Reconception: The Fall

by Deborah Greenspan

  Cries at the Moon, Red Deer and Nightstalker were looking over the maps while the camels were watered and fed. In a few moments, they would load the packs containing the producers onto the backs of eight animals and be off. Unsure and insecure, Garret did not see that there was any choice. If what Eye of Eagle had told them was true, then this was the only way. Evie, flushed and excited, as he'd never seen her in all their life together certainly believed that these people could be trusted. Why didn't he?

  Eye of Eagle came over and clapped him on the back. "They're ready to go my friend."

  "I want to go with them." No one was more startled by these words than Garret himself. In fact, he was astonished. He'd never seen himself as the adventurous type, although, he supposed he was, else why all those trips to the outside with Evie; else why was he even here? He wanted to go, that much he could see. What other way was there to make sure that Southeast got the producers? Anyway, he wanted to see the world for himself. What other chance would he ever have? But was it possible? He looked at Eye of Eagle, who was looking at him with puzzlement.

  "You can't go!" Evie said at the same time. Garret took her by the shoulders and ignored Eye of Eagle, who took the hint and walked over to the group of other men.

  "Evie, listen, how will we know if the producers get there if I don't go? How will we know if any of what Eagle Eye told us is true? I have to go. Don't you see?"

  "You can't go, Garret. It's simple, it has nothing to do with what I see or don't see. You can't go because it's too dangerous. You don't know how to survive out here."

  "Evie, what you're saying is true. But I've been out for hours already with no ill effects. Any effects from the atmosphere are probably long term." As he spoke, he strode toward the small caravan preparing to leave.

  "It's dangerous, Garret," Evie said, catching up. "What if you have to fight? You don't know how to fight."

  He looked at her but kept walking. "Evie, Evie ... I have to go. How can I go back to the habitat without ever having seen what's out there? Don't you understand? I'll never get another chance like this."

  "But if something happened to you ... .I need you."

  "Nothing will happen to me, I promise you."

  "I wonder how many men in how many different circumstances said those very words to their women? How many millions of men believed those words before they went off to war or something?" The tears in Evie's eyes flooded their boundaries and rolled down her cheeks.

  "Nothing will happen to me," he repeated, stopping long enough to draw her close and kiss her wet cheeks. "I promise you."

  "Garret, I love you, and I want you to have everything you want, but it's just too dangerous. You can't go! If you insist, then I'm going with you."

  "I am going, and you are staying here. You know you want to. Didn’t you say you wanted to find out everything there is to know about this place?"

  "But not like this! Not with you out there!”

  "I'm going, Evie, even though you don't want me to. I'm sorry. I just have to do it."

  Hurt more than she'd ever dreamed was possible, Evie pulled herself together, spun around, and walked toward the van. Garret watched as she shut the door behind her, feeling a vast emptiness explode in his chest. To fill it he called to Eye of Eagle and told him he was going along.

  Eye of Eagle was pleasantly surprised by this turn of events. He hadn't thought Garret to be much of a man. It appeared that there was more to him than met the eye. But then, even though he seemed so weak, didn't that demonstrate his bravery? How many others of his kind would dare to venture out into the sunlight as he and the woman had?

  He hoped Garret would be all right. Despite the distance he'd put between himself and the couple while they'd discussed what Garret wanted to do, Eye of Eagle had heard every word. When he'd chosen his name, it had been a toss-up between Eye of Eagle and One Who Hears, since both of these senses were especially acute in him.

  While finishing the preparations, he took Red Deer aside and told him to take special care that nothing happened to the stranger. Red Deer assured him that he would look after the man as he would his own child.

  Eye of Eagle snorted and said, "Don't let appearances deceive you, Red Deer. The man is very brave to go without his van."

  "Or very stupid."

  "Maybe a little of both, but then who among us isn't?"

  "This is true. Don't worry. I'll watch out for him. Are you sure you don't want to go?"

