The Veil of Crimson Dust: Part 3/4
A Solarpunk Story.
By Dylan “Clockwork” Thomas
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Wayland’s ideas were hailed as the dumbest thing ever. For a start he first needed volunteers to help push every car into town. If it wasn’t a quiet day for the volunteer fire department, and it wasn’t already mostly downhill, it never would have gotten done. Erik was the first volunteer, and he complained the loudest.
“Should’ve taken the whole bag,” he grumbled.
Wayland began working immediately. The electrician he bugged constantly just wound sticking around with him in the garage permanently at that point. Between the two of them, a few more of the builders from the shelter and loads of trial and error, gradually the town began to get peppered in wind turbines. The breakthrough they were looking for happened when a ham radio operator figured out how to strip down toasters and computer fans into makeshift heaters. Then things really started to pick up. Natural gas had stopped flowing months ago, and other than a trickle of methane that a local cattle rancher could produce here and there, heat was becoming everyone’s concern. The few people with larger propane tanks had sat empty for weeks. Gradually the shelter builders began putting heaters anywhere they could think of. People’s houses shifted, soon the average house had a hastily made wood burning stove snaking out a window, an improvised wind turbine nailed to the roof, and all the beds in the house were quickly shoved between the electric heater and the woodstove with what looked like a homeless shelter surrounding the beds inside the house. If there was anything that anyone could have possibly considered to gain a bit more heat, it was tried.
Erik started worrying about the food situation again as soon as the last of the corn was brought in. It only took the city lawyer five minutes with a calculator and a piece of scrap paper to figure out that they didn’t have enough food to get halfway through winter. He then asked if the math looked any better after half of them froze or starved to death. The accountant said that was the first thing he did to stretch things out. Erik then decided to start getting creative on what was edible and what he could find. The first thing he did was go to the library and figure out everything in nature that had calories and wouldn’t immediately kill someone if they ate it. The worst source of this information turned out to be someone who claimed to be a “new age witch” and claimed pokeweed wasn’t poisonous. After hours of trying to puke but nothing coming out of his stomach, he tried to get Wayland on board with burning her at the stake. Later he found that the best source of information in town was a positively ancient old woman who volunteered with the local library and had actually lived through much of the great depression. She actually loaned him several books on edible plants, fungi, and even one on how to cook roadkill. Shame there were barely any cars on the road. Erik bagan setting off covered in jackets, duffle bags and reusable shopping bags. With his bow over his shoulder he began absolutely hauling back whole pantries of herbs, seeds, berries, nuts, and plenty of squirrel corpses.
Erik quickly started to be called eagle eye. Not just for how dangerous he was getting with his bow, but because he always seemed to find something when he went out, even if the dust and decay seemed to have consumed the world. Wayland grew concerned though, the more food Erik brought in, the thinner he got. Erik had started off the year as a solid mass of muscles and blubber, able to do any job as long as there was a glass of whisky at the end of the day. Now Erik seemed to have one foot in the grave. One day Wayland followed him out while he went scavenging.
“Are you ok?”
Same old same old.”
“Erik?”
“Yea?”
“What were we talking about about the last half hour?”
“... you know, dust clogging up the houses and stuff,” Erik hesitated. “Did you ever figure out how to get a wind turbine to power a vacuum?”
“Last week.”
“What?”
“Talked about that a week ago,” Wayland stated. “I got that working two days ago.”
“... congrats?”
“You know we’ve had this conversation a few times.”
“Yea.”
“Have you been eating at all?”
“...”
“Erik please.”
“I get my rations at the same time as you, what’s the soup of the day?”
“What was it yesterday?”
“... Corn?”
“Erik, you ate it right?” Wayland asked.
“Wayland, don’t worry so much.”
“Thing is, I remember you handing in a tupperware container last night.”
“...”
“And you got the soup in a mason jar that morning.”
“Why do you have to ask these questions,” Erik stated with sunken eyes.
“Why is it every time I see you go out hunting, you walk towards the bunker?”
“...”
“Well?”
“Come on, she's waiting for us.”
Both of them walked to the bunker, there was a footpath traveled only by them between the dust and patches of snow. Wayland had realized that they were probably the only people to visit here. Early on some people stopped by, but it was only ever to beg for supplies or a spot inside. After two months, the dirt path there had begun to become overgrown, with dust covering everything that looked like a path. If it wasn’t for Wayland and Erik knowing the telltale signs of the ruined construction yard, there wasn’t much of a sign that humans had been there at all. Dust had caked the parking lot as they walked up to the bunker door. It took them several minutes before they could get a connection to Arya.
