Colonization (The Seamus Chronicles Book 3) (8 page)

This is the story of my relationship with Liam. I alternate being totally pissed at him with fearing for his well-being and happiness. Right now I am on the angry side of that dichotomy.

We are hundreds of light years from home on a strange planet and he ditched me in the woods. What’s worse is he’s not just goofing off, there was potentially grave danger and he just left me. I’ve always been the ‘selfish’ one but it was me who took care of Francisco and helped him get away. My thanks for that is walking by myself on a trail in the jungle.

I pause to gather myself. A negative attitude will attract negative things. I need to focus on something positive. Still being alive feels a little contrived but it’s a place to start. Not only am I alive, I’m still ambulatory and not being pursued by a space monster. There is also some water left in my bottle, which I pull from my pack and inspect.

When it sloshes around in the bottle it sounds too loud. I hold it perfectly still but hear more splashing. My breathing stops and I focus all my attention to my ears.

“Dude he was like steps behind me. He’ll be right here.” Over the splashing I hear the buzzed exaggerated whisper of Francisco.

“Can I even trust you to stay here while I go find him?” Liam responds.

I set off quickly; they shouldn’t lose sight of each other on my account. In Francisco’s state I don’t know if he would stay or leave.

Around a slight bend I come to a river. Liam and Francisco are standing waist deep in the water and facing each other. The water moves lazily and I check behind me one more time for predators. Confident that there is nothing in pursuit I step out into the clear.

“Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.” I call to the two of them.

“Seamus!” Liam exclaims and begins to wade out of the water towards me.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” I accuse my brother immediately.

“Sorry. I freaked out. Part of me thought my leg was still broken and I needed as much head start as I could get. I kept thinking you’d pass me any second. I was across the river before I realized how fast I had run.” Liam hangs his head.

“When did you come up with that story?” I ask him.

“While I was walking out of the water just now.” He smiles and nods.

This isn’t out of character for Liam, but it bothers me. How can I trust him in the future? We need to stick together and he didn’t. Would I feel comfortable letting him go off with Grace? With Sofie?

Liam is helpful and sweet and funny, but he is not reliable. Right now and for the foreseeable future reliable is a priority. It’s a hard note to file in the back of my mind, but I put it there anyway.

“Liam… I don’t know. I just don’t know.” I stare at him. Mom and Dad always tell us to let them parent him, but I want to give him a lecture.

His eyes go wide and then break into a smile. He’s staring over my shoulder and he sees something good. I turn to see what he’s looking at.

“Hello Seamus.” Cassandra is eyeing me from the bank of the river, upstream from the lake.

“Cassandra!” Liam yells and runs the several steps to her.

They embrace tightly and her body begins to shudder. From Liam’s shoulder I hear a muffled sob and see her fist clenching at his shirt.

I walk over to them and she slips out of their embrace and into my arms. There are no words for what I feel. Gratitude would come closest. I’m grateful that she is alive; her intelligence, drive and friendship are valuable.

“How’s your mom?” I ask as I pull back from her.

“She was fine until this morning, or earlier, I’m still struggling with time of day.” Cassandra smiles meekly.

“What happened this morning?” I ask.

“My mom and most of the others started getting real spacey. Drugs were never a huge thing in my circles, but it seems like everyone was getting high.” She fills us in.

“Hey, Francisco has been acting pretty wasted too.” Liam contributes.

“I was really spooked because I wasn’t sure if it was them or me. I kept pinching myself,” She holds out an arm covered in black and blues, “but all that did was hurt.”

“Well, you seem with it. Liam and I are still with it too. Wait, did you say the others? Francisco said that you and your mom were the only other survivors.” I question her.

“What? We were all there and safe when he left. How about your plane? Everyone okay?” She looks to Francisco, who has not left the slow moving river.

“All except Jake. He was out of his seat when we hit. Banged his head pretty hard and has been unconscious since.” I relay the status.

In the water I see a candy wrapper float aimlessly past. Where humans go, trash will follow. I’m embarrassed that we are already polluting this planet, but before I can grab the wrapper it is far down river. Unfortunately it also means that the others are tearing through food haphazardly.

“We need to figure out why they’re stoned and get things under control. It looks like they’re wasting food and we can’t afford that. How far is it to your camp?” I would love to rest some more but we don’t have time.

“Not far. Come on.” Cassandra turns and heads up river.

“You get Francisco and try to keep up.” I tell Liam.

A big part of me wants to ditch him so he knows how it feels to be alone and looking for someone. But I push that out of my head. I need to get past these petty revenges.

We walk for no more than thirty minutes when a sad, humorous scene appears in front of me.

It looks like the pilot did an amazing job of getting the fuselage of the plane lined up with the river. The body of the plane is whole and sitting with its tail in the river and it’s nose propped up on the bank. The wings are nowhere to be seen and all the glass appears to have shattered, but that is not where the humor comes from.

Scattered around the riverbank are small groups of people tearing into boxes like it was Christmas morning. Food is being opened, sloppily aimed at mouths and partially eaten before getting tossed to the side. It reminds me of my dad’s description of a Las Vegas buffet at three in the morning.

What could it be that has the adults affected while the younger people are fine? This did not happened at our camp, so I am guessing it is something environmental. I look around for clues but nothing catches my eye.

“Have you been staying hydrated?” I ask Cassandra.

“That was a problem for a bit. The water is packed in the middle of the cargo pile because of its weight and propensity to move. We pulled all these boxes out in an effort to get to it but wound up stopping short.” Cassandra has her hands on her hips.

