by J. Thorn
“I apologize for the delay.” Katrina smiled and waved her arm in the air. “There always seems to be something that requires my attention.”
“I know how you feel.”
“Of course, you do.” Katrina tucked a stray wisp of gray hair behind one ear, smiling. “And I'm sure you have enough pressing matters, so I promise to make this short. Come, let us walk a little way. I prefer that others do not hear my business. This place has become increasingly busy.”
Jonah followed her out the entrance, down the steps, and onto the flat concrete. She walked only a short way, maybe thirty yards, before stopping. This was unusual, he thought, for her to be out here on her own. There were normally guards, and although some stood sentry near the entrance to the bunker, she was making herself vulnerable out here on her own. He hoped that this was a sign that she had begun to put more trust in him.
“We got your message,” Katrina said. “About the increased activity outside the city walls. We’ve been considering our situation.”
“Your situation? I didn't realize there was one. I thought you understood the risks of us being here.”
“We do, of course, and that is why we've been discussing ways that we can assist you and the Elk.”
This is interesting, thought Jonah. Katrina’s tone had changed. There had been nothing before about helping the Elk or any of the other clans that walked with him. Jonah knew of the weapons that the bunker people possessed and if they changed their minds about the use of them...
“Help of any kind would be welcome.”
“If you think we might send out people to fight them off, I’m afraid you're going to be disappointed. But that doesn't mean we can't help you in other ways.”
Jonah looked over his shoulder, expecting to see a bodyguard or Katrina’s right hand. He saw neither, and for some reason, that made him even more suspicious of Katrina’s motives.
“I’m listening.”
She leaned in and lowered her voice. “It has come to our attention that much of your time is taken up by gathering supplies and protecting the young and the old, those who are unable to provide for themselves.”
“This is true.” It was probably the biggest weight on his shoulders. Jonah estimated at least half of his warriors should be focused on the Valk, defending the barricades. But that didn’t leave enough to scavenge for supplies to feed the hundreds that couldn’t do so on their own.
“So as a temporary solution, and only temporary, we have cleared an area of the bunker that should be large enough for the young — by that I mean those under the age of sixteen, and for the old who are unable to bear arms, as well as women with small children that still need them for feeding, and women who are carrying unborn children. This would not be indefinite, just a short period, maybe a month or two. We will house your people safely and provide food and shelter for them. This should free up enough of your warriors to take the battle to the Valk instead of constantly struggling with thin resources on every front.”
Jonah immediately thought of the weapons cached at Galax, hoping that those might be part of this deal as well. They’d make short work of the Valk and would be much more helpful than having Katrina babysit the young and old.
“I don't know what to say, other than we would be very grateful for this. I would need to talk to the clan leaders to make sure they're comfortable with the idea.”
“Of course,” said Katrina. “I suggest you do so as quickly as possible. From the movements of your enemies, there are signs that they may be planning a larger assault, and I'm sure you would feel better with your young out of the way, somewhere safe. We will await your decision. The facility is ready.”
“Why? Why this offer, now?”
Katrina had turned toward the bunker entrance, but paused, looking over her shoulder and smiling. “Peer pressure. Some of the others wanted to do this. I was dubious about allowing entrance to the bunker, but many voices on my council argued that we could help more. They say that we’ve spent centuries keeping to ourselves and not helping others when we were fortunate enough to be in a strong position to do so. So, we voted and decided it was about time we change that history. I look forward to hearing from you.”
Jonah bowed slightly as Katrina turned and walked away.
Chapter 21
Romey and Jin allowed Gideon to lead them down the dark hallway. As interesting as the plastic figures and old clothing had been, nothing was more tempting to a trio of teenagers than a hidden passage beneath a mysterious settlement. While his father had been politicking with the leader of Galax, the rest of the Elk clan had begun to explore this strange and mysterious place.
At first, the hallway had the same odor as the room with the clothing. Gideon caught a whiff of mold and rotten wood although the gauzy cobwebs prevented him from getting a good look at the walls. A slight air current hit him in the face which meant there had to be an exit somewhere in this dark passageway. And even if there weren’t, Gideon would be thrilled to have a place where he could hang out with his friends without the watchful eye of their hosts.
“Over there.”
Gideon turned toward Romey’s voice and saw the silhouette of his friend pointing at an arched entryway above a gaping maw of darkness. A flash of light made Gideon wince. Jin had lit a torch and handed it to Gideon, anointing him as the first person to step into the unknown.
“What do you think it is?” Jin asked.
“Don’t know.” Gideon took the torch from Jin’s hand and waved the orange flame at the arched entrance. “We’re below ground, that’s about all I know.”
Romey pushed past Gideon and into the next room. “C’mon, pussies.”
Gideon followed, and the torch illuminated another fascinating artifact of a world lost to them many years ago. Nearly perfect shelving units lined the walls of the room which measured about twenty feet on each side—no doors, no windows. The units must have been made of stainless steel as they’d been coated in decades of dust but with not a speck of rust. It was what sat on those shelves that drew the boys in.
