“Don’t stress about it,” Mai-lin said. “I need to stretch my legs anyways. Why don’t I run down to the clock tower and grab them for you.”
“You’re the best, Honey,” Tony said, visibly relaxing.
“And don’t you forget it,” Mai-lin said, giving him a kiss on the way out.
Jane rolled her eyes. She marveled at how the last year had transformed her independent middle-aged friend into Suzy homemaker. Of course she loved Mai-lin, but spending the last few days alone with the love-struck couple was making her sick. With the dead of winter approaching, the other scientists had all left the valley to visit with friends and family. Tony, Mai-lin, and Jane had stayed to wrap things up. But now she really felt like a third wheel and was really looking forward to their flight out tomorrow morning.
“You know, you don’t need to fix that old amplifier,” Jane said. “The replacement works fine, and we’ll be leaving in the morning. We can always bring a new one when we come back.”
“Ah, but it’s the thought that counts,” Tony said. “We shouldn’t allow ourselves the luxury of bringing in new parts all the time. We have to be self-reliant.”
“Yes, but by the time we need to be self-reliant, there won’t be a need for satellite and radio equipment,” she argued. “Who are we going to talk to?”
Central HQ and Port and Starboard Stations were the only areas left with electrical equipment. Over the last year, they had built up packed-earth residences next to the agricultural fields and the beginnings of a town center, all using non-electrically based technology. To Jane, it resembled an old European village. And yet the room they were in was still jam-packed with computers and radio and satellite equipment. Their most important item at HQ was the communications board that allowed them to talk with the team back on the Nimitz. Jane was sitting at the com station when the high-priority call button began flashing.
Jane hit the answer button, perplexed that the Nimitz wasn’t using the standard video call channel. “Hi. Jane here. Why no video?”
Scratchy audio came back over the speakers. “The ....jamming the signal...troop movements towards...Gotta ...get you out....evacuate...mountains. Repeat...mountains now.”
“Wait,” Jane responded. “What’s happening? Who am I talking to?”
“This is Ashton,” he responded. “Mom,.....get out...” The light on the communications board went out. They had lost the signal.
Tony didn’t hesitate. He strode over to the emergency locker and threw a survival pack at Jane. “Head over to the stables,” he said as he started tying extra gear onto his own pack. He finished by strapping another entire survival pack onto his bag before throwing the whole thing over his massive shoulders. “I’ll grab Mai-lin and meet you there.”
Jane strapped the survival pack to her own back and followed Tony out of the room. “The clock tower is more or less on the way,” she said. “I’ll go with you.”
The clock tower was at the center of the newly built town just two miles west of central HQ. Pending agreement on an official name, most people just called it “Poop Deck,” an unfortunate side effect of Ashton’s Ark metaphor. They planned to have the majority of the Terrene population live in the four quadrants of the valley, getting their daily food from the fields nearby. They had built roads from the four quadrants towards the center of the valley where the town was being constructed to house the government offices and a marketplace for trading goods. Over time, Central HQ would no longer be of use, and “Poop Deck” would become the new center of Terrene. Jane certainly hoped they would have a new name for the town by then.
The clock tower was located on the north side of the main square. Of course they didn’t need a clock tower to tell time, not when they still had satellite communications. But Bryce envisioned that centuries later, the clock tower would remain a symbol of unity for Terrene. He had asked them to build a completely mechanical clock that would function for centuries after the last electronic gadget ceased to exist. The scientists and philosophers that made up the majority of Project Phoenix loved the idea. The mechanical engineers designed a massive clock made with giant metal bearings and stone gears. Nothing rallied people together better than a symbolic monument meant to stand the test of time.
In twenty minutes, Jane and Tony reached the outskirts of town. The buildings on either side of the road reached toward them like empty, nameless skeletons, the external walls completed just weeks before. Jane and Tony quickened their pace, both anxious to get to the central square. Gradually a deep roar filled the air, completely shattering the rustic tranquility of Terrene. Tony looked up towards the northern sky. “Military jets,” he yelled over the noise. “Let’s go.” He broke into a run, not bothering to see if Jane would follow. Jane ran after him, just pausing long enough to glance up to see the jets, a cluster of black angular cutouts moving across the perfect blue sky.
