Alluvium (18 page)

“Something more?" Hollis whispered into his helmet, fighting back the image of the spirit that lured him into the valley.

“Tell me," asked Saul. "have you ever heard of the Tower of Babel?" and before Hollis had an opportunity to answer the Crawler faded into the shadow of the city and was lost for a moment beneath the towers.

All around them the concrete pillars rose, tearing into the blood-red Martian sky and looking down at the small bug of a vehicle that crawled at their basins. There were no streets that filled the gaps between towers but only dunes of sand, uneven and untamed. The Crawler traversed these dunes to the best of its ability, trembling as it climbed the steeper inclines, and it twisted around the construction that piled in the alleys. Higher up, gliding between the buildings, Hollis could make out dozens of tiny round entities with movements of their own.

“What are those?" Hollis asked, following one as it disappeared into a gaping hole in a towers side. 

“The Builders. They almost look alive don’t they? They look very different from down here. It’s the way they move, like birds without wings. They’re beautiful machines, really."

They continued further into the desert city, passing nearly finished towers that were being worked on by the Builders until they reached one tower in particular that was unlike any other. The tower was reduced to large boulders, rocks, and debris that were all stacked unsteadily upon each other. What was created was a concrete mountain of wreckage and rubble. Saul parked the Crawler before it and waited in silence as the wind whistled through the channels between towers.

Hollis did not embrace the silence as Saul did. “Is this what you wanted to show me?" he asked, feeling the streets narrowing in on their position. “A collapsed building?"

“Come on, let's take a closer look," Saul said as he removed his harness from across his armored chest and jumped from the vehicle's cabin.

Hollis expelled a warm breath and lifted the door to exit the Crawler and follow Saul. His boots met the ground and carried him to where Saul was standing near the fallen structure. A Builder darted past Hollis and joined a group of others that were organizing around the wreckage.

“These are the remains of Tower Twelve. Because it was left unchecked for such a long period of time under Richard's leadership, it couldn’t stand against the Martian storms. It was here that we found him, hiding like a rat, buried beneath it all."

“Who?"

“Doctor Novak."

“I wasn’t told-"

“I’ve been trying to keep it a secret from the others for the sake of morale building. Right now, only a select group of people know. He was hiding here with the majority of the colony’s alcohol supply that he stole from us. The tower fell so quickly he didn’t even have time to put on his helmet, and his head was crushed by one of the falling supporting beams almost instantly. He should be thankful for such a quick death because the alternative would have been horrifying, especially all the way out here."

“We’ve seen too many slow deaths," Hollis said quietly.

Saul nodded his heavy helmet in anguish. "Too many. Far too many. Although, Novak wasn’t a noble man and didn’t deserve a noble death. He abandoned our colony and hid away in a drunken shame. He wasn’t there when we could have saved Richard. He was a coward, and cowards are not deserving of the world I have envisioned for us here."

Hollis found his mind drifting to the revelation of Asnee and the purpose of each of the colonists’ genetic codes. If it were true that Novak did not deserve his seat at the table of the last of humankind then why was he chosen from hundreds of thousands of other candidates in the first place? What made him so special, or any of them for that matter? Was this all apart of
their
plan?

“I don’t think any of us are deserving of this world," Hollis muttered and found himself startled in saying it out loud.

“No, I have to disagree with you," Saul said sharply. “I think each one of us remaining are here for a reason. Just like these towers, those of us that are still standing are the strongest and can brace against any storm that attempts to tear us down. We just need to continue holding steady for the remainder of the storms, and once they pass, the grass will begin grow around us."

“You’ve always had faith in me, Saul. Even though I’ve let you down plenty of times, you still continue to support my research. I don’t understand."

Saul bent down and lifted up a small rock from the debris, turning it about in his hands. “As many mistakes as you’ve made, and there are many, including last night, one fact remains: you’re still standing, and that means something," he said, and tossed the rock high into the air, over the fallen tower, listening to it clatter as it tumbled into the murky depths of the concrete carcass.

“What is it exactly you wanted to talk to me about? What’s the real reason I’m here?" Hollis asked, feeling the pressure of a greater conversation.

“I brought you here because standing isn’t enough. As I said earlier, we have the opportunity to fill this city with life that we deem fit to live, and if we want to achieve this future we need to start acting now."

“Have we not been acting? By the looks of it, your city is almost finished. What more do you want?"

“I’m not talking about the city, Hollis. We can finish the city a thousand times over, but what we need are people to inhabit it. All my work, and your work too, would be for nothing if we don’t bring more people to Mars."

Hollis forced himself to say it. “You’ve got a child coming within a month, Saul. You can’t rush these things."

