By Gene Haynes
Author page
 
Contents
1) The story begins
2) The Solid Dollar
3) Property exchange
4) Eastern women
5) At the Box

6) Easy Mark
7) Gold
8) The risk
9) The lung
10) Hive mentality

11) Bobber's father
12) Kiochawi Raiders
13) The last raid
14) At the barn
15) The era of trust begins

16) Agreement to end war
17) Bankers fold up a plan
18) Fighters violate Oath
19) Solid Dollar takes over
20) Shooting Astrologer hats

21) Gold threatens revenge
22) Walk through the door
23) Credit-men
24) Bobber takes the Box
25) Gold Town

26) Going east coast
27) Oil, gas, nuclear power
28) Leatherleaf
29) Red Lake monster
30) Bobber finds family

31) Storm and fire
32) GE crystal
33) Plan to sell
34) Girlfriend Cheneen
35) After the hurricane

36) Search for survivors
37) Queen is announced
38) First reports
39) Gold Town booms
40) Gold Boss, Bank Boss, Gold Leaders

41) Trap is laid
42) Bobber discovers the Queen
43) Opportunity
44) Bobber meets Windrock
45) New Leaders emerge

46) RobbieB claims Cheneen
47) New Galveston/ the Big Thriller
48) Finish business
49) Fight in the street
50) Runaway Property Report

51) The Hall
52) Problem
53) Liam gets caught
54) Cheneen sees contract
55) Liam reclaims ownership

56) A-con chillers
57) MissTea and the Medical School
58) Monitors-mini
59) Windrock and Bobber
60) Liam makes the trade

61) Burned-out Texas
62) Explosive Leatherleaf
63) Survivors
64) Can't find 'em
65) Gold Leaders get tour

66) No more
67) The set-up
68) Bobber's contract
69) RobbieB arrives
70) Cheneen declares against family

71) Dispute goes to the Hall
72) The Decision
73) Second Hurricane
74) Bobber and Windrock together
75) Reety

76) The Red Brazos
77) The wonder of New Galveston
78) The Bank
79) Bobber meets the Queen
80) The King

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The starvations affected whole populations.
But the lung changed humans.

Some people got the lung and didn't die. Instead, it caused them to become incommunicable.
They were called Ootistics.
After the first Fierce die offs, many buildings were full of them.
Once the group was large enough, Ootistics morphed into something else.
Like locusts. Individual locust live in relative peace. But when numbers multiply, they change into aggressive hoards.

Large groups of Ootistics morphed into crawling human shapes, all changing direction at same time like a flock of black birds.

They began churning across the earth foraging every scrap and insect, same as other folks, but they were different. They came in swarms 50 or 100 yards wide, taking every shred of life and belonging that didn’t flee from their grasp. Yet, they didn't fight against each other, just constantly moving forward without looking back. It was radical change in human behavior.

Ordinary people had to guard fields against constant invasion by some Ootistic, raider, insect, thief, or animal.
Ootistics would tear apart a field worse than any hog. No fence could hold them out, and rarely did anyone have enough bullets. It was best to close the barn tight and stay indoors until they passed.
Ootistic groups were worse than raiders. At least raiders could speak and negotiate.

Ootistics had no identifiable leader, other than ones up front. They acted together without fear. It was perfect strategy for survival and defense; hundreds of human minds working together. They were formidable challenge to anything opposing them. But for Ootistics, there was no other way to survive.

People called it the Hive Mentality.

Some argued that Ootistics were a natural evolution of humans. Except interbreeding was still possible.

It’s true that stressed populations breed sooner and with those they would not normally mate, thus forcing faster genetic change. However genetic tests showed no significant difference between Ootistics and regular people.

Genetics remained important scientific study after discovering KL-VS gene prevented the lung. Other genes were investigated. KL-VS1 and KL-VS2 variants were discovered.
Genetics became especially popular among rich folks, and among Property traders seeking a better value for prized breeding women.

The KL-VS2 gene had another profound effect. People with that gene not only resisted the lung, but retained extraordinary sensory abilities despite carbon and methane inhalation.
People carrying the double KL-VS2 gene began calling themselves Readers.

Readers were similar to Ootistics. Both exhibited the Hive Mentality.
Inside the Hive, they communicated by touching. If they gathered in groups and touched one another, then members would understand and work toward the same goal.

But Ootistics had a different Hive Mentality than Readers.

Readers with the KL-VS2 gene did not remain in large groups. They traveled around, and affected other people without being aware.

On the other hand, Ootistics groups had a single mentality that existed only within the group.
If an Ootistic was kidnapped, they would revert back to the person they were before. This was handy for raiders and slave traders who made a living selling Ootistics to the timber industry. 

Ordinary folks were concerned what would happen if multiple groups of Ootistics worked together herding animals and humans into traps where other Ootistics waited in ambush. Nobody reported this. Ootistics didn’t eat people. They would stampede over the top of you, but the rumor caused widespread support of enslavement as a solution for Ootistics.

