Chapter 8: Out of the MULE camp, into the tar.
Jamie squinted, trying to push the heaviness away from his eyelids. When he tried to raise his hands to rub his eyes, he noticed something keeping them down with a strength that made his skin sting. As he looked where he expected to see his sleeping bag, he saw dozens of blood-soaked hands wrapped around him. Each arm belonging to each hand was in turn obscured by another hand, and so on as far as his eyes could see. The sea of limbs was clammy to the touch, sending chills up and down his spine every time he moved. He tried to scream but his jaw was stuck shut, and his teeth could feel the pressure. Groaning as loudly as he could, he struggled against the hold of the disembodied arms until he was suddenly let go. He bolted upright. The limbs disappeared, replaced by a beach of black sand bordering a red ocean. Still groaning and hyperventilating, he furiously tried to wipe the remaining blood from his skin, with little success.
A low noise began to rumble all around him, paralysing him as his brain tried in vain to identify a source of danger. He could only turn his head, but the sound didn't get any lower, no matter which way he faced. At first it was like a train in the distance, but it soon became an ear-piercing roar that shook his insides. Jamie's groaning was completely snuffed out as he curled up on the ground, making himself as small as he could, covering his ears, his teeth chattering. Slowly, the roar let up, and a voice echoed in Jamie's head.
Souls… lost…
He stood up cautiously. The roaring was all but gone. Something invisible punched his shoulder, sending searing pain through his arm and chest.
Panting, he asked with a cracking voice, "What souls?"
Souls… owed…
Another blow hit his shoulder. He winced and looked at his shoulder, which was now reddened and weirdly dented. As his gaze came back up towards the edge of the beach, he saw a woman, dressed in a red dress, standing in the water.
The rumbling stopped immediately, and after a second of silence, the woman spoke up, "Something has been stolen from the beach."
A third blow hit Jamie and everything was replaced with concrete and dark metal. He was in a shelter's cargo area, and Murphy was shaking him by the shoulder.
He didn't catch what she said at first, but she let herself fall on her bottom panting when she saw his eyes were open. She spoke after a short while, "You scared the shit outta me. It sounded like you were having a seizure."
"Was I making a lot of noise?"
"You were twisting and turning, shaking. You were groaning too."
Jamie tried to swallow but his throat was dry. He noticed he was drenched in sweat, "I've been having DOOMS symptoms since the first reversal."
"So, this is going to be an every-night kind of thing," Murphy muttered, "I'm gonna have to get a hold of some earplugs."
"What time is it?" Jamie asked as he got out of his sleeping bag.
"6 AM," said Murphy, "I don't think I've got more sleep in me, though. We might as well head to the distribution centre right away."
They had their field ration breakfasts silently. Murphy stood up mid-breakfast and picked up the Elder's medicine with a tired huff. She regarded the scuffed surface and the intact security tape before walking over to the delivery terminal, "We can recycle this, take the resources to the distribution centre."
"It's not much, Murphy."
"On the contrary, the inorganic material can be used for other kinds of medicine. Less than what we have here, but if it'll make one shitty day a little better somewhere else, it's better than losing it to timefall."
Jamie's gaze wandered around the shelter's entrance, when a chiming came from the delivery terminal and his heart sank as he turned to look.
He recognized the woman on the "thank you" hologram, whom he knew as President Strand. She was older in the image, but the resemblance was uncanny.
"What's your problem?"
Jamie shook his head and gave Murphy a confused look. "I saw Strand in my dream," he said as he tilted his chin at the fading hologram.
Murphy gave a chuckle, "If your dreams are so bizarre, how can they scare you like that?"
They finished their breakfast and started to get ready. The delivery terminal chimed suddenly, and Murphy went to pick up a sealed crate from the delivery rack, "The inorganic material is ready. Let's get going."
"Should we take anything else?"
