The Apocalypse Ocean Read Free Page A

arguing, babies crying, and someone at the other end singing.
    The mist was a floating, frothy jelly spit out from the trees on the other side of the island into the air that slowly floated down. In most cases it just slowly burned at whatever it landed on, like an acid.
    That wasn’t the most dangerous part. After that, all it took was a spark to ignite the sludge coating everything.
    In the distance the harbor pumps thrummed to life. All over the city the firefighters were washing off buildings as fast as they could to prevent the flammable build up.
    The government buildings got cleaned first, and then the trucks moved to the hydrants over in the rich areas. It was better if you lived off in one of the floating towns around Placa del Fuego. No rain.
    Usually being on this side of the mountain protected everyone. It’s where the town and harbor sprang up in the protected lee of the mountain. But sometimes the wind changed. Sometimes the fire forests were unusually active.
    Either way, you didn’t want to be outside. The burns and scars on everyone here testified to that.
    No longer a mist, the rain continued, sizzling as it hit the ground outside.
    “Hello Tiago,” said Nusdilla. She lived three rooms over. “Would you like some salve?” She scooted around others taking shelter and showed Tiago a small tube of half-used cream.
    He considered for a long second. His skin burned and itched in several places. Particularly around the neck.
    But he figured he’d look tougher if he just shook his head. “I’m okay,” he said. “Ran here pretty quick.”
    She looked briefly disappointed.
    Besides, Tiago told himself. Her whole family needed that tube more than he did. Nusdilla’s father broke into a greenhouse in Riverwoldt to hide from the rain and was arrested. Now he was locked up in the Dekkan Holding Center, working off his debt to society pedaling a bike all day long to run the city’s flywheels and mechanics.
    Tiago watched her go, and checked his pockets to see if there was any money he could spare for them.
    And then remembered that he’d given it all to the scary woman. Including Kay’s share.
    Shit.
    Well, he could worry about explaining to Kay why he was coming back with no money from the morning’s work later, as much as that scared him. For now he was just happy to be out of the rain. Maybe he could work harder once the rain stopped and show up late.
    Maybe.
    Tiago just about leapt out of his skin as the wall next to him crumpled and the woman who’d been chasing him shoved her way in. She crouched in front of him. 
    “Hello,” she said. “We still have business to finish.”
    Tiago jumped up, ready to run for the ledge and get away. As if anticipating this, he noticed that everyone in the corridor had moved back away from him. But where could he go with the rain coming down so hard?
    He looked back at his pursuer. The rain had eaten away at the skin on her forearms, exposing silvery metal underneath. Pistons snicked as she flexed her fingers.
    He stood rooted in place, staring.
    A cyborg? Here on Placa del Fuego. But that was impossible. They were standing in the heart of the dead zone right now. Machines didn’t work in the dead zone.
    Yet here she stood.

    #

    There was no advanced machinery on Placa del Fuego. Or at least not much unless it was shielded. Tiago once asked why all technology wasn’t just built shielded so it could work in Placa del Fuego, but he’d been laughed at for the question. Apparently it was too expensive to shield everything.
    Either way, most of the fancy stuff people built failed until you got a mile away from Placa del Fuego. In Harbortown the sailors said scientists from other worlds came to live on ships that floated right on the border of the dead zone, monitoring what they called ‘an unexplained continuous EMP event.’
    The epicenter was somewhere deep under the crust of the planet, right under Placa del Fuego.
    When Tiago was little he remembered he could