Chapter Twenty Two: What happened?

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Message from the author:

Dear friends,

I need you help to win my love back. Please visit my website http://www.fatalurgecarefreekiss.com/ to read my complete story.

Badly need your help.

Sincerely,

Amanpreet Singh Rai

GOD of a man

“Strength resides neither in ability nor in form rather in virtues.”

Chapter Twenty Two: What happened?

Dated: March, 2426

Of all the influences that control and corrupt human minds, the one most corrupting and morally degrading is strength. Strength is a drug more potent than LSD, more overpowering than alcohol and when combined with greed, deadlier than cancer. It was the strength of armies combined with the greed of those in power that caused all the wars in the history of mankind. What humans will never learn or understand is true strength is neither in their actions nor behaviour but rather in their hearts and minds. How humbling can the nature be, wood which is far harder than flesh, can float in water while flesh can’t, sponge which is way softer than flesh, floats in water while flesh can’t.

As five souls harvested the remains of a now dead and buried but once a mighty bumbling city, the question that arises out of the situation is, have these people learnt how not to run for power and be lead by their greed? Perhaps Clara has, but what about the rest?

“Great! We are ready and set to sail out again tomorrow morning first thing,” Steve declared triumphantly as he and the rest finished inspecting all the arrangements.

“Steve, can I talk to you for a moment?” Clara sought Steve’s attention over something.

“What is it Clara?” Steve asked as he walked along with her to the side.

“Steve, I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here with Nakata,” Clara shocked Steve with her statement.

“What? Are you crazy?” Steve was taken aback.

“Steve, there’s no one back at Hatsu waiting for me. My parents, Frank, Mike, they are all dead. I want to live here with my Nakata for the rest of my life,” Clara said.

“You have lost your brains! I can’t let you do that, especially now that you are expecting,” Steve didn’t realize his voice had risen enough, to attract attention from the remainder as well. They all walked up to the two of them to inquire as to what was happening.

“What happened? What’s all the commotion about?” Robin asked.

“This girl has lost her mind,” Steve was incensed.

“That we already know. What’s the news now?” Daniel chipped in with his opinion.

“She wants to stay here with dead Nakata,” Steve was harsh with his choice of words as everybody was shell shocked by the revelation.

“What? You are right Steve, she’s lost her brains,” Andy replied.

“Now look all of you, I am not asking you to do it. I am telling you people that I am not going anywhere. I want to live here for whatever life I am left with and raise my child,” Clara made her decision clear.

“All alone, are you crazy?” Daniel asked.

“Now look, I was telling Steve the same as well, there’s no one waiting for me in Hatsu and my heart lies buried here with Nakata. Besides in just a matter of a few months everybody is going to move over here anyways. All I am saying is, let me stay here with Nakata. I will wait for you people to return,” Clara stated again.

“The question over here is not whether or how long we will return over here, the question is what will you do all alone in this solitaire? You will loose your sanity and the condition you are in, we will loose the first child to be born without any medical help. Who knows this child might be the answer to the extinction human race is facing at this moment,” Steve replied.

Clara was adamant and no matter how much the others’ reasoned with her, there was nothing that could convince her otherwise. Robin however wasn’t involved in the discussion rather he was lost in some deep thoughts of his own.

“I am sorry Clara but you leave us no choice but to forcibly take you along with us,” Steve finally drew the line that surprised Clara and left her mum for a moment.

“Steve, I don’t think we need to be that harsh with her and besides I think her side is not entirely without merit,” Robin finally spoke to lend his support to Clara.

“What do you mean not completely without merit? What worthwhile reason do you see in what Clara is saying?” Steve asked.

“Look, she is pregnant and that too with a very important baby as you said. In such a scenario I think it might be safer and better for her to stay here than take a treacherous and avoidable journey with us,” Robin said.

“And what exactly makes you say so?” Steve asked as he tried to find logic in Robin’s words.

“Now we all remember the storm we were caught up in while coming over here. If that thing was to happen again, who knows what will happen to Clara or her child. Then we also had food problems, which doesn’t seem to be the case here. Anyway, in her condition food scarcity won’t be good. And then lastly, who knows if we’ll be able to make it back to Hatsu at all or not. Anything can happen on the way, the ship can break down completely to be of any use,” Robin explained.

“Robin, I agree with most of what you are saying but the question is, if we were to get stuck in the middle of the sea, she would still be stuck here all alone and the child will go waste,” Steve said.

“I haven’t said she’ll be stuck here all alone,” Robin stated.

“What do you mean, who is going to stay over here with her?” Steve asked.

“Look Steve, since she is pregnant she definitely needs a hand to assist her, more so in a few months time from now. So we do need to leave at least one of us over here with her. That will make sure she is neither alone nor without assistance when she’ll need it,” Robin replied.

