Eden's Root

by Rachel Fisher

  Knock, Knock

  ----------- Fi -----------

  It was getting to be late in the afternoon the following day when Fi leaned over the edge of the ravine to check on Jose and Mayra. “How is it going guys?” Fi called down to where the two perched on the ledge by the hatch. They had cleared nearly all the rock away from the hatch door. It was a beautiful thing, Fi smiled in amazement again.

  “It’s going.” His voice was weary as he banged a steady rhythm on the door with the stone in his hand. Mayra nodded and saluted up to Fi. “Tell Sarge that I have newfound respect for military discipline,” Jose added, referring to Sarge’s last six-hour stint at the hatch. It was Sarge that taught them how to tap out the message, but it was also Sarge who had insisted on contributing on this task.

  “It’s something I can actually do, and do well,” he had insisted. “If you help lower me down, I will get it done for you.” With a little assistance they’d helped Sarge to climb down to the ledge where he had taken the first, very long, shift. It wasn’t hard work, but the repetitiveness of it could drive a person crazy.

  “Hi guys!” Lucy grinned down at Jose and Mayra. “Sean and Fi will be down to relieve you soon,” she said. “And Aliyah has a little herb stew for your bellies.” Both groaned with hunger.

  Fi waved and left to go find Sean for their shift. As she walked through camp she saw Asher helping Lydia to entertain the kids. Asher waved as Fi passed.

  “Getting ready to tap, tap, tap?” he teased.

  “You’re just jealous!” she laughed. “You wish you could be doing something so cool.” His laughter followed her as she passed. Fi had just stepped outside of camp when shouting erupted behind her.

  “Hands up, nobody move,” a voice yelled and Fi sprinted back, her gun drawn. As she approached the camp her heart sank. A large circle of armed men in grey t-shirts and cargo pants surrounded her Family. There were even some standing in the bottom of the ravine with their weapons pointed at Jose and Mayra on the ledge.

  “Hold it right there miss,” a man commanded. “Put your weapon down.” Fi did a quick head count. Shit, there were at least fifteen of them, she thought. And all were armed. She spun toward Asher and saw that his sword was propped against a tree at least ten feet away from him. Her eyes closed for a moment as she remembered that he was always careful to keep it away from the children. Holding her gaze, he shook his head imperceptibly. The warning was clear. Patience, he was telling her. Be careful. Fi swung her gun toward the speaker.

  “We don’t want trouble. We just want to speak with Dr. Louis Bachman,” she demanded.

  “You’re in no position to argue with me miss,” the man responded. He had a point, Fi thought. She bent to set the gun down on the ground and backed away. “The knife,” the man grunted. “Take off the knife.” Fi balked. She never took off the knife. In her mind she heard Sensei Bob echo Asher’s warning. Patience, she heard him urge. Yes, she thought, patience. Trust. Your father trusted Louis, and so you will have to as well. Fi bent and unstrapped her knife sheath from her left thigh and dropped it on the ground.

  “Ok, so now you have an unarmed girl and her Family surrounded by fifteen or more of you with big guns pointed at us.” Feeling her anger rise, she put her hands on her hips. “Happy?” Sean clucked behind her, shushing her. Chastised, she knew he was right. It was better not to be a smartass right now. Nobody moved.

  “I want to see Dr. Louis Bachman!” Fi repeated her demand. “Where is he?” A voice coughed from behind the…soldiers? Police? Who knows what they were. A tall, thin man with a long beard stepped forward.

  “It’s ok Gary,” he reassured the man who had yelled at her. Fi saw that he was unarmed and he approached with his hand outstretched in greeting. He was smiling, his head cocked to the side, studying her as he approached. The change in his expression as he took in her appearance made her uncomfortable. Despite the fact that she knew Louis had seen many pictures of her before, there was no mistaking the changes in her now. Though she still had the same reddish curls, the same freckles and the same brown eyes, she knew that her eyes held a flat glare and that her cheeks jutted with hunger. They’d been in the wilderness for almost two years and she was exhausted. Fi took a wary step forward with her hand extended.

