by Geoff North
Becky watched Cob stumble around the fire. It wasn’t as big—there weren’t as many dead bodies needing to be incinerated—but it continued to burn in the event another succumbed. Cob should’ve died weeks ago, she thought. Men and women half his age and a lot stronger had fallen within days, and in some cases hours, after showing the first signs of disease. But not old Cob. He spent most of his nights seated atop a rock halfway up the hill wailing to the dusty, red smudge of moon. His days were quieter, the wails turned to weak moans as he shuffled aimlessly around the fire. Becky wondered if the old man was summoning the courage to walk into the flames and end his agony.
Abe had wanted to leave on that first day, right after the big hunter with the sharpened teeth had crawled into the fire and Cob had shown them his bloody scalp. Abe had said they would be next—that if they stayed the disease would claim them as well. Becky hadn’t allowed it. She had had a hunch, a gut feeling their strengthened bodies could shrug off the sickness. She had been right. After the first week Abe had agreed to stay and help these people through their final days; to offer aid where they could, to comfort the children left behind, and to dispose of the bodies when the time came. Becky and Abe wanted to find their way home but they wouldn’t abandon this first ancient tribe of mankind along the way. If this was a test, if they were somehow being watched and appraised, the two teenagers wouldn’t disappoint. It wasn’t in their nature to run.
Ann pulled on the tattered sleeve of Becky’s tee-shirt causing her to jump. Ann jumped back as well but didn’t run away. She was pointing to another hill in the distance, the hill where the cave was. Becky stood and took the little girl’s hand. “What is it, Ann? What do you want to show me?”
She tugged at Becky and Becky followed. Cob continued his slow shuffle around the fire, oblivious to the fact his small audience had left. Becky resisted the urge to run after the little girl now twenty feet ahead. It kicked up too much dust. The dust was everywhere. The rumbling vibration under their feet had stopped a week or so after arriving to the encampment, but ever since then the sky had grown darker and dirtier. They hadn’t seen much of the sun since then, only near dusk, and even then it wasn’t more than a rusty orange blob in the heavy atmosphere. The air smelled like rotten eggs. Everything appeared sickly pink, like pictures from the surface of Mars. Becky was constantly spitting dry silt out from between her teeth. Dust hung in the air like a fog that refused to dissipate. It made things appear gritty and unfocused.
The question of what had caused the thundering noise and rumbling earth had been answered. A volcano had blown its top somewhere in the world; an eruption with enough punch to block the skies and blanket the ground.
Becky yelled at Ann to slow down again. The more energy the kids expended, the more dust they took in. Both had developed nasty coughs and it was difficult to tell whether it was the stuff they were breathing in or the start of the disease that had claimed the others. Ann continued to run and Becky followed her up the hill. Boo rushed by her, clutching an animal skull in his hands filled with brown water from the stream below. His small fingers were jammed into the eye sockets attempting to save the majority from leaking out.
Becky arrived in time to watch Abe take the skull from Boo—a species of horse long extinct in the twenty-first century—and place it next to Boo’s mother lying on the ground in front of the cave entrance. He cupped a small amount in one hand and tried to get her to drink. The water dribbled from her cracked lips and spilled to the ground turning the pink sand darker. “It won’t be long now,” he said solemnly. Abe soaked the remaining water up into his shirt and applied it the woman’s forehead and cheeks.
Becky could feel the heat of infection from four feet away. “Shouldn’t you take her back inside the cave? It’s cooler in there.”
Abe shook his head. “I think she wanted this. I tried stopping her but she kept crawling for the entrance… She knows she’s dying, Becky… Maybe she didn’t want it to end in the dark.”
It wasn’t much brighter outside, but Becky understood. She wouldn’t want to die in a cave either. Boo was squatted down next to her, his dirty wet fingernails scraping gently along his mother’s arm. Ann sat further back in the shadows of the cave. Becky could see the girl’s head shaking back and forth, back and forth.
