Chapter Eight

Gaylen and Esteban spent the next couple of weeks putting the finishing touches on their new home, or at least, as best they could. They figured it would be a work in progress for quite some time. They brought over everything from the lean-to and the tent. Esteban figured they’d donate the tent to someone else, but Gaylen had only smiled and said they’d still need it. When that was done, they started looking for things they could salvage and turn into furniture.

“We could just find a bed,” Esteban had suggested but was quickly rebuffed. It turned out his boyfriend wanted to build something himself. So, they ended up trying to squeeze onto Gaylen’s old bed from the lean-to, which didn’t go very well.

In the end, it was worth it. One evening, Gaylen pulled Esteban into what would end up being the greenhouse, his enthusiasm palpable. Esteban had gotten used to the man’s eternal optimism, but still sighed as he let himself be led along.

“This better be good,” he teased.

Gaylen threw open the door and waved his arm in the direction of something. “Look!”

Esteban’s mouth dropped at the sight of the bed his boyfriend had finished. The mattress was one they’d found together, but Gaylen had built a frame out of some of the same wrought iron that had once been balconies. He’d cleaned the rust away, wired bits together, and somehow managed to get it into the right shape. For a head board, he’d found what looked like an old, broken mirror, and glued pieces of it back together in a sort of mosaic.

“What do you think?” he asked. “I mean, the frame isn’t exactly perfect. You can’t do much with the wrought iron except wire it together.”

“No, it’s perfect,” Esteban breathed.

Gaylen grinned his light bringing grin and nodded. “Good. It comes apart too so we can move it a lot easier. We still might need some help, though.”

With a little help, they managed to get the bed up to the other building’s bedroom. It fit perfectly in the room, and matched the feel of the building in general. Esteban had never felt so proud in his life and part of him wasn’t even sure why. Even though the small quadrangle was set back from the noisy square, it still made Esteban feel more a part of the community than the tent and lean-to hand. He started opening up to more people, making a few tentative friends beyond Gaylen, and getting to know Kat better. The girl started spending so much time at their new house that the two of them considered setting up the extra room as a bedroom after all.

About the time they’d finished getting the house fixed up, and started helping the builders out with renovating the other four houses, a change came over the city. Esteban had only thought it was hot when they first found him, but now the temperatures were soaring so high that most of the people in the community were keeping indoors except for early in the morning and after dark. Water suddenly became very precious, and the plants in the greenhouse were relegated to whatever Gaylen’s humidifying system could create to keep them moist.

“I don’t know if this is going to be enough,” the man said one day as they checked the new plants over. He held up a wilted stem with a small, green tomato on it. “We might be able to keep them alive but they might not fruit. It’s all useless if they don’t.”

Esteban thought for a moment, seeing the torment in his lover’s eyes. Sweat trickled down his brow and he wiped it off with the back of his hand. He tried to ignore the trickle that was making its way down his spine.

“You said that you use electricity from the wind charger to pump water sometimes?” he said.

“Yeah, but that’s only when we find a little. Some of these buildings had their own water sources. It’s been a while since we’ve found any, though.”

“What about where you gathered the plants before?”

“The mountain?” Gaylen replied with a frown.

“Look, if these plants are growing in abundance in the foothills of the mountains, then they have to have a water source. We may not be able to pump it all the way to The City, but we should at least be able to bring some back, maybe find a way to store it up.”

Gaylen listened as he talked, slowly nodding, and then finally smiling when Esteban was done. “That might just work. I hadn’t even thought about it, but you’re right. It doesn’t seem to rain any more on the mountain than it does here, so there has to be some kind of water source to keep it green. It’s a long trek, even further than when we explored the east side of The City, but we’ve done it plenty of times. We need to go soon too, or we might lose everything.”

By the next morning, they were heading out, before the sun even had a chance to come over the horizon. They’d talked to Mother Rani, and she agreed with their plan. They assembled Mel, Roma, and a few other people that were used to supply trips, but to their surprise, Rani insisted on them taking Kat.

“It’s time,” she’d told them. “She wants to learn to hunt and gather, and this is as good a trip to learn on as any. You know she’s clever and can take care of herself.”