“Ok! I see some logic in what you are saying but the problem is, we are already a man short and besides who will stay with her?” Steve asked.

“Steve, who better than you,” Robin said shocking Steve and the rest.

“Now wait a minute, whatever gave you the idea that I will stay here with her,” Steve fumed.

“Don’t get mad Steve but think clearly, you are the one amongst us who have known Frank, Clara and Clara’s parents well enough. You are their family friend as well. Besides you are the best guy to take care of her as you are the most intelligent amongst us,” Robin explained.

“And that’s supposed to make me agree. You are nuts. I’ve got a wife waiting for me at the other end of the ocean and a beautiful young child to pick up. I am not going to stay here. Simple solution in one line, she is going back with us,” Steve made it emphatically clear.

“But we will be returning here shortly anyways and you will be with your wife and kid. Besides it’s safer over here on the land, who knows what might happen on the journey,” Robin again insisted.

“That is ridiculous. Ok fine, we will be returning here shortly so why don’t you or Andy or Daniel stay here with her?” Steve reasoned.

“I can’t stay here with her. Irrespective of the time we have spent together on this journey, I’ve barely known her over the years,” Daniel spoke up for himself.

“And I can’t either, I have to go and get married mate,” Andy also backed out.

“Steve, even I am not comfortable with Clara as I don’t know her too well either,” Robin too made his excuse.

“Then why are we arguing about it, lets’ just take her along with us?” Steve made it simple and clear.

“I won’t go anywhere Steve,” Clara was stubborn as well.

When the discussion didn’t go anywhere and everybody tried to push Steve into a corner Steve went to the store room and brought out his gun and made it simple, “Look, I ain’t staying! Anybody got any issues with that?”

“Now that’s not fair Steve. You can’t pull out your gun on your friends,” Robin was upset and so were the rest. However, Steve didn’t budge.

The discussion ended in a deadlock with all the parties sticking to their stand. Their departure was needlessly delayed for two days. When nothing worked, Clara and the other three got off the boat on the third day and told Steve he can travel back to Hatsu alone. Steve once again was left with no choice. He knew he can never make it alone to Hatsu and neither could he have actually killed anyone even if he was the one who wielded a gun. The only choice left for him was to stay with Clara until the rest of the humanity arrived from Hatsu. He finally yielded.

The rest of the three finally departed for Hatsu on the twelfth morning of March. The adieus’ were short and without melodrama. Everyone knew what their next job at hand was. Steve and Clara were dropped at the same spot where Nakata had been buried while the remainder sailed beyond the horizon. The evening came exhibiting contrasting colours of life for the two groups. Steve held a lot of hard feelings for Clara for having landed him in such a situation as he refused to be on talking terms with her. On the contrary, the three men sailing back to their homes were savouring every moment of their anticipated glory that beckoned them when they would hit the shores at the other end.

“Robin, you are a genius man. Now with Steve out of the way, we can claim all the glory for ourselves,” Daniel was overjoyed.

“But what difference would have Steve’s presence made anyway,” Andy commented.

“A lot Andy! A lot! If Steve and Clara had returned with us, he would have taken all the credit for this achievement with only the leftovers falling in our laps. But now if we play our cards right, we can not only take all the credit for this feet but also get Steve out of our way for good,” Robin said with a bit of a suspense.

“What do you mean?” Daniel was all ears straight away.

“Look, with Nakata dead we won’t have any issue proving Steve’s guilt regarding the weapon he carried for starters and how he used to force us to do his will. We will tell everyone that he made us work like slaves,” Robin started explaining.

“But then how will we explain why he stayed behind if we are going to say he forced with the authority of a gun?” Andy asked.

“Simple, he’s a coward who didn’t want to take the risk of sailing again,” Robin replied.

“What about Clara? She will spill all the beans,” Daniel asked.

“She can do nothing. No one believes her ever since her fiasco involving Frank and Mike and moreover, we’ve got the whole situation in our grasps now, so much so that we can use it the way we want to if we act intelligently,” Robin made a statement that bewildered the other two.

“What do you intend to do?” Daniel asked.

“For starters remember, Nakata died while we were still on our way to the land we’ve found,” Robin stated the first part of his plan.

“How is that going to make any difference where and when Nakata died?” Andy asked.

“Simple, we won’t tell anyone about Clara’s pregnancy,” Robin said.

“But what difference will it make? People will still see her baby if any proof will be needed for it,” Andy commented.

“Yes they will, but babies don’t tell their father’s name,” Robin replied with a wicked smile.

“What do you mean?” Andy asked.

“I know what he means. You want us to tell people its’ Steve who’s fathered a child from Clara, right?” Daniel asked.

“Nope, I want the people find out themselves about the baby and come to their own conclusion,” Robin stated.

