Upon This Rock

by David Marusek

  After placing his order, Poppy had forty-five minutes to kill before he could pick it up, and he wandered the store with his cart looking for anything else he may have left off the supply list. Condoms, for one. Tobacco for another.

  Today, the future mob was pushing shopping carts around, planning dinner, and yakking on their phones. He pitied them even as he made his farewell tour of this whole, exploitative, delusional, intoxicating way of life.

  In the corner of his eye, Poppy saw a woman rush by in a red and white track suit. He paid her no mind, but he saw her again a little while later in the frozen desserts aisle. A crowd of other shoppers was making a fuss over her. She had opened a freezer case, and frosty air was spilling out. He made a detour to avoid the scene except that he heard a man shout, “Give ’em hell, Vera,” followed by cheers and applause.

  Vera?

  Poppy immediately backtracked. Abandoning his cart in the cheese aisle, he elbowed his way through the crowd.

  There she was, with her hair in a bun and a huge pair of glasses framing her handsome face. The Barracuda of God. The anointed one. She was lovelier in person than any photo could capture. The common people of Fred Meyerland were loving her, and she was right there loving them back — with local gossip and pointed wisecracks.

  Poppy grew faint. It was finally happening. Father God had brought them together at last.

  How generous she was with her admirers, pressing their flesh, signing autographs, making slow progress toward the distant check-out lanes.

  Finally, she raised her voice above the hubbub and announced, “It’s a thrill to see you all, but Bradd’s waiting for me in the car, and he won’t be happy if this melts before I get there.” She held up a quart container of Gambardella’s Double Dare Chocolate gelato.

  People laughed and made way for her. But Poppy held his ground, and in a moment he was standing face to face with the governor. She gave him a quick once over, from the bald spot on his fuzzy head to the frayed cuffs of his oil-stained Carhartts trousers.

  “Why, if it isn’t Sourdough Sam,” she quipped and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Vera. It’s always a pleasure to meet an old-timey Alaskan.”

  Poppy took her hand and held it gently in his own. He could barely breathe. He was never one to be so starstruck, and she almost pulled away before he managed to say, “NORAD of the North.”

  “Say again?”

  “NORAD of the North, governor. A fortress within a mighty mountain where you will be safe from the greatest armies. I am Poppy Prophecy from McHardy, and me and my family have shelter there for you. Soon the seven angels will pour out their vials of wrath, and the beast will roam the land, and when they do, remember our meeting here today and know that you are welcome at Stubborn Mountain Keep. That is my oath to you. Stubborn Mountain Keep near McHardy, remember it.”

  The rabble around them tittered in embarrassment at his oath making, but not the Woman. No, Vera met his gaze directly and took his measure.

  “Thanks,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  And then she was gone.

  First Contact

  FC1 1.0

  ON TUESDAY MORNING when Jace awoke in his warm bed, the first thing that crossed his mind was that it wasn’t too late to buy a ticket to Colorado. He didn’t have to give up his search, just interrupt it for a while. He’d been scouring the flats for a week now without any results. He knew that he’d seen something unearthly there. The snow circle, though it had been erased by wind and weather, was proof enough. But for all he knew, maybe nothing ever touched the ground except a pressure wave. The falling fireball itself might have burned up so completely that it left behind only dust and ash floating on the breeze.

  On top of that, the weather forecast said a cold wave was moving in, the first bonafide cold snap of the season.

  Jace made the decision over coffee. He would hit it hard today, even skipping Mail Day, and if he didn’t find anything, he’d buy tickets tonight and head to the Anchorage airport tomorrow. With the decision out of the way, Jace packed a lunch, gathered his gear, and set out for another day of grid-walking.

  FC2 1.0

  THE CARAVAN WAS ready to depart at 9:00 a.m., record time for the Prophecy family. Poppy and Proverbs would drive the bus, Hosea and Corny the pickup, and Adam and Sue Krae the U-Haul truck.

  Uzziel would ride along in the truck to serve as Adam and Sue’s chaperone shadow. Though what a little kid could do if the adults decided to sin or what a sin of that sort might even look like was a puzzle to the boy.

  So far, family members had caught only glimpses of Sue, their future in-law. She seemed nice enough, though she didn’t smile much. And she didn’t look like the rest of them. That is, her features were angular and bony, not rounded and angelic. But Adam was smitten with her, and he smiled and joked around a lot when he was with her.

