Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1)

by Pamela Davis

  "So are they going to have a flood out there or not?" asked Alan Beakman. He'd been thoroughly thrown by his communication with the whales earlier that day and had spent some time convincing Dusty that he really had heard the huge Orcas. She'd been shaken enough by his collapse that she'd listened.

  "Yes, yes," Margaret replied, distracted. "Tomorrow--or rather later this morning--it's late. Two in the morning already. We should all try to get a few more hours of sleep because we have to get out of here later today. And we might just have trouble doing that."

  "Why do have to get out of here?" Dusty asked. "What's going to happen?" She was willing to listen now to Margaret, even though the woman still irritated the heck out of her.

  "The volcano," Zack answered. "Mount Rainier is going to just explode in a big eruption. It's going to be awful." He paused and then looked at Margaret. "But it's not going to happen yet. I'm sure of it. It's going to happen in a few weeks."

  "You're right. A couple of weeks at the earliest," Margaret agreed. "But we have to get out of town tomorrow because the feds have found us. They're staking out the plane and we may have trouble getting past them."

  "The government is after you?" Dusty asked, startled, but secretly a little bit pleased.

  "I think it's the President--I'm not really clear on it--but it has to do with him. Maybe they didn't like me warning people about the flood."

  "Oh, great! So now we're fugitives?" complained Maria. "The network is never going to allow me back on the air!"

  Along the Mississippi River

  The earthquake in the upper Mississippi basin weakened the levees that were built to keep the Mississippi within bounds during flood stage. The rain had continued for two days straight. Heavy rain. And now the levees crumbled. The water moved faster and faster, flowing over boundaries and into towns and cities all along its banks. It spread out like an oil spill in the ocean, and it just kept coming. Water levels in some towns rose to what they had been in the flood of 1993. Then they rose higher. And higher. The water was insidious, oozing into cities and pouring in, devouring cars and buildings and people as it flowed. It was an implacable force, washing away roads and bridges, and it became a river of death as it filled with bodies and debris. The mighty Mississippi was loose from the boundaries humans had decreed. In places where the earth had been deformed by quakes, new lakes were formed. And the river kept surging forward, faster and faster. Heading into areas already devastated by the hurricane. The levees of New Orleans had already washed away with the rain from the hurricane. Nothing could save the city now as the water swept away Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. Along the path of the swelling waters, towns and cities alike fell to the roaring, immense and inescapable deluge. The river waters carved out the easiest path to the Gulf of Mexico and rushed onward.

  Chapter 15

  The Library, Cape Fair

  Alex sorted through the books she'd found fallen to the floor from last night's shaking. No shelves had fallen over, which was more than she'd expected. Fortunately, the library was built in an earlier time and had those huge, tall windows that let in the morning light so she could see to work. The power wasn't back yet, but hopefully would be soon. She sat on the floor surrounded by books, a breeze flowing through the open front doors. She laughed and decided that she just might be happy, which felt awful to realize with so many terrible things happening to so many people in the world. Still, there it was. She was grateful to have the time among the books this morning and glad that the others realized the importance of maintaining the library. She liked these new friends in their little community of survivors. No, wait, they were Gaians now. But what, she wondered, did the future hold?

  If they were very lucky and careful, they might survive to have a future. A future unlike any of their lives up to now. She was sure Sam could tell her some things, but maybe Sam only got visions of disasters. Alex hoped that wasn't the case. It would be an awful burden for that sweet little girl.

  She leaned forward until she could see out the front doors. Yes, it was still there, her fancy red sports car. Of course it would still be there. No carjackers here. No anybody here! Cape Fair felt like a ghost town today as she drove to the library. It was amazing how the people had all just left! Where did they go to feel safe? And how many were alive this morning? She sighed.

  "Well, I'll be damned! If that ain't the prettiest little car this side of St. Louie." She heard a voice say from outside. Scrambling to her feet, Alex grabbed her cell phone and darted to a darkened corner to peer carefully out the window. John had drilled into them the need for caution, especially when meeting strangers that might come into town. She was dialing the phone as she looked out and saw a short, grizzled looking man with a rotund belly standing by her car admiring it.

