The remaining four recovered quickly.
Without stopping to check on their companions they came after her.
Evelyn had no way to defend herself; she turned and ran as fast as she could.
The pine-needles beneath her feet were slippery, and twice she stumbled and nearly fell. She had made it a hundred yards up the slope when her foot plunged through a thin layer of pine-needles into the concealed burrow of some small animal and she went sprawling as a jolt of pain shot up her leg.
She pushed herself up, risking a glance behind her. One of the higher humans appeared from behind a pine tree and fired his blaster at her. He was far away, and he had fired without taking careful aim: the shock wave passed her by, just catching her in the left arm. Evelyn grabbed a rock buried in the loamy ground beside her and spun, hurling it at him with considerable force. The rock caught him in the knuckles and he cried out, dropping his weapon. She didn't waste any more time waiting for his companions to show up.
She pressed onward up the slope, her left arm feeling numb, and searched for signs of the others. The trees seemed to be thinning out as the ground became rockier and the incline steepened, and suddenly she was scrambling up bare rock, forced to use her hands or risk slipping on the loose stones. She glanced back again. There was no cover here: if the higher humans caught up to her she would be an easy target.
“Evelyn! Up here!” She looked ahead past an outcropping of stone to where Matthew was waving at her. He and the others appeared to have reached the summit of the slope. She was almost there … just a little further. She had to get around this overhanging rock somehow.
“Look out!” Matthew called, but it was too late. The blast hit her full in the back and slammed her face into the solid stone before her. She dropped back to the ground, falling in-between a boulder and the outcrop. White noise roared in her head. Pain swam behind her eyes. It was over. After everything, it was over.
It seemed that the stones embracing her had begun to tremble, and as her vision faded something dark flew across the gap of sky above her.
Then, for what felt like the umpteenth time, she lost consciousness.
“Evelyn!”
She felt hands on her shoulders, shaking her.
“Evelyn, wake up.”
Her eyes opened. “Matthew ...” She looked around her. They were still on the rock face. The others were standing over her, looking around cautiously. “What happened?”
“We kinda started an avalanche.” He glanced down the slope and added grimly. “I don't think any of them survived.”
At her look of confusion he gave a small smile. “You sure picked a good place to get shot.”
Evelyn glanced past his shoulder at the overhanging rock beneath which she had fallen. The outcrop had protected her …
“You started an avalanche … on purpose?” Had they known she was protected by the overhang?
He looked away. “I know it was risky … But it was the only way we could drive them off. I'm glad you're okay.”
Suddenly Evelyn remembered something. “How long was I out for?”
“I dunno … maybe ten minutes?”
“We need to move.” She began pulling herself up and he helped her.
“Why? We got all of them.”
“I heard them speaking back there, about something called the Jumper. I'm guessing it's some kind of aircraft they've got stowed aboard the Cloud.” Evelyn looked at Brenner as she said this, watching her face. Brenner had been connected to the Cloud. Would she still remember everything she had known when she was part of the hive mind of higher humans? Her face didn't register any recognition, but she did turn her head towards the sky with what Evelyn couldn't help but think was a hopeful look.
“Well,” Matthew said, “whatever it is I'm sure it was damaged in the crash. Surely we would have seen it by now otherwise.” He followed Brenner's gaze skywards, giving the clouds a quick scan.
Evelyn took her eyes off Brenner. “I hope so. But we should still keep moving. Did you see anything from the summit?”
Matthew shook his head. “Nothing useful. There's a mountain range in the distance that way.” he pointed towards where they had come from, where even from here Evelyn could see a wall of mountains on the horizon beyond the expansive pine forest. Her eyes fell on the plumes of smoke that were still rising from the broken hull of the Cloud. From here, she could finally see it's full size. It was bigger than a stadium. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any aircraft ascending from the downed space station for the time being.
Matthew continued, “On the other side of this hill the land seems to slope downwards again into another forest, though it looks a lot denser.
“Anything else?”
Matthew shook his head. “Just a mountain.”
Evelyn raised her eyebrows. “A single mountain? Not part of a range?”
“Yeah, why?”
Evelyn began climbing up the rock face towards the summit. “Well, it's doubtful we're in the same region as before, but Bob's Colony was at the foot of a single mountain...”
Matthew and the others followed after her. “Might be worth checking out, I guess. It's pretty far, though.” They reached the top, where a thick forest stretched out below them and the solitary mountain could be seen in the distance. Evelyn couldn't be sure, but it looked a lot like the one she remembered …
“It won't be easy going through those woods,” Brenner pointed out.
“No, but they'll provide cover if they do come looking for us by air,” Evelyn said. “And I don't really know where else we should go. At least if we don't find anything that mountain will give us a better view point than this hill.”
“You wanna climb that?” Kenji said. “I'll wait at the bottom, thanks.”
“If we even make it to the bottom,” Brenner said.
Evelyn looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“We have no idea what's lurking in that forest.” Brenner elaborated. “We have no food, no water. I'm just saying ...”
“Do you have a better idea?” Evelyn asked.
