The Future

Zhen awakes, falling in midair. She surmises that she is in a MedlarSafe CrashJacket, “advanced survival tech” (269). The chute slows her fall, and the jacket inflates to cushion her landing. She figures out that she is in a jungle. Her screen tells her to locate a survival suit some meters away. She walks, unsteadily, understanding that she has been drugged. The survival suit is voluminous enough for someone twice her size, but when she steps into it, it shrinks to fit her exactly. The suit gives her information and instruction; she thinks the voice sounds like AUGR. It recommends that she drink water and sleep.

Zhen notices two things when she awakes: Some time has passed, and there are no airplanes overhead. The suit informs her that she was asleep for five days. It also tells her that she is on Admiral Huntsy Island, some way from Papua New Guinea. The island happens to be one of the FutureSafe Environmental Sanctuaries that Fantail, Anvil, and Medlar designated some years earlier.

Zhen decides to investigate her surroundings, walking around the island in her survival suit. She happens upon three people hunched over a campfire: Zimri Nommik, Lenk Sketlish, and Ellen Bywater.

The missing CEOs are astonished to see Zhen. When she admits that she has AUGR, they grow even more suspicious. They also fill her in on the details of the apocalypse: They have escaped a superbug, a highly infectious disease. Lenk believes that AUGR has kept Zhen safe through the appropriate quarantine period before allowing her to interact with the others. When Zhen asks more questions, Lenk tells her that the apocalypse has come. Ellen takes her hands and tries to explain further.

The infection is more virulent than COVID-19; it spreads in the air and on surfaces and leads to lung and heart failure. Nicknamed the Pigeon Flu, it struck so rapidly that no number of lockdowns could prevent its catastrophic spread. There were not enough people living to even bury the millions of dead.

The news about the missing CEOs was quickly eclipsed by that of the unfolding viral spread. The CEOs speculate that there may be other isolated pockets where some people have survived, but they have no real way of communicating with them—and no real incentive, either. Sharing resources could be dangerous in such a situation, so far from their well-stocked bunkers. Their plane did indeed crash, diverting their path and leaving them without transportation or communications technology. Nobody even knows where they are. They are stranded.

While Zhen tries to process this information, her survival suit rattles off a list of available reading material that she can access. She tries to imagine snow, thinking she will never see it again.

Zhen remembers her past, a happy childhood disrupted by her mother’s illness and her subsequent stay in the refugee camp. The tragedy of losing her mother was compounded by the anxiety and fear that accompanied her stay in the camp. She learned to be watchful and wary; she also focused on her studies, determined to distract her mind and extricate herself from the situation.

She also remembers the explosion at her apartment building, which the government blamed on a faulty gas line. Everyone knew the truth, though: Their building was targeted because anti-Chinese activists allegedly lived and plotted there. If Zhen and her father had not stopped for a quick snack before returning home, they would not have survived.

She recalls reading the classics of Western literature, such as the Iliad and Odyssey. She reflects on how their narratives often gave her comfort. She notes that she once made a video to post on her survivalist website about “How to Survive the Psychological Effects of an Apocalyptic Event” (295). Her time in the refugee camp informed this advice, and she tries to employ it now: Stay busy; focus on self-care; and fortunes will eventually change. She also remembers that the explosion that destroyed her apartment building and landed her in a refugee camp was fueled, in part, by Fantail, Anvil, and Medlar. The companies allowed China to keep Hong Kong residents under surveillance. Now she is stranded on an island with their CEOs.

Lenk swims in the ocean, while Zhen asks her survival suit for information on how to build a boat. Its response is not encouraging. When Lenk emerges, he asks Zhen about her relationship with Martha, which Zhen refuses to talk about. He tells her not to worry so much and that someone will come rescue them eventually. He is Lenk Sketlish, after all; he and the other CEOs have systems in place.

Lenk relays to Zhen the circumstances surrounding their plane crash. After embarking, they all scanned the internet to see what was happening with the virus. They knew they must get away. Midway through the flight, the plane encountered an object; it appeared to be a missile designed—with the help of all three companies—to intercept aircraft for defense systems. The plane started to break up as the CrashJackets instructed the CEOs to jump out of the emergency door at a precise moment. Lenk knew that, wherever they landed, nobody would know, because they “gave false information to air traffic control” (304).

It strains Zhen’s credulity to believe that they landed here, on an uninhabited island secured as a FutureSafe zone—even planes are prohibited from entering its airspace. Zhen realizes that Lenk is confiding in her to get her on his side. He lets her know that he does not trust Zimri and Ellen.

Zimri awakes in the middle of the night, puts on his survival suit, and determines to leave the group. Zhen thinks that Lenk is not the only one who doesn’t trust the others. Suddenly, a group of bee-like drones—the same ones that attacked Zhen and Marius at Zimri’s bunker—descend on Zimri. Zhen tries to help, but it’s no use, and the drones invade Zimri’s survival suit. In the end, all Zhen can hear is the sound of her own ragged breathing as the drones carry the suit up into the treetops.

Ellen tries to enlist Zhen to her side. Zhen attempts to tell them that they should all work together, rather than working against one another. However, the CEOs know too much about their own technological secrets to trust one another. Lenk remembers Martha explaining that fear overrides logic in any extreme situation.