Captured Ootistics were usually sold to the timber industry for a reason. They were gifted woodworkers, like some kind of carpenter bee.
They built furniture. They were valuable for treating lumber with Indian-asphalt which was essential for cartage rail. But you dare not let them in the crops or they'd eat the whole thing.

Ootistics were accepting of new members.
Anyone could join. Stay away from the front. Get in behind and start mimicking the behavior.

In the past, people frequently joined Ootistics, except when they started getting sold as slaves. Regular people were caught up too. If they demanded a test to prove they were not Ootistic, it was useless. Unless you had gold to pay for the test, you were enslaved.
 
If you claimed not to be Ootistic, the selling price increased because the person could be sold into trades other than timber.
Many people were sold into slavery.
Hoarders didn’t see a problem since slaves created commerce for their interests.

Commercial profits usually depend on a level of coercion and deception.
Hoarders served this interest by passing rumor and fear, saying that Ootistics were dangerous and violent. Which was true when they resisted kidnappers, but otherwise they were peaceful among themselves.
In any case, for a variety of reasons, people were terrified of Ootistics. And the perception allowed slave traders and Hoarders to make money by kidnapping them.
That's how it was.

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Just as things were about to boil to a conclusion with Liam, the Trade Box door opened.
Two men and a new boy walked in. New boy was young, about same age as young Property.
The men paid credit to see an agreement on the monitor and LeoJ handled the transaction from the back.
 
The arrival of more people cooled Liam. Bobber measured the new arrivals, unsure if they were nosed to discover what Liam was trading. But it didn’t appear so by the way they conducted conversation.
Liam and older boy moved away from the counter and were talking in the corner. But they didn’t leave.
 
Young Property and small boy were still standing next to the sojo machine.
Bobber priced sojos cheap to attract folks.
You could have sojo with ice or have it chill-cooled inside the a-con blower.
 
Bobber was passing a few moments watching the three young ones.
He saw young Property and the new boy looking at each other.
 
Then, young Property uncovered her face.
Just like that. The girl’s face was open for all to see.

She uncovered her face .............
 
That dang little girl just went east coast.
 
She might as well shat on her family.

Liam started screaming red-faced. Older boy was shocked and running around squealing. New boy was wide-mouth smiling.  You could see he liked her. Small boy laughing at his sister.
 
Bobber started yelling, sign ‘em up with a contract, pounding his hand on the counter.
People were running in circles and yelling, and men wide eyed with disbelief.
The whole Box was alive with commotion and yelling … the condition was going to the wire.

One of the older boys came running in from outside.
LeoJ bust out of the back room, ducked low with a gun.
 
And here was this little angel with a warm smile, going east coast with her face totally uncovered.
Who could imagine this would happen in the middle of serious negotiation.
But it did.
 
It changed everything.
Bobber howling, Liam yelling, the brothers running around, LeoJ staring …
And not one person in that room moved to stop the little girl from showing her affection toward new boy.

At that moment, until she covered her face again, it seemed perfectly normal as if the future was standing directly in front of them.
 
Her face was covered now.
Liam gestured his boy out, and things settled back right quick.
The 3 youngest ones were still giggling and then Liam and the other men started laughing, followed by Bobber and LeoJ. For five minutes the whole Box rocked with laughter like they were all family.
People everywhere wanted to share laughter about cow blankets, announcers making jokes, and the end of so many hardships.

27) Oil, Gas, Nuclear power
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Unknown to people in town, the lake just belched up another sludge of brown goo. Plumes of gas and oil would rise to the surface and evaporate off over a few days.
Red Lake was an old landfill.
It was mined real deep for metal scrap and plastic value, and then filled with water as the local aquifer rose.

Hydrocarbons vented up through the lake regularly. The lake smelled bad, and boatmen had to avoid the mess, but otherwise it wasn't a problem.

Fractured rock from old extraction techniques let gas escape across the region.
People thought the gas would be extracted and then the rock go dormant.
But that’s not how the earth works.
Oil and gas never stop rising from layers deep beneath the surface.
Barely a hundred years passed since they stopped breaking the rock, before locals finally ran out of good water.
 
When nuclear additions were installed, people began favoring electricity and stopped using hydrocarbon fuel.

GE-Nuke discovered crystals that could be spun in a magnetic field using lasers, and the simple technology generated huge amounts of electricity.

Crystals were made by super-heating carbon rings suspended in electromagnetic field, then bombarding the carbon with helium and argon lasers. The crystal formed while cooling gradually over many months.
Toward the end of the process, a shadow-mark was used to print identification code on each crystal.

Some crystals were clear, others were reddish, but the most prized were blue.
The GE-blues were larger, about 4” long and 1” across, and could generate more power.

