The Rising Tide

by J. Scott Coatsworth

  He nodded. “Insha’Allah.” He must’ve seen the look of confusion on her face. “It means God willing.”

  “Thank you. I’m Andy.”

  “I’m Asif. You have no idea the hell we’ve endured here.”

  She nodded and hugged him tightly and then squeezed his arm. “It’s over now.”

  She moved on to the next person, an older man with gray hair.

  Andy worked as quickly as she could, and soon five, then ten, then fifteen people had been freed. Most of them were in shock.

  Some screamed—Eddy and Asif helped her with those.

  Some collapsed, while others just seemed filled with a soul-crushing sadness.

  The rest waited their turns, and suddenly it was morning.

  Light flared across the cavern, momentarily blinding her. She let go of the last child she had freed and stood, staggering in the daylight.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Andy shielded her eyes to look at the man who had spoken to her. He was dressed all in black, slender with black hair and dark brown eyes. And he was furious, his face red with anger.

  “Davian,” Eddy whispered.

  “Hello, Eddy. I have to admit, I’m surprised to see you here.”

  A man with close-cropped red hair, probably in his late thirties, stood next to Davian. He looked at Andy with a weird intensity. He was… familiar somehow. Then it hit her. “You’re the one who visited the huts last night.”

  Davian nodded. “Gunner here helps keep the peace. Looks like you’ve been undoing some of his best work.”

  Andy’s gaze snapped back to Gunner. He was the one who had done this to these poor people. “Asif, get these people out of the way,” she said to her new friend through gritted teeth. If Gunner had done this, he was stronger than she, or at least way more practiced.

  “Gunner, would you help Ms. Hammond here to see the light?”

  Andy started at the mention of her name.

  “Yes, I remember you. We saved you and your father out there, in the void.” He pointed off to one side. “Should have left you both to die.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Eddy looked around Agartha and then warily at Gunner.

  “You should know the answer to that one better than anyone. If left to themselves, humans will destroy this world, just like they did the last one. You saw it too—the endless war, the stupid strife over things that didn’t matter. The endless greed.” He shuddered, sweat beading his brow. “The fucking Chinese put me in a hotbox for two goddamned months!” He stopped and took a deep breath. “I’m not going to let that happen again.”

  Eddy started laughing.

  “What’s so damned funny?” Davian scowled at them.

  “What do you think you’ve done here? Every one of these people is in his own personal hotbox. Because of you.”

  Davian growled. “That’s not true. I’ve given each one a place, a purpose. I’ve taken away their distractions and let them focus on their new lives.”

  “Like the Chafs let you focus on being trapped and tortured?” Eddy hummed with barely controlled rage. Andy could feel it.

  Davian snarled. “I’m so fucking sick of your sanctimonious attitude. You’re not even a real man, you know that? You’re just a little cocksucking bitch.”

  “I’d rather be someone’s bitch than some fucked-up psychopath who thinks he’s God.”

  “Enough. Gunner, take the girl. I’ll settle with Evelyne here.”

  Gunner stepped forward, reaching for Andy.

  “Leave her alone.” Eddy’s crossbow was in his hands, and pointed at Davian’s throat.

  In Davian’s hands, a gun was pointed at Eddy.

  Andy felt the blood leave her face. Oh shit. There weren’t guns up here. There weren’t supposed to be guns up here. “Listen, we don’t have to escalate this. You can lay down your weapon, and we’ll take you back to Micavery for a fair hearing.” She kept her voice calm.

  Davian laughed, a bitter sound. “You don’t even have a courthouse.”

  Eddy nodded. “She’s right. I promise, you will get a hearing. In front of Aaron and myself.”

  “Not interested. Why don’t you three turn around and walk out of here—”

  Something barreled into Davian from the cover of the trees with a scream, knocking him to the ground and sending him flying.

  Eddy dropped his crossbow and leapt after the man.

  Davian was beating on someone. Sara. The woman from the hut.

  Eddy pulled Davian off her, sending the two of them rolling across the grass.

  Gunner advanced on Andy, with madness in his eyes. He grinned at her, the side of his mouth twitching.

  Andy shuddered. If he locked her inside of herself, she might never find a way out.

  There was really no choice. She was the last line of defense for these people.

  She pulled out her knife and drew up her anger like a hammer to throw herself at him.

  COLIN REACHED the end of the tunnel and stopped, bending over and holding his side, breathing heavily. He was no longer a young man, and all those years had taken a toll on him, farm work or no.

  Colin struggled to calm himself, one deep breath at a time. His racing heartbeat subsided, and his breathing slowed at last.

  He stood and looked out across the cavern.

  Something was happening. There was a large crowd gathered out on the lawn in front of the village of huts they’d observed the evening before, and people were streaming from there toward the steps where he stood.

  It looked like some kind of fight.

  What had Andy and the others gotten themselves into while he’d been gone? At least there was no need for stealth now.

  He clambered down the steps and set off toward the little village as quickly as he could. As he made his way down the path, he encountered a small group of people going the other way—a couple of kids, two alert adults, and many others with glazed looks in their eyes.

