Endless Winter Box Set: Books 1 - 4

by Theresa Shaver

  I can’t help but run my hand down the soft, shiny yellow material. I feel my eyes mist as I remember Mom wearing it and how it reminds me of sunshine and love. She might not be here with me today for my first dance but I’m sure she will be in my heart as I wear her dress.

  I turn back to Sasha and Belle and see Belle’s eyes are misty too. Her gaze meets mine and she shakes her head and laughs.

  “Such a silly thing when so much is more important but oh how I’ve missed a good curling iron! Skylar, I think your mother would be very pleased that you’ve shared her things with us girls.”

  I nod in agreement. “Me too. Honestly, I forgot that she had brought some of this stuff with her. Dad had put all her things away after…after she died.”

  Sasha tosses her newly curled hair over her shoulder as she studies her reflection in the mirror. “I’m thankful too. I didn’t know my hair could look like this!” She turns away from the mirror to face me. “You wouldn’t happen to have any makeup or jewelry would you?” she glances over to her mom. “We had some stuff but it was left outside when the rain started.”

  I shake my head wistfully. If there was makeup, Dad must have thrown it out. The only jewellery I have is Mom and Dad’s wedding rings. “No, I couldn’t find anything else. It’s too bad, I’ve always wanted to try mascara. My eyelashes are so blond they barely show up!” We all laugh and talk about girly things that we haven’t had room for in our lives for so long. It’s so nice to be with other females and talk about such silly things.

  Belle starts taking out the braids she wove into my damp hair to create rippling waves for a fancier hairstyle.

  “Sasha, can you run over and check on things in the kitchen for me while I do Skylar’s hair? I’m sure it’s all on track but I want things to be perfect for tonight. Tell the boys I said to start getting cleaned up and ready too. Once you’re back, it should be just about time to get changed into our dresses and we can all head over together.”

  Sasha has a thoughtful look on her face but she finally nods and with a grin dashes off. I sit patiently as Belle uses small scissors to snip away at the blunt bangs I had chopped into my hair when I cut out the burnt pieces after we were caught out in the rain. I’m so excited to see what she’s doing. I’ve never given any thought to my hair or a style unless it was to get it out of my face. All of this is so new and exciting for me.

  I can’t wait for the party and to see how everyone looks. Belle told me she had forced haircuts on all the boys this morning and I smile as I remember the griping and complaining I had heard from Ben and Matty when they came in to play a few video games. There was even more complaining from the two of them when we kicked them out so we could have our makeovers. I finally relented and let them take the gaming console over to the other side so they could keep playing.

  When I had decided to finally trust Rex’s group and start integrating both sides of the bunker, I had AIRIA upgrade the authorization for Lance, Ethan, Belle, Sasha and the boys. It just didn’t make sense to only let Rex move back and forth freely through the tunnel. I’m still not ready to give such access to the rest of the people over there but his group can now cross over whenever they need to.

  “Did you finish the sandals?” Belle asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.

  “Oh, I did! They look so pretty!” The day we came here, it was summer and Mom was wearing a pair of plain black sandals. Other than tough and heavy hiking and work boots stocked in storage, I only had my running shoes to wear. When I sorted through Mom’s belongings that Dad had saved, I found the sandals and thought they would work better with the dress. I had taken some of the yellow fabric we had cut out of the dress and used it to wrap around the black bands on the sandals to match the dress.

  “Well good because your hair is done and I want to see the whole package so why don’t you slip on your dress and shoes and we can see the final effect!”

  I want nothing more than to look at what she’s done to my hair but I know it will be more fun to see the completed look so I keep my head turned from the mirror and grab my dress from the hanger. Belle steps out so I can change and I’m practically vibrating with excitement as I let the dress fall over my head and strap on the matching sandals. Before I turn to look in the mirror, I lift my head up to the ceiling and close my eyes.

