by Pamela Davis
"You expected them not to believe you," Zack said to her.
Margaret looked up from the map and into his gray-blue eyes, thinking they reminded her of storm clouds. "I've had some experience lately with people not listening to my warnings."
"Is there anything else we can do?"
"Not at this point. Maybe after the flood. Then I expect we can get Maria back on the air. At least until the power fails everywhere. More people will believe after the flood."
"Margaret," he began hesitantly, "why is it happening really? A planetary consciousness is hard to accept. And what's the point? Of all the disasters, I mean."
She took a deep breath, then pursed her lips and blew out slowly. "Well, that's the million-dollar question, Zack. I have theories. It looks to me like the planet is fed up with what humans are doing to her and is fighting back. Let's face it--one way to get rid of the pollution and overpopulation, the destruction of nature, is to have a lot of natural disasters happen all at once. If severe enough, in the right locations, the population could be reduced drastically. And if at the same time, people could communicate with animals, who could tell them what things they need to do to deal better with nature...well, maybe people would change."
He frowned. "That implies a real intelligence, a plan, a strategy, if you will."
"Yes, that has been what every indication I've seen has left me thinking. Look, I know it sounds far-fetched but--"
Maria had been walking toward them and now interrupted. "Far-fetched? You bet it sounds far-fetched! Why did I ever let you talk me into that broadcast? So now you're saying that 'Mother Nature' is getting back at the humans? Do you know how nutty that sounds?"
"Maria--just hold on. Let's hear her out," Zack requested.
"Fine," she said, throwing herself into a chair at the big round table. Phoebe started bringing in plates of sandwiches and tall glasses of water with slices of lemon floating among ice cubes. As they removed the maps and began eating, Margaret explained.
"The hardest thing for you to believe will probably be the crop circles, so let's start with that."
Phoebe choked on her sandwich and Maria looked like she'd be yelling if she didn't have a mouthful of food. Zack just said, "Crop circles."
"Right. We've all heard of them, some people think they are hoaxes. Nobody has ever been really sure where they come from, some natural phenomenon or just a big joke. I was always fascinated by them, and I'd travel to locations around the world to see them. In the past couple of years I've noticed two things: There are more of them and they are getting more complex in design. It was about six months ago that I realized I could read them--decode them."
"Oh, my God, I don't believe this!" Maria said explosively.
"Now, Maria, just wait. Let her go on," Zack said calmly.
"I think I need a valium," Phoebe said quietly and was ignored.
Margaret continued. "At first it was just a feeling. Then it became more certain, this sense that they were messages. I've come to believe that they were messages to us. Warnings to stop our incredibly short-sighted actions--or else something would happen to stop us." She stopped and lifted her masses of wavy hair off her shoulders to cool off. "Oh, I didn't believe it either at first. I have a history of, well, let's just call them emotional problems and leave it at that."
Maria groaned. Zack's brow was furrowed. Phoebe looked interested.
"For a while there I thought I'd gone permanently around the bend, but then came a message that predicted or warned of an event. The glacial flood in Peru."
"I covered that!" Maria said. Zack was nodding. Phoebe looked surprised.
"Right. I watched your news reports. Remember what you said then? That these glacial flood-bursts happen without any warning. Even though we have satellites that can take photos of changes in a glacier, nobody knows exactly when a piece of a glacier will break off and fall into a lake that sits next to or within the glacier and cause a flood of debris--chunks of ice, flowing mud, and rocks--well, boulders, really--to come flying down the mountain into towns below. And it moves very, very fast. This one happened in the Rio Santa Valley in the Peruvian Andes. Two whole villages were wiped out, right?"
"Yes, they had no warning. It was a huge mess--they couldn't rebuild. The survivors, what few there were, moved to other areas."
"The mess," Phoebe said, shuddering. "I remember the pictures of the mess. It was horrible."
"And quite a few people died, too, Phoebe," Zack said sharply. "It wasn't just the mess that was bad."
