Emergence: Threshold Series Book I Page 8

  With every breath I took stock of the forest, whispering a subconscious mantra, so the patterns would show themselves. The soil, the trees, the vines. I repeated it over and over again. My Grandmother hadn’t lived long enough to see me become a scientist, but I always thought that it’s what she would have wanted. It was comforting to feel the weight of her necklace against my skin. I began to wander farther in. My intuition was guiding me towards the center of the jungle. I didn’t have much with me since I hadn’t been planning to come out here. It would have to be quick before anyone knew I was gone. My steps were quick and purposeful, my goal to collect several samples of the vines that grew rampant. After only a quarter of a mile or so, I began to see them. They were thick, but I found a smaller growth and cut off a sample with my pocket knife. It was ropelike and strong. I put it in my pocket for safekeeping.

  Again I felt the sense that I needed to hurry, to get back before I could be missed. My pace quickened, and I passed through a drape of vines, flinching as they brushed my shoulders. That was when I heard the voice, a young woman.

  “Lane, what are you doing out here?” She asked me in a richly accented English. Her voice was so familiar. The woman behind me was tall with thick black hair and dark skin.

  “Achi?” I knew it was the same woman that had brought Adam and I here on the river yesterday, but she was no longer wearing the t-shirt and shorts from before. Now she was wearing some type of woven linen dress. It was loose and flowing around her. Her hair which had been in a ponytail yesterday, was in intricate braids today.

  “Yes. I’m glad you remember my name.” Her face curved into an ironic smile. She was not an official visitor. She would have been wearing the same uniform as Adam and me.

  “Are you… I mean how did you get through the fence?” I remembered how informed she had seemed when we met before. Clearly, she knew about the Alliance’s rules.

  “My people have always lived in this place.” Her people. So there was some kind of group living out here.

  “Do they know?” I gestured behind me, though the Shell was out of sight.

  “Some of them, yes. But only those who we choose to tell.” She was walking towards me now, her hand rested on my shoulder. “The forest holds the memories of all that has happened to my people. It whispers a song if you make the choice to listen. Anyone could hear it if they wanted to.”

  I had no clue what she was talking about. Didn’t she know she was in danger? If the Alliance found out that they were living out here, whoever they are, they would be in serious trouble for breaking disclosure laws. She was looking around expectantly as if waiting for something. I opened my mouth to speak, but she held up her hand to stop me. I waited, but nothing happened. The wind was rustling the broad leaves of the palms and the haunting cry of the kookaburra was echoing through the trees. The sky was bright above the canopy, but small drops of water were filtering through the treetops, shimmering like diamonds as they fell. Achi began walking deeper into the forest, acting as if I was supposed to follow her. I began to protest. I still didn’t have any supplies, but it was like I was being hypnotized. In the end, I didn’t really have a choice. It was my task to find out all I could about this forest and if there was a tribe living on it, that could have a huge effect. Humans always changed their environment. Even early nomadic peoples engaged in the small-scale cultivation of their surroundings. There was too much to be gained by following her. I wasn’t sure why she had chosen to speak to me. She was another in a long list of people I wasn’t sure I could trust, but I had to start somewhere.

  The path seemed short, but I think I was simply more acclimated to the terrain than I had been my first few days here. Achi moved so quickly that I was surprised I was able to keep up. Even more surprising was how silent her movements were. She could surely move freely across Sector 4 without being noticed. The way she moved was comfortable and easy. She did not have the nervous energy that seemed to emanate from the Soldiers of Sector 4. Sure, many of them had been spooked by whatever the strange aberrations were, but there was something more to it, I knew. Achi seemed perfectly at home here.

  The vines grew thicker as we got closer to the center of the Sector. I wiped sweat from my forehead as we hiked over the great roots. The place we reached was at once beautiful and unearthly. The vines which had all been woven into a complex pattern around a central area bloomed with thousands of dark blossoms. The deep red color bled into a ring of darker burgundy on the outer petals of each flower. This had happened just in the time since I was here yesterday. Achi led me to the center of the clearing and grazed the vines with her fingertips. I could hear her humming under her breath, a low melody. I followed her in a trancelike state. As she caressed the woven vines, they seemed to part at her touch. I watched her slide her hand under the spiraling veil of deep purple blossoms and open a place for us to enter. But as soon as she entered, a loud crash followed by several loud screams from behind woke me from my trance. It was a Bell-bird with the characteristic teal beak. It had landed on a branch, disturbing a troop of howler monkeys.

  Then when I turned back around Achi was gone. My heart was racing. This was bigger than the arrow. Could I have really hallucinated a person? I searched the woven vine structure for an entrance. Maybe she had simply opened some kind of door and hidden, but surely there would be some type of evidence. I scanned the vines for tears or lacerations. There was nothing. It dawned on me the seriousness of my situation. I had somehow wandered into the forest by myself with no equipment. I knew that it had been a hallucination because it had been so dreamlike, hypnotic almost. I hurried back, careful to follow the same path I had taken in. It was stupid. I really should have known better than to go into the jungle alone.