  "Hello?" she heard in her ear from the phone.

  "Black? Is that you?"

  "Yeah. Alex?"

  "Right. We've got a visitor here at the library. He looks harmless enough, but--"

  "I'm on my way. Don't approach him until I get there. Where is he? Front or back?"

  "Right in front checking out my car. If he hurts my baby...."

  Black chuckled. "We'll just steal you another one. Hang tight."

  Alex clicked off her phone and watched the man as he walked around the car. He had a dirty white cap pushed toward the back of his head. But his faded jeans and t-shirt were clean looking. She didn't know if the salt and pepper whiskers were from not shaving lately or if that was just his look. She moved slowly to stand next to the door, but out of his sight so she could hear him better. As she did, she wondered if his talking to himself was a good or bad sign. Then she heard a bark and realized the newcomer wasn't alone and he wasn't talking to himself. He had a dog!

  "Now you know, Mutt, if I was the owner of this beauty, I woulda parked it in my garage, not left it in front of a library where anybody could just come along and take it."

  Then she heard him try the door and she ran outside.

  "Hold it!" she yelled. "Don't move!"

  The man jumped a few inches off the ground and whirled to see Alex charging down the library steps.

  "Jumpin' jehosaphat! Don't do that to me again, girl--you nearly scared the shit outta me!"

  Alex stopped a few feet away from him. "Just don't touch my car," she warned him. Her right hand was held behind her back. The fact that she was holding a cell phone and not a gun was not a reassuring thought.

  "Okay now, don't get into a huff about it. I was just admirin' it and thought someone'd just left it. This here town seemed deserted when I drove in this mornin'."

  "Well, it's not deserted. Some people left but--what are you doing in Cape Fair, anyway? Why did you come here?" Alex asked.

  "I was told to," the man replied.

  "By the dog?" Alex asked, pointing to the dog standing beside him.

  "The dog? Now how the hell could a dog tell me to come here, huh? You sure you're okay, girl?"

  Alex blushed and said, "Well, then, why did you choose to come here? Do you know anyone in Cape Fair? Family? Friends?"

  He shook his head. "Nope, leastwise, I might know one person, but I ain't sure she's here. She's the one told me to come here. Name's Lisa I think. She was with a bunch of horses on my ferry--"

  "Oh!" Alex smiled. "You're the ferry captain? The one who helped Lisanne and Andy and Janine and the horses?"

  "That's right, those are the names. All the way here I was tryin' to remember the names of them folks. The girl, Lisanne, she told me to come here. Said it would be safe. And after the rockin' and rollin' last night, I like the idea of a safe place!"

  Alex pulled out her cell phone and hit redial. "Black?" she queried over the phone.

  "Yeah. You okay? I'm nearly there."

  "No problem. It's the guy from the ferry boat. The one who brought the horses over the river. Lisanne told him to come here."

  "Oh, okay. You think he's safe? And what are you doing talking to him, Alex?" Black said shar
ply.

  "Yeah, I think he's okay. How about I show him the way out to the Samuels' House?"

  "All right," Black responded. "But you have him drive his own car out here. I'll be waiting. I don't want you alone in the car with him."

  "Okay, fine." She hung up.

  The man was looking at her quizzically.

  "That was the head of our security team," Alex explained. "He says for me to show you the way out to--to--our headquarters, I guess you'd call it."

  The man nodded. "Name's Cap'n Joe, ma'am. Nice to meet ya."

  He stuck out his hand and she shook it, replying, "My name's Alex Hobson. Let me just lock the doors to the library and we can be on our way."

  As she ran back up the steps, Cap'n Joe looked down at the shaggy dog by his side. "Now who does she think is goin' to break into a library? What are they gonna steal--books?" He shook his head and walked toward his pick-up truck, chortling in amusement.

  The Farm, Cape Fair

  "We want the plants without any blooms. If they have those little flowers on them, then pinch them off," Gracie was telling Janine and Clay. She'd had Harmony clear out the nursery in town of all the tomato plants that were ready for transplanting yesterday, and decided this morning to get them planted. She was dressed in her new blue jeans and a blue work shirt with a straw hat planted firmly on her head to shade her face from the sun.

