Madelyn's Nephew (9 page)

“We stayed for a few days. We tried to help anyone who made it across the bridge. There were a couple of stragglers, but they didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. Everything was gone so quickly. The whole society collapsed and we didn’t even know why. In our base, it was just panic.”

“You never met anyone from one of the other bases?”

“There was one old man. Dad said he was crazy.”

“What did he say?” Madelyn asked.

Jacob changed the subject. “We went north, into the summer. We walked on the sea trails to the Jan Mayen ridge. We moved fast through the old cities of the micro continent. They’re filled with crazies. They worship the volcano, and they’ll throw you in if they catch you. After we walked the Green Ice Valley, we turned north again and went right towards the sun. There are less of them up there, but you can’t live there. It’s too hot, and there’s almost no way to get water. I wanted to try going south to see if the infestation had abated. Dad said we should come here. He said that even if his grandmother’s place was uninhabitable, it would be a fine place to die.”

Madelyn nodded and smiled. “That’s the last thing I said to him before I came.”

Jacob smiled back.

“I still don’t understand how you survived,” Madelyn said. “You walked halfway around the world.”

“Walking is easy,” Jacob said. “We traveled under the sun. Eventually, you get used to it. Until we came back up into the scrub, I had almost forgotten about them. I mean, they’re always in the back of your head, but they didn’t seem like that much of a threat. Even then, they only really seemed to care about groups anymore.”

“You said that before. Did you see them go after a group?”

“Yeah. South of Beaufort there is a town called Deadhorse. They had a festival. I guess they’ve been doing it for years.”

“A festival? That’s bold.”

“They’ve always had it, they said. They had it before everything.”

“And they kept it going?”

“They said it’s how they survive. They gathered the five strongest men and the five strongest women. The ten of them go to the center of Colleen Park. It’s like a dirt depression, north of town. I didn’t want to watch it, but my father said it might mean something.”

“Tell me,” Madelyn said.

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“We climbed up from the Beaufort sand flats until we found the scrub. The buildings of Deadhorse were all low to the ground. They didn’t offer much protection at all. Instead of building up, the people dug. They all lived in a series of warrens. They only came out to hunt for food, or to have their festival.”

“How many lived there?”

“I don’t know. We only met a dozen, but I got the impression that there were a lot more. They are solitary people. It was kinda like our bases in Oslo. Even though everyone came out for the festival, they stayed in their groups. I saw a clump here and there, but it was too dark to count them.”

“It was dark?”

“Yes. They summoned the dark for their festival. It wasn’t like real night, but it wasn’t daylight. It was like everything got red for an hour.”

“So the Roamers couldn’t follow the sun,” Madelyn said.

Jacob nodded.

“The ten strongest went to the center of the park and they lit a fire. It was a burning platform. The men and women lifted it up over their heads. As you can imagine, they came immediately. The buzzing was everywhere.”

Madelyn handed Jacob her water. He looked like he needed it. He took a long sip from the jug and handed it back. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he continued.

“My father and I thought that the people would go hide underground. They didn’t. One of the old guys started to talk. He said that they used to call the Crows from the bay, back when there was a bay. My father argued with him. Dad said that he remembered when those things were invented and that the old man was crazy. The old guy smiled and laughed at us. He said that nothing is ever invented, it’s only rediscovered.”

“Your father was right,” Madelyn said. “Those things didn’t always exist, and they certainly didn’t exist back when there was water up north. The old man probably lost his mind at some point. It’s amazing what people talk themselves into.”

“I know,” Jacob said. “I studied history on the ether. But those people in Deadhorse didn’t have ether. They just told each other stories.”

Madelyn shook her head and frowned.

“They knew things though,” Jacob whispered. He sounded afraid as he remembered. “They all started to chant. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. The buzzing began to ebb and swell with the chant. It was like the people were hypnotizing the things or something. Suddenly it seemed like people were in control instead of those things. The men and women holding the fire threw it down and scattered.”

“What did the chant sound like?” Madelyn asked.

Jacob shook his head. “I couldn’t understand it.”

“Yes, but what did it
sound
like. Was there a melody? Was it rhythmic? Tell me what you remember.”

Jacob looked up and away as he considered her question. Finally, his eyes brightened as he came to realization.

“I just now figured out what it reminded me of. Can you tell this screen to look up something from the ether?” Jacob asked.

“Sure.”

“Ask it for a Shepard-Risset glissando,” Jacob said.

“A what?”

He repeated himself and Madelyn commanded the house to pull down the file from the ether. It took a couple of tries, but the screen began to emit a sound. Madelyn cocked her head as she listened. Jacob smiled and nodded.

“Yes! That’s it. That’s what their chant sounded like.”

Madelyn couldn’t imagine how people had managed to reproduce the sound. On the surface, it sounded like a simple descending tone, but there was more to it than that. As the pitch of the tones descended, they faded out and higher tones faded in. It was a perfect loop—it sounded like the pitch was constantly descending, but it was a loop.

“How did you know…” Madelyn started to ask.

Jacob was too excited. He cut her off. “I mean, that’s not
exactly
it, but it’s really close. There was also this rhythmic beat accompanying it.”

“Where did they learn the chant?”

“They had always done it. Since as long as anyone could remember. They said that the chant was thousands of years old, from when the Earth was newly born from the snow.”

“There are no natives that far north. People didn’t live there until wealth was discovered under the water.”

Jacob cocked his head. He shook off the idea and continued his story. “They chanted and we could actually see something in the night. They say that if you can see the faces of the things, you can
become
one of them.”

“They don’t have faces,” Madelyn said.
 

“The people gave the Crows metal, and diamonds, and flesh. They ordered them to turn away and follow the white bears back to the sun.”

“There are no more white bears in the north.”