“Oh but I can, and I will. We don’t have the time to waste. You and I both know it, and most of the colony knows it, but we’re just too scared to come to terms with it. We’re an endangered species now, and we’ve been losing people at far too fast a rate. One child won’t be enough to counter these deaths. We need more, and quickly."

“Babies aren’t delivered by a stork."

“Yes, unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Few things of great value are. The announcement of my child has provoked the idea, but it’s nowhere near enough to convince the others to do the same. They’re still too frightened to devote themselves to a beginning because they’re already devoted to an end. We can’t rely on them to fill these towers and turn this ghost town into a thriving metropolis. We need to act on our own."

It took another gulp from his oxygen tank for Hollis to catch the direction of Saul’s conversation, and once he did, he could feel the sands start to shift beneath his feet, pulling him into the shadows.

“What are you getting at, Saul?" Hollis asserted.

“These women- we need them just as much as they need us. Neither man or woman can survive on their own. There’s a reason why this isn’t an all male colony or an all female colony. We have an obligation, each one of us, to fulfill our roles and preserve our species. Adrian Minor knew this. He knew what we would have to do, eventually, even if we didn’t. And if these women don’t want children and want to break their oaths to humanity by not sustaining our survival, then why should we have to break ours? We shouldn’t, Hollis. We can build as many of the greatest cities or as many thousands of the most beautiful acres of forest, but for what purpose if there is no one around to see it? This colony needs children, and whether they want it or not, this colony is going to have children," Saul cleared his dry throat. "We need to make sure of it."

Hollis slowly stepped back from Saul, tripping on the scattered rubble of the fallen future. The outlines of Saul’s face pulsated a deep and dark red, mirroring a face he had seen in the black the night before and in the story of Janya’s last night alive.

“You-" Hollis gasped.

“Hollis, this isn’t easy to-"

Behind them, the Crawler’s radio sparked with static. “
Emergency at the Hub! All outbound teams respond! The security of the colony is threatened!"
a trembling voice shrieked. “
I repeat, the security of the colony is threatened!"

Saul lowered his sweat-soaked brow. “Our talks have a tendency of being interrupted," he boomed.

“That sounded like Autumn," Hollis hastily announced, dreading another minute alone with Saul and his fallen tower.

Without another comment, the two rushed back to the Crawler and departed from the ruins of the broken city to answer the cry of help of the woman they both loved.

After all his meticulously formulated movements and strategies, Saul knew he had made a fatal mistake by telling Hollis his plan. The botanist was not prepared to hear the truth, and it was quite obvious that he never would be. His reaction, back at the ruins, was proof enough. The awkward air of a man condemning the other was settling in-between them now, filling the cracks that were once left open for an alliance or perhaps even a brotherhood. It was decided that they would become enemies, and there was no going back. Saul could feel the tension of the arrow as it pulled back against the bow, left in the hands of Hollis, aimed at his Achilles heel, ready to be released if desired. If Hollis was not taken care of immediately, he would become capable of destroying his dream of a perfect world.

As Saul watched Hollis out of the corner of his eye, he began considering solutions to the problem. If he were so bold, he could turn the Crawler around and drive deep into the desert, far from any and all life, and leave Hollis on some barren dune with nothing more than the exosuit he was wearing to protect him. The others would believe one of his drug hallucinations took him there. His suit’s O2 tank would last him about eighteen hours at most. It would be a slow death, but in Saul’s rationalizations, Hollis was more than deserving of it, just as Novak was. The botanist’s failed research in his garden was a waste of the colony’s resources and energy and brought no results apart from drug-induced hysterics back at the Hub. The tree would never come, and knowing this, Saul was more than comfortable containing the future of society in his city and not a forest. They had an unlimited amount of electricity through solar power, and they were more than capable of repairing the solar panel field when necessary. They could use the water reclaimers to cycle decades of water in their own water-table and produce more through deep-reaching wells if it came to it in the future. The backup oxygen suppliers would last decades as well. They could build subterranean farms beneath the sand to grow their own food with the hundreds of farmable seeds they brought with them, all without the need of life-friendly soils on the planet's surface. In Saul’s calculations, the colony had about nine years before they had to worry about death and starvation with their supplies, and that was more than enough time to complete his city of the future. They could even use the Hollis’ garden as a placeholder farm until they finish building their own beneath the city. Saul did not need Hollis or his research to keep humanity alive, and soon the others would begin to realize this.

But even Saul was forced to realize the symbol that was the tree and the sentiment it brought for the others. It was a dream worth fighting for. It was a perfectly crafted lie. Catharsis for the masses. Hollis’ tree was the shining beacon of light in a time when darkness only existed. As unfortunate as it was for Saul to come to terms with in that moment, he needed desperately the tree, and he despised nothing more than desperation. He could not dispose of Hollis because he himself was bound to the roots of his tree, the symbol, and if he were to die, the hope in the colony would die with him. He knew he needed Hollis alive, only in his control.