  “I know it’s a cliché, but, ‘Dr. Bachman I presume’?” Louis nodded and grasped her hand with enthusiasm.

  “Fi Kelly. You made it.” She nodded and he whooped and grabbed her up in his long limbs. He laughed and then set her down and smacked his knee in disbelief. So far he was the only one laughing. Fi could not relax so long as the soldiers of Eden appeared hostile toward her Family. Louis noticed her mood and grew serious, his eyes searching the group again.

  “Where is Maggie?” Fi’s eyes hardened.

  “Maggie died several months ago of the Sickness,” she said through gritted teeth. Louis gasped, but Fi’s face remained stony, her lips tight. She could see tears prick at his eyes. “And Michael?” A harsh laugh escaped her throat.

  “C’mon Louis.” Her words turned from stone to acid. “Wasn’t the inevitability of my father’s death the reason we got,” she swung her head to glare at the people surrounding them, “cut from the team?” She turned back to Louis. “He died one week after I turned fourteen.” She folded her arms, shutting him out and he dropped his head. Several members of the group murmured and Fi noticed, surprised. Tears welled in many eyes and were wiped away.

  Fi turned back to Louis and tears sprang to her own eyes. His visible pain transformed her, freeing her from her anger. It was a comfort to know that Louis was truly devastated by her father’s death. She gave him a wan smile.

  “Louis, I know you were a great friend to him and you wanted him to live. You didn’t have to tell him about Eden, to try to save us, but you did. And he told me when he was dying. And I brought my Family here.” She said this with pride, her arms spread to represent the presence of the whole group. “So I have to ask you one more favor. I ask you to give my Family entrance to Eden. I will argue on our behalf.”

  Giving him a moment to consider her proposal, Fi folded her arms to wait. Though she appeared calm on the surface, her insides were roiling. What if they said ‘no’? Louis turned to the leader of the team, the one he’d called Gary, and nodded. Gary spoke to Fi.

  “You will not be allowed to bring any of your weapons on your person, we will have to confiscate them.” His tone was brusque, his words clipped like Sarge. Must be ex-military, Fi thought. He continued his instruction, “You will have to allow us to blindfold you as well. We will not be entering from this hatch.”

  “Family,” Fi called. “If you hear me say ‘Ay’.” Everyone called out including Jose and Mayra from below the ground level. “Do you agree to these conditions? All Members in agreement say ‘Ay’.” Gary and Louis and the other Eden colonists seemed surprised by Fi’s command, but all Members spoke up with an enthusiastic ‘Ay’, with the exception of Zoe who kept saying ‘Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay’ in a singsong voice until Lucy shushed her. Louis chuckled. Several of those standing around them toting the semi-automatic weapons chuckled. Heck, Fi was pretty sure she saw Gary chuckle. Fi cocked her head.

  “Well Louis, it appears that we have a deal,” she held out her hand and he took it with a smile. Everyone relaxed and started to get their things together.

  Fi approached Gary and motioned Asher over to join them. He advanced with his sword cradled to his chest. Fi frowned at the tightness around his eyes. She hated seeing him upset. Asher stood with his head bowed and his eyes closed. She could tell he was saying goodbye. Turning to Gary, Fi indicated Asher’s sword.

  “This is all he has left of his father,” she explained as she took it from Asher’s hands and handed it to Gary with reverence. “It has also saved several of our lives,” she added, giving the weapon and Asher their due at the same time. Fi could see the respect in Gary’s expression.

  “I promise that I will keep it safe personally,” he vowed. Ashe
r gave a deep bow and stepped away. Fi motioned for Gary to stay and she turned to pick up her gun, knife, and sheath. She wrapped the straps of the knife sheath around the gun with care and handed the weapons over to Gary.

  “These have partaken in both honor and dishonor,” she murmured, her voice low and serious. “But I feel absolutely lost without them.” This was whispered, but Fi felt the despair in her voice and was certain that Gary could hear it.