Abe rested the sick woman’s head onto the wet shirt against the ground. “It isn’t much of a sunrise for her but it’ll have to do.” It was a final kind gesture she would never know. She had slipped into unconsciousness. Abe left Boo with his mother and sat on a rock outcrop jutting out from the cave entrance a few feet away.
Becky sat next to him. “There’s nothing more we could’ve done for any of them, even if we did have the proper medicine. Once this dirty air gets in their lungs…”
“Nice place we ended up in. Almost everyone dying from disease… and the rest choking on ash from some goddamn volcano we can’t even see.”
Becky peered over her shoulder into the cave’s depths. She could see the whites of Ann’s eyes moving from side to side, still shaking her head. Could she understand any of what they were saying? Was she saying no to the spread of sickness claiming everyone and everything she knew, or was it something else? “Cob can’t last much longer, either. That just leaves Tangle to watch over the children.”
“We’ll look after them, or at least take them with us.”
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t know. Away from here… out of this dust and dirt. Away from all this death.” He spat red sand from his mouth. “We’ll find more people. Maybe they’ll take the kids.”
Boo had started to cry. His mother was dead. Abe gave the boy a few more minutes and then went to gather the body in his arms. As much as they hated having to burn another human being, it seemed to be what the tribe members wanted. It was their way.
Boo wailed louder as Abe started down the hill. His cries turned to screams halfway back to the fire and he started throwing stones at Abe’s back and head.
“Take him back to the cave, Becky. He doesn’t need to see this.”
She tried to rein him in but the boy twisted out of her fingers. He lunged at Abe’s feet and bit his ankle.
“Noooooiiiiiiiiggh!” Boo yelled.
Abe kicked him away and continued for the fire. Becky got a better hold of Boo and pressed him against her chest. “No, Boo… Don’t fight.”
He looked pleadingly into her eyes. “Boooo nooooo! Noooo ire!”
Boo no. No fire.
Becky recalled the other dead bodies placed in the flames. She remembered all the surviving members gathered around—all but one. She called after Abe. “Don’t do it! He’s scared of the fire!”
Abe looked back. “But it’s what they do… it’s what they want.”
“It’s not what Boo wants.” She kissed the boy’s forehead and rubbed the tears from his dirty cheeks. “We can’t do it. We won’t do it.”
Abe came back to them. “No fire… That’s what he said, isn’t it? They’re learning from us.”
“Yeah, they are.” Becky saw Ann for the first time since leaving the cave. She was no longer shaking her head. “Ann knew Boo’s mother was dying. She brought me back to the cave to stop you—to make sure you didn’t put her in the fire.”
She looked back down to Boo. His voice was barely louder than a whisper but she could hear the two words plainly enough now.
“No figh… No figh.”
“No fire, Boo. No more fire.”
The soil back near the small river was easiest to dig. Abe and Becky took turns scooping out dirt. When they had gone down four feet both teens emerged and washed their muddy hands and arms off in the water. “What makes you think Boo will want his mother buried any more than burning her?”
Becky splashed some water on her face and watched the boy sitting next to his mother. “He hasn’t cried since we started digging. I think he knows what we have in mind.”
Boo became more distressed when the two moved in to
lift her still form. Ann was at his side before either teen could comfort him. She sat beside him and wrapped an around his shoulders. She took his head and rested it against her chest whispering sounds into his ear. Becky listened to the soft cooing as they lowered Boo’s mother into the earth. It sounded like singing. When she was properly laid out, with as much dignity Becky and Abe could position her in, Boo crawled to the edge and peered down. The teens climbed out. Boo climbed in. For a moment they thought he would make things more difficult—that he would refuse to climb back out—but Boo lifted his mother’s arm from her side and placed it across her chest. He took the other arm and did the same. Much better, Becky thought… much more natural. Abe helped Boo back up.
He looked at Abe expectantly, and then to Becky. What now?
They heard a grunt and turned to see Tangle approaching. In his arms was a deer hide, thick and brown. He knelt at the foot of the freshly dug grave and spread the hide over Boo’s mother.