“Now how is that possible?” Andy asked.

“Simple Andy, none of us was with Clara, Nakata died on the sea, who’s left?” Robin asked.

“But what will we say when people will ask from us why we didn’t tell them about Clara’s pregnancy earlier. I am sure we would be expected to have known it all along as we spent a long time with them,” Daniel inquired.

“That’s where you are wrong. The thing is we didn’t spend much time with them. Infact, we have been on seas for the last three months already. We just lost our way and it took us long to get back to Hatsu. We don’t know what Steve and Clara have been up to since the last three or four months now,” Robin created another puzzle for them.

“But how can we be on seas for so long?” Andy asked.

“Well, look at the fuel we have on us. We can always say we’ve been sailing lost for months and were lucky to have picked up extra fuel along with us,” Robin said.

“But won’t they notice the full barrels?” Andy asked again.

“What full barrels? We will spill them on our way,” Robin was crystal clear with his planning.

“Oh! I see!” Andy finally saw the true game that Robin had planned, “But is it morally right?” And the other two burst out laughing. Andy wasn’t sure but knew it to be best to stick with the other two.

Days started to fly by, one by one at a time, but still quicker than what it was while travelling the other way. The weather stayed good and sped their journey back home until one day fate caught up with the schemers.

“Damn! What the hell happened?” Robin exclaimed as he heard a jarring sound and the engine dying out.

“What happened?” Andy asked as he had just woken up to take Robin’s place at the wheel for the night.

“I don’t know. Are we out of gas? No that can’t be, cause we just refuelled it in the morning,” Robin was at loss.

They woke up Daniel as well and tried to figure out what was wrong with the engines. They tried everything but the engines just won’t start.

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Chapter Twenty One: For the future

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A message from the author:

Dear friends,

Please do visit my website http://www.fatalurgecarefreekiss.com/

Take care,

Amanpreet Singh Rai

GOD of a man

“When hardships are your challenge, resistance is your test, criticism your motivation, then accolades will become your result.”

Chapter Twenty One: For the future

Dated: 12th November, 2425 and later

Every human life is a story book of adventures in it’s own right, it’s just that a few of us have stories that border the extremes of extraordinaire and most of us live on the fine line demarcating ordinaire from extraordinaire. But then ain’t most of the humans just ordinary next door common men and women for whom life is less of a privilege but more of a struggle? Ain’t it that most of the human race has, since it’s inception in the mind of THE CREATOR, lived a life only to fulfil the most basic needs of food, shelter and sex? When people are not looking for eye popping ridiculousness in their lives how can their live stories be a collection of anything more than the run of the mill struggles? To make your life an album of mind boggling, spine chilling mosaic of victorious campaigns you need to have a bent of mind that does not fit into a blender. You have to be enterprising, fool hardy and quite often, insane. You cannot, you just simply cannot accept the life and its’ vagaries and bounds as such. You have to be a rebel.

Had Steve been an ordinary guy happy to live through his life collecting food for his kind and being the second gig to the leader, he would have never aspired to be the one atop, he would have never been forced to lead and he would have never succeeded in the extreme. Now thanks to him, those who were made a part of this tryst with destiny, they all have stories to tell their grandchildren.

“I am pregnant,” Clara’s words shocked the four men enough to drop their jaws below their knees.

“What? How? I mean how do you know?” Steve fumbled for words while others were still mute spectators.

“It’s GOD’s gift to me, what Frank was telling me in my dream, what I have been chosen for?” Clara exclaimed with a glow and joy writ large on her face.

“Now wait a minute, stop this crap,” Robin got incensed, “You have gone nuts and that’s what it is all about.”

“No, it’s true,” Clara retorted.

“Now Clara, how and when did this exactly happen? We all know none of us can have babies without cloning anymore,” Steve was still the calm influence around.

“It happened the night he,” and Clara broke down.

“The night what,” Andy asked.

“You mean the night Nakata passed away?” Steve asked as Clara nodded her head sobbing.

“Now that’s impossible! I mean it’s hardly been ten twelve days,” Daniel showed his disbelief.

“I know Daniel, but don’t forget I am both a woman and a nurse. I know my body as much as I know medical science,” Clara responded.

“Now I agree with Daniel on this Clara. Even my wife became pregnant before I came over and it wasn’t for a month until we were sure about that,” Steve stated.

“You are right Steve but I have faith too,” Clara replied with a content smile and an unimaginable glow on her face. It was as if she had really been touched by an Angel.

“Blind faith of a mentally deranged person you mean,” Robin commented. But Clara didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to, she had her faith and faith is somehow always above and ahead of science. Science is what is left to do the catch up act.

They all let the conversation perish at that point itself and proceeded for their meal to retire for the day later, the cool sea breeze making their sleep inside their boat comfortable. In the evening everybody got up and had their supper and it was business talk as usual.

