‘That’s encouraging. I hope she helps to lift his spirits,’ Eva said. ‘I’m pleased they’re getting on well. Morale is going to be pretty important over these next few days, I’m sure.’
‘Expecting bad things?’ Duncan asked.
Eva looked him in the eyes. ‘Always. It’s the way things are now.’
‘I’m coming with you this time.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘When you go to the island,’ Duncan said. ‘I’m not staying behind. If you’re going, I’m going too. I can’t face the prospect of losing you.’
Eva shifted closer to him, wrapped her arm around his neck, and hugged him close. She said nothing, just enjoyed the warmth and closeness of his body. She felt bad that she didn’t love him like he wanted her to, but she still appreciated him and needed him with her.
They remained like that for a while as the sub continued its stealthy approach towards the island. With each knot it travelled, their destiny grew closer. Eva worried this might be her last journey.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
They journeyed for two days with little drama. Marvin proved to be an excellent captain, despite having been out of active service for some time. The events at the base had had a galvanising effect on the group, helping them to focus and pull together as one. Even Duncan and Marcus had put their differences aside – at least for the time being.
Admiral Johnson’s stewardship kept everyone on their toes. Eva liked the regimented approach; the mix of flotilla and newcomer personnel worked well under his strict captaincy. It certainly took a lot of pressure off Jim.
She looked over at him as he stood there, arms crossed, one finger tapping on his lower lip. He was watching the monitor screen in front of him, scanning the horizon.
The USS Utah was sailing just a few metres below the surface, its camera equipment giving Jim a bright, sharp image. Eva checked the time: 12:45 p.m. The smell of instant coffee filled the command centre, giving it a more lived-in feel. Everyone had been grateful for the supplies they had managed to bring back from the base.
Duncan sat next to Eva at the sub’s controls. He focused on the metrics in front of him, dutifully following the admiral’s orders, keeping the sub within strict parameters of speed and depth. Behind Eva, Gloria hunched over the central sonar module, the bulky headphones over her ears, her face taut with concentration.
The radar screen glowed beneath her, giving her rich skin a green hue.
Admiral Johnson stood behind her, glancing at the radar, casting his eye around the various controls and stations to make sure all orders were being carried out according to his commands.
For the previous two days, he had kept the crew entertained with stories of his youth as he worked his way up the rankings from a junior submariner all the way to the top. The stories of his time on the destroyers during the two Iraq wars were especially captivating, particularly his tales of the final days of Saddam Hussein in the second conflict. Eva had had to bite her tongue, as always, at the mention of the fictitious ‘weapons of mass destruction’. She finished her cup of coffee and returned her attention to the task at hand: liaising with Brad in the engine room to help him keep the Utah at a steady rate. After about an hour of near-silent work in the command centre, Jim’s sudden intake of breath caught everyone’s attention.
‘What is it, Jim?’ Marvin asked. The admiral stepped up behind him and peered over his shoulder towards the video screen.
‘Land . . . ?’ Jim said with a question in his voice, not sure of what he was looking at. Eva was just a few feet away and craned her neck to look. Even Gloria and Duncan stood from their stations, their attention half on their tasks and half on Jim’s screen.
After a few tense moments, Marvin simply nodded, then, addressing the crew, said, ‘We have found the island. Good job, ladies and gents. Now let’s back off and approach at quarter speed. Gloria, switch to active sonar, see what’s hanging around – if anything. Duncan, plot a course to sweep around the island; let’s get a good look at what’s on there, and how big it is. Stay focused: we don’t want to rip this tub open on a ridge.’
Cries of ‘Aye, Captain’ rang around the command centre as everyone followed their orders. The admiral used the sub’s communications to wake everyone who was off shift. The rest received orders to be on alert and prepare the away supplies and weapons.
