I

Joshua Stein had never felt so overwhelmed before, but at the same time, he felt more at home than he ever had. The library was huge, larger than any he had ever imagined. Back on the Earth that he had left, libraries had been mostly digitized. Organic books had never been retired, of course, but a significant percentage of the population had considered them to be antiquated remnants of the past. In a digital age, paper and pen were quickly becoming irrelevant instruments. The days of scribes, sitting at a desk, scribbling their notes on parchment were long gone. Notepads had been converted to mechanical devices over a century before Joshua had even been born, and books had begun to be replaced by digital files even before then. There had been a dwindling need for organic, paper-based books, and the rationale behind them was becoming harder to justify.

Sitting here, in this massive conclave of written word, Joshua finally understood why dedicated bibliophiles insisted on keeping them alive. With each page that he turned, his romance with the printed word grew stronger. Feeling the pages between his fingers, stroking the unbroken spines of each volume, smelling the paper, knowing the textures, and he never wanted to read a digital file again. This was the only form of book that he ever wanted to know.

That was, of course, probably fortunate, since most of the digital libraries had likely been deleted when the world collapsed. This, of course, displayed another advantage to having organic books.

Joshua sat at a table in the center of the library, amidst the unbelievable acres of shelves, stacked to the sky with every book imaginable. Stretched out on the table before him were maps: regional maps, global maps, outdated atlases of the world as it had been translated in the past, and even a few fictitious ones that were incredibly well-rendered. Since he was the cartographer of the group, he imagined that his graphing tools were likely either in his bedroom somewhere or secured in a work station. He would probably have use of them in the near future. They would probably help him with the map translation at the moment, but he could mot be bothered to retrieve them at the moment. Right now, though, he did not want to leave the library. He felt like a small child in a dream, Dorothy in the land of Oz. If he were to leave the library, he might find that it was all just a dream.

There was very little in the maps that he was not familiar with. He probably should have assumed that, from the information that he had gathered from Archimedes. Shortly after The Sleepers (were they really going to keep calling themselves that, now that they were the only people on Earth? when was it okay to just start referring to themselves as humans again?) had taken their positions in the cryocells, the Earth fell into nuclear warfare. Cartography would not have been a priority then. Still, Joshua had been hoping to gather a little more information about the landscape than he was currently able to divine.

“Archimedes,” he called into the atmosphere, wondering if the omniscient host would be able to hear him, “I could use your help, if you have a moment free.”

“Why am I beginning to feel as though I am the only intelligent life here on Earth?” the sanctimonious voice asked as Archimedes stepped from between the shelves to the table where Josh was sitting. “I mean, you did have interactive modules in the world where you were, just yesterday by your reckoning. You do understand the concept, right? I’m not a linear creature, so the concept of free time doesn’t apply to me.”

Archimedes raised a cigar to his mouth and inhaled as he took a seat at the table across from Josh, “how can I help you, Mr. Stein?”

Josh frowned at him in puzzlement. “Should you really be smoking in here?” he asked, sincerely. “I mean, is that not a fire hazard?”

He dropped his head as he considered what he had just asked. “Can we just forget that I asked that?” he begged as his face flushed red.

Archimedes exhaled a small cloud of authentic smelling smoke. “You mean, forget that you just asked me if my digitized cigar was an organic fire threat to the priceless selection of irreplaceable knowledge?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking with sadistic humor. “Your secret’s safe with me. Now, as you may remember, I am on a tight schedule. Was there something that you wanted to ask me?”

“I thought you just said that--” Josh began to question Archimedes’ scheduling conflict, then sighed as he realized the sarcasm. “--never mind. Look, I just want to know if you can point me toward the last known documentation of life on Earth. I’m sure there is some record as to what happened during the final war, and I would just like to read about what all went down.”

“I can do that,” Archimedes admitted. “In fact, if you would prefer, I can supply you with the digital files. They would appear straight away on your Oracle, and you can review them without having to track down the books themselves.”

Josh shook his head. “If it is all the same to you,” he said, unwilling to cheat on his new love “I would rather just read the books. I do not know what it is, but I am really starting to prefer organic things to digital.”

“I will try not to take that personally,” Archimedes scoffed as he stood up. “Follow me, please.”

Joshua stood and followed the computerized librarian toward a shelf, not far away, labeled “HISTORY: 2100 – 2185”. Moving to the far end of the shelf, he discovered a volume entitled “The end of the world and how we could have stopped it”.

A glimpse of the author’s name took his breath away. He pulled the book from the shelf and raced back to the table. Without bothering to sit down, he pushed his treasured maps aside, and lay the book down carefully.

“I assume that you will not be needing my services any longer?” Archimedes asked as he exhaled yet another puff of cybernetic smoke.

“No, um, thanks, though. Thanks for your help,” Josh muttered distractedly as he tried to concentrate on the text. “I should be all right for now, you’ve been great, thanks for your help.”

Archimedes nodded, “it is always nice to be appreciated.”

With that, he vanished into the aether, but Josh barely noticed. He was too excited by his discovery.

II

Mikael sat in the social room by himself, pondering what he ought to do first. He would have liked to see the world outside of this conclave, but Tenzin had been correct in her assertion that there would be no need for him yet. If anyone but Tenzin had insinuated his irrelevance, his reaction likely would have been much different. He desperately wanted to reach her good side, though. He was finding that, as he spent more time with her, he was becoming more attracted to her. This alone made him uncomfortable, since that was not the way things were supposed to work. Women were attracted to him, and that could not be avoided. Mikael was used to walking into a room and having every eye turned to him, with anxious desire from both men and women. He was not accustomed to entering a room and being mocked, as he had been by that Jewish guy whose name he could not recall. He was not used to the level of repulsion that he felt, coming from Tenzin. Of course, Tenzin seemed to be having that same reaction to several members of the group, so perhaps he was simply being petty.

Either way, he was not used to having to work for someone’s affection. Perhaps that was why he was so attracted to her.

“Archimedes,” he called out hesitantly. “Are you around?”

“Why do you people continue to assume that I must be spoken to as though I am not there?” the ornery voice of their digitized overlord came from the area of the bar. “I am always around! Is that concept too profound for you people to grasp?”

Mikael jumped a little when he heard Archimedes’ voice, but composed himself quickly. “Da, yes, hello,” he stammered, hating himself for displaying the slightest lack of confidence, even in front of this digitized creature. “I suppose that you are always around, since you are ze computerized brain of the development. I can simply speak to you as though you are standing beside me, anytime I wish, can’t I?”

“The British author, Douglas Adams, once remarked on humanity’s proclivity for stating the completely obvious as though it were a profound revelation,” Archimedes sighed with a lofty roll of his eyes. “I see how true that sentiment is, now I have had the chance to experience it more first hand.”

Mikael bit his lip, trying to recover the confident ground that he was quickly losing. “I would like to watch the last public broadcast that was aired on television before the world went dark,” he informed Archimedes as securely as he could muster.

Archimedes stared back at him for a moment, which felt like an eternity. Mikael ignored him as his cybernetic eyes bored holes into Mikael’s skull. His impulse was to say ’please’, or ’if you don’t mind’, but he resisted the urge. Archimedes worked for him; he did not need to resort to begging.

