by Jake Macklem
Cam scurried toward his rifle. The vines instantly changed direction and advanced toward him. Jumping with extended arms, Cam picked up the weapon, rolled to his back, and opened fire. The weapon burst out shots, creating puffs of red as the bullets peppered the ground. The vines stopped moving and the ends lifted off the ground and wiggled. Cam stood up then stayed perfectly still. The vines dropped back to the ground, stretching out toward where the bullets had hit. Vibrations. Like the Susaderms. That’s how they sense me.
As if to prove his theory, Ace erupted from the brush and the vines pointed toward her and snaked forward. She glared at Cam, her eyes red. “I thought you left me!”
“Watch out for the vines!” Cam shouted.
Confusion washed over her face. She saw the rushing vines and her eyes narrowed as she recognized the threat. As the vines snapped at her, Ace did a handstand into a cartwheel then into a jump, landing with a somersault next to Cam, covering the distance between them in a moment—without letting any of the vines touch her. “Are those plants actually moving?” She asked as the vines redirected toward the duo.
“Pretty sure they eat meat too. Firing…” Cam pulled the trigger, letting the bullets spray across the ground randomly. The end of the vines again lifted off the ground and wiggled. Whispering he said, “If we don’t move, it doesn’t know where we are.”
“So we’re just gonna stand here?”
“Yes. For the moment.” Cam watched the vines start searching for prey again. “Until I come up with a plan.”
“What were you doing up here anyway?”
“You saw the rolling sea that used to be the valley floor. We’re not gonna be able to walk that, and if the rains keep up—it’s just gonna get worse. So I came up here to make a paddle.” Cam rested his cheek on the stock of his rifle, scanning the area. There were five pod plants, each searching with their own set of vines. Why do they all react when I shoot the ground?
“You mean that paddle?” She motioned to the paddle ten meters from them.
“Yep, that’d be the one.”
“You got a boat in your pocket I don’t know about?” Ace snidely asked.
“Yep”
She glanced at him. “Oh shit. Really?”
“I thought we talked about the language?” Cam absently asked studying the plants. Or plant?
“This moment doesn’t call for a colorful vernacular?” Snarked Ace.
Cam’s uncertainty was clear a squinted eye and a tilled head. “I’ll stay on the fence for this one.” He motioned with his rifle. “I think it’s all one plant. The root structure is shared between them. No matter where I spray bullets, all the vines react.” The vines slithered closer. “We don’t have a lot of time before they find us, and I can’t flip myself around like you did… Maybe you should—”
“Good enough to shoot this, Cowboy?” Ace cut him off and held up a three-inch-long, one-inch diameter tube wrapped in shiny black waterproof plastic.
Cam scoffed.
“Let it hit the ground. I’ll go for the paddle, you head back toward the cave, once I’m clear, provide cover fire.”
It’s a good plan but… “I don’t think the paddle is worth it.”
“If you came up here to make it, we need it. You ready? They’re getting close.” Cam nodded and Ace tossed the ejection charge she had salvaged from the Warthog.
Cam watched it flip end over end and bounce on the ground as he changed the rifle from burst to single shot. The vines changed direction and sped toward the new source of movement. The charge came to rest. Cam took a breath then exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The explosion tossed dirt several meters into the air, the vines closest to the explosion flailed—spurting purple ooze. The pods snapped shut, pushing air through the fine hairs at the edge of the petals, creating an eerie vibrating-hum.
Cam started backward in the chaos, checking for threats, covering Ace as she sprinted to the paddle, slid across the ground, grabbed it, and then scampered back to her feet and raced toward him. Vines started rushing after her but Cam let loose a couple of rounds. The vines stopped and wiggled as Cam shouted. “C’mon Red!”
She loped past him and he ran behind her. When they came to a ledge, Ace jumped and Cam’s heart jumped with her, into his throat. Skidding to a stop on the edge he stared as she landed on a rock then flipped forward, changing her momentum and direction. She rolled across her back, up onto her feet, and skidded to a stop. She’s nuts! Cam heard a rustling behind him and quickly descended over the edge and down the mountainside.
