by Andrew Gates
She could hear Dan behind her saying something again, but could not make it out. Once she was comfortable with herself, she turned back around and walked closer to him.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, yes. I feel a lot better now actually.”
“That came suddenly!” Dan exclaimed. He sounded like he had a smile on his face but it was hard to tell in the shadows.
“Let’s go back out again,” she suggested.
“Of course. Are you sure you’re feeling better?”
Iris shrugged. She felt better, or at least better than she had in the past few minutes. She guessed it would not be long before she would feel hungry.
“We need to watch out. Our immune systems are all running pretty hard right now.”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine. It’s nothing. I feel better already,” she explained.
Iris studied the rock as she exited the cave again. Light hit it as they emerged, revealing its smooth brown tone. She was amazed that land could look like this. Reading about it on the Meganet was one thing. Experiencing it in person was completely different. It’s like a shelter built into the ground. It’s amazing.
“How do you think this cave formed?” she asked as they walked out. She was glad she could use this window of silence to change the subject.
Dan giggled and mumbled something too quiet for her to make out. He must have realized this because he stopped himself and repeated his sentence.
“That’s a loaded question,” he said, loud enough for her to hear this time. “Do you want the short answer or the science teacher answer?”
He smiled as he asked this question. So you still can smile, Iris thought. It had been far too long.
“A mix of the two,” she answered, curious to see how he responded. She was mostly just glad to see him happy again.
“Alright,” Dan replied. He grinned at Iris like he was preparing for a challenge. “I don’t know what caused it for sure. Caves form for different reasons. But since there’s an underground water source here, I’d guess that at one point the water had a high carbon dioxide content, which created what’s called carbonic acid. The acid must have eaten away at the rock until it formed a hole.”
Iris was impressed. She did not expect that thorough of an answer.
“How did the entrance get so big?” she asked.
Dan shrugged.
“Lots of erosion,” he turned and faced it, pointing to different parts of the structure. Iris quickly turned with him so that she could hear. “This rock looks like limestone, which is not surprising. The acid probably dissociated the calcium carbonate in the rock, leaving this huge hole here.”
“Wow,” Iris replied. “Did you make that all up just now?” she teased.
Dan glared at her jokingly.
“I mean, that’s a very simplified version of what happened,” he said, almost defensively.
“Do you teach that to the kids?”
“I don’t teach anything to the kids anymore, except for these five we have with us.”
“And how do they usually like this lesson?”
Dan chuckled.
“We haven’t quite gotten to speleogenesis yet.”
“I see,” Iris replied.
It was a refreshing change to see Dan in such a happy mood. Smiles had become a rare sight on the man’s face over the last few days. Once the pod left the station, it seemed like Dan had put himself in charge of keeping them all alive. It was a tough job, and one he did well, but Iris could tell it had already taken a toll.
Dan must have noticed that his happiness made Iris happy too. He pressed his hand against her cheek and looked her in the eyes. They both smiled.
“Thank you, Iris. I needed that.”
“You’ve just been very focused lately. I get it,” she replied.
“Yeah, but it’s good to joke around. We need to keep morale high.”
Iris put her head down and looked up again.
“I just missed your Dan typical behavior,” she joked.
He sighed.
“Hopefully you’ll see more of that again. Hopefully.”
Suddenly a powerful breeze blew in through the trees. Iris turned away from Dan, putting her back to it. The wind hurt, partly because of the cold and partly because of her sunburned skin, which was sensitive to even the slightest touch. She pulled the grey sleeves of her jumpsuit down as far as they could go, though it did not help much.
Dan shivered and pulled his sleeves down too. He let out a slight cough and stepped away from Iris. When the breeze stopped, he took a step toward her again and pointed to something in the distance.
Iris could not hear his words, but it was clear that he wanted to go in that direction.
“What?” the nearly-deaf teacher asked.
“I want to start foraging for food!” Dan repeated. “As much as the rabbit made us sick, this leftover pod stuff isn’t a whole lot better on my stomach.”
Iris understood. Though she wanted to spend more time with him, she nodded her head and let him go on.
Over the past few days, it seemed like the two of them were not the couple she used to know. Dan rarely showed her much affection, and when he did, Iris took full advantage of it. She yearned for his touch, his comfort, his presence. They no longer even slept together. She wondered if this was a sign of change, or just a temporary phase.
Dan patted her on the back and walked away, leaving Iris alone with her thoughts.
The tired teacher wiped some dirt off her suit and looked through the treetops. White puffs of clouds dotted the massive void above her head. As much as she longed to return to life under the water, part of her never wanted to leave the beautiful sight of sky.
It was amazing how different their lives had become in such a short period of time. It was more than an aesthetic change; it was a complete change in their lifestyle. On the surface, survival was no longer a guarantee. There were no red zones here, no supermarkets or restaurants, no residences, no Meganet, not even laundry. They lived on leftovers in a convenient cave. Luck was the only thing that had gotten them this far.
