The Hidden Settlement
They fled a perfect world for a meaningful one. It tore them apart.
Photo by Ryan Spaulding on Unsplash
This is the third story in the Eternal Life universe. While it’s intended to work as a standalone, for the full effect I suggest you read the first two stories first.
The graveyard was small. On most days, you would see half a dozen people pulling weeds, cleaning tombstones, or driving back the jungle. Not today. Today, everyone in the settlement was present for a funeral.
Lucan and his family stayed on the edge of the crowd. They had known the deceased for a few months, but not like the rest of the people here. At the front of the group, Elian stood like a statue. The body being lowered into the ground was Elian’s friend and mentor, Dillinger.
***
Back in the center of the village, a bonfire reached ten feet into the sky. Pictures of Dillinger lined makeshift stands around it. The mourning was over for the people. This was a celebration. Loud music and dancing filled the space. Off to one side, Lucan, Lina, and Lawrence sat watching. Approaching them, Elian said, “You are here. My job is done, and I’m leaving in the morning.”
Lucan said, “Thank you, Elian. You will be back, right?”
“I will be here more often now,” Elian said, trying to force a smile that wouldn’t come.
Behind Elian’s eyes, Lucan could see Elian’s mother staring from the grave. Elian’s parents’ death had given them Lawrence. Now Lucan’s search for meaning had taken his mentor. How do you talk to someone whose life you have ruined twice?
Lina said, “Thank you again, Elian. I’m so sorry about your friend.”
Elian’s eyes overflowed.
***
The family spent the night in a small hut. They were yanked into consciousness by a blaring horn. They stumbled out of the hut into the village. The first golden peek of the sun’s rays were rising over the jungle, and most of the town was already in motion. A man stood next to their hut; he was short. His legs seemed too short for his broad body. Lawrence turned to him and asked, “Are you a dwarf?”
“You can call me Brondi. But I do have dwarfism,” the man said.
Lina’s cheeks flushed. “I’m so sorry, Brondi. Where we come from, birth defects don’t exist.”
Brondi laughed. His gnarled teeth sparkled in the morning light. “Do you think you are the first robot refugees I’ve met? I’ve lived here all my life.”
Lina’s cheeks flushed red as ripe berries. Lucan said, “It seems everything we say is wrong.”
“Oh, y’all are going to be fun,” Brondi said through laughter.
***
A week after their tour, Brondi and Lawrence were in the security hub. Brondi said, “I think you might like the work here.”
“They protect the village?” Lawrence asked.
“From all threats, internal or external,” Brondi said in a theatrical voice.
Lawrence froze. He scrunched his brow and breathed hard. “You mean there is crime here?”
Lawrence saw her, a young woman in a security uniform. Her olive complexion glowed. She put out a hand. “I’m Mirlin. I’m a training officer here. Are you joining the force?”
“I’d love to,” Lawrence said, taking her hand.
***
Brondi found Lucan a job next. They stood where the river flowed into the infinite jungle. A group of men gathered for their morning meeting. “I hear you talk about meaning a lot,” Brondi said. “Most jobs that would be traditionally meaningful require specific skill sets. No offense, but at your age, you are not becoming a doctor or joining the security force.”
“I don’t look a day over one hundred and two,” Lucan said.
Brondi chuckled. “This is our water maintenance team. They take care of the aqueducts and water supply. If you aren’t afraid of the deep jungle, I can’t think of a low-skill job with more meaning here.”
Lucan smiled and turned to the group. “Could you use an extra set of hands?”
“Are you sure?” a man in the crowd said. “Everything in that jungle wants to eat or poison you.”
***
“Isn’t the jungle dangerous?” Lina asked.
Lucan nodded. “Probably even more dangerous than when we were growing up.”
“Why would you agree to such a job?”
“The village needs water. It’s something I can do. Something that matters. How is your job search going?”
“You and your damn meaning. The city wasn’t perfect, but it was comfortable and safe. I didn’t even want to come here, and now you push me to toil? Can’t we just go back?”
“What about the field job?”
“It hurt my hands, and the vehicles here are too confusing to run.”
“If you don’t work, you can’t stay,” Lawrence said. It was his voice, but to his parents it sounded local.
***
Brondi stood in front of the hospital’s main entrance. The flag sagged in the breezeless day.
“Can’t the men work while I take care of the house? That’s what my mother did,” Lina suggested.
“Those were very different times. Try to have an open mind.” Brondi peered at Lina.
Inside the hospital, tall walls rose on all sides. Brondi stopped at two large metal doors; between them was a button panel. He pressed it. After a minute, one set of doors slid open, revealing a small room with more buttons. Brondi walked into the room.
Lina shook her head. “Too small.”
Brondi sighed. “It’s an elevator. We are going to the fifth floor, and I’m not walking.”
Lina entered the room. Brondi pushed the button labeled with a five. The doors slid shut, and the elevator jerked into motion. Lina clung to the rail. The box came to a stop. Brondi stepped out and said, “You’ll get used to it.”
