Pickers 1: The Find (6 page)

Pickers could park their wagons in a square toward the edge of the buildings still in occupation. They were inside the area watched over by the town guard, but, ominously, the guns in their bunkers could turn to shoot into the square just as easily as out.

Veronique and Tony had found a room in a boarding house, for obvious reasons, and Maxine was lost in thought about something, working on weapons in wagon one. Meanwhile, Remy was talking to the other pickers in town. The brandy they had brought with them was particularly fine, and they were good company he spent time with at most once a year. "It is time for me to go home again, I think. The girls have been ten years away from where they were born, I should take them back. Have either of you been over the Pyrennees in the last year?"

Robert looked like he had stood on the highest peak and let the cold, dry winds desiccate him. His face was a study in lines and wrinkles, but with surprisingly clear eyes and steady gaze. Remy felt such a fool talking about getting old whilst sat across the table from this man. Agnes had been a one woman crew, but had just teamed up with Robert. Short and round, with unruly white hair, she always appeared ready to jump up and run off to complete some job or other. Robert looked to her to provide the answer. She shook her head.

"I tried two passes, but was turned around both times. They told me I wouldn't be allowed back over if I did find a way into the country. They were turning people back who were trying to head this way. There were rumours, just rumours, nothing certain, that they have been having bad harvests. There might be a blight, or it could just be one bad season." She gave a very Gallic shrug.

"It does not sound like you want to be heading home this year. A bad harvest always leads to a very bad time." Robert said, pouring out more brandy.

"A shame." Remy said, taking a sip. "We are going to get to the foot of the hills as well. We'll just have to look up at them." He didn't like lying to other pickers, but they were sitting on something too big to risk word getting around.

"I have family in France." Robert said, tutting. Robert had family everywhere, if what he had said over the years of their meetings could be believed. No wonder he looked so worn.

"I did not try the goat path." Agnes offered. "There have never been any guard posts on that."

"With reason." Robert said, "No guard would dare send anyone back down that.... Road." The last word was added with a dismissive tone. "Mind, those wagons of yours might just make it up without killing any of you."

"No doubt they could. It is almost the sort of trek they were built for." Remy tried not to sound as if he were gloating over the superior abilities of his two trucks.

"You never did say where you found them." Robert said.

"There was never any point. They were the last ones in the warehouse."

"Military?"

"Not quite. It seemed to be some rich man's private security force. But no-one had ever shown up, so everything was abandoned."

"I once found the wreck of a gigantic yacht, run aground in a bay it was impossible for me to get into." Agnes said, sensing a rare finds competition starting. "It must have been beautiful, before the side was torn open and it tipped over."

"There's an aeroplane graveyard in Portugal. Full of military planes. For a few months after I found it, I was driving around with mini guns on the roof." Robert said, then cackled.

Remy couldn't tell them about some of his most interesting finds, but he had enough others that he could join in the game.

It had been a factory once, but now it was two and a half walls held together by metal arches coated in crackly brown rust. The thick concrete floor was being cracked open by the slow progress of straggly brush from the collapsed wall inwards. The curving and knotting branches of the invasive shrub were dusty pale brown and looked like they would turn to powder at the slightest touch, but the deep green spikes that passed for leaves were viciously sharp.

They had skirted the bush and headed across the floor to stand beside the upright of one of the steel arches. It still supported a few rectangles of roofing, but the spars running to the next arch had all collapsed and tumbled corrugated metal rectangles to the floor.

Chloe had a metal framed catapult with a carved wooden handle. She held it in her left hand and was lightly pulling then releasing the elastic with her right. Today she was dressed for kicking around the ruins of the town's collapsed recent past. She had big boots on, and faded denim dungarees over a long sleeved top with a hood to protect her fair skin from the sun. Maxine wished she had long sleeves as well, rather than the cut off ones of the tight top she had chosen to wear. Her right forearm stung where she hadn't been paying attention and had scraped a needle leaf across it.

"There are rabbits in the bushes, but too deep to go after them. Sometimes they come out and I shoot one for the pot. But mostly, this is where I come to practice." Chloe said.

"And bring boys?" Maxine asked.

Chloe went a delicious shade of red. "Sometimes. There was one.... Andre. I shared him with my friend Tania, though he didn't know we knew. But she's pregnant now, so he's marrying her and I'm...." She picked a dart from the bag slung over her shoulder, loaded her catapult and pulled the elastic back.

