Earth Keepers

by Jorge Alejandro Lavera

  “Giuseppe, turn off the lights on the bridge.”

  “Captain?”

  “Just for a minute. I want to see if there are any lights out there.”

  The officer turned off the internal lights, leaving only the instruments giving off a ghostly glow. The ship itself shone all around like a beacon, but it was clear that the city was dark. Not only was there no lighting in homes or on the street, but there were no vehicle lights, either. Here and there an occasional light could be seen. Leora guessed that it was emergency generator equipment. But were they activated by someone or did they turn on automatically? Leora left the bridge briefly and looked at the sky. Only when they were far out on the open sea, never near a city, did the sky look like this—thousands of stars and the Milky Way clearly visible, as if they were in an observatory. No doubt the city of Buenos Aires hadn’t seen a sky like that in a century.

  Leora noted that her heartrate was sky-high. She tried to calm down, breathing deeply and counting to ten. If she panicked, her crew would fall apart. She held on to the railing and saw people watching and pointing to the shore. She supposed they were talking about the blackout, because there was nothing more to see.

  Now that her eyes were adjusted to the darkness, she noted a small fire a couple of miles inland. Something was burning. The flames were clear enough to see thanks to the general darkness.

  Leora heard several people arguing as they drew near. She breathed deeply and prepared for problems. She went down to the observation deck, where there was room for several people without being crowded and without endangering anyone. A few seconds later, the second officer appeared on the stairs, followed by a group of people, some who appeared to be fairly excited. Leora stood at attention, but with her body looking to one side, towards the coast.

  “Captain, a thousand apologies, I explained the situation to the gentlemen, but they don’t want...”

  “We want to get off the ship, now! We demand that you let us disembark!” shouted one of the men leading the group.

  “Sure, you can do that.”

  The people were surprised. Even Romano was a bit taken aback.

  “Well, good, it’s about time we found a reasonable person. When will the ship get to the port?”

  “That isn’t going to happen. Now, since you’re going to leave the ship swimming, do you want to swim as you are ,or do you want life jackets? From which deck do you want to jump into the water?”

  The man was left with his mouth hanging open in a large ‘O’ and he started to turn red. Just as he was going to start shouting, she turned around and confronted him. Leora wasn’t exactly small and her impeccable uniform made her even more formidable.

  “Look around you, sir. Do you think that a ship three blocks long can approach and moor in a dark harbor, with no one to assist from the ground?”

  “That’s not my problem! I have relatives on land and I want to go down immediately to see them.”

  “Do you understand that there is a deadly epidemic on land?”

  “I know and I don’t care.”

  “You don’t want to die from drowning, right?”

  “Of course not.”

  “But you don’t care about dying from a virus.”

  “I don’t believe there is a virus!”

  “Does that look normal to you?” she indicated the coast.

  “It’s just a blackout.”

  “Well, as I announced to my crew and I’m sure that they have communicated to you, as soon as the sun rises, if you still want to go ashore, we’ll have lifeboats so you can disembark, you and anyone else who wants to leave.”

  “And if we take the lifeboats ourselves now?”

  “Do you know how to operate the equipment to lower them to the water? Or maybe you have the tools to cut steel cables? And that’s supposing that the fall from five floors up doesn’t destroy it. As you can see with your own eyes, it’s impossible to do it now. Just as it’s impossible to navigate the boats and disembark safely in this darkness.”

  The man started to say something and then shut up. He tried two or three more times, until he looked like a fish out of water. He finally shouted:

  “When the morning gets here, everyone is going to leave the ship!”

  “If that’s the case, fine, they’re free to do so.”

  The man, who was still red-faced, couldn’t seem to find anything else to say. He abruptly turned around and started pushing people who were in his way. The others left slowly, several greeting the captain and thanking the second officer.

  “Captain, why did you tell them it’s impossible to leave now? You know that the lights we have on the boats are more than sufficient for a safe disembarkment.”

  “I want to give them more time to think about it. And besides, by day maybe they’ll be able to see the panorama better. It’s clear to me that the city is dead, but they can’t see it.”

  “I don’t think they’ll change their minds.”

  “I don’t either, but I want my conscience to be clear. My legal and moral obligation is to take care of the passengers, but given the circumstances I have to think about the majority and I can’t risk the well-being of all of them for a few excited ones. If they stay and start a revolt, they might cause deaths. If they go and they die, it’s their choice.”

  “Leora...” Romano pleaded, coming near and touching her hand.

  “Good God, Romano, not here. Someone might see us,” she said angrily, moving her hand away brusquely.

  Romano straightened up and said, making a naval salute: “Yes, Captain.”

  “There will be time for that. We’ll talk after sunrise. If what I fear is true...we’ll have plenty of time to talk.”

  DEPARTURE

  Buenos Aires, November 26, 2027. 6:45 a.m.

  Juan Carlos and Sofía had been closed up in their house the whole day before. The internet was still working on the cell phones, but the news sites were almost never updated. During the morning, they heard some gunshots, but they hadn’t heard anything since the afternoon. Around eleven at night, just when they were eating, the lights went out. They lit candles and went out to the terrace. The sky was amazing. The Milky Way was clearly visible. The whole city was dark. Here and there, some barking was heard.

