After Fate Fell

26 • MARINA

TITLE CHANGE!
After it All —> After Fate Fell

1 year, 3 months, and 15 days after it all
•MARINA•
The Yarlung Zangbo River is the highest elevation major river in the world, and Nine and I are just casually walking along the bank of it. We learned this from the bus driver who took us up here and dropped us off at city limits. He recognized that we were conversing to each other in English and struck up a casual conversation, asking us where we were headed from city limits. We told him the river. He was more than happy to hear that. He and his family live on the north side of the city, and so they have a close connection to the river. He tells us that it's almost spiritual to him.

The river is broken among many tributaries, with little islands in between all of them. It's beautiful. The mountains rise up beyond the river, and beyond them, a perfectly painted-looking blue sky.

We have been along the riverbank searching for Sam for almost two hours now, still with no avail. The problem is, we don't really know what we're looking for. Is he living in a house? A makeshift home? Or is he just living in the Tibetan wilderness? We don't know. So really, we're just looking for any signs of life, any signs of Sam.

After we crossed over city limits, the population thinned, and there are parts of the river that are completely devoid of life. A few miles outside of a bustling city and here we are in the middle of nowhere. It's weird. But this is definitely where Sam would want to be. He was never a city person, and I've always seen him as a wilderness-type guy. I keep imagining finding Sam with a beard looking like a crazy wilderness guy or something. He may be a nerd, but he'd just be a nerdy wilderness guy, glasses and all. What a thought. I guess at this point I don't care how we find him, as long as we do, and as long as he's alive. But I can't think of any reasons that he would be dead. So I just focus on looking for him.

"We've gotta get down to Africa," Nine says annoyedly, kicking a stone into the river.

"I know Nine but we need to find Sam first. As soon as we find him, we get on a flight. We'll be there before you know it." I say this not only to reassure him, but also to reassure myself. I want to get there just as badly as he does.

We keep walking along the riverbank, getting more and more annoyed every minute because we have been going this direction past the city for probably 45 minutes, and now we're gonna have to travel all that distance and time back. We went the other direction already, with no avail. If we don't find him this way, then what do we do?

"We'll turn around in 10 minutes," I tell Nine. There's no way that he's further than that. I don't know where he is, but he's not going to be miles downriver when Ella's location says he would be almost directly north of Xigaze. It's pointless to go further."

"So then what?" he asks.

"I don't know. Cross the river, maybe. I don't know where or how, but that's probably our next option. It doesn't really show which side of the river he's on."

"This is going to freaking take forever Marina. I want to get down to business, kick some ass, do something wild, but instead, we're put on babysitting duty," Nine complains. I'm starting to get tired of his negativity. This whole trip he's been complaining.

"We're not babysitting Sam, Nine, we literally just have to find him. Then we all go down to Africa. And then we can kick some ass. Just chill out Nine," I tell him, trying to get him to calm down and focus on the issue at hand.

"Fine. But if we miss out on whatever Ella and that one-eyed freak are doing in Africa, I'm holding you accountable for it, okay miss ice-queen?"

"Whatever. And by the way, get over your feud with Five already. It's going to do nothing but hurt us at this point. We need all the strength and cooperation we can get. Please at least try Nine. You don't even have to be nice to him, just don't be an asshole, okay?"

"Don't tell me what to do. I'll figure it out on my own. If he gets his face bashed in, just know he was asking for it." Some things never change. Even through the hazy period after the war ended, Nine's pure hatred toward Five is shining right through. I can only hope that Five is over the whole feud. Then maybe they'll have nothing to fight about. It's unlikely, but I can dream.

"What's that?" Nine asks me, pointing up ahead, probably a half-mile down the river.

"I don't know, it looks like a lean-to maybe? I can't tell from here," I say, squinting and picking up the pace. "Let's check it out."

We move much faster than we were before, because this is the first thing that actually looks promising in our whole 2-plus hour excursion. As we near the structure, I can tell that it's definitely a lean-to, made by some branches leaning against a large boulder-looking rock. It looks old, but that doesn't lessen my excitement. It has to be him.

Neither of us speaks the whole half-mile walk to the structure, mostly out of excitement, but also because we're out of breath. Within 40 feet of it and I can start to see more details, a campfire cooking set laid out on top of the boulder, a flannel jacket hanging off of a stick on the lean-to's roof, a pair of beat-down shoes sitting just outside the lean-to on the dusty ground.
There's nobody inside, but there are a clear set of footprints leading downriver even further, and they look recent. We decide to look through the person who lives here's belongings, because we're pretty sure it's Sam from what we've already seen. We're not going to take anything, just looking, to confirm our hopes.
The lean-to is just the right size for a person to lie down comfortably, protected from the elements outside. Inside is a bed of dried grasses woven together into a strong but surprisingly comfortable looking thing to sleep on. At the top is a tied-up T-shirt filled with something soft, this is what he, or whoever, has been using as a pillow. There are no personal belongings inside other than a pocket knife and a sweatshirt. I don't see anything specific that I remember being Sam's.

"It's him," Nine says, looking at me.

"How do you know?" I ask, confused at how sure he seems.

He turns over the pillow made of a T-shirt and reveals a NASA logo. "He wore this thing all the time."

I sigh a breath of relief. There are more than one NASA shirt in the world, but Sam kept his close to him like it was made of gold, and we're in China, so who else would have a shirt with an American space agency's logo on it? I hope we're right.

We wait at the lean-to for what seems like forever, we decided that following the footprints would be pointless because this is obviously his home, so he's going to come back to it. Nine uses this opportunity to walk around, looking for large rocks, and picking them up to hurl them into the water. Just like back in the mountains. I guess it's just habit. I just sit right on the edge of the bed of woven grass, my head half inside and half outside, looking back and forth between the water and down the path of footprints. I wish I had telepathy so I could tell Sam to hurry it up.

It's been over an hour when I see a faint little figure, far off in the distance downriver. I can't make out any features, but I don't care. It's him. I've made up my mind.

"Nine look!" I say, pointing down the river at the figure.

We start running toward the figure, we're tired and it's hot but we don't care. We're just so happy to see Sam again and we're just so ready to go to Africa and reunite with the others.

We get closer and I can finally make out the face, and it's of a shocked Sam, with a long beard with a string of fish in his hands.

"Marina!" He yells. "Nine!" He drops the fish and comes to hug both of us. He doesn't care about the fish anymore. Because I know what he's thinking. He can finally see Six again.

"Sam there's something going on. We need to go to Africa. We're leaving right now," Nine tells him. He looks surprised, I can tell he's been living a simple life here on the riverbank and now things are already moving so quickly. He looks up, smiling. He may not know anything, and he's so surprised to see us right now, but he's ready. We all are.