by Magus Tor
“You should put your uniform back on,” Jonathon said, taking a couple of large steps to catch up with her.
“It's still too hot.” Even talking was a chore now; her legs felt leaden, and putting one in front of the other was tough.
“You're getting burnt,” he observed.
Reaching up, she felt the skin on her shoulders; heat was radiating from her. Crap. Hurriedly she pulled off her bag and yanked her uniform back up to cover herself. This is going to hurt tomorrow, she thought. She supposed it was a form of radiation burn, and though mild was likely to make her skin blister. Looking around, she caught sight of Elza and saw that the woman's normally porcelain skin had turned a bright red.
“Gods, that was stupid,” said Elza, once Aurelia made her aware of the problem. “I'd forgotten all about sunburn.”
With clouds of pollution floating around the sky, the atmosphere was always a murky grey, and the light of the sun was nowhere near as bright as, say, the lights in a hospital room. But it can still burn, thought Aurelia, uncomfortably repositioning her pack so that it didn't dig into her shoulders. She stopped at a large rock and kicked some of the earth off her shoes, making her step lighter.
“Do they grow stuff around here?” she asked Nicholas, who had stopped at the same time and was taking a drink.
“Nope,” he said, swallowing. “At least, as far as I know; maybe closer to the City it's different. But out here there's so much radiation leaking around the soil that nothing will grow properly; and even if it does, it's too poisonous to eat, so there's no point. The only stuff that grows well is that.” He pointed at the green of the approaching jungle.
Aurelia was about to ask him what exactly the jungle was made up of, but he'd already rushed to catch up with Lukas, showing him the screen and presumably talking about the best way to get through the foliage to the City.
Lukas called them to a halt as they passed the first few plants. Yellow and sickly looking, the shoots pushed out of the ground at sparse intervals, but Aurelia could already see the darkness of the jungle in front of her.
“Okay,” Lukas said, grouping everyone around him and speaking clearly. “We're about to go in. Nicholas and I have plotted what looks like a decent enough path that should take us close to a pickup point.”
“Pickup point?” asked Jonathon.
“The Resistance groups here move around a lot. It's best to make contact and get picked up rather than relying on going to a place that may or may not have already been found by sec Workers,” explained Lukas.
“Right,” said Jonathon.
“The foliage around here is pretty dark, so everyone needs to keep up; don't lose sight of the person in front of you,” continued Lukas. “I will take the lead, and Nicholas will keep to the rear. So if there are any problems, just stop. Who picked up the black case from the pod?”
“Got it,” said Elza, pulling a long, thin case out of her pack.
Lukas opened it and showed them a large knife. “I'll use this to cut away the plants to make a path if necessary. But there's one important thing to remember. Many of these plants are poisonous, so don't touch anything if you can help it. Especially the sap—that's the liquid that runs out of a plant once it's been cut.”
Elza nodded at this, and Aurelia remembered that she'd said her parents had been chem Workers. There was a chance, then, that she'd been around plants before if that had been one of her parents’ specialities. Aurelia herself hadn't. The only living greenery she'd ever seen or touched had been in Jonathon's compound. And now she found that the jungle spooked her a little. There was something about being surrounded by living things that weren't capable of walking or talking that was odd. Even better, apparently they could harm her. Perfect.
“Is everyone ready? Any questions?” asked Lukas.
He sounds like a trainer, thought Aurelia, talking to students. “One thing,” she said. “Is there anything in there, you know, except for plants?”
Lukas frowned and shook his head. “Not really, not anymore. There are a few insect species that survived, but that's about it. There's nothing to be afraid of in here as long as you don't touch the plants.”
Relieved yet confused, Aurelia nodded. She was ready, she guessed. Now that they'd reached the jungle, she suddenly found that she wasn't quite as eager to get out of the burning sun. There wasn't exactly a lot of choice, though. Looking for a distraction, she hung back and walked a while with Nicholas. She knew he could be counted on to know more than the average person about where they were going, so she decided to take the opportunity to educate herself a little more. The plants around her were definitely growing bigger and healthier, by the looks of them, and they were now walking through large patches of shade interspersed by bursts of light and warmth.
