Kholvaria (The Color of Water and Sky Book 2)

by Andrew Gates

  When Dan returned from the escape pod, he carried some sort of handheld device. It looked like a personal pod, only thicker and without a touchscreen.

  He pressed some buttons on the device and held it into the air. Iris watched, wondering what he may have been doing. After a few moments, he looked at the device and shook his head.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s an atmosphere reader. I wanted to check the air outside, so in case this thing pops, we’ll know roughly how much time we have, but this damn thing can’t seem to cut through the atmosphere in the HPE,” he explained, loud enough for her to hear.

  “Of course, what did you expect?” Greyson said, facing them.

  Dan shrugged and responded with words Iris could hardly make out. The two of them exchanged ideas for a few more seconds with the half-deaf teacher barely able to follow along.

  “- have to go outside then!” she eventually heard Greyson say.

  “What?” asked Margery, loudly. “Are you crazy?”

  She stomped into the conversation, positioning herself right between the two brothers. An argument erupted right away. Greyson looked towards the girl and talked back to her as Selena approached. Pretty soon she joined in too, and Iris was completely lost.

  Iris wondered what the other kids were up to during all this. She looked around the enclosure. It seemed Ophelia and Jallah were standing nearby, watching the group argue, while the younger girls were playing games of their own, ignoring everyone else.

  “Hold on, hold on!” Iris said, trying to get someone’s attention. Dan, Greyson, Margery and Selena all looked up. “I cannot hear so well, so I don’t know what we’re talking about.”

  “Mr. Georgopolis wants to go outside the tarp!” Jallah answered.

  “Mr. Georgopolis? Which one?”

  “Both of them.”

  “But that’s crazy, right?” Margery asked, turning to Iris. “You said when humans go outside, we die. You said that in class!”

  “Not if they have the pressure suits though,” Iris added. Her answer seemed to bring pleasure to the brothers’ faces. They both smiled, though Selena stared at her husband disapprovingly.

  “But what if the suits break? They could die!” Margery protested.

  “What if the HPE breaks?” Greyson responded.“We need to be able to move around. Not just to conduct atmosphere tests, but to make repairs.”

  “Plus we can’t rely on our supply of food forever,” Dan added.

  Selena turned to Dan and said something Iris could not hear. Dan said something back and even Jallah and Ophelia stepped in. Iris felt so useless during all of this. She was getting fed up with her inability to hear.

  It was time to change that.

  “I’ll go,” Iris said.

  “What?” Margery asked. Everyone else was quiet.

  “I’ll go and measure the atmosphere… or whatever it is we need to do.”

  The silence remained for a brief moment, but then Dan nodded his head and took a step forward.

  “And I’m going with you.”

  Iris nodded her head too. Glad that bickering was finally settled.

  The suit took only a few minutes to get on, but nearly a half hour to inflate with air. Iris did not expect the process to take as long as it had. By the time her suit was finally ready, she wanted nothing more than to get out of it again.

  But that would have to wait.

  Dan was suited up as well. The two of them looked like bulky grey astronauts, nearly indistinguishable if it were not for their obvious difference in height.

  In the time it took to put on the suits, Greyson and Margery had assembled the airlock. After a quick couple of tests, it seemed like everything was working as it should.

  Iris could hear herself breathing the filtered air in and out, in and out. She hoped everything was running smoothly, though Margery’s words still echoed in the back of her mind. What if the suits break? This was a worry she would have to put aside for now.

  The suited teachers both slowly hobbled to the newly erected airlock built in the tarp. Iris was the first to reach it. She grabbed onto the lever and pulled the door open. She had to duck to get inside. Dan followed her through the first door, holding the atmosphere reader in his right hand.

  The two of them now stood in a room the size of a broom closet. Some airlock.

  Greyson, still in his grey jumpsuit, closed the door behind them and waved. He then ran over to the escape pod and pressed a few buttons on the inside of the door. Iris could hear the sound of air leaving the closet-sized room. She glanced over to Dan, whose eyes showed signs of both worry and excitement.

  Greyson ran back up to the door again and tapped it twice. Iris grabbed onto the lever for the outer door and turned it. The door opened easily.

  She stepped outside.

  This is it, she thought, no more walls. For the first time in Iris’s life, she could go wherever she wanted. There were no boundaries, no limits.

  The thought terrified her.

  Panicking, Iris immediately turned back and ran right into Dan. He wobbled a bit, but kept his balance. Iris however, was not so lucky. Upon colliding with him, she lost her footing and toppled down to the sand. She felt the burns on her back again as her body twisted this way and that.

  Iris struggled to stand up. She felt her heart rate increase. She started sweating.

  “Iris!” Dan yelled over their suit-to-suit intercom.

  “I’m fine,” she answered, “just… just freaked out.”

  He grabbed onto her and tried to lift her, but it was difficult for her to move, especially with her back in pain.

  “Are you still sick?” he asked.

  Iris shook her head, though in reality she probably still was.

  “No, it’s not that. It’s just the idea of being outside. I don’t know if I can handle it.”

  Dan still tried to lift her.

  “Well you volunteered for this, didn’t you? You’d better get used to it,” he said.