The darts had fascinated Maxine. Perhaps she was far too interested in weapons, but she always wanted to know about new ways to defend herself and her family. Chloe had mentioned that she fired darts with her catapult- not the bearings or stones Maxine had expected- and handed one over for inspection. The dart was about the length of her thumb, with twin strips of fabric, about the same length, bound to the blunt end. After a moment of studying, Maxine recognised what it had been, before repurposing. A nail, the tip had been rounded and sharpened and the head had been weighted by the wire holding the fabric on. Launched tip up, the drag from the streamers would turn it around to point at the target.

Chloe had the dart in her catapult, point up and tail hanging below. The twin strips of red fabric fluttered in her breath as she drew it close to her cheek and aimed at a section of roofing propped up against the opposite upright of the arch. It had three crude, concentric circles marked on it and was pocked with the holes of old practice sessions. Chloe released the dart, seeming to jump up a little at the snap of the elastic. There was a clang from across the building, and Maxine spotted red material fluttering near the middle of the centre circle on the target. To prove the shot hadn't been a fluke, Chloe reloaded and fired another dart, landing blue trailers within centimetres of the red ones.

"Nice shooting. What's the penetration like?" Maxine asked. Chloe went red again. "Let's go and have a look."

The catapult's range was better than she had expected, Maxine thought as they walked across the floor to the target. Not as good as her bow, but for hunting small game, or in certain circumstances where sneaking was needed, it was ideal. The darts hadn't penetrated very far into the metal sheet, but they had at least punched a hole into it. Against softer targets, they could be very effective. It took some working and a sharp tug for Chloe to get them out. "They're always blunted by shooting this. I should find a block of wood to use instead." she said, studying the tips.

"I think I should make one of those. The bow is too big for hunting rabbits and smaller animals."

"Oh, my cousin makes them. I'll get one from him. I make all my own darts, you can have a few of those."

"You can show me how to use it on the journey." Chloe went red again. Maxine was sure there had been no innuendo potential in what she had just said.

"Can you teach me how to use a bow? I've had some practice, but, like you say, they're too big for the sort of hunting I do."

Maxine unslung her bow and offered it to Chloe. She made bows all the time, for sale, in a variety of materials, but this was one of her favourites. It was a basic piece, formed from a single, perfect branch she had found one day, and created in a matter of hours. She had more powerful bows, including a compound beast that shredded anything other than metal shafts, but for simple stalking and hunting, this was the one she always chose. Chloe seemed to sense the emotional attachment, and held it reverently.

"Let's take this outside. I don't have anything that I'd want to shoot at this." Maxine tapped the metal target

They skirted the bush again, and clambered over the bricks of the collapsed wall. Through the remnants of a chain link fence was a large open space where another industrial unit had once stood. A few bricks were arranged at one end of the lot in a tribute to the wall that had once existed, and beyond them was a mound of earth with sparse vegetation clinging to it. "That should do as a good range for that bow." Maxine pointed. "Do you want to have a go?"

Still nervous of the weapon she held, Chloe nonetheless nodded. Maxine unslung her quiver and pulled an arrow out. She studied the head and wrinkled her nose. Chloe made a little cooing noise. "That's so pretty." she said.

Maxine passed the arrow over. "I knap arrow heads from broken glass. We haven't found many other uses for it. It's very effective for hunting, but not great for practice sessions."

Chloe was turning the arrow between her fingers, mesmerised by the way the light played on and through the green glass head. "No. I can see it might shatter on stone." She handed it back, and took the alternative Maxine offered. The end of this shaft was capped by a brass shell casing, giving it a blunt tip, which confused her.

"It's very good on smaller deer. Pointed heads sometimes just go straight through them and they take forever to die. This is just like hitting them very hard with a rock, and usually kills them instantly."

It was hard to tell from Chloe's expression whether she was fascinated by this explanation, or squeamish about it. But she took the shaft, placed it carefully and prepared to draw. "Where should I aim for?" she asked.

"The bit in the middle, where it's lighter." Maxine suggested.

Chloe drew the bowstring back, and held it as she aimed. By the time she released the shot, there was a tremor in her fingers that translated to the shaft. It shot off to the left and clattered across the floor short of the target. She bowed her head in embarrassment. "I did say I hadn't much experience with a bow." she said.

