The Fell Good Flue Read Online Free Page B

bad ride and a smashing landing. Many had broken legs and arms, or a fractured skull from such mishaps, and the loss of a finger or bad burn was common. The traveling harness we used had a brake on it, but if a line went in midflight you were sill hurtled into the next building. So we ran secondary lines for the safety harness, in as many places as we could. But there was only so much that could be used over and over again without wearing out quickly, and replacing the lines took time. A grafting hook and rope was the best way to fly from one place to the other, and we called those that used that way of travel swingers, because you needed to swing wide to prevent a hard hit on the next building. Of course that also had its drawbacks when your hook didn’t stay firmly where you sent it. So the swingers would place bars to latch onto in places that would not get a zip line. Some had rope bridges and others just boards between the buildings, but that could let animals across as well from unsecured places. Often a building that was once secured would have a door knocked down by a bear or torn off by some traveling raider, so we did what we could to keep the main places separated. Anything was safer than just traveling on the ground, but there were always risk, and the runners took such risk and got paid for them. For if you got hurt you needed as much as you could get to last until you were well again, and some would never be fit to swing again.
The goats lived in a secure building in one of the parks, and Laurence had spent much time in putting up the fences that keep other things out. He would check everything carefully before letting some of them out each day to feed, not taking any chances on losing them all at once if there was an attack. When he first came to town a few years ago, a hunter had told him about us and how TT was a fair trader. He had lost most of his herd to the raiders, and only had a few dozen that had run off before they could get to them. So he came to town in a horse drawn wagon, loaded with as much feed as he had and the rest of his goats. TT saw the advantages right off, and did everything he could to set the man up proper. A number of us helped him build his ten foot high fences with barbed wire on top, and get power to him for an electric line around it as well. The park now looked like a maximum security prison, complete with guards and a watch tower. But that’s what it takes to keep your most precious commodity safe, and there were still attacks, by both man and animals. Sometimes he would lose one or two, and and at other times they would just get loose and needed rounding up again. But in the past year he was able to maintain a good thirty most of time, and slaughter the ones that were getting old or not needed. The horse was just too much for him to take care of that first year, and TT traded it for things he needed to get by, but we were looking for another one now that we could support it. There were no tall building or trees to swing from near the park, and I had to call ahead for him to meet me at the gate. The less time I spent on open ground the better. As soon as I saw he was in place, I took the zip-line down to within thirty yards of the gate and made a dash for the enclosure, as he covered me with his guns. Even when you could not see them something was always watching. As soon as I got through the gate he quickly closed it behind me and we went inside the main building.
Laurence said, “TT told me you would be coming by. Did you see that wolf that has been stalking the fences for the past few days?’
I said, “no, but I’m sure the dogs heard me use the zip before my run.”
Laurence, “I wouldn’t worry too much about them, that wolf has been spraying all around this place ever since he showed up, and the dogs are staying shy until he moves on.” I said, “it still pays not to take any chances. Any other problems?”
He said, “one of the goats got snake bit the other day