by Ken Barrett
“We’ll keep an eye on it, and make sure a cult doesn’t spring up from the idea,” she replied.
“It’s not our function to control them,” he said. “They’re evolving and have their own path.”
“If we can’t help them, then what are we here for?”
“That’s the eternal question, isn’t it?” He shrugged. “Maybe life is its own purpose.” He nodded toward the humans gathered around the fire. “In their case, I have a feeling that they’re on the verge of evolving into something new, and we’re here to witness their transformation.”
“They could just as easily kill themselves and go extinct,” Rose stated.
He nodded. “There is that possibility.”
“Are we supposed to help them evolve? Humans made us, could that be why we’re here?”
“Maybe,” he said. “But I think we’ve already done too much.”
“So, we’re supposed to just sit back and watch, and hope for the best?”
He smiled. “That’s all anyone can ever do.”
*****
They walked east along the fast-flowing river under a deep azure sky. The darker color was one of the many changes that had come from the solar storm, another was that the air was thinner. Many of the humans were having trouble breathing and had to walk slowly and take frequent breaks, especially when going uphill. Others with pale skin were getting sunburns.
At midday, they took a break to gather branches from the burned remains of small trees and shrubs, then stretched articles of clothing over the twigs. The umbrellas provided enough shade for them to continue their hike without undue pain.
Beyond the complaints of the former captives, the day was pleasant. The sun wasn’t yellow anymore; it appeared slightly larger and was the color of a tangerine. As he walked, Liam wondered if the estimated age of the sun, at five billion years, was an error. If it were older than radioactive dating indicated, the star could be entering an unstable period and more solar storms were possible.
That was a worrisome thought, and rather than linger on what he couldn’t control, he looked about and enjoyed the beauty around him. The earth was returning to life. He saw new plant growth everywhere, and several times caught glimpses of fish swimming in the river. Soon mankind’s place in the world would be restored. What sort of civilization would they build? He wished for one that had learned the lessons of the past, but humanity’s nature was self-destructive, so their future remained volatile and uncertain.
They caught up with the other survivors at the Eagle River confluence just as the orange sun ducked behind the western mountains. Liam stood back and watched as the groups of people were joyfully reunited. On the far side of the camp, several adults watched over children that were wading at the edge of the river. The sight of the kids laughing as they splashed and played spoke to the resiliency of their species. Just two days ago, these same children were marked for either indoctrination or death, but with that darkness gone, they played without a care.
Up ahead, his sister ran toward a lanky blonde woman that held a baby. He heard her sob as she took the infant and held it in her arms. He recognized the woman from the rescue in Adar’s camp; she had said she was Keith and Denise’s neighbor and had seen their child born. Rose looked happier than he had ever seen her, and he smiled.
She sank to the ground with the baby still in her arms and pressed her face close to nuzzle the child. A moment later the blonde woman sat down beside her and said, “This is Aiden, you’re his mother now.”
He couldn’t help but laugh as tears filled his eyes. The deal was done; Rose was lost to him now because she had finally found that which she always wanted, a child of her own to care for.
*****
They broke camp early the next morning even though many were still exhausted from the activities of the night before. The reunion between his tiny band and the larger group of escapees had been jubilant; many of those celebrating hadn’t slept at all.
Rose carried Aiden with her everywhere she went. At one point, he joked that with her in charge the child might never learn to walk. She laughed brightly as her eyes sparkled with unbridled joy. “Isn’t he perfect?” She bounced lightly on her toes. “Have you ever seen such a beautiful child? And he’s all mine.”
Of course, the baby was handsome. He had Keith’s light blond hair and stared out from within his blanket with Denise’s soulful eyes. “He’s a good-looking kid,” Liam replied. Under his sister’s care, the boy would be looked after by a tireless mother that would never age. Over the coming decades Rose would care for Aiden, then his children, and then his grandchildren. Rose would be constant throughout their family history, always there and ready to help or protect.
At midday, they met up with Tiger and Alice’s force of one hundred near the ruins of an old ranch. Their friends from Steamboat rushed to greet them, and another party started. That evening, from campfires that brightly dotted the rolling hills, laughter, and songs carried across the open prairie as everyone celebrated their freedom. For the most part though, Liam sat away from the crowd, and quietly watched his sister and the others he knew.
He was a bit surprised to see Rose briefly part with the baby when she passed him to Alice. The women sat close together as Tiger’s partner held Aiden, and both women cooed over how handsome he was. Together they made sure the child was well fed, bathed, and cared for. The kid would definitely be spoiled.
“You’re kinda quiet tonight,” Tiger said as he approached through the darkness.
“It’s a lot to take in,” Liam stated. “It’s good to see everyone happy for a change, I just hope it lasts.”
“Why wouldn’t it?” Tiger asked.
“Your kind has a tendency to repeat your past mistakes.”
“Our kind huh? So, you’re not gonna try and blend in and become one of us?”
“Do you think we could get away with that?” Liam shook his head while watching Rose and Alice. “I’m worried about my sister. She’ll live with you, but she’ll never age or get sick, so she’ll always be different than everyone else.”
“That’s all changed now,” Tiger replied. “Everybody knows that you two saved our asses. If you had stayed away, Adar would’ve tortured and murdered anyone that spoke out against him and his crazy cult. We would’ve lived like slaves with Adar’s boot on the back of our necks, always afraid of what new load of crap was about to fall on us. We owe our freedom to you and Rose, and no one’s ever gonna forget that.”
“We paid a heavy price for liberty,” Liam said. “We lost too many good people.”