  “Mom, Dad, I hope you’re there and I hope you’re both watching down on me and Ben. I know you didn’t want me to trust anyone, Dad, but today for the first time I actually feel like I’m seventeen and I think that’s ok. I’ll still take care of Ben and keep him safe but today, today’s for me…ok?”

  I almost choke with tears when the speaker above me comes to life.

  “So proud of you, Sky.”

  Mom’s soft voice floats down before it cuts to Dad saying,

  “You’re my best girl, Sky.”

  For a computer, AIRIA sure knows right what’s needed and when. AIRIA might be nothing more than cold circuit boards but I love her and I don’t know what I’d do without her.

  “Thank you, AIRIA.”

  “Skylar Ross, it is my pleasure.”

  I take a deep breath and turn slowly to look at my transformed self in the mirror. What I see, takes my breath away. It’s like looking at a ray of sunshine. My blond hair is golden ripples with yellow fabric ribbons threaded through it. The summer dress has wide straps that connect to a bodice that tightens just under my chest. The rest of the dress flows out from there and reaches just past my knees. I twist my hips in a quick motion and see the skirt flare out beautifully making me laugh in delight. This isn’t the prom dress of my dreams, it's better.

  I bounce in the cute redesigned sandals and then rush out the door to show Belle. She steps out of the bathroom at almost the same time and her face says it all. I can’t help but admire the change in her as well. Her deep red hair that matches her daughters has been curled and swept up high on her head so that only a few loose curls float down to touch her shoulders. She looks so much younger than I thought she was.

  We both stand there beaming at each other like idiots until the door to the cavern slides open and Ben comes barreling through. He’s already calling out to me before he’s made it halfway through the door.

  “Sky, I wanna….”

  He skids to a stop and his mouth drops open in shock. An amazed whisper gushes from his small mouth.

  “Sky, you look like a princess!”

  I can’t help the huge grin that spreads across my face at his reaction to my makeover.

  “Thank you, Ben. You look pretty handsome too with your new haircut!”

  His expression changes from grin to scowl at that reminder and his little hands go to his hips.

  “Sky, I wanna go outside!”

  I spurt out a laugh at the unexpected demand making his scowl deepen.

  “It’s not fair! I’ve never been outside in my whole life. That’s like, forever! I’ve only seen pictures and TV outside. I wanna go see the real outside!”

  I step over to him shaking my head in amusement of his dramatic seven years of forever life and put my hands on his shoulders.

  “Ben, I will take you outside. I promise! We just need to wait for the weather to clear and for it to be safe. Someday soon, all of us will be living outside!”

  He shakes his head and stomps his foot in frustration.

  “I want to go now not someday! It’s not fair! How come Rex and Sasha can go now but I can’t?” He whines.

  I look from Ben’s face over to Belle’s in confusion but her face has gone white and she beats me too it.

  “What do you mean, Ben? What are Rex and Sasha doing?” She asks him in a panicked voice.

  Ben’s scowl turns to an expression of worry and hesitation at her tone and he looks down at his shoes. I’m still holding his shoulders so I give him a tiny shake, my own concern creeping up on me.

  “Ben! What are Rex and Sasha doing?”

  He keeps his eyes down but his voice is filled with guilt. “It
was supposed to be a surprise for you.”

  My heart speeds up and I’m starting to feel scared but I don’t know why so I put all the calm I can into my voice and ask again.

  “What are they doing?”

  His eyes peek up at me, “They went outside to get the stuff they left out there. Sasha has some makeup for you. Sorry I ruined the surprise.”

  My hands drop off his shoulders and my eyes fly to Belle’s. She’s holding her hands up to forestall my panic but I see fear in her own eyes.

  “Skylar, I’m sure they’re fine. Rex would have checked with AIRIA first to make sure the weather was safe. Not that I’m not going to kill my daughter for going out there without checking with me first but they’re probably already back inside. We left our stuff just outside the doors, remember?”

