Third Wave: Bones of Eden

by Zaide Bishop

  “You don’t need to make anything,” Charlie said softly. “I mean, no one minds if you just rest.”

  Whiskey frowned. “I can’t. I want to make things and cook things. Only I can’t build, and I can’t cook because I just eat it. Weapons are all that’s left.”

  Charlie considered pointing out the many other things they used in day-to-day life: clothes, baskets, blankets, oars, cooking pots and so on, then decided it was wiser to pick her battles.

  “Look, I was wondering...” She paused, trying again. “I mean, I’ve decided to go back to the mainland. To Eden. You’re going to whelp soon, and we still have no idea what that entails. I’m going to try and go over and get back before you give birth, hopefully with some useful information.”

  Whiskey looked doubtful. “Should you? In your condition?”

  Charlie prodded the curve of her belly. “You were still hunting in this condition.”

  “I know every inch of the islands. I know my prey. There are no surprises for me here. We don’t know much about the mainland, only that there are a great many things there that are dangerous to us. World-before things. World-before monsters. Megalania, for starters.”

  “I’m going,” Charlie said firmly. “And if anyone should understand when I say I’ve made my mind up, it’s you. You always do whatever you damn well please.”

  “Yes, but I was never leader.”

  “About that...” Charlie grinned, and Whiskey raised an eyebrow.

  “Me?”

  “Just while I’m gone.”

  “Not India?”

  “India is already too busy. She barely has time to sleep, organizing the gardens and, well, everything else. You’re off your feet. It will keep you busy when you’re not eating.”

  Whiskey narrowed her eyes a moment but let the jibe go. “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “Yeah. Let’s see if it’s as difficult as you make it out to be.”

  “Try not to start a war, okay?”

  Whiskey snorted, and Charlie rose to her feet. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled, drawing the attention of the other Varekai.

  “I’m going north,” she said. “I’m crossing the channel to Eden, and Tango is coming with me. We’ll be gone a few days, a week perhaps. If we are injured and need help, we’ll build a bonfire on the beach. Whiskey will be leader in my absence. You have to trust her. Do what she says.”

  India was staring at her like she’d lost her mind.

  “Are you sure, Charlie? We all love Whiskey, but—”

  “I can hear you, so think carefully how you want to finish that sentence.” Whiskey’s tone was dire.

  India’s gaze flickered to her, mildly irritated, then back to Charlie. “Whiskey has not always acted in the best interest of the tribe. She tried to start a war when I was swept onto the mainland. She kidnapped Fox.”

  Whiskey bristled. “Both of those things I did for you! For us! I killed the megalania. I stopped that crazy little Elikai from bashing your brains out in the cave, and I took the blame!”

  Charlie held up her hands, knowing she would come to regret this but wondering how much. “India, you already have too many duties. You’re stretched too thin. Tango is coming with me. I need someone who can make the difficult decisions and recognize danger...even when it’s a knife behind the back of a friend. Whiskey’s not going to start a war, are you?”

  Whiskey shook her head.

  “But,” Charlie continued, “if the Elikai try anything shifty, she’ll see it coming. She’ll put the tribe ahead of her personal attachments.”

  India’s eyes flickered dangerously. “Like you did when the Elikai were starving?”

  Charlie’s chest tightened painfully, remembering how gaunt Sugar had been, how his ribs had shown, but she managed to keep her voice level. “Yes. Exactly like that.”

  * * *

  Sugar was line fishing, or pretending to. He’d tied his canoe at the edge of a deep saltwater lagoon west of the Vanishing Beaches. The bottom of the lagoon was full of debris: old metal barrels, two boats, a car and something Sugar recognized as a refrigerator from the labs in Eden.

  As a result, the lagoon teemed with fish and wildlife drawn to the world-before trash, turning it into active reefs and chaotic breeding grounds. The bigger fish were, naturally, out near the middle where all the refuse had settled in the deepest parts of the water. Sugar had set himself up under a massive fig tree at the edge, which provided with a wide, shady pocket. The shadows and the occasional falling figs and bird droppings attracted plenty of fish too, and Sugar already had three long red snapper wrapped in banana leaves in the bottom of the canoe.