I wonder if this was how the colonists felt when they first settled here.
Iris was just a teenager when she read her first book about the New World. Even to this day, she could remember skimming through the download catalog. The words caught her eye right away.
Jamestown: Settlement of the New World, by Antonin Chesky.
Iris had never heard of the New World before, but she was drawn to it like Trace to shots of adenol. She tapped it without even reading the description. The book was over 600 pages long. She read the whole thing in a night.
It was the early 17th Century. Englishmen arrived in the New World to settle the first colony in what would later become the world’s largest empire. But the colonists were stubborn. Most of them had lived their whole lives in England, a country of luxury, where trading for goods and services was commonplace. Arriving in the New World, the Englishmen never planned to grow their own food. Instead they planned to trade with the native peoples, just like they had done at home.
This proved to be a grave mistake.
In making this decision, the colonists had starved themselves. It was said that during the worst times, the surviving men and women ate whatever they could; dirt, wood, pets, even their own kind.
Iris never liked reading the parts about cannibalism. But she felt strangely drawn to the lesson she learned from this story in history.
It’s impossible to live the old way in a new place. Adapt, or you will die.
That lesson could not be more relevant today.
The half-deaf teacher stood beneath the shadow of the branchless tree and watched as Dan and Jallah collected nuts from the ground. So far Dan seemed to be doing well in his newfound role as leader of this group. But would it be enough?
She could only wonder and hope.
“Hopefully,” she said aloud, remembering Dan’s words. “Hopefully.”
Damn, I can’t seem to hit these things!
Misha shifted in his lap as he sat against the rocks. She wore makeshift clothing they had constructed using pieces from the pressure suits. Though probably full of holes, it was definitely sturdy and she was warmer than any of them now. Grey hoped she was having a comfortable sleep, trying not to move even as her weight cut off the circulation in his legs.
It was early morning and the watchful father could see splashes of reds and oranges covering the sea above his head. He shivered, breathing out wisps of water vapor into the crisp air, wondering if he was the first one awake again today.
Grey could not remember how many nights they had spent in this cave. Three? Four? He had lost count. Already it felt like a lifetime.
Sleep had come immediately for all of them the first night on solid ground. After a day of setting up the HPE, testing the suits, then taking down the HPE and looking for shelter, exhaustion had overcome them all. Even waking up the next morning had been a challenge. Most of them had gotten sick overnight and had trouble finding the energy to stand and move. Almost everyone had a fever. Kaitlyn’s face looked visibly red and Selena had erupted in a coughing fit. She struggled to breathe for quite a while. Grey had been terrified, fighting through his own discomfort to make sure his family would pull through.
The extra food from the pod did not sit well with many of their stomachs that day. Jallah was lucky enough to find a dead animal, a so-called ‘rabbit’, a thing with long ears and a surprisingly soft coat. They skinned and cooked the animal and ate its nutritious meat like it had come right from a restaurant. Each of them only got a small bite, but it was better than eating more of that crap from the pod, even at the cost of worsening stomach pains for some.
The stream at the bottom of the cave turned out to offer them more than just fresh drinking water: the air down below was frigid and perfect for storing their food. They packed away the few reserves they had there, the cool keeping them fresh and protecting them from being stolen by whatever other creatures were outside.
The rabbit had been the only time they managed to eat an animal though. Dan and Grey both tried hunting a few times, but were consistently unsuccessful. All creatures seemed to be faster on their feet than humans and their running patterns less predictable. Some animals, like birds, could fly into the air at any given moment. Squirrels seemed particularly elusive. Their small size made it easy for them to hide in bushes, disappear under leaves or burrow into crevasses. Even after fastening long spears out of sticks with sharpened points, Dan and Grey could not seem to corner the elusive creatures.
Despite having fresh meat for dinner, the first full day was still the hardest. Each day seemed to get easier after that, though nobody had really recovered from whatever illness was plaguing them. Even Grey found himself feeling sluggish and bursting out into coughing fits at times, though he tried to hide it from his kids.
Grey took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling the wind brush against his face. He wondered how long they would have to live like this, out in nature, away from society. As far as he knew, they may have been the last humans on the planet.
“Hey, Mr. Georgopolis!” Jallah said excitedly as he appeared from behind one of the rocks.
“Sshh,” Grey responded, pointing to little Misha on his lap.
Jallah raised his hands and slowly tiptoed to Grey. The young girl was still asleep and would hopefully stay like that for quite a while.
“Sorry,” he whispered.
“It’s fine,” Grey responded in a hushed tone, “and remember, you can call me Grey. No need to call me by my last name anymore. You know this.”
Jallah sat down next to them.
“Sorry,” he said again, staring at a rock before him, avoiding Grey’s gaze.
“It’s fine. Are you the only one up?”
Jallah nodded his head.
“How are you feeling?” Grey asked.
“Still sick. You?”
