Spores

I awoke in terror as the fading nightmare squeezed at my chest, threatening to overshadow my resolve. It had been 9 months since I buried my only daughter at the early age of 5. She was too young and kind for the new world. I never entertained ideas about what a world that Edelia didn’t exist in might look like, but this lonely broken shadow of the old world seems close to what I might have imagined if I did.

I sat up and noticed Zander already up and working to put the camp away, eager for the days long trek ahead of us. He wrestled with the bug nets, occasionally blowing his shaggy blonde hair out of his face. He was such a polite, strong-willed kid. Could have been a boy scout if the world were normal. I noticed his half-eaten pack of crackers and the jar of Peanut Butter lying in the grass nearby and grabbed a few for myself. Food wasn’t exactly scarce when you got close to the city, most of the population died out early, but you only take what you can carry. And sometimes, we didn’t know how long it would be before we were able to scavenge again.

Humans avoided cities as much as possible. They had created settlements in forests, mountains, and deserts, but we had been dependent on technology for so long that we had forgotten how to survive. Human beings became savages, and monsters. They would kill you on the spot for a pack of crackers or a coat. I considered that we could be the last humans left alive. At this point, I wasn’t sure if that made me feel relieved or terrified. We hadn't seen much sign of life in over four months. After we were forced out of the camp we wandered for several months before settling in a small cabin in the middle of the woods, scavenging the outskirts of small cities for our essentials. I wasn’t entirely sure where we were. Somewhere in northeastern Florida or Georgia maybe? Not like there were any road signs left to tell us.

“Do your legs still hurt, Auryn? I can carry your pack today if you’d like.” Zander’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. I shook my head and grabbed the rest of our things so we could set off to the east. We were heading toward the ocean. Zander expressed that he had wanted to go there a few weeks ago. Although I had been hesitant to leave the safe space we had created, I realized he couldn’t live this way his whole life. He was only twelve after all.

Thirteen I mentally corrected myself. We had decided that once we reached the ocean, he would become thirteen since we had no real way to distinguish time anymore. It had just recently become summer, and his birthday was in June. This was as good a day as any to turn thirteen. He was my sole reason for living now. I blamed myself for him getting kicked out of the camp.

The decision to go on living was not one I had made willingly. My life was meaningless before Edelia was born. The memory of her small, delicate hand in both of mine was seared into my haptic memory sensors. I couldn’t escape it. Every time I remembered her death, the feeling of her hand falling limp in mine as I cried and pressed it to my chest, the golden heart shaped locket she and her late father had given me for Mother's Day the previous year sandwiched between. The physical memory shot through my Fahsis suit’s neural connectors, flooding my haptic feedback, imprinting those feelings deep into my soul. My own personal hell. I scoffed at the irony I had created for myself.

The Fahsis suit was my own genius creation. The Fully Automated, Haptic Sensory Input Survival suit, was a matte black embossed, form fitted design manufactured by Exterra Corp. as a means of navigating harsh planet environments. As the Mars settlement population continued to expand, the need for more off world resources and bases became apparent. My job, as the lead engineer, at Exterra was to design a space suit capable of withstanding those harsh environments. Everything was taken into consideration, extreme weather conditions, radiation, unknown bacteria, oxygen generation, and even self-sustaining battery life.

I never intended to use one myself. It wasn’t until asteroid 2041 UX799, later nicknamed LUX, was discovered to be on a direct collision course with Mars. The projected collision date was to be late May of 2050. With the newfound colonies being threatened, scientist and planetary defense spent the next eight years developing and perfecting the laser technology to destroy the asteroid. The laser would harness the power of the sun and convert Solar energy into powerful laser blasts to destroy the asteroid. The mission was a major success, and a first for mankind. Both worlds celebrated.

Scientists warned of small debris from the asteroid but assured both worlds that there was no need to worry. There were only four confirmed areas of collision on earth, and thirteen on Mars. All minor impacts. It wasn’t until 5 months later when contact with Mars was lost, and people started to notice the eerie orange-brown growths near the impact sights. Scientists and other officials came and went. They sampled the growths and destroyed them repeatedly.

Despite how many times or ways the growths were destroyed, they kept coming back, spreading each time. It was determined that the growth was some unidentified, extraterrestrial fungus spread through spores. The growths produced an enzyme that would eat away at metals, and easily spread through any non-organic substance. Scientists were never able to contain or figure it out. In less than seven weeks entire cities were destroyed. The spores blanketed the cities creating thick, dusty atmospheres. When humans breathed the spores, they would fall terribly ill. It took no more than four days to die from LUX fever.

