Survival Instinct- Forces of Change

by Sandi Gamble

  “We were, of course, aware that you spent much of your time with this pre-programmed animal in your pod. We felt it was an appropriate picture to put on our wall in an attempt to disclose your curiosity.”

  At this point, Arna also spoke, “Having that image there was in a sense, a final test for you, Ari. We had to find a way to assess your natural curiosity; whether or not you have that curiosity which will animate your inquiry.” She smiled. “And it appears that it does.”

  “Congratulations,” they both said. “You will be placed into the Sciences division.”

  I beamed so wide the muscles in my face hurt. It was all I could do not to clap my hands together in glee. I had been accepted into what would be the foundations of my work in the Sciences.

  Although both Joyla and Arna smiled at her reaction, they stayed on point. “Based on the answers selected in your testing your occupational profile will be drawn up. It appears that the system has selected that you would do well in Climatology. Is that an area that interests you,” Joyla continued.

  “Oh yes, definitely!” I could hardly believe that all my hopes were being fulfilled. Although I was completely excited, a part of my thoughts turned to Jace, wondering if he had made it through as well. Somehow, I knew that my excitement would be lessened if Jace were not able to enjoy this future with me.

  Arna rose and extended her hand. “Well then, we are finished here now. Again, congratulations Ari. Good luck with your studies and we look forward to hearing great things about you in the future.”

  Joyla also rose. She too extended her hand to me. “Congratulations,” she said. “Also, for the remainder of your time here, I will be your counselor.” She smiled. “My door is open to you anytime.”

  A moment later, I was ushered through the door and into my awaiting future.

  Time seemed to stand still. I sat in the courtyard, letting the warm light hit my skin. I could feel the sensation of the air brushing against the hairs on my arm. I could hear the silence of the courtyard. It was a complete and fulfilling feeling. I was so happy about my result but, of course, I could not be absolutely happy until I knew what Jace’s future held. And so, I waited in the courtyard, as we’d planned. Waited for his arrival so we could, no matter what happened, have this moment together.

  It seemed the most natural thing in the world, to have been together now. We had been a pair since we arrived at the Academy. Our intelligence, our natures, and our curiosity had matched us. But now, I could not begin to help but worry. Why was it taking so long for him to join me? And just like that, I was no longer fully engaged in the moment. I was antsy. Jittery. As the seconds and minutes ticked by, I began to pace.

  “What’s taking so long?” I asked out loud, surprised by the sound of my voice.

  I had my eyes down, watching my feet as I paced back and forth. Who knows how long he’d been standing there before I finally noticed him?

  “Jace!”

  I stopped immediately. My excitement at seeing Jace was deadened as soon as I saw his posture and expression. His head was bowed. He had an aura of misery about him.

  “Oh no,” I sighed as my heart dropped. I ran to him and took his hand in mine. “Oh, Jace,” I said softly, gripping his hand.

  Suddenly, he burst out in laughter. “I made it, Ari! I’ve been accepted into the Sciences!”

  I let go of his hand and slapped him hard across the shoulder. “Jace! You had me scared!”

  He continued to laugh for another couple of seconds. “You should have seen the look on your face,” he said.

  “Why would you do that to me, Jace?” I snapped, pushing him away from me. “I felt terrible for you…”

  “If you could only see the look on your face now,” he chortled, teasing me for my earnestness – as always.

  The truth was, despite my anger at being teased, I was elated by his news. Only my pride kept a pout on my face, and then for only another couple of moments. “Jace,” I said, quickly coming around. “What area?”

  Even though it was remarkable that he had been chosen for Science, given his family background, it would still be devastating if he was directed to some area of Science far removed from my own, like Archeology or some other such discipline.

  He looked me in the eye and held the gaze for a moment. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

  “Well?”

  “Climatology,” he said finally.

  I didn’t make a conscious decision to jump on him and hug him but the next thing I knew my arms were wrapped around his neck and my legs around his waist. “Me too!” I shouted.

  He returned my hug before setting me down on the ground of the courtyard again. “I take it that you’re pleased,” he said with remarkable understatement.

  Now that there was no suspense, I could afford to play his game. I shrugged my shoulders. “It is one of the outcomes I’d considered,” I deadpanned.

  He smiled, seeing that I was back to my ‘usual self’. “And there I thought you’d be disappointed if we weren’t going to be together,” he sighed.

  “I mean, I suppose it will be all right, having you in the same program,” I said, conceding the point.

  “Well, for my part,” he said, smiling widely, “I am very glad that we will be together still.”

  I matched his smile, beaming broadly. “Me too, Jace. Oh, me too!”

  Knowing that our educational path was now clear, we would still have to devote ourselves to our learning. Having a path was not the same thing as success. The way I saw it, with both of us getting into Climatology we could spend the remainder of our time at the Academy studying or clowning around. Of course, as appealing as clowning around might have been it was sure to lead only to a life in a think tank. My goal – and Jace’s too – was much loftier than that. I wanted a position on the Environmental Council.

