Island In The Sand

By James Strauss

CAN A SAFE HAVEN BE FOUND ON THE SURFACE OF A DEVASTATED POST-APOCALYPTIC FUTURE WORLD?
There was no place on earth. No orphans, wandering toddlers or strange children of any kind would be allowed entry to any tribe. There was insufficient sustenance left for the surviving population to allow for even the most minimal relief or tender mercy. Stray animals were to be hunted for their flesh. Outsider adults were to be treated the same as the animals, except their flesh was never to be consumed. Outsider children were to be shunned, although not directly slain. No contact or communication was to be allowed.
Engagement with Artificial Intelligence and aliens keeps Star Black and her band of orphans on their toes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Strauss
• Release date: Nov 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463073315

James Strauss

I was born into a Coast Guard family during WWII. Have lived in four countries and twenty-seven states, in places from South Manitou Island, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Honolulu, Hawaii. I experienced a variety of positions in many careers, from being a Marine Corps Officer wounded in Vietnam, life insurance agent, physician’s assistant, and a college professor in anthropology.As a CIA team leader in the field I traveled to 122 countries, where he remains welcome in most of them to this day. I currently live in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and continuing to build from a newspaper publishing foundation called the Geneva Shore Report. This weekly is also published online at TheGenevaShoreReport.Com.I write about the human condition. The interaction that occurs throughout social systems, among elemental forces of leadership, religion and science. I write about the individual’s attempted integration into such social systems and attempt to define honor, integrity and duty, while I develop my stories.My novels and short stories focus on self-determination and self-discovery. They are about arrival. The arrival and satisfaction of a blissful state from which one can intelligently reflect and then positively direct one’s life.The Meaning of Life is all around us and ever changing, depending upon the perspective of others. I write about the meaning of self, and self-application to the meaning of life.You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+

Book preview

Part I Star floated over the top of the packed needle beds, her bobbed ponytail bouncing just beneath the lowest of the dense green branches. Her lope was long practiced, and her gait one of such easy flow she had to continually slow for the other children following in a trance. Running was like breathing to her. Growing up in the orphanage had been an exercise in brutal tolerance and crowded loneliness. The sand and the land were her real friends. She took to them like a tree leaf took to the sun. She felt the energy they radiated upward through her strong willowy legs propelling her smoothly around, or over, every obstacle in her path.

The band was headed west toward a place none of them had any good reason to believe existed. The State of Home. The more Star had learned, the more she had become skeptical of the place’s existence.

What state would call itself home? she said aloud to herself. Home to whom?

She thought about the problem as she ran. They had nowhere else to go, however, and that fact had been forcefully burned into them when their teachers and caretakers had been casually tossed into the sea for attempting to defend them.

The place called Home was far to the south. A place where all newcomers were welcome if they could prove that they might be a benefit to the people already there. A state where there was sufficient food, a shelter for all, and most amazingly: books. Paper books. They’d been taught there had once been electronic books, but batteries and electricity had gone the way of automobiles and airplanes. There were still some of those things around, but their use was banned by religious edict in all known tribes. Rebels were rumored to occasionally use such devices, but the rebels themselves were nothing more than rumors, as far as the children’s teachers had been concerned.

With the children strung out in a long line behind her, Star made her way slowly up a relatively modest incline. The pines at the top grew on a huge sand dune with parts of it open and exposed. The sand was crusty and firm, not like along the shores near the beating surf.

She stopped and waited at the top, settling down on a soft bed of old dead needles to watch her charges make it up the hill one by one. She gazed out over the clearing behind them. Her natural smile disappeared, as she took in the far tree line.

Several boys stood in the distance, unmoving, but all intently watching the progress of the last children. The last two were the six-year-olds, Tal and Shine. The boy and girl were not brother and sister, and certainly not twins, although both had blond hair and looked uncannily alike.

One boy in the distance stood out from the others. Because of how far it was Star could not make out his identity, but she presumed it was Track, the only older boy she had befriended at the orphanage. He was the smartest of all the boys, and also the best humored. Everyone liked him. The boy waved. Star waved back, got to her feet, motioned for the children around her to fade back under the pines, and then ran down the side of the sandy slope to make her way across the clearing. She was halfway there before she identified the other band’s leader.

