Free Away by Teri Hall Page B

tool.
    Rachel handed it to her.
    Nandy snapped off the end of the tool, revealing two slots where the batteries slid in. She took two of them from Pathik and pushed them into the slots until they clicked. Then she snapped the end piece back on.
    â€œAnd this is the controller.” Nandy pressed the dial on the side and a light shot out of the end with the opening.
    â€œCareful!” Rachel reached over and pressed the dial again to turn the light off. “That can cut through metal.” Rachel did remember that part. She’d watched Jonathan use a similar tool back at the greenhouse, and she remembered his warning about how dangerous the laser beam could be.
    Nandy looked doubtful. She handed the laser to Rachel.
    â€œWell?” Nandy pointed to the door and tapped her foot with mock impatience.
    Rachel grinned. “Can you hold it closed, Pathik?”
    Once the door was closed fast against the frame, it was clear where the metal edge was too large. Rachel pressed the dial on the laser saw and adjusted the light until it was the thinnest beam she could get. Then she traced it along the metal. It left a tiny black line where it touched. When Rachel reached the end of the ill-fitted area she turned the laser saw off. All three of them peered at the door.
    â€œHmmm.” Nandy looked unimpressed. Pathik reached to touch the metal. At the slightest pressure, there was a clinking sound, and the piece Rachel had trimmed fell to the floor. Nandy and Pathik stared down at it openmouthed. Nandy reached down and picked it up, looking first at it and then at the door. Pathik pushed the door snug shut.
    â€œFits perfect,” he said. He waved his hand back and forth where the rag had always been stuffed in the gap. “No cold breeze, Nandy.”
    Nandy ran her own hand over the spot. A slow smile spread across her face. “I guess you’ll have to find some other thing to get scolded for now, Pathik.” She turned to Rachel. “Thank you. That draft may not seem like much to you, but it’s driven me crazy. It gets cold in the winter!”
    â€œYou’re very welcome.” Rachel packed the saw back into the duffel. “Pathik, Nandy said you have a tech cemetery.”
    â€œGo show her, Pathik—we have time before the food is ready.” Nandy shrugged. “Who knows, maybe she’ll see something we could be using.”
    Pathik led her outside, and they walked to the far side of the camp, behind the larger buildings. There was a clearing there, and in it was a huge pile of junk. As they got closer, Rachel could see why Nandy called it a tech cemetery. It was a pile of modern technology—though far from what Rachel thought of as modern. Antique-looking streamer carcasses were thrown in a heap, monitors cracked, wires trailing from some. There were other things too, all things that would have required electricity, or a signal, or a broadcast, to be of any use.
    â€œWho put it all here?” Rachel saw a half-buried keyboard at her feet. She scuffed at the dirt, uncovering lettered keys.
    â€œI don’t know. Someone from when it first happened. After they figured out we couldn’t use any of it anymore.”
    â€œWhy do you keep it?”
    Pathik stared at the pile. “Why not?” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Maybe we’ll need something, someday. Maybe something will make some sort of difference. Anyway, it’s probably time to eat. Let’s go.”
    Rachel looked back at the pile as they left. It didn’t look to her like anything there would ever make any sort of difference.
    They had a simple dinner of eggs and a flat bread Nandy made out of flour and water and oil. There was water to drink and for dessert, an odd sort of dried fruit that reminded Rachel of apples. The interior of the hut was dim, since there were no windows, but the fire gave off a homey glow, and its warmth made Rachel sleepy.
    By the time Malgam and