Crystals had round points on each end that formed a near frictionless surface when fit into a pocket of steel with silicone lubricant.
Three lasers spun crystals at specific speeds. The light bounced off the crystal and into coils of nickel, causing a pulse of current on the coil. Three separate coils in the generator produced a smooth 3 phase curve of electric power. If lasers malfunction and rotation was slower, then electric output dropped. If lubricant dried out, the result was a damaged crystal that produced less power after function was restored.
The process was safe ... and simple ... it either worked or it didn't.

At some point after crystals were invented, the lung struck, and populations quickly dwindled.
As people gradually stopped burning hydrocarbons, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere dropped, but methane still affected people.

The remaining people turned to electricity since power lines were still up in many places, and men could see how it worked. Electricity could be done by local people where they lived.

It was simple to build nuclear additions and maintain electric transmission. Wire and purified glass insulators were not hard to make or install.
Two men planted asphalted poles in the ground and strung wire from pole to pole. That was it.
Transformer windings were easy: Wrap insulated wire around a metal core, and put two next to each other. More winds on one and fewer winds on the other caused voltage to change. Install both coils inside a can filled with oil to keep it cool, and it worked. Switchgear was made from various metals.

Most electric technology was saved.
People didn't steal transformers. They were cheaper to buy, and places that needed one had one.

Hydrocarbon fuels, like oil shale and gas, were complicated technology.
Hydrocarbons required discovery, extraction, long pipelines, coordinated pressures, with chemical refineries and massive numbers of people. Plus hydrocarbons required different refining for each type of hydrocarbon.
Oils were still available to lubricate process-bearings and transformer coolant. But widespread electricity easily survived the die-offs and starvations while hydrocarbons did not.

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The previous year, a fellow showed up at the Trade Box.
He looked at Bobber, and said ‘you’re my uncle.’
 
Hold on a minute.
‘You’re my uncle' had two meanings.
Meaning 1: you were actually that person’s uncle.
Meaning 2: you ‘eat monkey.’
 
People said it to be funny or start a fight.
It was bold speaking to a stranger.
 
Monkeys of some breed flourished in the limestone hills of mid-Texas.
They could outwit a river bottom lion.
Worse than Ootistics some said.
The monkeys were running around in general nusiance, eating crops, breaking into homes, and stealing food stores.
 
They were equally hard to hunt.
Shooting monkeys was like drinking water from a straw hat. When you went down the hill after them, they climbed back around and disappeared.
A few years before, around the time raiding ended, the monkeys attacked and ate some guy.
So the clan went after the monkeys that ate their uncle.
Lots of people joined in. They got real serious.
They shot as many monkeys as they could.
At one point, a group of guys cooked up one of the monkeys to eat.
So they were eating the monkey.
Another guy walks by and says, oh, you’re eating my uncle.
He meant that the monkey ate somebody’s uncle, so now, they were eating that uncle themselves.
Story goes that one of the guys coughed up a piece of meat through his nose, which puked the other men and nobody ate the monkey.

Naturally, word got around.

So after that, when you wanted dinner conversation with people you hadn’t seen for a while, especially your relatives, you say, ‘oh, you’re my uncle,’ just as they’re taking a bite of meat.
People thought it was hilarious.

But if you said it to a stranger it was an insult.
 
So here was a young fellow standing at the counter calling Bobber an uncle.
Bobber muttered for clarification, not wanting to wade into a fight.
The fellow says, no.
My friend is your brother JohnE.

My brother is alive???? Which brother? Bobber asked.

There was an older brother that left for the Lithium War and was killed.
His name was JohnE.
Bobber’s father’s name was Jonney. That’s why they named the first child JohnE.
 
The young fellow says, JohnE.
JohnE is alive?
 
Bobber’s heart was pounding. He had to catch his breath.
The young fellow said that JohnE deserted the war just before a blast killed his group. Blew the men to pieces.
 
The war bosses sent notice to Bobber’s father that JohnE was killed.  No tags, no thanks, no body, just gone.
Bobber’s father held the notice for days. The loss was so strong that he couldn’t walk.
Short time later, his father disappeared.
 
JohnE escaped the war, but he violated Oath by deserting,
Deserters were killed, so he couldn’t go home to Texas.
JohnE had no idea he was considered dead, or he would have gone home.
Instead he traveled eastward to steel country and married into a clan of welders and fabricators who built electric cartage.
After two children, his Property rejected him and took a new man.
JohnE had no rights because he was weak parrot, so one night he snuck away with his baby boy and traveled back to Texas.
 
JohnE arrived in Texas with his boy two years after Bobber joined the raiders.
He found Bobber’s younger brother and sister in an empty house near the birthplace.
They were down to final chickens, but they were healthy.
Together they moved to South Texas to hide from reprisal since the eastern clan made claim for the stolen child.
Since they were hiding, Bobber could never find his family on the monitor.
 
Luckily, JohnE’s property contract was made solo.
With the new Solid Dollar, the Bludworthies were no longer honoring solo claims.
JohnE had gotten clear and started looking for Bobber and the missing father. But he avoided the monitor since the eastern clan could track him using paid transactions.

