Cartlidge: Rise of the Imperfect Flame (12 page)

“Sapphire!”
I called, quietly.
“Wake up, I need my rifle.” I could hear the faint movements of Sapphire
getting up.

“
Your
what?” I looked down to see
the serpent’s head resting on the edge of the crate. A reptilian claw took hold
of the edge, and the creature pulled itself up. The serpent did not show any
telltale signs of poison, like the other creatures, but rather was a single
dull grey color. Its mouth was filled with long, curved, fangs. The serpent
seemed to have been blind, yet it knew I was here, whether through smell or
sound, I was not sure. Four small flaps opened and closed, rhythmically. They
were not gills; those ran down the sides of the serpent’s body into the water.
Beneath each gill was a small fin. We both stood perfectly still, each waiting
for the other to move. The faint sound of the water was soon drowned out by a
racing heartbeat. Time and space felt irrelevant. There was only this strange
creature and me. The creature snapped its jaw,
then
froze again. It was toying with me. Slowly I turned my eyes upward. Sapphire
had set the rifle just between the floor of the shelter and the first wooden
blank of the ladder. It was just beyond my reach. I would have to stand up to
get it. Slowly I retracted my legs. Instantly the serpent jerked back, and
began to hiss. A strike would be fatal, and predators like this one had an
uncanny ability to strike in half a heartbeat. The serpent’s head swayed to and
fro, as if it was locking onto me. Then it stopped, unlocking its jaw. My body
ceased to respond, frozen in horror. I was this thing’s prey. If I moved or
made the slightest sound, I would die. For the time, the entire world became
still.

A falling figure broke the stillness, causing me to flinch
in shock. The figure fell on the neck of the serpent, trapping it against the
crate. Sapphire wrapped herself around the creature’s neck, preventing it from
escaping.

“Shoot it!” She shouted, just before biting into its neck. I
jumped upwards without a second thought, grabbed the rifle,
then
fell back down. Sapphire was too close to the head.

“I can’t get a good shot!”

She spat out the creature’s blood. “Why?”

“I might hit you!”

“Then get over here and shoot it!” Sapphire was beginning to
struggle herself. I quickly moved to point blank range. Before I could shoot,
the creature ripped itself free from Sapphire and struck me with its head. The
movement was too quick, and before I realized what had happened, I was against
the tree. The serpent’s jaw crushed my left side. There was an intense crushing
pressure around my side, with several pinpoint sensations where its largest
teeth were. Warm blood ran down my left leg. My thoughts simplified. The world
seemed brighter, more colorful. I felt numb. I looked at my right hand. The
rifle was still in it. Slowly I rested the rifle on the neck of the serpent.
Two words came to mind. Whether I said them or merely thought them, I could not
tell.

“Piss off.” I pulled the trigger. The recoil flowed through
my arm and into my body. The noise of the discharge sounded hollow. My ears
were filled with the sound of wind in an echoing chamber. I wondered if my
hearing was failing. I pulled the trigger again, then again.
Four.
Five.
The sixth time shredded enough flesh for the
serpent’s head to tear free from its body. I dropped the rifle and let my legs
collapse. Sapphire was immediately by my side. Looking down, I watched as my
hands, with minds of their own, removed the serpent’s head from my body. My
shirt was in tatters, and my stomach was shredded worse. A puddle of blood
formed around me. As the adrenaline began to wear off I was seized by the
unbearable pain. My breathing became short, weak, little gasps; anything more
caused my abdomen to move, and amplified the pain.

“Oh no, I’m… I’m sorry Jacob. That serpent was a lot harder
to hold than I thought and,-” She began to look around, as if to find some sort
of convenient means of saving me. There was none. Even if she could stop the
bleeding and somehow fix the shredded flesh that once was my abdomen, there was
nothing she could do to counter the serpent’s venom. I came to this conclusion
before she did, but I did not believe it. I couldn’t. I had come so far, and
had so much of my life ahead of me, only to die here. It wasn’t fair. I did not
want to die. I tried to speak, only to realize my voice had been replaced with
short, force gasps for air, and quiet shrieks of pain. My limbs grew cold, my
vision blurred and my hearing faded. Sapphire only stood there. Was she going
to watch me die? I wondered what she was thinking. Perhaps she was still trying
to save me? Or maybe she merely wanted to watch. She was a carnivore, after
all. She turned away and looked at her hands for a moment. Darkness bordered my
vision. I was falling. Sleep was a seductive lure in front of me. I resisted
it. Why? I was not finished with… something. What was I doing? I no longer felt
myself. I wanted to sleep. Darkness was everywhere, the eternal night.

