Scavenger: Evolution: (Sand Divers, Book One)

by Timothy C. Ward

  The headless Poseidon, and the others near him, dropped with the broken floor, disappearing below the cliff of solid ground Rush stood on.

  Rush tossed the sledgehammer over the gap of fallen concrete. He pumped EM into its head, increasing its spin as it reached its peak and then fell. He reached up, caught its handle, and slammed it down. A blinding light sparked from the floor. A crack pierced his ear drums. The room rumbled. Rush stepped back on the small platform of stable ground between him and the wall behind. Thick pops ripped out of the floor, like shanties collapsing under the weight of piled sand. The light from his attack dimmed as rivers of cracks spread across the floor, buckled under and sent the fleet of Poseidons into the darkness below.

  Star’s hands went out as a fissure sucked her under. Thankfully, she was inside a Poseidon.

  We’ll find a way, love.

  He switched to dive view and spotted her green form descend among the silver outlines of Poseidons. The weight of the broken floor tugged farther sections as the surface curled and took Warren, the chairs, and the back ranks of Poseidons with them into the depths.

  Rush jumped after them before he knew what he’d do. His arch lost momentum, and he sank. He closed his eyes and imagined a pond of rippling sand waves.

  His feet broke through and resistance sucked him under. The substance was thick like porridge and difficult to swim through. He stuck his arms out and kicked past Poseidons swiping arms and legs without much threat. Had they hosts to direct them, he might not have been able to navigate unscathed to the green form of his wife. She waded toward him with weak strokes.

  One of the Poseidons gained strokes on Star from behind.

  Rush pictured a spear in his hand, cocked it back as he righted his body to face his target, and hefted it into the porridge-like waters. The red spear bled to orange and descended before it could reach the Poseidon.

  Damn.

  Star’s form ceased her strokes and turned to face the oncoming threat as it formed into a spear of its own with speed to kill.

  Star, what are you doing? Without knowing what suit she was in, he didn’t know how to communicate.

  Was she finally giving up to sand and death? Did she resign to leave alone without him or a parting message for him to hold on to?

  The Poseidon bucked and spread its arms and legs, colliding with Star hard enough to ricochet both into tailspins. All the other Poseidons, and the green form of Warren, ceased to swim. Slowly, their weight took them deeper into the heavy depths.

  Then they woke up and began to swim in two teams, one toward Star and the other toward Rush. Their strokes cut and circled in sync with each other, powerful and haunting. Some were between him and Star, some on her other side. He had no idea how to stop them all. His spear idea hadn’t traveled far enough last time to make it to the Poseidon nearing Star’s feet. Why isn’t she trying to get away?

  Rush spotted Warren push a Poseidon out of his way with one hand while raising the bolter with his other, putting Star in his line of sight. Rush should have killed him when he had the shot.

  The Poseidons swimming toward Star turned and formed an interlocked wall between her and Warren. The bolter erupted in a bright blue hue. The beam shot off one of the locked Poseidons, shoving them backwards as the lance of light deflected upward.

  Warren fired again. Another pair blocked the shot. Their leaned-forward posture sent the beam within a foot of Warren’s left side.

  A Poseidon filled Rush’s downward view.

  “Relax, Rush,” scrolled across the lower line of his visor. The Poseidon palmed his feet and pushed him upward. Two more Poseidons extended their hands to help push that Poseidon at the waist. The exertion of the three surged Rush toward the surface.

  “I’m taking care of this,” scrolled on his visor.

  “Is that Star’s Poseidon?” he asked Singer.

  AFFIRMATIVE.

  Three Poseidons hefted Star toward the surface while the rest in that area formed a half oval between her and Warren, closing in on their prey.

  “Star, what are you doing?”

  “Like I said.”

  Rush broke the surface. The Depository was an open cave above him, the ceiling between it and his position too far to reach. His power was down to nine percent. The buzz in his teeth was gone. His stores from the pellet she’d given him were already depleted. His throat was raw. He needed water to calm the pounding headache.

  That wasn’t their first problem. “Star, we need to get out of this water before my power runs out or we’ll be coffined.”

  “Bury the Poseidons. We can make more,” she wrote back.

  The Poseidons under him pushed him out of the porridge. Across the room, they did the same for Star, standing her on top of one set of their hands.

  “They’re infected by The Gov anyway,” she said.

  The Poseidons circling Warren lowered their shoulders and kicked in for the kill. A bright blue light shot off the closing Poseidon and cut through his chest. A splash of bright green dimmed and spread through his torso and into his arms and legs. Warren’s form relaxed. A converging onslaught of thrown fists broke him down like sand on a collapsed shanty.

  In the descending sight of the crumpled man who’d tried to kill Rush and Star, elation at received justice mixed with guilt for the bloodlust attached to each pain-inducing blow. Even after his green faded to a dim orange, and he was clearly dead, they continued to mangle his corpse. Star had commanded them. The death that Warren had threatened them with now seemed to reside in her spirit and continued its drive to kill brutally.