"Oh, yes, of course you're right," she said quickly.
Maria asked Margaret, "So you knew ahead of time?"
Margaret nodded, munching her sandwich.
"How much ahead of time did you know?" Maria questioned her intently.
"Oh, please," Margaret said, "don't tell me you expected me to warn the people in Peru about that?"
"Well," Maria began, but Zack was shaking his head and so was Margaret.
"What?"
"Who would have believed her back then? Nobody. The scientists all said there was no real way to have a warning. They could know it was a possibility, but nobody could have known the exact time and day it happened. And you did, didn't you, Margaret? Know the exact time and place?" Zack asked.
"Yes," Margaret replied thankfully, smiling at Zack. "You've got it--I had a date and a time even, but I had no idea what to do with the information. Remember, this was all still new to me. I still thought I was deluding myself about decoding those messages. Then it happened, the glacial flood. Right on time. I think I was in shock, literal shock, for twenty-four hours at least after seeing it on the news."
Zack murmured. "Cassandra. Predicting apocalyptic events. It had to be scary."
"Yes, yes, it was," Margaret said wearily. "I got a few other warnings, storms and things like that, but finally I truly believed. That's when I found out about the L.A. earthquake." Holding a hand up stop Maria's outburst, she continued, "And no, nobody believed me. I did make phone calls, dozens of phone calls. Nobody would listen. I was dismissed as a crazy person. About that time I realized I could hear the animals and what seemed to be a voice coming from the planet herself. I came out here to see a shaman I'd heard of to try and get answers. And I kept trying to warn people, but until recently I thought it was hopeless."
Zack leaned forward, arms crossed on the table, his food forgotten and shoved out of the way. "But now you don't think it's hopeless? Why not?"
"Because more people are having the dreams. More and more people can hear the animals. It's not just me anymore. So maybe we have a chance, a chance to fix things. Humans can change their behavior. If we can survive."
Conway, Missouri
"I can't believe you ate all of that," Nathan said, shaking his head.
"So? This may have been my last order of fries, my last big mac, my last large coke, my last fried apple pie," Alex said dramatically.
"Yeah, but what about the soft tacos you had from Taco Bell on the way to Mickey D's?"
"I was hungry! What does it matter, anyway? If we're going to die soon, I'm not worrying about gaining weight, that's for sure!"
"Who says we're going to die? You keep calling Cape Fair a 'safe zone,' so doesn't that imply we're heading for safety? And I wasn't worried about you gaining weight, you nutcase, I was thinking you'd be so full you'd just want a nap instead of driving for a couple more hours."
Alex yawned. Nathan frowned at her and she laughed. "I'll be okay. You know I'm in my element behind the wheel of any type of automobile." She stopped, pondering, then said, "What'll happen when there's no gas? No more fast cars."
"The world will be a safer place for the rest of us with you off the road. That's what'll happen." Then Nathan said, "Ouch!" as Alex punched him in the arm. "You do realize I have a permanent bruise on my arm from you hitting me?"
"Sorry. It comes from my family. Everybody hit everybody on a regular basis. Believe me, I've improved with time." She started grinni
ng. "Hey, you realize we're criminals now?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well," she drawled, "we just wrote a ton of hot checks to buy all this stuff. We're officially on the lam!"
"Shhh. You could say that in a quieter voice," Nathan replied, glancing around them in the restaurant.
"I hope your sister is happy with all this stuff we're bringing them--considering that she's corrupted us with her demands for supplies!"
"You were already corrupted. And what's with blaming my sister?"
"Where else would I be getting the information from, the list of what they need there? Has to be your sister now that we know she's there."
"Don't start on me again about that. How could I know? You only said Missouri. You never said Cape Fair in the beginning. Plus, we've kind of had a few major things to think about besides where my sister lives. End of the world precludes remembering my sister's address."
