Insolation

by Bradlyn Wilson

  He led her towards the ladder and they climbed up onto the warm stone. Dripping and wet they laid down together, the man’s hair in his face, his tattoos running up and down his body.

  “I love you,” he whispered looking into Hadley’s eyes.

  “To the moon and back babe,” she replied with a smile.

  They kissed gently.

  He pondered what to say next, looking at her body, “are you sure you want to do this?”

  “You’re my everything, and it’s something I have to do.”

  “It will change everything Hadley.”

  “We’ll have to be so careful; you’ll have to hide from everyone.”

  “We’ve worked it all out.”

  “What if something changes?”

  “Like what?”

  He bit his lip and looked at her nervously, “Okay then.”

  Hadley almost squealed as a grin rushed across her face, “I love you.”

  They kissed again, letting the sunshine fade to a subtle golden glow around them. Completely lost in each other’s company.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “Hadley, Hadley!” the voices yelled somewhere in the distance. Hadley was being yelled at but the men who were yelling was far away, too far away and she had no strength to answer.

  Pax knelt with the man who was dripping wet beside Hadley’s seemingly lifeless body. He had grabbed her just in time, before she was carried away by the current but that hadn’t stopped her from inhaling a large amount of water.

  Pax had lost his carefree attitude and was almost shaking Hadley trying to get her to breath.

  “Hell man! Is she going to be all right?” Pax asked.

  “It’s Saul by the way.”

  “What?”

  “Move!” Saul said, as he bent forward and gave Hadley two slow breaths.

  He then positioned his hands over her chest and began to give her chest compressions singing along in his head to a vintage song, ‘Staying Alive’. He began to focus only on Hadley.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “CPR,” Saul said simply to panicking Pax.

  “That hasn’t been taught since 2066.”

  Saul gave him a stern look and gave Hadley two more rescue breaths. “Oh yes, fucking Family First act.”

  “It was population control,” Pax countered.

  “It was wrong!” Saul shrugged firmly as he continued to do CPR.

  “But they stopped teaching CPR because everyone’s program was meant as a life support module; able to save people from drowning, heart attacks… That was implemented the same year.”

  “To keep those favourable to the government, you nitwit. Anyways your program doesn’t work down here,” Saul said pointing at the bracelet he had placed over it.

  “It was supposed to restart the earth.”

  “Do you think I live under a rock?” Saul said pumping on Hadley’s chest.

  Pax almost laughed, motioning to the ceiling above, “You do live under a rock.”

  “I know what was supposed to happen. But the stupid program is flawed and can’t save you from a heart attack or bullet wound or stomach flu if it decided not to. It was artificial intelligence that got too complacent.”

  Suddenly, Hadley started sputtering up water. The hot water left her lungs and mouth. She rolled onto her side and vomited. It burnt as it came up her throat and through her teeth. She coughed over and over again, vomiting everything that she could possibly have had in her stomach. Finally, the reflex stopped and she wiped her lip on her sleeve. She remained lying on the ground in the fetal position.

  She looked up at Paxton and the man. She hadn’t realized how big the man was. He must have been at least 6’7”. Being tall for a girl she wasn’t used to feeling short and small.

  “Thank you,” she said to them both. They looked relieved when she spoke. Neither of them said anything for a moment.

  “There is a blanket in the case just up there, can you grab it?” Saul said to Paxton, motioning up the hallway. Paxton just glared at him and walked towards the cabinet without a word.

  “Why did you help me?” Hadley whispered skeptically looking into the Saul’s crystal blue eyes that were shining in the dim light.

  He stared into her eyes and stated plainly, “I wasn’t going to let you die—”

  “Wouldn’t it have been easier that way? You tried to hang me a few days ago—” she suggested.

  “It’s complicated.” He shrugged looking away for a moment before his eyes returned to hers, a sadness washing over them. They sat there staring at each other. He grabbed her hand giving it a squeeze.

  “What’s your name?” she asked after a pause.

  “Saul,” he said.

  Hadley nodded. There was something comforting in putting a name to a face, the memory of the rocks and water swirled in her mind. She knew him.

  Paxton grabbed Hadley’s other hand as soon as he came back to her, but by then Saul had already let go. Hadley could feel Pax scowling at Saul before she even looked at him. He was radiating anger.

  “We should get going,” Saul said standing up.

  “Can you walk?” Paxton asked, helping Hadley to her feet. He wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and pulled her close. She gently set her head on his shoulder but only looked at Saul.

  “I think so,” she replied.

  “This way,” Saul said, ducking into a small opening without making eye contact. Hadley went to follow but Paxton stopped her with a forceful tug.

  “What?!” she hissed angrily.

  “I’ll go first,” he said moving past her.

  “What’s your problem?” Hadley was exasperated and her throat felt as those it had been scalded by a hot iron. It hurt to talk but that didn’t stop her.

