Chapter 3

"Hi!" Skye's greeting was much squeakier than expected, and Lucas almost stepped back out into the rain. He followed her gaze back to Irving, a fellow security team member that they were both very familiar with. Silas Irving, who was in the process of filling sandbags on her right, raised an eyebrow at Skye, but said nothing. As Skye turned back around, Lucas met her eyes with a questioning expression. She was blinking an awful lot .. what had he just walked in on? He pulled his wagon inside and laid the handle down slowly, deciding to attempt a casual conversation.

"They've run out of sandbags at the Command Centre. How are you two getting along?"

"If only this rain would stop .." Skye grumbled, ignoring his double-sided question.

"Come on, you should love it! Buckets are made for water."

"Funny." She glanced at Irving, still looking vaguely uneasy. "Look, I think you better go. I have a job to do, you know."

Skye raised her shovel and picked up a sandbag as if he needed a visual demonstration of how sandbagging worked.

"I came to see if I could help. Looks like you've got it covered."

As Skye opened her mouth to answer, Irving slid past behind her.

"I didn't say a word."

She smiled in discomfort and forced herself not to shy away from the hiss directly behind her ear. Lucas was still staring in confusion. With a glance at Irving's retreating back, Skye looked at the ground and shifted nervously.

"Sorry, we don't have any more shovels."

Lucas nodded slowly and shrugged.

"Okay."

Skye turned to look at Silas again. He was busy helping one of his fellow soldiers and didn't see her. As Lucas turned to venture back out into the rain, she appeared to concede defeat.

"You could hold the bag for me .."

Lucas nodded slowly and came forward to accept the offered position.

"Okay .."

The vehicle shed was situated on a slightly higher section of land than the colony houses. It sat on the border of the remaining wilderness area inside the fence. As the houses spread, the wilderness patch grew increasingly smaller, but seeing as they hadn't had any new colonists for a long time, the construction had dramatically slowed. The shed was high and dry at the moment and would probably be one of the last places to go under if the colony should continue to flood. The Command Centre was the other. Therefore, the two areas were the current bases of operations.

They worked in relative silence for a while, filling bags and placing them in the wagon. There was little need to talk, and the rain was rattling so hard off the shed roof that they probably wouldn't have been able to hear each other anyway. Silas returned shortly afterwards, and still they carried on solemnly, ignoring each other for the most part. Finally, Irving tired of the quiet.

"Well, aren't we a happy bunch?"

Skye and Lucas exchanged a wry smile. If Irving could create an awkward atmosphere, he certainly had the ability to dissolve it just as well.

"If this rain keeps up, we'll have to cancel the Market Festival in favour of a regatta!"

Lucas scoffed as he tied up another bag.

"I can just see you now, sailing elegantly down the Main Street with a glass on one knee."

"And a pretty lady on the other." Irving added, grinning wickedly at Skye. "Any takers, Tate?"

Lucas snorted again and threw the sandbag into the wagon a little too roughly.

"Oh, come on. You'd have enough trouble not falling out of the boat!"

Skye laughed and shook her head.

"And this is exactly why I have Josh to keep me sane. If I had to spend much more time with you two, I think I'd fall out of the boat myself!"

Lucas glanced at Silas, expecting to see an echo of his own annoyance on the younger man's face. Instead, he found Irving was studying him, a small smile beginning to creep into his features. Silas blinked at Lucas through his half-dry fringe for a moment before flicking the sandy brown hair out of his eyes and turning back to his current task with a derisive snort.

Skye noticed none of this. In truth, she had barely seen Josh over the past six months, but the Market Festival was coming up. She'd been hanging onto the thought for weeks. She'd see her best friend soon enough. A deafening silence suddenly put an end to her thoughts. She stared around at Lucas, Irving, and a few other soldiers in the shed. Everyone had frozen.

"Is it .."

"What .."

The voices were barely as loud as a whisper. It was as if everyone was afraid of breaking the silence and having noise crash down upon them again if they spoke too loudly. Someone looked out of the large shed opening and then turned back with wide eyes.

"The rain's stopped."

"Hallelujah." Irving muttered under his breath as he placed his sandbag on top of the already-full wagon.

They glanced down the production line. The other two wagons were close to being filled up as well. There was barely an empty bag left in the shed. With another glance out into the strangely peaceful colony, Lucas took the handle of his wagon.

"Guess I'll take these down."

Irving nodded and reached out to pick up the handle of another one.

"Guess we'll all go. The sooner we get these down, the sooner we can go to bed."

A few other soldiers enthusiastically agreed with the sentiment and hurried to ready themselves as well. Shortly afterward, a small line of wagons trailed out of the shed and into the early morning darkness.

"You're doing it wrong. You can't lean it that far to the right. The structural integrity-"

"I'm sorry." Malcolm stood up abruptly, his ordinarily spiky hair now lying sadly across his forehead. The temporary relieve from the rain evidently wasn't improving his mood. "I wasn't aware you had a degree in engineering, but please. Go ahead."

The tall woman behind him folded her arms and raised her chin a little, but made no reply. Malcolm turned back to his endeavour. A few moments later, Mira spoke up again.

"You have a gap-"

Malcolm threw down an uncooperative sandbag and shot up again.

"Would you like to do this yourself, your majesty, or shall I continue?!"

"I'm trying to help you."

"Oh, that's very sweet. Very touching." Malcolm shook his head and pointed at another house a short distance away. "Help from over there then!"

Assuming Mira would give up, he turned his back on her and resumed his task. A few moments later, her voice almost made him sit down in the tiny lake beneath him.

