Seeds
Page 1
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty--Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Chapter Eighty
Chapter Eighty-One
Chapter Eighty-Two
Chapter Eighty-Three
Chapter Eighty-Four
Chapter Eighty-Five
Chapter Eighty-Six
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Chapter Eighty-Nine
Chapter Ninety
Chapter Ninety-One
Chapter Ninety-Two
Chapter Ninety-Three
Chapter Ninety-Four
Chapter Ninety-Five
Chapter Ninety-Six
Chapter Ninety-Seven
Chapter Ninety-Eight
Chapter Ninety-Nine
Chapter One Hundred
Chapter One Hundred One
Chapter One Hundred Two
Chapter One Hundred Three
Chapter One Hundred Four
Chapter One Hundred Five
Chapter One Hundred Six
Chapter One Hundred Seven
Chapter One Hundred Eight
Chapter One Hundred Nine
Chapter One Hundred Ten
Chapter One Hundred Eleven
Chapter One Hundred Twelve
Chapter One Hundred Thirteen
Chapter One Hundred Fourteen
Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
Chapter One Hundred Sixteen
Chapter One Hundred Seventeen
Chapter One Hundred Eighteen
Chapter One Hundred Nineteen
Chapter One Hundred Twenty
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Three
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Five
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Seven
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Eight
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine
Chapter One Hundred Thirty
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Two
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Three
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Four
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Five
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Six
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Eight
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Nine
Chapter One Hundred Forty
Chapter One Hundred Forty-One
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Two
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Three
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Four
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Five
Chapter One Hundred Forty-Six
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
SEEDS
a post-apocalyptic adventure
Chris Mandeville
Copyright © 2015 by Chris Mandeville
Parker Hayden Media
PO Box 75881
Colorado Springs, CO 80970-5881
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events or locations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
ISBN: 978-1-941528-24-2
Cover art credits:
Cover design: LB Hayden
Cracked earth @ szefei/Shutterstock
Ferris wheel and sun @ Alexander Smulskiy/Shutterstock
Dedication
for my husband Jody
with gratitude for your love and support, your belief in me, and your idea for this book
Book Description
Forty-eight years after a catastrophic solar event destroys all life and technology on the planet’s surface, nineteen-year-old Reid Landers lives in the old NORAD facility deep inside Cheyenne Mountain with other descendants of Originals, barely subsisting on canned food and rats. For all they know they are the last hundred souls on Earth . . . until Reid meets the first stranger he has ever seen, a stranger with a grown apple. This catapults him on a journey to California to find seeds for his people, an adventure fraught with skin-carving pirates, twisted missionaries, and mercenaries on Rollerblades. Even if Reid can outwit the despot leader of “Lost" Angeles and resist the siren’s song of a beautiful con artist, there may not be any seeds left to find. And his people—including the woman he secretly loves—might not take him back.
“With impeccable world-building, characters you can’t help rooting for, and a refreshing feeling of hope that lingers long after the final page, Seeds by Chris Mandeville is a worthwhile addition to the post-apocalyptic genre.” — Darby Karchut, bestselling author of The Stag Lord and The Hound at the Gate
“Mandeville weaves a riveting adventure through post-apocalyptic societie
s on an Earth that’s suffered a scientifically plausible catastrophe. Seeds is gripping and breathtaking; I guarantee it will make you lose sleep!” — Laura E. Reeve, the author of the Major Ariane Kedros Novels
“Author Chris Mandeville has masterfully created a stark, post-apocalyptic world, where desperate people will lie, cheat, steal, and kill for the most unlikely of currencies: seeds. Hope is ignited when a dying stranger carrying a fresh apple whispers a cryptic clue, launching a dangerous life-and-death quest to locate the source of naturally grown fruit and vegetables. Seeds is an imaginative, technically on-target, nail-biting tale that’ll keep you up late . . . worrying.” — William B. Scott, bestselling author of The Permit and Space Wars: The First Six Hours of World War III, A War Game Scenario
One
Outside Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs
Reid Landers leaned against the brick wall in a sliver of shade, shifting his rifle uneasily as the transgressors threw trash on the fire. He belonged in the infirmary with his patients, but Commander Vega made everyone rotate through some form of guard duty—medics, clergy, even the Originals. Vega said everyone was a soldier. They had to be ready, prepared at all times.