As Cam entered the cave Ace spat at him, “Don’t ever do that again!”
“Me? You’re the one jumping off cliffs…” Cam shouted back. “Flipping and dancing, throwing bombs, risking your life for a paddle!”
“You thought it was important enough to go off alone! I thought you left me!” Ace shouted and the emotions exploded. Tears ran down her face as she sobbed. “I thought I was alone again. Stuck here with a dead Shonda! You shankstick!” She tossed the paddle, slumped against the wall, and slid to the ground.
Yep. Should have thought that one through. She’s fearless, but still Sol. “I’m sorry. I should have brought you along. I thought it was a simple thing, getting a branch. I should have known better. Nothing on this moon is simple.”
Ace nodded but did not look at him. “It’s fine. I overreacted.”
Cam knelt next to her. “Hey, look at me.” She did. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy. “You felt abandoned. I get it.” Her lip quivered fighting back the sobs. “You’ve been alone for a long time. Well, you’re not alone now. We’re getting off this rock together, you hear me?”
Ace nodded.
“Say it.”
“We’re getting off this rock together.”
“Again.”
Louder she said, “We’re getting off this rock together.”
“Damn it! Say it like you shanking mean it!”
“We’re getting off this rock together!”
“Grab your gear soldier! We’re moving out!” Cam stood and watched as she snatched her spear. It’ll take her years to get over this moon, if ever. “Fall out!”
They marched out of the cave and down the mountainside.
At the water's edge, he could see the level had already risen a full meter. Maybe one or one and a half kilometers or so an hour. Maybe we can make up some time. Taking off his pack, Cam reached in and pulled out a metal rectangle wrapped in a plastic seal. He ripped off the seal, set the rectangle down, and stepped back. The metal started to bubble and a mound formed. Growing in size, the metal bubbled larger and larger, taking shape as a raft, over two meters long and half as wide.
“So you got a boat that fits in your pocket but it doesn’t come with a paddle?” Ace asked.
“Calvin wanted to see how it worked, so he opened the paddles.” Cam grabbed one side. “Grab that side of it.” Together they put it in the water.
“You don’t think the grass will pop it?” She asked.
“It's made of the same polymer as my armor. It takes a thousand pounds of pressure per square inch to puncture it. This boat can bounce off rocks.” They quickly loaded their gear.
“Get in, I’ll push off.”
Ace squinted. “Is that a girl thing?”
“It’s an ‘I’m a foot taller than you’ thing,” Cam retorted.
Ace climbed in the raft and moved to the front. Once she was seated on the edge, Cam walked into the water. When he was up to his knees, he jumped into the raft. Ace used the paddle and pushed along the bottom. The red grass bent under the front of the raft with ease, the water having greatly softened the blades.
As they got further from the base of the mountain, the current picked up a little more speed. The duo sat in silence, watching the pale white sky turn pink then red, and finally, that soft green glow as night settled and Ophelia lit the surface of the tiny moon it dwarfed. A swirling yellow glow hung in the air around them. It looks like aurora borealis. He reached
and his hand passed through the light. “Amazing.”
“Look.” Ace pointed to the mountain tops. The tall flowering trees started to light up with a green and green-yellow glow. When the light was intense enough to silhouette the treetops against the high reaches of the mountains above, the glow lifted off of the trees like vapor as thousands of insects lifted into the sky. The hum of beating wings echoed through the valley as they flew down from the heights, swirling and dancing with the yellow glow.
“Bioluminescent life forms.” Cam quickly rifled through his pack and pulled out his personal recorder and rushed to tap it on. He pointed it at the amazing scene. “Would you boys look at that? This is the first flying creatures I’ve seen on the moon. I thought it was because everything here has such a high iron content, making it too heavy to fly. This proves that theory wrong.”
“Most people wouldn’t be excited about being wrong,” Ace teased.
Cam’s blood went cold. How did I forget about Red? He turned the camera on to her. “Oh yeah. Hey everyone, I found someone on the moon I’m visiting.” He locked eyes with Ace. “Why don’t you introduce yourself to my wife and my ten- and twelve-year-old sons, Red?”
