Project Dandelion

by Heather Carson

  Katrina ran through the different survival scenarios starting with option one. Best case situation, the fallout wasn’t as bad as it could have been and her dad, along with all the other parents, would be waiting on the surface come day 14 when the doors opened. Worst case scenario, the world as she knew it had ceased to exist and she would need to get to the cabin alone before plotting her next move. Not alone anymore, she remembered. James was coming. And if they wanted, Dreya, Mia, and Jayden could come too. There were enough supplies there and they could pick up more on the way. Her dad would just have to accept it. If he didn’t, well it was his fault for dropping her off in this bunker and leaving her.

  She ran through the different variations of what it could be like outside. It occurred to her that the actual worst case would be if the doors didn’t open on day 14 and they would be stuck down there for who knows how long. The thought made her shiver and she pulled her blanket tighter around her. Turning to her side, she leaned forward to look at James sleeping on the floor. He wasn’t sleeping either and was laying there with his arms behind his head staring at the ceiling.

  Their eyes met, and Katrina watched the warm smile spread across his face. She smiled back before quickly turning her own face away. Nanny came on the intercom announcing the start of day 9 as the fluorescent lights flicked on. Katrina waited until she heard the morning grunts of the rest of the room waking before she climbed down from her bunk.

  *

  When they walked into the common room after breakfast, Lark was already there with his roommates. Becca smiled broadly at Dreya.

  “Wow,” Dreya smiled back. “Two days in a row that you are up this early. What’s got you so excited?”

  Becca’s smile grew even wider. “Just wait until everyone gets here and we will let you know.”

  Once they all were seated, Becca began to quiet the room down with her hands. Her excitement was bubbling over, but it was making Katrina uneasy. Katrina folded her arms across her chest and took a couple of deep breaths to steady herself. Beside her, James sat calmly staring straight ahead but she noticed his foot was slowly bouncing up and down. Finally, Lark stood up to talk.

  “Good morning,” he addressed the crowd, stopping briefly to smile at Dreya. “I have some exciting plans for today that I wanted to share. Last night, we were talking about what our strengths are as a group and how to make this community really work to ensure the survival of each one of us here. I’d like to share these ideas and ask what you all think.” Lark paused long enough to notice the few nods of approval before continuing. “Alright. The first thing we were discussing is breaking into groups based on skill set. We need people who would be good at farming or agriculture to manage our food, those with technology skills to come up with some kind of communication system, people who are good with housekeeping and cooking as well as mending clothes and what not, people who are willing to assume guard or military duties, and a group of hard laborers to do the heavy lifting. We can all pick which group we would feel most comfortable in if you agree with this plan?”

  There was a hushed discussion around the room and Derick from Room 1 spoke out first in agreement. As everyone else began to cheer the plan on, Lark continued, “I figured this would be a good idea. Now we can all begin working towards a goal and won’t be as stir-crazy sitting down here with nothing to do.” Katrina swallowed hard and resisted the urge to roll her eyes as he kept talking. “Why don’t we go ahead and split into the groups now so that we can see what we have to work with and where we need to make any adjustments.”

  Becca set napkins on the gym floor which were labeled with each group’s title. Dreya, who had stayed quiet during the speech, turned to look at Katrina while Mia was furiously whispering in her ear. She mouthed the words “something is up” and Katrina nodded her head.

  “Hard labor,” Katrina said as she stood. The rest of her group followed her to the napkin marked Hard Labor lying on the ground.

  “Way to take one for the team,” Lark said to Dreya as she was walking past him. “I knew you weren’t really that selfish.” He winked at her. Katrina saw the muscles in Dreya’s jaw tighten as she kept moving forward to their circle. The groups had been divided. Five people were in the labor group, seven people each in farming, tech, and housework, and eight in the military. Lark and Becca stood to the side.

  “This turned out pretty evenly,” Becca said to the groups, “but I think we have too many people eager to stand guard for this place. Does anyone from the military group volunteer to move over to the labor group?”

  Everyone standing by the military napkin began to look at each other and then down to the floor. Two of the brothers, Juan and Peter, whispered to each other. Peter stepped forward. “We will go, but we are going together,” he said.

  “Of course!” Becca placed her hand on his shoulder. “Thank you so much for volunteering. We wouldn’t even think about separating you from your brother.” Peter and Juan walked over to the labor group. Mia gave them a welcoming smile.

  “This should work,” Lark said enthusiastically. “Everyone seems to be matched up pretty well with their skill sets.” He winked at Anna’s group who had gathered into the housework section. Anna turned beet red while the rest of the girls glared at him. The technology kids were nodding in approval with Ethan in the center of their group. “Except, I see one change that could be made for the betterment of our society,” Lark said as everyone glanced nervously around. “We all know that James packs a pretty mean punch.” Lark rubbed his chin as the room erupted into laughter. “I think that it would be best if he joined the military group. His services would be most useful there. What do you think?”