I felt a hand rest upon me.

Instantly sight, sound, touch, everything was amplified.
Sapphire stood in front of me, glowing,
her
hand
resting on my side. My limbs burned, as if dipped in hot water. I felt blood
rush through my veins and my heart was racing just to keep up. I felt my
intestines
realign,
the muscles and skin encasing
them. I could feel everything as each individual sliver of shredded flesh grew,
changed shape, and fused with other strands. The process was not extremely
painful, but unbearable none the less. I began to hyperventilate. Sapphire put
her other hand on my chest, just below my collarbone. My heart rate slowed and
my breathing steadied. I passed out.

My body jerked the moment I woke. My hand was immediately
drawn to my injured
mid section
. Not even a scar. I
looked at Sapphire, who rested on her side at the edge of the crates. She was
staring at me.

“You’ve been asleep for so long! I thought you might have
been in a coma.”

“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” I joked.

“Sure, because
me
saving you from
death had nothing to do with it.” She smiled. She looked exhausted.

“So, what did you do?” I asked.

“Well, in the heat of the moment I remembered something. I
remembered… that the life gem can heal nearly any wound or disease, but it
wears me out in the process.”

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I just need to rest for
awhile
.”
She tried to get up, but fell again. I got up to help her. My arm flew to my
side in response to the searing pain.

“That’ll still hurt for
awhile
.
You need rest too.” I ignored the pain and picked up Sapphire. “I told you not
to touch me.” She wasn’t serious. I replied anyway.

“You can’t rest down here and you can’t get up by yourself.”
I turned and carefully pushed her up the tree. Once she was up I retrieved the
rifle and climbed the ladder myself. I looked at Sapphire who was already
curled up in her usual spot in the tree, ready to fall asleep.

“I’m glad you didn’t die…” I smiled, crawled over, and
covered her with the blanket. Then I took to my own side of the shelter.

The rain stopped the next morning, but the ground was still
completely flooded. We rested all day, eating more than we usually did in order
to regain our strength. Most of the rest of the day was spent either napping or
talking to pass the time. We continued to explain each other’s worlds and make
the occasional joke. During one instance, I described what a video game was,
while she listed the ten different reasons why she would kill me if I pulled
her tail. I told her about a dog I had as a child who bit me for doing that
exact thing. Time passed quickly during these conversations and soon the day
was over.

By the next day the water level fell to just below our
knees. I woke before Sapphire and moved out of the shelter to observe the wildlife.
After tying the serpent’s head to the tree, the other serpents typically
avoided us if at all possible. The fish were already gone, but the amphibians
traveled in groups, ignoring me as I watched them return home from their
expeditions. Sapphire joined me, and we began to plan for tomorrow while we
watched the animals. Tomorrow, if the water was gone, we would finally head out
to the ship to find the beacon. I packed all the tools we had while she packed
food for the journey. I was glad the storm was over. We were running low.

We left early the next day, the water was gone but the
ground was still muddy and wet. Small ponds were everywhere. I took a moment to
examine one. Swarms of newborn creatures would hatch from their eggs, swim
around for a moment, consume their own egg shells,
then
bury themselves deep in the mud. It was a curious little ritual that allowed me
to understand why the creatures traveled so far during the flood. Here there
were no predators, so these hatchlings would grow in peace, at least until
another flood. We continued on.

