I knew better not to approach the shelter from the ocean side, so I walked around the island for as long as I could until someone who’d been tracing the perimeter found me.
“Are you alright?” said the woman, who was old and thin.
I nodded, feigning that I was out of breath. “I saw the sign. I’ve been walking for days. Is this Port Antigone?”
“You nearly missed it,” she laughed warmly, “follow me. I’ll take you to our doctor.”
I had not forgotten that the doctor was the one who ruthlessly shot me with no warning, yet I was not afraid. Even if he recognized me, I could make up a story that would be more believable than rising from the dead. The boy could have been my twin brother. Lying was never that difficult for me anyways- as I followed the clueless old women in silence, it dawned on me that the first words I’d even spoken after emerging from the sea had been lies.
However, the tall tales I’d been inventing in my head as the woman led me to the small house (the hospital) vanished as I came face to face with a familiar friend.
“Jace?” Eva’s eyes bulged in disbelief.
“Eva…” I gasped. If it were a surprise for me to see her here, I could not even imagine the shock she was experiencing. She had watched me drown.
“You two know each other?” the woman smiled curiously.
“Yes… he’s an old friend. Thank you for bringing him Mrs. Geets, I can help him from here.” She grabbed my wrist and hurried me away into the next room.
I was still wearing the tattered clothes I’d died in. Eva tossed me a new shirt and a fresh pair of pants as she muttered on in disbelief, “how is this possible? How are you still alive?? How are you not a zo-”
“I am.” I cut her off before she could name it. That identity didn’t quite suit me anyways. “I turned, it’s true.”
She stopped her pacing and met eyes with me once more. “I don’t understand.”
“I can explain everything in a moment. First, I need you to tell me that you can get a letter back to Ramecha.”
Her gaze shifted up as she thought. “Yes, maybe. When you… left… our group, I decided not to continue. I stayed here in Port Antigone, and became an apprentice to the doctor. Right now he’s helping a group which was on their way to Ramecha. If you need to send a letter, you can deliver it through them.
“That’s perfect,” I already felt somewhat relieved, “Now all I need is a pen and paper.”
My eyes trembled across the empty page as I searched inside myself for an appropriate tone.
It was as honest as I could concisely be.
When I set down the pencil, I took an extra moment to gaze at Eva. Her long hair was tied back in a bun and her eyes seemed brighter. If she lost any weight it wasn't apparent, but she looked happier here than she was on the road. Perhaps leaving behind all her connections to Ramecha had lessened an emotional load on her shoulders.
There may not have been much change to Eva, but there was certainly a change in the way I saw her. She was strangely desirable.
She noticed I folded up the letter. "Here," she offered her hand, "I'll do my best to get it to Ramecha." My fingers smoothed her palm as we exchanged the paper. The temperature of my skin was noticeably colder, and reminded her of the explanation I owed. "How are you still alive?" she whispered again.
Could I tell her about Naceo? Would she even believe there was a demented god living at the bottom of the sea? I’d made an important discovery for our doomed generation, and that was related to the ocean- the entity which caused modern society to crumble into apocalypse. “The ocean,” I began, “is the root of all zombies.”
She already knew this, but she still remained on the edge of her seat and yet perfectly patient. I admired her as I continued, “somehow, breathing ocean water stops the bloodlust. It makes the zombies passive… like living objects. I’ve seen them down there. They aren’t like the ones tormenting us on the earth… but they’re still not right.”
Eva nodded, a sudden idea lingering excitedly in her eyes. “You must meet Zupak. He had apparently foretold the outbreak, and he also believes in sending the infected to sea… but despite his premonition, not many people believe him.”
“If I’m to meet with anyone, you should take me soon. See, the only reason I’m still capable of thinking straight is because I was able to find a balance between living above and below the water.”
It occurred to Eva that this meant I couldn’t stay, and the eager look on her face paled. “How much longer do you have?”
I’d arrived on the shore earlier in the day and now the sun had just begun its descent on the horizon. I had until next sunrise until Naceo expected me back, but I’d never spent enough time treading water to know how long my sanity could last. When the curse of the sea even slightly began to subdue me, I would immediately travel to the surface and fill my lungs with sobering air. All I knew of the reverse effect was from the day I was bitten, and trying to recall the number of hours from the fight to the fall from the boat was like trying to count change slipped down a dark sewer drain.
I’d paused long enough for Eva to accept that it was a difficult answer. She wrapped her arms around me suddenly. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Jace…” she pressed her cheek into my collarbone, sending shivers down my spine. “Whatever happened to you- it’s just such a relief knowing you’re not gone. When you threw yourself overboard…. I couldn’t believe what was going on before my eyes. Seeing you now… it’s much nicer to believe, even if it’s much more unbelievable.”
