Guns and Dust

** Hello Guns and Dust fans!

I am so glad to be back after my hiatus! Sorry for being a little late getting this out for you, but January was busier than I had expected. I hope you enjoy chapter eight and thank you for the kind comments I've received during my hiatus.

Now back to Adina and Asher! **

Guns and Dust

- chapter eight -

Adina kicked hard, holding her breath trying to reach the bottom as she swam down into the quarry's clear water. Her loose pants and sleeveless shirt flowed around her as she passed through the boundary between the sun warmed upper layer of water into the colder water below. The sharp, squeezing pain in her ears that had stopped her from going deeper on her three previous attempts disappeared when she pinched her nose and blew out the way Asher had shown her. The relief was amazing. She

would

reach the bottom this time... She kicked harder; feeling the pressure build as the previously unattainable sandy bottom loomed closer. She pinched her nose and blew another two times before she was finally able to reach down and grab a handful of sand in a victorious fist. Hovering there, she smiled. Her dark hair flowed around her and she felt the sand push through her fingers as Asher's words rang in her ears. "You can do it, Adina. I know you can."

She equalized her ears again and squinted, looking for her target, opening her fist and releasing the sand into a little sinking cloud. The heavy, squarish, brick-sized stone with a piece of cloth tied around it sat on its side a few yards away, the long cloth streamer waving lazily in the quarry's subtle current. The cloth had been bright red on the surface, but here on the bottom, the changed light turned it black. She swam to it and blew out enough air to let herself sink, touching down and feeling the sand crunch between her toes. Her head ached a little from the pressure, but she couldn't help the giant smile that split her face. She looked up and watched the bubbles make their long zigzag journey toward the surface. It looked so far away, but it wasn't frightening. She couldn't help the thrill that rushed through her as she stood there and took in the strangely beautiful, blue-hued world around her. She'd never been in deep water like this before. To her right, off the cut stone ramp where she stood, the quarry plunged deeper, to well over two hundred feet. The water was so clear! She grabbed the rock and pushed off from the bottom. The pressure on her ears and sinuses lessened as she rose. She passed through the thermocline again into the warmer water above and relaxed letting her buoyancy pull her toward the surface like she was being born upward by her exhilaration.

It was so quiet -

peaceful

.

All she could hear was her own heartbeat and the sounds her body made as the pressure changed, things she would have never heard on the surface. Dully, further away she could make out sounds from the surface and metallic clunks through the water, but if she didn't think about them, they faded away, leaving just her and her heartbeat.

She could see legs and bodies at the surface, the faces of the half dozen children who were she and Asher's near constant companions now peered down at her as she glided up in the silence. Devon's twelve-year-old son Nat was there, treading water with his face down. He waved at her. Adina broke the surface to the children squealing and cheering in delight. She held up the stone, kick-turning toward the edge where Asher sat, the sun once again gleaming against his scarred, tattooed chest.

The gray-white quarry stone edge was a nearly a perfect match to his hair and beard, the stone's gray veins and striations catching the same tones and highlights in the bright sunlight. He was nearly dry from his own dive, wearing pants he'd traded for and then cut off into shorts. They were

ugly

; a dreadful mishmash patchwork of brightly colored pieces stitched together. At least as shorts there was less of them to see. He applauded, then repeated what had been going on since before Adina had done her first dive. He put his hand carefully under a little girl's rear end and launched her upward, off the stone and into the water. She squealed in ecstatic joy as she hit the water.

"How did it feel this time?" he hollered over the splashing and hollering children around them.

Nat climbed out of the water a little way from Asher and helped a little boy up onto rocky edge

"Better!" she panted, side stroking to the edge, then put the rock up on the side. Asher hauled her out and she turned and dropped her soaking backside onto the hot stone, water splashing off her onto the sunbaked white stone. The boy ran up next to him for his turn to be thrown out into the water. Asher pointed away from them. "Later, alright?"

The child looked crestfallen and Nat stepped close, water streaming off him, his expression entreating. "He was really wanting to have another chance."

