Chapter Thirty-Eight The Road After Weather
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The Road After Weather
The storm had erased Eden's new survey marks.
That was useful.
She decided this after swearing for several minutes.
Rhett waited until she finished.
"Useful?"
"It proves the route sheet needs fixed landmarks, not surface markers."
"You sound pleased."
"I sound educated."
Pax's ankle had swollen badly overnight.
He could put no weight on it.
They built a better stretcher from the valve house's removable bench slats.
Nella insisted they return to Flint.
Eden wanted to continue west to Hollow Nine.
Neither option was simple.
The storm had probably closed the steep road behind them.
Hollow Nine lay twenty-four miles ahead now.
Flint was eight miles east, plus the unstable descent.
Torren wanted east.
Lio wanted west.
Pax wanted someone to stop asking him because pain had made democracy irritating.
Rhett looked at Eden.
"Your call?"
She shook her head.
"No."
He frowned.
"You're the survey lead."
"Route recommendation is mine. Decision involves everyone carrying him."
Pax raised one hand.
"I vote for teleportation."
Ignored.
Eden laid out the facts.
East: known shelter at Flint, medical supplies, difficult descent, road potentially blocked by storm fall.
West: unknown pump station, longer distance, gentler grade, possible road link to interstate.
Water available at the valve house but limited portable capacity.
Weather clearing.
No hostile activity seen.
Nella asked, "What do you recommend?"
Eden looked west.
"Hollow Nine."
"Why?"
"The pipeline corridor is engineered grade. Storm can cover it, but the markers continue. Going east means descending a road we already know was marginal before the ash loaded the slope."
Torren rubbed his mouth.
"I still want home."
"Reasonable."
"But you think west is safer."
"Yes."
He sighed.
"Then west."
The decision passed without ceremony.
They moved.
Ash made the terrain deceptive.
Shallow holes looked level.
Sharp rocks disappeared beneath powder.
Eden walked first with the probe.
Rhett carried the front left of Pax's stretcher.
Nella took rear right.
They rotated every twenty minutes.
No one complained except Pax, who considered that his duty.
At Mile Twelve, they found the first marker knocked flat.
Eden uncovered its base.
Pipeline still there.
Direction unchanged.
At Mile Fifteen, the corridor split around a low hill.
No marker visible.
Caro's note ended at Fourteen.
The laminated diagram showed a straight line.
Ground said two roads.
Eden stopped.
Rhett lowered the stretcher.
"Problem?"
"Choice."
One track went north across pale clay.
One south over gravel.
Both looked engineered.
Torren crouched.
"North has old tire marks."
Eden checked.
Very old.
South had none.
Nella pointed to a half-buried concrete block.
"What's that?"
Eden cleared ash.
PIPELINE RIGHT OF WAY.
Arrow south.
Good.
They took south.
Two miles later, the road ended at a collapsed ravine.
Pax laughed from the stretcher.
"Excellent."
Eden stared.
The pipeline crossed underground, but the road bridge was gone.
North track had been the detour.
She had chosen wrong.
No one died.
No vehicle lost.
Still wrong.
Rhett looked at the ravine.
"Back two miles."
Eden did not move.
He looked at her.
"Cross."
"I saw the marker."
"Yes."
"It pointed south."
"Yes."
"I should have compared the wash date."
"Maybe."
She looked at him sharply.
He almost smiled.
"You hate it when I use your word."
"The marker was original. The bridge probably failed after."
"Exactly."
"I should have recognized the tire use mattered more."
Rhett sat on a rock.
"Are you planning to sentence yourself before or after we turn around?"
Eden bristled.
"I made the wrong call."
"Then record it."
She stared.
So simple.
Not deny.
Not absolve.
Record.
Eden took out the survey sheet.
At the split, she wrote:
SOUTH MARKER OBSOLETE. brIDGE OUT. USE NORTH DETOUR.
Then added the date.
Caro's work had taught her routes.
Caro's death had taught her fear.
Rhett was teaching her something less dramatic.
Being wrong did not make the next decision impossible.
They walked back.
The north route added four miles.
Pax complained about scenic inefficiency.
At sunset, a metal tower rose from the ash plain.
Hollow Nine.
The pump station still stood.
Better, smoke came from its chimney.
People.
Rhett stopped beside Eden.
"Another town?"
"Station."
"With smoke."
"People tend to cause that."
A bell rang from the tower.
Three people appeared on the platform with rifles.
Eden raised both hands.
The survey had just become social again.