Black Market Merchant

When Lisa crossed over the dam she was already starting to sweat. The cool morning had already faded away, and the post noon heat was rising fast. Her stomach growled, knowing that her body was starting to suffer from the lack of food lately. Her body had been altered during her many cyborg surgeries and one such altercation was that she required less calories from food to function. Yet the sparse eating she had been doing lately was finally taking its toll.

“Fine, I’ll feed you.” Lisa grumbled to her stomach. “Let just hope this can of peaches is still good and not expired.”

Lisa had taken a can of peaches from their raid on the unit, simply because peaches were an irresistible delicacy to her. She loved peaches even more than candy or ice cream!

As she stepped off the old road and onto the sandy path the Mechs had created, Lisa pulled back on the can’s peeling tab with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. In the sunlight, simmering in the slimy goodness of the preservative liquid, were the diced peach slices and they all looked perfect!

“Come to momma!” Lisa shouted as she plunged her fingers into the can to grab at the slippery treat.

Lisa had already eaten most of the peaches by the time she reached the forest tree line. The shade wasn’t covering much thanks to the sun still being so high, but Lisa hardly cared now that she had peaches. The path she did notice hadn’t narrowed at all after entering the forest and had plowed right through the trees in a relatively straight path as wide as a Mech and a bit more. There were bits of colored cloth marking both sides of the path and a few of the largest trees. Lisa noticed that the path purposefully veered around them.

“Interesting.” Lisa wondered aloud. “It seems Gillian and the others know a little about forestry. Keeping the oldest trees around is a good idea. Sure, they would make great lumber, but they are the survivors of the forest and the means to keep the forest to continue growing.”

Rounding a patch of these specially marked trees, Lisa spotted the first of the timber piles. According to the contract the ERM signed, they were to collect the largest trees they cut down to either resell or find storage for them until they could use them in rebuilding the towns infrastructure. Even without a proper sawmill it was still possible to use the wood for some means of construction. The trees themselves had most of their branches, roots and leaves on them, making the pile very uneven and disorganized. It looked more like they just ripped them straight out of the ground rather than cut them.

She didn’t look over the pile of wood for long and after slurping down the last of the peach juices Lisa hurried through the remainder of the woods. Before reaching the other side, Lisa counted six other timber plies and all of them were piled three times her size with wood. Lisa wasn’t an expert in timer cutting, but she assumed this was a rather good collection of wood and would make a good sale.

Then she heard, rather than saw, the Mechs working at the cliffs edge. Rounding the thinning trees Lisa saw the cause of the commotion. The three Mechs were standing side by side with their loader buckets buried into the sand, gravel and rocks that they had been pushing towards the edge. Guessing from the flat and scrapped landscape it looked like they started the task roughly thirty meters away from the cliffside and they were now only five meters away. The rocks and sand appeared to have piled up too much and now the Mechs were struggling to keep the pile from rolling over their buckets. This, however, wasn’t the cause of the sound, it was Gillian and the anther worker yelling at each other.

“I told you this was to far back, Gillian.” One of the workers, a woman with a red ballcap turned backwards, yelled up at him. “We should have started closer by half the distance.”

“And I told you this is fine!” Gillian retorted as he opened the door to his Mech. “We can just shave off the top of this pile, get the big rocks out, and come back.”

“That’s going to take to long and seems like twice the work to me!” The woman continued.

“Lane! Start pushing the top of the pile from your side to Max’s.” Gillian shouted at the two Mech pilots next to him.

The red hat woman shook her head and threw up her arms exasperated. “He never listens to me! Why did he even bring me along as an engineering consultant if he’s not even going to bother with me.”

“Maybe because you’re only here for building the slope and keeping the rocks pled properly so the path stays flat?” Another worker sitting nearby on a sizable rock offered.

“No duh!” The woman shouted. “But if he keeps on nilly-willy pilling the sand and rocks together the whole path will be unstable and any plan I come up with will be wasted. We will end up having to take the Mechs back around the cliff just to sort out the mess down there! We don’t have time to waste on this useless project.”

“Useless project? I beg to differ.” Lisa called out as she approached.

“Who…? Oh, it’s you. I remember when you came to the Mayor Dees meetings the other day.” The woman said startled at first at Lisa’s appearance and then immediately an unfriendly tone took its place. “Yes, this project is a waste of time and use for these Mechs. They should be pushing the scrap metal onto the barges, not playing in this sandbox!”

