The others, Teresa excepted, were all lying on the ground, side by side, and still asleep. Teresa was standing nearby, next to a big tree, peering intently at something with a pair of trinocs. His trinocs, he reminded himself. Trying not to grunt or moan, he rolled to his side, then to his knees, and finally struggled to his feet. It wasn’t much worse than being beaten with a baseball bat. Tottering only slightly, he walked over to Teresa.
“What are you looking at?” he asked, squelching the urge to add “with my trinoculars”.
“Couple things,” said Teresa. “One, we got someone on our trail.”
“What?” said Justin. “But I thought you said we lost the Brothers?”
“We did. Them cannibo greeps stay close to they base. Real close. But this ain’t one’a them. Don’ know who it is, but Brothers use bikes and burners. This one on his feets.”
“Oh. So what will you do about it?”
She shrugged. “Keep my eye open. An’ if I gets the chance, double back an’, you know, take care of it.”
“I see,” said Justin. “But you said a ‘couple of things’. What else?”
“That,” she said, and pointed in the opposite direction.
Following the gesture, he saw with some surprise that there was a large building of some kind—maybe a factory—not two hundred yards away. Of course, abandoned buildings of all sorts were not uncommon sights, even out here in the country, but almost all were burned out, burned down, looted and wrecked by someone or, left to the forces of nature, simply falling down all on their own. Such structures had become largely just a part of the landscape. This place, though, this seeming factory, was, aside from the ubiquitous overgrowth of weeds and trees, apparently fully intact; the roof was still there, there were no signs of there having been a fire, and the doors and windows were unbroken and closed.
Like most survivors, Justin had developed an eye for abandoned buildings and the potential goodies they might hold. A food store of any kind was always the best, of course, even if much of the canned stock was starting to burst from the presence of tiny bug parts and bacteria in the food, but a hardware store was almost as good, and a sporting goods store was a sort of bonanza. Storage facilities—places like U-Store-It—were prime targets for pilfering as well, but Justin personally disliked them; it was just too sad to dig through some poor dead person’s personal, often family-oriented things. Baby clothes, family photo albums, holiday decorations, and the like. But any building in this sort of state, apparently unmolested, was a potential source of resources and not to be overlooked.
“Interesting,” said Justin, squinting in the sun. “Can you read what that sign says? The one out front?”
Teresa slowly lowered the trinocs and looked at him.
“You tryin’ fer funny?” she said, a hard, angry cast to her flawless features. “Ya think that a goof, hey?”
He’d forgotten; she couldn’t read.
“No, no!” he said at once, genuinely sorry. “I… I just forgot. Truly, I meant nothing by it!”
She glared at him for another moment before handing over the trinocs.
“Look for yerself,” she said sullenly,”Mr. Edu-micated Whitecoat.”
“Teresa, I swear,” Justin said, “I meant no offense. I simply did not remember that you haven’t yet learned to read. Honestly.”
“Whatever. Jus’ gimme back them trinocs when yer done.”
Making a mental note to watch what he said to Teresa from now on when it came to her lack of schooling, Justin raised the trinocs and focused in on the factory sign, but the painted letters on it were half effaced and the ones that remained were partly covered in dirt and grime.
“Well? What’s it say?” Teresa said impatiently.
“I can’t tell,” said Justin, squinting at the sign. “It’s partly obscured.”
“What that mean? Ob-skewered?”
“It means,” said Justin, switching off the trinocs and dutifully handing them over, “that it’s been erased. Wiped out. Only part of the letters are still there.”
“Huh,” said Teresa, frowning. “So you can’t read it?”
“Well, I can see that it says “Kram-something and sons,” then “CA Incorporated”, but that’s it. Anyway, it looks like a factory of some kind to me, and in pretty good condition.”
“Yeah,” said Teresa. “Some kinda place that make things, right?”
“Exactly. But what did they make? Should we go and have a look? After all, there might be things we could use in there.”
“Mebbe,” she shrugged. “And mebbe more’n that. Like, one time, I knew this girl, name’a Jilly? Well, she come across somethin’ jus’ like this one time. Big building, out in the country, hey? And it looks like no one usin’ it. Nobody aroun’, no sign o’ life at all, jus’ like this here. So anyhows, Jilly figure why not, right? Go have a gleep. Turn out, they a whole nest’a rattlers in there. Ga-jillions of ‘em. So? Ya never know what might be in somethin’ like that.”
“Yes, I see,” Justin said. “But what happened to Jilly?”
“Oh, she got bit an’ cacked,” said Teresa laconically. “Ugly, too. All bloat over and shit? Blech!”
“The poor girl,” said Justin sadly, wondering just how many of Teresa’s friends had met such ends. “But still, we could at least have a look.”
“We will,” she said. “Once them others wakes up. But I just sayin’, ya never know.”
“Yes, we should be careful,” said Justin. “But, um… right now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to, uh… answer the call of nature. Is there somewhere specific I should go?”
Teresa shook her head. “Talk normal!” she said. “I don’t know what the fuck you sayin’ sometime. Call’a nature?”
Justin sighed and gave up. “I need to shit,” he said tersely, thinking: Is that plain enough? “Is there a hole or something? A designated latrine?”
Teresa snorted. “Out here?” she laughed. “Dream again, doopy! Jus’ go over there somewhere, away from here.”
Having seen to this little necessity, Justin walked down a slight slope to the nearby stream bank and washed up a bit in the cool, brownish water before heading back to their makeshift camp. When he got there, he saw that the others, roused from sleep, were all up and seeing to breakfast. Since this consisted of some hard, crusty bread and warm stream water, it didn’t take too long.
“So what’s the plan, Dr. Kaes?” said Cass, after some listless small talk. “What are we going to do?”
Justin winced a little and looked slowly over at Teresa, who was standing there, arms crossed and smiling at him.
“Yeah,” she said wryly. “Whatcha gonna do now? What the plan, hey?”
“Um, well,” Justin said weakly, “that all kind of depends, doesn’t it? You seem determined to head for this Baron Zero’s place. Is that right?”
Teresa nodded. “Yeh. That’s my plan, anyhows. And that means it yer plan, too. Get me? As in you and me. I don’ care what them others do.”
“Yes, I understand,” said Justin, looking back to Cass, Swails, and Mr. Lampert. “So you see, it would seem that we have little choice in the matter. Without Teresa, we’d be lost out here. We need her help. And, what’s more, she tells me that this Zero person used to be a scientist of some kind. Maybe he can help!”
Cass and Miss Swails, looking as ragged and tired as he felt, crossly gave Teresa some hard looks, obviously none too happy with the situation but unable to mount any effective protest, while Mr. Lampert just grinned and nodded.
“Helluva plan, there, Doc,” he said. “Good job.”
Justin scowled miserably. “These are, I’m afraid, the conditions which prevail. And we are forced to deal with them as best we can. Now, if everyone’s had something to eat and drink, there’s an abandoned factory of some kind nearby that we’re going to investigate. You two stay here with Mr. Lampert and then we’ll continue on our way.”