Greta stayed with her and did her best to comfort her and answer her questions, but in the end all Marina wanted was to be alone to think. She lay on her little bed in the medical quarters and tried to decide what she would do. When she decided, she sought out Greta.
Chapter Twenty-Four
She found Greta in the hastily converted hospital room. It was now empty of people or artifacts and held just the debris of their meeting and Greta. Seated in one of the chairs in the half-light that spilled from the hallway, she was still and deep in thought. When Marina tapped the door jamb to announce her presence, she lifted her head and gave a wan smile.
“How are you doing?” Greta asked.
It was such a loaded question. There was so much that could be wrong that it would take a dozen answers combining a whole range of un-fineness to answer. Marina shrugged instead and stepped into the room. She pulled one of the scattered chairs close to Greta’s and sat facing her.
“I can’t live knowing all of this,” Marina said without preamble. It was best to just get it out in the open and deal with it.
Greta bowed her head again and Marina saw a tear fall. “I was afraid of that,” she said sadly.
“Remediation isn’t such a big price to pay for peace, is it?” Marina asked.
There was a long pause before Greta answered. She said, “I have an idea of how you might be able to live with it and be okay.”
Marina listened.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Marina banged on the wall that separated their quarters from Sela’s room with her boot. If the girl didn’t hurry she would be late for her shift. Their new quarters were small and inconvenient compared to their old ones but it was more than inconvenient not to have a door directly to their daughter’s room.
Alas, there were only a few compartments with more than one bedroom on the Memoriam level and they were all taken. They’d had to settle for a one bedroom compartment next to a studio for Sela. It was a trial. She banged again and thought she heard a faint noise that might have been acknowledgement from the other side.
Even after a year, Marina was having trouble getting Sela to keep her room clean and show up for meals on time. She had taken up with a nice young man from Supply and Marina thought there might be a match soon. Sela would leave and then Marina would miss this so she tried to keep it all in perspective.
Joseph liked the distance, which surprised Marina until she realized that his ardor for her was at a higher point than it had been since Sela was old enough to wander into their room if she woke. It was a very nice change, indeed.
Her daughter came in while she was banging again and laughed when she saw what her mother was doing.
“Mom. I’m right here! You can stop cracking the walls now,” Sela said and snatched up a flat of bread for her breakfast.
Marina dropped her boot and scowled while she tried to pull it on without sitting down. “You’re going to be late.”
Sela gave an unconcerned shrug and said, “No, I won’t. I only have to go two levels. I can make it in a flash.” She finished with a snap of her fingers and shoved the rest of the bread into her mouth. She followed it with a swig of tea from the cup at her place and waggled her fingers in farewell. She was gone just that quick.
Her boot finally on her foot, Marina looked for her kerchief and made ready to go for the day. It was nice to live this close to her job but she was still too new at it for her to feel comfortable popping in at home throughout the day. There was always so much to do but it was exciting in a way that being a Fabber hadn’t been.
She stepped out of their compartment and made her way toward the public parts of the Memoriam to check in. Before she opened the door, she smoothed down the multicolored patchwork of her coveralls and gave her kerchief a tug.
As the door opened, the shadow Florine saw her and said brightly, “Good Morning, Archivist Patrick!”
Marina smiled.
Thank You
You have my sincerest thanks for reading my work and I sure hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please take the time to write a review on Amazon. Without such reviews, those who publish direct to the reader would never have even the slimmest hope of reaching interested readers. Plus, you can believe me when I tell you that without those nice words, there is no way I’d be able to force myself to muddle through and keep writing.
I love to hear from readers, even the ones who didn’t like something I did. Readers do change the way I write and what you say might even impact a future character. You never know. You can reach me via email at Ann.ChristyAuthor@gmail.com or on Google+ under Ann Christy.
You can also follow the progress of the rest of the series, and give me a shout out, on the series webpage at http://Silo49.blogspot.com. Go on, click it!
As for the progress on the next work in the series? Well, the last one is the most exciting of them all. Silo 49 changes and evolves in fascinating ways. The characters in this final story are my favorite. I wish I could invite them over for dinner, to be honest.
And yes, you get to see the end. The end as I imagined it even before Dust was released. Don’t worry.
And finally….
Just like last time, I wouldn’t dare to give you a sneak peak of the third and final volume of the Silo 49 series. I would never do that. The next page is surely blank. Right?
SILO 49: DARK TILL DAWN
Part Three of the Silo 49 Trilogy
A Wool Universe Series
by Ann Christy
PART ONE
A Pleasant Jog Through Hell
Chapter One
The shadow assigned to assist her came right on time. Cane in one hand and a sturdy arm bracing the other, Marina Patrick made her slow way toward the area set aside for today’s events. After more than thirty years as the Archival Historian of the silo, she has aged into the oldest of them, yet this is her first cleaning. It is also certainly her last. Even being ported up to Level 1 had been almost more than she could bear. Her joints ached and ground like badly cut metal with each step she took.
As per protocol, Marina was to arrive early to record the event and all that surrounded it. Only the sounds of her shuffling footsteps and puffing breaths accompanied them along the passageway of partitioned rooms. The sounds of engineers yelling, construction workers banging and metal workers doing both were finally gone, their work leaving the whole level a different place.
Three decades of learning and the work that came from what they had learned were complete at last. Everything was ready and it would be up to the cleaner and those who would support him to prove they had done well. And up to Marina to record the events, of course.
The bright light and open space of Level 1 made her blink after the dimness of the hallway. Her eyes were drawn immediately to the place where all the construction had been focused. New walls enclosed a much larger part of Level 1 than previously. The new door was a solid one, with large overlapping seals on the working side visible even from this distance. Beyond that, a further rim of concrete had been added that rose about eight inches above the floor. So many people had tripped on it during construction that it was now painted a vivid yellow.
No other evidence of the vast changes made could be seen from here. People who came to the cafeteria to enjoy the view wouldn’t be bothered and that was just as it should be. Getting over the little barrier was harder than Marina would have thought. She was forced to grab a handful of her coveralls and lift her less able left leg over the lip. No amount of internal demand seemed to force the leg to lift more than a modest inch or two on its own.