PmWiki | LeftBeyond / Scrap

Vicki and Judd piled into the car; the last rebuild had moved the gasifier - now considerably smaller - from a rickety trailer into the trunk of the car itself. Whoever was in the back seat would have to share the room with any luggage, but the thing now drove like a regular car from before the Rapture, rather than some sort of science project. Lionel had gotten there a couple minutes earlier and loaded the boiler. After a quick talk with the rest of the staff about the day's activities, they were off.

Mount Prospect was, in one word, dusty. Given just the amount of depopulation that had occurred during the Tribulation, after the Glorious Appearing people had either huddled in the remaining cities, usually around what factories could be put back into operation, or spread out to claim a farmstead in what areas were still fertile and untouched by ion storms or plasma hail or worse. The suburbs, unsustainable without cheap fuel for transportation, had been largely abandoned; what had happened to Detroit for economic reasons just before the Rapture had gone on in every other North American city due to simple logistics.

By now, some suburban developments had been reclaimed into self-contained communities or collectives; unlike in industrial style farms, front and back years of American suburbia had generally not been subject to the Eden fertilizer, and made good soil for veggie gardens and the like. Some recovered homesteads looked like they were straight out of the immediate post-WW2, with victory gardens out front. Others had simply been torn down, to minimize fire risk and to recover the resources spent into their construction.

Rayford's neighborhood was, all considered, oddly untouched; about a home in four was inhabited, and while a few houses had suffered fire or looting, most stood.

"Wow. It looks like the day after the Rapture."

"It really does. That's... not a good sign."

The house was in decent shape, with the lawn just a bit overgrown - the three COT workers could see no attempt to grow veggies - and just a bit of sag on the roof. All the curtains were drawn. Rayford's cars on the other hand looked like they hadn't been moved since the Glorious Appearing: there were no visible mods on either of them, and the large one had deflated tires and a layer of dust covering it. The small one had been used more recently; stains on the garage floor showed that gas had been siphoned, somewhat sloppily, from one to the other.

Judd rang the doorbell. It was working. Power seemed to be on, in general.

"Captain Steele? It's Judd, Vicki and Lionel."

"It's open!"

Rayford was sitting in living room; with all the curtains drawn, the room looked bigger and gloomier. Nothing was out of place, but most things - including the frilly knick-knacks set about by Irene Steele at the time, a few of which had been painstakingly repaired - had a layer of dust in it.

The man looked older than his fifty years; he was wearing business casual for Chaim's visit, and did not quite fill his shirt, accentuating the impression of gauntness. His hair was impeccably combed, maybe a little longer than Vicki and Judd remembered, to cover over some thinning. He raised a hand. "Welcome. Sorry for the mess. If you'd like water or a soda, help yourselves."

Soda was making a comeback, although it was still a bit of a luxury; Chicago had a bottling plant, and most neighborhood markets sold a few brands or, more likely, had a stall with a compressor for people to carbonate their own fruit juice with. Lionel and Judd helped themselves and brought some back while Vicki sat down next to Rayford.

"Is Kenny here?" Rayford asked, leaning forward a little. Vicki blushed. She should've brought him.

"...I figured you and Chaim wouldn't want to be interrupted, so I didn't bring him... will you come visit later today instead? We'd love that."

The two other men sat down. "I need to get gas and groceries first. I can come tomorrow, I think..." They'd heard that a few times. It had only happened twice; the first time, Kenny and the other children were interested in Rayford's stories; the second, they were a bit disappointed that they were the same stories, and Cindy had to be put in timeout after asking Rayford once too many times why he didn't stop Carpathia when he was on his airplane.

Dr. Rozsenweig said that he'd swing by once the symposium at McCormick Center was over, but nobody knew when that was going to be; Judd offered to drive the four of them there, but Rayford pointed out that they might drive past each other. The older man was genuinely interested in

"If you don't bite back, you're food."