“So what gas station do we search and dig now?” Andy asked.

“The more important question over here is, how many do we dig now?” Daniel added.

“Steve, they are right. At this speed and results we may end up digging gas stations for the next three months and still not end up with enough fuel for our ship,” Robin raised the concerns.

“You people are forgetting a far bigger and more important problem,” Steve cautioned everyone.

“And what would that be?” Andy asked.

“I think Steve is referring to our lost sail, am I right?” Robin correctly read Steve’s thoughts.

“Right on your money pal,” Steve used an idiom about a now obsolete commodity.

“Damn you are right. What do we do now?” Andy instantly panicked.

“I think we better look for the harbour area of this city. We are more likely to find answers to both our problems over there than wasting our time digging dust around the entirety of this graveyard of a city,” Steve made a very intelligent suggestion.

Everybody agreed to what Steve suggested and they all sat down to scroll through the Adelaide street directory to look for the harbour area. They finally zeroed down to Port Adelaide and North Haven.

“We saw this area the day we went up north, it’s a bit far from here. We can neither walk that far nor can we waste our fuel travelling daily,” Robin said.

“You are right! We have to move our base to that area. Did you notice any suitable docking spot over there?” Steve agreed whole-heartedly and asked.

“I am sure there will be aplenty,” Robin replied.

“I want to say something guys,” Clara said.

“What is it Clara?” Robin asked.

“I think it will be better if you all moved over to that spot, I want to stay here. My Nakata sleeps here and I can’t leave him,” Clara’s words made everyone silent.

“Look Clara, I know how you feel and we all understand the emotional distress the whole thing has caused you. But Clara, you are the back bone of our whole expedition. You are the one responsible for our food and water. Without your help we all will be lost. It will make our job difficult. You cannot desert us in these crunch times,” Steve pleaded.

“But,” Clara was about to persist with her stand when Steve interrupted her again.

“Clara, thanks to you, we are able to divert and invest all our strength in our efforts to build for the future of the entire surviving humanity. We need you,” Steve stressed upon Clara.

“Steve, I can’t leave Nakata, I love him,” Clara broke down.

“We know Clara, but we are not asking you to leave him, we will return here as soon as our work is finished over there. We are not moving away forever,” Steve tried to impress upon her further, “Clara, think of it, will Nakata love to see you desert us?” Clara shook her head in negative as she sobbed.

“Do it for Nakata Clara, do it for your GOD,” Steve made the final pitch. Clara sobbed for a while but finally agreed. They set on course for North Haven and Port Adelaide area and found a suitable spot to dock. They waited for the morning to begin their search for a ship yard, a street directory being their only guide through the sand mounds. They stopped every now and then to dig up a sand dune to discover what lay buried there. A month passed by but without much luck. They nearly gave up their search when finally on the eighteenth of the twelfth they hit the jackpot.

“Robin,” Daniel shouted atop his voice.

“What happened?” Robin asked as he, Steve and Andy threw away their shovels and rushed to him.

“Look what I found,” Daniel said as he pointed an engraved stone bearing the name of the place they were digging, lying half uncovered in sand.

“North Haven Ship yard,” the engraved words lifted their spirits. They were finally at the right spot.

“Lets’ dig this whole place up,” Robin said excitedly.

“That won’t be necessary,” Steve said, “All we need to do is dig up the raised mounds in this area and that’s it.

For the next three days they dug up every bit of sand that appeared raised from the ground. On twentieth of twelfth they finally found their first buried yacht, then another and then another, in all shapes and sizes, all broken and destroyed by the weather.

“It’s a graveyard of ships,” Daniel exclaimed.

“You are right. But if that is the case, it must be a graveyard of a fuel dump as well,” Robin said.

“It sure will be Robin but the important thing right now is, let’s retrieve whatever shreds of sails we can gather from these broken ships. All the synthetic fibre ones’ that have weathered the storms and destruction to have any existence remaining,” Steve said.

“What will we do of these shreds?” Andy asked as he pulled out from the rubble what appeared to be a torn piece of a sail and showed it to the rest.

“Andy, there’s a very small and simple gadget that works magic with torn fabric, a needle,” Steve replied, “Looks like Clara’s work has been cut out just like ours.”

Everybody agreed with Steve’s suggestion and they spent the next two days pulling out all the torn sails they could and instructed the task of their reconstruction on Clara. Clara started the work of meticulously stripping threads of synthetic fibres from the torn sails themselves and then stitching the rest of them together to recreate many layered but workable sails. Individually the fabrics might have been very fragile but when the same were layered into unison their strength increased many folds. The men meanwhile continued digging in search of a fuel dump that would have solved their problems. Finally after another three days of intense digging spread over sporadic patches of land, on the twenty fifth of twelfth, they finally uncovered a collapsed brick wall with a door bearing a wooden plate with almost faded writing that read “..ump”

“What do you think?” Robin asked Steve.

