ONE HUNDRED FIFTY: Cube News

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******

 

“Connie seemed to be in a strange mood,” said Alden.

He was lying on his side on top of the covers of his hospital bed so that whenever he wasn’t focused on the person he was calling, he could see the news stations he’d pulled up on the wall. “I don’t know what it was. She didn’t exactly sound unhappy. But she said we should talk about something, and then she changed her mind. Do you think the Artonans freaked her out when they collected her?”

“Alden, from my perspective, I left your room in intake a few hours ago,” said Boe. “Now, I’m nearly blind in a foreign country. Nobody will tell me exactly which country or how I’m getting home. And I almost stepped on a poison dart frog when I went to pee.”

Understandably, Boe sounded tense about all of that.

And Alden didn’t doubt that his friend was having trouble seeing. The rainforest floor at night couldn’t be a bright place, and he didn’t have his glasses.

Alden couldn’t quite picture the situation at the mass teleportation site. He would have expected a large building, but from the snippets of stressed-out description he’d gotten, it sounded almost like the people who’d been taken there had just been dumped deep in the Amazon with lots of wizards.

“Let me repeat: earlier today, I covered my body with some fronds I found. Then, while I was trying to figure out what was going on and get help, someone sent my furry orange ride back to Chicago without me! Where Connie also is, apparently. Priority shipping for the two of them!” Boe exclaimed. “You’re worried about her being freaked out? I’m probably going to be killed by a jaguar while the Artonans who are in charge of this wilderness adventure have a few more debates about what to do with me. I don’t know if they’re leaving me until last because I’m a Contract refuser or because they feel like I’m greedy for wanting a travel ticket after they already gave one to your cat.”

“Turn on video mode,” said Alden. “I’ve never seen an Earth rainforest.”

“No. And there’s nothing to see except me, standing in the dark as far away from everyone else as I can get without getting lost. I wanted to talk to you, but I don’t want the last of the humans who are left around here realizing I have an interface and memorizing my appearance.”

“I am sorry you came out of catspace there,” said Alden. “When they asked me who I wanted to save in the event of the world ending, I wasn’t thinking about the fact that they would send you somewhere full of other Avowed.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I was just on Anesidora, wasn’t I? And I’ve been…I can’t bring myself to say lucky…but not as unlucky as I could have been. I didn’t come out of catspace in front of people. Victor was in a forcefield pen some wizard had made for him. When I appeared, I was just standing naked in the rainforest beside a cat in a magic dome. I considered all the possibilities, decided it was definitely your fault—”

“Hey!”

“—found my fronds and followed the sound of voices toward other people. I’m sure everyone who saw me thought I was a lunatic, but at least they were all strangers and we’ll never meet again.”

Alden couldn’t quite hold back a laugh. “Are you still wearing nothing but fronds?”

“No. Asshole.”

“Don’t be ashamed. My crisis wardrobe gets weirder every time. I figure I’m only two or three disasters away from fronds of my own.”

Boe vented for a while longer before taking a breath.

“I’m glad you’re back.” Alden shifted positions to get more comfortable with his mound of pillows. “It would take so long to catch you up on everything that’s happened if you’d waited until I was forty or something.”

Catching him up was going to take a long time as it was. Too long for them to make a serious start of it right now when Boe was flustered.

He can listen to all my messages from the past couple of weeks when he’s got a minute.

And then he could share and explain the Zeridee-saving story when Boe was safely back home and things were calmer.

“Don’t even joke about that,” Boe was saying. “I seriously worry about pulling a Rip Van Winkle.”

“That’s such an antique reference.”

“We had to read it for English while you were gone and compare it to a modern day time travel book.”

I think it’s been almost a year since I read a book that wasn’t for a class or for wizardry, Alden realized. Last Christmas break—that popular but terrible one about the arrival of Artonans making a bunch of werewolves reveal their existence to the rest of humanity.

“Hey,” he said,“I left you some messages. The boater was a fail. I don’t think I made a difference in their lives at all. But I tried, and I’m done with it. There’s some other stuff. I’ll tell you about it when you’re home and you’ve dealt with your own life. It’s your turn to be the surprise returnee…I hope that goes well for you.”