  She’s right, I’m sure they’re fine but the hairs on the back of my neck are raised and something is nagging at the back of my mind. Something that I heard but then forgot. It’s right there on the edge of a memory but I can’t quite grasp it. That is until AIRIA’s voice floods the room and then it comes back to me.

  Perimeter breach! Exterior door breach attempted! Oh My God! Someone tried to get in! Someone knows we are here!

  “Rex Larson authorization level decreased from green to red.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three … Rex

  I stand back and study my reflection in the mirror while Matty and Ben blast space invaders on the TV behind me. I can’t remember ever caring about how I looked before but I know the girls have been working on special outfits for the party tonight and I want to look good for Skylar. All I have to wear is the same jeans and canvas work shirt that everyone else has been wearing since we came inside but Belle’s made all of us guys vests to go over the shirt to jazz it up some. I’m just happy she didn’t have time to make matching ties to go with the vests. I do like the new haircut she gave me with the clippers. It’s much better than the blunt cuts she used to give us all with dull scissors by candle light. I take one more look at my reflection and then shrug my shoulders and turn away.

  The boys are as cleaned up as they’re going to get and occupied with the video games they brought over from the other side. I look at the wall clock and see that there’s still an hour and a half until dinner will be served and think about going to the kitchen to beg for a snack to tide me over. It’s funny how before we came inside food was strictly rationed and I never thought about snacking but now that there’s plenty, it seems like I’m always hungry. Maybe before, my body knew there wasn’t food so it didn’t ask and now it knows there’s lots so it wants more.

  I’m about to head out when Sasha steps into the room and I do a double take. She doesn’t look the same. She looks…different…good different! Her hair’s changed and it makes her look older, more like a young woman.

  “Rex, there you are. I need a favor, for Skylar!”

  I’m still trying to get over this different version of her so I just nod and she keeps on talking.

  “We have new dresses and new hair but I wanted to give Skylar something special to say both I’m sorry and thank you. She’s never used…uh, never mind. I just have some things that I’d like to give her to go with her outfit for tonight but I don’t know how to get them.”

  I shrug, “Ok, where are they? I can help you track them down in a storage room.”

  She bites her lip uncertainly and glances at the boys but they’re lost in their battle so she steps closer. “The stuff I want to give her is in our bags that we left outside. Do you think any of it would have survived the rain?”

  Outside? Huh, I’ve got to think about that for a minute. We had all ran inside at the time and most of us hadn’t brought anything with us. It’s the first time I’ve thought about what we left out there. I look over at Matty and realize that I left something really important out there too. I’ve kept our Mom’s wallet with everything that I thought was important in her purse with me all these years. The only thing Matty has of her are a few pictures that are in that wallet. I can see in my mind the backpack the wallet was in and where I left it in the tent. I have to get it for him. I focus back on Sasha after taking another quick look at the clock on the wall. There’s time before the party starts to run out and get the things we want.

  “I’m pretty sure our stuff should be ok. It was all under tarps and in the tents. Even with the damage the rain was doing to them, most of our things in the packs should have made it through. The biggest problem is, what’s it like out there right now?”

  Sasha’s eyes look up at the speaker in the ceiling before looking back down at me with impatience. I find myself doing my own eye roll. Different hair, same girl!

  “AIRIA, what’s the weather like outside right now?”

  “Rex Larson, current weather is scattered cloud cover but mainly sunny. Do you wish a long term forecast?”

  “Uh, no thanks AIRIA.”

  Sasha gives me a double thumbs up. “Ok, great. Let’s run out and grab that stuff right now. I want Skylar to have plenty of time to learn how to use it before the party and I know Mom’s going to want time to put it on too!”

  I give Sasha a confused look. “What exactly are you going to get out there?”

  She gives her head an impatient shake sending soft red curls bouncing.

  “That’s a secret and you’ll just have to wait until the party to see the final results. Can we go, please?”

  Before I have time to say yes, I’m interrupted.

