It been a few years since there was a trip to the city and it was a first for Poke, it was still considered a great risk travelling in to the city, being in the city and travelling back. Everything was a considered risk by the older people of the Clan. That is how the Clan has survived for so long by being careful and not taking risks or by taking risks that were calculated and discussed. It had taken a year of council meeting and votes and more discussions to finally get the go ahead. Equipment was discussed; its practical use and of course the risk of losing it.
They set off six days ago, travelling off their island by boat so the safe mainland harbour (which was guarded). Then by foot travelling a day, waiting day or more like watching for a day then travelling and watching for another day. There was no people seen, no tracks spotted nor any human existence was seen at all in the six days of travelling and watching. They could have made the journey direct to the city in three days but the Clan never travelled in straight lines, always in roundabout ways. If you live south of something never approach south, always from another direction, always with a deliberate move not to lead back to the Clan. If you are chased never run for home, run away and run taking the danger away from the Clan. The Clan must stay safe.
The number on this mission was eight, this gave enough eyes so there was always four resting with four watching. While travelling there was a core four with two lead scouts and two rear scouts. Careful and watching were trade marks of the Clan. Poke was well used to this as they even used this method to pick berries on the island, collecting firewood, herding and hunting. Children were tough in the Clan and taught to be quiet and take orders from the earliest age. Heavy hands countered any child who did not learn fast enough or obey quick enough, this was not cruelty but necessity.
Roads were to be avoided at all cost, not that were any roads left in the classical sense as all but a few patches of tarmac covered with grass, mixed brush and in some places trees. It was 20 years by the elders count of when things "went to shit". Poke never really got a answer of what happened except that things went dark. Not the sky or the sun or the moon just things. The Clan decided to keep quiet when things "went to shit" and buckled down out the way of mainland. The Clan was not the Clan then as Poke understood it and it took a few years to come together. Those were bad days in the beginning, there were a few murders and little food and general greed. The Clan formed as much for common good as for protection as the biggest danger was each other.
Mission crew were a day out and on the fringes of the city, it looked more like a forest with buildings than a city. They had a vantage point on a hill which had them five miles out from the real city. This area had been used before but not this exact spot, you never camped in the same spot when on a mission. Poke took watch and waited. There was no signs except birds and small game with the general background noises that accompanied them. This was normal, if the noises increased or suddenly stopped that's when you started to panic. Poke mulled over the journey up to the city so far, lots of rabbits, a few wild sheep and one of the lead scouts spotted a cow, but no pigs at all; the pigs were gone. It was a pity there was no pigs as the elders still taked about bacon and Poke would have liked to have tried some.
The outskirts were a rubble and almost a jungle, hedges went wild and took over some streets completely and made them almost impossible to travel down. 20 years of rain and weather had driven deep channels into some roads exposing old pipes and cables which looked a little lost hanging in midair servicing nothing as they waited to decay. Trees grew everywhere in old gardens, on the roads, on houses and in houses, the trees helped to break and destroy brick and paving and old leaves piled to make new soil which lead to colonisation of other plants. The outer city in effect was an urban jungle with nature slowing reclaiming what man has fought to build. Poke estimated that he could survive here as there was was an abundance of game mostly rabbits and small birds with the odd cat and he'd spotted some fox dropping along the way. There was also quite a lot of wild fruit and more brambles than even the whole Clan could use in a single season. Poke mentally marked all the good fruit trees, including a crumbled house that was more strawberry plants than brick. Poke knew he'd never come back to harvest any of it but his training ran deep and you never knew.
They were not heading in the city itself as there was little point, given the temperate climate all clothing would be rot and mold while anything worth looting would have been looted already and there was more chance of meeting others. Others as the Clan called them were people not of the Clan. People who had lived not in the Clan, People who could have been on the outside and had to survive and tales of surviving outside the Clan were used to scare children and keep adults in check. The Clan avoided others like they carried a plague and some tales spoke of just that. The target of this mission was much more important than weapons or cloth and much excitement was made back at the Clan to what could be obtained on this mission. The first stop was a collection of old huts and shrubs next to a park which has now outgrown its confines and spread across the city like a green rash.