“That might seem like a practical idea, but short sighted.” Lisa replied to the glairing woman. “Did you not hear anything I said at the fish fry?”

“Fish fry? No idea what you are going on about, I only just joined this idiotic job this morning. Gillian told Mayor Dees that they were finished with the path through the woods and that they needed me for the next steps. I walked all morning, starting before sunrise, to get here and this is what I find?” Then the woman at this point gestured frustratedly at the three Mechs. “Absolute nonsense and bullheaded workers!”

“Well, I can’t vouch for the workers, but the job is not nonsense.” Lisa remarked. “With this new road the two sides can be reconnected, and I can run electricity from the dam to the town. How can that be considered nonsense? Besides that’s only the start of my ideas.”

“Yes, I know about the electricity plan.” The woman sighed. “Its just the whole notion of building the road, when the lines can just be tossed over the cliff side, seems silly to me. Sure, the road can connect the two sides but look around.” She then gestured with one hand to the town beyond the cliffs edge. “This town is rusted, rotted and in ruins. We can’t simply get our lives back together with a little power.”

“You’re not wrong about that. This town is in terrible shape.” Lisa replied. “That is why I plan on rebuilding the town to be useful and pull itself up by the boot’s straps, so to speak. All these people seem to want change and I will be giving them that chance by adding jobs.”

“Sure, go make those jobs, and what will you be making, hmm? Selling these good too whom? All this is sounding completely far-fetched and improbable.” The woman questioned. She was really starting to get on Lisa nerves.

“Who are you anyway?” Lisa asked holding back her annoyance.

“Pay no attention to that pessimistic woman, Lisa.” The voice of Gillian shouted down from the nearby Mech. The Mech had come to a halt and he was getting ready to come down and join them. “My cousin Terisa has always been such a negative person, but she means well. Sort of.”

“Oh, shut up you dolt.” Terisa moaned rolling her eyes. “What do you know about me anyway? With that uneducated brain it’s probably nothing anyway.”

“Ah lay off already.” Gillian retorted. “Tell you what. How about you go order around the others to get the rocks ready and line up to go over the edge and make sure they land properly? Will that make you feel better?”

“It might. Anything is better than standing around here listening to fairy tales about getting this junky town to be capable of doing anything.” Terisa replied as she turned and waltzed away in a huff.

“What is here deal?” Lisa asked Gillian as she watched Terisa leave.

“My cousin just came to the town three months ago. She was working in Moab City as a Civil Engineer, but ever since they finished building the walls and got the cities infrastructural roadways settled, they had a massive layoff. Terisa was one of the many workers that were laid off and as you guessed, her attitude didn’t help her get rehired for other construction projects.” Gillian explained.

“I see. But why is she so hostile towards the town or this project?” Lisa asked.

Gillian motioned with his hand for her to follow him. The two then headed for the cliff edge to the right of where the Mechs had piled up the rock and sand. “Because she is just mad that things aren’t going the way she wants it too. She is very picky about how to do things. It was good for her to be picky when building the plasma walls, but when it came to social matters, not so good.”

“Plasma Walls? I am not sure what you are talking about.” Lisa asked genuinely curious.

“Big walls of energy that go around the city to protect it from Twisted, bandits or other stuff. I don’t know much about them, but if you dare, you can ask Terisa later.” Gillian replied. “For now, lets talk about the road here.”

“Well, for starters, you picked the right spot for it.” Lisa remarked looking over the edge. “The slope will start here, and this should be where the highest point will be. Then it should go down to our left at a gentle degree. Make it as long as you can make it. Sense we don’t have vehicles, most everyone will be pushing and pulling things by hand and the slope can’t be too steep.”

“Understood. I’ll make sure my cousin takes that into account.” Gillian replied. “What about its width? We aren’t short of any sand or rocks but piling them up to be able to create a path will not be easy. I’m sure there will be a lot of run off.”

“Do the best you can to make it big enough for the Mechs.” Lisa replied. “I know that’s a lot but if the Mechs can walk down it safely than so can anything else we put on it. I will ask Mr. Hans to come and check on our progress once we get the road further built. However, if your cousin is as picky as you say, then we should get it right the first time.”

“You got it.” Gillian replied, but before he could say anything else he saw some people approaching their location at the foot of the cliff. “Well, this is a surprise. Nathan is coming to see us.”