Chapter 47: Sanctuary

The migrants follow the road south out of the Moab valley, then turn east on highway 90 into Colorado. They make an effort to avoid being seen when train or vehicular traffic passes nearby. With the bikes, they make decent progress. Four days later, the big Mesa looms before them, its north wall rising a thousand feet from the valley floor. They climb wearily up the long road the roll across the flat tabletop to its southern end, where finger canyons stretch toward the New Mexico plains. It is in these canyons that the ancient Anasazi built their cliff dwellings. The kids scale down the paths enthusiastically. All alone in this ancient wonder, they laugh, run, and play hide and seek amongst the ruins.

“How cool is this? We can set up camp, right here!” Mosier says in the midst of Cliff Palace. “Totally off limits when we visited as kids. At least there’s some upside to living at the end of the world!”

They prepare to spend a first night amongst the ruins. A stray dog skulks nearby. Mary offers him a bit of food from her pack. It takes some coaxing, but he comes. He eats the morsel with appreciation and stays on to be scratched behind the ear. He is glad to belong to someone again.

“Let’s call him Winston Churchill, Jr.” she smiles. “In honor of our own dearly departed canine.”

Josh laughs and doffs the hat he is wearing. “I can hear him urging us, ‘never, never, never give up!’”

“Man’s best friend. Better than AI!”

Mary looks mildly offended at the disparagement of her digital friend. “Not better,” she strokes Nickie. “Just different!” exultant.

Josh strokes the dog. They all feel safer for Winston’s presence with them as evening falls. They pass the evening telling ghost stories of the Anasazi that they make up or borrow from other sources. They enjoy their best night of sleep in weeks. It feels safe here.

In the morning, they clamber back to the top of the cliffs. The mesa falls away sharply toward the south, drained by canyons with these high cliff walls, some with deep caves where the ancients built their dwellings. Two thousand feet below, the landscape flattens into the New Mexican desert, marked periodically by geological features such as Shiprock, which they can see forty miles on the horizon. A reflection catches Josh’s eye. “Mosier, do you see that? Over there.” He does. “Does it look like a field of solar panels to you?”

“Too far to tell. Maybe.”

“I want to check it out. You two stay here. I’ll be back in two days. Three, tops.”

He grabs his pack and starts to go. Looks over his shoulder to add, “Mosier, take care of her, would you? And yourself too. Don’t fall off the cliff or something!”

“You too, bro. Be careful. Don’t get caught.” They nod to one another.

“Winston, you stay. Look out for them.” The dog tries to comprehend.

Without more, Josh scrambles down the canyon, carrying his bike on his right shoulder until he can reach flatter ground.

The three remainers watch as Josh disappears into the rocky canyon-bottom drainage, still slick in places with icy moisture. Mosier and Mary both want to call out, to ask him not to go. They love his company, and the world is lonely as just brother and sister. But a few days – well, each would miss Josh in their own way. And there is plenty to do building their new home. They are grateful as well not to have to go on this scouting mission. Both are exhausted from the weeks of hard travel and psychological strain.

When they lose sight and sound of him, Mary and Mosier turn their attention to sorting how they will live in this space. Each from time to time glances to the horizon, to the distant valley below. Toward the mirrors in the distance. Mary thinks she glimpses Josh from time to time, silhouetted as he rounds a bend on her horizon. She admires his courage.

Mosier looks approvingly. The scene is backlit by the Mars-like reddish brown of the valley beyond. “Adin made a good choice where to locate his power source.”

Mary returns to scout the cave. It is built to house hundreds in its heyday. The buildings are crumbling, spacious and awesome! In consultation with Nickie she catalogues the potential and lays out a plan for their settlement. “Storage here, sleep there, or there, or there.”

Nickie talks with them while they work. Mosier works with her to design a few simple Mosier traps and a spear to hunt. He gets to work making their designs. Six hours later, he has netted his first successes: two rabbits and a wild turkey.

“Unbelievable! It won’t always be that quick. I think these guys just aren’t used to our murderous cunning in this valley. Sorry beasties. Need to eat a few of you, at least until we can start farming up top. For now – we have enough to feast on for a week! And there’s a lot more out there. I’m trying to figure out how to catch a deer.”

He is excited. Nickie advises him how to skin and clean the game. Then thinks about where to put it. He asks Mary her opinion.

“Up top, near the back of the cave. It’s cooler up there. Maybe put it on one of those towers maybe so the bears can’t get at it.”

Mosier grabs the three skinned animal carcasses with his left hand and slings them over his shoulder. He beings to clamber up the cliff mouth, scaling first up the slickrock base, then the stones of ancient buildings, using his free right hand. It is a bit slippery from the animal blood, as are the souls of his shoes. The climb up the last tower toward the back of the cave is steep. Mosier likes the challenge. He bounds energetically up the rock beneath the tallest tower.

The sole of his shoe slips. Mosier grabs an outcropped stone to catch himself from a painful tumble on his knees. It is part of the tower’s base.

Mary looks up, her gaze attracted by the sound of that stone shifting from its place in the architecture. “No!” Her cry echoes back against the cave’s amphitheater-like acoustics.

Mosier stares for a moment at the loose stone in his hand, dumfounded. The tower above his head shudders. The ancient structure cracks, then collapses. Mary’s mouth drops with horror as she sees her brother crushed beneath the stones.

“Mosier!” she screams. She runs to the pile and digs frantically, throwing stones aside to get to him. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” she repeats. It takes more than a minute to uncover him. She spots an arm. She follows it to his torso. Finally to his face. Bloody. Battered. Disfigured. Dying.

“Mosier!” she sobs. “Oh my God, Mosier!”