  The morning sunlight woke them up. They filled up on breakfast, then went to the bathroom and discovered that the water was cut off. They moved everything to the door and Juan Carlos said that he was going to look for the car and would be back.

  “I’m going with you,” asked Sofía.

  “Don’t even think about it, you wait here. What if there’s still someone around and they come steal everything?”

  “Dad, don’t be ridiculous. There are millions of houses to steal from, they’re going to find the only one that’s occupied? And if they did, what if there are several of them, and they’re armed, and I’m alone? And if they surprise you, and kill you, what do I do then?”

  Juan Carlos sighed.

  “Okay, but you do exactly what I say. I also don’t want someone putting a gun to your head and making me do whatever. Understood?”

  “Okay.”

  Juan Carlos thought for a moment.

  “We’ll take the flashlights, just in case.”

  They each took an LED flashlight and left.

  “What the hell,” Juan Carlos protested as soon as they got out to the street. The smell of sewer was strong despite the breeze. Except that he knew it wasn’t the smell of sewer, but of death. The silence was creepy. Not the sound of an engine, or a generator. Not a voice, no one shouting, no one talking. He listened closely and heard some birds. But no dogs. After a few yards, he saw a dead pigeon with its guts hanging out. It looked like a predator had had a feast. He looked around closely and saw others on the wires, alive. Pigeons were often carriers of different types of flu, but it appeared this one wasn’t fatal to birds.

  “Let’s go,” he ordered, and they started walking. He turned on his cell phone, which he had
turned off to save energy, and checked the message to get directions. It was only four blocks away. Now he didn’t have any phone signal. It occurred to him that it had to do with the energy blackout. The towers must be inoperative.

  He turned off the phone and they continued walking slowly. Most of the businesses were closed, with the shutters down. The houses were also closed with the blinds down. He wondered if there any healthy people, shut away in any of them. When they passed the Chinese market, the shutter was torn from the rail and destroyed. He looked inside. It was dark and he could only see close to the door, but he could see that everything was destroyed, the shelves were empty, and worse, he saw the owner, whom he knew, lying on the ground near the entrance. It didn’t look like he’d died in the looting, though, but from illness. He’d probably been dead before the looting. It was hard to know, but he wasn’t going to go in to find out.

  The smell was disgusting, and they were also chased by a cloud of flies that, they noticed, were everywhere. “That’s disgusting, and this has to be so unhealthy,” Sofía complained.

  Her voice sounded like shouting in a library, and even made her jump. They walked faster, but in silence.

  “What a beautiful girl, friend. Will you lend her to me for a while?” said some guy who until then had been out of sight, hiding in the entrance of a house, and now less than two yards away from them

  Sofía screamed, and Juan Carlos’ heart skipped a beat. The guy had a couple of days’ growth of beard, his hair was disheveled, his trousers were stained and he had a stench of filth. But what scared Juan Carlos most was the eyes. Although his mouth smiled, the dilated eyes said that the man was drugged up.

  Juan Carlos saw that the man didn’t have anything in his left hand, but his right hand was out of sight. He didn’t think twice. The guy had got even closer and was at the right distance. The kick came out with all the strength of his pivot, and the jerk of his hip, and hit him right in the stomach. The man was thrown back and as he stretched out his arms to try to stop himself, a weapon flew out of his right hand. Sofía started to scream that they had to go and began to pull at Juan Carlos’ arm, who tried to get the gun but couldn’t do it because of her physical insistence that they go. The guy started to move, so Juan Carlos yelled at Sofía:

  “Let go! If I don’t disarm him, we’re going to have trouble!”

  “No, Dad, let’s go, he’s down!”

  Juan Carlos finally gave up and taking Sofía by the hand, they started to run.

  A few seconds later, when they were reaching the corner, they heard a noise like a firecracker, and suddenly a small cloud of debris hit them in the face, knocked from the wall next to them. Juan Carlos looked back and saw that the guy was shooting at them.

  “Damn it, Sofía, I told you we needed to take away his gun,” Juan Carlos said, panting.

  They kept running at least three blocks, until they reached the address they were looking for. Looking in all directions to see that no one had followed them, and that there weren’t any more surprises, they entered the place they were looking for.

  “A paid parking garage,” commented Juan Carlos. That was effectively it, a four story garage. The good news was that the gates were open. And from outside, they could see few cars. The bad news was that it was very dark. Juan Carlos turned on his flashlight and Sofía did the same.

  “We’ll start on the first floor and hope we get lucky,” said Juan Carlos. The license was ‘DA’ something, it’s a new one so there shouldn’t be many of them. You look to the left, I’ll go to the right.”

  Most of the license plates were still the old ones, black with three letters and three numbers, so they went straight to the ones that were white. The first one was ‘BN’ something, so they went on. The sixth one from the entrance, the second one with a white plate, was ‘DA 529 ZX.’ It was a Ford Ranger truck, a deep red color, with a dome on the back.

  “Sofía, I found it!” he called her.

  Sofía came running, applauding him.

  “Wow, a truck! Are you going to be able to handle this?”