She followed him to a room labeled nursery. Pushing open the double doors, they entered a room full of bassinets. At least ten babies stirred inside them. Lina’s eyes went wide, and she forgot to breathe. “Maly, this is the woman I told you about,” Brondi said.
“I... I... I... There are so many babies,” Lina said.
Maly smiled. “Would you like to help me take care of them?”
“God, yes.”
***
Lucan adjusted quickly to his job. One day, he walked the trail with his partner, Mark. The emerald canopy reached higher than Lucan’s eyes could follow. A kaleidoscope of shadows and fallen debris made breathtaking patterns dance across the forest floor. A sound filled the jungle, stopping Lucan in his tracks. A large monkey swung across the trail and let out a second explosive howl.
“Howler monkey,” Mark said. “They are common, but I don’t think you’ve seen one yet.”
“No. I’ve only heard them,” Lucan said. He pulled a hand-sized notebook from his pocket and wrote in it. This was the third species of monkey he’d seen. He thumbed back through his notebook. He had listed dozens of reptiles, and he had traced jaguar tracks.
That day they were searching the southernmost aqueducts for a speckled caiman. It was Lucan who first spotted it, stretched out on a sunny bank. Its dark green scales overlapped like armor. Jet-black splotches lay across its body. Its mouth open wide as if it were waiting for food to wander in. Mark held up his finger, and Lucan nodded, taking a roll of tape out of their wagon.
They snuck up on the sleeping creature. When they were close enough, Mark held up his hand, telling Lucan to wait. In one fluid motion, Mark jumped onto the reptile’s back and pressed its gaping mouth shut. The four-and-a-half-foot creature flailed, but Mark was too heavy. The men taped its mouth shut and tossed the monster into the wagon.
Lucan said, “After we put him back in the river, we will have time to help the others.”
Mark laughed. “We have a standing rule. You wrestle a crocodilian; you get the rest of the day off.”
“I’d still like to stay out if I can. I enjoy being out here.”
“Suit yourself, man, but I’m taking off after we dump this thing in the river.”
***
Lina’s integration wasn’t as smooth. She loved seeing the babies every day, but the demand bothered her. No privacy, little downtime. It was nothing like the life Lina once knew.
It was Lina’s night to cook. She chopped carrots, pressing so hard on the knife it slammed into the cutting board with loud smacks. Uneven chunks of carrot rolled around the board. She brought the knife down again, hard. It slid off the round carrot and sliced her finger. She let out a shout.
“Are you okay?” Lawrence asked.
“I haven’t felt a cut in over one hundred and fifty years,” Lina said. “It hurts. Do you think I should go to the hospital?”
Lawrence shrugged.
A few hours later, a nurse applied a small bandage to the cut. “It isn’t deep,” she said. “You really don’t need to come in for something like this.”
Lina turned red as she held her throbbing finger. Her embarrassment turned hard and fiery.
“This wouldn’t have happened back home,” she said flatly.
***
Lina and Lucan were not prepared for their first election day. Where they came from, no one had voted in over a century. The robots still held the elections and kept the polls open all day long. No one ever showed up, and ultimately the robots did what they thought was best.
The jungle square was ablaze. Voting stations were set along the edges, and the people of the village walked from one station to the next, discussing their opinions on each issue. Lina and Lucan sat by the fire and watched.
“We can’t cut the aqueduct budget,” Lawrence insisted. “The work is too dangerous. Just last month my father pulled a caiman out of one.”
Miran said, “So what do we cut then? Hospital? Security? The farms already don’t take much resources.”
“Without Northfork we are hurting for anti-venom,” Maly said. The words caught in her throat. She reset with a deep breath and finished. “But other than that we have resources to spare at the hospital.”
Lina looked to Lucan for answers. He shrugged.
Every person in the village, except for Lucan and Lina voted that night. They did so openly and proudly with a show of hands at each station. Then they celebrated around the fire.
***
Lawrence led Miran away from the noise. “I’m happy you participated,” Miran said, putting her hand on Lawrence’s.
“It feels good to be a part of something. In the city everyone keeps to themselves.”
“That sounds terrible.” Miran leaned in.
Half-aware, Lawrence leaned in too. Their lips met. She parted her soft lips, and Lawrence lost track of where he was.
***
The family found routine within the village. Lucan woke before the horn most mornings. He would lie in bed next to Lina and watch her chest rise and fall. He had been working on the irrigation ditches for a few months, but the excitement still bubbled inside him every day.
He half-skipped his way into the morning meeting. The foreman laughed and shook his head. “Lucan, every day I wonder how long you can keep that energy.”
Lucan shrugged. “I like mattering.”
Mark laughed and said, “Let’s talk when the rainy season comes.”
“Okay, we have a lot to do today. Mark and Lucan, Ry and Lunda, a tree fell just past marker thirty-four. It’s slowing the water flow. We need the four of you to remove it.”
Marker thirty-four was about an hour’s hike, and less than ten minutes past it, they saw the tree. It was young. Lucan said, “I can’t imagine removing one of those trees.” He pointed to one of the jungle giants.