Prepared? For what? No one had seen a stranger, much less a Raider, in forty years. The Mountain didn’t need guards, and neither did the transgressors. They served their tours for swearing, being late to church, or whatever infraction they’d committed, trying to earn official forgiveness and get back inside the Mountain. Besides, where else would they go?
Reid knew what was beyond the fence. Nothing.
He hadn’t seen much of it himself, but his brother Brian had. There were no plants, no animals, no people. Certainly no Raiders. Brian and Kayla had patrolled everything this side of the Burn and found only the bones of the people from the Before. There was nothing left but dust-filled houses, rusting cars, scuttling rats, and a dwindling supply of canned food.
There was nothing to run away to.
But even if there were, no matter how much Reid wanted to escape the confines of Vega’s military and the oppression of his father’s church, he wouldn’t leave his patients.
“Reid!” Kayla ran toward him from the mouth of the tunnel, blond hair streaming behind her, not in its usual tight braid.
“What’s wrong?” It had to be serious. She’d barely looked at him since Brian’s funeral.
She stopped, out of breath, her face gaunt, her green eyes angry and red-rimmed. “It’s Bethany. She’s worse. A lot worse.”
Reid pictured her little sister lying in the infirmary and had to clench his teeth to keep from cursing Vega out loud.
“She’s asking for you,” Kayla said.
There would be hell to pay, but he slung his rifle on his back and sprinted up the short stretch of Norad Road with Kayla matching his stride. At the checkpoint, the guards waved them into the tunnel. With each step, the air grew cooler, but at the same time heavier, more oppressive. They covered the quarter mile to the open blast door where Kayla’s cousin stood guard. Her somber expression spurred Reid on.
On the other side of the door, the smells of antiseptic cleaner and trash assaulted his nostrils. They ran across the cavernous room past a squad of Remotes at their lockers gearing up for patrol. Someone shouted a warning, but Reid didn’t slow. Vega was already going to sentence him to tours for leaving his post, but he didn’t care if he got hit with another week, so long as he got to Bethany before it was too late.
He flung open the main door and ran faster, though he dreaded what waited at the end of the corridor. A week ago, Bethany broke her leg on the playground. Healthy people recovered from worse, but Bethany had never been one of the healthy ones. Without reserves to draw on, a broken bone could be a death sentence. Reid had requested extra nutrition for her, but it had been denied. The little girl was a fighter. He had hoped that would be enough.
At the end of the hall, a tech came out of the infirmary with a gurney. Bethany’s gurney. She was being moved to the “family room,” more commonly known as the dying room. Reid never called it that out loud, but that’s what it was and everyone knew it.
Doc wasn’t there, but Reid didn’t really expect him to be. Doc rarely went in the dying room. Vega looked the other way while Doc hid in his office and drank, leaving Reid or another medic to tend to the families and pronounce the dead. It used to make Reid furious, but now he felt sorry for the old man.
As one of the Originals, Doc had seen more death than a sober man could bear: hundreds of thousands in Colorado Springs from radiation poisoning after the massive sun flare; more than half of the survivors slaughtered by Raiders; then the steady dying-off of the remainder since. Now they were down to a hundred souls and, for all they knew, the only ones alive on the planet. The last of humanity was dying out, and Doc couldn’t watch anymore. So he did what he could for a patient while there was still hope, then drank till it was over.
Reid followed the gurney into the room where Kayla’s mom stood wringing her hands, her thin gray face wet with tears.
“I can’t do this,” she said.
“Go home, Mom,” Kayla said. “Reid and I will stay.”
There was both anger and pity in Kayla’s voice, and Reid couldn’t blame her for either.
The tech handed him Bethany’s chart as she followed Kayla’s mother out, but Reid didn’t open it. He already knew what it would say.
He joined Kayla at the bedside and took Bethany’s hand. “Hey, sunshine.”
“Where were you, Reid?” Bethany’s voice was a hoarse whisper.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m here now, and wild-eyed Raiders couldn’t drag me away.”
Bethany gave a weak smile and Reid forced himself to smile back. Her eyes closed and her breathing slowed.