Eventually, Gaylen had reluctantly agreed to take the girl. It was a dangerous trip and he didn’t like the idea of her getting hurt or having the extra worry. Esteban was too nervous to even process the added worry. The idea of getting back in the field was making him more anxious than he’d thought it would. Plus, they were headed toward the mountain, a sight he’d grown accustomed to in the distance, but the thought of it up close gave him a chill.

As the small group headed north, it being impossible not to know where they were going, Gaylen sensed his boyfriend’s anxiety. He’d instructed Kat to stay close, so as he moved over to Esteban, she did too. Neither man could help but note that they looked like some kind of strange little family.

“You know, this was a really good idea anyway,” Gaylen said, trying to sound upbeat, though anyone who knew him knew that he didn’t have to try very hard.

“Yeah?” Esteban replied, humoring him.

“Yeah. It’s about time to harvest most of the fruits from the food plants anyway. They have the benefit of having good soil so they can establish themselves earlier. We’ll have plenty to pick and bring home with the water.”

“You’ll be really busy now,” Kat teased.

When Esteban gave her a strange look, Gaylen added, “We’ll need to preserve what we pick, either dry it or can it. We don’t have much in the way of canning supplies though. Lids are especially hard to find so sometimes we have to just use wax and cloth. As you know, though, both of those are scarce as well. So, mostly we just dry it. Plus, we’ll have to gather all the seeds and dry those as well.”

Esteban liked the idea of having such important work to do, and for a moment or two, it gave him something else to think about other than the looming rock ahead of them. He knew it was irrational to be afraid of it. It wasn’t as if it was going to fall on him. Yet, it still made him nervous. He realized it wasn’t just the mountain, it was the idea of leaving The City behind for the wilderness. He’d never been anywhere that wasn’t a manmade structure full of people. He doubted many people had, and after what happened with the lion, his imagination was coming up with all kinds of scenarios of things that could go wrong. He was startled out of his reverie by something touching his shoulder.

“Hey, the mountain’s great,” Gaylen said, wrapping an arm around his boyfriend. “It’s green and full of life. It can be dangerous sure, but that’s just kind of life, you know? We could have been crushed by the buildings in the square while we worked on them. Anything can be dangerous.”

“Thanks,” Esteban sassed. “I didn’t really need to think about it that way.”

Gaylen snorted. “Don’t think about it that way. It’s better just to get as much enjoyment out of it as you can.”

“What, the danger?”

This time Gaylen laughed deeply and shook his head when he saw Esteban laughing too. Then he nodded ahead of them as the last streets of The City came into view. Beyond them was a landscape of gently rolling hills, and behind that, the mountain. It was much further away than it had looked, and it took Esteban’s breath away.

“We’ll camp here at the edge of The City tonight,” Mel announced.

“There’s still a couple hours of daylight,” Gaylen pointed out.

“I know, but I’d like to have some shelter. We’ve got two first-timers with us. I’d prefer not to camp out in the open if we can help it.”

Blood rushed to Esteban’s face and he looked away to try and hide his embarrassment. He wasn’t exactly new to this kind of thing anymore, though the last trip hadn’t gone so well. He knew Mel was talking about him never having been out of The City before but it still stung to be lumped in with Kat who was twelve and barely been out of the square. When Gaylen simply nodded, he frowned but didn’t say anything.

The next morning, they were all up early again. They’d found a building safe enough to sleep in, and ate dinner around a small campfire. By the time they turned in to try and get some sleep, Esteban was over feeling insulted and actually excited to get on with the trek. He stared at the mountain a while longer as they walked in the light from sunrise, and his fear was replaced by a sense of awe and beauty. Green grasses danced in the orange glow of morning light. And though it was too far away to make out much detail, he could see trees on the foothills below, their branches and leaves swaying gently in the breeze. Even in books and info reels, he’d never seen anything like it. He knew that much of the world had looked like this at one time, but it had only been an intellectual thought in his mind. He never thought he’d be seeing it in real life or that nature like this even existed anymore.

“See those right there,” Gaylen said, directing his line of sight to a stand of small, squat looking trees. “They grow nuts. We’ve been eating them all instead of saving them. I don’t think we’re ready to sustain an orchard in the square.”

“It’s a lovely thought, though,” Esteban admitted. He could see the awe and wonder in Gaylen’s eyes too. “How come none of you have moved out here? You obviously love it.”

