Chapter 6: An Unlikely Guide
Jamie pursed his lips with sceptical wonder at the Fragile Express ship. Workers dressed in heavy, time-fall resistant suits were hanging from cables over the boat's ledge, spraying the gargantuan vehicle with a fresh coat of thick, rubbery paint. Six cranes continuously picked up containers from within the from the boat's retracting roof and deposited them port-side - deliveries of supplies from Mountain Knot, as the containers' logos indicated. It would still be a couple of hours before maintenance was done and the cargo containers were unloaded, making Jamie consider heading back to the bar from the night before.
His musing was interrupted by a strange ringing which slowly grew in volume until it was interrupted by a metallic thud. Startled, Jamie turned around to face the source of the sound, and was further surprised to see a woman there, a tear streaming neatly down each of her cheeks. Her hair was fair and cropped short, combining with her serious expression to give an air of no-nonsense. For a split-second, Jamie was able to see spikes on the faux-leather jacket she was wearing, which instantly shrunk to resemble studs. An umbrella with a screen of glass-like shards floated eerily behind her, emitting a hum like that of charged powerlines. The woman's mouth pulled back in what seemed like a practiced smile and extended her hand towards Jamie.
"Hello, Jamie. I am Fragile."
Hesitating for a second, he took her hand, which she shook vigorously for a second before letting go. "I've been helping with the investigation into Sam's disappearance. Since you've got some time to kill before boarding my company's crown jewel, I offered Deadman to come and update you on our progress."
There was a marble bench close to them, which they occupied promptly. Before Fragile could start talking, she caught Nicolas frowning at something behind her. When she looked over her shoulder, she spied some porters who were waiting to board the Fragile Express ship. The small group had been murmuring to each other furtively, and only stopped pointing at the pair once she'd turned to look.
"I guess we're both the cause of that in our own way," Jamie muttered. "At least they don't do it to your face."
"They'll stop eventually, in your case," Fragile said. She was still facing the other porters, but her gaze had lost its focus. "What I did, it'll outlive me."
The two were quiet for a moment before Fragile spoke up again, "What I came here to tell you… we know how Sam was taken from the hospital. It's a little hard to explain, but whoever took him did it by walking on the ceiling," she nodded when Jamie made a face. "Yesterday, we did a more thorough search and found evidence that several people, had been walking on the ceiling, upside down. We suspect it must have something to do with the upwards pull of the reversal, but we haven't been able to replicate it. It isn't something we know people with DOOMS to be able to do either."
"So where does that leave the investigation?"
She gave an ironic snicker, "Nowhere, really. But the Beach Scientist has been leading the investigation on the reversal."
Hell of a title, he thought as Fragile continued, "It's how we were able to find the footprints to begin with. He's figured out that unlike chyralium buoyancy, which is a repellent force born from the material in itself, the reversal's pull comes directly from the sky. It's as if during the reversal, the beach appears above us, along with its own gravitational field."
Jamie shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around the idea, "Who is this guy again?"
Fragile's description of the Beach Scientist, Heartman was his codename, left a knot in Jamie's stomach. It was a strange notion that the stranding had changed the lives of every person in the UCA, but some had been affected further, to the point that their lives could barely be recognisable as human. Being alive for 20 minutes and dead for another 3, in an endless cycle of going to and from the Beach to look for one's dead family… it was bizarre to think of. The conversation between the two quickly quieted down to simply accompanying each other as the hour passed, gazing at the Great Mississippi Lake and the Fragile Express ship.
…
Jamie spent most of the trip wandering around in the ship. The rest of the passengers had huddled together at the top deck, their looks of distrust signalling clearly that they weren't eager for Jamie to join them. The crew of the ship were more welcoming and offered quick hello's as they passed by him on their way to various sections of the ship that required routine check-ups. Timefall was a common occurrence in the Lake, which could create issues in the ship's systems in an almost random fashion, as a member of the crew had explained to him. The sailors all wore white overalls which were harshly yellowed by the chyralium in the lake, and thick face masks with horizontal lenses that went from ear to ear. By being completely covered and their voices muffled by the masks, it felt like they were all one and the same sailor, jogging up and down the ship's hull.
