By G.R. Nanda

Nickel leaned against the altar in silence while Elder hawk slept. He stayed like this for a long time. The edge of his shirt soaked up water from the basin. When Elder Hawk awoke, she sat in silence alongside Nickel, waiting for the next windstorm to begin. She soon stood up and rummaged through a cabinet. She pulled out vials and a stone jug. Nickel sat back down against the basin to prevent any further drenching of his shirt. Elder Hawk dipped her fingers into the bottle, smudging her fingers with a mass of orange powder that trailed down. She pressed the fingers of her right hand onto her forehead, marking it with two streaks of powder; one long on top, and one shorter below it. 

“What is that?” said Nickel. “Where did you get that powder from?”

“It comes from the earth,” said Elder Hawk. “It’s color is tinted by the worldly gas.” She walked over to Nickel and, kneeling down, she rubbed powder on his forehead. Her fingers were cold and the powder she smeared on his skin was flaky. 

She wiped her fingers on her robes. Nickel now saw countless other smudges on her clothing, except they were stained dark from time presumably. 

Elder Hawk walked around Nickel and pulled up her sleeves and reached into the water of the basin. Water lapped on the surface and spilled over the edges of the basin, some of it touching Nickel. There was a soft grating sound from below followed by the gurgling of water filling empty space. When Elder Hawk pulled out her hands, she was clutching wet green leaves dripping alongside her arms. 

“How are they green?” thought Nickel. How could any plant life grow here? 

“Take two and eat,” said Elder Hawk. She raised her arms and her cupped hands towards Nickel. 

“What will it do?’ asked Nickel. 

“It will give you the sustenance to stay awake longer during the acht-chi,” said Elder Hawk. “It is what is required of you in the initiation rite. It takes longer than what the acht-chi normally allows for. Eat these leaves and follow me closely. We must act quickly enough to prevent time from running out. The body is ripe for the rite only when it’s in a careful balance.”

Feeling that there was nowhere else to go, Nickel took two wet leaves from Elder Hawk’s dripping hands. He held both of them by their thin stems and pointing an open mouth upwards, he slowly dipped them into his mouth. He waited to see the effects of the contact. The leaves poked his lips, his teeth, the roof of his mouth and finally landed on his tongue. They were moist, papery and a little sour, but they did not burn or sting his tongue. He finally chewed, mashing up the leaves and swallowed. When every torn up bit had been consumed, Nickel did not notice any apparent change. 

Elder Hawk bored her eyes into Nickel’s. 

“Breathe deeply and relax,” she said. “We must both begin at an equilibrium in order to sync at the onset of acht-chi.” Nickel inhaled quickly and opened his mouth in a tight circle, releasing air sharply. “Slower. Do it with me. Follow me and inhale on three. Ready? One……Two……Three.”

The two of them sat still, breathing deeply and slowly, one following the other in repetition. 

“Notice the cold air coming into your nostrils and the warm air leaving through your nostrils. Focus on that. Your body’s exchange with the worldly gas will be all that matters in the acht-chi. If you focus on that, you will leave the world of thought and enter the world of your body and the worldly gas. Just notice the exchange. If you get lost in your emotion, you will probably get lost in the worldly gas.”

The worldly gas outside started raging again. Twenty or so minutes of calm in the air was over. 

Nickel felt the cold and abrasive touch of Elder Hawk’s finger at his elbow. He opened his eyes which had closed in his breathing meditation. 

“Breathe!” said Elder Hawk. “Walk slowly with me and follow my movements.” They walked slowly, Elder Hawk placing her feet in front of Nickel at intervals of a few seconds. While she gripped his elbow, Nickel followed from behind. When they got to the door, Elder Hawk grunted and kicked open the door. 

Elder Hawk’s jerking movement and the blast of the dark windy air jolted Nickel out of his confident trance of movement. He gasped. He suddenly felt uncertain. His legs wobbled against the old and forceful wind. 

Elder Hawk straightened her hunched back and looked forward. She tightened her grip on Nickel’s elbow. 

“Do not let doubt stop you!” she rasped. Her voice was bold, but strained.

Nickel was still disoriented. He felt like he was going to tumble backwards. He no longer felt centered by steady breath. His breath was caught up in his throat and his heart pounded. 

“I don’t know if I can do this!” he whimpered. “I’ve only done this once before!”

“You must master your own mind!” said Elder Hawk. “Choose what thoughts- what voices you listen to in your head! Somewhere in there is the voice of Great Father Hawk calling on you to foray into the worldly gas just as the hawks of the Desolate Plains do everyday!” 

Nickel gritted his teeth. 

“What have I come all this way for?” he thought. He inhaled sharply. 

“Do you trust my way?” asked Elder Hawk, still looking forward. “You said you wanted to learn my ways. Do you trust my ways?”

“Yes!” said Nickel. “I do!” He leaned forward and planted his right foot forward next to Elder Hawk. He inhaled deeply, feeling he must muster as much energy as he could to continue forward. He gulped as his open mouth was blasted by the wind. He groaned and clamped his mouth shut. He could no longer hear the faint crackle of torches from inside the hut. 

“YES!” screamed Nickel. “I want to learn the way of the hawk! I want to feel stronger- I want to explore a new domain of spiritu-.”

“Then shut up and do it!” said Elder Hawk. “Follow me! Follow my ACTIONS!” She squeezed Nickel’s elbow harder. 

Amidst darkness, glowy figures of tribespeople marched on under the torches they carried, appearing and disappearing as quickly as they appeared in Nickel’s line of sight, being swept away by the density of darkness and fog. 

“Tighten your body!” said Elder Hawk. “Contract your muscles and BREATHE the Worldly Gas! BREATHE in its spirits.”

Nickel bent his knees like Elder Hawk. He held his chest and head upright and held his arms out diametrically: his right forward and his left backwards. All the while, his fingers were held together and pointing parallel to each other from his body, just like Elder Hawk. 

“Breathe and move!” said Elder Hawk as she started to move her left leg forward, bringing Nickel’s elbow along with her. Nickel quickly followed, placing his right leg forward. 

Elder Hawk loosened her grip on Nickel’s elbow. 

“You know how to move amidst a windstorm now,” she said. Elder Hawk moved in a direction and Nickel followed. They stayed relatively parallel to each other’s bodies. “I’ll make an addition to your initiation rite: a tour.”  

They walked across the main square of the East Wing, where Elder Hawk’s hut was. People treated Elder Hawk with a quiet reverence. Packs of people marched by under torchlight, slowly and heavily. 

Their faces glistened with sweat and their eyes were huge with fervor and concentration. Short grunts or yells were used to change direction or tell oncoming tribespeople to get out of the way. 

However, when they neared Elder Hawk and Nickel enough to recognize Elder Hawk, they softened their eyes and averted their faces in a way that appeared like they were bowing. 

“Elder Hawk,” many of them muttered when they saw her. When Elder Hawk had to get Nickel through, many packs stood still, sometimes holding their large crates while they were in the crouched positions of the acht-chi. Once Elder Hawk and Nickel had passed, they resumed grunting and crunching the earth with the steady pattern of their marching feet. 

Elder Hawk showed Nickel the nursery, a large circular hut much like her own. It was across the end of the East Wing on the opposite end of Elder Hawk’s hut. The body was made of dried earth and rock materials that were orange in the light of torches hung on its walls. It was capped by a stringy roof of strips of fabric. The wails of infants came from inside. 

They went to the right side of the East Wing, which was lined with courtship unit huts where couples slept and congregated. 

Nickel’s head was buzzing. Electricity coursed through his veins, propelling his limbs through the forceful wind. His eyes were wide open, unaffected by the blast of the wind. 

They traveled together to an intersection at the middle of the plaza, passing the watchkeepers who crept to and fro and looked up and down over the settlement, much like the people Nickel had seen lurking in the darkness when he had left the Eagle with Steve and Farrul. 

Past the intersection ahead of the courtship huts were more structures interspersed throughout the darkness. Along with the structures were torches interspersed up along the winding and jagged buildings, becoming fewer and fewer in number the further away they were from Nickel and Elder Hawk. 

They stood looking at the fiery spots of illuminated fog standing out in the distance, looming over them. Suddenly, a pinprick of glowing yellow paleness high above in the sky began moving and extending at the edges, almost as if it were swirling. The tendril-like extensions suddenly became part of a larger, circular shimmering halo of light. 

“That’s the moon,” said Elder Hawk. “I figured you were looking, but I wasn’t sure if moon cycles had been explained to you or if you’d even seen the moon in the Desolate Plains of the Atlantic. It appears brighter on random occasions. Rare moonlight gives us something small to see by without torches on nights like these. We never know how long it will last.”

A fat ray of orange shimmered down, cascading upon the upper edges of structures sticking out of the ground. 

Orange seeped around the roofs, lowering around the bodies of the buildings. Nickel’s nose tickled. The skin on his face tickled too. He was feeling the barest bit of warmth. 

“Where are my friends?” he asked. He stood straighter, extending his knees and he turned to his right to look at Elder Hawk. He felt his chest sear with an upward pressure. His head felt weighty and his temples pounded with energy. His limbs felt weak. He felt like he was going to collapse. 

