When she hugged him, the other man appeared as if he had materialized out of the night.
THIRTY-TWO
She didn’t care about anything Victor was saying. She just wanted that kiss again. His lips had been so soft and the sensation rippled throughout her whole body. She fought the need to go after him. She couldn’t let him think she was so easy. He would kiss her again.
But he didn’t. He started talking about the end of the world.
Alarms went off in her head but she didn’t panic. So, the guy was eccentric. Just look at his mud-stained feet, which, by the way, she was overlooking for the sake of a little romance. Maybe he had weird theories but that didn’t mean he was dangerous. Besides, she wanted some kissing not a marriage proposal. Was that so horribly wrong?
When Dad arrived, however, she was relieved. Not only because it meant he wasn’t lying hurt somewhere but because it meant she wasn’t alone with Victor anymore and that made it safe to see how far she wanted to go.
She hugged him tightly around the neck like she used to do when she was little. Unlike back then, he did not pick her up and swing her around, singing some idiotic children’s rhyme. He sagged against her for a moment, chest heaving, and patted her on the back. When she broke the hug, she saw the man standing next to him.
“Hi,” he said. He was tall and broad shouldered and wearing well-worn hiking equipment over a sweatshirt. His flashlight was shining up into his chin, accentuating his high forehead and wide eyebrows. It took Mercy a moment to realize he was the guy she had seen this morning heading up the trail. She had imagined him as some lonely guy who would gladly hike along with them because all he really wanted was a quiet girl with whom to laugh and spend his life.
“What took you so long?” Mercy asked her father.
He sighed like he had expected this question but hoped she wouldn’t spring it on him immediately. He shared a glance with the new guy and Mercy wanted to grab Dad’s face and tell him that he had to be more considerate of her and of his own health and she had a right to know why it took so long up there--had something happened? Was he feeling okay?
She stopped herself, hugged him again instead.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m fine. I met Caleb here and we got to discussing things. Didn’t realize the time had slipped by so fast. Caleb’s quite the experienced hiker. He knew right where to go. You should have seen the view, honey. From the top, our town looks like a pimple.”
“I’m sorry,” Caleb said. “He told me about you but I didn’t realize you were down here waiting. Looks like you had company though.”
All eyes turned to Victor and he glanced away. She felt bad for him. He was a quiet guy, maybe a bit strange, but he had opened up to her over the past several hours and now he was on display like something at an auction. She nearly forgot he had been talking about the End of Everything.
“This is Victor,” she said. “He came out of the woods.”
“Did you leave your boots in the woods?” Caleb asked and smiled the way so many jocks back in high school smiled. Joel had smiled that way sometimes, too.
They all moved back toward the fire and Dad and Caleb turned off the flashlights they had been carrying by their sides. It hadn’t quite been dark enough for them to do any good.
Dad shed his equipment and sat near the fire. She offered him water and he drank it. “I ran out,” he said.
“I offered him mine,” Caleb said, “but he refused.”
“Dad.”
“It’s fine. I’m here. Aren’t I?”
She offered him a displeased glare, thought of Mom, and shook it away. She hugged him again as if she hadn’t seen him in weeks.
“It’s lucky Caleb found me,” Dad said. “I could have been lost up there for hours. The path seems pretty straight but it’s really not.”
“There’s actually several paths,” Caleb said. He looked like the host of some nature show on Discovery.
“It’s a mess,” Dad said. “But it all turned out okay. Have you just been sitting here the whole time?”
It was like he had asked if she had been eating chocolate bars while watching Olympic gymnastics. “We were talking,” she said.
“I guess we could have been more proactive,” Victor said.
“Victor was telling me about the End of Everything.”
Dad and Caleb made amused,
She started to explain some of what Victor had said, something about humanity slowly dying off and the survivors reverting back into primal beings, like cavemen.
“As in shoeless?” Caleb asked.
The laughing faded quickly.
“It’s something I believe,” Victor said. “It’s hard to disagree that the time is near when you look at everything going on right now. We are no longer on the cusp of great change: we are in the midst of it.”
“There have been so many times just like the present throughout history,” Dad said. “People thought the world was ending back in the sixties. Then the eighties. Every global crisis carries with it a sense of apocalyptic doom. People cling to that for whatever reason. Maybe it makes the daily grind easier knowing it will all be over soon. Course it never is over.”
“Humanity will devour itself and only the eaters will survive,” Victor said.
“You mean the violent?”
“The people who embrace our true natures.”
“Meaning the uncivilized brutes who believe violence is the answer to all problems? If that’s who is going to inherit the Earth, I don’t think humanity has very long to go at all.”
“You’re right about one thing,” Victor said. “Humanity, civilization, as we know and understand it, doesn’t have very long left, but the world you imagine is far too pessimistic. The approaching New Time will be one of enlightenment.”
“Living as cavemen?” Caleb asked. He smiled, so amused with himself.
Victor considered. “Not everyone is going to survive. People who refuse to accept what must be done will be cast aside.”
“That’s rather Biblical of you, Victor,” Dad said.
“God has nothing to do with this.”
“He’s merely watching the great debacle transpire?”
“The forces at work are greater than God.
“Now that sounds interesting,” Dad said. “What could be greater than God, assuming He exists, of course?”
“Do you know how many people there are in the world?” Victor asked.
“A lot,” Caleb said. Mercy thought of all the smart ass kids she ever sat near in school.
“Almost seven billion.”
No one spoke for a moment, the number weighing on them. Mercy couldn’t really imagine several billion of anything. The number was more like a random statistic than anything tangible. As if this whole discussion were philosophical.
Wasn’t it?
“How many people do you think will survive the Great Change?” Victor asked.
“Worldwide?”
Victor nodded like a wizened sage.
Dad toyed with an answer, a smile playing at his lips. “Why don’t you tell me.”