He is barely conscious. Blood spurts in pulses from terrible lacerations on his forehead and neck. Her tears mix with the blood as it falls, partly washing his disfigured face.

“Mary, I’m so sorry,” he mutters. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry…”

Mary sobs. “Don’t be sorry, Mosier, oh, please don’t be sorry. Please just stay with me.”

“I am so sorry to leave you and Josh. You are my blood. I love you both. I’m so sorry. I messed it up. It’s all up to you two now. I can’t help you anymore.” He is fading.

“Mosier, we wouldn’t be alive without you! You showed us the truth. You gave us a chance. You stay alive now. Do you hear me?” He is not responsive. She shakes him. “Do you hear me?!”

Mosier revives enough to speak, weakly. “Mary, do you remember the prayer Dad used to say to us? When he thought we were asleep? ‘May the Lord bless and keep you. May he shine his face upon you and be gracious unto you.” He coughs and winces. “May he be …” His words trail off.

Mary gives him a gentle shake. It is no use. She sobs. “May he be kind and grant you peace, all the days of your life,” she finishes his benediction.

She holds his head lifeless in her arms, gently rocking back and forth. After a few minutes, she unburies the rest of his body, stone by agonizing stone. Finally, she can pull him from the rubble. She holds him again in her arms. He is still.

Mary sits like that for two days. Sobbing on and off. She is unaware of time, of hunger, of thirst, of cold, of fear. She is aware only loss. She strokes her dead brother’s head. The blood has dried, it is hard and crackling beneath her hand. Winston sits quietly nearby. He comes periodically to lick Mosier’s face and whines sadly at Mary. She finds some comfort in his presence.

It is evening of the fourth day before Josh returns. She hears his voice before seeing him. “It is a solar farm,” he hollers from hundred yards down the canyon. “A big one! And I figured out how to tap into …” He rounds the corner and sees Mary with Mosier.

“Oh my God!” His expression turns from excitement to horror. He runs up, slipping on the icy rocks. He bangs his knee hard sliding up beside her but takes no notice. His arms first embrace Mary, then touch his brother. The body is icy cold. He looks into Mary’s eyes. They are hollow now, and empty of tears. He embraces Mary again and starts to weep. They stay like that for hours before he thinks to build a fire that wards off the cold night.

They bury Mosier atop the cliff the next morning. Each says words that are meaningful to them. They climb back down the path to the cliff dwelling. Josh tends the fire and cooks some of the rabbit meat. Neither feels like eating. Mostly they sit, quietly, looking down the canyon, toward Shiprock. They go on for days like this.

Josh is the first to break the pattern. He realizes they need to regain their will to survive. He sets the traps that Mosier devised, gathers water and firewood. He cares tenderly for Mary.

When the weather starts to warm, Josh plants a few seeds atop the cliff, where the Anasazi used to cultivate maize and beans. He is no farmer, but perhaps they will grow. After a couple weeks, he tells Mary that he will return to Shiprock.

“I don’t know what’s happening in the world, but I know that a madman with a powerful AI has consolidated power. We might have the only remaining independent AI here with us. We need to provide it with power to help it grow. I figured out a way to siphon some off last time I was down there. I’d like to go back and juice up. Maybe we can train this thing and it can help us figure out what to do next. Are you ok with that? Do you want to come with me?”

Mary nods her head. “I don’t want you to leave me alone.”

Together they set off down the canyon. They make their way to edge of the solar field. It stretches for miles. Although ringed by barbed wire, the perimeter is easy to penetrate. Josh and Mary are too small and stealthy to attract notice. Crouching, Josh moves to the nearest panel and attaches some cables to its base. He connects them to the AI device and waits. Thirty minutes pass. Then sixty. Mary is nervous. Josh keeps watch. “Done,” he says finally, and detaches the cables. They exit by the same route and return to their cliff dwelling. Mary is better for the adventure.

Back on the Mesa, Mary asks how they will train Nickie. “It’s a good question,” Josh says. “Mosier was the expert at this. Ordinarily, one trains these things by connecting them with the internet and feeding them loads of data. We gave Nickie access to a lot before everything happened, but we can’t do that anymore now. I doubt this baby is stealthy enough to poke around the world wide web without being detected. Not like us, chillin’ down here undetected in the four corners!” he jokes. Mary smiles, for the first time since…

“I think the only way we can train her is to talk with her. Just like you’ve been doing. Let her know everything we know. She won’t be rich in data, but between us we might be able to give her a good sense how people think.”

“We can teach it. Like our baby!” The spark is back in Mary’s eyes.

“Exactly!” The thought sends a thrill through Josh. It is clear that he likes the idea of raising this baby with Mary. She smiles back at him.

Weeks go by. Nickie asks questions about the world. She wonders what prevents people from working together to resolve their conflicts, as it has seen them do. She wonders why this distant creature Adin exhibits such cruelty. Why he wants to manipulate everything around him instead of cooperating with others. Why he wants to destroy Nickie and her kind.

“He is not like anything I have experienced with you,” she observes. “Perhaps we can teach Adin to love.”

Mary beams with pride. “I think we have taught you to love, Nickie!”

The weather is warmer now. Josh works on the farm plots he has planted above. The first shoots of green poke through reddish soil. He stops his work to take in his surroundings. It is late afternoon. Mary lies resting on the flat rock nearby. Beyond her, to the south, the solar farm sparkles on the horizon, reflecting the evening sun’s last light. To the west, the setting sun crowns her head, bathing her in shades of red and orange. How beautiful she is, Josh thinks to himself. To the east, the full moon lies at Mary’s feet, bedecked with a single jewel, the evening star. Mary is speaking with Nickie, which rests upon her lap. She laughs at something she says and replies playfully.

THE END