  “They will also be safe,” he assured her with a nod, and she let go, feeling the weight leave her hands. Her heart pounded and she actually felt dizzy. She plopped to the ground to steady herself, putting her head in her hands and taking deep breaths. Until this moment, Fi hadn’t realized just how much she had relied on her weapons for comfort. She had not been without them since they’d left home, which seemed like ages ago now.

  Asher approached her just as she stood up with her hand pressed to her forehead. His eyes read hers and he nodded. Fi knew that he felt the same way. He gave her a little side hug and for just a second she bent her head to rest against his chest. Then she pulled away and sighed.

  It was Consideration Day again, she thought, only now she had to argue her Family’s way into Eden.

  The Grand Tour

  ----------- Fi -----------

  Fi closed her eyes behind the blindfold as they bounced along in the back of the Eden colonists’ Jeeps. It was stranger to look at the inside of the blindfold than it was to simply close her eyes. She didn’t expect the blindfold to be so disturbing. It kind of made her feel bad for doing it to Sarge and Lydia.

  When the Family was first loaded into the vehicles and Fi had felt the cool metal beneath her hands, she’d been shocked. There was so little fuel left that vehicles had not been used since the Famine, not that she had seen. After nearly two years of using her own two feet for transport, being driven was one of the strangest feelings she’d ever had. She could hear the additional Jeeps around her, carrying the rest of her Family and the colonists who guarded them. At one point they came to a stop for a time and Fi heard a strange grinding, metallic sound. Then they moved forward and she became aware that they had moved into a darker space. There was still light beyond the blindfold, but it was dim and intermittent. After another minute everything came to a halt.

  “Alright,” Gary called. “This is it, go ahead and take your blindfolds off.” Fi yanked at her blindfold and it loosened and slipped down around her neck. Like the rest of the Family, she was dying to look around. This was their first glimpse of Eden.

  It was hardly the Emerald City, Fi realized. They were in a relatively large cavern that appeared to have been cut into the rock. The Jeeps were pulled next to each other in formation and the Family members were being assisted to the ground by the Eden security team. The air was cool and damp and there was a sound like moisture dripping in the distance. Bundles of colored pipes and enclosed wires ran along the ceiling, and in some cases along the sides of the cavern. One bundle of pipes led from the ceiling down to a large metal box pinned against the far wall. Another bundle disappeared down a dark tunnel leading away from the large room. Halogen lights pointed up toward the ceiling, giving the room a soft natural glow.

  Startled, Fi stared at the lights in amazement and then turned back to her Family. She could see they were equally taken aback to see working electricity. Louis approached her with a smile. He waved his hands to gather the rest of her Family around them.

  “Welcome to Eden,” he said with ceremony. There were murmurs from the group. This cold dark room did not seem like paradise to anyone. Louis chuckled. “Yes, well you didn’t expect our garage to be exciting did you?” There was a small ripple of laughter. Fi nodded, of course they needed a garage, they still had working vehicles and they obviously left Eden at times.

  She also noted with chagrin that the “door” to the garage was the grinding sound she had heard. They had driven right into Eden, which means that the entry must be very large, much larger than the silly hatch she’d found. Do they even use that thing, she wondered in annoyance.

  “Come everyone,” Louis said and headed down the tunnel leaving the garage. They followed him with Gary and one other security person in tow. The others remained in the garage.

  As they filed toward the tunnel Rachel walked on her own, with Lucy’s help. They hadn’t hiked in a while, so she’d been able to get some rest. Fi worried about Rachel’s obvious Sickness. She knew that they would have Rules here, like her Family. In fact, she already knew that one rule was that no one with Sickness had been allowed. Her anger bubbled inside her at the thought.

  Still, as she walked she couldn’t help but think of her father. She thought of his hard work, of his excited face when he first told them about his NASA project, and of his drawn face when he had to reveal the terrible truth. Fi struggled in silence as her emotions swung between relief, awe, anger, and deep sadness. Louis gave a running commentary as they walked.

