Bae, from South Korea, tells her story of how she lived before the end of the world
“So I was there for just over a month, safe and secure. It was quite possibly the most depressing time of my life, now that I think about it,” I said to Bae. I had just finished telling the story of how I learned of my place on the Ark, right up to the end of the world. “Not a very exciting story," I added.
I grabbed a giant wrench from a nearby toolbox and placed it on the nut I needed to tighten. After jimmying it a bit to make it fall into the grooves I then started pulling down on the tool, to make sure the new pipe I had just attached was tight and waterproof.
When I finished I nodded to Bae who turned a valve.
Instantly I was sprayed with water from the pipe fitting I had just completed.
I raised my hand to block the water that went straight into my face, stinging my skin as it was under high pressure.
Bae just watched for a moment, somewhat surprised at the problem.
“Something is still wrong,” she said.
“I know,” I shouted at her and she finally turned the valve with her screwdriver and the water stopped.
I looked at the pipe and wondered what was wrong with it.
"What about the washer?” Bae said pointing at the circle of rubber at my feet.
I signed inwardly at my carelessness and started undoing the nut on the pipe so I could insert the washer.
There was silence for a moment as Bae waited for me to undo the pipe and complete the work.
“You said boring?” she suddenly said.
“What?” I replied and ran my fingers through my hair to slick it back over my head. It was getting very long and I was wondering what I should do with it. Could a robot cut it for me, could One? I was certainly not going to let one of the crew members do it.
“You said your story from meeting Dr Ghost to your last moments on Earth were boring, however you were kidnapped and had your eye cut open.”
“Not quite, I was just left with a scar,” I said and I ran the end of the wrench from where the scar started above my eye down to my cheek.
“Whatever, either way not a boring story,” she reiterated.
"It felt boring as I was telling it, what about your story? I remember you saying that you were on a ship towards the end, an aircraft carrier?"
"Yes, well I exaggerated that a bit, I saw an aircraft carrier and for a time I was in the same fleet as Oda for a while, except on a South Korean shipping vessel."
"You could have told us that," I said.
"Well an aircraft carrier sounded cooler."
"So what happened?" I asked her.
"Where to begin?" she mumbled.
"Start from when Dr Ghost came to get you," I suggested and I continued my work while she talked.
"Well my family lived on a fishing boat and while we were out fishing he came to us on a government ship, a small one."
"Odd he had me collected," I said.
"I think he choose to come to us because a ship at sea is more private and secret than collecting me from the harbour. Anyway his ship flagged down mine and he came aboard. I was thirteen, I think, and he sat my parents down and talked to them. I wasn't there for that conversation, however I was watching from the bow looking through the cabin window and seeing their reaction. They were shocked. They even looked angry as he explained calmly to them what was going to happen, exposed the lies regarding the Ark they had been told. Then finally I was called in and he gave me the good/bad news.
"Next came the memory implants and I adapted to the new situation. From that point on my parents were incredibly dedicated to getting me on the Ark and keeping me safe.
"Once they understood that I would be teleported to the Ark they decided that getting me away from other people was the best option. With the sea levels dropping and food becoming scarce they reckoned that people would start tearing the world apart and they didn't want me anywhere near the chaos. So we loaded our boat with supplies and planned to hide out on the sea for the next several months until the teleport would happen. It took time to get out to our boat, because the sea levels had dropped to almost a mile off shore. The trek with our supplies was through a valley that had once been the sea floor. Barnacles and coral were everywhere. Little rock-pools overloaded with crabs and fish were drying out in the sun. It was a weird journey. Once we reached the boat we set off. There were other vessels around ours, however no one else wanted to go to sea, they were too scared of the Destroyer and its tentacles that threatened to suck up unsuspecting boats.
"My family have always been fishermen/woman so my parents felt safer on the ocean. They felt they could stay away from much of the danger, and having virtually flat horizon meant they could see trouble coming and get food.
"You see fishing was becoming much easier. As sea levels dropped fish became concentrated in certain areas. We had no problem catching anything. So we floated around the South China Sea. Every day we would sight another ship on the horizon and my parents would steer clear. However as the months passed we saw more ships every day, until we realised what was happening. All the ships on the seas and oceans were being herded together. A sort of new sea was developing and every vessel trying to stop itself from being beached was heading for it.
"This small sea shrank to the size of Lake Victoria. And almost every type of ship was there. Tankers, liners, military vessels and submarines unable to submerge. My parents were nervous. We had tried to get away from civilisation but civilisation was coming back to us. Larger ships grouped together forming ad-hoc communities. We actually passed by a big Chinese aircraft carrier, that must have been the one Nuan was on. Things stabilised for a while until the Destroyer sent a pipe to the sea and then it started shrinking again. The sea life became packed. Around our vessel were whales, dolphins, seals, sharks all day long. They were gorging themselves on fish that had nowhere to go. We ate very well on the larger sea creatures. We must have wiped out whole species. The rotting carcass produce a huge miasma over the shrinking sea, we got used to it.