“Will that be all?” Archimedes asked. “Would you like to have a refreshment as you watch season 3, episode 17 of Titanica 3135?”

Mikael’s eyebrows shot upward. Of course, he had been expecting the last thing that aired on television to be something profound, or at least a news broadcast, announcing the Earth’s impending death. Now that he knew that this was not the case, he realized how ridiculous it was to even consider that. After all, if humanity had been expecting the world’s destruction, they likely would have done something to prevent it from happening.

Watching the last program ever broadcasted now felt a little useless, save perhaps for sentimentality. Still, he had been following Titanica 3133, a precursory situational comedy to 3135, before he had joined The Sleepers, and he was curious as to how Caleb and Angeline’s cybernetic baby had upgraded.

“Scotch on ze rocks, if you don’t mind,” Mikael smiled as he sat back, placing his feet up on the table in front of him.

Archimedes nodded. “I can provide you with that. Sit back, enjoy the show, and I’ll gather your request.”

Archimedes reached beneath the bar and pulled out a bottle of liquor. He mixed the drink, and Mikhail sat back to enjoy the show.

“So, this is the way the world ends,” a modified line from TS Eliot’s poem sprang into Mikhail’s mind. “Not with a bang, but a sitcom.”

As he sipped his scotch, Mikhail began to regret ever watching the episode. It had ended in a cliffhanger that would never be resolved.

III

Tenzin St. Crow found her laboratory, set up exactly the wrong way. The chemical compounds were assorted in a nonsensical manner: alphabetically, rather than by common family or usage frequency. She had the appropriate amount of resources and testing equipment, but very little of it was in a convenient place, allowing her ease of access. Even her biological scanning table was in an awkward position. It made her smile. She felt like she was back home and, once again, she was the only one who knew what was going on.

Tenzin was most comfortable when she was in charge of setting up her own lab. It wasn’t that she felt like she was the only one who could; in fact, if she had left everything alone, it probably would not have made a difference. Just the same, she only felt truly comfortable if she was in charge of the lab, making it breath and live according to her own design.

As she began to adjust and rearrange her lab to her own design, she continued to contemplate the situation that she had found herself in. In the world from which she had come, population control was on the very near horizon. Asian birth restrictions had been abolished in the mid-21st century, and that lift had been met with an almost-instant surplus in children. Tenzin herself had four siblings: an older brother, and three younger sisters. Both her father and mother had been successful enough to support them, sending each of them to good academies which encouraged them all to enjoy their studies. Still, Tenzin had seen many families who had not fared as well. The population in the already crowded Tibet continued to grow, and the financial stability of the nation was put at risk. Most of the residents still saw the population restriction as a societal advancement, a step toward personal liberation. They complained about financial woes, higher taxation, and their over-working, under-paying jobs, but it was not enough of an inconvenience to make them stop having children, celebrating each new life as a gift from On High, if the family subscribed to that particular religious doctrine. Tenzin began to question the ethical reasoning behind the government’s lifting of the ban at a very young age. While she did not feel as though anyone should be allowed to put restrictions on someone’s reproductive system, she did feel as though there had been some advantages to population control.

That was nothing compared to what was going on now. The Illuminati had carefully selected those who were permitted to survive. While it was irrational to think that the six of them on the base were the only ones who lived on Earth, humanity was still only a fraction of what it had been. That made every life vital to the survival of the human race. No one was expendable.

As honored as she had initially felt, being selected for this ambitious project, a small part of her was resentful for having such a responsibility cast on her. She had been, and likely still was, one of the wold’s leading biological chemists, so it made sense. Still, the burden being cast on her was fairly heavy.

Tenzin smiled as she looked around the laboratory which was quickly beginning to feel like her home. She began to take an inventory on her available assets, which were satisfactory for now, but she had doubts about the future.

“Archimedes,” she asked the atmosphere, knowing that he could hear her and feeling a little self-conscious about that. “Once an elemental compound is depleted, how will it be replenished?”

“Well, considering that it’s an element,” Archimedes replied, appearing beside her in a suit, smoking a cigar “I would say that it would be difficult to restore. It is not impossible, obviously, and you do have access to a significant surplus of all vital elements, but once that is depleted, you are going to have to go into the world and find more of it.”

Tenzin cringed. “Put out the cigar,” she instructed him curtly. “I have never allowed smoking in my lab, and I do not intend to start doing so now, simply because the world has ended.”

Archimedes rolled his eyes. “You are, of course, aware that I’m not smoking a literal cigar, aren’t you?”

“I am,” Tenzin nodded. “It is the principle of the thing. Besides, it still smells like a cigar, so therefore, it still offends me. While you are outside of my lab, I have no preference, but while you are here, you will refrain from smoking, even metaphorically.”

Archimedes nodded his ascent, and the cigar vanished from his fingers. “I will do as you request,” he affirmed. “This is, after all, your lab.”

“May I ask why it is that you smoke a cigar at all?” Tenzin queried him. “It is not as if you need it to relax; you cannot process nicotine. Is it simply for aesthetic reasons?”

Archimedes shrugged. “While I act as though I know everything, I do not,” he reasoned “I simply know more than any of you. I can’t be expected to understand the reasoning behind certain quirks and personality traits in my programing. The only justification that I can offer is that the Illuminati felt like you would be more comfortable with a well dressed, cigar smoking individual.”

“My preferences were obviously not taken into consideration when making that decision,” Tenzin griped as she adjusted some of the equipment on her examination table.

“On the contrary,” Archimedes countered, joining her in the process of setting up her lab “they absolutely were.”

“Please do not touch--” Tenzin began to protest his assistance until she saw that he was arranging things exactly the way that she was intending to. “--never mind.”

Archimedes smirked. “Your stylistic preferences were programmed into my memory, along with a demographic map of every laboratory that you have ever worked in. I was designed to be your lab assistant, specifically programmed for you.”

“I hate having lab assistants,” Tenzin grumbled as she adjusted one of the vials that Archimedes had placed, simply so that she could feel as though she had done something to correct his mistake. “They always get in the way.”

“How fortunate, for you,” Archimedes chuckled “that, not only am I programmed to appreciate your mood shifts, I can vanish the moment that you grow weary of me, and reappear whenever you have need again.”

Tenzin desperately resisted the widening smile that was playing with the corners of her mouth. She had to admit that it was nice having Archimedes’ help in the process of setting up her lab. It certainly saved her time.

IV

Derrin and Claire stood, just inside the newly opened door, watching Bart interact with the environment. The ground beneath his feet appeared to be soft, as he dug the toe of his boot into the soil. He stared into the sky, and Derrin saw him smile. Clare must have seen it as well, since Derrin felt the finger’s of her hand, intertwining with his own. This was Earth. Maybe it was not the same Earth that they had left, and maybe it belonged more now to the things of nature and the powers of chaos, but it was still Earth.

