"What is it?" Laurie asked, moving towards us and drying her hands on a towel.
"They're glasses, but tinted to help dim the sunlight," Alicia said as she placed them on my face. It helped instantly, I drank the water too.
"Thanks." I looked at her over the rim of the glasses.
"Come on, or Coal will have walked the whole way alone," Alicia said as she stepped outside.
The midday sun beat down over the building. The trees started about ten feet from the front door and spread out, circling the town but not reaching into it.
It was so strange to see the sudden end of the tree line where the concrete began that I moved across to look at it.
"Do you do something to keep the trees back?" Laurie asked, following me over to the edge.
&
nbsp; "No, we have a kind of understanding with them." Alicia pointed to the line where they stopped. "Anywhere that they aren't attacked, burnt, poisoned or whatever they just stop before they cause any damage. A lot of the land that used to be covered with towns and cities was lost because people kept trying to fight the plants off. But damaging them just makes them grow like crazy. Leave them alone and they form a natural barrier where the concrete starts."
"Are you saying the plants can think?" Laurie asked.
Alicia burst out laughing.
"They're plants of course they can't think!" Alicia gasped between breaths.
"They just evolved to protect themselves better like everything else out here, so if we don't attack them they don't have to defend themselves," Coal explained, schooling his amused expression as Laurie scowled at Alicia. "Come on, we should get moving." He headed off down the road.
Kaloo weaved around his legs excitedly as he walked and we followed quickly behind.
The road was cracked and crumbling in places but was surprisingly intact for the most part. There were buildings spread along its length each with a little green patch of land in front. The houses here looked just the way that they should, ignoring the fact that most of the windows were still shuttered. What Taylor and I had explored outside The Wall was a pathetic shadow of what it should have been.
"There must have been a lot of people if they needed a path this wide," Laurie mused.
"It's a road for vehicles. You know - cars, vans, trucks, bikes," Alicia explained.
Laurie looked at her blankly, waiting for a further explanation. "Like trains?" she asked after a pause.
"No, like cars. They don't need tracks, are a lot smaller and you can drive them wherever you like."
Laurie looked at me and shrugged behind Alicia's back. I hid my laughter behind my hand. Alicia muttered something that I was fairly sure contained the words 'city dwellers'.
"Didn't you pay attention in old world class?" I asked Laurie.
"I was on the Warden training scheme, that class wasn't required so I ditched most of them," she shrugged.
We turned a corner and the road widened further as it joined another at a cross-section. They were much bigger here, it seemed to be some sort of centre like the produce buildings in the city. The whole area was alive with movement as people came and went about their business.
I tried not to stare as I took in the scope of the place. I had been brought up to believe there was nothing left outside The Wall. But the reality couldn't be further from the truth. There was a thriving community living and working out here. Solar panels and wind turbines were present everywhere to keep everything powered.
The marketplace was teeming with people selling all kinds of things from food to clothes to homeware. Some of them called out greetings to Coal and Alicia and others took note of Laurie and I. Kaloo weaved between people until she reached a baker's stall. The baker smiled broadly and tossed her a pastry.
"Kaloo saved his son from raiders last year," Coal explained when he saw me looking. "He's treated her like royalty ever since."
I grinned as Kaloo got a second pastry and Coal lead me on between the stalls. The people seemed happy, content, if a little rough around the edges. I noticed that almost everyone was armed even though the atmosphere seemed calm.
"Are they worried about the cougars?" I asked.
"A little. Though it's pretty safe around here during the day. They're more concerned with other people," Alicia said, flicking her hair over her shoulder.
"They look like they're getting along well enough to me," Laurie commented.