A great weight lifted off Bobber. He found his family.
 
Bobber was able to visit JohnE and his sister and brother a few weeks later.
They were children when they parted. Bobber didn’t recognize them immediately.
They had their own families and friends and treated him like a stranger.
It didn't matter, it was wonderful to have a family again.
Only afterward was Bobber reminded that he had feelings again. It felt calming and burdensome at once.

JohnE and the rest moved 20 miles south of Red Lake to a tiny dry farm community.
Bobber wanted them closer, but that was it.
 
That’s when Bobber began searching the monitor for his father.
Most people were on the monitor by then.
After JohnE was called dead, Bobber felt his father’s broken heart.

There was hope.
If his father knew JohnE was alive, maybe he would come home. They would be a family again.
 
Bobber found his father through an agreement.
His father held a contract family back east that showed 2 children; a boy and a girl.
He reached his father through the monitor saying that JohnE was alive.
They made plans to get together soon.
It was terrible when his father never came, but each knew the other was alive.
You can live old pain forever, or let yourself forgive and live in peace.

Bobber feared going east to see his father.
What if his father loved his new children and rejected Bobber again? That pain would be too great.
It was better to believe that his father still cared than to discover a different man who found happiness without his own.
A man shouldn’t think about those things, but inside was a boy who was deeply hurt.


31) Storm and fire
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LeoJ recovered from the laughing spell over the little girl’s uncovered face.
He returned to the back room and saw the warning: Strong storm coming.

A dry hurricane hit the coast day before.
Contact was lost with many areas, but people ignored reports since there was no rain except east of New Galveston.
People wanted rain.
It was dry season and hadn’t rained for 2 months.

The hurricane’s eye spun westward overnight, and the winds were coming in from the north as it approached Red Lake.

The copper coupon bell started ringing for some reason.
Other bells and noise started up.

Bobber immediately called out to bar the door closed.
Anything could be happening. Raiders, Ootistics, Bludworthies.
He saw the monitor.  People outside were looking south toward the lake while others were looking north.
Nobody was running, so the place wasn’t amuck with meat cleaver lunatics. Which was good.
 
Then the ceiling lights burned brighter. The men looked up. A bulb that was previously off started to glow.
You could feel electricity in the air, which started a humming noise, and then a wheezy growl. Such a sound you never heard; like a bear and crocodile breathing in your ear.
Moments later there was a huge explosion.
 
People ran outside to see what happened.
The lake was on fire with flames surging skyward.

It was unbelievable. There was a huge fire on the lake and the heat was almost searing.

Suddenly a tidal wave of flaming water washed ashore.
Shocked people stood motionless watching a surge of burning water push balls of dirt and trade boats up the street.

Liam’s clan was knocked down by the concussion blast, but were up and seemed ok except holding their ears.
Flaming water ran up the arroyo behind the Trade Box.
The brush and grass caught fire and ignited pine needles which set fire to the trees.
 
People closer to the lake were yelling.
The retreating water pulled people into the lake.
Men were running to get ropes.
Boats were on fire in the street.
People swinging bedcovers and jackets and throwing dirt to put out fires. Fire was everywhere.
 
Just as suddenly, a hard gust of wind blew in from behind. The north wind arrived with a blast.
Clouds of dust faded the sun, and bullets of cold rain fell for one minute before the sun shone again before being obscured completely by the onrushing storm.
The sky was achurn with fast-moving clouds, followed by cigar clouds that started rolling past like fingers in your hair.
 
People were yelling again. The tidal wave was coming back.
Then a cheer went up as the people swept away moments before were heading back to shore. Survivors grabbed ropes as the new surge flooded in.
The second wave was smaller and not burning.
Bobber watched the slough of black water wash in with branches and a white shirt floated by.
 
The wind was blowing small people down.
At least the fires were not spreading.
 
So it seemed the situation would resolve quickly as soon as more rain fell.  
But the clouds gave nothing.
Just a howling dry air that blew dust and sticks and burning embers into the lake.

The dry side of the hurricane had arrived. It was sucking down air from the north with no rain to fall.
 
A group standing nearby were screaming and pointing.
That’s when the people in town noticed the far shoreline was on fire.
Across the entire breadth of the lake, there was fire.
Flames were bouncing up hundreds of feet high, going over the hills. Pine trees exploded when the wind hit.
The wind ripped past like the devil coming out of your pocket. There was no stopping the fire that raced southward with the hurricane.
 
Liam’s family was yelling. Their voices barely heard over the wind.
Their homes and families were on the other side.
They had come across on the boats that were burning in the street.

Properties fell to their knees in the dirt and mud, clasping hands in front of mouths, then reaching out as if touching lost hearts on the other side.

Paralyzed people watched the land consumed with wind-driven fires that reached every hill as wide as you could see.
Bobber suddenly remembered his own family. They lived south just 20 miles. Same direction the fire was going.
His lifelong dream that his family would be whole again was slammed into a wall. He fell against the doorway, then slumped to one knee.
 