We made sure to take breaks every so often. Sapphire seemed
full of energy again, and my pain seemed almost nonexistent now, but I was not
going to take any chances. Once we reached the ship we began to make our way to
the bow, farther forward than we had previously gone, mainly because there were
only ruined lifeboats up here. Past the lifeboats was an evacuation transport.
The very tip of the bow was capable of detaching, and flying on its own. It was
primarily used as a much larger lifeboat, specifically for transporting
wounded, or VIP’s. The ship even had its own jump engine, though it was
typically only capable of two or three short range jumps before exhausting
it’s
systems. Once we reached it, I noticed that the airlock
door was sealed. Someone tried to escape using the evac ship. I wondered why
they didn’t. After a few twists of the door handle, followed by a second door,
we entered the evac ship and passed through a small hallway between the ship’s
engines. Beyond them, two large elevators were situated across each other in
the hallway. They led to the ship’s med bay and cargo hold. We continued on
past the crew’s quarters until we reached the command bridge. The blast door
was wide open, and the sun shone brightly through a large gap in the ceiling
and part of the wall. I speculated that a round from the attacking ship’s main
gun scraped the roof of the evac ship, ripping it open and sucking out anyone
who was unlucky enough to be inside at the time. Patches littered the ground,
knocked free during the crash. We looked onward. The bridge used a thin,
rectangular viewing port for visual guidance. Despite the size of the window,
the ship only needed two pilots to function, much like the average freighter.
Technically, the ship was designed so that anyone could understand the controls
and fly the ship. If this was not the case, pilots would have to be stationed
here at all times. I climbed into a seat and, while checking, found the power
systems intact. Once the terminal was active, I checked the diagnostics of the
ship. Aside from its power connection, and the forward guns, and a few minor
systems, nothing else continued to function. The elevators, however, were run
on separate systems, designed to keep them from jamming. We resolved to check
the cargo hold later.

“Ok… So, the portable long range emergency beacon is located
under a hatch between the pilot seats.”

“Got it.”
Sapphire kneeled down and
opened the hatch. The beacon resembled a small generator, but with the telltale
dull white color of Rovanekren technology. A pipe on the corner held the
antennae, which would extend several meters once activated. “It’s lighter than
I expected.”

“
It’s
Rovanekren tech. Armor is
about as heavy as it gets in terms of anything smaller than a tank.” I got up
and turned to leave but stopped when I suddenly realized that I had not yet
looked out the window. While my thought became kindling for my curiosity,
Sapphire continued on to the end of the room.

“Hey Sapphire, put the beacon down and come look at this.” I
had never seen a view like it before.
An endless expanse of
great rivers and towering trees outstretched before me.
I remembered
seeing pictures like this in history books. They referenced a place once known
as the Amazon Rainforest. That place didn’t exist now, ruined with radiation
and fire during the war, simply to spite the country that exploited it. I
looked out into the great expanse. The clouds dotting the blue sky amplified
its beauty. I wondered how much more striking it would have been if we had
waited until sunset. I saw rivers flowing this way and that and wondered what
would the Earth
look like if we had only learned how to
preserve its beauty sooner.

“Wow…”

“Supposedly there used to be a place on Earth like this.”

“Used to?”

“Yeah.
We destroyed it… in our
hatred of each other.”

Sapphire remained silent.

“We always fought each other for what seem like pointless
things now, but back then, it must have seemed so important. We’ve learned to
unify now, but it was only just in time to save ourselves from extinction.” I
sighed. “If we had learned just a century sooner… I don’t know. I guess I just
feel sorry… that no one will ever get to see anything like this.”

“It’s never that easy.” Sapphire looked down.

“What do you mean?”

“It doesn’t matter what species you are, we’re all stubborn
and we hate adapting to new things. For something like that, you need to change
what people believe to be true, and nobody will ever let you do that without anything
less than a tragedy, or a miracle.” The wind blew through the ship, causing a
faint whistling sound. Sapphire returned to her cheerful self. “But at least we
get to see it now!” She pressed her forehead against the window. “How far down
do you think it is?”

“I’d rather not-” BANG
BANG
! The
loud, rumbling sound of metal bending filled the room. I looked around. The
sturdier wall was split just under the rift in the ceiling. There was a moment
of silence. The ship dropped suddenly, knocking us off our balance. The front
of the ship was bent downwards fifteen degrees. The metal began to cry again.

“Move, move, move!”
I began to run.
The ship bent forward again, causing me to fall. I was halfway to safety, and
the ship was now roughly 45 degrees lower than the horizon. I continued forward
on all fours, making it to the top and rolling onto level ground. Immediately
the ship began to roar, and the entire front section broke free. I heard a
single sound above it all.