  Only the cream of the crop were given a position on the Council. With such a position came a great deal of prestige and autonomy. A real life, in my opinion.

  Neither of us had to say anything. We were of one mind when it came to our desire for excellence. However, curiously, the environmental studies that were part of our course were more challenging to Jace than either of us anticipated. Perhaps it was because of his upbringing outside of Science.

  “This is very disheartening,” he said, moping about one day after a lecture. He was carrying a study pod.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I’m just having so much trouble understanding these systems,” he said. “I’ve never had trouble like this before.”

  It was true. Like me, he had always breezed through his studies, understanding new things easily. I could not understand how he must have felt, but it was disorienting for me as well, to know he was feeling less certain. I took his hand and squeezed it. “Don’t worry,” I told him. “We’ll figure out a way.”

  He smiled, but there was no real joy behind his smile. He was clearly feeling lost and feeling lost was not a feeling that came easily to him.

  I was not going to get this far only to leave Jace behind. So much of the material came easily to me because of my family background. I was not going to allow Jace’s different background to hold him back. In our spare time, I devised new and different ways to review the material. We explored. We returned to the museums that Ann had shown us. We moved through the dioramas. We found samples of ancient species. We drilled. We played games. We studied.

  One day, as I knew it would, everything simply clicked for Jace. A light came on, and he fully understood everything. It was as if he needed to incorporate a context so that all the disparate lessons of climate studies had a home and logic. When that context was in place, everything became crystal clear.

  His test scores immediately reflected his understanding. Soon, he was striding ahead of me, challenging our teachers with his knowledge and insights, and me. It was a wonderful time for both of us. We were able to spend a great deal of time together, learning, studying and growing.

  Mo
re exciting, we would be spending more and more time together after we graduated from the Academy. For it was then that our studies would become a practical reality. We would be tasked with continuing and improving on the work done by scientists who had come before us, returning the planet to a pristine condition after the ‘Parched Earth’ disaster.

  * * *

  On our last day at the Academy, each student was called to a small room to meet with his or her counselor, to receive their final scores and to receive their area of employment. It was a day filled with anticipation, sadness and joy. As we all contemplated our meetings with our counselors, we understood that we stood at the precipice, on the very boundary between our past and our future.

  As I walked toward my meeting, I had a heavy feeling of time weighing on my shoulders. The future was exciting indeed. But the past was slipping from me like a skin that had covered me too loosely.

  “Hello, Ari,” Joyla said, greeting me in the small room. “And congratulations. You have exceeded even our lofty expectations for you here at the Academy.”

  “Thank you,” I said, feeling genuine humility. Regardless of results, I knew that compliments were not handed out recklessly at the Academy.

  “Your future is indeed bright. You have been chosen to do lead work at the Environmental Council.”

  My eyes widened. I felt my heart flutter in my chest. Lead work! I could not have hoped for a better outcome. My parents will be pleased.

  “Your dedication and your natural talents have been amply demonstrated by your excellent grades,” she went on. “You will be an asset to the team.”

  “Thank you,” I said, extending my hand to her. This time, at this moment, we were equals. I did not have to wait for her gesture. She was sending me off as an individual, not a student.

  I strode purposefully toward the courtyard, the very same courtyard where I had met Jace all those many months earlier. I was aware of other students, students who had, like me, also received their “marching orders”. Even with the singularity of my purpose and focus on my destination, I was aware of the many bright, resolute faces.

  For many of us, our time at the Academy had been rewarding beyond measure, and now we would be tasked with contributing to our world.

  I was surprised to find Jace in the courtyard, already waiting for me. He was smiling ear to ear. No games today. Today, his joy was evident from across the courtyard!

  “I’m the man,” he crowed when I came closer. “Yes, yes, yessiree! I’m the man indeed. Environmental Council, here I come! S.C.I.E.N. Tist!” He was yelling now, at the top of his lungs and happy to have everyone hear him. I was happy to hear him too!

  I let out a yelp and ran across the courtyard, flying into his arms. He swooped me up into the air. As my body lowered against him, I could feel every fiber of my womanhood pressed against his strong, masculine body.

  We had always been close but our interaction, although not ignorant of the growing attraction, had never felt so powerfully human. Suddenly, I felt fully alive not as a student or as a friend but as a woman.

  Our lips met in the first kiss we’d ever shared, but it was a kiss that felt as true and comfortable as if we’d been kissing our entire lives. His strong arms tightened around me as my body swooned against his. Even as my body lit in sudden heat, a clear thought became evident in my mind – it would not be long before we were husband and wife.

  “Oh Jace, this is the best day of my life!” I exclaimed in between our loving kisses.

  “It only gets better,” he promised, his eyes aflame with passion.

  Of course, our joy would only be short-lived. The task ahead was too dire and too urgent. After a few more moments in the courtyard, we were able to get something to eat and then we were directed into the amphitheater, the very same amphitheater where we had begun our careers at the Academy.

