Outliers 12A Sullivan
Sullivan woke up in his field. The weeds were brown and so was whatever was supposed to be growing. He thought to himself that this should be so much easier than it was. It’s not like we just started the idea of growing things. That’s been going on for like a hundred thousand years or more. But he just didn’t seem to have the knack.
And why was he lying in his field? Oh, right mushrooms.
Sulli got up half naked, with only a pair of shorts on. He staggered back to the shack that was surrounded by rusted sculptures of animals and insects. He looked at his creations and thought, “That’s what I should be doing.” Then he realized that no one would buy them. Hell! There wasn’t even any… money any more. This new world sucks and that Alan asshole was always getting on him about producing something. He looked at his sculptures and said out loud, “These are something.”
At this point he stubbed his toe on something metal and went down. He was crying and pounding the ground, “Why? WHY!”
He woke up on the ground just outside his house. The sun was warm and he felt parched. He crawled into the little house and went to the kitchen. After he drank two glasses of water he looked around. The place was dirty. With clothing, garbage and dust on the flat surfaces and floor. “This is no way to live.”
Sulli’s little haven was six miles west of the Commons. The far side of his property was part of the No-Man’s Land. And one of the Western most lookouts was right down the path from his house, so there was no place to hide from the council and Alan. Man! He hated that man. So perfect. So judgemental. Fancies himself as a know it all. He even had the audacity to say that his metal cockroach was out of proportion. And that his raptor’s claws were too small. What does he know? And it’s art.
Sulli put down his glass and looked at his kitchen. He then slowly started cleaning. He was going to poison himself if he did clean up. And after last night, he didn’t want to do that again.
After he cleaned up the kitchen he stared on his bedroom. Everything needed to be cleaned. So he took it all out back and started the washing process. Clothes had to be manually cleaned. There was only enough power out here for some lights. After ten minutes of scrubbing he was tired and sat down. This would take him all day. He looked out over the field, brown and dusty. What's the use. He wasn’t going to have a thing to show for it and then he couldn’t trade for anything else. He thought about the mushrooms and just how much it would take to stop this madness. But then he wanted to live. Things had to get better then he could be an artist again.
“You can be an artist now.” He heard Alan say.
“How? Seriously, how?” Sulli said to no one. He had drifted off and was dreaming. “Shit! That ass haunts me in my dreams.” Sulli swore. He got up and worked on some more of his laundry. This time he had gotten a dozen pieces of clothing washed, rinsed and wrong out. He then took them over and hung them on the sculptures that were nearby. They were good for this at least.
After that he looked at the fields. It was only May and there was plenty of time to grow stuff, but what? Seeds were no problem. Before everyone started to burn things down, he had raided what was left of the gardening department at the Freddies on Pacific avenue. He had hundreds of packs of seeds. Some of them genetic crap that didn’t grow seeds and some old school ones. He just had to remember the siphon loop thing. There was a pond with a little stream that ran year round. All he had to do was put boards or something to raise the water, then it would go through tubes and pump itself. Then he remembered that the Elder Walk had drawn him a picture.
He went inside and started cleaning up the living room. It had to be here. He found it and looked at it. It was greek. Boards in a slot that blocked the water. When the water rose it went into these pipes that ran out to the fields. It was supposed to be easy, but he just couldn’t remember how it worked. Then he remembered that you had to start it by….
There were two parts. Raise the water and…lift it over the hump. God! That makes no sense. He looked at the drawing again. It had two pictures. One was the ponds on the old golf course and the second was a man with a tube that he managed to get water to flow through. But he had to raise the water on each pound first. Sulli decided to go out to the biggest pound and walk around it. Maybe that would jog something loose.
Half way around at the end where the pond flowed down to the next one he found two metal beams that were pounded into the ground and a pile of two by sixes. They seemed to be cut so that they could fit inside a slot in the beams. That would make a good dam. Sulli put two boards in then two more. The water squished through the cracks, but it did start to rise on the upstream side. It was slow, but it was going up. Sulli said to himself, “Okay!”
