In the corner flat on the third floor, from half past seven on Tuesday morning, the stove went out in the night, and the three of them wake to Nila sitting up on the felt.
Raduj still has the pole count due Friday and the walk into Sidliste ahead of him. Nila means to hand her pickaxe over at the gate, and Mirena should not carry anything heavy for a week while the arm heals.
Chapter one, the felt
The field #
At seven and a half Nila comes up off the felt all at once, one hand out toward the wall where the pickaxe is tied down along her bundle, and the sound she makes going up is short and flat. Her breathing fills the room. Mirena is on her good elbow on the mattress with the bad arm held clear before she has worked out why she is awake. Raduj wakes second, half a meter away, to Nila's back and the cut hair stuck to her neck. The coals went dark hours ago; the three bowls and the communicator sit on the crate where they were left. Nila stays sitting with the hand still out.
turning his head to Nila Nila, what happened?
lowering the hand and putting it flat on the felt I woke you both, I am sorry. It is the same nightmare I always get. Most nights I lie back down and it goes off me.
What is it?
looking at the seam of the stove door I got put down in a field once and I did not know what hit me. I was on my hands in the dirt with my chest open and bleeding, and I got myself to a stream that was close and held it shut there. The cut was shallow. I was so tired I could have gone to sleep in the water. flexing the hand on the felt All I had in my head was that I would not be left lying there for them to come and collect, so I crawled out of the field on my own.
You wanted to keep yourself alive. You were not ready to die.
It was eight years ago. It should be gone by now.
Things like that don't go out easily.
pulling her knees up and resting her arms on them Then I will have it a while longer. I will get up, it is light already.
sitting up on the mattress with the bad arm held against her body You may have that one for the rest of your life. I have men I killed who come back on me in the same way, and the years I spent pushing them down made me worse, and slower, and harder to be around, so say when it comes.
I do not want to talk about a dream like a child.
Children keep quiet about those things, in my experience.
rubbing the back of her neck Maybe that is true.
Behind doors #
Depends on where they have grown up.
The Prophet was a woman, so the women speak first and the men have only been made elders in the last years. I had more freedom to speak than most of them, but I couldn't talk about those things.
I understand why you couldn't. Talking about how people really felt would have broken the cohesion that is maintained by not expressing individual thoughts.
That is close to how it worked. At your Collective, can a person say a thing like this out loud and go on living there afterwards?
Yes. There was a campaign in the newspaper about saying what you think out loud, and one of the pieces in it was an avant-garde text arguing that you would rather put all of your ideas out, including what you hold against the government.
Today you can critique the government however you want, but when the strikes come, you know what happens...
They stopped sending men to break the strikes. What comes now looks more like the Prague Spring.
Yeah, I forgot.
sliding back so she can lean against the wall What is the Prague Spring?
In January 1968, Alexander Dubcek became leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and tried to implement reforms designed to reduce economic centralization and establish a more democratic regime. It ended with the Soviet invasion six months later.
So it was put down by an army from outside. turning her head toward Mirena Then why is that the thing you compare your own place to?
Because a founder called Kovacs stood up in Sidliste and asked for one day of real elections and open argument, and he called it a Prague Spring in the Collective, and the presses in the street copied the speech out and it went everywhere. The unions had been pushing for years by then and every march got broken up. What has changed is that the pushing worked a little, and the Collective stopped sending busters to the marches.
The rotten #
Our arguing is kept behind doors. The elders are split over what to do about you and they only told us you are the communists, the machine-worshippers, the drainers, the rotten.
The rotten...
You rot from inside because you took the old world back up out of the ground and into your hands.
That's a pretty serious and baseless accusation, because we actually helped everyone else survive by providing vaccines, industry, a way to not kill each other. The only problem is, it's pretty hard to live in there. If the work were to be more fulfilling, I would have thought about staying.
My neighbor is in Information Technology and he is on the machines ten hours some days, and he is tired by the time he arrives at the stairs. It is lighter than the furnaces or the bicycles, but it's still long.
Yeah, but since I have nowhere to go, I am more inclined to stay in the Collective.
You said on the road yesterday that you were leaving, and that the line was so your friends could still reach you.
Yeah, I want to leave, but at the same time I am not ready to fully leave. I need to pinpoint a location I can reach and stay.