Eva came alive at the sudden change of atmosphere. Despite what they might find there, she tingled with excitement again. Two days of strict, boring work on the sub had helped dull the memory of the events in the base so that now it was almost as if it had never happened, and she was back to her old self: motivated, excited, and eager to confront whatever might be waiting for them on this rocky island.
They circled the island twice, slowly, manoeuvring around the highest ridges with great care. Again, Marvin’s captaincy proved highly capable here as he worked with Gloria and Victoria on the sonar and radar to help navigate their way around.
On the first lap, Gloria noticed a vessel with the active sonar. ‘Sir, we’ve got a stationary object on the east side of the island.’
Marvin inspected the data. ‘Must be Gracefield’s sub,’ he said. ‘Let me know if it moves.’
But it didn’t. The USS Utah sneaked around it using all the skill and technology at hand to remain hidden.
It was approaching 17:00 p.m. when Jim pointed out two figures in a small wooden fishing boat near the rocky shore of the island. Eva looked over and watched as the two people bobbed up and down on the waves. They were silhouetted against the afternoon sun. The clouds had cleared for a moment, allowing the dark blue skies to meet the sea unbroken.
The Utah crew sat in silence and watched as the vessel approached the shore. One of the figures, a woman by the looks of her long hair and slim shoulders, jumped out of the boat and helped to pull it up to a wooden dock that had been built between two slices of rock that jutted out naturally like a miniature peninsula. The dock was made from scraps of ships: wooden boards, sheet metal, poles, and ropes. The sight reminded Eva of the flotilla and brought with it a pang of homesickness.
The whole surface of the island looked like it was made from the very Earth itself: dark and jagged, rocky, with only the barest suggestion of soil, grass, and other vegetation, the last of which was geometrically arranged, making her think of the farm layout within the base. Gracefield must have brought some of that soil with him. Eva asked Marvin if he had, and the captain confirmed. She yearned to see a field again – wild plants, weeds, trees, anything, just something other than water and human detritus.
Around the perimeter of the island, Eva had spotted a series of crude desalinating stations constructed from wooden frames, clear plastic sheeting, and glass, presumably from the pile of shipwrecked materials resembling a small scrapyard on the west side of the island.
She had also noticed a couple of fish farms made from netting and more wooden flotsam. It seemed the group that had arrived had really settled in, and made the island a self-sufficient homestead. She wondered briefly what it might be like to live here. Must be easier than being on the flotilla.
The wet rocks at the edge of the island gleamed in the sun. White water crashed against a series of low cliffs and bluffs beyond the peninsula. Tracking their route around the landmass, the admiral had estimated that it was five miles in length north-northeast to south-southwest, and three and a half miles across its width, giving it an elliptical shape.
The sonar indicated that there was much more mass just beneath the surface.
The crashing plates had created subduction, Gloria told them – where one plate is pushed beneath the other when the two collide, in this instance the Pacific and North American plates, the same ones that had created the varied fault lines down the west coast of the US.
If there had been no drowning, she dreaded to think what this would have meant for the coast of California all the way up to Washington. Tsunamis, volcanic eruptions . . . It would have bee
n hell on Earth.
‘We’re looking at something the world has never seen before,’ Duncan said. ‘It’s crazy to think none of this was here three years ago.’
‘It sure looks good,’ Jim said. ‘Jesus, we’re looking at proper land! Not just the peak of a mountain, but honest-to-God land,’ he said. ‘I don’t know about the rest of you, but being in this tin can and then the base for so long has made me forget what it’s like to be outside. Just think, if there’s arable land here . . .’
‘They’re not going to just let us stay here,’ Marvin said. ‘We should expect, and be prepared for, considerable resistance. We’ll need to get to Gracefield as soon as we can – take the head off the snake, as it were.’
Various members of the crew, old and new, flocked into the command centre to get a look at the island as they continued to scout it out. The two fishers had tied off their boat and hauled in a net with what looked like a healthy catch of fish, presumably an addendum to their fish farm stocks. They followed a path through two high walls of rock on either side of the dock and disappeared from view into the shadows.