Ace smiled and waved at the camera, her entire demeanor changing, even the inflection in her voice. “Hi Everyone, you can call me Ace. Cam has told me so much about you guys and how much he misses you. Tomas and Calvin, you guys better behave yourselves for your mom. Mrs. Shaw, your husband is one of the noblest men I have ever met. I hope to one day be able to repay the kindness he has shown me. And know, ma’am, I will do everything in my power to make sure your husband returns to you safe. I hope to get to meet all of you in person one day soon. Bye, talk to you soon.” She smiled again.
Cam aimed the camera back at the light show buzzing around them. That was pleasant enough, but nothing like she normally acts. She was almost bubbly. Part of her training? The glowing dots of light looked like stars in a yellow nebula. “I see things like this Gwen, and I think of you. I’m coming home.” He turned the device off and stashed it in his pack. “Thanks for being so pleasant with my family. You made me sound like a hero.”
“Cowboy, you’re getting me off this rock, that makes you my hero. And besides, now I know you’re just like me.” She smiled coyly.
“What do you mean?” Cam asked.
“I heard that filthy word come out of your mouth. And you’re going to kiss your wife with it. Shame.” She grinned.
“So,“ Cam began as they watched the lights, “is Ace a call sign?”
“No.”
Cam waited, but realized that was the end of the conversation. The two sat, drifting in silence.
14: Ace
In the secret halls winding throughout the club, the little redheaded girl walked somberly with her doll. “I really wish it wouldn’t have come to this, Mr. Puddles.”
I loved that doll. I was like eight. The brightly colored face of the clown looked surprised, but the girl was stern and disapproving. “No. Don’t bother trying to talk your way out of it. It was you. It had to be you. It couldn’t have been anyone but you.” She stopped in front of a door and slowly turned the handle. “You be quiet, Mr. Puddles, and this will go a lot easier on you.” She pushed the door in and peeked around the edge. The dark room stank of sex, sweat, and stale smoke.
With exaggerated steps, she tip-toed barefoot across the room to the other side of the bed and dropped to the floor. Looking under the bed she saw one of the shoes. She grabbed it and crawled up onto the mattress. Under a pair of pants and underwear, she found the other one. Smiling, she sat back and put on her pretty pink shoes with a one-inch heel.
“What are you doing in here kid?” Mick’s voice was deep and gravelly, more than normal.
“I needed my shoes Mick,” The little girl whispered as she slipped off the bed.
He rolled over and looked at her, his hair curly and unkempt. “Why?”
She got close and spoke softly, “Well, Mr. Puddles is gonna have a little accident with the trash incid… incid… incinerator.” She gave her best somber face. “I wanted to wear my best shoes.”
Mick nodded his understanding. “You’ve known Mr. Puddles a long time. It would only be respectful.”
She nodded back.
Mick always did get me.
“He must have done something real bad.” Mick reached for the almost empty glass of bourbon.
With tight lips, she nodded again.
“What was it?”
“He stole my favorite skirt and I can’t find it,” she said. The clown’s shocked expression pleaded his innocence.
Shifting, he tilted the glass back and swished the brown liquor before swallowing. “I think you got the wrong clown, kid,” he chuckled.
“I wish. But Mr. Puddles was the only one there. I left it spread out in the middle of the floor so it wouldn’t have any wrinkles and this morning when I got up,” she huffed, “it was gone! The only ones there were me and Mr. Puddles.” She covered the clown's face. “I don’t want to believe it either,” she said, her voice trembling, “but I don’t know who else it could be, Mick.”
“Why don’t you go tell Glitter to make pancakes, then after breakfast, we can go down to the spaceport and the park. That sounds like fun, right? Let's do that.” Mick smiled.
“That sounds great Mick, but I gotta find my skirt and have a long chat with Mr. Puddles.” The little girl sounded disappointed.
“What if I told you I knew where your skirt was? Then would you go get breakfast started?” Mick asked slyly.
