“Seeds, for what? Nothing grows out here.”
“Nelumbo Noctis Ignus,” Carl sighed and stared down at his hands in wonder. “Night Fire; a water flower.”
“Seems overstated.”
“It deserves to be.” Carl agreed, standing beside Sawyer and looking out into the dark expectantly. “The Night Fire only blooms in the dark when the waters rise. Its petals match the moonlight. It sinks below the mud and hides during the day; it’s too hot for them you see.”
“A flower.”
“Not a flower; hope,” Carl clarified cryptically. “Night Fire is Flamouria’s salvation; it’s the reason we settled here – in the swamps.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Every piece has purpose; its stem as twine, its petals an antibiotic, its leaves and seeds are sustenance. Every night it blooms, more of each is offered; an endless supply from a single ‘rock’.”
Sawyer raised his brow at the reminder of his initial claim, wondering if the man’s mind was sound enough to offer accurate information. “If that’s the case, then why haven’t I heard of it before?”
“The marsh is too shallow for them to grow and humans have polluted the deeper pools. They only bloomed for a cycle once humans interfered. They were thought extinct.” Carl’s eyes narrowed in contemplation as he pointed at the deeper puddles created by Sawyer, Maverick and Wil rolling on the ground. “Your emotional responses left an impression and nature has answered your cries.”
“My mother was a botanist; surely she would have known about it.”
“Maybe she did, and you don’t remember; maybe she was blind to the purpose of the ‘rocks’ like you. Look there,” Carl pointed excitedly toward the puddles scattering the immediate area; the indented remains of Sawyer and Maverick’s fight earlier that night. Several bulbs were floating on top of the muddy pools, the same seeds Carl held floating with them. He didn’t turn away from his find when he spoke again, despite the intensity of his voice. “I told him the truth.”
“A truth he didn’t need to know.” Sawyer denied.
“No,” Carl stood and faced Sawyer in the dark, his hands grabbing Sawyer’s tightly. “Truth is all we have; it’s all that matters. Truth ensures our survival.”
“He’s a kid; kids don’t need to know everything.” Sawyer tried to pull his hands away, but the man showed unexpected strength in holding on.
“He has suffered for the inaction of ignorant fools; don’t infect him with their disease,” Carl opened Sawyer’s fingers, letting the seeds fall into his palm. “If you knew nothing of these seeds, you would condemn them as useless. Your fathers took them for granted and condemned this world to Earth’s fate. I gave you knowledge – I gave you truth – and now you know; they have purpose. Without purpose, there is no life.”
Sawyer looked down at the dozen small pebbles in his hand as Carl released him. His head wrapped around Carl’s words with ribbons of uncertainty, as if on the verge of a great awareness he hadn’t mastered. Carl turned away and stared out into the darkness; “So many! They will bloom tonight.” Carl’s awed tone drew Sawyer’s focus to the buds floating in the puddles.
“They bloom that fast?” Sawyer slipped the seeds into his pocket.
“It doesn’t take time for life to bloom,” Carl’s eyes were filled with a knowing only those with a lost reality could understand. “It only takes the right conditions and a little spark to get it going.”
A crack and echoing rumble punctuated Carl’s point, rippling through the puddles he stared into. A flicker of light in his peripheral vision and the slight, pungent odor of smoke touching his nose drew Sawyer’s gaze toward their source. A harsh, orange glow surged up from the center of civilian dwellings. A whisper of screams circled, winding the suffering and pain of others around him like a vine. Carl’s vice-like grip around his torso kept Sawyer from racing toward the maelstrom in the distance. No, I can’t run away this time, Sawyer’s mind screamed the denial as he was pulled into the building.
“What in hellfire is going on out there?” Wil glimpsed his answer before the door slammed shut, creating a sickening dread on the young man’s face.
“Firebombs,” Sawyer whispered, his body running on autopilot as his mind took a trip back eight years to the last time he’d seen them used. “They’re firebombing us.”
“Who?” Maverick entered from the hangar, his body shaking with dread and fear.
“Beta Sect, maybe another Sect; does it matter?” Sawyer returned, moving toward the door as if he were a marionette at the mercy of his master.
“What are you doing? Where are you going?” Wil demanded, stepping between Sawyer and the door.
“I’m going to help,” Sawyer blinked at the man’s questions, not able to process how he didn’t know already what his intention was.
“Hellfire, you are!” Wil denied, his eyes brimming with a firestorm of his own.
“We can’t just sit here,” Sawyer’s shocked numbness faded, his senses returned with intensity; sounds sharpened and images crystalized.
“That’s exactly what we can do,” Wil argued. “We aren’t going out there.”
“We need to help the wounded and begin evacuations.”
“And I’m sure that’s exactly what’s happening,” Wil assured.
“I’m not a deserter!” the emphasis in Sawyer’s voice held a personal defense. “I won’t run.”
“Sawyer, listen!” Wil demanded Sawyer’s attention as he directed his senses outside of their sanctuary. “Do you hear sirens; do you have orders to report? No, you don’t. And, even if you did, we’re too far away to be of any use right now. By the time we get there, whoever is launching those firebombs will be ready to go again. We’re safer here.”
“This place may be abandoned, but that doesn’t make it safe,” Sawyer denied. “It’s a large target, even larger than command.”
“It’s overgrown and imbedded in the hillside,”