"Eventually though the water was almost gone. This was causing problem because the bigger vessels where losing space to manoeuvre and float. Plus without a dry dock when they finally came to rest on the sea bed they would not stay upright.
"One day we were beside a large ocean liner. And then the whole vessel stops and there is a massive sound of creaking metal. It had finally hit the sea floor as the water continued to be sucked away.
"The ship literally had no support for its massive bulk and we were right next to it." She held up one hand to represent the larger ship and her own with the other hand.
"Then the whole thing listed to the side towards us." She then start to tilt her hand showing a collapsing ship.
"Can you imagine it, thousands of tons of metal falling your way?
"My dad threw the ship's engines to full and we tried to outrun it. Our ship's engines were not good, but thankfully it didn't need to be as the liner pushed a shallow bow wave ahead of itself. On-board we heard screams and shouts, and the cacophony of crashing glass. Loungers on the top deck came flying off.
The liner crashed onto its side as our vessel sped away.
"My parents didn't look back, instead they took us far away, not daring to go back and help in case we had to take on guests, guests we couldn't trust. We all rationalized our decision, leaving them there with this one piece of wisdom justifying our actions, ‘why bother to save them?’ they were dead anyway, all that mattered was keeping me safe.
"So a month before the end my dad beached the ship, hoping that this way we would stay far away from the other ships. We spent the next few weeks watching the water's edge disappear into the horizon. We saw all the remaining vessels still afloat start to cluster together, until it looked like a new city had formed.
"Two weeks before the end, the city erupted into chaos. We never learned what happened, but I guess all the water had gone, all the food had gone and now people were fighting for the leftovers. One of the ships was a warship and it exploded it. The massive explosion took out nearby ships. We assumed someone had accidently or purposefully detonated its weapons store. The 'city' became a smoking ruin. Then a few days’ later people started making the long trek across the sea floor away from the ruined vessels. Scores of them walking across what was once the sea bed, now a desert. We had water and food stored up and we rationed it carefully. My parents did nothing to help any of the people who trudged past. In fact when a group of people would get close enough we would hide. The ship had a high hull so it discouraged people from climbing on board and they wouldn't see us. My father kept telling me to be quiet, to not move, to let them pass by. We knew they were dead people walking and giving them our rations would do nothing. In the final week, although we didn't know it was the final week, my parents stopped eating. They told me to eat and drink, to keep my strength up.
“We knew the time was close for me to go however we didn't know exactly. They starved themselves without knowing if they would be suffering for a week, two weeks or a month."
She paused in her story, and I knew why, she was coming up to the day when we were all teleported aboard the Ark. In those days she had to watch her parents waste away.
She sniffed a little, "So erm they changed a lot. My parents became sickly and weak, they could barely move, I had to feed them and give them water. We had nothing to do but wait. We tried playing games yet in their weakened state they could barely concentrate or think. “On the second to last night with my parents we were all laying on the floor of the cabin. We were all weak and tired. Even though we were below sea level the air was getting thin. We just lay there in silence.
"Then my mother, I think she was delusional started asking me about the past. She kept asking if I remembered old holidays, people we used to live with, an old boyfriend of mine. We started reminiscing and we fell asleep dwelling on the past.
"I woke up the next morning, but they didn't.”
"I'm sorry," I said.
She sniffed and wiped a tear. "They were gone, I looked over their dead, shrivelled, emaciated bodies for while then retreated to the top deck. I didn't have the energy to mourn them at that time. I ate and drank all the water on-board, I finished off anything. I grew angry as I found myself alone in a desert that stank of rotting fish. It was all too much.
"Then the earthquakes began. The boat started to sink into the sand which was now becoming partially fluid with the vibrations.
"I climbed onto the top deck and looked out over the sea.
"Dark clouds filled the sky, the top of the Destroyer was barely visible on the horizon. My body started to tingle and the world started to fade as the teleport took hold. The last thing I saw was a huge rent in the surface for the sea bed. The city of ships on the horizon fell into it and the crack reached out for my vessel.
"Then I was here on this ship safe from harm."
She fell silent as her story ended.
I didn't say anything immediately, I mean what else was there to say. My experiences were better, that was for sure.
So I put the pipe with its washer in place and tightened the nut.
I looked at Bae and she pulled herself out of her sadness and turned the valve just like before.
No water shot out to drench me, our job was done.