"You don't need to hold it so long, just draw and release. And there's another trick I've learnt. Here...." Maxine pulled out another arrow, but, instead of handing it over, she stepped up behind Chloe. She rested the shaft on Chloe's thumb where it wrapped around the bow body- the opposite side to the one she had fired from. "You can reload faster if you sit the arrow here rather than on the inside." With a hand on Chloe's left elbow and reaching around to touch her right forearm with the other, Maxine instructed, "Draw the string back. Like that, yes. Have it at the full pull as the arrow comes up to the target. Take it a little above. And release."

Chloe let the arrow fly. This one deviated to the right, but it hit the dirt just to the side of the pale target area. Maxine was still standing close to Chloe, her hands dropped to rest on her hips. She would have liked to rest her head on the taller woman's shoulders.

"Okay. I think I see how that worked. Can I try again?" Chloe said.

"Yes. Yes. Of course." Maxine pulled herself away, reluctantly, and handed over another arrow. Chloe took her time setting it, trying to remember how Maxine had guided her. Happy with how the shaft sat, she sighted her target, drew the string back and released the shot. This time, her arrow landed inside the light patch. Maxine held out another arrow. Chloe reloaded quickly and landed the shot between the previous two, just on the edge of the light patch. "I like this way better." she said. "So much easier than how I was doing it."

"Let's get the arrows back, and you can have a few more goes."

They scraped a three ring target into the dirt, and Chloe took a few more turns at it. She was putting more and more shafts into the circles when she called quits with a sore arm from all the stretching. "I need more goes at this to get better. It's odd, putting it on the outside. Why do you do that?"

"Let me show you." Maxine took the four shafts and the bow in her left hand, and drew back the first shot. As soon as it was away, she set the second arrow and fired it, then the third and fourth. All of them landed within the second ring of the target. She couldn't help but smirk as she saw Chloe's expression. "I don't know when you would ever need to do something like that, but it is a great way to show off."

"It is."

They wandered to the dirt pile, and Maxine started pulling the arrows from it and cleaning them. Chloe picked up the bow and studied it, testing its balance in her hand. Now she was treating it more like the tool it was than the fragile precious thing she had previously. "I've made a couple like it." Maxine told her. "I can swap you one for the catapult."

"Okay." Chloe pulled back the string and aimed an imaginary arrow at the factory building. After releasing the tension slowly, she said, "There have been two other teams of pickers heading east since the lottery was drawn, but my sister wouldn't consider me going with either of them. Do you know why she chose yours?"

"No, why?"

"Because it has two women in it, and one of the men in it is married to one of the women and the other man is a father of daughters. She thought I'd be safer with you."

"Safer?"

"Well, she thought I wouldn't get seduced by some handsome scavenger and decide to stay with him and travel the bad lands until something awful happened."

"Was there a danger of that?"

"No, not really. But...." Chloe held out the bow, not letting it go immediately when Maxine took it. She slid her fingers up the body to rest on Maxine's. "When Tania and me were both sleeping with Andre, well, we were both sleeping with each other as well. We didn't see why he should have all the fun of having two lovers at the same time."

"Really."

"I don't think I'm going to get any of that sort of loving wherever I end up finding a husband and settling down. I was wondering if a little could be.... Included in my journey?" Chloe glanced meaningfully toward the factory.

"It can be a part of the service." Maxine said, letting herself be led into the building.

They stopped by the same upright. Maxine put down her bow and quiver and stepped close to Chloe, pressing her gently back against the metal. She was shorter than Chloe, and had to stand on tip toes to tease her lips close to the other woman's. They didn't quite kiss, but Maxine used the distraction to release the clasps on the shoulder straps of Chloe's dungarees, then, as they kissed at last, the buttons on the sides. The heavy material dropped to the floor, and Maxine reached under the hem of Chloe's top.

Chloe lifted the hem of the top, and Maxine lowered herself to kneel before her. She revelled in the contrast of the dark skin of her arms against Chloe's pale thighs. She pulled Chloe's knickers down her legs then leant forward to sneak an exploratory tongue out to take a taste. Chloe rested a hand on the top of Maxine's head as she shivered under the oral attention. "Oh, I knew you'd know what to do." she said with a sigh.