“Jacob!” I searched the deck for Sapphire. She was not up
here. The sound of metal hitting the ground echoed out across the canyon. I
felt sick. I was in complete disbelief.

“Jacob!” The second time startled me. I crawled awkwardly to
the edge. Sapphire was desperately holding on to the outer plating of the ship.
The view had lost its beauty only to be replaced it by nauseating fear. Two
hundred meters below her sat the front of the ship, in the center of a circle
of freshly cleared trees. A thin layer of clouds could be seen between us and the
ground. Small birdlike animals I had never seen before circled below curiously.
Sapphire held onto a center layer of the ship’s floor, between a variety of
sharp pipes, wires, and metal plates, struggling to catch a decent foothold.

“I’m here!” I began to reach over the edge.

“Help… me.” Her words came out in a whisper instead of a
shout.

“It’s alright. It’s alright.” I began repeating it, as if
saying the words enough would help. It did not.

“I… I can’t reach.” I admitted. She began to cry. I looked
around for anything I could use as rope. There was nothing. A different idea
came to mind. I remembered when I would mischievously rip my friends from their
sleds when it snowed. If the snow was hard enough, I would create footholds,
then
tear them free from their sleds by their arms.

“Ok, listen. I’m going to come down there, we’ll lock arms,
and I’ll pull you up ok?”

She had shut her eyes and turned away.
“How?”
She half whispered.

“Just trust me.” Sapphire remained silent, and struggled to
keep from hyperventilating, but slowly nodded. I crawled away and stood
upright. I would have to break through the metal.

“Hold on tight!” I shouted,
then
slammed my foot into the wall. The energy did not spark, and I shouted in pain.

“What’d you do?!” She shouted in a desperately.

“Just hold on!” I tried my right foot. It was engulfed in a
purple glow in an instant, and my foot traveled halfway through the wall. I
quickly ran over to the edge, turned around,
then
bashed two holes into the floor. I twisted around, set both feet in them,
then
swung my upper body over the edge. I grabbed onto her
arms, moments before she lost her grip on the metal. She closed her hands
around my arms without hesitation.

“Good job. I’m going to swing you to your left now so that
you can get a foothold, ok?” She nodded. “One,” I began to swing her to the
left and right, “two,” I mustered all my strength and swung her to the right,
“three!” Sapphire caught the metal parts between the
paneling
with her foot, and used the footholds, allowing her to slowly climb up. She
reached the top and rolled over me onto the floor of the deck. I in turn,
rolled onto my back. We both were breathing heavily.

“If you want… I can throw some of the blankets down… so that
you can sleep on the ground. That way… you don’t have to climb the tree.
Sapphire?”
I got up to look at her. In an instant, she threw
herself on me and held me tight, her face buried into my shoulder. She was
hugging me? This Anth who threatened me often for such things… was hugging me?
I was at a loss for what to say or do, so I awkwardly patted her back as if she
were a child. We sat there for several minutes. Without warning, she got up and
recomposed herself.

“Right, so… let’s get that beacon outside, shall we?”

“Um… ok.” I was confused about what had happened and
considered it carefully while carrying the machine. During every other incident
she seemed so much more composed. Half of the time, she seemed almost calm.
Yet, something about this was different. It scared her. I half expected a joke
about how this didn’t make us even or something, but she remained silent. She
avoided any eye contact, looking at the ground ahead of her the whole way back.
Her ears were bent downwards, and her tail dragged behind her, awkwardly, disturbing
loose dust and dirt as she walked. She was troubled by what happened. I
wondered if her normal self still hung on the cliff. Once we were outside I
activated the beacon. We continued on for a little while until I could no
longer tolerate the silence.

“Sapphire?”

“I’m sorry.”

I set down the beacon and thought hard for a minute about
what she could mean with those words. “If you mean the ship falling apart back
there, that was just as much my fault as it was yours. Heck, I’m the one
wearing 25 kilos of armor plating.” That was an exaggeration, but it seemed
unwise to correct myself at this moment.

Without warning, Sapphire collapsed, and began to cry. “I… I
remember… everything; where I’m from, what I’ve been through, this stupid gem,
everything!”

I kneeled down beside her. “Hey, it’s going to be ok.”