A Cold Black Wave (12 page)

After hiking further,
they found themselves in the heart of a vast redwood forest.
 
The ground ran flat in every direction with lush foliage of broad leaf ferns, climbing vines and a teeming ecosystem that created a prehistoric landscape, untouched in its natural state.
 
Soft, wayward drops of snow fell through the
 
tops of the
 
trees
 
which swayed and whooshed lazily with the wind.
 
Beams of radiant light broke through the thick canopy like spotlights illuminating some magnificent thing they couldn’t readily see.
 
The silence was so present they unconsciously slowed their footsteps as to not disturb the serenity.

Leah
crouched
and examined a plant growing out of the crevice of a rock, running her finger over the soft bristles that lined the stem.  A ghostly fog drifted about them, thin and organic as it moved across the ground and roiled up against the fleshy red bark like the lungs of the forest were drawing it in.  A damp, heavy wooded smell met them as they proceeded into this beautiful land.

"They had this, all of this, and destroyed it,"
 
Josh said in reverent awe.  The cold retreated from this place as the dense warmth of the forest desperately fought to keep it out.

Leah’s eyes danced to and fro as she examined the full spectrum of this unworldly place, "It truly is beautiful, isn't it?"

Josh knelt down and ran his hand across the dormant bud of a flower, “My mom would have done anything to be here right now.  She was on earth but saw what had become of it.  It’s one thing for us to know what earth may have been like, it was another to have had it and then taken away forever.”

Leah strolled nearby as she absently responded to Josh as if they were in a dream, “I’ll never understand how they could have destroyed something like this.  Something so innocent and pure.”

“I know,” he said, his thoughts drifting back to his mother for the first time since leaving.  He was surprised that he didn’t feel much sadness about her death now that he thought about it, but the aching siren of remorse waited for him in his repressed emotions, wishing to surge forth and overcome him with a debilitating melancholy.  There was already something scarred on his soul that yearned for him to leave a world that had treated him so unfairly.

“What was she like?”

“I don’t-uh ... ” He had buried his mother in the recesses of his consciousness, content to keep her there along with the emotions that would threaten to envelop and pull him down into the darkness again.  “She, she was nice.  Very nice.”

“You said you were able to speak with her from the Academy.  That must have been special for her.  What about your father, were you able to-”

“My father,” he said with a sigh of disgust.  “There’s nothing to say about him.”

“Oh.”

For his father, however, he had difficulty containing his contempt.  His gaze bore into the earth and Josh spoke about his father with spite and anger, “He treated my mom like shit.  He abandoned her.  And me.  The man embodied all that was wrong with the world, and the worst part is that he created a justification for everything that he did.  There was always a reason for what he did and never took responsibility for his own actions.  A good reason, of course.” He added bitterly.  “It’s people like him why we had to leave earth.  They all had their justifications for fucking everyone and everything.  Sickens me to even think I have his blood ...”

“I’m so sorry Josh.”

“Don’t be.  He’s dead.  Along with everyone else.  He got his free ride and we’re here to deal with the consequences.”

“Everyone has to answer to God eventually. You really don’t believe in an afterlife though, do you?”

“Not my thing.  Sorry.”

A small squirrel leaped from branch to branch in the tree directly across from him, a small nut or something in his mouth.  The fur was very bushy, thick.  It looked down at Josh and flicked its tail before moving on, straddling the branches and twigs with its little paws.

"It's strange to think about,” Leah finally said, her serene voice blending in with the quietude of the forest.

"What?"

"How we ended up here.  The two of us,” she said wistfully, walking carefully though the leafy fauna next to Josh.  “Of all the people that has ever existed, and we’re the last two.  Almost seems like we’re still on the shuttle, floating out in space, just dreaming and not really here at all ...”

“If only we we’re that lucky.”

“How many were on earth?  Billions?”

“That’s right.”

“Then there was Josh, and Leah,” she said, the corner of her mouth upturned as she ran her palms over the tops of the ferns as she passed by.  Josh tried not to pay attention to her, instead taking note of their surroundings and determining which direction to set off for next.  He pulled out his tablet and checked the distance and direction they had traveled since departing from the shuttle.

“I think we’re getting closer,” he said, tapping the screen to shut it off.

“Closer?”

“To civilization.”

“Yeah?  Then what?”  She said, inching closer to him.

“Then, who knows?”  He sighed.  “Don’t get killed.  Be a shame for that to happen after everything we’ve been through, wouldn’t it?”

“Then what?” She asked playfully.

She was right next to him now, and a ray of light shone through the strands of her auburn hair as it brought out the slight reddish hue in vibrant fashion.  She had a way of unnerving him and turning his thoughts inside out and now with a crook of the neck, an angle of her smile and a squint in her eye managed to fully disembowel him.  There was an uncomfortable feeling of vulnerability to it that both excited him and played on his darkest fears and it made him tremble.