Solomon Chu, she whispered. Oh damn.

She wasn’t sure why she was apprehensive. Chu had been a troublesome boy. Everyone knew that. His temper tantrums had gotten him severely punished more times than Star could remember. She wondered what he was doing at the head of the other band.

Star Black, Chu said, when she stopped, ten feet in front of him.

Chu, she responded, without emotion.

It’s Sly, now. he said, with a crooked smile, and these are my men.

He waved backward with one arm without looking.

Star almost laughed. The man behind him, that his hand had pointed to, was one of the older girls. The girl and she nodded at one another.

Are you following us, Sly? she asked, more in humor than being serious. And where’s Track? she went on when he didn’t immediately reply.

Dead. Had an accident. A rock fell on his head while he was sleeping, Sly answered.

Star went cold inside. The tone Sly had used had been so cruel that fear began to well from her chest. Sly was sick. She had always suspected, but never really understood how badly until then. Track was dead. She couldn’t believe it. That vitally alive boy was gone.

What do you want? she finally asked, beginning to wonder if she was going to get back to the other kids alive. There was something animal about all the kids she could see in front of her. It was as if they were appraising her for possible inclusion in their dinner stew pot. She almost shivered but was able to remain still with great effort.

We want you and your band to join us. You can stay their leader, except I’ll be the overall leader. We’ll do much better, except for those two babies you’ve got. They can make it on their own.

The thought of Tal and Shine making it on their own frightened Star even more, and the callous way Sly had mentioned it made it worse.

We’ve planned on all of us making it on our own. We’ve made three spears and two bows and arrow sets so far. No food yet, but we thought we’d hunt tomorrow.

Star lied about the weapons. They had nothing, but she sensed that the band in front of her would not respect weakness at all.

We can use ’em. Well, do you want to come with us? Sly asked, directly.

I’ll run back and talk to them. I think it’s a great idea, except for the two little ones, but we have to survive on our own now.

She stopped talking, afraid her nervousness would show in her voice if she went on.

Good thinking, Sly answered. We’re gonna build a fire for the night, to keep any big animals away. I think we can catch some stuff to eat. We have wire for snares.

Okay, Star said, smiling an overly bright smile.

Without saying another word, she turned and ran back across the clearing, making sure to move at a medium speed so it did not look like she was fleeing. Upon reaching the top of the dune she rushed under the trees and joined the other children. She looked back, then had them all move further until she could still see Sly standing on the other side of the clearing, but was pretty certain he could not see them under the shade provided by huge overhanging branches.

We’re going to run. Those boys, led by Chu, are bad. I think they killed Track.

The children around her all drew in breaths. The two six-year-olds started to cry.

This is no time for that. They want us to join them. No way are we doing that. We have to get as much distance between them and us as we can before dark. They’re faster runners, so it’ll be hard. Can you do it?

Star stared at Tal and Shine. Their success would be directly tied to speed. Could the little ones move fast enough?

Nobody said anything. Star wanted to reach up and massage her forehead but that would be a sign of weakness. She couldn’t let that show. They had nothing and they were too slow to get away from what was likely a band of murderous children who’d already killed and might have little difficulty doing it again. All of them knew one another, but life had been hard at the orphanage. The only children, other than Track she’d been close to at all, were with her now. The others were in Sly’s band for reasons Star didn’t want to know, but they weren’t good.

She sighed, finally. They had no choice. They had to try to get away.

Let’s go. Wren, she pointed at the next oldest member of their small group, a girl who was thin, but leathery, tough, and not dumb, you lead and I’ll take the back. Go as fast as you think you can. We’ll run under the trees for quite a way and then figure out where we are.

It was not much of a plan, Star knew, but it was all they had. None of them had ever been more than a few miles from the orphanage in their lives.

They ran. They ran for hours.

Star herded the youngsters, trying to re-assure when fatigue began to overcome them. She didn’t know how she knew but she felt the pursuers behind them. If they were caught she would lose Tal and Shine at the very least, but the kids couldn’t go much farther regardless. If they went north, along the ridge, it would only be a matter of time until they were cut off and caught.