He gritted his teeth and bent to his knees. He tried inhaling and exhaling deeply. He placed his arms outwards and tensed his body. He tried looking straight ahead with wide open eyes, but the wind stung them and his eyelids instinctively closed shut. The energy inside of him was calmed a little bit, but his balance from the acht-chi was lost. His whole body felt like it would burst. 

“Your friends won’t be harmed in our custody, unless they cause too much of a problem,” said Elder Hawk. “But even then, minimal injury is assured. I’m sure your limbs were yanked or twisted by our laborpeople if you had resisted their escort. They are safe in our custody. It’s good to care for your friends, but never quit the acht-chi to do that! Always keep your guard up.”

“Can I go back?” wheezed Nickel who was still struggling to return to a calm and physically secure state.

“Back to my hut?” inquired Elder Hawk. 

“No,” said Nickel. He groaned. “Back to the acht-chi.” 

Silence. 

“No,” said Elder Hawk. “It seems that it’s too late. You had left too much of your posture. You lost too much of your energy.”

Nickel wheezed again and made a retching noise as he doubled over. His chest heaved and fell forward. He caught himself with his hands. He gasped. 

“We’ll finish the tour some other time,” said Elder Hawk. “Let’s get you back to my hut. Your initiation rite has only just begun.”

Elder Hawk bent her quivering knees slowly, lowering herself. 

“Jeez!” thought Nickel. If he, a teenage boy, couldn’t deal with the acht-chi, he would imagine that engaging in the acht-chi like this would be very physically and mentally taxing on an elderly woman. 

Elder Hawk placed an arm under his belly. She pulled at him. 

“Let’s go back,” she said. Nickel stood up, but remained hunched over. “Lean on me,” she said. “Just not too much.” Nickel moved closer to Elder Hawk. “Put your arm on my shoulder. Don’t press too hard.”

With Nickel holding onto Elder Hawk’s shoulder for support, he was guided back to Elder Hawk’s hut through the wind. When they got there, Nickel crashed onto the floor. 

His entire body was frazzled. His heart hammered in his chest. His head pounded. The pulsing electricity was overwhelming his body. 

“Get up,” said Elder Hawk. “The initiation rite requires you to pass into the world of Father Hawk.”

“I can’t move!” Nickel spoke muffled into the floor. “My body hurts.” 

“It’s not your body that moves to Father Hawk. It’s your soul.” 

Nickel closed his eyes. 

“Oh,” he managed. 

“Now,” started Elder Hawk. She huffed and puffed, no doubt wearing out from the acht-chi. She walked over to Nickel until her feet were right next to his face. “To get your soul moving, you have to move your body a little bit.” Nickel stayed still. 

“Up! Up! Up!” said Elder Hawk. Nickel moved up on his knuckles. Elder Hawk walked around the stone basin and sat on her sack bag. Nickel crawled on his knuckles, dragging his feet. 

When he got to the other side of the basin, he lay down flat and leaned against the stone surface in front of Elder Hawk who was slumped on her sack. 

She sat cross-legged with her palms on her knees. She was frowning. Suddenly, she arched her back. 

Nickel closed his eyes and let his head fall to the left onto the ground. 

“Don’t sleep,” rasped Elder Hawk. 

“But,” said Nickel, “isn’t that how I get into-.”

“-Not in an initiation rite,” interrupted Elder Hawk. “In that, I have to go with you.”  

Nickel opened his eyes and looked up. 

“Huh?” he said. 

“Sit like me,” said Elder Hawk. 

Nickel grunted and pushed himself up. The weight of overflowing energy threatened to pull him down. In quick, dragging strides, he moved his legs in front of him. His back pressed against the stone. 

“Sit like me,” Elder Hawk repeated. 

Nickel gritted his teeth and leaned forward to pull in his legs with his hands. He sat cross legged and arched his back straight. He placed his palms on his knees. 

A low guttural hum came from Elder Hawk’s closed mouth. “Hrrrrhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm………………..”

It started soft, but became deeper and louder.

“HHHhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……………………….” 

Her eyes dimmed. Her eyelids moved closer to each other. 

She began to sing in a low grating voice. The lyrics and the rhyming sent a jolt through Nickel for their resemblance to the words of the singing sorceress from his dream. 

“Over the canyons

Soar the strong feathered hawks

To be hunted by loved ones

Here rests nests among rocks

With a batch of cracked eggs for the flock.”

“Your egg has been cracked,” said Elder Hawk, pausing her song and speaking in a normal tone. Her eyes were still dim and half-closed. “What is your name? What shall the flock call you?” 

Nickel realized that he never told her his name. 

“Nickel,” he said. “My name is Nickel.”

“Nickel emerges from the nest!” said Elder Hawk. “Into a role that will be tested.” Her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes stretched, peering intently at Nickel. 

“Nickel, you must know that some of the young men and women will look at you with disdain because you assume a role in the tribe and help from the tribe without having spent as much time in the tribe as them and having suffered in the Desolate Plains as much as them. Do you understand that, Nickel?”

“Yes,” said Nickel, “I do understand that.”

Elder Hawk straightened her head and her eyes softened. She continued to sing.

“Over the canyons

Soar the strong feathered hawks

To be hunted by loved ones

Here rests nests among rocks

With a batch of cracked eggs for the flock

A newborn emerges

With the tribe he shall run

And with fate he converges

Over the canyons

He shall soar with the hawks

Soar to see the light of the sun?”

“I don’t know,” thought Nickel. “Will I see the light of the sun again?” He wanted to ask the question out loud. However, most of his body and muscles were unmoving- almost deadened. His eyelids moved however; they moved closer to each other.  

“We know not.”

The song was finished. Elder Hawk spoke in her normal tone:

“We know not.” 

The frayed energy inside of Nickel came to a stand-still, weighing him down. He was sinking further and further into sleep and unconsciousness. 

“We……….,” crooned Elder Hawk, “…..shall…….have…………………to…………..see!” Her eyes remained soft and her eyelids continued to move dully towards each other. The sight of her blurred away as Nickel’s eyes were closing. 

“Close them,” said Elder Hawk. “Close your eyes.”

She softly hummed.

“Hhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…………………..”

Nickel’s eyes closed completely. The fervent energy from inside stopped coursing through his body, deadening fully. 

“Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……………”

By G.R. Nanda

Nickel curled himself further inwards. He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. It was dark. The edges were the only parts illuminated enough to reveal the brown color. 

“I don’t want to have to do anything with you or anyone here,” said Nickel. “Sorry, but we have to leave this place and get to a place called Hedonim. It’s a city where we can find a cargo transport to get to the mainland of America.”

“We?” questioned Elder Hawk. Nickel looked at her quizzical face and opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. 

Damn it, he thought. He didn’t know if betraying the reality of his company would harm Steve or Farrul. 

“The instruments of fate brought you and your friends here from the Past World.”

Past World? thought Nickel.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “I’m not from the past. I’m……….from now. Modern times. I was born in America on November 18th, 2183.” 

“The Atlantic tribe exists in a reality outside of the one you come from,” said Elder Hawk. “We live in the world of the god Great Father Hawk. We’re descended from people just like you, who crashed here on a Past World vehicle. They went through hard times, trying to survive here on whatever they could use. Many died. Some killed themselves. We were headed downhill until we discovered the sustenance of the hawk. It gave us life- a main staple for an invigorating diet. We no longer had to rely on depleting starch from the hovercraft and measly kupernacle plants. We ate from the hawk and drank from the moisture of the kupernacle. As you know, these plains aren’t completely empty.  Stragglers did come by now and then- just not on ginormous vehicles like yours. We learned of the acht-chi. It connected us further to the sustenance of the hawk. It brought us closer in hunting the hawk. Great Father Hawk spoke to us. We left the Past World of technology and entered the New World of the hawk.”

“So it was the acht-chi?” said Nickel. 

“What was the acht-chi?” said Elder Hawk. 

“All of that,” said Nickel. “The hawk worshipping. The religion”

“The acht-chi is not our religion. The acht-chi is our gateway to our religion- to Father Hawk.”

“What’s stopping you from returning to my world- returning to the Past World?” asked Nickel. 

“An enlightenment has sealed us off from the Past World,” said Elder Hawk. “Our forebears hailed from the American civilization. They lived with science and technology so much that it corrupted them Their psyches and souls were unsatisfied. Their crash into the Desolate Plains of the Atlantic was the best and worst thing that happened to them. Here, through the hunt of the hawk, they made a new more enlightened way of life for themselves- one that was more connected to nature.”

“That’s all great,” said Nickel, “but  I don’t know what you all want from me.” 

“You have entered our dominion,” said Elder Hawk. “If you cooperate, our dominion could give you hospice.”

“Yeah, actually, we could probably use some help,” said Nickel. He brought his knees to his chest and lay against the basin. He made sure to keep his head forward, away from the swirling water. “My friends and I don’t have any clear ideas about what’s around here in the Desolate Plains of the Atlantic or exactly how to get to Hedonim.”

“Hedonim,” whispered Elder Hawk, slowly- mincing on the name. “Why must you and your friends travel to that accursed hub of filthy entertainment?” She frowned. 

