They got me on a train, the station still deserted. Word would spread fast, I thought, and people would start venturing out once more. The threat would be gone now, once we got hold of all the clones who morphed into Eaters. That might take a while; they were scattered all over the globe. Elizabeth told me of how they had gotten Jack to the Facility, and of how he had been rushed into a room where a team of clinicians began working on him. I felt hopeful at this. It sounded like they knew what they were doing. And, if he could be saved, so could the others.
Nick and Marilyn explained that Luke had returned to the camp, more furious than scared that I had disappeared into a beam of light from the sky. They were curious about my experience, but sensed I was on the verge of exhaustion. I’d tell them everything, once I was able to see Jack for myself. I stared out the window at the city rushing by, my fists clenched. He had to be OK.
Once we arrived at the Facility, Eva met us at the main entrance, and taking in my appearance seemed alarmed. “What’s happened to you?” The others filled her in briefly.
“The Director is gone? And the Travelers?” Disbelief colored her voice, but I didn’t stop to reassure her. We hurried through the corridors, encountering many intent and bustling staff members. Eva led us to a busy white room, exactly like the one I had woken up in, and all too similar to the one I had just been in, suspended above the planet. But I didn’t care. There, on a bed, with machines monitoring his every breath, lay Jack. His eyes were closed, the shock of white in his hair more apparent. But the flesh of his hand was warm and alive, and I clasped it to my chest.
His eyelids fluttered, then opened. He wasn’t surprised to see me standing there, and I wasn’t surprised he had woken up. I forgot the people standing behind me, some of them strangers. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his, and his hand wrung itself in my hair. We stayed that way for a while, and then I broke away to whisper something in his ear. His quick grin flashed across his face, and I beamed in reply.
“Well then, I guess I’ll have to make an honest woman out of you,” he rasped, and it was the voice I knew and loved.
His hand traveled to my midsection and lingered there. And we were a family.
Jack refused to tell me where we were going on our honeymoon, insisting I needed to be surprised. I agreed, and now we were speeding across the ocean to the coast of what was once Mexico. I looked out at the endless blue stretching both ways from the bullet train. Jack slept next to me. He twitched and mumbled in his slumber, but I had become used to that. He had been waking up every night, sometimes screaming. He didn’t remember much from his time as an Eater, except that he knew he’d had a hunger that had consumed him and gone unsated. He also didn’t remember bonding with the strange woman I had seen him with on the forest floor. But I remained convinced that he had recognized me that day at the train station, when Adam was killed.
I laid a hand against his forehead, and he quieted. The researchers who had remained at the Facility had been able to reverse the genetic mutation but not without difficulty. It was as Adam had said. Only some of the staff had been in on the Director’s worldwide plan. Many had gone along with the plan out of fear, but some, like Eva, had been suspicious but carefully kept in the dark. Almost all the other Eaters had been saved from their fates as well, but a few had been killed in the tumultuous days that followed my encounter with the Director. The mechanics of how the Eaters mutated in the first place, and then changed back into human form, was never fully explained to me, but I didn’t feel the need to press the issue. The science of it all wasn’t as important as the simple fact that it no longer occurred.
And so, slowly, over the past several months, things had returned to some semblance of normalcy. Everyone in the camp returned to their lives and their homes. Around the globe in every city, people were electing leaders to councils. Without the Travelers overseeing things, people could create and enact models of democracy that had once existed. Rory had stayed in the city and offered me a position on the Origin Council, but I had declined. My passion was biology, not politics. As if sensing my thoughts, Jack woke up beside me, and I turned from the window to look at him. He had aged a little, but the damage wasn’t permanent. Already his youthful vigor was returning, and I wondered if the terror we had survived showed on my face as well.
“We’re almost there, kid. You’re going to be so surprised.”
He was chiding me, because he knew I was a little perturbed at not knowing where we were going. I rested my head against his shoulder, feeling the solid warmth there, not caring if the train ever stopped. But soon we arrived in a small village, the little houses and roads nothing like the sprawling city we had come from. The people there still spoke Spanish, much to my dismay, and Jack was fluent. I wasn’t, so I garnered no further information about where we were going while he was getting directions. He had booked us a small bungalow about a mile from the ocean, and it was perfect. Sparse palm trees surrounded the open veranda, and I wanted nothing more than to lie on the bed and rest. My feet were swollen and my belly increasingly heavy.