They were in the square now. The clock tower loomed over the rest of the buildings. Throughout Terrene they had built only with renewable local materials, but Bryce had made an exception for the clock tower. The building at its base was constructed out of large stone blocks that had been carved from the granite mountains. Steel beams sprung out of the roof to form a skeletal outline of the unfinished tower. They looked jarringly out of place, a modern reminder in a town that looked like it was transported from the past. They were a hundred feet from the clock tower when the door opened. Mai-lin waved. Maybe she said something, but it was all lost in the roar of the jets. And then the building exploded.
Jane wasn’t sure what happened first. She saw a flash of light. She saw nothing. She heard the world explode. She heard nothing. She smelled smoke and ash, tasted dirt and blood. She felt nothing. No, she felt pain. The pain told her she was alive. It told her something bad had happened. It told her to get up.
Minutes passed in seconds, or maybe it was the other way around. She stood up without remembering falling down. She looked at her pain. It flowed from a red shawl draped over her shoulder, writhing and gushing. She ripped off a sleeve and jammed it into the hole, tried to push the red back in. God that hurt. She looked around for Tony. The clock tower had been reduced to a pile of rubble. The steel frame of the tower lay twisted on the ground like strands of spaghetti. And next to the tower, a man knelt in the dirt, hunched shoulders bobbing up and down in steady rhythm.
Jane limped towards Tony. He was leaning over something, no, someone. Jane reached them in time to hear Tony cry out, “No!” He was sobbing angrily. “Don’t leave me.” His eyes shone with determination.
Mai-lin looked like a mess, which really wasn’t like her at all. Her legs were streaked with blood and dirt. One of them was crushed underneath some rubble from the wall. There was something misshapen about her body, something turned the wrong way. But her face was somehow unscarred. She looked calm, serene, and beautiful, like she was having a pleasant dream. “Is she okay?” Jane asked.
Tony ignored her, his head buried in Mai-lin’s chest. He clenched his fists together and began CPR again, pressing down on her chest in a well-practiced ritual. But Jane could see it in Tony’s eyes. It was hopeless. “Why?” he whispered, sobbing as he continued trying relentlessly to pump her heart. Jane wanted to say something, but her voice was caught in the back of her throat. Perhaps a miracle would happen. Perhaps this was just a dream.
Minutes passed in silence. Mai-lin’s body flopped wildly under Tony’s steady pounding, like a child’s doll being stomped on by a cruel dog. Her skin had turned pale, but still Tony continued. Jane couldn’t watch anymore and looked away. The body didn’t look like her friend anymore. That wasn’t Mai-lin. Someone had played a cruel joke, replaced her with a manikin.
But eventually she turned to look once more, to see that Tony had finally stopped. He lifted her body off the ground like she weighed nothing, tilting her up so that he could cradle her head. “Don’t leave me,” he repeated. “Don’t leave me...Mai-lin.”
************
&nb
sp; Tony wiped away his tears, picked up his bag, and started walking towards the stables. Jane put her hand on his shoulder, “Shouldn’t we bury her?” she asked.
Tony didn’t even pause. “No time for that.” He said, not looking back. “We have to get moving.”
“But,” she started to say. But Tony was already halfway across the square.
They walked in silence. Jane looked for a hint of sadness on Tony’s face. She hoped to find someone to cry with, to share in the all-consuming pain she felt welling up in the pit of her stomach. But Tony seemed devoid of emotion. He didn’t give her time to talk or think. He just kept pushing towards their next destination, towards their next task.
Twenty minutes later, Jane and Tony walked into the stables on the western outskirts of the town. A year back, Bryce had flown in several horses at an enormous cost. The biologists believed that the Terrene climate would be perfectly suited for horses, and the use of domesticated animals could be invaluable to the growing nation. They had initiated a breeding program, but it would be decades before a sizable herd would roam these fields.