“We’re not going to stay,” said Nickel. “Our hovercraft is running out of fuel and like I said before, we’re looking for transportation, so we’re going to hitch a cargo transport.”

“Hedonim means many things to my people,” said Elder Hawk. “I myself see it as nothing more than everything we were glad to leave behind in the Past World. There are some people here who have taken an interest in Hedonim. These plains are a dangerous place, Nickel. I’ll let you know that most of our newborns don’t make it past the age of 14. Those who do will embark on a second initiation rite.” 

“What does this have to do with Hedonim?” said Nickel. He quickly added, “although, I do understand why your mortality is important to tell me-.”

“There was a second hovercraft crash,” said Elder Hawk. “A couple of years after the first. The people onboard spoke English and they were from Canada. They had come in from the opposite direction of the first hovercraft, They had come from the East. They had seen much of Hedonim because they had made a stop there for digital replication repair.”

“They joined our cause- our way of life. They joined Great Father Hawk in the hunt he had laid out for all of our generations.” 

“You see, even though we’ve all worked together very hard to maintain our sustenance and keep this tribe running, we have our share of discord. No one completely forgets the Past World. It stays- the memories. They lose their vitality and their flavor diminishes, but you still remember.” 

“People from the second crash remembered Hedonim. To most, it was just another technological contraption from the corrupted Past World. However, some were enticed by Hedonim. He-Hawk and She-hawk have ultimate control here. Even over me. I can only advise.”

“But He-Hawk and She-hawk can’t control what we see in the acht-chi. Only Great Father Hawk can see to that.”

“For some, Hedonim appeared during acht-chi labors. They said the hawks flew in its direction. Those original few from the second crash passed away , but their word was passed on to the next generations. Once the seeds were planted in their minds, acht-chi dreams nurtured the seeds.” 

“Great Father Hawk wants us to broaden our horizons and see as much as the hawk can. Therefore, we send young adults on a third initiation rite to become directors and leaders of the tribe. We send them on mission quests to foray outside the tribe’s limits to prove worthiness in survival. They must use their dreams- their acht-chi dreams from their whole lives –to guide them outside. They’ll look for what they’ve seen in their slumber. They pass the test if they return safely with new knowledge to share with the tribe. This knowledge usually helps us with hunting schedules and routes as well as predicting weather.” 

“Boy, something you must know is that many youths have been sent out and died. But every single one who’s returned has found a new refuge in their tribe. Their dangerous expedition has made them appreciate the way of Father Hawk.” 

“Something else you must know is that every single one of them was given the option to leave the tribe in their expedition.” 

“I understand-,” said Nickel, “or I think I can sort of understand what your tribe is all about. In fact, I think I understand why your tribe exists and why you do the things you do.”  

“Your tribe’s way of life sounds better than a lot of the ways of my past world in the American military base. My life felt too industrial and scientific.” 

“Hedonim is the most industrial thing in the Desolate Plains of the Atlantic,” said Elder Hawk. “Yet some of the tribespeople have wanted to look for Hedonim even after their mission quests.”

“The acht-chi is mysterious. It is beyond my control or the control of any living person. At least any living person from my tribe. The dreamsphere of the acht-chi usually binds my tribespeople together. That is, unless one is motivated by his or her own unique dream visions. For we all see different things in the dreamsphere.”

“I know,” said Nickel. He stood up and directly faced Elder Hawk. “I’ve partaken in the acht-chi.” Elder Hawk’s eyes widened. “When I fell asleep from exhaustion, I had a dream vision. It was a scene. I was in my body and I saw everything from the perspective of my body.”

“What about the friends you say are here?” asked Elder Hawk. 

“They told me they’d been seeing differently for a long time,” said Nickel. “They would see different parts of these plains, but they were all close to a place they thought was Hedonim. I dreamed once and dreamed I was being fired at by people in silver suits. I fell over a cliff and onto the surface of Hedonim. I saw many things inside it and the whole time, a woman I couldn’t see was singing to me.”

Elder Haw’s mouth was firmly closed for a while. 

“Is that dream the reason you have come here?” she asked quietly. 

Nickel’s lips opened a crack, but he didn’t speak immediately. 

“Yes,” he said. “My friends, Steve and Farrul- they thought that Hedonim might exist. They weren’t entirely sure. But when I told them my dream, they knew what I was talking about was Hedonim. Steve was convinced that it was real and that our dreams collectively made a whole picture showing a way to Hedonim. Steve believed I was the key. We were determined to leave on my hovercraft, using the little fuel I had left to make it to Hedonim.”

“Our paths unite,” said Elder Hawk. She walked towards Nickel, cocked her head and frowned. “But our intentions and values contradict. We are notably united. Only in the acht-chi do we share vision.” 

“I mean,” started Nickel. “Part of me thinks this is all some hokey-pokey primitive religion and culture of yours, but I feel like it has real value here- in the Desolate Plains of the Atlantic. I don’t understand what it is, but I’m attracted to your way of life.”

Elder Hawk laughed. 

“I’m sure our hokey-pokey primitivity can be of some assistance. The truth is that you’re hokey-pokey to me. When I listen to you, I hear objective talk from a world and its science that I’ve left too long ago for me to understand.”

“The truth is,” said Nickel, “I’m attracted to your spiritual life. I don’t think there’s much spirituality for us deserters stranded in the Desolate Plains of the Atlantic. Other than the acht-chi, I guess. The gas here blinds us, but the acht-chi- provides a way to see past the curtain- the curtain of orange. But the acht-chi and the dreams are so wild and they just feel……..untamed. 

Elder Hawk tilted her head upwards and scrunched her eyebrows. 

“How astute,” she said. “You’re an insightful one. Perhaps our cultural divides won’t get in the way of connection. You’re not as mechanical as I would have thought you to be.”

“And you’re not all as primitive as I would have thought you to be,” said Nickel. 

“I wouldn’t use that word.”

“What- primitive?” said Nickel. 

“Yes,” said Elder Hawk. “To you-.” She pointed at Nickel with ehr left hand. “- I am primitive. To me I am enlightened. You are not. You are trapped in the Past World. You are trapped in the objective and the mechanical.” 

“Well………….,” began Nickel. He stood straighter and walked a few steps towards Elder Hawk. His mind was flowing with his own reasoning. His movement and focus was no longer limited to survival and escaping imminent and unpredictable danger. “…….To me, I am enlightened by a culture of science and technology, while you are trapped in a culture without science and technology.” 

Elder Hawk lowered her head and smiled at Nickel. 

“Very good,” she said. “Through discourse- through being blunt, we have reached double truths. Both perspectives hold truth in our own minds. What I am to you is what you are to me.” She cocked her head to her left. “Now, let’s try to see the edge in each other’s pasts. I’ll go first.” She straightened her neck. “Your world’s technology allows for a greater expansion of human knowledge. You come from a world that is vast, intricate and industrious. There is power in that.” Her eyes turned into small slits. She cocked her head to her left again, peering at Nickel. He understood that she was waiting for him to speak. 

“Your culture is connected to this landscape. This landscape is hostile and confusing and you’re connected to it in a way that Steve, Farrul and I aren’t. I feel attracted to your connection with each other and this environment. I’m attracted to your……….. minimalism and lack of technology. It’s fascinating………….and liberating.” 

There was a sinking feeling in Nickel’s chest. He wondered if in his confession, he was forsaking his past and everything he thought he knew in his upbringing. He was afraid of…………changing. Yet, there was a buzzing in his mind- a thrill at discovery that occurred as he spoke his words. The dread and excitement combined in an unsettling mood of shock that transfixed him in terror and awe. His eyes widened as he stared straight ahead. His limbs trembled and his heart pounded. 

Elder hawk moved her neck upright and closed her eyes. 

“Do not fear boy,” she whispered. She moved her head back, leaning against the wall. “Your path will become clearer………….but always know………..knowledge comes with a price………..the truth kills!” she said snarling her last three words. Her whole body slumped and her head fell onto her right shoulder. Her back slid down against the wall. Drool trickled out of her open mouth and she snored loudly. 

Nickel felt himself relaxing- the tension of confrontation wearing away as he realized Elder Hawk was asleep.

By G.R. Nanda

The oracle, the muse of the Atlantic tribe was a sweet, but at times stubborn and inaccessible woman. Elder Hawk spent much of her time inside a spacious hut referred to by the tribespeople as their “nest.” Her time was spent indoors, away from the effortful labors performed by the younger and the physically stronger while they were under the spell of the acht-chi.

She had lived long enough and worked long enough to deserve some peace, solitude and a tribal role that was less physically taxing. Her affairs involved communicating with the god Great Father Hawk, attending to the tribespeople’s woes and confusions. She also attended to every birth and every expected death. Above all activities, she slept. Rich dreaming allowed her to communicate effectively with her god. 

On this night, the tribespeople counted unexpected visitors as “births.” It was because of this that Elder Hawk’s nighttime slumber was interrupted by pounding at the door. 

Elder Hawk’s eyes opened into small slits. Her plump body was sunken into a large sack of leaves. Her shrivelled brown skin was exposed on her face and her thin hands- the rest hidden in her baggy robes. Across from her at the front of the long room, illuminated by small torches on the walls, past the large rug on the floor and the hawk altar in the small basin of water at the middle, the two main doors shuddered. Torchlight spilled from under them. 