"Maybe. I'm wondering now, though, if it wasn't your sister, who could be sending me those messages? I think it's her. She's probably leading some kind of survivalist community there. Hey, maybe it's a cult she's started!"
Nathan sighed. "You don't even know my sister. Why would you say that? Jessica's actually a very stable, happily married, mother of a cute little girl who I forget how old she is. Jessica works from home and is perfectly ordinary. She'll probably be blown away when we arrive and tell her about all this stuff. Her husband, John, now he's a science fiction writer so he'll probably believe it's really happening more easily than my sister. But it will be hard on them. I mean they have a little kid and all. We'll have to be careful how we break it to them. Don't want to scare them all at once."
"Yeah," Alex said glumly, "that would be a bummer. To see your kid sitting there and thinking about how the world is going to end. Not good."
"Well, maybe the world won't end. We're bringing supplies, it's a 'safe zone' and you're getting messages from someone out there, so all may not be lost."
"No matter how you look at it, the world-as-we-know-it is going to end."
"Yeah," Nathan said grimly. "C'mon, let's head out. Can't wait to spread the cheery news."
Cape Fair, the Samuels' House
"So," Rachel said, "you're telling us the world is ending? What about my job? My life back in New York? I'm just supposed to accept what you're telling me and stay here?" She stalked angrily away from John.
John sat down in the redwood chair on the slate-rock patio. He watched Rachel pace back and forth in front of him, her body trembling with fear and rage. Rachel had always been the fiery-tempered one of the two siblings. Sure, he could be intense, but he'd been putting his emotions on paper for most of his life, so he wasn't apt to blow-up in anger.
"How could you do this? How could you bring us out here on some pretense and then dump this fantastic story on us? What about Mother? This kind of thing could be too much for her. I just can't believe you did this!"
"Gracie seems to be handling it just fine. Better than you, anyway."
Rachel glared at him. "I just can't accept it! Talking animals and prophetic dreams--come on! Are you telling me you just accepted all this without question? You, the guy who researches everything before he writes a story? You, the guy everyone called 'Renaissance Man' in college because you had so many different interests? You studied everything! How can you just suddenly start believing in this psychic crap?" Then she asked suspiciously, "Is it because it's like one of your books?"
"No, actually, it's not like one of my books. Well, it is, in terms of it being rather amazing and unreal-feeling, and yes, probably my writing science fiction has helped me to cope with it. But that's not the reason I believe it." He leaned forward in the chair, gazing at her intently. "I believe it because I've seen my daughter--and the dog--after one of those dreams." Rachel flinched.
John continued, explaining, "I've had the dreams myself--I can't remember much, just bits and pieces, but I've seen the evidence that this is true. I've seen my daughter change over the past few weeks. And I'm scared, Rachel. Maybe more scared than you right now."
"You--scared? I don't believe it. You've always been a rock. Solid and grounded--that's why I don't understand how you believe in all this nonsense."
He shook his head in frustration and rubbed his eyes. "I'm scared, Rachel, scared for my daughter. First, she seems to be changing in ways I don't understand. I don't have the ability to talk to animals, but she does. I don't know how she is coping with the dreams she is having. She gets the full-blown version, you know, with all the death and destruction in living color. She knows things she should have no way of knowing. I don't know where it will end for her."
Rachel stood stock-still listening to the fear and yes, grief, in his voice. Riveted, she asked, "You said 'first' – what's second?"
"Second, I'm afraid of what kind of world will be left for her to grow up in--will it be safe for her? Will there be any 'civilization' anymore? That guy, Black, who just got here. Do you know what he's got out in his camper and trailer parked in my driveway? Guns! Weapons, of all kinds, to protect us when our society falls apart. I've never been all that fond of guns, but I do believe in my protecting my family. I've always had a shotgun--well, you remember how Dad was about guns."
"Let's not bring up Dad right now, okay? I've got enough to deal with."
"Rachel, I wish it had been different with you and Dad--" but Rachel stopped him from talking, putting a hand over his mouth.
