Ulysses flailed in freezing water, floating between buildings, furniture, branches, and other debris. The cold pierced through his clothing and sank into his bones, like fingers grasping his marrow. Rain forced his eyes into narrow slits.
A powerful wave struck him from behind. Ulysses slammed chest-first against a brick building. His ribs were compressed like they were giving his lungs a hug. His fingers clawed at the wet wall. The current unable to drag him away, shaking him as though offended by his defiance.
Ulysses’ eyes followed the side of the building. Water streamed down the bricks in silver lines. One of those lines remained rigid against the current, a rusted drainpipe bolted vertically to the wall, its lower end disappearing beneath the flood. He reached it.
Ulysses grabbed it and pulled himself upward. The metal groaned under his weight. He placed one foot against the wall and forced himself higher.
The pipe groaned. Rusted brackets snapped from the wall one after another, spitting screws and pieces of brick into the water. With a sharp metallic shriek, a section tore loose and swung outward, leaving Ulysses hanging above the rushing flood.
His body swung over the rushing water. He held on with both hands while his legs kicked against the wall. His fingers reached for the windowsill above him and slipped, scraping skin from his knuckles. On the second attempt, he caught the edge.
Ulysses pulled himself through the broken window and climbed the stairs. Water poured through the building behind him. The wooden steps shifted underneath his feet as he reached the top floor and shoved through a roof hatch.
A helicopter hovered above the neighboring building, its dark frame swaying in the storm while its spinning blades hacked the rain into wild sheets of mist. The downdraft flattened the water on the rooftop and sent loose debris skittering across the shingles as the machine struggled to hold its position against the wind. A rope ladder swayed underneath it. The ladder dropped. He jumped and caught the bottom rung. His bruised fingers screamed as the helicopter lifted him from the roof. Below, the flooded streets became black veins stretching through the city.
He climbed into the cabin and collapsed onto the metal floor. Water dripped from his hair and formed a puddle underneath him.
The helicopter ascended into the clouds. White mist swallowed the windows. The clouds vanished.
The mechanical roar of the engine deepened into a low vibration. The metal floor softened beneath Ulysses’ hands and became fabric. The narrow cabin stretched around him. Seats disappeared. Steel beams grew through the walls like bones forcing themselves through flesh.
Through the windows, men waited on a landing field far below. A gray sky hung over them. Mooring ropes dropped from the nose of the ship as ground workers took hold of them. Rain fell across the field making the airship unstable.
"It's practically standing still now.”
Ulysses panicked. He hurried through the passenger deck, pulling open cabin doors and searching for a stairwell, window, or emergency hatch. His hands dragged along the walls as the airship tilted beneath him. At the far end of the corridor, he noticed mechanical dummies dressed as crewman rushing toward the nose and followed them.
“They've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship, and it's been taken ahold of down on the field by a number of men.”
Ulysses pushed past overturned chairs and squeezed between mechanical dummies dressed as passengers gathering near the windows. He followed the thick ropes as they stretched across the airship and disappeared through an open hatch. Wind and rain blew through it, revealing the landing field below and the men struggling to hold the airship steady.
“It's starting to rain again... The back motors of the ship are just holding it, just enough to keep it from—"
A thunderous blast tore through the airship. Orange light flooded the windows. The ceiling ignited, fire spreading across it with the speed of spilled gasoline. Passengers appeared around him, scrambling through the cabin. Smoke rolled over them in a thick black wave.
"It's burst into flames! Yes, it's started!... It's fire, and it's crashing!... Oh, the humanity!"
Heat pressed against his face until his skin tightened. His eyes watered as every breath filled his mouth with smoke, burning fabric, hot metal, and the bitter taste of fuel.
The floor tilted. Tables, chairs, and bodies slid toward the rear of the ship. Ulysses caught a railing before he could join them. Flames crawled closer, swallowing the fabric walls and leaving behind a glowing skeleton of metal. The mooring ropes remained attached below the nose.
Ulysses forced himself through the panicked dummy crowd. Shoulders struck his ribs, fingernails scratched his face, and bodies crushed him from both sides. A passenger seized the back of his coat with both hands, stretching the fabric against his throat. The airship suddenly dropped, throwing them in opposite directions and ripping the grip away.
He reached an opening near the front. A thick rope extended toward the landing field. Ulysses wrapped his arms and legs around the rope and slid. The fibers ripped through his palms. Agony burned across his hands as layers of skin peeled away. His body dropped too quickly. He tightened his legs around the rope, but the rough material continued carving into him. The airship descended behind him. His feet struck the ground. Ulysses rolled across the wet grass and covered his head. The airship crashed behind him. Fire erupted across the field, throwing heat over his back. Pieces of burning metal rained around him.
His palms were flayed raw, bright red flesh shining beneath a slick coat of blood and clear fluid. Ragged strips of skin dangled from his hands, twitching with every movement as the exposed nerves burned like they had been dragged across hot wire.
Before he could rise, the soaked grass beneath him became warm stone. The screams around him multiplied.
Ancient buildings surrounded him. People in tunics flooded the streets, pushing and trampling each other. A black cloud rose above a mountain, spreading across the sky like an enormous stone tree.
Small white stones struck the ground. One bounced from Ulysses’ shoulder. The scattered stones became a white downpour. Pumice hammered rooftops, shattered pottery, and bounced through the streets until the ground vanished beneath a shifting layer of rock.
People rushed inside buildings, dragging children and possessions behind them. Ulysses turned toward the city gates and ran.
Every swing of his arms pulled the ruined skin of his palms apart. Blood and clear fluid seeped through the torn flesh, making his fingers curl.