We were embracing for a while. I must have allowed her to rest upon me for a moment longer thn I should have, because she pushed away for a moment and firmly laid her hand on my heart. She was large enough that even when unhooked from each other’s grasp, her skin would still be touching mine. "Your heartbeat..." her eyebrows twinged.
For a moment I was worried that it had been racing, proving I was nervous and overly elated to be in her presence. But I listened for a moment and realized what she'd been stunned by.
It was missing.
With one last look of potential flirtation, she led us out from the side door. "Zupak needs to hear your story," she looked back at me but kept moving, " I promise you can trust him." Her priorities were noble.
"I'm sure I can," I might've been too willing to agree with anything she proposed.
The neighborhood was large, but the homes were a great distance from each other. I kept wondering which one we'd enter, but we walked further and further until we abandon the large properties altogether. At the edge of the forest there was an ancient house composed of wood that seemed aged far beyond any of the trees beside it. It looked more like an old temple than it did at home. Eva rapped on the door.
A young man was there to open it almost immediately. "Eva," he gasped, "is everything alright?"
"Yes everything's fine. I know it's a bit late for a visit, but I was hoping we could speak to Zupak." I wasn't sure whether it was a mention of "we" or something entirely else to cause the man to finally noticed me -a few steps behind Eva's side. The way he was staring informed me that this man's guests where were rarely strangers.
"You are?"
"He's a friend," Eva filled in for me. We were allowed inside passively. He did not look at me again.
The building seemed even older from the inside, but that was mainly because it felt full of history. There were tanned hides of animals I did not even recognize draped over archways. The seats were mostly just stumps, but all of them bore unique patterns carved into their sides. A glowing fire in the back corner was all the heating the room had. I was entranced by the flames like I'd been the night I was infected. It took a jolt of Eva's arm to peel my eyes away.
There was a fireplace in the next room as well, but I managed to keep my focus on the thing right beside it. In a rocking chair sat a man a century old, wrapped in a fur-coated blanket. His wispy white hairs grew long down his back, and his whiskers were adorned with wooden beads. It took him a moment to summon the strength to look at me, but when he did, his foggy eyes went wide in fear. He cracked open his mouth and sputtered, "What… is… this?"
Eva got to her knees to comfort the man, who'd begun to tremble before me. "Zupak, this is my friend Jace."
Both Zupak and I knew what he was seeing. I wavered backwards, not wanting to threaten him. He looked to Eva. "You must know… what he is… is that why you brought him here?" She nodded with a faint smile and asked me to explain my story.
"I… I'm only seventeen, I guess. I was infected, so I went to the ocean."
"You found… Rage... God of the Seas." I met eyes with Eva while confirming his statement.
"Yes… well, he found me."
"I still don't understand," the old man croaked, "Rage spares no one. How is it you are here?"
"My time is short," I admitted, and for a second I felt a deep lump in my throat which demanded that my time was over, but I swallowed it down and forced it away. "I balance between land and sea in order to avoid losing my mind."
His body still as wood, he studied me with his glassy eyes and then returned his gaze to the fire.
"About 200 years ago, my grandfather was the chief of the Araki tribe," Zupak began to paint his story. "The day came where the Araki were attacked by their own children. Not many survived, but my grandfather was spared for an important reason: he held the responsibility… of warning the next generations to come… of the return of Rage."
I'd always had a strong suspicion that Naceo had a major role in the fate of the human species, but I hadn't held it against him. He wasn't sane enough to be evil. "Rage caused this?"
"Rage began it... We as people caused it. The day my grandfather met the God for the first time, he had made a promise. The deal was… As long as humanity continue to behave purely, Rage would leave us be."
"The promise was broken," I recalled Naceo's parting words with me, "You humans are good at breaking promises."
"Long before his return, I already sensed the end was near. Businesses served themselves more than their clients and labor. Government and law became out of common control. Change was impossible… We dehumanized every institution we created… and turned our own species against one another… I thought the end was going to come much sooner, so as a... more youthful man," a sickly cough ironically interjected his speech, "I had tried taking some action against the establishment. I was the last living member of my family, and though I had many followers, the descendants of the Araki tribe were not nearly enough to influence a new way of thinking for all of the world. I waited in fear for rage to return, and had I known that the world was under prepared for his arrival, I would've crowed louder."
