Chapter 8: Data Stream, Part 1

Alex awoke to the gentle rock of the boat. She could still see the grey clouds through the openings of the dry trees. On her stomach lay a sleeping grizzly. His dark hair trailed across the top of her white tank top, his head turned away. The boat rocked again more forcefully and she realized that no one was steering the confounded thing.

She tapped Jack on the head. No response. Alex walloped him with the palm of her hand.

"Hmm-" he grumbled.

"I thought you were going to let me sleep while you steered."

"You really wore me out earlier and you looked so comfy. I didn't want to wake you. Besides, you make a really good pillow." He traced his fingers across her stomach.

It tickled, but she forced herself not to react. Alex swatted him on the head again. "Get off me, you oaf. Someone needs to watch where we're going. What happens if we go over a waterfall?"

"I've traveled this route a dozen times. There are no waterfalls on this river. We're perfectly safe," he said, rolling over to face her, his head on her ribs.

"What about the sun?"

"A little sun won't hurt you, but if it makes you feel better, I will prop the tarp up over the boat with the poles," he said, staring at her white tank top sticking up out of her black button down shirt, two soft little hills between their faces.

"Too much sunlight is dangerous, we should get the cover up now."

"I can think of better things to do." He nuzzled one of her breasts.

Liquid fire emanated from it. Her blood boiled with need. A part of her screamed for it, but her mind quickly took control and cooled her thoughts. She focused on his scraggly hair and scruffy beard as deterrents. Her mind won, this time.

She smacked him on the head and sat up quickly. His head fell into her lap.

"Ow. Was that necessary?" he asked, touching his forehead gingerly.

"Completely. Get up." She kicked her thigh up, bouncing his head off her lap. We can't be doing this. I don't even like you. That stupid stone is making me do things I don't want to."

Jack sat up, smoothing out his jacket. "Newsflash, girly. I don't like you either. You just get off here and be on your jolly way. I don't need your stupid file, anyway."

She stood up and stepped over the front boat bench to put some distance between them. "Don't tell me what I can and can't do," she shouted, "I'd be just fine on my own if you hadn't busted your way into that vault."

"Then why are you following me?"

Her body felt so hot she couldn't breathe. "I- I- I don't know," she shouted. Alex spun to face him. "I don't god damn know."

Jack looked at her with his head cocked to the side.

"What are you staring at?" she spat, heat flaring through her.

He nodded in the direction of her left hand. A little ball of orange fire grew in the palm of her gloved hand. It bobbed up and down as the boat rocked.

"Looks like you picked up a few new tricks."

The flame extinguished and she looked at the empty palm moving each naked finger individually. Alex realized suddenly that she was standing. Her eyes stared at the water as it moved by and she lost her balance. She fell towards the back of the boat and hit her shin on the front boat bench.

Jack was quick to catch her as she fell. He stood gracefully and caught her with an arm. He spun and stood facing the water with him at her back, steadying her with both hands at her waist.

"Don't look at the water, look at the horizon," he whispered in her ear. "For a sea lover, you're not very good on the water."

"I live below the water, not on or in the water. It's just like the surface, but without the sun- and the rain." Heat filled her belly at his touch. She quickly pushed it from her mind. She had to stay ahead of this.

"And the radiation," he added. "Let's get the cover up and then we'll eat." He guided her down to the bench, not pursuing his prior questioning.

Alex pulled together a small breakfast of fruit and bread while Jack worked on the shelter. He stuck the four metal poles in their slots on the boat and then positioned the tarp over, finishing them by tying down the edges of the tarp to the boat. There were gaps between the tarp and boat where they didn't meet.

Around noon, the trees cleared, leaving rolling hills of brown grass waving in the wind. During the late afternoon it started to rain.

"Jack?" Alex asked as she pushed the boat away from a large rock in the middle of the river with the paddle.

"Hmmm?" he replied while dozing on the back bench seat, his baseball cap low over his eyes.

"What are all those chirping noises?"

"You mean the crickets?"

She nodded.

"They're insects that hop around. They survived the climate change because they have a hard exoskeleton."

"I thought there wasn't animal life left on the surface. Is there anything else up here?"

He pushed the cap up off his face. "Well, when the ozone hole got big enough to cover most of the planet, most everything that didn't go below the surface of the ocean died out. Besides the insects with the really hard shells, there isn't much life on the surface. I bet there is tons of stuff living in caves though."

"Like bears?" she asked.

Jack grinned suspiciously. "Sure, like bears."

"You seem to know a lot about this. What did you do before you started breaking into high security facilities?"

"That's a good question. How 'bout you tell me what you did first?" Jack said, sitting up on the bench and resting his forearms on his knees. That weird twang slipped into his voice again.

"House wife," she answered quickly, trying not to get off track. "Your turn."

Jack's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Well okay then. I was put into a research lab. They were experimenting on humans. That's how I got this nifty upgrade." He flicked a little fire in his palm.

"What did you do before you were a lab rat though?"

Jack paused for a long time, trying to decide if he should reveal anything too personal. Finally he said, "I was an ecologist's assistant. Since I was human, I wasn't allowed to be an ecologist, but I was better at it than the professor I worked for. A few of my opinions of what the hybrids did to this planet didn't jive too well with the university. They threw me into the research lab for that."

"When was that?"

"About five years ago."

The rain pattered down on the tarp above the boat as they drifted down the river. An acidic smell coated the musty air as the rain ate away at the surrounding trees and dirt. Alex looked up at it, fearing it would eat holes through it, but Jack didn't seem too concerned.

"How 'bout you? You said you were a housewife?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Alright, I understand. You don't want to tell the human about your cushy life as a housewife."

"It's not that you're human, it's just... painful."

Jack's eyes softened. "Did that guy in the file kill your husband?"

She stared out at the river. "Something like that."

"Is that guy in the file your husband?"

Alex stared hard at a dead tree trunk in the distance. The wind picked up and the tarp rippled loudly. The rain blew sideways, splattering the inside of their little boat with cold droplets.

She was surprised how cold the air could be and still feel so wet. She pulled her jacket tighter around her. A large gust of wind blew, catching their makeshift shelter and making the boat rock violently side to side. Alex broke her stare and lifted concerned eyes to Jack's.

"I think it's about time we make our shelter a little cozier." He set about lowering each of the poles and tightening the lines that held the tarp to the edges of the boat. The tarp lowered down to touch Alex's head and Jack had to duck when he sat back down.