Botanicaust

take care of Josef for you. ”
    Levi dropped his arm. The offer was the best he could hope for. “ Thank you. ”
    He exited the room that he and Josef had shared in his brother-in-law ’ s house until the boy came down with pneumonia three weeks ago. Now, Josef was in the Ward with the other cystic fibrosis children. Beds filled with listless young bodies, malnourished and fighting for every breath. Most lived until their early twenties, but some, like Josef, became sick early in life, and from there the slope toward death grew steep. Levi meant to level that slope.
    In the front room, Samuel ’ s wife, Beth, left her loom to hug him goodbye in spite of her husband ’ s dark gaze. She pressed a fabric package into Levi ’ s hands. “ May God be with you, Brother Levi. ”
    Chest tight with gratitude, he tucked the gift beneath an arm and pushed open the light screen door to the porch. The wood frame clattered shut behind him as he descended to the street.
    A breeze lifted the evening air as the sun settled below the horizon. Word of his intent had spread quickly through the township, and now people left their supper tables to stare from windows and covered porches as he passed the weathered brick homes. Cannibal dogs, trained to kill intruders in the event of a fence breach, sensed the tension in the air, taking up a howling bark that spread across the silent village. He hoped the cannibals didn ’ t know what the baying chorus meant.
    He slowed as he passed the Ward. A child sang Grace, high and sweet, the piano accompaniment thrumming through an open window on the lower level. Josef would miss his nightly visit to tuck him in bed. You already said goodbye . Staring resolutely at the dusty street, Levi squared his shoulders and picked up his pace. He had to be through the gate before the perimeter lights came on.
    Only the salt trader walked without harm through the cannibal lands beyond the fence, stopping at the Holdout once a year. He claimed he paid a heavy toll of the precious mineral to the cannibals to come and go. Levi had no such leverage. He simply hoped the cover of dusk and the moonless night would allow him to safely cross the territory that roaming bands scoured for anything edible.
    After twenty minutes he reached the edge of the Holdout where a small stone outbuilding housed the gatekeeper and protected the controls for the electric fence. The generator in the methane pits kicked on, humming in preparation for perimeter lighting. High-pitched squeals echoed from the swine sheds as the animals fought over their nightly slops.
    Levi focused on the gate, designed to power on and off without lowering the charge on the rest of the fence. The only way in or out of the Holdout. The only connection to the world. The only hope for Josef.
    On the fence directly above the gate a weathered wooden sign read, The Gate is Narrow , in plain, black letters to remind those inside of their salvation. Stopping at the small stone building, he knocked and waited for Peter the Gatekeeper to answer.
    The old man took his sweet time opening the door. He ’ d lost both son and daughter to cannibals ages ago. “ Goin ’ through with it? ”
    “ Before the lights come on. ”
    Peter put a finger over the switch box near the door. “ I ’ ll watch you from here. Give me a hand up if the way is clear. ”
    The shed was about a hundred paces from the gate, and Levi kept a sharp eye on the low greenery outside the fence, alert for any sign of hunting parties. Here and there, broad-leafed trees drooped over the landscape like umbrellas, holding their own against the waves of noxious amarantox — ideal hiding places for cannibal bands. Nothing moved in the fading light except the wind over the foliage.
    He put up a hand and waited for several heartbeats to be sure the charge was down. A shock wouldn ’ t be fatal, but it would put him out of commission for a few days and leave a nasty burn.
    With a tentative fingertip, he touched the metal and then freed the latch, slipping through and securing it behind him. A nearly imperceptible hum told him when the power once again flowed through the wire. His pulse roared loudly in his ears as he stepped away from the only home he ’ d ever known.

    Over the last four days, between the impassible thickets of tamarisk trees and the tall sea of broad-leafed amarantox, Levi saw little in the way of edible plant life. He paused in the pale light of dawn near a stand of bull rushes