The Rising Tide

by J. Scott Coatsworth

  Andy had suggested she try art as an outlet for her emotions, and she found it gave her a way to channel her anger and fear in a way that added something beautiful to the world.

  Next to her, Andy mumbled, turning over on her side and rubbing her temple. Her eyes opened.

  Marissa set her carving aside. “How are you feeling?” She was sitting in a beautiful wooden chair that Delancy had made. Her friend had a gift for woodwork, too, both with and without her talent, and she’d started making chairs for each of the people at the schoolhouse.

  “I’ve been better.” She sat up, and her face turned a pale shade of green. She reached for the mattress to steady herself. “Was all that real? The snake? Transfer Station? Oh God, tell me you and Shandra didn’t have to come and find me.”

  Marissa came to sit next to her on the bed. “Lie down. Shandra’s watching the kids this afternoon.” She smoothed Andy’s hair away from her face. “And yes, it was real. In vee, but it was real.”

  “The snake… it bit me.” She held her arm up and examined the skin. It was smooth, unblemished. “It felt so real.”

  Marissa nodded. “Ana is looking into it.”

  Andy frowned. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Maybe we should wait until you feel better.”

  “I feel fine.” Andy sat up again. She looked dizzy, but she steadied herself and stared at Marissa. “Tell me.”

  “My father is back.” It pained her to call him that. “Your uncle, Jayson.”

  Andy’s hands squeezed the sheets. “Where?”

  “Shandra said he wandered into a farmhouse out on the edge of the Verge. He was starving and confused.” Marissa looked out the window, wondering where he had been. If he ever thought about the children he had fathered. How he’d been able to do what he did. “The sheriff is on his way to see him.”

  “Eddy?”

  Marissa nodded.

  “And Davian?”

  Marissa shook her head. “Shandra said there was no sign of him. She told me, but she hasn’t told the others.”

  “She trusts you.” Andy sighed. “God, I hope Davian is dead. After what he did to you….”

  “Do you think… did my father know what he was doing?” Marissa squeezed her hands in her lap.

  Andy looked troubled. “I really don’t know.”

  “Shandra says no more vee, for now.” Marissa looked out the window at the schoolyard.

  “No more vee. No more dipping. No more using our talents until we know what’s going on.” She pushed herself up out of bed.

  Marissa tried to block her. “Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to be up?”

  “I have to. The other kids need to hear from me, see that I’m all right.”

  “But are you?” Marissa laid a hand on her shoulder. She hated to see Andy overextend herself.

  “All right. That’s enough.” Her voice was sharp. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but I have to do this.” Andy reached for her trousers, which sat on another chair. Marissa handed them to her and helped her pull them on.

  “Does that hurt?”

  Andy managed a grin. “Only a lot.”

  Marissa handed her a shirt. Andy was the closest thing she had to a mother, and it was hard to see her like this.

  “I’ll come back and rest right afterward, I promise.” She started toward the door.

  Marissa pulled her back. “Right after.”

  Andy laughed. “You’re quite the task mistress.”

  Marissa snickered. “I learned from the best.”

  Andy kissed her forehead. “Love you, Marissa.”

  They left the small cabin Andy and Shandra shared and stepped out onto the porch. It was starting to rain outside, the air heavy with moisture.

  Marissa helped her stay upright as they followed the covered pathway, breathing in the fresh air.

  Music floated out of the open windows, and Andy stopped, enchanted.

  The heart of the mallow tree,

  The needles of the alifir,

  The glow on my grass-stained knee

  The song in my heart does stir….

  “Who wrote that?” Andy whispered.

  Marissa cocked her ear. “I think that’s one of Danny’s.”

  “As long as we still make music, I have hope for humankind.” The vocals were accompanied by the strumming of a pantir, a string instrument Rolly had come up with, something like a violin but with a richer, earthier sound.

  Marissa squeezed her hand.

