SSN 029

The Shopkeeper's Son

I.4.029


Chapter 4
From Dentonsville to Harrisville it was nine miles; from there to Karnow another six. Four hours after leaving Dentonsville the rain stopped, the sun came out and the people were steaming as they tramped along, following a trackway which, though little used and overgrown, was wide and followed the easiest contours of the land taking advantage of those most indestructible heirlooms of the past: the embankments and cuttings of old automobile roads. The Company of the 'Men Apart' occupied the rear of the column and they soon lagged behind the rest, walking with difficulty through the broken vegetation and mud churned up by those in front. Carl, walking with Ursus, was soon miserable and tired; at one point he slipped and Ursus caught him and said cheerfully, 'Careful, Corporal, you'll never reach the War like that.' 'We could have used some men to clear this track before we started, ' observed Carl irritably. 'Can't think of everything, can you Corporal?' Besides, that would have been against them laws of yours. Not your job. They did clear it two or three years back. First time since I was born, pa said.' 'So you've been down this way before?' 'This is the way we go to pay our taxes.' Ursus stumbled briefly in a hole and went down on one knee. 'They could've chosen a better day to start. By the ol' Hag I'm glad to get away from that place, aren't you? That town will be dead from now on, though I reckon that Sheriff doesn't think so. He'll soon find out. He and his boys are looking to clean up. Starting, I should think, with our Vereen.' Ursus eyed Carl to see if this would provoke a reaction but Carl kept plodding on. 'Yes, it can't be any worse up front.' They trudged on for some time in silence, but Ursus was a man who liked to talk and eventually he said slyly, 'Course Corporal, I reckon you got more to loose than most, you just being married and all.' 'If you think I'm sorry to be going, Ursus, I'm not,' snapped Carl. 'You know my father made me marry Theresa.' 'Forget her then!' Ursus slapped Carl on the shoulder. 'It's a pity about these women having to fight though, ain't it?' He looked over his shoulder to where the seeker Willis was trudging along behind him and winked at him. 'One thing about having women along, though. It saves us having to look too far.' Later, as Ursus observed they passed near Karnow, though it lay unseen beyond a band of trees. 'Were you ever in Karnow, Ursus?' 'Me go in another town? You must be joking! I met some of them Karnow bastards at the Collecting Center once. Stick a knife in your throat as soon as look at you, they would.' Beyond Karnow the names of the settlements grew dimmer, though Ursus knew them all: Benoden and Gaston Bridge. In the late afternoon between Gaston Bridge and Drummerton they reached a broad river, crossed by a rickety trellis bridge. Beyond that, near Drummerton, the order came back down the line from the Captain and they rested for the night.

Chapter 4

From Dentonsville to Harrisville it was nine miles; from there to Karnow another six. Four hours after leaving Dentonsville the rain stopped, the sun came out and the people were steaming as they tramped along, following a trackway which, though little used and overgrown, was wide and followed the easiest contours of the land taking advantage of those most indestructible heirlooms of the past: the embankments and cuttings of old automobile roads.

The Company of the 'Men Apart' occupied the rear of the column and they soon lagged behind the rest, walking with difficulty through the broken vegetation and mud churned up by those in front. Carl, walking with Ursus, was soon miserable and tired; at one point he slipped and Ursus caught him and said cheerfully, 'Careful, Corporal, you'll never reach the War like that.'

'We could have used some men to clear this track before we started, ' observed Carl irritably.

'Can't think of everything, can you Corporal?' Besides, that would have been against them laws of yours. Not your job. They did clear it two or three years back. First time since I was born, pa said.'

'So you've been down this way before?'

'This is the way we go to pay our taxes.' Ursus stumbled briefly in a hole and went down on one knee. 'They could've chosen a better day to start. By the ol' Hag I'm glad to get away from that place, aren't you? That town will be dead from now on, though I reckon that Sheriff doesn't think so. He'll soon find out. He and his boys are looking to clean up. Starting, I should think, with our Vereen.' Ursus eyed Carl to see if this would provoke a reaction but Carl kept plodding on. 'Yes, it can't be any worse up front.' They trudged on for some time in silence, but Ursus was a man who liked to talk and eventually he said slyly, 'Course Corporal, I reckon you got more to loose than most, you just being married and all.'

'If you think I'm sorry to be going, Ursus, I'm not,' snapped Carl. 'You know my father made me marry Theresa.'

'Forget her then!' Ursus slapped Carl on the shoulder. 'It's a pity about these women having to fight though, ain't it?' He looked over his shoulder to where the seeker Willis was trudging along behind him and winked at him. 'One thing about having women along, though. It saves us having to look too far.'

Later, as Ursus observed they passed near Karnow, though it lay unseen beyond a band of trees.

'Were you ever in Karnow, Ursus?'

'Me go in another town? You must be joking! I met some of them Karnow bastards at the Collecting Center once. Stick a knife in your throat as soon as look at you, they would.'

Beyond Karnow the names of the settlements grew dimmer, though Ursus knew them all: Benoden and Gaston Bridge. In the late afternoon between Gaston Bridge and Drummerton they reached a broad river, crossed by a rickety trellis bridge. Beyond that, near Drummerton, the order came back down the line from the Captain and they rested for the night.

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