Do you know the best thing about eating Spaghetti? You can floss your teeth at the same time. Anyway... on with the story.
Chapter 22
The Long Awaited Reunion
"You look as if you'd never seen the sky before" Calla smiled as she and Sarah walked up behind Blue and Sid.
"Not like this" Blue admitted "only in daylight from the top of the Railgun.
"Then you're gonna love the rest; just wait till you see the sun rise" the young girl noted.
"He won't have long to wait" Sarah informed them all "The sun should be rising long before we get to the coast."
Indeed the signs of the coming day showed before the group had managed to travel five kilometres. Unfortunately they would go no further for a while.
"I should have expected this" Linton declared as he stared at the overgrown road.
The Professor sent one of the vehicles back to get help while everyone did their best to start clearing a path by hand. As they worked, he also decided to seek the advice of Doctor Deming.
"Are we going the right way Henry?" Linton asked.
"I've got no idea; why are you asking me?" the middle aged biologist answered.
"Well you are from around here."
"I'm from Jakarta Linton; I'd never set foot here till we came in by plane."
As Professor Adisa considered his error, Jeana Davey slid up to Blue for a word or two.
"I can handle these shrubs; why don't you go and give Amos and Sid a hand?"
Blue glanced over at the two men and shrugged.
"They'll be okay" he decided "Calla's helping them and Willow's nearby too."
"Yeah but don't you want to take the opportunity to make a good impression?" Jeana dug Blue's shoulder with her elbow.
The Rockhopper Penguin of Confusion flew around Blue's head, trying to squawk while not dropping the small fish in its beak (yes I said flew; none of the Mystical Birds of the Mind were truly flightless).
"I've worked with Sid and Amos before" he declared "they know what I can do."
"Not them you brain slug; Calla."
"Because why?" Blue shrugged.
"Don't you think she's pretty?"
Blue looked at Jeana as if she had just suggested he do an interpretive dance because water was wet.
"Yes but I also think she is annoying and possibly dangerous."
"Oh never mind" Jeana sighed and concentrated more on her work while Sarah Spencer snickered to herself.
"Don't worry about him too much" she whispered to Jeana "Calla told me there's a small fleet of boats waiting for word from her father. They'll follow if he says it's safe and there's bound to be more young people onboard."
"If Blue can't handle one girl, how's he gonna be with a bunch of them? We haven't prepared him Sarah; we've really let him down."
"Don't panic yet Jeana; wait till he has to deal with crowds of new people and see how he goes."
"You do not fill me with confidence."
Not far away, a very different conversation was taking place.
"Do you know what I think?" Amos hinted.
"Yes" Sid declared.
"Liar; I think the people back at the complex have stopped working and are having a big party on the surface with drinking, music, dancing and a bonfire."
"Maybe they don't have all those things" Sid suggested "For example, perhaps they don't have music."
"So you're saying they may not have music, but they still have dancing?"
"If there's enough drinking going on, you don't need music."
Amos considered what his friend had said.
"I can dig it" he agreed.
Not long after, the second four-wheel-drive retuned followed by two of the skid steer loaders. The newly arrived machinery made quick work of the overgrowth by ploughing straight through it as the other vehicles followed at a distance. It was a long slow trip, but not long after sunrise the bow of the ship came into view for the first time.
"I'm looking at it, but I just don't believe it" Willow gasped.
"It was here all this time" Professor Adisa declared with disappointment in his voice.
"Headquarters told us it was on the bottom of the ocean" Sid noted "So was it all a big mistake or did they lie to us?"
"I don't know, but I certainly hope to find out" Linton fumed.
"I can see a couple of tents ahead" Calla sat up excitedly "That must be Dad."
And she was right as a very expectant Maynard Linwood and son emerged, waving their arms. Sid Cartwright brought his vehicle to a stop in front of the Linwood camp site and the young girl had the door half open before it had even come to a stop. Soon she was throwing herself into the waiting arms of her father and even Emerson was glad to see her.
Before any more could be said, the trailing vehicle pulled up alongside and the passengers window was wound down.
"Hey Professor, while you chat to Calla's dad, we're gonna go check out the ship" Amos called from the cab.
"Alright but be careful; it's an old ship remember" he called back.
"Wait for us" Willow called out as she and Sid jumped onto the four-wheel-drives running board.
"You must be young Calla's father" Linton knew it was a safe bet.
"Thank you for bringing my daughter back" a very relieved man declared as he held out his hand to the Professor.
"I'm Maynard Linwood and this is Calla's brother Emerson; I am so glad the trust my children put in you, was not misplaced."
"My name is Linton Adisa sir and believe me; I do know the distress you have been going through."
"Dad, can we go and see what they find in the ship?" Calla begged.
"But I just got you back, so I'm not letting you go for at least a week" Maynard declared as he held the squirming girl too tight.
"Getorf!" Calla ordered as she wriggled free and ran off to the beach.
"Don't worry Dad, I'll keep an eye on her" Emerson smiled and hurried after his sister.
