Strangers Among Us

by Kelley Armstrong

  “Told Becks a dog would help me heal,” Aaron chuckled as he walked up. “Teach me responsibility. She’s going to be pissed when I tell her I lost him, but it’s worth it. One more little screw-up’s not going to matter in the grand scheme of all my screw-ups, especially if I stay sober.”

  “And I’m going to, this time,” he continued. “I have plans. I’m moving to the suburbs to live with my cousin. He’s lined up a lawn-mowing job for me and I registered for school.”

  Ruby raised her head to look at him. “That sounds nice. And thank you for bringing Woof back. I—” She felt an unaccustomed squeezing in her throat.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She pointed.

  A pained expression crossed Aaron’s face when he saw the duck sprawled awkwardly in the muck.

  “My family has gone,” she said. “I’m alone here.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t get them to listen. I heard them singing, Ruby. They were amazing. And you know what? It gave me hope. That I could do something like that, that you believed in me enough . . .” He cleared his throat gruffly. “I’m going to get the barrels cleaned up. It might take time, but I promise you, I won’t stop until I get someone’s attention.”

  Ruby looked around. There was beauty in this place. It could live again.

  “I have to go.”

  “Yeah,” replied Aaron softly.

  They both stayed quiet a while, aware that the time of their parting was near.

  “I want to give you something.” From her wrist Ruby untied the bracelet, beckoned Aaron closer, and fastened it around his right, pinky finger. “There.”

  “Aw—Ruby—” He closed his fist around it and drew it into his chest. He reached out with his other hand to scratch Woof behind the ear. Ruby felt Woof’s body sway as his tail started up.

  After a minute or two Aaron stepped back, and Ruby took that as her cue to go. With a last nod to her friend, who nodded back with a slight, wistful smile on his face, she urged Woof into a walk and then a run, heading east, the way her family had gone.

  WRATH OF GAIA

  Mahtab Narsimhan

  Jai stood atop the crest of the hill looking for the quickest way back to Base Camp. The stillness of the rainforest had disturbed him from the moment he’d arrived. Nothing moved—not a peepal leaf, not a crow’s wing nor a wild pig or deer, foraging for food. The only “wild” thing was his GPS. It had started giving incorrect readings as soon as he’d entered the forest a couple of days ago, when he’d been assigned the task of evacuating remote villages. His GPS still hadn’t recovered and Jai’d had to search the territory assigned to him, using a map. But he wasn’t too worried. He’d memorized a few landmarks coming into Kushal and was sure he could find a shortcut to get back to civilization.

  A foul stench of rust, ruin and decay rose from the swamplands, which lay to the right of a large banyan that dwarfed the surrounding neem, mahogany, and sal trees. The banyan’s fluorescent-green roots, hanging from its branches, descended into the soil, tethering it firmly to its spot. For hundreds of years, this area in southern India had been the hub for electronic waste from around the world; the burial ground for billions of computers and televisions after being dismembered by the locals. Lead, copper, microchips, and miniscule amounts of gold were extracted for resale. The rest was scrap—burned and dumped into the water or left out in the open till rust devoured the metal and the ground swallowed the plastic. The evidence was everywhere: keyboards, shattered circuitry and blackened wire guts littered the ground, like ugly confetti after a drunken party.

  Skirting the banyan was the road in and out of Kushal. Everywhere else the foliage was dense and would need serious elbow grease to cut through.

  Kanika’s shrill voice shattered the silence. “Where am I? Who brought me here? I want to go home!”

  Jai bit back the urge to yell at her. Even though he’d seen no sign of tigers, known to inhabit this part of the forest, he couldn’t let down his guard. There could still be plenty of dangerous beasts around them.

  “Quiet,” he called out softly, hoping his voice would reach the two women at the base of the hill where he’d suggested they set up camp for the night.

  “She can’t help it,” Tanvi yelled back. “Her memory is not what it used to be.”

  Jai took a deep breath. Of all the villages he’d scoured, he’d found only corpses—and just these two alive. Where were all the people? What was going on here?