Murphy paused as she was putting on her trekking gear and looked over her shoulder to regard the entrance to the Elder's shelter. She shook her head and turned back to Jamie, "All of this belonged to him, so it wouldn't feel right to take. I looked around earlier and couldn't find any climbing gear, and it'd take hours to fabricate, which is time I'd rather not spend waiting. Let's just get going."
…
The door to the shelter slowly descended. Jamie almost expected the Elder's body bag to still be there. It wasn't, and the two walked away with an empty feeling, heading South. Upside-down rainbows hung menacingly over the valley between them and where the distribution centre was, and Murphy nudged Jamie lightly towards his left to skirt the mountain range, not breaking the solemn silence. They hugged the cliffs as they went until the older porter held Jamie's shoulder and pointed at the path ahead. A good distance away, almost beyond where the eye could recognize shapes, a miniscule grey quill stuck out amongst the unreadable green.
"That watch tower is camouflaged… MULEs."
"So, do we go over, or under?" Jamie frowned down at the valley, where the distant timefall looked like a grey wall of mist.
"We don't have any equipment to go over," Murphy grumbled.
"Under, then. At least I've got the BB."
"Oh, right." Murphy eyed the darkened glass of the pod on Jamie's lower chest. "I'd forgotten all about it."
"I keep it unplugged when there's no timefall. It kept me from becoming voidout fuel a few days ago, so it should be useful today as well."
Murphy hissed as Jamie showed her the needle that had to go through the suit into his spine. He mentally counted to three before pushing it in firmly and the BB-pod flashed clear for a moment, revealing the baby inside for a split second.
"That thing might be our saviour, but the scientists at the UCA are sick." Murphy muttered, going slightly pale.
"Deadman said it was practically braindead, so we shouldn't worry about it feeling pain or distress."
"And you believe him?"
Suddenly, Jamie felt a little embarrassed and guilty, looking down at the opaque BB pod, "Well, I…"
"Nevermind, let's just get through this as fast as possible."
…
The pitter patter of timefall mixed in with the sounds of their footsteps over gravelly soil. Murphy was directly behind Jamie, holding on to a strap on his backpack so he could feel her nearby. Jamie's eyes continually dashed between the terrain ahead of him and the calm demeanour of the BB. They'd been walking in timefall for almost an hour, but the air still felt slightly warm and humid, something that would quickly change.
Jamie stopped walking suddenly, when his BB's hand raised and pointed at a location directly in front of them. He looked ahead and squinted, hoping to be able to make out the BT early and from afar. No such luck.
"Can you see anything?" Murphy prodded.
Jamie shook his head and slowly continued walking in the same direction, his eyes trained on the area the BB was pointing at. He slowly felt the air getting colder and his mind started drifting. Memories of his family played over and over in his mind, the arguments, the need for space in the cramped shelter of the timefall farm. Murphy let out a pained whimper that brought him back to real life and his eyes focused on the BT ahead. The void shaped like a human was clear as day now to him, and he brought a hand up to his mouth to keep himself from gasping. He turned to Murphy and she did the same, her brow creased into a worried frown.
The two circled around the BT. It felt like this time, the BT's silhouette was clearer, and it was harder for Jamie to look away as he went. He felt spasms pulling at his lungs from holding his breath, so he clenched his hand around his mouth and nose harder. He felt dizziness setting in, and he knew he needed to have his senses about him. Reluctantly, he looked at Murphy and slowly but deliberately let go of his face. As soon as the cool air entered his mouth, a spinechilling shriek sent goosebumps down his back. Jamie grabbed Murphy's hand and started running towards the distribution centre on the horizon, swerving every time the BB pointed in a new direction.
The ground felt increasingly slippery and muddy, and suddenly both Jamie and Murphy lost their footing, falling face first on the ground. The earth beneath them felt like it was clinging to their faces, and once they were able to pull themselves free, they realised why: there was a thick layer of tar covering the ground all around them. The BT that was pursuing them was getting closer, making the air around them colder and colder. The adrenaline coursing through his veins gave Jamie a second wind, and with a brusque movement, he grabbed the back of Murphy's collar and pulled upwards with all the strength his shoulders could muster. His exo-skeleton activated sprint mode as he hauled the porter with him out of the tar. He turned to look back as his feet touched gravel once more and saw the BT floating above the edge of the tar pool, its hands feeling at an invisible barrier which kept it within the tar.
