Jimmy sits down on the ground.
"What?" says Zeb to Toby.
"His foot again," says Toby. "Or something."
"So, we need to send him back to the Spa."
"He won't go," says Toby.
Jimmy's five Pigoons are snuffling at him, but from a respectful distance. One of them moves forward to sniff his foot. Now two of them nudge him, one on either arm.
"Get away!" says Jimmy. "What do they want?"
"Blackbeard, please," says Toby, beckoning him over. He huddles with the Pigoons. There's a silent interchange, followed by a few notes of music.
"Snowman-the-Jimmy must ride," says Blackbeard. "They say his ..." There's a word Toby can't decipher, that sounds like a grunt and a rumble. "They say that part of him is strong. In the middle he is strong, but his feet are weak. They will carry him."
One of the Pigoons steps forward, not the fattest. She lowers herself beside Jimmy.
"They want me to do what?" says Jimmy.
"Please, Oh Snowman-the-Jimmy," says Blackbeard. "They say you must lie down on the back and hold on to the ears. Two others will go beside you to keep you from falling off."
"This is dumb," says Jimmy. "I'll slide off!"
"That's your only option," says Zeb. "Catch a ride, or else you stay here."
Once Jimmy is in position, Zeb says, "Got any of that rope? It might help a bit."
Jimmy is tied onto the Pigoon like a parcel, and they all set off once more. "So, its name is Dancer, or Prancer, or what?" says Jimmy. "Think I should pat it?"
"Please, Oh Snowman-the-Jimmy, thank you," says Blackbeard. "The Pig Ones are telling me that a scratching behind the ears is a good thing."
When reciting the story in later years, Toby liked to say that the Pigoon carrying Snowman-the-Jimmy flew like the wind. It was the sort of thing that should be said of a fallen comrade-in-arms, and especially one that performed such an important service - a service that resulted, not incidentally, in the saving of Toby's own life. For if Snowman-the-Jimmy had not been transported by the Pigoon, would Toby be sitting here among them tonight, wearing the red hat and telling them this story? No, she would not. She would be composting under an elderberry bush, and assuming a different form. A very different form indeed, she would think to herself privately.
So, in her story, the Pigoon in question flew like the wind.
The telling was complicated by the fact that Toby could not pronounce the flying Pigoon's name in any way that resembled the grunt-heavy original. But nobody in the Craker audience seemed to mind, though they laughed at her a little. The children made up a game in which one of them played the heroic Pigoon flying like the wind, wearing a determined expression, and a smaller one played Snowman-the-Jimmy, also with a determined expression, clinging to its back.
Her back. The Pigoons were not objects. She had to get that right. It was only respectful.
At the time, things are somewhat different. The progress of the Jimmy-porting Pigoon is lumpy, and its back is rounded and slippery. Jimmy bumps up and down, and is in danger of sliding off, first on one side, then on the other. When this happens the flanking Pigoons give him a sharp upward nudge with their snouts, under the armpits, which causes him to yell maniacally because it tickles.
"For fuck's sake, can't you get him to shut up?" says Zeb. "We might as well be playing the bagpipes."
"He can't help it," says Toby. "It's a reflex."
"If I bonk him on the head, that'll be a reflex too," says Zeb.
"They probably know we're coming," says Toby. "They may have seen the scouts."
They're following the lead of the Pigoons, but it's Jimmy who provides the verbal guidelines. "We're still in the pleebs," he says. "I remember this part." Then: "We're coming up to No Man's Land, cleared buffer zone before the Compounds."
Then: "Main security perimeter coming up." After a while: "Over there, CryoJeenyus. Next up, Genie-Gnomes. Look at that fucking light-up genie sign! The solar must still be working."
Then: "Here comes the biggie. The RejoovenEsense Compound." Crows on the wall: four, no, five. One crow, sorrow, Pilar used to say; more, and they were protectors, or else tricksters, take your choice. Two of the crows lift off, circle overhead, sizing them up.
The Rejoov gates stand open. Inside, dead houses, dead malls, dead labs, dead everything. Tatters of cloth, derelict solarcars.
"Thank God for the pigs," says Jimmy. "Without them, needle in a haystack. The place is a labyrinth."
But the Pigoons are sure of the trail. They trot steadily forward, not hesitating. A corner turned, another corner.
