Delphi

The trucks rolled into town on a humid afternoon in June, kicking up dirt with their chain-link wheels. The people watched from their shop windows and apartments above, their sunken eyes peeking through the cracks of blackout blinds.

It had been an unusual spring and consequential demise that led to this moment. A moaning on the outskirts of town rumbled the earth as the winter receded. News outlets gave no scientific reason, but Delphi knew it was the earth stretching and creaking, a giantess waking up. It was followed by an unnerving silence in the evenings for the remainder of spring. Crickets and peepers that were once the telltale sign of the end of winter were replaced with an emptiness that reverberated back and echoed in your ear. At dusk, red-breasted robins could be seen fleeing their nests, abandoning their babies only to fly in circles, disoriented.

The headaches began in April. Shelves at the stores quickly became bare as people hoarded pain medicine for their aching temples. It continued into other medicines, then regular supplies, until total catastrophe hit; workers quit, drivers stopped deliveries and the shelves remained bare from then on.

Delphi and her husband Luc decided they should stay apart for the safety of their unborn child. Luc continued to stay at their house in town, protecting their place in case looters came. Delphi retreated to an old cabin they claimed years ago in the forest. The trees enveloped her there as one of them, and she could disappear from the chaos and focus on the upcoming birth of her child.

At the beginning of May the radios, internet and television cut out. Explosions could be heard as cell towers burst into flames. As June approached, satellites began falling from the sky, and without any media to turn to for answers, the people panicked. The looting became violent, and the last clinging structures of society fell away.

Delphi had always felt the movements of the earth. In the same way a thirsty tree turns up it's leaves before the rain to catch the drops, she knew the world was changing, and quickly. One day while foraging for mushrooms near the cabin, a piece of satellite came crashing down in the distance. She knew then; the magnetic poles had shifted. She had sensed something looming for the last year and so had begun to stock up, slowly so as not to have any questions asked of her. She began with canned food, and large jugs of water, then bags of bulk flour from the bakery. When asked why a pretty little thing like herself needs so much flour, she stuffed down an angry retort and replied that she'd found a new hobby in baking pies for her neighbours. Refusing help, she squatted to grab the sac in a bear hug and quickly pushed her way through the doorway, holding her breath from the weight of it. She spent that summer foraging berries and herbs and kept them well-stocked in a freezer, along with the vegetables she'd grown in her back garden. She was thankful for the last purchase she'd made before the banks closed down, which was a solar-powered unit that would keep her freezer running at the cabin in the forest.

The trucks, about 40 now, were parked along the main street. Beige and white, not the typical green army vehicles they were used to seeing on the news. Delphi stood on the edge of the main street, making sure she was hidden enough not to be a target. Her swollen belly tightened in a braxton hicks contraction, catching her breath in her throat. She rubbed the muscles to calm the baby inside, as well as her own nerves. A megaphone crackled from the first truck. "Citizens. There is nothing to fear. We are here to help. We have food. We have water. One person from each household must collect your supplies. Stay distanced. Collect and head straight home. Write the names of each person in your household on a paper, this will be your ticket for your ration. Line up in 10's in front of each truck. Stay distanced. No talking. When you hear the siren, begin lining up."

The shuffle amongst the people began immediately. Delphi's head pounded. She turned towards the forest, unsure what to do. Luc approached her from the side of the last building on the street. "Del! psst.." He motioned her to come towards him.. Her stomach tightened again. "Go to the cabin. I won't write your name on my paper. Who knows what they'll do with that information... I'll say you ran away if they ask questions. Do you have enough food and water?" She nodded. "And are you well?" His concerned eyes still sparkled with his affection for her. Again, she nodded. "Good. I will find you at the cabin once I figure out what's going on." She nodded and they each touched their fingers to one another's lips before turning away. The siren rang out startling them both. He clutched his paper with his name written on it, and began walking towards the convoy of trucks.

Delphi approached the pathway to the forest as machine gun shots rang out behind her. The sound caused her to trip on a root and as she stumbled she grabbed her belly with one hand and her fingers reached up to her lips with the other. Could it be? No, she wouldn't let that horrific thought enter her mind. Perhaps some looters tried to storm the trucks, yes, she'd tell herself that's what the shots were fired for. He'd come to the cabin when he was ready. She followed the path in a shock-induced daze, quickening her pace and checking every so often behind her to ensure she was alone. The pains in her stomach started from her pelvis and reached up over the top of her belly button and stopped at her ribcage. She paused for a quick breath. At the large oak tree with the hollowed out center, she veered off the path and towards the secret cabin. The light was fading, casting a silvery blue haze into the deepening woods. More shots rang out in quick succession far in the distance. Her pain intensified in waves, as she breathed through each one. She pushed sweaty wisps of hair off her forehead, running her fingers through the coppery waves that fell to her hips. "Ok Delphi, you can do this." She said aloud and searched for the cabin but knew she was still a kilometer away at least. Could she make it? She kicked her sandals off, feeling the urge to touch the coolness of the forest floor, relaxing for the moment before another wave of pain came. She felt each leaf and crunching twig as she inched her way through the thickness of the maples and pines, using the white glow of the dotted birches to guide her way. She moaned as quietly as she could but the sound came out animalistic anyhow, feeling safe in the thought that most people wouldn't come towards an injured animal in the midst of the chaos out there. She let the sound seep out of her the way she imagined the earth had been doing these last months. Her hips began to sway back and forth, expanding for the birth, an earthquake of her own, rippling out and away from her with each passing contraction. She felt the dance of her ancestors surrounding her, swaying with her, all the wild women of the forest that came before her. She moved towards a mossy patch and felt the urge to kneel down on hands and knees, feeling the cool spongey texture beneath her palms. Her body pulsed and pushed so she grasped the little oak in front of her for strength, skinny enough to wrap both hands around, and barrelled down, moving her long skirt and underwear out of the way. As her hands touched the tree, her pain vanished, replaced by a warm tingling sensation from her head to her toes. As her stomach contracted and every muscle worked to push, she felt the knowledge of the oak seep into her through her palms. It whispered, "Delphi... which means navel of Gaia herself. She gives birth to a New Earth." Onto the moss, the slippery pink baby emerged from the birth canal. Delphi turned over and pulled the child up to her breast, leaning now against the tree and catching her breath, she looked up to see the small white face and round black eyes of a barn owl watching her. She gently led the baby, a girl, to her breast and felt the rushing whoosh again from the oak tree, "Owls bring wisdom, change and transformation. Death of the old, birth of the new." The owl looked once more at the two of them before taking flight. Delphi's gaze back asked the question, "Luc?", and the answer was given. He would return to the cabin in three days time. The owl's wings spanned what seemed the entirety of the forest sky itself and disappeared into the darkness behind them. Delphi cradled her new baby, and began the last lag of the journey to the cabin. With each step she took, the old world crumbled away, a new Earth formed before her. She turned back and whispered to the woods, "Eve. Her name is Eve."