The beached soul's many faces were burnt into his retinas, and try as he might, he couldn't blink them away. The only noises Jamie could hear as he ran were his and Muprhy's panting, their footsteps and the timefall. Soon, the distribution centre looked more and more like an actual building and less a small white triangle on the horizon. As they ran wordlessly, the timefall slowly let up, and before they knew it, the sun started shining through the chyralium-charged clouds.
…
"Give me a second," Murphy panted as she tapped Jamie's hand.
He hadn't realised that he was still hauling Murphy by the shoulder fabric of her timefall suit. He let go and massaged his aching hand with a quiet apology. The two went from running, to jogging, to walking, to buckling over and panting with their hands on their knees.
"Did you see the BT?" Jamie asked as he pulled the needle off his back with a grunt.
Murphy shook her head as she stood up straight and tilted her head towards the distribution centre and the two continued their walk, "I just felt cold and out of breath. What did it look like?"
"It's hard to describe. Like a person, but its face is constantly changing and twisting," said Jamie as they went.
"I think that's as close to actually seeing one as I need to get," Murphy chuckled ruefully before flicking her wrist towards the now near entrance to the distribution centre.
Her Cuff-Link chimed in unison with the centre's PA system, announcing the arrival of the two newcomers. Murphy brought up her device's holographic menu, "We should ask the overseer to see us so he can send us on our way."
"Oh no you don't, Murphy," Jamie put a hand through her Cuff-link's hologram and pulled back as she shot him a venomous look, "look at us, we're covered in tar, we're shaken. Let's get an hour's rest before we talk to the guy. This is precisely why we left the Elders shelter early, so we would have time to do things carefully, right?"
Murphy chewed on the thought for a second before relenting, "Fine, let's get some rest. Meet you at the delivery terminal in an hour and a half?"
…
Jamie could already hear Murphy's voice half-way up the vehicle elevator. As his head cleared the floor of the distribution centre, he could see the porter arguing with a hologram showing the distribution centre's overseer.
"Come on, Southerland. You and I both know that you can't haggle empty-handed. We need something."
"Murphy, you're one of our most reliable porters, but I just can't be giving handouts, not when resources are as low as they are. You know I've been out there, I know what MULEs are like. Your best bet is to scare the living shit out of them," the head of distribution said firmly, his arms crossed over his chest.
Annoyance bubbled up in Jamie's stomach as he walked off the elevator. The head of distribution hadn't seen what himself and Murphy had. Armed MULEs couldn't be dealt with through intimidation. If they didn't figure out what was going on with the reversal or the source of Sam's blood bags, there would eventually be no resources at all. He spoke up as he was within earshot of the hologram's microphone, "We wouldn't need resource-intensive goods to barter with. Hell, we brought inorganic material, which could be used for generic medicines, or we could use organic material to fabricate bandages. That could drive a bargain, right, Murphy?"
The porter was about to answer when a fourth person entered the conversation. Right beside Southerland's hologram, President McClane's figure appeared.
"Tom, how are you holding up?" McClane spoke, his raspy voice becoming raspier through the terminal's speakers.
"Not so good, Mr. President. Our structural resource budget is barely enough to keep us going until the next scheduled shipment from Mountain Knot -"
"We're not asking for structural resources, though -" Jamie spoke up and quickly pursed his lips as the president regarded him.
"Go on, Coelho," McClane pressed him.
"Structural resources are too heavy for us to take up and wander around on the snow," Jamie continued. "Our best bet would be to bring something light that can only be manufactured with the advanced fabricators we have here… don't you think, Murphy?" he finished looking at her, seeking support.