  “What’s going on down there?” Colin pointed toward the village.

  “Are you with the outsiders?” the man asked. He looked Middle Eastern.

  “Yes. We came to find out what was going on down here.”

  The man shook his hand. “The girl… Andy?”

  Colin nodded.

  “She was freeing us from the Preacher when he found her and your friends. They told us to run while we could.”

  That sounded like Andy. He didn’t ask about the zombies. “Micavery is sending help. Follow the tunnel out and wait for them if they’re not yet there.”

  “Thank you.” Asif gave him an impromptu hug as the others filed by. “You don’t know what life down here has been like.”

  “I can’t imagine.” Colin shuddered. “Go! Get out of here!”

  Asif led his contingent on toward escape, and Colin set off again toward the village, hoping he wasn’t too late.

  EDDY AND Davian rolled one over the other across the lawn, coming to rest with a thunk against the thick trunk of a mallowood tree.

  Davian tried to get up, but Eddy pulled him down, punching his ribs hard.

  Davian got in a good blow across Eddy’s jaw, sending Eddy’s head spinning as Davian got to his feet and tried to stagger away.

  Eddy got up and shook his head to clear it. He leapt after the man who had once been his lover and friend, and he knocked Davian to the ground. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Davian tried to twist out of his grip. “What the hell’s wrong with you?” his old friend retorted. “With all fucking humankind?” He got his knee under Eddy’s chest and pushed him away with a sharp crack.

  “Fucking hell!” Eddy fell backward onto the grass, grabbing his ribs.

  “Look what a goddamned mess they made of Earth. Those greedy men who sent you and me into battle? For what? For a little bigger slice of the pie.”

  Eddy breathed heavily, getting up again. “Look at this place. How are you any different?”

  They circled each
other warily. Eddy glanced over at Andy. She was locked in mental combat with Gunner, Davian’s pet psychic, or whatever he was.

  “I give these people peace. Agartha is a paradise.”

  Eddy glanced around. It was beautiful. Like a bright red apple that was rotten to its core. He remembered Sarah’s scream when Andy had taken away the mental storm that had kept her trapped. “What happened to you? How did you get like this?”

  “People need a strong leader. Someone who will lay down the rules and give them something meaningful to do with their lives. There’s no crime here. Everything is clean and safe and efficient. People raise families here, unafraid of what their neighbor might do to them.”

  Eddy shook his head. Davian really believed it. “That’s bullshit.” He lunged at Davian.

  The man dodged him, and as Eddy fell, screaming out in pain as his ribs connected with the ground, Davian leapt on top of him and crushed the air out of his lungs. “You could join me. Show this pathetic chattel that you’re a real man.”

  Eddy struggled to catch his breath, gasping raggedly as he tried to get air into his lungs. “Never,” he croaked, shaking his head.

  “Fair enough.” Something snaked around Eddy’s neck and pulled tight against his windpipe. “It was nice to see you again, old friend.”

  LEX JOINED hands with the others—Jackson, Ana, Glory, and Aaron—as they prepared to try to reach Andy. Such contact was unnecessary, strictly speaking. Lex was weaving them together under the surface of vee space. But symbolism was important to humans and would facilitate their sense of shared effort.

  “Are we ready?”

  “Yes,” Jackson answered for them all.

  “Keera?”

  “Yes, the transmitter is ready to activate.”

  Aaron’s face was grim and determined. “Let’s go help my little girl.”

  ANDY AND Gunner were locked in combat.

  She’d lost her knife in the initial assault, when he’d knocked it out of her hands to send it skittering across the glowing grass. She’d grazed his left cheek first, though, and a trail of blood dripped down his face.

  They held each other’s arms like a couple engaged in a strange dance or maybe a wrestling match, their arms rigid, as they punched and jabbed at each other’s mental defenses.

  Gunner was strong. Fearsomely strong.

  Andy was already tired. Keeping him at bay while trying to breach his walls was rapidly wearing her down, but she had seen the price of failure.

  She barely noticed Shandra coming up behind Gunner with a big stick in her hands.

  Gunner’s right hand let go of hers and snaked out to touch Shandra, who went down in a heap.

  That broke through to her. She lost concentration for just a moment, staring at her friend as Shandra fell. Andy’s mouth fell open to shout “Noooooooooo….” as if in slow motion, and she let her guard down.

  It was all Gunner needed. He pushed forward in that instant and forced her hard onto her back, his hands at her throat.

  She struggled to push him off, but his grip was firm on her. He started to close off her airway, his gaze as vacant as any of the zombies. That was what scared her the most. There was no humanity left in those eyes, only the determined gaze of a killing machine.

  She struggled against him. He might be older, but he was also physically stronger.

  This is it. This is the end. Her vision started to fade.

  Andy.

  “Dad?” It was impossible. He was in Micavery, and there was no way for him to reach her. Not here.

  Andy, we’re here with you. His voice was warm and reassuring.

  How?

  Your loop. You have to let us in.

  Her mind was foggy, but she understood on some level what he wanted. It was dangerous. Opening her mind could let Gunner in too.

  What did she have to lose? Okay. She let down her walls.