When the chaos started, Exterra Corp. started auctioning off Fahsis suits to the highest bidders. I was appalled that the company I took so much pride in working for was weighing the lives of human beings by status, money, and fame. My coworkers and I hatched a plan to steal six hundred Fahsis suits on the next shipment and distribute them as well as keep some for ourselves and our families. We took our families and as many people as we could gather and escaped the city early to begin a settlement in the woods. The growths didn’t seem to intermix with earths flora, so we were able to create safe zones in nature.

At first, it was easy. We all pitched in to do our part. We all supported and helped each other. We had rotating shifts for scavenging. Previously having been an engineer, I was responsible for fixing and maintaining bionic limbs and software. I had experience since Edelia lost her leg in the same car accident that took my husband's life a few months prior. This was how I met Zander. Zander had born blind and had received bionic, artificial eyes that worked just as well, if not better, than normal eyes. His parents had worked deep in the city and contracted LUX fever early on. They never had much money, so they couldn't afford upgrades for his eyes. But money didn’t mean anything anymore, and he was a good kid. So, I worked a lot with him to fix and upgrade his eyes.

When the time came that it was my turn to go scavenging, I refused to leave Edelia behind. In this world, there was no way to know for sure if you would ever find your family again. Edelia was a trooper. I had adjusted her Fahsis suit to fit her small frame, along with the other children at camp. The suits weren't necessary in the fresh air near camp, but closer to the cities, it became essential. Edelia carried her own pack and walked the whole way by herself. We made it back to the settlement in less than a week. However, it only took half a day for the LUX fever signs to begin to show.

Through some cruel twist of fate, one of the joints of her suit hadn't been properly tightened, and a spore was able to creep in and attach itself to the metal of her artificial limb where it incubated and spread within her suit. How could I have been so careless? I took her far outside the camp and removed her suit and limb. Doing everything I could to save her. She was gone in less than 16 hrs.

When I finally made it back to camp, heartbroken, and traumatized, I had already made the decision to take my own life. I almost hadn't noticed the chaos that had erupted in my absence. There were bodies everywhere. “What happened?” I screamed.

“They're killing us!” Zander cried. “Those adults over there said those of us with metal body parts had to leave and they are removing all metal from the camps. They said that we were putting them in danger. They didn’t even give us a chance! They just started attacking us!”

I noticed the ones leading the attack throwing pots, tech, tools, canned food, silverware, and even jewelry into barrels to wheel away. I touched the heart shaped locket on my chest as the memory of my daughter passing away ran through my sensors again. I would never part with this. The last piece of my daughters' heart that I have in this world. “C’mon Zander. We aren't welcome here anymore.” At that moment I chose to live. I could not leave him alone in this awful world.

“Auryn?” Zander broke my concentration. We had been walking for some time. “Auryn, do you think the ocean is a safe zone? Maybe the spores can't attach itself to the sand.” I looked at his hopeful face. Trying to muster some confidence in my voice, “I'm sure the beach is a safe zone. There is no metal there after all!” I said, although I don’t think I honestly believed my own words.

We continued walking as he took the lead. Stopping occasionally to see if there was anything we could use or eat in homes and clean buildings. The silence of the world was haunting. I began to smell the salt in the air. In the distance I could hear waves crashing. We had not seen any of the brick-colored spore dust for miles. As we neared the entrance to the beach, I picked up a handful of sand and observed it as I let it slide between my fingers. The sand tickled my fingers through the haptic sensors of my suit. It was clean. But for how long? We started towards the sound of waves crashing.

I could see the ocean in the distance as we neared the shore. I scanned the environment and the augmented feedback in my helmet gave off no indications of abnormalities in the air. I removed my helmet and took a deep breath. Zander looked at me desperately. Waiting for permission to remove his own. I nodded as he released the pressure and removed his own helmet.

“Can we stay here, Auryn? Please? I know we can't stay forever, but maybe for a little while we could live here.” Zander pleaded with me solemnly without removing his eyes from the glistening waters in front of us. I thought, silently, for a long moment and weighed out our best options.

“For now.” I finally spoke. I couldn’t help but return his infectious smile. We had already overcome so many difficulties, and many still lie ahead. But, maybe for a little while, we can take joy in the salty air and the harmonious sounds of the peaceful ocean.

“Happy Birthday, Zander.”

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