I wasn't sure if I understood his last sentence. "Underprepared?" He bowed his head. "Rage does not know what he's done to the world... the toll his punishment has taken. He intended his actions to wipe away the population like a selective tsunami." Both Eva and I perked up at this idea, curious what it could possibly mean. But Zupak had begun coughing again. "The God..." his cough intensified, "...was expecting..." he managed to sputter between one final hack of the throat that I had to avert my eyes from.
"...a sacrifice."
Eva and I turned to see who had finished his sentence. It was the young man, the caretaker. "Rage only wanted our children, not the whole population."
If that was so, why would the disease kill adults? I was patient to voice this, for Zupak's voice had reentered. "He wanted was to raise a new society of humans – a better one – by taking away everyone's children and raising them in the sea. But once again humanity proved it was too selfish for its own good, and in trying to salvage our lost offspring, we lost more than half the people in our world."
As he finished with a defeated release of air from his tired chest, I glanced at Eva– wondering if she believed all this jumbo about gods and unsettled debts– after all, I don't think I would have if I hadn't met Naceo myself. She approach the conversation with some doubt. "Jace told me that the children who live in the seat…" she trailed off, looking to me to finish my own observation.
"He can't have been aiming for a better humanity. The children are... they're incompetent."
"Well..." breathed the man halfheartedly, "that does not surprise me. He may be a God, that there is a reason we call him Rage."
"He is chaos," the young man added, "aware of sentience, and yet incapable of controlling it."
Zupak nodded with a weak grin, proud his lessons weren't forgotten but dismayed that the truth must be so grim. "Yes... life may have potential with his creations, but anything he creates is dead."
There was a pause of tension as Eva I struggled not to look at each other and remember the moment we shared earlier when my heart was as silent as a stone.
"Why then do you think the cure to the apocalypse is returning the infected children to sea?" Eva wondered out loud.
"An apocalypse has no cure," he frowned, "...only treatment. It's all we can do."
Zupak thanked me for coming but was reluctant to shake my hand as we departed. He admitted that he was still uncertain of what I was, and seeing as neither of us were wiser to the answer, I bowed respectfully as goodbye.
Eva, on the other hand, had no fear. As soon as we were outside she pulled me close and kissed me tenderly. Steadily we walked into the forest, and I need her back against the tree. Her curves are so pleasant to hold onto, and I gripped your sides, working my way to her chest from underneath her shirt. Suddenly I realized my teeth we are dangerously close to sinking into her neck. What was worse was that I truly wanted to pierce them in... tear the flesh... rip it out... devour her... I pulled away just before a scream could escape her lips.
"Did I bite you?!" I cried, flustered. I cupped her cheek and inspected her neck; it was pink end, but intact. I sighed in relief, resting my head against the tree behind her. From the look on her face I regretted my panic at once. If she was about to make a sound, it would have been from pleasure, not pain.
Frustrated with myself, I drew her in for comfort, the bridges of our noses resting upon one another's at a slight angle. "What would happen…?" she managed to speak between heavy breaths.
"You know what would happen," I growled, "…I'm not free from this… disease. It took my body and it will take my mind if I'm not careful."
Our fingers intertwined, she kissed my cheek and said, "come then, I'll walk you out to the shore."
I wished so badly I could talk to her as we began our trail through the woods down to the beach, but I lost the words as soon as they crossed my mind. Insanity was verging on me. As each nerve in my body slowly faded into numbness, I watched her move from the corner of my vision. Her skin jiggled; she was slow... ripe like a fruit. I knew better not to open my mouth for certainly nothing good would come out of it in the state of mind.
Finally she spoke to me. "So what's the god of the sea like?"
I shook my head. "I'll tell you... later."
"Is something wrong?"
We kept walking. "I'm a little… irritated," was all I could say.
The sand was a few steps ahead, so I halted our journey. "Leave me here."
She didn't move. "It's hard," she trembled, "I really missed you when you were gone, Jace." Had I missed her? I couldn't pry my eyes from her.... or was it her meat? Was it my rotting brain that was telling me to love her? It was wrong to try and judge my feelings in a state of… unfeeling. Yet still I knew there was something more to Eva that I craved. I felt it earlier when we embraced.
I stripped down in front of her. She caught my clothes as I tossed them towards her. "Keep these. I'll need them the next time I come back."
"Okay, "she smiled cheerfully although my mood was clearly burning low. She was watching me as I exited the woods in the nude. "I''ll come here often, I'll let you know when your letter has made it."
"Thank you Eva," I called back to her as I charged into the dark blue. A wave crashed over me and I dove underneath it, allowing the sea to swallow me back inside its quiet belly.
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