The wind swept through the desiccated trees lining the beachfront with a furious howl. The trees groaned in response, bidding the wind to cease its assault in their ancient tongue. Everest touched the bark of one such tree, admiring the many creaks and canyons that marked its stone-cold surface. When he was a child, his mother would tell him of trees that grew to be hundreds, if not thousands of years old. She would say time and time again that they were ancient keepers of this world’s long and turbulent history and thus demanded utmost respect.
“All the stories you hold…” Everest whispered faintly. He felt silly for talking to a dead tree, but there was no one around to hear him anyway. Those who could afford to had left years ago to try their luck on the superfarms dotting the hinterlands, mainly as hydroculturers and eco-engineers. Here on the archipelago, they were surrounded by water as far as the eye could see, yet the soil was barren and no life would take root in it. What a cruel joke. Everest cursed the universe as he made his way to his aqua-speeder.
The sun had nearly fallen behind the horizon by the time Everest reached the peninsula docks. A thin layer of salt dusted his face and hair, but he paid it no mind. Salt was inescapable on the archipelago. Its denizens practically lived on the water routes that linked the many islands together. The strait that lay between Everest’s home island and the peninsula to the south was notorious for its choppy waters and biting wind; a bit of salt crusted on the brows was the least of anyone’s worries out here.
After securing his aqua-speeder, Everest stretched and surveyed the area. Bathed in golden twilight, the peninsula’s rocky beach had a smattering of people, some patching up their aqua-speeders, others simply milling about lost in thought. Children shrieked as they chased one another and ran from the waves, their parents keeping a watchful eye from a distance. Everest had been one of those children once, running around the beach while his mother haggled over much-needed supplies in the markets. He wondered how his former playmates fared. No doubt all had left for the hinterlands by now. He listened for the laugher of children at play. It grew fainter with each passing year.
Everest approached a dilapidated shack at the edge of the beach. Its wooden frame was corroded by years of sand bearing down on it. An elderly man leaned against the shack, which was already dangerously leaning itself. He came alive at the sight of Everest and waved, muscles rippling beneath his tan leathery skin. His raspy voice cut through the wind.
“Everest! Good to see ya, my friend!” The old man leaned into Everest for a hug and a pat on the back. Everest caught the familiar scent of tobacco and sweat, unpleasant but expected. Everyone who spent their life hauling goods from the mainland across the islands carried it.
“How’re you holding up, Old Man Tommy?” Everest asked.
“Same as always, my boy. Runs dryin’ up as they are, I’ve got a lotta time on my hands to do…nothin’. I’m thinkin’ if I sit here real still, I just might make it to 70,” Tommy chuckled hoarsely.
Everest gave him a toothy grin and a pat on the shoulder. The old man was joking, but at five years shy of 70, Tommy had fully earned the name by which Everest called him. Most could only dream of living so long. Everest’s own parents had succumbed to illness well short of that goal. He hoped Tommy would be the one to make it there.
“How goes the huntin’?” Tommy asked. He asked every time Everest stopped by.
Everest nodded slowly. “The hunt goes, the hunt goes. Caught a big one the other day out by The Twins. Cleanest throw this season.” Everest closed one eye and mimed a harpoon throw. “You should’ve seen the look on Bertha’s face when we reeled the beast in. Couldn’t tear her eyes away from it the whole ride back.”
Tommy furrowed his brow. “Probably dreamin’ of the cold hard cash linin’ her pockets. I swear, Everest, she’s fleecin’ ya and you’re lettin’ her.”
Everest scoffed dismissively. “I’m the best hunter she’s got and she knows it. Why else would she up me to 15 last season? You know that’s unheard of, old man. Anyways I’ve got what I need to get by, so nothing to complain about.”
Tommy shook his head and pulled two bottles of beer out of the wooden crate behind him. The good stuff from a superfarm brewery. Being a hauler certainly had its perks. He handed one to Everest and the two sat on the ground, resting their heads against the wooden shack behind them. They drank in silence and watched the sun disappear into the sea, leaving in its wake a cooling ember sky.
Tommy eventually broke the silence, gravel in his voice. “Everest, you’re the brightest fella I know, so it baffles me why you’re still stickin’ it out here. Leave this backwater to ol’ cronies like me, we’re yesterday’s news. But you? Why don’t you join the other young’uns on them farms? You could really make somethin’ of yourself out there. Be someone, ya know?”
Everest took a sip and dropped his head, absentmindedly tracing shapes in the sand with a finger. He could feel Tommy’s eyes on him but did not dare meet them with his own. Tommy spoke again.
“There’s nothin’ here for you, son. For any of us. The islands are crumblin’ into the sea one rock at a time and it ain’t long until we’re wiped clean off the map.” Tommy paused and turned his gaze towards the shimmering coast. “I know you feel it comin’, Everest. The sea climbs and climbs and swallows all in the end. Go and save yourself ‘fore she swallows you too.”
Everest finally mustered the will to look over at his old friend. He noticed for the first time how deep the creases beneath Tommy’s sunken eyes were and wondered how much lay invisible on the man’s strong shoulders. But Everest kept his silence. He knew Tommy spoke the truth, a truth he was too afraid to face. It was clear in the empty husks of homes left behind, in the forlorn eyes of parents watching their children play, in the neverending wind’s hollow song of ruin. The future was being swept away from under their feet.
Everest grabbed a fistful of sand and let it slip through the cracks of his fingers. He and Tommy watched the grains fly away, eventually losing them in the dark gray sea that stretched before them.