Murphy stuttered for a second before nodding, "MULEs use everything they can get their hands on, and lost resources are amongst the most common things out there. I've heard that the ones which have been distributing Sam's blood have been trading for manufactured goods, mostly weapons, as of late."
"You can't possibly be suggesting we help arm them-" the overseer spurted out. Murphy held up a hand to signal she wasn't finished.
"If we show up with something they have particular use for – they are operating up in the snow – then we can get an upper hand on negotiations. I would suggest portable heaters."
President McClane nodded while holding his chin, "Tom, make them three heaters and give them a delivery bot to help them carry them. Have the delivery bot accompany them until the Weather Station. I'll have someone deliver the resources you spend by tomorrow."
With that, the President cut off the call from his end, leaving the three to regard each other in silence for a minute. The overseer broke the silence with a disgruntled mutter, "I have some refurbished heaters in storage. I'll send them out right now."
"Great. We'll be bringing the inorganic material with us too," Murphy sneered, visibly peeved at having to resort to a higher authority.
…
Jamie eyed the delivery bot walking at his side. The small robot was little more than a pair of eerily human legs, attached to a large orb with a camera that dashed from side to side. The bot chirped occasionally, with distinct chirps depending on the context. It gave the illusion of a hint of sentience or personality, making Jamie smile a little at each chirp. Atop the orb was a tray that held the heaters they were taking with them. Portable heaters were similar in shape to the BB's pod, but just below its surface were hundreds of undulating wires coating the under-surface of the pod. The wires were designed to spread heat evenly, so the user could hug the heater or put it within their timefall-resistant gear.
"Why are we taking this route, by the way?" Jamie spoke up as they walked over a bridge. The structure's material isolated them from the thundering roar of the river below.
"What do you mean?" Murphy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I mean, you'd said we'd figure out whether we'd take the long or short way to Mountain Knot depending on Homo Demens activity. I haven't heard anything out of the ordinary. Why are we going straight through the mountains?"
"I guess you haven't checked your messages as often as you should," she sighed. "Since Higgs died, Homo Demens has split into various cliques. This split has resulted in them completely taking over the central valley, making it no-man's land. Since the reversal started, there's been two large-scale voidouts and various smaller ones there."
"But the reversal should make the craters disappear, right?" Jamie arched an eyebrow back at Murphy.
"You'd think so, right? The problem is that once the reversal brings the earth back, it comes back strange… almost foamy. I was there when us porters decided that it was no longer possible to traverse the valley with heavy loads."
"What happened?"
Murphy pursed her lips for a moment before continuing, remembering something unpleasant, "I saw a guy… he was overloaded, but he could still walk with his exo-skeleton. He sank right into the ground, barely had time to shout for help before the grass swallowed him. Turns out the valley's ground looks like ground, but it behaves more like tar."
"And vegetation?" Jamie asked wide-eyed.
"Grass is a lot lighter than people. It looks like regular earth… When we met two days ago, the Homo Demens activity had died down after a big voidout. The UCA suspected they'd wiped themselves out by accident, but they've been spotted again since the end of last night's reversal. So, we're taking the other route, Jamie. Don't dwell on it."
Jamie scoffed, but he knew she was right, "Fine, then."
…
The weather station had been visible for a while, sitting at the base of New Mount Elbert. The colossal scale of the station's satellite dish was hard to appreciate from afar, but now that they were almost at the entrance, Jamie looked up and couldn't hold back a whistle.
"Cool, huh?" Murphy chuckled, "On a good day, the dish can detect chiralium as far as a few kilometres North of Capital Knot."
"Thank God that it's part of the Chiral network now."
"Thank Sam, you mean," Murphy pointed out.
"Oh, so you are in favour of his crusade after all," Jamie cooed.
"I never said there weren't advantages. I just said it wasn't the fix-all-our-problems endeavour everyone makes it out to be… hold on, there's Weatherstone." With that, Murphy began to jog as she waved at the hologram of the weather station's head scientist that was standing right outside the shelter's entrance.