  "Yes, I'm sure."

  Red Deer eyed his friend critically. "She is very beautiful."

  Eye of Eagle tightened the fastenings on the pack.

  "Don’t you think so?"

  "Yes, she certainly is."

  "What do you think the Mother thinks of her?"

  "I don't know. I guess we won't know until she tells us."

  "You don't think they can hurt us, do you?"

  "No. Whatever they could do to us was done a hundred years ago. These people are well meaning and harmless. I believe."

  Evie watched through the small window in the van as the men mounted their camels. Garret looked powerful and proud, a stranger to her, sitting astride the beast. He looked at the van and seemed to pierce the glass with his eyes. She wished she could stop him, or go with him. The small caravan turned and the camels loped out of the yard, Garret looking a bit ridiculous bouncing up and down. Suddenly, she couldn't let him go without saying goodbye.

  Leaving the van, she ran toward the group rapidly shrinking into the distance and yelled out, "Garret! Garret! Goodbye! I love you! Goodbye!"

  At first, it didn't seem that he'd heard her, then he turned and waved and even at the distance she could see his big grin and feel the wound of their disagreement heal. "Goodbye Garret," she repeated softly. "Goodbye."

  Eye of Eagle strode up beside her. "How long do you think they'll be," she asked him.

  "Probably fifteen days there and fifteen days back, if all goes well. Don't worry; our men are smart and tough. Why don't you come inside for a while?"

  Evie had never seen so bewitching a man. She loved Garret, of course. They'd been together all their lives, but this Eye of Eagle was so ... so powerful, so potent, he made her knees weak. She both welcomed and dreaded his attentions. She would like to visit with Teller and the other women, though. "All right," she said. "That's a good idea."

  The mountain people had begun raising camels when they'd first settled in the area. Since they didn't know what was coming, they'd wanted the most adaptable creature they could find as a beast of burden, and that was the camel. Able to endure extremes of temperature, lack of food and water, what more could one ask in uncertain times? In any case, they'd known that soil erosion would continue, that desertification was probable in many formerly agricultural areas and for that they were determined to be prepared.

  Garret's camel was named Cashmere, and he was an even-tempered beast, as camels go. His coat was surprisingly soft, and he moved at a steady lope through the wasteland, carrying his load without complaint. Red Deer led the party and Cries at the Moon covered the rear. Nightstalker moved back and forth between them. They'd traveled a long way since they'd left early that morning, and Garret was very tired. Nothing in all his life had prepared him for riding a camel in an oxygen poor atmosphere for hours and hours.

  His body was not used to the heat, the glare of the sun, the exercise, the air, any of it. He knew what the mountain men thought of his weakness, but he meant to see for himself what had happened to the world, and he wasn't about to be intimidated by a bunch of aborigines.

  Well, of course, they weren't really aborigines. Far from it. They were sophisticated, civilized people and he was very grateful to them for helping him to bring the food to Southeast. They were so competent, it made him feel weak and foolish, and that made him angry. All his life he'd been the best, the brightest, the most skilled. Here, he knew so little; he was like a baby.

  Nightstalker pulled up alongside him and matched his camel's pace to that
of Garret's. "Red Deer wants to know if you're all right? Do you need to stop?"

  "I'm all right. How much farther does Red Deer think we will go today?"

  "We'll stop to eat in a while, and to rest the animals. Then we'll ride until sundown. It's hard going for the camels, up one slope and down the next, but if we can keep up this pace we'll be able to get to your peoples' habitat in about two weeks."

  They rode together in companionable silence for a while, and then Nightstalker spoke. "We're very curious about you. How do you stand to live underground, to never see the sun? It's almost like being buried alive."

  Garret smiled wryly. "Actually, Evie and I have been going outside since we were eight when we discovered an unsealed exit. As for the others, I don't know how they stand it. We've tried to suggest opening the doors to a few of them, but no one's interested. I guess what it comes down to is that people can adapt to just about anything. How about you? How is your life?"