The little girl looked very suspicious. “Why would you know where my skirt is?” She walked around the bed, stepping over stray piles of discarded clothes and a forgotten liquor bottle, and searched around the dresser. Bunched in a ball was her skirt. “What the shank, Shonda!” She stomped over and grabbed the skirt. “It’s all wrinkled now!” She shouted holding it out as proof.
Shonda sat up in bed, looking confused. As her awareness started to grow, her eyes settled on the little girl. “What the are you doing in here?”
“Why’d you take my skirt,” demanded the girl, shaking her wrinkled skirt at the dazed older woman.
“I told you not to leave your shit on the floor,” Shonda snipped.
“It was fine, now it’s wrinkled. You’re a real hussy, Shonda!” The little girl spun and marched out of the room. “I’m having Glitter make pancakes, then Mick and I are leaving.” Stopping in the doorway she glared at the couple on the bed. “You better hope I’m in a better mood when I get back, Shonda!” She stormed out but could hear the rising pitch of shouting.
“You need to do something with that little hussy,” Shonda screamed. “I won’t be talked to like that. Waking us up! It’s 7:30 Mick. 7:30 in the shanking morning! We went to bed what, four hours ago?”
“For shank’s sake, she’s a little kid and you're taking her stuff? You’re lucky she’s just screaming at you. Go back to bed, Shonda!”
“She needs to go to school Mick, or she’ll just end up on her back like the rest of us!”
That’s why I went to school. Shonda wanted to sleep.
The dreamscape shifted. Now Ace wore her red hair in a thick braid. She sat at a desk. As the teacher started lecturing about the arrival of The Last Predecessor, the classroom became more detailed. Light spilled in the windows and across the off-yellow walls. A thick mud-orange stripe went around the room. A flag of United Sol hung in the corner. Children’s drawings of planets and nebulas hung everywhere. The children sat at their desks, watching the teacher.
“Wars, famine, poverty, disease and sickness, and less than equal ideas had brought the Earth to the brink of complete devastation. Then something changed everything. What happened?”
Hands shot up. Mrs. Cho pointed to a child, who said “In 2098 The Last Predecessor appeared to Earth and sent out its message.”
“That is correct. Now lots of things on Earth changed—almost overnight. What were some of them?”
Mrs. Cho asked with a smile.
Again, hands shot up and she called on the children in turn.
“Most of the wars stopped, not because of the governments, but because the soldiers stopped fighting.”
“There was a meeting of all 214 nations on Earth.”
“New governments were created as old ideas and feuds were seen in a new light.”
“New combined research led to hundreds of major breakthroughs in engineering and science.”
“There was a cultural awaking that brought a new sense of hope and wonder.”
“All very good. Ace, add you add another a major effect of The Last Predecessor?” Mrs. Cho asked.
The eleven-year-old girl looked up from her vid-screen doodle of a skull smoking a cigar. “We haven’t mentioned yet the hundreds of thousands of people that either lost their faith, joined radical armies or cults, went on horrific crime sprees, or just killed themselves.”
“Those were unfortu—” Ms. Cho started.
Ace continued, “We haven’t mentioned the ultrarich that built control domes and decided who could stay and who had to leave, breaking society and sending us back to feudalism. We are only mentioning the good things that came from the broadcast. Let’s not forget the atrocities we were capable of as humans and still are as Sols. Sometimes I’m amazed the human race was called upon at all.” Ace looked at her vid-screen. “We didn’t deserve it. We aren’t good.”
The other students stared at Ace as Mrs. Cho closed her slack jaw. “We can always count on you, Ace, to see both sides of a situation. While lots of things changed for the better, it did take time, and not everyone thought the new direction of humanity was a good one. That’s a little ahead of what we are talking about, but we all know what that conflict grew into, don’t we class?”
“The Final War of Earth,” The class responded.
“Very good, but before we get into that, who would like to hear the original broadcast from The Last Predecessor?” Excitement broke over the class as Mrs. Cho used her dataport and swiped the file to the children’s vidports. Ace went back to her smoking skull picture.