The kids in front of her were stopping. Star left Tal and Shine and ran forward. Wren stood at the edge of a huge open space. She stood next to him and stared out over a long shallow canyon. The clear open space ran all the way from the black line of the sea in the distance to somewhere unknown in the other direction. But it was miles across, with only a very few individual stands of trees for cover.

Star focused on the largest stand, a good three miles distant. A plan formed in her mind, as her gaze shifted to take in the sun above the horizon. She shielded her eyes and considered. When she returned to Tal and Shine it was to take them both by the hand and stroll under the pines. After a few minutes, she came to a huge specimen with its lower branches waist-high above the needle-covered sand.

Up. Everyone up as high as you can go. And don’t leave any marks. They won’t be able to see inside the tree unless they stand at the trunk and look straight up. And you have to keep quiet. If they hear anything… but she didn’t finish the sentence because she didn’t know what to finish it with.

She helped each child up which was not very difficult. They were all natural climbers. When they were secure, she smoothed the needles on the ground as best she could.

Her only hope was that the others would arrive at the edge of the great gentle canyon and stare across. The same bunch of trees would come into their sight, way out across the expanse. If it drew them then they’d be stuck out there for the night. If they decided to stay where they were, then it would be an almost hopelessly long night. It was not likely that Tal and Shine would be able to spend the entire night draped over a pine branch high off the ground.

Once again, they had run out of choices. And the night would be hard enough no matter what the other band did. Without any water or food at all, they would weaken quickly to the point where they couldn’t survive.

It was nearly an hour before they heard the pursuit. The other band made no attempt at silence, hooting and calling to one another as they moved under the pines. They congregated in one spot, but Star couldn’t understand anything of what they said. Then there was silence. When darkness fell fully, Star, braced into the trunk on a branch lower than all of the other kids, released herself and moved to the ground. She padded to the edge of the clearing. Relief swept over her. Far in the distance, at the very spot she imagined the stand of trees to be across the shallow canyon, a fire glowed. Their trick had worked.

Star got everyone down. They moved north, staying close to the edge of the canyon, which was dimly lit by half a moon. They walked all night, attempting to be as quiet as possible. By dawn, Star knew that they had gone as far as they could go. When they stopped, Tal and Shine fell asleep instantly, collapsing flat on a welcoming mat of old brown pine needles.

Star looked up into the sky. Antares shone brightly halfway up in the black sky. Wren joined her, craning his own head upward.

"When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are," she sang very, very quietly.

Part II There was no place on earth. The remnants of humanity so decreed, each tribe following in suit, as the proposition in favor of admitting outsider children, no matter their age, fell into unanimous opposition. No orphan, wandering, or strange children of any sort would be allowed entry to any tribe. There wasn’t enough subsistence left for the surviving populations to enjoy even minimal comfort. Stray animals were to be hunted for flesh. Outsider adults were to be treated as animals, although their flesh was never to be consumed. Outsider children were to be shunned, although not slain, there would be no contact or communication allowed. The tribes concluded that such a rare general agreement was to be honored as a pivotal compact in bringing humanity closer to the civilization it enjoyed before The Weeper struck.

The tribes assembled only once per year in an attempt to establish trade rules, travel routes and resolve any conflicts that had not been taken care of with conflict. They called themselves states, in order to hearken back to times when geographic areas were known by such titles. But there were no real states, and certainly no governing body to organize or establish order. The annual assembly always involved massive amounts of illegal alcohol consumption and violence. From old books, the word rendezvous had been brought forth, to more accurately name these assemblies, but had been shouted down by the more religiously strict of the states.

No discussion was ever allowed of the Kuiper Belt Objects, or of the huge dwarf asteroid that had nearly destroyed all human life on earth. Marion it had been named, in the That Was Before, or more simply TWB days. The Kuiper name for the asteroid belt had been co-opted into Weeper, then followed by Marion will make you cry threats to children. This plain, flat pancake of an asteroid, nearly a hundred miles in diameter, had reduced life on earth to a mere handful of the larger animal species. Plants had recovered from the mid-Pacific strike rather quickly, almost seeming to flourish from the clearing of competition. Smaller animals had been unaffected, except those, and anything else, that had been within the merest touch of the supersonic tsunami waves.

