“We don’t. The cesium in question was used in a medical diagnostic machine. There is no information remaining regarding how the machine sustained damage or the capsule ruptured, but we do know that highly deadly cesium dust is loose in at least one room up there. To avoid people tracking it into the entire Arc and killing us all, the administrator from multiple generations ago declared level one permanently off limits.”
“It’s not as if a person would die the instant they went up the stairs,” said Preston. “Based on my calculations, the old infirmary is located at the southwestern corner. That’s the most dangerous spot, where the cesium is. Most of our walls are made of solid rock and dirt. The radiation falls off fairly rapidly the farther from the infirmary one goes, with little detectable penetration down to level two, even directly below the infirmary section.”
“Those areas are generally deserted anyway.” Noah picked up and squeezed a stress ball. “They have been for a long time. No one wants a fifteen minute walk from their quarters to the cafeteria.”
Preston nodded. “Lucky circumstances. The danger in level one is of people being exposed to the dust and tracking it all over the place on their socks and clothes. Even a small amount can linger in an area and cause fatalities due to prolonged radiation exposure.”
“Would it be dangerous to go up the stairs and straight down the main hall to the front door?” asked Raven.
Noah laughed.
“No.” Preston shook his head. “We don’t really understand how much if any cesium powder ended up being tracked around up there, but even if some found its way into the central corridor, walking directly to the exit and not spending a significant time on level one wouldn’t be a problem. Most likely, the exposure would be comparable to receiving an x-ray scan at the infirmary. The issue would be if any dust happened to be in the hallway, it would follow people out on their shoes.”
“Does it wash off?” Raven fidgeted.
Preston nodded.
“Why are you asking so many questions about level one?” Noah stared at her. “Have you broken that rule, too?”
She shook her head to the negative. “I haven’t. Some of our older residents aren’t going to be able to climb the ladder to the hatch.”
“So, hang on.” Ben paused in thought. “The main reason you’re concerned about the surface is these feral things? What exactly are they?”
Raven smiled at Ben. Is he finally growing a backbone?
“What I got from the Saints before they vanished described some manner of furry humanoid quasi-ape. They can be aggressive, but every time the Saints caught them throwing rocks at the windmills, the beasts would run off. Almost as if they were terrified of being seen.”
Wow. That really does sound like Bigfoot, but if I start talking about that book, Noah’s going to think I’m crazy.
Noah mushed the stress ball between his hand and the desk. “They killed the Saints. If we move everyone up to the surface, assuming any potential toxins don’t kill us, the ferals will more than likely wipe us out. We don’t have weapons aside from a couple batons in the security team. None of us are trained how to fight. Those beasts are taller and stronger than humans and likely outnumber us. We need the protection of the Arc. Simply going outside is not feasible.”
Raven grabbed two fistfuls of her hair, but managed not to scream in frustration. “Staying down here isn’t feasible either. The Arc isn’t protecting us anymore. It’s trying to kill us.”
“I’m not trying to be deliberately unreasonable. I understand we are in a desperate situation. But down here, we have a chance—even if it’s a small one—of figuring out a way to survive. We’d need to have somewhere safe to go in order to abandon the Arc. You can’t simply expect 182 people to climb a ladder to an empty field and make it into a home overnight.”
Raven paced, her mind scrambling to come up with the best possible response. He’d offered something of an olive branch. Saying the right thing could save everyone in the Arc. Saying the wrong thing and getting on his bad side would make him dig in his heels. That creature they ran into at the storage place had to be one of those ferals. She hadn’t gotten the best look at it, but felt pretty sure it didn’t stand too much taller than her. No bigger than Shaw. The footprint had been man sized—and man shaped. Nothing like an ape, and definitely not a bigfoot.