Asher smiled at the little boy and then called loudly to all the children. "Last one, alright! We have work to do!" he put his hand under the little boy's butt. "Ready?"

The boy all but jumped in place with excitement, nodding. Nat grinned and hurled himself into the water, then popped up watching. Asher launched the boy high and the boy flailed in the air and shrieking with joy before hitting the water. Nat was there a moment later pulling the boy to the surface, smiling widely.

Behind them, Adina could hear the gaggle of women, some of whose children were part of their new retinue. But there were others as well, both men and women whose only reason was obvious in the way they watched she and Asher. Devon wasn't there, she had work of some kind.

Adina wrung her long black hair and pushed it back, the water making a wide puddle. "It didn't hurt this time." She inhaled deeply to catch her breath, her shirt clinging to her breasts. Her nipples were hard and erect from the cold, clearly visible even through the two shirts she was wearing. Wearing only one was about the same as wearing no shirt at all once it was wet. She normally wouldn't have been too worried about it, but they were both getting a lot more sexual interest than she was used to. "Pinching my nose really helped."

Asher nodded and smiled, his lapis blue eyes on hers. "That's over forty feet down, Adina. You may not know it, but what you did is really hard. Most people can't do that. Not without a lot of training." He bent and gave her a kiss.

She kissed him back, aware of the eyes on them, grinning. "And it's fun!" She shivered once hard. "But wow, it's cold once you get down there!" She appreciated the sun beating down on them in that moment in a way she rarely did.

He nodded again. "That's the thermocline I was talking about. Colder water is heavier. If there isn't sufficient current or another force to stir it up, it just sits down there like a block."

"You can really feel it when you pass through it. I never thought it would be so clear."

"We definitely need to stay on the lookout for a basic physics book for you." He smiled again, squinting against the bright sun on the water. "But you're really starting to get a feel for why understanding physics is important."

She nodded as he used a wet finger and started to draw on a section of dry stone. It was a square sort of design. "The ramps run down the sides of the quarry". He drew two long rectangles inside the square along its bottom and right sides and pointed. "They used to use them to move heavy equipment around and get the stone out. The ramps give us an opportunity to do controlled dives." He looked at her. "It's not likely we'll ever have to do dives like this, but diving puts different stresses on the body. That's good. And swimming is great for you."

She knew how to swim but was flatly shocked by how easily Asher moved through the water. Then again, she'd only ever swum in relatively small bodies of water, never vast ones like this. She'd been amazed when Priav showed them the quarry and instantly understood why they wanted to build a permanent settlement here.

The quarry was full of fish and there were even fresh-water clams. Shallow areas around the perimeter were thick with reeds and grasses that were home to lots of birds, even ducks. The water was clean and clear, being fed into the deep pit from underwater springs and she could see right to the bottom in some places. The rusting remains of pumps and other equipment still lurked in the depths; vague dark shapes visible from the surface. The metallic clunks she'd heard under the water were the sounds of work being done to clear the machinery. A dismounted vehicle engine, drive train and axle were being used as a winch with a makeshift crane arm to haul up the sunken wreckage. According to Priav, one of the villagers was able to hold their breath long enough that they could reach the bottom on a weight. Then they hooked the crane to things or filled baskets with debris before returning to the surface. And others were training to do the same. Adina couldn't image how frightening and exhilarating working in the cold dimness down there had to be.

Rafi said there were entrances down at the bottom of the quarry that lead into mines beneath. No one had any idea of how deep they might go, or what might be hidden down there. Priav told them they planned to completely clear the old machinery from the quarry and build something called fish warrens that would increase fish productivity. Large garden beds were being prepared with silt and mud dredged from the quarry and surrounding ponds. With all the fish and birds, it should make good fertilizer. And there were plans to chisel out channels to divert water from the quarry for irrigation. For now, they were using a pully and weight system to pump water into the beds.

Adina had never been to a community that sat next to a lake like this. It was amazing. Especially considering the camp had only been established four months ago. Rafi said it would be the following year before they would know if the gardens would work.

