Footfall

There were twenty-six of them. Fourteen had painted their faces black. The others, including Colonel Carter, their commander, hadn’t needed to.

Carter looked at the sea and grimaced. “More weather than I like.”

“Not much choice,” Villars said.

“Yeah. Okay, Carruthers, get the boats inflated.”

The troopers climbed gingerly to Ethan Allen’s pitching deck. Some of the waves broke just high enough to send spray flying across it. They inflated their boats. “Ready, Colonel,” one called softly.

“Right. Captain, if you can send up our supplies—”

Villars nodded to his exec. The crew passed up a number of boxes, each wrapped in waterproofing materials. They laid them into the boats and helped the soldiers lash them into place.

“You’ve got a long walk,” Villars said. “Sorry I couldn’t get you any closer.”

“It’s okay,” Carter said.

“I didn’t want to ask before,” Villars said. “But I will. How you get this assignment?”

Carter grinned wolfishly. “My grandmother always said we were Zulu. Made me study the language. I hated it. I never real believed her, but what the hell, it made a good story. So when the President wanted to send elephant guns to the Zulu nation who better to send?”

He was still grinning as he climbed into the boat.

The warning bell bonged. Miranda Shakes put down her book as went to the window to see who had opened the gate. “Kevin!”

“Yeah?”

“Get Dad.”

Kevin came in from the kitchen. “Why?”

“Look.”

“Oh, crap. Carnell. Look at all those dogs! Who’s that with him?”

“I don’t know. We’ve seen him before. Look, they’re coming here. Get Dad.”

William Shakes wasn’t happy. “Look, you never paid your share. You sure as hell haven’t done your share of the work.”

“Relax, Bill. Nobody’s pointing a gun at your head, but I do own a piece of the place, and you invited Fox—”

“I didn’t. George did.”

“Hell, if I’m too much trouble,” Fox said, “I can always find a place—”

“Not now,” Miranda said. “Nobody gets out of Bellingham now.”

“Yeah,” Kevin agreed. “You won’t even get close to the high way.”

“We didn’t have any trouble getting in,” Camell said dubiously

“Getting in isn’t the problem,” William Shakes said. “It’s getting out. And what will you do here?”

“Hell, there’s got to be work,” Fox said.

“That’s what we thought,” Kevin said. “All those Army people, Navy too. Trucks. Ships. But it’s like it’s in another country, a long way off. The only jobs are down in the harbor.”

“Doing what?”

“Nobody’s telling,” Kevin said.

“So we go to the harbor—”

“I thought of getting a job down there. Miranda’s friend warned me. It’s like the whole town. People go in, but they never come out.”

“Military staff,” Fox said. “I don’t suppose they need me. It rains all the time. Who needs a desert rat? Anywhere… What do they say they’re doing down there?”

“They say greenhouses,” Kevin said.

“I know greenhouses—”

“But that’s not it.”

“Something important,” Miranda said. “Important enough that the whole town doesn’t exist anymore. You never hear about it on the radio.”

“Something big,” Fox mused. “Something to hurt snouts?”

“Bound to be” Miranda shook her head wistfully. “That’s the only reason Jeananne would do that—”

“Jeananne?”

“Jeananne was a friend of mine. Some big shot from Washington came here and talked to her. Whatever he told her really got to her, because she told the Army about our radios. A whole bunch of soldiers came up to take them, the CBs, ham gear, everything. Not just here. Everywhere in Bellingham. But Jeananne, she brought them here!”

“Some friend,” Kevin said.

“What the hell could he have told her?” Fox demanded. “It must have been important.”

“I never got a chance to ask,” Miranda said. “After they searched the Enclave and took all our radios, they took her with them. I’ve never seen her since. Not that I want to.”

“Yeah, but if it hurts snouts—”

George Tate-Evans came in from the kitchen. He’d obviously been listening. “Okay, Fox, I give up,” George said. “What’s got you so pissed off at snouts?”

Fox’s eyes had a haunted look. “No matter what they did, people never hurt the Earth the way the snouts did. They don’t care. It’s not their planet. I could always get to people’s co sciences. How do I get to the snouts?”

“None of which solves our present problem,” William Shake said. “You can’t stay here. There’s barely enough for us to eat.”

“What do they do with people who come in and don’t have place to go?” Fox asked.

“I don’t know—”

“I don’t think I want to find out.” Fox looked out across the Enclave. “What’s in the greenhouses?”

“Squash. Tomatoes—”

“Know a lot about hydroponics?”

“We have books,” George Tate-Evans said.

“Sure you do. I wrote some of them.”

“I guess you did at that—”

“Let me see your compost heap.”

“Our what?”

“You must have a compost heap,” Fox said. “I taught you that much.”

“Yeah—” Shakes led the way outside.