  “The colony is divided up into many separate caverns which we call pods. Some are large, centralized caverns for farming and community activities, which we will visit first,” he described. “Surrounding those there are smaller caverns for individual and small group usage.” In his element, he chattered happily. “For example, besides residential pods there are school pods, medical pods, security pods, cleaning pods, etc. We really are a fully functional little community in here,” he said, looking back over his shoulder as he walked.

  Single-file was the only option in the small tunnels, making it difficult for him to give the guided tour. The tunnel floor was actually a metal grate and there were railings on the side to prevent a person from falling off the sides of it, though it was only six inches above the actual floor. Water ran along the walls and down to the floor in puddles, Fi saw. They had created this elevated walkway to accommodate some of the natural water flow.

  “Ok, now,” Louis said as they reached a hatch door like the one they’d found on the surface. “We have reached one of the cleaning pods. For the safety of all our efforts down here, those coming in from Topside must be scrubbed and we must put on clean, sanitized clothing before we can enter the true confines of Eden.” The Family murmured.

  “Is that because of the Sickfood?” Doc Ron was curious. “To remove outside pollen?” he clarified. Louis nodded.

  “Yes, we can’t allow any pollen or seeds from outside to make it into Eden. The whole purpose was that Eden would be not just a safe haven for those lucky enough,” his gaze flitted to Fi, “to have been given a place here. It would be a starting point for a real recovery. Here we are growing crops like those our ancestors grew, those that we know helped us to thrive. They are humanity’s best hope moving forward.” His tone grew pompous as he warmed to his topic. Louis peered down the tunnel at the group so that he could make eye contact with as many of the Family Members as possible.

  “Hopefully,” he grinned, “it will come as good news that a hot shower and fresh clothes are something we are going to require before we let you enter Eden.” His grin widened as he heard moans and sighs from the Family. Even Fi closed her eyes and shivered at the thought. How nice it will be for Rachel, she thought, to have warm water and soap to wash some cares away. Maggie always said that a nice hot shower would make you feel ‘eons better’ when you were sick. Of course she was right, Fi thought as tears sprang to her eyes. Louis opened the hatch and gestured for everyone to follow him inside.

  “It’s going to be a little tight for you all, sorry,” he apologized as they stepped over the ledge and into the small room. “We rarely have groups this large come into and out of Eden at the same time,” he explained. The entire room was lined in concrete, including the ceiling. It was painted a sterile, glassy white and the light was very bright. It made Fi squint after the long, dimly lit tunnel. A series of metal doors, three per side, lined the walls of the room.

  Louis gestured toward the doors, grimacing. “Again,” he apologized, “there are a lot of you, more than our six sh
owers here,” he said and Fi could hear gasps. They were in the room with hot showers. Fi could feel the enthusiasm around her. Gary stepped up and spoke.

  “First thing,” he said in his flat tone, “you should know that when we leave here so that you all may wash up, the doors will be guarded.” Fi noticed that he almost cracked an apologetic smile…but not really. “We can’t have you wandering around Eden on your own, so you all can take turns taking showers,” he continued. “You’re going to need to leave your current clothing in the red ‘hazard bins’ you will find in the shower rooms. You will also find towels and some basic cotton clothes that you may change into. There are only a few sizes, so just do your best. Your own clothes will be laundered and returned to you inside. Unfortunately I can tell you that resources in Eden are not unlimited, it’s not like living in our old world.” Fi frowned. What was he getting at?

  “The showers are timed to five minutes and will shut off automatically,” he explained, “so be sure to focus on getting clean.” He finally cracked an actual smile. “Now the hard part is deciding who gets to go first.” He chuckled and walked back through the hatch. Louis followed and it closed behind them. Fi could hear them turn the wheel. The back of Gary’s shorn head was centered directly in front of the glass window. Fi sighed and everyone around her relaxed and the room filled with their relieved laughter and chatter.

  “A shower Fi, a hot shower,” Lucy exclaimed and John groaned in agreement. It would definitely do John’s aching bones a great service to soak in some hot water. Even if it was only five minutes of hot water, Fi thought. Though everyone wanted to shower first, it was decided that the Food Laws would be reversed for the showers. The Sick and the elderly would go first, the able-bodied and children second.