Mark faced Art. “So will it hit us like the other towns? I mean, you said it wasn’t moving like lava, but will it spread here?”
“Eventually,” Art said, “yes.”
An eruption of moans filled the room.
Then Ada spoke loudly and with a firm voice. “What is our objective here? We’re losing focus. Mark sent everyone out to scout and fact find. Well, you got it. It’s out there. We know we can’t worry about it popping up here and there in town. We can squash them little fires when they happen. We need to treat this fungus like a wildfire burning outside our town and we have to stop it from reaching us. We can’t save the world, and I’m pretty positive we aren’t the only ones left, but we can save our town. We just need to think grand scale.”
“Niles and I, if we have time,” Art said, “could possibly create a bacterium that can kill this fungus.”
“Um… no,” Ada said. “You boys created enough of a mess.”
“What do you suggest, Miss Frontierswoman?” Art asked.
“Beat and treat like the thing it is… fungus. We aren’t talking about a skin thing,” Ada said. “This is a soil fungus, whether it’s a million years old or not. There are certain paths it will not cross. You yourself said it won’t touch nature, it doesn’t cross water. We create a barrier around town. A mile out all the way around. We overturn soil, we plant, we make a barrier of life around us it won’t cross.”
Art laughed. “Do you know how long that will take? Maybe a year. It will be upon us by then.”
“We hold it at bay,” Ada said.
“How?” Art asked.
“We spray. We see it closing in,” Ada said. “We spray to kill it using my stuff.”
“How do you propose we do that?” asked Art.
Kit spoke up. “We have a pilot lying in bed three at the bingo clinic, I’m pretty sure he can fly a crop duster.”
“It’s a good plan,” Niles said. “But the barrier you create will have to be wide, I’m talking whatever you plant has to have a safety measure.”
“Things die,” Mark added. “We’ll have to plan for that. And the areas where we can’t plant or build a moat. What about those, what do we do for those areas?”
Cass turned from the wall of pictures and joined the conversation. “Glass.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Has anyone looked at these pictures?” Cass asked. “Do you see the common denominator here? Where the fungus isn’t? The windows.”
“Cass, sweetheart.” Mark chuckled. “As great of an idea as that is, we can’t build a dome around Griffin.”
“Don’t talk down to me,” Cass said. “Glass has to be the solution.”
“It’s inorganic.” Art walked to the pictures. “Glass is inorganic. Cass you’re brilliant. Mold can grow on it, but it’s highly unlikely fungus can settle. It can try but it won’t attach long enough to release the properties to break down. And glass is not the only inorganic substance. There are many others we can use. In fact this… is our solution.” Art tapped the pictures. “This backing up Ada’s nature barrier may be what saves this town.”
“I am all for saving this town,” Mark said. “But you are saying building a glass wall around the circumference of our town is our only chance.”
Art shook his head. “No, the fungus could die off if it has nothing else to grab on to. That’s possible. Not probable. I’m saying, as insane as it sounds, as incredibly hard as it will be to pull off, you, Mr. Mayor, have been given the solution. Now it’s up to you and everyone in this town,” Art said. “What are you going to do?”
25.
EVERMORE
November 20
Griffin, AZ
It was the last one.
The steady but fading sound of the crop-dusting plane made Cass sad. She knew it would be the last one she would hear. Ada just didn’t have the supplies to make a huge drop. What she did have and was fermenting was for spot killing when the fungus popped up in Griffin. Over the previous six months it had shown growth, maybe on a rooftop or parking lot. Nothing major and nothing they weren’t able to stop.
At first it was like waiting for the predicted storm that didn’t come, the fungus was growing in areas around them, thickening and covering, but keeping its distance. It allowed those not working on the barrier to go out and scavenge whatever they could get.
Fifty-four more people made their way into town. Walking there, climbing through the new world of nature, bringing with them very few belongings. They all became part of the Griffin family.
One person never did return… Lena.
Ada and Cass waited for her, but she never came back. Cass understood Lena’s decision, but wondered if she had tried to return but couldn’t. Was she out there somewhere trying to survive? Was there a chance she’d eventually make her way back to Griffin?
The one thing Cass refused to believe was that Lena had died.
Too many had left the earth senselessly. Lena’s survival was something she held onto.
In fact, in the beginning there was a lot of hope. Cass had hope, like many others that maybe the fungus would stop, that Griffin and the area close by would be spared. But that didn’t happen.
Once Seaver was consumed, it wasn’t long before they had to bring out the crop duster. Nolan, the pilot, did a great job. Usually the dusting would stop the growth for a week or so, then he had to go back out.
Cass wished that they’d be able to continue dusting, at least until the natural barrier was finished. But it didn’t work out that way and that frightened her. A few sections of glass had been erected. It didn’t need to be too tall, just high enough. The natural barrier was close to seventy percent complete. At least the first round. They’d go back and add that safety measure if they could.
It was a lot of ground to cover and a part of Griffin was still so vulnerable. That section, west of town, right where the welcome arch was located, was open.
It was also the place Cass went to every single day.
It wasn’t long before that day when she could gaze outward and just see road.
Now she looked out and all she saw was a wall of the growing fungus in the distance.
It was still far away, and it hadn’t moved in weeks. But it was tall, like a forest; the fungus not only spread wide, in some areas it grew upwards, taller than the tallest tree she had ever seen.
It moved too fast for there to be any positive outcome when it was all said and done.
She spent a lot of time thinking of those astronauts on the Space Station. How the world looked to them. Could they see Griffin, a bare spot in an encapsulated world of new growth?
After visiting Ada, she parked her car by Eb’s shop and walked through town, a loaf of homemade bread in one hand and bottle of wine in the other. She passed Brass Balls and Beers and could hear the music inside, but it wasn’t coming from a juke box. The power had gone out months earlier. It was a group of musicians playing. The laughter and noise carried out into the street. She was envious of those in town who lived life to the fullest and didn’t think about what was to come.
Every time she did that, she remembered they were literally on borrowed time. She hated when those thoughts hit her.
She stopped at the end of town, just at the arch, staring out.
Was the fungus still at a distance, did it move closer?
“I thought I’d find you here,” Kit said, coming from behind.
“Oh, hey, I’m sorry. Yeah. I wanted to do my daily check.”
“And?”
“Does it look closer to you?” Cass asked.