I

He wasn’t going away.

Why wasn’t he just taking the hint?

“She belongs with me,” Simon insisted, his brow darkening as his stare intensified. “It’s nothing against you, man; I’m sure you’re a great guy. It’s just the way it is, she belongs to me. You should really just let her go.”

Derrin felt his fists ball up instinctively. He had never considered himself a violent person, but this man was pushing his resolve. Suzette had told him how assertive and infuriatingly pompous Simon could be, but nothing that she had shared with him could have prepared him for this level of self-assurance.

Suzette was standing by his side, clinging to him like the classic “damsel in distress”. Derrin had wrapped his arm around her waist, and he was holding her frightened, shaking body against his own. He hated to admit it, but this situation was making him feel like a brave hero, fighting for his woman’s honor. Simon, however, was hardly the dragon that he was prepared to fight. He could not even be considered a black rogue knight. He was more of a goblin: a very good-looking, exceptionally well-dressed goblin.

“What are you not understanding about this situation?” Derrin asked, struggling to keep his voice level. “She has told you, over and over, that she does not want to be with you. Would it not be a better idea for you to accept that? If you truly cared about her, you would respect her wishes, and leave her alone.”

Simon laughed in a dismissive way that made Derrin want to backhand the teeth out of his face. “’Rrin, search your heart,” he said, smiling widely with a mouthful of perfectly white, shiny targets. “Do you really think she would say that to me? I know you’re a big nova right now, with your adventure book and movie, but you’re a phase. You’ll go supernova like all the rest of the phases have, and you’ll simply be back to simply being an unattractive guy with a little bit of money. I’m a planet, with my own gravitational pull. I never go out of orbit. Do you really think that she would say no to that?”

“I did,” Suzette whimpered into his side, barely audible. “I told him that I did not want him anymore.”

Derrin could handle Simon insulting his status. After all, he could be right. He could handle Simon insulting his physicality. While he was in good shape, he was still appeared to be lumbering giant with a clump of shaggy red hair on his head. Simon was practically an Adonis, with his perfect complexion, his finely-styled black hair, and his bright blue eyes. After hearing him speak, Derrin could imagine him, falling in love with his own reflection. Listening to what he was saying made Derrin wish that he would actually suffer that fate and leave him alone with his swan.

What Derrin could not handle was Simon so flippantly disregarding his swan’s opinions, as if she had no choice of her own.

“You need to go,” Derrin said, through grit teeth, his rage beginning to boil over. “You are not welcome here and, if you insist on staying where you are, the authorities will be alerted.”

The condescending laugh came again. “’Rrin--” Simon began.

“My name,” Derrin raised his voice, feeling his calm slipping out of his head “is Dr. Clarke!”

“Oh-Ho,” Simon laughed, pantomiming shock and awe, “so sorry to offend you ’doctor Clarke’. I had forgotten how real and powerful you were, and how inferior I was to your level of social status. I will leave as you have commanded, but first, allow me a final request. Let me have a final moment, alone, with my woman. I want to hear her answer, first hand, without outsider influence. If I am unable to convince her of the logical choice, then I will accept her answer, and leave.”

Simon reached through the open doorway into Derrin’s apartment, toward Suzette, as if to take hold of her by force. Red suddenly flashed in front of Derrin’s eyes. With one arm, he pulled Suzette back, and closer to his body. With the opposite hand, he reached across his body and gripped Simon’s extended arm aggressively. He heard Simon yelp with surprise, perhaps from his strength, or perhaps from the fact that such an under-moisturized palm was touching the expensive, imported fabrics of his shirt.

“Get out of my house!” Derrin growled, pushing the arm back forcefully, sending Simon spinning backward. He tripped and fell to the ground, his mouth falling open in a shocked gasp, his fair skin blushing deeply. Reaching quickly for the panel, Derrin activated the door, closing it, and deactivating the external sensor.

Suzette began to cry, as Derrin held her tightly, watching on the exterior monitor as Simon stood to his feet, rage radiating off of his face. He smoothed down his clothing, then began to scream and pound on the door. The deactivated external sensor dampened any disruptive sound, so the aggression could not be heard audibly, but Derrin heard it in his head.

“Did you see what he did to me?”

“How could you leave me for that?”

“It’ll be you one day, I swear it; one day, you’ll be the one he’s tossing around!”

“I’m sorry you had to see me like that,” Derrin whispered to his sobbing lover. “I should not have resorted to that level of primordial rage.”

Suzette shook her head as best she could with her face buried in his chest. “You had no choice,” she gasped. “It’s the only thing that he understands. He kept me for so long, and I was so afraid. You saved me. Thank you for saving me then, and thank you for protecting me now.”

Derrin guided her quivering body with him to the couch, where he sat down, placing her next to him. The crying slowed and eventually stopped, as she slid her head down his chest, resting it in his lap. Derrin tried to look away from the exterior monitor, but he could not. Simon’s rage seemed to be drawing to a close, as he stopped pounding on the door, choosing to glare at the screen instead.

“You belong with me, Suzette,” he mouthed, exaggerating each word. “No one else can take care of you like I can. You’ll see. Once your nova goes super, you’ll come to me. You belong to me.”