Boxes. Dozens, maybe hundreds.
“What do you think is inside of them?” Jin asked, now in the room but standing behind Gideon and Romey.
They were guests in this city and most likely should not have been snooping around without permission. For a brief moment, Gideon considered what his father would say, scolding him for not being respectful of the citizens of Galax. But these were boxes. Gideon had only seen one in his entire life, a battered, torn piece of what the old timers had called cardboard. It was thicker than paper but not as thick as wood. Before the Dustfall, people had used boxes to store their most precious belongings. In a strange twist of fate, the boxes themselves didn’t last for more than a few years, leaving those belongings exposed and vulnerable. Why the people of the old world would trust their possessions to cardboard was beyond him.
As if reading his mind, Jin spoke up. “There must be some amazing things inside of those.”
“We need to open that shit. Now.”
“Hold on, Rome.” Gideon had counted at least 100 boxes, maybe more. They sat in perfect rows on the shelves, stacked two high. “If we do that, they’ll know we were in here.”
“As long as we put everything back the way it was, what’s the harm?”
“No way.” Jin came around and faced Romey and Gideon. “We’re not opening those things. They’ll find out. We’ll get in so much trouble.”
“You’re such a little bitch.”
Gideon saw Romey raising his fist to follow the insult with a punch to Jin’s shoulder.
“Stop. Both of you.”
Romey put his hands on his hips while Jin’s eyes moved back and forth between Gideon and all of those unopened boxes.
“Let’s keep moving. See where we end up. We know where this is and how to get to it. Look at the floor. Nobody’s been here for years, so there’s no reason to tear into this stuff now. We’ll come back when we have more time and after we t
alk about how we open those in a way that won’t look obvious. They just invited clans into Galax. If we open those boxes now and someone finds the mess, who do you think they’re going to blame first?”
Jin huffed, and Romey rolled his eyes, so Gideon continued to drive home his point.
“And once my dad gets shit for this, who do you think he’s going to blame first?”
“Fine. Then let’s stop standing here with our thumbs up our asses.”
Gideon took one last look at the boxes. His mouth had gone dry, and he felt a tingling on the back of his neck. So many boxes...
“Follow me.”
After looking both ways, he made a right out of the room and continued down the passageway with Jin and Romey behind him. The heavy, thick air seemed to dampen their curiosity. He wasn’t sure how or where Jin had found the torch, but Gideon was thankful because the darkness was so deep down below that they wouldn’t have gotten far without it.
“Where we going?”
“How does he know, ya dumb fuck? Gideon ain’t never been down here neither.”
He smiled at Jin’s question and Romey’s patented acidic reply.
“I think I see some light up ahead.”
Gideon handed the burning torch to Romey as the light from the flame made it difficult for him to see the faint glow coming at the end of the hallway. They’d passed two or three doors since leaving the box room, but they’d been padlocked which would take too much energy to break into. And even if they did, they’d have no way of covering their tracks.
“There’s a sign. And steel bars.” Gideon picked up the pace, moving faster despite the fact that he couldn’t see any debris on the floor which could reach up and twist an ankle. “I can read it.”
Subway.
He knew the word and understood the concept, but Gideon had struggled with the reality of that thing. A train? Running beneath the Earth?
“We should go back. We shouldn’t be near this thing.”
Gideon looked over his shoulder, shocked to hear the words coming from Romey instead of Jin.
“He’s right, Gid. Let’s go back.”
He felt it in his bones as the voice in his head began to scream, but Gideon’s feet kept moving him toward the entrance to the Subway. He saw a massive gun mounted on metal bars which prohibited anyone from walking straight through to the tracks. Unlike the box room, the gun had not been covered in dust. The barrel glistened in the low light, and he could smell fresh oil someone had used to keep the weapon clean and ready to fire.
By the time his brain put all those observations together, it was too late.
“Stop.”
Gideon did as soon as he heard the word. Romey halted next to him, and he felt Jin softly run into his back.
“This is a restricted area. What are you doing here?”
He could do nothing but shrug at the three men who had stepped out of the darkness, one of which who now stood behind the mounted gun with the barrel aimed right at Gideon’s chest. Gideon remained frozen, staring at the cyclopean beast staring back at him. Those guns brought the fury of the gods in a flash of destruction that could off a man’s head in a split second.
“Let’s get them out of here.”
The leader of the guard crew stepped to Gideon. He wore a canvas, green jacket and matching pants covered with pockets, hooks, and various steel tools. A green helmet sat on his head, the same olive green as the rest of his garb. The other two wore the same uniforms, not the gray like Katrina and the other elders of the base.
“You’re coming with us. Now.”
Not even Romey said a word as the boys followed.
Chapter 22
Jonah stood in the in the middle of the hall, silently listening to the chatter of the clan leaders. He looked up at the vaulted ceiling, and at the rusted signs that hung on the walls displaying various foods from the old times. There were numbers on the signs, currency figures that had been explained to him by his father a long time ago. It was another artifact of the old world that held little relevance to those who had inherited it.