It was Liam who saved Bobber at that moment.
Stand up my friend. We are strong for the others. He helped Bobber up.
Yes Liam trusted Bobber.
Maybe it was Bobber who was most in doubt, and not Liam.
They shared a bond, both living through equal hardship.

Silently now, the whole town looked across the lake, with tears that swallowed everything that came before.
We will take it.
They busied themselves saving the boats, and covering windows.

When work was done, visitor and resident found new friends and sheltered together.  Each planning later to travel across the lake, hoping for a miracle.
If only it would rain. But it never did.

After the hurricane died away hours later, the fire created its own windstorm, urged onward by a late summer jet stream that pushed into Texas the next day.

The fire raged across Texas for 36 hours before reaching the Gulf shoreline. Traveling 14 miles per hour, wiping out New Freeport, Space City and Cristi Point and everything between. Only those who could outrun the wind, or took to the sea, or took cartage going west or east escaped out of danger.
Anyone breathing ash and smoke soon developed lung problems, some to pass quickly while others dwindled in diminished capacity to the end.
 
What bad luck. Red Lake belching up explosive gas the very moment the charged atmosphere of a storm arrived with high winds. Maybe it was lightning. Or short circuit in one of the buildings. Maybe it was the glowing aura of static from the lake itself. Few cared for science after it wrecked the planet.

People remembered stories about the planet covered with chemical poison. How people were fed sugared chemicals and salt because there wasn't enough real food. How phenols and other chemicals killed people many times over, causing damage to human bodies and plants and animals and oceans.

Science was rejected, yet modern life depended on electricity invented by science. Something useful from the past always manages to creep into the future, perpetuating the cycle of mischief and wonder.

Liam's family crowded into the Box for shelter. Wind bounced broken limbs against the building, mocking their loss. Leo J passed out blankets to hang against the wall to stop dust from blowing through the cracks.

32) GE-Nuke crystal

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Unknown to Bobber, everything would be done at once.

A few days later, the Bank Boss moved to Red Lake permanently, and brought his family.
Red Lake sprang back to life.

Repair work on the rail to New Freeport was running day and night.
The rail line through Red Lake was busy carrying steel and asphalted timber heading south.

Even gold men abandoned Gold Town to help rebuild Texas.
Gold men needed work and adventure same as any man. The difference was clear: Gold Leaders wanted servants, and Banks wanted men to be great.

The dynamic changed for Bobber.
The Bank Boss in town meant Bobber was no longer central for peace.
He was free to travel to New Galveston.

At the same time, a new group of men were emerging as business Leaders in Red Lake.
The New Leaders wanted to forge their own relationship with the Bank, and cut out Bobber’s Trade Box.
They immediately saw opportunity if they could get Bobber to leave.

Bobber saw it too.
It was perfect water to protect himself, and offer something the New Leaders needed.

After taking the Trade Box, Bobber studied contracts written at Banks in New Galveston. He fashioned his own style to become a savvy contract writer.
He banked out of New Galveston because it offered the sharpest trade if you knew how to avoid the hang. If you got caught in the middle, it would cost more. Bobber didn't have much capital from tiny Red Lake, but he knew how to spot the trap doors.

Men were learning new trades.
It was no longer smart to agree to contracts written for other jobs. Each contract had to be specific.

Bobber’s constant work preserving peace let him understand that men didn’t like getting cheated by Hoarders, or the Bank, or by other men … and standing between honesty and cheating was a correctly worded contract.
Bobber knew how to do that.

He renewed the search for sponsorship.
His offer changed.

Bobber would help the New Leaders establish Bank contracts in New Galveston.
 
Out of respect, Bobber would step aside and not hold his position in Red Lake. And upon return, he would consider all offers without fault for their stance against-or-for his previous position in the community.

Bobber displayed wisdom toward the New Leaders. They agreed and sponsorship to New Galveston was secured.
This would soon take several twists because of Cheneen.

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Chapter 46) RobbieB claims Cheneen
Bobber was dropped by Cheneen the year before the fire and RobbieB took over as main straw.
RobbieB was a planner and forceful on his wants.
He wanted Cheneen.

Six months after she took up with RobbieB, she sent word asking Bobber to meet at the stand of small Sycamores growing in a pocket valley about ¾ mile north of Red Lake.
LeoJ cautioned against it.
She was trouble.
Her family was pushing her to gain advantage.

Bobber was conflicted. He still loved her yes, but that was part of the reason.
He was angry but flattered that she still thought of him, glad she revealed the truth about herself and innately curious what she was doing. He had to go.
There was something compelling about Cheneen but he didn't trust her.
He told LeoJ, it's better to know than guess. She’s not claimed. They can't call dirt against a Property contract.