“Hey guys,” Arya said with a little wave.
Arya had sunken eyes and globs of snot and other fluids all over her. Wayland would have said she looked awful but he knew neither of them looked any better.
“You guys look terrible,” Arya said, hacking up mucus.
“Allergies?” Erik asked.
“You’re underground in practically winter,” Wayland pointed out.
“Well we have some kind of algae or mold going on in here.”
“Scrub it off the walls,” Wayland replied.
“Yea we’ve been doing that for a month, it just seems to keep going.”
Erik silently started unpacking everything he had, placing his two containers of soup out, a small pile of foraged nuts, as well as some of the willow tea people in town had started making. People in town were starting to get sick as winter was picking up. Medicine was practically non-existent, nutrition was terrible, and people were packed in their houses like sardines.
“Is anyone else sick down there?” Wayland asked.
“I mean…” Arya sighed. “A few of us yea, I’m not sure what else to do. The tea seems to make things a bit better.”
“It’s supposed to have aspirin in it,” Erik mumbled. “Are you at least getting better?”
“... Yea yea sure,” Arya said. “You’ve been taking your meds too, right?”
“... Sure.”
“Anyway I was told to ask if you could find anything with vitamin C in it, gummies or anything else really.”
“Try the greens,” Erik stated. “I’ll see if I can find some dried berries.”
“Thanks.”
They caught up for a minute before heading back. It seemed like Erik had twenty things to look for by the end of the conversation. Everyone had something they needed, a book to borrow, food to trade for, herbs to forage. Wayland noticed that they hadn’t gotten anything from the bunker that day. Arya said that the guards were trying to quarantine the bunker a bit, while still letting Erik drop things off somehow. At least when Erik donated to the town they gave things back, even just a pat on the back.
“Take care Arya,” Erik waved.
“Take care,” Arya waved back.
They began the walk back for a minute before Wayland broke the silence.
“How long has she been sick?” Wayland asked
“I don’t know, I haven’t been all there lately.” Erik sniffled.
“I’m sorry, please eat though.”
“Yea, don’t worry today I’ll make sure to get something in my stomach.”
“... thanks.”
After a minute of walking Erik replied, “I’m going to do a bit of foraging and take the long way back.”
“You want some help?”
“Nah, I probably won’t get more than a few handfuls,” Erik said. “Do your thing, figure out how to forge Arya a cure or something. I’ll be back soon.”
“Later.”
That night Wayland tried to research everything he could about medicine and discovered he wasn’t alone. It seemed like half the town was sick and nobody had a cure. The town doctor recommended twenty different medications that nobody had and a good diet, which nobody had seen for a while. Bedrest was also hard to come by, even just keeping warm involved going outside to find firewood. Wayland started to get an idea about fixing the diet situation in the cold of winter. Before heading off to bed early in the early winter night, he tried finding Erik to run some ideas past him and reassure him that Arya would be ok.
“Hey is Erik still up?”
“No he hasn’t made it home tonight.”
“...”
“I figured he was with you?” Erik’s roommate confessed.
“...”
“Do you think he’s ok?”
Within a minute, Wayland burst into his garage and grabbed every light source he could find cobbled together. Most of them were car batteries with headlights strapped to the side, but he lugged them out despite the weight. Then he visited the few remaining people in the volunteer fire department who were still up. Within another minute they had an adhoc search party and began combing the woods. It took them another hour to find Erik. Nearly impossible on a moonless night in the countryside. They were saved by Erik’s annoying habit of listening to his phone while foraging and leaving the headphones out. The blaring of old school rock music revealed a collapsed Erik on the side of the path, sputtering for air.
“Crap he has the virus,” Erik’s roommate stated. “Why didn’t he tell anyone?”
They dragged him in front of the town’s doctor and did all they could. When the doctor was examining him Wayland finally saw how chipped away Erik was. His coat and jeans were full of rags and newspaper, there was practically no muscle or fat left. The doctor was impressed that he could walk at all, especially when they got his boots off to reveal that several toes had been lost to frostbite a while ago. His arms were scarred with insect bites ranging from mosquitoes to ticks and at least one snake. He had even lost teeth due to scurvy. The doctor gave Wayland fifty fifty odds that he’d recover at all, he promised to use the few meds that he had stored away.