Gaylen’s eyes widened as if it was the craziest thing he’d ever heard. After a moment, he shook his head. “Things would be a lot rougher out here. Sure, the food’s closer, but there are no structures, no supplies other than wood and these might be the last trees left. We don’t want to cut them down to make houses.”

Esteban nodded, understanding where Gaylen was coming from. “Plus, who knows what might be out here waiting to kill you.”

“There’s that, too.”

“Has anyone ever been beyond the mountain?”

“Nope. The passes are very steep and dangerous. A few have tried but...they never came back.”

The two of them were quiet for a moment and then Kat rushed over and took their hands. She was excited and talking so fast that they could barely understand her. She dragged them over to the trees and then started grabbing up nuts from the ground by the handful.

“Make sure they aren’t black or already cracked open,” Gaylen called out to her as she ran through the forest. “And stay close!”

Esteban walked under the branches that just barely stuck out above his head. He looked up through them, turning in circles until he was so dizzy he thought he might fall down.

“Hey, Princess!” Mel called. “You wanna help out with the gathering or...?”

Esteban frowned and looked over at Gaylen. “Princess?”

His boyfriend shrugged and tried not to snort. “You were twirling a bit.”

Esteban smiled and then watched as his boyfriend gathered nuts into one of the many packs they’d brought. The trip home would be a longer, harder trek as they’d all be loaded down with as much as they could carry. He thought it was sad that they could only bring back so much and his brain began to think up a way to engineer something better.

They spent the rest of the day trying to find the source of the orchard’s water. Just when they thought the sun would go down before they found anything, Gaylen and Esteban stumbled onto a tiny spring trickling down one of the hills.

“Could that be it?” Esteban asked, his mind going back and forth between excitement and disbelief.

Gaylen smiled slyly and then nodded vigorously. “I think it could be.” They gathered the others and then traced the trickle back to a larger stream, where they enthusiastically filled every canteen and storage container they’d brought.

After the nuts and water, they came across full sized tomato plants. Esteban marveled at how much bigger they already were than the ones they had potted back home. Their branches were overgrown with tomatoes of all shapes, sizes and colors. He was drawn to the bright yellow ones and picked almost an entire pack before his boyfriend pointed out that there were others to enjoy.

“Diversity,” Gaylen said. “It’s what keeps the population multiplying.”

“Genetics?” Esteban said in surprise.

“We still have some books around too, remember?”

He nodded and turned to another plant, whose perfectly round tomatoes were a dark red and purple. He filled up the rest of the pack, hoping none would be too squashed by the time they got back to The City and then followed the group into a part of the foothills that looked less tame. Here there were plants he was warned not to touch. Some had long thorns that could cause infections or substances on their leaves that would cause rashes. Suddenly, the wilderness wasn’t looking like such a prime spot to live after all. They’d left their full packs and water along the trail to pick up later, and he opened his last empty one as Gaylen waved him over to what looked like a wall of tangled green.

“What is this?” he asked.

“It’s called a bramble. We’ll gather some of the berries, mostly to eat on the way back. It takes a lot of berries to make much of anything. Mostly, we want the seeds so that, maybe, we can start our own back home. Don’t worry about gathering too many.” He looked down at Esteban’s pack and shook his head. “Use some smaller pouches. Save the big one for root vegetables. Just enough to eat for a few days, maybe make a pie,” he added with a grin.

By the time they were done for the day, they’d found potatoes in the higher hills, most of them left from winter, carrots, some squash, as well as wild strawberries to go with their nuts, tomatoes and berries.

“We have to leave some of the harvest behind,” Gaylen informed him as they gathered up the last of their packs. “We’ll be back for more in a few weeks, but some of the seeds have to stay so the crops will propagate.”

They ended up where they had started, in the nut orchard. They built a small fire in between a couple of trees and ate handfuls of berries with their jerky. The fresh, juicy berries stained their fingertips purple. It may have been the most wonderful thing Esteban had ever eaten.

The next morning, they headed back, and within a couple of hours, Esteban wasn’t sure he’d ever felt so tired in his life. “These potatoes way a ton,” he grumbled.

Kat patted him on the arm. She had one small pack of nuts, a canteen, and a few bags of berries, along with a pack that was still empty.