  Janine watched as Gracie pinched off a bloom on one of the plants. The horses were out running in the fields and she was happy to learn something that would help their new head farmer.

  "Then, we put them in the hole like this--after we check to make sure the roots are white and healthy, like this one. Now the trick to getting a lot of tomatoes out of each plant is to put them deep in the soil, so that they're in the dirt right up to where the first leaves start. That way we get more fruit."

  Clay nodded. He'd planned on setting up his veterinarian office, but decided to work here at home to be near Abby today. She seemed calm and cheerful this morning, but he knew she still wasn't right. Dr. Shapiro was coming over in a while to talk to her.

  Janine asked, "So we just stick them in the ground like this and they grow? This is so cool! I never grew any food before."

  Gracie made a wry face. "Not exactly. They'll grow, but we'll have to stake them so they don't fall over when the tomatoes get big and heavy. And we'll have to watch out for pests. Which reminds me--later we'll prune off the first six inches of these leaves to prevent some diseases. Also, we'll have to make sure they get enough water--I'm not sure of the weather here and rainfall. Maybe Andy can tell us about that."

  Janine frowned. "So doesn't that take a lot of time, doing all that to them?"

  Gracie said, "It takes some time, not too much."

  "But won't we have lots of other vegetables too?" Janine asked thoughtfully.

  "Hopefully, yes," Gracie replied. "What's wrong?"

  Clay spoke up. "I can tell you what's wrong. You're going to need some helpers, more people. Each of us--Gaians--" He smiled as he used the new word. "We Gaians all have things already that we're responsible for, and you're not going to have enough help, Gracie."

  "I know," Gracie answered. "That's why you always needed to have such a large family on a farm!" She laughed. "But I got a few minutes with Sam late yesterday and asked her if more people were coming and she said yes. So we'll just have to recruit some more farmers. And if there are kids among the new people, they can help out too."

  She sat back on her heels and looked out over the planting area they'd prepared. Definitely she would need help. And at harvest times, everyone would have to pitch in. But it was doable. With decent weather and as long as their group didn't grow too big too fast.

  "Hey! There's a worm in this dirt!" Janine told them in surprise.

  "That's good," Gracie replied. "Worms aerate the earth. We like worms, Janine."

  Janine looked at her. Gracie laughed. "Okay, we don't really like them, but we need them. Does that work for you? And Clay probably will like them when he goes fishing."

  "You betcha," said Clay, grinning at the teenager kneeling in the dirt. "You bring me all the worms you want. And I'll bring you back some great tasting fish for dinner. Deal?"

  "Deal," Janine said. She suddenly went still. The adults watched her, recognizing the look she had when communicating with the horses. After a moment she turned to them. "Nathan thinks maybe he found the broken pipe. He and Andy are going to try and fix it."

  "And who told you that, Janine?" Clay asked with curiosity. The human to animal communication fascinated him.

  "Andy told Waldo and Waldo told Feathers and Feathers told me. Feathers is really easy for me to hear from far away. I can't hear all of the horses as good as I can hear her." She paused and then smiled at Clay. "But you could hear them, too, if you tried, Dr. Ames."

  "I've told you, Janine, you can call me Clay or even Doc. You don't need to call me Dr. Ames. It sounds so official for talking here in the dirt!"

  They all laughed and Janine continued, "You just have to open your mind more, Doc. Feathers says you are too worried right now to do it. Worried about Abby, I mean."

  Clay sighed, "I am worried about her." He looked sharply at Janine and asked, "Could the horses help her? Help her to understand--if she opened up her mind?"

  Janine looked uncomfortable. "Um, well, it's just that--the horses say her mind is all messed up right now, Clay. I'm sorry!"

  Clay looked disturbed by this news, but said calmly, "I figured that. Thank them for telling me, Janine."