The noises from the jets and the bombs must have spooked the horses. They were jumping around nervously inside their locked stalls. She walked up to the large white mare in the back left corner and started petting her to calm her down. “Easy there, Snowdrift,” she whispered. “Easy, Girl.”
Tony wasted no time. He unlocked the two gates on the right side of the stable, letting the frantic horses escape from the confines of their stalls. Then he went over to the last stall and let out a giant black stallion. He grabbed the reigns, quickly getting the stallion under control. Then he leapt onto his bare back and ran him in a tight circle in the middle of the stable.
“Mount up,” he said to Jane. “We need to get as far away from here as possible.”
Over the last few months, Jane had learned to ride bareback. When she had been a child, she had never had the urge to ride horses, unlike so many other girls her age. However, it was never too late to find a new passion. After a few runs with Snowdrift, Jane had fallen in love. She now spent much of her free time riding Snowdrift. All that practice was about to pay off.
Jane led Snowdrift out of the stall and launched herself onto her back. She wasn’t as graceful as Tony, but she was pretty good. The first time she had tried riding, Tony had called her a natural. Jane didn’t have much time to be proud of herself. Tony spurned his horse out of the stables as soon as he saw that she was mounted. Jane hastily rode after him.
Pulling up beside him, Jane asked, “Where are we heading?”
“Southern mountains,” he replied. “Port Station is hidden from satellite view and should be a safe place to hide out for a little while. Then maybe we’ll head down the other side towards Lhuntse. If we’re lucky, the Chinese won’t push any deeper into Bhutan, and we can find safe haven there.”
“The Chinese?” she asked. “How do you know it was the Chinese who attacked us?”
“The planes flew in from the north,” he replied. “And the jets that bombed the town...” He grimaced. “JF-32’s. They’re mixed fighter/bomber jets that have been the mainstay of the Chinese military for the last twenty years.”
“But why attack us?” she asked.
“No idea,” he said. “But I don’t intend to wait for their ground troops to arrive and tell me.”
Jane glanced back at the town just in time to see more explosions light up the sky. The entire village, everything they worked so hard for, all of it was being destroyed. She looked to the east where Central HQ was located. A column of smoke rose into the air. She looked back towards the stables that they had left just minutes ago. A small crater stood in its place. She turned around and pushed Snowdrift to a full gallop. She didn’t look back again until she reached the hills at the base of the southern cliff face.
Tony lifted up a hand, signaling for her to stop. They could see dark shapes hovering over the remains of the town. Several descended into the smoky ruins. “They’re putting down infantry,” Tony said, a hint of disgust in his voice. “They’ll be all over the valley in a few hours.”
Tony led them to the cliff face, to the spot where Jane had almost been crushed by a rockslide just a year ago. The rock shaped like a man’s head stood exactly where she remembered it, nose high in the air, as if pointing the way to Port Station. “We’ll have to leave the horses here and make the rest of the trip on foot,” Tony said, dismounting. He brushed his stallion’s dark mane and then gave him a sharp slap on the rear. “Hopefully, the horses can take care of themselves,” he said, watching the stallion trot back towards the valley.
Jane did the same with Snowdrift and then followed Tony up the steep trail towards Port Station. Her glasses tracked her route and provided her with ample data to keep her mind distracted from the horrible events that had just transpired. Her estimated time of arrival was five hours and twelve minutes. It was five degrees below zero Celsius up at Port Station with 8mph easterly winds. Skies were clear, but there was an 18” base of snow on the ground. Her heart rate was 95 beats per minute. Oh, and someone had just bombed their town, and her oldest and dearest friend was dead. That was some valuable information that her glasses missed.
Halfway up the mountain, Tony stopped dead in his tracks. Jane followed his gaze to a group of ant-sized dots scurrying along the road in their direction. “Are your specs on?” he asked curtly. Jane nodded. Tony cursed. “Turn them off,” he said. “Now. They must have tracked us somehow.” He turned around and started heading back down the trail.