Boe’s voice turned suspicious. “What kind of stuff?”

“I’ve been in a disaster. Naturally there was a little bit of stuff. I’m not sure if some of it even qualifies under the terms of our accord.”

“Why don’t you tell me what it was, and I’ll decide?”

“As an example, I was on The Span when the Pacific went less pacific—”

“I literally can’t leave you alone for two weeks.”

“That was in no way my fault. There was this guy I agreed to share my emergency teleport with. I didn’t stick my neck out for him, and he was such a shithead that I wish I hadn’t bothered. All I really did was save my classmates from his presence. So I’m pretty sure you don’t also have to find a shithead to transport somewhere.”

Even Boe’s silences sounded suspicious now.

Neat trick.

“You do have to save a Great Dane, though,” Alden added. “And a snake.”

“…you found a pet store in need of a hero?”

“I really will tell you everything later.”

“Okay,” Boe said after a second. “I was watching some news footage before I got your call. It looks like it was insane there. And the System sending me a safety notice for you but not letting me talk to you directly was worrying me a little. But you say you’ve already been healed?”

“Partially. The healer here—” Not talking about Matadero on the call he shouldn’t even be allowed to make was a given. “—will be seeing me again soon. I’ve been walking around all day, though. It’s just a busted ankle, a cut on my hand, and a lot of scrapes and bruises.”

“From The Span?”

“I told you the Pacific got unpacific with me. And with the rest of the island. It was a lot.”

It threw me around like a toy. I thought I would freeze to death. I was afraid a Brute who was a pretty decent dude would panic and steal my shoes. I lost half of my remaining faith in humanity when I watched someone try to kill Zeridee-und’h while she was helpless.

Alden stared at the videos playing on the wall without seeing them properly.

It feels like every time I try to be even a little good, the universe sucks me dry and gives me back less than I had to start with.

“I’m glad you’re all right,” said Boe. “Sorry I wasn’t there.”

“Yeah. Why couldn’t this have happened before you ditched me?” Alden replied. “We could have made memories together.”

 

******

 

Alden called Jeremy and discovered that his friend had spent all day Saturday knocking on doors and checking animal shelters because he assumed Victor had escaped from his house. Only for the cat to reappear in his room, along with three dollars.

That makes no sense.

“Maybe the three dollars were there already, and you just forgot.”

“Three brand new dollar bills with no wrinkles? I would have remembered putting those on my dresser,” Jeremy insisted. He was on his way into a convenience store. “I’m using them to buy Cherry Coke. I had a whole bottle last week, and now it’s gone. Mom says she’s off sugar, but I know it was her. So why was Victor disappearing your fault? Weren’t you busy dodging super tsunamis?”

“Well…”

Nobody had told Alden whether or not the evacuation to the Amazon was a secret, and he hadn’t thought to ask Boe or Connie if the Artonans had sworn them to silence upon their arrival.

Zeridee wouldn’t tell me the location until she got confused with the head injury, so I guess it’s at least partially a secret?

Or an un-secret secret. There was a blip of a mention of the flyers leaving Anesidora on the news. And, after all, if someone had asked Alden on Thursday whether or not he thought the Artonans had some kind of a planetary evacuation plan in the event of a catastrophe, he’d have assumed the answer was yes. He just wouldn’t have known for sure what triggered the evac, how they planned to do it, or that he would be chosen to leave himself.

Maybe I just don’t want to tell him the truth. Maybe I just feel guilty.

Saying, “You were my third choice,” wasn’t much of a compliment when there were only two choices.

If he’s really mad about it…

Alden took a breath. “I can’t give you many details, but it seems like the Artonans have put me on a list of people who get to leave if the planet has so much as a hiccup.”

“As, like, an apology for the Thegund thing?” asked Jeremy. “Good. They should apologize to you more.”

“They only let me pick two people to go with me,” Alden said.

He realized he’d been expecting a dramatic pause as soon as he didn’t get one.

“Only two?” An electronic doorbell chimed as Jeremy headed into the shop and stopped to examine a display of chips. “I mean, two is a lot more than zero, but man…I’d have a heart attack trying to pick.”

He’s not upset at all?

Jeremy was good-natured and upbeat, but this seemed like too casual of a response.