"There it is," says Jimmy. "Up ahead. The gates of Paradice."
Eggshell
Crake had planned the Paradice Project himself. There was a tight security perimeter around it, in addition to the Rejoov barrier wall. Inside that was a park, a microclimate-modifying planting of mixed tropical splices, tolerant alike to drought and downpour. At the centre of it all was the Paradice dome, climate-controlled, airlocked, an impenetrable eggshell harbouring Crake's treasure trove, his brave new humans. And at the very centre of the dome he'd placed the artificial ecosystem where the Crakers themselves in all their strange perfection had been brought into being and set to live and breathe.
They reach the perimeter gate, stop to reconnoitre. No one in the gatehouses to either side, according to the Pigoons: their inactive tails and ears are semaphoring as much.
Zeb signals a rest stop: they need to gather their energy. The humans resort to their water bottles and eat half a Joltbar each. The Pigoons have found an avomango tree and are gobbling down the windfalls, the orange ovals pulped by their jaws, the fatty seeds crushed. Fermented sweetness fills the air.
I hope they aren't getting drunk, thinks Toby. That wouldn't be good, drunk Pigoons. "How are you doing?" she asks Jimmy.
"I remember this place," says Jimmy. "In every detail. Shit. I wish I didn't."
Ahead of them is the roadway leading through the forest. Untrimmed branches reach into the corridor of light above it, opportunist weeds push into it from the margins, renegade vines overhang it. Out of the swelling foam of vegetation the curved dome rises like the white half-eye of a sedated patient. It must once have seemed so bright and shining, that dome; so much like a harvest moon, or like a hopeful sunrise, but without the burning rays. Now it looks barren. More than that, it looks like a trap: for who can tell what's hidden in it, and what's hiding?
But that's only because of what we know, thinks Toby. There's nothing in the image itself that would signal death to an innocent observer.
"Oh Toby!" says Blackbeard. "Look! It is the Egg! The Egg where Crake made us!"
"Do you remember it?" says Toby.
"I don't know," says Blackbeard. "Not very much. Trees were growing in it. It rained, but it did not thunder. Oryx came to visit us every day. She taught us many things. We were happy."
"It might not be the same any more," says Toby.
"Oryx is not there," says Blackbeard. "She flew out because she wanted to help Snowman-the-Jimmy when he was sick, didn't she?"
"Yes, I'm sure she did," says Toby.
The young Pigoon scouts have been sent ahead to sniff out possible roadside ambushes. They're racing back now, along the leaf-strewn asphalt. Their ears are back, their tails out straight behind them: cause for alarm.
The elders leave their rooting party among the fallen avomangoes; Blackbeard runs over to them; there's a quick huddle. The MaddAddamites gather around. "What's up?" Zeb asks.
"They say the bad ones are near the Egg," says Blackbeard. "Three. One with ropes tied on. He has white feathers on his face."
"What's he wearing?" Toby asks. Is it for instance a caftan, like those Adam One always wore? But how to ask that? She revises: "Does he have a second skin?"
"Shit," says Jimmy. "Keep them out of the emergency storeroom! They'll get all the sprayguns, and then we're toast!"
"Yes, he has a second skin, like you,"
says Blackbeard. "Only not pink. It is different colours. It is dirty. He has only one of these, on his foot. A shoe."
"How'll we do that?" says Rhino. "We can't move fast enough."
"We send some of the pigs," says Zeb. "The faster ones. They can cut through the woods."
"Then what?" says Rhino. "They can't hold the main door. Those guys have a spraygun. We don't know how much of their cellpack is left."
"We can't just let the Pigoons be shot down like rats in a barrel," says Toby. "Jimmy. When you go through the Paradice entranceway, where's the storeroom?"
"There's the two doors, the airlock door, the inner one. They're both open, I left them open. You go down the hall to the left, take a right, another left. The fucking pigs need to get into that room and hold the door shut from the inside."
"Okay, how do we tell them this?" says Zeb. "Toby?"
"Right and left could be a problem," says Toby. "I don't think the Crakers know about those."
"Think hard," says Zeb. "Clock's ticking."
"Blackbeard?" says Toby. "This is a picture of the Egg, if you were up at the top looking down at it." She draws a round circle in the dirt, with a stick. "Do you see?"