Bobber slipped out the secret back door before dawn. And traveled farther out so he could come in the back way.
Using every sense honed from raiding days, he moved cautiously to a cluster of cedars overlooking the Sycamores and waited two hours. The sun was coming strong. It was going to be screaming hot.

A man can see through dense brush using eyes, nose and ears, just like a coyote.
If the instinct tells you to run, just run and don’t wait to see why.
Using senses can be tricky: if senses are more strong than keen, especially your eyes, then others can see you before you see them. The trick is to empty the mind of who you are, grow small, and become the land. Watch what your eyes want to know and you can know things you can’t see.

He heard them before he saw them.
Girls were coming up the dry creekbed. One of them must have fallen and the others helped her up.
They were too noisy for any purpose.

She came with two other girls. Bobber was relieved. A girl standing alone would be a trap.

Bobber felt the land around him. A person following the girls would travel on the slope that lay below Bobber’s position.
The most likely spot for a person to sit was just above the Sycamores.
He felt the area with his mind and watched the girls react to their own senses to see if someone was there.

He felt RobbieB very strongly.
If he was there, the girls didn’t know.
If they sensed somebody, they would be glancing toward a certain spot.

Bobber waited. RobbieB would not come alone. He needed others to confirm his stature.
If more than one man was there, they would be no less clever than farm boys walking with big shoes.
RobbieB was big-armed and walked heavy. He was not a prowler. He would be locked inside at night because he couldn’t tell when somebody was behind him. And that’s why he needed others around him.
Bobber tried to guess who he might bring. Some of the boys about town were quite good trappers and hunters, but none of RobbieB’s friends. They were just pushers.

After a while the image of RobbieB faded. He wasn’t there.
Bobber crossed over and slowly came down the slope where somebody might be hiding.

He was close before the girls saw him.
His presence startled them, but his smile disarmed the group immediately.
He sat down on a rock ledge and laughed, what a beautiful day, implying of course that he was talking about the girls. The girls knew he was a charmer.

They wanted Cheneen to pick him. But it was not to be. Cheneen’s family controlled the contract, and Bobber was too busy for a girl with Cheneen’s disability.
Coming from incest, the world was hard-thrown backwards.

The other girls walked away so Cheneen and Bobber could talk.
He walked close but stopped short of touching.
She started to cry, wanting to draw his heart out from behind a man’s normal weakness.

What a girl.
Hey Cheneen, what is going on?

She said her family agreed Property contract with RobbieB.
Bobber said, well, he’s a strong man.

She looked down.
So that was it.
They couldn’t have children.
Her face told it.
RobbieB must be unable in some way, or Cheneen was infertile. Can’t imagine that girl being infertile, more likely RobbieB.

Bobber had to find a way to say what he knew without getting knee deep into personal lives.
He looked away, and felt the air around him.
The other girls knew. They weren’t far away. Their faces said the same thing.
They remained in sight and that revealed they were true friends.

Bobber asked, why would your family agree to contract if the two of you are not right for each other?
It was the most delicate way to talk about it without knowing too much.

She was unable to say.
Bobber was puzzled. Why wouldn’t Cheneen know?
Why would her family contract their daughter to a man who was unable to have children? Especially a family of incest where the prize is introducing young children to relationships above their ability to resist.

They were merciless with Cheneen. He hated her family and what they did to that special girl.
Snap out of it. He slapped himself in his mind.

Then it struck him like a bolt.
They were going to use Cheneen to bait him, and probably other men too.
Maybe he already swallowed the bait?

Hold on.
He could still back away quick.
But wait. The girls with Cheneen were clearly her friends.
They came so she could ask for help.
This was real.
Cheneen was trying to escape the family.
Bobber realized that she was telling all she knew.

Bobber asked, when is the contract going to happen?
Cheneen said, this week.

Are they going solo, or coming to the Box.
NOW this was the most telling question. Solo meant no Bludworthy reprisal, which meant Bobber would be exposed to continual side assault from her family.
On the other hand, Bank contract meant direct confrontational assault ... which would be easier to see coming, but would carry legal risk.
Either way, Bobber was in danger. Or he was about to change the world. Or both.

She said the Box.
So it would be a Bank contract.
Bobber said he would gladly write the contract.
She turned and looked at him. ‘Gladly write the contract?’

Bobber said, think about it Cheneen.
He turned his body directly toward her and looked her in the eyes.
She couldn't tell if Bobber refused to help, or offered to help in a way she didn’t understand.
One answer was true, and he wasn’t sure either.

They never touched. They never kissed. She left crying and her friends gathered her into their arms and turned away. Bobber stood his ground before moving carefully up another slope to return home after dark.
Nobody saw them together except her true friends who never told.

The following week Bobber wrote the Property contract for Cheneen and RobbieB.
Bobber was very good at contracts that protected his client. His client was Cheneen.
He used his standard Property contract, the same one he wrote for all her friends.

Cheneen’s family and RobbieB signed it. Cheneen was not permitted to see it.
LeoJ said, wait until they find out.
Bobber said, maybe.