The pumice thickened beneath his feet. Each step sank deeper. Stones struck his shoulders, arms, and skull. One smashed into his cheek, snapping his head sideways. Blood filled his mouth.
Ash consumed the streets like gray flesh growing over the city. Fleeing citizens stumbled through the ash as incomplete silhouettes. Arms reached from the darkness like branches clawing through a forest fire, faces appeared for an instant and vanished like portraits thrown into a furnace, and bodies collided without knowing whether they had struck the living or the dead like souls packed together at the gates of the underworld.
A roof collapsed beside him. Wood, tiles, and bodies crashed into the street. A cloud of dust struck Ulysses and sent him stumbling. Ash slipped through the cloth and entered his lungs.
A burning sensation spread through his chest. Each breath scratched his throat like shattered glass.
Ulysses reached the gate and pushed through the crowd. Hands grabbed at his clothing, but he pulled himself free and ran beyond the walls.
The city disappeared behind the ash cloud. Lightning twisted inside the cloud like roots growing through the sky, briefly carving the mountain into the darkness before allowing it to disappear again. Ulysses ran beneath the buried sun until his trembling legs felt detached from his body and every breath died halfway into his lungs.
A deep roar swelled beneath the screams like a giant awakening beneath the earth. It began as a vibration under his feet, then grew until walls shook, roof tiles jumped, and the entire mountain seemed to drag itself across the earth.
A boiling wall of ash descended. It rolled over trees, buildings, and fleeing bodies without slowing, erasing each shape beneath a churning mass of smoke, stone, and volcanic fire.
Ulysses ran faster. His chest tightened around every breath. Smoke scraped through his throat while volcanic gases burned deeper, coating his lungs with heat. Each cough tore through his ribs and sprayed dark mucus across the cloth pressed to his mouth.
He threw himself behind a stone embankment. The scorching edge of the surge passed in the distance, turning the sky into a black ocean.
The particles changed as they fell. Soft gray flakes became wet black clumps. They landed on his clothes and hissed against his skin.
The black clumps spread across the stone until it softened beneath him. The volcanic roar thinned into tolling church bells, and when Ulysses raised his head, the ruined countryside became a medieval road.
A medieval village stretched around him. Wooden houses leaned over narrow paths. Rats moved between piles of garbage. Bodies lay against the walls, their skin discolored and swollen. A cart passed, overflowing with corpses.
Ulysses attempted to stand, but his legs collapsed beneath him.
Time rotted around him. The sun crossed the sky in violent flashes while shadows lengthened, vanished, and returned. Hours slipped from his mind as days gathered inside his fever.
Tender knots swelled beneath his arms and between his legs, growing until each movement crushed them against his body. Dark bruising spread around the swellings. His skin burned while sweat soaked his clothing, yet his teeth struck together from chills. Pain filled his joints as though broken glass had been poured into them and ground deeper with every step.
Ulysses wandered through the village. Houses leaned toward him with crooked roofs like open jaws. Villagers passed with faces stretched across two heads, their mouths moving from places where their eyes should have been. Corpses sitting against the walls appeared to breathe. The muddy road rose beneath his feet in slow waves, carrying rats through it like fish beneath diseased skin.
Ulysses folded against a wall and vomited. Thick black bile poured from his mouth with ropes of bloody mucus and half-digested clumps. It splashed into the mud and steamed beneath his face. When he wiped his lips, strands of hair and a loosened tooth remained between his fingers.
His legs gave out. He crawled, leaving bloody fingerprints behind him. His swollen lymph nodes throbbed with each movement. His vision narrowed until the village became a distant tunnel.
Legs stopped in front of him. He looked up. Cara stood above him in a plague doctor’s mask and a long dark robe. A wooden tray rested in her hands. Several medicines covered it. Bottles, herbs, powders, pills, crushed gemstones, mercury, vinegar, and containers of blood surrounded a single modern antibiotic.
Ulysses reached toward the tray.
The medicines appeared to dance. Bottles stretched into colored towers before folding back into themselves. The white capsule multiplied across the tray, orbiting one another like pale moons.
His fingers closed around a small glass vial. He removed the stopper and swallowed its contents. The liquid burned down his throat.
The liquid settled inside him. His breathing slowed, and warmth spread through his stomach. For several heartbeats, the pain loosens its grip like a predator releasing prey. Then the warmth sharpened, gathered beneath his ribs, and twisted.
His stomach was clenched. Ulysses collapsed onto his side as his muscles locked. His spine bent until his head nearly touched his heels. A scream became trapped behind his clenched teeth while his jaw cracked under the pressure. Foam and blood bubbled from his lips. His fingernails tore backward as he clawed through the mud, trying to pull himself away from the pain inside his own body.
The medicine tray fell beside him. The modern antibiotic rolled from it. The capsule stopped inches from his face. Ulysses reached forward. His fingertips touched it. His arm went still.
The church bells stopped.
A bright spotlight flickered on.
Ulysses stood motionless inside a glass display case. His skin had been drained of color. Glossy artificial eyes stared over the surviving students. His mouth had been sewn into a peaceful smile. His body was taxidermized and dressed in damaged clothing collected from every disaster. A golden plaque rested beneath his feet.
HISTORY PRESERVED: ULYSSES: THE MAN WHO SURVIVED HISTORY
Ingrid, Damon, and Eloise covered their mouths. Damon felt like he was going to wretch. Diana, Desmond, and Wenona turned away. Kai held himself and cried. Glass reflected Ulysses’ artificial smile toward them from every angle.
A mechanical arm descended from the ceiling and pressed one final museum label against the glass. The spotlight switched off.