Scarlett Hopper's Arc

Chapter 29 of 33

The storm broke before dawn. Scarlett and Marcus walked back from the barn with wet boots and a new problem. The barn stood too far from the house to shout across. Whoever worked inside it would be alone if the road brought trouble again. "We need a way to call between them," she said at the gate. John met them there with coffee. Maranda was already at the beds pulling weeds. Duke shook rain off his coat. "A bell?" John said. "Wind eats a bell," Marcus said. "I have something better at the store. Paired horns. Wall-mount. You press the button on one and the other sounds. Wire strung between." "How far?" Scarlett said. "Far as we lay the line." He left with John after breakfast and came back at noon with a coil of insulated wire, two metal boxes, and a spool of staples. The horns were matched, each with a speaker, a red button, and a row of colored buttons under the grille. Marcus set them on the kitchen table. "Red is alarm," he said. "Blue means come. Green means safe. Yellow means bring water." "Yellow," Maranda said. "Good." They ran the wire through the afternoon. Marcus stapled it along the fence line, then up the barn wall under the eave to keep the rain off. Scarlett walked with him with her bad hand tucked at her ribs, holding the coil steady on her good arm. John dug a shallow trench across the yard so the wire would not catch a boot. Duke followed, nose down. At the barn Marcus mounted one box beside the door. He wired the leads, tightened the screws, and closed the plate. At the house he mounted the twin above the kitchen counter where anyone cooking could reach it. "Try it," he said. Scarlett stayed at the house. Marcus walked to the barn. She waited until she saw him wave through the open door, then pressed red. The horn in her hand crackled. A second later his horn answered from across the yard, thin but clear. He pressed green. Hers chirped back. John grinned. "Works." They tested each color. They tested with the barn door shut. They tested with Maranda at the beds and Scarlett at the barn and Marcus at the gate. The sound carried through the wall. While Marcus tightened the last screw, Scarlett walked the barn perimeter with John. They marked a line for a low sandbag wall along the road side, a second gate on the near path, and two posts for the crows to perch on. John paced the distances. Marcus wrote the list on the back of a feed slip. That night Scarlett hung the feed slip on a nail by the door. The barn was no longer a blind spot. The next problem was already written under it: build the wall before the harvest came in.