Six months later a fire burned down Texas, and Windrock told Bobber that RobbieB and Cheneen would take the Box.
The stage was set.

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Windrock and other young people gathered each night to line dance.
That night it happened in front of the Box.

Bobber decided to join.
He jumped in and out of the hot can shower, threw on a pair of Levess Packrights with a clean white shirt. His shoes were trim and clean. Then stepped into the street, suddenly feeling embarrassingly old.
He was still fairly young at 23, but older than the dancers that night.

He was trapped by his own vanity.
Except the others didn’t see him that way.

Here was Bobber, an important man among them.
Unmarried.
Quite a lot of attention paid to him as Properties met his hand along the line.

The men and women were stirred into graceful movements of great intensity and feeling.
Bobber didn't notice anything unusual or different or strange happenings.

Until he realized gold men gathered nearby.
The big one shouted insults.
Gold men started pushing some of the young men.

Three of them separated Bobber from the others, knocking him down.
It was a bad way until RobbieB and two other boys joined in on Bobber’s side.
Things changed quick as more men came running in.

The two groups were jostling and challenging, with men stumbling then re-entering the fracas.
Bobber and RobbieB were arm to arm pushing against the gold men.
The fight rolled into the next street where both sides separated.
Each waiting to see what would happen next.
They dared not pull a weapon.

The girls gathered on the west side.
In revolt, they removed face coverings.
That's when the men started getting distracted.

Sweet Bessie Bou, sing that song !!
Here was a whole bunch of half naked girls standing there in front of them.
Of course, they weren’t really naked, only their faces were uncovered, but out in public in front of all those strange men from Gold Town, and their neighbors, those girls might as well pulled off their bare shirts.

Right then, a horse rodeo started coming into town, riding down the middle of the street.
What? A horse rodeo?
Yep.
Naturally, the big tough men, who moments before were gnashing teeth, backed away on same side of the street, opposite side of street from the girls. After all you wouldn’t want to get too close to a naked girl.

Their eyes were as big as moon saucers.
The men weren't much eager to look at the horses instead of looking at the naked girls, that weren’t really naked.
The girls seemed to enjoy it.

The lead horse paused, allowing the men to scramble to the correct side of the street.
And then the horse rodeo passed down the middle between the men and the women.

One of the horse boys yodeled out, Hey I like this place. Which just about started the fight again except the men were a tad bit more distracted by what was occurring over on the other side.

Bobber saw Cheneen.
She looked as beautiful as he remembered.
He was proud of her.
She was married now.
For some change in the way that man's spirit works, all the men standing there were proud of those women.

Bobber realized that RobbieB and Cheneen showed up.
Windrock was gone. She must have left.

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The solution to the crystal showed up.

Liam got word to Bobber that some of the old lithium fighters were gathering at Gold Town.
Why at Gold Town?
Why stay over there without the a-con?

Didn’t make sense.
Why would Liam need to report that?
He must be nervous.

Liam offered to join the fighters and pass information forward.
Nonsense. Bobber knew what was going on in Gold Town by listening to gossip.

That tipped the wheel.
Liam was caught and unaware.
Down to his bones, Bobber saw the crystal laying in the hands of the gold men.
He couldn’t stop it.
A cool wind touched his neck.

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Red Lake was supplying ice and cold drinks to the poor fellows stuck over there in Gold Town

The Bank  agreed to send a-con chillers to keep Gold Leaders in town a bit longer.
The Gold Boss held up confirmation paper and yelled the news to his men. The men cheered.

It was all showmanship. No paper was signed.
The chillers were definitely en route. The Bank knew they were going to get the buildings, and the buildings were worthless without a-con, so why not let gold men install the chillers?

Gold Town had two shipping platforms. One for each rail line.
The a-cons were scheduled to arrive at the Bank platform.

The gold rail had fallen short on delivering everything.
Not enough food, no ice, fewer and fewer loads of timber.
Fewer men arriving.
The new men arriving were secretly Bank men making sure the Big John waste decomposer and other construction was worthy of Bank take-over.

Gold Rocket and Salt Dome and Montana Prince and the other leaders were exhausted.
They knew it was over.
They couldn’t run equal with the Bank.

The gold game was worthless because it couldn’t build, couldn’t deliver, couldn’t do anything useful for modern men and women.

The only thing left for Gold Leaders was to find a way to leave town.

They were planning a parting shot at the Banks by taking the GE-crystal.
They secretly planned to leave the morning after the a-con chillers arrived because the men would be distracted while installing equipment.
No worries, the Bank already had reserved seats for their departure.

They were going to drag those surly Gold Leaders through the heart of burned out Texas on newly repaired rails and let them feel the devastation that ordinary people suffered.

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Adventures were pushing into Texas.
Progress was slow.
Long distances. No fresh water. No landmarks. Risk of soot in the lungs. Dust. Flies. Smell. Fear.

