BackTrek

by Kelvin Kelley

The stars illuminated the moonless night and made the few clouds that billowed across the sky seem translucent as they slowly drifted into the night. A soft wind blew against his face as he sat, and leaned against a palm tree at the edge of the sand. He could smell the salt air from the waves as they crashed in the distance, and felt the softness of the sand between his toes. As beautiful as the night was, that was not why he was there. He remembered his excitement from hours earlier when he had first rose from sleep, just to be at this magical place at this exact time. The slight chill in the air brought goose bumps to his skin, but inside he was warm. And inside, so was she.

  “I’m scared, Jericho.” She said as she sat next to him. “We’re not supposed to be here. What if they catch us?” He glanced down at her, and rubbed at his freshly shaved chin as if in thought, and then whispered to her.

  “It’s okay, Gabrielle. No one will find us. I’ve been here before.” She started to say something else, but he interrupted.

  “Shh.” He said softly and put his strong fingers gently against her lips. She could feel the roughness of his skin against her tender lips, and melted at his gentle touch. Her fears retreated deep inside as she realized that this moment, here, with him, was worth everything to her. “Do you see all the little bits of light in the sky?” He asked. She nodded as she looked up.

  “It’s like they are so tiny…and yet, I can see them winking at me. They’re so beautiful.” She said softly.

  “Twinkling.” He said. “That’s what it’s called. Twinkling.” He turned toward her as she continued to gaze into the starry night. “They are called stars. And they say, even though they look really tiny, they’re actually quite large. As big as the sun.”

  “Really?” She said in disbelief. “But they look so small!” She exclaimed.

  “Looks can be deceiving.” He said. “They say that they look so small because they are really far away. Far, far away.”

  “It’s too much for me to understand, Jericho. How could something be that far away? I mean, even if they were as far away as the other side of the village, they wouldn’t look that small.” She said.

  “True.” He said. “But they are much farther away than that Gabrielle. Much farther. They say that they are so far away, that it takes a long time for that little bit of light to even get this far.” He explained.

  “What do you mean?” She asked.

  “The twinkles,” He began, “the ones that you see right now?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They say that they actually happened a long time ago.” He said.

  “A long time ago…like last year? Or when I was still little?” She asked.

  “Even longer than that.” He answered. “As long ago as before our village even existed.”

  “Before then? But that’s been forever.” She said softly, as she pondered the concept.

  “That’s what they say.” He said. Then suddenly he saw what he had waited for since they had first arrived. He pointed towards the ocean. She too had patiently waited to see what it was that he thought to be so beautiful. She looked in the direction that his arm pointed and saw the warmth. A small sliver of crimson, just as it began to brighten, could be seen on the horizon. A smile came to her face in anticipation of what was to come. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark, and out of the corner of her eye she watched him as he stared towards the growing warmth.

  The breeze fluttered her hair, as the sliver of crimson began to grow faster and brighter. Slowly the whole sky on the horizon began to push away the darkness and welcome the new day. As the first edge of the sun peeked over the water, she saw not it, but its reflection in his eyes. He stood up, and she followed.

  “Watch it! Look how beautiful it is!” He exclaimed, as he pointed towards the bright burning star that warmed their world.

  “It is beautiful.” She said, in amazement. Amazed both by the sight that was before her, and that he too had thought it was beautiful.

  As he dropped his hand, it came to rest next to hers. And as they stood side by side and shared the beauty of the rising sun, he grasped her hand in his, as he had always wanted to do. He could tell she was happy to be there with him as they watched the fire grow into the sky, and he was glad. Glad that he had found such beauty, and that she would let him share it with her.

  “Look! On the water!” She exclaimed as the sun lifted up enough to shine across the water towards them. The light shimmered with the pulse of the waves, and her eyes sparkled with each pulse of the shining light. He looked at her amazement and was gladdened. His heart warmed even more, as the smile continued to creep across his lips. He looked back at the water, and smiled fully now in total wonder.

  “I told you it was beautiful.” He said, as he squeezed her hand gently. He turned towards her, and caught her as she stared at him. Their eyes met, and he pulled her close to him. The sun grew brighter and stronger in the sky, and the breeze blew through their hair. They kissed. Their lips barely touched. So tender. So soft. His touch was so gentle, like a breeze itself, and hers so soft and warm. To each of them hours could have passed, days could have gone by, as they held one another close and shared that moment. When he pulled away, he did so slowly, as he lingered. She did not pull away, but held him close and put her head to his strong chest. As he wrapped his arms around her, she listened to his heartbeat, and cherished every breath. The very air around her smelled like him. It smelled strong and safe. It smelled happy and warm. It smelled right.

  They had been friends for so long. So long that neither of them even remembered when they met. Independently they had grown to love one another but had been afraid to share how they felt. Their friendship had been more important than anything else. Gabrielle had often dreamed of Jericho’s touch, just as he had dreamed of her kiss. Their hearts raced as they held one another. They both knew that their relationship had just forever changed. Though they could have no idea what the future may hold for them, they knew individually and together, that from this day forward, they would never be alone. Not really alone. They would always have one another.