  Gunner was taken by surprise, loosening his grip for just a second. She opened her eyes to see his, wide open. So he could still feel emotion.

  Her mind blurred and spun, and she felt the presence of her father, of Lex and Ana. Of Jackson. And Glory.

  They fell together and became one, and her power increased fivefold.

  Their hand shot up as if of its own accord to grab Gunner’s throat. Their other hand reached the soil, and they dipped deep into the earth, ripping through the bubble Gunner had made to cut this place off as if it were tissue paper. Through it and past it to find the roots of the world.

  They called the roots. Ten of them, a hundred, up toward Agartha. Toward them.

  Shandra stood and was staggering toward her again.

  “Shandra, take everyone else and run.” The earth was shaking beneath them.

  Shandra stared at them and shook her head. “I don’t want to leave you!”

  “We’ll be okay, but you have to run! You’re the only one who can get them all out.”

  Shandra looked at the rest of the villagers and nodded. “I’m coming back for you!”

  Andy was too busy to reply. They turned their attention to Gunner.

  This time, there was real fear in his eyes.

  EDDY STRUGGLED against the rope that was stealing his life. Tears slipped from the corners of his eyes, and he whispered a soft apology to Andy and Shandra for letting them down.

  The world around him was shaking, or was he just imagining it? It was going dim too.

  Weird little pieces of his life flickered by in his head. Not the neat scroll they always showed in the tri dees, but broken, jagged images that pushed each other out of the way.

  His mother holding his hand as they walked the seawall.

  Davian fucking him before his transition, in the middle of the Manila campaign.

  Staring out at the rain in Sugarloaf Mountain, Florida.

  The hiss of air from the pinhole in the Moonjumper.

  That had been Davian. He was sure of it now.

  Suddenly the pressure on his neck was gone.

  He rolled over on his side, gasping. The world gradually came into focus.

  Colin stood over him, holding a branch in one hand and extending the other to help him get up. “You okay?”

  Eddy nodded. “Cracked rib, I think.” He winced at the pain in his side.

  The world was shaking.

  He sat up, took Colin’s hand, and stood, looking around.

  The villagers were gone, and so was Shandra. He hoped she was taking them to safety.

  Davian lay off to one side, his head bleeding.

  “Good timing. Things were about to go black.” Eddy rubbed his neck.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Colin looked around as the huts began to collapse.

  “This was some kind of mind control experiment. My old friend Davian and the man Andy’s fighting were behind it.”

  “You’ll have to tell me more later. Should we help her?”

  Eddy shook his head. “I wish we could. There’s nothing we can do. She’s the only one who can do this. Lex says the Immortals are with her.”

  Colin shook his head. “It’s a strange world we find ourselves in out here.”

  Eddy spat. “No shit.”

  WITH THE full force of their father and the Immortals behind her, Andy pushed their way into Gunner’s head. It was a maelstrom inside. Now they knew where the madness had come from that had trapped the villagers. They shuddered to think how close it had come to ensnaring Andy.

  Maybe they could draw it off, like Andy had done with the others when she had been alone. Together, they were stronger than Gunner.

  They pushed him back slowly, bending his mind to their own will, and then they tried to unravel the storm in Gunner’s head.

  His mind was hopelessly scattered.

  As they tried to siphon off some of the madness, random images passed them by.

  Gunner, having sex with one of the villagers, staring down at her empty eyes.

  The Space Needle in Seattle, before a terrorist attack
had brought it down.

  Cramped in the hold of a cargo ship, being towed with other refugees up to Transfer Station and Forever.

  Dipping into Ronan’s mind to plant the virus that would kill him.

  Andy burned with rage at the last one.

  A little white house on a quiet lane.

  Andy paused. They knew that house.

  The part of her that was Jackson whispered, “Jayson?”

  COLIN WATCHED the mind battle, amazed.

  Andrissa Hammond, the fifteen-year-old girl who had come to his estate for help six years before was now a woman, an amazing woman in full control of her abilities. And yet she was compassionate too, kind to others to the point of putting herself in harm’s way.

  As she bent over Gunner, her expression wasn’t one of hatred or anger. Instead it was full of concern.

  “Colin!” Eddy pointed.

  Colin turned to see Davian sitting up and aiming something at Andy. Eddy leapt, but he was too far away.

  Colin didn’t even think.

  He jumped between Davian and Andy.

  He took the gun’s blow full-on in the chest, sending him tumbling into Andy and Gunner. The shock protected him from the worst of the pain, but he could see the injury was bad. Really bad. His chest was a bloody mess.

  He was vaguely aware of Andy looming over him and Gunner scrambling away.

  She was truly a credit to the race and an argument that humanity really was ready to inherit the stars. He could live with what he had accomplished if there were people like her to take his stead.

  Then there was darkness.

  ALL THE voices in Andy’s head babbled at once.

  “Holy crap, it really is him.”

  “How is this possible?”

  “My brother is still alive?”

  “Why is he helping Davian?”

  Andy was flooded with emotions too. Relief. Anger. Fear. Disgust. Joy. “Quiet, all of you! We can deal with this later. Right now we have to—”