  Lark stood there looking at James while he asked but the rest of the room responded in agreement before James was able to answer. Katrina’s heart began racing and she watched James ball his hands into fists at his side before releasing them. He turned to Katrina, giving her a smile, before saying, “I’m really not much of a fighter. I think I’d better stay here to help lift the heavy stuff.”

  Lark’s eyes burned as his smile faded but he kept his composure. “Are you sure man? I think it would be a good fit and we will really need you.”

  The faces around the room were aghast and Katrina worried that they would all turn on James if Lark told them to. Thankfully, Lark was good at playing the politician and he said nothing.

  James playfully raised his hands, palms up. “What can I say? I’m a lover, not a fighter.” He winked at Katrina causing a few of the angry faces around the room to start laughing. Katrina watched in astonishment at how casually James was challenging the situation.

  Lark looked like he knew he was losing face, so he quickly changed tactics. “Do whatever you want,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “It’s a free country, I guess. If you’d rather try and get laid instead of helping where you would do the most good… Well then, that’s on your conscious. I’m just making the suggestion.”

  “Thanks man. I knew you would understand,” James said while clapping Lark a little too hard on the back. Katrina took another deep breath as Lark walked away to stand next to Becca.

  “I think tomorrow we can talk about what tasks each section can get started on while we are still down here waiting,” Lark said. “Why don’t we take the rest of today to brainstorm any ideas you can come up with as individuals or as groups of projects and goals you would like to accomplish?” Lark scanned the room with a warm smile. His eyes turned cold when he glanced at the labor group.

  Ah, crap, Katrina thought.

  *

  Willow was practically jumping up and down while explaining to the rest of Room 3 what plans the housekeeper’s group had. “Obviously, we are going to need some supplies, but we are going to make this place much more comfortable.” She danced around holding her food packet to her chest. “And colorful! We really want to decorate. I am so excited to see something other than these drab grey walls. We were thinking of painting dandelions on the walls of
the gym. How cool would that be?”

  Katrina was anxiously waiting for James to come in. As he entered through the door, she pulled him to the bathroom leaving the rest of the group to be entertained by Willow’s daydreams.

  “What were you thinking?” she whispered breathlessly to James. “What happened to staying low?”

  James smiled reassuringly to her. “It is what it is.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I wasn’t going to let Lark punk me and I think he has some sort of game plan that involves separating us. I couldn’t just lay down and fall right into his trap.”

  Katrina shook her head and sighed. “What did he say when you went to get your food?”

  James’ smile grew bigger. “Oh. He is mad. He tried to reason with me again, but you could see him struggling to hold back what he really wanted to say.”

  Katrina sighed again as they went back into the room. Willow stopped talking when she noticed James was there. “That was really selfish you know,” Willow said, her voice dropping an octave. “We can use your skills in the military. We already know you can fight. Just because you like a girl, you choose to stay where you aren’t needed instead of helping where it would really count.”

  James’ face turned red, but he sat on the ground silently and busied himself with opening his food packet.

  Katrina didn’t know what came over her, but she blurted out, “I asked him not to leave me.” Everyone in the room looked toward her stunned. Dreya’s eyes were as big as saucers. “What?” Katrina continued, “I didn’t want him to go.” James started to interrupt saying that it was his choice, but Katrina cut him off. “He would have gone but he didn’t want to hurt my feelings.” Dreya’s eyes looked like they were going to jump out of her head and she quickly looked down as Willow glanced around the room.

  “Well, that is selfish of you too,” Willow said looking confused. “You shouldn’t have put your own needs above those of the collective.”

  Katrina nodded sadly. “I know. It’s hard to fight your emotions sometimes but I will try and be stronger the next time. You can’t stop love though.” Willow raised her eyebrows as she walked out of the room. Dreya pulled her pillow up to her face and burst into laughter.

  “What?” Katrina asked again. “Does no one think that I have feelings?”

  Even James started laughing. Katrina threw her granola bar at him.

  Chapter 17

  Day 10, Katrina thought, only four more days to go. She laid there in the reddish glow of the nightlights waiting on the fluorescent glare and Nanny’s voice to wake everyone up. Oh please, she sighed to herself, let it only be four more days. She refused to acknowledge the rising panic that things were about to go horribly wrong or that those doors wouldn’t open. Deep breath, four more days. Then she could see her dad again, or at least get out of this metal coffin and go into the mountains to the cabin to wait for him.

  Katrina remembered playing as a little girl in the valley at the foot of the hill that the cabin sat on. She would pick wildflowers and pretend there were fairies dancing in the trees that would jump out of sight the minute that she walked past. Sometimes, she would sit really still just to try to hear them along with all the other woodland creatures. Sometimes, she would yell as loud as she could just to hear her voice echo off the mountains knowing that no one else could hear her. Except her dad who would be somewhere else in the valley either fishing or maybe gold panning. It would be nice to show James where she used to play. He would probably get a kick out of that.