“A birth!” someone shouted from outside in the howling wind. “A birth!” 

Elder Hawk closed her eyes and laid her arms on her stomach under her breasts. She breathed deeply. 

None of the courtship rituals from my knowledge warrant a birth at this time! thought Elder Hawk. How could a secret romance have blossomed under my watch? This troubled her greatly. If she wasn’t able to identify, initiate and plan the courtships of the Atlantic tribe, she wouldn’t be fulfilling her role as Elder Hawk. 

The doors opened with a loud blow. The night’s laborpeople walked in carrying torches that alighted dust and orange fog spilling into the room. The wind blew through, tickling and dampening the small flames of the torches hung on the walls. The laborpeople were carrying a long lean body strung up on their tightened hands.

“Elder Hawk!” said Li, one of the laborpeople, who left the mass of people to rush around the fountain, kneeling before Elder Hawk. He was a tall muscly man with long black hair collected in a pony tail and wisps of thin facial hair, slanted eyes and tan skin. He stared wide-eyed into the sleepy eyes of Elder Hawk. “A new birth! You must decide the fate of this newborn!”

The doors were slammed shut. The flames of the torches cast swirling shadows across the walls and their faces. The laborpeople behind Li spread throughout the room and made sure to stay behind. Two people laid the body in front of the fountain. 

“A newborn?” exclaimed Elder Hawk. “How many newborn infants have you seen that big?”

Li bowed his head, contemplating a response. 

The knot in Elder Hawk’s chest loosened. She did not in fact miss a tribal courtship. However, a knot formed again. A being- a teenager had been birthed- brought into the world of the Atlantic tribe. 

“Quite an unexpected birth,” commented Elder Hawk. “A teenager. A young man.” She arched her back and squinted at the unmoving body on the floor. His garments were unlike anything she had seen on her fellow tribespeople. A long crinkled suit of red and grey material covered him from his torso to his feet. “He appears to be from…….. the outside world. 

Li looked up at Elder Hawk. 

“That does appear to be the case Elder,” he said. “It makes me afraid.”

“Before He-hawk dropped him as prey, we were warned by the last shift of laborpeople and watchers that a vehicle from the Past World had landed on our watchtowers. The birthed one we brought probably comes from this vehicle.”

Elder Hawk’s eyes widened. Torchlight shimmered on her large brown pupils. Her eyebrows and eyelids were stretched with concern and shock. 

“A vehicle………,” she repeated, “……… from……….. the………… Past World.” She exhaled for a long time at the last two words. Her lips tightened and turned downward. She wore a pained expression on her face. 

Li nodded. 

“Very mysterious,” he said. 

“Where is the vehicle?” said Elder Hawk. 

“It must have been pulled down by laborpeople in the West Wing. We heard of disturbance and clamor from the watchboys. He-Hawk told us to expect larger than usual prey.” 

“Is this…………… boy here,” began Elder Hawk, pointing to the body on the floor behind Li, “the only one of his kind? Was he alone in the vehicle?”

“I -,” started Li, “- I – I don’t know.” He bowed his head. Li’s exchange was complete. All that he must say had been said. They both knew that Elder Hawk must begin her birthing initiation rite. 

“The Great Father Hawk still works his instruments of fate from the cosmos,” said Elder Hawk. “He has seen to our visitors from the Past World. We will pull from his teachings and His Word.” She tapped her left ear. “I continue to listen and I always do. The fifth nightgown of the month is awaiting. Calm your hearts. I will listen and spread His Word then. Go now, with your laborpeople. Send the next shift and relieve yourselves of the acht-chi.” 

“Yes, Elder Hawk,” said Li, still bowing his head. He stood up and faced the laborpeople. “We leave. Acht-chi fulfilled.” He headed out the door with everyone else shuffling to the door. Gas spilled in when the door was opened. They emptied the room, bringing their large torches outside with them. When the door closed, the room was dimmer and quieter. 

The boy scooted on his side, leaning against the basin in a fetal position. His eyes were still closed. 

“Open your eyes,” muttered Elder Hawk. She stood up from her sack. The feathers inside shifted and ruffled against each other. “Knowledge and re-birth await!”

By G.R. Nanda

“Yes, there’s more bird people!” said Steve. He started to get up, but he fell and began to slide down the floor, before planting his palms and feet firmly on it. His long stringy hair was mangled and splayed all over a forehead lined with sweat. 

There was a pounding at the wall to the left. It was coming from behind Nickel and Steve, towards the middle of the hovercraft. 

Nickel stared through the window and slumped on his piloting module seat. His racing heart and constricting chest told him to get up and do something, but his fear pressed on him like a weight, leaving him unmoving. 

“We have to do something – We have to do something – We have to do something – We have to do……,” Steve repeated frantically. “Where’s Farrul?” he said. “Where’s Farrul?” 

“I think he smacked into something and blacked out,” said Nickel. The pounding got louder and moved closer up the hovercraft towards them. “I think I remember him yelling and falling. When he fell, he stopped yelling and he was quiet. I don’t know if he’s awake yet.”

“Farrul?” shouted Steve. He looked behind him around his shoulders. “Uh-.”

“We cannot breach the captives!” 

The voice was loud and deep- almost a growl. It came from outside, so it was echoey and warbled. “We cannot breach the captives!”

“Then they aren’t captives!” said a man with a higher pitched voice- shrill and crisp. 

“Send in people with weaponry!” came a softer feminine voice, but booming like the rest. “Tear the wall open if needed!” the woman said. Dozens of voices began yelling at once, becoming muddled and indecipherable. 

“We should get out of here,” said Nickel. His head was buzzing with adrenaline. 

“You’re right,” said Steve. “Snap out!” he yelled. “MOVE!” He lunged upwards and slapped his arms across Nickel’s body. Nickel felt Steve’s warmth and his ragged breath as he was literally pulled out of the piloting module and thrown onto the ground. He tumbled over the floor and his palms momentarily slid over the surface, squeaking. 

The yelling outside became a deafening roar. 

“Let’s go to the basement,” said Steve. He planted his palms and feet on the floor and Nickel did the same. They were poised precariously still for a moment. 

Nickel looked under his body at Steve. He shook his head.

“No,” he said. 

“Where else would we have to go?” Steve said in a rasp. “We need to hide! We can’t go outside. Outside is theirs!” 

“If we go into the basement, we’ll be stuck down there!” snarled Nickel. His palms slid down the surface and Nickel pressed his belly onto the ground. “Literally stuck there, waiting for them to come and get us!” he wheezed as he looked up at the front of the Eagle. 

Steve began to speak, then stopped. 

“Damnit, you’re right!” he said. 

“There’s the hatch at the back, down the steps,” said Nickel. He dragged his limbs around on the floor in a circle, using his elbows to pivot his movement. He faced the back of the room and flattened himself. Facing the end of the room, he pointed at the staircase to the left. “That’s where we go.” Nickel winced at a loud slamming from outside that shook the secondary control desk. He slid down again, but pressed the base of his palms onto the cold floor. 

“WHAT?” screamed Steve. “I can’t hear you!” 

“IT’S OVER THERE!” said Nickel as he lifted his entire left arm to point and leaned on an elbow pressing firmly into the ground. “DOWN THE STEPS -.” Nickel coughed. “- TO THE LEFT!” 

“Ok, let’s go!” said Steve. He grunted and rushed forward, sliding down on his stomach. Nickel followed by sliding on his stomach as well. His chest skidded to a halt and the left side of his mouth smacked the floor. Pain shot through the side of his mouth followed by a numbness that enveloped the left portion of his gums. He yelped, but the sound was drowned by the yelling and pounding of the wall to the left. Nickel moved his chest up and managed to jog down until he tumbled onto the secondary control desk, joining Steve who had fallen as well. 

Being mere feet away from the area on the wall bearing assault, the voices and pounding were louder than ever. 

Steve shouted with his grisly bearlike voice, but Nickel didn’t hear him. He shouted louder.  

“COME ON, NICKEL!” Steve scooted away from the desk towards the right and towards an opening between it and the wall. “COME HERE!” 

“LET’S GRAB FARRUL!” Nickel followed crawling on his butt. 

Steve carried a limp and weakened Farrul with a bleeding forehead and threw him down the stairs to the left. When Farrul hit the bottom, he grunted in pain. A groaning came from behind where the wall was being barraged. Nickel moved towards the stairs and then fell down them. His shins hit the steps and flared with pain. His nose hit the bottom and then gushed with blood. 

Steve joined them, slamming down on the back wall, which was now tilted downwards. He was to the right of Farrul and Nickel was to Farrul’s left. He was the closest to the entrance hatch which was on the adjacent wall at his left. They were all crowded in a dark and narrow space.

“Open the hatch!” said Steve. Nickel rolled over, lying against the hatch. He pushed his stomach up and turned the hatch’s knob in a circular motion. He pushed and there was a click. Nickel gripped the knob, and rolling over to the left, pulled it open. Orange gas and chilliness seeped through. The yelling and clamor was audible from outside as well. 

