After the first couple of weeks, though, Anna was stewing. She practiced her forms, much as she had done before heading to Bunker One. Though we had nothing but time up here, she had somehow grown more distant from me. I think the journey to Bunker One had taken more of a toll than she let on.
If Anna had grown a bit more distant, Makara had grown light years away. She was still reeling from Lisa’s death. Bunker One had been more than we all had bargained for, and it had cost us all something. But it cost Makara the most of all. Any attempt of mine to talk to her ended with her brushing me off. It got to the point where I just stopped trying, and ended up getting involved in my own activities.
I still felt the shock of it all. My life ever since Bunker 108 had been nonstop action; hunger, cold, being chased, and nearly getting killed hundreds of times had transformed me from an innocent kid into an adult. My face in the mirror looked tired, but tough. I had been scrawny before, but since Bunker 108 I had gained a lot of muscle, especially since starting to recuperate at Skyhome. I ran the rings every other day for an hour straight, sprinting during some of the stretches. I lifted weights, did pushups, ate until I almost burst, and slept. I threw myself into it, and even started practicing my hand-to-hand combat with Samuel.
Within a few weeks, Samuel’s sling came off. Being in Skyhome with the good food, warm sun, and close-knit community did wonders for his health. Though I still had to take it easy on him, he was a good teacher.
Up here, I finally had time to think. I thought about my dad, Khloe, and everyone I had lost back in Bunker 108. It got to the point that I didn’t even know who I was anymore. That was why I threw myself into my workouts, my reading, and my farming. It was as if everyone had their own sorrows to deal with. The sorrows were like walls that kept us on our separate islands. Maybe that was why Ashton wanted us to stay here awhile before continuing with our mission — whatever our mission was, these days.
As for Samuel, he was gone a lot. He and Ashton spoke every day, sometimes for hours. It made sense, because they were both scientists, and they were probably sharing information they had learned about the xenovirus. I hoped that, together, they could come up with some idea of how to stop it. Every day, when I saw Samuel at dinner, I asked him what the next step was. Finally, he told me to just chill out and relax.
I told him I didn’t remember what that was.
My nightmares returned up here, this time featuring crawlers, Howlers, and the monsters we fought with no name. Worse, I’d dream of my father and Khloe. With nothing to do, I had all the time in the world to process what I had just gone through. I tried to keep as busy as I could. I got back into my drawing. We each had our own rooms up here, and I kept the artwork in a drawer. I drew people, mostly. Anna let me draw her while she was practicing, although she had not been too happy about it. Said it made her feel self-conscious.
As much as it creeped me out, I also drew the monsters we had found. I thought they might be educational for Ashton in some way. I named some that had no names. The three-headed one we fought in the hallway on our way to the runway I called a “Hydra,” the birds I called “Flyers,” and the giant humanoids I called “Behemoths,” since that is what Marcus the Exile had called them. And, of course, there were the crawlers and the Howlers. I wondered how many other types of monsters there were.
And Makara… she just stayed in her room, mostly. We did what we could to draw her out, but she wasn’t biting. Somehow, I think, she blamed herself for Lisa’s death. She came out to eat, and she kept herself in shape as much as the rest of us, and had a job monitoring solar equipment. But she just wasn’t there. It was both scary and saddening to see something finally breaking her, and it wasn’t from the outside. It was from within.
Once we got back to the surface, Makara would probably be better off. Hell, all of us would.
All the sitting around had gotten me thinking too much. It was better than getting shot at, or surrounded by turners. But it didn’t feel like reality anymore. Skyhome was enormous. The three rings combined had a walking distance of a mile and a half. That accommodated a lot of people, and was a lot of space to move around in. It was an amazing feat of engineering. Actually, amazing was an understatement.
Still, Skyhome wasn’t Earth. I felt like a rat in a cage, and I was itching to go back home, as crazy as that sounded.
Skyhome was safe. But maybe I didn’t want safe, anymore.
Chapter 25
The day finally came.
Ashton called us to his office. It was his first time meeting with us since Bunker One.
Ashton was not only Chief Scientist of the United States; he was its top-ranking official. That technically made him the President, but he didn’t call himself that.
“At current expansion rates, the xenovirus will have taken everything over in twenty years,” Ashton said. “At which point, the human race on the surface will most likely be extinct.”
We stood silent as he faced us. Beyond the ports was the blue-green glow of Earth, swathed with pink and white cloud. Bright bands of stars streaked the cosmos. Ashton looked at each of us in turn.
“So, what do you want us to do about it?” I asked.
Ashton let the question fall to the wayside as he steepled his fingers. “With you and your team, I can finally get started on that.”
“Get started on what?” Anna asked. “Why can’t someone else in Skyhome do it?”
“Because no one in Skyhome is capable of what you guys have done,” Ashton said. “You crossed the Great Blight, raided Bunker One, and retrieved the Black Files — among other things, I’m sure. No one here could have done as much. None of us would have dared to do it, because we all knew just how bad it was. You and your team have been to the surface and have survived there for years. No one here has that kind of experience. In short, I need you. The world needs you. You are the only people who even have a shot of pulling off what I have in mind.”
Anna sighed. “No pressure, then.”
“Before you go on, there is something I need to know,” I asked. “Was it you who opened the door to Bunker 40?”
Ashton nodded. “I heard your voices through the camera there. While I could not communicate with you, I heard you clearly. All the Bunkers’ security systems are linked to Skyhome, and Bunker 40 is one of the few we still receive feedback from. It recently went offline, so its critical systems, such as Bunker security, run on backup battery power. When you mentioned Chief Security Officer Chan, the xenovirus, and the Black Files, I decided to open the door. The Imperials had been trying the same thing for months, but I wasn’t going to let them in.”
“What about the plane?” I asked. “Were you controlling that as well?”
“I did not control the plane, though its course to Bunker One was plotted through Skyhome’s navigational system. It was sheer luck that the station was above North America at the time; otherwise we would not have been able to communicate. I knew as long as you guys made it to the Bunker One labs, I could radio you there.”
“Was there not a radio on the plane?” I asked.
“There was,” Ashton said. “Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to contact you, as much as I tried. The radio in my lab at Bunker One — I do know how to communicate with that. The Imperials got there first, however. I could not open those doors until they were dealt with.”
Makara turned her head away. The deaths of Harland and Drake had cost Lisa her life, and that fact wasn’t lost on any of us.