Resurrection (Eden Book 3)

by Tony Monchinski

  “Rye…” Troi steadied her assault rifle.

  Riley reached the port-a-potty. “On three, okay?” She never took her eyes off the little structure. “One…” She reached out and touched the door latch. “Two…” Anthony swallowed. “Three.”

  Riley pulled the door open and ran away from the toilet. A fully dressed human skeleton had slumped inside, half on and half off the commode.

  “Holy shit.” Evan sighed.

  “That’s messed up,” said Anthony.

  “That’s sad,” Troi saw it differently. “That’s so sad.”

  “What?” asked Evan, “That he died on the crapper?”

  “This,” said Riley, “is almost as disturbing as the couple back in the house. With the kid.”

  “This is worse,” said Troi. “This guy died alone.”

  “Yeah.” Anthony looked in on the slouching skeleton. “He did.”

  Krieger raised his bottle in a mock toast.

  * * *

  “There it is.” The guide’s voice sounded pleased. Anthony, Riley, and Evan paused and gazed into the distance. A rock formation rose out of the trees several kilometers away. The granite monolith seemed a beacon in the countryside around it, as if it had been planted there by some supreme being, an overarching power, set in place to keep watch on the rest of the countryside.

  Krieger stood smiling, looking to the mighty stone, his eyes clear and focused.

  “It’s beautiful.” Troi thought it was one of the prettiest things she had ever seen in her life.

  “It is,” agreed Riley.

  “Hey, Anthony. Does that look like the earth has an erection to you?”

  “That sounds like something my father would say, Ev. But yeah.”

  A flock of warblers passed by overhead.

  “Hey, Krieg, wait up!”

  The guide forged ahead, planting the Bo before him, moving more quickly than earlier. The four friends hustled to keep up, noting Krieger’s newfound determination and purpose. They journeyed without break or pause, following the man.

  Anthony had noticed, in the last few days, how the colors of the leaves were changing even more dramatically out here in the countryside than they had been at home. And the farther west they travelled, the deeper and richer the colors. The ground they walked on was wet, and the leaves that had come off the trees were damp.

  He turned up the volume on his Geiger meter. …click…click…click… The radiation was at an acceptable level here.

  On their trek to the monolith, they passed a prodigious hunk of steel and ruined electronics smashed into the earth.

  “What’s that?” Troi asked.

  “It’s a satellite,” Krieger called over his shoulder as he maintained his pace.

  “Where’d it come from?”

  Evan looked to the sky.

  It took several hours to reach the base of the rock, and when they had, it was the middle of the day. Krieger stood staring up at it. The look on his bearded face was somewhere between awe and reverence.

  “Nice rock. Now which way?”

  “Up.”

  “Up?” Evan looked at his friends.

  “Up?” asked Anthony. This hadn’t been part of the plan as far as he knew. “We have time for this?”

  “Hey Krieg…Bear up there?”

  The guide hadn’t taken his eyes off the monolith. “I’m camping up there tonight.” One of his hands rummaged around beneath his furs.

  “We’re camping up there tonight? Krieg, how are we going to get up there?”

  “I said I’m camping up there tonight,” he repeated. He did not sound perturbed. He was still staring up at the rock. “You can sleep down here if you want. You keep heading that way,” the guide gestured northwest with the hand that wasn’t digging around in his furs, “you’ll find Bear in a couple of days.” Krieger moved his hands a few degrees westward. “Don’t go that way. Munts that way.”

  “Munts?” Riley looked at Troi.

  “Here we go…” Krieger’s hand came out from under his furs with a greasy-looking crumpled brown paper bag. He took his eyes off the peak long enough to reach inside the bag, draw his hand out, and stuff whatever it was he had in his grasp into his mouth. He began to chew.

  “What you got there, Krieg?”

  “Here.” The guide looked seriously at Evan then the others. “Get over here. All of you.”

  They stepped somewhat hesitantly towards Krieger, forming a loose circle around the man. “Put your hands out.” Krieger upended the bag and shook it, displacing some of its contents in each upraised palm.