Steve grabbed Farrul and held his upper torso above the opening, preparing to drop him. 

“NO!” said Farrul. He wriggled. “Put me back down!”

“Yeah, slow down, Steve,” said Nickel. “You’ve already hurt him enough. You dropped him down the stairs.” 

“Sorry,” whispered Steve. “Getting ahead of myself.” Farrul wriggled, pushing Steve’s arms and rolled out of Steve’s grip and over his body, landing behind Steve. 

Steve slid down the opening, falling through. 

“Let’s get out of here,” said Nickel. 

Farrul dropped through. 

Nickel grabbed the edges of the opening and let his legs dangle in the cold air. He saw the orange tint disappear the farther down the gas was from the light of the hovercraft, becoming pitch darkness. Nickel hesitated, imagining the perils of entering this new territory. 

There was a loud reverberating bang and echo from the assaulted wall. That was enough. Nickel let go of the edges and descended. He quickly slammed into Farrul who was in turn sprawled on top of Steve. 

“Get off,” wheezed Steve. “You’re gonna crush -.” Nickel and Farrul moved off onto a cold rocky ground. Nickel looked around, seeing hazy frames of dark spires sticking out of the earth amidst a hazy canvas of thick gas. 

The spires closest to them looked like towers and were rugged; the tops were crumbling, broken and there were whole openings in the surface that were jagged at the edges. Torches were placed in these openings, dotting the landscape with light that cast auras of orange color in the ever-flowing gas. 

Behind them was a large and looming wall- a slab of darkness curving over like a wave in an ocean. The top edge was jagged- uneven. Like the spires, pinpricks of orange torchlight and waving cloth dotted the body of the wall. 

“How’d it get this dark already?” said Nickel. Up the slope they had fallen to the bottom of stood the Eagle, dangling off a rock ledge. Next to the Eagle, up the slope, were all the people attempting to breach the hovercraft. They were adorned in feathered clothing and wore feathers in their hair. Behind those who attacked the hovercraft with stick-like weapons and those who held fat rods together, ramming into the hull by moving backwards and rushing forwards, were people who held lanterns of fire with auras of illuminated orange gas. None of them had the wings that Nickel had seen on the man who was perched in front of the window. 

Dull footsteps came from the roof of the Eagle where people walked and crawled, prying at and inspecting the surface. One of them had a thin rod wedged between one of the plates, trying to pry it open. Their light came from a figure holding a lantern. The figure had feminine features. Plates of armor wrapped around her thighs, hips and torso, highlighting womanly curves. A cap of feathers was laid on her head and a beak crowned her nose. Long wings- like those on the bird-man stuck out across her back. The frame stood still, but the individual feathers shook in the breeze. She moved forward, closer the edge of the hovercraft- closer to Nickel, Steve and Farrul. The lantern moved with her, illumining her in lighted gas that revealed more about her features. 

It is a woman, thought Nickel as he observed lumps of breasts protruding from her feathered chest above her armor. 

“AAAAAAaaaaaaah!” she growled, pointing in Nickel’s direction while still holding the lantern. “THERE! THE PASSENGERS ARE THERE!” she screamed while she bent her knees and jabbed down at Nickel, Steve and Farul’s direction, scowling with gritted teeth. 

Fear finally permeated Nickel enough to get him moving. He crawled backwards with his palms and feet while his butt was poised downwards. Abrasive rock scratched and dug at his palms. 

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” he whispered, “oh no!”

The banging slowed down and the Eagle’s assaulters stared around, looking for the “passengers,” some finding the direction the woman was pointing in. 

The inspectors on top stopped prying around and looked down at Steve, Nickel and Farrul. 

There was a crunching of rock from behind. 

The woman put her fingers to her mouth and whistled. 

“Whoooeewiiiioueewiiooouee!” she sounded. It was shrill and piercing. 

Yelling sounded from the wall behind. There was a whistling in the air that became louder and louder. Three arrows flew down and planted next to the three stragglers’ bodies: one to the left of Nickel and two the right of Steve and Farrul. 

There was a groaning from the Eagle as the side of its hull was finally breached. Shards of the wall tumbled over each other and crashed on the ground. People entered the opening that Nickel couldn’t see. 

“She-Hawk?” some of them shouted. “Where are they?”

“She-Hawk!”

“We gotta stop them!” said Farrul, standing up. “They’re tearing up the Eagle!” 

“No!” said Steve, grabbing hold of Farrul’s leg. He pulled and Farrul stumbled backwards. 

“Guys, we need to run!” Nickel said. He continued to crawl backwards again. He looked past his right shoulder and saw faint figures of people with glinting red eyes staked out in the distance in front of the looming wall. 

“Yes, yes – I agree!” said Steve. He hurried to his feet and slapped Farrul’s shoulders. “Come on, Farrul! Run – run – RUN!”

Nickel got to his feet and bolted towards the looming wall. Steve and Farrul followed, their feet crunching rock behind Nickel’s crunching feet. Shadowy figures belonging to the red eyes moved together from the left, chasing after them. 

“DIVIDE!” yelled She-Hawk. “Five of you must leave the craft behind and pursue the intruders!”

The chase was on. Nickel, Steve and Farrul ran, but they were running deeper into the stronghold of their pursuers. 

“What’s the point of this?” huffed Farrul. “We’re going to get caught!”

“No, keep running!” shouted Steve. “Let’s keep going around the bend in between the walls! Look for somewhere to hide!”

Arrows whizzed past them from high on the looming wall. Nickel and Farrul exclaimed when they saw them raining down. 

“BUT-” started Farrul. 

“NO!” said Steve. “DON’T THINK! RUN AND HIDE!”

Many footsteps sounded behind Nickel. The feathered pursuers were getting closer. 

“STOP!” they shouted. “There’s more of us!”

“Do not hide from the Hawk of the Atlantic!” boomed a throaty voice from a darkened man on a tall ledge in front of the looming wall. “You are in his NEST!”

“Split up!” said Steve. 

“What?” shouted Nickel, still looking ahead. “That’s a – terrible -.” He panted. “- idea!”

“THERE’S NOTHING ELSE!” said Steve. “They’ll corner us! We – should – confuse – them!”

In a split decision, Nickel turned sharply to his left and ran up to an upwardly inclined surface. 

“Be careful!” shouted Steve. 

“There he goes!” said a pursuer. “Call He-Hawk! She-Hawk can’t see him! He’ll disappear in the fog!”

Nickel’s feet pounded loudly against the inclined surface as if there were a hollow space inside. The farther up he ran, the more he began to see that the surface was reaching up to and connecting to the smaller wall. 

His head buzzed with a familiar panic. His limbs were propelled by adrenaline and fear. Suddenly, the surface joined the top ledge of the wall. However, as he ran atop the wall, the edge narrowed until a precariousness threatened to throw him enough out of balance that he slowed to a halt. 

His breath caught in his throat and exhaustion seeped through his body, deadening his limbs until they cramped. 

“Aaaigaheeeiaaaiahee!”

Rough hands pinched at Nickel’s armpits and propelled him forward. The next thing Nickel knew, he was lifted up into the air by hands with long fingernails that dragged across Nickel’s chest. Nickel could see large winds stretched out at the edges of his vision from behind. The wind suddenly flowed strongly from behind, propelling them up and forward while chilling Nickel to his core. 

“Quite the maverick we have here. Ehh?” shouted the captor in Nickel’s ears. “Ran away from your flock?” You’re the lucky one! The Hawk of the Atlantic just saved you! Your friends can’t run for long! There is no running in the windstorms of the Atlantic!”

“Screeeee!” The sounds of screeching hawks emerged. 

“Screeeee!” They filled the air, becoming clamorous. 

“SCREEEEEEEE!” Nickel’s legs trailed behind and moved forward, whipped by the winds from behind, but he was always pushed backwards by the momentum of his captor gliding forward.

 So his legs swung back and forth like a pendulum. The motion and his helplessness at being carried limp at the armpits left his armpits sore and him feeling nauseous, dizzy and panicked. 

Small dark birds were gliding all around them. Animals. The first non-humans Nickel encountered in the Desolate Plains of the Atlantic.  

“Screee! Scree! Screee! Screee!”

They were silhouettes of hawks. Features such as long red wings, glinting red eyes and white bodies were invariably highlighted by the darting bright lines of torches placed throughout the environment. 

Whiiiiiiiizzzzz!

A hawk below to the left suddenly screamed and its wings crumpled. The head arched back with a gaping beak and plummeted to the earth. 

The hawks around ceased gliding and hurriedly flapped their wings. 

Whiiiiiiiizzzzzzz!

Another hawk screamed and crumpled before falling to the ground. The rest of the hawks frantically flapped and chirruped in short spurts. 

“Scri! Scri! Scri!”

Whiiiiiiizzzzz! Whiiiiizz! Whiiz! Whiiiizzzzz! Whizzzzzzz! Whiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzz!

Many birds were consequently felled by arrows which simmered under swirling torchlight. The play of illuminated orange gas and black darkness made the world look like it was filled with ashy smoke and explosions of fire. The storming winds, whistling of arrows, puncturing of hawks and frenzy of panicking hawks screeching was loud and overwhelming. 