…
Jamie was surprised and momentarily repelled as the door to the shelter within the delivery area opened just as they were entering the concrete room. He had gotten so used to the residents of the different knots being completely isolated in their shelters that he'd gotten the idea that they saw porters as disease carriers… or the other way around, that the residents were somehow dangerous to himself. As Weatherstone – a bald man in a heavy, sharp jacket – walked out, grinning from ear to ear and giving Murphy a tight hug, Jamie thought it over again and wondered why it was that residents so seldom came out of their shelters.
"You guys go way back, I assume?" Jamie asked, half wanting to be a part of the warm atmosphere, half trying to justify the erasure of the porter-resident gap.
"We studied together before the first stranding," Weatherstone explained. "She was the oldest of the class… but having old farts as classmates in university wasn't a weird thing at all."
Murphy gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, "You never stopped being dumber than a new dog, maybe you should've taken a few years before starting Uni. Enough stretching the bubblegum, though, I've brought inorganic material!"
Jamie's heart sank as Weatherstone's face went from beaming to a sad frown, "I'm sorry, Murph…"
Murphy kept her smile, but her eyes shouted denial, "No, come on, with what I've brought, we can fabricate a whole month's worth of chiral-removers."
The head scientist shook his head, "I didn't want to bring it up so soon... Come with me."
Jamie hesitated for a few moments before following the two into the shelter. After turning a few corners, Murphy jogged ahead of the two, and Weatherstone nodded at Jamie, signalling for him to catch up, "My sister had been making rounds outside, doing research on timefall. She fell sick with early-onset Alzheimer's from chiral poisoning a few months ago… Murph's been bringing most of the medicine that we've been requesting to slow it down, but…"
As they rounded the last corner, they reached a private room with the door open. Jamie could see only Murphy's back. She was shaking from head to toe. Jamie and Weatherstone stood at the door as the scientist continued speaking, now in a much quieter tone, "the chiralium accelerated the process more than anybody could've expected."
Jamie reluctantly inched to the side and saw that in front of Murphy, a young woman, in her early thirties at best, sat in a chair, her gaze lost on something invisible between herself and Murphy. The woman's hair had been cropped short, and patches of her scalp were visible, lined with scabs where tufts had been pulled off from their roots. Jamie backed away slowly, and Weatherstone followed him with his gaze.
Jamie's mouth opened and closed, trying to find the right thing to say, "I didn't know that chiralium could do… this."
Weatherstone made a face and Jamie could no longer meet his gaze. He turned and fled to the entrance of the shelter with little more than an utterance of his intention to sleep. He became so embarrassed at how little he knew of the realities of the Stranding. Everything was so simple before he had left Capital Knot: Three weeks ago, it was simply a curfew that started when heavy clouds appeared, then nightfall was added to the schedule. Now it was everywhere, in their economy, in their food supply, in the materials upon which they built their homes.
Humanity was dying, and everyone except him and the residents of the Capital knew it. How could they—how could he live, knowing everything was slowly but surely coming to an end, like Weatherstone's sister? Understanding the extinction event was like looking at the sun… the more they understood, the closer they would get to total blindness.
…
His thoughts stayed with Weatherstone and his sister, and he absentmindedly spread out his sleeping bag and climbed in on the hard concrete of the shelter's entrance. He could hear the static of the timefall outside until his mind phased it out and he sank into the darkness of sleep without realizing it. The endless dark of his sleep was interrupted by the sound of a drop of water falling on an invisible pond. He saw ripples appear on the surface of water which spread out, and out, and out, with no edges in sight. Another drop fell in the centre of his vision, and a delicate foot descended from the darkness on the point of origin, followed by another. Jamie looked up to see the woman in red, her face locked in an expression of deep worry.
"Souls have been taken. They must return."
Jamie could hear her say it, but her lips did not move. The woman reached out towards where he was. The air vibrated again with her words, "Souls have been taken, they must return."