Blackbeard looks at it and nods, though not with much assurance. We hang by a thread, thinks Toby. "Good," she says with false heartiness. "Can you say this to the Pig Ones? Tell them they need to run very fast. Five of them, through the trees. They need to go past the bad men, right into the Egg. Then they need to go here" - she traces with the stick - "and in here. That right?" she asks Jimmy.
"Right enough," says Jimmy.
"They need to shut the door. They need to lean against it, to keep the bad ones from going into that room," says Toby. "Can you tell them all of that?"
Blackbeard looks puzzled. "Why do the men want to go into the Egg?" he asks. "The Egg is for making. They are already made."
"They want to find some killing things," says Toby. "The sticks that make holes."
"But the Egg is good. It does not have killing things."
"It does now," says Toby. "We have to hurry. Can you tell them?"
"I will try," says Blackbeard. He kneels on the ground. Two of the largest Pigoons lower their huge heads, one to either side of his face. There's a white tusk right beside his neck. Toby shivers. He begins to sing while tracing over Toby's marks in the sand with her stick. The Pigoons sniff at the diagram. Oh no, thinks Toby. This isn't going to work. They think it's something to eat.
But then the Pigoons lift their snouts and move to join the others. Low grunting, restless tail movements. Indecision?
Five of the medium-sized ones detach from the group and head off at a canter, two to the left of the road, three to the right. The undergrowth swallows them up.
"Looks like they got it," says Rhino. Zeb grins.
"Good," he says to Toby. "Always knew you had potential."
"They are going to the Egg," says Blackbeard. "They say they will not move too close to those men. They will be careful about the stick things, with blood coming out."
"Hope they make it," says Zeb. "Let's hike."
"It's not far," says Jimmy. "Anyway, they can't shoot us from the windows because there aren't any windows." He laughs feebly.
"Zeb?" says Toby as they move off down the road. "The third guy? I'm not sure. But I think it's Adam One."
"Yeah, I know," says Zeb. "I figured that for a while."
"What can we do to get him back?"
"They'll want to trade him," says Zeb.
"For what?"
"Sprayguns, supposing the pigs block them out. Other stuff."
"Like, for instance?"
"Like, for instance, you," says Zeb. "In their place, it's what I'd do."
Right, thinks Toby. They'll want revenge.
The Paradice dome lies in front of them. All is silent. The airlock door is open. Three shoats go through it, then come out again. "They are inside, the men," says Blackbeard. "But far inside. Not near the door."
"I need to go in first," says Jimmy. "Just for a minute." Toby stays close behind him.
There are two destroyed skeletons on the floor of the airlock. The bones have been gnawed and jumbled, no doubt by animals. Rags of mouldering cloth, a small pink and red sandal.
Jimmy falls to his knees; his hands are over his face. Toby touches his shoulder. "We need to go now," she says, but he says, "Leave me alone!"
There's a dirty pink ribbon tied in the long black hair of one of the skulls: hair decays very slowly, the Gardeners always said. Jimmy unties the bow, twists the ribbon in his fingers. "Oryx. Oh God," he says. "You fucker, Crake! You didn't have to kill her!"
Zeb is standing beside Toby now. "Maybe she was already sick," he says to Jimmy. "Maybe he couldn't live without her. Come on, we need to get in there."
"Oh fuck, spare me the fucking cliches!" says Jimmy.
"We can just leave him here for now, he'll be safe; let's go in," says Toby. "We need to be sure they didn't get into the storage room."
The others are right outside the doorway - the MaddAddamites, the main body of the Pigoons. "What's up?" says Rhino.
Little Blackbeard is tugging at her hand. "Please, Oh Toby, what is cliches?" he says.
Toby hardly knows what she answers, because now the truth is hitting him: Oryx and Crake are these skeletons. He heard Jimmy say that; it registered. He turns his frightened face up to her: she can see the sudden fall, the crash, the damage.
"Oh Toby, is this Oryx, and is this Crake?" he says. "Snowman-the-Jimmy said! But they are a smelly bone, they are many smelly bones! Oryx and Crake must be beautiful! Like the stories! They cannot be a smelly bone!" He begins to cry as if his heart will break.