Wave series after wave series of seawater flung itself onto the continents at speeds nearing twice the speed of sound. The continents were reduced to islands in less than a week. The earth’s land surface went from nearly thirty percent down to ten percent. The surviving island of the Collected Peoples was the only one any of the tribal members knew anything of. Three hundred years had passed. The survivors were survivors more because of huge reproductive results than because of any recovery or maintenance of old technology. TWB technology had saved nothing and preserved little. Spots of it existed in abandoned canyons, clawed over ruins and underground caverns, but nobody searched or valued any of the relics.

Belief systems had changed along with manual capabilities. It was the in the Sand where the orphanage had been located. It was still there, built of rocks hauled overland by struggling bands of malnourished scrawny children wearing TWB materials found in their travels. Nobody cared what such children wore or possessed. They were doomed to cross over into dread blue seas before they became men.

Sand Island, a special rising hill comprised of a single huge stand of wind-whispering fir, had been the children’s home, but the State of Pine had had other plans. That state rendered pinewood for its resin. Sand Island had tempted them for many years and had remained remote and untouched only because of the long high tide covered peninsula that ran out to it. After many years of plundering the woods everywhere else, State of Pine warriors had simply moved in one summer day and tossed everyone out. Eleven protesting adults found themselves tied and thrown into the awful maw of the breaking sea. They were left bobbing around out there until they disappeared and were never seen again. The tumult of the ever-disturbed ocean consumed all it touched, as it had since the Weeper had struck.

There were no scientists, no geologists or botanists on the Collected People’s island. There was no one to explain why conditions following the great strike of Marion the Weeper had not caused the planet to become one of ice, or grow dark, or even heat up to miserable temperatures. And there was no one who could explain the sand. The entire island of the Collected People’s was surrounded by sand dunes and plains that stretched miles out to the roiling waters beyond. Beautiful white and cream-colored sand extended out for miles from the entire landmass, save for a very few spots where rocky crags dominated. There were no explanations for much of anything in the States of the Collected Peoples, except for different versions of how God oversaw and ruled everything, and how work was to be performed.

Above all the rules of belief and order, however, were the rules of mating and family. It was those rules that demanded that children of no known claiming adult could be admitted into a tribe. And the claimant had to be a male. Pregnant females expelled from any of the tribes for any infraction found themselves at Sea Island eventually, although they were never allowed to stay once they had given birth.

Cast from Sand Island, to wander aimlessly until death overcame them, were two small bands of children. They were of mixed ages, ranging from six up through sixteen and composed of nearly equal numbers of boys and girls. Each band was led by one child, which had taken days to occur in one group while happening instantly in the other.

Star Black led the smaller group. Eleven children. Six females, and five males. All fast, all thin, and all hungry, all the time. Star was sixteen and the brightest child who’d ever come to the Sand island complex, or so the dead and drowned attendants had said, time after time. Star had been named when Antares, Red Giant of the Scorpio cluster, dominated the night sky. She wore a red bandana in recognition of that fact. She had also been the orphanage’s fastest and strongest child, out-performing and alienating all the other girls and even the older boys.

The second band selected its leader after many fights and finally a death. Solomon Chu, proudly bearing the nickname of Sly, had triumphed over a much faster and seemingly smarter boy. That boy had slept at the wrong time, however, and Sly had been able to replace his head with a large crushing rock. Twenty boys and three girls strong, Sly’s band moved across the tufted grass portions of the main sand berm leading down into the pounding sea. The band had been able to travel quickly through the pine forest and bracken, as any children under the age of twelve had been left behind.

The morning brought with it the relief of sleep for Star and her children. Star closed her eyes when she was huddled down next to Tal and Sol, after making sure the rest of the kids were okay. Sleep brought escape from a reality that seemed to hold out only a dull bleak survival as its sole reward.