“I hope you haven’t taken what I said back there too seriously, I was only presenting an option of ours, which is one out of many. Obviously I would never consider doing such a thing," Saul said, barely turning his head from the road ahead. “I was only stressing our need to overcome stagnation. Our need for-"

“Let’s just focus on this emergency at the Hub," Hollis returned right away, trying very hard to keep his voice steady.

“Of course."

Hollis recognized that Saul expressed no fear regarding Autumn’s possible danger back at the Hub. It was her voice they heard sounding the emergency, and he had yet to comment on it. He seemed to still worry about their conversation left behind in the city, the one revolving around tones of a rape and murder and abuse of authority. Had Hollis found him, the man in the red mask, not deep within the shadows, but right there before him? This hurdle would need to wait. Whatever was happening back at the Hub, Hollis had never heard Autumns voice filled with so much panic before. Images of their dead child and Autumn writhing on the floor in a pool of blood spend through his mind, and he suppressed them as much as he could for the remainder of the trip back to her, along with all other thoughts that haunted him.

The Crawler rolled into the hangar deck of the Hub, and its engine hissed to a stop. Without waiting for depressurization, Hollis jumped from the vehicle's cabin and rushed across the large platform to the main walkway, Saul following just a few steps behind. They both bolted through the station and into the mess hall, still dressed in their armored exosuits, and amidst the panic and confusion of the small group that clustered there, Hollis managed to find Autumn first.

“Are you alright?" Hollis pressed, looking down at her stomach. "What's all this commotion? What's the emergency?"

Autumn’s eyes frantically darted between Hollis and Saul, who lifted off his helmet as he approached them from behind.

“It’s Asnee," she let out.

Hollis nodded his head hurriedly, fearing the worst for his friend but relieved that it had nothing to do with his unborn child.

“He’s threatening to kill him," Autumn stuttered. “He’s threatening to kill him."

“Who?" demanded Saul as he pushed aside Hollis.

Autumn motion towards the furthest reaches of the crowd. “Franco."

Hollis quickly assessed the situation that was playing out before him. Only about four other colonists appeared to have responded to Autumn’s distress call, the rest probably being hard at work to finish Saul’s city on time, and these few that responded gathered around what looked like two others separated from the rest. Tables and chairs were scattered around, tipped over and broken as if there had been an intense altercation not long before. Hollis moved closer and saw that the two separate people were Asnee and Franco, and what looked like hugging from far away, was actually Franco locked beneath Asnee’s arm. Pointed into Franco’s throat was a long and sharp butcher’s knife that glinted under the florescent lights.

“It was him, don’t you see!" Asnee manically screamed to the ones that watched. “He’s the one who killed her!"

“Put the knife down, man. This isn’t you," Julius reasoned, adjusting his thick glasses to see the threat better. “Let's just go back to the workshop and continue doing our jobs."

“Asnee, we love you. Please, don’t do this," said another onlooker, Selena Trent, sobbing through her hands.

“No, it was him," Asnee continued. “He’s the fucking monster amongst us. You all are blind, but I can see him for what he truly is."

Frozen in place, Hollis began to make sense of what was happening. A suppressed memory of himself telling Asnee that Franco was Janya’s killer flickered into his consciousness from last night's madness. He had not remembered until now, and quietly cursed himself for being so foolish to take the altered Datura seeds again, thinking somehow it would be different. As much as he hated Franco, he did not deserve to die, especially considering he was not the man responsible for Janya’s suicide. That responsibility laid with another man. He knew that now.

Hollis slowly turned his head to look at Saul standing beside Autumn, and Saul looked right back at him in knowing.

“Asnee!" Hollis yelled, turning back to his friend and lunging forward towards him in his heavy boots. “Asnee, don’t do this!"

Asnee flinched upon hearing Hollis’ voice and cut slightly into the skin of Franco’s neck with the knife’s point. Franco cried out in pain as blood trickled down and soaked his white colonial suit. His United National Forces insignia throbbed red further down.

“Hollis!" Asnee screamed, steadying his trembling hand and aiming the knife back towards his victims jugular. “Hollis, you told me it was him. Tell them it was him. Tell them he’s the one who hurt Janya that night. Tell them everything!"

“What’s he talking about?" the crowd began to murmur. “What did he do?"

“No!" Hollis yelled louder than the rest. “It wasn’t Franco. It wasn’t him, I was wrong." He held out his hands facing up. “Please, just put the knife down, he didn’t do it."

“I didn’t do anything to Janya," Franco choked under Asnee’s grip. “Listen to him, I didn’t do it. I didn’t even know her that well. Please. She did it to herself. She needed help."

