“Thirteen years old and graduated high school!” He says in awe. “You always were the best student in our class. It doesn’t surprise me at all. So what are you going to be doing now that my dad has found you? And where are you going to be bunking?”
I glanced over at the monitor but it’s still blank. “Well, he has a job for me where I’m supposed to be monitoring some kid in another bunker somewhere out west. I haven’t started it yet so I don’t know what it’ll all entail but it sounds pretty boring to me. As for where I’m bunking, I’m staying put on the train. It’s my home and I’m not willing to come back up here. I made a deal with your dad so that I can keep my clearance level to continue my education and stay down there in my home.”
His expression turns to one full of glee. “Are you serious? Tell me! How did you manage to get my father to concede to anything?”
My voice is full of defiance when I tell him, “I simply told him that if he forced me into the levels again, well, that I would kill myself. I told him to point me to the nearest exit and let me go outside. I guess he didn’t see those as options.”
His voice changes to outraged disbelief. “Joslin! You wouldn’t have actually done that, would you? I mean, kill yourself?”
I square up my shoulders. “I don’t know what I would have done if he made me move back into the levels but it wouldn’t have been pretty. I truly don’t believe I would have made it if I had to go back there.”
He reaches over the desk and takes my hand. “I’m just glad it didn’t come to that. Does this mean that we’ll be able to see each other now? Can I come down and visit you in your, what do you call it, nest?”
Before I have a chance to answer him the General’s presence fills the open doorway. He glares at me before turning a sharp look to his son.
“Jackson are you not scheduled for a session at the shooting range right now? Just because your old friend has reappeared doesn’t mean you get to shirk your duties.”
Jackson jumps to his feet and sends an uncertain look my way so I turned to the General and ask, “Will Jackson be allowed to spend any time with me?”
The General’s lips flatten an annoyance but he nods his head. “I suppose that would be acceptable, as long as it’s outside of your working hours and you both agree to stay out of trouble.”
We both eagerly nod in agreement but I have to ask him, “Can you clear him to use the elevators and come down to my level? I just wanted to remind you that you did promise that the stairway and elevators will be locked to anyone below a green clearance, except for me and now Jackson.” I keep the smile that wants to cross my face tucked away when he gives me a curt nod and then he points at the monitor in front of me.
“The West bunker’s feeds have been rerouted to your monitor. If you’re finished with your lunch break, get to work. Jackson on me!”
When his dad turns and leaves the doorway Jackson sends me a thumbs up and a small wave before darting out of the office to follow his father. I breathe out a sigh of relief. It looks like I not only got everything I want from the General but I’ve got my friend back too.
I turn to the monitor and press the power button to bring it to life. The screen splits into two feeds that show what looks like a normal interior of a home and a cavern that seems to have…is that a cow?
Last four years … Joslin
I spend my days watching over a girl and a boy far, far, away from me and slowly come to greatly admire her and fall in love with the little boy. After the first few months of watching them, I had gone back and watched the important moments of her journey inside the bunker. From the first day when she had to watch as her mother died and then later when she lost her father as well. I slowly find myself mimicking the things that she’s doing in her bunker. I don’t have animals to care for or a garden to tend to but what she’s doing inspires me to realign my own education with these skills that will serve me well once I get out of this prison. I study crop rotation and how to garden as well as animal husbandry. When I learn all that I can about those subjects I move on to food harvesting and storage. I have an unlimited appetite for learning the skills that I’ll need to not only survive but thrive in the future outside of this bunker. I stop seeing Skylar as someone that I have to babysit or spy on and instead start feeling friendship towards her and wishing that I could talk to her. The closest thing to that I can get is to share the things that she seems to enjoy. I start watching the TV shows and movies that she seems to enjoy and wish desperately that I can talk to her about some of the plot lines.
As I watch her practicing her kickboxing and martial arts skills as well as her practicing at the small shooting range she has, it makes me re-evaluate my own skills of survival. I basically have none. When I approached the General with the request to start training in some of these areas, it surprises him but he agrees that I should learn some of the skills that his soldiers are so proficient in. Jackson is thrilled to be my guide in those areas as he spent the last few years being trained while I was hiding out. I go about it the same way I did with my education, full on intensity and it’s not long before I can match him whether it’s shooting targets or taking him down to the mat in one-on-one sparring. He has height and weight on me but I learn all about pressure points and the other weaknesses in a human body and use them to my advantage. I create my own makeshift weights and, in the evenings while watching the shows that Skylar watches or learning homesteading skills, I make myself lift them until I end up with small bumps of muscles in my arms. I don’t have the huge barracks that she has to run in but there is a small gym on the top level for the officers so on my lunch breaks I make use of the stationary bike and treadmill to strengthen my legs.
Over time, Jackson and I rebuild our friendship and he often joins me in the evenings down in the train to get some time away from his father. He vents his frustration and anger towards him to me in long curse-filled rants. I had brought up the subject of his mom and my parents showing up here but he was adamant that I was mistaken about who was outside. He bought his father’s line about enemies trying to sabotage the bunker completely and feels a great hatred towards them for the damage they caused to the barracks. I decided then to keep the truth of that day to myself. Timing is everything and right now there’s nothing to be gained by telling him the truth. We still have years before the doors will open and the status quo is working for me. So, I lend a sympathetic ear for his rants instead and encourage him to keep trying to forge a better relationship with his dad. I think it’s important for Jackson to make his own decision on who his father is instead of me showing him, at least for now. One of my greatest strengths seems to be patience.