Wayland promised to help any way he could, then left to his garage to cry till he could sleep.
The next two weeks Wayland worked himself to the bone collecting firewood, fixing stoves, trading most of the tools he’d scavenged. He gave Erik his rations every other day and did his best to forage for food, never with much luck. If it wasn’t the outpouring of support from people donating bits of food and herbal medicine that would have been it. During those two weeks it seemed like the town had begun to empty. More and more people were falling sick or collapsing from the cold. A few houses burnt to the ground, all from people trying to keep fires going without experience or ad hoc heaters shorting out. All in all, the town’s population must have dropped to a third. Even the town’s doctor died after an angry relative stabbed them, thinking they’d withheld drugs. The dead were heaped outside of town. Wayland found there was always food to trade for if he was willing to drag the dead to the town’s barren cornfield. Burying the bodies proved impossible so they let them be covered by dust and snow, and look the other way if they found bite marks in the corpses.
After two weeks Erik had managed to get out of bed, though he needed to use a cane at that point. His first reaction was to walk to Arya and make sure she was ok. Wayland nearly strangled him.
“We need to help, she’s been sick.”
“Get the fuck back in bed Erik.” Wayland raged. “You’re going to die if you try to go outside.”
“I can do it.”
“There’s nothing but dust and sleet out there.”
“I can do it.”
“GET IN BED.”
“MAKE ME.”
Wayland physically picked up Erik and tied him to the bed frame. Erik tried to wiggle out for a minute before giving up. After a minute he decided to talk.
“How long has it been?”
“About three weeks, it’s nearly January,” Wayland stated.
“How’s Arya?”
“Fine,” Wayland lied.
“What happened to my foot?” Erik asked.
“The doctor had to amputate it.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
They sat in silence til the day ended. The next day Wayland went ahead and untied Erik, they both realized he wasn’t going anywhere while he relearned to walk. Wayland started a project trying to turn abandoned cars and rooms into makeshelf greenhouses. It took a massive amount of trial and error, but they at least had some green stuff growing that Erik claimed was edible.
After another few weeks of bumming around town, trying to recover as much as possible on little food, winter started to let up a little. Winter hadn’t truly ended, it was one of those weeks where winter let up just long enough to kill off a few wildflowers that were trying to bloom. That’s when Erik gave his ultimatum.
“I need to go back to foraging,” Erik stated.
“You’re going to check on Arya aren't you?”
“Yes.” Erik stated.
“Don’t.”
“We need to make sure she’s ok.”
“She’s in a heated shelter and has a food stockpile.” Wayland pointed out.
“We need to make sure she’s ok,” Erik insisted.
“We’re barely surviving ourselves,” Wayland stated. “Most of the town is dead.”
“I’m going to check up on her, or I’m not eating.”
“...”
“Neither of us will last long on dandelion greens and pine nuts,” Erik stated.
“... I’ll come with you.”
It took both of them all day before they made it to the bunker. Erik tried to shoot at a nearby fawn, even with its ribs showing it could have fed both of them for a month. As Erik tried to fire his back spasmed in agony. The arrow went wild into the brush and the fawn darted off. Wayland helped Erik up and both of them wandered to where the fawn had been grazing. They found a few dozen wild crabapples half frozen and sour beyond belief. They ate half of them before collecting a few. By the time the brothers had made it to the bunker entrance, they had a handful of green shoots and old nuts, it wasn’t much, but Erik said it was all edible.
When they reached the bunker, both of them sent messages over the wifi. They waited nearly an hour before getting a response.
A text bubble popped up on their phones. “Hi glad you’re ok, can’t talk right now, please leave anything you have at the door, I’m sorry can’t talk, love you.”
They responded, “are you ok?”
A moment later a text bubble popped up. “Yea, I was sick for a while thinking it was something you guys brought in. Really sorry I can’t talk, not near a camera.”
Erik asked Wayland, “You think she’s ok?”
“I don’t know,” Wayland replied. “Maybe they don’t have any IT people down there.”
“Maybe,” Erik replied.
They respond back to Arya, “Will leave you some crabapples. Let us know when you get your camera fixed. Will come back to talk soon.”
There was a solid ten minutes with no reply before another message popped up. “Will try to get it working tomorrow, love you both.”
