Maybe I’m just getting old.
Once he attended to his finger, he carried his plate out to the balcony to catch the colorful dusk skies through the dome. For so many years he dinned tucked away in his office. He was accustomed to confined living quarters, feeling agoraphobic in this large space.
After so many years in this massive home alone, he had finally grown into it. His one luxury for a lifetime of service, and the reward for living in solitude. This balcony table was ridiculously oversized for just him, with a seating capacity of 20.
This table was built for the State House staff, something existing only in the past. It was where Freya ate her meals with the Head of State before her, Victor, for over two decades. Somehow, he felt connected to her out here, even though it wasn’t where they spent time together.
He had grown to enjoy his meals overlooking the State House grounds. Freya’s grounds. The forest where they first met during the dome attack. The garden she planted with Devina. All of it. In the passing years, the flowers had wilted in Freya’s absence. Everything except the vegetable garden had decayed without proper attention.
Once he finished eating, he unceremoniously dumped his plate in the kitchen sink and headed for his apartment. Just as he exited the kitchen, he heard a female voice calling his name.
Lewis cringed, having formed an even deeper hatred toward Devina than he had for her grandmother, Dr. Rhetta. He stepped into his office, seeing her face clearly displayed on the monitor.
“Lewis! Where have you been? We’ve been trying to get a hold of you all afternoon.”
He shrugged casually with one shoulder. “My vegetable garden, exercising, cooking, laundry, eating. We didn’t have a meeting scheduled.”
Lewis wouldn’t have spoken to any High Council member this way at the beginning, but his tolerance for Devina had expired. Unfortunately for him, she insisted on handling the bulk of their communications.
She grunted. “Yes, Lewis. You often make doing laundry and gardening sound hard. But it would be nice if you could check for messages between menial household tasks.”
“Why? What’s happened? I thought operations under the dome were coming along at a snail’s pace.”
Her face remained expressionless, not even a muscle twitch to give away her true feelings. But Lewis had discovered she shared the same tell as her grandmother: a glimmer ignited in her eyes whenever she was excited. “You would be correct. Except, the event wasn’t inside the dome.”
He turned from the monitor to take a seat behind his desk. Part of him wanted to turn his back on her to conceal his annoyance that she was toying with him instead of getting straight to the point. And part of him knew she would drag this out for as long as possible, so he wanted to be comfortable.
“Oh? And how are things in the mountain? Has there been a breakthrough in your genetics research? Can we breed people to be compliant now?”
“No. I wish,” she said. “But it ranks rather high in our efforts to exterminate all people outside of the dome.”
He shifted back in his seat, tucking his hands under the desk. Devina’s news could be positive, but his fists clenched under the desk in anticipation. The drones could have found another homestead, causing the High Council to use their surplus weapons. He felt somewhat confident he had convinced them to keep a reserve to protect the dome.
But there was one kink in his way of thinking: did the High Council care enough about the dome to protect it? The mountain needed no protection. Devina had said they may prefer to stay inside the mountain permanently.
Is she calling to tell me it’s time to retire? Would she tell me if it is?
He silenced the thought, knowing that it was unlikely the drones would have found multiple locations in such a short time.
“I’m intrigued. Dare I ask, did we finally locate the group near us?”
Her demeanor remained statuesque. “Unfortunately, no. But I’m sure with our increased drone efforts, it won’t be long.”
Lewis narrowed his eyes. He wished she would get to the purpose of her call. Unfortunately, Devina reveled in toying with him. “I take it we found a new settlement?”
“Doubtful.”
He held his breath.
Please, let this be a different survivor group.
If the colonists migrated, Freya was about to die. But if they located a different survivor group, they would use one batch of weapons to neutralize them, possibly giving Freya at least another few years.
“Your answer is unclear. I feel that was pretty cut and dry. Yes or no.”
She gave a partial shrug. “It was appropriate for the circumstances. Our drones found a person, but it is unclear if they were near a settlement. The drones are performing a more thorough sweep, but unfortunately, our search area is too large for this to be simple.”
Moisture instantly glistened his brow. “A person? Just one. With no homestead or other physical evidence found?”
“That’s the interesting part. We found a lot of physical evidence, just nothing we can piece together yet.”
His nails dug into his palms under his desk.
Focus. Don’t crack.
“I don’t understand. How can we have discovered someone and not immediately neutralize the area?”
Her eyes brightened. “We neutralized an area, just not that one.”
His blood froze.
Just breathe.
