Ascent of the Aliomenti (26 page)

The storm thrashed the waves against the shore, pounding upon the beach, and breaching the minimal defenses the island mounted against such fury. As they had suspected and speculated, the water surged over the beach and poured down into the valley they now called home, threatening to fill the valley with the angry water of the ocean. They had tempted fate by continuing to sleep on the ground, fearing the winds that might rise up and knock them from the lofty perch in their sleep far more than the speculated threat of rising water.

They had chosen poorly.

And now Will could not find all those who screamed.

The darkness hid them, and the water tossed him around as though he was in a whirlpool. Will used his long-dormant nanos to form an exoskeleton around himself, less for protection from the floating debris than a means to float himself above the surface, conserving his Energy for the rescue ahead.

“Light up!” he screamed aloud, before realizing that no one could hear him above the fury of the storm. He repeated the broadcast telepathically, trying to wake the minds of those who had not yet succumbed to the waves. Those able to do so used their Energy to illuminate lights that he could see, but even those pinpricks were barely visible in the downpour... and he did not know how many remained to be saved.

He caught the minds of James and Elise, their voices feeble against the winds that shredded the hut he’d slept in, and he flashed to their sides and teleported them to safety atop the pyramid, before flinging himself over the side once more. The nanos provided the levitation, keeping him safely above the rising waters, his Energy beaming forth in the form of a human searchlight, seeking for those still floating in the flood.

James! Elise! Find those who have reached the top. Count those who are there! How many remain below?

He located the farmer David, who was clinging desperately to a piece of driftwood, his grip losing the battle against the raging waters. David could levitate briefly, but could not teleport, and it was evident he’d drained himself in the effort to find the driftwood, and his fatigue carried over into his waning grip on the wood and on life. Will flashed to his side.

He reappeared in time to see David crushed against the side of the concrete megalith they’d constructed.

The injuries were too great for even Will’s Energy skills and nanobots. The light left David’s eyes, and his body slipped beneath the waters.

Will flew his exoskeleton below the surging waters, seeking out the body, foolish though he knew the gesture might be. As his hand touched David’s lifeless corpse, he flashed them to the top and returned instantly, looking for more.

We’ve done well, Will! Elise’s telepathic voice reached him. All are accounted for save for David and Wayne.

I have retrieved David, Will’s telepathic voice stated. We will be able to bury him when the waters recede.

There was a pause, and her grief-filled voice reached him.
Please. Find Wayne. We cannot lose another. Not like this.

Knowing now he had but one more to find, Will expended more Energy on his light, brightening the surface of the rapidly rising waters as if it was daytime, searching for any sign of Wayne. There was nothing. Where could he be?

Will took a deep breath. He urged the nano-based flying suit into the water and projected the light forward in a wide beam, all the way down to the floor of the valley, now buried under a dozen feet of water, water that continued to rise even as he searched. He rose once above the surface, his lungs burning, and after refilling them with precious oxygen, dove again.

There was no sign of Wayne.

Will rose, looking at the concrete monolith, and as the memory of James’ description of the structure crashed into his mind, he suddenly knew where he would find Wayne. He teleported inside the tower, where the stairs had been built, a means of reaching the summit on foot for those not yet able to teleport.

The stairs were there for those like David. And for those like Wayne.

It took only an instant to have his worst suspicions confirmed.

Wayne’s body floated face-down in the rising water inside the tower. His final moments seemed clear. He’d managed to enter the tower as the waters began to pour into the valley, and his race up the steps to safety had ended when he’d slipped in the darkness. Will flew to him, trying to control his grief long enough to dismantle the nano exoskeleton, long enough to touch Wayne’s lifeless body and teleport both of them to the safety at the top of the structure.

The safety offered by the top of the structure came too late for Wayne, just as it had for David.

Will appeared with Wayne near the body of David, who lay there amid the few who had thus far come to pay their immediate last respects and show their grief at the loss of their friend. David had handled the immediate adversity of Atlantis well; his deepest skills would have been useless until they’d managed to terraform the rocky surface into the floating city in the sky they’d envisioned, a floating city with artificial gardens David would tend to ensure all of them were well fed. He’d not waited around until they’d reached that point; instead, he’d found a way to contribute, working with all those who toiled stirring the mixture of the massive volumes of concrete they’d needed to build the monolithic structure. It was the structure they now rested his body upon, and the structure that had ended his life.

Wayne’s usefulness had been shrouded initially, but he’d adapted his knowledge of the structure and operation of wagon wheels into the design of the system that would supply the city with clean, fresh water. He’d done it when no one else, not even Will, had figured out how to overcome the obstacles in their way. Though he’d struggled to develop his Energy skills, he’d not ceased contributing as best he could, and his final contribution would literally make life possible on the barren land.

Will wept at the loss of both men, and at their failure that night. It was a failure to save all those entrusted to their care, the failure of those able to do so to save all who needed their assistance. Yet even as he grieved, he remembered a detail that none of them wanted to voice, as they gazed at the lifeless remains of those they’d bury once the waters receded.

David and Wayne had been the two on watch that night, the two scheduled to watch for storms. Their responsibility that night: to sit on opposite ends of the island, looking for any indication of imminent flooding, any sign of an impending storm surge putting all of them at risk. It had been their duty to raise the alarm telepathically, to alert everyone to wake up and move to high ground immediately, to save their lives.