“Do not fear!” said Nickel’s captor. “Our bowmen are precise! You won’t be harmed! But you’re not off the hook! You’re still prey from tonight’s hunt! You’re only a different kind of prey!”

Voices shouted from down below. 

“He-Hawk is here!” shouted the captor. “Handle our human prey with care!” He swung Nickel forward and let go of his armpits. 

Nickel flailed as he fell through the air. The flying hawks moved above him and he joined the rain of dead ones. A mass of feathered human bodies, some with feathered masks, some without, appeared from below, holding their hands out while some held torches. 

Nickel’s body slammed into raised palms that poked and slapped him. Nickel couldn’t resist their hands, grabbing and wrapping around his limbs. He screamed and kicked, but the more he kicked, tighter his limbs were held. Someone jerked Nickel’s left foot to the side, twisting his ankle. 

“AAAAAAAAAAaaaauuuuuuuugggGGHHHH!” Nickel screamed louder than ever. “IT HURTS!” he wailed. 

Someone grabbed the side of his head and pulled Nickel’s ear to his mouth. Hot breath tickled his skin. 

“Quiet!” he whispered. “Stop resisting. Stop kicking. Then we can be more gentle. Agree? Nod if you agree!”

Nickel nodded quickly. The man let go of Nickel’s head. 

“Karim!” the man shouted. “Be careful with his legs! You’re hurting him. Loosen up, but tighten it if he keeps fighting!”

As the winds roared and pressed from the left, the people held Nickel firmly above them and marched in a single direction, slowly, but steadily. Nickel saw He-Hawk swoop over them in the fiery orange torchlight that bled a nighttime red though the fog before receding into darkness. The woman with wings, presumably She-Hawk, also appeared over the torchlight, before disappearing into darkness. 

These people below Nickel marched in the same slow rhythm. The sounds of their garments shifting and their soles crunching on the earth had a similar rhythm. At first, they were out of step, but the sounds of their movement joined in unison, becoming a singular motion. 

He-Hawk and She-Hawk swooped overhead from the right, surveying their land.

By G.R. Nanda

The Eagle soared through the air for close to twenty minutes. As soon as Nickel was informed on his control screen that the Eagle was facing omnidirectional wind resistance and he heard quickening winds billowing and grazing the hull of the hovercraft, Nickel initiated the landing part of phase hop. 

“De-activate the thrusters!” shouted Nickel. “We’re gonna land!”

“Allright, Farrul!” shouted Steve. “Push down on the shaft!” Steve and Farrul grunted behind Nickel, no doubt from the effort of pushing down as hard as they could. 

Outside the window, Nickel could see craggly rock formations and dark metal spindles jutting out of the fog. There was a loud beeping and a warning sign flashed on the main screen:

WARNING! SENSORS DETECT OBTRUSIVE OBJECT!

The analytics readout flashed the receding length between the Eagle and the obtrusive object. 6 feet 7.65 inches. 4 feet 8.998 inches. 3 feet 4.571 inches. The Eagle crashed onto a metal framework sticking out of the ground which was receding in clarity as the winds and the fog thickened. The sound of the Eagle’s bottom slamming into the solid was deafening. 

“Couldn’t you have picked a better place to land?” screamed Steve. 

“I didn’t really have a CHOICE!” said Nickel. “Hop is used only for EMERGENCIES!” There was a loud rumble and crash from outside. Nickel saw a long dark cylindrical object coated with rust emerge in front of the window. Spokes of narrow metal rods were behind it, splayed in many directions. 

The Eagle began to free-fall; the solid surface that the Eagle had landed on seemingly gave away. The ship moved down away from the top of the large tower-like cylinder. A large and gaping square shaped opening appeared on the tower’s wall. Cracked shards of glass stuck out of the corners of the opening, connected by thin wires. The opening quickly receded from Nickel’s window view. A fat black apparatus suddenly loomed over the side of the Eagle’s window view. It looked to Nickel like a wall. 

The Eagle struck against the black apparatus. The grating of the two surfaces sounded like a pained screaming. Farrul shrieked. The front of the Eagle slammed into something. Nickel felt the jolt of the front of the Eagle’s hull sear across the floor beneath his feet. There was a moment of slow wobbling as the Eagle rested on the object in the howling windstorm. 

Suddenly, a long metal surface edged out from the bottom of Nickel’s window view. There was a slow vertigo felt throughout the hovercraft. Nickel felt gravity push up and against his body. The object below the Eagle was tilting and the Eagle was sliding down its surface. 

“Fucking glibb,” whispered Nickel. He clutched the arm handles of the piloting module and pressed his legs against its bottom. 

“NOOO!” screamed Farrul. “NO! Goddamn it, Nickel!” He “oomphed” and then he was quiet. It seemed that Farrul had fallen backwards into something. Nickel squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the arm handles harder. 

The sliding got louder and shakier. The Eagle moved faster. When Nickel opened his eyes, the long metal surface was edging up the window view faster and faster like a mountain erupting from the earth. 

He closed his eyes again. 

The frame of the Eagle shook violently, shaking Nickel’s butt. It would move away and slam against his seat erratically. His back shuddered against his chair, sometimes moving inches away. 

So this is happening again, huh? a voice rang in Nickel’s head. The insides of Nickel’s eyelids flashed bright red and became pitch black invariably. The Eagle is crashing down again. Just when things start to feel under my control. There was a sharp ring from the back of the hovercraft. The craft was slammed and released into freefall over and over again. Things just get glibbed up. Nickel’s head rocked back and forth, jerking involuntarily with the movement of the Eagle. 

But then again………….Isn’t that just life? The Eagle banged onto something and wobbled, sliding slower. That’s what dad would say. The Eagle swayed to the right and slammed onto an object large enough to still the hovercraft’s movement. 

This time, you’re not alone. The Eagle fell backwards and crashed loudly. The craft was now completely still. Nickel opened his eyes to see a control desk whose screens were blacked out except for the ones directly in front of him in the piloting module. At least I have people to share the pain with. Nickel chuckled. 

He put his hands to his forehead, pressed, massaged and then rubbed his eyes. He breathed deeply. He put away his hands and stared wide-eyed at the window in front of him. The metal object protruding from under the Eagle was now mostly obscured by orange. All that remained were dark aspects of a metal frame only visible from time to time. Spokes of a spindly framework stuck out in the far distance. 

“We all okay?” said Nickel. The Eagle groaned with tension. Nickel looked around the edge of his piloting module. If he got up from his chair, he would be facing a downward slope behind the control desk. If he tried moving to the back of the control room, he would most likely fall, roll or tumble down unless he grabbed hold of the secondary desk or something else behind him. “Are you guys okay?”

“No, we’re not okay!” said Farrul. “Gee man! We roll with you for a while and this shit happens?”

“I’m sorry about this!” said Nickel. He lifted his head upwards and pushed his arms up on the back of his seat. It sort of felt like he was getting out of bed. “You know, this isn’t that different from when the Eagle landed before I met you guys.” Nickel coughed. “I really do not like flying in the Desolate Plains of the Atlantic.”

“Yup,” said Steve from afar. “That’s why us stragglers have been stuck here for so long. Flying out here is hard and expensive. People who try crash most of the time. So few even try to set foot here.” Nickel scooted his butt up the chair. As he moved his neck away from the chair, a cramp formed on its side, causing Nickel to wince. 

“Aaah!” gasped Nickel. He inhaled loudly through gritted teeth.

“What’s wrong?” asked Steve. 

“My neck,” whimpered Nickel. “Muscle twisted. Got a cramp.”

“Walk it off, boy,” said Steve. 

“Yeah, I will,” said Nickel. He massaged the left side of his neck where it hurt. “I can’t really walk though. The craft is slanted. Aah. This is tricky. I’m going to have to slide down. How did we even get here?” Nickel kicked up his legs while pushing up with arms that he used to clutch the chair handle. He squatted in between the places where his butt and back rested in his chair. In the slanted hovercraft, he felt somewhat upright. “Of all the places I could have landed, this friggin……….” 

This is probably a wreckage of an old energy plant, Nickel,” said Steve. “It’s hard to tell what’s where. All kinds of buildings and structures existed in these plains. Plant accident destroyed most of them, but of course a lot’s gonna still be here. I really think we need to time our flights and landings carefully between the windstorms because we don’t want to get pushed into places like these.”

Nickel was absorbing Steve’s words. Understanding them. However, he wasn’t paying attention. That’s because he was staring into the glinting red eyes of a dark figure perched on bent human-like limbs atop the metal surface outside the window. 

“We gotta figure out a better system,” said Steve, “you come from an aerial base, Nickel. You must’ve had lessons in air navigation.” The red eyes glowed brighter. “We should be flying with some kind of knowledge about how we’re flying because we’re going to be flying without a lot of knowledge. We don’t know a whole lot about what’s on the ground.”

The red eyes brightened enough to illuminate the face of the figure. Below the eyes was a beak. A large beak. Triangular and curved slightly downwards. Nickel’s breath caught in his throat and his heart pounded ever faster. 