Mark laughed again. “You won’t have to imagine. They fall down too.”
Lucan took a large ax out of the wagon. “I’ll jump across and start on the other side. If I can lighten it enough, the three of you should be able to pull the rest out.”
Lucan jumped onto the log and walked across it to the other side of the aqueduct. He jumped off the log onto the jungle floor. As soon as his feet hit the ground, a head erupted from beneath the log. A sharp sting penetrated his calf. As he bent over to grab the wound, the snake lunged again. This time, its long fang sank into his left side. The pain was instantaneous. Lucan stumbled back and fell to the earth. Mark yelled, “Fer-de-lance.”
Ry grabbed a shotgun from the wagon and jumped onto the log. Taking aim, he fired at the creature. The large reptile skidded across the ground and went limp. Blood poured from Lucan’s wounds. His body was on fire. Curling into a ball, he moaned.
Lunda dumped the wagon as Ry and Mark carried Lucan across the log. They set him in the wagon. It was awkward, but it rolled.
The trip back was slow; they entered the hospital almost two hours after the bite. Ry yelled as they came into the building, “Help. Fer-de-lance bite.”
Medical staff rushed into the lobby, moving Lucan onto a gurney. They rolled him into the treatment room.
***
An hour later, Lawrence, Lina, and Mirlin had joined the aqueduct team. The doctor entered the lobby. To Lawrence, he looked tired. The doctor stood in front of Lina and said, “Why don’t you and your son come back to the office? We can talk there.”
Lawrence shook his head. “They all care about my dad. We can talk here.”
“Okay,” the doctor relented. “He’s stable. In a lot of pain, and that is only going to get worse. I... I don’t like this part of my job, but my recommendation is to euthanize him. We have some pain medication, but not enough to last more than today. This can drag on.”
Mark tilted his head. “What about anti-venom?”
The doctor’s eyes fell to the floor. He shook his head. “We have two doses. He has multiple internal bleeds, lungs, kidneys, and likely liver. If I give him both doses, he is still unlikely to make it, and then I won’t have it for the next person we can save.”
Lina shouted, “Are you saying my husband isn’t worth saving?”
“Not at all. I’m saying the cost is too much for the infinitesimal chance we could save him.”
***
Lawrence and Lina stood at Lucan’s bedside. He groaned and winced. “How can we help you, Dad?” Lawrence asked.
“There is nothing anyone can do,” Lucan said.
“That’s not true,” Lina shouted. “The robots would heal you.”
Lucan rolled to his side, reaching out, and took his wife’s hands. “This place has given me more in a few months than the robots gave me in two centuries.”
“They killed you,” Lina said.
“A snake killed me. They gave me meaning. I’m ready to go.”
***
In the lobby, Lina shook. She brought her hands together under her chin as if praying. “No!” she shouted. Her voice echoed through the building. “I won’t stay here.”
Across the room, Lawrence perked up. “Mom, you can’t leave,” he said, but the exit doors were already swinging shut behind her. By the time he made it outside, she had disappeared somewhere in the village on her way to the robots. Mirlin said, “You know we have to report this.”
Lawrence’s dead eyes glazed over.
He nodded.
***
At the security building, the lieutenant listened carefully. “I am so sorry, Lawrence. We have to send an elimination team. She can’t reach the robots.”
“I know,” Lawrence said, choking on his words. “Please, let me go. Let me at least try to bring her back.”
The lieutenant sat back in his chair, considering the request. “Do you understand what that means? I would never send anyone to eliminate a family member, but if you can’t bring her back...”
“She will not make it to the robot city,” Lawrence said. “That is a promise.”
Mirlin said, “Can I go with him at least?”
***
Mirlin was an experienced tracker. Lina was not experienced in anything. Broken branches, trampled underbrush, and obvious footprints made her easy to follow. They caught up to her a little over a mile from the settlement. “Mom, stop,” Lawrence shouted to her.
Lina turned around. Tears streamed down her face and fell around her like dew. “Mom, you can’t go back.”
“Come with me,” Lina said. “You too, Mirlin.”
“Mom, you aren’t understanding. You can’t go. I can’t let you.” His words trailed off to a near whisper.
Lina froze. For a hitch, she didn’t breathe. “Are we prisoners?”
“No,” Lawrence said, taking his gun from his holster. “We are free people. But you can’t go back to the robots. Not ever. There are too many lives at risk.”
“At risk how?”
“There were other settlements before,” Lawrence spoke slowly, his doe eyes pleading. “Eight in total.”
“What happened to the other seven?”
“The robots found them and destroyed them. No survivors. I can’t let you lead them back to us, too.”
“I would never!”
“Where are you going to say you have been? How will you explain your lack of nanos? You don’t have to do anything more than show up in the city to alert them to our presence. Come back with me. Please. I can’t lose you both on the same day.” Lawrence couldn’t see through his tears, but he knew his weapon was still on his mother.
“If I’m to die anyway, I’d rather die now,” Lina said, raising her chin.
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