Critical Dawn (14 page)

Increasing the land conversion statistics now started to make a little more sense. The urgency of the request baffled her at first, but after seeing this, it seemed a full colonization and extinction event was planned.

Charlie stoked the fire with a stick, inhaling the succulent scent of roasting rabbit.

“The boy done good, eh?” Charlie said as he used his hunting knife to cut a piece from the spit, waiting for it to cool before he took a bite and delighted in the tenderness of the meat. He nodded. “Yup, you caught a good one there, son.”

Charlie wiped his knife on a rag tucked into his belt and slapped his son on the shoulder. Ben and Ethan picked at the rabbit with a set of old forks as though it were some alien creature ready to reanimate at any moment. Maria tentatively took a bite, analyzed it, realized the taste suited her, and returned for a second serving.

“You two are too used to eating processed grey slop, right?” Denver said, pointing his knife to the two men. “The stuff they fed you from the trays?” Grease dripped from his lips and soaked into his beard. He dabbed at it with the back of his hand.

“It wasn’t so bad there,” Ben said.

“You won’t have to put up with this much longer,” Denver added before he cast his eyes back to Maria as she chewed on a rabbit leg.

For a very brief moment, Charlie had a flashback to sitting with Pippa by a fire in their ice cave, cooking up a fox they’d caught. Maria’s mannerisms and easy nature were so similar. Either that or the distance of time had compressed Pippa into a half-remembered mimic whose real personality was but a ghost.

Charlie had noticed that since Maria and Ethan had joined them by the riverside, sitting on logs surrounding a fire, Denver had barely taken his eyes off Maria. And he didn’t blame him.

Aside from her physical attraction, Charlie could see what Denver saw in her: a good, healthy balance of emotions that she wasn’t afraid to show or act upon. Some people, like his old National Guard officer, thought that those who were best equipped for survival were the ones who throttled their emotions.

In the years since the old officer had died during the ice age, Charlie had learned that he was wrong. Those that could survive weren’t repressed. They were in tune with their emotions and in a good position to act upon them.

He’d seen too many good people die because they repressed their fear.

As far as Charlie was concerned, there were no such things as negative emotions. Each one served an important role, and the individual who had those in harmony were the ones that outlasted those who were devoid.

Maria was one of those people who had that harmony.

Even now, after all the stress and fear of the day before, she was delighting in the simple pleasures of spit-roasted rabbit and fish, caught naturally.

Ethan sat back, crossing his arms, parallel lines etched into his forehead. “I know something’s going on,” he said, looking up at Denver.

At first, Charlie thought he meant Denver’s not too subtle glances at Maria. But then the boy continued and looked to Charlie as he spoke, uncrossing his arms and pointing his finger.

“You’re in on it too. In fact, I think I must be the only one you haven’t told. You’re planning something. I know it.”

“What are you talking about?” Maria said, shaking her head with annoyance.

“The atmosphere’s changed. Hasn’t it, Ben?” Ethan said.

After having sat there silently for the best part of an hour, his right fist shut around the bead, Ben looked up at Ethan and then Maria. His face tightened as though he was in pain.

Internally, he probably is, Charlie thought. Ben had clearly made up his mind to leave for the farm, but the thought of leaving his friends behind weighed on him heavily. Even his shoulders were hunched as though his concern was real and solid.

“I’m not staying,” Ben finally said.

“What?” Ethan replied, his eyebrows twitching upward.

“Staying here? None of us are, Ben. We’re moving on later today,” Maria said, not really getting what Ben was saying.

He stood up, brushed the dirt from his now-tatty-looking uniform and took a breath. “I’m leaving you. I mean here with Charlie and Denver. I can’t do this; I’m just not cut out for it.”

“I don’t understand,” Ethan said. “What is it you’re saying?”

“Explain, Ben. You’re not making much sense,” Maria added.

“Like I said, I’m not cut out for this. I can’t survive out here. Not like you two. I don’t belong here. I’m going to do a job for Charlie. I’m returning to the croatoans on a farm run by a human called Gregor. Charlie and Denver have explained everything, and it’s the right choice for everyone concerned. I’m doing this for me but also for you two. You’ll stand a better chance if I do this. We all will.”