The air smelled clean and fresh, cleaner than any Derrin could ever remember smelling before. There had been no factories, no nuclear power, and no exhaust fumes for 500 years. Photosynthesis would have been acting, unchecked, for most of that time, purifying the atmosphere, and urging things back to a healthy equilibrium. This was how Earth was supposed to smell, free of humans. Derrin was almost reluctant to leave Syracuse, for fear of disturbing the environment. He could tell that Bart was having a similar crisis of faith, as he walked back into the base. Still, they had been sent into the future for that purpose: their mission was to secure humanity. They could not do that if they remained in the safety of the nest.

Bart turned and walked back into the garage. Claire’s hand left his own, the moment that Bart entered. Derrin was not sure how he should translate that, but he decided not to think too deeply on it.

“There’s some pretty dense, pretty alien foliage out there,” Bart said, presenting his observations. “It will need to be cleared before we are able to get any of the vehicles out. It seems as though we are in the middle of a rain forest atmosphere, but that does not stand to reason with what we know about the climate surrounding Salt Lake City.”

“Well, we are the aliens on this version of Earth,” Claire said, profoundly. “We are essentially figments of the past, returning and expecting the world to be the same as if it when we left it.”

Bart nodded in agreement. “It might be beneficial to send a foot crew out first,” he said. “Clearing the area by force before we know more about the kind of flora this Earth produces could be damaging, both to ourselves and to the ecosystem.”

Derrin nodded. “There are six of us,” he said. “I would not recommend that the initial team consist of more than three members. Who do you think would be the most beneficial to the cause?”

“There are three of us here,” Claire stated, advancing on the door, which still stood open. “This is what we were intending to do anyway, was it not? Why should we not be the first to explore a bit?”

“Dr. Roux,” Bart moved to intercept her, but Derrin lay a cautionary hand on his shoulder.

“Claire, be careful,” Derrin called after her. “We should probably have protective gear or hazmat suits before we go on any major exploratory journeys.”

Claire lowered the pack that she had on her back to the ground and pulled out a pair of long gloves, which she subsequently pulled over her hands. “I do not recognize this ivy,” she called back to them, pointing to the thick, tentacled vine that wound it’s way up the base of several of the nearby trees. “I just want to take a sample of it to run some tests, in order to get a better impression of what to expect.”

Bart opened his mouth as if to caution her, but Claire had already pulled a knife from the pack, and she was advancing on the plant.

“I do not know how logical it is to be removing samples from the environment without knowing more about ecological infrastructure,” he muttered to Derrin in a cautionary voice.

“I know, mate,” Derrin replied in as confident a tone as he could muster. “Neither does she, but at least she is aware of that.”

Derrin and Bart both watched Claire with rapt interest as she raised the knife to the ivy and cut off a small piece.

The plant produced a thick, yellow ooze, which dripped out of the vine like maple syrup out of a broken bottle. Claire squealed in astonishment and jumped back quickly, still holding her sample, as the ooze dripped from the plant to the ground, where it immediately began to have a corrosive effect on the soil. Only a small amount of the ivy’s sap was released before the dripping stopped, but in the area where those drops had hit soil, there was now a small burrowed hole in the ground, as if produced by an exceptionally thick worm. Wide-eyed, Claire knelt to examine it, as Derrin and Bart rushed to her side, to witness what she had discovered.

“Fascinating,” Bart gasped as he examined the hole. “It seems like the sap from the ivy operates as an antagonist to the soil itself!”

Claire held the sample of the ivy out over an untouched area of ground, squeezing a drop of the sap out of it. The three spectators watched with astonishment as the substance had the same reaction, boring another miniscule hole into the ground.

Bart held an airtight vial out to Claire, and she dropped the sample into it. Bart closed the vial quickly. “I think we are going to have a lot of fun together, you and me,” he chuckled to Claire,

Claire nodded, a smile dancing at the corner of her lips. “It seems as though we are,” she confirmed. “For now, let us get this back to the lab and begin an intake analysis.”

Bart stood and turned toward the base, lifting his Oracle toward his face. “Archimedes,” he spoke into it. “Will you please ask Dr. St. Crow to meet us in the laboratory? We have a sample of something that she may want to take a look at.”

“Very good, Dr. Freddrix,” Archimedes confirmed. “Dr. St. Crow is already in the laboratory, so I will let her know that you are to be expected.”

Derrin and Claire both stood and began their return to the base as well. Derrin examined Claire’s reactions to Bart with interest and, if he had to be completely honest with himself, a little bit of jealousy. He had known that they would have a lot of common interests, but he had not been expecting them to be bonding so quickly.

Interpersonal relationships were not a priority. Right now was not the time to start having romantic feelings for another member of his landing party. Jealousy was not an emotion that he was used to feeling, and it made him uncomfortable. There was nothing to be jealous of yet, anyway.

V

Someone was shaking him awake. They were not being violent in any form, but they seemed to be urgent. Perhaps he could ignore it, maybe he could just remain asleep for a little while longer, if he ignored the attempts to rouse him.

“Sweetheart, wake up,” a familiar voice crept into his ears. “It’s time for you to get ready for work.”

Derrin groaned reluctantly as his heavy eyelids pealed open. Suzette was laying beside him, just as she had been every morning for the past year, wearing nothing but a demure smile and a the remnants of night’s slumber clinging to the corners of her eyes, the bedsheets hugging the curves of her body securely. Every morning, Derrin had been surprised to see that she could still be in the bed beside him, and relieved that she was. Her blue eyes did not sparkle the same way that they used to when she looked at him, and her smile seemed a bit more forced, nowadays.

Derrin rolled over, pressing his pelvis against her own. “How can I be motivated to go to work” he asked, “when I have everything that I need lying next to me right now?”

Suzette giggled. “Well, you also need toothpaste,” she reminded him, her own halitosis matching his. She reached up and ran her fingers down the length of his face. “Go scrub your teeth; I promise I will be here when you come back.”

When she rolled toward him, the sheets had pulled away from her slightly. Derrin treasured the beauty that he witnessed: the heavy cream which was her skin, the natural arching of her back, and the gentle slope of her buttocks, flowing securely into her strong thighs. He felt the erection in his mind before it became a reality in his body. He wanted to be inside of her, he always wanted to be there, he never wanted to be outside of her.

Things had not been the same since Simon had come to town. Even with him being gone now, his ghost remained.

Derrin rolled out of bed, looking back at Suzette with a generous grin. She smiled back, throwing the sheets off dramatically, and displaying her body in all of it’s glory.

“Do you love your swan?” she cooed at him, as she stretched and posed seductively. “Will you pleasure her and treasure her above all things?”

Derrin chuckled as he watched her display. “She is a gift,” he replied, knowing the routine by heart, having said it dozens of times before “a gift that I do not deserve. I will love my swan.”

“Go scrub your teeth, my shining knight,” she batted her eyes at him seductively. “Then prove that you love your swan.”