“Bye, love you too,” they replied before heading back.
“I hope she’s ok,” Wayland said.
“I hope so too.” Erik replied.
They both managed to walk back in before the sun went down and the cold rolled in. Wayland spent the next week helping Erik forage. They never found much, and Erik was too weak to try and pull back his bow. On days where it was somewhat warm out they met up with the other survivors over winter. It looked like the town was down to maybe two or three hundred people. Lack of food, various illnesses, cold, suicides, and the occasional disappearance had reduced the town’s population down to maybe three hundred if you round up.
Despite everything though, most people seemed a little optimistic. Despite the entire population being nearly starved to death and the survivors being battered beyond belief, having to survive seeing their friends and family falling over the winter. Everyone had the attitude that the worst was over. If they can just get to spring, they’ll have made it.
Wayland and Erik also visited Arya. It took a while for her to find a replacement camera but she did manage it. Though it was a while of replying through text. Arya never wanted to talk about the inside of the bunker and just wanted to talk about the outside. Both of them tried to downplay how sick Erik had been the past month, she didn’t seem to notice how many pounds they’d lost that winter. They did mention how rough things had been for the town recently and that’s why they couldn’t stop by. Arya understood and asked a bit about sicknesses in the town, if there were any other symptoms. Erik gave her firsthand experience without telling her it had been him.
Arya seems to complain endlessly about the bunker for a few weeks. They tried to help, but at a certain point Erik just had to say something.
“You know you can come out if you want.” Erik pointed out.
“... what?” Arya sputtered.
“Yea think about it,” Erik explained. “I mean other than being climate controlled and having electricity more often, it’s not fantastic from what you say.”
“There are still plagues out there!” Arya bleated. “And the dust makes it impossible to breathe. You guys have to forage for food constantly.”
“Yea but we have food we can actually find,” Wayland pointed out. “Sometimes we go hungry but we can still find food faster than you waiting on the hydroponics or the stores to give you a cup of plain rice.”
“Plus there are plagues in there too, you’ve told us people have been sick in there before.” Erik shot back.
“I… I did say that right,” Arya wondered.
“Look, we’re not asking you to give up your spot in there or anything,” Erik pointed out. “But at least think about it. I mean it’s not like you can be cooped up in there forever, you guys will need to come out eventually.”
“... I need to go,” Arya replied while logging off.
On the walk back that day Wayland and Erik both wondered if what they said was the right thing to do.
“Do you think we should have even suggested it to her? Wayland asked.
“I don’t know how else to help really,” Erik stated. “We’re still bringing her bits of food. And it’s not like they’re going to let us in to fix any of the issues.”
“Most of the issues are caused by too many people, too little infrastructure.” Wayland pointed out.
“Exactly, and I feel like at this point everyone in there has gone a bit paranoid about going outside.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have told them how many people we’ve lost in the past year,” Wayland pointed out. “Heck after you nearly died I think everyone in there got a bit shifty about the plague.”
“Hmm,” Erik wondered. “Maybe you’re right, there’s still zero reason I couldn’t show them how to forage outside their bunker. They have the whole of the rocky mountains sitting on top of them, it could help them when the rice runs out.”
“Least Arya doesn’t look too bad, if she looked like either of us I don’t know what I’d do.”
“Yea…” Erik sighed.
“... still wondering if you should have given up the ticket?”
“... Yea.”
“You’re a better person than I am,” Wayland stated.
They walked in silence for a bit before Erik replied.
“Dandelions and docks are starting to pop up a little south of here, let's see if we can get a backpack full.”
“Good plan.”
The next day they returned to the bunker and couldn’t get ahold of Arya.
“Think she’s ok?” Erik asked hitting the message button again on his phone
“Not sure,” Wayland stated.
“Think maybe she’s freaking out down there?” Erik wondered. ”Technical issues?”
“Maybe,” Wayland stated.
“...”
“We’re both thinking worse things aren’t we?” Erik hesitated.
“Yea I think so,” Wayland answered. “Either we annoyed her with the idea of coming outside…”
“Or?”
“Well it’s not like she’s the one with permission to open the door.”
“...”
“Yea, if that’s the case I don’t know what to do,” Wayland confessed.
Erik silently hit the resend button to send Arya another message.
“I hope I’m wrong,” Wayland reassured him.
“Yea, I hope so too.”
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