  As the sun brushed the tops of the stunted trees and the shadows lengthened, he detected movement near the banyan; but by the time he whipped his head around, all was still. Backlit by the sun, the trunks glinted with a plastic-like sheen, and the shrubs and ground cover shimmered with an unnatural metallic gleam. It creeped him out.

  Jai walked across the narrow spine of the hill with a distinct feeling he was being watched.

  Something burst underfoot, spewing silvery goo that splattered his leg.

  “Shit!” His bare skin burned, and the stink of rotting meat and copper filled the air. One of the bulbous pods of a sickly-grey bush was crushed under his foot, and splashes of a metallic substance ate tiny holes in his socks and shoes.

  He poured some water from his canteen onto the shoes and backed away, making sure to avoid the pods. What the hell kind of plant was this? The pods looked like computer mice. He was seeing more strange stuff in these last few days than he had in his lifetime.

  Now he could appreciate his commander’s words. “The forest is toxic and the poison is spreading. We have orders to burn it to the ground as soon as you and the others are back with the surviving villagers. I would have preferred to send teams of two to bring back the stragglers but I don’t have enough men. Be careful, Jai, and get back to Base, fast.”

  One of the survivors, Tanvi, came up to join him, holding aloft a flaming branch. “Is there a problem? Did you see something odd?”

  Jai tried to mask his repulsion at the sight of her, hating himself for it. The right side of her face was paralyzed and she could barely move her lips when she spoke. Jai had to make a conscious effort to look at her. “No.” He didn’t add that she and her grandmother were the oddest things he’d seen so far. “Will you both stop jumping at shadows? You’re safe with me.” He tapped his machine gun lightly. He’d already caught her eyeing the hand grenades and dynamite in his bag, which he would use if required. “I have all this equipment to help us get out safely.”

  Tanvi held the branch up higher, smiling. Her soft brown eyes, reflecting twin images of the setting sun, looked like they belonged in a much older face. “Fire is the only thing that’ll protect us from Gaia now. You should have left all this equipment back in the village like I suggested.”

  In spite of the grotesque smile, Jai found he was unable to look away. “And Gaia is?”

  “The earth, the forest, the water. Gaia is all around you. We have disrespected and angered her. And if we’re not careful . . .” Tanvi’s voice fell to a whisper, her eyes gazing steadily into his, “she will hurt us.”

  Jai shook his head as he stared into those young-old eyes, trying not to laugh at her naiveté. Tanvi looked perfectly sane, and yet here she was spouting superstitious nonsense.

  “Come on down,” she said finally. “And please—”

  “Humour your grandmother,” he said, cutting her short. “We should have left her behind if you ask me. We’d have reached Camp faster.”

  Tanvi slapped him. It was so sudden, he didn’t see it coming.

  “If you ever suggest leaving Granny behind again, I’ll smash your head while you sleep and throw you into the swamp.” Her features were even more contorted with fury, her chest heaving under the short cotton tunic she wore. “You’re here to help us, not abandon us.”

  He bit back the hot rage that sprang to his chest at the arrogance of her slap, resisting the urge to shake her. Of course, she was right, but—God!—he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He glared at her, instead. Yes, his reason fo
r being here was to bring survivors to safety—including the weird and deformed, which Tanvi and her grandmother certainly were—but—

  He took a breath.

  It was the eeriness of the forest. And of these two odd ducks. It had him on edge.

  Soft clicks and whirrs disturbed the silence. Jai turned around and scanned the forest. Night had descended on them with the suddenness of someone throwing a cloth bag over his head. He saw no one.

  “Who’s there?” he barked.

  “Now who’s yelling?” Tanvi gave him a black look. “Learn to follow your own advice.”

  Jai was about to reply when they heard a shrill cry.

  “Leave me alone! I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  Kanika.

  They raced down the ridge together.

  Tanvi’s seventy-year old grandmother was huddled by the fire. She’d wrapped her dupatta around her head and was rocking back and forth, each movement taking her dangerously close to the flames.

  “Watch out, old woman.” Jai pulled her back by her sleeve just as a tendril of flame tasted the wiry grey hair circling her head like a halo.