  “You can release your field,” she said.

  Rush looked up at her and switched to dock view. Her room-crossing stare held the concern of a slab of stone.

  “Before it saps all your power, please?”

  She had a point, even if her tone made him want to resist. He released his field. A tugging itch deep in his bones bled away and left him drained. The surface of the floor sealed into a lumpy gray of solid concrete. The Poseidons holding them up were buried up to their elbows. He lowered his leg and almost fell off.

  Star squatted, put a hand on her two-handed platform, and dropped to the ground, landing on her feet and stumbling over.

  If she felt anything like he did, they could both lie down where they stood and sleep for many hours. He thought of Nedzad, Avery, and the M-MANs that infected the walls high above them…and his wife. He kept walking. Her actions hadn’t left him with anywhere near the kind of peace he’d need to close his eyes.

  He pushed a button on his neck that retracted the helmet shield and shifted his visor to rest on top of his head. “What happened? How’d you do that?” He didn’t have the strength to ask why she killed Warren. The heavens could determine that justification.

  She lifted her helmet shield and looked him in the eye, her eyelids drooping. A blue swirl interrupted the brief moment when he wanted just her to be there. The old Star. He stopped, unsure if she was about to enact a final chapter to her plan and remove the last threat to her new reign.

  She slowed her stride. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know if you’re still controlled by The Gov.”

  “Do you think he’d have wanted me to destroy so many wonderful toys to save the two of us?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She continued walking. He was too tired to fight her. If that’s what she wanted, he was apt to let her have it. I’m too tired for this.

  “Your cleanse worked…well, mostly.” She stopped in front of him, her posture relaxed as she let her hands rest at her sides. “You released me from his control, but his nanobots are still inside me. The cleanse destroyed the ones in my brain, but it didn’t work all the way down. They are likely on their way back in. After the cleanse, he gave up on me and moved to Warren. I had to kill him. Not that I regret it. He tried to kill us.”

  Star leveled a dangerous glare. “He’s not the only one I plan to kill.”

  This
wasn’t the future he had hoped for them. But they were too tied up in it to walk away.

  “What’s going on with you?” she asked. “Where’s the fight? Have you turned back into mope-in-my-beer Rush? Where’s the husband who swam under the courthouse and broke his wrist to save me?”

  “Did you see what I just did to save you?” Rush held his palms out to the destruction around them.

  “If I didn’t gain control of the Poseidons, Warren might have killed us.” She exhaled, backing off her fighting tone and reached for his arm. “You did well. Thank you. You’re a hero. We did this together, and that’s fine. I’m just saying we have to brave the grit of a few more battles before we can turn our backs and settle in.”

  Rush unclicked the Poseidon hand and locked it back on the forearm so he could stroke his thumb over Star’s slick jaw. His fingers rubbed the back of her head and sweat-dripping hair. “The sands can have The Gov. I just want you to be safe.”

  “You don’t understand.” She gently lowered his hand and held it at her side, clasped in her Poseidon hand. “We’re the only ones who can stop him. If we give up the power in this base, he or someone worse will find a way to use it against us, no matter how far we go.”

  “Then we bury it. Unlock the containment sequence.”

  Star shook her head, looking at Rush as though he were a kid asking why he couldn’t drink the whole canteen and still have more for later. “With this suit and my Poseidon.” She patted the clear shield over her torso. “I can control the M-MANs.”

  “But we don’t know how to stop him from controlling you. If he comes in person and we’re not ready for him—”

  “We’ll be ready. He will come, but we have time. Think of all we can build. With the M-MANs, I can move mountains. You think I’m afraid of him?”

  “The Gov has been two steps in front of us this whole time. I admit it is hard to imagine he’s prepared for this outcome, but he has that nickname for a reason. He rules this country.”

  “No. We do. We will.”

  Rush let go of her hand, unlocked his other hand from his suit, and ran his fingers through his sweat-soaked hair. It wrung out in cool drops onto his neck.

  “I don’t want to rule a country. I want to settle down with you.” He stepped closer and locked his hands behind her back, pulling her close. “I want to have another child. I want to enjoy all of our time together.”

  He pictured a baby boy crying in her arms, but then looking up at him with a blue swirl passing through his eyes. One circled hers. He let go and reluctantly stepped back.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He didn’t want to say. Didn’t she know? Avery had called it The Sight.

  “Rush?” She stepped closer.

  Could he have the life he wanted with her? Were those nanobots forever attached?

  “Tell me what you’re thinking.” Her command was not from a wife, but a ruler. A despot if need be.

  “I don’t think I should.”

  “I wasn’t asking.”