"You know I don't know what to say," I finally said.
She chucked the screwdriver she had just used into the tool box. It bounced and clanged against the other metal tools. "Who does?" she replied.
I grabbed a giant wrench from a nearby toolbox and placed it on the nut I needed to tighten. After jimmying it a bit to make it fall into the grooves I then started pulling down on the tool, to make sure the new pipe I had just attached was tight and waterproof.
When I finished I nodded to Bae who turned a valve.
Instantly I was sprayed with water from the pipe fitting I had just completed.
I raised my hand to block the water that went straight into my face, stinging my skin as it was under high pressure.
Bae just watched for a moment, somewhat surprised at the problem.
“Something is still wrong,” she said.
“I know,” I shouted at her and she finally turned the valve with her screwdriver and the water stopped.
I looked at the pipe and wondered what was wrong with it.
"What about the washer?” Bae said pointing at the circle of rubber at my feet.
I signed inwardly at my carelessness and started undoing the nut on the pipe so I could insert the washer.
There was silence for a moment as Bae waited for me to undo the pipe and complete the work.
“You said boring?” she suddenly said.
“What?” I replied and ran my fingers through my hair to slick it back over my head. It was getting very long and I was wondering what I should do with it. Could a robot cut it for me, could One? I was certainly not going to let one of the crew members do it.
“You said your story from meeting Dr Ghost to your last moments on Earth were boring, however you were kidnapped and had your eye cut open.”
“Not quite, I was just left with a scar,” I said and I ran the end of the wrench from where the scar started above my eye down to my cheek.
“Whatever, either way not a boring story,” she reiterated.
"It felt boring as I was telling it, what about your story? I remember you saying that you were on a ship towards the end, an aircraft carrier?"
"Yes, well I exaggerated that a bit, I saw an aircraft carrier and for a time I was in the same fleet as Oda for a while, except on a South Korean shipping vessel."
"You could have told us that," I said.
"Well an aircraft carrier sounded cooler."
"So what happened?" I asked her.
"Where to begin?" she mumbled.
"Start from when Dr Ghost came to get you," I suggested and I continued my work while she talked.
"Well my family lived on a fishing boat and while we were out fishing he came to us on a government ship, a small one."
"Odd he had me collected," I said.
"I think he choose to come to us because a ship at sea is more private and secret than collecting me from the harbour. Anyway his ship flagged down mine and he came aboard. I was thirteen, I think, and he sat my parents down and talked to them. I wasn't there for that conversation, however I was watching from the bow looking through the cabin window and seeing their reaction. They were shocked. They even looked angry as he explained calmly to them what was going to happen, exposed the lies regarding the Ark they had been told. Then finally I was called in and he gave me the good/bad news.
"Next came the memory implants and I adapted to the new situation. From that point on my parents were incredibly dedicated to getting me on the Ark and keeping me safe.
"Once they understood that I would be teleported to the Ark they decided that getting me away from other people was the best option. With the sea levels dropping and food becoming scarce they reckoned that people would start tearing the world apart and they didn't want me anywhere near the chaos. So we loaded our boat with supplies and planned to hide out on the sea for the next several months until the teleport would happen. It took time to get out to our boat, because the sea levels had dropped to almost a mile off shore. The trek with our supplies was through a valley that had once been the sea floor. Barnacles and coral were everywhere. Little rock-pools overloaded with crabs and fish were drying out in the sun. It was a weird journey. Once we reached the boat we set off. There were other vessels around ours, however no one else wanted to go to sea, they were too scared of the Destroyer and its tentacles that threatened to suck up unsuspecting boats.
"My family have always been fishermen/woman so my parents felt safer on the ocean. They felt they could stay away from much of the danger, and having virtually flat horizon meant they could see trouble coming and get food.
"You see fishing was becoming much easier. As sea levels dropped fish became concentrated in certain areas. We had no problem catching anything. So we floated around the South China Sea. Every day we would sight another ship on the horizon and my parents would steer clear. However as the months passed we saw more ships every day, until we realised what was happening. All the ships on the seas and oceans were being herded together. A sort of new sea was developing and every vessel trying to stop itself from being beached was heading for it.
"This small sea shrank to the size of Lake Victoria. And almost every type of ship was there. Tankers, liners, military vessels and submarines unable to submerge. My parents were nervous. We had tried to get away from civilisation but civilisation was coming back to us. Larger ships grouped together forming ad-hoc communities. We actually passed by a big Chinese aircraft carrier, that must have been the one Nuan was on. Things stabilised for a while until the Destroyer sent a pipe to the sea and then it started shrinking again. The sea life became packed. Around our vessel were whales, dolphins, seals, sharks all day long. They were gorging themselves on fish that had nowhere to go. We ate very well on the larger sea creatures. We must have wiped out whole species. The rotting carcass produce a huge miasma over the shrinking sea, we got used to it.