When you go, I will go with you. putting both hands flat on the felt You taught me things I didn't know, and I would want Mirena within reach.
I stay here. There is nothing for me outside the city, so moving is out of the question. If the lines go further than they go now, we could call each other.
Chapter two, the table
The linen shirt #
pinching at Nila's leather coat Your clothes are really dirty.
getting the leather coat off one shoulder at a time and laying it over the end of the felt, revealing a coarse undyed linen shirt gone gray at the collar and under the arms This is what is under it. I have worn it since the spring and it has been washed in the sea once.
You look less imposing with that shirt.
The coat does that.
You are still tall and wide, but you look more approachable.
pulling the collar of the shirt straight Then it can stay off while we are in here.
turning to Mirena Can you bring the bucket so I can wash her leather coat?
getting up off the mattress and taking the bucket by the handle with her good hand I will do the coat. You two stay where you are, I have the stove to set anyway.
Alright. turning to Nila So, do you think yourself as a protective person?
No. drawing her knees in and looking at the table Can we do arms on that table? Hand against hand, elbows down.
Arms #
going to the table and pulling a chair Yes.
taking the other chair, setting her elbow on the table and opening her hand Take it when you are ready.
setting his elbow on the table and opening his hand I am ready.
closing her hand around his and holding the table edge with the other Then go.
starting to push her hand with force
His hand goes over a few degrees and stops there. Nila then brings her arm back level without hurry, and as he puts more into it she puts more in after him, always a little above what he has given. At his maximum the two hands stand upright and shake. She begins to take it down toward her side, one centimeter at a time, and at about thirty degrees off vertical it stops moving. Both arms hold there and the table creaks under the elbows.
starting to struggle You put a lot of force.
keeping her arm where it is, watching his hand You are holding.
letting go for a bit and then putting even more force I cannot do this anymore.
taking his hand down to the table in one movement and then letting go at once Then we stop there.
breathing out Yeah. So, much of your strength comes for the axe.
Some of it. shaking the arm out at her side The rest is from carrying.
What else would you like to do?
looking over at the crate where the communicator lies face down I want to read something on that again.
Sure, you can.
Chapter three, the pack
Capacitor three #
reaching over to the crate and turning the communicator face up It has put something on the screen.
Full charge unavailable
Ceiling 83 per cent of rated
Have the pack serviced
looking over at the screen Press on DETAIL.
putting a finger on DETAIL
Turn off to save power
- Carrier watch 22 mA
- Backlight, high 30 mA
- Camera driver 9 mA
- Card write cache 4 mA
- Speaker and tones 3 mA
Press on MORE SETTINGS.
pressing MORE SETTINGS
- Power profile Field, normal
- Screen off after 45 sec
- Backlight level High, 4
- Carrier watch interval 30 sec
- Sleep when idle Off
- Charge source Crank, 6 V
- Charge ceiling 83%
- Pack log and service
Press on RECOMMENDATIONS.
pressing RECOMMENDATIONS
With capacitor 3 dead the pack drains faster under load. Tick what you want and press apply.
- Power profile to field, saving
- Backlight level 4 to 2
- Screen off after 45 sec to 20 sec
- Sleep when idle on, after 5 min
- Carrier watch 30 sec to 5 min
- Camera driver off until called
- Speaker and tones off
TICK ALL and APPLY, but once we approach the Collective, we will have to turn on the speaker and tones back on.
pressing TICK ALL
With capacitor 3 dead the pack drains faster under load. Tick what you want and press apply.
- Power profile to field, saving
- Backlight level 4 to 2
- Screen off after 45 sec to 20 sec
- Sleep when idle on, after 5 min
- Carrier watch 30 sec to 5 min
- Camera driver off until called
- Speaker and tones off
Now APPLY.
pressing APPLY
Seven changes applied.
- Power profile Field, saving
- Backlight level 2
- Screen off after 20 sec
- Sleep when idle On, after 5 min
- Carrier watch interval 5 min
- Camera driver Off until called
- Speaker and tones Off
Any of these can be put back as they were from this screen. Select a line and press revert, or press revert all to return the seven to their old values.
