by Harper North
“My home,” Emma replies.
After climbing another half mile or so, the vegetation thins, but it’s still greener than anything I could have imagined underground. A cool breeze whisks around my body and breathing seems easier now.
“Many people live here.” Emma points to a cave where a woman works at mending clothes. In another cave to the left is an elderly man kicking a ball back and forth with a boy. The man stops the ball with his foot as he stares at us.
“Do all of the people live in caves?” I ask.
Emma stops to help a girl who’s tripped and skinned her knee. She whispers something to her and helps her stand. “Many people live in caves. There are homes up ahead built into the side of the mountain.”
She points to a wooden structure secured between two boulders, and I stare in amazement. “It’s so different from where we come from. I’m used to bridges, ladders, dim lighting, dusty air, tunnels…”
I spin around and take it all in. The wooden homes are stabilized by support columns that dig into the rockface. We would never have seen any of this if we hadn’t been led to it.
The air turns sharply colder, and the light dims as if we were back in the tunnels. I turn to see the sun setting just beyond the cloud cover. It sends a shiver through me at the thought of spending the night on the edge of a mountain.
“Stop here,” Emma orders. A man emerges from the side of one of the homes and climbs down the rock to stand before us. “We are all naturally resistant to the radiation,” Emma says, taking the man’s hand. “Our bloodlines have adapted to the climate over the last hundred years.”
“But why here?” Sky asks. “Why did you build a home so far away from the rest of civilization?”
“Our purpose for this camp is to live away from the EHC operatives and their corrupt system,” Emma explains. “We have sought out naturally immune humans for over twenty-five years, and each time we find one, we bring them to this settlement to live in safety.”
I run my hands over my hair. “You’re working against the EHC. That means you can help us.”
She sighs. “It’s not that easy. The EHC won’t allow our kind to survive. Our work is a disruption to their control over the world. They’d like nothing more than to see all of this disappear and all of us—”
“Dead,” Elias finishes for her.
She nods. “Unfortunately, that’s exactly what they want, which is why we had to be so careful to not let in anyone with loyalties to the EHC.”
I shiver again, imagining what the Leeches would do to these people.
Emma’s eyes turn soft. “We should get your group something warm to eat.”
“That would be great,” I say, following her toward one of the homes. Smoke twirls from its chimney, and the smell of smoked meat fills my nose and makes my mouth water. There’s something I like about Emma, but there’s one nagging thought that keeps tugging at the back of my mind. I take a deep breath and decide it’s okay to ask. “How do you know so much about the EHC?”
“My grandfather,” she says, a tone of sadness in her voice.
“Was he a rebel?”
Emma stops me just as we’re about to go inside. “No,” she says. “He created the EHC.”
CHAPTER 7
My mouth hangs open and fear tightens my chest. “What?” I choke out.
“You don’t need to worry,” Emma soothes. “I promise, there’s no connection between us anymore other than blood.”
I twist around to catch Elias’ expression. His eyes are wide.
“You’re Emma Nejem? Director Nejem’s granddaughter?” Elias asks.
Jase scoffs. “The former Director’s reputation precedes him.”
Elias ignores Jase. “I’d heard rumors about you, but in most of them, you died thirty-five years ago.”
Emma chuckles. “Well, I’m lucky most of the rumors are incorrect.”
I twist the strap on my bag. “But, you must know so much. You can—”
“Later,” Emma says, holding up a hand. “You must eat something first.”
Even though I’m desperate to find out more about her past, I become keenly aware of the lack of anything in my stomach.
Emma gestures two settlement women over. “Our guests must be terribly hungry. Would you please take them to the dining area?” She turns back to us. “Please, go enjoy a meal. In the meantime, I must take care of something.” She smiles and leaves us to the women.
They lead us into the house and deeper into a large room. There’s not much here, four walls and several tables, but everything is solid, as if the builders took their time to make sure the settlement was constructed more like a home then a temporary shelter.
A door at the back of the room swings open and several more of Emma’s people come out, carrying huge platters of food, baskets of bread, and pitchers of water. The Dwellers’ eyes widen. Two younger men from our group, with scrapes on their faces and hair still full of ash, rush to find seats. Without hesitation, Jase snatches a thick piece of bread from one of the baskets as it passes by and shoves it in his mouth. Oliver and Knuckles fill their glasses with a red juice from one of the pitchers.
I push the information Emma just told us to the back of my mind and follow Lacy to a table. “I’m starving,” she says, filling a plate with roasted meat and vegetables.
“Make sure you don’t stuff yourself too fast,” I say, thinking of the stomachache I got from eating that chocolate on the train a few days ago.
“Oh, I’m fine,” Lacy says, her mouth full of food.
I shake my head as Sky sidles up next to me. He says something in my ear about a stash of fruit alongside one of the walls, but I don’t care. All I can do is focus on the feast in front of me.