Kayla dropped to her knees and buried her face in Bethany’s blankets. Reid stroked her hair and wished there were something he could say. The best he could hope for was a quick passing. He didn’t want Kayla to see what would happen if Bethany lingered. His cheeks burned as he pictured Vega pressuring him to hasten the process so the dying child wouldn’t use up any more resources.
Reid wouldn’t do it. He never had. Even if Vega bullied his father and Reid no longer had the protection of the church, he would stand his ground. Especially when it came to Bethany. Nothing could make him hurt Kayla like that.
“Reid?” Bethany’s voice quavered.
“I’m here.” He squeezed her hand.
“Tell me a story about the stars. The one about the princess.”
Kayla lay down alongside her sister, slipped her arms around her and held her gently.
Reid settled into the chair by the bed. He held Bethany’s hand and told the story of Cassiopeia until her pulse faded to nothing.
Kayla’s eyes were closed, her chest slowly rising and falling. She looked so peaceful, Reid hated to wake her. He wished he could spare her the pain that would return the moment she knew Bethany was gone.
First Brian, and now Bethany. He didn’t know how much more Kayla could take, how much more he could take. His brother’s death had been an accident, a freak, tragic accident. But Bethany was the third child he’d lost to malnutrition in the last month. If they didn’t find some other source of food soon, it wouldn’t be long before they were all gone.
Reid leaned back in his chair and watched Kayla sleep. The news could wait a little longer.
❦❦❦
Reid stood at attention and did a mental inventory. His hair was clean and cut above the ears, well within regs. His camouflage uniform was wrinkled and threadbare, but no more so than anyone else’s. His cap was tucked in his waistband at the small of his back, and the revolver on his belt was cleaned, oiled, loaded, and locked. He kept his eyes forward, though he wanted to see how Kayla was holding up. Whatever penalty there would be for leaving his post yesterday should be his alone. Kayla should be allowed to grieve with her family.
“I’m disappointed in you both,” Commander Renata Vega
said, addressing Reid and Kayla from behind her desk. Vega’s hair was short, a slick black version of Reid’s blond crew cut. But unlike him, her uniform was pressed, and she wore a couple dozen ribbons and medals on her breast as if she’d earned them.
Reid kept silent, his face impassive. Kayla was silent too.
“It’s been over a month,” Vega said, “and nothing has been done about your matching.”
What? This isn’t about yesterday?
Vega motioned for someone to enter. Reid knew without looking it would be his father.
Bishop Peregrine Landers stepped inside. “What’s the problem?”
He glanced at Reid, his face questioning, confirming what Reid had hoped. His father wasn’t part of this—he had no idea why they’d been summoned. As the bishop, and as Reid’s father, Peregrine had promised he wouldn’t marry them, no matter how hard Vega pushed.
“These two were matched when Brian died. Why aren’t they wed?” Vega demanded.
“I received your requisition,” Peregrine said. “But Reid and Kayla are still grieving Brian’s death, and now with the tragic loss of Kayla’s sister—”
“That does not change my orders.”
“I beg your pardon, Commander.” Peregrine straightened his short frame and pushed out his chest. “You cannot order a wedding. That authority belongs to the church.”
A hint of a smile played at the corners of Vega’s lips. “I did not say I was ordering them to wed. I’m ordering them on brevet.”
Reid’s breath caught in his throat, and he sensed Kayla stiffen. Unmarrieds going on brevet was unheard of. This wasn’t about him and Kayla at all. Vega was using them as leverage, trying to force his father’s hand, escalating the pissing contest between the church and the military. He hoped Kayla knew they didn’t need to worry. His father wouldn’t let them down.
“Brevet is a rite of passage for the married. I implore you to reconsider,” Peregrine said.
Vega raised one eyebrow. “And if I refuse?”
“I still won’t marry them. I’m well within my rights per Article Three, Section Twenty-six, of the New Constitution, which plainly declares marriage solely a matter of religion.”
“Don’t quote me the Articles—my father wrote them,” Vega growled. “And that knife cuts both ways, Bishop. Per Article Four, Section Five, I hereby order Lieutenant Reid Landers and Lieutenant Kayla Solomon to deploy on brevet, effective today.”