  The caterpillars he was using as bait had escaped their little woven basket, and three of them were crawling up his foot, tickling him as they crossed his ankle and wriggled through his leg hair.

  “Sugar!”

  He startled and almost dropped the rod, sitting up to look around. He grinned when he saw Tare, then waved.

  “Heya.”

  Tare paddled closer, jostling Sugar as he drew his canoe alongside.

  “I was coming to see you.”

  “News? Is it Whiskey?”

  “No. Charlie and Tango are going to the mainland tomorrow.”

  Sugar’s heart lurched. Why not roll around in a crocodile nest? Or go diving in a feeding frenzy of sharks? They’d be just as safe. Why couldn’t that damn Varekai stay put? “Why?” he demanded.

  “To go to Eden. Charlie thinks there might be some information there about babies or birthing them or something.”

  Sugar was silent for a moment, thoughts racing. He wasn’t going to mess up this time. He tried to imagine what Fox would do. “Will you take a message back to her for me?”

  “To Charlie? Sure.”

  “Tell her I’m coming with them. I want to know too. I want to see Eden. It makes more sense if we go together. For safety.” He hesitated, then gave Tare a hopeful look. “Do you think she’ll agree to that?”

  Tare nodded. “Yeah. I think so. You know she wants to patch things up.” A pause. “You are going to patch things up, right?”

  He tried to imagine forgiving Charlie and being friends again and couldn’t. He forced a cheery smile onto his face anyway. “Of course.”

  “I’ll tell her,” Tare said, poling himself away from Sugar’s canoe and drifting back out into the sun. “I think you’re making a good choice.”

  Sugar kept the smile plastered on his face, waving goodbye as Tare paddled back across the lagoon. Even if he could forgive Charlie for leaving him for dead, how could he forgive her for breaking his heart?

  * * *

  Dog was stretched out on a mat of woven palm leaves on the soft, dry sand. He was close enough to the cooking fire that the cooling evening air didn’t bother him and close enough to get a face full of smoke and embers whenever the wind changed, but far enough that the hush of the trees and the cool darkness of the sky left him inclined to doze.

  Nab was sitting cross-legged near his head, whittling a lump of wood into the shape of a crocodile, and Vaca was rubbing palm oil into his hands and legs, sharing Dog’s mat. The other Elikai were spread around the fire, attending to their own rituals and needs. Someone was off having noisy sex in one of the half-finished buildings, but the rest of the tribe, Dog included, were currently more interested in the numerous banana-leaf-wrapped fish baking in the coals at the edge of the fire.

  Across the fire, Sugar stood up, dusting the sand off his hands and butt.

  “Tomorrow, Charlie and Tango are going to the mainland to search Eden for information and tools,” he said, raising his voice so everyone could hear him.

  Vaca snorted quietly. “And we will mourn their passing when some giant cat eats them.”

 
Dog gave him a lighthearted shove but smirked anyway.

  “I have decided to go with them,” Sugar continued. A murmur rippled around the fire.

  “Another brilliant decision, courtesy of Sugar’s cock.” Dog sighed.

  “Is that really wise?” Zebra asked loud enough for everyone to hear. He’d bruised up spectacularly from Dog’s accidental assault, and now one side of his face and both eyes were entirely purple. “I mean, I’m pretty much the king of terrible ideas, and even I think going to the mainland is a bad one.”

  “The mainland is dangerous,” Sugar agreed. “But we left a lot behind in Eden. We could learn or gain something as vital as India’s realization about Varekai and Elikai. We would have known years ago if we had gone back and looked around. I’m not going to let something else important slip by. What if we could fly or, or...bring brothers back from the dead? We need to know.”

  “I dream I can fly,” Nab murmured.

  Dog glanced at him and frowned.