Derrin wondered how much of that statement had been translated correctly. His lip-reading wasn’t exactly his most prized skill, after all. He also wondered how much of the translation was actually true.

He wondered how much of the message Suzette had seen, from where she was positioned in his lap, her head facing the screen.

He wondered how much of it she believed.

II

Derrin awoke to Claire’s staggered breathing, her head resting comfortably on his chest. There was an elaborate analog clock, just like the ones that he had always been secretly fascinated with, on the wall opposite the bed. The short hand was pointed at the nine, while the long one was pointed, somewhat indirectly, at the five. Unless he had forgotten how to read a clock, this meant that it was approaching 9:25.

It took a moment for him to remember everything that was happening. It was not as bad as the last time that he had woken up from a deep sleep, but the adjustment period still needed to be respected. He was at the end of the world, he knew that. While his current location was comfortable and soothing, the world outside of it wanted him dead, he and the rest of his team. Living in Syracuse, with all the comforts of a vacation resort, it was easy to forget that the world which they were living in was so hostile. Sleeping next to Claire, her breathing matching the beat of his heart, it was easy to forget how alone he was.

144,000 people, left on Earth.

That thought alone was staggering. When Derrin considered all the lives that had been lost during the war, he felt dizzy. He had yet to consider the lives of the people that he had known, since he was saving that for a time when he was in a better place, emotionally. He was in charge of the Earth now, and humans were an endangered species.

All those thoughts were easy to dismiss, while Claire was sighing peacefully beside him, stretching as she woke up.

“Good morning, Dr. Clarke,” she smiled up at him, the slight odor of morning halitosis drifting into his nostrils. “I apologize if what happened last night was less than professional.”

Derrin laughed, aware that his own breath more than likely held the same properties. “If you’re uncomfortable with the circumstances,” he chuckled “we can just tell the others that you were monitoring my sleep apnea.”

“Oh, that would be good,” Claire giggled, as she climbed Derrin’s chest, placing a slight kiss on his cheek. “No one would get suspicious of a disease that was eradicated over 50 years ago.”

Derrin paused, mentally, as he considered whether or not he should correct her timetable. He decided to leave it alone. After all, 550 years was still over 50 years. There was no need to be petty over the details.

After a moment of laying together in silence, Claire once again kissed Derrin’s cheek before sliding out of the bed. Derrin felt his body respond to her, as she moved, and then again, when she left the bed. The silk mesh of her gown, which fell to her mid thigh, did very little to conceal her anatomy, and he found his eyes drifting to the black thong, which clearly juxtaposed itself against the peach shade of the fabric. The two of them had shared a bed, but had not engaged in intimacy. That had been all right: after all, they had just gone through something of a big day, and they had both been exhausted. It had not been the time for that, so Derrin had not pressed the point. There would be plenty of time for that in the future. Still, as Derrin failed in his attempt to look away from the plump, rounded shape of her backside, he began to regret not making a stronger advance.

“Do you see something that you like, cosmonaut?” a sultry voice asked, bringing him back to reality.

Derrin was jerked back to reality quickly, his eyes darting from Claire’s body to her face, looking at him over her shoulder with a whimsical smile, like a frightened teenager. “What?” he blurted out, “I was just-- , I didn’t mean to--,”

His eyes fell, and he sighed as he felt his cheeks blazing in a more radiant shade than his hair. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled nervously.

Claire giggled lightly, turned to face the bed once more, leaning forward so that her generous breasts brushed against Derrin’s body, making his reaction even more difficult to conceal. “We were friends before the experiment,” she said, her hand stroking the stubble on Derrin’s unshaven jawline. “It only makes sense that we would draw closer, now that the world has ended.”

Derrin smiled at the idea, but did not feel confident enough to reciprocate contact yet. He felt as if any move that he made would result in an unwelcome expulsion from his already throbbing reaction to her touch. Claire’s blue eyes sparkled as she looked at him, but her smile seemed sly, perhaps a bit seductive. He wanted to reach for her, to pull her closer to him, to press his mouth to hers, to kiss her, deeply, with their equally rancid breath creating a Molotov cocktail of toxic odor. Even with her, laying across him, the body pressed against his, he found that he didn’t have the courage to make an advance, and he hated himself for that. He prayed that she would read the unspoken invitation in his eyes and engage him further. Passion pulsed through his body as she arched her back, sliding her breasts across his torso, and stood again.

“Do you mind if I use your shower?” she asked, politely, as though he had the option to refuse her. “I would feel strange, walking back to my room, alone, in this wardrobe. It might give Mikhail the wrong message.”

The last sentence was meant as a joke, and it made Derrin chuckle, but it also made him realize that he didn’t want Mikhail to see her in that outfit either. He nodded his approval: “Yeah, that’s fine. My clothing will probably not fit you, but I have a bathrobe which should do the job of covering you in transit.”

Breathing in deep, Derrin summoned his courage. “Unless you’d like to wear it to breakfast,” he blurted out before he had time to stop himself. “We could have breakfast together, like a date, if you would like.”