  Somehow she found the strength to stand. It was hard to move in the bulky suit, but with Dan’s help, she did it.

  “Thanks,” she replied.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Dan replied. He looked down at the device in his hands, then up into the air, then back to the device again. He looked surprised.

  “What is it?” Iris asked.

  “This can’t be right,” Dan started. “It says… well, it says the atmosphere here is the same as it was in the HPE.”

  “Is it some kind of mistake?” Iris asked.

  Dan looked down at the readings again. He paused for a moment and closed his eyes, as if he were thinking. Then he simply shook his head.

  “78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen. The rest is less than one percent of other gasses. 11 degrees Centigrade. Minimal UV radiation detected. I can go on,” Dan explained.

  “But… but how is that possible?” Iris asked.

  If the atmosphere was safe, there would have been no reason for humanity to retreat to the stations, no reason for the last 200 years trapped beneath the sea. Something did not add up.

  But then she remembered the video.

  Trace had shown her the sand dotted with footprints, human prints from the surface. Could it be that some humans never left? Or perhaps the Cassidy pilots are still alive?

  “There’s only one way to know for sure,” Dan said.

  Iris looked up at him, brought back from her thoughts.

  “How?” she asked.

  Dan unclipped the seal connecting his helmet to the suit. Without any hesitation, he lifted the helmet up and took a deep inhale.

  Iris turned to look at the HPE. Everyone inside, including the youngest two, were astonished. She could not hear a word they said, but some of them were shouting and banging against the tarp wall.

  She looked back at Dan. He seemed fine. He closed his eyes and reopened them, breathing like normal. He turned and looked at Iris again as a smile started to form o
n his face.

  The teacher could not hear the words, but she could read his lips just fine.

  “We’re free,” he said.

  Excited, Dan jogged in place as best he could in the bulky suit. He jumped up and down a few times and then ran in a big circle. To Iris’s astonishment, he seemed okay. In fact, he seemed great.

  Dan slowed down and walked back toward Iris. He held out his hand to her. She clutched it and closed her eyes. She felt Dan’s grip around her chin and could feel him undoing her clips. She did not fight it. When she opened her eyes again, her helmet was off and she saw the world through nothing but her own two eyes.

  “Wow,” she said aloud.

  “We’re free,” he said again, this time in a way Iris could hear.

  She was speechless. Iris just looked around, taking it all in. This world did not seem so bad. It may not have been what she was used to, but its beauty was unlike anything she had ever seen.

  Why was I afraid of this? she wondered as she looked around. This is nothing I should be afraid of. This is home.

  Feeling the same excitement as Dan, Iris started jumping up and down in the heavy suit. She let out a shout of happiness and ran toward the waterline. Her boots splashed into the ocean, kicking up salt water across the beach.

  Dan ran toward her and embraced her. They kissed. This time there were no falling branches to distract them. This time nothing could keep them apart.

  The kiss was long. Feeling his lips on hers, it was as if Dan was speaking to her, telling her that she was safe in this new world, not just from death, but to be together. She could tell that there was more to come. Much more.

  There were no laws telling them what to do, no rules to adhere to, not even walls to keep them in. Dan’s words were right. We’re free.

  The sea above started to change color by the time the HPE was put away. With a breathable atmosphere, the shelter was useless and did nothing but limit where they could settle. After tucking the tarp back inside, the group immediately dumped out the bags of feces, urine and vomit lying on the floor of the escape pod.

  It was a relief to get rid of that waste, and it certainly helped with the smell.

  Dan finished tucking everything back into the pod as the other eight survivors explored the beach. The kids seemed to enjoy splashing in the water and digging into the sand.

  Iris looked up at the sea above. Once again, reds and oranges erupted from the glowing sun, creeping down behind the tree line. The bright colors faded into black as they crossed the sky eastward over the ocean. It was like something out of a painting.

  “- and it’ll be getting colder soon,” Greyson said as he walked by Iris and his wife.

  “Misha is still without clothes, Grey. She’s going to get sick again if we-” Selena responded, though Iris could not make out the end of her sentence as she turned away from her.

  Even without hearing the rest, Iris knew that they had a good point. With the sun fading away in the west, it was going to get very cold very soon.

  “We need to find shelter,” Iris said, jumping in.

  “Where? In the trees?” Greyson asked.

  Iris shrugged.

  “Well, we’re not going to find shelter here,” Selena added, motioning to the beach.

  “We could go back to the escape pod!” Jallah said, running up to them, obviously interested in what they were discussing.

  Iris had to admit, that was not a bad idea. Though they were all sick of the pod, it had heating and it was safe.

  “Bad idea,” Greyson protested. “That’s the first place they’ll check.”

  “Who?” Jallah asked.

  “The creatures. The UBEs. Don’t you think they’re still looking for us?”

  Iris had not considered that point until now. The mantises seemed intent on destroying every last human in the Atlantic Station. If the creatures were smart, they would send others to the surface to search for survivors.

  “Damn,” Selena said, obviously just realizing this too.

  Jallah looked scared.

  “Somewhere else then. Maybe in the trees, like you said,” Iris suggested.