  He stepped back as she stepped forward. They stopped. “Your eyes. They glow at times. Blue pin pricks like shooting stars flash and circle around. It—”

  “Is no big deal.” Star laughed. She extended her hand for his. “Come. Let’s catch Nedy before he leaves. I have some questions about that second bolter and what else he hasn’t told us.”

  “Viky, Dixon, and all the rest of them are on the way to Denver.”

  “I know.” She took his hand. He let her tug him into stride toward the far end and the buried Poseidon’s skyward palms. “Jeff has M-MANs in his arm. I see and feel every sway.”

  As they walked, a distant sensation of off-time movement of another walking body separated from his own. He could feel them, too.

  Thank you for reading!

  If you enjoyed Scavenger: Evolution, please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or wherever you purchased it.

  Thank you for joining me in this serialization experiment. At this point, the plan is to release the next part of our Sand Divers’ story in a completed book form, skipping the unpredictable publishing schedule of serialized fiction. From here, the cast and scope will expand as we see new places of this world from new eyes. I thought it best to end Book One here, and then blow you away with what happens after the rest of the world finds out about Star and Rush. If you would like to find out when the next part is ready to read, please sign up to my newsletter. Subscribers have other perks such as exclusive news, sales and giveaways.

  About the Author

  Timothy C. Ward is a former Executive Producer for Adventures in SciFi Publishing. After Scavenger: Evolution, his next project is writing the sequel, which will add new perspectives and expand on the world he’s carving from Howey’s inspiration. Another novel, a post-apocalyptic thriller set in the rift between Iowa and the Abyss, is in submissions. His first printed story, "The Bomb in the President's Bathroom," released in the Amish SciFi anthology, Tales from Pennsylvania. Signed copies are available in his store: Spike Publishing. His next short story, “Staring Into,” will be published in the anthology, Masters of Time.

  The Best Things About Writing Scavenger: Evolution

  by Timothy C Ward

  First off, imagine your favorite read from last year and then add the generosity of that author to grant you permission to publish a story in the same world. That’s what Hugh Howey did for me in letting me write in his world of Sand (which is now part of the Kindle Worlds program, so anyone else can, too).

  I loved three things about Sand: the sand diving technology, the future America covered in desert, and the way one family struggles not only to survive, but to forgive and love in spite of the choices they’ve made to survive.

  I’m a character first reader. The world can be cool, the action swift, the technology accurate or at least believable, but if I don’t care about the characters, nothing else can save the story. In Sand, the first three points are there, but it isn’t so complicated that I had to spend months researching. I did read the book four times, but that was fun, (and was helped out by a solid performance in the audiobook). Fan fiction is evolving into an opportunity for new writers to use an established world, focus on their own characters and use what’s been established.

  Hugh had a scene where scavengers dove into a trauma zone, looking for bodies. I knew as soon as I read that part that I wanted to tell the story of the person one of those divers was searching for. That evolved into a semi-personal extrapolation of fears and emotions I’ve dealt with lately. Divemaster Rush lost his son two years ago to a sand spill and has since quit diving, left his wife, and has taken up residence at the local bar and whore house. None of that has happened to me, but I can relate to the depression that follows loss (though not to the degree of a lost child).

  I wrote Scavenger: Red Sands (Part One of Scavenger: Evolution) months after my wife delivered our first baby. Writing Rush’s character in that stage of hopelessness helped me evaluate a different kind of hopelessness that plagued me at the time, inspiring me as I inspired Rush, to live for his child and how he would want to see him move on. There has been a lot of pressure as a new father, but as much as I’ve wanted to justify a wrong attitude by pointing out how hard life has been, one of the final arguments has been, “Your son sees you. What you do cannot be taken back.” In a way, I motivated myself by finding a way to motivate my hero.

  Another aspect I loved about writing Scavenger: Evolution was the thrill of sand diving. Hugh’s description of the suit is pretty much a scuba diving suit with an electromagnetic pulse that connects to a visor on the temples, allowing the diver to manipulate the consistency of sand around him. He can dive as though into water or he can turn it into the hardness of stone, but if he isn’t careful, his fears can cause him to lose control and he’ll be crushed deep below the surface, with or without air. I live in Iowa. That may be enough said as far as the adventure I experience daily. But at heart I’m a snowboarder and surfer (if you co
uld call paddling and falling, surfing) who’s been as far as Australia and New Zealand. Writing Scavenger: Evolution was my way of escaping this flat and land locked locale, on top of while suffering three years of debilitating injuries.

  Finally, I loved researching the world behind this strange desert. I departed from some elements to Hugh’s setting and influential characters so that I could write my own story. What that turned into is a kind of Dune meets Alien combination of exploration and fear. Scavenger: Evolution is only the first step in this story, but if it goes well, I am excited to see how far it can expand. The technologies, character cast and wedge between Rush and his wife get pretty intense, but more exciting than that is they are only just introduced.

  This article was originally published at SF Signal. For more information about Tim, visit timothycward.com.