Old Man's War Series by John Scalzi

Author:John Scalzi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Two hours is not enough time with a PDA if you haven’t had access to one in months. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. But it was enough time that both Gretchen and I came out of the information center feeling just like we’d spent hours soaking in a nice hot bath—which, come to think of it, was something that we hadn’t done for months either.

“We should keep this to ourselves,” Gretchen said.

“Yes,” I said. “Don’t want people to bug Mr. Bennett.”

“No, I just like having something over everyone else,” Gretchen said.

“There aren’t a lot of people who can carry off petty,” I said. “Yet somehow you do.”

Gretchen nodded. “Thank you, madam. And now I need to get back home. I promised Dad I’d weed the vegetable garden before it got dark.”

“Have fun rooting in the dirt,” I said.

“Thanks,” Gretchen said. “If you were feeling nice, you could always offer to help me.”

“I’m working on my evil,” I said.

“Be that way,” Gretchen said.

“But let’s get together after dinner tonight to practice,” I said. “Now that we know how to sing that part.”

“Sounds good,” Gretchen said. “Or will, hopefully.” She waved and headed off toward home. I looked around and decided today would be a good day for a walk.

And it was. The sun was up, the day was bright, particularly after a couple of hours in the light-swallowing information center, and Roanoke was deep into spring—which was really pretty, even if it turned out that all the native blooms smelled like rotten meat dipped in sewer sauce (that description courtesy of Magdy, who could string together a phrase now and then). But after a couple of months, you stop noticing the smell, or at least accept there’s nothing you can do about it. When the whole planet smells, you just have to deal with it.

But what really made it a good day for a walk was how much our world has changed in just a couple of months. John and Jane let us all out of Croatoan not too long after Enzo, Gretchen, Magdy and I had our midnight jog, and the colonists had begun to move into the countryside, building homes and farms, helping and learning from the Mennonites who were in charge of our first crops, which were already now growing in the fields. They were genetically engineered to be fast-growing; we’d be having our first harvest in the not too far future. It looked like we were going to survive after all. I walked past these new houses and fields, waving to folks as I went.

Eventually I walked past the last homestead and over a small rise. On the other side of it, nothing but grass and scrub and the forest in a line to the side. This rise was destined to be part of another farm, and more farms and pastures would cut up this little valley even further. It’s funny how even just a couple thousand humans could start to change a landscape.

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