For the next ten minutes, Charlie and Denver briefly explained the plan to Ethan and Maria, leaving out certain important pieces that could get them into trouble if they were to be captured, such as the bead and the location of the decoy shelter.

“And there’s no changing your mind?” Maria said.

“None.”

“Well, that’s that then,” Maria said. “I understand and respect your decision. But I hope we’ll get to see you again soon. I’ll miss you.”

“And I’ll miss you too,” Ben said, moving to her, leaning down, and hugging her. He broke away and hugged Ethan. “And you too, Ethan. But you’re young enough that you’ll soon adapt out here and thrive. I’m not so adaptable.”

“This might be what a funeral felt like,” Ethan said. “Like the ones on the video recording. I never knew it’d feel so bad. It’s worse than losing Jimmy.”

A hush descended on the camp as people processed that thought in their own way.

For Charlie, it was the picture of hundreds of graves he had personally dug in order that those who had perished would at least get some kind of sendoff.

Even if almost all of them were strangers, given the state of the world, having to bury anyone, even someone with no personal connection, still felt like a loss. Every human counted for so much more when there were so few.

“Denver, be a sport and get Ben’s pack ready.”

“Sure thing.” Denver stood up and moved to the shelter, Pip following right behind him like she was his shadow.

“Before I go,” Ben said, “Can you tell us what it was like before all this? How did it happen? The knowledge might help me on the farm.”

Charlie looked at the three of them staring back at him with the rapt attention of children at story time. With the fire burning to embers and the morning’s chill burning off, he thought it as good a time as any. Once Ben was gone, it’d be one less thing to go through for the others, and Ben was right. The more he knew, the stronger position he would be in.

“Okay, let’s start at the beginning.” He leaned back and crossed his legs and began his tale. He filled them in about how society was back then, how he’d worked for a production company, and that fateful day when he went down into the sinkhole.

“How did you survive that?” Maria said, her mouth gaping with surprise.

“Pippa was on the surface looking down. She saw the alien craft before I did. She got the firemen and the police to haul me and the boy up, but he perished as the great metal orb climbed out of the hole and crushed him into the sides. I managed to land on the front of it and use its momentum to ride up and out.

“When I got to the surface, everyone ran. Once I was clear of the ropes and harnesses, Pippa and I managed to get into my truck before the croatoan orb dispensed the gas.

“That’s what killed most people on their first surfacing. We don’t know what it was exactly, but later, talking with some guys from the Army who had tried to fight back initially, it seemed it was some kind of neurotoxin.”

“What did it do?” Ethan said, not understanding the term.

“It paralyzed people. But it didn’t stop them from feeling pain. Most of the afflicted died through starvation and thirst while others died from heart attacks and other blood-pressure-based illnesses.”

“That’s terrible,” Maria said. “I can’t imagine how scary that must have been to be paralyzed and know you’re going to die but not being able to do anything about it.”

Charlie shook his head at the memories. “If only you knew the half of it. It was a terrible time. Numbing. No one could truly comprehend what was happening. The croatoans’ orbs came up at the same time and continued to surface for a week all over the world. There must have been hundreds of thousands of them.

“Pippa and I estimated they were in the ground for thousands of years. Before even humans fully evolved. We should have known it sooner. The signs were there. Over the ages, many societies and cultures had experienced them in some way or another.

“We discovered cave paintings that in hindsight were obviously early croatoans. When you go back through human history and look at some of the strange reported events, it’s clear the aliens were involved. I can show you in more detail when we reach our destination. Pippa and I researched a lot of this once that initial phase was over.”

“Initial phase?” Ethan asked. “What else happened?”

Lighting a root cigar, Charlie took a long drag and exhaled the orange smoke. The root made his brain tingle, and a warm sensation crawled over his body, clearing away the tiredness, making him feel alert and a little high—an energetic high, one that he had come to rely on to keep him vital and healthy.

“When the military initially resisted, they busted open one of the orbs. It had one of those smaller aliens inside. Shriveled up and aged but still alive. We carbon dated one. They’re essentially immortal as long as they maintain their chemical composition. Within the pod were a number of tanks filled with this root compound.