Grey nodded back.
“What do you think is happening to us?” Jallah asked, finally looking up.
Grey could only shrug.
“We’re in a new place,” he suggested. “There are insects, plants… air.”
“But I thought the air was safe!” Jallah said, a little too loud. His eyes went wide as he realized what he had done.
But the sleeping girl only adjusted herself in her father’s lap. Grey ran a gentle hand through her hair, hoping to calm her down. She wiggled a bit, but then settled, unperturbed by Jallah’s mishap.
“Sorry,” he said for the third time.
“Don’t worry, just keep your voice down.”
Jallah shuffled towards him a bit and then repeated his question, this time much quieter than before. Grey had to lean in to catch the words.
“But I thought the air was safe?”
“It is. But it’s a new place. Our bodies were not built for it. Our kind has been away for quite some time.”
“How is it that we can breathe at all here, though? Shouldn’t we be suffocating or turning into mutants or something?” Jallah asked.
Grey sighed and slid his fingers through his hair. Some of the strands came out easily.
“I… I’m not sure. I guess we’ve been gone so long that maybe the planet had time to reset.”
“You mean it just went back to normal? All on its own?”
Grey raised his shoulders and dropped them heavily. The boy wanted answers he simply did not have. Everything now was guesswork.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. There was no point lying to the boy, or sugarcoating it. He was old enough to deal with the truth. “It’s just a theory.”
Dan and Iris had spent the bulk of yesterday hypothesizing on how the atmosphere could have become livable. None of them had any clear answers, but Iris would not stop going on about something called time dilation, whatever that meant. Dan did not seem to think her theories had any merit though, and as he was the only science expert left, Grey was inclined to follow Dan’s expertise.
When it came to theories on the atmosphere, Grey didn’t want to overthink it. His theory was simple: humanity had been under the ocean for a long time. Perhaps the atmosphere just evolved back to its original state.
It’s equilibrium. Nature is like a math equation. If you take something away, nature will find a way to put it back in. Nothing ever disappears; it only shifts into something new.
Only last week, nature had only been a concept to Grey. Now he was living in it, and he could not imagine anything more beautiful and perfect. It would find balance, one way or another. That’s how it worked.
“Why are you always up so early?” Jallah asked, changing the subject.
“I get worried,” Grey replied. “I have kids to look after and a wife. They’re in a new place and they’re all sick.”
“But aren’t you also sick?”
Grey nodded, though if his kids had been awake to see it, he would have given a different answer.
“I am. But wait until you’re a father. You’ll know what it’s like to worry at night.”
He ran his hand across Misha’s back. She looked so comfortable sleeping there. He, however, could no longer feel his feet.
“What if they stay sick forever?”
“Then I’ll be the first one up for a long time,” Grey answered.
Footsteps behind him forced Grey to turn, but it was only Ophelia. He motioned towards her, signaling to Jallah that he should go with her. The boy picked up on his cue and pushed himself up on his feet, brushing the dirt off his rump with a smooth move of his hand. The motion had already become habit for him. The two of them continued forward towards the branchless tree that towered over them.
Grey had become well acquainted with that tree. Th
ey all had. From the very start, it acted as a useful marker for finding the cave. Plus the fallen branches around its base supplied them with enough firewood for however many nights they’d spent here already. It couldn’t have been more conveniently located.
At times Grey wondered about that tree. It seemed unusual that this would be the only tree missing every last branch from the bottom to the top. He wondered if that was something natural, or if it had been cut that way intentionally. If so, how and by whom?
The tired father felt a cough coming on. He held his hands to his mouth, hoping to muffle the sound. The coughs took over him. The muscles in his belly tightened over and over again as he forced the air painfully out of his lungs. Misha’s head bobbed with his body, up and down and up and down. She wiggled a bit and eventually lifted her head.
“Wha… what?” she said as she slowly started trying to sit up.
Oh crap, I guess I woke her up.
“Hey honey,” he calmly replied, rubbing her head. It was so small in his hand, so delicate.
She looked up at him. Her eyes were barely open.
“Where are we?” she asked. She looked around, seemingly confused.
“We’re on the surface, remember?”
“Oh. Oh yeah, I forgot,” she said, almost mumbling the words.
She crawled off of his lap and sat down next to him on the hard rock. Though Grey wanted her to sleep more, part of him was relieved that she was no longer on top of him. He adjusted himself and bent his legs. He felt the blood rushing back into them, flowing like a wave of warmth.
“Do we get to go home today, dad?” she asked.
Grey shook his head.
“Not today. You know what I’ve been telling you, Misha.”
“I know, I know. You said we might not ever go back. But I want to!”
He looked down into the color of her eyes, irises that soaked up the entirely of the ocean – both the ones above and below. They were sad. He knew nothing he could say would take that away from her.
“I know you do,” he said, running his tongue over his dry lips. “But it’s not that easy. I’m not sure if we’ll ever go back, honey.”
