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The Quantum System
Chapter 18: Back in town

Chapter 18: Back in town

Waking up to the sun drilling into his face early the next morning wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences. Ryan started a small fire and brewed a cup of coffee in the kettle, munching on some biltong and some hard biscuits. His backpack was now significantly lighter than at the start of his journey, Ryan hadn’t anticipated the amount of sustenance he found himself consuming every day.

After the experience late yesterday Ryan reconsidered his plan of approach. Initially he would have just walked into town on the main road, but now that seemed a bit foolhardy. It would be safer to enter town more discreetly, preferably after dark, to scope out the situation beforehand and take an indirect approach. Given the behaviour of the supposed forces of law and order at the roadblock it seemed prudent, Ryan hadn’t considered that civility might devolve into the law of the jungle this quickly and had nearly paid for it. A mistake he didn’t intend repeating.

Better to stay of the main road and follow the railway line until close to town, then use the hiking trails along the eastern mountains to reach a position where he could investigate the neighbourhood where his parents lived. He was now somewhat sure that his brother would have moved to their parents place for a time as his apartment in the centre of town wouldn’t have proven a tenable residence in even the shortest term and most of their outdoor gear was stored at mom and dad’s.

It took about ten hours, staying away from any potentially populated locations, just walking and moving with careful consideration of his surroundings, before Ryan reached a position overlooking the eastern valley where his parents had their place. Ryan took out his binoculars and made himself as comfortable as possible, carefully scanning the neighbourhood.

It was quiet, barely any movement. Somewhat like what he expected a ghost-town to appear. He could see some broken windows, the corpses of some pets. No movement. Obviously no traffic, no children playing in the yards. No people tending to their gardens or relaxing at their pools. No people moving whatsoever. Ryan expanded his search. He could spot movement in other parts of town, the little bit of it he could see from his lookout. But generally it was furtive in nature, keeping to the walls, not exposed. Like a town under siege he thought. Some houses had burned down, sometimes several in a street.

He didn’t spot any signs of violence, no corpses and no blood in the streets, calming his agitated thoughts. His gut told him that most everyone hunkered down during the day, and in the night, the mice came out to play. The cover of darkness granting a measure of safety to the brave or desperate among the population to obtain the necessary means to survive for another day or two. Looking back at his experience at the roadblock, he was now surprised that he hadn’t found more corpses, he assumed that a greater number of people would have elected to leave town. If only to get access to water, in retrospect, he should have inspected the Avis dam east of town and not moved past it in the mountains, he assumed that people would be camping there to have access to a source of the precious liquid.

By now, the sun was setting and Ryan packed up his gear, chewing on some more dried meat. Late dusk would be the best time to move, the uncertain and fractured light making movement harder to spot even while he could still easily see where he was moving down the treacherous mountainside. The moon would rise later that night, near full by now, but Ryan wanted to be close enough to observe his childhood home before it did, not planning to approach it openly just in case. Some might consider his caution excessive, but Ryan valued his life and didn’t intend to endanger it by being careless.

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It took near enough an hour before Ryan reached the little river running past his parent’s place, the last part of the descent carefully completed in darkness. Stopping every so often to listen, carefully trying to determine whether it was safe. Everything had been quiet, suspiciously so. Ryan had expected to find at least some signs of life, but had been disappointed.

The moon hadn’t risen yet, but the glittering stars were sufficiently luminescent to allow Ryan to move downriver along the footpath, taking care of his steps, staying silent. The absence of any indication of life was increasingly concerning so when he heard the low murmur of voices just before arriving at his parents place the initial feeling was one of relief. The smell of smoke and sizzling meat raised his spirits even more, but Ryan still decided to take the utmost care with his approach and refused to get his hopes up. The back gate was locked, and unless he was willing to make an inordinate amount of noise there was no way to enter the property.

Picking up some rocks, he threw them in direction of the braai area, hidden in a bush and expecting to provoke a reaction enabling him to determine the identity of the people present. What he didn’t expect was the cessation of all noise. Now apprehensive, Ryan moved back further into the brush along the river. The soft rustle of stealthy footsteps and the flicker of movement in his peripheral vision alerted him to company now present to the right.

He spotted another flicker of movement, to the left along his mother’s prized rosebushes, before a deep voice directly in front of him threatened, “Wie’s daar? Kom uit of ons skiet.” Relief flooded Ryan, he’d recognise that voice anywhere. “William you little Wanker, don’t shoot your older brother” he managed to say through his rising chuckle. “Glad to see you’re alive, I was worried. Open the gate for me, will you?”

Once inside, the brothers hugged, in a manly fashion, naturally. “I am really glad to see you alive,” was all Ryan could say once again “and at Level 5, wow, how’d that happen?” “Wayward pets!” was William’s short answer. The group settled down in the braai area, exchanging their experiences to date. Ryan caught William up on his journey to town, selecting to leave his encounter at the police stop for later, when it was just William and himself. William explained that they had a bigger group than those present, but had split up with half moving o John’s place and establishing a base outside of town and the rest remaining to loot more gear.

“Who’s John?” asked Ryan, “Remember Alexis?” He had to think a moment, “Jacob’s girlfriend?” “Jacob’s ex.” explained William, “We stayed friends and John is her landlord. He’s got a place in the mountains close to Kapps, a veritable fortress according to him.”

Hearing that, Ryan’s face blanched. He swallowed audibly and then asked if it were possible to speak to William and Lizzy in private. Ryan considered how to approach the conversation with his brother carefully, but in the end, just blurted out the story. Not in a coherent and meaningful fashion, just stumbling over his words, expressing his emotions haphazardly and haltingly. Once he was done Lizzy got up and gave him a hug, her intuition telling her to give Ryan a measure of comfort he desperately needed

It took a couple of minutes before he settled down and William, deep in thought, mumbled that this probably explained the increasing number of fire-fights they had been hearing during the day, the strong preying on the weak to obtain resources necessary for survival the most likely explanation.

William then indicated that Ryan had arrived just in time as they had planned on leaving town that night, as none of them were willing to test how skilled they would prove in urban warfare and rather would take their chances hunting mutated monsters in the wild. While William collected the rest of the group again, Lizzy started some meat on the braai. The delicious smell of roasting fat reminding Ryan of his appetite for something besides biltong and tack.

He tucked in and near passed out in his chair, yawning. And then grabbing his sleeping bag and popping into bed to catch at least a few hours of shut-eye before they’d be on to move again.