  *

  “We were thinking that we really need to create some type of radio or communication device right now,” Ethan was speaking for the tech group. “We will need to pull some of the wires from one of the voice boxes in our rooms or take down the power house for the projector screen to see what we have to work with. But I think we can get something together in the next few days.”

  There were moans from the other groups and Marie, from housekeeping, asked if that meant that they wouldn’t have movies anymore.

  Lark listened intently to their concerns before asking, “Besides just the movies, will that do anything to disrupt the power or the food delivery system?”

  Ethan stood very composed. “In theory? No. We can start with just one voice transmitter from one room and see if that has enough parts.” Everyone voiced their relief and Lark gave them the go ahead.

  Housekeeping was next. They wanted to paint a mural in the common room using coffee and the flavored drink packets from the MREs to make the paint. Becca started to giggle but Lark put his hand up to silence her before saying, “I think that is a great idea ladies. We could all use a little cheering up.” The girls smiled as Lark continued, “That brings me to another idea that I would like to discuss. Since farming and agriculture can’t do much besides plan out what we would like to do on the surface once we get there, it might be a good idea for them to start building our food supply down here. That way we have a communal pot, so to speak, of shared resources in case the system breaks down or if we end up needing to trade with people on the outside once the doors open.”

  Katrina shook her head as, of course, most everyone voiced their approval. She already knew where Lark was going with this as he said, “Why don’t we start by bringing all the food that we have saved individually, and we can store it right here in the common room. Let’s bring it all here tonight by the start of the movie that way Ag can make an inventory list before they go to bed.”

  Mia couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “How is that fair? I have been saving half my food for days. What if someone hasn’t been saving as much?” Dreya reached over and pulled her sister back down on her seat.

  “It’s not about being equal. It’s about taking care of each other,” Lark said. “We aren’t going to be selfish here in this community.” He paused long enough for some people to cast dirty looks towards her. “And maybe the labor group can start breaking down some of these bleachers that we don’t sit on since they didn’t come up with their own ideas on how to contribute.”

  *

  “I’m not giving him my food,” Mia said as she threw herself down onto Dreya’s bed once Willow and Ethan left with their lunch. “I saved some of the good stuff for when we are out of this place just in case I need a pick me up during whatever we will have to face on the outside.”

  Dreya sat down next to her and looked up at Katrina. “We don’t have to give it all up. Just some of it to act like we are following the rules. It sucks, but we have to play their game for just a little while longer.”

  “Why?” Mia sat up. “Why can’t we just close the door and stay in here for the next few days?”

  Dreya smiled and patted her sister’s leg. “Because if the doors don’t open in four days then we don’t know how long we will be stuck down here. It could be months. And I don’t want to be trapped in this small room with you for months.” She winked at Mia. “Plus, Willow and Ethan live here too, and it wouldn’t be right to lock them out of their own room or to keep their food from them.”

  Mia mumbled, “Couldn’t they just eat from the communal pot?” as she stuffed a big bite of vegetarian chili in her mouth.

  *

  Before the movie, Willow and Ethan grabbed their pillowcases full of stored food and headed to the common room. Katrina, James, Jayden, Dreya, and Mia emptied some of the crackers and sides from their own bags to take to the pot. The movie playing that night was Avatar.

  “Well that’s fitting,” Jayden said as they took their seats. “A movie about taking resources from people who just want to be left alone.” Mia burst out laughing.

  Chapter 18

  Day 11 started out fine as the labor group began working on dismantling the far-right section of the bleachers. They had removed four side boards and a seat plank. Jayden was trying to fashion these pieces into a step stool for housekeeping’s mural that they had already begun painting. Lark and Becca walked into the common room with Brett and Anthony trailing behind them. One of the agriculture
team members appeared from behind Anthony’s broad shoulders and quickly ran down the hall to his room.

  “What is wrong with you guys?” Becca said as she neared the labor group. Juan and Peter looked up. “Not you two.” Becca put her hands on her hips. “The rest of you. I know that isn’t all the food that you stored that you put in the pot. Go get the rest.” Mia looked at her sister.

  Dreya stood up. “We gave you what we wanted to share with the group. Isn’t that enough?” Jayden stood beside her as Lark stepped forward.

  “If the food stops coming and you guys are hungry, should we divide it equally or only give you back the portions that you put in?” Lark challenged Dreya.

  Katrina answered, trying to diffuse the situation, “That seems fair. We should only get back what we put in.”

  “I think you are missing the point, lover girl,” Lark snapped back at her. Katrina’s jaw dropped. “It is for the community. That means we all share everything we have, and we don’t put our own needs first.”

  James walked back just in time to hear Katrina’s icy whisper, “Is that what Anna was supposed to do? Give you what you wanted just because you told her to?”

  Everyone within earshot froze. Lark looked back at Brett and Anthony. A smile formed on his face as he turned back to Katrina. “This again?” he asked in a calm voice. “Jeez, you guys really are a bunch of instigators. What are we going to do about you all?”