-13-
WE GO aboard using a wobbly gangplank. Walt talked to the Bookkeeper at the harbor, who promised to bring men for our noble cause – at least one hundred of them. Saul and his small army won’t stand a chance against us now, but will we win the race against time?
Will Colin, Andy and Pete still be alive when we get there?
At the steering wheel, I can see the captain talking to a very tall, black-haired man with dark skin. Walt doesn’t even need to tell me who he is. This must be Tony. He looks different from all the other people I have ever seen. His skin isn’t dark from working under the sun, but has the natural color of wet sand on the beach.
“I didn’t think you’d be this impressed by his appearance,” Walt quips. I’m probably gaping at Tony unabashedly.
“He just looks so… otherworldly,” I say with a blush. “So handsome.”
“Hmm.”
I glance sideways at Walt. He sounds almost jealous. “But I thought you looked really striking too, the first time I met you. With your white-blonde hair and all,” I indulge him.
“You didn’t look at me this mesmerized.”
“Hah. How would you know? It was way too dark to see my face.”
“Oh, so you were enthralled by my obvious beauty?” Walt grins at me, and suddenly, I hate the fact that his grin looks so good on him. It’s the typical grin of a boy who’s used to people liking and admiring him – Walt, the Bookkeeper’s arrogant nephew.
“No, I wasn’t enthralled,” I reply defiantly. “I was scared out of my wits. Okay? I’m still scared out of my wits. Most likely my twin brother is injured or even dead, and here you are, flirting with me like there’s no tomorrow. Because you find yourself so desirable, and… and you think an Unbeliever girl would look good on your long list of dates.” I spit out the last few words viciously.
“And here you are, not even smittened by it one little bit,” Walt mutters in a huff. He gives me a soul-searching look, and to my utter annoyance, I can’t meet his gaze head-on without blushing.
“I’m going to talk to Tony.” I break off the conversation abruptly and stalk off to the captain of the Explorer and the man from across the waters. I patiently wait until they have time for me.
When the captain leaves for the forecastle, Tony turns around to face me. “You must be the young lady with the Star Wars notebook.”
I blink, staring at him uncomprehendingly. “I’m sorry, what?”
“The booklet with Luke and Leia on the cover,” he elaborates.
“Yes.” I nod hesitantly. “Yes, that’s me.” A booklet? Surely it’s not that small?
He leans against the railing of the ship and looks at me thoughtfully. “Well, what would you like to know?”
I have to think long and hard. This man allegedly said he knew our ancestors, but Henry claimed our life philosophy is based on an untruth. Frankly, I don’t know where to start.
“Tell me about the World across the Waters,” I finally say. “What it looks like. How the people live there. Why we never knew anything about your existence.”
“That world was destroyed for a long time,” Tony starts slowly. “It used to crawl with people, you know. Seven billion of them. All of them clamoring for a spot in the light. Some of them had a lot of worldly possessions, while others were starving. This caused much mutual jealousy. In fact, it made them so jealous that large groups of people fought each other in big wars.”
“Wars with so many people?” I don’t really know how much a billion is, but Tony’s face tells me it’s more than I can even imagine.
“Well, not all of them were involved. The leaders of those areas of land – countries – decided when and how they went to war, even if the majority of people in their country didn’t agree.”
“Kind of like our leader,” I mutter.
Tony nods solemnly. “Yes, just like him. Murderous, power-hungry, and always, always afraid of losing that power. This went on until one hundred fifty years ago, the leader of a large country unleashed a mutated virus onto the earth. They used to call it biological warfare. He didn’t use weapons to kill people, but germs.”
“Why?” I look at him in utter shock. “Wouldn’t that kill all people indiscriminately, even his own people?”
“No, because he thought he’d tweaked the virus in such a way that it wouldn’t attack people of his own race. That was the plan, anyway. The ultimate effect of the disease was that adults were killed by the infection, and children were hardly affected by it.”
“Children…” I gulp down the lump in my throat. “Up to what age?”
“The information my family has passed on through the generations mentions the age of ten, eleven.”
The age at which we become adults. Is that just a coincidence? I take a deep breath. “And then?”
Tony stares into the distance. “People tried everything to fight the infection – special clothes that would keep the virus out, airtight spaces with special ventilation. I’m sorry if you don’t know what I’m talking about; I’m sure your world doesn’t know these things. Suffice it to say humanity fought bravely, but to no avail. The only way to escape from the virus was by leaving the mainland. People fled to the coast. They wanted to take boats and sail out to sea, hoping the virus wouldn’t be able to cross the water if only healthy people were allowed on board. This is one of the reasons some people survived. But many still died after that because of the bombs.”
“What are bombs?” I whisper.
“Big weapons powerful enough to blow up entire cities or countries. The leader of another country dropped them on all large cities in the country that developed the virus. After that, the war continued on both sides until they ran out of bombs or there was no one left to press the button. And then, the poisonous rains came.”
I shudder. So this is the truth. The island is a paradise world compared to what’s on the other side of the sea.
“But that is all over now,” Tony assures me when he sees the disillusionment on my face. “One hundred and fifty years have passed, and the survivors and their offspring have managed to build a better world. We live scattered, and we leave each other alone. We only gather to share our knowledge, but that’s all. This is how we prevent conflicts.”
We’ve only talked for a short while, but in my mind I’m ten years older. We may not be alone, but I sure feel like we are. Our island is nothing more than an insignificant dot on the map of an enormous world we don’t know at all – a small star next to a bright, full moon in the night sky.
Which raises a new question. “How did you and Henry ever manage to find our island?”
“Because your ancestors left a message that wouldn’t be lost,” Tony says mysteriously.
Before I can ask him what he means by that, Walt rushes over to us. “The Bookkeeper found men who are willing to fight.” He points at the harbor. “Now we need you as a navigator, Leia.”
On the docks, I see a large group of people flocked together, boarding the Explorer via the gangway one by one. Men who have come together to get rid of Saul once and for all - but they’ll eliminate our way of life in the process as well.
Painful as it is, I think it is time.
It’s time for the truth.