“But I’m pretty sure -.” Steve grunted. There were thuds from the back of the control room. “- we’ve gotten  closer to where we want to be.” The storm outside began to envelop the beaked figure, blurring its form in orange. The figure quickly poised, upturning his back and moving his head backwards, revealing the tight lips of a mouth that soon disappeared in the fog. Lips that looked human. The thudding suddenly became louder. “Nickel, we can’t plan from our seats. We gotta look around the Eagle. Get up!” 

The figure slightly elongated its body and then stretched his shoulders and arms, revealing what appeared to be the large sleeves of a robe, but which were actually enormous wings. There was more thudding and a gasp from Steve. There was a banging from behind. 

“Nickel, come on, up, up! Are you listening to me?”

There were thin gaps opening inwards from the edges of the wings. The gaps blurred in the orange, but Nickel had seen them long enough to see individual feathers fluttering in the wind. The figure was leaning to the side. His body was bending to Nickel’s left, enclosing his chest away from his view. When he tipped over and his head bucked, the wind took hold of his body and wings. He was lifted and with his wings outstretched, he was seen gliding upwards and over the metal surface, before curving down below it and disappearing from view. 

Steve’s breathing became audible and the thudding could be felt below Nickel’s feet. However, Nickel did not turn around. He was transfixed to his window- disturbed and baffled by what he’d just seen. While the bird-man was gone from view, the memory haunted him and consumed his focus. 

“Nickel!” Steve shouted. Out of the corner of his eye, Nickel could see Steve’s hairy hand reaching across the floor next to him. “Nickel, snap out of it! Don’t get caught up in the moment! You can’t freeze up when shit happens! Nickel -.”

Nickel shuddered and let out a soft whimper. 

“Steve,” whispered Nickel. “Steve, – I saw someone.”

Steve edged along the floor and crouched next to Nickel, holding the edge of the control desk. 

“What?” said Steve. “You saw what?” He coughed. “You saw a person?”

“I saw -,”  Nickel started. His lips quivered. “It was a man with a beak and wings with feathers. He flew away. He – he looked like a hawk. I don’t know. But he looked like a bird.”

Steve was looking at Nickel, frowning and wide-eyed with concern. 

“What?” he said. He looked out the window and laughed. “What the hell are you talking about?” He coughed again. “I mean – there are people out here. We just don’t know who.”

“Must’ve been under the acht-chi or somethin’ – some exercise in radiation dreamstate.” Steve coughed. “Bird? But with wings? That what you saw, Nickel?”

“Yeah,” said Nickel, finding his voice again as he spoke louder. He was still shaken. “It was the weirdest thing – creature. I’ve literally never seen a creature like it before. No bird’s that big. But no! He wasn’t a bird. He was human – a man.”

“Nickel, are you sure it was human?” asked Steve. “These plains have been way too toxic for a ton of wildlife for a long time, but there’s still some. I would see some herds of animals from up in the explorer’s hovercraft when I was cooking. I learned some animals mutated. They get real weird because of the toxic gas. That’s what the explorers said. They kept comparing to something called Chernobyl. Some animals in Russia after some power plant accident. The same probably happened here. That must have been an an-.”

“NO!” shouted Nickel. He gripped the handles of the piloting module. “No!” he closed his eyes and tilted his face to his lap. “No! It was a man! A human. It was definitely some kind of bird-man!” he said, almost screaming his last word. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Nickel! Let’s calm down!” said Steve. He touched Nickel’s shoulder. Nickel immediately slapped Steve’s hand away. 

“Don’t touch me!” snarled Nickel. An overwhelming fear and regret at taking up a mission with the ill stragglers Steve and Farrul welled up inside of Nickel, twisting the inside of his chest. 

“What the glibb is going on?” shouted Farrul from afar. 

“I don’t know what there is,” Nickel told Steve. “I can’t know for sure. It could have been -.” Nickel rubbed his face with his hands. “Aaargh!” 

“WHAT’S GOING ON?” screamed Farrul. Steve turned around. 

“Farrul!” he shouted. “We might be visiting some folks!” 

“WHAT?” screamed Farrul. “Who – what? You’re not explaining shit!”

“CALM DOWN, FARRUL!” roared Steve. “We have to take this slow! We have to act before any explaining can happen!”

“You calm down first,” said Nickel, looking at Steve. “Jeez!”

There was a loud bang outside of the Eagle, heard coming from the roof to the right of Nickel and Steve. Vibrations trailed down the hull of the craft from the point of collision. 

Nickel and Steve were silent and wide-eyed, staring up at the edge of the roof where the sound had come from. 

“What was that?” shrieked Farrul. 

There was another banging, but from the back of the Eagle. Nickel and Steve whirled around. Nickel crouched with his feet perched on his seat, staring over the edge of the piloting module. The secondary control desk in the middle of the room was shuddering.

Farrul was laid against the back of the room, on a wall in between the small staircases to the sides. The right half of his body was hidden behind the secondary control desk. 

“Nickel, shoot!” shouted Farrul. “Don’t you have weapons systems in the Eagle?” 

“No!” said Nickel. “I don’t!”

THOOF! There was another collision, but from the right side of the roof, echoing and vibrating across the metal. 

“Plus, I wouldn’t know where to strike!” Nickel turned back to the window, squinting. To his growing feeling of demise, he saw nothing except for the faint framework of spindly metal and the flat extending surface, muddled by the foggy orange. “I don’t know where they’re coming from!”

THOOF! THOOF! Bangs came two at a time and in opposite sides of the Eagle’s walls. Many objects were shaking. The main control desk in front of Nickel quivered. A loud groaning emanated from the ceiling. 

Suddenly, a feeling of vertigo caught Nickel, pushing him to the right. Steve yelped and tipped over behind Nickel. 

“I think we’re going under!” said Steve. The feeling of vertigo became stronger, pummeling Nickel’s head to the side of the piloting module. He held onto the handles, extending his left arm as the rest of his body slid to the side of the module. Steve suddenly grabbed the right handle of the module and buried his face in Nickel’s arm. 

The Eagle began to grate against the metal object underneath again. The end of the surface was no longer visible, having passed the top of the window. The length was receding faster than ever. 

The grating became louder and louder, turning into a rumbling. The metal surface was becoming uneven, no longer appearing flat through the window. Bumps and elevated patches were seen along the side of the object closest to the Eagle’s front window. 

Faint sounds of yelling voices appeared coming from outside, but were blotted by the grating and crashing. Nonetheless, the yelling was louder each time it could be heard. 

The vertigo became stronger and there was a moment of weightlessness when Nickel felt as if his body was ascending from the floor of the control room. However, he quickly slammed into his module chair. The impact hurt and had him gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut. The grating screeched loudly to a halt, rocking Nickel in his chair. 

The sound of the Eagle’s descent ceased in a miniscule instant and Nickel became acutely aware of his pounding heart. He found himself catching up to a pre-existing breathlessness by panting. 

“We’re captured!” heaved Steve into Nickel’s arm. He let go and moved back, inhaling deeply. 

“There’s more -” began Nickel before falling into heavy breaths again. Steve exhaled. “- There’s more bird-people?”

By G.R. Nanda

The aroma of freezer-insulated sponge food hit all three of them in the face as soon as Nickel opened the fridge. Lights turned on inside, illuminating transparent plastic cartons of food and powdered formulas. 

“Holy mother of Hedonim,” said Steve. Farrul laughed. 

“Why Hedonim?” he asked. “Wouldn’t God make more sense?”

“Farrul, I’ve been living a long time dreaming of the technology and civilization we’d been missing out on,” said Steve. “It’s all in Hedonim, so Hedonim’s a lot of what’s on my mind.” 

“Hedonim this – Hedonim that,” said Farrul. “I know what you really care about are those hookers in Hedonim. That’s the only sex you’ve ever gotten -” Steve struck the back of Farrul’s head with his palm. “OW!” said Farrul. “You promised you wouldn’t hit me again, Steve! You promised!”

“Come on!” said Steve. “It wasn’t even that hard. You know I’ve hit harder before. None o’ this hooker talk out of you again, Farrul! You’re just jealous because you know you’ll never get laid without my help in the Desolate Plains of the Atlantic.” Steve chortled. “I know you’re the one who wants to find those hookers! Why else would you be talking so much about them?” Farrul rubbed his head. 

“Ok, I’m sorry,” started Steve, “It wasn’t right of me to hit you like that. I know I promised to never strike you like that again. Shouldna’ done it. I just wanted some seriousness out of you when we’ve got a big jump to make. This Eagle’s really comfy, but we got a lot of hauling ass to do. Better get ahead on it, or we’re gonna get our asses hauled.”

“But!” he said. He moved past Farrul and Nickel and grabbed many cartons of food. “First – let’s eat some goddamn food like I’ve been saying for the past couple minutes.” He stacked cartons on his arm laid across his chest. “Oh man!” he said. “You boys better take some quick, before I take most of em cuz’ I haven’t seen food this good for eating in a LONG glibbing time!” Nickel grabbed a small box of protein powder and a case of an enameled omelet. He held both of them out in front of Farrul. 

“Eat up,” said Nickel. Farrul took the food. 

“I have no clue what this is and how to eat it,” said Farrul. “But honestly, I don’t really care that much because I’m hungry and I want to eat.”