  The sun still climbed into the sky as they reluctantly pulled away from their embrace. Jericho led her, hand in hand, to the path that had delivered them to the beach. As they walked through the narrow boulder lined path, they were both silent. She wanted to say things, all kinds of things, about how she felt. How he made her feel. About what had happened. But she kept quiet, as she savored the moment, and basked in their newfound warmth. Jericho was equally in a cross between turmoil and elation, but he too walked in silence. As they followed the path that was mostly rocks and a bit of sand, Jericho led the way for her once again as he had done when they had come. Soon they came to the rusted steel wall that separated this bit of paradise from their world. Tall corrugated steel panels, rough with the burnt orange of oxidation, separated by stone pillars, ran to their left and right. They had reached the road. Jericho reached down and pulled the bottom corner of one of the panels back and peeked through.

  “The road is already full.” Jericho said as he watched as the people walked by them. Though from this viewpoint, his view was all of grey cloth covered legs and grey canvas shoes. Everyone else being dressed the same as the two of them. Everyone walked at a fast pace and moved in the same direction.

  “How will we get out there? Without them knowing where we were?” She asked, as she squatted beside him.

  “They don’t care, they won’t even notice. Look, I’ll hold this back and you go first. I’ll count to ten and then follow you.” He said. He pried back on the rusted panel to give her more room to get through.

  “I don’t want to leave you.” She said, as she looked into his eyes.

  “It’s okay. I’ll catch up to you in just a minute or so. Just watch out that you don’t get scratched.” She saw a break in the traffic, where she could get through without being stepped on. She started to go, and then hesitated.
“Go!” He said, and gave her a gentle push with his own grey colored canvas shoe.

  Gabrielle came through the wall, stumbled slightly and then became one with the sea of bodies as they marched on the road. She had joined the hundreds and hundreds of others, as they all walked in the same direction. She counted to ten to herself and then glanced back, but Jericho wasn’t to be seen. She could no longer see the opening she had come through. She tried to step to the side of the road, but the traffic had her caught up in its flow and carried her away from where she had left Jericho. She hoped that Jericho would catch up with her soon.

  Jericho continued to squat and peek through the panel opening, to look for a break in the throng of people that passed, but had to wait well past his original count of ten. Finally he saw an opening, shoved through the hole and was able to enter the roadway. Just ask he straightened his back and matched the crowd’s speed, he almost fell as he was pushed from behind.

  “Hey! Watch it!” He said as he caught his balance and picked up his speed to walk with the rest.

  “Why did you jump in front of me? Can’t you see I’m walking here, you idiot!” The young man never slowed his pace, but pushed Jericho again. Anger still showed on his face, and fire in his eyes.

  “Stop it, Donovan! Just because you’re bigger than me doesn’t mean you own me.” Jericho replied.

  “That’s right I’m bigger than you, and don’t you forget it!” Donovan spat back.

  “Yeah! Bigger, taller, and dumber!” Jericho shot back, and ducked just as Donovan swung at him. “And slow! See yah!” Jericho said as he picked up his pace and began to weave his way through the crowd, as he tried to catch up with Gabrielle and get away from Donovan. Donovan tried to follow him, and butted in front of an older hard looking man.

  “Back off, you damn idiot!” The older man said, as he slapped Donovan across the face, and raised his hand to hit him again. Stunned and scared, Donovan fell back into the pace, with his mouth shut.

  “Collin, why did you do that?” An older woman next him said. “He’s just a kid!”

  “The bastard almost tripped me! On the road as busy as this, that’s almost as sure as the plague to get you killed. The shit head deserved it!” Collin fired back at the older woman.

  “If you wasn’t my husband I’d disown you, you old scoundrel!” She replied.

  “Shut up, and walk, woman! We’re to damn old to argue and walk!”

  “Humph.” She replied. And they continued in silence.

  Donovan had listened quietly to their exchange, and just kept pace with the crowd. He no longer wished to follow Jericho. He had no need to. They would all wind up in the same place soon. Everybody was going to the same place. This was the morning shift. And on the morning shift, every morning, everyone went to the factory.

  “Gabrielle!” Jericho yelled as he approached the end of the road. Ahead of him, people poured through small lanes, divided by waist high gleaming metallic posts, each ending with a domed shaped top. He was still a good ten people behind her, but he wanted her to know that he had made it.

  “Jericho! What took you so long?” She called back as she passed her hand into the opening at the edge of the dome on top of the post just to her right, and she continued to briskly walk past. The light on top of the dome continued to glow green. Above the roadway, the Guardians watched quietly from the raised catwalk across the road, as they ensured that each person placed their hand into the dome as they passed, and alertly continued to watch for any change to the steady green lights on each of the domes. The Guardians were not dressed as everyone else on the road, in the drab grey shirts, pants and shoes. They were in fact not dressed at all. Their gleaming metallic bodies, humanoid in every way, were a smooth dark grey metal, from head to foot, with occasional edges of smooth shiny metal which outlined the various sections of their bodies where they had been assembled. Faces, shiny with the same brightness, yet devoid of expression, molded at their creation with a fixed disinterested expression. And black soulless eyes, which glimmered only with the light from their surroundings. The Guardians constantly scanned the moving crowd, and though they each had a mouth-like slit, it never opened. It had no need to. They did not need to eat, nor talk really, as all sound that they emitted came through a grated opening in their chest. Each held a long rod in one hand. Steel. With a metal tip that gleamed in the light.