“Numerous possibilities but the two that appear most convincing at the moment and taking into account the surroundings are, it was either a fuel dump, or fuel pump,” Steve replied, his eyes lighting up at the thought.

“It could also mean water pump,” Daniel said.

“It possibly could but how will we know?” Steve asked.

There was no need for an answer as everybody picked up their shovels and started digging with a never before fervour. Soon they were lifting and tossing bricks away to finally reveal a floor that was littered with destroyed furniture bits and a stairway in one corner, blocked by collapsed structural components. They vigorously worked hard to reveal the passage.

“Wait! Wait! Don’t be hasty! Let some oxygen flow in first,” Steve cautioned everyone before entering the dark underground. After waiting for a few minutes to let the air inside the basement freshen up they slowly and slowly stepped into its’ dark existence. It took them a while to adjust to the low lighting conditions underneath but what they could make out even in the darkness was the outline of drums, drums that raised their hopes, drums that appeared the same as those on The Phantom.

“Yeah!” Daniel, Andy and Robin let out a loud cheer. But Steve was cautious in his reaction.

“Guys, lets first make sure these drums have anything in them at all and then if it is what we need?” Steve said.

Andy and Daniel walked to a drum immediately and grabbed it.

“Damn, it’s empty!” Daniel’s hopes were dashed as much as the rest of them.

“Lets’ try another,” Andy said.

“Empty again,” Daniel said with dejection. They tried and tried one drum after the other but they all were empty. Every drum they picked up was empty. It frustrated and infuriated them all.

“Damn it!” Andy yelled hoarse and kicked a drum lying on the side. “Ouch!” a loud shriek escaped his lips as he grabbed his foot in both hands and hopped around in pain. But what caught everybody else’s attention was the sound the drum made.

“What was that? Check that drum,” Steve shouted as Andy forgetting his pain tried to shake it.

“It’s heavy! It’s full!” the excitement relieving most of Andy’s pain.

“Great, lets’ take it outside and check out what it is full off,” Steve said.

They carried the drum outside in daylight and opened it up. Steve smelt the stuff, looked at the others standing around him and smiled. No words were needed anymore.

They grabbed four drums out of the basement and rolled them back to where Clara and their boat were.

“Merry Christmas!” Clara greeted them with a smile as she saw them returning with the find.

“What do you mean? What’s that?” Andy exclaimed shrugging his shoulders.

“It’s Twenty Fifth December, the birthday of Jesus Christ, the son of GOD. So Merry Christmas everyone,” Clara replied.

“You are nuts. What has GOD against us?” Daniel took a dig.

“He has nothing against us or for that matter anyone. He loves everyone,” Clara was infuriated.

“Relax, I was just joking,” Daniel was happy and not in mood of an argument, “Look what we found today.”

“You mean what HE saved for you and led you to?” Clara wasn’t giving up.

“Will you just shut up and cut your crap out?” Robin was agitated, “We don’t care what you believe but don’t force your beliefs on us. We don’t want to hear your pitch. Don’t preach us!”

There was a momentary silence before Steve relieved the stress in the situation, “Have you finished any of our sails?”

“Yes, I have. Two of them are ready and I’ve started work for the third now,” Clara replied as she led them to the boat and showed them what she had created.

“Are these strong to survive the journey and weather?” Robin asked.

“I am not sure. They look strong enough. But what options do we have anyway?” Clara shrugged her shoulders. Everybody nodded their heads in affirmation.

“Now both our problems are solved, we’ve got fuel as also the sails. We can start our journey back now,” Robin stated emphatically.

“Not yet,” Steve put a dampener on his spirits as well as the rest.

“Why not?” Andy asked.

“We need to figure out a way, make some sort of an arrangement to bring a bigger chunk of people back from Hatsu Saisho. The resources we need for that are available only at this place, not back there,” Steve explained his assertion. Everybody fell silent and into contemplation mode.

“We do need a lot more hands to build something worthwhile to help bring the rest of people over here and you are right, once back at Hatsu we won’t have any resources to do the same. But what can the five of us accomplish anyway?” Robin asked, “Looks like all our efforts and Nakata’s life are going to go waste.”

Steve and the rest were lost in consternation when Clara after a while finally came up with a one word answer, “Trees!”

“Trees? How are trees going to be any use to us?” Steve asked.

“Trees are wood and they can float,” Clara said.

“So how can we use them?” Robin asked.

“We can collect enough trees for the people in Hatsu to work on them and make a boat to transport everyone back here. Perhaps a boat that will have to be oared back, like in ancient times,” Clara said.