‘We’ll wait until sundown,’ Marvin said. ‘Then, if the coast is clear, we’ll go see what’s going on. In the meantime, I’ll be in my cabin, resting. My old muscles have never really gotten used to the higher altitudes. Jim, you have the bridge.’
The admiral saluted the crew crisply and exited down into the narrow passage.
Marcus came in shortly after, talking excitedly with Patrice and Bernita.
They relieved Eva and Duncan, but Eva stayed around, captivated by the island. She urged the sun to go down so she could get out of the sub and experience solid land beneath her feet again. She felt as though she were an astronaut waiting to step onto the moon, or Mars.
Later that day, when the sun had set, Jim’s guts squirmed with anxiety. He had said goodbye to Duncan and the rest of the away team and watched them through the camera as they approached the island. They had taken the F470 but didn’t risk running the engine. Instead, they had had to row, which was fine, as Duncan was a strong rower. Jim had agreed to stay behind on the sub this time around. If he was honest with himself, despite his protests, he was glad. He was getting old and tired, and the events at the base had left him hollow in spirit and weak in muscle. His mind was still sharp, though, and so he accepted command of the Utah while Marvin went with the rest of the away team: Marcus, Annette, Eva, Duncan, and Victoria.
The soft moonlight, diffused by thin clouds, reflected off the sea’s surface, the waves making it crinkle like tin foil. He used this undulating light to spot when his son and the others had reached the ramshackle dock of the island.
As planned, when they reached it, they moved east around the shoreline. They had found a small cove on their explorations, which Marvin had suggested would be an ideal place to hide the F470.
Their being spotted was Jim’s major fear right now. There’d be little he could do from out there.
The ridgeline of the new landmass meant they couldn’t get the sub closer than three hundred and fifty metres. That was a long distance to swim if things didn’t go according to plan. Sitting next to him in the command centre, Gloria watched over the sonar and radar. Ahmed, Bernita, and Patrice worked at their usual stations. But Gloria was the one Jim was most glad about. There had been some debate as to whether she or Victoria ought to go on the away team. The latter had won out owing to her knowledge of the president and the files she had found on the Pentagon’s system. He was glad it had worked out like this. He had come to enjoy Gloria’s company. She looked up at him and smiled, and Jim realised he was staring. He nodded back and returned his attention to the screen. Not that there was much else to see. He lifted the two-way radio they had left for him and checked in with them. Marvin had suggested that as long as they maintained line-of-sight, they should be able to get a signal.
The units were from the McKinley base: military grade and encrypted. Yet, Jim still felt nervous when he pressed the button and called in. And was more nervous still when there was no response: just static.
Eva was right: the feel of solid ground beneath her feet on an actual landmass felt great. Through her bones, the rock connected her to the Earth, reminded her that beneath all the water, the old world was still there; places and things shaped by humans were now home to the new era of fish and whatever evolution decided to create.
The wind lashed against her masked face, making her shiver. The sea splashed against her wet-weather coat and waterproof trousers. Around her, the rest of the away team clambered over rocks and jagged protrusions. Duncan helped Victoria onto the flat section where Eva could reach out her hand and help her across.
‘We could have found an easier landing site,’ Marcus grumbled as he and Marvin joined them. The admiral glared at Marcus, and then gazed around him, taking in the scene.
There was little to see beyond the dark shapes of the rugged landmass. The moonlight struggled to find a way through the thickening clouds. It was too risky to use flashlights; they hadn’t yet ascertained where the island’s residents were camped.
Once everyone was accounted for, Eva urged them to move on. A crack of thunder bellowed in the distance, the lightning only just visible on the horizon. ‘We should move,’ she said. ‘If the storm’s coming this way, we might not have much time. Duncan, can you let Jim know we landed okay?’
‘Sure, one moment.’ Duncan moved his rifle awkwardly over his shoulder and retrieved the radio from his belt. He fiddled with the dials and held the device to his ear. Even in the dark, Eva could sense things weren’t right.