Men moved upriver from the Gulf, following the Brazos, Colorado, and other outlet waterways.

Other men started repairing rail lines from north to south and east to west.

It was dumbfounding. Rails were twisted. Asphalted timber was torn out, scattered and nearly incinerated.

The fury of combustible Leatherleaf was unbelievable.
Leatherleaf wasn’t supposed to burn … but it was all gone.

There must have been mile-wide tornadoes of fire to tear apart rail bridges like that.
Giant timbers were broken off below the ground line.
The men could see it. The bridge didn’t burn and then fall over. It exploded into pieces.

Stone buildings were thrown apart with foundation wiped clean.

Entire swaths of land, where bushes and trees were torn out of the ground in a hail of splinters before they burned with immense heat.
The agony was twisted against every scab of ground.

Announcers had no words.
It was too vast, from bare horizon to bare horizon.

Only the men who saw it could try to grasp how people and animals faced their last stand before being consumed in certain death.
On the face of God they stood in awe, wishing the night would arrive soon to hide them from the awful sight.

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For six months, the hard men of rail had been pounding their way into Texas.
These were powerful men, with backs that matched the unyielding sun and weight of timber and steel.
They worked until noon when the heat drove them under the cartage for shade where they stayed until 6 pm before resuming work until midnight under the cartage lights.
Only the sturdiest men lasted the job.

The land was hilly and rough so every berm, bridge and culvert had to be custom laid with precision.
Careful calculations had to consider expansion and contraction of the crystal-carbon steel as massive hege-welders fused each section together.
The Bank was laying double rail across Texas so cartage could run both ways day and night. The two rails were pushing across the scorched earth, but the forward group advanced almost a mile ahead of the other rail.

Early in the morning, one of the forward men looked up and saw two brown spots in the distance.
They were accustomed to seeing a sea of charcoal lumps. But these were moving.
Hey what’s that? They weren’t deer but they were the same color as deer.

The other men looked. With the sun to their back, they could see two children.
Are those children?

The yell went out.
We found children.
They were deep in Texas and found nothing alive except a few sprigs of grass ... and now they found children.

Shouts flew down the rail.
Cartage men blared the horn.
At least 50 men dropped their tools and started running toward the children.

Rail workers a mile behind heard the horn.
They could see the commotion in the distance, but couldn’t see what was happening.

The Rail Boss said, run a cart down there and see what is going on.

Monitor tower men hadn’t finished setting up communication links so they didn’t have direct contact.
The horn kept blaring, so they knew something big was happening.
Guards were pulling out more guns. Spotters were checking all directions.

The lookout with binoculars said he saw the men run out in front of the cartage and disappear over a hill.
What the hell is going on up there?

Flashing light from the forward cartage signaled back: Found two children.

It was unbelievable. Now a hundred more men were ready to run a mile ahead to join the others.
They threw a cart on the second rail and nearly every man tried to get aboard but only ten men would fit. The cart raced down the rail, but another cart was coming back toward them.
They practically crashed head on.
What did you find?
We found two children.
The men changed carts ... as the forward men raced back to report what they found, and the other men resumed going forward.

Of course the children saw 50 screaming men running after them so they turned and ran back over the hill and hid in the tiny cave where they survived the fire.
They pulled the stone over the opening and waited in fear as the lumbering rail men yelled for them to stop hiding.

The canyon where the children hid was a maze of rock faces and small side canyons.
As the fire approached, their parents put them in the little cave where they stored canned food at the bottom of a rock wall behind the house.
The space was only large enough for the two children. The parents said they would be back and then covered the entrance with a perfectly formed stone that sealed them safely against the heat.
When the fire passed, the rumble almost pulled the stone out, making it too hot to touch.

At the same moment, the parents and community of people were huddled against the north wall of a narrow canyon, crouching low to avoid the smoke, and getting burned by falling embers. The tornado of fire sucked them out into the sky and scattered the charcoaled remains. They were dead instantly before leaving the ground.

When the 7 year old boy and his 5 year old sister pushed their way out the next day, the cluster of homes in the canyon was completely burned away, and the inhabitants gone. 

The cave had a trickle of water that ran year round. Together the children opened jars of food while they waited for their parents to return. Each day the children looked for their parents.
At night they crawled back in the cave and pulled the stone over the hole to stay safe.

Six months and nobody came for them, until the rail men showed up.
They heard the sound of men pounding track and saw the white light of the hege-welders at night. But it was too far away.
Finally when they got closer, the children decided to walk to the rail. Almost two miles away. The little girl was afraid they would get lost and not be able to get home. Her brother told her to hold tight to him.

When the rail men started running after them, they ran as fast as possible back to the cave and were afraid to come out.
The children's footprints were all over in the dirt, but the men couldn't locate them. Their father taught them how to avoid being tracked. So the route to the cave had no tracks. The stone fit the hole so well it looked like another rock lying along the bottom of the canyon wall.