“But that will require a lot of trees. How can we transport enough using this boat of ours?” Robin asked.

“We can toe them in a bundle behind our boat,” Steve replied as he understood the value of Clara’s suggestion.

“But that will consume all our fuel even before we can return to Hatsu and we’ll be stuck in the middle again,” Robin exclaimed.

“We can carry extra oil atop the bundled trees for our use and we can definitely help our cause by putting up sails on the bundle. That will reduce the load on our fuel consumption as then the only purpose our boat will be required to serve is to give direction to the bundle,” Clara replied.

“Your idea is brilliant but the problem is how are we going to man those sails?” Daniel asked.

“We can use our motor boat to travel to and from the bundle and our ship to man the sails whenever needed,” Steve provided the solution.

After a lengthy discussion and consideration they all decided it was a good idea to be tried. It took them two months to dig the requisite number of trees, drag them to the shore and bundle them together in waist deep water. The task had to be performed standing in water as otherwise it would have been difficult for them to drag the bundle into the see. The bundle had to be constantly kept tied to the shore with a rope to avoid it from floating away. Their branches were left intact so that they would get entangled and provide cohesiveness to the bundle. Worn out ropes and chains recovered from the shipyard site were used to tie the trees further together. Oil drums were rolled to the beach and pulled with ropes above the bundle and also the ship. The ones’ atop the bundle were tied together with rope pieces. Sails were fitted using cut trees and rope pieces, both to the bundle and also reconstructed on the ship. Everything was ready to sail again and it was already the fourth of March in a new year. Clara by now was indeed well and truly expecting.

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Chapter Twenty: Life for death

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 Dear friends,

If you get a chance please visit my webpage http://www.fatalurgecarefreekiss.com/.

Take care,
Amanpreet Singh Rai

GOD of a man

“Peace is what humanity is always fighting for. Peace prevails, but only after the end.”

Chapter Twenty: Life for death

Dated: 12th November, 2425

Since pre-historic times humanity has been at war amongst it’s kind. If one was fighting to prove his might, the other had to fight to protect his sovereignty and peace. The biggest of battles might have been fought for capitalistic and imperialistic interests but the explanation given invariably was, it’s all for peace. Humans have this strange notion that peace can only be brought about with violence. The end result is definitely not peace but the silence of the dead. What a pity, after all the blood shed over centuries span humans still couldn’t understand the basic truth, for peace to be had you have to let go your ego and offer peace to the one staring at the mouth of your cannons. But humans have always been so in love with cemeteries they would never understand. It’s not peace humans want, its’ silence they consider golden, silence of those who have travelled beyond the realms of existence not to utter a word anymore. Humans like to silence the ones’ whose words they cannot bear.

Adelaide metropolitan area, once a hub of life at its’ lavish best, a vibrant mix of colours of humanity, lies lost in sands of time and five souls tread in the eerie silence of its grave, digging up the past to make their future.

“Yeah!” the mighty cheer of Andy and Daniel confirmed the presence of a road at the site where they were standing at that moment.

“It’s the road?” Steve still asked to confirm it.

“It sure looks like one,” Andy was elated.

“Yes indeed!” Robin said as he and Steve looked at what lay underneath.

“That makes our job easier now. All we need to do is search for a gas station, get to the site, dig for it and hopefully find some fuel buried over there,” Steve said.

“What do you suggest, should we start right now or should we wait for tomorrow?” Robin asked.

“Look, it’s fairly late in the day now but we can still look for the closest site that is easy to find. Work can be started tomorrow,” Steve said.

“I agree with that,” Robin said, “What is the closest site you can see?”

“Lets’ see,” Steve said as he sat down while others hurdled around him. He took his time spotting and showing others what indicated gas stations on the map. Finally he spotted one that would be the easiest for them to find.

“Lets’ go for this one that existed on the corner of Brighton Road and Diagonal road. It should be the easiest one to find,” Steve said.

“Why is that?” Andy asked.

“Well, simply because it was right on the corner of an intersection. All we need to do is get to the intersection and start digging its’ corner,” Steve explained, “There are a few more in the area but they are all located on the side of a road in the middle of other buildings. We will end up digging many sand dunes just trying to find the right one. We will loose precious time.”

“You are right. We need to get the fuel quickly and get moving back to Hatsu again,” Robin said.

“It won’t be that easy either,” Steve added a word of caution.

“Offcourse we know it’s not certain we’ll find oil but we can always try our luck,” Daniel said.

“It’s not about whether we’ll find oil or not, it’s about how we will transport the oil back to the beach in case we found it,” Steve said.

“Yeah, you are right. We don’t know how far we’ll have to walk and then there’s simply no way picking up those heavy containers full of oil and then bringing them this far down especially in this heat,” Andy shoulders dropped as he realized the subsequent hardships.