Derrin walked to the bathroom, just outside of their bedroom. He scrubbed his teeth quickly, rinsing his mouth with wash just for extra measure. He returned to the bedroom, where he found Suzette just as he had left her, 90 seconds earlier. Her flawless skin stretched like a canvas, and her legs spread, inviting him to be the painter. Her petite breasts heaved with each anxious breath and, as he lay next to her, she wrapped about him like an anaconda, devouring her prey. He did not care about the morning stink of her breath as her gentle lips melded into his own and her ample tongue filled his mouth. He allowed himself to enter her, and he felt as she closed around him. She squeaked with pleasure as he thrust into her, again and again. When he felt that he could not control himself any longer, Derrin tapped her back, and she dismounted, covering his exploding erection with her mouth, swallowing the element. Derrin gasped in erotic joy as his sperm filled her mouth, and laughed with satisfaction as he finished. No matter how often they made love to one another, and they had done it hundreds of times during the three years of their relationship, it never stopped being magical. It never became routine, for him at least. Each time that they were together still felt as beautiful as it had the first time.

Suzette lay on his chest, the thick curls of her dark hair tickling the bridge of his nose. “I love my shining knight,” she sighed authentically.

“I love my swan,” he replied with a smile.

“You need to get ready for work,” she giggled.

“I do,” Derrin sighed. He gently moved her body into another position, away from his, and left the bed. “Will you be here when I get home tonight?”

“If you are lucky,” Suzette replied, reaching up and slapping his rear.

Derrin chuckled to himself as he walked from the bedroom to the bathroom, where he stepped into the shower. He was indeed lucky. Simon was the past, Suzette had assured him of that, Derrin was the present. Nothing could tear him away from her, it was true, he belonged to her. She teased him sometimes about how nothing could break them up, and how he was stuck with her now. She certainly proved that with the passion of their love-making.

She did not, however, prove that with the passion of her eyes. Her smile told him a different story.

VI

Mikhail had just finished watching the third episode of Titanica when Josh came into the room, carrying a book and looking excited. He sank into the chair to Mikhail’s left, and lay the book open on the table.

“Archimedes, will you please turn the screen off?” he asked the atmosphere.

“Only because you asked so nicely,” Archimedes’ voice answered him, and the projection shut down.

“Hey,” Mikhail objected. “I vas watching that!”

“While any information on who actually initiated the first strikes was likely lost in the information scramble which followed the bombings,” Josh began to read allowed from the book in his hands “we can determine a basic trajectory and flight pattern, from the angle of the strikes and the locations.”

“Vat are we speaking of?” Mikhail asked, his interest turning to Josh and his book.

“The war,” Josh answered. “The final war that destroyed humanity. This book contains all the relevant information on the initial strikes and theories as to who may have initiated humanity’s demise. It is an unsolved mystery, or it was, when the world died.”

“So, vhy should ve care?” Mikhail asked, inching forward on the couch to closer examine the book which Josh was currently studying. “I mean, ve are ze only humans left on Earth, right? Do you not think zat ve have other things to be studying?”

“Look,” Josh barked, pulling his eyes away from the text to look at Mikhail in the eye “you and I are the two best suited for pattern deduction and sociological tendencies. I am not a biologist, and I flunked out of my 11th grade horticulture class. The one thing that I am good at, probably the biggest reason that I am here, is for my cartography skills. Along with that comes a knowledge of the way that Earth moves, both theoretically and literally. I think, with a little more intel, I could pinpoint the exact origin of the missiles.”

“Good for you,” Mikhail confirmed, attempting to sound as condescending as possible. “I am certain that this information will be extremely useful for Earth’s survival. Perhaps, if you are able to find the culprit, we vill be able to bring zem back from ze dead to face the justice which zey deserve.”

“That is where you come into things,” Josh replied through grit teeth as he attempted to keep his temper in check. “You are an expert in human behavior and sociology. We need to work together, in order to determine what actually happened here and why. I can determine the location, you can supply the reasoning, and we can work out an exact theory based on that. It may take some time, but with our minds combined, we might be able to solve this mystery.”

“To vat end?” Mikhail threw his hands into the air and sank back into the couch. “Those responsible for ze attack will have died long ago, correct? Zere is no one left!”

“No one, except the 144,000 that we know of right now,” Josh replied, his attention returning to the book. “However, unless I miss my guess, I think the people who initiated the war may still be here, functioning as a society.”

“How would zat even be possible?” Mikhail asked, frowning. “Zhe entire atmosphere vould have been irradiated. In order for zhe people to have survived, zhe would have--”

Mikhail stopped speaking. His eyes widened and his jaw remained slack, as he considered the developing theory that Josh was proposing. “No,” he gasped eventually. “You do not think zat--”

Josh held his hand up. “I need to study a lot more of the theories before I can make a definitive statement,” he admitted. “Right now, all I have are ideas, and only very basic ones at that. We need to do a lot more research, though.”

Mikhail nodded, leaning forward again to examine the book that Josh had presented. “Nuala Macintosh,” he muttered, noting the author’s name. “Is that someone zat I should be familiar with?”

“Nuala Macintosh was the rumored actual identity of Piedpiper1013,” Josh confirmed. “She was a ghost in the hacker community. There were a lot of theories about who she actually was, but none of them were actually verified. The moment that anyone got close to her, the trail would go cold. If she actually came out of the web to publish this manuscript under her real name, rather than just leaking the information on the deep sites, the world must have been in pretty dire straits.”

Mikhail raised his head and cocked a cynical eyebrow at Josh.

“I guess that really did not need to be said,” Josh sighed without looking up from the book. “I just, well, I kind of had a cybernetic crush on her, I guess. I even talked to her now and then, exchanging information and trade secrets. Seeing a book that was written under her real name was kind of a thrill, especially when it contained so much valuable information. The world that we left behind was nowhere near as bad as the world that she describes in the text here. It is hard for me to believe that things could ever have gotten this bad.”

“Do you forget zat I am Russian?” Mikhail muttered. “Zhe world can always get colder and darker than it is.”

Josh nodded his agreement as he continued to study the information. This was a treasure trove of information, and the idea that they could solve the biggest mystery in humanity’s history was exhilarating. The fact that Piedpiper1013 was involved with the actual idea gave him chills. He had admired her work for a long time now. As he studied the text, he felt as though he was actually working on a job with her. It was something that he had only dreamed of before. This shattered mirror of a world had somehow found a way to fulfill his fantasy.

“Wait,” Mikhail lay his hand on Josh’s shoulder, pulling him out of his mind for a moment. “Did you say that there were other people alive? How many people did you say?”

Josh looked up at Mikhail with a contemplative frown. “You surely could not have thought that we were the only ones in this project,” he said flatly.

“Up until now, I had not thought much about it at all,” Mikhail admitted.

“Well, my faith in your sociological expertise is certainly strengthened by that,” Josh grumbled as he closed his eyes and shook his head tiredly. “Yes, I asked Archimedes about the other residents. He informed me that there were roughly 144,000 of us.”

Mikhail nodded. “Zat is rather a specific number,” he muttered.

“It is a Mormon thing,” Josh said, returning his attention to the book as best he could. “Well, technically, I guess it is a Jewish thing, but the Mormons gave that number all the press. It is supposedly the number of people who will be allowed into Heaven, or something like that. Originally, that number referred to the representatives from the tribes of Israel but, since you are not Jewish, I doubt the number applies to that any longer.”

