Pickers 3: The Valley by Garth Owen Read Free Book Online Page A

into another small valley, then over a larger barrier, beyond which lay the prize. There were clouds approaching from the Northwest, rolling over that far barrier, then dripping down into the smaller valleys.
    Georges had a copy of one of the maps which had given them the routes of the old trails. He held it up, so that it overlaid, in a way, the landscape, then traced the route of the road in the air with a finger. "It's hard to tell whether it gets better or worse from here on. What do you think, after coming along here- can your wagons get over this?"
    "If it's all like this, then not a problem. We've crossed worse before. The question is, how accurate are those old maps?"
    "We find out when we try to follow them, I guess. This is as far as any of us has come in this direction. As far as anyone thought we needed. I was going to suggest a recce to see what sort of force of Raiders there are out there. But it was more important to see how the farms on the other side of the tunnel were doing, and to look for salvage in the empty towns." Georges' tone was almost apologetic, as if he was embarrassed to not have travelled far and wide, as Maxine had done.
    "It sounds like you've been working as Pickers." Maxine offered. She hoped that it didn't sound condescending. She didn't want him to feel that she looked down on him, just because he hadn't had her itinerant life.
    "I suppose so. We did bring some good stuff back, too. Do you want to go a bit further?"
    "Not today. If we go on, it starts to be a real expedition, and I haven't brought everything I'd want for one of those."
    "Not enough guns?"
    "Not enough guns. And no bivouac, or food."
    "Maybe tomorrow. Or we could set off the day before everyone else, and scout ahead."
    "And share a bivouac over night." Georges reddened at Maxine's suggestion. She had been half serious, and, it seemed, he hoped she was completely serious. Maybe it wasn't just her feeling nervous and excited around him. Perhaps it went both ways. She resisted the urge to ask straight out if he wanted to sleep with her. Even as a blunt child, she had learnt long ago that some questions never received a simple answer. "Did I see another track join this one, about a kay back?"
    "The map shows another track, but I didn't spot it." Georges unfolded the paper. "It runs down to the reservoir and then back to town."
    "Shall we find it?"
    "Okay. But no race this time, let's go at a sensible speed. I like being alive and unbroken."

* * *
    There were reminders of the building's time as a hotel in the dark wood of the doors and panelling, and the decoration on the walls. At the far end of this room, there was a line of stuffed animal heads looking down on the lathes and milling machines. Heavy work tables, with vises bolted to them and tools loaded into little baskets, pointed the way to the machines.
    "So, you finally got yourself a proper workshop." Remy said. "It must have been quite a job for some lucky Pickers."
    "The Scouts found it all, locked up and undamaged, on one of their first trips out after we reopened the tunnel. Myriam, Lola and Fabien got to do one last run in their truck to collect it all."
    "What do you make?"
    "Not me, sadly. Being mayor takes up too much time. But there are a few of the youngsters who are teaching themselves by making what's needed. Mostly small components. It's surprising how many things get abandoned for want of one little bit. What the junk yard can't provide, sometimes they can build it here." Julien walked over to a cabinet of wide, shallow drawers, he opened one of them and pulled out the topmost sheet of paper it held. With a flourish, he laid it on one of the work tables. It was a design for a bracket of some form, carefully marked up with dimensions and angles. There were notes in the bottom left hand corner of the sheet, which Julien checked. "Electric motor mount for conversion of a couple of pickups that now run produce back from the fields. Really useful. We might move