Tontine

My H20 scanner showed a pool of uncontaminated water in a cave beneath the long crumbled Hoover Dam. I glanced around to make sure no one was watching before. I slipped in the crawl space between two enormous slabs of concrete.

It was cooler in the near darkness, only about 115o F. I quietly filled my potable containers. My senses were on high alert, but my body ached to rest in the relative safety.

Of course, relative is a relative term.

I must have dozed off, as I was awakened by a vibration between my breasts. For a few seconds I did not know where I was, but instinctively reached for it, causing some cuts and abrasions that painfully reminded me I was still in a hard, cramped space. I unzipped the front of my coverall and pulled out the heart-shaped locket that dangled from a smooth, silver chain around my neck. The locket and chain were permanently fashioned. Believe me, I tried. The last place burnt out their Xeon laser and pronounced it unremovable by any means on Earth.

“Two to go.” Two more what? I wasn’t sure. It originally had seven jewels lit on it. Now there were only two. At some point it would vibrate and one of the jewel’s light would go out. Permanently. I have no clue why. It’s been maybe nine years since I got the necklace…

I had been sleeping in a nook behind the fallen Stratosphere spire when I had the strangest dream.

I was sitting in a circle in a room without walls, along with six others. Their faces were distorted by some kind of non-recognition shielding. Before us floated a shape. Its voice, spoken through a modulator, attempted to sound English casual. It had poor syntax and took strange pauses and sounded sad.

“You chosen. Of seven, only one. You cannot know one other. It would contaminate. A test. Tontine. You linked only to me. The last will be the last. You will be summon. Luck hopes the best. All deemed worthy.”

The shape dwindled suddenly into a pin-point, then popped out of existence.

When I awoke, I was wearing a heart-shaped locket. I tried to take it off, but it wouldn’t fit over my head. There was no latch or unbroken link in the chain. It was pretty, so what the hell? I gave up trying to figure it out. Nothing on Earth made much sense to me, anyway. The wind was always blowing; the seas were drying up, people were always fighting. I’ve heard of trees, but had yet to see one.

I was about to leave when I heard a group approaching, arguing. They were Deniers on their way to a Conspiracy Rally at the Golden Nugget Hotel.

Deniers are the worse. They not only dis-believe science, they defy logic at every whim. Their theories could be deadly, as they insisted their way was the only way and would attack anyone who questioned or challenged them. Unlike the Theists, who had a formal belief system they adhered to, Deniers were fluctuating nihilists. It was nearly impossible to keep up with their ever-changing views.

I waited for them to pass. From what I could gather, they were planning a takeover of Vegas. They were always planning some takeover or other that ultimately failed but resulted in a lot of mayhem. I was about to leave my hidey hole when I heard a last few stragglers. What they were saying made my heart turn to ice. They spoke of a rumor of a Spontaneous Angel with a heart-shaped locket that could heal all diseases and then wing them off to some new Eden on a parallel plane.

I waited ‘til they passed and immediately headed east towards Colorado. Hoover Dam got in my way and besides, I was very thirsty.

So here I am.

As I crawled out of the darkness, I looked up to see a shadow blotting out the sun above me. I froze. My left hand casually flitted over my disarmer.

A gender vague voice called down at me. “Do you believe in a Higher Source?”

I didn’t answer.

“It’s a question of life or death!” the voice added.

That, I knew. Obviously, it was a Theist. They were a brutal bunch. If you denied their beliefs, they’d kill you and send you straight to Hell to learn to believe.

“Yes or no?” It demanded.

“Sometimes?” It seemed like a safe answer. Besides, maybe I did. At times. I wasn’t sure.

I held my tongue.

Its voice cracked as it pleaded.

“I just need one more recruit to fulfill my quota. I won’t hurt you, I promise. Just come with me. We have a Mecca nearby. Food. Water. Salvation. You just have to accept our Way.”

“It does sound tempting!” I tried to sound convincing.

Since Theists denounce science, I could assume it wasn’t carrying a blaster or disarmer, just a gunpowder contrived weapon. This gave me a distinct advantage.

“Please?” it called down. “I don’t want to have to kill you.”

I bet.

“Okay! Yes! You convinced me. I believe! I believe!” As I climbed up toward it, I turned my hip to conceal my hand, silently slipping my disarmer out of its sling.

“Halleluiah! Come and rejoice with–”

A beam of orange fire, a surprised cry, and a body suddenly falling right down at me. I ducked back just in time to see a teen-blend smash onto the broken concrete face first. Very much dead.

My locket vibrated. I yanked it out. The sixth jewel blinked off. Only one light remained. I glanced down at the smashed body. A throbbing red shone through the blood on its chest. I turned it over. It wore the same locket as me, only all its jewels were dark. I didn’t have time to process what was happening when another voice yelled down.

“I hope you were lying about being a believer!” The stylized accent revealed the speaker to be a Scientist. I had no beef with them, or they with me.

“I was!”

“Then let’s go.”

I scrambled up. The Scientist took my hand and helped me up the last few feet.