  When the song ended, Andy mounted the stairs. She took a deep breath to steady herself, put a smile on her face, and entered the schoolhouse building.

  “Andy!” Shandra got up and threw herself into Andy’s arms. Soon she was surrounded by the kids’ happy faces.

  “Yes, I’m okay. Please sit down.”

  They did as they were told, though the youngest, Rain, clung to her leg. Marissa took a seat at the back, watching the scene fondly.

  Shandra brought Andy a chair and she sat down carefully, lifting the ten-year-old up into her lap. “You all sang so beautifully. I just had to come hear you. Danny, that was lovely.”

  Danny beamed. “Thanks, Andy.”

  Delancy raised her hand.

  “Yes?”

  “What happened to you? In vee?” Concern creased her brow.

  “Probably just a glitch in the system.” Andy held up her arm. “I’m fine, see? Just a little headache.”

  Delancy looked doubtful.

  “For now, though, we’re going to stay out of vee.” There were sighs around the room. “Just until we know what happened.”

  “It’s for the best.” Marissa looked around the room at her classmates. “Do you want something like that to happen to Andy again?”

  George snickered.

  “Do you want it to happen to you?” She glared at him.

  He looked down at the ground, his cheeks reddening. “No, Marissa.”

  “Okay, then.” There were some perks to being the oldest, after all.

  “Thanks, Mari.” Andy flashed her a grateful smile.

  “You’re really okay?” Andy should be in bed recuperating, not taking a hundred questions.

  Andy looked a little queasy. “A good night’s rest and I’ll be good as new.”

  Marissa smiled, and so did most of the rest of the kids.

  “That means no dipping, no touching the world mind. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” they answered in unison.

  Andy chuckled. “We’ll start class again tomorrow. In the meantime, you all have the rest of the day off.”

  There were cheers at that.

  “Okay, ready to go back to bed now.” Andy was wobbly on her feet.

  “Good girl.” Shandra helped her get up, gently disengaging Rain from her leg. “Keep an eye on everyone?” she asked Marissa.

  “I will.”

  Marissa watched them go. She loved them both like they were her own parents, but still, she wondered.

  What’s my father really like?

  EDDY AND Santi reached the Verge by midafternoon. They’d stopped to pick apples from the orchards that ringed the world on the highlands above Micavery. Eddy loved getting a bite of the fresh fruit, plucked off the tree seconds before.

  Things had been bad on Earth in the waning days before the Collapse, and fresh produce had become increasingly hard to come by. Many days, he’d gotten by on old canned goods.

  For soldiers, there had always been some kind of food, but most of it was packaged, and half of it was an artificial paste the troops called spackle, though it was really called Standard Produced Artificial Comestible, or SPAC for short.

  It was flavorless, and although it supposedly contained all the nutrients a human body needed, it always left him unsatisfied.

  Plus, it was a little too Soylent Green for his tastes. Who knew what they put in that crap?

  Now they rode through the first part of the Verge.

  A s
torm was coming, and it looked to be a heavy one. “What do you say we wait out the storm under the trees there? We can string up a tarp.” He pointed at a stand of elm trees that had been reengineered for Forever’s ecosystem.

  “Sounds good.” Santi left the roadway and urged his horse into a trot across the open field.

  Eddy followed, glancing up at the sky. The storm clouds wound around the spindle, darkening it and dimming the world as they prepared to let loose their moisture.

  He urged Cassie up the hill and underneath the glowing branches. He dismounted and unpacked the canvas tarp he’d brought with him.

  Santi helped him tie it to four of the trees, creating a slightly angled roof that would keep off the worst of the rain.

  They tethered the horses and sat down under the tarp to wait out the tempest.

  Eddy pulled out a couple more apples. They’d lost their glow but still looked delicious. He also took out some bread and cheese and his canteen. “We can have a proper picnic, here in the woods.”

  Santi laughed. “Some woods.” He looked around the little copse of trees. “I suppose we can. I brought a little raisin bread, if you want some.”