  They started the engines and offered a prayer for a safe journey. Only Cindy Lawther was there to see them off. Ginger waved at her mother from a bus window. The U-Haul left first. Proverbs put the bus into gear to follow, but suddenly all the children were clamoring for him to stop. Calgary, the stowaway cat, was missing. Where was Calgary? They couldn’t leave without Calgary.

  It turned out that no one had seen the tabby for several days, though no one had noted her absence either. After a quick search of bus, house, and yard, Poppy declared the feline lost and ordered Proverbs to drive on. The children were appalled, but no one dared challenge his decision. Cindy said she’d take care of the cat when it returned, but that did little to reassure the children. And so the journey, which had seemed so promising only moments before, started with tears and grief.

  Poppy was suffering his own loss. He had been mostly successful in banishing his former friend from his thoughts, especially after the encounter with Vera Tetlin, which he replayed in his mind in all its tiniest details. But when they passed the exit to NJB’s neighborhood, the image of his friend engaged in sinful deviance came rushing back to him and filled him with revulsion and anger. Revulsion so deep and anger so bitter that not even NJB’s quarter-million-dollar endowment to the family could absolve him of his betrayal. I swear on my life I never harmed anyone. How could that be true when he saw the photo with his own eyes? Photos don’t lie.

  A COUPLE OF hours into the trip, while Poppy was taking a turn at the wheel, Proverbs went to the back of the bus to see if Ginger was comfortable. She and Deut were sharing a seat and talking nonstop. Proverbs gave Deut a hard look and asked her to go make the kids lunch. She replied that she’d already made their lunch, or didn’t he remember the two sandwiches he himself had swallowed? He told her in that case she should make them a snack and not talk back to her elder. But when Deut got up to comply, Ginger went with her saying she wanted to help, leaving Proverbs by himself.

  It was midafternoon when they reached Chitina but already dark. The place was deader than usual, and the caravan blew through town and didn’t stop until it had crossed the Copper River bridge. They pulled over below the steep slope that marked Mile 0 of the McHardy Road. This stretch of road had once been the steepest gradient along the old copper mine railway. Today, a large, orange state highway sign stood on the shoulder of the gravel road and warned:

  TRAVEL BEYOND THIS

  POINT NOT RECOMMENDED

  If that weren’t enough, an even larger sign beneath it read:

  IF YOU MUST USE THIS ROAD

  Expect Extreme Cold/Heavy Snow

  Carry Cold Weather Survival Gear

  Tell Someone Where You Are Going

  While the vehicles idled, the men gathered in the headlights to assess the driving conditions. The temperature was minus twenty-five degrees (–32 C), about average for that time of year, though it was forecast to drop overnight. A few inches of new snow had fallen since their trip out. They decided to put tire chains on the bus and U-Haul truck. From that point on they’d be crawling along. Sometimes it took longer to travel the final fifty-ni
ne miles than the first three hundred.

  The rattling, choppy ride rocked the tired passengers to sleep, and they slept as familiar landmarks passed in the the darkness: the collapsed trestle, the one-lane bridge, the drunken forest. They slept for three hours until they reached Milepost 33 where the caravan came to a halt in front of the first road glacier.

  Here McHardy Road crossed a region of bogs and muskeg that never froze completely. Water flowed under the ice and flooded the roadway, freezing in layers and building up thick sheets of glare ice. Worse, the ice sheets weren’t level but tilted with the natural downward slope of the countryside. Not even tire chains could keep vehicles from sliding sideways off the road. The snowplow had squared things off, but that was a week ago, and a new glacier had formed in the meantime.

  The boys chained up the four-wheel-drive Dodge, and Adam took it across first. No problem.

  The U-Haul was next. Hosea was the one with the hot hand at glacier driving, and he took the wheel of the ungainly truck. Proverbs and Corny spread a bag of sand on the road before him. Hosea eased the engine into gear and crept across the glacier.

  Despite the tire chains, despite the sand, the truck slipped sideways as it moved forward, but Hosea kept the front end pointed uphill and sort of crab-walked it across. When he got to the other side, everyone cheered.