  When I got back to the shell, I headed straight to the lab. It was still early, and I already had something to document. I wrote in my notebook:

  Sector 4 Aberrations

  Witnesses report auditory and visual hallucinations. I have personally experienced both and can verify the reports. Symptoms begin after only a short-term exposure. Future expeditions into Sector 4 will require personal protective equipment until the cause of the aberrations can be determined.

  Chapter 9

  The events of the morning brought me a renewed sense of mission. At some point, I had to stop trying to untangle all the questions of this place. Clearly, that was a futile goal, but I did have to start moving forward. I turned to a new page and began to write everything, spilling out every single thing I knew about Sector 4, the Global Peace Alliance, and The Threshold Crisis. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make a start.

  What do I know? The Threshold Crisis, which has been previously ignored by the Alliance, does not seem to affect Sector 4. There is a high tech military base in Sector 4, operated by the International Peace Army, which is being expanded. Citizens of the area are not happy with the presence of the military in Sector 4 and there is evidence of protest, although the cause of the unrest has not yet been verified. The words filled one page, and another, until my thoughts were organized. My goal was to figure out the cause for the anomaly in Sector 4 and its relation to the Threshold. Aside from everything else that had happened since I got here, this was the kind of thing that got me excited. It was a deep puzzle that eventually I would solve. It was absolutely exhilarating.

  I knew I would be staying in the lab most of the day so I grabbed a black jacket from my apartment. It was a thick sturdy material, with an IPA logo on the front. Once back in the lab, I grabbed a granola bar from the food supplies. My sense of purpose was urgent and I hit the switch on one of the computers. They were brand new, but they had no brand name or logo. The first screen indicated that I should hold my wristband to the screen. The menu was not anything I was familiar with, an entirely new operating system, perhaps exclusive to the military. I took some time to familiarize myself with the new tech that morning before finally opening BioGraph, an Analysis software that I had been trained to use at the Academy. I
was thankful it had already been installed. You could plug in almost any data that you wanted to, and the software could organize it in a nearly infinite number of ways.

  I had collected so much data about Sector 4, and now it was time to see how I could get the data to give me some answers. The upload link established a geographic representation of Sector 4. I entered information from my notes about the soil and air quality, species diversity, and rainfall levels. Each piece of data was tagged with a geomarker placing it on my map. After finalizing my entries, I selected sort. I first isolated air quality, which was normal across the board. Next came soil quality, which had a few slight variations, but all within a normal range. Species diversity was one area that I had little direct observation of. However, it was clear that Sector 4 was healthy and stable enough to sustain an apex predator. The jaguar, while a frightening experience, had been instructive in many ways.

  The only thing so far that was unique about Sector 4 was just how healthy it was. In fact, it was abnormal how stable everything seemed. The Southern Equatorial Jungles hadn’t been this strong since the Presidential Era. It was completely unfathomable. I took out the camera that Ellis had been using to take pictures and connected it to the computer. Perhaps the distribution of species in each zone would give me a clue. I overlaid a grid onto the map of sector 4, dividing it into 9 equal parts. The photos would attach themselves to the proper location where they were taken. Every photo uploaded caused the software to ding. I clicked through the camera, looking at the images, as they sorted themselves into BioGraph. The stunning images of the forest were like a window into Sector 4. Ellis was a talented photographer. Each leaf, on every tree, was captured in the shot. Somehow she had managed to capture the essence of the forest in every photo. I was lost just scrolling through the photos when Adam came in and stood behind me.

  “Wow, did you take those?” Adam sounded just as impressed as I was.

  “No, it was Ellis.” I managed my surprise at hearing his voice.

  “They’re really good.”

  “I know, it’s eerie really.” I was still unable to look away. She had taken several photos from when we stopped for lunch. The angle from the roots of the tree cast long shadows on the ground.

  “Are you going to take a break soon? It’s already past noon.” He asked me. I held up my half-eaten granola bar.

  “I can’t, I’m working on something.” I was invested now, and I didn’t want to stop.

  “Did you find anything relevant?” He sounded interested.

  “Well, maybe,” I said looking at the data, as the program analyzed Ellis’ photographs. It classified many of the plant species pictured, and marked them on the grid with different symbols. As the symbols populated, the patterns of the jungle began to reveal themselves. “What do you see?” I asked, wanting him to see what I was seeing too. The symbols arranged in an unnaturally grid-like pattern, starting in the center and moving out in concentric circles.