  “Well, I’ve never driven anything but a car, but my biggest problem was always other drivers. I don’t think we have to worry about that now,” commented Juan Carlos, going around the side of the Ranger. He opened the door on the driver’s side, which was unlocked, and the interior lit up at the same time he noticed the new smell of the truck. Inside, everything looked luxurious. The base of the seat was waist high, from where he was standing outside. The truck had a running board, so he stepped up and got in. He noticed the roll bar, airbags, TV and music equipment, cruise control...only two pedals. He looked at the gear lever and realized it was automatic. A speedometer in the middle of the dashboard, tons of digital indicators on the sides, and a host of buttons on the steering wheel. He read the icons and, as he thought, most were to control the entertainment center. The windshield wipers and lights were on the satellite bar to the left of the steering wheel. The only problem was that the key wasn’t there. He checked the glove box, but it was also locked.

  “The key must be in the office at the entrance. Shit,” he spat, getting out.

  They went towards the entrance, and on the left was an office with a window where people paid. At the side was a metal door. He tried the handle and the door didn’t yield. Of course. Someone had taken the key to the grave.

  The door was made out of sheet metal, but it didn’t look fortified. Well, he could only try one thing.

  “Run over here, Sofía.”

  He rehearsed the movement, aiming under the lock. He didn’t want to hurt himself...it would be tough to find a doctor if he broke his leg and it already hurt after the meeting a few minutes ago. He wasn’t as young now as when he used to practice martial arts. He aimed once, twice, and the third time threw a kick with a shout. The flat blow struck under the lock, which was torn off. The door flew in and bounced off the hinges.

  “Good, Dad!” shouted Sofía.

  Juan Carlos made sure he wasn’t injured and pushed the door. The lock fell on the ground and the door squeaked when he pushed it open. Luckily, there was no body inside the office. He entered, lighting it with the flashlight, and as he did, he saw a large board on the wall with a lot of keys, each placed on the number that corresponded to the space occupied by each vehicle.

  There were eight rows, with keys distributed in all of them. It was more empty than full, but there were too many to try blindly. He looked, lighting the board well, and saw no indication of the floors, although the hooks on the keys did have numbers. They started from one on the top row of everything. In the first row there were eight keys, ten in the second. He went out and looked at the garage. There were no numbers anywhere, but he counted the cars and there were eight on the right and twelve on the left. The Ranger was sixth from the entrance. He thought maybe they had taken the keys to some of the cars. He went back inside and took the sixth key in the first row. He looked at it and it was a Ford. He should have started by looking for the brand. Anyway...he headed towards the truck with Sofía behind him. He got in the truck again and put the main key in the ignition. He hesitated for a second and turned it, leaving it in the contact position. The entire cabin and dashboard were illuminated. “Great,” he thought. Checking the controls, he saw that the tank was full, and the battery completely charged. Good. He turned the key and pulled it out of the ignition switch. He looked at the keychain and found the smallest key. There were two others, one would be for the door and one for the dome, he thought. He tried the little one in the glove compartment and it opened.

  He took a handful of papers out of the glove box. He took out the key and put it back in the ignition, to turn on the lights in the cab. He looked at the papers and saw several maps and some documents. He examined the documents. Among them were the ownership documents for the truck, all in his name. At any rate, he didn’t think anyone would be asking him for them. He looked at the maps and saw they were the directions. They had detailed how to get out of B
uenos Aires, others for alternative routes to Blanca Bay and others from there towards the west. There were two with different degrees of detail about where to deviate from Route 22. They had to go from General Roca and turn off on Route 6. It was a trip of over six hundred miles.

  He thought about it. It didn’t matter which way they traveled, no vehicle could make that journey on one tank of gas. The Ranger was diesel powered, which had the advantage of being the fuel of most trucks, so the service stations had it in large quantities. That didn’t mean they could access it, if the stations had no power.

  “We’ll have to take a hose.”

  “For?”

  “To siphon fuel from some truck if the gas stations won’t work.”

  “Why don’t we carry drums with fuel?”

  “First, because it would take up space for our things. Second, it would be very dangerous in case of an accident. And third, I want to get out of here as soon as possible.”

  “The truck looks like a gas waster, what if we took a more economical one?”

  “Look, on one hand, it’s new which almost guarantees that we won’t have mechanical problems on the road. If the car breaks down in the middle of the plains, we could die of hunger, thirst, heat or cold before we could get anywhere. Not recommended. On the other hand, the Ranger can go through speed dips or flooded areas where a car could get stuck, and if the trip gets longer, we can sleep in the back. And if we had an accident, with all the security measures this truck has, it’s likely we wouldn’t have much damage. And besides, it’s red, my favorite color.”

  “Okay, okay. I think it’s red on purpose.”

  He thought about all the exams they’d taken and maybe she was right, and they’d chosen that color on purpose. He loved the truck. He’d never bought anything like that—this model cost a small fortune. But if he’d had a lot of money, he would have been hard pressed to find a better truck than this for a long trip. Maybe a motor home.

  “Get in,” he told Sofía, who got in on the passenger side. They closed the door and put on their seatbelts.