"I sure she does not realise how worried you were" Professor Adisa noted.
"You don't know the half of it; if Emerson hadn't stopped me, I was ready to rip that machine out of the hole and jump down after her" Maynard admitted.
"I'm glad you did not" Linton smiled "if you had been hurt or killed, we would not have had the chance to talk."
The two men wandered slowly towards the ship, both wanting to see what was happening but at the same time, gain some information from each other.
"So what is inside this thing?" Maynard broke the ice.
"You'll have to forgive me Mr. Linwood but I am not sure if I should reveal what it contains yet. I am still a little nervous about the state of the world at this time. You see, we have not seen the unfiltered light of day for many years."
"The only thing I can tell you is, things were not great in New Zealand, Australia isn't any better and we are pinning our hopes on finding better prospects in northern Europe or Asia."
"When you say we, to whom are you referring sir?" the Professor asked.
"My family and I left New Zealand on the Star Runner after the last major tsunami and other vessels have joined us as we made our way up the east coast of Australia. The fleet is currently waiting in Darwin for ne to find the next safe harbour for them."
"And then you continue sailing northwest I assume."
"If everything goes according to plan, we hope to get out of the tropics and reach the Gulf of Aden before the next monsoon season" Maynard admitted.
As Maynard and the Professor continued towards the ship, Emerson watched the strange people at work. Calla had not been happy when her brother had ordered her not to follow the three people who had climbed the support leg to the ship, but she was soon happy enough to help Jeana on the floating pontoons. Three ropes were thrown down from the bow and two of them were tied off onto the pontoon, Jeana then tied the third rope to a large canvas bag. Attached to the sides of the bag were two metal rings that she clipped to the side ropes before the bag of equipment was hauled up the side of the ship. After the bag was unloaded, the people on the ship lowered it down for the next load of tools but Emerson's attention was diverted by the sound of a splash.
Not far from the ship, a boy slightly shorter than him but taller than his sister, stood knee deep in the ocean kicking at the water. As Emerson watched, the boy cupped his hand, picked up some of the water and tasted it before spitting it out again.
"Not a good idea to drink salt water" Emerson chuckled.
"Oh I knew it would be salty but I just had to see what it was like."
"You've never been in the sea before?"
"I've never been outside before; hi, I'm Blue."
"Ah the guy with the cats; I'm Emerson, Calla's brother."
Before the two young men could get to know each other, all talk ceased at the sight of an unexpected explosion in the distant sky to the south.
"TAKE COVER!" Maynard shouted.
His children knew what was coming as they ran away from the ship and threw themselves into a depression in the sand. Blue watched in surprised awe when the people on the ship disappeared from view as those on the ground lay down with their hands over their heads.
"What's wrong?" Blue called out but before anyone could answer him, the shockwave hit.
It sounded like the entire atmosphere had invisibly exploded and the power behind it threw Blue six meters back onto the beach. The massive tanker reverberated for almost a minute but even when the sound had dissipated, the ringing noise remained in Blue's ears.
"Are you okay kid?" but Blue could not answer Emerson's question.
Through the blur of what remained of his vision, Blue saw dark shadows surrounding him and he recognised one of them as the young girl who had once threatened him with a shielded electrician's screwdriver. Shock gave way to panic as Blue pushed away the people surrounding him until, above the buzzing and ringing in his head, the calming voice of Professor Adisa finally managed to break though.
"Blue, listen to me; stop fighting, be still."
By the time Blue could fully comprehend the world around him once again, he was no longer on the beach, but was lying on the outside of a sleeping bag under the shade of a clump of palm trees.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Professor Adisa asked the dazed boy.
"All of them; but only three are extended" Blue replied.
"Well he hasn't hurt his sense of humour" Sarah smiled.
"What happened?" the dazed young man asked.
"A meteor exploded in the upper atmosphere" Linton informed him.
"Why didn't you get down?" Calla asked.
"I didn't know what was going on and just as I worked out it was a good idea to do what everybody else was doing, it was too late."
"You blockhead" Calla grinned.
"Thank you Lucy Van Pelt" Blue sighed.
"Who's Lucy Van Pelt?" Calla asked.
"She's a character in the Charlie Brown comic strips" the professor informed Calla.
"Who's Charlie Brown?" Calla continued her enquiry.
"And what's a comic strip? Emerson added.
"The world has changed to a greater degree that I thought" Linton noted "It certainly isn't what it used to be."
"Could it be that it never was?" Amos put forward.
"Deep Amos" Sid declared "Very deep indeed.
"I think you may have received a concussion when your head hit the sand" Professor Adisa informed Blue as he tried to get the world back on track "I think we should get you back to the complex."
"No please, I want to see inside the ship" Blue protested.
"It's been sitting there for fifteen years so I don't think it is going anywhere" Linton reassured Blue.
"Especially after I'm done with it" Willow grinned in an almost evil way as she considered how much fun it can be to use explosives.
Considering the last line, perhaps instead of Pascal, I should have given Willow the last name Thorston after our much loved destruction loving twins. Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon.