Youth World

Chapter 19 – The Cascadian Hussars!

Today marked the fifth week after the apocalypse. The date of departure was delayed yet again, being set to occur exactly one week from now. Some of the kids had figured out that due to the flipped seasons, the current date should be November 1st. I wasn't really sure if they were correct, but I decided to go with it. We had to keep track of things somehow, and this was probably the best way to do it.

Anyway, the equestrians had sent us a messenger stating that they would be back today. We had constantly contacted them to make sure they were fine, and we also gave them a bunch of weapons that were outdated for our armies, mostly pikes, which had been sawed down to eight feet long, and recurve bows. They were also equipped with specially made bamboo lances with steel tips. Another thing to note was that we had sent even more people to the plains over these past few weeks, since the equestrians had told us that there were plenty of horses there, and nobody else was trying to tame them.

Anticipating this, I tasked many workers to build a stable to house the horses, as well as sufficient grass to feed them. I did let the equestrians know that they would be the ones taking care of the horses, and they would be fine with that. By the way, the equestrians were no longer known as equestrians, their name now officially changed by decree to the Cascadian Lancers. That sounded much cooler in my opinion, and they thought so as well.

I was very excited to meet Lucas. I hadn't seen him in over a month, which was quite worrying. We stayed in touch through messengers, but they just weren't the same as meeting somebody in person. He also expressed these thoughts, wanting to see me after such a long period of separation. We weren't the clingiest of people, but we used to hang out every week before the apocalypse struck, hence our wishes to reunite. Lucas didn't care that much about Aidan splitting up with us, since those two never knew each other very well. They were both my best friends, and that's the only thing that led to them being somewhat chummy.

Lucas had asked me if I wanted a horse for myself. Instead, I asked for a donkey or a mule, since I wanted to leave the riding to more competent individuals. I can't do everything, and therefore delegating tasks to other people is a much better idea than doing it myself. I mean, it takes years to be a master jockey, which I was definitely not. I liked to hike in the mountains, not ride around on horses.

In the plains, the equestrians found tons of donkeys and mules, as I mentioned before. These would be excellent animals to work the vast farmlands that would be developed around the future settlement, dubbed "Alexanderburg" by many of the Cascadians. Transporting all these animals through the mountains would be near impossible since that'd be too uncoordinated, which is why half of them would be held at the Duwamish River shipyard's outskirts, now dubbed "Port Duwamish" by the Cascadians, while the other half would be used to drag wagons or herded through the wide mountain pass.

Now, I stood in the northeastern corner of the camp near Lake Sammamish, a tall lake ten miles away from the other lake, Lake Washington, where we sourced our water. This was the closest area of our camp to the plains.

I heard a quiet sound coming from over the horizon.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Then, after a while, it got louder.

Thump. Thump. THUMP!

I could see dust rising in the distance, the sound of galloping hooves growing louder and louder.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

The head of a horse, with a rider on top, popped up over the horizon. Then, even more horses and riders appeared. It was like a dust storm.

Dang, Lucas! Is such a flashy entrance really necessary?

As the horses approached us, dodging trees left to right, the person that was obviously Lucas raised his sabre, and the rest of the horsemen pointed their lances forwards. One of them was hoisting a Cascadian battle flag, a white tree on a field of green. The official Cascadian flag was going to look different, but it was so complicated that we couldn't make it at the moment.

Lucas screamed from a distance, frantically waving his sabre.

"Alexander!!! We're back!!!!!"

He pulled on his horse's reins before it was just about to run into the camp's walls. The other riders followed suit, and the people who were herding donkeys and mules with a lead stopped as well. The horses looked quite imposing, equipped with saddles, reins and a few other straps. I wasn't an expert on riding, so I didn't really know the specific terminologies for everything.

"Welcome back, Lucas. If you would, could you lead all your horses into the stable and come meet me near the tree stump?"

"You mean the tree stump in the middle?"

"Yes. It's kind of hard to hear you since you're on the other side of the wall. Come in, get your horses sorted and come talk to me. Men, can you brief the equestrians on everything that has happened so far?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good. Lucas, I'll see you in a few minutes."

"You bet. See you then!"

Giving ample time for everybody to take care of their business, I took a leisurely stroll through the camp towards the central tree stump. People all around me were hard at work, and many were laboring even faster since we were about to depart in a few days. I was surprised that a power struggle hadn't occurred yet and that people were usually following me without any questions, but that was probably because I was the perceived savior and that what I said usually resulted in great successes. However, I wouldn't let this stroke my ego, since doing so would hinder my decision-making abilities.

After a few minutes, Lucas had arrived. I directed him towards my shelter, where we could have a more secretive discussion.

"You can have a seat over there."

Lucas sat down, crossing his legs like a pretzel.

"I ȧssume you want to hear my story, right?"

"Of course. Everybody tells me their stories about their respective expeditions, so why should you be the exception?"

"Makes sense. You know, you don't gotta talk so formally. We're alone, you know?"

"You're right. I mean, talking formally makes me look like a more professional leader, but I don't have to do that when I'm with you. Anyways, carry on with your story. You've sent me messages, but not in much detail."

"Alrighty. We headed east from the camp until we reached the Issaquah Creek, which looked very different than what it usually looked like, and then we headed northeast. Along the way, we ran into kids from a few other schools near the city of Sammamish east of Lake Sammamish. We didn't really talk to them, and they posed us no harm. Eventually, we made it to the plains around the Snoqualmie River Valley, where we found horses roaming everywhere. We met the kids that lived in the former city of Carnation that was located on a river fork, and some of them decided to join us while the rest agreed to an alliance."

"And I ȧssume that you didn't get into any fights or conflicts on the way there?"

"Not at all. The kids along the way were usually too busy fighting each other or foraging around to be bothered to attack us. We began to tame the horses, which was pretty hard, but we were making good process two weeks in. The horses were beginning to trust us more. By the way, these horses are nothing like the ones that we were used to. They were faster and wilder, and generally taller and slimmer. That led us to a conclusion that we had gone into the future and the horses had evolved to suit the new environment."

"That's what I thought when I saw your horses turn up to the camp. They didn't look like your average Missouri fox trotter."

"Yeah, they sure shocked me a lot when I first saw them as well. After heading north to pursue even more horses, we ran into a bunch of kids around the former city of Duvall who were in a power struggle. We stepped in and resolved the situation, and the winners of the war decided to pledge loyalty to Cascadia. A hundred or so volunteers who were experienced in riding also decided to join our group. Sadly, one of us died during the war and a few others were injured."

"That is truly sad. Your messenger told me about that, and I feel bad about it to this day."

"I feel even worse, even though I didn't have that strong of a connection to her. After the civil war happened, we continued to tame horses and set up moveable camps in the wilderness to spend the nights. Finally, after the fourth week, we had successfully tamed the horses, donkeys, and mules. We spent the next few days making saddles and reins out of animal hide. Finally, we returned."

"I expected that you would tell me a more dramatic story, but this was quite interesting. Except the death of one of us."

"I'm not the best storyteller out there. Remember, the only test I ever passed was a flu test, so my English isn't the greatest. So yeah, that was my story. What happened here when I was gone? Could you give me a brief rundown of things?"

"Yeah, sure. After you left, er… we started building stuff, those kids down in Beacon Hill ambushed our salt collectors which led to a war where we killed most of them, we made guns and stuff, Aidan arrived with a bunch of guys from the Kitsap Peninsula and then he helped some guys build ships, Aidan got a bunch of kids from the Juvenile Detention Facility to help him build his ships, we had a sports and festival day, our scouts returned from the other side of the mountains, and we finally made some cannons and now we're making Gatling Guns."

"Wow there. That's a lot to swallow. Hey, would you mind showing me the cannons? How many have you made?"

"We have four so far, but we should have over a dozen by the time the expedition starts. We'll only haul two of them across the mountains while leaving Adam's fleet to transport the rest, but those will prove sufficient. Oh, we also made a bunch of rocket batteries since they're cheap and effective for mass artillery barrages. They're basically hwachas that fire longer Congreve rockets instead of arrows that have 12 holes in them instead of over a hundred. I can show you these as well if you're interested."

"Those sound pretty cool. I ȧssume you're going to use horses to draw them?"

"No. Donkeys and mules are better, since horses should be reserved for the cavalry and lancers."

"That makes a lot of sense. There's no time to waste. Let's look at the cannons!"

"Walk this way."

I led Lucas through the camp and towards the hill where my house used to be located. The hill was now the new location of the artillery corps and the armory, since the area was easily defensible."

On top of this hill sat five shiny brass cannons, three of them rifled and two of them smoothbore. They were sitting on the carriages the carpenters made, and the sunlight reflecting off of them made them look like true works of art.

Next to these cannons lay about a dozen rocket hwachas, which were officially classified as multiple Congreve rocket launchers. These weren't as illustrious or beautiful as the cannons, but they were meant to do what the cannons could for a cheaper price. They were the leavy lifters of the rocket corps, and upon testing them the rocketeers clearly appreciated them.

I spent the rest of the day with Lucas, showing him everything around the camp.. He even bunked with me in my shelter that night, since the camp ran out of room due to the sudden influx of horsemen.