“How's your arm feeling?” she asked.
“Not too bad. A little stiff,” he said, with a smile.
“What did Lukas mean when he said ‘not anymore’?”
“Ah, interested in zoology now, are we?” he teased. “The jungles on Old Earth used to be filled with animals, insects too. Some of them dangerous, some not so much.”
“Like what?” she asked.
“Like everything. Monkeys, tigers, lions, snakes.”
These were words she'd heard before, and she even had vague mental pictures to go with the names—names from children's books, perhaps. “Then what happened?”
Nicholas shrugged. “Men happened,” he said. “Some of the animals were hunted for sport and died out. Some were eaten. I'm sure that many were killed in the Great War. But mostly it was environmental. The climates changed, and so did food sources; their living areas were built over. Those that were left were decimated by the nuclear pollution after the War.”
“But these areas are safer now, right?” Aurelia had just had a disturbing memory of what exactly a snake was, and was thanking the Gods that she wouldn't have to deal with one.
“It created more problems than it solved,” said Nicholas. “The Earth was a delicate ecosystem, everything in balance. The trees that we destroyed used to clean the air. The animals were food, or food for other animals that we then ate as food. Nowadays, rather than existing as a living, breathing being, the Earth is being propped up. We're using machinery and science to try to keep it alive, when for millennia the Earth had kept itself alive.”
“Sort of like life support,” said Aurelia.
“Kind of.”
The plants were closing in on them now, and for the first time Aurelia could see the marks where Lukas had had to cut away foliage so that they could pass. Sticky yellow liquid leaked from the cuts like blood, and she was careful not to touch it. Now that they weren't speaking, it was deathly silent, and she could hear the footsteps of the others pushing through the jungle.
“Where did you learn all this stuff?” she asked Nicholas, to combat the horrible quiet.
“Books mostly,” he answered. “If you're in the military and not on duty, there's not an awful lot to do. Some guys drink, some gamble—me, I read.”
“Comes in useful, though, when you're dealing with an idiot like me.” She grinned.
“You're not an idiot; you're curious,” he told her. “And curiosity is good; it means you keep learning.”
She wasn't so sure about that. She could think of more than a handful of times when her natural curiosity had got her into trouble. Not least when she had insisted on going out of the Lunar dome to track Nicholas down.
The ground beneath her feet still seemed wet, but the earth no longer clung to her shoes. It seemed different now, a different texture maybe. It certainly made walking easier.
“What do you think is going to happen?” she asked quietly after a while.
“Here?”
“Yes. Now that we're all here, what are we going to do?” She tried to put her thoughts into order. “I mean, I guess I was concentrating on getting to Earth, and I haven’t really thought about what the plan was once we got here.”
&n
bsp; “I think you can trust Jonathon to handle that side of things,” said Nicholas. “I think he knows what he's doing.”
Hmmm. He knew something that he wasn't saying. Aurelia knew Nicholas well enough now to know that it was pointless pressing him for more information; he wasn't going to tell her anything that he didn't want to. Instead, she asked him about his time out of the Lunar dome and then spent the next few minutes pleasantly entertained by his stories.
They stopped after an hour. Collecting together and drinking water, Lukas made sure that everyone was alright.
“We're a little less than halfway through, I think,” he told them.
The large knife was hanging down by his side, and he looked tired. Aurelia remembered that he hadn't slept the night before, and she thought that cutting through the plants must be taking its toll. Nicholas obviously thought the same thing.
“Why not let me take the lead?” he asked. “I can cut for a while. Give you a rest.”
Lukas looked at him gratefully. “You sure?”
“Sure. It'll be good for me, anyway; I'm used to a lot more exercise than I've been getting recently.”