“Why’s yours empty?” he asked.

“We’re not actually finished yet,” Gaylen answered from his other side. “Since she’s the smallest and has the least to carry, we’ve giving her one more job.” He nodded as they reached a part of the hills they hadn’t covered before. It was grassier with fields of wildflowers and fallen trees here and there.

It was only then that Esteban realized they were coming back a different way than they’d come in. “What is this place?” he asked.

“We think people used to live here,” Gaylen answered and nodded toward one of the logs. “We don’t think those logs got here on their own. They’ve been cut precisely. We think there were houses here once, maybe a farm or small village.”

“So, there’s still supplies?”

“Nope. Chickens.” Gaylen laughed at Esteban’s surprised look. “We hardly ever see them, and like I said before, no one’s ever been able to catch them. They’re not exactly domesticated anymore. But we do find quite a few eggs.” He nodded at Kat. “Be careful not to break any of them. And watch for snakes!” he called out as she ran in to the grassy meadow.

The others relaxed, taking their packs off to give their backs and arms a rest, and watched as the girl poked around the logs and looked in holes, using a stick instead of her hands to make sure the hiding places were safe. Esteban sat with the others, drinking some water and nibbling at berries, until Kat’s triumphs became too much. Every time she found an egg, she’d squeal in victory and then carefully place it in the last pack. Esteban got up and walked over to the girl, intent on figuring out how to find these eggs.

“Most of the time they like to hide them,” Kat informed him. “You have to look under the logs and things. Sometimes they’ll dig little holes but they aren’t very good at it. I’ve already looked all over there,” she added, pointing to one side of the meadow.

Esteban nodded and then picked his own spot near a stand of trees on the edge of the meadow. There were quite a few fallen logs and some other wood that looked like it had been worked by people and purposefully put there. He remembered Gaylen saying that they thought people had once lived there and he wondered if it hadn’t been part of someone’s house. He picked up a few boards but didn’t find anything. He frowned in impatience but kept looking. Finally, he grinned in his own triumph as he found an entire nest of eggs loosely covered with scratched up grass. He carefully gathered the eggs up and brought them back to Kat.

“Wow,” she breathed, her eyes wide. “You’re really good at this.”

“Thanks,” he said with a grin.

As he started to head back to look for more, the girl said, “You’re my brother’s boyfriend now, aren’t you?”

Esteban sputtered, caught off guard. It wasn’t like it was a secret but he still couldn’t figure out what he should say to her.

Before he could figure it out, Kat cocked her head to the side and added, “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me, but just so you know, everyone already knows.”

“Um, okay,” he replied, and then walked away shaking his head. When he got back to the edge of the meadow, he picked up another log, but this time he was greeted by something other than eggs. It had a long, thin but muscular body, and was the same color as the grass. As it unwound and then launched itself at Esteban, he let out a scream and ran off toward the other side of the meadow.

Everyone heard the scream. Gaylen and a couple of the others got to their feet to watch Esteban making his way across the meadow like a madman. Mel and Roma stood next to him and started chuckling.

“Snake,” Mel commented.

One corner of Gaylen’s mouth turned up and he shook his head. “Probably.” He stood and waited for the hysterical man to run over and then grabbed him by the arms. “Are you all right?” he asked, amused by concerned. “Did it bite you?”

“What? No,” Esteban finally answered, feeling uncertain.

“Are you sure?”

Esteban nodded, trying to catch his breath. He felt a little silly now, and to his own surprise, worried about Kat. He gestured toward her, but Gaylen waved it away.

“She’ll be fine. She knows to look out for them.”

Before long, the egg pack was almost full, and the group headed back toward home. They knew they wouldn’t get very far that day but they also knew it was best to use all the daylight they had. By sunset, they’d made it back to the last of the foothills and set up camp in the shadow of one of them. They found a thick tree with low lying branches and broad leaves and built a small fire underneath it.

Esteban was glad to get the packs off his back again. He’d never done so much physical labor in his life. Even helping with the renovations of the neighboring buildings hadn’t been so much work. His entire body was sore and he practically fell down at the fireside. He stared into the flames, his mind blank from exhaustion. He thought back to a time when he’d been afraid of the campfire burning him alive and started giggling.