  Nightstalker smiled. "Oh, we have a good life. Except for the sickness and the ... trouble ... with intruders ... ."

  "Intruders?"

  "Sometimes people from the cities discover our farm, and then we have a problem. We are a peaceful people, you see; we don't want to fight. We would be glad to share with the less fortunate, but they are wild and brutal, and won't share with us. They only want to take. When they come, we have to fight."

  "Is that often?"

  "Oh no. We're well concealed. Only three times in a hundred and twenty years have we had to deal with intruders. Not counting you and Evie."

  "Evie and I? We're not intruders. You invited us. I mean Eye of Eagle did."

  "I said not counting you. You are different. For one thing, you're not savages. You're not suffering from mutations or brain damage as many of them are, and it's unlikely that you'll want to take over our farm ... .The first time the intruders came, they ended up setting fire to the farm. They destroyed our solar collectors. By the time they were finished, only the Garden of the Goddess and our concealed stores were left. But that was enough. We've learned not to be so friendly."

  "Well, I'm glad you were friendly to us," Garret said.

  "By tomorrow, we'll be out of the valley, and it will be harder going, more mountainous. We'll have to pick our path with care. After that, we'll have to watch for people. Have you received any training in fighting? Do you know how to defend yourself?"

  Garret wondered why they hadn't asked that question before leaving the settlement. He looked into Nightstalker's dark eyes. The man was not very tall, but stocky with powerful shoulders and arms. Garret wouldn't want to tangle with him. He had a knife tucked in the belt of his robes, and a rifle slung across his back. A belt of ammunition hung over the neck of his camel. "Well my physical training included fencing and karate. I've shot a gun in simulators, so I guess I could handle one. The fact is a New Scientist has to learn everything, develop a well-balanced outlook, and that includes physical strength and development. So I guess I could fight if I had to. There wasn't anyone my age to match me against, you see, except Evie."

  Nightstalker reappraised the man riding next to him. He would try him out later to see if he would need protection, or if he would be of help if they met with trouble. "What's a new scientist?" he asked.

  As Garret explained the philosophy to his new friend, he studied the environment they were moving through. The mountainous and nearly barren land seemed to go on forever. Except for the abandoned towns, the empty ruins of houses and rusted vehicles they passed, it would seem that man had never even been there.

  In the distance, he could see the peaks of the Appalachians. The sun overhead was very hot, and he was grateful for the desert gear they'd made him wear. It wasn't technically a desert since it did rain from time to time, and grasses and scruffy little bushes covered the land. The soil was so poor and stony and easily eroded, however, that only the most hardy of plants could grow.

  Garret was saddened at the millions of years it would take for natural processes to replace the billions of tons of topsoil that had been lost during the industrial era. The 100 million years it would take to replace the extinctions was also incomprehensible. It looked like whatever survived in this new world had to be tough and resilient, including him.

  CHAPTER 8

  Mountain People: 2128

  What constantly surprised and delighted Evie the most about the Mountain people's living quarters, was her ability to walk in and out at will. Anytime she wanted to, she could just get up and go outside. There was so much to see, and it was all so unlike anything she'd known before. They'd used natural materials inside: wood, tile, and glass, and had built inside the hill for energy efficiency. The house was cool in summer and warm in winter. They'd arranged skylights and light wells throughout so that it wasn't dark, except at night, and then they usually went outside.

  The house was huge, and accommodated over 200 people, she'd been told. There were many common rooms, both large and small, and sleeping quarters rambled all through the hillside like a rabbit warren. The best part for her were the kitchens. Growing up as she had, where sustenance came out of a vat, she was enthralled by the preparation of real food.

  The cooking areas were communal, and everyone did their share of the work, even Evie, once she'd found something she could do. She liked the way they were open to the outside and soon discovered the solar ovens that were one of the reasons for this location. There was no rule against anyone coming in for a snack, if they wanted one, and she did that too. Each of the members of the tribe had to spend a portion of every day involved in the growth, storage or preparation of food. Evie was amazed at how much had to be done.

