all god's orphans
Chapter 36

Millie turned back and took one last look at the house where they had stashed the vehicle. She made note of the address and the color of the vinyl siding since this neighborhood seemed to consist of three basic house designs varied only by color. She hated places like this. No original thought whatsoever.

Nearby, parked cars lined the main road, which she recognized as one of the signs of an AGO. If they were close and they were caught on foot, it would be much easier to play dumb and be left alone. To the left of the road was the predetermined neighborhood with all its little pink houses. This was the kind of place that had been a farm since the American Revolution, but had recently been sold to a developer and parceled out into tiny lots, which now sprouted those god-awful houses. It was always easy to spot that type of arrangement because there were never trees in any of the yards. Millie hated that most of all. Why build a house in a field? She would never understand it.

To the right was empty land, just waiting for the price to be right and then turned into a mirror image of the left side. More houses. Fewer trees. In the middle, however, was a copse of tall pines, which is where the line of cars seemed to be headed. They lined the main road and then the smaller, gravel road that branched off to the left and headed into the trees. Millie could see Kite and Grey were discussing something, but as she was behind them, she had no idea what they were talking about. Eventually they stopped and turned to her.

“What do you think it is?” Asked Grey, before realizing what a stupid question that was as Millie shot him a confused look. “There’s a strange sound coming from those trees.” He added for clarity.

“What kind of sound?” She asked. Kite and Grey looked at each other. They didn’t know how to describe it. Before they could articulate it, they heard another, more familiar noise. The faint growl of large SUVs. They all crouched behind the nearest car and watched as the vehicles sped away from the thicket of trees. They seemed to be going even faster than they were before, as though they were running from something.

As they roared past, Millie wondered if this were a good idea. They had no idea what might be at this camp. She briefly considered abandoning the search for the letter, but the thought of heading out into the world with nowhere to go and no safety to hope for terrified her. If she could replace her brother, the fear would go away. She just knew it. After a while, when they were certain there would be no more vehicles, the trio emerged from behind their hiding spot.

“Who are those people?” Asked Kite.

“Scouts.” Answered Millie. “They search for supplies and set up new camps.”

“Why would they be here?” Grey wondered. “And what are they running from?” Millie’s eyes shifted to the small thicket of trees.

“I don’t know.” She said.

As they turned right and headed down the gravel road towards whatever lay hidden in the copse, the sound grew louder and they made sure to be close to a potential hiding spot. They had no way of knowing if anyone was still occupying this camp. There had been no movement since the motorcycles and they could hear nothing except that strange sound wafting above everything. Grey tried to describe it to Millie, but it made no sense. There was a strange buzzing sound beneath it all, and over the top, what sounded like a human voice was making noises vaguely reminiscent of speech, but it was indecipherable. Periodically, and at predetermined intervals, the “speech” would stop and there would be new sounds, like an alarm almost. It varied slightly in pitch and bounced up and down for a moment before stopping only to be replaced by the voice again. It chilled them to the bone and Millie was almost glad she couldn’t hear it.

The cars lining the gravel road were mostly large trucks packed with supplies. Millie had seen this before. As the Army made its way through small towns, it attracted people to it, people who seemed to revel in the end of the world. They had stashed weapons and supplies for just such an occasion and were happy to have been vindicated. She had never seen them leave their vehicles behind like this before, and that troubled her. Images of the Jonestown massacre flashed in her mind again and she wondered what they would replace at the end of this road. To one side of the road, a plywood sign had been planted. On its face was spray painted “Welcome to AGO Tango” in safety orange Day-Glo colors.

As the gravel lane emptied out into the copse, they could see that most of the trees in the center had been cleared. A small, grass parking lot was filled with even more vehicles on both sides of the road and in the center of the clearing was a little league field. Three baseball diamonds arrayed themselves around a two-story building at the center. The road led straight to it and the strange signal was emanating from loudspeakers situated at the top corners of the building. The fields were filled with the same large tents that they had seen before, but there was still no one around to be seen. Cautiously, they headed into the small building.

The bottom was a simple concession stand that had been emptied of food long ago. Large, plywood windows would have opened to offer spectators typical little league fare like Frito pie and popsicles. To one side, a small staircase led to the next level and Grey took point, keeping his eyes on the door at the top. He put his ear to it and, hearing no one inside, slowly opened it.

The room took up the entire level and large windows opened up to offer views of each of the diamonds. This is where the announcers would have sat, calling each game. Papers and maps lay strewn about and the radio that was receiving the signal sat on the small ledge that formed a desk beneath the windows. Beside it, the microphone that fed the outside speakers had been placed so that the sound coming from the radio was broadcast to everyone within a two hundred foot radius. Grey pressed a large red button on the radio and the sound stopped. He and Kite were glad of the silence.

Millie searched through the assorted papers looking for any clue on where the army might be headed. Anything that looked useful went straight into a backpack she found lying nearby.

“What is all this?” Grey asked.

“Army general Operations Base.” Answered Millie. “They set these up all over the place and give jobs to civilians. Recruit new soldiers. Give out food. Take care of kids. Stuff like that. I don’t think the general was here, but they probably knew where he was. Or is.” She continued picking up papers and stuffing them into the backpack. It had begun to annoy her with some ferocity how there seemed to be so few personnel files. Wasn’t the Army famous for bombs and paperwork? Someone HAD to know where her brother was. Suddenly, a flash of something darting between the vehicles caught her eye. “Someone is here.” She said and made her way back down to the ground. Kite and Grey followed behind her, not sure that this was a good idea.

Millie threaded her way between the parked cars, looking inside each for what she thought she had seen. Kite and Grey were behind her, trying to keep up when Millie suddenly stopped. As they reached her, they saw what she had found. A young woman was crouching near a car with her back to them. Millie began typing.

“Hello?” But then she thought better of it. She turned to Kite and said, “You try talking to her. This stupid machine might freak her out.” Kite nodded and stepped forward, approaching the girl as though she were a feral cat.

“Hi.” Said Kite as gently as she could. The girl’s head turned slightly. “My name is Kite. What’s your name?” The girl was young and frail looking. Kite wanted nothing more than to care for her. “Are you all right?” Asked Kite, taking another step forward. The girl looked at them through stringy hair. “Are you alone?” Kite knelt beside her. “Where is your family?” The girl burst into tears and turned to face Kite.

“I don’t know!” Wailed Sarah. “I can’t remember anything.”