  “I wanna go to! I’ve never been outside!”

  Ben’s on his knees facing backward over the back of the couch. His face is filled with excitement and I wince at having to dash his hopes but AIRIA beats me to it.

  “Benjamin Ross, you are unauthorized to leave the interior of the cavern.”

  His face immediately turns to a pout. “That’s not fair!”

  I step over and ruffle his hair.

  “Listen, buddy, going outside for your first time is a pretty big deal. Don’t you want Skylar to be with you for that? I think she’d be really upset if she didn’t get to see your face the first time you saw the sky. Hang tight little man, we’ll all be going out there together very soon.”

  Ben's expression changes from pouty to disappointment but he slumps back down on the couch and picks his controller back up to play again so I turn away and wave Sasha out the door.

  We’re half way to the barracks exterior door when I stop and hesitate. I turn and look back the way we come and search the main area for Lance, Ethan or Marsh to let them know what we’re doing, but I don’t see any of them. Sasha gives my arm a yank to get me moving again but I stand firm and think about going to find one of them.

  “Come on, Rex! Please, the party’s going to start soon. This will only take a few minutes!”

  Her words sway me and I start moving towards the door again. She’s right, our camp wasn’t more than forty feet from the main door and it’ll only take a few minutes to get there, grab our packs and get back. We’ll have to come back out another day and try and salvage the rest. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones who left precious belongings outside when we escaped the rain.

  When we reach the front of the barracks, Sasha marches right up to the main overhead door and waves at me to open it. I shake my head and grab her arm to redirect her to the smaller man-sized door beside it. I can just imagine the panic that would happen if the main door rolled up. I’d rather just get out and back without having to explain to too many people what we were doing. There’ll be time for everyone to go out and get their belongings on a day when there isn’t a party planned.

  The small door slides open when I put my palm on the scanner and we step into the airlock. I don’t know why but I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this. I chalk it up to the frantic race to safety we went through the last time I was outside but I reach out and snag a communicator from a shelf full of charging stations. There is a whole row of hooks along one wall with heavy winter gear hanging from them and
I make Sasha put one on as well. Even with ARIA’s assurances that the weather’s safe, I can’t go out there without some kind of protection. Seven years of deep freeze will stay with me for a long time.

  When I palm open the next door, we both have to squint at the light that blasts through. I take a hesitant step over the threshold and stop there in amazement. The landscape is still a miserable grey wasteland - but the sky, the sky! Grey/black patchy clouds float against a sky so blue it hurts my eyes. There’s a slight chill in the air but nothing like the bone-freezing temperatures we’ve lived with for so long and it doesn’t stop the soft kiss of heat on the top of my head. I slowly turn and catch something in the corner of my eye but I can’t help but lift my face and feel something I haven’t felt in seven long years. The sun’s rays wash over my face and I’m so thrilled I feel tears prick at my eyes.

  I just want to stand there for hours and soak it up but Sasha nudges me to the side breaking the spell.

  “Soon, soon we’ll all get to live out here again, Rex, but today we’re having a party so let’s get what we came for and get back to our friends and family.”

  I suck back the emotion and step out of the way so the door will close behind us. Sasha and I start walking towards the area our camp had been and we can see piles of what was left spread out everywhere in the distance. I’m still preoccupied with thoughts of the sun and how Ben’s not the only one who will need to come out here. Matty was just a baby when the sun went away. I doubt he remembers what it looked or felt like.

  We’re half way to the first of the camps remains when my feet slow down. What did I see? I slowly turn and look back the way we had come but this time I keep my eyes down on the ground instead of the sky. I slowly track back our footprints until my eyes reach the door then scan the side of the mountain. Something doesn’t look right. Something's out of place. My eyes zero in on one area and I squint against the sun and distance to try and figure out what’s bothering me until…my eyes go wide. There’s a section of the fake rock missing from the main overhead door. It almost looks like someone pried it off and tried to open…Sasha!