The other thing about the quarry was that it was

beautiful

. The white stone; limestone, Rafi called it, shone brightly, stained dark orangy-red in patches. Asher said that was from iron deposits. And the water was blue-blue-blue, ranging from light, clear turquoise, almost the color of the sky, to cerulean, then plunging to deepest blue, almost black, depending on how the light caught it. There were secondary, smaller pits around the perimeter of the bluff, where the water was the color of jade. Something about sediments, Rafi said. Adina had never seen anything come close to it.

The main pit was an enormous, roughly trapezoid shape. Its longest side was opposite the camp, where the stone bluff was. That side was almost a quarter of a mile long. The white bluff itself was well over a hundred feet high in places, splashed red brown from iron. From the bluff to the camp was more than three hundred feet. And the side of the quarry where the camp lay was four hundred feet long.

Asher seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself, just relaxing.

"What is the city of haze?" Adina asked, squinting at him against the bright sun. "And what was it Priav was saying about lights in the sky?"

Asher raked his short hair back with burly fingers. Adina couldn't help but admire the way the sun gleamed off the raised markings of his scars and the smooth curve of his strong shoulders. "There have been stories about a city far in the west. Some say it's a ruin, others say it's large and advanced. It's all rumors right now. No one has ever found it." He nodded toward the rest of the camp. "Except maybe Priav. It's one of the things we've been trying to find for years. If it is a ruin, but it's still largely intact, it could be a treasure trove of information about how to help recover the world. If it's a living city and it's advanced." He just looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Who knows what it could mean."

"And the lights in the sky?"

He shrugged. "Since no one's ever seemed to actually

see

it; it's always second hand 'my brothers third wife's cousin said...' that sort of thing. It's hard to say. But the stories are consistent, 'lights in the sky,' or 'a glow on the horizon.' That could be good, or bad. If it's a living city, then obviously that's good. But if it's a ruin, that glow could be from something like ionizing radiation. That would be

bad

.

"Io... what radiation?" Adina knew what radiation was, everyone did, at least in the general concept of 'Radiation kills you. It's bad.'

"Ionizing radiation. Radioactive materials emit particles of energy. When those particles interact with the molecules in the atmosphere, they can make them glow or shine. If you ever see something laying around that glows, don't pick it up and get away from it. It's a great warning sign that says, 'stay far, far away.' But it's also beautiful. I've seen irradiated objects that glow with the most amazing internal radiance, and in large scale, the air itself is supposed to glow and sparkle."

She knew better than to pick up things that glowed. Most people did. She'd seen radiation burns a few times. They'd always been on people's hands or other body parts after from someone had picked something up and carried it around with them. The burns were horrible and people with the them always died.

She tried to make sense of the concept. "So, if it's io-niz-ing," she struggled with the unfamiliar multisyllable word," radiation, everyone's dead?"

Asher nodded and let his head fall back, seeming to just be reveling in the sun beating down on him. He was all but dry now. "They should be by now. Radiation doesn't necessarily kill people immediately. It can take years for the effects to destroy the body. But it only ends one way." He turned his head and squinted at her. "But you're going to be better protected from it than most people. The inoculant helps protect us. We don't hold onto radiation the way most people do, it has to do with how the nanos deal with the iodine in our bodies, or something like that." He grinned at her and leaned close. "It's nothing you have to worry about. If we can see it, we're staying away from it."

She bent and gave him a kiss. This time the children squealed and made rude noises at their display.

"Nobody asked your opinion!" Asher called after finishing the kiss, playfully kicking water at the closest children.

Adina turned to the crunch of feet approaching and shaded her eyes again. The captain of the guard, Omar, walked to them, surveying the scene. He grinned lopsidedly. He was a big man, over six feet tall and broad shouldered, with the kind of belly that spoke of heavy muscles underneath. Omar was the sort who would strong back an engine block into place with his large, knotted hands rather than wait for a hoist. A large scar cleft the right side of his face and it had clearly not healed well, causing some of the muscles on that side of his face to droop. But he was a pleasant enough, tough-demeanored fighter in his forties.

