Calliope slipped into the City Hall, squeezing through the mass of people to try to make it up to the dais to see the leader of the remaining humans. Some were starting to call it the Throne Room when she left the last time, saying that Callum should be made King. Their nation hadn't had a monarchy in centuries, but times had changed.
The meteor storm had changed everything.
Finally making it to the front, she slipped in with the other scouts who were giving reports. Most had nothing to say as she hid among them. The last time she had come, Callum had sneered and said she shouldn't be allowed to be a scout despite all her father had taught her. She was too small, too weak... too female. He hadn't told her outright she was no longer a scout, so she had gone back to her duties and avoided returning unless there was something to report.
This time she had important news, though.
When she finally made it close and peeked out from behind Scout Damon, Callum saw her, and his passive expression turned to a glare.
"Let's have it then!" he yelled at her. "You who only ever brings bad news!"
"No news is good news, sir," she mumbled as every eye went to her. "If I'm not here, then all is well on the eastern gap."
"But you're here, so all is not well," he surmised, tossing papers to the table as he threw himself back in his chair petulantly, sneering down at her. "I still say you shouldn't be allowed on the wall!"
"Sir, she's exceptional at her job!" Scout Vance spoke up. "She can track like her father and remain unseen while doing it. She's exceptional at remaining unseen unless she wants to be seen, and that's what's needed at the gap!"
"Just tell me what's wrong so you can get out of my sight," Callum rolled his eyes.
"Sir... the Underdwellers... there's, ahh..."
"Out with it!"
"There's evidence they're coming out during the day and no longer staying underground, and... they may be less feral than they were. There are signs that they are developing intelligence."
"What? How can you possibly know this?"
"There's evidence of tracks along the wall on the other side, and..."
"How do you know that?"
"I climb the trees on our side to look over. Boards were loose, and I looked over, there were tracks all around and what looked to be a campsite not far back in the trees, cut away from the wall."
"Human tracks?"
"Mixed with some I have no name for," she agreed. "I've never seen what might make tracks like were left. It's been a few decades, I think they're adapting and evolving."
"Like I said, never good news with you," he huffed, glaring. "Keep an eye on it and report any changes! Let me know if they try to breach the wall or if they do more than look."
"Sir, I would like to ask again that you assign another pair for the gap. Two isn't enough for the mile span, and the gap is closest to the old city where they are..."
"No. Why would they risk the mountains when it would be so much easier to use the old highways to go around? We're spread thin on Scouts as it is; you don't need four in such a small space. Make do with what you have. Get out of my sight."
Calliope sighed, but slipped out of the room to go see to provisions to bring back.
Supposedly, Callum was smart and a clever tactician, but he had an obvious blind spot when it came to women. If she hadn't been born to it and raised in it, he never would have let her train as a Scout or take over her father's spot when he died. He only allowed it because so few were left who wanted the job of being a Scout on the wall, a dangerous and lonely job.
Scout Vance caught up to her as she made it to the supply barracks.
"Cal, wait up!" he called, catching her arm. "Sorry, kid. I'll speak to him, alright? If the Underdwellers are adapting and getting intelligent, then you're right. The gap will need shoring up. Roads mean little to them; it's distance they will care about, and the rocky foothills won't stop them from heading to the closest portion of wall. You still working on shoring it up with stone?"
"As best I can, but I can't get it very high."
"Can't scamper like I've seen you do?" he teased.
"Not while hauling heavy stones. I can only get them so high... but I have about a quarter of it shored up to shoulder height on me. No shortage of stones, it's making them fit and getting the clay to make them stay put. Those wooden walls won't hold up much longer, they're already rotting in some places and loose from weather and falling rocks in others. Why is he so stubborn-stupid about listening to women?"
"No idea, it's his one big failing. He's smart about everything else, but he has a hate for women for some reason. Don't let it get to you, kid. You're doing great, and we all rely on you. So you really think they're getting smart? The Underdwellers?"
"I don't know, Vance... I saw the campsite and the fire... and a few of the trackers were human. Boots at least... but some of the tracks? I don't know what they were. Not human. No animal I've ever seen. Huge animal tracks mixed in with the boot tracks, right up to the wall, and milling around where the boards were loose. Like they knew, like they'd found the weak spot they were looking for. I have Dun shoring that spot up, but the problem is they know the wall has weaknesses. Hell, Vance, a sledgehammer could take the wall down even in a strong spot. It's basically there for looks! If they set fire to it..."
"I know, but look at it from his point of view, kid... in thirty-four years since the wall went up, they haven't come near it. They haven't tried to come at us at all. They stay in that old city, in the buildings, in the dark, and they haven't come at us. They've attacked caravans outside the walls, but never tried to come in the walls. Even if they're a symbol at this point, they're a symbol the Underdwellers are respecting."