“Can we work at night?” Daniel asked.

“We will loose our way in sand dunes at night,” Robin replied.

“Maybe not,” Steve said.

“What do you mean? How can we not get lost for our way?” Robin asked.

“We won’t get lost if we walked to the site before its dark and return in the morning after the break of dawn. We can sleep during the day inside our boat,” Steve provided the solution.

“What about our food?” Andy asked.

“One of us will have to stay back and do the fishing for all I guess,” Daniel said.

“That would mean one man less for the job. Damn! Why did Nakata have to die in the first place?” Robin lamented, “Now we are one man short and Clara, another pair of hands is useless. Infact she is a burden now. Not only we have to feed her but also take care of her and in return all she is good for us is nothing.”

“You don’t have to worry about me Robin,” Clara’s voice startled everyone. She had just walked up to the bunch making their plans and overheard the last bits of their conversation.

“Look Clara, please don’t get me wrong. I understand you are going through a lot of emotional distress but we are in the middle of something that is of immense importance to the entire humanity that remains,” Robin tried to explain his irrational comments.

“You don’t have to explain it to me. The gravity of the situation hasn’t been lost on me,” Clara replied, “My heart may be bleeding right now but I know what needs to be done. You guys don’t have to worry about me anymore. I have realized the way of GOD. He’s chosen me for serving the rest of you in your quest.”

“Clara, please don’t mind but will you cut this crap about GOD and His way from your speech?” Daniel showed his indignation.

“I am sorry Daniel but I believe in HIM,” Clara stated emphatically, “Anyway, what I was going to say is, I will do the fishing and water filtering for you guys over here while you can go and do what needs to be done.”

“Well, that solves our food problem gentlemen, doesn’t it,” Steve exclaimed.

“But how are we going to transport oil back this far. We still haven’t solved this bit of the puzzle,” Andy reminded everyone.

“I don’t know why you guys should be worried about that,” Clara interrupted.

“Why, is your GOD going to carry it for us or are you going to do it using your strong muscles?” Daniel took a scathing swipe.

“Nope, there is no need to trouble GOD for what we humans can accomplish on our own,” Clara calmly replied.

“How, the question is how?” Daniel rephrased the problem.

“Simple, just roll the containers back,” Clara replied with an assured smile, “They don’t have to be carried. Just roll them back and since it is sand that covers everything around her, you can be assured they won’t be scratched, at least not damagingly.”

“Why did we not think about that?” Andy was amazed by the simplicity of the solution.

“That’s Clara for you guys,” was all that Steve said as he had a content smile on his face.

“But there is one more problem that needs to be addressed right now,” Robin reminded everyone.

“Now what,” Andy was at loss.

“How are we going to work at night without light,” Robin reminded everyone the real challenge.

“Hmm! That is something we still need to look into,” Steve said as he stroked his brow. They all went into deep consternation to figure out a solution for their biggest challenge.

Clara finally came up with an idea, “I think I may give you guys a solution, but it will increase your work.”

“Don’t worry about the efforts it will need Clara, just tell us what you have in your mind,” Steve said.

“We know everything perished without decay due to the radiation, right?” Clara started.

“Right,” Robin replied.

“That means, everything must have got buried along with the city as it was,” Clara continued.

“What are you getting at?” Steve asked.

“If everything was buried without decay or decomposition, don’t you guys think that will include trees as well?” Clara asked in reply.

“How does that solve our problem? What will we do with trees even if we found them?” Daniel asked.

“Trees mean wood and wood means fire,” Clara replied with a smile.

“I see what you are trying to get to Clara but then how are we going to start a fire even if we found the trees?” Robin asked.

“Simple! Just wrap a bit of paper around a branch dipped in a bit of fuel and rub two hunting knives over it until you get a spark. The spark will ignite the paper and you can leave the rest to the fuel and wood,” Clara made it as simple as it could get.

Everybody was impressed by Clara’s intelligence as they all straightened up on their backs as if big weights had been taken of them.

“Guys, I think we all know what to do next,” was Steve’s next statement.

“But where do we start digging for trees?” Andy asked.

“Trees used to be on the side of the roads or gardens and parks,” Robin replied and continued, “Steve, I think the easiest place would be to walk to a green area and dig around its’ edges rather than wasting our time digging every sand mound in a street of buried buildings. Who knows which one them had trees or did any of them had at all, including this street.”

“You are right Robin, lets get to the nearest parkland,” Steve said as he checked the map for the closest place to find one, “There, lets go to this one, it doesn’t look far from here.”

And they all set to find a park land among sand dunes. After walking through a maze of sand dunes that suddenly appeared so comprehendible, they reached a large vacant spot.

“This is the place closest to the spot represented in the map as a green area,” Steve said, “And my goodness, does it look vast and empty!”