Toby kneels, folds her arms around him, hugs him tight. What to say? How to comfort him? In the face of this terminal sorrow.
The Story of the Battle
Toby cannot tell the story tonight. She is too sad, because of the dead ones. The ones who became dead, in the battle. So now I will try to tell this story to you. I will tell it in the right way, if I can.
First I am putting the red hat on my head, the hat of Snowman-the-Jimmy. These markings on it - look, it is a voice, and it is saying: RED. And it is saying: SOX.
SOX is a special word of Crake. We do not know what it means. Toby does not know either. Maybe we will know later.
But see - the red hat is on my head, and it does not hurt me. I am not growing an extra skin, I have my own skin, the same. I can take the hat off, I can put it back on again. It does not stick to my head.
Now I will eat the fish. We do not eat a fish, or a smelly bone; that is not what we eat. It is a hard thing to do, eating a fish. But I must do it. Crake did many hard things for us, when he was on the earth in the form of a person. He cleared away the chaos for us, and ...
You do not have to sing.
... and he did many other hard things, so I will try to do this hard thing of eating the smelly bone fish. It is cooked. It is very small. Perhaps it will be enough for Crake if I put it into my mouth and take it out again.
There.
I am sorry for making the noises of a sick person.
Please take the fish away and throw it into the forest. The ants will be happy. The maggots will be happy. The vultures will be happy.
Yes, it does taste very bad. It tastes like the smell of a smelly bone, or the smell of a dead one. I will chew many leaves to get rid of that taste. But if I did not do the hard thing with the bad taste, I would not be able to hear the story Crake is telling me, and then tell it to you. That is the way it was with Snowman-the-Jimmy, and that is the way it is with Toby. The hard thing of eating the fish, the smelly bone taste - that is what needs to be done. First the bad things, then the story.
Thank you for the purring. I am not feeling so sick now.
This is the Story of the Battle. It tells how Zeb and Toby and Snowman-the-Jimmy and the other two-skinned ones and the Pig Ones cleared away the bad men, just as Crake cleared
away the people in the chaos to make a good and safe place for us to live.
And Toby and Zeb and Snowman-the-Jimmy and the two-skinned ones and the Pig Ones needed to clear away the bad men, because if they did not do it, our place would never be safe. The bad men would kill us as they killed the Pig One baby, with a knife. Or with a stick that makes holes with blood coming out. So that is why.
Toby told this reason to me. It is a good reason.
And the Pig Ones helped them, because they did not want any more of their Pig One babies to be killed with a knife. Or a stick thing. Or in any other way, such as a rope.
The Pig Ones can smell better than any. We can smell better than the ones with two skins, but the Pig Ones can smell better than us. So they helped, by smelling the footprints of the bad men, and showing where they had gone. And by helping to chase after them.
And I was there too, so that I could tell the others what the Pig Ones were saying. I had shoes on my feet. You see those shoes, they are here, see? They have lights on them, and wings. They are a special thing from Crake, and I am grateful for having them, and I say, Thank you. But I do not need to put them on unless there is danger, and other bad men that must be cleared away. So I do not have them on my feet right now. But I have them here beside me, because they are part of the story.
But that time I put those shoes on my feet, and we walked a long way, into the place where the buildings are, where we do not go because they can fall down. But I went there that time, and I saw many things.
I saw things left over from the chaos, many. I saw empty buildings, many. I saw empty skins, many. I saw metal and glass things, many. And the Pig Ones carried Snowman-the-Jimmy.
Then the Pig Ones were following the bad men with their noses, and they found where they had gone. And the bad men went into the Egg, even though the Egg should only be for making, not for killing. And some of the Pig Ones went into the Egg also, to the room where the killing things were, so the bad men could not get those things. So the bad men were running, and they were hiding inside the Egg, in the hallways of the Egg. And at first we could not see them.
The Egg was dark, not light, as it used to be. We could see when we were inside the Egg, I do not mean that kind of dark. The Egg had a dark feeling. It had a dark smell.
And Snowman-the-Jimmy went into the first doorway of the Egg, and he found a pile of smelly bones and another pile of smelly bones, all mixed together, and he was very sad, and he fell down onto his knees, and he cried. And Toby wanted to purr on him, but he said, "Leave me alone!"
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