Nickel grabbed some containers of food for himself and his friends and took them to a part of the basement against the wall, where he set up a table and chairs to eat. He had to bring in one more table to host the additional people. 

He brought them to his kitchenette chamber and began to show them how to use a liquifying blender to turn their protein powder into drinkable liquid solutions. At first, he had Farrul pour the powder into the sleek spinning steel cylinder and press the buttons at the rectangular base. Quickly enough, Farrul erred and jammed the inner parts of the cylinder and Nickel eagerly took over preparing the food himself. 

Once he was finished, he brought plates one by one filled with ready-made food to their table. On each of their three plates were sliced chunks of pork (sprinkled with protein powder to compensate for the synthesized artificial patches), green lentil beans, microwaved enameled omelets, all accompanied by protein drinks, frothing with bubbles in cold ceramic cups. 

Nicke, Steve and Farrul ate savagely to quench their hunger and exhaustion. They ravaged their omelets, tearing apart their synthesized shells with their forks and fingers. They devoured them in their mouths as white and yellow niblets spilled out from their lips. They shredded their pork and after swallowing, washed the meat down with protein drinks. No one spoke and after a while, Steve and Farrul slowed down to savor the food that they hadn’t been able to afford for so long. 

Once their plates had been mostly cleared and they were munching on their last bits of food, Steve spoke:

“We should get moving soon.”

“Why?” said Farrul. His eyes were glazed over and protein juice dribbled down his chin, forming dark blue stains on his face. “We finally have a nice place to stay at.” Steve scoffed and shook his head. 

“I keep thinking you can’t get denser,” said Steve,”but you always disappoint me.”

“I don’t know if I want to try anymore,” said Farrul. “I’m pretty sick of the world. I’ve seen enough of it to know I don’t want to have a part in it and I don’t want to see anymore of it.”

“Fool!” spat Steve, spraying droplets of protein drink and sending a few bits of pork flying. “You think you’ve seen enough of the world to decide that?! Enough of the world? Look at me! I’m in my 60s and I’ve seen more of hell on this earth than you can even imagine,” he said, speaking his last words in a cold and biting vehemence. Farrul frowned and looked at his lap. “You don’t even know what the world can do to you after it’s chewed you up for more than 60 years.” Steve squeezed his eyes shut. “Listen, Farrul, I’m sorry for yelling and slapping. I really am. It’s not what you deserve – at least not all of the time – definitely not today. Listen boy, I know the world’s been mean to you, and you’ve done nothing to deserve what you’ve been through.”

“We have a shot, okay? We can make it out. As long as I’m looking out for you Farrul, I don’t want you to give up. Okay?”

“I don’t want you to give up, goddamnit!” said Steve, shooting more pork from his mouth. Farrul flinched when a piece landed on his face. “There’s a better future out there. Waiting. That future depends on the willing. I’ve seen it, boys. When I was cooking on that hovercraft, I was cooking for some smart people – people who believed they could use their brains to learn as much as they can to carve out new and better frontiers in this godforsaken world. I don’t think I’ll live to see an earth with frontiers like they were trying to make, but I know I’ll die trying so I won’t die knowing I didn’t try. I’ll know I made it easier for young people like you. You two are my only world. I’ve got nothing else. My wife’s dead. My kids are dead,” he rasped. Steve coughed and sputtered, covering his mouth so pork or his protein drink didn’t fly out. “I’m going to get us to Hedonim. We’re going to get us to Hedonim.” Steve eyed Farrul. 

“After all we’ve been through, and all I’ve done – don’t forget that, Farrul – all I’ve done protecting you under my wing here, the least you can do, Farrul, is help us get to Hedonim.”

“How are we going to be safer in Hedonim?” asked Farrul. “How will it be better for survival? Hedonim’s filled with screen ghosts. How are holograms gonna help us? What are we gonna eat? Hologram food?”

“Hedonim has information,” Steve said “Data. Energy. Connections – international – heck, even interstellar. People are coming in and out all the time. We find out what we’ve been missing out on, what’s been going on. Then we hitch a cargo transport for the American mainland. You’re right about food though, Farrul. All we got is whatever’s on Nickel’s hovercraft. If we don’t want to run out before hitching a transport safely, then WE GOTTA GET MOVING! It’s our best option, so let’s not screw it up. Hedonim’s the only place near here where we can use an infrastructure to get info and boot this shithole. Look, once we get to Hedonim, you can choose to do whatever you want. There’ll be lots of different people. Right now, we’re all you got.”

Farrul sighed. 

“I’m only going along with this because I owe you, Steve. Without you, I wouldn’t have survived out here. I would have died a long time ago.”

“So you’re in?” said Nickel. 

“Yeah,” said Farrul. “Yeah, that’s right, Steve, I’m in. But I can decide whether or not to listen to you one we get to Hedonim.” 

“Fair enough,” said Steve. He nodded his head slowly and his face scrunched up like he was going to sneeze. Instead, he burped. 

“Breakfast is over,” said Steve. “So we move now. Nickel! Take us to the control room so we can find a way to lift off the Falcon.”

“Actually, it’s the Eagle,” Nickel quickly said. “American Eagle.” Feeling shy all of a sudden, he quickly said, “sorry.”

“No, no,” said Steve. “Don’t be sorry. All it means is you haven’t seen enough movies.” Nickel frowned in puzzlement. “Don’t worry about it. Just take us up. How long will it take for lift off?”

“A bit,” said Nickel. “Ship’s fuel is low and I gotta find a better alternative than straight flying.”

“Will it be takin’ long enough for me to grab some important stuff from camp?” said Steve. 

“Yeah,” said Nickel, nodding his head, “yeah, I’ll be talking a while. So you can go outside. But you gotta be real quick – like really quick! The ship can’t wait while I’m warming it up, or else it’ll lose more fuel.”

“Got it,” said Steve. 

They went up the elevator shaft and Nickel opened a wide emergency hatch in the back of the control room. Steve jogged out of it as orange fog and cold air came through. Farrul sat in a chair behind Nickel who seated himself in the piloting module. He checked the navigational and airborne systems on the screens before him. Fuel was still low. 

“How fast can we go?” asked Farrul. 

“Uh…….,” started Nickel. “We might be able to move fast. But only in quick spurts. Let me check how long a hop would take.”

“A hop?” said Farrul. 

“Yeah,” said Nickel, opening and scanning the numbers on a flight control analytics readout. “Eagle can’t fly, so what it can do is launch 50 feet up in the air and travel horizontally for a mile-ish, maybe a couple meters short of a mile. It really depends on how much velocity it can maintain in the air. The Eagle does not have enough fuel to do that. We gotta use emergency thrusters.” Nickel’s heart began to beat fast as the gravity of the situation settled in. His arms were shaking. A new life was on the horizon. “The thrusters are going to have to be manually activated and then manually deactivated when we land. Most of the fuel expenditure in a ‘hop’ takes place in the landing.”

Steve was heard entering through the wide emergency hatch. He pulled countless bags and crates through, scraping and grating across the floor. When the movement stopped and Steve stood still, Nickel reached across his module to the basic controls located to his left on the encircling control desk in front of him. Familiar with the ship’s systems, screens and buttons, he instinctively slapped a button, closing the emergency hatch. 

“Did ya’ hear me, Steve?” said Nickel. “I was talking about emergency thrusters!”

“Yeah,” said Steve panting. “Farrul and I will activate the emergency thrusters. You navigate the Eagle.” Nickel jumped out of the piloting module and ran to the far end of the control room to lift two hatches on opposite ends of the room embedded in the floor. Gritting his teeth, after he opened a hatch, he pulled out a bulky rectangular device. This was a thruster igniter. After he pulled out the two igniters from the floor, Nickel instructed Steve and Farrul to stand next to the igniters, awaiting the call to pull on the top shaft as hard as they could. The motion would grate mechanics together deep inside the hull of the hovercraft, expelling gas and triggering flames to shoot out of the bottom of the Eagle’s wings. They would have to pull for a long time, until the top shaft stuck in its position. At landing time, the shaft would have to be pushed down, deactivating the thrusters. 

Nickel sat back down in the piloting module and used knobs on the desk to choose options on the main screen. He turned a dial to select an aerial phase. As Nickel hovered over an option, the other options faded and the screen now read:

CONFIRM AERIAL PHASE: HOP

Nickel pressed the dial down, clicking it into a lock. He had confirmed the aerial phase.

“The hop started!” shouted Nickel. Underneath his feet, the floor vibrated. 

“PULL, FARRUL!” said Steve. He and Farrul jerked the top shaft of the igniters upwards, growling and screaming in their effort to keep it up. There was a deafening roar as the thrusters fired up below the wings outside. Picking up on the initiation, the screens in Nickel’s piloting module blacked out before lighting up in the navigational maps, diagrams and controls. Nickel grabbed a hook from the floor, pulling a steering contraption with side handles up to his chest. 

As the Eagle ascended, shooting up through the air, Nickel saw the empty flagpole and deserted tents of Steve and Farrul’s encampment disappear in the orange fog outside of Nickel’s window. 

“KEEP YOUR BUTTOCKS STILL!” screamed Steve. “WE ARE GETTING THE GLIBB OUTTA HERE!”