“Where are you going?” Jane asked.
“I’m going to leave our pursuers a little gift,” he replied. “If they think they can just waltz into our valley and take what’s ours...” Jane could see a deep and troubling anger begin to bubble up past Tony’s stony exterior. But then he broke a smile as if he was joking. “Go on ahead without me. I’ll meet you at the Port.” He tapped his temple. “Remember, no electronics.” Then he scrambled down the path and out of view.
************
Jane climbed up the final ascent to reach the top of the cliff. She bent over, resting her hands on her knees as she struggled to breathe. Jane was in excellent shape, but the high elevation made her feel like she had run twice as far. The freezing air scratched at her lungs as she gulped in breath after breath. She tried to soften the impact by inhaling through her jacket sleeve, and slowly, she calmed down. She would have sat down, but the ground around her was covered in snow and she hadn’t dressed appropriately.
She took a moment to take in the view. From this one spot, she could see the entire valley of Terrene stretched out below her. Towards the south, her vision was occluded by mountains and hills, but between their white-spotted walls, she could just barely make out a hint of the Bhutan valleys.
Suddenly a loud rumble filled the air. Jane looked down towards Terrene to see a cloud of dust erupt below her: another rock slide. At the bottom of the cliff, near the head-shaped rock, she could see tiny black figures running away from the cliff as giant rocks came tumbling down. This must have been the surprise that Tony had prepared for them. But though the act may have helped Tony work through his rage, it did little to stop the advancing troops. Even now, the tiny black dots headed back towards the cliff. She had better get to the Port and hope that the Chinese wouldn’t find it.
Jane walked to the edge of a stony precipice opposite from the cliff she had just ascended. A small gorge was cut into the rock, its floor fifty feet below her. Looking across the gorge, Jane could see a building tucked under an overhang that formed a shallow cave on the other side. The small metal dome looked out of place underneath the grand arch of granite that framed it. Tony had insisted that they build the Port so that it was hidden from the view of satellites. The scientists had thought he was being paranoid and grumbled at the extra labor it took to build in such a secluded spot. Now Jane was glad that she had lost that battle.
At first glance, it looked like th
ere was no way to get to the bottom of the gorge without using rope. However, there was a narrow passageway hidden to the left of where Jane stood. Tony had carved the path with a mixture of lasers and explosives, but he hadn’t made it easy. Jane still needed to use both hands to navigate her way down to the bottom.
By the time she reached the floor, her hands were numb and bloodied from gripping onto rock and ice. She had only two hundred feet to go before she reached the door to the Port. Inside she would find food, warmth, and even a bed. Her legs felt like cement blocks as she trudged through the thick snow. Her toes felt nothing. The ordeals of the day threatened to overwhelm her mind, but she pushed those thoughts away, thinking only of the warmth that the door ahead promised.
When she reached the door, she pushed it open and collapsed on the floor. She was rewarded with a soothing warmth that sunned her face and radiated throughout her body. Despite the horrors of the day, Jane felt genuinely and simply happy. She smiled as she hugged the floor with her eyes closed and dreamt about a beach in Thailand. She felt the warm white sand between her fingers, smelled the brine in the air, heard the calls of seabirds in the distance and saw a pair of black leather shoes.
She snapped back into reality as she became suddenly aware of the presence of others in the Port. “How nice of you to join us,” a man said pleasantly in an accented staccato. “I have been looking forward to meeting you, Dr. Ingram.”
************
“Why are you here?” Jane demanded. Two Chinese men lifted Jane off the floor and sat her down in a chair opposite the man with the leather shoes. One of them handed her a cup of warm tea which she was now sipping eagerly. The apparent hospitality of her captors didn’t dampen her anger at all. They had bombed her town. They had killed Mai-lin. And now a fatherly Asian man wearing an argyle sweater sat in front of her calmly drinking tea. “Well?”