Nicholas took the knife, and when they set out again, he disappeared ahead. Jonathon struck up a conversation with Lukas, and Elza seemed lost in her own thoughts, so Aurelia found herself following the cut path alone, the second in line behind Nicholas.
She didn't like the quiet here. She remembered being out of the Lunar dome, the complete silence of space around her. There, she'd found it relaxing. Here, it was oppressive. So used to the noise and bustle of Cities, she thought the quiet seemed unnatural. On the other hand, it gave her plenty of time to think. The constant slow progress set up a rhythm, and her thoughts settled down.
Jonathon was here to get support for his plans—that she knew. She'd presumed that as a politician, it was important to have the support of many. But now that she had time to analyse the situation, she realised that that was not exactly true. The way that voting worked in the Empire meant that the support of the Ruling Class was the only thing that guaranteed Jonathon's election.
So why did he want the support of Workers? Or Clones, for that matter? She understood that the support would be important once he'd already become President. Then he'd need the Workers to cooperate with him if he had any chance of pushing through his reforms. But now? Why now?
The more she thought, the more her thoughts centred around two interconnected possibilities. Jonathon was preparing either for a war or a revolution. That didn't mean he planned on either option, of course. But they were the only two reasons that she could think of why he would need to cement Worker and Clone support. Maybe it was simply a security measure, just in case. Once he was elected President, though, Aurelia was unsure of how his policies could be pushed through. She didn't know enough about politics to know whether Jonathon could just do as he pleased, or whether there was likely to be trouble once the Elite found out that he planned to basically restructure the entire Empire. And to do so without the help of the Ruling Class.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she almost tripped over a bag lying in the middle of the path.
“This one's a tough one,” said Nicholas, hearing her.
She'd caught up with him. The bag was his, discarded on the ground to give him more freedom to hack away at a particularly thick plant. She took a step back as he prepared to swing the knife like an old-fashioned hatchet. It was only when the knife was already whistling through the air that she saw the inevitable outcome. She thought that she screamed before he did, but it was both their voices that brought the others rushing.
Seeing the blood, Aurelia tore the arm of her own uniform without even thinking. Swiftly and efficiently, she tied the fabric in a tight half knot above Nicholas's elbow, inserted a thick piece of plant stem, then tied the other half of the knot. Then she twisted the stem until she saw the veins bulge under his skin.
“What happened?” asked Elza, stooping down next to Nicholas's prostrate body.
“Cut straight into his own hand,” said Aurelia. “He was holding the plant steady as he chopped; it happened before I could stop him.”
Nicholas was pale and sweating, and he groaned as the two women examined his wound.
“It's down to the bone,” Elza said. “But we can seal it if we work in layers.”
“No!” said Lukas, immediately. “That knife has plant sap on it. If you seal the wound closed, then all you're going to do is trap the poison inside his body.”
Aurelia looked at Elza. “He's right,” she said.
The makeshift tourniquet was holding back the flow of blood for the moment, but it couldn't be left on too long or the lack of circulation would mean that Nicholas would lose his whole arm. They needed to work fast.
“Here, hold this,” said Aurelia to Jonathon.
He took the pressure of the tourniquet while Aurelia took Elza to one side, Lukas following them.
“How bad is this plant sap?” Aurelia asked Lukas when she was sure that Nicholas couldn't hear them.
“Bad,” he said. “If we were near a hospital, he'd probably make it; but out here, no way.”
“Okay.” She was thinking, mind flying—this was what she did best, and it took only a second to formulate her plan. “I need you and Jonathon to make your way to the pickup point. How long will that take you?”
“Twenty minutes maybe,” said Lukas. “I can contact someone now so that there'll be a guide waiting when we get there.”
“Twenty minutes there, twenty to get you back here, and then at least twenty to get Nicholas out. Too long,” she said, though she'd already known it would be. “Alright, you should get going. Make it as fast as you can, and if at all possible, get some kind of stretcher or something that Nicholas can be carried on. He'll need it.”
