Duerrenmatt

They reach Good Water just after midday. The settlement lies in the valley of a dry riverbed. In the Long Ago, a dam was built, twenty meters high, to create an artificial lake. This lake is long gone, but the dam remains. In its shadow cluster huts and tents, surrounded by tiny fields. A small pool sits in the middle of the settlement. The road goes up to the dam and leads across the valley, into the foothills of the Appalachians.  Something glints on the ridge, about twenty miles south east. Rod can barely make out an ancient broadcast pylon. The correctional facility is beyond these hills. Mal stops the Conquistador a few hundred meters from the scene and the men take a long look at the village. Rod scoops up a pair of binoculars from the dashboard and scans the dam. There is a blockhouse halfway on the dam, and he sees men with rifles guarding the place. One of them seems to watch the jeep with a scope. Rod waves. The man waves back. Rod ponders this for a moment, then lights up a joint.

Mal says “What do you think? If we went right across we could make Refugium just after nightfall – if our assumptions are correct. Or we could spend the night here. It seems to be peaceful enough, and it’s not like we’re on a schedule.” The men decide to take it slow and to stay in Good Water for the night. The Conquistador crawls down a narrow dirt track into the village, with Zed’s bike just in front. At the same time, three men clamber down from the dam’s top. They climb through system of rusty ladders and platforms leading from the blockhouse to the pool at the dam’s base. They walk up to the jeep, while the people in the fields stop their work to watch the exchange. One is a lanky man with straight black hair and the dark skin of someone who spends all of his time under the sun. His khaki robe is secured by a black belt and hung with green shards of glass, old black coins and bottle caps. A small automatic sits in a shoulder holster. The two others, burly guys in patched leather clothing, cradle their bogie rifles and stand back, while he knocks on Mal’s window. “Greetings, travelers. I welcome you to Good Water. My name is Jan Gah, and I speak for our settlement. May I ask why you came here?” “We are traders and explorers planning to go further south, to Refugium, and would like to spend the night here, if that’s possible.” “Ah, yes, of course, you are welcome, very welcome. You see that hut over there? Make yourselves comfortable there, if you want to.” Mal looks at the small cabin standing a bit apart from the rest of the village. “It is clean and more than big enough for you. If you want to trade, just speak to me. Or if you have questions. Over there, the big house just at the lake: That’s our common house. You want something to eat, just go there, someone will sell food to you. And If you go to Refugium, you might want to ask sister Duerrenmatt if she would like to come with you. She has been waiting for days now for someone to go south.” “Duerrenmatt?” “Sister Duerrenmatt from Refugium. Ah yes: We charge two shots of 9mm ammo for each vehicle crossing the dam, but we can always talk about other things. If you have clothing, tools, china, stuff like that, I’ll take that, too.” Rod pipes up “Hey, yeah, I’m a doctor. Brother benefactor Rod from the Institute, at your service. Who heals people. Who are sick. Because I totally can do that. So if anyone suffers from anything, just send them by. I’m doing it for free. I mean, I heal for free, so no one has to pay anything. At all. It’s how I serve the Lord. Just offering it, okay. You tell them.” Jan Gah takes a look a Rod’s pinprick pupils and his broad, beamy grin. “Oh, that’s good news, great news. I will tell them.” The men take their vehicles to the cabin and settle down. Zed and Dan Hawking begin to strip down their guns, while Mal Porter starts what he calls a “walkaround” of the Conquistador – a very thorough checkup of the vehicle, before they leave the well-traveled routes of the Wastes. Rod waits for patients, but nobody shows up. People seem to be in rude good health in Good Water.
Afterwards, they check out the common house. Dan whispers to the others “The girl over there: She stared at us the whole time when we talked to that Jan guy.” In fact, a skinny young woman with a long blonde braid and rimless glasses watches them intently as they enter Good Water’s common house. The woman rises and introduces herself. ”I am sister Duerrenmatt – people tell me that the jeep over there is your car and that you are going to Refugium tomorrow. Is that true?” “Yes we are. But it’s our first time in that corner of the world. You are from that place?” “Yes. I spent the last two years – 18 months – in Holy Flame City, and now I return. There’s some books and DVDs I have to get into the stacks, and I need to look at our new acquisitions.” Rod asks “So it’s true that you collect books?” “Books, DVDs, CDs, newspapers, everything that serves as repository for the knowledge of the Long Ago. That knowledge is threatened and we try to keep it safe. We also print books on demand if we have digitized versions. You know what that means?” Two people nod. Rod goes on, pointing at her large backpack “So, what books did you collect?” “A few reference works, a medical introduction, a few novels, nothing special really.” “And you really collect old newspapers?” “Well, if someone brings in a big package we tend to buy it, if it’s in reasonably good shape. But newspapers seldom contain knowledge critical to our survival, and they rot really fast. We tend to scan the important parts and use the rest as raw material for paper production.” Duerrenmatt and the men talk for another few minutes, about Refugium and the ferales who once blocked the old jail from the rest of the world. “They called themselves HanHan and made travels to Refugium a high-risk endeavor. Since we paid those mercs to drive them out, the route has become quiet, but the memories die hard. I’d never do the trip on foot.” The sister asks if it would be possible to go with the group. Mal is happy to oblige and even offers her a free ride. Duerrenmatt declines “Something you don’t pay for isn’t worth anything. I’ll give you four values for taking me to Refugium tomorrow – you might use them to pay the toll on the dam.” “The backpack is your only luggage?” “It’s heavy enough with all those books. When do we start?” “Dawn tomorrow. I like to start early.” Duerrenmatt grimaces, but tells the men that she’ll be at the jeep at sunup.