"Like I said, let's not bring up Dad."
John nodded. "Right. Anyway, Black is here to help with protecting this little enclave we're establishing. Sam seems to know all about him and the weapons. Seems to approve of it. Rachel, she's only six years old! Yet she's in on a lot of planning meetings. Hell, she's the one with most of the information! So we sit there, being guided by a little girl, my sweet, innocent little daughter, telling us what we need to know to survive the coming days. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel as her father?" He stomped off angrily into the backyard. Rachel ran to keep up with him.
"Okay, okay, I hear what you're saying. I guess I just have trouble believing all this is real. You've evidently had weeks to live with it and let it all soak in. To get used to it. Give me some time, big brother. I just need some time to sort it all out."
John stopped walking and put his arm around her shoulders, giving her a quick hug. "Thanks, Rachel, thanks for giving it a chance--and for hearing me out. Sometimes it's hard to know who to talk to about my feelings. Jessica and I talk--but she's going through her own stuff about this, and we both end up not wanting to burden each other. She's really come through like a trooper, been really brave about Sam, but I don't feel I can tell her all my worst fears."
Rachel chuckled. "Well, I'm here now, and you know you can always depend on me to listen. No matter how crazy you feel. Not that I'm saying you sound crazy."
John just looked at her in amusement.
"Okay, maybe I'm saying you sound crazy, all of this sounds crazy. But I don't think you're nuts for feeling how you do. I don't begin to understand all of it yet. And maybe because of that, I don't really believe it all yet. But I'll stop behaving like a brat and try and be a grown-up for the next few days. You guys did say we would know if it was real, about the flood I mean, it will happen in a few days, right? If it's going to happen?"
"Yes, it will happen in a couple days. Sam and Perceval seem sure."
"And Perceval is the cat, right? The Siamese?"
"That's right. So you'll stay here and wait it out? I just don't want you leaving and being caught somewhere in the middle of a flood or something worse."
"There's worse?" Rachel asked, disbelieving.
"Oh, yeah, at least, according to Sam and the cat and the dog. Come on, let's get back to the house and see what this Black character and his owl have to say. The more people we run into who can talk to an animal, the more information we seem to get, like puzzle pieces. We get a bigger picture of what's to come."
&
nbsp; "But you can't talk to any animals?"
"No," John shook his hand, his tone rueful. "Sam says maybe I'll be able to later. Says I have to 'open my mind' – you can just imagine how well it went over with me, hearing her tell me, me of all people, to open my mind!"
Rachel laughed. Linking her arm in his, she said, "At least my visit here won't be boring. And I thought you guys living out in the country, in a small town, I thought you had a dull life."
"Well, it's not New York, that's for sure. This town rolls up the streets and goes to bed by ten every night – at least, it used to. But can you get talking animals and dreams of the future in the big city?"
"I'm sure on any street in New York you could find someone who says they have prophetic dreams and believes in talking animals, big brother."
He laughed. "Okay, I'll give you that. But here you can know it's really real."
"I'll wait and see, if you don't mind. Let's not rush into anything," Rachel declared.
As John opened the back door and entered the den full of people and animals, noting that Harmony and Max had arrived with the puppy Ruby. He caught Jessica's eye. She gave him a questioning look. He winked and nodded his head. Rachel would be okay.
On the road to Cape Fair
Andy fiddled with the radio, trying to find a weather forecast. He hadn't had time at Dorena's Landing to fire up his new laptop computer, bought with Lisanne's funds, to check online for radar images of this area. And from the way the trees were blowing around along the edges of the road, it looked like the wind had really picked up. "What's going on out there, boy?" he asked Waldo softly.
The dog whined a bit and Andy grimaced. "So there's something wrong. I knew it!"
He grabbed the cell phone and called Lisanne. "Hey, Lisanne--"
"I know, I know," she replied through the static on the phone. "Merlin's freaking out. We've got to pull over."