  Pax didn’t even reply. He just glared and followed Saul. Hadley waited a moment feeling her blood begin to boil. She stomped her foot, let out a huff and followed.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  They walked in silence for close to ten minutes, through winding and twisting tunnels. Hadley felt caught in the middle. She was beyond angry at Paxton and couldn’t stop thinking about Saul. She wanted to know his story; actually she wanted to know everything about him.

  They eventually got to a heavy metal door that had numerous locks attached. Saul turned the knob and all the locks unlatched and they walked into a brightly lit room. It burnt their eyes, after being so long in the underground tunnels. Hadley closed her eyes tightly, feeling like it had been forever since she had seen real light. Slowly she opened her eyes to look around the room. It was circular. There was an archway leading to a bluish room where there were rows of beds surrounded by medical equipment. One of the beds at the back of the room had what looked like a glass dome over it. Watercolours swirled throughout it. Hadley caught herself watching a blue swirl that ran through it.

  All of a sudden a grey hand pressed against the side of the glass dome. It was shaking against the liquid. The fingernails dug into the glass and swiped across it.

  “What is— what the—” Hadley stuttered.

  Saul turned around and looked from Hadley to the tank and back. “It’s a medical treatment; it’s hard to live underground all the time.” He covered quickly and turned on his heel. Hadley had no choice but to follow. She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, but she watched the tank as long as she could until she had to continue on and try to forget about it.

  They got to a room filled with computers. Everything was facing one way and it was reminiscent of a classroom, though it was the size of a hockey rink. Hadley looked at a giant screen on one side that bore the RFE logo.

  “This is impressive for an underground hideout,” Hadley muttered impressed.

  Saul went to a computer and started typing furiously. Hadley watched as the muscles in his neck flexed as he worked. “It’s almost dawn so I’m going to make you a flash drive of what you need to know,” he said over his shoulder.

  Hadley and
Pax had no choice but to stand there in silence listening to the typing. Hadley took a deep breath feeling her lungs reject the air and the burning returning. She began to feel unsteady and reached for the table beside her for support. The blanket dropped off her shoulders and onto the floor in a pool at her feet. She reached out for something more stable than the table and found Pax’s arm.

  Paxton grabbed her waist. “Had, are you ok?”

  She just stared at him, unable to comprehend what he had just said. She blinked at him blankly. “Yes, I just need to sit down.” She grabbed a chair and brushed his arm away from her waist. Then she folded her knees up under her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs.

  She put her forehead on her knees and allowed herself to watch and regulate her breathing. She couldn’t stand the look of Pax, his attitude was annoying and she needed to focus on herself for a moment. She slowly drifted off into a faraway place, a million thoughts running through her mind.

  A good amount of time passed before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and Saul passed her a thumb drive.

  “Thanks,” she whispered weakly.

  Saul also had a bottle in his hand with a dark red coloured liquid in it. He passed it to Hadley.

  “Drink this, it will help.”

  “What is it? It looks like blood?”

  “It is,” Saul said plainly.

  “What?!” Hadley screeched taken aback.

  Saul laughed, a deep hearty laugh. The first time he had let his guard down slightly and revealed a true piece of himself, “Kidding, of course. It’s beets and charcoal that give it the colour. It’s our secret recipe.”

  Hadley laughed and bit her lower lip. Then she brought the bottle to her lips and began to drink. It tasted terrible but helped her start to feel better.

  She slowly stood up with Saul’s help after finishing the drink and looked at him through her eyelashes. Paxton’s gaze made the hair on her neck stand up but she didn’t look back at him.

  “We put in all that effort for a thumb drive. You guys need to get on Wi-Fi in this complex,” Hadley said to Saul who laughed. She knew that Hemmer and Kane would monitor any network so she understood why they had hardwired their information in such a remote spot.

  Hadley stepped forward and gave him a hug. It took him by surprise but she felt him hug her back. She inhaled and smelt a mix of dirt, brandy and mahogany with a hint of spice. Then, lightning fast, she felt a slight of hand into her back pocket. It was instantaneous but after she could feel the imprint of a second thumb drive.

  “Just for you,” Saul whispered into her hair so no one could hear. Then he stepped back untangling their embrace.

  “Thanks for this,” Hadley said holding up the thumb drive Pax knew about.

  “Of course,” Saul replied curtly taking Hadley’s hand in his. He took a glance at Paxton and then to Hadley. He let go of her hand but left a small piece of paper in her palm, which she stuffed into her back pocket, “Now let’s get you back before we can’t anymore.”

  They walked to a door and emerged outside into a surprisingly high place within the city. It had a clear, though small, view of the compound. Before Hadley could say anything more Saul was gone and Paxton and she walked in silence. They couldn’t even look at each other they were lost in their own thoughts.

  Hadley put a hand on her back pocket and felt the outline of a second flash drive. A drive Saul only wanted her to see. The anticipation was explosive.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  2083

  “Tell me the truth!” Hadley yelled bursting through the door into a room where Kane and Hemmer were talking. They were enjoying a cup of coffee and the sun was shining in through the windows behind them. Kids could be seen playing in a playground across the street.