“How do you know that I am not Jewish,” Mikhail asked, fanning reproach. “Perhaps I had a grandfather from Israel; you do not know.”

Josh sighed. “Really?” he said, lifting his head reluctantly. “Which tribe did he come from?”

“Which is ze tribe with all ze sexiness?”

“Levi,” Josh shook his head as he returned his attention to the book. “All the sexy Jews come from the tribe of Levi.”

Mentally tuning out Mikhail’s ranting about his fictional Jewish heritage, Josh tried returning his focus to the book instead. According to his parents, he was from the Tribe of Benjamin.

VII

The voice that he had just heard was still ringing in his head, relentlessly preaching it’s gospel of impending doom on a steady loop. And who, did they say, was going to save the world? Why, himself, of course: award-winning cartographer, Joshua Ferguson Stein. Because he was qualified, of course. Amongst a group of field-leading doctors and Nobel-prize winners, he was singularly qualified to map out their new, fresh, utopia.

Josh could feel his head spinning, and he was not sure if he believed that this was happening. The rabbit hole that he had uncovered was widening, and it seemed to be pulling him toward it as if it were a collapsed star. He should not be intimidated. He should not be overwhelmed. After all, he was a field leader in his own right. His map of Atlantis, based on geological topography, estimated platonic shifts, and natural erosion, combined with artifacts and displaced architecture found on the floor of the Atlantic had, after all, made him a multi-billionaire. It did not help him feel any more secure now, though, in comparison to the company that he would be keeping in the proposed “deep sleep”.

After his car had pulled in and parked in his space, adjacent to the complex where his deluxe studio apartment was, Josh stepped out, and locked it. There was a rain scheduled in the next couple hours, and he had planned to go out for the evening. Reaching into the pocket of his blazer, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and lit one up. Inhaling, he savored the taste of the tobacco, with the obvious undertones of all the additives which made the cigarette more addictive. As he exhaled, he began walking toward his apartment. If he was going to be social this evening, there were a small collection of things that he needed to get done first.

The door to his apartment opened with a hiss, as he held his palm to the identity-reader. He discarded his cigarette in the ash eater next to the door, and walked in. D4QP, the “clever” name which he had given his CleaningMaid™, was vacuuming his sitting area, while Barbarella, a life-sized fembot, was lying in his bed in blue silk lingerie, just as he had instructed her before he had left this morning.

“Welcome home, master,” she cooed seductively as he walked to the kitchenette and pulled a bottle of Pinot Grigio from the chilling cabinet. “You seem stressed. Would you like me to give you a massage?”

Josh shook his head as he pulled the cork from the bottle, tipping it back to pour down his throat. “Not right now, Barbar,” he informed her. “I still have a lot of work that I need to do before I get to relax for the evening.”

“Will you still be taking me out tonight?” she asked, batting her eyes and pouting cutely.

“That is the plan,” Josh informed her. “I would like it if you could wear that little black dress we programmed into your wardrobe last week. Also, if you would not mind, you could lay out my black suit, the one with the deep purple pinstripes.”

“Your wish is my command, master,” Barbarella beamed, as she rolled out off the bed, spreading her legs just enough to give Josh a peak at what she had beneath her hardly-appropriate sleeping clothing. Josh noticed, of course, but he was too distracted to have anything but a casual reaction.

“I will be in my lab,” he informed the bot as he walked briskly to a blank wall, holding his hand against it. “As usual, I will need the outgoing signal scrambled, and any incoming signals need to be personally approved by me before they are granted access to the network.”

Barbarella giggled childishly. “You are so cute when you order me around, master. I never get tired of serving your needs.”

As the blank wall vanished, revealing a secret lair of computer equipment, Josh turned to Barbarella and smiled at her, in order to relieve his guilt a bit. He had owned Barbar (model #78qpg39df) for a little under two years, which was almost a year longer than any of his romantic relationships with actual women. He still felt slightly guilty for programming her to be so compliant and worshipful toward him.

Entering the computer lab, Josh took a seat in front of the largest digital flatscreen monitor, and held his thumb to one of the towers. Within ten seconds, the screen lit up, asking for his identity and password.

“Nero235711,” he spoke to the computer. “Password: rome1burns3.”

“Welcome to network Atlantis, Mr. Stein,” the voice of his British butler greeted him, almost instantly. “Your investments are paying off well at the moment, however, I would recommend looking into Bio Mech Advance Tech. They are promising a new product within six months and, according to their CEO, it will revolutionize the cybernetic market.”

Josh tipped his bottle back, poured some wine down his throat, and rolled his eyes. “They are always promising that, Percival,” he sighed. “Still, it pays off 7 times out of 11. Track the information provided. If it seems credible, I approve the investment of 85 Million.”

“Where would you like the funds transferred from, sir?” Percival asked.

“Use your best judgment,” Josh replied. “I trust you. Now, if you would not mind, can you send a coded message to Piedpiper1013, proposing a personal date in the near future?”

“I can do that, sir,” Percival confirmed. “Might I ask the nature of the encounter? Will this be business, social, or romantic?”

“Reconnaissance,” Josh informed the computer. “Let them know that I have some information which I would like to run by them.”

“Very good, sir,” Percival said.

Josh lifted the bottle to his mouth and swallowed again. The Illuminati had warned the group about informing anyone of the procedure that they were undergoing, telling them that it would compromise the operation. Josh had considered that, he had been considering that ever since the meeting. He shared everything with The Pied Piper, though, and she (technically, they, since he didn’t know their true identity, but he desperately wanted it to a woman) shared sensitive information with him. He could think of no reason why this instance would be any different.

Besides, he needed to tell someone, so that they could tell him whether or not he was going crazy. He was, and that was almost a forgone conclusion. Still, he needed someone else to confirm that for him.

VIII

When Derrin, Bart, and Claire entered the lab, Tenzin was already there, clearing a work space for the sample. Claire walked swiftly to the table, and pulled the container which held the sample from her pack. When she viewed the container, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Well,” she muttered, turning the airtight container over and around in her hand, attempting to assess the entire product. “I was not expecting that.”

“What happened?” Bart asked, stepping to where Claire standing. “Is everything okay with the sample? Were you able to-- oh, my.”

Bart caught sight of the sample and a curious smile burst onto his face. The sample had expanded, during their commute, to the point where now, the sap from the small stem of ivy now nearly filled the entirety of the container. It seemed to have been leaked from the ivy, like liquid Styrofoam through PCP piping. Once it had left the ivy, it expanded. What was even more interesting was that it seemed to be continuing to do so.

“What have you brought into my lab?” Tenzin asked, attempting to not sound threatening, but failing slightly.

Derrin turned to Tenzin, and Bart had to bite back a chuckle. Derrin, a bulky, red-headed man of 6’3”, was going head to head with Tenzin, a slender, significantly shorter, woman, and he was the one who seemed intimidated. “We do not know exactly what this is,” Derrin began to explain to Tenzin. “Dr. Roux took a sampling from it the exterior, and we brought it here to determine the properties. It was determined that more analysis was needed when we saw the corrosive reaction that the sap was having on--”

Something in Tenzin’s reaction to the word “corrosive” made Derrin stop talking and think more closely about his word-choices. Bart saw the hesitation, tagged Derrin out, and stepped into the ring.