  There were many private dining rooms in varying sizes that gave off the main dining room. Her first meal without Garret she ate in a private dining room with just Eye of Eagle—who, she'd learned, was called Eagle, for short—Teller, Flowers, Iron Hand and some others whose names she couldn't remember.

  Flowers was delicate and soft spoken, deferring to the others. Evie learned she was the mother of Holly, the little girl she'd met the night before. The children seemed to run free anywhere they liked, and Evie wondered about that. How did they educate them when they were so boisterous? She'd never seen children like that.

  Children in the habitat were disciplined almost from birth. Everything they did was programmed to be educational. Here the children were more spontaneous and she found them charming, but wondered if they weren't a little too wild.

  After lunch, she wandered about inside, looking into different rooms. Her assumption that they didn't use computers was proved false when she stumbled on a room full of PC's. Apparently they used computers, but, unlike the habitats, the machines weren't pervasive. Behind the computer room was another door that was locked. Since she hadn't found any locked doors before, she went looking for someone to open it.

  Most of the mountain people napped after lunch and it wasn't until an hour later that she found Teller working with some children on the porch. They were all singing as loudly as they could, and Teller was, unsuccessfully, trying to get them to produce some harmony. She laughed when she saw Evie. "How are you doing? Do you like it here?" she asked.

  "I do," Evie replied. "It's all so new. I have so much to learn."

  "Why?" Teller asked, dismissing the children.

  "Because I need to know what's happening here, so that I can do something to contribute to it. I mean, I'm working with recombinant DNA. You know what that is, don't you?"

  Teller sighed. "Yes, I know what it is. It's the science of altering nature."

  Taken aback, Evie paused. "Well, I guess you could look at it that way. But I see it as the way to help nature get back on the road she was on before the industrial era."

  "Evie," Teller said, taking the scientist's hands, "what's done is done. Now is the time to learn to live. Don't you see that it's the idea that man must control and dominate nature that is at the root of all our woes?"

  Evie thought about i
t before replying. "I don't want to dominate nature. I just want to help her along."

  "But what egotism! Who are you to decide what Nature wants or needs? Who are any of us? We are just another animal living within the body of the Great Mother. It's our greed for power that has destroyed everything. Our only chance lies in accepting our position, in knowing our place."

  "Oh Teller, I just don't see it that way. If we have the power to think and to manipulate things, why shouldn't we use it? I mean, assuming we use it wisely."

  "Because, my friend, we are not wise. We only think we are wise until we learn more, and then we discover how foolish we have been."

  Evie decided it was time to change the subject since they could obviously not agree. "Tell me more about the Great Mother. From what I've seen and heard, you seem to believe in a female deity. I always thought that the dominant religions were centered on a male God.”

  "They were, but even religion can change, especially when those who give it the most lip-service disappear underground. After the leaders went away, all kinds of beliefs sprouted up, and the failure of patriarchy led to the revival of mother-goddess religions. What do you believe in?" Teller wondered.

  "Science ... Guilt ... Redemption ... ."

  "Come with me," the mountain woman said, "I want you to meet someone." Taking the fair-haired woman's hand, she led her through the house to the very door Evie had found locked. When she opened it, the first thing that greeted them was an unpleasant odor. Evie recoiled. Teller pulled her through the door and shut it behind them. "You won't like what you see here, but I think you should see it."

  She led her through the corridor to another door, and opened it. It was a large room, well lit, with several beds, some small tables and chairs, and some bigger chairs. In the first bed by the door lay a little girl. "This is my daughter," Teller said, going over to the child and kissing her on the head.

  "What's wrong with her?" Evie asked, "Why is she here?" The child was about two, dark like her mother. Her eyes were vacant and staring. She didn`t respond to the kiss.