“Yeah it does,” Robin exclaimed.

“But where do we dig for trees?” Andy asked.

Steve walked towards the middle of the empty sand land as the rest followed him. Once in the middle he looked around and said, “Do you guys notice how this place is like a bowl?”

“Hmm! Lets’ start digging the edges folks,” Robin got the hint.

Each one of them started digging a separate edge and soon enough, each one of them had something to cheer about. They dug out enough tree bodies, still intact but dry, exactly as they needed them. Next day was spent cutting the trees into manageable blocks and sticks of wood. The day after they started their search for the intersection they were looking for. Sure enough, they found it in just a matter of few hours. The site they were looking for had a big sand dune that started from its’ middle to stretch and rise as it extended deeper towards the sand dunes behind it, the ones’ that must have been the surrounding buildings at some point in time. Now the next bit was transporting wood to the site to start their work which was accomplished by the afternoon the day after. Once all that had been accomplished, it was time to dig for oil.

“I saw some old pictures in a book in the library. The gas stations used to have small cuboidal boxes referred to as pumps which used to dispense fuel to the vehicles, while there used to be a building housing utilities and grocery items in the back where people used to pay for their purchase,” Steve said, “Lets’ start digging the sand dune from it’s edge.”

Torches were lit and buried in sand to make ‘em stand erect while they dug earnestly. It didn’t take long for them to unearth what must have been the shed above the pumps once. Over the period of time it must have collapsed on the pumps.

“That looks like the overhead shed above the pumps. Lets’ dig around it to clear it from all sides,” Steve said.

They dug and dug for a whole day to clear all the sand around the collapsed shed. To their misfortune it had collapsed right on top of the pumps, or perhaps it wasn’t their misfortune.

“What do we do now? It looks pretty heavy,” Robin asked.

“Lets’ break it down into smaller pieces and pick ‘em up one by one to clear the site for our work,” Steve said.

It took them another day to break it into smaller pieces and remove the debris to clear the site for scavenging. They found the pumps damaged and collapsed under the weight of the fallen roof. They cleared the pump debris but they couldn’t find a rubber pipe that was usable. The next step was to find an opening for the underground storage. They broomed the area clear of sand swinging their clothes as brooms until they found the gutter lids that covered the underground container lids. Just like the gutter lid, the container lid was rusted and broke off as they tried to open it. But it was unimportant if they break up or come out clean, what was the only thing important was, “Is their still any oil inside those containers?” The only way to get an answer was to put a pipe inside and suck it to see if any oil comes out. Their next piece of work was cut out. They needed to dig the site where the pumps were buried to pullout any kind of pipes, metal or rubber that used to connect them to the container. This was the hard part as what they had been digging till now was only sand but what they needed to dig now was gravel and cement.

It took them five days to dig out the first set of pipes, all metal and just long enough to reach the bottom of the containers. The only problem was they were all rusted.

“What do we do now?” Robin asked.

“We don’t have a choice, we have to use these pipes to get the oil out if there is any,” Steve replied.

“But these are rusted. Will it not contaminate our oil?” Andy asked.

“It sure will but we can always let the oil stand and let the rust and other impurities settle to the bottom. Then we can always use only the top part of the oil from the container and leave the lower part with impurities as such,” Steve explained the solution.

“Sounds good at the moment, lets’ see if there is any oil in the first place,” Robin said.

Steve carefully bent an end of the pipe and put the pipe into the container and sucked at its’ bent end. He had to such at the pipe which was huge, then block it’s opening with his hand to breathe and then suck at it again, took him a while to get the first bit of oil out. He immediately put a container under its’ bent mouth as oil came out of it. There was jubilation all around. They’ve found the oil once again, only problem was it wasn’t enough.

“Looks like most of it evaporated over the period of time,” Steve said as they could barely get five containers out of the three underground containers they dug out at the site, two of which were empty.

“Why are the other two empty?” Andy asked.

“Perhaps one of them was for petrol and the other one was for gas,” Steve replied, “And these two are a lot more volatile than diesel and must have evaporated by now.”

“What do we do now?” Robin asked a question he himself knew the answer to.

“That means our job gets tougher now,” Steve said, “We’ll have to dig many more gas stations now.”

“That will take a lot of time,” Andy said as the reality disheartened him.

“Don’t worry Andy we have plenty of time at our disposal. We are not in a race,” Steve tried to pep him up.

They strolled their way back to the beach rolling their haul along. The sun was just coming up for a bright new day. As soon as they reached the beach they saw Clara clutching her stomach bent on her knees as if in discomfort. They rushed to her as she vomited.

“What happened? Are you all right?” Steve’s concerned voice asked as everybody surrounded her.

Clara looked up at them and said, “I’m pregnant!”

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