They’d tried to do so. Yet their Energy had been so dissipated by their construction efforts that they’d been unable to rouse anyone from a distance. Their Energy had been so low that David, who
could
teleport short distances, had been unable to move so much as a yard, and both men had run, run as fast as they could, screaming as loud as their lungs would allow them, screaming to their friends and neighbors to move to higher ground.

The first they’d reached had sounded the alarm, sounded the telepathic cry that had roused Will. Those woken first by the watchmen had teleported to the top with neighbors unable to do so.

None of those able to teleport had noticed the storm criers racing past, still working to ensure that everyone was awake and alert and able to move to safety. No one noticed them, not even when the first massive surges of water raced over the tops of the hills and smashed both men to the ground. Both had recovered sufficiently to try to survive. Wayne had managed to dive into the dark, salty water where he knew the doors into the tower would be found, in the hope that he could swim to the stairs and race the water to the top. But the effort had exhausted him, combined as it was with his efforts to run and warn everyone, and in his fatigue the water caught up to him. The surge had made the steps slippery, and he’d fallen, bashing his head against the concrete steps, and he lost consciousness before he’d drowned. David had managed to stay afloat until he’d found the driftwood that had eventually rammed his helpless body into the concrete wall, killing him instantly.

The grief was overwhelming. The two men had done their jobs, despite being poorly equipped to do so. In doing those jobs to the best of their abilities, they’d lost their lives, even as they’d saved the lives of everyone else.

The faces of the survivors, lit by the brilliant flashes of lightning of the now-distant deadly storm, showed that they’d all reached the same conclusions, had all realized exactly what had happened, had all realized that the two dead men before them had sacrificed their lives so that all the others might live.

Will vowed he’d let no one else die like Wayne and David, even though he knew such promises could not be kept. He could not have prevented their deaths, and even if they’d taken the ambrosia, they’d still lie dead before him as they did now. Yet that did not mean there were not steps that could be taken to reduce the risk that others would suffer such a fate. They’d need to finish the structure. They’d need to get the fresh water system built so that no one needed to go to the valley for any reason, whether to sleep near the grass or to collect firewood or supplies. They could make this work, could ensure that Atlantis would not be cursed like the Atlantis of legend, destined to be consumed beneath the raging waves of the sea, but it would take work.

They were all looking at him, expecting him to speak, but Will felt no source of inspiration. He shook his head, bowed in a sign of respect, and allowed the silence and the darkness to consume them all.

At long last, the words came. “These men sacrificed their lives that we might live. And to Wayne and David, we promise that your sacrifice will not be in vain. We will ensure that we allow no others to find themselves in a situation like you found yourselves. We vow to work on our Energy skills, to ensure that we are able, at a minimum, to fly or teleport from the valley floor to the city floor in times of great urgency, in times like what we experienced tonight. We will use our grief at your loss to improve everything about our city, and about ourselves, so that we can be worthy to be called Aliomenti and citizens of this city in the sky called Atlantis. We believe anything at all is possible, and in saying that, we say that we believe that you will be proud of us one day for what we accomplish here on this rock.”

Will took one of the blankets lying nearby, used it to cover Wayne’s body, and then took a second to use to cover David’s.

And then he turned and walked away, leaving the dead to sleep in peace.

The morning dawned after a sleepless night. The concrete was cold and unforgiving, but none of them complained, for they were alive to feel that chill and experience that pain. The flood waters had receded rapidly, and Will wondered why the water could drain so quickly after the valley had filled up as it had the night before. It was as if there was a drain clogged somewhere. He needed to figure out where the waters flowed to escape the valley and return to the ocean. Perhaps they could expand upon and unclog that drain to prevent such horrific flooding in the future.

That would wait until the burials were complete.

Will and several others returned to the mainland and one of the coastal towns to purchase their daily rations of food and casks of fresh water for the villagers to drink. They also bought two simple pine boxes, which raised some eyebrows from those in the village. But no questions were asked of strangers who spent good coins of silver and gold in their town; the sound of metal changing hands was the only answer needed.

They rowed back to the island and transported the simple coffins to the city in the sky, where they placed the bodies inside the boxes. The waters had receded now to the point that they would merely splash through ankle-deep water in the valley, and Will wondered once more where the water went after the storm ceased pushing the waves into the bowl of the valley. They’d wait until the excess water fully receded before lowering the boxes to their final resting place.

The construction teams were hard at work on the city floor, working to build out the temporary housing they’d sleep in until the more permanent structures were completed. Others were examining the foundation of the pyramid which held the entire city safely above the flood waters when the storm surges came. They proclaimed the Energy-hardened concrete sound, and the structure safe to use for the base of their homes, and everyone returned topside briefly.

They used the rope that Will and Wayne had used to mark the location they needed to reach to tap into the stream and lake below, treating it as a makeshift crane as they lowered the two coffins with the bodies of the dead men inside to the valley floor below.

Will was reminded of the effort to lower the coffin with the body of Elizabeth Lowell into the ground a decade earlier. This pair of coffins, though, would not be emptied of the living, but would forever hold the bodies of the dead.

They used Energy to clear the land near where the stream joined the lake, the spot targeted for the construction of Wayne’s water transport system. Given enough time, and the ability to predict or prevent the type of flood experienced the night before, it might have been a prime spot for David to raise crops and livestock.

Instead, it was the spot where their coffins were lowered into the ground. The sounds of the dirt hitting the wood echoed throughout the valley, each echo like a hammer to the hearts of all those present.