“Broner,” it introduced itself.

“Pirx,” I replied. Broner nodded, as if he knew.

Gender identity had long since disappeared, pro-nouns were useless and physical sex attributes commingled to the point of indifference and indistinction as far as who had sex with whom. Except for the pure breeders, theists and isolationists, most of us saw sex as only recreation. The world was dismal enough without worrying about who was once what and what was once taboo. Although I maintained my mostly female body parts, I’m a Blur in every sense of the word. I remember nothing about my parents or my past.

I go by Pirx, a name I chose, but can’t remember why.

I refer to any human as It. I feel it’s all we deserve.

Broner was an Identity Blur as well, with a deep voice and powerful grip. It wore an array of desert gear, including a chameleon coat that dissolved into whatever background it stood in front of. It’s probably how it snuck up on the Theist.

“Howler coming.” Broner pointed to a black curtain of sand on the horizon. I could hear its rumbles and screams, even from miles away. Anyone who lived in the desert knew what a Howler was. A days long screaming windstorm that blanketed everything in its path in sand. They were happening much more frequently now, and much more widespread now that the deserts were spreading.

“We’d better move.” Broner had a two-person sand car, the type with the balloon all-terrain tires, a sand snorkel and turbo boost. We climbed in. It jerked to full speed immediately, attempting to stay ahead of the racing sandstorm.

“Are you a Scientist?” Broner asked, driving pell-mell over the desert terrain.

“Pragmatic.”

Broner studied me. “That’s not a recognized identity.”

“It’s a practical one.”

Broner nodded. “It’s rare not to identify with some alliance.”

I shrugged. “Never found one that interested me. What kind of Scientist are you?”

“Quantum.”

Of all the Scientists, they were the most interesting and the least destructive. The Eco-Wars had drawn harsh, permanent lines between Evolutionists, Micro-biologists, Eco’s, Theists and Deniers among other smaller fractions. Ironically, all had the same goal–more-or-less–to make Earth a better place to live. But in the end they all contributed to a global eco-collapse with their extremists’ views and vehement actions. What we were left with now was a decaying, plague-ridden, dying planet.

Thanks guys, gals and its.

“So, what are you doing way out here, besides killing Theists?”

“Looking for you.”

“Me? Why?”

“I’m your guardian angel.” I couldn’t tell if it was joking.

The sand car flew over a huge dune and crashed down on the other side. I saw a single, sweeping beam of light in the distance.

“No, really?”

“I was paid to find you.”

“A bounty hunter? Who could be looking for me?”

He glanced at me.

“You don’t remember the tontine?”

“You mean that thing in my dream?”

I later looked up tontine. It was like a pact where the last survivor got a reward. But that was just a dream.

“That was no dream,” he corrected me.

“And the Theist?”

“It grew antsy. Didn’t want to wait for the tontine to play out. It killed another just before you. It was desperate to be last. But now you are.”

“Explain.”

“You’ll understand soon enough.”

I sat silent and tried to make sense of this.

We roared past a nearly unreadable sign: Area 51–Restricted Area. Intruders will be killed.

“Area 51? Do you have a death wish?” I asked.

“You’re expected.”

All the buildings were dark. Broner pulled up to an unmarked building and stopped. The sweeping searchlight turned off. We were in pitch darkness.

Outside, the sandstorm had caught up to us. It pelted the car like a thousand stinging insects.

“It’s time.” Broner stared straight ahead.

“I don’t understand any of this.”

“Open the locket,” he instructed.

“It doesn’t open,” I insisted, pulling it out. “I’ve tried.”

“Try now.”

The heart-shaped locket had always appeared seamless, but now a hairline crack grew around its circumference.

“How do I open...?” I looked over to ask Broner. He had vanished.

The dust storm rocked the car. The crack in the locket glowed, then popped opened like an oyster. Inside was a thimble-full of sparkling dust.

“What the–?”

An impossible amount of dust poured out from the locket. It began filling the car.

I tried to get out. My door was locked. I tried all the doors. Locked.

Outside, the darkness screamed with the wind.

Inside, the car was filling with dust.

“What’s happening!”

The dust was up to my ankles.

My knees.

My thighs.

I tried breaking the windscreen.

Dust piled higher.

My chest.

Into my throat.

I swallowed it.

My nose.

I inhaled it.

I became it.

I was filled with sparkling stars.

I floated in the heavens along with a billion stars.

The Shape from my dream appeared. It hovered and undulated before me like a water balloon in zero gravity.

We now spoke the same mind tongue.

Congratulations, cherished one. You have won the tontine.

What? What did I win?

Look down.

I saw a pearly white and blue planet spinning beneath me.

I won Earth?

Yes. She is all yours. You were the only one of the tontine not to be corrupted by Her life-forms. You remained true, no matter the constant hardships or temptations.

In an instant I had a flash memory of all I saw and experienced. I also saw Her birth, all She had been through, and where She was heading. I saw how they treated Her, then and now. And how they treated each other. I looked forward to the future.

Is there a consolation prize? I asked.