The Oracle Trilogy Book One Ohm's Node

Solstice35 ~ Act 3

part 2

chapter 21

    She heard the ice coming through the trees just as she reached the front steps. Racing down the hall to the kitchen, the sound of her dad telling the staff what needed to be done; checking on wood supplies, setting fires and stacking enough to get by for the night, was familiar stuff these days. She had heard that there were two buried gas tanks on the property and two large generators, but they hadn't been hooked up yet and the caretaker say, 'Fucking climate change', Mrs. Simpson saying that it wouldn't last long, someone laughing at that and Grampus explaining where to find the dinning area and bathrooms to freshen up to the guests. They were already arriving, stomping their feet, shaking the ice off their clothes.

Somer found the canvas log carrier in the wood box and carried a load of kindling into the library where she knew they'd gather after dinner to hear her new story, the recording she made on the plane, playing in her ear. The lozenge that she had been following had fallen into the hands of a beast. She couldn't tell what race or age but only the plans to record a cannibal's feast. She had left a message and almost wished that she hadn't.

'Mostly little fat girls.'

Her question had been, 'What did it eat.'

She'd read about cannibalism and had learned that it had become more acceptable due to lack of food in parts of the world from a black-market copy of Cannibalism for Dummies circulating on a dark web. How to prepare, cook and eat Human meat, safely. Her obsession with the struggles of the refugees, especially young girls who were chronicling their flight to survive had taken her to places that were best left alone. But she couldn't. It was like becoming involved with characters from her favorite dystopian stories read before the fire, but knowing it was real, not make-believe. She asked them questions about their clothing, food and sanitation. How were they ever threatened with so many people around them? Where were they fleeing from and where were they going. How was the weather. How did they sleep and did they dream.

By the time she dumped the third load in the box next to the hearth, the electricity had gone out and emergency lights had gone on. The soft yellowish tinge made the rustic shelves of books seem like old wallpaper.

'WHO'

'The cause of the outage has been determined to be a glitch in new autonomous satellite wind and solar farms photovoltaic inverter array and restoration estimated to be within an hour.'

She jumped up on the overstuffed couch and stretched out.

'Is Wi-Fi working?'

'Yes.'

'Search central America migration, cases of cannibalism in the last week.'

'Specify.'

'Chi Taxilan.. eleven cases last month. One description of a dinner of human meat.'

Have it.'

'There you are Som! And you brought in the kindling. The Williams kid is bringing in some dried split for the main Hall. Would you help him?'

'Trek is here?"

'Of course.'

'I'll be there in a minute.'

She finished the account and smiled. This should ruffle some feathers! She knew they were really trying now but had always made light of the subject, saying the occasional case was a one-off. Whenever they were dismissive of something she knew was important, she fought back. If they were only eating the dead, it would be one thing but these monsters lured kids away for food then killed them for the fresh meat that they could sell as something else like chicken.