  “Where were you?” Gabrielle asked again.

  “Donovan!” He answered.

  “Oh. I get it.” She said, as she smiled slightly.

  “Jericho!” Donovan yelled from further back down the road as he too moved towards the entry lines. “This ain’t over, Jericho! You hear me?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” Jericho said to himself. Then he yelled to Gabrielle. “I’ll see you at mid-day meal!”

  “Okay, see you then!” She replied as she hurried off into the factory, and to her assigned station.

  Jericho approached the dome and inserted his hand into the plasma beam as he had done a thousand times before, and again it seemed to tickle. Sometimes he wondered exactly what the beam was made out of, but mostly he just thought it was a pretty blue color, a color that he had always associated with the scanner. Everyone that entered the factory had to pass the scanner. Once, years ago, a man had refused to put his hand in the scanner, and since disobedience was forbidden, a Guardian had reached down from the catwalk and touched him with the gleaming end of his control stick. The touch had knocked him unconscious, even before the Guardian could jump down from above. The Guardian had then dragged him over to the scanner, and put his hand in for him. Days later, Jericho had seen the man as he received lashes in the square. Such was his punishment for having disobeyed. The primary rule was to obey. Obey instructions, obey directions, obey any and all communication from the Guardians. That was the rule, and it was simple. Obey. It was also required by rule, that any violation, any disobedience must be punished, and all such punishment must be public for all to see.

  He would never forget the man’s face, tear streaked, blood splattered, in agonized pain, but absolutely silent as each lash of the whip wrapped around the already split and bloody skin on his back. The Guardian that administered the punishment had held the same expressionless look on its face as each stroke sliced deeper. It went through the motions with mechanical preciseness, and absolute lack of emotion. Jericho could see the broken and battered body of the poor man tied to the whipping post, clearly reflected in the Guardian’s unblinking eyes. But then as he had turned his glance, it was the man’s eyes that he would never forget. Beaten, bloody, as stroke after stroke from the unstoppable whip continued to land, the man’s eyes had been quite clear and sharp. For a moment, just a slight fraction of a second, they had locked with Jericho’s. It was quite clear that he would never be disobedient again.

  Jericho knew that the purpose of the scanner was to detect if someone had the plague, even though no symptoms were evident. That was how the plague was controlled. He had heard horror stories of how infected people had spread the plague throughout the village, and in some cases, it had killed entire families. He couldn’t imagine that anyone would not want to help or that anyone would not agree to be scanned.

  The Guardian watched as Jericho was scanned and the light remained green. As Jericho continued forward, he heard a commotion from behind him.

  “Damn thing’s broke!” The old man said as the scanner’s light glowed red, his hand still inside the scanner’s dome.

  “Collin? What’s wrong?” The older lady behind him asked as a siren began to blare. A Guardian quickly jumped down in front of the man, as she grabbed her husband. “Collin? What’s going on?” She asked again.

  “The damn thing says I’ve got the plague!” He said, as the fear welled up in his voice. His hand was still in the scanner. As the Guardian approached, a mist began to spray down into the crowd from the overhead. People began
to run away from the older man, as they pushed one another in a panic. He began to pull at his hand, as he tried desperately to free it from the scanner which had clamped down as soon as it had been triggered red. The crowd had become more hostile, as some stepped on those that had fallen, just to get away from the contaminated man.

  “Be calm.” A loud voice emitted out of the Guardian. “The plague has been isolated. You are in no danger.” The Guardian, a full foot taller than the man before him, seized the older man, and touched him lightly with the tip of his control stick. His eyes still called to his wife, as his knees buckled from under him, and he fell unconscious.

  “Collin!” She screamed as she broke down in hysterics. Another Guardian jumped down and held her from going to her husband as the first Guardian reached into a compartment on its side and retrieved a small black object. With a flick of its wrist the object opened into a large black plastic bag and in matter of seconds, the Guardian quickly covered and sealed the man within. Suddenly a large steel boom swung into view overhead from over the side of the rusted road wall, and from its tip, a steel cable ending in a hook was already being lowered. Within moments, the Guardian had fastened the hook to the bag, and quickly and silently the cable retracted. The boom swung the bag containing unconscious man up and over the rusted steel wall. The man was gone. His wife, now unconscious from a touch of the Guardian’s control stick, was quickly lifted by the Guardian that had approached her, slung over its massive shoulder, and removed from the area. Less than a minute had passed and it was all over.

  Being next in line, Donovan stepped up to the scanner and cautiously placed his hand in the scanner. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut as he did. The scanners light continued to glow green. He peeked through one eye, and sighed relief, as he was pushed ahead by the others behind him.

  Chapter 2