Claire giggled and rolled her eyes. “Breakfast together, in the common room? I don’t know, you’re moving a little fast there, Casanova. Would we sit together and everything?”

“Well, what do you want from me?” Derrin chuckled. “All the romantic bistros are closed.”

“I would love to share breakfast with you, in your bathrobe,” Claire smiled. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a big date to get ready for, and I have to make sure that I’m pretty enough for him.”

She spun toward the washroom then, flipping her negligee up enough to reveal her backside. As she stepped toward the shower, she thrust her hips seductively, and Derrin laughed approvingly. As she stepped through the door to the washroom, Claire looked over her shoulder at Derrin one last time, gracing him with a lavish wink.

As the door to the washroom slid closed, Derrin lay back in his bed, trying to get rid of the reaction which was still pressed against his sheets. He had been single for over a year… over 501 years, so maybe it was time to start thinking about a relationship again. It was a new world, after all.

As his reaction began to subside, Derrin realized that he probably should have offered to shower with her.

III

Her lab felt like her home, and the corpse of the dead gopher was her roommate. Tenzin had been awake since five in the morning, meditating and doing her morning exercise. The dark energies, forced into her by this creature, were getting excised, and she could feel her equilibrium returning to a more balanced center. Within 90 minutes, she was prepared to get to her lab. Throwing a lab coat over her sleeping attire seemed efficient enough for the time. She would change into more reasonable clothing, once she progressed further into the day.

She had been in the lab now for almost three hours, picking up the dissection process, exactly from where she had left it off on the previous night. There were many things about this creature which were curious, such as the enlarged organs and the toxic saliva. She could not determine an element which would allow for this property to exist, but she was very aware that it did. She would probably need to examine a sample, contributed from a living subject. Even in the contained state that she had kept the body in, the saliva glands had dried up. From what she had seen so far, there were no active poison gland, so whatever had contributed to the creature’s radioactivity would need to have originated from their DNA. Of course, that theory alone caused more questions to rise than she was ready to analyze right now, primarily the question of how this creature (genetically similar to a gopher) could have radioactive properties directly tied to their genetic code.

The easy answer was obviously that prolonged exposure to nuclear energy had modified or influenced the evolutionary process. While humanity had died off (although that was could neither be confirmed nor denied with the limited information that they had at the moment), these creatures would have survived, at least in a some form. Five hundred years was enough time for some basic evolutionary changes, especially considering the added element of radiation in the atmosphere.

Tenzin stopped herself before she got too lost in her own thoughts. There were still many, many questions that would need to be answered. She really needed a live subject to do tests on, but that did not seem like it was likely to happen soon, based on the initial aggression that the team had experienced from the gopher. Now, she was beginning to hate that she had been the one who had been successfully attacked, for a completely different reason than she had hated it before. Had it been Derrin, the big survivalist, it would have been easier to convince the team that allowing a live creature, under heavy sedation, into the base was the best option for her research purposes. Now, with Josh walking about like the great hero and Claire making familial gestures toward her, her suggestion would likely be met with extreme caution.

“Archimedes,” Tenzin called the host. “Bring me some green tea, gyokuro if at all possible, tempered with a dash of organic cow’s milk. Also, a bowl, containing cottage cheese, topped with quinoa.”

“I can do that,” Achimedes’ voice answered through the intercom. “A ’please’ and ’thank you’ would be appreciated, but I doubt that you’ll acknowledge that.”

“You’re a manufactured intelligence,” Tenzin felt obligated to remind him. “Your emotional state is not my primary concern.”

“My circuit board is hurt,” Archimedes replied sarcastically.

Tenzin chose to ignore that comment. Any reply would have just been to entertain his artificial ego, and that was not something that she was interested in doing. She did find it strange, the more that she thought about it, that she felt a stronger connection to Archimedes than any of the other members of her party, including Joshua, a man who had placed himself in harm’s way, in order to protect her. It was curious that this action caused her to feel, if possible, less affectionate toward Joshua. She wasn’t sure if this was because she felt as though she owed him something, or because she hated that he had seen her in such a compromised position. Derrin had, technically, seen her in the same circumstances, but she did not feel any differently about him.

Maybe it was because of the way that Joshua had looked at her, when passing the medical bay, asking to walk with her down the hall. She did not enjoy feeling like a victim, or as a potential romantic partner. She did not like people looking at her with concerned stares. It was natural for Joshua to do that, of course, and she ought not to resent him for it. Something about the interaction brought out that response.

Since she was going to be living with him for the foreseeable future, she really ought to modify her social algorithms. In the old world, she could have simply avoided people who caused her discomfort. Now, social interaction was not only unavoidable, it was practically required for survival. Isolation was not an option.

That was the most annoying thing about the new world so far.

Within ten minutes, Archimedes arrived in the lab with her requested breakfast. Accepting the tray, she nodded to him, picked up the tea, and sipped it, or focus remaining deeply engaged with the mysteries presented by the autopsy. Archimedes, absent his signature cigar, remained standing in the lab, examining her work. After a moment, Tenzin sighed, and returned her teacup to the tray, which she set on a flat surface, opposite her examination table.