“Additionally, there were other tanks filled with the toxin. That initial attack crippled humanity. They destroyed our satellites and jammed our radio signals. Our computers stopped working as each orb acted like an electromagnetic pulse station. Together, they networked, increasing their capability and reducing us to using flags to communicate.

“The second phase was when the mother ship arrived. It altered our atmosphere and brought on the ice age. Along with the gas the orbs emitted, they did something to drastically shift the temperature of the planet.

“Those that weren’t killed by the gas were killed by the extreme weather. It took six months for the ice to take hold. During that time, the mother ship sent down thousands of raiders—ships that bundled humans together and took them up there for whatever reason. Testing, experiments, food. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was hiding, staying alive.”

“That’s when you met Gregor?” Ben asked.

“A few years later, yeah. I stayed in North America, joining up with some military friends.We retreated to their Army base with Pippa and formed a group of survivors.

“We were forced south where we found a cave system that we used as our new base of operations. We would go out and search for survivors, bringing them back and helping those that we could. One day, Gregor and half a dozen of his Armenian brethren turned up. Somehow, they’d travelled all the way from Europe.

“They brought tales of the thawing and the harvesters. Within a few years, the thaw came to America, but Gregor was long gone before then. He and I didn’t mix well. He had certain ideas I didn’t agree with. He wanted to join with the croatoans, co-exist with them.”

Maria shook her head with a look of disbelief. At least one of them was finally getting it. Ben, however, had remained impassive, listening, taking in as much as he could.

“I refused to be a part of that. Some of our group went with him while a few others stayed with me.”

“What happened to them?” Ethan said.

“Most of them died,” Charlie replied. “A few survived but left the group to seek shelter elsewhere. Many people headed for their hometowns, wanting to be someplace familiar. There’s pockets of people all over the place, but over the years, most have come to distrust each other. You saw an example of that back in Ridgway.”

“So they’re doing all this just for the root?” Ethan said.

“No, not just the root. They also benefit from human resources. We’re cattle to them, remember? We’re beasts of burden, a food source, even amusement. I don’t know what’s special about our planet, but they’ve always known, for thousands of years, that it would come to this. I suppose this is more their home than it is ours.”

“But we can’t just give it up to them,” Maria said.

Charlie smiled, liking this woman more and more. “Exactly. We won’t. Not without a fight. Co-existing is not an option. They know it; we know it. They just think they’ve already won.”

Pip gave a little bark as she dashed over and sat by Maria. The woman stroked the dog as it panted excitedly. Denver followed behind with an Army backpack. He placed it at Ben’s feet.

“Okay, Ben,” Denver said, “I’ve packed everything you need for a few days’ journey, though it’ll only take you a day to get to the farm, but I packed extra just in case there’s any problems and it takes a little longer. There’s also one of the alien pistols in case you need to defend yourself.”

Ben’s face lost its ruddy complexion and became pale as the reality seemed to set in. But he nodded his thanks. Standing up, he hauled the pack on this back.

“You sure you want to do this?” Ethan said.

“I’m sure,” Ben said. “Charlie’s tale is even more convincing. That they think they’ve already won means this is an opportunity I must take if I’m to play a role in our fight. I can’t stay out there, but from within, I can hopefully do my duty.”

“We’ll take you south around Ridgway,” Charlie said, “to avoid any confrontation there. From the edge of the forest, it’s about half a day’s walk. Den, did you pack him the map and compass?”

“Yeah, it’s in the pack side pocket. Do you know how to use a compass?” Denver asked Ben. The other nodded.

“We were trained in basic navigation, and we had them installed on the harvester. We thought we were … Well, it doesn’t matter now. I should go now before I run out of time.”

Ethan and Maria took their turns in saying their goodbyes. Charlie was expecting a more emotional affair, but both of them were quite stoic and practical and weren’t as upset as he imagined them to be. Adapting already. He liked that. Gave him hope that they would become good allies and assets. Ben still gave him doubts, but the information he gave him about the shelter was a good test.