Becky knelt beside the children and kissed the top of Boo’s head. Ann was still humming, and Becky joined her. Abe started to push the dirt back in. He started at the feet, moving quickly and purposefully before the boy could object. Tangle was playing with a matted strand of hair for the first minute, unsure what to do. Abe nodded at him and the adolescent began kicking dirt in as well.
Ann had gone silent, but Becky continued to hum her own song as the last bit of brown soil and red dust was patted down into place. Rock-a-bye-Baby. It was the first thing that popped into her head. Ridiculous lyrics. But Becky hadn’t sung the words—the children wouldn’t have understood them if she had. It was the sound that mattered, a comfort to someone alone and afraid.
And Boo hadn’t objected.
Evening settled in. There was no sunset to watch. Things just slowly got darker. Becky and Abe were still seated a few feet away from the grave. Boo had fallen asleep on top of the fresh mound of earth. He had refused to move hours before and no one had tried to make him do otherwise. He had eaten meat when Tangle presented it and drank water from the horse skull when Becky offered. Another indication that night had fallen was Cob. He’d left the main fire and was sitting halfway up the hill on his rock, staring into the grey dust that blocked the sky. Somewhere behind that was the moon. No one could see it anymore, but Cob knew where to look.
Becky whispered to Abe beginning to nod off beside her. “We may have witnessed mankind’s first actual burial today.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they were already burying their dead before the sickness. I think these people are smart enough to know this isn’t the way people are supposed to die. It probably scared the hell out of them… Not much else cleanses the spread of disease better than fire.”
How would prehistoric people know that, Becky wondered? Tangle appeared out of the haze dragging another leather hide laden with branches from the dead forest. He trudged by them, lifting more dust.
“Have you seen Ann?” Becky asked.
“In the cave,” Abe answered. “You should head up there and watch over her for the night.”
“Shouldn’t you bring Boo?”
He shook his head. “I’ll stay with him outside… I don’t think either one of us wants to sleep in there anymore.”
Becky started up the hill and paused. “What happens tomorrow? There are no more adults… besides Cob, and I’m betting he doesn’t have much time left.”
The desire to travel and meet up with more ancient humans hadn’t pressed heavily on Abe’s thoughts the last few weeks. The need to help those dying had consumed him. It had consumed them both. But their time here was almost through. The dust in the air was getting thicker and he knew full well what effect it was having on the surrounding land. The water was unclean. Plants were dying, and animals would be starving. Carnivores would be the last to go, feeding on the weaker creatures first. The pack of lions they’d seen on their first morning would be spreading out from the jungle, searching for food. “Go take care of Ann. We’ll worry about everything else in the morning.”
Abe dreamed again. He was back in the woods behind the farm. The corpse of his best friend wasn’t hanging from a tree branch. Sheila wasn’t there. The grey being wasn’t there. It was just Abe. And it was cold. He stuffed his hands into his armpits and shivered. A snowflake landed on his forehead and more followed. Abe watched as the snow fell and fell and fell all around him. It covered his bare feet and ankles. It finally stopped when it reached his knees. He shook the snow from his hair and wiped away the icicles formed on his eyelashes. Abe rubbed the wet out of his eyes and realized he was no longer cold. He couldn’t feel a thing. The sky was grey, the tree branches heavy-laden with snow. Abe focused past them and looked for the farmhouse. It wasn’t there. All that lay ahead was more sleeping forest blanketed in white. He turned to the west expecting to see open fields. They weren’t there. Only trees. Mile after mile of endless winter forest.
And then suddenly Abe had to shield his eyes. There was color—brilliant orange and pink. The heavy clouds had begun to part and he could see the sun setting between a thousand lifeless tree trunks. He could feel the warmth on his cheeks as it dipped lower. The last speck of brilliant color winked out between branches, and grey reclaimed the horizon.
It was getting darker. He could hear the steady beat of his heart between his ears, he could feel the thrum it made in his throat. Abe listened harder. Another heartbeat joined his—he could hear it in the distance somewhere ahead. A third joined it, somewhere from behind.