“I know.” Tiger paused to watch the fireside celebrations. “Everyone understands that too, and maybe that’s what’ll keep that craziness from happening again.” He chuckled. “It’s the old once bitten twice shy thing the old folks used to say. We paid the price, now it’s up to us to really learn the lesson.”
“I hope you can.”
“I was talkin’ to Janus on the radio just this morning, and she was saying that Alice’s Dad and a lot of the other farmers are getting ready to plant crops outside our shelter.” The young man smiled. “The future looks good; our enemies are gone, and the world is coming back to life. We’ll build a new society that respects each other, and even if we don’t always agree, we’ll still get along.”
“Do you really think so?” he asked. “Utopias have a bad habit of turning into tyrannies when the opinions of the many carry more weight than the freedom of the few.”
“We’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“I suppose,” Liam answered. “But smaller communities usually fare better than large ones, so maybe you should keep that in mind.” He sighed as he watched Rose gently rock her baby to sleep. “Would you do me a favor?”
“Anything,” Tiger responded quickly. “What do you need?”
“I’d like you to look after my sister.”
“Huh,” Tiger grunted. “I’m very sure Rose can look after herself.”
“Hell yeah, but where are you goin’?”
“Back to Granby, I have a house to finish building there,” he answered. “A lot of bad shit went down at Adar’s camp, and I need time alone to work through it.”
“I take it that Rose ain’t goin’ with you?”
“My sister’s a lot tougher than I am,” he replied. “And she’s got a baby to keep her occupied.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“As long as it takes me to come back to myself.”
*****
Liam stirred the embers of a dying fire as the pale light of dawn drifted down from the sky. The chill of the morning was enough to keep most of his companions within their tents. He laid more wood on the brightening flames, and once confident it would continue to burn, he stood up and slung a bag of clothing over his shoulder. He was uneasy about the journey ahead, mostly because of the dream.
He never dreamed though, and that was the peculiar thing. The visions that had come to him were at once both beautiful and deeply disturbing. He sighed and looked to the west.
“Hi,” Rose said as she appeared beside him.
He glanced at her. “Where’s Aiden?”
“Alice is taking care of him for a bit.” She followed his gaze and nodded. “The west. So, you saw it too.”
“Yeah, what was that? We’re not supposed to dream because we never sleep.”
“It had to come from something that was hidden in our core-processing code,” she answered. “Could it be programming that Roxi installed?”
Misgivings tore at him as he shook his head. “I don’t think Roxi had anything to do with it. What we saw was from something buried really deep, and timed to be shown to us right here, and right now.”
“You’re saying that whoever wrote our code knew all this would happen, and that we’d end up here.”
“Yeah,” he answered. “The simulation engine they used must have been incredibly sophisticated.”
“Could Roxi have written it?”
He shook his head. “No. Roxi was a really smart lady, but she was still limited by her human abilities. Whoever wrote the code that generated the dream on cue, had skills far beyond ours. Something’s going on, and it feels like manipulation, which makes me uneasy.”
“I didn’t sense any kind of threat, did you?”
“No,” he replied cautiously. “And I have a strong urge to follow along with what the vision showed me. How about you?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure my dream was different than yours.”
“Really?”
“Yes. In mine, I was right here with you by the fire. You said that you were going west, and I stayed here and watched you leave.” She lightly touched his arm. “Where did you go in your vision?”
“West; out there somewhere far away,” he answered. “I saw people living near an extinct volcano at the edge of the ocean.” He frowned. “Something extraordinary is going to happen, and I have to be there to see it.”
“Lucy Galen disappeared in the west, didn’t she?” Rose asked. “That’s what Roxi said anyway. Do you think the code that made our visions could be her design?”
“It’s a possibility, and if Lucy Galen is somehow the same Lucy I sent to Trappist-1, I definitely want to find her.”
“So, you’re going then.”
“I think I have to.”
“Will I ever see you again?”
“Yeah, and that’s the one thing I’m sure of because right at the end of my dream you were with me.”
“How will I find you?”
He smiled and pulled her into a hug. “We share the same soul, so we’ll always know intuitively where the other is.”
“I’ll miss you Big Brother,” she whispered as she held him tight.
“This is goodbye just for now.” Liam touched his sister’s face, then lightly kissed her cheek. Then finally, he turned away and walked toward the distant western mountains.
Afterword
First and foremost, thank you for taking this journey with me; I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. If you could spare the time, I’d really appreciate it if you would leave a review. The deck is stacked against unknown authors such as myself, and reviews help my books stand up against the big-boys on Amazon.
What you’ve just read is the third in a series of novels about the future of our species. What lies ahead for us? Will the habits of our lesser nature drive us to extinction, or will we evolve into something noble and pure? Dinosaurs escaped cataclysm to become birds; can we also learn to fly?
To stay tuned for updates on future novels in the Extinction Series check out these links:
My author page on Amazon
amazon.com/Ken-Barrett/e/B06X1GK52W
The Extinction Series page on Amazon
amazon.com/gp/product/B07PHVSPQ5
Facebook
facebook.com/IndyRoads
Website
indianroads.net/
Until next time – Ken
About the Author
Ken Barrett grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and worked as a Design Engineer for over thirty years in Silicon Valley. He is a lifelong biker (motorcyclist), and an accomplished martial artist with advanced black-belt degrees in Tae Kwon Do, Chinese Kenpo, Hapkido, and Shotokan.
These days he is retired and living in Colorado, where he spends summers riding the roads of America, and survives the snowy winters sequestered in his office writing stories like this one.