“Did you need something?” she asked him, allowing the annoyance evoked from every aspect of her current situation into her voice.

“Well, I was going to ask what that gopher ever did to you,” Archimedes said, smugly smirking. “I guess I already know the answer to that, though, don’t I?”

“You do,” Tenzin nodded, picking up the bowl of cottage cheese and stirring the quinoa through it before taking a bite. “You also know that she started it.”

Archimedes chuckled. “The other members of your group have been referring to her with masculine pronouns,” he replied, laughing to himself. “I’ve resisted the urge to correct them, since it was kind of entertaining hearing them. I do have to admit that I’m relieved, having one of you correctly identifying the gender.”

Tenzin resisted the urge to laugh, along with Archimedes. “You really are a jackass, aren’t you?” she asked, allowing the small shadow of a smile to creep onto her lips.

“Admitting that I am a jackass would be acknowledging a personality,” Archimedes cautioned her, as he bent over the examination table, looking at the autopsy. “Are you sure you want to venture into that territory? I am, after all, only an autonomous projection.”

Tenzin finished her cottage cheese, shaking her head half in annoyance, half in defeat. “All right,” she sighed, returning to her tea. “Tell me what you see in my autopsy.”

Archimedes nodded, and continued his examination of the dissembled creature. “I assume that you’ve already noted the radioactivity, tied to the gopher’s DNA?” he commented.

“I had my suspicions,” Tenzin confirmed, stepping up to stand beside Archimedes. “The question is, what could have caused that reaction? Radiation typically breaks down the genetic code, rather than enhancing it. The gopher’s body should have rejected the radiation, to the point of self-destruction. It wouldn’t simply accept it.”

Archimedes frowned, shaking his head. “You’re thinking with the logic of a dead world,” he answered. “I know that, with the knowledge that you’ve recovered of this new world, it’s your only choice right now. Are you able to postulate a set of circumstances that would allow for this new reality to exist?”

Tenzin frowned, considering everything that she knew about chemicals and their reaction to biology. There was nothing in her mental lexicon that would have allowed for this set of properties to exist.

“Adaptation,” she replied after a moment of desperate thought. “500 years would not be enough time for any massive steps in the evolutionary process, but a species could adapt to survive much faster, on a microbial scale.”

Archimedes nodded. “That was the theory that I was considering as well,” he replied. “Further examination will, obviously, be required. Still, based on the limited knowledge that we have now, that’s my guess.”

Tenzin finished her tea, returning the cup to the tray. “Right,” she said. “I need to find a living subject for further--”

Archimedes laughed. “After your last encounter with these creatures,” he interrupted “neither Dr. Clarke nor Mr. Stein are going to like that proposal.”

“I am aware,” Tenzin sighed. “I need to think of a way to get around that. Either way, I’ve gone as far as I’m willing to go with this autopsy for the moment. Can you place a stasis field around the table for now? I’ll return later to examine the brain.”

Archimedes nodded, “consider it done.”

“Thank you,” Tenzin heard herself saying reflexively. She turned to leave the laboratory.

“...and thank you for breakfast,” she muttered quietly.

“You’re very welcome, Dr. St. Crow,” Archimedes chuckled in a proud way. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of your dishes as well.”

Tenzin ignored him. As she walked from the lab, turning toward her room in order to finish getting dressed, she justified the comment to herself. Even if he was simply an artificial intelligence, he had still been helpful. He deserved to be thanked, even if he didn’t have the capacity to fully appreciate it.

IV

Josh walked into the common room around eleven, where he found both Derrin and Claire, sitting in the center of the couch, almost uncomfortably close to one another. Derrin was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a tanktop, while Claire was wearing a bathrobe. More precisely, she was being swallowed whole by a bathrobe. The only way that she was wearing her own robe was if the Illuminati had massively miscalculated her measurements. Claire may have been curvier, with wider hips and bust, than Tenzin, but she was only about five-foot, three and maybe 140 pounds, soaking wet. The robe that she was wearing seemed to have been designed for a much larger individual.

Someone like Derrin.

Chuckling to himself as he connected the dots, Josh slid into a seat across from the couch. Derrin raised the coffee cup he was holding to him in salute, smiling in return. Josh nodded, noticing the remains of the breakfast they’d been sharing on the dirty dishes, which were still on the table in front of them: eggs, bacon, waffles, and fruit, along with a mostly-drained bottle of white wine. Josh continued to smile as his eyes drifted from Derrin to Claire and back.

“Is everyone else still sleeping,” he asked casually, “or did you two reserve the room to yourself?”

Claire shrugged, a motion that Josh wouldn’t have noticed at all through the massive robe, if not for the movement of her collarbones. “We were kind of expecting the others to be up and about,” she admitted, scooting away from Derrin slightly in order to reach for a glass, filling it with the remaining wine. “I’m pretty sure Tenzin’s awake, but I don’t know about Bart or Mikhail.”

“I’m glad you’re here, though,” Derrin interjected. “I wanted to discuss our plans for the day with you, specifically. Will you join me for a morning smoke?”