“Why?” asked Elza. “What are we going to do?”
“The only thing we can do,” Aurelia said. “Cut off his hand.”
“You can't be serious!” hissed Elza as Lukas headed back to where Jonathon was tending Nicholas.
“Listen, we've got to stop the poison spreading. He can lose his hand now, or he can lose his whole arm by the time we get to a Resistance safe house,” Aurelia said grimly. “Or worse, he can die. Take it or leave it; those are the options.”
To give Elza her due, she thought only for a moment before nodding. “You're right. Let's go.”
Aurelia took over the tourniquet and let Jonathon and Lukas leave. “Fast as you can,” she said.
Nicholas was very, very white against the dark of the soil beneath him. He was conscious, though, and Aurelia half wished that he wasn't. It would have been easier to act now and explain later, but she couldn't do that to him.
“Nicholas, I need you to listen to me,” she said, leaning in close.
His eyes half opened, and she could see the dullness of pain in them. “Yes,” he whispered.
“Elza and I are going to operate. It's the only way to save you; do you understand?”
He nodded weakly.
“We'll be as fast as possible, and Elza is looking for something to numb the pain right now,” she continued. “But you need to understand what we're going to do.”
His eyes fluttered shut for a moment, then blinked back open.
“Nicholas, I have to amputate your hand.” There was no other way to put it.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, he groaned; but whether from rage, sorrow, or pain, she couldn't tell. Then he looked straight at her and nodded once, briskly. “Do it.”
Elza brought the med supplies that she had found. They were basic at best. She had some bandages, a wound stick to seal cuts, a handful of injections including mild painkillers and anti-infects, and a stack of pain patches.
“That's what we've got,” she said. “Oh, and this.” She pulled a small bottle of alcohol from her pocket. Whisky. “Jonathon's,” she explained.
Aurelia could have guessed that; he liked his little luxuries, but she was too busy pl
anning what she was going to do to comment. “Alright, I need fire,” she said. “And something flat and clean, as sterile as possible, to put under his wrist.”
Elza worked quickly. A fire-starting kit was in one of the packs, standard military issue, and she had a decent flame within a minute. The small fuel cube would keep it burning hot for fifteen minutes, so Aurelia knew she had time. Elza then found a sealed uniform pack that was presumably clean if not sterile, and a couple of flattened ration boxes as a surface.
Aurelia beckoned her to come hold Nicholas's tourniquet while she wiggled the large knife out of the ground where it had stuck when the Clone had dropped it. As carefully as she could, she placed the knife handle first into the ground next to the fire, so that the blade was directly in the flames. Then she went back to the patient.
“Drink this,” she told him, opening up the small bottle of whisky and gesturing for Elza to raise his head so he wouldn't choke.
“What are you doing?” Elza asked. “The alcohol will thin his blood, make him bleed more; that's the last thing we want.”
“No,” said Aurelia. “The last thing we want is for him to die of shock, and the alcohol will help with that. Trust me, I've read about this. Battlefield surgeons used alcohol to combat shock in patients.”
Elza sighed but said nothing more as Nicholas coughed and spluttered through mouthfuls of the burning liquid. Only when the bottle was empty did Aurelia pull out the pain injections that she had. There were four, so she decided to give him two now and two later. Hopefully it would be enough to at least dull the pain, though the injections weren't strong. Deftly she injected him.
Then she prepared the surface, laying the clean uniform over the solid ration boxes. It wasn't perfect, but she hoped to hell it was going to do the job. Elza was still watching over Nicholas, loosening the tourniquet from time to time to allow the blood to flow back into his arm, then tightening it again.
Aurelia took a deep breath and checked on the knife. The blade was white hot now, which she figured made it as close to sterile as it could get. Wrapping her hand in her uniform, she pulled it out of the fire. Even with the added layer of fabric protection, the handle still burned into her skin, and she bit her lip for a moment before she turned.