  Once again, we were greeted by the Headmaster. Only this time, his greeting was tinged with the somber tones of a man speaking to his peers. He no longer intended to intimidate us or motivate us.

  Now, he needed to enjoin us in a call to arms.

  He introduced a film showing footage that had been kept from us during our first year at the Academy. Despite the many things we were exposed to, this content was deemed too powerful, too evocative, and too oppressive to show us. Until now.

  The footage was recorded from inside the ARC using a network of webcams that had been set up around the cities. As we sat in numbed silence, the images showed cities from around the world in various stages of anarchy, sickness and starvation. The faces on the people sent shock waves through us, as did the bodies lying around on the streets. It was all I could do to look at the screen in front of me. I wanted desperately to turn away, but I knew I couldn’t, for what I was seeing was the real-time urgency of the task.

  Still, I could only hang my head in shame at the barbaric behavior that we humans are capable of when challenged.

  Those images framed what should have been one of the happiest days of my life with the darkness I had been trained to combat. With those images, I came thudding back down to reality.

  When the images stopped, and the lights came back on, the Headmaster considered us with a serious expression. “So you can see,” he said solemnly. “You can never go back. The future is out there, but it is not a gift. You must confront it clear-eyed. It is a challenge that you must overcome.”

  Our One World Government continued, but it was no longer functioning the way it had been planned to so many centuries ago. It was not the world domination that had been intended. Far from it. The rich, the powerful and the slaves suffered and died in equal measure in the ARC’s. Now, we, their descendants, were able to access the knowledge bases and view the footage that had been preserved. In the beginning, ARC’s all over the world kept in touch with each other via satellite uplinks. When those failed, there were radios. But even they only lasted a relatively short while.

  As a result, a new world order was established, one that has survived throughout the ages; one we follow to this day, one that is independently connected.

  Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.

  William Shakespeare

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THAT DAY, AND WHAT ENSUED

  I hazarded a quick glance back to the beach and then again upwards towards the sky. In my life, I had never felt or seen anything like it… I felt a tug, a hesitancy to move but Jace continued to grip my hand tightly.

  “Ari, come!”

  He was yanking me with him, in the direction of his vehicle.

  We had barely spoken since the event. What could we say? What would we say? Neither of us could find words to describe what was happening. We could not grasp it. There was no boundary or context to whatever it was. We had no idea what was happening, could have no idea. Not then. All we knew, and this thing we knew with the deepest certainty of our souls, was that something was very, very wrong.

  Nothing in our studies at the Academy had prepared us to confront the phenomena that was occurring all around us. Nothing I had heard, read about or even imagined came close to giving definition to what was happening. Nowhere in any written history that I had ever read or heard about described anything that even came close to what we were seeing and feeling.

  Which only added to the sense of urgency, desperation and foreboding we felt.

  “Come on!” Jace screamed.

  Together we ran, jumped into Jace’s vehicle and started towards home. There was a moment, a very brief moment that seemed to last for an eternity when Jace pressed the ignition point, and nothing responded. During that seeming infinity, my heart leapt to my throat. And then, perhaps in reality only a nanosecond later, the roar of turbos and we were on our way, heading away from the beach and towards home, taking the quickest route possible.

  We were not alone in seeking the main road from the beach. Although we had found an isolated area of the beach, there was a great deal of coastline. Thousands of others had taken advantag
e of the day.

  As a result, traffic was at a near standstill over the bridge that linked the city to the beach.

  “Hurry!” I cried, my fingers gripping the dash in front of me. “Hurry!”

  I looked at Jace and could see the tension in his jaw and his neck. I knew he was determined to go as fast as he could, but I couldn’t help myself from yelling for him to do so anyway. He jerked the vehicle one way and then the next, trying to find an edge to the hordes of people who were feeling the exact panic that we were feeling. The only difference? We would be called upon to do something about whatever it was that is happening!

  We had to get to the city!

  In starts and stops, we crawled over the bridge and onto the broader highway. Once there, the traffic sped up, but not by much.

  “I know a way,” he said, as much to himself as to me. He jetted to the nearest off ramp and took a convoluted route on a winding, uncertain journey through towns and villages, on country roads and graveled roadways. But at least we were moving, and that fact alone gave me the closest thing to hope that I’d had in what seemed to have been a very long while.

  Along every street and road, there were people outside, staring up into the sky and pointing. Their faces were masks of fear and panic. Children were crying, hugging their mothers’ legs. Mothers were screaming. Men were grim-faced and clearly confused.

  No one knew what to do.

  Scenes like this followed us the entire way to my house, and even along my very street. People, neighbors, were in their front yards, their heads tilted heavenward, their expressions united in foreboding.

  People I have known all my life were gathered in small groups, their conversations animated and exaggerated, their concerns clear even to me through the glass of the vehicle’s windows. I scanned every face. I did not see my mother or my father.