What Remains Here

Chapter 7

November 2

I suppose that I got what I had asked for because today's one of those days where everything has realigned, though we all have no idea whether this change will finally lead to the creation of the dream community or the loss of everything we have.

It all began when we were walking down to the ocean in the afternoon since everyone was too tired to make it to the early morning low tide, and it was too dark and dangerous. There was this palpable energy while we, the Coopers and our family minus Dad and my grandparents, trekked towards the ocean. Eventually, after some time, the dark silhouette began peeking through the haze, and I could see everyone's eyes lighting up at how full the net seemed to look from the distance.

Mira began running to the net, and even though Mom yelled at her to slow down so that she couldn't slip on the slick pieces of algae coating the road, she also speed-walked to the net while the rest of us lagged behind a bit. When we got to the net, I finally saw what they were marveling at.

It turns out that letting the tides wash over the net was a brilliant idea because even though we had caught so much kelp, comprising the bulk of the material that the net had caught, there was just so much. There were spiky purple urchins and red and pink starfish, like the ones in the touching pools in aquariums, and just tons and tons of shells caught up. One additional benefit of the kelp was that it had trapped seawater, keeping the fish, whose tails were flailing against the coiling, olive vines of kelp, alive.

"C'mon," Mom said. "We've got to pack everything into buckets before things dry up and begin to rot."

We began dumping everything into the buckets, making sure to keep the kelp out, as Mira and the Coopers began checking the backyards of the nearby homes for pools or outside tubs to collect seawater to keep the fish and marine creatures alive. May and I were responsible for the molluscs, and as we were picking out barnacle-covered rocks and mussels and clam-looking shells, I could see May's hands darting around the fish.

"Eww, fish are so gross," May said, pointing at their flapping tails. "I almost feel bad for them."

"Same, I guess," I said. "We're going to have to eat them, you know?"

"I know," she replied sharply. "I mean I hate fish, but it's not like we have any other option. Also, how has your progress been with the whole submerged homes thing?"

"Can we just not do this now?"

"Fine," she replied. "But you are very rapidly approaching the one week mark, just saying."

"Whatever," I said with a shrug. "Let's just load these in."

It took us over an hour to get a bucket filled with molluscs, and we were only half-way through the net's contents, but at that time, all the buckets that we had brought were full, so we loaded it all in the wagon. Mom, Cora, and Caspian planned to stay behind to defend the net and continued to attempt to untangle it since it was a complete mess. The ocean didn't just only wash in kelp, but also brought in metal, glass shards, thin wooden shards, and just a bunch of miscellaneous items that had gotten and cut into the net. Even though the net was only half-empty, I could already see the damage done upon it.

However, just as we were about to leave the flooded with our first batch from the net, a wagon filled with fish, urchins, starfish, and a variety of mollusks that had been stripped from the floor, we were intercepted by none other than the Shepards and Dean, Mira's walking partner. Both were standing behind the tattered caution tape, guns hanging from a strap around their shoulder. We all froze, unsure whether we were going to be shot or whether they just wanted to have a friendly conversation. Either way, someone found out what we were doing, and it was nerve-wracking to even imagine what would happen next.