide pits or holes of various kinds.” With that, Cormic headed towards the ruins with Keller keeping up just behind him and already deciding to walk in his footsteps to keep safer.

  As they clambered over the ruins and into the darker areas, it became difficult to see ahead. Cormic passed Keller one of the solar plas lights. “Tuck it into your tunic for now. If you think you are going to fall, make sure this light has a soft landing as it’s probably more valuable than the two of us put together,” he remarked ruefully.

  Keller was impressed with the solar plas light as Cormic surveyed the area in front of them. It was far superior to using fire. The light travelled the entire length of the level they were on.

  To ensure they had an additional purpose to this temporary absence, Cormic was determined to come back with items to trade. Keller was equally determined to find something of value in the vast wilderness of ruins in the town. He felt they had an advantage over other Outsiders in this area since it was rare for Outsiders to have access to a plas light, and this should allow them to reach some rarely visited remote and unlit areas.

  Such was the devastation of the last war, and the resulting sickness, that many towns were viewed as poisoned graveyards. Left unmaintained, they had become ruins before they could be fully scavenged. This meant that it was a difficult process when the few scavengers started to move into the cities. It was also many years before the highly sophisticated Londoners would even trade with the rural survivors. In the end they simply had to. One of their needs, apart from more diversity in fresh food, was metal and other materials. In the last fifteen years the Regents had created a demand that ensured cooperation with Outsiders even if it was across a barrier. The Outsiders had, for a long time, shunned the historical sophistication of the towns. They felt that this sophistication was the cause of all their woes. Eventually, in the mutual interest of trade, they decided to nominate a few of their number to increase their trading potential by ‘recovering’ whatever could be found in the old towns.

  The pair had been searching for a couple of hours, clambering over areas of collapsed floors until they reached the back of one of the larger internal rooms. It seemed to be about the size of a small field.

  “There’s been a recent collapse here,” noted Cormic. They worked their way down a large slab of smooth stone, interspersed with cracks and splits but bound together by rusted poles that were visible in the cracks. The level they traversed appeared to show fresh cracks judging by the lack of discolouration. It had collapsed in a manner that left a slope to the lower level. The upper floor had been prevented from falling into the lower level by a mound of rubble in the middle area of the large room below, and by the supporting walls on the near side of the lower level. They walked down the slope stepping carefully over the cracked areas.

  When they reached the bottom of the slope, Keller investigated the cavity created by the sloped floor from above with his own plas light. His light revealed a broken door frame in the lower level.
It had a heavy-looking grey door leaning outwards at the top but still attached at the bottom. It appeared precarious, but no doubt it would still take some effort to fully prise this door away. He knelt down and shone his light through the gap created by the twisted door and frame.

  “Look here. Crates! They’re balanced on top of each other. There must be at least thirty.”

  Cormic came over and lay down next to him just poking his head between the door and frame. He pulled his light in beside him. “I have no idea what is in those crates, but they seem intact. They must have been valuable at one time judging by the thickness of this door. You would need a thousand mules to have opened this,” he said, shining his torch up the side of the frame.

  Keller was apprehensive and excited at the same time. “Can we go in?” he asked, as Cormic reversed out of the gap. He got up into a crouch, dusting his tunic off.

  “Yes. You are a bit skinnier than me, so it’ll have to be you. We just need to take some precautions.” He took off the harness that he had been wearing. He untied the device and extended the two longer lengths that had wooden handles on the end, similar to the spades they used for digging. “My father made this,” he said, by way of explanation. “It does what it needs to do. You need to put this over your head and shoulders, like a mules’ harness, and tie it around your waist. I will keep hold of the wooden handles in case I need to pull you out.”

  He helped Keller put the harness on. He unwound the two longer lengths that were a thin, but strong, twine. These extended about five times the length of his body. Each had a handle grip.

  Keller crouched down, pushed his light into the gap and slid through. He paused when his harness got caught on part of the damaged frame whilst his companion freed it.

  “Look about you before you stand up. You need to ignore the crates for the moment and just make sure none of the structure around and above you appears unstable. Look around the ground so that you can see if you can move forwards and backwards.” Cormic remained outside, but he lay down so that he could see Keller. “Be careful of the twine on the right side, it’s caught on your harness.”

  Freeing up the twine, Keller declared that the ground was clear enough for him. He eventually switched his attention to the stacked crates which appeared to be wrapped in some sort of plas covering. One stack only had two crates, which came up to his shoulders. Cormic passed him a fish-knife and lever. “You might need these.”

  Just touching the brittle plas covering created a cascade of dust as it fell away to the floor in both large and small pieces. This sent a low cloud of dust across the hard floor. Keller could see that underneath the brittle wrapping the crates were made of a thicker material that wasn’t natural. Cormic sneezed from the low cloud of dust and cursed.

  Keller was aware that he needed to work quickly as the dusty atmosphere was uncomfortable for both of them. He moved his hands around the upper part of the box, he could see two metal pieces on each side of the square crate. He tugged at these from the top and then again from the bottom. He realised they were handles that needed to be pulled from below. On one side, one of them snapped and fell to the floor whilst the other pulled out from underneath and seemed to take pressure off the lid immediately. On the other side both pulled out. “The lid is loosening!” he said. “I’ll see if I can lift the lid.” He reached down for the lever.