Josh smiled. It had been quite awhile since he had smoked; he had stopped smoking about four months before the project’s initiation, mostly because he had not expected there to be access to cigarettes in this new world. The thought of getting a chance to smoke a cigarette again was conflictingly exciting.

Claire excused herself from the room, saying that she was going back to her room, in order to get dressed. Derrin looked as if he was about to stand and follow her, but he stopped himself, instead calling for Archimedes and requesting a cigar. Josh joined in that request, asking for a pack of Turkish Dream and a quail egg omelet with Gouda cheese and mango salsa. After the order, Derrin raised an eyebrow at the pretentious diet.

“Hey, man,” Josh laughed, sliding back in his seat, and kicking his feet up on the table “if we’re stuck here at the end of the world, I’m going to eat like tobacco hasn’t ruined my taste buds.”

Derrin laughed loudly: “Hey, you’ll have no judgment here.”

“So, you and Claire, huh?” Josh winked at Derrin slyly. “That didn’t take long.”

Derrin shook his head, as if trying to dismiss the thought. “It’s not like that,” he claimed, his blush denying his words, even as he spoke them. “She just… I mean to say, we’re not really doing anything. She came last night, but nothing happened. We just shared a bed.”

“You don’t need to justify yourself, Clarke,” Josh replied, smirking. “You two were friends before the freeze. I’m not saying that there was an office poll for how long it would take for the two of you to hook up, but it isn’t illogical. I’m not one to judge, though; relationships have never been my thing. Before the experiment, I was living with a fembot which I had programmed to look like the 20 century model, Jane Fonda.”

Derrin paused. “I have no idea who that is,” he admitted.

“She was the original Barbarella,” Josh said. “You know, before the remake with Trella Ubstone.”

“That was a terrible movie,” Derrin sighed, his head falling into his hands. “The scientific inaccuracies were--”

“No one watches Barbarella movies for science,” Josh told him, holding up his hand to stop the argument. “They watch to see breasts in zero gravity. Anyway, that’s all beside the point. What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?”

Archimedes entered the room them, carrying a tray which contained their respective orders. “I like how you guys just assume that I’ll have your product available without bothering to ask,” he grumbled as he placed the tray on the table. “No question, just ’bring me what I want, digital slave’.”

“I’m sorry,” Josh parried as he began to combine the Gouda and salsa with his egg “did you have trouble finding the ingredients for the requested food?”

Archimedes grumbled, and began to gather the dirty dishes from the table: “That was not the point.”

“Archimedes, while I have you here,” Derrin began “I wanted to ask you where the closest body of freshwater was to this location.”

“There’s The Whispering Lake, a little over seven miles to the southeast of here,” Archimedes said casually. “When the water was last tested, it was fresh. You would need to test it again, in order to determine it’s alkalinity.”

“Can you just go and--?” Josh started.

“Do not ask me to go test the water myself,” Archimedes spun on him quickly, with a glare.

Josh snickered maliciously. It would have been illogical to think that it was even possible for Archimedes to preform that action, since he was likely held within the constraints of the network. The network was contained within Syracuse, but it was likely extended by the Oracles which they all wore on their arms. There was no sense in thinking that there would be a signal, seven miles away.

Thinking back, Josh remembered the stories that he had heard about The Whispering Lake, originally called Lake Utah. It became known as Whispering Lake during the Utah Rebellion in 2101, because of the network of spies which had used the shores for their operations. They had used modified signals, bounced off the GPS trackers placed on both the fish and along the shoreline, in order to send encoded messages to spies on the other side of the 20-mile lake. The spies were instrumental in bringing information back to the government, and they were able to shut down the terrorists quickly, restoring order to the state.

Josh had wondered, occasionally, if the insurgents would still be called terrorists, had they been on the other side of the conflict.

“All right,” Derrin nodded. “Archimedes, would you mind uploading the coordinates into our Oracles?”

Archimedes nodded. “Consider it done. Now, if you both will excuse me, I apparently have dishes, which you are extremely capable to cleaning for yourself, to do.”

Archimedes left the room with an armful of dishes and a pompous stride. Josh looked to Derrin, curiosity pouring from his eyes. Derrin was focused on the map, which had been uploaded to his Oracle. “What are you thinking, doc,” Josh asked.

“We need to form an expedition party,” Derrin replied. “I would like for the party to include you, Bart, Claire, and myself. The most logical trek that we could take would be to the closest source of water.”

Josh nodded. “That sounds like a logical step. May I ask why you’re choosing to not include Tenzin? She would be a valuable asset, with her background and education.”

“At least one party should remain at the base,” Derrin answered. “With her recent injury, I thought that it was more logical to have her remain behind on this particular expedition. When I checked in with her last, she was pretty engaged in the autopsy, anyway. I doubt that she’d even want to join us.”

Josh understood that logic and, while he didn’t like the idea of going without Tenzin, he could appreciate it. He could also appreciate why Derrin was hesitant to leave Mikhail alone on the base. Actually, since Derrin had failed to even acknowledge Mikhail, he may have forgotten about him.

“So, when do you think this trek should happen?” Josh asked. “Since you already asked Archimedes to upload the coordinates, I’m assuming that means--”

“--today.” Derrin concluded the thought, nodding confidently. “A seven mile hike over rough terrain should take about three hours, disregarding any x-factors, so we should be prepared to clear an area and set up camp, next to the water source once it’s reached.”