Abe tried to remain calm and turned his head slowly from side to side searching in the gathering dark. He could hear a dozen beating hearts now, surrounding him. His eyes snapped to the left. Someone’s breath fogging the air. No one there. Another wisp of mist to the right.
Abe wasn’t alone. The woods were filled with ghosts. He closed his eyes and knew it was a dream. It had to be a dream. This is my home. Go away. This is my home.
“Wake up.”
Becky was standing over him. She was smiling. Boo was seated next to him with a worried look on his round face. “Wake up, Abe… take a look to the east.”
It could hardly be called the most beautiful, awe-inspiring sunrise Abe had ever seen. It looked more like a dirty penny stuck into the ground. But the fact any of them could see it at all made it one of the most wonderful. “The dust is settling… it’s finally settling.”
“Appears that way.” She kissed his cheek. It was the first intimate contact they’d shared in weeks. Abe had missed her touch, but caring for the sick and burning the dead left little time or desire between the two.
“Where’s Ann?”
“She’s gathering up the last of the supplies in the cave.”
Abe turned and saw a mound of prehistoric goods piled at the base of the hill—spears and stone axes, crude bowls and leather blankets, strips of dried meat and a collection of dead insects for snacking on—all the essentials needed for a trek through ancient Africa. “We going somewhere?”
Abe stood and Becky took him into her arms. The feel of her pressed against him was like food to a starving body. With the dust finally clearing, and the sun once again glowing weakly, there was hope. “I know you want to keep moving,” she whispered. Her lips met his.
Boo made a cooing sound. They looked down at him and smiled. He was grinning back.
Abe ruffled the boy’s hair. “Looks like he’s ready to move on as well.” The teen looked around. “Where’s Cob? Tangle?” He felt Becky’s body stiffen under his arms.
“Cob’s gone… I came out during the night and saw Tangle carrying his body down from the hill.”
Abe didn’t have to ask where Tangle had taken him.
Ann returned from the cave with an armload of bones. It was a collection of painted animal skulls and small femurs the girl was always playing with. She made a growling sound when the teens raised their eyebrows at her. “I guess the toys are coming, too,” Abe said.
“Only one question remains,” Becky said. “Whe
re exactly are we going?”
Abe looked at the dull sun and considered things. He turned to the west. “I had a dream last night. It was snowing… I was back on the farm in the woods behind the house.” He extended his arm to the horizon and adjusted it slowly until he was pointing to the Northwest. “Home, Becky. I think we should head home.”
Her jaw dropped open. “As in Canada? You want to… walk back to North America?” Abe nodded. “There’s only one problem with that.” He looked at her questioningly. “It’s called the Atlantic Ocean. How are we going to cross it?”
Abe had no answer for that.
Becky took his arm and turned him around once again. She lifted his hand and pointed to the North East. “The only way home is in that direction—across the rest of Africa, through the Middle East, and on the other side of Asia. Then you would have to head even farther north, through Siberia and all the way to the Bering Strait. There should be a land crossing there now connecting the continents.”
She was smiling again. Abe knew she wasn’t taking him seriously. “I’m not joking. I think we should go home, or at least try.”
“You and I could probably make it, but what about the others? They’re just children, Abe. It would take years. They could never survive a journey like that.”
“They’re not our children. We’ll find other people along the way. We’ll find them a new home.”
Boo and Ann were pointing to the North East as well, silently mimicking the teens. Becky shook her head. “It’s insane… absolutely crazy.”
“This isn’t our time. This isn’t where we’re supposed to be. I want to go home, Becky… we need to go home.”
Becky had envisioned them heading south, along the coastline of the Pacific to a warm strip of sandy beach where they would ultimately settle and live out the rest of their days. Perhaps they would have children of their own. But people would have to stop dying and the world would have to recover for that to happen. Becky knew it would be a long wait. Abe’s idea at least had a sense of reason. A purpose.