There was still at least an hour's worth of trip left when he stumbled upon a small break room. There was a bench in the corner with thin pillows on it, and Jamie was suddenly overcome with sleepiness. It felt like his eyelids weighed tonnes as he sighed and made his way to the bench, absentmindedly laying down on the pillows, letting an arm dangle only a few centimetres from the floor. Sleep took him as soon as his eyes closed.
He hadn't realised it, but his dream began immediately as well. It started in the small break room. Slowly, objects in the room started moving when he wasn't looking. The candle on the table would appear by the door, the pillows would vanish from under him only to plop on the floor just outside the corner of his eye. He sat upright and rubbed his eyes, trying to push the drowsiness away, still unaware that he was asleep.
Slow footsteps echoed around Jamie, making his heart begin to race. He wanted to get up and run, but his legs weren't responding. The echoing footsteps got closer and closer, until a man stood at the room's doorway. He had a blue suit on, his short hair was brown and tidy, and a pair of thinly rimmed glasses rested on the bridge of his nose. The man looked sad, but his presence filled Jamie with dread that he couldn't understand, not even when he was awake later.
The man opened his mouth and spoke in a wheezing, raspy voice, "I couldn't bring them back."
Suddenly, Jamie became aware of his unconscious state and bolted upright, awake. The slow rocking of the ship had stopped, they had arrived.
…
Standing on the top deck of the ship, he squinted to stave off the harsh sun. Behind him, the Great Mississippi Lake extended for hundreds of kilometres towards Port Knot City. In front, the rust-coloured walls of Lake Knot towered above him, and to his left stretched the rest of the UCA. The distribution centre, where he was to meet Murphy was sitting right between himself and the endless stretch of land. As soon as he could steal his eyes away from the view, he hurried down to terra firma. It was past noon, and it wasn't like there was any time to waste.
Jamie saw various porters on the way to the distribution centre, though none of them made any attempt to get closer to him as he passed by. Surely Murphy would be at the distribution centre itself, to avoid any kind of confusion. He was thoroughly disgruntled as he looked down the slope into the distribution centre, having approached ten porters himself, all of which shooed him away as soon as he'd been noticed. In his gloom, he limited himself to purse his lips at an old woman standing against the entrance of the building.
"You won't find Murphy down there, Coelho."
Jamie stopped dead in his tracks and turned to regard the woman. She was wearing the standard porter overall, but most of it was covered by a black, rubbery poncho. The woman's hair was long and grey, and it draped over her shoulders. A lock of hair near her face had been separated and held together with an elastic. The woman's face was wrinkled into an annoyed frown, judgement oozing from her eyes.
"You're Murphy, then?"
With a quick nod, she began to walk away.
Jamie jogged up to her. Annoyance began to bubble up in his stomach as the woman walked on without even looking at him, "Shouldn't we at least talk about our objectives?"
Murphy didn't stop walking. She gave Coelho a half-perplexed, half-angry frown, "We're headed for Mountain Knot. Lots of time to talk about objectives on the way."
The terrain was different on the other side of the Great Lake. Jamie struggled to keep the exo-skeleton from twisting his ankles as it adapted to the rocky earth. Murphy walked along, surprisingly fast on unassisted legs, at times getting ahead of Jaime with almost no effort. Jamie spoke up, "Mountain Knot is at least a day away. Where'll we be stopping?"
"Two days, and that depends on the weather," Murphy said matter-of-factly, "There's a guy I know, they call him the elder around these parts. Then we have the distribution centre further South. Whether we take the short or the long way up the mountain will depend on Homo Demens activity. We're not much good to anyone if we get shot."
"And once we're at Mountain Knot, you can get me access to the MULEs operating around there?"
"That is what they've told you, right? I would've thought you'd trust the word of your president."
Jamie scoffed, "Finding Sam might get us closer to fixing the reversal. I'd say a little double-check is in order."
Murphy rolled her eyes, "Everybody from the UCA just loooove thinking Sam Porter Bridges will fix everything. It's relieving to know that at least the Beach Scientist hasn't had his thumbs up his ass since the guy disappeared."