Her eyes popped open only moments after they closed. Once Star oriented herself, however, she knew that the sun was too high for that to be true. She had slept for hours. Too many hours. Possibly, she thought, Sly and the other band might have given up the pursuit, although she knew it wasn’t likely. Neither group had any other goal, or place to go. The band behind them would be coming, and at a faster rate than they could hope to move. It had been impossible, traveling in near darkness, to be careful about leaving a trail, not that there was anyplace other than north they could logically have gone.

Star got everyone up and moving. It was a cool day, even though it was close to high noon. Weather, since the Weeper had struck, remained undependable. Seasons still came and went, but days of total reversal occurred here and there, at the most inconvenient of times.

Where are we going today? Tal asked, rising and walking about, wiping the sleep from his eyes with little grimy fists. Although he was only six years old the little boy gave every appearance of being as tough as shoe leather.

Sol and I are ready. We’ll follow you anywhere. We’re your mannons, he said, his shoulders squared back, and he tried to appear ready to meet the day head-on.

Mannons, Sol chimed in, running up to Tal and flipping around to stand at his side.

In counterpoint, to his serious wrinkled frown, a huge smile played across her freckled face.

It’s minions, not mannons, she corrected the boys.

Star looked at both of them and wondered why God had so blessed her and cursed her at the same time. Her love for the two wonderful children was equally as great as her fear for their very survival. And it was all up to her.

All the children wore threadbare muslin or cotton shirts and pants. When the Pine State had cast them out there had been no ability to claim any of their other things. They had no coats, packs or implements of any kind.

They moved out and continued due north for the remainder of the day. Star calculated that they would not make nightfall before being overtaken. She led their flight, leaving Wren, her oldest and most dependable boy, to cover the rear and help any stragglers. She wasn’t sure that was right. Should she simply direct the small band from the rear where her size and strength could be used to most effect or should she be at the front to pick the best direction and avoid pitfalls only her experience and age might recognize and be able to take advantage of or avoid? She knew she was better equipped for the role of following but there was no one else to lead. She’d grown older within the confines of Sand Island. It had been a lonely alienating way to gain life experience. What layout in the rest of the world she’d gotten mostly from the variety of teachers who’d circulated through the orphanage. Inside the institution, she’d felt life was lonely and harsh, but the reality of the world outside intimidated her even more in a different way.

She was never lonely anymore, but she was always terribly worried, and the harshness had caused her to sink down to a whole new level of existence.

Dusk was coming on when Star found the vent. If she hadn’t been looking for another giant pine to hide out in she’d never have found it. The metal vent rose up only a foot or so above the ground, right next to the trunk of a large fir. She knew it was metal by its smooth shape, not by its color, which was nearly the same as the faded brown of the dead needle beds it was thrust up among.

The children came up behind her. They all surrounded what Star informed them was a vent.

How do you know it’s a vent? Wren asked pushing a layer of fallen needles from the conical top of the uncommon artifact.

I’m not sure, Star replied, but the cone is set over slots, and connected to that big pipe coming out of the ground. What else would it be?

If it’s a vent, then what’s down underneath the ground? Wren asked, prying with no success on the overhanging cone.

It’s screwed on, he said, after a few moments of tugging away. Three screws with those funny X heads.

What have we got to loosen ’em with? Star asked everyone gathered.

An old fingernail clipper was passed to her. She reacted with surprise. The clipper was not something they’d been allowed to have in the orphanage, as it was TWB technology. She opened the clipper, and then put the sharper end to one of the screws. It loosened as she worked it. In minutes, the other children were using their fingers to work the cone loose.

Star stared down into blackness. The pipe was barely large enough to allow her to pass through, if she felt so inclined, which she did not. There was nothing to hold on to and no way to know how far down the thing extended.

Wren placed his hand over the opening and dropped a rock. Seconds later there was a quiet thunk from below.

About ten or fifteen feet, I think, Wren mused, staring into the blackness with her. What do you want to do? he asked, after a moment.

Star thought about the problem and then came to a decision.

"We’ll tear some of our clothes up to make a rope, lower Tal or Sol down there to see what’s there. We can start a small fire up here and drop