Now press BACK and go to home.
pressing BACK
- Power profile Field, saving
- Screen off after 20 sec
- Backlight level 2
- Carrier watch interval 5 min
- Sleep when idle On, after 5 min
- Charge source Crank, 6 V
- Charge ceiling 83%
- Pack log and service
presses BACK twice more and the menu comes up
- Messages 3 new
- Calls 0 new
- Outbox 1 held
- Directory 412 entries
- Files Card 2 GB
- Terminal
- Line tester
- Radio log
- Clock and alarm
- Calculator
- Notes 7 saved
- Camera Driver off
- Help
- Settings Power fault
I have never tried pressing the SCROLL button, let's see what happens.
pressing SCROLL
- Messages 3 new
- Calls 0 new
- Outbox 1 held
- Directory 412 entries
- Files Card 2 GB
- Terminal
- Line tester
- Radio log
- Clock and alarm
- Calculator
- Notes 7 saved
- Camera Driver off
- Help
- Settings Power fault
The directory #
Now you can do whatever you want.
pressing OK, then putting her finger on DIRECTORY
- By label
- By title, A to Z
- By date added
- By size
- Unlabeled 6
Label sets defined on this card
- Grade G1 to G8, 8 values
- Subject 14 values
- Language 3 values
- Source 5 values
- Length 4 values
I will leave you to it.
pressing GRADE
- G1 54
- G2 61
- G3 58
- G4 49
- G5 47
- G6 44
- G7 38
- G8 33
she puts her finger on G8 and presses COMMENT
Eighth, ninth, tenth grade and the expanded adult courses. Long sentences, terms left unexplained in the text, and material the reader is expected to argue with.
lying on the felt without saying anything
going back to the label sets and opening SUBJECT
- Biology 31
- Chemistry 18
- Civics and law 26
- Computing 22
- Geography 19
- Health 24
- History 27
presses COMPUTING
- What_a_computer_does.ftxt G3
- Parts_of_a_machine.ftxt G3
- Keyboard_and_screen.ftxt G3
- What_a_program_is.ftxt G4
- Numbers_in_two_digits.ftxt G5
- Storing_and_losing_work.ftxt G5
- Wires_between_machines.ftxt G6
- Recovered_machines_notes.ftxt G7
turns her head toward the felt There is a lesson in here about the thing I am holding.
Parts of a machine #
lying on the felt on his back Check that out and read it to us all.
lifting the pot off the plate, turning around and putting it on the table Go on, I can hear you from here.
opening the file, holding the device up on her knee and reading out the text
A computer is a machine that works with numbers.
It does four things:
- It takes something in. This can be a key you press, or a wire, or a card.
- It keeps what it was given. It holds the numbers in one place while it works.
- It follows steps. Somebody wrote the steps down before you ever touched the machine. The machine does them in order and it does not choose any of them.
- It puts something out. A picture on a screen, a sound, a mark on a card.
The machine does them in order and it does not choose any of them. looking up from the screen And the whole of it was decided by a person beforehand.
That's correct, it is decided by a programmer.
pressing NEXT and reading out the text
What it cannot do
A computer does not know what the numbers mean. If you give it the wrong numbers it works with the wrong numbers and gives you a wrong answer.
A computer does not remember anything by itself. If the power goes and the work was not written to a card, the work is gone.
Words in this lesson
- Program
- the steps, written down
- Programmer
- the person who writes them
- Card
- where the work is kept
- Power
- what makes the machine run
Next lesson: Parts of a machine.
turning the device a little so the screen faces away from the window The power was the thing you were fixing five minutes ago with the dead capacitor in it.
Yes.
pressing INDEX, opening the next one down and reading out the text
Machines come in different sizes and the parts have the same names in all of them.
The parts
- Processor
- does the steps
- Memory
- holds the work now
- Card
- holds the work after
- Screen
- shows the work
- Keys
- put the work in
- Pack
- gives the power
The pages after this one show six machines that a person in Sidliste can be put in front of.
Six machines. pressing NEXT and reading out the text
1. The desk machine
A box on the floor, a screen on the desk and a keyboard in front of it. The parts are separate and each one can be taken out and put back.
It runs from the wall. There is no pack in it, so a cut in the power takes the work with it.
Most of the machines in Block 4 are of this kind and most of them were dug out of the old city and repaired.
