Chapter Five

They found Arthur’s little cottage to be well built and cozy with all of the basic amenities needed to live a fairly comfortable life.   The amenity that they most appreciated at that moment was the bathroom. 

Olga was the first to shower and change into the clean clothes that she’d stuffed into her backpack. After which, she joined Arthur in the kitchen to help create a much needed, hearty meal for the group that had lived on jerky and biscuits for several days.

Once she was familiar with his kitchen, Olga suggested that she cook while her long lost lover took a little time to get to know her family.  He smiled, knowingly, and eagerly agreed.

Since the little cottage had an open floor plan, Olga was able to watch their interaction even if she wasn’t always able to catch what was being said.  She even joined in on a few topics now and then.

Not being one to talk around a subject, Kendra  -who was second to shower-  almost immediately began to grill him on the existence of the saber tooth cat and what other creatures they should expect to encounter on their journey as she walked out of the bathroom to join them. 

Ari was quick to be the next to slip into the bathroom.

Knowing that his wife would be out in a jiffy, Felix wrestled with taking his turn in the shower next or staying to hear what Arthur had to say.  He finally settled on a very speedy shower.  Since there were so many of them cleansing back to back, speediness of time and conservation of the hot water was something that was a priority anyway.

Although he amiably rattled off a list of extinct creatures that wandered the area -including the mammoth, dinosaurs, and pterodactyls, Arthur eagerly shifted the topic to the purpose of their mission and their destination. 

“I’ve heard of this place… Center Land,” he said with a scowl.

“I was raised there,” Ari quickly interjected before he had an opportunity to say more. 

She’d just come from  showering to join them when she caught his comment. From the look on his face, she suspected that his opinion of her childhood home wasn’t high.  She wasn’t sure why he’d feel that way, nor did she understand her reasoning for being so protective of the place. Her memories of growing up there were cold, hard, and certainly nothing that she’d care to repeat.  Nor did she wish such an experience on Eugene.  Even so, for reasons she couldn’t explain, she couldn’t allow anyone to bash the place.

As if sensing her confusion about her agitation, Felix gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as he passed by her to take his turn in the bathroom. He smiled when the tension in her face and body language visibly dissipated.  Mouthing the words, ‘I love you’, he closed the door behind him.

Arthur studied her for a moment.  Her quickness to defend the place before he’d had an opportunity to say what he thought about it didn’t go unnoticed.  He hadn’t had any firsthand exposure to Center Land, but he’d heard varied tales about it. They ranged from brainwashing the children who were being trained as soldiers for the surface to segregating the children who showed promise from the ones who were lacking. He hoped that the stories about them disposing of those lacking in the most horrific ways imaginable -mainly, feeding them to the ever threatening beasts that roamed about- were just stories, but he had his concerns.  Man would do a number of unthinkable things when it came to a matter of survival.  His village also left food for the beasts, but it was in the form of livestock and produce; certainly not human babies.  He longed to question her about it, but saw no graceful way to bring the topic up.  Besides, something in his gut told him that he’d regret doing so if he did.

“So,”  he said with care, “you know more about it than I do. Perhaps you can enlighten me on the place.  I’ve often considered paying it a visit, but things keep popping up that take precedence over visiting and getting to know the neighbors.”

“You’re their neighbor?” Kendra eagerly said. “How close are they?”

“They’re not true neighbors,” Arthur explained.  “It was more a figure of speech than fact.”  At the look of disappointment that consumed her lovely face, he added, “I’ve not made the trip, but I’m guessing Center Land is a week’s walk from here.  Less if we take the horses.”

“You have horses?” Rex asked with enthusiasm.

Arthur nodded.  “We have an ATV as well. It’s down and we can’t seem to figure out why, but, yes, we have one;  two, actually.”

“Both are down?” Olga asked with angst.

Arthur turned to give her a loving smile before nodding. “It happened at the same time too.  Crazy, huh?”

“Suspicious, if you ask me,” Kendra mused.  “What were you using them for?”

Arthur gave her a curious look.  Never once had he considered the fact that the vehicles went down at the same time with no clear reason as to why or how to fix them as being suspicious.  Yet, as soon as she made the comment, it rang so very true.  He was shocked that the idea never hit him.  Not even once.

He thought about their uses of the vehicles. “We mainly used them to patrol our perimeter.  They make too much noise to take out on excursions.  Sometimes, we’d brave it and travel a good distance to harvest fruit or grains that are growing wild, but that’s in a direction with minimal beasts or other threats to concern ourselves with.  They came in handy for transporting what we collected as well as a quick escape in the off chance of a beast encounter.”

“It doesn’t make sense for someone to sabotage them,”  Rex mused.  “They were being used for the benefit of the residents.”

“Not everyone was happy about their use,” Arthur mused. “Some were concerned about the attention their noise would bring to us.”  He scratched his chin with his good hand.  It was a habit that Kendra picked up on almost immediately that indicated that he was in serious thought.  “Now that I think about it, we were planning on finally paying a visit to Center Land.   We had things in order and under control enough that we could afford a little time away.   We were in the planning stages when chaos within the village between two warring families overwhelmed us.  While we were bringing peace back to our little world, the vehicles went down.   I was so consumed with the inner turmoil of the village that I forgot about our intended trip until now.”

“These warring families,”  Olga said as she joined them in the living room area, “are they new to the village?”

“One is,” he explained. “The other helped me settle the place.”

“You settled this place?” Kendra said with a hint of admiration.

Arthur smiled and nodded. “I was the first to build.  The others followed.”

“Did you name the place?” Kendra continued.

Arthur nodded and smiled. “I did.   It’s called Hopeville.”

Kendra giggled. “That’s an odd name for a village.”

“It’s the perfect name,” Olga slipped in. “I can imagine the hope for a good life that you must have had when you built here and others followed.”

“So,” Felix asked.  “Are you like the mayor or something?” 

Arthur chuckled. “Or, something.”  He stood up and inhaled through his nose.  “Dinner smells really delicious.”  He turned to Olga and held his hand out for her to take.  “I still hold memories of your fine cooking.  My sniffer is telling me that you haven’t lost your touch.”

Olga took his hand and allowed him to lead her back to the kitchen.  Giggling like a schoolgirl, she said, “We’ll have to wait and see about that.”  She turned back toward her freshly showered family.  “Come eat.”