It used to be called an allotment Poke was told, it was not like a farm it was more like a vegetable garden which was placed way from your house where people grew things for fun. This was an odd concept for Poke, growing vegetables was for stable food and hard work, hunting that is fun. The crew scouted the park and the long abandoned allotments ensuring there was not tracks or passage of others. Poke was on watch as the elders searched the old plots and plantings looking for prizes. The prizes was new seedlings or old seedlings long abandoned that could be used to feed the growing clan. Chief search was for potatoes as the main crops had rotted in the fields a few years after the initial darkness of things. All the commercial crops disappeared from the fields and not a single one could be found in 20 years. The mission was also for anything else that may give a slightly better yield or advantage in food production.
First allotment yielded nothing that could have been more useful than currently stocks back at the clan. Although one of the elders wanted to come back on the way home as one of the cherry trees looked interesting and a seedling would be picked up on the way back. Another two allotments and a garden center which Poke didn't know what it was and was told it was a shop for plants yielded nothing. The next and last stop was a group of buildings with a broken glass roof which was watched for half a day and night before they moved in. More than half the glass was broken with a whole section collapsed in on itself. The other sections where either bare with almost no plants or had trees and odd looking plants poking through the broken glass. Picking through the building and glass houses was dangerous as the fallen glass poked up from the floor and presented an unwelcome gift if you stumbled.
Elders were busy with Poke assistance where he could which meant he carried and cleared things aways as instructed. Poke watched as they examined leaf and root and moved from the glass house to the gardens at the back of the buildings. The gardens were safer with little glass and a fewer unsafe walls or roofs to consider. Poke was asked to come over by an elder and shown a plant, the elder looked pleased, very pleased and he dug at the roots. A small bunch of dark tubers came up and the elder gasped. He looked at them gingerly picked one and thumbed it in his hands, scrapped the skins, sniff and looked at Poke.
Poke asked "Is that a potato?"
"I think so.." the elder replied. "..but its a bit odd"
"Odd how ? didn't you used to have them?" Poke quizzed
"Oh look at this.."
The elder cut the tuber in half and showed Poke the dark purple flesh inside.
"I thought they were white inside?"
"Yes Poke they usually are, you have never seen one but the old commercial ones where all white inside, this must have been a sample or a special one from Peru which might explain why it is still here and for that matter alive when all the others have perished."
Poke assumed Peru was on other part of the mainland and this potato was a special one from there. Another six plants were found of the purple potatoes and three was carefully dug up and the tubers removes and spread amongst the group. The other three were left as the Elders explained that if the stock taken failed then they could come back and try again. There was much excitement with the Elders and discovery of potatoes even if they were purple and small. There was another place the elders wanted to try before heading back which meant a detour to the main river that ran through the city. The new target was the sewage works which poke thought was an odd choice, but the elders just winked still elated on the potato find.
After twenty years the sewage works was more of a weed garden than the stinking mess that Poke expected with the river cutting deeply in one area and flooding another turning it to marsh and reeds beds. The site was big with numerous basins of stone filled with a mix of plants dependant on the amount of water they could hold or retain. The elders scurried about examining plants and generally discussing bits and bobs. Poke wandered and examined the pumping house admiring the large pipes and machinery. One house had fresh bat droppings on the floor and he quickly left as he was told bats have a risk of rabies and are best avoided. The sun was setting and they decided to make camp on the other side of the works. Poke waited for an hour to ensure that they were not been followed or observed by any unwanted vistors. There were none and rumour had it that no others had been seen for 10 years, still you couldn't be too sure and wild dogs still posed an issue.
They would be heading back in the morning, there was another sewage works on the other side of the city but this meant crossing the river and cutting through the city central belt or going round, this was too much for this trip and cutting through was considered too dangerous. After first light a storm blew which was mostly wind with some light rain and some thunder and lighting. There was a long and long rumble which was sounded like thunder by every so slightly different, one of the scouts reported in saying there was a cloud of dust from the central belt. Elders surmised that one of the sky scrappers collapsed due to the storm. Another good reason they said to avoid the area. They search the area again next to the sewage works and came up blank.
Poke asked "What are you searching for?"
Elders "Tomatos?"
Poke "Here?"
Elder "People eat tomatos with the seeds and they come here at some point and baby tomato plants grow"
Poke "We have tomatos"
Elder "Yes and they have a bit of blight, so we're looking for some fresh stock and this looked like a good place, we should be grateful for the purple potatoes and head back."
They headed back taking a different route than the one they entered all the while keeping the security up.