What did I see on that tower? The flash… like the lenses on binoculars. The Saints wouldn’t have been so far away, and ferals wouldn’t use binoculars or wear green clothing. Her eyes gradually widened as a hopeful realization washed over her. Could that have been a descendant of the people who fled the Arc? What if she hadn’t seen signs of a flourishing settlement because the people who left went in the other direction… east. The tower she’d spotted the flash on didn’t look as far away as the ruins had been. She could find her way to it in maybe an hour or less. Considering the person she thought she saw had binoculars or something like them, it might be a lookout station.
Raven stopped pacing and leaned both hands on his desk, staring Noah in the eye. “Will you consider the surface if I can find a safe place for us?”
“Hmm.” He appeared to be fighting the urge to chuckle, and kept a mostly serious face while waving her off in a ‘you go ahead and do that’ sort of way. “Be my guest. But please don’t stay out there too long, and please come back alive. The lives of everyone here depend on your technical skills.”
She straightened. “Keeping everyone alive is exactly what I’m trying to do.”
23
Canaries
As a species, we’ve always been terrified of monsters. But there have always been people like me who can’t wait to find out what’s really under the bed. – Ellis Wilder.
Raven sat cross-legged on Sienna’s couch, cradling a steel cup of herbal tea in blanket-covered hands. Several months ago, the hydroponics people made a fair attempt at growing citrus. The rinds, among other ingredients, went into a mulch that people brewed with hot water. To get comfortable, she’d swapped her poncho and baggy pants for a blanket. Sienna’s quarters felt like home enough that she had no awkwardness sitting around in her inside clothes.
The kids arranged themselves in a circle listening to Tinsley tell the story of their filter hunt. Surprisingly, the girl didn’t embellish ‘Chewie’ to sound too much worse than it had been. Then again, from the perspective of a six-year-old, she’d seen a giant hairy monster.
“You’re serious,” said Sienna after a long pause.
“Yeah.” Raven stared into the orange-brown liquid in her cup, wondering how many dangerous chemicals might be in the water. It had been boiled to make the tea, so at least any biological threats would be dead. Given the state of the air filtration system, the water purification had to be in rough shape, too. “We have to do something drastic. The Arc isn’t sustainable. Maybe we have a couple months or a couple years, but it’s all going to collapse a lot sooner than Noah thinks.”
Sienna rested a hand on her arm. “I’m worried about you going out there. The world above kills.”
“Not the way everyone down here thinks it does. Did you forget you went outside already? You don’t look like a molten puddle of goo.”
“Heh. Sometimes I feel like one after a long day.” Sienna stretched, letting some air in under her blanket. “So annoying. I go right from being frozen to overheating.”
“We better not let Chase see us sitting here together in our inside clothes and blankets,” said Raven with an impish smile. His reaction to her not liking him had been to accuse her of preferring women. Even if she did, she couldn’t have those kinds of thoughts about Sienna. It would feel too much like incest despite them not being biologically related. At least, not that they knew for certain. Distant cousins if anything.
Sienna laughed, nearly snorting her tea. “We should totally mess with him.”
“Let’s not.” Raven smiled. “Too icky.”
“Yeah.” Sienna leaned her head on Raven’s shoulder. “I’m worried about you.
”
“I’m worried about me, too. That whole ‘not wanting to die’ thing is the reason I have to do this.”
Sienna sat up and scooted to face her. “What are you expecting to do out there? Just look around for another hole in the ground where someone might have built a brand new Arc?”
“No. I dunno…” Raven took a sip of the overly citrusy brew, trying not to wince. “The first time I went out there, I saw someone. At least, it looked like a person. A flash like the sun glinting off a lens came from another tower a couple miles away.”
“How did you see someone from that far?” Sienna prodded her. “You’re dreaming.”
“I found binoculars on a dead Saint. Something moved and it looked like a person.”
Sienna raised an eyebrow. “You sure it wasn’t that ‘Chewie’ thing you saw?”
“Relatively sure, yeah. The figure on the tower didn’t have fur. Kinda looked like a green poncho. But…” She sighed. “I only saw them for a second. Could have been a leafy tree branch falling. Still, it’s got me curious. I want to go check that out. It feels like Noah’s really close to believing me. He’s worried about these ferals. He thinks they killed the other team he had living outside. If we start building shelters on the surface, he’s convinced the ferals will attack us.”