“Which area did we neutralize?”
“Don’t you want to guess?”
“No, I don’t. I only know of the group near us and the colonists. You’ve already stated it wasn’t that same group. Unless there are other groups I’m unaware of, that only leaves the colonists. I can’t imagine why we would use our weapons on them, but as I’m the Head of State, I hope you will enlighten me regarding this decision.”
She looked down, typing into her tablet before a black-and-white image appeared on the screen of a man. The video clip played, showing a grove of trees near a meadow with rolling hills. The clip only played for a few seconds before it looped and replayed. The drone displayed natural scenery, then fell to the ground, showing a flash of a man’s face looking down at it before he struck the camera.
The image created more questions than it answered. “I know we’ve never sent drones to the colony, but I imagine it would be more developed. So, I would assume he’s not one of the colonists.”
“On the contrary. We ran the image through our facial recognition software, and he is none other than the Head of Communications—an original colonist. He was on the ship and traveled back here to meet with the former Head of State, to show everyone just how reliable our transport device could be.”
He nearly held his breath. “And where did we find him?”
“Across the mountains.”
Oh no. Freya.
His skin blanched. “And I take it we neutralized the colony?”
She responded with one smug nod.
His palms drew blood. “Very well. They may have still believed they’re on Earth, but best to deal with the situation before they spread out too much.”
Devina looked up and cocked her head to the side. “You are partially correct. We dealt with the situation upon our discovery last night, but we have since found evidence to prove that they knew they were on Earth, and had for many, many years.”
Lewis knew he needed to play his part until the end, yet it was difficult to feign interest in anything she said. Freya was gone, and nothing else mattered.
“I’m surprised to hear that.”
“Yes. We were rather disappointed about the error. Although it is doubtful we will need another culling, we have documented our learnings from this event. We must neutralize the colony immediately, instead of assuming they are too ignorant to stay where we placed them.”
Her words seemed accusatory, yet her tone was colder than ever, lacking her normally smug demeanor. Suddenly, the realization struck him.
She’s not toying with me; she’s ret
iring me.
He kept his gaze locked on the monitor. No matter what, he wouldn’t give her the pleasure of pleading for mercy. He would accept his fate, even if she instructed him to take his own life.
I have nothing left to hold on for.
She paused, waiting for a response from him. The problem was, he cared little for any information she could give him. But as the tension grew, he knew he had to say something.
“I’m curious.” He wasn’t. “What did you see that made you draw this conclusion?”
“We found small shack-like structures in a trail along the old highway through the mountains.”
Despite his neutrality, he flinched. “Old homesteads have survived for all this time?”
“No. They built them.”
“Oh.” He nodded.
He realized then, that even with his time served as the Head of State, he still didn’t know how long it had been since the Great War. He may have been the first ever Head of State to see the High Council’s faces, to recognize their family surname, yet they still kept their secrets.
“We don’t think they could have built those quickly, either.”
“I imagine constructing homes would take time.”
She sat back, lending her back against her sofa. “They aren’t homes. We believe they are outposts: storage sheds for supplies to sustain them as they cross the mountains.”
Lewis nearly nodded at how clever that tactic was, until he froze. “But if it was a planned migration, why would they head East? They’ve spent enough winters there to see the snow in the mountains every year. Why not pick an easier route?”
“This is why we believe they knew where they were. They chose the most challenging path where we were the least likely to look for them.”
His heart felt as though it lit aflame. “Then how do we know anyone stayed behind? Did you send the drones to the colony for visual confirmation beforehand?”
“No. We wouldn’t want to warn them of our attack. But we had sufficient evidence. We spotted a group of four travelers moving through the mountains on horseback, carting four extra horses with them.”
It made little sense. He closed his eyes, feeling a tension in the base of his skull. “Why would they head back? And how the hell did they learn to ride horses?”
“They didn’t. They couldn’t have. The images of the colony show no evidence of horses.”
His eyes narrowed. “Then how?”
She leaned forward again. “They must have made it through the mountains and contacted a tribe of survivors.”
He pressed his eyes tightly shut, struggling to comprehend the enormity of their actions. “How did we miss all of this? A tribe just on the other side of the mountains?”
“Yes. But it was documented that before the war, the Idaho panhandle was a popular place if one wanted to slip off the grid. We’ve always suspected there could be several survivors there still, but also knew they would be more difficult to locate than the group near the dome. These people know of us and know to hide. They have survived all this time despite our efforts.”
