Chapter 7

"Who was that and how did he sneak up on us?" Seamus asked rhetorically as he stroked Rocky's head. The dog, as had become her wont, rolled over to let Seamus caress her belly. "How is it that I always seem to do something wrong whenever I don't understand something?"

Rocky didn't answer in any way except to lick his hand. "I guess," he mused, "that people expect me to see what they do..."

"I think it is more that we want you to say what you know and to prove what you know," Seamus' mother said, causing him to jump.

"MOM!" Seamus griped.

"I wouldn't have been able to surprise you if you had been paying attention to more than talking to yourself."

"I was watching the hillside..."

"And that's how John was able to walk up on you and Rachel?"

"No ... I guess we got distracted..."

"So you did. And it seems that you weren't watching at least a little to make sure that no one was walking up on you ... like me inspecting your guard post."

Seamus hung his head and muttered, "I just can't do anything right..."

"That's not true Seamus. What is going on is that you are not used to living in a war zone."

"Well what am I supposed to do?"

"Practice. I also expect that John is going to start taking you on walkabouts."

"How do you know John?"

"Once upon a time, before your father and I met, we both worked for him."

"So what am I supposed to learn?"

"How to think, and when to answer with a thoughtful response rather than 'what do you mean, ' even 'I don't understand, ' but either of those is better than 'huh.'"

"But I never know what you are seeing!"

"Have you got any idea of what you want to do with your life?"

"What can I do except be bad at guarding our community?"

"A great many things if you will work at them, for instance what have you learned about dogs?"

"That Rocky is smarter than the average dog I think..."

"What gives you that idea?"

"I know I don't have to give her commands for her to guard our community."

"That may be instinctual. After all she does have a lot of the characteristics of a Shepherd."

"Maybe Mom, but she sure took out Julio like a wolf except that she didn't kill him."

"And that indicates what?"

"That not only is she a well trained guard dog but that she is trained to work without direct commands and to hold rather than injure outsiders. Which is why I was surprised that she didn't go for John's throat when he snuck up on us."

"Which one makes you think she is smarter than average?"

"Working without commands. The longer I study the books and tapes you have on dogs the more I'm sure that is not typical of any dog."

"So do you think she can have puppies?"

Seamus blushed and said, "I don't know how to tell, and since she's the only dog we have, I can't very well learn to practice surgery on her."

"So is that something you might be interested in?"

"Veterinary medicine? I'm not sure, I mean if I was interested who would teach me?"

"If you will start by memorizing the anatomy books, I'll make sure that you get them and work on a program to get you through that part of the course."

"I'll start on it when I'm done here!"

"I think that John will take you on a short walkabout when we send out your relief but since I'll see him first I'll let him know to not make it too long."

As Siobhan was leaving Seamus said, "Thanks Mom. I thought with the way that Rachel was talking about the end of the world you would think I was wasting my time trying to learn something like that."

Siobhan stopped and took the time to look at Seamus before she said, "I hope you don't think that we're giving up on civilization because we moved out here? It was forced on us because of other people made bad choices, not because it was something we chose to do."

"No, but when you and Rachel tortured Julio it scared me a lot!"

"Do you remember what I told him before I started?"

Seamus thought hard to remember exactly what his mother had told Julio on that fateful evening nearly two months previously. "You said, 'There is an ancient law that says: if a man sheds the blood of another man then he shall pay in blood, by your own words you have committed murder. Therefore your sentence is death. Because you have information I need I will ask that you give it to me in exchange for a quick death as free of pain as I can make it.' Then he laughed at you and said he'd cut your throat before you got anything from him and called you a whore and a bitch..." Seamus trailed off.

"Aye he called me all of that. Do you think that Rachel might take up killing as a hobby?"

"I worry about it."

But you didn't ask her about how she felt about what happened did you?"

"No I was trying to understand why you seem to think that people might be going extinct..."

"That's one you'll have to apply some thought to. I know it isn't obvious but it is a possibility that has been ignored by people who claimed to be working to make human population sustainable. They ignore the connection of their ideas with people like Adolph Hitler and Margret Sanger. Too many of the ideas behind population control groups are based on racist concepts."

"What does that have to do with us becoming extinct?"

"Think about this: what if the whole premise of overpopulation is fundamentally flawed. Consider what we could have done to alleviate the population pressure if the premise had any basis in fact other than birth control."

"That's confusing..."

"Well think about it while you finish this shift but don't think so hard that you lose concentration on what you're supposed to be doing," Siobhan said as she turned to walk away from the guard post.

An hour or more passed while Seamus scanned the unchanging wilderness outside of his watch point until Laura Tyler, one of the orphans his father had rescued and Michelle White along with the man he had just met came to relieve him from his guard shift. The woman and girl were carrying rifles and John said, "Seamus, come with me. Bring the rifle and pistol that you have here."

Rocky got up and started to follow them. Much to Seamus' amazement, John stopped and talked directly to the dog, "Don't you think you should stay here and guard the women and children?" he asked. Rocky simply stood as close to Seamus as she could get. John studied the dog for a long moment then shrugged his shoulders and saying, "Have it your way missy, I won't hurt your boy and I'll do my best to make sure he doesn't walk into a deadly trap just 'cause I don't want to have to drag his body home."

While John was speaking to Rocky, Seamus studied the man more closely than he had when he had met him. He was older, Seamus realized, than he had first thought when the tall, well camouflaged, man had surprised him earlier. He was also, Seamus thought, probably as tough as boiled leather. Seamus' study of the man, who had apparently appointed himself as his teacher, was interrupted by the man's harsh words, "Come along, Seamus, and you too Rocky, maybe you can help me educate a person whose mother says he is about as dense and stubborn as depleted uranium."

Seamus followed John away from the cabin and community, nearly having to run to keep up with the pace the older man set. When John slowed to a walk that was more sedate, after leading Seamus on a grueling trek, Seamus asked the question that had been burning in his mind since they started the walk, "John," he gasped, "how come you treat Rocky like she can understand you?"

Rather than answer directly John asked Seamus, "what did your mother tell you about herself?"

"I'm not sure what you're asking or what that has to do with Rocky, but what she has told me is about her family and growing up in Ireland but I don't think that's what you're asking."

"No it isn't. I'm glad to know that your mother took security seriously, though at this point I wonder if it wasn't somewhat of a moot point." John stopped walking and took a seat on a tree stump, "I understand that you've learned firsthand that your mother is rather coldblooded."

Seamus nodded as the indelible memory of Julio's questioning at his mother's hand surfaced. Seeing Seamus' agreement John continued, "I'm sure I'll never know what caused an emotional short circuit in your mother but she has always been that way ever since she was recruited as an agent for an unnamed agency in Washington.