Episode 1 - The Beam

saw today? Saw a squirrel. Three of them. The big one said, ‘You ain’t foolin’ nobody’ and then ran off up a tree where he had nuts. I tried to follow but I’m not wearing shoes.”
    “That’s really something,” said Leah, looking down at Crumb’s ancient boots.
    “You don’t know what it was like before The Beam. We made the first. Me and the squirrels. They ran off. I couldn’t follow. You don’t understand. Neither does Leo. But there was a day. I remember it. We talked in our brains. You lived and you died. Then I got old, back when I was young. But then I was not who I am. And neither were you. None of us were. You call this a village? But it was all like this. Back when I was young. Back before The Beam. Noah Fucking West!”
    Leah looked at Crumb, saying nothing and waiting for him to finish.
    “Oh, they’re gone now, those fuckers!” said Crumb. “The squirrels, I mean. Leo knows. Did you know that I knew him, back in the day? Noah Fucking West!”
    Leah nodded along. This was simply how Crumb was,. When Crumb came up and started babbling (sometimes he talked about the stars; he kept saying that Betelgeuse was overdue to supernova and had many theories about it), a lot of people simply walked away. Crumb didn’t see this as rude, because he didn’t seem truly capable of thinking anything beyond the basics of keeping himself fed, clothed, and alive. But Leah still felt that he was human and deserved respect. Once upon a time, Dominic Long had been ordered to send Crumb to Respero and had decided the man was worth saving. Walking away without listening to Crumb for a few minutes felt to Leah like spitting in the face not only of the filthy man himself, but also into the eye of Dominic’s mercy.
    Leah smiled, said that she totally agreed, then nudged Missy forward with a “See you later.” Crumb saw that Leah was leaving and turned to wave, like an overly enthusiastic child.
    “Noah Fucking West, Leah!” Crumb yelled.
    She turned and saw cereal snowing from his beard. He trotted forward a few feet. Three crows swooped to the ground behind him and pecked at the cereal. Leah was reminded of a dog she’d had growing up who knew to lay beneath her chair at dinnertime because she’d always dropped food as she ate.
    “Noah Fucking West and end times!” He seemed to think, then lowered his voice to a mere holler. “Well, not end times. But I saw that squirrel, and he told me. Brains aren’t what they used to be, I’ll tell you. The squirrel, he said it was The Beam. Holy shit! Think like The Beam!” He laughed maniacally. “Noah Fucking West on The Beam, Leah!”
    Leah waved once more at Crumb and continued riding between the split-rail fences that defined the pastures. Beneath her were two shallow wheel ruts in the dirt with a strip of grass growing between them. Missy was walking fast, just shy of a trot. She always did this at the ride’s end. With the long trail behind her, the horse was eager for her apple. The faster she got to the village’s barn, the sooner she’d be sinking her giant teeth into it.
    They reached the barn. Leah led Missy into her stall and gave her an apple, scratching the mare behind her ears. Then she left the barn and crossed the village.
    The air was cool and crisp in the mountains. Leah took off her pack, slipped out a rainbow sarong, and tied it over her shorts. The sarong was loose and billowy, but kept the chill from her legs. Then she slung the pack over her back again, tugged her dreadlocks out from between it and her shoulders, and crossed an open square with a gazebo in the middle. Around the gazebo were purple and red flowers. Leah paused to bend and sniff them. Then she stopped, down on one knee, and drew in the surrounding activity.
    The Organa settlement was a bizarre mix of old and new. There were no motorized cars or bikes in the village, but most of the villagers carried handhelds because Organa or not, they felt they needed to know the weather forecast, had to check train schedules from Pillman, or might need to send mail. There were villagers who lived here permanently, but most were transient, coming and going with hybrid lives. Their main houses typically had at least one point of neutered Beam access via a simple terminal canvas. For most Organas, this was what “unplugged” meant. There were purists who lived without any access at all, but even the electrical grid these days was controlled by The Beam. To live totally