  Gracie watched Janine smile in relief, knowing the girl had been afraid to tell Clay about his wife. What we need is a therapist, she thought. We're all entering into a world that is new to us. Doing work that is new to us, or in her case, work that she hadn't done for a long time. The shocks of the disasters, of finding out humans could communicate with animals, of so many people dying in the world--would they end up with a group of stressed-out, anxiety-ridden lunatics? How many more of them besides Abby would end up overwhelmed by all the changes?

  Pumping Station, Cape Fair

  Waldo paced around the desk where Andy sat huddled with Nathan. He didn't understand all the dials and buttons they were looking at. But he'd done a good job today so he was wagging his tail and happy to walk around the two guys in circles. He'd listened to the earth and to the little creatures in the ground. He never thought of doing that before today, but it was fun. When they were at the Samuels' house this morning, Harry tried to tell him what he had to do to find the broken water pipe. But even though Harry was his friend, Harry wasn't too good at explaining how to do stuff. So finally Sam had kneeled down in front of him and grabbed hold of his muzzle and said firmly, "Look at me, Waldo!" And when she said stuff, sometimes it was loud in his head. Not in his ears but inside his head! Then she explained inside his head about listening to all the animals--she called it tuning in--around him. And then he got it. He could even hear beetles and worms and grasshoppers if he wanted to. But he didn't really want to do that all that time because they were pretty dumb and boring.

  When he found the broken pipe, Andy and Nathan got all excited and jumped up and down and hugged him a lot. He'd had fun digging a hole in the ground to the pipe. Waldo didn't know why the pipe was so important to them, but he was happy if they were happy. And Nathan had been talking about how sig--how--what was that word? Significant. How significant it was, yeah. How it meant that the animals could help out in all kinds of ways. Which Waldo thought was kinda dumb to be saying because everybody knew lots of animals would help out. Only nobody ever asked them to! Until now. Now it was all different. Even the cats were different. No way would he chase Perceval or Merlin around the yard. He didn't want to make them mad, no, sir!

  Waldo sat down next to Andy's chair. Andy's hand automatically settled on top of his head, patting him gently. Waldo loved Andy. He liked that he belonged to Andy and that Andy belonged to him. He could feel Andy, know where he was even whe
n he couldn't see him. And he could feel how much Andy loved him back. Andy thought he was the greatest dog that ever lived! Waldo thought maybe he wasn't the greatest dog that ever lived, but he liked that Andy was so sure of it. Andy said Waldo saved his life, getting him away from that bad storm. Waldo shivered as he thought about the bad storm. Nope, he didn't want to think about that. He decided to think about all the hamburgers Andy and Nathan promised to give him because he found the broken pipe. He loved hamburgers. Hamburgers were about the best thing in the whole world. He could probably eat a big huge pile of hamburgers if--why was Andy jumping out of his chair? Nathan and Andy were slapping each other on the back and talking about flushing? Waldo had heard of flushing a toilet. Andy always told him not to drink out of the toilet unless it got flushed first. But this was something else. Flushing the system? What did it mean? Waldo wanted to be excited too! He listened inside Andy's head this time and saw a picture in Andy's mind and then he got it. Flushing the water system. They figured out how to do that, so the water would be clean again. Now he could wag his tail and woof and run around and be happy. Clean water. Waldo knew that was a good thing. Clean water to drink and lots of hamburgers very soon. He woofed and woofed.

  Power People Home, Table Rock Lake

  Lisanne lay under the covers and stared at the sheets. White sheets. With little pink and yellow flowers. Ugh. Why couldn't she have remembered to pick up some purple sheets when she was doing all that shopping? She yelped as Merlin jumped onto her stomach.

  "Hey, watch it! That's me you're attacking," she said, poking her head out from under the ugly sheets. Merlin crouched on her abdomen and stared at her.

  "Now don't get on my case, furball. You know as well as I do that Sergeant Wachowski had me at that damn power station till all hours last night getting ready for this morning." Then she stopped and looked around the room. The overhead light was on! The lamp on the night stand was glowing!

  "We have power!" She whooped and threw off the covers onto Merlin's head. Running to the light switch, she flicked it on and off several times, a big grin plastered on her face. "That is so totally cool!"