“Look,” he said to Tenzin, feeling his courage being sapped slowly, with each word that he said. “I am a botanist and you are a biological chemist. We should be the ones who investigate this product and determine it’s chemical properties.”

Tenzin nodded, her glare softening slightly. Without another word, she advanced on Claire, her hand extended to examine the sample. Claire handed it to her instinctively, and Tenzin took the product. “This does not seem to be affecting the container negatively at all,” she observed. “If you had witnessed the corrosive property of the sap, how could you have been assured that it would not have the same effect on the container?”

Claire and Derrin exchanged a frightened look, as they realized there had not been enough information to really make an appropriate diagnosis. They could have brought hazardous materiel back into the lab, contaminating the entire base. Bart, thankfully, spoke up.

“I take responsibility for that choice,” he replied. “I noticed that the sap stopped leaking from the ivy, almost immediately, whenever it came into contact with oxygen. In response to the few erosive drops which escaped from the ivy, upon initial observation, I determined that it was reacting in a way, as if it were attempting to escape from the oxygen that surrounded it. That does raise several questions about the photosynthetic relationship between the ivy and the sap, so I chose an airtight container, based on the sap’s observed reaction to oxygen, and brought a sample back with us.”

Derrin was impressed, and extremely grateful that Bart had been part of the initial ground crew, selected for observation. He certainly would not have thought to analyze as many aspects as he had just listed, nor as quickly. Of course, plants were not his area of expertise, they were Bart’s. He was not expected to anticipate how the new organic life would respond to various stimulus, it was his job to make sure that the team had the appropriate equipment for their various quests. It still bothered him that he had not calculated the information as quickly as Bart had.

Tenzin nodded to Bart. “That makes sense,” she granted. “Thank you for giving me a concise assessment.”

Turning, she placed the container which held the sample on the table. Looking at it, she frowned. “Has the sample expanded since it was placed in a controlled, oxygen-free environment?”

“It has,” Claire confirmed. “We did not know how it was going to respond, but yes, the expansive properties seem to have accelerated since oxygen was removed from the environment.”

Tenzin frowned, examining the product which had now filled the container completely. Running her hand up the outside of the container, she raised her eyebrows. “There does not seem to be any stress on the container itself,” she noted. “The sap expanded to fill the container, but it does not seem to want to expand any further.”

“Well, that is certainly handy,” Bart muttered as he stepped up beside Tenzin to view the product. “You are right, of course; the expansion seems to be contained within vessel.”

Bart and Tenzin shared a look with each other as they contemplated the ramifications of the sap. “We need to run some tests,” Bart said.

“We do,” Tenzin agreed.

“Do we have access to additional samples?” Tenzin asked, turning to Derrin.

Derrin nodded. “The ivy is all over the place, outside,” he affirmed. “Once we establish a functional field team and assess possible threats, we can get you all the samples that you need.”

Tenzin nodded, her attention returning to the sample. “I would like to be on the team, if there are no objections,” she said. “I would like to examine the state of life on Earth, now that I have my lab set up the way that I would like it.”

“Very good,” Derrin agreed. “I think that Josh should be in the group as well, since he is our cartographer. I’ll go locate and retrieve him, then we can proceed accordingly.”

“Is it all right if I stay here and continue examining the sample?” Bart asked Tenzin. He felt kind of weird doing that, since it was not technically her lab, but she had obviously put a lot of thought into the design and set up. It did kind of seem as though she had claimed this location as her own.

“I trust that you will not disturb things that you do not need to,” Tenzin said, in a much more neutral tone than they had grown accustomed to. “This is, after all, to be a shared laboratory.”

“Right,” Bart chuckled, turning his attention back to the sample. “Well, until Derrin assembles the ground crew, why do you not join me in the examination here? Dr. Roux, since you did initially recover the sample, if you like to observe or contribute, I would like to have a third set of eyes.”

“I would love to see what we have found,” Claire nodded, sliding gracefully into position next to Bart. “You get to call me Claire, though. You know that, do you not?”

“We never discussed that, specifically,” Bart shrugged as he distractedly prepared some tools on the bench next to the sample. “I assumed that you would insist on that, but I wanted to air on the side of good judgment. One can never be too cautious, especially given the circumstances.”

“Yes, with the social predicament that we seem to find ourselves in, we probably ought not to be making enemies of our fellow…” Tenzin stepped to the other side of Bart, watching Bart and his handling of the tool closely, like a hawk, circling a mouse. “What was the term that Archimedes used to describe us?”

“Sleepers,” Derrin said suddenly, reasserting that he was, in fact, still present. It was becoming increasingly useless for him to be so, since he had very little to contribute on the chemical examination, but he had not quite left the lab yet. “Archimedes referred to us as The Sleepers, which does seem to suggest that we are part of a bigger scheme, and that there are other cells like ours out there.”

“That would tend to make sense,” Bart replied without turning to Derrin, his focus remaining on the sample. “It would be asking quite a bit from six people, expecting them to revive the Earth completely on their own.”

“I concur,” Tenzin agreed, reaching over Bart, and rearranging the instruments that he had lain on the table. “Just to eliminate any confusion, by the way, you can all feel free to call me Dr. St. Crow.”

The other three members of the conversation laughed together.

“Wait,” Bart frowned as he mentally attempted to decipher Tenzin’s deadpan humor. “Are you being serious?”

Derrin chuckled to himself as he turned to leave the room, to the sounds of more biochemical speech than he was comfortable pretending that he could contribute to. There was very little use for him in that laboratory, and he had other things to take care of. He probably would have left the lab a few minutes earlier, if he was not developing attachment issues with Claire. There were, of course, other things to think about, and his social agenda was at the bottom of his list of priorities.

“Computer, locate Joshua Stein,” he said, as he walked briskly down the hall, toward the social room.

“Mr. Stein is in the library,” the voice of Archimedes informed him.

Derrin changed directions and headed toward the library, forcing his thoughts to focus on the mission at hand. There were other things to think about, after all.

IX

Derrin found Josh, along with Ruscov, with his eyes glued excitedly to a book. His instinct would have been to ask what the two of them were looking into, but Derrin adjusted his thought pattern, staying focused on the mission at hand. Mikhail did not seem overly anxious to join the preliminary expedition, surprisingly. Josh had almost seemed reluctant to come along himself, but he saw the sense in being part of the group. Rising from the table, he said something to Ruscov in a hushed tone, which might have made Derrin a little suspicious if he had not had other things on his mind, and left the library with Derrin. On their way out, Derrin asked Archimedes to alert Dr. St. Crow to meet them in the garage.

As they entered the garage, Derrin’s mind shifted from exploration to mechanical development. Witnessing the vehicles that were parked there, and seeing Josh’s reaction to them, reminded him of how much they needed to accomplish before they even thought about taking one of the SUVs out for a test drive.

“Wow,” Josh said enthusiastically. His face fell: “I don’t imagine that we can take any of them out for a drive yet, though, can we?”