It was incomprehensible. He may have steered the High Council away from the colony to prolong Freya’s life, but he never imagined the colonists could be so resourceful. It uplifted his spirits for a flash, until he remembered that this was his fault, and the High Council would seek retribution.
Lewis licked his dry lips. “And I assume you will double down on your drone efforts?”
“Within our resources.”
Lewis flinched. “Resources?”
“Yes, Lewis. Resources. There are so few of us to monitor the drone footage for activity. And in case you forgot, we have duties outside of the High Council.”
He furrowed his brow. “Is there no algorithm in place to sift through the bulk of the footage?”
“Naturally. But if we don’t cast a wide net for the algorithm to flag, we risk missing it. It took us days just to find the footage of the former Head of Communications in Idaho and identify him.”
He pressed his lips together. Mere seconds ago, he thought they were to discuss his retirement, but now he wasn’t sure. It appeared she had ulterior motives. It would be too simple if she just wanted to ask his help to sift through the footage.
Her toying led him to ask if she trusted him? Was this call nothing more than a test of his loyalties? Or was Devina a bad seed? They had brought her to the dome and separated her from her family at a young age. Her personality quirks displayed her imbalances. The others seemed to speak and think as a hive mind, where she held some similarities yet remained distinct from them.
Only one way to find out what this call is really about.
“Devina, would you like to send some of that footage to me? I could help with the process.”
She pursed her lips. “Oh, could you, Lewis? I think it would be swell if you could help since this is your fault.”
He didn’t flinch or show any reaction. “Does the High Council blame me for the Head of Communications migration?”
She scowled. “No. Just me. They feel your insight into stockpiling weapons was valuable. They also feel that since increasing our drone efforts was also your idea and we’re narrowing in on a tribe we’ve never seen before, you rank highly on a short list of effective Heads of State.”
His fists unclenched. “I’m happy to be of service to the High Council. Send me the footage and I will make it my top priority.”
She typed into her tablet before looking up at him again. “With our new protocols in place, we should have more missiles within five years’ time. I must inform you, we unanimously agreed in your absence that when we find the homestead in Idaho, we neutralize it immediately. We will not reserve an arsenal to protect the dome or mountain.”
His face remained expressionless. “I don’t imagine you would. Those colonists are too close to us. They know too much about us. I’d hate to see what they could accomplish when they combine their knowledge with the survivors’ own skill sets.”
She leaned forward again. “See, the High Council agrees with you, and thought you’d feel this way. But I guess I see a different side of you. They see a loyal family member, but I’ve always seen a man who excels at self-preservation.”
She was testing him this entire time.
Clever girl.
“Devina, are you implying that I won’t perform adequately in order to preserve my own life?”
“What motivations would you have to share their location if it means we can’t protect the dome?”
He leaned forward in his seat. “It’s not that cut and dry. Neutralizing the group in Idaho wouldn’t guarantee a strike from the group nearby. I don’t see these two situations as connected. Besides, I’m too old to care. I could die from natural causes long before the colonists or other survivors could plan and launch an attack against the dome.”
She stared him down for another moment before softening her gaze. “I suppose you’re right. Very well, Lewis. You now have access to the footage. We have a system of marking each clip to ensure two different people viewed it.”
Then why are you worried I would withhold information just to save my own skin?
She disconnected their call, and he pushed back in his seat. He realized then that Devina wasn’t worried about him spoiling their plans. She just needed to exert her power over him as frequently as possible. Maybe sending her away when she was young had damaged her. She had been tainted by growing up away from her family and stood out amongst the others.
He shook his head. Devina’s quirks didn’t matter. Freya was gone, and he had lost everything, even his sense of purpose. He used to believe that the State needed to stay in power to protect humanity, but he wasn’t even sure about that anymore.
What purpose do they serve?
There was never a war to save people from. The dome was useless.
Did I really sacrifice my life for this family who has no cause? Just so a spoiled brat can toy with me.
A throbbing p
ain radiated through his temples. It was too much. Part of him wanted to sabotage the High Council’s efforts, but even more of him had no fight left in him. They had wronged him and all of humanity. But they could never be stopped.
They had commanded his devotion until he was too old to act against them. He didn’t know if living longer or fighting them was more pointless.
He glanced down at his tablet, seeing the image of the colonist frozen on the screen. Lewis cocked his head to the side, staring intensely at the man. There was something familiar about his face.
Delivered: A Young Adult Dystopian Romance (The State Series Book 7) Page 12