“Why did you stop?” I want to know.

“The plane felt unstable as the weight was reduced. We were afraid that it might wash downriver if we kept unpacking.” She explains.

“And it’s hard to find loose items out here to use for ballast.” I add.

“But we were thirsty. One of the guys was able to saw off a few leaves. He used them to make an aqueduct-type thing and bring water out from the river and into a temporary leaf basin.” She nods at his remarkable feat of engineering.

I can see that getting to the water’s edge from this location on the river is difficult. The bank here is steep and muddy, allowing you to get down, but not back up. The aqueduct design is ingenious and I am impressed.

“So you’ve all been drinking from this leaf basin?” Liam walks over to it and scoops a handful to sip.

“Well except me. I’m kind of allergic to pollen and I thought it might be extra bad if I ingested pollen from and alien planet. So I’ve been walking down river to where I found you and getting my water from the source.” Cassandra smiles sheepishly, the nerd with allergies is an embarrassing cliché.

Next steps seem impossible to formulate. There are three sober young adults and nine totally wasted grown ups. They need to stop wasting food and getting drunk, but I don’t know how to get through to them.

I can’t decide if this spot is better than ours or worse. My gut tells me that the river is a good thing and we should stay next to the steady water. It likely won’t be my decision and for now the priority is to get back to camp so I can get the reactor started and project the containment field.

Leaving these people here like this is not a good idea. Trying to get them to traipse through the jungle where something lives also feels like a big mistake. If Cassandra couldn’t control them I have little chance to either.

My hand reaches into my pack and pulls out the water bottle. It’s almost becoming a habit when I need to think. Carefully I open the top and take a long pull, there is probably enough left for one more drink.

“You can use some of our water if you want.” Cassandra waves her hand at the leaf basin full of liquid.

It feels like she’s trying to trick me but I’m not sure why.

“Seriously Seamus, this water tastes so much better than ours.” Liam encourages me before taking a long drink directly from the leaf.

“What do you think about the leaf pollen being a narcotic?” I ask Cassandra casually.

Liam overhears and pauses in mid drink to look at me.

“And the water washes it off the leaf and then we, or they, ingest it when they drink.” She states.

“Wanna bet?” I hold out my hand but Cassandra doesn’t shake on it.

“Does this mean I’m going to get high?” Liam asks cautiously.

“Yes Liam, I think you’re going to get high.” Cassandra has bought into my theory.

“Although at our camp Sofie is the only one who has drunk the water, until Liam just did. She didn’t get high, but she has been ill.” I think out loud.

“Well I have been drinking the water and haven’t felt any side effects. These guys got like this about twelve to fourteen hours ago. If it were just the water I would be as high as they are by now.” Her attention to detail is refreshing.

Translating knowledge to social action is not my strong suit. Now that we have a pretty good idea that the leaves have narcotic pollen that causes humans to become intoxicated, what do I do about it? I’m not sure any of them would have listened to me sober, persuading them to stop drinking delicious water while they are high is not going to be easy.

None of the two-way radios made it off the plane. I have no way to contact mom or dad and Cassandra does not know how to get back to our camp. If she had an idea to get them moving she would have done it by now.

“We need to get them down stream to where we met up with you.” I tell Cassandra.

“I don’t see how that will help.” She still likes to understand the ‘why’ of my actions even though I have proven that my instincts are often correct.

“They have to stop drinking leaf water and I think our best bet for that to happen is if we have a replacement to offer. Fresh, clean river water, try some today!” I use my best television commercial voice.

She doesn’t buy what I’m selling. I can’t believe that she’s going to dig her heals in on this. It’s another case where she does not have a better idea but doesn’t like mine. The ‘not invented here’ syndrome is strong in this one.

A sudden commotion draws my attention. Liam has crashed into the leaf aqueduct and is staggering towards the basin. My heart leaps into my throat. He may be having a more violent, toxic reaction to the pollen. I run to him and get there just after he face plants next to the leaf full of water.

His hands fumble for the bottom of the leaf and he lifts. The leaves are heavy to begin with, full of water it likely weighs over one hundred pounds and my brother has no leverage.

“Little help.” He grumbles as our eyes meet.

He’s not high yet. This is all an act. If the water supply is disrupted we’ll have no choice but to move where we can get fresh water more easily. There is no way any of them can rebuild the aqueduct in their state.

“Liam!” I exaggerate my yell and the level of concern.

Lying prone next to him I reach my hands under the basin and we start to lift together while I pretend to be helping him to his feet. The leaf does not budge.

“The hell with this.” I say under my breath while getting to my feet.

Squatting down I place my hands under the leaf and lift up. Water pours out and puddles on the ground before disappearing.

“Whoa. Dude that’s our water.” A few of the drunkards utter to no one in particular.

“Man. I’m sorry bro. Let’s grab a nosh and go down there. We can put our feet in the water and totally chill.” My brother the actor grabs a handful of food and starts walking down river.

I can tell that Liam is not yet high but the others are open to suggestion. A motley crew stumbles slowly down along side the river. Some of them have trouble balancing with arms full of food; others take a few minutes to catch on and watch confused from where they are sitting.

Sipping from my water bottle I check the plane and make sure everyone had gone in front of me. Francisco is one of the stragglers and I can see him reaching around to his pack. His head shakes slowly and his hand goes to the back of his neck. I catch up to him and pull his water bottle out and place it carefully in his hand.

“Thanks.” He says, and then does a double take. “Hey Seamus, when did you get here?”