"Until they don't," she grumped, handing her list to the Supply Sergeant.
"Callum has only known peace," Vance went on. "Most people here have only really known peace. We all know what happened, but only a few of us can remember what happened. Even me, kid. I was a teenager when it happened, and the chaos that went down when those meteors hit... I can't even describe it. Every single city that was hit was turned, and we don't know the how or why, or science of it. Radiation like we had no experience with got to all those humans they they fucking lost it. Turned into Underdwellers to a man, every one of them in proximity to a meteor. Only safe places were rural or mountainous. Little towns like this one. We didn't..."
"I know the stories, I know what happened," she huffed. "I'm stationed with Dun, remember? He's older than you, and he was outside the city when it was hit. Helped found the town," she rolled her eyes.
"Helped found it," Vance scoffed. "He was a fucking liability as I was told. Fancy lawyer, new out of school, losing his shit over everything. He had to be sedated for a whole year before someone sent him to the South to watch the shoreline. He was there almost a decade before they moved him to the East wall, and there fifteen years before they moved him to the gap with your dad."
"I know," she sighed, leaning against the counter to look up at Vance. "You swear you'll ask him? For an extra detail at the gap? He listens to you, Vance."
"Swear on my life," he agreed quickly. "It was already on my list of things to bring up at the next council meeting since we've been getting reports of increased activity all around."
Calliope nodded, then started gathering the things the Supply Sergeant was setting out for her.
Vance helped her get everything to her horse and lashed on before saying goodbye to her.
Calliope didn't waste time, hurrying back to her post at the gap, four miles from the town. Dun wasn't there when she arrived, and she was sure he was patrolling. Putting things away, she watched for him as she worked. As soon as she was done, she went out to the paddock and frowned, watching his horse grazing over the fence.
He wouldn't go on patrol without Fozzy!
"Dun?" she called loudly, looking around the outpost for him.
The axe wasn't in the woodblock like normal; it was lying a few feet away, but the ground was too packed and walked-over to tell if he'd been there last.
"DUNLOP!" she yelled more loudly, cupping her hands towards the woods where he had some foraging spots.
Hurrying back inside, she got her crossbow and extra knives, then went in search of him and some fresh tracks.
There were no fresh tracks leaving the post, the only new tracks were from Misty, her horse. Searching until dark, she found nothing at all. He'd been cutting wood, obviously, it was clustered around the block, but not stacked.
It was like he'd vanished from that spot, the axe dropping from his hand as he did.
Or dropped as he was yanked into the trees by something.
Looking up at the trees, she did note that there were no limbs over the block, though there were trees nearby. None had anything in them, though...
Not even birds or squirrels.
Shit!
Hurrying, she fed Fozzy and put Misty in her stall, then ran Fozzy back to the town since he was fresh and Misty wasn't.
It was nightfall by the time she raced into the town, but she knew where Callum would be. His manor was all lit up, and she ran Fozzy all the way to the door before jumping down and tossing her reins to a groom who ran up. Not waiting to give her instructions, she rushed inside and went straight to the loud dining hall where Callum was sitting to dinner with several council people.
"Dun is gone," she told Callum breathlessly. "I got back and he was gone! Tried to track him and it was like he vanished or was snatched up in the air!"
Callum leaned back in his chair and smirked as he sipped his wine. "You think, what? The Underdwellers got so smart they got helicopters to work again?" he asked mockingly.
"No, I think they were in the trees!"
"He probably just went on a bender," Michael Johnston laughed. "Crazy old coot!"
"He'll turn back up," Allyssa Freemont waved it off.
"You don't understand!" Calliope cried, upset that they were brushing her off. "He wouldn't! He doesn't drink, and he takes his job seriously. Yeah, he's a little crazy, but it's conspiracy theory crazy that made him more vigilant!"
"That's right," Callum mocked. "What was it he called Earth? The alien petri dish? Their science experiment? So, was it aliens, Scout? Did they beam him up like the old stories?"
"This isn't a joke! It's not funny! He's missing! He even left his horse behind, and he wouldn't do that! He loves that thing like a kid! Not only that, but the wildlife was all gone when I got back! No birds, no squirrels, nothing at all!"
General Brigman stood up. "We'll send a team out, Scout Mills," he promised gravely. "As well as a replacement. We'll find him."
"So you're saying that no one is on the gap right now?" Callum asked, also standing. "You abandoned your post."
"What else was I supposed to do? Stay there and man it alone with no way for you to know what's happening? I can't man it alone anyway, I need sleep!"
"You can't man anything alone," he sneered. "Last I saw, men didn't have cunts."
