Edge of the Ocean

The Mayor was trying to farm his small plot of land.

Sweat pouring from his brow underneath his hat.

He cries silently as he plows, his tears mixing with the sweat.

The village cannot know.

A few things are brought forth, but are barely edible. Like long weed stems with barely a pebble of something edible hanging at the end of it.

He shakes his head, but then sees a shadow over his shoulder.

The Mayor turns and sees Orion standing over him.

"You scared me, Orion."

"We should all be scared. We need to talk."

That night, Orion slowly walks through the port, which is still heavily damaged. Most of the flames are out and the construction has begun.

The wind blows cold off the ocean.

Small groups of people are huddled around fires. Some are building at night, instead of under the hot sun.

All give Orion a wave or a hi or a nod. He tries to acknowledge all of them, but keeps his head down.

Orion comes to The Scientist's hut, which is still standing.

The Scientist himself is deep in some books and articles. He looks up when Orion comes in. Nothing is said but he motions towards an empty chair across from him.

By the familiarity, it looks like they do this every once in a while.

The Scientist keeps reading. "You shouldn't go."

"Word travels fast."

"Small island."

"You told me this isn't an island."

"It's not," The Scientist declares, looking up, then goes back to his studies.

Orion grins, looking around the open aired library.

"Cole has the menu. Just like others. Like Koda."

Orion says it like a secret disease has spread.

The Scientist looks up, surprised.

"I wish I hadn't lost that paper. It explained it. Almost," The Scientist says. "It was a grand experiment. The next level of humanity. Warriors. Legends. Is it nature downloading it? God? A satellite?"

The Scientist turns to see if he can find the document, but knows it is missing.

He then stares at Orion.

"Or it is something more nefarious all together? Control. Puppets of chaos. A higher race or elite class. History has gone that way before, unfortunately. It is best you don't bring it up."

"Only you know," Orion says. "It is changing."

"What do you mean?" The Scientist is curious.

"The display," Orion says, looking around, then pointing to his temple. "It is changing. It is updating. There are new, uh...features. It is progressing."

The Scientist is very interested now, but puts his finger to his lips.

"We'll figure it out one day. Use it for good," The Scientist warns, then goes back to looking around his hut. "Use everything for good, if you can. That is what must be done."

The Scientist then finds some old children's books and smiles. "Orion, we had planned for everything. Everything. Everything but this. Every model and prediction. Not on this scale, no."

He puts the books down and frowns. "Orion. You are one of the last forms of defense here. You will die if you go out there."

"We'll all die if I don't."

The Scientist waves his hands like he is done arguing.

"I came to ask you something," Orion says, trying to get the crazy man's attention. "Goliath said something about finishing the job. And was very angry about me being in that ship. What is it?"

The Scientist stares at Orion for a moment. "Do I need to spell it out for you? Are you really that dumb?"

"Your mistake for thinking I was smart to begin with. Get to it. Come on."

The Scientist goes over to his stack of books. He starts going through some, cracks them open and then angrily starts tossing them on the ground.

The island librarian finds the one he is looking for. He opens it and shows it to Orion. It is an older, less high tech aircraft carrier, but it is similar enough to the sunken ship in their waters.

"Yeah. So?" Orion asks.

"Is that ship out there like this?"

"Yes."

"This was called a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier. The one out there's technology makes this one in the book look like a toy, if it is the ship I think it is. But still. They have something in common."

"What?"

"Orion, they are both nuclear aircraft carriers."

Orion's face turns at the word. Nuclear. He stands nervously, like he saw something he shouldn't have seen, or heard a secret that couldn't be repeated.

"All of this," Orion starts. "Everything."

"Nuclear weapons are different than nuclear energy, Orion," The Scientist tries to start.

"He's going to use it. He's going to use it to wipe us all out. One final. One final," Orion says, and just keeps repeating the mantra.

"It's not that easy. That thing was was underwater for decades. You can't just blow up a nuclear reactor. Nothing probably works on that ship. But what if he did know something?"

The Scientist tries looking through other books, but is tired. He just shuts the one he has and looks across the destroyed port.

"It was such a beautiful bay," The Scientist says, thinking about how it looked before it was attacked.

"Doc, are the nuclear capabilities still on that ship?" Orion asks, trying to get The Scientist to focus.

"I'm not that type of scientist. The bay. It was beautiful. Wasn't it, Orion?"

Orion isn't listening, and neither is The Scientist. But stuck in their own worlds and brains.

The Scientist finally looks at Orion. "So. Did I convince you not to go spy on the fallen? Their island or whatever you were going to do?"

"I'm going back to that ship," Orion snaps. "Whatever they want is there."

The Scientist just nods.

Orion then looks across the hut as he is about to leave. The cut up picture of the pods sticks out. He stares at it, then shakes his head and gives The Scientist a peace sign, and out he walks.

"Good luck, Orion," the old man whispers, but only he can hear it.

The Scientist goes over to the picture that both Orion and Cole stared at.

He gently pulls it and stares at it, wondering what they both were looking at.