KJL: Oh hell no. No. Out in the sand.
KGM: Oh.
KJL: Yeah. So, when I stir or start wandering around they just kind of show up. The numbers increase as needed. Reminds me very much of how ranch dogs herd. They just kind of… insinuate violence. They hardly ever touch me. Their numbers just increase as I get more and more agitated.
KJL: You try to run off?
KJL: Oh yeah. I’ve tested them a few times. They won’t let it happen. They surround, urge you back, create these corridors with their bodies. So quick, it’s just… well, it’s frightening. They seem so on edge. Jumpy. Especially in the last day or so. Guess you were getting close.
KGM: Fighting some internal conflict. Yeah. I got that from Nate’s behavior.
KJL: Hmm.
KGM: Johnny, and that Simon kid on the day of, and then Nate in Utopia, they all said there was a beginning coming. I think you and I together, here, mark it, cause it.
KJL: They do seem docile now that you’re here.
KGM: All the way down, every fifty yards. Those whale fires going on into the dark.
KJL: Hmmmm. Pretty.
KGM: But you’re okay, right? No attacks of white stuff?
KJL: No more coughing either, huh-uh. In fact, after the shock of them taking me, and me losing some time there, I’ve been incredibly bored. The new world is boring. Watching them gather and hum and fish.
KGM: Fish?
KJL: Yeah. Oh man, you won’t believe it. They’ve got it down. No tools, nets, boats.
KGM: Yeah?
KJL: Yeah. They go out in teams. They’re good, I mean, like you wouldn’t believe. One thing about these kids is that there’s no hierarchy or leadership. But it’s always a complete mix of older kids and younger. Little mentorships going on. I guess the older ones tend to be stronger and faster, but the little ones hold their own.
KGM: Speaking of little ones. I haven’t seen babies. And I don’t hear any crying.
KJL: Oh, they’re there. Just they’re out in the middle of them. How they protect them, I guess. I mean, Kevin, they’re a new species, okay? I know we batted this around in Austin, but I’ve been with them for a while now and I’m telling you it’s… you and I are… I don’t even know. New rules, that’s all I know.
KGM: Are you scared?
KJL: See, that’s the thing. I’ve felt very… okay. Very pacified. It’s like I’ve been euphoric, some times more than others. Usually at dawn it’s most intense.
KGM: Me too. On the way down here they’d lay into me. Man, it’s—
KJL: —ecstasy.
KGM: Yes.
KJL: Actually, your arrival today? I knew you were here not because I saw you. I felt you.
KGM: How?
KJL: I felt normal. Old world. Gravity and heaviness, at home in my own skin. I actually settled into myself, and I don’t mean psychologically or emotionally. I mean I felt my bones tug, my pelvis and skull feel the weight again. I felt… tethered, like I wasn’t about to lift off into the sky like those sparks out there, as I have for days and days.
KGM: You’re pointing.
KJL: Huh?
KGM: I’m just telling the recorder here that you’re pointing out at the beach fires.
KJL: Ah, right.
KGM: Now you’re nodding. Nodding and pointing doesn’t work. Say something so the court reporter can hear you.
KJL: Oh, sorry. Yes, your honor. [Kodie’s voice loud and close to the microphone]
KGM: Actually, it’s dear reader.
KJL: Huh?
KGM: Who I’ve been talking to.
KJL: That’s cute. Dear reader. You’re cute.
KGM: You’re batting your eyes at me. You mock.
KJL: I’m a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
KGM: How’d you get down here?
KJL: I don’t know.
KGM: Really. You remember nothing. What do you remember?
KJL: Flashlight beams crisscrossing over all those stones. Screaming “no”.
KGM: That’s when I went out. They tackled me. So much for nonviolence.
KJL: Really though, they haven’t been. Not once since I’ve been with them.
KGM: But they won’t let you leave.
KJL: True.
KGM: And how’s that not violent? Kidnapped by kids.
KJL: You know what I mean. They haven’t physically hurt me. Fed me. Kept me warm. Let me have the run of the nature center.
KJL: A cage at the zoo.
KJL: If you look at it that way.
KGM: I do.
KJL: Don’t think I haven’t thought that too. That’s how I’ve felt at times. Serious case of Stockholm Syndrome has overtaken me. And the kid-ecstasy has certainly helped. [sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KJL: Can you declare your love to me on that thing? Make an official record of it.
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: What’s happened?
KJL: [pause] It’s a reset, I think.
KGM: Clicking refresh.
KJL: Nature, God, she’s hit the reset button on humans. The whales are collateral damage.
KGM: Jespers’s Gene. Fleming’s letter. I’ve been reading Jespers’s paper. I can see why his peers didn’t review it favorably.
KJL: Yeah. His lab-slash-lair certainly raised hair on my neck. To see our names on his whiteboard. Do you really think what he was doing in some way caused this?
KGM: My Grandma Lucille once told me there’s no such thing as coincidence. In all the thinking, and talking, I’ve been doing on my way down here I’ve come to believe her. Best I can gather is Jespers was scratching the surface of something bigger than we can understand and that maybe it triggered the event that morning.
KJL: I don’t think he was alone. There was that guy in France he was talking to.
KGM: I get the feeling a cabal of big-brained people like them were on to something.
KJL: If there were any scientists and theologians left, the debate would be raucous.
KGM: Yep.
KJL: Why did we make it? You’re shrugging.
KGM: Look at those fires.
KJL: No, really.
KGM: We’ve got the conch. The keepers of the flame.
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KJL: Something I haven’t told you.
KGM: What.
KJL: I’m pregnant.
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: [whispering] We have to try to escape.
KJL: You insane? No way.
KGM: I still have my gun. And Maggie here.
KJL: I told you. I tried. It’s impossible.
KGM: You were alone. Two of us can do it, I think.
KJL: How many bullets you have there? I mean… they need us, Kevin. I don’t think—
KGM: I thought that. They had me thinking that, coming down here. The dreams. You and Bass kept telling me I’m special. I think you’ve been given a whole lot of Kool-Aid.
KJL: I’m sorry. What did you just say to me?
KGM: Not your fault. I don’t know. Maybe they want to keep us.
KJL: C’mon. Keep us? For what? I don’t think their intentions are sinister. I really don’t. I think they’re very confused.
KGM: Yeah, but… it doesn’t feel right. It never has. I’ve offered to help. We’ve offered. They don’t take us up on it.
KJL: But I don’t—
KGM: They’re too different now. I think what we are is in the way. They’ve been battling against something since day one. Now that I’m here, this doesn’t feel right. I’m telling you.
KJL: Kevin, then why didn’t they just destroy us when they had the chance? Why did they stop that night, kill Bastian, and leave us? Just us?
KGM: If I knew that… Maybe they want us to reproduce for them. Create an underclass, a slave race.
KJL: Oh, you’re being silly.