  The lid didn’t take much persuasion but he did use the lever to lift it slowly whilst peering in. He couldn’t tell what was inside, so he completely raised the lid, which was sturdy but light, and placed it carefully on the floor to avoid Cormic getting another face full of the light dust. With that, Cormic sneezed again as though to make the point. “What’s inside?” he said rubbing his nose with his free hand.

  “Hmm. Stun guns – similar to those that the troopers carry. At least, I have seen some of them with these - the ones that stand at the far side of the Arpo where the Regents entrance is.” He lifted one of them. “These are different. They seem heavy.” He took the green and brown weapon out and moved back towards Cormic, laying it down carefully. Cormic studied it, placing his hand on it as though to determine its temperature.

  “Yes, it’s metal, it’s not a stun gun,” Cormic said excitedly. “Is that crate full of these?” He added, looking up at Keller, who nodded. “This is really something, Keller!”

  Keller had moved towards the open crate and counted the guns. “There are two stun guns on each level. I can see five levels with soft padding separating them.”

  “Any good condition metal is valuable to the Regents. Amazing! They trade for so much of it that I wonder sometimes if they take it home and eat it.” Cormic mused. “Keller, this is a truly great find. Can you check the other crates, but just go careful.”

  Keller had already started undoing another crate behind the one he had started on. This crate was on a stack of three, so he stood on the lid he had discarded to remove the brittle wrapping and locate the handles to open the lid. “Yes, this is the same,” he reported.

  Eventually they determined by examination, that half the twenty or so left hand side crates contained the same items. Since they were all the same shape and size, Keller decided to pause and check the other items on the right-hand side of the room. These boxes were a different size albeit the same design and shape. “This one has green and brown bottles.” He continued to examine them for some time. “These have an attachment on the end. I think this attachment fits onto the gun.” He took the attachment over to Cormic, who again worked his way back out of the gap and sat down, leaning against the door frame.

  Cormic tried to match the two pieces of gun together. “I think you are right. We need to be careful, as I think it is this little green bottle that makes the gun fire.”

  He also paused for some time occasionally looking back into the gap to at Keller. “The small crates – are they also all the same.”

  “Yes, they appear to be.”

  “Okay, let’s take two each of the guns and four each of the bottles. I can take these to the Arpo next month.” He paused in thought, frowning. “However, we will need to cover this entrance to disguise the room from others. I don’t want to deprive the family of what trade this might bring to us. This is a rare find indeed.”

  Keller pushed out the remaining sample of treasures and then squeezed out through the gap. He was glad of the relative fresh air in the larger room and realised he had been sweating a lot inside the tiny room he had just left. The two of them then spent some time moving enough debris from various areas to camouflage the opening. The chances were slim that others would find this in the next month or so, however Cormic explained how rare these treasures were.

  “This floor collapse looks a few months old, I believe. It is obvious no-one has been down here to notice the effect the collapse has had on that strong door frame. Mind you, not many visitors to the town would even have the lighting to see down here,” Cormic said whilst removing the harness from Keller.

  It was time to return to their temporary home. The guns were heavy but would not pose a problem until the long walk home back to their tents.

  By the time they returned to the base, they were both discussing animatedly the impact of trading their new treasure. “Surely we can get many wonders from the Regents for these?” Said Keller.

  “We’ll see, I haven’t seen anyone trading these in the past, but let’s hope we can trade well with these.” Keller noticed him frowning as he spoke.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing really, Keller. I am just wondering why they had guns in the towns in the first place. Unlike the weapons the troopers carry, which will make you fall down in pain and you won’t be able to get up for half an hour, these maim and kill. It’s strange there were so many in this town – the old ones certainly seemed intent on hurting each other.”

  They ate, talked about the day, and finally settled down to sleep. Keller was wide awake for some time, wondering what it had been like living in this to
wn. The extent of the ruins suggested a crowded place with little escape for any privacy. It was probably a constant frustration to live so close to each other. Like a wasps nest, he thought. It then occurred to him that maybe this led to the war, perhaps, like a disturbed wasps nest, the angry inhabitants storming out ready to fight at the least sign of threat from outside. The thought troubled him. He wondered if the Outsiders’ families would have gone the same way, had the birth rate been as successful as past generations. As it stood, perhaps the low birth rate resulted in the value of life being more appreciated and precious.

  He thought of his mother who had been unable to conceive and he knew, that had she been able to have her own children, there would be no sadness about her. His mother had always been loving and cheerful but he did see a fleeting sadness in her sometimes when the subject of children came up. It often did when families sat together of an evening around the fire, usually as a result of news of a pregnancy somewhere and the usual discussions on whether it was likely to go to term.

  He thought of Merna. He wondered what her outlook was on this. He could see another girl growing into a woman and yet being unable to fulfil her dreams. It made him return to the occasional questions his family and friends aired about why he had been left beside the family field all those years ago. Nola always viewed him as a gift. Thinking about his childhood and early memories of his mother, he finally fell asleep.

  Unknown to Keller and his family, the attention shown to him at the Arpo was precipitated by his Aunt Nerys on the families’ previous visit to the trading area. Her second attempt at trading in an old, but perfectly sound baby’s carry-pod puzzled one of the Regents. He had noticed the carry-pod being offered for trade to one of his fellow female Regents who dismissed the item. He, however, was puzzled as to where this might have come from since it was an unlikely item to have been traded with Outsiders for their own use. He knew they tended to carry infants in baby slings and simply wouldn’t choose to trade for such a luxury when they had far greater priorities.