KEEPERS OF THE FLAME
Edward J. McFadden III
www.severedpress.com
Copyright 2020 by Edward J. McFadden III
“The trouble you're expecting never happens;
it's always something that sneaks up the other way.”
― George R. Stewart, Earth Abides
Chapter One
Year 2047, Respite, South Pacific Sea
Enormous waves crashed against the cliff face and sprayed the crowd below with sea water. Milly focused on the wave tops the way her fire master had taught her. She was to time her jump into open air, trusting in the island and the sea to bring the next wave as it had brought the one before.
Peter stood beside her. “We don’t have to do this. We can grow food, or work at the Foundation, or many other things,” he said. Peter wore shorts made of canvas that had once been part of a lifeboat cover, and a blue t-shirt so threadbare and tattered it didn’t cover much. His face glistened in the sunlight as it reflected off the sunscreen Doc made from coconut oil and dirt.
“Sounds like you’re afraid,” Milly said.
They were the last two. If they jumped and made it back to the beach, they became fire guards. The quitters faced the real hardship. They had to discover who they were, and who they would become. When she jumped, all that would be decided.
A wall of water arced and pummeled the cliff, spraying the spectators down on Great Rock again. “Never say that to me again,” Peter said. He punched her lightly on the shoulder and broke into a run. Milly focused on the wave tops, and then she was running after him.
Another wave closed out as she chased Peter across the stone outcrop. The end of the line approached, and Milly saw that Peter’s jump would be perfect, but hers wouldn’t. The trick was to land on a wave top. If she missed, she’d fall one hundred feet onto jagged rocks. If she landed on the side of a wave, she’d get sucked under and mashed against the cliff.
Peter jumped and disappeared over the ledge.
Everything was wrong. Her speed and timing. Milly’s heart hammered, and all she could think of was beating Peter. Getting to the beach first. She put on the brakes just in time and skidded to the edge of the cliff and pulled herself back.
Peter landed atop a wave, and disappeared as he swam downward, away from the turmoil of the erupting sea.
Milly backed up and restarted her run. She puffed in and out, adjusting her pace as she focused on the waves. Her mother’s old gym shorts slipped down her hips and she jerked them up as she ran. Sparse jungle fleeted by on both sides, and children hid within the tree ferns and shrubs. The final walk of a fire guard trainee wasn’t supposed to be seen by outsiders, but she’d snuck up to watch as a kid.
Milly leapt toward the blue sky, trying to catch a cloud.
A wall of water stood before her and pounded her back. Everything went dark as she got pulled under the stone outcrop she’d jumped from. Water churned and it wouldn’t be long before she hit the cliff side and was crushed to death.
Milly tumbled in the blackness, stroking wildly, fighting against the roll of the ocean. She remembered her fire master’s words: “When your mind tells you to resist the ocean, give yourself to her.” She went slack, forcing herself to relax. The pressure of the water eased, and she floated downward in the darkness as she let the last of her air escape her lips.
She inched away from the cliff side, swimming hard along the bottom, taking a diagonal course that led away from the break line and the rocks waiting to crush her into flour. Her chest burned, and her arms felt like stone, but she stroked up, sunlight visible above.
Milly broke the surface and sucked air, the pain in her lungs so intense she was sure she was dying, but it eased. She floated on her back within the wave break, an endless field of blue filling the sky. She’d made it. Until that moment she didn’t think she would. As the waves crashed, she saw they weren’t as big as they looked from above, and the whitewater didn’t make it all the way in under the precipice. Getting caught in the powerful water wasn’t sure death. You had to completely miss a wave for it to be fatal. A fact her fire master had failed to share, but she wasn’t angry. It was a test of faith, and she and Peter had passed.
When she looked to shore, Peter waited with his hands on his hips. She flipped over and stroked for the beach. Wasn’t that just like him to be overly efficient and unable to relish the moment? She’d just achieved her life’s goal, and he couldn’t let her enjoy it. That was her fault, she knew. That they’d just peaked in their teens was depressing, and she already yearned for something more, yet she pushed the thoughts away with each stroke.
Milly crawled from the ocean and collapsed on the white sand. Cheers erupted from the crowd on Great Rock as the cool ocean flowed around her.
“You done resting?” Peter said.
She laughed. “We made it. We both made it, Peter!”
“You doubted it?” he said.
She said nothing.
“Let’s start our walk. I’m looking forward to saying goodbye to the Fire Wood,” he said.
They cut through a thin line of palm trees and plunged into the forest, following the well-beaten path through tree ferns and dense shrubs until they came to the field of noni trees. A wood cupola sat at the center of the field, and the short bushy trees extended in even rows in all directions.
Milly and Peter picked an aisle and headed