Derrin shook his head. “No, there is far too much overgrowth,” he confirmed. “It is going to take a good amount of time to get all that cleared away, to any degree. I was starting to think, just now actually, about how I could possibly build a contraption for the front of the SUV to aid in the clearing of foliage.”

Josh nodded. “What were you thinking?” he asked. “Are you considering a rotating set of blades or something?”

Derrin nodded. “Actually, yes, that is almost exactly what I was thinking about,” he laughed. “I need to determine how much raw material I have in the workshop, but I should be able to get that built fairly quickly.”

“That seems a little barbaric,” Tenzin’s voice greeted them as she advanced through the garage toward them. “Ought we not learn more about the outside world and how it operates before we begin destroying things?”

Derrin nodded. “That would be rational, yes,” he confirmed. “It does not exactly fit with humanity’s history of cultural advancement.”

Tenzin frowned coldly. This was, after all, a second chance for humanity to do things right, by environmental standards. All the vehicles in the garage were designed for minimal gas usage, at least from what she could see just from a casual viewing, and they had the technology to avoid the strains that they had placed on the environment during the previous cultural advancement periods. She could understand how the environment was not the main focus of the venture at this point: five hundred years without human involvement could only have been beneficial for the ecosystem. Still, she doubted that wanton destruction of the indigenous flora and fauna would be a good plan.

“Well,” she said, deciding to leave her environmentalist rant for another time, “before we leave the base, I do think that it would be better to dress and prepare for any contingency.”

Derrin and Josh agreed to that, thankfully. The three of them donned protective hazmat suits. Tenzin cautioned against the usage of guns and other explosive weaponry until they had a better assessment of what awaited them, and Josh saw the logic in that. They did take weapons, though: Derrin equipped himself with a machete, and Josh grabbed a pair of long knifes, along with a hunting crossbow and a quiver full of arrows. Tenzin was pleased to find that there was a bow staff, since that was the weapon that she had been trained in. Thinking over the situation, she realized that she should not have been surprised at finding a bow staff in the inventory. The Illuminati would have had access to backgrounds on all the members, so it was reasonable to assume that they would have accommodated for each of their personal preferences. They would have logically taken her training into account. Still, it always made her smile to think that someone else would take her qualifications into consideration.

X

Once they had suited up, the three of them stood by the garage door, and Derrin prepared to open the door. Derrin had organized the group, and it seemed that all three of them had accepted that he was the leader. Josh did not seem to have any qualms about following his lead, and Tenzin was more comfortable with him in charge anyway. Everyone already knew about Derrin’s exploratory experience, so it made sense. As Derrin opened the door and revealed the world on the other side, that only seemed to solidify that decision.

“I do not know how familiar you guys are with Rudyard Kipling,” Josh’s voice echoed through the communication device into Tenzin’s suit “but I will admit to feeling a little like Mowgli here.”

“Was Mowgli not raised by wolves?” Derrin asked. “I would doubt that he ever had the same reaction to seeing such an untamed jungle out there.”

“All right, so it is not a perfect metaphor,” Josh replied.

Tenzin smiled to herself as she witnessed the outside world. There was no clear entree point in the foliage for them to begin their adventure; they were going to need to simply pick a spot and start clearing. The exact vine which Claire had cut the original sampling from was, by now indistinguishable from the rest of the ground cover and ivy, but Tenzin could see the tubular vine climbing the trees. She advanced on it, placing her hand on the plant, feeling for a reaction. To her surprise, she felt a vibration, a slight pulsing of movement, similar to blood pulsing through a vein.

“Derrin, come here,” she called their defacto leader to join her. “Feel this.”

Derrin walked to her side and reached for the vine. Tenzin imagined that he was frowning, contemplatively, as he held it, but she could not be sure, thanks to the hazmat suit’s hood.

“Fascinating,” Tenzin heard Derrin gasp as she watched him feel the movement, studying the vine between his gloved fingers.

“Guys, my Oracle is reading that the air is clear in this area,” Josh informed them. “We should be able to remove our hoods, at very least.”

She was hesitant at first, but after seeing Josh and Derrin remove their hoods without any ill effect, Tenzin decided to follow suit. Breathing in the fresh, untainted air was liberating, as if she had just been released from a prison, where she had been held for a crime that she did not commit. Tenzin froze and simply breathed for a moment or two, regaining her orientation and acclimating to the environment. It was only in that moment that she fully realized how long she had been locked inside. Going back into the base was something that she would need to do eventually, she knew. This, right now, breathing the fresh air of a virgin planet was all that she wanted to do.

“Josh, can you pull up map of Salt Lake City, as it was before the fallout, on your Oracle?” Derrin asked, as he examined the leaves on some of the trees. “I think it would be logical for us to head toward the closest body of water first, just to test the alkaloid levels.”

Josh did exactly that, basing the central proximity in line with Syracuse. He then pointed to left, before turning in that direction. “There seems to be some moisture in the air, coming from this direction,” he confirmed. “The mapping software still needs more information to trace a line directly to the source, but I imagine that this will come with exploration.”

“Seriously, who did the mapping for these people?” Josh asked the air, glaring at his Oracle in frustration. “Even their topographical mapping software looks like an 8 year old’s finger painting!”

Derrin moved to the area where Josh had been indicating. Pulling out his machete, he cut a bit of the foliage aside, being careful to avoid the vines. While the forest was dense and cluttered, there seemed to be a crude but natural trail, cutting through the trees. Derrin pointed it out to the others, and the three of them began to follow it, clearing the way as they walked.

“Oracle, I need you to track our movements, so that we will be able to find our way home easily,” Josh stated, raising his contraption to his face.

Bright words flashed across the screen: PLEASE IDENTIFY HOME.

“Syracuse base, Salt Lake City, Utah,” Josh asserted with a confident voice that he was not completely comfortable exuding.

CONFIRMED, the screen flashed it’s response, and a trail leading from there location, back to the base (which, at the moment, was only few yards away) appeared.

“I can download these when we get back to base,” Josh stated, half to himself, half to the others. “After I get enough information, I can start working on the world’s first Atlas.”

Derrin was thinking about the assertion, deciding that the first Atlas in half a century would qualify as the world’s first Atlas when the air above them was rent with a screech that would, figuratively, make one’s ears bleed. Tenzin was the first to react, instantly readying her bow and sinking into a defensive stance, while turning to the sky cautiously. Josh fumbled with his crossbow for a moment too long, before having bringing it into firing position, and pointing it into the sky. It only took another moment for him to realize that he had not yet loaded an arrow into the firing mechanism. Derrin’s machete was already in his hand, and he whirled toward the sound in the sky, preparing for whatever attack might come. A scurrying sound in the brush around him caused him to jump and lose his focus on the sky. With a determined frown, Derrin began to examine the brush, searching for whatever had made the sound.

Both Tenzin and Josh remained fixated on the sky, trying to see what had made the sound. When they saw the beast responsible, Josh gasped in horror, swallowing his scream. Tenzin felt her knees go a little weak beneath her as the shape of the creature soared over them.

