Every generation forgets the sins of the past. It believes itself to be above petty foibles and character flaws. Until they are revealed in their own hearts and it is too late. Dictators thrive in difficult conditions. People willingly give up their sovereignty for the illusion of safety. We have learned nothing from two World Wars and the terror of the Cold War. Humankind’s lust for power cannot be tamed. Again and again, our basest instincts rise up as soon as conditions get tough. Today, we face the greatest challenge to our survival as a species and a self-styled dictator has announced himself. Each and every one of us must make the hard decision to do what is right.
Extract from The Last Bastion of the Anthropocene, Ester Akintola, the final UN Secretary General.
It didn’t get any easier. He just got more used to it. Eli scanned the faces in the cargo bay; Sara, Basil and Jason sat quietly, deep in their own thoughts. As mission leader, he knew they’d follow his orders, but if something went wrong, like what had happened to Chris on their last sortie, the guilt was his alone. Outside, trees flashed by beneath them. Eli checked his parachute straps for the fourth time. They were just as secure as they’d been a few minutes ago.
The pilot’s voice crackled over Eli’s earbud. “Approaching jump site.” Eli stood and slid open the heavy door. Wind whipped at his hair, buffeting his face and straining against his body. Eli gave the signal. “Form up.”
As always, Sara was the first to her feet but she looked pale. Eli squeezed her shoulder. Her leopard, Ming, bristled when Sara patted her head through the reinforced box. Basil’s wolf whined and Jason’s jaguar huffed. The sedatives were kicking in, but the animals knew what was coming, and Eli didn’t need to be the earth walker to know they weren’t thrilled about it.
“And … go,” announced the pilot.
Eli jumped out into nothingness. He fell fast, faster than he’d thought possible. Air tugged at his lips, his eyelids, and rubbed his face raw. The force was incredible. Una dived beside him; her wings pinned to her sides. He counted the seconds then yanked hard on his release strap. Fabric billowed and Eli slowed with a jerk as the parachute filled with air. He grinned as the others mushroomed above him. “Everyone good?” he said into his earpiece.
“Yeah, Selene is loving this,” Jason responded.
Eli craned his neck to see the jaguar clutching at Jason’s arm in panic.
“Can’t say Lupa is enjoying it much either,” said Basil, his voice muffled by the fur of his writhing wolf.
The tail of Sara’s leopard twitched violently like an overcharged grandfather clock.
As the ground came into view, Eli pulled on the joists and oriented the parachute to slow him down. “Okay, we’re still coming in hot,” he said to the others. “Spread out and get ready for a bumpy landing.”
He hit the ground at a run, the momentum of the parachute still behind him. He rapidly disengaged the straps, slowing as the parachute dropped off in a puddle of fabric.
“Arrrgh,” cried Jason behind him.
Eli launched sideways to avoid a collision. Jason rolled over, his parachute tangling around him until the jaguar slashed open an escape hatch. The cat tumbled out, hissing at the indignity of it all. Around them, the rest of the team landed in a graceless set of bumps and yells.
“Get off me, Basil. Seriously.” Sara pushed her way out from underneath the boy and his wolf. “Ow. You’re heavy, you know that?”
Eli grinned at the sight of them. “What a crack unit.”
“Hey, it wasn’t my genius idea to throw ourselves out of an aircraft into the forest,” Sara snapped back.
Eli faced the green-speckled mountains looming above them. In between solar flare bursts, the twins had managed to send word of a rendezvous point deep in the Serbian mountains. By Kara’s estimate, at least a dozen convergers received the message. “This is our last extraction mission; we have to make it count.”
“Let’s hope they’re up there,” Sara said, pulling her rucksack onto her shoulders as they waited for the others to ditch their parachutes. Their earbuds released a high-pitched whine and Sara grimaced. “Another flare,” she said, yanking hers out and stowing it in her rucksack. “No comms, then.”
They hiked in silence. Eli tried to lose himself in the rhythm of his footfalls and the sounds of the forest. For a while, it worked. The big cats prowled ahead and Una soared above the enormous trees providing intel from the skies. In the dappled shadows of the overgrown logging trail, she told Eli what he already knew. They were alone.
After an hour, Eli signalled to the team to break. Jason and Basil had fallen behind and it wasn’t safe to separate. Sara yanked off her rucksack and rummaged for snacks, tossing Eli a water bottle and a muesli bar. “Where do you think Fletcher is?” she asked, unwrapping one for herself and flopping on the ground, using her rucksack as a backrest.
“Good question.” Eli swigged water and removed his own rucksack, rolling his shoulders to loosen them.
“He never talked to you about leaving?”
Eli dumped his rucksack next to Sara’s and sat down. “I’ve replayed every conversation a hundred times, but after Eva died, he retreated into himself and I didn’t want to push him. I figured that if he ever wanted to offload, he had Ariana.”
“I doubt he’d have come back from the edge without her.”
Eli thought about Ariana and Fletcher’s hidden smiles, the way they gravitated toward each other, like distant planets making their own new solar system. He imagined Sara taking his hand, eyes bright, laughter on her lips. Eli shook off the thought. “Even before he lost Eva, he was frustrated.” Fletcher had abandoned them all, but it was Ariana who he’d hurt the most. Proof it was unwise to open up your heart like that.
Jason and Basil’s voices floated up the trail behind them. Eli jumped to his feet. “Come on, we must keep going.” He busied himself with his rucksack to hide the butterflies tumbling in his stomach, then took off down the trail, ignoring Jason and Basil’s complaints that they hadn’t had a break.
Sara raced to catch up with him. “Because he couldn’t reach the in-between?”
Eli slowed and reflected on her question. How readily he slipped into the spirit world and the walker state that lay between the two worlds. As if he’d always known how. “He couldn’t reach the earth spirit, like Ariana and I had found our sea and air spirits.”
“Meaning he couldn’t talk to his past lives, like you do with Clara. No wonder Fletcher had struggled,” Sara said.
“Ariana and I can ask our past selves for guidance, but Fletcher is alone.”
“Do you know why?”
Eli looked up at the sliver of sky visible through the tree canopy, focusing on his link with Una. He flitted into her consciousness, revelling in the cool breeze, the freedom of gliding above it all. The air spirit lived in him, in their bond. But now Nyx, the dark spirit, having once almost succeeding in destroying the walker lineages, wanted to return and obliterate life itself. “Robyn says Nyx infiltrated the earth spirit over a thousand years ago. It is her who limits Fletcher’s connection to the walker state and his past lives. It must be awful to be cut off from the flow of cosmic energy.”
“I only feel a minute portion of what you have access to, but I can’t imagine living without it now. It’s part of me.” Ming loped past, flicking her tail at Sara before bounding ahead up the trail and disappearing around the bend.
Eli and Sara lapsed into silence, following Ming’s pawprints, focusing their energy on climbing the steep incline Ming had made such light work of.
At the top of the ridge, they stopped to catch their breath. A pink twilight sky clutched the green haze of the forest in its embrace. Ming wound through Sara’s legs, purring in greeting. The cat’s eyes glinted as her natural night vision kicked in.
“Ever since Fletcher disappeared, I can’t shake the feeling that I should never have given him so much space,” Eli said. “I should have made him talk to me. Then we might not be in the current situation.”
“We’ve all changed. Not just Fletcher. It doesn’t mean we’ve lost him forever,” Sara said, her heart brimming with compassion for the boy by her side, the walker who wanted to change the world for the better. The boy who didn’t want to leave anyone behind.
Una dived through the final threads of pink in the sky then landed on Eli’s shoulder. “I hope you’re right,” he said, eyes fixed on the sunset. The peace was broken by Jason and Basil groaning about the climb. Eli turned to the boys. “You guys need to be fitter. You can’t afford to keep falling behind.” He glanced at Sara. “I need to check in with Ariana.”
“Camp will be set up by the time you get back, right guys?” Sara said, removing her pack and tossing it at the young convergers.
Jason caught it and shared a despairing glance with Basil. “Right,” they grumbled in unison.
Eli opened his eyes. Stars splayed before him and a fire burned at his back. He turned round and saw the teens had been as good as their word; camp was set, dinner was on. Jason passed him a bowl of steaming rehydrated tagine. Eli hoped it tasted as good as it smelled. The big cats stretched out in front of the fire, purring contentedly. The bright eyes of Basil’s wolf peered through the darkness as it patrolled the perimeter.
Sara raised her eyebrows and shrugged, by gesture rather than words asking Eli for information.
“Apart from seeing Ariana – no sign of Fletcher.”
By the dancing firelight, Eli could see written on their faces the same despair he felt. All of them wanted the same thing: hope. Hope they would survive this. Hope that the MRI would be stopped and Nyx destroyed. It was more than he could give them. Eli pushed aside his meal. “I’m going to bed.”
He’d no sooner curled up in his sleeping bag when someone unzipped the tent flap. Sara stood silhouetted in the doorway, her long hair loose around her shoulders. “Sorry to disturb you, but there’s only two tents …”
Sara unrolled her sleeping bag and lay down beside him, so close Eli could smell the sweet apple scent of her shampoo. “Gosh I’m exhausted,” she yawned, elbowing Eli through her sleeping bag as she got settled.
“Goodnight,” he whispered. Energy skittered through his veins and sleep took an eternity to claim him.