“If I ever get a third slot,” said Alden, “you would be…”

Jeremy was bending down to see the hot and spicy chips on the bottom of the display. He really didn’t look bothered at all.

“Would you come?” Alden asked, suddenly uncertain. “If I put your name in a third slot?”

His friend finally looked back at the phone in his hand. “You mean in a real Titanic situation?”

“I’m told there’s not much risk of it ever coming to that. But…yes?”

Jeremy stared off into space, still crouching there by the chips with the doorbell chiming as someone else entered or exited the store.

“Wow. Thank you. I think I would?” he said at last. “I’d want to stay with my family, but if I did that and they found out, it’d hurt them, right? We’d all hit the iceberg together, and they’d know I could have survived, which would just make everything more terrible for them instead of helping them. So yeah. I would come. But you need to be prepared to tie me up and drag me along in case I’m stupid in the moment.”

There was a hint of a joke in his voice.

“Stop getting taller if you want me to carry you,” Alden said, forcing the same lightness into his own words. “If you hit 6’ 3”, you go down with the ship.”

They chatted for a while longer.

When the call ended, Alden went to sit in the room’s one chair beside his scaly companion.

“Jeremy’s feelings aren’t hurt because I wouldn’t be in his top two either,” he said after a moment. “I wouldn’t even be in his top five, probably. I would have known that if I’d thought harder about it. He has a lot of family. He has his girlfriend. He’ll have Boe when Boe gets home…if Boe’s not an unfriendly dumbass.”

Tiny Snake was in its bento cave, digesting the baby mouse that Esh-erdi had sent for it via wizard messenger. When Alden tried to imagine the process that must have led to a miniature snake dinner being delivered all the way to Matadero, he got a lot of confusing images.

“I’m glad he wasn’t upset.”

He watched the reptile. After deciding that it was a young corn snake—and thus not deadly—he had held it for a few minutes before its meal arrived. Letting it crawl around his hand and arm had been interesting, and he was conscious of the fact that he was already much too attached to it.

Tiny Snake had a name. They’d been through shit together. The Longs couldn’t even take care of themselves; should they really be trusted with Alden’s survival buddy?

They had a nice tank for it. And Liam said it was friendly.

“I have a cat named Victor. I’ll probably get him back soonish.”

Tiny Snake stuck its tongue out. It was alive and safe and full of mouse.

“Stupid Liam,” said Alden. “I guess I’d better text him. Maybe he doesn’t want you back.”

He accessed his interface with a thought.

[Liam, I rescued your snake from the rubble outside of Apogee. I hope you and your brother and sister are fine. If you’re too busy to take care of it right now I’d be happy to do it for however long…]

[Lute, are you doing all right? I think I might be able to get to campus tomorrow for a little while. What…?]

[Haoyu, I saw your mom on television bashing the heck out of that inflatable dinghy that was cannonballing through the streets down in…]

[Are you all fine, Lexi? The Nilama building…]

[Hi, Natalie. Yes. I’m safe! Sorry I’ve been out of touch. Are you all right? What do you mean Emilija got possessed…?]

[Winston, thank you for checking on me and for offering to help me with my image. I’m sure you’re a great video editor, but I don’t feel like releasing my selection story. Especially not this week.]

[Vandy, I appreciate the reminder about the vigil on campus, but I’m not going to be able to make it to tonight’s…]

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

[So I do still have your teeth, Kon, but…]

 

******

 

The replies to Alden’s messages trickled in while he watched the news. The texts were almost all brief and rushed in tone. Even from his roommates.

Makes sense. Everyone’s busy.

The wall in front of him was giving him a view of four different channels at once. He could enlarge one and turn the volume on by pointing at it. But there was so much to take in that he couldn’t absorb any of it as well as he should have been able to.

Every newscast held a different scene of heroism, tragedy, or commentary.

As for how the disaster had happened, a story that was basically the same as what he’d heard from Zeridee and Esh-erdi was the official one. There was the addition of “a suspected link to the often-violent movement known as Superhumans at Large” and mention of the person who was likely responsible being in the company of others.

Investigations were ongoing, and names weren’t being released to the public yet.

The number of dead was confirmed at just under three hundred. Far more were injured.