“So, he said if you can find a safe place, he’d consider ordering everyone out of the Arc?”
“Yeah.”
Sienna frowned. “He’s lying.”
“What?” Raven snapped her head around to stare at her.
“He’s sending you out there knowing that you’re not going to find anything. You’re gonna run around for a while and come back here with nothing. Then, he’ll be all ‘see, I told you so.’”
Raven snarled under her breath. The chances of her finding an ideal location did seem remote. Not to mention if ferals existed and had killed off the Saints, they’d probably attack her, too. But… she’d come close to one, and it ran away. Could it have been curious instead of hostile? That wouldn’t explain why the Saints disappeared, but as she’d said before, a thousand different things out there could kill, none of them being a toxic atmosphere or ferals. Noah didn’t know for a fact ferals had killed the new Saints. Maybe they’d gotten bored and decided to go explore ruins only to have an old high-rise fall on them.
Tinsley grabbed her chest, her breathing raspy and labored. Josh patted her on the back, but it didn’t seem to help. Ariana lay on her side, sleeping—not too unusual given the nearness to bedtime. But a kid going to sleep before bedtime when Raven’s thoughts swirled in worry about dangerous air quality had an altogether different meaning.
Cheyenne appeared drowsy as well. The normally hyperkinetic Josh looked like he hadn’t slept in three wakes.
No. I have to at least try. I am not giving up.
Raven shook her head. “I don’t know what I’m going to find out there, but I have to look. The ruins maybe. Or something like it. If I can find surviving buildings with hard walls, we won’t be vulnerable to attack before we have shelters built.”
“We would need a source of water, too. And if it’s too far away, we won’t have power.” Sienna sipped tea.
“That’ll happen soon anyway. The windmills are going to collapse or break down.” Raven rambled about trying to convince Noah to simply move everyone to the surface right outside where they’d have access to the electricity, food, and water of the Arc while also having fresh air. “It’s beyond possible. It has to happen. My father talked all the time about living on the surface.”
“Yeah, and, uhh… right.” Sienna looked down.
“His wanting to live on the surface didn’t kill him. Something out there did.”
Sienna picked at the cup in her hand. “If he’d have stayed inside, he wouldn’t be dead.”
“You don’t know that. There’s bad stuff in the air here. Daniel is dead and he never took a single breath of outside air. Never once saw the sky.”
“Why are you making that sound like a tragic thing? Thousands of people have lived and died in the Arc without ever seeing topside. Did you forget that it used to be deadly?”
Raven stared at Tinsley struggling to breathe. She wanted to scream, cry, roar in fury, and punch Noah in his smug, pointy nose all at the same time, but ended up merely glowering at her reflection on the surface of the tea. “It’s not tragic when people have to stay underground or they’ll die. It’s tragic when we know topside is beautiful and we still hide down here.”
“Maybe it looks beautiful, but it could still be deadly. What happened to your dad?”
“His disappearance doesn’t prove it’s toxic. He could’ve fallen in a hole or something. The super tall buildings in the ruins looked way unstable. If he tried exploring one, it might have collapsed on him. Or, heck, maybe he was attacked.”
Sienna tilted her head in disbelief. “Attacked? By what? There’s nothing left. Even the bugs are dead.”
“Nuh uh!” chimed Tinsley. “There’s birds!” The girl scrambled to her feet and ran over to show off her filter mask, adorned with several pigeon feathers.
“You had to see all the foliage around when you came outside to yell at me,” said Raven with a hint of a smile.
“It was dark. Everything was black. And… I didn’t even think about going outside. You had me so freaked out my brain stopped working. Saw Tins asking for food at the cafeteria and just ran up that ladder.”
“Well, there’s plants everywhere. That couldn’t happen without bugs. We’ve seen pigeons. Nature doesn’t quit.”
