Surviving Westcliff by Thomas Perkins

Author:Thomas Perkins [Perkins, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

Canary

Every morning, just after Ash pulled herself from her cramped office chair, just before she stood in the plateau’s long grass in her worn boots, overseeing the progress on Baron’s wall, she would think of Edwin. What would he have said if Baron asked him to waste time they didn’t have on a fortification that seemed to have no purpose? Would he have stuck his chest out, refused, despite a sword being waved in his face?

Ash could see Edwin doing that. He was a stubborn man, and if his mood soured, a frightening one too. Baron might have backed down.

But Edwin wasn’t there, not anymore. So Baron got his way, and that wall was slowly rising each and every day. Ash would flip between being proud of the thing she’d made and ashamed of the circumstances of it sometimes by the second. It was a complicated thing. Worse, she knew Edwin would have done it better, just like everything else she’d drawn up.

She was like his ghost, still lingering despite his recent absence, her work a mere shadow of his. The only thing she had of his was his plan, the outline for what he would have done with Westcliff were he still there. All she could do was fill in the blanks as best she could.

“Mornin’ Ash.”

“Morning Jessie. Poncho.”

Even Ash had to check in at the gate. What was the point of rules if everyone didn’t follow them, Baron had said. Of course, Baron didn’t follow any of his own rules, he had just said that so Ash had to. Bastard.

Only after Poncho finished scribbling Ash’s name down did Jessie let her through. Wasn’t too much fuss for her, thankfully, but she’d seen what happened when things didn’t go as smooth. Arguments, threats, fights; sooner or later someone was going to get seriously hurt. People came to Westcliff for a new start, many seemed to feel that Baron tightening his grip was quickly obscuring that.

Ash took her folding chair and set it down in the grass, as though she were an artist about to paint the scene. The cliffs, the ocean, the town looking down on all of it; she’d seen worse paintings.

She unfurled her plans for the wall, looking between it and the reality of her creation out in front of her. They’d finished most of the subsections now, all that was left was the gatehouse, the gate itself, and digging that ditch that had been suggested to her. Weeks of effort came to this.

Ash watched the builders continue their work, until, like clockwork, Lana came through the gate and joined her.

“Getting cold, eh?” she asked, looking well put together as always. Coat perfectly buttoned, hair tied up in a neat bun. The head engineer was probably the one person in Westcliff who dressed like she were still in the city. Looked a bit thin, but so did everyone these days.

“It is,” Ash said, shifting in her seat and wrapping her coat round her more tightly.

Lana leaned over her, pointed at the top of the gate on Ash’s plan.

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