“We didn’t make it very far last time, without encountering an x-factor.”

“We did not. This is why I think we should include a larger party, carry more weaponry, and be more prepared for the conflict that will inevitably come about.”

Josh had to admit, he was excited about the prospect of a camping trip, although that was not Derrin’s motivation. As the two of them continued to discuss the details of the trip and the required inventory, his anticipation grew. He wanted to get into the grit and the dirt, exploring how the world had changed. It was shockingly both intimidating and stimulating, exploring a completely alien world that he had lived on, all of his life. He was the architect, crafting the blue prints to the new world.

That thought almost gave him a panic attack.

V

Claire began to question herself, almost immediately after leaving Derrin’s side in the common room. As soon as the door was shut behind her, she picked up the pace of her walk, hoping to avoid interaction with any of the other residents. She was very obviously wearing Derrin’s robe, since it was nearly twice her size. Josh had figured it out immediately. Claire wanted to avoid anyone else figuring it out. Even as the small, intimate group that they were, she did not want to damage her reputation.

Of course she cared about Derrin, that was never a question. Everyone knew that they were friends before the experiment began. It was natural for them to be clinging to each other so closely, especially in this environment. The relationship that the two of them shared was a remnant from the old world, from the life that they had left behind. No other member of the party held that same property.

Claire’s mind raced, as she cataloged all the potential outcomes. What if they determined that they weren’t compatible, and they were forced to breakup? It wasn’t as if she could request a transfer to another location. The two of them would need to react with superhuman maturity, ignoring how much it hurt to even look at the other, and work together as a team. There was no room to say “just give me some space”, because they were already occupying as much space as they would be given. There would be no “I think I’d like to see other people”, because there would be no one else to see. There couldn’t even be “can we still be friends?”. That would not be an option, it would be a requirement.

What if she wanted to see how things would work out with Bart? That was not even an option any longer, even at this point. It would destroy the dynamic of the group, and it would be her fault. Half the group knew about her, spending the night with Derrin already and, while Derrin was a gentleman and would undoubtedly respect her privacy (at least, she hoped he was… he had been in every experience with him up to this point), the rest of the group would find out very quickly. There was no future for her and Bart, or her and Josh, or even her and Tenzin. She had made her choice, when she allowed her insecurities and hormones to dictate her actions, rather than taking control of her fear and body.

No sex had occurred. It may as well have, though. She had made her choice, and now she was stuck with it. The thought hurt. She was glad that she had shared the moment with Derrin and, given the choice to do it over, he would have been her selected partner, anyway. She just wished that she would have waited longer to make the choice, instead of painting a scarlet letter on her chest immediately.

The thought of Derrin abusing her did not even cross her mind. After all the abusive partners in her past, it was hard to believe that the thought didn’t even seem like a possibility. Still, it was Derrin. Claire would never have even thought of Derrin in a romantic way, and she thought it curious (a little disturbing, also) when she considered the circumstances which needed to be set in place, in order for him to fill that place. In the back of her mind, she began to wonder what was wrong with her and her mentality, that it took the world ending for her to find a good guy.

Of course, she had used variations of that same phrase to justify relationships in the past.

She saw her door approaching, and she picked up her step a bit more. She needed to stop feeding her paranoia. The others were not going to think less of her, and it was not pulling her qualifications into question. It was not as if she had slept with him in order to get this job. It was natural for this type of thing to happen.

Walking to her door, and placed her hand on the reader, and it opened for her. Walking in, she shrugged her shoulders and let the robe fall around her, as she stepped out of if. She had left the lingerie in Derrin’s room, for a reason that she could not remember at the moment, but it had been logical at the time. She knew that Derrin was discussing the excursion with Josh at the moment, and she was excited about the proposed trip. Derrin had presented the idea to her, and she had been thrilled. He hadn’t referred to the trip as though it was their first trip as a couple, and he hadn’t even placed any pressure on her to be included. Derrin had simply mentioned the plan, and asked if she would like to be included as their medic. Claire had agreed almost instantly.

She was freaking herself out. Sitting down on the bed, wearing nothing but a bra and thong, she stretched out, and just breathed, trying to find her center. She felt vulnerable in that position, even though nobody was in the room with her. She would stay in the position, until she felt strong.

“Computer, play soft jazz, early 22 century in origin,” she said, closing her eyes, allowing her body to sink into her mattress.

The sultry music of Spyro Jimone began to pulse through the room. She smiled to herself, as she allowed the saxophone to carry her away.

Allowing the music to envelop her body, Claire breathed in deeply. The room smelled strange, but not in a foreign way. It smelled as if the environment were attempting to mimic her favorite scents, in an attempt to make her feel more at home. Claire knew that this was likely the point, allowing her to feel more comfortable, giving her peace with her situation. That was nice in theory, but the fact that she knew it was artificial made her feel “creeped out”, as if the Illuminati had dug into her life, in order to determine what would make her feel the most comfortable.