"I don't… what sou-"
SOULS HAVE BEEN TAKEN, THEY MUST-
Jamie bolted upright, drenched in sweat. His Cuff-link vibrated and rang with a ringtone he didn't recognize. Slowly, he realized he was alone in the entrance of the shelter, next to the distribution terminal. He flicked his wrist, and a hologram appeared before him. A man in a suit stood tall, with wire rim glasses and a yellow, hard-plastic satchel hanging from his shoulders. His outline was interrupted every few seconds with static interference.
"James Coelho, good to meet you," said the hologram. "I was given your contact by President McClane."
Jamie squinted until he could hear his blood rushing through his ears, then opened his eyes again, the hologram remained. "Yes?"
"I've been informed that you've been put in charge with investigating the MULE activity going on in the mountains. I have information to pass on. I don't have much time, so you might have to refer back to this call's logs."
Jamie squinted again and yawned, the last memories of his dream fading away, "Alright."
"MULEs have been spotted by Mountain Knot observation towers migrating towards the heart lake. It seems that their commerce has shifted away from the lower reaches of the western basin towards the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. You should discuss this with your porter associate, as this may change your travel plans to Mountain Knot."
"How so?"
The hologram sighed, shifting its gaze down, then to the side. The man had his eye on something, "I don't have much time. The porter should be able to fill you in. It's better that you go to the MULEs as soon as possible instead of climbing and descending the mountains. If they're migrating, something is going on. Take care."
The connection was cut off, and Jamie was left to blink the last remnants of sleep out of his eyes.
For a while, he had forgotten the conversation he'd just had. Wakefulness flooded back into him when Murphy came out of the shelter, dressed and ready to go. "The Beach Scientist sent me a transcript of your conversation."
"Oh yeah, he said the MULEs are moving up the mountain."
"Right towards his backyard," she said as she chewed on her bottom lip, picturing the situation above the mountains. "I think we should head for his lab, see if he's gotten to observe them more by the time we arrive. In all likeliness, this means that Homo Demens are somewhere around the peaks as well. I've gotten ready for the trip. Put away your sleeping gear, and I'll get Weatherstone to set you up with some winter gear."
Jamie suddenly noticed that Murphy's outfit was much bulkier than the one she used to have. Her timefall-resistant overall looked much heavier, and the collar reached higher up, easily covering most of her face if the closing mechanism was activated. The brim of her hood was lined in synthetic foam, the same colour as the rest of the suit. The surface of the overall was covered in heating cables that spread over the surface like veins on skin, and just within the hood, Jamie could see a thick, skin-tight undercoat reaching Murphy's lower jaw.
As he finished packing up his sleeping bag, Weatherstone came out of the shelter, huffing as he dumped Jamie's snowsuit. It clacked and thudded heavily as it touched the concrete floor. Weatherstone nodded at it good naturedly, "I threw in an all-terrain exoskeleton as well, retrofitted to walk on snow and ice, if necessary. Remember to put on the undersuit first, then the thermal socks, then the oversuit and finally, the gloves, which should magnetically seal. If they don't, let me know. We wouldn't want you losing your fingers before making it to the top. Do you have chiral crystals on you?"
Jamie shook his head. Weatherstone pursed his lips for a moment before continuing, "Alright, with what you'll be carrying, you'll need a fair amount. I'll give you a canister, but I'm gonna have to ask you to return whatever you have left on your way back. I'll send out the materials we need you to deliver through the delivery rack."
He turned and left before Jamie could think to ask what it was they'd be taking. After a few minutes, he was dressed, and Murphy walked out of the shelter wiping away tears. Before she could say anything, the shelter's delivery rack extended up from the concrete floor. A large container that looked like a beer keg was laid sideways on the bottom most rack, and a anodized metal frame sat on the next one, beside an orange tube the size of Jamie's fist.
Murphy sniffled before speaking with a hoarse voice, "We'll be taking metals up the mountain, 50 kilos to be exact. Lucky that Weatherstone gave us the carrier. I can take it the first half of the trip if that's alright with you."
Jamie nodded, eager to head up the mountain as the suit was already becoming uncomfortably warm.