"I don't see anyone else offering to help you."

"That's because I don't need any help!" Malcolm snapped, composing himself a moment later with a triumphant "There!". He then stood up. Just in time, as it happened. While he turned to glare smugly at his unwelcome companion, a small tsunami made its way towards them. They noticed the two foot high wall of water a second before it hit.

"No .. NO!"

Mira, unlike Malcolm, didn't attempt to plead with the wave, and the wave certainly had no intention of listening. It flew past them and surged gracefully over the structurally sound barricade and against the door of the Lab.

A very angry, wet Malcolm was left surveying the soggy remains of his efforts.

"I don't believe this! What was that?!"

"Maybe the wind came up."

Mira offered the possibility in the least convincing way possible, but Malcolm would've disagreed with her regardless. He looked around the shadowy colony for a moment and listened. Only the slosh of unwelcome liquid and the occasional drip of rain could be heard. It seemed as though the colony had fallen strangely silent in that particular moment. Malcolm turned back to Mira with an uneasy frown.

"There is no wind."

Mira shrugged and turned her back on the unknown source of the wave.

"Guess you better start cleaning up."

Malcolm ran a hand through his soggy hair and groaned.

"This'll take me all night to fix."

"All morning."

Malcolm said nothing, but glared stubbornly at her for an uncomfortably long period of time. Mira hesitated for a few moments and then rolled her eyes.

"We better get to it then."

Malcolm paused with his hand over his mouth and stared at her.

"You're serious?"

"Better hand me a mop before I change my mind."

"Gladly."

As Malcolm stepped carefully over the sandbag wall, he suddenly paused and looked back again. After exchanging another glance with Mira, they entered the safety of the Lab, both desperately hoping they had imagined the faint splash that had farewelled them.

"Why the long face, Corporal?"

Skye's commanding officer came to stand beside her as she watched the small parade make its way carefully down toward the colony centre.

Military ranks in Terra Nova worked a little differently to most. Taylor hadn't cared for the complicated design of the current military system in 2142 and had simplified it to his own satisfaction when he had founded the colony.

New recruits were privates, then after a recruit had been with the security team for a year, they were automatically granted the title of Corporal. After that, they could work their way up the ranks depending on the need and availability. Most security team members were corporals, but the unspoken law was that the longer you'd been with the team, the more seniority and respect you were afforded. Reilly, having been promoted after her heroics in the occupation, was a sergeant, and served as the Commander's right-hand man. Jim wasn't technically enlisted in the army, but when he had become the leader of the colony, he had inherited the title along with it. Reilly had stepped up to fill the shoes of the former second-in-command, Lieutenant Washington.

Currently, Reilly was the highest ranking officer under Jim, as they had no lieutenants, but seeing as they didn't strictly adhere to the ranks, no one gave it much thought. To the wider public, they were generally known as security team members, and as all of the soldiers knew their place within the unit, their official titles were rarely used. Their last names usually sufficed. They were a well-oiled machine .. for the most part.

To recap, Private - Corporal - Sergeant - Lieutenant - Commander. There were only 5 official ranks in Terra Nova, with Commander being the highest. The Commander oversaw the entire colony and had the final say in just about everything.

Only a few people knew that on one night several years ago, their commander had not been the highest-ranking officer in the colony. A 6th rank had come into play for just a few minutes - a general had once set foot on Terra Novan soil. That same general was now residing in an unmarked grave in Memorial Field .. which was now probably completely submerged.

Reilly glanced at her quiet subordinate and followed Skye's gaze. Now that the rain had finally eased, the shed provided a clear view of the rest of colony. The houses stood like little islands growing out of the glossy black water. It was impossible to tell how deep the water was, though both soldiers knew it was barely two inches at the deepest point. If the water didn't rise any more, if this was the worst it got, it had already caused catastrophic damage. The crops were gone. The trees in the orchard were dying. The medicinal herbs for the Infirmary were safe for now, kept in a large greenhouse in the centre of the colony, but for the next year, the majority of the colony's food would have to come from the wilderness. There would be very little grain, fruit, or vegetables left. When the water went down, the colony would appear brown and lifeless. There would be mud everywhere. The grass and gardens were almost completely dead already. Twas a sobering prospect.

Reilly's distressed thoughts returned to Skye.

"Don't tell me that after all this time, Irving's finally gotten to you."

Skye was silent for a moment before breaking into a short laugh.

"Irving likes to talk regardless of whether or not he understands the subject. I'm fine." Skye bit her lip and glanced at Reilly. "Just worried about the colony."

"Aren't we all."

"Better keep going. We only have a few bags left and we might as well use them."

Skye shook her head slightly and shot a grim smile at her superior before retreating back inside the shed. As she watched Skye return to her shovelling, Reilly made a mental note to keep an eye on her young protege. Irving, despite his frequent lack of tact, was one of the most naturally insightful people she knew.

At about 8:30 am, morning half-broke, and a single ray of sunlight speared through the drizzly gloom. A momentary cheer went up from the exhausted colony before it vanished again. When 9:00 struck, and the rain still hadn't restarted, the civilians were sent home to bed. The water had begun receding and the rest of the preparations and cleanup were best done after some sleep.

By 10:00, the colony was silent and still, though it remained cloaked in a weird, eerie darkness due to the thick clouds overhead. A restless calm had descended upon Terra Nova, only heightened by the forecast of another downpour that afternoon. For now, all they could do was wait. The colony sank into a fitful sleep.

On the other side of Terra Nova, in the dark atmosphere of the drizzly morning, the Probe flickered twice, casting a sharp light into the dreary fog before returning to its slumber.