Evelyn Earth Part 19

A smile crept over my face. That would be the ideal scenario; a new Earth, wiped clean of all mankind’s cruel inventions. We stood there for a few more minutes, each of us contemplating what Marla had just said. It was a solemn moment in which we all reflected on the changes that had occurred in our lives in the past three months.

“I wonder if we missed something” Toya said, breaking the silence, “By staying here I mean. What if we were supposed to move on to something else?” She turned to the rest of us and I could see the worry etched into her face.

“I think we’ve all thought about that” Old Mal added, “the thing is people are afraid of change, even if it is a change in location.” Marla nodded in agreement. They had all lived around Docklands before the darkness struck, just like me. The rest of the group had trickled in from surrounding suburbs. It was Tod who spoke up next.

“You can think like that only because you haven’t been out there” he pointed towards the south, “We travelled up and down the coast before we settled here and I can tell you now like I’ve told you before, there’s nothing better than here. No military camps, nobody to tell you how to behave, just a bunch of savages on looting sprees.”

“That can’t be everything though. What if there is some base camp somewhere, something organised and tactical. My brother and I came down to the coast hoping to find the navy, but what if we just when in the wrong direction?” Owen chimed in.

“Another direction? You mean like the country? Pfft, what the fucks going to be in the country that couldn’t have been organised in the city!” Jack said sarcastically.

“Think about it” Owen ploughed on, “all this destruction, these black holes, everything bad seems to be happening around urban areas.” Their conversation continued, back and forth back and forth. I stood to the side and let it all sink into my consciousness. Owen was right of course, the country would be the safest place, if there were a place where humans had gathered in large numbers it would be in the least urbanised and most natural of places. There the Mother would protect them, if they were pure of heart of course.

 Just the thought of being surrounded by luscious green grass with warm rays of sunlight beating down on my face made me shudder with pleasure. In my heart I knew though that that was not where I was meant to be. My destiny lay here, amongst the rubble, where I would pave the way for fields of greenery.

“What do you think Evelyn?” Fins asked me.

“Hmm about what?” I turned to him.

“About making a trip to the outback?” I laughed. I couldn’t help myself it was such a childish question.

“The outback? If by the outback you mean the mountains then I think that’s a great idea. You wouldn’t survive a day in the Australian country side without supplies. It’s all dry flat land and shrubbery!” I couldn’t stop laughing. I was aware of the fact that everyone was looking at me strangely, but frankly I couldn’t care less. Every landscape was the Mother’s pride and joy, but some were only meant to be inhabited by sand snakes and ants.

“The mountains aren’t a bad idea” Owen cut in. He was all concerned chivalry, taking me by the elbow and standing slightly in front of me—possibly trying to conceal my erratic behaviour.

                “Why would we want to go and live in the forest when we have all these comforts here?” Old Mal asked indicating the shipping containers.

                “All these comforts are going to run out. You’ll be left with your shipping container full of useless technology and empty water bottles. If we went into the mountains we could find natural spring water!” You could see everyone catching onto the idea.

                “Better yet” I stepped forward, “Why don’t we find a Melbourne Water reservation? There are huge lakes of fresh water surrounded by relatively urban areas, you could continue to raid for food and never have to worry about water supplies ever again.” I could tell Owen was surprised. I was personally surprised that no one had considered the option before. It just goes to show how complacent people can be when bottled and canned goods are just a short walk away.

 I had my own reasons for suggesting the water reserves. They would keep these impure people away from the truly saved humans who were probably being sheltered in the mountains. I cursed myself for even mentioning the possibility of survival in the forests. I was so caught up in the absurd suggestion of travelling into the bushland that I didn’t filter myself.

Suddenly a whole array of conflicting emotions erupted from inside me. I liked these people, I wanted them to survive this, but what if the Mother didn’t? If she had they would have disappeared with all the others. Was I going against her wishes? I clutched my head and groaned in pain. Flashes of Her past clouded my vision. It felt like she was trying to show me the answer, but I was so overwhelmed that all I saw clearly were stars. I felt Owen taking hold of me, but the pain was building to an unbearable crescendo. The last thing I remembered was looking into Owens eyes and seeing the faintest specks of colour within his irises.

  I awoke on the ground. A sharp rock was digging into my spine and I groaned as I shifted positions. For a moment I thought my vocal emission of pain came out too loud, but then I realised the grating and groaning sound was all around me. I sat up and instantly scooted back.  It looked the bridge was about to fall on top of me.  I was in almost the same place as when I had fainted, just slightly further back and away from the water. Toya, Marla and Old Mal were standing behind me with their necks craned upwards. I followed their gaze until I locked onto two figures moving fairly quickly up the access ladder of one of the 90 metre high silver towers.

“Is that…” I trailed off.

“Owen and Fins” Marla finished for me; “While you were out we spotted some people making their way across the bridge. The boys went up there to warn them that the whole thing is about to collapse and to bring them down through the access ladder.”

“Where are the others?” I asked.

“Gone, ran off as soon as the bridge began making that noise. Cowards.” She spat on the ground narrowly missing my feet. They were either cowards or survivors, only Owen would be naïve enough to believe that any people on the bridge right now had no idea that it was collapsing. The whole bloody thing was creaking so loudly that it sounded like a meat grinder chomping on bones. I had no doubts that the people they saw were the men from the boat. If that was the case then Owen might be in trouble.

I shuffled from one foot to the other never taking my eyes of their diminishing silhouettes. The sun was beginning to set behind us casting the whole scene in a deceptively warm and comforting glow.

“How long was I passed out for?”

“Hours darling” Toya answered me. No wonder they had made so much progress. To get to the access ladders you would have had to swim to the half-way point of the river. I had read somewhere that when the bridge was first constructed, and still land locked, urban dare devils used to come up here and climb to the top of the towers. Now I had two idiots who thought they were heroes doing the same thing.

There was no way that I could catch up to them. I pulled out a fragment of the darkness and allowed myself to sink into the far sight. I could make out the outlines of five people. They were walking steadily past the silver towers, unaware that Owen and Fins trying to reach them. If only I could warn Owen somehow. I racked my brain, but nothing came to mind. I couldn’t even send out any of my power, I was sapped of energy and standing on a petrified wooden pier. I cursed myself for being so weak. If I could have held it together and not fainted at the slightest mental overload I would have been able to stop them from going up there.

You must take your energy from the earth, from the flesh. You are only as weak as you allow yourself to be. The words seared my brain with such a vivid intensity that I thought they had literally burned themselves into my mind. It was a forceful message, but it was one that I desperately needed to hear.

Without any preamble I broke into a run. I heard Marla’s and Toya’s protests, but I didn’t look back, I needed to get to the solid ground on the other side of this damned trickle of water. I splashed through the shallows only looking up briefly to see the other man’s darkness crawling up the underside of the bridge. I didn’t stop until I had made. I was completely out of breath and struggling to keep my heart rate under control, but I managed to immerse my hands in the dirt and place my forehead against the ground.

 I stopped breathing. I didn’t need to. In my search for answers, in my search for power I had forgotten the simplest things. The fact that I shared an unparalleled bond with the Earth and as long as She breathed I didn’t need to. As long as She was powerful, so was I. I plunged my consciousness into Her and let eons of power rush through me. I was like a piece of copper conducting all of Her energy, recharging as I went. Before when I had entered into her flesh I had simply stood up and cut our connection. I saw it as a power source from which I had to unplug, but I understood now that that wasn’t the case. I kicked off my shoes and stood up with my feet planted firmly in the ground. I felt the infinite amount of power fuel the darkness within me and I sent it out like a snake through the sky, in search of the mysterious man.