“My guess is that it’s fairly shallow by comparison to the ocean in the east, but I don’t know if it’s fresh water or salt. I need to take some samples, but I have no idea how to get there. I thought maybe I could use the rope to rappel down, but I don’t think it’s long enough to get me to the water.”
“Take samples? Take them where?”
“I can do some basic analysis here,” she says. “I found some functioning equipment on the lower level of the complex, but ultimately I need to get them back to the capital. My mom has the knowledge and the tools to draw better conclusions.”
Shock has turned my brain to mush, and I’m having trouble comprehending what Aerin is telling me. I have no idea what difference it makes whether or not there is salt in the water or what she might be able to gather from the composition of the silt.
“How far does it go?” I ask.
“As far as I know, this is it,” Aerin says.
“What do you mean, ‘This is it’?”
“I mean, the sea before you goes all the way to the Pacific Ocean and that this mountain range is as far west as the continent goes. The remainder of what used to be North America is under water. Based on all the geological evidence from before the Great Eruption, this is what it looked like hundreds of millions of years ago during the Paleozoic Era, right before the tectonic plates collided…”
She continues on about plate boundaries, subduction zones, and North American Taconic orogeny, but I’m quickly lost in the terminology. I get the general idea that half a billion years ago, there was an ocean here, but then these mountains formed and the ocean subsided. Now, after millions of years, the tectonic plates have shifted, and the sea is back.
“Considering the erosion from the sea and the continuous activity from the plate boundary,” Aerin says, “it might be just a matter of time before the rest of this mountain breaks apart.”
As if in response, the ground begins to shake. The quake isn’t strong and only lasts a few seconds, not even giving us enough time to move to better shelter. As it subsides, more rocks break free from the mountainside and tumble to the water below.
Though the geology lesson is somewhat interesting, I’m more concerned about another matter. Unless human beings rapidly evolve into water-dwellers, there is no place for them to live past the mountain range.
“Where did the people go?” I whisper.
“I don’t think there have been any people out there for a long time,” Aerin says softly. “This didn’t happen overnight. It’s been like this for years, maybe since the very beginning of the quakes.”
A hard knot forms in my stomach.
“But…but we were relocating people out West.” I turn to her and grab her arm. “All the Naughts surrounding the capital were relocated to the West where there was supposed to be fertile land!”
“I know.” She looks away from me.
“We moved thousands of people!” I yell. “I watched them get loaded onto carts by the hundreds! We gave them everything they would need to get a life started out there, and they can’t have just disappeared! Where are they?”
I glare at her, demanding answers I know she can’t provide. The reality is right in front of me, but I can’t bring myself to acknowledge it.
“I helped him.” I take a step closer to her and grab her elbow. “I helped my father arrange for their relocation. I organized the farming equipment!” I grip her arm a little tighter, forcing her to look at me and screaming, “Where are they? Where did they all go?”
“I don’t know, Talen!” She wrestles her arm away and takes a step back. “I don’t know wher
e they went, but I think you can probably figure out what happened to them!”
“No.” I shake my head violently and look out at the water, waiting for an ark to show up, full of smiling families, complete with animals in cute little cages, arranged in sets of two. I see nothing but unending water as the grey waves crash against the mountainside.
“They’re all dead,” Aerin says gently. “Talen, you know they have to be dead.”
I shake my head, unable to speak as my pulse pounds in my ears. My stomach churns, and I have to sit back down again.
A grey-haired woman toting two grandchildren behind her looked up at me with worry and concern in her eyes.
“It’s going to be great!” I said with a smile. “The land will still be harsh, but there will be room for everyone. We’re sending all the farming equipment you’ll need. It’s not going to be easy, but soon you’ll be growing your own food. You won’t have to fight for scraps here at the capital anymore.”
She held my hand and cried as she thanked me. The children looked up at me in awe, like I was their savior or something. I reached out and ruffled the hair of each of them in turn, telling them everything was going to be all right.
“God bless you, son!” The grey-haired woman placed her hands on either side of my face, and I felt like I was on top of the world.
“I helped.” I have to swallow hard to keep from vomiting.