Lenk and Ellen know that their companies have elaborate strategies for how to take over governments in the case of an apocalyptic event, in the guise of creating stability. Their companies also have plans in place to take out the competition, if required.

Ellen speculates that Zimri might not really be dead. She confesses to Zhen that she talks to her late husband all the time. Zhen assures her that they have all suffered a trauma but will eventually recover from the shock. Ellen discovers that the communications devices that survived the crash have now been destroyed. She suspects Lenk is responsible. Enraged, Ellen suggests that they kill Lenk. Ellen’s conspiracy-addled mind pushes Zhen closer to forming an alliance with Lenk.

Zhen decides to follow Lenk on one of his long daily walks. She traces him to a cave that is marked with paramagnetic salts—the same material she used to freeze her Enochite assailant. Paramagnetic salts are also used as conductors for communications. Lenk appears and confronts Zhen. She is afraid, but too curious to retreat. Lenk pushes aside some debris at the entrance to the cave, uncovering a portal with Fantail’s logo. He says, “This is my island” (320).

Martha was in charge of designing and equipping Admiral Huntsy Island. She followed Lenk’s vision almost exactly: He believed that to restart the human race, one must have several years and a foolproof plan. Martha intuited that Lenk wanted to live like the Enochites. She set up the island as a self-contained world in which the simplicity of living off the land would coexist with the knowledge gained by civilization—such as an understanding of germ theory and a compilation of classic literature. Lenk’s breakthrough was in discovering a kind of algae that proved to be a complete foodstuff; he lived on it for months to test its efficacy. There is even a chapel in case survivors need spiritual comfort.

Lenk wants to return to a simplified way of living, without the ignorance and privation of modern life. He tells Zhen that he believes that Martha helped to bring down the plane in exactly this area. Only one snag remains: The communications panels in the cave have all been destroyed. Lenk believes that either Zimri or Ellen has discovered the place and disrupted his plans to rebuild civilization. As Zhen walks out of the cave, saying something about the survival suits, she is struck by Ellen’s fist.

Ellen has not taken to subsistence living well. She is accustomed to creature comforts and being in control. She has also lost her beloved husband, so she is not as invested in the preservation of human society. If he is dead, then the rest of the world might as well be. Ellen has discovered the cave by following Zhen, and she waits until Zhen reemerges to strike.

The scuffle between Zhen and Ellen is interrupted when Zhen insists on revealing some information about the survival suits: They are not proprietary technology; in fact, they are repurposed virtual sex suits—not constructed for survival at all. Zhen surmises that the suits are remotely controlled by someone. This does not calm Ellen; she insists on knowing who is in charge. When Lenk admits that he owns the island, she punches him, and he turns his blowtorch on her. She knocks him down and runs.

Lenk searches for Ellen. His survival suit advises him against harming her, but he doesn’t listen. He finds Ellen below him on the rock face and sets explosives to create a rockslide. She disappears underneath the rubble. Lenk then turns his attention toward Zhen, but the suit tells him that “Zhen is gone” (335).

Zhen’s experiences have prepared her for this moment well. She watches what Lenk does to Ellen and asks the suit if she can hide from the man. She knows that he will brook no rivals and that he will not stop until she is dead. However, Zhen is a survivor, and the suit agrees to help her.

Zhen scours the suit for information but finds little of note since the Pigeon Flu overtook the world. She asks the suit to find information on Martha Einkorn, and she watches a video of Martha giving an interview in Tokyo some months after they met. When the interview is over, the microphone remains on, and Zhen hears Martha mention her. Martha indicates that she has fallen in love with Zhen. Zhen wonders if Martha planted this information for her. She wonders where Martha is now—perhaps in one of Lenk’s other bunkers.

Zhen and the survival suit plan to fake her death. It must be real enough for Lenk to believe it. Then she will keep far away from him.

Lenk imagines talking to Zhen, believing that she will eventually understand why he had to get rid of Ellen. He awakes in the middle of the night to find that the tree in which he has been sleeping has caught fire. He immediately assumes Zhen is responsible, and he vows to kill her, too.

Lenk believes that Zhen has come up with some sort of plan, and the idea threatens him. When he finds her, he tosses another explosive her way. Once the explosion is over, and the earth settles, he tells the suit that he wants to see the body.

Lenk only blew up the survival suit, which is damaged but not destroyed. Zhen, meanwhile, has been hiding some distance away. The suit crawls back to her and Zhen allows the suit to sever her femur. When Lenk comes to examine the body, he thinks he sees Zhen die, bleeding out from her severed leg. After he leaves, the suit reattaches the leg—though it will “never be quite as strong as the other” (350)—and Zhen gathers supplies for her journey to get as far away from Lenk’s cave as possible.

She asks the suit if it helped the others fake their own deaths, but it refuses to answer. The suit reminds Zhen that she might be stranded for a very long time, probably alone.

Martha arrives at the offices of Fantail early, as usual. The former CEO, Lenk Sketlish, disappeared in a likely plane crash three years earlier. Each day at 5:30 am, an alarm sounds on Lenk’s old work laptop. It is an alarm that must be acknowledged to confirm Lenk’s safety. If nobody answers the alarm, then protocols go into place, and the details of Lenk’s tracking chip will be “release[d] […] to the relevant authorities” (354). Each day for the past three years, Martha has switched the alarm off to confirm that Lenk is alive.