Another shopping mall repurposed, he thought. The gathered elders of the clans had been talking among themselves for over ten minutes now, or so he estimated, and he was growing impatient, but he would leave them for a while longer. It was an easy decision in his opinion, but some trusted the people in the bunker far less than he had. He would give them another minute to think upon Katrina’s offer that he had shared only moments before.
There would be some, he thought, that might go against his decision, and it was their choice as individual clans. He had made it clear when they joined the alliance that anyone who went against the final decision was on their own and could not expect the full support of the other clans after that.
Yet some probably would anyway. He’d seen it a few times now and seen the fallen bodies of those small clans that had been convinced they could manage alone. The Valk had been spotted everywhere in the forest, by Elk and other clansmen alike. How any of the leaders could not immediately agree to Katrina’s offer was a mystery.
Enough time, he thought, and coughed loudly. “Does anyone disagree and choose not to send the young and the old to stay in the bunker?”
Silence settled on the great hall. None of the leaders wanted to be the first to disagree with Jonah, and yet, none of them wanted to be the first to agree either. Despite the new alliance, old allegiances ran as deep as the tunnels beneath Galax. Near Jonah and where the Wytheville clans had gathered, a man coughed and then spoke. Halforth, one of the leaders.
“We have found your counsel and your decisions thus far to be in the best interest for all our people. You will receive our support in this.”
“Good.” Jonah took a deep breath and nodded his head at Halforth before turning to others. “Rather than taking a call for support, I’ll take a show of hands for those who will not send their folks to the bunker. And let me make this clear to everyone. You will not be judged or punished for not sending your people. It is your choice. But when we send ours, our focus will be on the Valk. We will not be distracted in a mad frenzy to protect individual clans when the war comes to our doorstep.”
A murmur rippled through the crowd, and Jonah was not sure if it was in agreement.
“This is not something I do lightly. I think that sending our people to the bunker is in our best interest at this time. It is only temporary, a month or two, but it will relieve us of feeding and supporting the old and the young during that time. Granted, we are placing an inordinate level of trust in the Galaxians, but they did, after all, invite us into their city. Trust is the only thing we have to offer them in return. Any nay votes, clans who will not be sending their old and the young to the bunker?”
He looked around. Not a single hand had been raised. All nodded and stayed silent.
“This is good, and one less worry for all of us now. I will have someone inform the bunker folk that people are coming. All of you send word back to your clans and have them gather the children and the elderly and have them take the things they need with them.”
Again, more murmuring from the gathered clan leaders.
“Remember, they've made it quite clear that there will not be an open door into the base to visit those who go. For the time they are in there, we will be losing direct contact with the people that enter the bunker. Make sure you understand this. That they understand this. And say your goodbyes.”
Jonah left the hall, making his way down the steps to the front entrance of the building where he spotted Sasha. His mind immediately flashed to Gideon, his son, and the decision that the two of them had to make. Gideon might be considered too old to be considered for the bunker, and yet Jonah was of two minds. Sasha wanted him outside and near her which he believed was strange. He’d expected her to want their children safely locked inside the bunker, but apparently his wife didn’t trust Katrina the same way he had.
She stood with her arms folded, eyes locked on Jonah’s. “They ag
reed.”
Jonah nodded. “Yes, they did.”
“I thought they would.”
“Which means...”
“It means we have to send Gideon and Keana to the bunker, doesn’t it?”
An opening. He knew Sasha well enough to pry it open with a few choice words rather than kicking the door down. Besides, was he sure yet where he wanted his children?
“You have to admit it’s safer than being out here.” Jonah looked around as if expecting to find his son playing with toys on the floor like he did as a toddler. “Have you seen Gid? I haven’t seen much of him for a couple of days.”
“He's out scavenging with his friends,” said Sasha. “They do a good job. You should be proud.”
“I’m always proud of him. And Keana?”
“Spends a lot of time with Seren’s wolves. I think she is becoming attached to the little beasts. I didn't think she'd take to the constant attention and caregiving required of animals, but the young pups seem to like her and the older one seems to like her a lot.”
“Maybe we have an animal tamer in the family.”
They continued to dance around the decision, neither wanting to take the lead.
“We already have with Seren, and I’d love to see you convince her to go into the bunker.”
Jonah smiled. “I’ve always considered Seren to be my other daughter, even if we are not blood, you know that.”
“I do,” replied Sasha.
“When Gideon and Keana come back, can you send them to me?”
“You’ve decided that they need to go in, Jonah. I can tell by the look on your face.”
He so loved his wife. She often knew what he was thinking before he did.
“It’s probably for the best, but I’m not the only one making that decision, am I?”
Sasha looked at the ground. “You’re not. I agree. And you’re right.”
“He could die out here if the situation with the Valk gets worse, and that’s without the Cygoa turning up.”
“I know, I just...”