“Well … maybe if we just went back to the Cloud and spoke to Matthew's dad … You could apologize–”
“For blowing up his space station? Yeah, I bet he'll love that.”
“He just wants what's best for humankind.”
“Right,” Evelyn said, “that's why he's been keeping the entire population of Earth as a slave labor force and eating anyone who breaks the rules.”
Brenner's voice was quiet when she replied. “I know it sounds horrible, and I can't make you understand. But I know it as certainly as I've ever known anything: we were meant to evolve to highest humanity: every human connected, freed from physical bonds. Miles Tucker did what was necessary to try and achieve that.”
“Hmm, sounds like destiny,” Evelyn replied with dripping sarcasm. Brenner was beginning to get on her nerves.
“You could call it destiny.”
“Well I won't. Any destiny that involves enslaving and murdering innocent people is one I'll do everything I can to prevent.” There were nods from the others.
Brenner, sensing the group's growing hostility towards her, decided to hold her tongue.
“Now, we'd better get moving. The sooner we can get into the woods the better. I don't like how exposed we are out here.” Evelyn began leading them down the far side of the hill towards the woods several hundred feet below them.
The gradient was less steep on this side, and even Kenji, helped along by Matthew, was able to make a good pace. Before long, they were in the woods.
“This forest ...” Matthew murmured, looking around. “It feels familiar.”
“Yeah,” Kenji said. “I wonder if it has wolves.”
“Let's just keep quiet,” Evelyn suggested, “and head for the mountain.”
“Man, I'm so thirsty,” Kenji said.
“We all are Kenji,” Evelyn said tenderly. “If we're lucky we'll find a stream or river.”
“And if we're not lucky?” Brenner asked.
No one said anything, but Evelyn could tell they were all imagining what it would be like to die of dehydration, or worse.
The day was hot, and the air below the trees was humid. Before long their clothes were all soaked with sweat, and small, blood-sucking insects had begun following them. The sound of their muffled trudging through the trees was accentuated by sounds of slapping as the insects made meals of them. Evelyn seemed to be the only one spared by the bugs, which she supposed was no surprise.
After about an hour, Kenji stopped. “Guys, I'm sorry. I … I can't. My ankle is killing me. Can we rest for a bit?”
Evelyn looked back at him, leaning heavily on Matthew's shoulder. Matthew, too, looked exhausted. He gave Evelyn a look that said he agreed with Kenji.
“Okay,” Evelyn said, looking around them. “We'll rest here a while.” They were beneath a large oak tree, and a boulder buried in the ground beside it provided a backrest against which Kenji immediately slumped.
“Ah, that's better,” he said, massaging the affected ankle. “Now if only a magical unicorn would appear and deliver us some of those dope-ass chocolate milkshakes they had aboard the Cloud.”
“I'd say our chances are pretty slim,” Evelyn said, smiling to see that despite his exhaustion Kenji was still his same old self. “Listen, you guys stay here and rest. I'm going to take a look around, see if I can't find something to eat or drink.”
“Uh, are you sure that's a good idea?” Matthew said from where he had slumped down beside Kenji. “I mean, shouldn't we stick together?”
“Yeah,” Clove added, “I don't think you should go alone, at any rate.”
To Evelyn's surprise, Brenner stood up, brushing off a few dead leaves that had stuck to the seat of her pants. “Clove's right. You shouldn't go alone. What if something happens? I'll go with you.”
Evelyn stared at her for a minute. She wasn't sure she trusted Brenner anymore. The augmentation had changed her … But she wanted to take a look around, and the others were right: it would be too dangerous alone.
“Okay then.” She quickly assessed the area in which they had halted. “The ground seems to slope downwards a bit here. If there's a stream, it'll be this way. Shall we?”
“After you,” Brenner said.
Gritting her teeth, Evelyn turned and set off. As she walked, she was hyper-aware of Brenner's footsteps behind her. How strongly did Brenner really believe they were doing the wrong thing by trying to put an end to Miles Tucker's plans? Enough to attempt to kill her? She doubted it, but nevertheless she kept her weight on the balls of her feet, ready to spring aside if she sensed an attack.
“You could join it, you know,” Brenner said behind her.
“Join what?”
“The network of linked minds. You could really become human, as much as any of us. If we achieved highest humanity it wouldn't matter what kind of body you had before. We would all be the same.”
Evelyn didn't really know what to say to this. “Sound's wonderful.”
“Don't you want that? I've seen how you look at Matthew.”
Evelyn didn't say anything.
“He'll never feel the same way about you, now that he knows what you are.”
Was this really the same Brenner who before had been the only one to stand up for her when her secret had been revealed? “Let's just try and find some water, okay?” she said, in an effort to put an end to the conversation. Brenner was pushing her buttons, whether intentionally or not, and Evelyn didn't want to find herself assaulting the girl.
“Sure,” Brenner said, but there was a satisfied tone to her voice. She knew she had sown a seed in Evelyn's mind.
And, Evelyn realized, Brenner was right. She did want to be like the rest of them. She resented her fake body and her own self-perceived humanness. Even though she knew it was only a trick of her programming, she wanted with all her heart to be real: to be human. But not the way Brenner suggested. She wanted a body, a human body. Like Matthew. She shook her head to dispel the memory of his face close to hers, lips parted for a kiss.