He cleared his throat and shifted his weight, “Then uh, then we make contact, and offer a um, viable ... item of interest and hopefully-”

She ran her hand twice over the short tuff of hair that had grown on his head since leaving the Westbound, “You like talking that way?  Viable item of interest?” she joked, imitating his voice.

“How should I talk, like you?” he shot back, saying in a high pitched squeaky tone, “So um, what does that do?  Oh, a fork?  What’s that?  Oh no, I broke a-“

She leaned in and kissed him.  Josh froze.  His lips couldn’t move.  His mind blanked.  His heart pounded in his chest and he could feel the shot of adrenaline rippling under his skin like electricity.  Leah slowly pulled her lips away from his, smiling and blushing before skipping away.

“Come on!”  She called back. “Can’t sit around all day like lazy jackasses!”

His mind was flummoxed from the encounter so he didn’t hear a word she had said.  Then he realized she was gone and ran after.

“Hey!  How’d you know to go this way,” he said as he caught up.

“I didn’t!”

“Wait,” he said, jumping through tangled undergrowth and suddenly feeling oafish.  Just steps away from her his foot caught on a gnarled root and his momentum knocked her to the ground.  She let out a scream and then laughed as he fell awkwardly on top of her.

She faced him and Josh found something as he stared into her beaming eyes, a beauty so deep that the world around them could disappear in it.  She waited this time, smiling at his goofiness, and then he kissed her with an energy that engulfed them both.  Their bodies melded into each other and time was in stasis, their worries wiped clean, and their sorrows forgotten as the moment erased all that was wrong in the world.

T
he earth began to rumble and Josh stretched his head up over the ferns to look for what was causing the commotion.
 
Leah shifted over and sat up as well, and both of their heads swiveled above the tops of the foliage.

Leah gasped, "Look!"
 
A large herd of elk trampled together as they bumped against each other and gingerly leapt over fallen branches and forest rocks.
 
They didn't seem to be in a panic, just an orderly advance like a group of commuters heading to work.

"Shh, don't move.
 
Let them pass," he said, holding his arm out against her.
 
The mob of elegant brown mountain deer increased in number as the head of the pack passed and the bulk of them followed.
 
Frosty clouds of air blew out from their wet noses, the wayward travelers snorting and making chittering noises as they went.  Then a straggler appeared not ten feet from them.
 
Both Leah and Josh locked eyes with it, and it stood blinking, pawing absently at the ground.
 
It shook its head and casually moved along, unfazed by the foreign presence in their land.

Soon the entire herd had all passed by.
 
Leah coughed into her arm a few times and
 
cleared her throat.
 
"You okay?" he asked.
 
"Oh, yeah, swallowed a bug, or something.
 
That was unbelievable.
 
Did you see how close that one got?
 
I've never seen such
 
beauty, to be right there in front of us like that it’s like I couldn’t breathe!"

Her eyes lit up with child-like wonder as she spoke and Josh watched her lips move and the way a small dimple formed on her cheek when she smiled.
 
"What?"
 
She grinned.
 
"Come on," she stood up and took him by the hands to follow her.

"You're leading the way now?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Leah," he said, stopping.
 
She turned.
 
"Let's take it slow, you know, we need to be careful."

She suddenly felt embarrassed as if she had been inappropriate earlier with him.  Did he really think she was going too fast?  She knew Josh could be cold, but this was like flipping a switch. "Oh.
 
Sure.
 
I'm not
...
ok, sure."

"I mean, no, not uh, not that.
 
Back there. With us.
 
Just in general, we should be careful."

"Oh!
 
Right."  Now she felt really embarrassed but at least it wasn’t over the reason she had worried about.

"Keep our eyes open," he pointed to his eyes with two fingers and then to the path ahead.

"Yes, captain!" she said, giving him a playful salute.
 
She spun around and continued crossing over the trampled path the elk had just created.

They hiked as Leah stayed just ahead of Josh, occasionally glancing over her shoulder at him and flashing a grin.  His heart raced in his chest as his mind ran over the sudden events that just transpired.  Images of her beautiful face looking at his and the feel of her lips and the wanting stare of those round eyes all reeled over and over like a movie, and he wanted more.

Yet as he walked and considered his next move, his nervous thoughts seemed to imprison his body from doing anything so he continued walking and nervously smiling at Leah when she’d look back at him.  Despite learning everything else, flirting and socializing with a girl he liked was not even remotely encouraged at the academy, and in fact was punished if the instructors ever found out.  And they somehow always did, as Josh had witnessed.  There were girls there he was attracted to but the mind block imposed on him from his instructors limited any thoughts he entertained of approaching them.

His mind raced along with his pulse.  Does she want me to do something?  She had already made the first move, but I did chase after her and sort of made my own move.  Should I wait for her again?  Like a chess match maybe.  Or maybe more like checkers where I make one jump, then another if I have the opportunity?  Would she push me away if I tried something again?  What the hell am I supposed to do, just go up and kiss her again?