  Tanvi threw the burning branch she was holding into the fire and hugged the old woman tightly, murmuring in her ear. “It’s okay. We’re safe. This man will look after us.” She stared at him over her grandmother’s head, as if challenging him to contradict her.

  Slowly, Kanika unwrapped the dupatta from around her face, looking around fearfully.

  “There is no one here but the three of us.” Jai was damned if he was going to humour these women’s belief that the forest was alive.

  “Who are you?” Kanika stared suspiciously at him. “Where did he come from?” This last was addressed to Tanvi.

  “Granny, this is Jai from the military.” Tanvi, stroked the old woman’s hair. “He’s going to take us to a safe place. We’re getting out of here and never coming back.”

  “Shhh,” said Kanika. “Gaia can hear us. She’s cruel. She won’t let us leave. ”

  “Let’s eat, Granny,” said Tanvi, tugging at Kanika’s kurta. “I’m so hungry.”

  The old woman took Tanvi’s face in her palms and kissed her forehead. “Yes, my beautiful child.”

  Jai snorted in disbelief. How could these two have survived when stronger, healthier villagers had died? One had a serious case of Alzheimer’s and the other was just too ugly to be. They wouldn’t last a day in the city on their own.

  But orders were orders. He couldn’t leave two defenseless women in the forest. The sooner he completed his mission, the sooner he’d be rid of them. It was two days’ hard trek back to civilization, three if they couldn’t keep up, and then he’d be free.

  On a makeshift stove of stones, Kanika heated a dry chapatti, flipping it over with her wrinkled hands. As he waited, Jai noticed the ground in the immediate vicinity didn’t have the slightest bit of grass or foliage, and the patch of bare earth seemed to be getting wider. He couldn’t recall the clearing being this large when he’d suggested earlier that they stop for the night. Had the grass moved away from the flames?

  Keep it together. One of them had to have their wits about them.

  “I have a battery-powered stove.” Jai, shrugged off his back-pack.

  “Don’t bother,” said Tanvi. “She’s had enough of electronic gadgets. It’s the reason we’re in this mess today.”

  Jai joined them at the fire. “Didn’t you make money from salvaging? Reclaiming heavy metals from electronics has got to be less back-breaking than farming.”

  “We thought so.” Tanvi poked the fire with a stick. “We had food in our bellies and we didn’t care whether it rained or not. Unlike crops, the computers still yielded their guts to us.” She dropped her stick and turned to him. “But we got greedy. We asked for more and more e-waste but we didn’t safely incinerate what we had. We just dumped it.”

  Kanika’s sobs became audible over the sound of the crackling flames.

  “We poisoned Mother Earth,” Tanvi said. “Now she’s exacting revenge on us.”

  Kanika wiped her eyes and blew her nose into her dupatta. Jai tried not to barf as she picked up a hot chapatti without washing her hands, wrapped a green chilli in it and offered it to him.

  Jai looked into her rheumy eyes. Just how many rooms were vacant up there? Or was her skull one vast hall with the wind blowing through? Did she really expect him to eat that crap after she’d smeared it with germs?

  He was about to refuse when he caught Tanvi’s eye.

  He took the proffered meal, taking care to avoid any contact with the old woman. Hell, he knew her mental state wasn’t contagious. He knew he was being stupid, but he couldn’t help it. He’d been orphaned as a child and the military had embraced him. He’d grown up in the company of men and any contact with women, other than to satisfy his physical needs, made him uncomfortable. These two made him very uncomfortable.

  Kanika sucked on the cigar of her chapatti, gazing around, happily. She seemed to have forgotten the earlier outburst. “I used to play here as a child you know,” she said. “The swamp was a lake then and we’d swim in it. It was clean. Coloured fish swam in it. Then we’d take the shortcut to the next village to buy sweets. That ugly banyan wasn’t there. ”

  Jai chewed on the dry morsel trying not to think about what was on it, chasing it down with a swig of water. “Judging by its size, that tree is more than 200 years old. It was there even before you were born, Kanika. You must have forgotten.” Like just about everything else.

  “It wasn’t there!” she wailed. “I tell you, it wasn’t.”

  Tanvi threw him a dirty look, exhaustion etched on her face.

  “Okay, okay. I believe you.” He didn’t want to incite the old woman any more.

  Jai fished out a couple of ration bars from his backpack and offered them to Kanika and Tanvi. They declined. He shrugged, unwrapped one and chewed on it as the stink of the swamp wafted into the clearing. Crap. When people in developed nations recycled their electronics, they didn’t have a clue that recycling really meant rerouting the trash to a poor country. They just dumped. Out of sight meant gone. And developing nations colluded. Their poor needed the e-waste to survive droughts and other calamities that climate change brought. Extracting metal from electronics was the only livelihood, for some. But now, here they were. This. All the army could do now was to relocate the survivors and treat the contaminated area till it could be used again.

  Jai threw the ration bar wrapper into the fire. It was too bad. These poor women. They weren’t blameless, but it must be hell to lose your house, your community. Everything. “Why didn’t you travel with the other villagers?” he asked. “A group of twenty showed up at Camp a few days ago.”

  “Granny wasn’t strong enough,” said Tanvi, stifling a yawn. “Some days she can barely walk. The village elders knew we and the special ones would slow them down. They said they’d send help when they got out. At least they kept their word.”

  Kanika mashed up the softened chapatti with her gums making loud smacking sounds. She swallowed, wiped the sweat from her face and looked around, her eyes clouded in confusion once again.

  “Special ones?” said Jai. “There was no one in Kushal except the two of you. Every other village was deserted.” Except for the corpses.

  “Special is a kinder word for deformed.” Tanvi’s voice was hard and bitter. “Children born with physical or mental challenges. We poisoned Gaia and she repaid us by poisoning our parents’ bodies. We are the result. Useless in a normal society.”

  Jai took a swig of water, staring into the darkness. Hadn’t he thought the same thing a while ago? But, truth be told, the village elders were right. Was it sensible to risk the lives of so many to save a few who would probably die along the way or be a huge burden on the already strained healthcare system in the city? He said nothing, but when he glanced at her, he was sure Tanvi knew what he was thinking. He looked away, ashamed of himself. He couldn’t help it. Illness
and deformity of any sort made him sick.

  “I know the way,” Kanika said. “I could’ve shown them the way out of here.”

  Jai snorted.

  Tanvi glowered at him.

  That was a load of crap. And if it was true, what the hell was he doing in this stinking place? “So, if Kanika knows the way out, you two could have left at any time,” said Jai. “Why didn’t you?”

  “Granny knows ayurvedic medicine. She was trying to save some of the villagers. She couldn’t. Just as we were making plans to get out, you showed up.” She looked into the flames. “Truth is, it’s wiser to travel in a group or Gaia will get you. I’m glad you are here.”

  “Gaia will get you,” echoed Kanika, cackling with laughter. “But I know places to hide. She won’t get me or my Tanvi! Oh no, she won’t!”

  The old woman was talking nonsense. Yet—

  He could feel something in the air. A crackle of electricity. A certainty that something was watching them, and waiting.

  He stood up and started to pace. These two, with their stories of Gaia, were messing with his head. It was probably a summer storm brewing. Climate change had made the weather unpredictable—sunshine one hour and a downpour the next. That was the only explanation.

  No way was the earth alive.

  Tanvi and Kanika insisted on sleeping in turns. Kanika became hysterical when Jai suggested that both she and Tanvi sleep and he would keep watch alone.

  “No!” she shrieked. “Who is this strange man giving me orders? Tell him to go away.”

  If only Jai could slip away and leave them to fend for themselves. But no. His commander was depending on him. And these helpless women would die without him. But he had to get them all back to Base Camp before he ended up strangling this old woman who could remember the colour of the swamp-water from years ago, but couldn’t remember who he was and why he was here.

  “All right!” He spoke softly, spreading his hands.

  The diminutive figure in the mud-splattered kurta-pajama sobbed like a child, scrubbing her face with her fists.