“Shut up!" Asnee screamed. “Just shut the fuck up, all of you!" He looked at Hollis again. “Tell them what you know, Hollis. Tell them he raped Janya repeatedly and got her pregnant. You said he was the one who did it, so tell them how you knew!"

Hollis shook his head. “I was wrong Asnee," he said. “It wasn’t him. I’m so sorry, I lied to you. I lied because I was angry and delusional."

Asnee began to sob beneath his breath. “You lied?”

“I’m so sorry." Hollis began quietly again. “I wasn’t myself, and I was going mad on those drugs. I have a problem, and I’m so sorry I hurt you like this. But it wasn’t Franco, I promise you this. He did nothing to Janya."

Asnee looked around at the crowd that surrounded him, and from the expressions on their faces, he felt himself became the monster he had been hunting all this time. They gawked at him in horror, and he knew then that there was no way to salvage the situation. There was no escape. It was all leading up to this moment. It always had been. He had led himself to his own demise, just as the fish did.

“Who was it then?!" he cried. “Who killed the woman I love?!"

Hollis opened his mouth with an answer, but before he could make a sound, a louder sound whistled through the air. A strong gust of air flutter past his right cheek and a sharp clap rung in his ears. Everyone remained silent for a moment to adjust to what happened.

Once his ears regained their hearing, Hollis lifted his head to see Asnee standing where he had been prior to the deafening sound, except a large nail was the logged into his shoulder. Asnee scream aloud in pain and flung Franco aside into a table. Another moment later, he was charging towards the crowd, holding the knife high above his head. He was running at someone in particular.

Another shot emerged from the crowd, bringing with it another industrial-sized nail ripping through the air. This one hit its mark. Asnee halted and staggered. A black dot appeared on his forehead and around it a wet red halo, and the red slowly ran down the contours of his face. He dropped the knife, lifted his arms to his sides, and the instant before he fell backward, Hollis could see the light leave his eyes just as it left his suit.

“No!" Hollis screamed, and lunged towards his friend. He met Asnee on the floor.

“No! No!" Hollis continued screaming. He held Asnee in his arms, frantically searching for a way to revive him, but his old friend was long gone the moment the sailing nail stuck.

“No
hermano
, don’t do this. Don’t die here. Please, don’t die here," Hollis moaned.

Hollis cleared his eyes and looked up to see Saul looming within the crowd, directly in the path of Asnee’s run. Wrapped in his gloves was an massive nail gun designed for repairs. Steam leaked from its protruding end which was vacant of a nail.

“You!" Hollis screamed at Saul in a fit of rage. “You did this! You fucking killed him!"

Saul looked down at his gun and back up into the faces of the shocked onlookers. “I did," he said strongly and confidently. “He was going to kill Franco, or anyone of us if we gave him another minute. There was no reasoning with him."

“You fucking killed him!" Hollis screamed again, standing over the body in a protective stance.

“It had to be done. You know that," Saul said in a monotone voice. “There was nothing else we could do. He’d been on this path since Janya killed herself."

“She didn’t kill herself!" Hollis screamed. “You killed her!”

“Hollis-" Saul sighed. “You can’t believe that, can you?"

“You fuck, you know exactly what I’m talking about! You’re the man in the red mask! The Computer told me about everything! You’re the one who would come to Janya in the night and abuse her! You got her pregnant against her will, for the sake of keeping humanity alive, just like you told me back in the city!"

“You’re sounding crazy, just like Asnee," Saul said in a contained voice, still gripping the gun tightly. He looked around at the others. “Asnee would have killed any one of us, everyone saw that."

“You saved my life," Franco wheezed while rubbing this reddened throat. “You saved us.”

“He was crazy. He wouldn’t listen,” Julius joined in.

“How many others are you doing it to, Saul?" Hollis screamed again, turning his gaze to the two women present in the crowd, Selena and Marissa Strauss. “Is he hurting you too? Is he coming in the night?"

“He’s drugged out again," Saul responded to the other’s growing fear. “Everyone needs to stay away from him, we don’t know what he’ll do."

“No, I’m not drugged out!" Hollis said taking a step closer to him. “I’m telling the truth. They need to know what kind of man you really are. Tell them what you told me back at the city. Tell them your plan for saving humanity, Saul. Go on, tell them."

Hollis felt the blood boiling in his body. He was finally confronting the red face that haunted him in his nightmares.

“Why don’t you tell them about your episode last night instead, where we caught you stalking my pregnant wife while you were high and manic, just like you are now," Saul fought back. “Now look, Hollis, I’m sorry about Asnee, but there was no other way. You have to see that. You have to see reason, not some baseless conspiracy."