"You don't think Sam's kidnapping has anything to do with the reversal?"
"What we think doesn't make a difference. Even if the two are related, it follows a strange logic to believe that as soon as Sam is found, the reversal will stop. Frankly, the UCA should stop betting all its eggs on Sam and focus more on living through the reversal as if it were permanent."
Murphy spat to the side and kept talking, "I've got grandchildren to worry about. All the great minds in the Capital are trying to find the cat's fifth paw with Sam."
Jamie smirked, "Fifth paw- ?"
Murphy waved Jamie off, "they're stuck on the single topic."
"You do know that they're building hydroponic farms in Mountain Knot 'round the clock, right?"
"Yes, but what about raw ingredients for medicine? Everyone will be getting a hearty dose of re-engineered wheat. What about pacific yew, wormwood, milk thistle? It's easy to say that the government's got everything under control when you don't know the needs of the people."
Jamie didn't feel like answering, so the two kept walking in silence. It seemed to be what Murphy wanted. A few minutes later, as Jamie was scanning the horizon, he caught a glimpse of her face and the hardness of her expression was gone. The sun was now in front of them, the sunset a few hours away. To their right, Nicolas spied a trail of large rocks made of pitch-black material. He raised a hand towards the trail, and Murphy spoke up without him having to ask.
"The road system was destroyed not long before the night of the reversal. A giant storm came, larger than the ones the chiral network had caused until then."
Jamie eyed Murphy, noting the lack of exo-skeleton again. He shook his head as he muttered, "damn."
"Yeah," the older woman chuckled, "Damn is what I said too. There's a MULE camp up ahead. Maybe we can find something to bring the old man."
He knew that the camp was between them and the elder's shelter, but there was still time to avoid it before sunset. He spoke up, a little more anger in his voice than he would've wanted, "Or we could try and stay out of trouble."
"The UCA wanted me to help you with understanding the culture out here, so here's a lesson. We're not carrying anything, so their scans wouldn't pick us up until it's too late. Your gun isn't marked as cargo, is it?" she waited for a second before huffing, "Just do what I say, and we'll be alright. We are not going to show up at the elder's with our hands empty."
"As fellow UCA citizens on a mission to get Sam back, it should be fine to just use the entrance of his shelter."
"Wow, you really think you're the centre of the cake, right?" Murphy sneered.
"Not me, the UCA. It's all about making the UCA complete," Jamie raised his voice a little. Wrong choice.
Murphy took it as her cue to use the voice she'd used on her husband, many years ago, "You think that things have just been better since Sam started linking the chiral knots, don't you? Look around you, look at this shit," she grunted as she kicked a large hunk of concrete and asphalt.
By now, they'd both stopped, and Murphy was facing directly towards Jamie, a finger raised menacingly at him as he stood with both his hands raised, "Chiral density in the air has skyrocketed, all across the country! The MULEs are more ruthless than ever, suicidal even. Timefall storms have gotten worse as well, so Mountain Knot has had to double its production of timefall-resistant concrete. At least the preppers and hermits living in their shelters have internet, woop-dee-fuckin-doo."
Jamie tried to speak up, but Murphy wasn't letting up, "Now they have to deal with angrier MULEs, crumbling roofs and less porters. Cells of Homo Demens are popping up everywhere because of the chiral poisoning. Yeah, Jamie, the UCA looks real pretty from inside the city walls, but get it out of your head that it magically solved the world's problems."
She stopped to take a breath and Jamie wasn't about to let her have the last word, "Humanity would've been lost without Sam's efforts."
"Man, how they've sold it to ya," she laughed scornfully, "He wasn't the first porter to help the preppers out, you know? Everything was fine until Bridges started ranting on about how we needed to be governed, as if everybody wasn't OK with their little lives. Oh, and you know what'll make it sting just a little more, Coelho? I bet Sam didn't even wanna do it. I think he was guilted or forced into it by them. If I had any idea what was going on inside a life-long porter's head, I would say that he just wanted to be left alone. Now, we are going to go to the MULE camp and getting something for the old man. He deserves it. And from now on you're gonna stop acting like you know how things work."