“We’ve got a mile to walk before we reach your surprise. Up and at ’em, kid.”
I sighed, and hauled myself up. “A mile? In my condition?” But I was mostly joking. I was excited now.
“You almost single-handedly out-maneuvered an alien race, I think you can manage a little stroll,” Jack joked, grabbing my wrists and pulling me toward the door. I’d finally told him about my telepathy, and how I’d connected with him in his Eater form that bloody day at the train station. He’d responded with his usual compassion and warmth, accepting it as an undeniable part of me, like the color of my eyes. I’d kept it a secret from everyone else, though. Clearing my mind of these haunting thoughts, I laughed a little and waddled out the door with him, and we emerged into the heat of the day.
He had packed a bag with some food and water, and I donned a wide-brimmed hat to shield my fair skin from the sun. The path toward the ocean was arid but not too hot, and we kept up a light banter. I soon began to hear the crash of waves against rock, and my heart sped up. Something about this walk was familiar. Jack was grinning now, as we came to a slight crest shrouded with trees and brush. “OK, now I’m going to cover your eyes and lead you forward.”
I sighed, pretending to be annoyed. “Really Jack, it’s not necessary.”
But I followed his lead, my ears picking up the chirps of birds and the smell of salt water. We walked a little way ahead, and I kept my eyes closed as Jack cleared a way for me.
“OK, you can open them now.”
My hand flew to my mouth, a little gasp escaping it. In front of me, in perfect detail, was the ocean cove of my recurring dream.
All I could manage was, “How … ?”
It was real, and it was here, right in front of me. I made my way down the sandy bank and knelt at the edge of the water. The rocky wall with the asymmetrical hole in it, hinting at the ocean beyond. The water a vivid turquoise revealing little multicolored fish. It was identical to my dream, and it was the most serene place on Earth, I thought. And I felt I had finally come home. Jack was taking his shoes and clothes off.
“Well, what do you think?” he asked, clearly amused at my surprise.
I stood up and wrapped my arms around him.
“It’s so perfect. It’s exactly like my dream. However did you find it? How could you know it was even real?” I remained incredulous.
“I did some research after … after things went back to normal. I remembered how you looked when you described your dream to me that morning in Lagos, and I had a hunch this place existed. I’m glad I was right.”
He kissed my nose, and waded into the water. “So come on! The temperature is perfect.”
I gazed around again, trailing my fingers over a flowering bush nearby before stepping in. Sand squished between my toes, and the water was buoyant, caressing. I floated on my back and looked up at the sun, my round belly poking up.
“We can stay here as long as you want, you know. I can deliver the baby with no trouble.” Jack was floating next to me, his bare chest inviting my hands.
“No, I need to get back. Elizabeth and I want to track those bonobos in the forest. I haven’t given up on that goal.”
She had been reluctant to go back to our research, but had warmed up to the idea over time. I had convinced her I needed her assistance. Nick and Marilyn had moved to Continent Two. After all that had happened, all they wanted was to be together for a while before returning to work. None of us saw Luke again after that night, and I that was all right with me. I giggled at the little nip of a fish, seeing one curiously examining my toes. I rolled over and trod water toward the curving wall. Jack followed.
“So what are we naming this daughter of ours? Have you decided?”
I had decided a while ago, on the morning that Eva rushed me through the Facility toward Jack’s sedated body. She was still there, overseeing research. I turned to smile at Jack, my hand curving around my belly.
“Lulu,” I told him.
He grinned in response. “Where’d you get a name like that?”
“An old friend of mine,” I replied.
He seemed content with that, holding his arms out for me. I floated into them, and we stayed that way for a while, listening to the crash of the waves beyond the wall.
“Jack?”
“Hmm?”
Looking at all the perfection around us, it seemed impossible that we had been in the midst of such terror only months ago. I began to think of what the Director had told me, and I forced myself to stop thinking about our harrowing past. But the question that arose in my mind would not go away, and so I looked up at the face I had come to memorize in detail.
“Do you think we’ll screw it all up again? Humanity?”
And he knew, with no further explanation, what I was asking. He squinted down at me, but didn’t lose his grin. I waited for his answer, a fish brushing up against my leg.
“Time will tell.”