Beyond the Snow Birch

Amir met them with a mock frown, and the words he spoke and signed were by no means filled with anger. “The four of you nearly fooled me. But I had an inkling. Enough to head out here, anyway.”

Gabriel laughed. [We didn’t even know there was an escape tunnel until the Twins showed us.]

“Aye. They do their best to cover every angle.”

Lily kept a sigh to herself. I wish they’d been able to warn me about Yellow, she thought.

…Or maybe she didn’t.

If the Twins had seen something and then told her, could she have fought the mutant, knowing the cost? She might have backed down. Tried to save Yellow, somehow.

Not that he’d have let me do that, she thought.

Gabriel gestured to Amir’s rifle. [It almost looks like you’re coming with us.]

Amir rubbed at the white stubble on his cheek. “I’m tempted. Been looking out for you for a long time now…”

Lily met his gaze. “But?”

“But Haven needs me more than you do. And you can take care of yourselves. No-one doubts that.”

Now she smiled, at last feeling faint stirrings of hope again. Like tiny wings brushing against her. “Then why meet us now?”

He chuckled. “To send you off, of course. And to make sure you know where you’re headed.”

“We’ve travelled the Eastwood before.”

“Aye. But it’s beyond where I think you’ll benefit from a pointer or two.” He flicked a gnat from his forearm. “Come on. A little ways in and we can take a meal at the outpost, if you remember.”

Let’s get the honey you owe me, too, Blue said.

Lily nodded, an answer for both, as she followed Amir into the trees.

A chill lingered beneath the canopy. Leaves lay strewn across the earth, seeming cold despite her boots, still faintly slick from last night’s dew. No animals or insects moved, but they would be around, watching.

Carefully.

Amir led them along the wide path. It ran mostly straight, winding a little farther east, taking them eventually to a crossroad. There, signs had been carved into a large trunk. The words suggested places that didn’t exist anymore, but more importantly, made no mention of Haven.

Exactly how the settlement preferred it.

Before noon, the path led them to the outpost. It was a familiar structure of steel and stone with a heavy door. A small, broken communication tower sat on the roof. The tower had been covered in bird droppings, leaves and soft tufts of white bark.

Otherwise well-maintained, considering it was rarely used, even if none of the equipment inside worked.

Not like it should have, anyway.

Lily had her headphones but on other visits they never picked up anything via the transistor or the more modern radio inside.

Both were antiques when compared to what Haven had.

Not that it receives much, either, she thought.

Inside, dust stirred beneath their footsteps as Amir and Gabriel cleared a table in the main room, checking on the chairs as they did.

Lily started for the smaller communications room in the back.

There, she paused at painted words that had faded where they covered a wall. Not made by builders of the outpost, but by some mysterious, passing traveller some years ago.

The appearance of the words had been all the settlement talked about for months, but of course, nothing came of it. Nor would anything be revealed, since the message was in no language she or anyone in Haven, not even the Twins, had been able to decipher.

Nothing had been added to the message.

In the communications room, the old stool and bench were empty and the bank of devices stood silent. Both radios and other instruments had been built into the wall and were connected to the antenna above. During her previous visits to the Eastwood, none could be woken.

One radio worked by crystal and was best detached and taken to higher ground. It had a limited range but didn’t need a battery, at least.

The larger radio, complete with dials and a wide, black display, also featured speakers but did not seem to take any battery or power source Lily could identify. The few times she’d examined the open panel below the bench, the mess of wires and switches was unfathomable.

So was the battery-shaped hole, like a tear-drop bulb.

Almost out of habit, she plugged her headphone jack into the crystal radio but was rewarded with only silence.

“Let’s try it on the hill, after we eat,” Amir said from the doorway.

“Think that’ll make a difference?”

He shook his head. “Hasn’t before.”

She sighed.

“So, what lies ahead?” Lily asked when they were seated around the table, speaking between mouthfuls of their simple meal. She took the time to sign her question too. “There’s the abandoned village about a day’s walk but the east is mostly wasteland, right?”

“Aside from the old river. It once fed a city known as Zarima,” he replied. “You’d reach it three or four days after the village. The Twins would have suggested passing through on your search for Darkmoor?”

“They did.”

“And you should. It may still hide useful electrical equipment. If you’re lucky. But it’s been decaying for a long time now.”

“Since before the recent death-marks?”

“According to the last trader, yes.”

Lily nodded. The last trader, a woman who’d passed through Haven the year before she and Gabriel found their way to safety. She’d wandered west and never returned, her fate unknown.

[Have you seen it, Amir?] Gabriel asked.

“Once, as a boy.” He smiled. “My father took me to its edges, and we found enough useful things to reach Haven eventually – including something precious, something that had survived the explosion of a bunker, I guess. Something more magical than honey – a little tin of sweets.”

“Not to complain, but you’ve told us that story,” Lily said. “I just didn’t realise it was Zarima.”

He spread both hands. “Old men do tend to ramble.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Lily said as she gave his arm a thump.

“I know, I know.”

Gabriel drank from his water flask. [Before we left, Noah said that the road beyond Zarima would turn north and take us to Darkmoor in a more or less direct line. Think it could actually end up being that easy?]

Amir sighed. “No. I mean, that’s what I know of the old highway, too. But you should expect more mutants.”

[I don’t think I need to see another mutant in this life, you know.]

“It’s always possible,” Lily said. “Wherever we go.”

[Trying to cheer me up, dear sister?]

She grinned. “Better than a lie.”

Amir leant back in his chair. “If it helps, I’m not talking of giant ones. Back then, it was a gang stalking my family as we travelled. We didn’t have any kami, but I remember my father was able to barter for passage.”

Lily straightened. That could make things a little easier. “With what?”

“Honey,” he replied. “The finest in all the lands.”