‘No signal,’ Duncan said. ‘Just white noise.’
‘We might need to be higher up,’ Marvin said. ‘Let’s move on. Stay close, keep your eyes sharp, and be quiet. We don’t want to give our position away until we know what’s going on here.’
‘Let’s get to it, then,’ Marcus said. He held his rifle with more confidence than Duncan. Victoria held hers reluctantly, and Annette refused to take one at all: she was more afraid of the weapon than of other people potentially shooting at her.
With Eva and Marvin leading the group, they made their way through a narrow gap between two large sections of sheer rock that extended up over twenty feet or more, with a narrow, twisting fissure between them. Duncan was whispering to them about what kind of rock it was, but no one was paying any attention. There was a nervous energy among the group that Eva felt with every footstep. She in particular made sure to watch the tops of these crags, not that they would really be able to see anyone if they preferred to stay hidden; the night sky didn’t provide enough light.
But it worked both ways: the cover of darkness also hid them.
Like a line of ants, the group trekked through the fissure, ascending until it narrowed and they could easily clamber up and over the edge to the top. On the other side, they came to a wide clearing of tumbled, broken rock. It swept around towards the east side of the island in a crescent shape. The light rain gave the rocks a glossy quality in the patchy, silver light.
To Eva, it was quite beautiful in a desolate kind of way. It would be difficult to traverse, though; even in the darkness, Eva could make out deep valleys and crevices snaking in and out of the rock formations.
‘It’s astonishing,’ Annette said, her voice a bare whisper on the cry of the wind.
‘Grim as fuck,’ Marcus grumbled. Eva wondered whether Duncan’s presence was getting to him again. It was too late now, though, and she’d rather have both men with her than back on the sub.
‘I wonder how far we need to go to find anyone,’ Victoria said to Marvin as she stepped up to him. He stood on top of a small rise, scanning the horizon. Beyond the crescent of giant cobbles, a cliff face reared up.
He pointed up and simply said, ‘There, they’re already coming.’
‘What do you mean?’ Duncan said.
‘Torches. I see three of them. They’re descending the cliff face on some fixture.’
&
nbsp; Eva squinted and scanned the cliff face. She was about to say that he was seeing things, when the clouds parted for a brief moment and she saw them: five people clambering down a makeshift ladder of sorts, constructed from what looked like masts of various vessels.
‘We can’t stay here,’ Marcus said from Eva’s left. ‘We need to hide, now.’ She turned to him. At the edge of the crescent, towards the middle of the island, another two torches flickered in the wind and rain.
They were flanked, and outnumbered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Eva and the group headed east, away from the oncoming islanders. Duncan skipped across the great boulder-shaped landscape, his crooked leg not slowing him down.
Eventually, with the rain falling harder, they found another fissure. This one went straight down about ten feet then zigzagged off into darkness.
While Marcus knelt at the opening and covered them with his rifle, Eva and Duncan helped Annette, Victoria, and Marvin down until they were at the bottom. Duncan lowered Eva, and then hopped down himself. It wasn’t lost on Eva that he hadn’t offered to help Marcus, who was now up there on his own.
The Londoner didn’t seem to take it personally. After passing down his rifle and backpack of supplies, he nimbly climbed down into the breach, hanging off the edge so that Eva could grab him by the waist and bring him safely down to the surface.
Sheltered from the rain by the ancient stone, Marcus lowered his mask and wiped his face with the back of his hand, flicking the water away. Eva kept her mask on; she wasn’t entirely sure the mutated version of the bacterium hadn’t made its way here from the base.
‘Come on,’ Duncan whispered, ‘before we lose the others.’
‘He’s such an eager little boy scout, ain’t he?’ Marcus said close to Eva’s ear.
‘Play nice,’ Eva replied.
Soil (The Last Flotilla Book 2) Page 20