Bright orange roots and green leaves lay in giant bowls. They smell fresh and look crisp, unlike any of the pathetic veggies we would get underground. I grab a plate, trying to take small portions of as many different things as I can, but it ends up being too much anyway. The smell of freshly baked bread fills my nose, and I grab three pieces from a basket and a chunk of some creamy, pale yellow paste. I push my finger into it and taste it. Rich, salty, and slightly tangy. Delicious, but I definitely should not eat a lot of it if I want to keep everything else down.
When I look up, there’s a settlement woman carrying another wide basket full of just-baked bread. My stomach and heart are desperate to eat as much as possible, but my head says no, and I make every effort to listen. One of the Dwellers, a man with a red mark across his face, has two fistfuls of bread. He eats from one, then the other. A red-haired Dweller name Kate bites into a full, ripe fruit, letting the juice trickle down her chin, and closes her eyes in delight. Elias downs an entire glass of water, then reaches to take three, thick slices of drizzling meat. Part of me wants to tell them to slow down, but I don’t want to ruin this for them. Maybe it will be ok.
“It’s been too long since I’ve had any vegetables,” Drape says, folding up a green leaf and devouring it, eyes rolling back at the taste.
“I know,” I say. “We’ve never had food as fresh as this. It’s close to paradise.”
The serving women return moments later with more plates of food. It seems the bounty will never end. Just when I think it’s over, another huge platter is brought out. On it are the most delicious looking green fruit I’ve ever seen. I take one and bite into the crisp, tart flesh. I think it might be an apple, but the apples we had below were never like this.
Emma has returned, and sits quietly in the corner, sipping from a glass. She smiles at me and I know what she must be thinking. How could the likes of our pathetic group, starving and naïve, ever defeat the EHC? I think the same thing all the time.
I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, push back my chair, and go to her side. “Thank you for all of this.”
“Of course,” she says, giving me a soft smile. “We have enough food, so no one will go hungry here.”
I turn back to look at my group. Laughte
r fills the room. Oliver and Knuckles play fight with two of the orange roots. “How do you do it?”
“Do what?” Emma asks.
“I mean, you’re on the side of a mountain, far away from any city. How do you have enough food to feed everyone?”
“Would you like to see?”
“Yes,” I say.
Standing, Emma waves to two burly guards by the front door. I head back to the table and grab my bag.
“What are you doing?” Lacy asks.
“Emma’s going to show me around. Want to come?”
Lacy takes a bigger bite of roasted meat, ignoring me.
“I will,” Sky offers. In his hands are two apples, which he tucks inside his bag.
We head back to Emma. One of her guards is the same one who held a gun to my head earlier. As our eyes meet, my chest tightens. The other is a younger man with jet-black hair and blue eyes.
We’re halfway to the door when Elias rushes up behind me, wiping the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “Where are you going?”
“Emma’s going to show us around,” Sky says.
Elias tosses the napkin on the nearest table and eyeballs the guards who stand on either side of me. “I’m coming, too. I want to see how all this is done.”
We head back into the dark night, working our way down a well-lit path. A breeze brushes past my cheek, and the air smells of something clean and fresh. A quiet humming that reminds me of a generator buzzes from nearby. I take a deep breath. Now that I’ve had food, my brain works faster than before. It’s as if I can connect to my thoughts more deeply.
This place is special. Emma’s work with the naturally enhanced people is important, but they could help us. I wonder how many people live in the settlement, and if they’re all capable fighters like her guards.
After a few more minutes of walking, we come to a small, flat area. Before us are three rows of tall shelving, filled with an assortment of green vegetables. Bright, bluish lighting lines the top of each shelf. I dig deeper into my memory and recall what these are—vertical farming systems. The underground once had a few of them, but they’ve long since been rendered un-operational. Behind them are several spiral wind turbines. The ornate blades of each one turn slowly in the breeze.
Emma stands before us. “This is where we grow our food.”
“Is this camp run solely on wind power?” I ask, following her to one of the farming units.
“At night,” she says. “The electricity from the wind turbines generates enough to keep the lights on. On top of each system are solar panels. During the day, the energy from the sun is more than enough to provide electricity to the entire community.”
So that’s what that field of dark panels just outside Reso was.
Sky pulls out of one of his apples and takes a bite. “You mean all of this food was harvested through natural energy?”
Emma nods.
I lean into Sky. “You should slow down on the food.”
Sky takes another bite, ignoring me. “This place is amazing. You’re totally off the grid.”
Emma reaches for the door’s handle. “Exactly.”
Elias takes a deep breath. “Which means you can stay hidden—”
“Forever,” Emma finishes. “Which is how we’d prefer to stay.”
Elias takes the door from Emma, holding it open for all of us. We move on to a domed structure just to the right of the vertical farming systems, and inside, my eyes widen. The twenty-by-twenty space is well-lit, but humid. My shirt sticks to my chest and beads of sweat begin to glisten on my arms. Above, there are more solar panels over the glass ceiling. We walk around, looking at the different contraptions filling the area. There are raised crop beds where a fine mist sprays over the plants. We approach one of the enclosed boxes and Emma opens the large hatch, the bright lighting inside dimming a bit. A variety of small orange, red, and yellow fruits dangle from the plant’s leaves. The plants are connected to individual branches that seem to grow from the inner lining of the unit.