  “Okay, so you’re going.” Maria had stood up too. “Who will be in charge while you’re gone? Fox, as you might have noticed, ain’t here.”

  “Dog.”

  Dog blinked, quite sure he had heard wrong. “Did he say...” he whispered to Vaca, then stopped when he realized everyone was staring at him.

  “Me?”

  “Him?” Maria was even more incredulous than Dog. “I could pick him up and throw him into the ocean.”

  “And if that was the deciding factor in who got to be leader, Xícara would have been in charge since we left the mainland,” Sugar said.

  Maria glanced at Xícara as if trying to size up which of them could truly throw Dog further.

  “Uh, but why?” Dog asked. “The only really good thing I’ve done recently is beat Zebra on the head with a stick.”

  “Hey!” Zebra looked outraged, though it was hard to tell when he looked like an overripe fruit.

  “Because you’re willing to take risks,” Sugar said. “Because you’re not satisfied with an okay solution, you’re always looking for something better. You’re ballsy. You don’t solve problems with your fist. You’re not in love with anyone.”

  Dog arched an eyebrow. That last part wasn’t exactly true. “And because Fox isn’t here?”

  Sugar nodded. “Mostly because Fox isn’t here.”

  Maria bristled. “No way I’m doing what he says. He’s not even one of the hunters.”

  Dog sneered. “Well then, when Sugar leaves tomorrow morning, you better pack up your spears and go live with the Varekai until he comes back. No? Sit down and shut up, then.”

  Sugar grinned. “That’s the other reason I picked you.”

  Dog appreciated Sugar’s confidence, but he wasn’t sure how far it would carry when he had nothing but words to stand up to his brothers with. He couldn’t even follow them if they walked away from him right now. Or run away from them if they decided to punch him...

  Chapter Four

  Charlie had been queasy and unable to sleep all night. Not because of the babies wriggling inside her. Not because of her apprehension about going to the mainland, though both would have been perfectly valid reasons. Instead, she had been nervous about seeing Sugar.

  When Tare had told her he was coming along, she’d felt like her chest would burst open. Finally he was going to forgive her. Finally they were going to go back to how they had been before, spending time alone and making love. Planning a future for both tribes, together.

  That fantasy had been short-lived.

  When the Elikai arrived at the launching point near dawn, Charlie realized her fears had been founded. Not everyone had come. Most had said their goodbyes at the village, but India, Tare, Whiskey, Foxtrot and Bravo were there to see Charlie and Tango away, and Sugar had brought Dog, Nab, William and George. Dog looked a little worse for wear—limping and bruised, with sloppy honey-and-herb dressings over nasty dog bites on his leg, but still cheery.

  Sugar would not look at her or even speak to her, except for the most perfunctory comments. As they organized the canoe, he did his best to communicate only with Tango, pretending Charlie wasn’t there at all.

  “Will one canoe be enough?” Tango looked at the overloaded canoe, hands on her hips. “With three of us on board and the current?”

  “You can’t take two,” India said. “The current is too strong. Charlie can paddle, but not as well as normal. Sorry, Charlie, it’s true. You’ll need the three of you paddling, or you’re going to have to walk for miles to get back to Eden.”

  “It is what it is,” Sugar said with a sigh. “We’ll be fine.”

  Charlie was about to retort, one foot in the canoe, when another boat coasted into view, making its way up the thin tributary between the islands to their launching point. Broad shoulders, tanned skin gleaming with oil, pale blond hair cropped short and spiked in messy clumps. It was the powerful but measured roll of his shoulders as he paddled that identified him. So much raw energy contained in a passive, almost sleepy shell.

  “It’s Xícara,” she told the others. Sugar frowned, and for reasons Charlie didn’t entirely fathom, Tango went red and looked away.

  “What are you doing here?” Dog asked, packing in the last of their supplies.

  “I’m coming,” Xícara said. “Or going. Whichever it is.”

  “Why?” Sugar asked, baffled.