Now let's figure out what’s next. There were these hoses that you had to dip into the water then lay on the ground. So he went up and put the hose in the water then went to the other side, but nothing happened. He did this two or three times, but still nothing happened.
Sulli just sat down. This stupid thing is supposed to work. He was there for a while and then he heard talking. It was one of the security teams heading down his road to go to their lookout.
Sulli wanted to make sure that they saw him. For one, it meant that they would not shoot him and two, maybe they knew the secret to getting water flowing. Sulli stood and shouted. “Hey, guys!”
The soldiers stopped and looked in his direction. One spoke to the other three and then came his direction. The others continued on.
Sulli was hopeful. The soldier approached. “Good afternoon sir. Is there a problem?”
Sulli said, “No. No. Just wanted you to know I was here.” Sulli looked about, “Didn’t want to get shot or anything.” He said to no one in particular.
“Okay sir, Well if you don’t need anything. I need to get back.” The soldier said.
Sulli hesitated, then asked. “Do you know how to make the water flow?”
“Excuse me?” the soldier asked.
“Water flow. I’ve raised the level of the pond, but the water won’t flow..” Sulli said.
“Oh! You mean you want to start a syphon. That’s easy.” The soldier said. He took his gloves off and rolled up his sleeves. He then took the hose from Sulli and showed and went to the edge. “You got to submerge the hose and get all the air out. Then plug the ends until you lay it across the hump. Like this.” He did so. “Then release the water.”
The water started to flow into the little irrigation ditch. “See. Easy.”
Sulli felt stupid. That was just too easy. “Thanks.” He said sheepishly.
“No problems. Hey, what’ll you be growing here.” The soldier asked.
“Food, I hope.” Sulli said.
The soldier laughed, “Well yeah, but what?”
Sulli thought about that, “I don’t know.”
“So, you don’t have any seed in the ground yet?” the soldier asked.
“Um. Sulli could not remember if he planted anything here.
The soldier kicked the hose back into the pond and looked at Sulli, “Listen, I’m out here for three days. I will make a patrol by here each morning and we can make up a growing plan for you. You got some paper.”
Sulli thought about that, “Uh yeah.”
“Okay. I’m Sergeant Ray. I need to catch up with my men right now, but I’ll be by tomorrow morning, about 7 am. We can talk about your crops then.”
“Are you a farmer?” Sulli asked.
“We all are. It’s part of the way of it now.” Ray said.
Thinking about that, Sulli watched the soldier start to walk away. “Thank-you.” was all he could think to say. Damn he made that look so easy. Sullie then tried it himself. And it was easy.
Sulli then went to the next pond and did the same to dam up the water to a higher level. He then walked by the stream that led to the last one. He saw that the metal was not done here yet so he needed to get a sledge hammer and put the last piece into the ground. Then he would have to get in the muck and clear out the channel. That was going to take him all day.
Sulli then realised that Alan had told him that the community would help him plant, he just needed a plan and then ask. He hated the idea of asking Alan for anything, but there was a lot of field here and he was just one man that couldn’t even keep up with keeping his house clean. Maybe that nice soldier could ask for him.
The sun was really hot now and Sulli was thirsty. He headed back to his little shack to pump water from the well. He needed to clean up and get ready for his guest in the morning. He then realised that he hadn’t eaten all day. No wonder why he felt weak. He walked towards the clump of trees where his shack was as a breeze kicked up some dust from the dry fields he was hoping to turn into food. “Farming sucks.” he said to the air.
If you like what you have read or want to know more about what is happening in Graham, Click the link and start from the beginning of Outliers Chapter 1
Outliers is book 8 of the Remnant Series. Please visit us on Amazon.com to purchase more books in this series.
Book 1-3: (All in one) Graham Heights. Available in Paperback or kindle
Book 4: The Grey Abyss. Available in Paperback or kindle
Book 5: Choas. Coming Summer of 2026
Book 6: Tarinish and the Obsidian Arrows (In Editing)
Book 7: Gama (In Editing)
Book 8: See blog
Book 9: God of our Fathers
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RA Legg
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