  “We are saving the world Hadley,” Hemmer said calmly. He stood up, “Why don’t you sit down?”

  Hadley watched him pull out a chair for her but couldn’t bring herself to sit down. She was buzzing with anger.

  “We have come up with a thousand different ways. This isn’t right. You can’t do this,” Hadley practically screamed and she could feel herself becoming more and more unstable.

  “There is no other way,” Kane said bluntly.

  Hadley felt betrayed. She thought she could count on him and his betrayal took her by surprise. Like getting doused in cold ice water.

  “I trusted you,” Hadley whispered fiddling with the ring on her finger.

  “You still can Had. We’re doing the best thing,” he said confused.

  “For who, Kane?”

  “Everyone.”

  “No Kane. You are doing what’s best for the elite and the government. Since 2066 the government thinks that they are able to do whatever they want. Get rid of whoever they want.”

  Hemmer interjected, “Hadley, your mom was crucial to Family First.”

  “No Hemmer. You took her research before it was finished.”

  “It worked!” Hemmer sneered.

  “Yes and there hasn’t been any population growth since 2066.”

  Kane looked at Hadley with pity, “Which has saved the planet.”

  “For now, but at some point all of us will die and no one will be left. You didn’t give my mom time to come up with a viable cure.”

  “I gave her all the time she had.”

  “Then you sent her to an exoplanet a thousand light-years away.”

  “I’ve heard she’s still alive in cryosleep and doing well.”

  Hadley just looked at him astounded, trying to process that information, and stated plainly, “You took her from me.”

  Hemmer stood up, his face as red as a tomato. “We are working on amazing research here, everything from other planetary living to sustainable resources. Just because you don’t agree with working on plans for the worst-case scenario, doesn't mean we are wrong. We are saving the planet, no matter the cost, even if that means getting rid of people in the process.”

  “It’s murder.”

  “It’s evolution.”

  “Forced evolution, there is a difference.”

  “Call it what you will Hadley, it won't change anything.”

  “I will fight you on this, till my last day,” she hissed.

  Hadley took off the ring and placed it on the table. Kane stood up. She walked out of the room and down the hall. She emerged outside and took a deep breath. Then she started running, for the first time in a long time she felt relieved. Not just relieved she felt unstoppable.

  Defiance suited her.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Hadley was sitting in the lab twirling on a chair. She sipped at a cup of black coffee watching the earth spin in the simulator. So much of the earth was covered in black marks except for small green patches. She sighed.

  She had changed, threw her hair up in a ponytail and had run from her room. They had made it back to the complex just in time to hear the wake up alarm. So she had taken two minutes and was out the door grabbing an apple on her way.

  Even with her haste she hadn’t seen Vanya or Kane all morning, they just hadn’t shown up in the lab. She wondered where they were, but she didn’t want them there. So she was, in fact, grateful for the privacy.

  Hadley was thinking of things she could do and things she wanted to do. So she pulled up an internet search and typed “nuclear war” into the search engine. A message popped up: You are restricted from this content. She looked at the warning dumbfounded.

  Hadley deleted the search character-by-character and typed in “Hadley Evans”. She watched as the Internet browser ran its search. Just as the results popped up the whole computer shut down. “ERROR” appeared on the screen.

  She stared at the black screen with the green words. She pounded the table with her hand and got up. She was about to walk out of the lab when she saw Kane’s door open. She paused for a moment, contemplating the consequences of using it, before walking into his office.

  She turned on the computer and was
surprised it wasn’t password protected. Wow he’s trusting— she thought as she clicked on the Internet and typed in “Hadley Evans” again. This time the search wasn’t restricted. She clicked on the top result. She saw her picture at the top of the website; it was the picture of her that she had found in the box.

  The first line read, “Leader and Founder of the Revolution for Free Earth. She was an inspiration in her time and we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Death on May 14th of this year.”

  Hadley just looked at it, below it there was a picture of her, looking just a bit younger than she was now.

  Death.

  That word was what she focused on. She couldn’t breathe. This had to be some sort of sick and twisted joke, she thought. She closed all the screens and cleared the history. Then she got up shaking as she ran out of the lab.

  She ran until she got to the atrium. She looked around at everyone shuffling around completing their day-to-day tasks. She looked up at Hemmer in his office. He was sitting typing on his computer. He wore a calm facial expression. She watched him get up and stand looking out over the atrium. He fished something out of his pocket and she saw him answer the phone.

  He talked casually as he scanned the atrium. She saw his eyes move towards her and she dared him to look. She couldn’t look away. When he saw her their eyes met. She stared deeply at him. He smiled at her, a menacing smile, as though he could tell something was wrong.

  The old man Hadley had seen in Hemmer’s office walked to him and said something. The man’s shoulders were hunched over and he walked with a limp. Hemmer nodded while he kept eye contact with Hadley. She finally broke and walked towards the dorm.

  She was almost there when she passed Jeremiah. She didn’t look at him but kept her head down and kept walking. She had just passed him when she felt an arm around her waist and a cold hand on her mouth.