Higher humanity, highest humanity – however great Brenner and Matthew's father might think it would be to leave their bodies and join their minds to a computer, all Evelyn wanted was the opposite.
Suddenly she heard a welcome sound.
“Hear that?” she said. “Water.”
“Mhmm.” Brenner came up beside her.
“Let's go have a drink, then we'll go back and get the others,” Evelyn said.
They made their way forward, and Evelyn could sense that the forest was wetter here. There was more greenery growing beneath the trees, and even the trees themselves appeared lusher. A few more paces and they came upon a small stream that had cut a shallow rut in the loam of the forest floor, exposing a rocky bed over which it babbled merrily. A startled frog leaped into the water as they approached, and they carefully made their way onto the slippery rocks and bent to scoop up handfuls of the sweet water.
“Wow, that's good,” Brenner said.
Evelyn gave her a long look. “Brenner, how could you give this up?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you have the gift of life. You're real. How could you give up the opportunity to taste and breathe and love. To be.”
Brenner looked at her curiously. “You mean why would I want to leave my body?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Because all this,” she gestured around them, “everything you've just described, is an illusion.” She looked into the stream, shaking her head. “When I was part of the Cloud I understood: everything we are now is a result of millions of years of random chance, of atoms knocking together until something happened. The life – the reality – we've been given is a result of chance. It's special only because it's rare, and sure it can be great, but we're beyond that now; we don't need chance anymore. We can create life, create reality, more vivid and more perfect than this. And we can inhabit countless worlds and live countless lives at the same time. I did, for a short while.”
“I must say, I have a hard time believing that.”
“If you were human I'd tell you your brain isn't capable of imaging it. But you're not human. I think your brain is capable of imagining it. You just need to try.”
Evelyn looked at her. “Do you remember the crashed ship we found, the one from Mars?”
Brenner paled.
“So, you know …” Evelyn had learned the truth about that too, when she had been connected to the Cloud.
“They couldn’t be allowed to land. They would have sown discord among the colonies.”
“So the higher humans, who you’ve become so enamored with, shot them down?”
“You wouldn’t understand.” Brenner stood up.
“You’re right about that.”
“Come on. Let's get back to the others.”
Evelyn shook her head. She couldn’t believe Brenner had changed so much. She stood, ready to rejoin the company of friends she still knew, but she saw something that made her freeze.
“Brenner,” she whispered. “We’re being watched.”
Something had moved in the bushes on the opposite bank. Something large.
Brenner slowly turned, following her gaze. Evelyn carefully reached down and picked up a rock.
The creature emerged.
“My very good friends!” Bob said in delight. “I'm so glad I did finding you.”
Evelyn dropped the rock, a thousand thoughts racing through her mind. If Bob was here, that meant the Colony could not be far. But how had he found them? She broke into a smile. “Bob! I didn't think we'd ever see you again.”
“Me too I did not thinking it,” Bob said, his face falling. “But very good that you are being here. Something very bad did happening.” He wrung his hands pitifully. “Very very very bad.”
26
Bob stood before them; Kenji and Matthew still leaning up against the boulder; Clove sitting on
a tussock of grass; Evelyn and Brenner standing.
“Tell them what you told us, Bob.”
Bob took a deep breath, looking around at them gravely. “After you did going into the Tall Hut, I did watching from the trees and did seeing you all running and chasing by the Taken. I did seeing that shiny box come down from the sky and those very strange peoples carrying you away. I did feeling so very sad to seeing my new friends going back into the sky, and even more sad when I did seeing that every peoples in the Colony had become Taken. Every one! They did all standing there in lines and waiting, and I too did waiting and watching them. It was not a long time after that the shiny box did coming back down to the Colony and I did thinking you my very good friends were coming back! But nobody did coming out of the shiny thing. Instead the Taken did going inside it and it did taking them up into the sky. Many times the shiny box did coming back and taking away the Taken until there were no peoples left in the Colony.” Here Bob, who had become increasingly animated as he spoke, slumped at the shoulders and shook his head.
“I did returning to my very safe place and did eating some very tasty fishes, but even those tasty fishes did not making me happy again. I did wondering what had happened to you my very good friends and to all of those Peoples from the Colony.” Suddenly he became excited again. “Then, when I did going outside to … you know ...” He wiggled a hand at his genitals. “I did hearing a very loud noises in the sky, and I did seeing a big fire there too. This big fire did come crashing down to the ground, and I did go to finding it. But instead I did finding you, my very very very good friends.” He beamed at them, and Evelyn couldn't help but smile back.
“So,” Bob continued, “did you seeing the peoples from the Colony when you were being up there in the sky?”
Evelyn's smile vanished as she remembered what Matthew had told them he'd seen, about the people being fed into a giant mincer. She felt sick just thinking about it, and briefly glanced at Matthew. He had actually seen it. She couldn't imagine what he must have felt. “Yes, Bob. We did see them.” She looked significantly at the others. “The are all living in the stars now, and they are free.”
The Cloud Page 24