“You’re not listening. This was their ritual from a time long past. The Crows were called to their group because of their numbers. The ritual turned them away. How else could you explain the fact that so many people lived exposed like that?”

“If it was so perfect—if they had everything figured out—then why did you leave?”

“Dad said we had to get to the cabin.” Jacob lowered his voice to a whisper. “And Dad believed that giving up flesh willingly was a crime.”

Madelyn nodded. Dating back to the cull, there had been people who tried to appease the new gods with sacrifice. People tried everything, and there was no shortage of rhetoric invented each time a technique proved ineffective. Some even claimed an ancient heritage to their practices. Jacob was simply too young to recognize the pattern. It was a good thing that Noah had saved him from those people.

“Once we moved away from Deadhorse and we weren’t with so many people, we weren’t really bothered too much anymore. It wasn’t until I got here that things got bad again,” Jacob said.

“Like I was saying—it’s probably the heat from the stack that drew them. It’s like a beacon in the same way that a bonfire or a village full of crazy people is.”

Jacob shrugged.

“Dad was dismissive too. I thought those people might have legitimately figured something out. They had a way of surviving that was completely different from Cosgrow’s plan.”

“And if you go back in ten years, you might find everyone dead or gone.”

After a second, Jacob nodded and frowned. “I suppose.”

“So you came south after Deadhorse?”

“Yeah. There’s an old highway. We followed it south into the mountains. I had never seen so much green. Even Oslo isn’t as green as this place. I understand why you live here.”

“You should see this place in the spring. You’re not going to believe it.”

“It’s too bad you can’t get other people to come here. It seems like the loneliness is the biggest problem, right?” Jacob asked.

Madelyn thought about it. It wasn’t an easy question.

“Maybe not the biggest, but definitely the longest-lasting problem.”

“What’s the biggest?”

“Staying alive.”

“W
HAT
DO
YOU
THINK
?” Madelyn asked.

They were studying the breaking dawn on the screen. Aside from the occasional foraging bird, it seemed that nothing was moving.

“By now, me and my dad would already be on the trail. We used to get our best distance done in the morning.”

“My dad and I,” Madelyn said.

Jacob nodded.

“If you decide to stay here,” Madelyn said, “you might want to fortify this basement and redirect the heat. You might be able to rig up a liquid-cooled system for this house so the heat is distributed into the lake instead of billowing out the top.”

Jacob nodded, but she could tell that he wanted to say something.

“What?”

“I was actually wondering if you would still let me stay in your cabin?”

“It’s our family’s cabin,” Madelyn said. “It’s not up to me. Your great-grandmother left the place to all of us. If you want to stay there, then of course you’re welcome.”

He gave her another solemn nod.

“Speaking of which,” she said. “I’m headed back.”

Jacob began to gather his things.

“I hope you’re going to stay in hospitality mode?” she asked the screen.

Jacob seemed surprised by the response.

“Our mode defaults to hospitality after ten years.”

“You might want to shut down when we go,” Madelyn said. The screen didn’t respond. “Power down.”

The screen went blank. The lights above them dimmed.

“Let’s go,” Madelyn said.

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Outside, they were quiet until they had traveled away from the house. The lake was even more beautiful in the morning. A duck came to a delicate landing on the far side of the lake. A fish jumped on the near shore. The ripples traveled across the glass surface and made spirals in the mist clinging to the surface. It was so tranquil. Madelyn wanted to slip into the water and drift to sleep in its depths.

“Mac?” Jacob whispered.

She turned and raised her eyebrows.

“You coming?”

She made her feet move again.

As they walked, Madelyn felt the need to fill the silence with narration.

“Your great grandmother never came to this side of the river. Back then, it was so deep that it was hard to cross. You can’t imagine how much water flooded through, even at the height of summer. She used to get snow so deep that it would be up above her head by spring. Can you believe that?”

“No,” Jacob said. “But I saw a picture of the glaciers once.”

“They’re not that far. You’ve walked all the way from Oslo. Getting down to the glaciers would be a walk in the park for you.”

“Dad said there were too many big cats.”

“Yeah. I’ve heard that too. Who knows though—there are more rumors than truths these days.”

“Our old neighbors said that this region has too many bears.”

“That’s true,” Madelyn said. “It’s not terrible this time of year, but yes, there are a ton of bears.”

Madelyn frowned at a sad memory. She smiled again as Jacob’s head began to turn left and right as they hiked.

“Don’t worry. They don’t exactly sneak up on you. They’re fairly territorial, too. One big male will take over this area each spring and then defend it. As long as you reach a standoff with that one bear, things quiet down. Your great grandmother had a blood feud with a giant male that she called Cowboy. Every year she would try to get a shot at him. She never did bag the old bastard.”

Madelyn tightened her pack as they climbed the hill.
 

“Your father used to have a crush on a girl who would come up with her family in the summer. Grandmother didn’t approve. Noah snuck out at night and walked three kilometers upstream to a place where he could cross the river. He would meet that girl just up there on those rocks.” Madelyn pointed. Jacob studied the rocks as they passed, like he expected to see his father waiting there. “It was the only time I would call Noah adventurous. He was fueled by hormones, I guess, but your father was fearless that summer.”

“What was her name?”

“I don’t remember. She had beautiful dark hair and brown eyes that had flecks of green in them. Grandmother said that she was part panther. You probably don’t want to hear this, but I think your father lost his virginity with that girl. Up here is where I dove under the water and hid from the Roamers that night to save David.”

She turned and saw that Jacob had stopped. He was staring at the rocks. The way he looked at them, she started to wonder if maybe he
could
see his father. He was watching his father’s ghost across the years. His father and his father’s first girlfriend.

“Brooklyn!” Madelyn said.
 

Jacob turned.

“The girl’s name was Brooklyn. I just remembered. She was named after her father.”