"Priav and Rafi want to see you." He eyed the children. "I can put them to work if they're bothering you." He eyed Nat in particular crossing his burly arms. "Aren't you supposed to be helping sort scrap metal connectors for the wall?"

"I helped this morning." Nat tread water, squinting at Omar. "They said to come back tonight."

Omar grunted, seeming unconvinced by Nat's anwer. Adina could see his deep affection for them in the good-natured smirk that lifted the good side of his mouth.

Asher squinted at the children. They became still and quiet, treading water and staring at Omar as he cast his baleful gaze over them. Asher shook his head, smirking at their wide-eyed awe of the scarred, good natured warrior. "No, they're just being children." He rolled his head back around to Omar again. "We'll get changed and head over."

Omar nodded. "I'll let them know." He turned and left, eyeing Nat as he went.

Asher pushed to his feet and held out a hand to help her up. "Well, maybe now we can get some answers." He hadn't been as insistent as Adina thought he'd be to get the information from Priav. They passed the gaggle of people that were apparently only be there to stare at Asher. He nodded to them as they passed.

"You like it here," he said as he pulled her against him.

She nodded and tucked up against him, recognizing the clear signal he was sending to anyone watching. "It's nice to be around people again. It feels more... normal."

He nodded. "I'm glad. We're going to be on our own for a long time, so take advantage of it while we're here." He gave her a kiss on the hair.

"When are we leaving?"

"Maybe tomorrow?" he answered noncommittally. "We've got a lot of ground to cover, and depending on what Priav says, a long way to travel. If she's seen this landmark only once as old as she is, it's either a long way away, or in a place people just don't go."

Adina nodded. "That soon?" She looked up at him. "I can tell you like it here too." She ran a hand over his chest. "You've been so relaxed since the hunt. It's like you're a completely different person." She kissed his shoulder. "I like this different you."

"We'll see what Priav says. But we need to get moving." He gave her an understanding look. "I still have a job to do."

She squeezed him. "I know that. But a few days here aren't going to wreck things, especially if you've been looking for this place for so long. A few days certainly won't make that much of a difference."

He looked down at her. "We'll see."

"What are you even doing out here?" Asher asked from his place across the table from Priav and Rafi. They'd been through the hellos and pleasantries and Asher's relaxed demeanor had quickly faded. There was no furrow between his eyebrows, but his energy had changed. His tone wasn't interrogation, it was more good-natured curiosity. But it was so...

pointed

compared to how he'd been since they'd gotten into camp. Adina already missed the relaxed Asher; smiling and launching children into the water at the edge of the quarry. "There isn't supposed to be anyone out in these areas," he continued.

Priav half-snorted, half-huffed at him, one of her eyebrows coming up. "In case you hadn't noticed, there's lots of empty space out here." She gestured widely with an arm. "Even you myrmidons scurrying around in your fancy trucks can't cover it all."

Priav's clay red skin shone clean and bright now. She'd bathed and wasn't caked with road dust anymore. Without that coating of dust, Adina could see her hair was almost uniformly grey, silver in places, a cascade of braids and dreadlocks around her narrow, burnt red-brown shoulders. She wore a different, lighter homespun sleeveless tunic. Like the faded one she had been wearing when they first met, it was red orange, as if designed to be a shade off her own skin color. It was held against her narrow frame by the same wide, charm-festooned belt which had been divested of the travel pouches that had weighed it down before. Clean, dark blue, narrow-legged trousers covered her to her moccasin-like shoes.

Asher nodded. "Fair enough. But you have to understand, you are the first people, or even evidence of living people, we've ever found out here. Up to now we haven't found so much as the remains of camps. Now I suddenly find not just you, but an established raider presence. To say it was a surprise is an understatement."

Rafi watched where Asher's voice came from, his whitened eyes searching from the dark complexion of his face as if they still had sight. "Nine months ago, we crossed the line into the western wastes. We wanted to find someplace new, far from the established trade routes, raiders and static camps and villages that seemed to come and go at the whims of the winds. We wanted someplace we could build, start something new."