This is a communicator, see if we have a page for that.
pressing INDEX
- 1 The parts
- 2 The desk machine
- 3 The portable machine
- 4 The communicator
- 5 The line tester
- 6 The plant controller
- 7 The card reader at the desk
opening page 4 and reading out the text
3. The communicator
A box you carry in one hand. The parts are the same as in the desk machine and they are fixed inside, so a broken part is changed by a repairer.
It has a pack, so it keeps working when the power in a building stops.
It talks along a wire. You put it on the line, it listens for a carrier, and when it hears one it can send. Away from a line it holds your messages until you reach one.
There are two kinds
The house kind was sold in Meridian shops before the outbreak for single families, in few numbers with a small card.
The work kind is given out by a board for survey, clinic and school use. It carries a large card, so the texts and the forms travel with the person.
Mine is the work kind, then and the card is why there are four hundred and twelve things on it.
Mine, not yours.
Yours. setting it down on her knee with both hands still on it I would want one of these for myself, though. Can a person at the Collective be given one?
Depends on availability. This thing is rare.
Then I will use yours while I am next to you.
Chapter four, the barley
Sacrifice #
Let's eat.
setting three bowls out beside the pot and filling them one at a time It is the barley from last night with water put back into it.
lifting himself from the felt and sitting at the table
putting the communicator back on the crate face up and taking the chair across from him
pulling the third chair and sitting down over her bowl Nila, what do you make of sacrifice?
It means dying for something that is no longer true, and being praised after.
stirring the bowl without lifting the spoon That is close to what I would say about my own years in the WLF.
And I have born into the Collective, so I don't really have an opinion about sacrifice.
taking a spoonful You were born inside a place that feeds and schools you.
also taking a spoonful That's true.
Would you give your life for the Collective if they asked?
No, I would revolt.
putting the spoon down on the table Revolt with who?
taking another spoonful With other people who would refuse to fight.
And you would find them how?
By who goes on strike or would want to.
picking the spoon back up So you would look at who stops working and start from there.
Yes. I imagine there would be a massive revolt at mass conscription.
That is how the Wolves began. People stopped unloading the trucks for FEDRA and were shot in the ration line for it, and what was left of them became an army in ten years.
The Carpathian Genius #
extending his hand to grab the communicator from the crate Have you heard about the Carpathian Genius?
No. looking up from the bowl Is it a person or a place?
typing on the device You'll see...
leaning over to see the screen
Search in
- Names
- Names and text
Sort by
- Date, newest first
- Date, oldest first
- Name
- Size
- Tag
-
History/One_party_states.ftxt22 KBP4 L2"The state press gave him the title Carpathian Genius, from the Romanian geniul Carpatilor, along with several others of the same kind."
-
Readers/G7/December_1989.ftxt14 KBP1 L3"Forty years of it ended as the Carpathian Genius was shot in a courtyard on Christmas Day."
A man had that written about him in his own newspapers.
pressing on the first result Let's check it out.
Romania
Nicolae Ceausescu led the Romanian party from 1965 and the state from 1967. The state press gave him the title Carpathian Genius, from the Romanian geniul Carpatilor, along with several others of the same kind.
The titles were printed in the papers every day, taught in the schools and read out at every public occasion. The country had one party, one television service and one news agency, and the security service kept files on ordinary people through informers.
In the 1980s the government paid off the whole of the foreign debt by exporting food and fuel. Bread, meat, heating and electricity were rationed at home for years while this was done.
In December 1989 the army stopped firing on the crowds. Ceausescu and his wife were tried by a military court and shot on 25 December.
taking the device and holding it closer So this was a name they gave him to be said out loud, the way we said the Prophet. Where does it come from?
Go back and search for the Romanian term.
going back and typing
-
Geography/Mountain_chains.ftxt19 KBP2 L3"The Carpathians run in an arc of about 1500 km through central and eastern Europe."
-
History/Cult_of_personality.ftxt16 KBP3 L1"Where the phrase geniul Carpatilor came from"P3 L2"The Carpathians are the mountains that cross Romania."
-
History/One_party_states.ftxt22 KBP4 L2"The state press gave him the title Carpathian Genius, from the Romanian geniul Carpatilor, along with several others of the same kind."
-
Readers/G7/December_1989.ftxt14 KBP1 L3"Forty years of it ended as the Carpathian Genius was shot in a courtyard on Christmas Day."