  Hosea crossed back on foot for the bus. When he got behind the wheel, the children were bouncing in their seats. He bellowed at them to settle down and scowled at them in the mirror until they did. He threw the stick into the lowest granny gear and inched the bus forward. The sand helped, and though he slipped sideways, he managed to keep the unwieldy vehicle pointed in the right direction. And he might have made it across if he hadn’t hit a patch of slush. The front right tire broke through it and sank to its axle.

  The boys were prepared for this. They unhooked two stout wooden planks that were affixed to the sides of the bus. They used one plank as a base for jacking up the front end of the bus high enough to ram the second plank under the tire, bridging the gap. Meanwhile, Adam positioned the pickup at the other end of the glacier, chocked its wheels, and walked the winch cable across to the bus. When all was ready, they winched and powered the bus to solid ground. The children cheered again, and Hosea stood up to take a bow.

  Ginger was astonished by the whole operation. “That was amazing,” she said when they were moving again.

  “You think so?” Deut replied. “There’s three more glaciers ahead just like that one.”

  FC3 1.0

  THEY PULLED INTO the parking lot at the end of the world just after midnight. They parked the three vehicles side by side and silenced the engines. The drivers got out to stretch their legs. It had gotten really cold out, as forecast, and they were exhausted. They pulled their hoods up and buried their hands in their pockets.

  “Get to work,” Poppy shouted from the bus doorway. He checked the spark plugs with a flashlight before tossing them out one by one. “Polaris, Yamaha, Skandic.”

  The Skandic refused to start, period, so they were down to two sno-gos and sleds. Deut and Cora put See-Saw, Revie, Uzzie, and Ginger in one sled and Ithy, Frankie, Myrrh, and Solly in the other and buried them all under blankets and sleeping bags. Cora rode behind Adam on the sno-go, and Deut rode behind Proverbs. And off they went.

  Poppy and the others waited in the bus. Adam had loaded the U-Haul so that the perishables and freeze-sensitive cargo were easy to access, and it made no sense to unload anything until the sleds returned.

  Hosea lit the bus’s propane heater, and they sat wearily around it. There would be no sleep tonight for any of them, except maybe for Sue who was looking a little overwhelmed.

  Hosea asked his father, “So when we get everything unloaded, lord, who’s going to return the truck back to Anchorage?”

  Poppy said, “No one.”

  “The rental truck, lord. We can’t just keep it.”

  “This is the Apocalypse, son. If they want their truck back so bad, let them come out here and get it themselves. If they can.”

  The sno-gos returned in record time. They couldn’t have traveled all the way home and back so quickly, and Poppy wondered if there had been trouble on the trail. But the sleds were empty. They had obviously dropped the children off somewhere, but where? Adam and Proverbs let the machines idle and joined the others in the bus. Adam seemed a little nervous as he explained the situation to Poppy.

  “Deut said the children were getting cold and we should stop at the Bunyan’s place to warm them up. I didn’t want to put anyone at risk, so we did that, and while they’re warming up, we thought we’d quick grab another load.”

  “What? That’s foolishness,” Poppy said. “They’ll all be asleep when — What happens when you — Oh, never mind. Who’s this coming here?” Another sno-go had arrived in the parking lot.

  “It’s Chas Bunyan, lord,” Adam said. “Dell’s son.” He pulled the lever to open the bus door, and the young man bounded up the steps. “You remember Chas, lord? You met him two summers ago. He’s home on leave and wanted to help out.”

  Chas removed his face mask, revealing a large, open smile. He took off a glove and offered Poppy his hand. Poppy marveled at how Father God had brought this boy home at this exact time to help the Bunyan family survive the troubles. Crybaby Pastor Bunyan must be doing something right after all.

  “We appreciate the help,” Poppy said. “Pull around to the back of the U-Haul. The rest of you, out! Let’s get this started.”

  They loaded the sleds: six cases of 24-dozen eggs, two hundred cases of canned meat and vegetables, ten 5-gallon buckets of latex-based paint, three hundred cartons of batteries, assorted electronics, shampoo and liquid soap by the gallon, medications and liquids of one sort or another, ball point pens, glue. Anything that could be ruined by freezing. They left enough room in one of the sleds for Sue. And they were off. This time Poppy ordered them to keep going all the way home.

