Preserving Hope by Alex Albrinck Read Free Book Online

we don’t have the kind of space inside the walls,” Eva explained. “And we don’t want to leave them outside the walls, lest any random traveler discover them and help themselves.” She gave a pointed glance at Will at the last point, and Will smiled. “So they build the bodies and wheels and axles and seats and store them in pieces, which is much more efficient than storing the entire wagons. It’s unusual, but it’s something one of our carpenters thought of a few years back and it seems to work.”
    Will nodded, impressed. They’d essentially arrived at the concept of an assembly line and interchangeable parts centuries before Ford and Whitney popularized them in the final quarter of the millennium. As each wagon finished assembly, the carpenters used horses to pull the them in front of the Stores of finished goods, where they were loaded down with ruthless efficiency, and large tarps were added to constrain the bundles and provide protection from potential storms. The horses pulled the wagons into a line near the gate, as if they were preparing floats for a parade. Will, with nothing better to do, spent the day assisting with the loading of materials into the wagons, meeting people named Aldus and Maynard, Eleanor and Matilda, Joseph and Gerald, among others.
    He watched Eva throughout, both with his normal sight and his enhanced senses, noting that she was painting numbers on thin slivers of wood which were loaded into the wagons; clearly, Will wasn’t the only Trader who could write. She also conversed with the various craftmasters as their Stores were emptied into the wagons. Others approached her, appearing to rattle off lists of information, which Eva captured with her paint on similar slivers of wood while nodding. By nightfall, when Will was able to break for a meal of bread, vegetable stew, and water, he was sore and tired but felt like a greater part of the community.
    The next day, he’d see if he could contribute as a Trader.

IV
    Mission
     
     
    Will woke early the next morning, stiff and sore from the previous day’s exertions. Though he was in prime health due to the exercise and nutritious eating habits he’d developed while living with the Alliance — and that hideous Purge — he still wasn’t used to intense physical labor. In the past, such exertion would have left him in pain; now, it was somewhat exhilarating.
    He sensed that no one else was yet awake, and felt the need to explore the forest around the community a bit more. He knew that the gate at the front would be closed and locked, and given that the villagers had seemed ready to maim him for entering the village by climbing the walls, he decided he should leave the village without being seen. Eva, who lived in the next room, had shown a hint of Energy development; he wasn’t sure if she’d be able to detect the burst of Energy he’d create by teleporting. Nor did he know the area around them well enough to visualize a target location. He glanced at the window nearest to the the protective outer walls of the village, and smiled.
    Will made more noise than he’d expected wriggling out of his room through that window, and he wondered if Eva or others nearby heard him. He used the wall of his room and the outer wall of the village to shimmy up to the roof, and then jumped onto the top of the outer wall, landing with a thud that temporarily knocked the wind from his lungs. He took several deep breaths, and then dropped to the ground outside the village. He felt an inordinate amount of pride in his accomplishment.
    He wandered around, enjoying the fresh air and the sense of freedom. He’d only just now recognized how quiet it was here; he’d lived nearly all of his life in the twenty-first century, an era marked by a constant thrum of electrical devices and motorized vehicles. The Alliance camp had seemed nearly silent by comparison, for the nanos used to perform most chores and build nearly all of the buildings made no sound.