"Eventually though the water was almost gone. This was causing problem because the bigger vessels where losing space to manoeuvre and float. Plus without a dry dock when they finally came to rest on the sea bed they would not stay upright.
"One day we were beside a large ocean liner. And then the whole vessel stops and there is a massive sound of creaking metal. It had finally hit the sea floor as the water continued to be sucked away.
"The ship literally had no support for its massive bulk and we were right next to it." She held up one hand to represent the larger ship and her own with the other hand.
"Then the whole thing listed to the side towards us." She then start to tilt her hand showing a collapsing ship.
"Can you imagine it, thousands of tons of metal falling your way?
"My dad threw the ship's engines to full and we tried to outrun it. Our ship's engines were not good, but thankfully it didn't need to be as the liner pushed a shallow bow wave ahead of itself. On-board we heard screams and shouts, and the cacophony of crashing glass. Loungers on the top deck came flying off.
The liner crashed onto its side as our vessel sped away.
"My parents didn't look back, instead they took us far away, not daring to go back and help in case we had to take on guests, guests we couldn't trust. We all rationalized our decision, leaving them there with this one piece of wisdom justifying our actions, ‘why bother to save them?’ they were dead anyway, all that mattered was keeping me safe.
"So a month before the end my dad beached the ship, hoping that this way we would stay far away from the other ships. We spent the next few weeks watching the water's edge disappear into the horizon. We saw all the remaining vessels still afloat start to cluster together, until it looked like a new city had formed.
"Two weeks before the end, the city erupted into chaos. We never learned what happened, but I guess all the water had gone, all the food had gone and now people were fighting for the leftovers. One of the ships was a warship and it exploded it. The massive explosion took out nearby ships. We assumed someone had accidently or purposefully detonated its weapons store. The 'city' became a smoking ruin. Then a few days’ later people started making the long trek across the sea floor away from the ruined vessels. Scores of them walking across what was once the sea bed, now a desert. We had water and food stored up and we rationed it carefully. My parents did nothing to help any of the people who trudged past. In fact when a group of people would get close enough we would hide. The ship had a high hull so it discouraged people from climbing on board and they wouldn't see us. My father kept telling me to be quiet, to not move, to let them pass by. We knew they were dead people walking and giving them our rations would do nothing. In the final week, although we didn't know it was the final week, my parents stopped eating. They told me to eat and drink, to keep my strength up.
“We knew the time was close for me to go however we didn't know exactly. They starved themselves without knowing if they would be suffering for a week, two weeks or a month."
She paused in her story, and I knew why, she was coming up to the day when we were all teleported aboard the Ark. In those days she had to watch her parents waste away.
She sniffed a little, "So erm they changed a lot. My parents became sickly and weak, they could barely move, I had to feed them and give them water. We had nothing to do but wait. We tried playing games yet in their weakened state they could barely concentrate or think. “On the second to last night with my parents we were all laying on the floor of the cabin. We were all weak and tired. Even though we were below sea level the air was getting thin. We just lay there in silence.
"Then my mother, I think she was delusional started asking me about the past. She kept asking if I remembered old holidays, people we used to live with, an old boyfriend of mine. We started reminiscing and we fell asleep dwelling on the past.
"I woke up the next morning, but they didn't.”
"I'm sorry," I said.
She sniffed and wiped a tear. "They were gone, I looked over their dead, shrivelled, emaciated bodies for while then retreated to the top deck. I didn't have the energy to mourn them at that time. I ate and drank all the water on-board, I finished off anything. I grew angry as I found myself alone in a desert that stank of rotting fish. It was all too much.
"Then the earthquakes began. The boat started to sink into the sand which was now becoming partially fluid with the vibrations.
"I climbed onto the top deck and looked out over the sea.
"Dark clouds filled the sky, the top of the Destroyer was barely visible on the horizon. My body started to tingle and the world started to fade as the teleport took hold. The last thing I saw was a huge rent in the surface for the sea bed. The city of ships on the horizon fell into it and the crack reached out for my vessel.
"Then I was here on this ship safe from harm."
She fell silent as her story ended.
I didn't say anything immediately, I mean what else was there to say. My experiences were better, that was for sure.
So I put the pipe with its washer in place and tightened the nut.
I looked at Bae and she pulled herself out of her sadness and turned the valve just like before.
No water shot out to drench me, our job was done.
"You know I don't know what to say," I finally said.
She chucked the screwdriver she had just used into the tool box. It bounced and clanged against the other metal tools. "Who does?" she replied.