  “Oooh, we have raisin bread again?” He accepted a chunk of it happily. “I do miss the supermarket sometimes.”

  “Oh, don’t get me started. Pepsi and those little chocolate Ovango cookies—”

  “And pasta. Holy shit, I miss lasagna, and raviolis—”

  “And garlic bread.” Santi took one of the apples and bit into it, the juice glowing as it ran from one corner of his mouth.

  The rain started, setting up a pleasant thrumming on their canvas roof. One of the horses nickered, then went back to eating grass.

  “I bet we could still have garlic bread. The world mind carries all the genomes for common plants and animals.” Eddy bit into the raisin bread. “Holy crap, this is good.”

  Santi nodded. “That would be fucking amazing. Did you know there’s a place in Darlith that makes a half-decent spaghetti?”

  “Seriously? That would be amazing. I’ll have to check it out next time I get into town.”

  A deep rumble shook their little copse of trees.

  “That sounded like thunder.” Eddy squinted out at the storm. Thunder and lightning were rare occurrences on Forever. They happened from time to time, but in the last fifteen years, he could only remember a handful of occasions.

  “That’s weird.” Santi grinned.

  The rain was heavier now, coming down in thick sheets that cut off the view to fewer than a dozen meters in any direction.

  Eddy picked up a chunk of cheese. It was one of the newer varieties, grown in caverns close to Micavery, and had a pleasantly nutty flavor. “You should try this—”

  A lightning bolt struck one of the trees, the flash blinding as it knocked Eddy backward into the trunk of one of the other trees in the grove.

  Eddy opened his eyes, but the afterimage almost blinded him.

  He crawled forward, looking for his companion. “Santi, are you okay?” he shouted over the rain and thunder.

  Eddy found him lying flat on his back. Frantically he scrambled up to him and checked his pulse. Santi’s heart was still beating.

  As his vision returned, he could see that the tree that had been struck by lightning was in flames, though the heavy rain was slowly dousing them.

  Santi hadn’t responded.

  “Santi, can you hear me?”

  His eyes were closed, but his chest lifted and fell.

  Eddy put his hand under Santi’s head. It was sticky. He must have been knocked into something by the bolt too.

  Eddy didn’t want to move him.

  He reached out and captured some of the rain that was dripping off the edge of the tarp and rubbed it gently across his companion’s cheek and forehead.

  Santi’s brown eyes flickered open as he looked up at Eddy. Santi focused on him and stiffened. “What are you doing?”

  “Hey, it’s okay.” Eddy held up his hands to show he was no threat. “I was just checking to see if you were all right. You got knocked around pretty good by the lightning strike.”

  Santi stared at him for a moment and then nodded. “You weren’t trying to….” He seemed to have a hard time saying it.

  “No. Not at all. I was scared that you were hurt. That’s all.”

  “Okay. Sorry. It’s just that I didn’t… I don’t want that. Not with you. Not with anyone.”

  Eddy held his hands out in surrender. “Okay. Look, you don’t have anything to worry about with me.” He’d always found Santi attractive, but nothing had ever happened between them. Maybe now he knew why. Someone must have hurt him.

  Santi laughed ruefully. “Right. I know that. I’m sorry. Just got a bit shaken up.”

  “I get it.”

  The air felt weird. Santi’s hair was rising on his head, making him look like a monster from some tri dee flick. “Get down and cover your ears!”

  They fell to the ground as another bolt struck one of the trees in the grove, splitting it with an almost deafening crack.

  It fell to the ground next to them with a terrible crash, bringing their tarp down with it.

  Eddy looked up, pulling his hands away from his ears. They were inside a half-tent made by the tarp and the collapsed tree.

  Santi grunted and pointed. His horse had been struck and lay splayed out under the trees. It twitched a few times and then stilled.

  Cassie was nowhere to be seen.

  The rain slowed, though it kept up a steady pace.

  Eddy tapped his loop.

