Lamentations - Part Three

Alistair’s father had led a group of children to the ancient crash site for a lesson.

“But I don’t get it. Why does this even matter?” Amanda, Alistair’s sister, tugged at her father’s pants.

He sighed and sat on some rubble. He called for the other children to come around. “Humans, that’s what we are, originally came from Earth, an impossibly far away planet.”

“Are the domies human, too?” a cousin with a squished nose asked. Domies, because they hated to leave their climate controlled sanctuaries.

“Yes, they’re from the very same planet. They just arrived here much later than our ancestors did. Now, Earth hadn’t been well taken care of, and there wasn’t enough resources for everyone.”

Alistair set down the scrap of metal he had been using to reflect the sun. “Resources?”

“Yes, resources like water.” All of the children nodded knowingly.

“So Earth sent out spaceships just like this one to planets they thought could sustain human life, but the First’s spaceship crashed here and they were unable to contact Earth to let them know they had arrived safely. Earth forgot about Elegua and us. When the domies…when the People’s Colonial Republic arrived, they didn’t expect to find anyone.”

Alistair turned his head to see Emil slinking further away into the ruins. He had heard his father’s lecture before, so he decided to follow his cousin into the bowels of the ship.

“Emil,” Alistair whispered, not wanting to be found out. They were forbidden to go to into the ship. The adults had said it was dangerous.

“Emil!” Alistair repeated.

“Right here, through that opening between that rusted plank and…whatever that pink thing is,” Emil responded, unseen.

Alistair navigated around dusty metal panels and a pink foamy material. He climbed some wreckage and appeared next to Emil. They were in a small cavity of forsaken possessions. The ceiling above was broken and allowed the sunlight to flood in.

“Look at this! It’s the book that Grandma reads.” Emil held up a rotted cover.

Alistair tried to read it. “What’s that, the Bible? It can’t be, it’s too small.”

“You’re right, a bunch is missing. It starts at Lamentations.”

“You’re lying. You just made up a word.”

“You just don’t know what ‘Lamentations’ means,” Emil bantered back.

“Neither do you,” accused Alistair.

Emil carefully peeled the book open, the paper sticking to his fingers and breaking like a thin layer of sugar. He squinted to read. “How lonely she is now, the once crowded city. Jeez, I can’t read this. It’s covered in gunk.” He tried to turn the page, but it disintegrated in his fingertips.

Emil read what he could see of the next page. “Deal with them as you have dealt with me for all my sins; My groans are many, and I am sick at heart.”

Listening to the Bible was hardly better than the history lesson. Alistair turned to leave.

“Wait!” Emil put down the Bible and reached into his pocket. “Look what I found!” In his hand was a sealed glass tube. Inside still swirled a silvery gas.

Alistair read the label as best as he could. “Flatus…fer…ocia. Whatever.”

There was a crash and a girl’s voice screeched through the wreckage. “Alistair! Emil!”

Emil pocketed the vial and they both sought Amanda. The boys found her cradling her ankle, the pile of metal that had been Alistair’s foothold now lay undone.

“Amanda…” He shook his head at his younger sister. He pulled her up and laid her arm over his shoulders. At this age, he actually wasn’t much bigger than she was.

“Alistair, what were you doing with Emil?”

Alistair, what were you doing with Emil? The words resurfaced as Alistair dreamed that night at the campsite.

*

The next morning, Alistair followed the blood stains to the edge of the cliff. Below were the scraps he and Emil had kicked or thrown the night before, some of it glinting in the daylight or laying dark against the pale gravel. In the middle of it all were two skeletons draped in colonial clothing.

“You said the Outskirts were ransacked?” Alistair asked.

Emil was fishing his breakfast out of his pack. He didn’t respond immediately.

“Everyone in the PCR was sick. Panic took over, and it spilled beyond the confines of the domes.”

“Where did this bug come from? The PCR’s never had pandemics before, and it couldn’t have come from us.”

Emil unwrapped his packaged bread. “Maybe they were engineering something to wipe us out, to finish the job their first diseases didn’t, but instead we happened to be immune to the freak that escaped.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Alistair was not laughing. “I’m tired of your conspiracies. They didn’t deserve this.” Alistair finally turned away from the bodies. Emil offered him a piece of bread, and he took it. If the PCR, with their superior technology and accommodations, could be wiped out so swiftly, what saved Alistair and the descendants of the First?

PART FOUR