  Xícara shrugged. “Just am. I reckon no one is going to stop me.”

  Sugar arched an eyebrow. “No, I guess not. Okay, Charlie, you best ride with Xícara.”

  He said it without even looking at her, and she bristled.

  “Remind me why I should do what you say?”

  He glanced at her, expression cool. “Because he’s the strongest, and you’re the weakest. He can make up for your weight, and Tango and I can focus on getting the supplies across.”

  It made perfect sense, which didn’t make Charlie any less annoyed. She was about to tell him to go jump in a crocodile nest when Xícara flashed her an easy smile. “I’d like that. Haven’t had a chance to see any Varekai with big bellies yet.”

  She sighed, hoisting herself back onto the shore and making her way over to him, all too aware there was a bit of a waddle in her movement now that had not been there a week ago.

  “Do they really move?” he asked, eyeing her belly.

  “Sometimes. Only recently. Whiskey’s lot kick and fight so much, you’d think she was giving birth to tree kangaroos.”

  Charlie glanced across at the other canoe and noted Tango still hadn’t looked up, fussing with the supplies and, more bizarrely, checking the oars. Sugar wasn’t looking at them either, staring across the water at the distant mainland, head back as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Charlie wasn’t fooled by either of them.

  “I’ll tell you when they wake up,” Charlie told Xícara. “And I’ll let you feel my belly.”

  Sugar glanced at them, and she grinned when she saw the jealousy twisting his mouth.

  “I’d like that,” Xícara said. “Are we ready?”

  “We’re ready,” Sugar said grimly.

  “Be careful,” India said. “We’ll try and have someone watching for your bonfire as often as we can.”

  “I’m sure it won’t come to that,” Xícara said calmly. “We’re armed. We have water and supplies. We will be fine.”

  They pushed the canoes out into the water, and Charlie settled herself, one hand braced on the side. For a moment they drifted, both canoes floating calmly away from the shore, then the prow hit the current and the canoe swung sideways, nose pointed west instead of to the mainland in the north. Xícara paddled, muscles flexing under tanned skin, not fighting directly across the current, but on a diagonal.

  In the other canoe, Sugar and Tango were doing the same
, working together smoothly, without thought and with only the sparest of verbal communication. Back on the island, the figures on the beach were dwindling. Charlie could see them waving and hoped they would manage without her. Maybe leaving Whiskey in charge had been a bad idea. Maybe she was going to come home to find a smoking hole in the ground where the village used to be and nothing left but Whiskey eating the last of the food.

  Or maybe Charlie wasn’t as important to their well-being as she liked to think she was. If anything, life had gotten easier after Alpha had died, but overall very little had changed.

  “Can I paddle?” Charlie asked Xícara, scooping up the other paddle from the bottom of the canoe.

  “Are you going to be too tired to walk all the way up the beach to Eden if you do?” he asked.

  Charlie considered. She probably would be, but the idea of being useless made her teeth hurt. Maybe because she was gritting them.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Knock yourself out, then.”

  Charlie paddled, feeling the burn across her chest and shoulders. She was getting tired quicker these days. She had aches in odd places. Parts of her seemed to be swelling up, her fingers, her ankles. Paddling was making her back hurt, and she already regretting offering, but there was no way she was going to stop now. Perhaps if it had just been Tango, she would have admitted defeat, but giving up while Sugar was watching her would be too humiliating.

  An island rose between the canoes—a wall of slick, gray rock sliding out of the water like the sleek shape of a dolphin, only hundreds of times larger.

  Charlie gaped, too stunned to even notice the paddle in her hands anymore. Xícara gave a yell of surprise.

  “Charlie!” Tango called, distressed. Charlie caught a glimpse of her before the wall of gray separated them, then there was a vast hiss and a plume of spray mist. The form sank again, and Charlie peered down into the water and saw a white fin longer than the canoe.

  “What is it?” Sugar demanded. He’d put his paddle aside and drawn a spear.