  “What is this?” Anthony scrunched up his nose.

  “Is this a turd?”

  “No, it ain’t no goddamned turd.” Krieger opened his mouth and tapped on the bag until the last of its contents emptied into his mouth. He looked back up to the rock as he chewed. “Eat those.”

  “What are we supposed to do with these?” Riley asked her friends.

  “Eat ‘em, I said.”

  Troi shrugged her shoulders and popped whatever it was she held into her mouth.

  “What are these?” Evan stared suspiciously into his hand.

  Anthony nibbled tentatively at the morsel he palmed. “Yuck.”

  “Here.” Krieger held out his bottle of booze without looking away from the rock formation looming over them.

  “No, it’s okay…” Anthony swallowed down whatever the guide had given them behind a few swigs from his canteen.

  “Anthony…” Riley cast her brother a concerned look, but the look he returned was carefree.

  “What are these?” Evan asked a third time, insistently.

  The guide’s tone sounded somewhat put upon. “They’re mushrooms, all right? Now eat ‘em or leave me the hell alone.”

  As Evan chewed his face blanched. “These taste like shit.”

  Krieger laughed.

  “I’m glad you think it’s funny.”

  “Hey, I don’t know if anyone noticed…” Riley did her best to sound nonchalant. “…but we’ve still got a couple of hours before night.”

  “Yeah, Krieg.” Evan swallowed down a mouthful of water from his hydration pack. “What was all that about wasting daylight and all?”

  “How are we going to get up there?” Troi asked the guide. Evan looked to Anthony, and Anthony looked at his sister. Troi was going along with this?

  “There used to be an elevator…” Krieger turned his eyes away from the peak. “Doesn’t work anymore. Last time I was here, there was a rope ladder. Should be over there.” He spoke over his shoulder to Riley, “Eat your mushrooms.”

  The guide walked off into the purple Paulownia trees abutting the monolith, Troi behind him.

  “What’s up with Troi?” Anthony asked.

  “They’ve got this unspoken…thing,” said Riley. She considered the mushrooms in her hand.

  “He’s really going to climb up there?” Evan stared in disbelief towards the summit. “By the way, those things taste like ass.”

  “Safer up there than on the ground,” wagered Anthony.

  “You’re going along with this?” Evan couldn’t believe his ears.

  “It is pretty,” said Riley. She cast whatever had been holding her back aside and started chewing on the mushrooms. When their taste proved too revolting, she forced herself to swallow them.

  “So there’s nothing like a leisurely afternoon lolling about on a rock in the sun, is that it? What are we—friggin lizards?”

  “They do taste like ass.” Riley stuck her tongue out.

  “Here.” Anthony passed her the canteen and she drank.

  “I’m not going up there,” said Evan.

  “Like Krieger said.” Riley drank more of the water, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. “You can sleep down here tonight. Come on, Anthony.”

  Evan let them walk off in the direction Troi and the guide had gone. They wanted to throw away a whole friggin’ afternoon to sit around on some half-assed mountain? The
y expected him to climb a rope ladder how high to get up there? Screw that.

  Krieger had given them mushrooms to eat. Evan had heard about these types of mushrooms before. He knew what they’d probably do to him, to his friends. That would be interesting, even if it would kill a day.

  Evan had to grant that Anthony did have a point about Zed though. Who knew when and where they’d come across a zombie. They were way out in the Outlands now. Zed had to be out here, somewhere. And chances were good that Evan on the ground would meet them first, before the others would up on that rock.

  He didn’t want to be hallucinating and get eaten by a zombie. That would suck. Evan considered himself a decidedly unhappy camper as he took up after his friends.

  * * *

  It took them a half hour to climb to the top of the rock. As Krieger had said, a rope ladder had been left for them. Evan did not look down as he gripped one rung then the next.

  They pulled the rope ladder up after them, so no one on the ground could follow them up. The area they had ascended to was flat and broad, and a stairwell bridged a chasm between the rocks, leading to a second flat area.

  A flag pole stood lonely vigil atop this rock, bearing no standard.

  Together they stood quietly looking out upon the land. As they watched, the trees to their east faded into dark shadows against a horizon that went from fiery red to a dark grey to the encroaching night. The blue water of a river was visible in the distance. The trees to their west were a riot of colors. Warblers and tanagers passed above the trees, level with them.

  “I don’t feel so hot…” Troi was rubbing her stomach.

  “Yeah, me neither,” said Anthony.

  “Try not to vomit,” counseled Krieger.

  “Are those mushrooms you gave us safe?”

  “You want to ride, you got to pay the price of admission.”

  “The price of what?” asked Riley.

  “Consciousness,” said the guide. “Consciousness. Listen.”

  They all quieted. There was nothing. After awhile, Evan said, “I hate to break it to you, but I don’t hear anything.”

  “That’s because you’re listening with your ears.”

  “What should we listen with?” Riley asked.

  “You’ve got to feel the music.”

  “Right.”

  “I don’t hear any music,” said Troi. “I think.”

  As Krieger stood looking out upon the land, the others unpacked their sleeping bags. Anthony struggled to piece his tent together.

  “I understand what’s going on here,” Krieger announced.

  “You do?” coaxed Anthony.

  “It was the aliens.”

  Anthony had read about guys like this, these types of people before the outbreak. Krieger didn’t look particularly dangerous, and as long as he wasn’t waving the grenade launcher around, Anthony thought they didn’t have anything to be afraid of. “You think it was the Mexicans?”

  “Not the Mexicans. The aliens. I got a theory too, if you’ll all listen.”

  “We’re all ears,” Evan was lying flat on his back atop his sleeping bag.

  “They’ve been here for years...” began Krieger. “From the beginning. They’ve been among us. But we haven’t recognized them. You want to know why?”

  “Are they disguised as people we’d know?” asked Troi.

  “What are you looking at me for?” Evan demanded of her.

  “No. Come on, guess again.”

  Anthony spoke up from where he fiddled unsuccessfully with his tent poles. “Do they have super-invisibility powers or something?”

  “Nope. We evolved on this planet. With this planet. Our senses evolved to deal with what we’d encounter here, on this spinning blue orb. We’re not equipped to comprehend the visitors.” Krieger turned away from the vista to speak in a more subdued, confidential tone. “They’re here, now.”

  Troi looked around somewhat suspiciously.

  “They’re on this rock now, with us?” Evan sat up. He looked like his stomach was ailing him. “That’s cool.”

  “Can’t you feel them?”

  “Honestly? No.”

  “See? What’d I say? We evolved so you can feel the breeze on your face. You can feel this rock under your ass. But we’re not equipped to feel them or smell them or taste them. Get it?”

  “Do you think he’s leading us the right way?” Evan asked Riley.

  “Why haven’t they revealed themselves to us by now?” Anthony had given up on the tent and sat down where he was.

  “Well, the thing is, they’re not hiding. Get it? They’re there, and we just go about our daily lives in their presence, oblivious. And when you’re not seeing the obvious, what are you? Oblivious.”

  “You said that word twice.”

  “I’m emphasizing a point.”

  “And that point is?”

  “It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

  “No.”

  “There you go. You can take that to the bank.”

  “Right…” Evan stood up and walked over to the safety rail that circled the stone.

  “How long have you been out here, Krieger?” Riley asked.

  “See, I been thinking a lot about that lately. I think we’re like…like reality television to them…”

  “What’s reality television?”

  “…we just keep fuckin’ up, for millions of years…” Krieger’s tone was one of dissatisfaction. “And they’re here watching it. And who knows, maybe they’re taping it—telepathically or something—and sending it back to their home planet. And they’re munching on, like, their equivalent to popcorn and laughing at us. Laughing at us.” Krieger looked over to Evan, who was staring off into the distance from the railing. “Hey, get away from that railing. You want to fall or something? All of you, steer clear of the railing. Don’t ruin my trip, dammit.”

