Them and Us by Paul Schueller - HTML preview

Chapter 8

Kevin was napping in his bunk when the alarm went off that Sam’s chip had malfunctioned. He leaped to his feet, thinking the worst. He ran down the hall to the joystick and panel control and plugged Sam’s last known location into a drone and dispatched it on auto pilot. Next he left messages Joe and Dr. Canard. He’d have about 20 minutes before the drone would reach the sight. He could do nothing but wait.

As the drone arrived at Sam’s last known location it signaled Kevin and he turned on the drone’s camera and took control of the unit. As he did Dr. Canard and Joe entered the room.

Kevin’s heart sank at the first image which was a body lying face covered with water and shrouded by clothes and a backpack. Obviously Kevin assumed that it was Sam and he sat helplessly as the drone hovered above the body. There was no hope as several minutes passed with no sign of movement and his head and mouth clearly submerged. The pounding rain made the images blurry as Kevin swiveled the camera and moved the drone up and away with widening circles hoping to see something, anything that would point to what happened. He maneuvered the drone to the top of the plateau, but the rain was now so heavy that he couldn’t make anything out other than flat limestone surfaces.

As he turned the drone to head back to the canyon floor the camera jerked and then went dead. Without the protection of the canyon a gust of wind had knocked down the drone.

“Damn it, I should have been more careful” Kevin said more to scold himself than for Dr. Canard or Joe’s benefit, but he knew they were watching his every move.

Dr. Canard spoke in an emotionless tone. “Too bad. That kid was perfect for us. I had big plans for him.”

Kevin stood abruptly and wheeled around towards Dr. Canard. “What were you doing to him?

Looks to me like he could have thrown himself off that cliff. If so, that’s on you!”

Dr Canard was unphased. “That’s none of your concern. Just do your job.”

“I am doing my job and part of it is that is that I have to tell his family. They’ll be devastated, but with him dying in the line of duty they will get the cash value of his remaining life and his offspring credit. It won’t bring him back but they will be pretty much financially set for the rest of their lives.”

“Go ahead and set that up but first I’m going to need the footage that you just recorded.” Dr Canard stated.

Kevin turned back to his computer and send him the file and then walked out of the room.

As he left Dr. Canard closed the door and turned to Joe and said. “Kevin’s right about the payment to his parents and that makes me very suspicious. Way too convenient, him dying and being able to take care of his family and their little problem.”

Joe replied. “But what else could it be? Either it was an accidental fall or he killed himself knowing that he could save his family in the process. We’d never be able to prove it wasn’t an accident.”

“I know but review that footage and get another drone out there as soon as the weather clears.” Dr Canard ordered.

“Seems like a waste of time to me. Why is this one guy so important to you?” Joe asked.

“Because he would’ve been the key to infiltrating those mongrel nomads. They are really the only people capable of protecting our city.”

“There aren’t enough of them left to make a difference.”

“There are if us breed their characteristics. Us just need their DNA. Plus if there is any chance that Sam is alive I need to know. I’m not having that son of a bitch play me.”

“Even if he did I don’t know how you ever find him.” Joe reasoned.

“Oh, I have some ideas and they start with how his parents react to seeing their dead son.

Please prevent Kevin from telling Sam‘s parents and get one of them in here to identify his body from the video. Do not tell his them why they’re coming. And record it all!”

Chapter 9

As the sun rose a clear and calm day was developing. Sam felt the ache in his shoulder and did his best with his first aid kit to clean, sterilize and cover the wound. He had packed it with antibiotic and gauze the night before but needed now to give himself the best chance of avoiding a long-term infection.

Sam stood and walked back to the top of the limestone bluff overlooking the muddy tan water churning its way out towards the mouth of the river. There was no sign of a body or a struggle.

The raging water has washed everything away, likely many miles downstream and out into the massive lake, never to be found. He was dead now to his parents and the city.

He was sure that a drone had been dispatched the night before and hoped that they saw the body but were not able to recover anything. He further assumed that they would send a drone or a search party so he needed to get out of the area.

The riverbed was now too flooded to walk. He wanted to follow the river but would have to do that from the top of the canyon. The going would be much slower as he would hit dead ends along the way and need to back track. He spent hours making relatively little progress, stopping regularly to peer over the canyon edge to make sure he was staying close to the river. After a view miles and several hours he looked over the edge again but this time saw a small harvesting crew boat caught up in some brush and trees in a crevasse outside of the flow of the river. He shimmied down to inspect the boat assuming it belonged to the stranger that attached him. He found an only mildly uncomfortable spot to sit under a tree where the boat was tied up. The shade was welcomed relief as the previous night’s storm ushered in vibrant blue skies and a shot of heat and humidity.

He took a moment to ponder what he had put in motion the previous night. Sam winced as he realized that with less than a minute of thought as he stared at that lifeless body, he had changed his fate forever. He had chosen to take a chance at saving his unborn sibling. His death would solve all his family’s problems except keeping their oldest son. It probably would’ve been best if his parents just thought he was dead. He regretted leaving the clue of his exposed right shoulder. How stupid and selfish Sam thought. Even if his parents figured out he was alive they wouldn’t know no more than that. Did he want them to know just so that they would realize what a sacrifice he had made for his family? That move might put his parents as well as their unborn baby in jeopardy.

He planned to take the boat and head further upriver. If anyone was looking for his body they would have drones searching down river. During moments when he felt comfortable that the city considered him dead it was remarkably freeing. He embraced the wilderness but how would he feel a day, a week, a month or a year from now if he lasted that long? He had no plan other than to wonder west, further and further away from the city. With each mile the circle grew larger and his chances of seeing anyone would grow smaller. What if he was to be alone forever?

“If there are people out there I need to try to find them.” Sam uttered the first audible sound of his new life and the first since he had spoken to Kevin via the drone the day before.

Whatever group of people the dead man represented, Sam found the idea of finding them to be far more palatable than someone from the city finding him. That would result in prison time and more problems for his parents than if he would have done nothing.

Sam tired of self-analysis and got up to inspect the boat. Clearly this person had traveled a relatively short distance. There were no blankets or tarps for cover and the electric boat motor had 2/3 of a charge on a battery pack but there was no solar panel to recharge it. Sam was over the top grateful for the few simple supplies that he did find. There was a flint, some fishing line and hooks, a couple apples and a bag of nuts and grains that he didn’t recognize but would gladly eat. It wasn’t an exaggeration to think that the flint and fishing gear might save his life.

He ate an apple and thought through his next move. He assumed that the stranger had come from the west since coming from the east would have had him starting to close to the city to risk being spotted. Why was he here and traveling alone? He started up the boat and headed upstream into the current that was already easing from its peak. His plan was to head upstream until he used up most of the battery charge, calculating that it would take twice as much energy to head against the current as it did with it. That would be as good a point as any to get off and start his search.