-
History/Cult_of_personality.ftxt16 KBP3 L1"Where the phrase geniul Carpatilor came from"
-
History/One_party_states.ftxt22 KBP4 L2"The state press gave him the title Carpathian Genius, from the Romanian geniul Carpatilor, along with several others of the same kind."
opening it and reading out the text
Where the phrase geniul Carpatilor came from
The Carpathians are the mountains that cross Romania. They stood in poems and songs for the country itself long before the party existed, so a title built on them arrived already sounding old.
The phrase was written by the propaganda section of the party. It came into daily use in the 1970s, after Ceausescu returned from China and North Korea and saw how the leaders there were spoken of.
It was one of a set: the Helmsman, the Leader, the Architect, the Danube of Thought. Writers, teachers and newspaper editors were expected to use them and to add to them.
After 1989 the phrase stayed in the language as a joke made at someone who thinks highly of himself.
putting the device down on the table between the bowls You are the Carpathian Genius, then, sitting there with the machine on your knee, telling all of us what everything is.
Golani #
opening his arms and then gesturing up You are the Carpathian Genius.
laughing once and pushing the bowl back No, mine would have to be something else.
The Danube of Thought then.
The Danube of Thought is worse.
picking up his spoon It as bad as the Carpathian Genius. And there was a famous saying about hooligans in the center of the capital.
typing again
-
History/Romania_after_1989.ftxt18 KBP2 L4"Sunt unii care le plang de mila catorva golani care provoaca dezordine in centrul Capitalei."P2 L7"They called the place Golania and wrote a hymn of the golani."
turning the screen toward him That is the one?
Yes, that is the one.
opening it and reading out the text
The word golan
Students and others held University Square in Bucharest from 22 April 1990, asking that the men who had run the country before December be kept out of the new government.
On 24 April, in a meeting of the provisional council, Ion Iliescu said of them:
"Sunt unii care le plang de mila catorva golani care provoaca dezordine in centrul Capitalei."
There are some who pity a few louts making disorder in the center of the Capital.
Golan is a common insult. It means an idler, a lout, a person of no standing.
The people in the square pinned the word on themselves. They called the place Golania and wrote a hymn of the golani.
The square was cleared between 13 and 15 June, when miners were brought into Bucharest by train. Four people died and more than 1300 were injured.
putting the device down I wouldn't have expected them to take and wear the insult.
Chapter five, the coat
Wood for the stove #
taking a spoonful and then drinking the rest of the bowl Yeah. You want to stay further or leave for Sidliste?
I would want to leave, though the coat is still wet.
taking the coat out of the bucket, wringing it against the rim and hanging it over the back of the chair nearest the stove It will take longer than an hour with the stove this low. Put more wood in if you want it dry before noon.
standing up and getting wood from outside the room and putting it in the furnace
getting up and turning the coat on that chair so the wet shoulder faces the stove
You know, I want to sleep some more.
Go on, then. moving back to the felt and sitting down on it with her back against the wall I will watch the coat.
sitting down on the felt alongside her And me.
shifting over to make room and then lying down on her side facing him Sleep. I am not tired.
Held #
also lying on his side facing him Then why are you still resting?
putting an arm over him and pulling him in against her so his head is under her chin Because this way I know where you are.
I really like being held like this.
shifting the arm slightly It keeps the heat in and helps you wake up in case something arises.
Maybe.
And I like it.
We would all like lying like this.
Mirena, come over here.
I have had my sleep. The two of you look well like that, though, with her wrapped around all of him.
There is more to do with arms like mine than hitting people with them.
Keep an eye on how hard you are holding him, though.
I know how big I am.
Good. I am going downstairs to sort wire. I will not be carrying any of it, so do not start on me.
closing his eyes I won't.
Mirena goes out and down to the second floor, and the door stays open behind her. The stove lights up as the new wood burns. Nila watches the coat dry on the chair. Raduj's breathing slows against her collarbone, and after a while he is asleep.
Part of the CSD series. Set in the Last of Us universe, decades after the first generation, in a future that diverges from the game.
Typeset in Literata and IBM Plex Mono, both under the SIL Open Font License, version 1.1. The license texts sit in the fonts folder beside this file.