Sienna looked up from her tea. Her eyes brimmed with tears, but she gave off more pride than sorrow. “Neither do you. Please don’t do anything stupid.”
“I’m not being stupid.” Raven let go of her cup and took Sienna’s hand. “The ventilation system is dying. Good chance it’s probably already becoming dangerous in here. Stagnant air full of particulate contamination, chemical vapors from the hydroponic farm, worrisome levels of CO2…”
“Shit,” whispered Sienna.
The kids all—except for Ariana who remained asleep—chanted, “Oooh!”
Tinsley fell over sideways, curled in a ball and coughing. Raven handed her tea to Sienna, then scooped her daughter up off the floor, cradling her in her lap. The coughing subsided in a minute or so, at which point Tinsley snuggled up under the blanket. Josh and Xan started playing a card game involving magical creatures. Cheyenne busied herself with a Rubik puzzle.
Raven held her daughter close, alarmed at the coldness in her skin. She eyed the filter mask, but didn’t think it would help. The increased effort it required in breathing might even worsen the situation.
“This book I read a couple years ago was set in a coal mine,” said Raven.
“What’s that?” asked Sienna.
“Uhh, kinda like the Arc. People dug tunnels underground looking for coal. Some kinda rock that burns. Anyway, the story took place a really long time ago. Even people living right before the Great Death would have thought it old. Whenever they went into the mines, they’d bring a canary in a cage. Poison gases sometimes built up in the tunnels. If the canary dropped dead, it was like an alarm that told the people to run away.”
Sienna looked at Tinsley.
“Exactly,” whispered Raven. “She’s my little canary and I’m not gonna wait for her to warn us.”
“She’s already warning us.” Sienna brushed a hand over the child’s head.
“We’re going to have to go outside sooner or later. I will find a place for us to go.” Raven squeezed Tinsley close.
“The Arc kept us alive for generations.” Sienna swirled her tea around her cup. “Can’t you guys fix it?”
“Yes, it did keep us alive… but machines don’t last forever. It’s amazing anything we have still works. Maybe I’m wrong about it being months or a year or two… but before we’re old ladies, it’s going to become poisonous down here and everyone is just going to die quietly in their sleep.”
>
The kids all gasped, staring at her in frightened shock.
“Oops,” whispered Raven. “Said that too loud.”
24
A Place to Go
People used to think bugs were insignificant. Look where that got us. Just because you’re small doesn’t mean you can’t end the world. – Ellis Wilder.
No matter how much Raven wanted it to, the ceiling above her bed offered no answers.
The labored whirring of a fan motor echoing out of the ventilation duct in the corner no longer lulled her into a relaxed state as it once did. Every imperfection in the sound, every hesitation or rattle, nearly made her get out of bed and carry Tinsley to the surface.
To a point, she understood she overreacted somewhat. Even her tiny six-year-old most likely wouldn’t drop dead from bad air any time within the next few weeks. For that to happen, another major system fault—like the Zeus fan blowing up—would have to occur. Something like that would not go unnoticed. Hopefully, she’d convinced Ben enough that when the next big failure happened, he’d push for evacuation. A month from now, Raven wouldn’t be able to set aside her fears of passing away in her sleep.
She had time. A little time, anyway, to throw Noah’s dismissiveness back in his face.
Worry that she imagined the ‘man on the tower’ into something far more than it was kept her awake. She wanted that indistinct blur to be a person so badly, she feared her mind tricked her. In her half-conscious state, she dreamed about walking across a field of grass up to her thighs, reaching the tower, and finding a piece of metal hanging on a string where the glint came from.
Raven snapped out of the dream as heartbroken as if it had been real.
Even if it ended in disappointment, she had to go out there. Hanging all her hopes on one thing she maybe didn’t even see correctly would be a mistake. There had to be something else. Before the Great Death, civilization built things everywhere. She’d read about vast cities connected by roads, some so far apart people needed flying machines called airplanes to go there.
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