  “Um… I see a map of Sector 4… with plants marked.” He was studying the image. “It looks like the little grey dots,” He pointed toward the symbol representing the Ceiba pentandra, a species of the Kapok tree, “are organized into circles.”

  “Yes, that’s what I thought too, but it’s highly unusual. That tree doesn’t grow that way naturally.” I explained. “Something else about it is weird as well. Do you see the red triangles?” He nodded. “The red triangles are all next to the grey dots. When I looked them up, they came up as unknown.”

  “What is it?” He asked, peering at the image of one of Ellis’ photos.

  “It’s some type of vine. I took a sample, and I’m going to run some tests on it. It might be a new species.” I answered. My voice was betraying my excitement. “Whatever it is, it seems to have developed a particular symbiosis with the Ceibe pentandra.”

  “Carry on then,” He backed away, leaving me to my work.

  “One more thing, Adam.” I stopped him. “Have you ever experienced any disturbances in the jungle?”

  “What kind of disturbances?” Concern was growing in his grey eyes.

  “I have reason to believe that some of the reports from the soldiers that you mentioned, might have some validity. There may be factors which could cause false auditory and even visual perceptions. ” I made it sound very detached. I didn’t want him to know that I had experienced some of it myself. He would think I was crazy. Regardless, there had to be an explanation for it all. “Until I determine the cause, I’m recommending that we all wear masks.”

  “Do you think there’s some kind of gas?” His tone was confused, but he didn’t seem surprised.

  “Maybe, or possibly fungal spores. It’s hard to say. I just think its best to be cautious.” I added.

  “Of course,” he agreed.

  He left in a rush after that. He hadn’t answered my question either, as to whether he had experienced any disturbances. It was very odd.

  Chapter 10

  Time passed slowly in the Shell and I grew more suspicious of Adam every day. He would be gone for long hours every day with no explanation of where he’d been and somehow he always managed to evade my questions. It was almost like we were doing different projects since there was no indication that he was contributing anything related to the human habitability of Sector 4. Ellis wasn’t much help on that front. She dutifully went with me on every expedition, but she never once mentioned him or even seemed to notice his long absences. One morning before going out to the jungle, I asked her,

  “What do you know about Adam?”

  “Not much, I kind of try to mind my own business you know.” She didn’t mean it as a rebuff, but it felt like it.

  “But I mean, he’s supposed to be on the project with us. What does he do all day?” I didn’t want to sound paranoid, but I had to ask.

  “Medical research, I guess?” She didn’t sound confident.

  “I don’t know, something about it just seems off.” I finally admitted.

  “You could always just ask him,” she said. Great, I did sound paranoid.

  “Why didn’t I think of that,” I joked, brushing it off. “Are you ready to go?” She seemed relieved at the change of subject and got her pack. We left for the jungle, this time to make a detailed analysis of the strange vine and its effect on the rest of the ecosystem. I mandated that we wear respirators as a precaution. For the next few weeks we were able to explore sector 4 without any incidents, but we also didn’t find anything particularly useful. After the initial strangeness, it was a bit of a letdown. The Jungle didn’t seem as willing to give up its secrets.

  When I finally got frustrated enough with the lack of progress, I decided to talk to Adam. I made a plan to ask him in the cafeteria. Ellis and I had fallen into a routine of eating dinner together and Adam would occasionally join us. The next time I saw him, I would ask him to come look at something in the lab with me and then I would ask him. I’d have to be careful not to sound accusatory, but I had to know. The tension built inside of me until dinner. I was ready to get it over with, so when Ellis and I made our way into the cafeteria I was relieved to see him at our usual table. He had a pile of papers of some sort that he was flipping through as he ate the tasteless soup that we’d had every day for a week.

  I got my tray and made my way to the table, trying not to look like I was in a hurry. He nodded when I sat down, but didn’t look up. It was frustrating. The information that I needed to get was clear to me: what exactly was he doing every day and had he been in the forest? The tricky part was getting to it. My mother had not always been kind, but she was right about one thing. I was never a very friendly person. I could at least admit to myself that I had a prickly personality.

  “So,” I interjected, “What’s been going on with you?” I kept my tone casual.

  Adam glanced up quickly in surprise. Had I sounded awkward? I just wanted to shut myself up already. Small talk was so not my thing.

  “Just reading some reports,” he supplied. How
frustratingly vague.

  “Oh. Um,” I wracked my brain trying to think of what normal people talk about. “Is that very interesting?” I tried to hold eye contact so I seemed friendly. For some reason, every time I looked at him, I felt nervous. I was about one step away from trying to flutter my eyelashes before, to my great surprise, it seemed to work.

  “Actually, It is pretty interesting. I’ve been working on some nutritional analysis of the soldiers in the Shell. I could show you later if you want.” He set down his papers, intending to talk to me it seemed.