  AGAIN THEY RETURNED too soon, again with empty sleds. Adam apologized and said it was too cold for Sue who wasn’t used to this kind of weather.

  “So you dropped our things in the Bunyan yard to freeze?”

  “No, lord. Pastor Bunyan said we could use their mudroom. Won’t freeze in there, he says, and we can store it there until we can get to it. That’s actually not a bad —”

  “Idiot! You want to load and unload everything twice? You call that a good idea?” Poppy was inclined to say a good deal more, but, in fact, it was too cold to stand around jawing. So they loaded up the three sleds again, and this time Poppy rode in with Chas. He ordered Adam and Proverbs to go all the way home with their loads, no excuses this time, and to let Mama P and Sarai know they were coming. He’d be right behind them with Chas after he’d had a word or two with Deut.

  At the Bunyan place, Poppy’s body was so stiff with cold that he couldn’t lift himself from the sno-go seat, and Chas discreetly and silently helped him until he was steady on his feet.

  Chas said simply, “Cold.” He wasn’t a gabber.

  They walked up the steps and into the mud room. Two sled loads of goods were stacked on the floor at the far end, leaving enough space for the rest of their perishables. It was well below freezing there.

  “Maybe in most years this room won’t freeze,” Poppy said. “But tonight . . .”

  “You might be right, sir,” Chas replied. He picked cartons off the floor and stacked them on the benches against the house logs where they’d be warmer. “We’ll get to them tonight or put them in the house. Don’t worry; I won’t let them freeze.”

  Inside, the house was dark and hushed. A single oil lamp burned in the chapel, otherwise known as the rug room. Eight bear rugs, made from the hides of local black or brown brutes, had been removed from their hooks on the walls and laid out as sleeping mats on the floor. The smallest six children were sleeping two to a bear. Even Deut was sleeping on a bear. When Poppy looked into the chapel, the Holy Spirit spoke to him and said
, Your girls will need spouses too.

  Poppy was still getting used to the idea of his sons finding wives and hadn’t given a thought to the girls. He stole a glance at Chas.

  Just then, Dell Bunyan moused into the chapel and drew Poppy and Chas to the kitchen. The remains of an impromptu meal covered the table and counters. The Bunyans had not only taken in Poppy’s family but fed it too.

  “I guess you met my son,” Dell said. Saying even that much was enough to dampen his eyes. “He’s a Navy SEAL; I don’t know if I ever had the chance to tell you. He’s seen action in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf of Iran, and other places I’m not authorized to disclose.” Tears began to leak down his cheeks.

  At the sight, Poppy ground his teeth in suppressed rage.

  Whether or not Chas would make a good son-in-law was unknown, but if the two families were joined in holy matrimony, Dell would become part of the family too, and Poppy didn’t think he could handle that.

  “Why don’t you sit yourself here next to the stove, Mr. P,” Chas said, ushering him to the kitchen table. “I told Scarlett to make up a guest room for you. But first Dad’ll get you something warm to eat. Won’t you, Dad?”

  “You bet I will.”

  “Thanks, but I can’t stay,” Poppy said. “Too much work to do.”

  “Don’t worry about that, sir,” Chas said. “I can take it from here. If I leave now, I can catch up with Adam and Proverbs.”

  FC4 1.0

  ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH. Late in the afternoon Jace called it quits and turned the Ski-Doo toward the Mizina spur trail and home. He’d given it his best shot; there was nothing more he could do. His sister Kate would be pleasantly surprised to see him. After months of cooking for himself, Jace was looking forward to her Christmas ham and cherry pie. Which reminded him — he needed to buy Christmas gifts along the way. Which further reminded him — he needed to winterize his house on Lucky Strike before departing. There was no sense in heating it while he was gone, and since it lacked water pipes, sink traps, and toilet tanks, he wouldn’t have to worry about major freeze damage. But there were still things he needed to do, like emptying the kitchen slop bucket and moving all of his canned goods to the root cellar. The root cellar under the shed had proven to be a boon, just as Orion Beehymer had claimed when he first showed Jace the property. Summer and winter, it maintained a constant 38 degrees (3 C), the perfect temperature for beer, eggs, milk, fresh fish, and meat. It was as good as a 480 cu. ft. (14 cu. m) refrigerator.