Once she stopped thinking about it, she knew that she would come to appreciate the gesture. Right now, though, she was hyperaware of it, and it it almost caused her to feel violated.

Claire felt the tears beginning to come before they burst from her eyes. She wanted the bed to swallow her, to erase her, and to deposit her body in the remains of the Earth that she had once known. She wanted to bury her face in Derrin’s chest once more, and to feel his warmth complimenting her own. She wanted to go down to the coffee plantation and stare at the cute workers who were taking her order and delivering her drink. She wanted her mind to stop functioning, just for a moment, so that she could make peace with her situation.

She missed her life, she missed her world, she missed her self-imposed isolation, she missed the illusion of community that she had enjoyed at the coffee plantation.

She missed Earth. Claire knew that, had she continued her life on Earth, she likely would have died with the rest of the humans who no longer populated the world. Right now, she was torn between being grateful for the opportunity to ensure humanity’s future, and being jealous of the people who had been granted the privilege of dying with the rest of humanity.

VI

When the group was gathered by the garage door for the excursion, Derrin began having second thoughts about the way everything was going to work. He had formed inventory lists for each of the members that were selected for the party, and sent Josh to start collecting the elements. He had found Bart, and told him what they were planning, and he had responded eagerly, quickly grabbing a sample kit, in order to examine the flora along the way in an efficient form. Derrin had been unable to avoid Mikhail and, once he had heard about the expedition, he had been insistent about his inclusion. Derrin was hesitant at first, but he had not wanted to start any drama. Reluctantly, he approved for Mikhail to accompany them. He visited Claire in her bedroom, and discussed the plans with her. She had agreed to join the party before, so he had little doubt that she would not want to be included now. She had, of course, quickly begun to form a list of medical supplies which they would need to have with them, in order to be safe. At that point, his adrenaline had been racing, so when he went to speak with Tenzin, he had not been expecting much conflict.

“So,” she had looked at him with an arched eyebrow “you do not think that I can handle myself in the field?”

“No, that’s not it at all,” Derrin had dismissed the thought, quickly jumping into a defensive mindset. “Someone ought to stay behind on the base, though, and since you’re recovering from an injury, I had thought that you would be the most logical candidate.”

“I understand that,” Tenzin had nodded resentfully “but, do you not think that it would be better to wait until you’re comfortable including me on the trip? After all, I think that I would have more to contribute than Ruscov, at least from a scientific point.”

“No arguments here,” Derrin had concurred, emphasized by a heavy sigh. “I had forgotten all about him, actually, when forming this team. He included himself in it, and I simply decided not to object.”

Tenzin nodded, icicles still streaming from her eyes, dancing down Derrin’s spine. “Well, since your plan was never to include me,” she said in an icy tone “I do appreciate you, not leaving me alone on the base with that man.”

“Right, right,” Derrin’s eyes had darted about, searching for any place to land but Tenzin’s gaze. “So, I mean… are we okay?”

The moment of silence which the two of them shared after that statement caused to Derrin to question everything about what he had just said. His mind told him to run, his body told him to freeze, his morality told him that he was doing the right thing, while the very unhelpful logical center of his mind told him that it would be logical to wait for Tenzin to be better prepared.

Finally, Tenzin nodded. “I need to finish the autopsy on the gopher anyway,” she confirmed. “There will be more chances to experience the world outside, so I will not object to being left at the base in this instance.”

Derrin felt as though the fire which had been eating him alive had suddenly been extinguished. He had thanked Tenzin for agreeing, guaranteed her inclusion on the next expedition, and left the lab.

Now, witnessing the group assembling by the exit, he was beginning to wonder if he had made the right choice after all. Maybe it would be more logical to wait for Tenzin.

He was the most qualified to lead this trip, and he knew it. He had lead campaigns into uncharted territory before, with much less of a purpose. He had never lead a party into completely alien territory, though. While the rough structure of the area was still sound, there were so many unknown factors that knowledge of the ground was almost a non-factor. Plus, usually there were weeks, or even months, to prepare and catalog the threats in the environment. He was leading the group into a dangerous unknown world which had never so much as seen a human, and he was growing frightened.

As if sensing his trepidation, Josh came and stood beside him. The two of them were dressed in hazmat suits, since that still seemed to be logical choice until the area was fully assessed. Derrin was glad for the suit at the moment. Perhaps it was hiding the fact that he was practically quivering with unease.

“You did a good job, forming this trip,” Josh reassured him, standing by his side. “Even bringing Ruscov was a decent choice. After all, we’ll need someone to feed to the gophers, if things get complicated.”

Derrin allowed himself to chuckle in a halting, cheerless, way, but didn’t trust any reply that he could make to not betray his intimidation. Bart was examining one of the vehicles, and Mikhail was trying to have a conversation with Claire. Derrin could not hear the topic, but Claire didn’t seem overly interested in the topic.

“Hey doc,” Josh, picking up on his insecurities, lay a hand on his arm “relax. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about.”

“Well, that’s just absolutely not true,” Derrin replied before he was able to stop himself.

Josh snorted. “Yeah, you’re right, we’re all likely to die,” he joked grimly. “Does that make you feel better? Or, would you prefer to stick with the ’nothing to worry about’ facade?”