  Greyson nodded, though he seemed reluctant.

  Dan and Margery both joined the group.

  “What’s going on?” Dan asked as he walked towards them.

  “We need to find shelter,” replied his brother. “It’s going to get cold soon and we can’t stay here.”

  “I was just thinking the same thing,” Dan replied, looking around.

  The group talked it over for a few minutes. Iris zoned out, finding it difficult to keep up and hear the voices as they spoke over one another. She looked out to the water to make sure the youngest kids were still okay. Both Misha and Kaitlyn seemed happy playing in the waves and chasing each other across the sand. Ophelia was with them too, keeping a watchful eye.

  “Iris, what do you think?” a male voice eventually asked, pulling her attention back to the conversation.

  “I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening,” she replied.

  Dan raised his hand in the air as if to say, “Look at me!”

  “The plan is to split up in groups of two. First group to find shelter, report it to the other groups. Selena will stay back with the kids while we all go,” he explained.

  “How will we report back if the radio doesn’t work?”

  “We use the suit’s suit-to-suit intercom. It has a strong range and it’ll work just as well. We’ll have to wear the helmets as we explore,” Dan answered. “Obviously we’ll leave a helmet with Selena too.”

  Iris nodded her head. The plan seemed sound.

  “What are our groups?” she asked.

  “You and Jallah, Ophelia and me, Grey and Margery.”

  “Alright.”

  Once they were all in agreement, Dan and Greyson went back to the escape pod. They returned with four helmets, one for each group. Iris handed hers to Jallah. With her hearing going in and out, she did not want to be the one responsible for the intercom.

  “Take a flashlight too,” Greyson said, handing one out to each person. Iris received it and turned it on, testing it on the sand.

  “Alright, everybody knows the plan, right? Split up, search for shelter and report. Got it? If anything goes wrong, meet back here,” Dan explained.

  Iris nodded and patted Jallah on the back. She understood.

  The three groups set off. Iris and Jallah headed northwest into the trees, Dan and Ophelia directly west and Greyson and Margery to the southwest.

  Iris turned on her flashlight and so did Jallah. The boy followed closely next to her, holding the helmet in his arms. He seemed nervous. He was quiet and shivering. Iris could not blame him. She was nervous too, but hoped her nervousness did not show.

  The ground angled upwards as they came closer to the trees. Walking on a slope was a strange sensation for her. It almost felt like she was off balance, though she knew it was just the shape of the ground. Thankfully it was much easier to walk now that Iris was back in her grey jumpsuit and out of the pressure suit. She would hate to have done this in the bulky astronaut-like outfit.

  “What are we looking for?” Jallah asked as they entered the trees.

  The ground was more uneven here, covered with twigs, roots and bushes. It was difficult to navigate, especially with the sun going down. Iris had to watch each step carefully and almost stumbled a few times.

  “We are looking for shelter,” Iris replied as she almost lost her footing on a loose rock.

  “Watch it!” Jallah said, obviously noticing her difficulties. “Anyway, yeah, I know we’re looking for shelter, but I don’t understand why there would be shelter here. Are we trying to find a residence? A station?”

  “No,” Iris replied, shaking her head as she traversed the forest. “Natural shelters. Trees, caves, cutouts in the ground.”

  “And we can fit nine people in those?” Jallah asked.

  “Hopefully,” Iris replied, though she was not quite sure. Nine w
as a big number.

  They passed by a massive tree, almost 40 meters tall, without any branches. It looked almost like a support beam from the station, though she could tell it used to have branches from the debris that covered the ground around it.

  Jallah asked something, but Iris could not hear the question.

  “What?” Iris asked, hoping to hear it this time.

  “What happened here?” Jallah repeated.

  Iris shook her head.

  “Maybe this tree is old. It looks like its branches have all fallen away. See here? They’re covering the ground.” She pointed to the branches as she said this.

  Next to the tree was a rock formation. Huge stones were stacked on top of one another, forming crevasses and holes in between them large enough to walk through.

  “Let’s look over there!” Iris said, motioning towards the rocks.

  They pointed their flashlights forward and walked through the formation. At some points the rocks were overhead, but most of the time they simply walked between them. After about 30 seconds, Iris stopped dead in her tracks as she felt her feet start to slide down a slope. She grabbed onto the nearest rock and held strong. Pointing her flashlight downward, she noticed that the rocks formed a hollow cavern leading down a shaft.

  “Jallah! I think I found something!” she hollered.

  The boy came right over and shined his light into the cavern too. It seemed deep. There was no end in sight.

  “What do we do?” he asked.

  Iris grinned.

  “Get on the intercom. Tell them we found something.”

  JALLAH SQUATTED OVER THE WATER and faced the shoreline. Waves brushed up against his naked bottom. The boy resisted the urge to scratch himself as it started to itch again. After he was sure everything was clean, he walked back to the beach and pulled the wet jumpsuit back on.

  Funny, he thought. The ocean used to be my home. Now I just use it to take dumps.

  At least it was better than going in the woods. Earlier in the day, Jallah had gone by some bushes and used leaves to wipe himself. Apparently the leaves were poisonous and left him with a rash. It had been itching down there ever since.