  Lex’s voice spoke in his head. “Yes, Eddy?”

  “Lex, there’s a really bad storm coming through the Verge… it just killed one of our horses.”

  “I’ve been getting reports from across Darlith and the Verge. Something is messing with my biorhythms.”

  “Have you told Aaron? People in Micavery need to take cover.”

  “Yes, he’s been notified. Are the two of you okay?”

  “I think so. The worst of the storm seems to have passed.”

  “I’ll let Aaron know.”

  “Can you get me Jendra?”

  “One moment.”

  Eddy waited for his lieutenant to come on the line.

  “Hi, Eddy. Bit busy at the moment.”

  “You heard about the storm?”

  “Living it right now. We’re getting everyone inside.”

  He nodded. “Thanks, Jendra. Knew I could count on you.”

  “Backatcha, boss.”

  LEX PROBED her systems, trying to figure out why things were going haywire. There was a wrench in the works somewhere, but her diagnostics were all coming up with nothing.

  Something was drawing resources away from her core systems. She could see them flowing, disappearing into a black hole. She’d seen something like it once before, when Jackson had blocked himself off from the other Immortals. She’d been able to infer his presence from the system resources he was using, but his whereabouts were blocked from her.

  Do you think these things are all connected? Ana’s mind overlapped hers, making true speech unnecessary. More and more, she and her onetime nemesis were one and the same.

  I don’t know. So many anomalies at once, though? It’s likely.

  The dead trees alarm me the most. Lightning?

  Lex expressed negation. No storms big enough for that kind of damage, until now.

  They both remembered what had happened aboard the Dressler, when an almost microscopic fungus had brought down the whole ship.

  Lex shuddered.

  We’ll figure it out. Ana sounded determined.

  We must.

  Chapter Four: Snow

  EDDY SAT at the edge of the grove, watching the last bits of the storm recede toward the South Pole.

  He’d decided to give Santi some space. He’d had no idea the man had been abused by someone. That had to be it, right? Not that Eddy had any interest in him in that way, in any case
. But he hadn’t meant to cross that line with Santi, even unintentionally.

  Santi was a good-looking guy. Eddy had noticed.

  In any case, it seemed best to put a little distance between the two of them, at least for a while.

  The storm had done some serious damage. From where he stood, he could see dead trees stretching from the hill up along the curve of the world. There were a few larger black patches too… whether from lightning strikes or whatever had ailed those alifir trees, he couldn’t be sure.

  So what now? They didn’t have a lot of options.

  They’d lost both horses, one killed by a falling tree and the other gone during the storm. Cassie… he’d raised her from a foal. He could only hope she would find her way home eventually. Maybe she would be waiting for him when he returned.

  He and Santi could make their way on foot across the Verge to see what Jayson was doing there. They could wait for reinforcements. Or they could start back toward home.

  “Hey.” Santi came to sit next to him. “¿Cómo estás?”

  “Okay. Still a bit shaken up.” He glanced at the grove behind them, where several of the trees had collapsed. “That was pretty intense.”

  He nodded. “I’m sorry for reacting the way I did.”

  “It’s okay.” Eddy rubbed his neck absentmindedly. “Must have been weird to wake up with me looming over you like that.”

  “Yeah.” Santi grinned wryly.

  There was a story there. Santi would tell him when he was ready, Eddy figured. “I’m sorry about your horse.”

  “Snowball. That was her name.”

  Eddy laughed in spite of himself.

  “What?”

  “That’s something we’ll probably never see again.”

  “Snow?”

  “Sometimes I miss the cold.” Eddy remembered a trip to Canada with his mother, when he was little. “And heat. Like when you used to get in a drone taxi in the summertime, and it had been sitting in the lot for hours waiting for a call….”

  “And the heat felt sooo good. For a moment.” Santi grinned.

  “Yes, just like that.” Eddy looked around the world, up to where the walls vanished in the distance above their heads. “I’m kind of used to this now. But it will never be like home.”