Derrin continued to watch the interactions of the crew, as they interacted with each other, and with the equipment which they had brought. They all looked to him as a leader, at least on this excursion. He had organized it, and they were depending on him for direction. It was time for him to get things done.

Placing his fingers in his mouth, he issued a shrill whistle. Voices fell to silence, and every head turned to him.

“All right, guys,” he announced, walking securely to the center of the room. “Let’s get this done.”

Looking to Claire, he saw her smiling at him and nodding approvingly. That made him proud. He was glad that she could not see his quivering knees.

VII

As he watched the door opening, Bart felt the exhilaration buzzing through his limbs like static electricity. He could not believe how excited he was about the opportunity to explore the world. When the door had finally finished lifting, Bart had to pace himself to not be the first one to burst through it. Derrin was standing in front of the door, and he was speaking, so Bart should probably pay attention.

“Let’s stick close together for this expedition,” Derrin informed the group confidently. “There are any number of uncatalogued threats out there, and we absolutely do not want to be facing them alone. Stay close to the group, stay close to the aide and, very importantly, stay close to your weapon. This is a world which doesn’t recognize us as the dominant species. Right now is not the time to introduce ourselves as such, it’s a time to survive and avoid becoming the weakest link.

“It makes sense for us to form a pattern, pushing through the area. We all have the coordinates for Whispering Lake programmed into our Oracles already, so let’s pull those up. Josh, I know that you will be wanting to track our path, taking notes and sketching as we go, so just have the position running in the background. Bart, you undoubtedly want to be taking samples and readings from the plant life and the soil in the area; please do that, as much as possible. Claire, I need you to stay as clear of danger as possible, not because you’re a woman, but because you’re a doctor. If you get injured or incapacitated in any way, that would be dire.

“Here’s the pattern that I want us to stick to, as much as possible: I’ll be leading the party, clearing the path in front of us, as much as possible. Josh, I want you to my rear and right; Bart, on my left. Claire, I want you to follow, directly behind me, between Josh and Bart. Mikhail, you follow Claire with the equipment. Have blades in hand, and clear the area as much as possible, but only clear what is absolutely necessary.

“Assume that any animal which we come into contact with will perceive us as a threat, and will react with hostility. While we have firearms, we want to avoid using them as much as possible; do not fire them, I repeat, do not fire them. We have no idea how the environment will respond to gunfire, but we do know that the noise will alert any living creature to our presence and, if we’re going to be living here, we do not want to antagonize residents. Are there any questions?”

“Is this a military op,” Mikhail asked, smiling smugly “or are we just trying to find water? We are only going seven miles, correct? Do we need to be that cautious?”

“Tenzin was compromised less than ten yards from the base,” Josh spoke up quickly. “Everything about this world suggests caution.”

Derrin nodded his thanks to Josh before responding. “I realize that it may seem like I’m going overboard with the preparation but, like Josh just reminded us, during our last venture, a member of the party was injured. I want to avoid that, as much as possible.”

“I know that the atmosphere is breathable,” Bart commented “but has it been tested for unknown or foreign elements?”

“That’s why you’re here,” Claire said, smiling at him warmly. “We’ll need you to be testing the air quality and the environment for residual radiation pockets. I know that, after 500 years, the lethal radiation should have been removed from the atmosphere, but it would be illogical to think that there isn’t some residual radiation hanging about.”

Bart smiled back at Claire, nodding that he understood what she was saying. He could not help himself; he enjoyed when she smiled at him. It didn’t really make him feel like a little school boy, the way that Haynene Gilbert had made him feel during preliminary education, but she did make him feel warm. There seemed to be something brewing between her and Derrin, though, so perhaps he would need to control his hormones, take a step back, and find another conduit for his admiration.

It did seem cruel for the Illuminati to set up a base with an uneven number of physically compatible partners. The longer that Bart thought about the situation, the more he began to consider that maybe this had been by design. The Illuminati considered everything, or so they had been lead to believe. Surely, the selection of individuals for each location was an important factor.

Bart forced himself to stop thinking about the situation, since it was beginning to make him feel like a game piece, or a lab mouse, created specifically for testing, observation, or entertainment.

“All right, team,” Derrin’s voice drew Bart’s attention. “Let’s move out. I want to reach the water before dusk, so that we can do testing and set up camp before the night falls.”

The group fell into their assigned positions, and began to advance out of the base. Derrin closed the door behind them, and turned in the direction of Whispering Lake. Bart readied his blade, a standard machete that could be used to clearing plants or for defense, whatever the need would be. As the group moved, Derrin carving a path with his own blade in front of them, Bart looked toward Claire. Her big, blue eyes returned his look, and she responded with a generous smile.

Returning his focus to the journey at hand, Bart breathed in deeply. The air smelled fresh, clean, and new. The plant life looked more alive than he could ever remember seeing before. The sounds that the insects were making from within the plants was familiar and comfortable, but somehow happier than he remembered.

If it wasn’t for the fact that everything was likely trying to kill him, Bart would have sworn that he was in paradise.

Next Chapter: The Lies of Destiny