“Holy shit!” Josh coughed out in fear. “Is that a dragon?”

Tenzin shook her head nervously. “It cannot be a dragon,” she stammered in an unconvinced tone. “Dragons are mythical creatures. Not even a nuclear holocaust could produce a mythical beast when the genetic materials are not available.”

“How many nuclear fallouts have you lived through?” Josh asked, his voice cracking with fear. “Because that looked like a fucking dragon to me!”

He is not lying, Tenzin thought to herself. The beast which she had seen had been at least eight feet long, from beak to tail, with at least a 15 foot wingspan. It had not been a scaled lizard, like the dragons in fairy tales, though. She had not been able to see it very clearly, from where it had soared above them, but she could have sworn that she had seen feathers, rather than scales. The sound that it made was not a roar or a crawl but, rather, a caw, similar to that of a bird, but more aggressive and demonstrative than any avian fowl that she had ever witnessed.

She tried to focus on the sky, but she could not pretend to ignore the scurry which had occurred when the creature cawed. She did not know what life existed in the brush behind her but, whatever it was, it was as terrified by the sound as they had been.

“Okay,” Josh let out his breath “it does not seem to be circling the area. I think I can safely say that this world is not yet human approved. Also, I need new boxers.”

“There is something in the brush here,” Derrin muttered, as he beat at the undergrowth with his machete. “I know you all heard the reaction over here. Something lives here, and it was about as happy with the sound as we were.”

“I can’t imagine anything having a pleasant reaction to that sound,” Josh replied, as he walked over to stand near Derrin and better examine the area. “What do you think it means, though?”

“It means that the flying creature, which was almost certainly not a dragon, is an apex predator,” Tenzin stated as she turned to examine her own area, poking at it with the end of her staff. “Typically, when creatures run from the natural cry of another animal, assuming that was what that animal typically sounds like, it means that they fear for their lives.”

“Well, that does very little to restore my calm,” Josh quipped, as he knelt down to ruffle through the ground cover with his hands.

“Stein, be careful,” Derrin cautioned him. “We have no idea what type of animal is in the--”

His comment was cut off by the deep, guttural growling of an unknown beast. It had the distinct ’back off’ tone, designed to instill caution in the other party. Josh withdrew his hand quickly and was on his feet in a flash.

“Oracle,” Tenzin spoke frantically into her device. “Display area heat readings in proximity to our group.”

She did not have time to view or react to the readings before the group was attacked. A large rodent, approximately the size of what history had told her that a beaver had been, jumped from the brush, snarling aggressively. Josh screamed in a high pitched tone, jumping back, and preparing his crossbow, while Derrin danced out of the creature’s path, holding his machete at the ready. Tenzin examined the creature quickly: It’s snout and pronounced front teeth suggested that it was a burrowing animal, similar to a gopher. This was all that she could determine before a second creature of similar size and shape jumped out of the brush, directly at her.

She had been so focused on the snarling beast in front of her that she had almost missed the snarling sound. Hearing the rustling which indicated advancement through the brush, she jumped quickly out of the way as the creature dove from the brush, flying through the air and landing in the spot where Tenzin had been standing, only seconds before. Acting on instinct, she swung her bow into the creature’s head, and it stumbled back, dazed. Reacting to the perceived attack, the original beast turned on Tenzin, snarling aggressively. Derrin reacted first, sinking the blade of his machete into the creature’s torso. Dark red blood spouted from the monster’s body like a fountain, as it howled a piteous cry. Derrin pulled his blade out of it’s body, and the beast spun to face him. It seemed as if it were about to pounce, when a bolt from Josh’s crossbow pierced it’s neck, pinning it to the ground. The monster flailed and kicked it’s legs as the blood drained from it’s wounds, staining the ground with it’s life force.

Josh quickly began to reload his crossbow, as Derrin prepared to strike the posturing creature in front of Tenzin. Tenzin stepped into a defensive stance from her training, bracing herself for the creature’s anticipated attack. What she had not been expecting was a third snarl, coming from behind her. She knew better than to break eye contact with the first attacking creature, but the instinct was too strong. She turned toward the new sound and, as she turned, the original creature lunged at her savagely. Tenzin stopped, mid-turn, adjusted her staff, and blocked the lunging beast as best she could. Out of the corner of her eye, Tenzin saw slight movement, but there was nothing that she could do about it in the moment. The creature who’s attack she had clumsily blocked was now clawing at the leg of her suit.

“Tenzin!” Josh cried out, as he prepared his attack. “Watch behind you!”

Derrin charged toward her, swinging his machete into the creature on her leg. He connected, and the creature’s innards quickly saturated the suit. Tenzin shook her leg to clear it of the animal’s now-immobile jaw, while Josh fired an arrow at the newest entree to the fray. As Tenzin turned to face the new attacker, a sharp pain shot up her leg, into her spine. The creature must of broken through the suit, into her skin. Once the injury had been noticed, she could feel the blood running down her leg, and (while it was likely psychosomatic, and she knew that) she suddenly felt light-headed.

Derrin caught her before she could fall and, through her slightly blurred vision, Tenzin saw Josh leaping through the air, knives in hand, toward the remaining monster.

“This has to be a dream,” Tenzin sighed, gasping for air. “I am going to be all right, do not worry, I simply need to wake up.”

“I have you, Dr. St. Crow,” Derrin’s calming voice filled her ears. “You are going to be all right.”

Looking as heroic as he possibly could, inside a hazmat suit, Josh pulled his knifes from the motionless body of the creature, wiping it’s blood off on his torso. “The threat has been neutralized,” he announced dramatically.

Tenzin snickered. “You look like a miniaturized Conan,” she chuckled at Josh “with the knife and the blood all over.”

Josh laughed with her. “If we are thinking of the same Conan, I am pretty sure that he fought with a giant sword or an ax of some kind.”

“That is why you are a miniaturized version,” she giggled.

Then she frowned, as a moment of clarity formed in her mind. “I think that I might need to head back to the base,” Tenzin said. “This wound should probably be dressed, and--”

“There may have been something foreign in the creature’s saliva which is having an intoxicating effect of you nervous system,” Derrin completed for her. “I am right there with you.”

Derrin picked her up into his arms, and began walking toward the base again.

“Wait,” Tenzin whispered when they had walked a few feet. “The bodies from the creatures. Bring one of them with us; I want to study it.”

Derrin nodded to Josh, and Josh confirmed. He returned to the scene of the incident and retrieved the most intact of the corpses, slung it over his shoulder like a macabre scarf, then jumped to catch up with Derrin and Tenzin. Derrin considered the scene which had just played out before him, as he walked toward Syracuse. From flying dragons to rabid rodents of unusual size, this world was beginning to feel more like a fantasy story than a scientific venture. As he carried his injured accomplice back to the base with him, he began to think about how many heroes of the fantasy novels that he had read actually came out ahead, let alone at all, in the end.

“It’s a great time to be alive.”

“A beautiful new day for planet Earth.”

Derrin saw a trickle of Tenzin’s blood, leaking onto his suit. He stepped up his speed, returning to the base.

Next Chapter: Reviving Life