“I’ve heard of these before,” Elias says. “They produce the fruit without the entire tree. Brilliant.”
Emma smiles at him.
“Looks like these are ready,” I say, gesturing to the nearest branch.
Emma plucks a ripe fruit and hands it to me. “Over two hundred people live at this settlement. No one goes hungry.”
“Two hundred?” I take the fruit and bite into it. It’s by far the freshest thing I’ve ever tasted.
“I don’t get it,” Elias says. “How do you keep two hundred people hidden for thirty-five years?”
“Easy,” the guard with jet-black hair says. “With signal disruption tech.”
Elias nods and takes a step back. “It’s ingenious.”
“And we have not had two hundred people here all this time.” Emma says. “The camp has grown slowly.”
The other guard edges his way around to my side. His presence sends a shiver creeping up my spine, so I move over to another plant, pretending to examine its leaves.
Sky follows me, putting himself between me and the guard. “So, you don’t know anything that’s been going on with the EHC? You haven’t heard about our fight or anything else?”
Emma makes her way to Sky’s side. “We would never let down our guard,” she replies in a low tone. “We have been closely monitoring the EHC’s activity.”
“You knew about us then?” I ask. “Of our resistance?”
She nods. “Yes, a bit. You have certainly annoyed them.”
I finish the fruit and toss the core into a trash bag along the side of the wall. “But you don’t think we can go any farther. You don’t believe we have what it takes.”
Emma presses her lips together. “No, I don’t.”
“Tell us about your grandfather,” Elias insists. Emma’s gaze shifts to him as he comes closer. “We need to know everything about the EHC.”
Emma cocks her head to one side. “And you think that this will give you the strength to defeat them?”
“Tell us what you know,” Elias demands. “We’ll figure the rest out.”
Emma shakes her head. “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Follow me.”
We walk around the rows of produce to the back of the pod and through two large, hanging, plastic sheets that separate the growing area from a back room. The air circulates more in this room, and feels cooler on my skin. Several saplings sit in buckets of dirt in the corner. Emma goes to a desk in the opposing corner, pushes aside some scattered papers, and sits down, her shoulders tense as she flicks on the lamp.
“We don’t mean to pry,” I tell her, feeling her unease. “It’s just… we need to know about the EHC. The more information we have, the better our chances.”
She nods. “When I was about your age,” she begins. “I worked for my father as a lab assistant at one of the research centers.”
I pull out the other chair at the desk and take a seat. “And your grandfather?” I ask. “How did he begin his work?”
Emma sighs. “My grandfather was a very determined man, but the EHC would not have been created if not for what was already happening to Earth.”
“You mean the climate changes due to the Flip?” Elias asks.
“Yes.” Emma’s eyes darken. “That, and the increased radiation levels. Forty years before I came to be a lab assistant, my grandfather created cities for the genetically enhanced humans and called them the EHC.”
“Did you know him, much?” I ask.
“No,” she whispers. “My father had not spoken to him for years. They were very different. Father was a kind man. Intelligent.”
Sky moves closer. “What happened?”
Emma swallows thickly. “My father discovered a genetic mutation that allowed people to resist the intense changes of the Flip naturally.”
“Where?” I ask.
“In me. He tried to keep it a secret.”
I lean back and take a deep breath. “But your grandfather found
out.”
“Yes,” Emma whispers. “They locked up my father and destroyed his research.”
“All of that work,” Elias says through gritted teeth.
Emma clenches her fists as she stands. “It was gone,” she says, walking to the side of the room. “Most of it buried, but no one knows where. My grandfather set up a team and tried to reverse everything.”
“But, how did you survive?” I ask. “I mean, why aren’t you locked up with your father?”
She laughs and turns to face us. “Even though I was his granddaughter, I knew they would come for me next. When I realized it wasn’t safe, I took what was left of my father’s work, his discoveries that hadn’t been destroyed. He was smart, and had anticipated something like that could happen, so we made a plan for me to escape in case it did.”
“You came here,” Elias says. “To start again.”
“Yes. My father knew it was a haven. There were good people who helped me get here and set everything up.”
“Sounds risky,” Sky murmurs.
“It was, but what choice did I have? I believe humanity has been trying to evolve to the world for close to one hundred years, but the EHC has done everything they can to bury and reverse it. They’d kill us all if they found us.”
The guard with jet-black hair leans his hip against the side of the desk behind Emma with a laugh. “And you guys think you can defeat them.”
I turn to look at Sky and Elias.
“We plan to take on the EHC and expose the truth,” Elias says, puffing himself up slightly.
Emma frowns, her brow wrinkling. “You don’t really understand how deadly the EHC are, do you?”
“You can help us,” I say.
She shakes her head. “I can’t help you. My work here is too important.”
“But you have two hundred people,” Elias argues. “We can work with them, train them to fight—”
“Two hundred people that will likely die for a fool’s war,” she scoffs. “I won’t waste their lives and my research for nothing.”
Emma inhales deeply, squeezing her eyes closed as if she’s remembering something. It’s a long moment before her eyes open again.