  “Maybe…” Evan said to the guide as he edged away from the railing, rejoining the group at the center of the rock. “It’s time to step back inside the capsule, Major Tom.”

  “You wait,” promised Krieger. “We haven’t even left orbit yet.”

  Troi turned her head and vomited.

  “Okay. She might have.”

  “Troi—you okay?” Riley knelt down at her friend’s side.

  Troi smiled up at her. “Yeah, I’m great.”

  Some of them sat and some of them stood as the sun edged farther westward in the sky above their heads.

  “You okay, brother?” Riley felt like she had cotton in her mouth.

  “Yeah, I think so…” Anthony looked at the back of his hand.

  Troi burst out crying. Riley looked at her solicitously.

  “No, I’m okay.” Troi started giggling. “Really.”

  “Whoa…” Evan looked absolutely blissful. “I can feel the music, Krieg!”

  Riley noticed that as she breathed in, the railings seemed to move in, and as she breathed out, they retreated. She didn’t want to be inside anymore.

  “I don’t want to be inside anymore,” she announced and sat down.

  “You’re not inside…” Troi was laughing.

  Riley was pleased to be outside. The sky was so blue. Clouds were moving across it as if in elapsed time. Wow, she thought.

  She wondered if she should be out here in the sun like this, when she wasn’t in her right mind. The sun was warm. Oh no, I’m in my right mind. Don’t be afraid. Dad was afraid. Afraid of love. That’s why he couldn’t hold down a relationship. That’s why it hadn’t worked out between him and Gwen. The manifestation had been his chasing women all these years, but the motivation…the motivation was escape.

  Daddy was scared.

  Riley wiped her eyes for her father.

  He was scared deep down inside. The revelation nearly made her gasp. Riley was scared too. She tried to calculate in her head and realized math was the universal language, that you didn’t need a calculator or your fingers, and that she had maybe twenty years left. Most of her frie
nds had kids by now, had tried to have kids by now.

  But not Riley, no.

  Because I’m like my dad. I’m scared. It made perfect sense to her.

  “Don’t you agree?” she asked Anthony. He was standing next to her.

  “Yes.” Anthony’s voice sounded gargled.

  Riley laughed. Anthony laughed too.

  “Why are we laughing?”

  “Well,” Anthony paused for what seemed like a long time to him. “It’s better than crying, right?”

  “Why would we cry?” Riley stared into her brother’s face. There was wisdom there.

  They stood together quietly for some time until Anthony said, “Hey, look at those trees shimmer.”

  “Yeah. It’s cool, isn’t it?”

  Evan stood up naked. He extended his arms at his sides and breathed deep.

  “Hey, Ev is naked,” said Riley, and then realized she hadn’t said it aloud. Or had she?

  “Hey Ev,” Anthony called out. “You okay there buddy?”

  “I’m just great.” Evan started to pirouette on one foot, an arm outstretched at the sky.

  Troi was flat on her back, laughing. Krieger sat cross-legged off on the side.

  “Hey, Ev is naked,” Anthony said. Riley thought her brother was thinking her thoughts now. Her mind boggled.

  Evan walked a meter off and laid down on the bare rock. He started to roll around.

  “He’s a great man,” announced Troi.

  Riley was going to say Who’s that? but Anthony said it before she could. Again, Riley marveled that her brother was giving voice to her thoughts.

  “Krieger,” answered Troi. “He’s showing us tremendous things.”

  “There was something in those mushrooms...”

  “Go with it.” Riley tried to reassure her brother. “We’ll be okay. Why is Ev naked?”

  “Why aren’t we?” Troi tittered.

  “Is that a philosophical question?” Anthony burst into a laughing fit so strong it brought tears to his eyes.

  Krieger sat cross-legged, ignoring them, staring off into the distance.

  “Ev?” Troi didn’t look up from where she lay. “Why are you naked?”

  “Look at me,” said Evan. He was standing again, balancing on one foot. “I’m taking root.”

  Riley giggled and Anthony laughed anew and soon they were both bent over.