We’ve been in the bunker for five years when I start to notice that Jackson is looking more bruised than usual from his training sessions with the rest of the soldiers. When I asked him about it, it’s clear how frustrated he is.
“I don’t know what’s going on! Everybody seems to be just pissed off all the time. It’s like our training has shifted to nothing more than taking their frustrations out on each other. Honestly, I’m getting sick of it!”
I grimace in sympathy. “Well, what else is everyone doing down there besides training?”
He gives me a weird look. “What do you mean what else? There is nothing else! We get up, we eat, we shower, we train, we shoot and then we eat again. I don’t know what they’re doing in the evenings because I’m up here.”
I shake my head but keep my thoughts to myself. I don’t know how two teenage girls are smarter than grown men with military training but clearly, we are. The next day I go see the General in his office.
“Sir, do you have a moment to speak with me about something important?”
He doesn’t bother looking up from the ledger that he’s writing in just motions with his hand for me to speak.
“Sir, I’m hearing that morale is quite low down in the levels and I have a few suggestions to help rectify that.”
He throws down his pencil, lea
ns back in his chair and glares at me with a look full of disdain.
“Really, do tell how one teenage girl knows how to manage my men better than I do?”
I sit down in the seat facing his desk without an invitation and try to keep the smile from my face. As gruff as the general is in his manner, I think he enjoys our little verbal sparring sessions. I think the people he surrounds himself with tell him what they think he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear. The fact that I don’t really fear him and speak my mind must be refreshing for him.
“Sir, you’ve stated before that your plans, once we leave the bunker, will be to start rebuilding civilization, is that correct?” At his nod, I go on. “So how exactly are you and the people going to go about that? I know you plan for us to travel west to where the other bunker is and use the supplies in it but what exactly are you going to do with those supplies?” He narrows his eyes at me but doesn’t respond so I push ahead. “Clearly all your soldiers know how to fight as that’s what they’ve done in their training for the last five years but fighting skills are not the skills needed to rebuild anything. Do any of your people know anything about farming? The first step in rebuilding will be to clear the land and plant crops so I’m just wondering who’s going to do that?”
The disdain has left his expression and it turns to curiosity as he leans forward and rests his elbows on the desk. “I have a few ideas in mind for that but let’s hear your suggestions, Joslin.”
“Sir, it’s not just farming that they’re going to need to know how to do. If we somehow manage to find livestock, people are going to need the skills to take care of them. Not only that, there isn’t an indefinite amount of supplies in the western bunker. Eventually, things are going to start to run out. We will need people who know how to prepare food for storage such as drying and canning as well as homesteading skills like how to build and repair structures. People will need to know first aid and simple things like how to sew or knit. Also, how to hunt and prepare game, tan hides or tend bees. It goes on and on. If we plan on leaving the bunker within the next few years, you should implement a training program now that will teach them the skills to do all those things and more. Learning those skills goes directly towards your low morale problem as well.”
He gives me a slow nod. “Explain.”
“It’s pretty simple actually. If you start setting them up in an education program to learn these skills it gives them something they very much need, hope. Right now, day after day, they do nothing but train. Train on how to fight, how to shoot their weapons and not much else. If you give them the education plan, it tells them that you believe we’re going to get out of here and that they’ll need these skills to one day get back to some form of normal life. Plain and simple, General, your people need hope that this isn’t all their lives are going to be, inside this bunker with no future. Start training them on the skills they’ll need to survive outside the bunker and they will all believe that they have a future and that in turn will see morale go up.”
He swivels his chair away from me leans back and stares at the wall in silence. I know he’s thinking by how his fingers are drumming against his desk blotter so I sit and wait. It takes him a good five minutes to sort through all he’s thinking of before he finally turns back to me.
“These skills that they need to learn, AIRIA has all the material and information in her data banks?”
I nod my head. “She does, she has everything that they’ll need.”
“How do you know that?” He asks, not in sarcasm but with curiosity.
I try really hard not to roll my eyes or have any sarcasm in my own tone when I tell him, “Sir, I’ve been studying all those subjects for the past few years myself.”
When he merely arches his eyebrows in surprise, I shrug. “Having a high school education and computer skills is great but neither one of those things will help me feed myself when the last MRE is gone.”
“You not only surprise me, you impress me, Miss Frost.” He then pays me what I’m sure in his mind is the ultimate compliment. “I’m glad I didn’t go with my first reaction when I discovered you hiding on the bottom level and show you immediately to the nearest exit.”
I don’t bother replying to that as whatever I might say will come out soaked in venom.
“As you’re familiar with the material, I’m putting you in charge of implementing the training program.”
I shake my head at him. “Sorry, I can’t do that.”
“It wasn’t a request, Joslin. Your current duties are light enough that you can set up alerts from AIRIA should anything occur in the western bunker that we need to know.”
“Yes sir, I do have the time but I don’t have the clearance level. I can pass the information on to someone with a green clearance so that they can put together the course material and schedule the different classes but I wouldn’t have access to everything I would need to do that myself.”
He considers me for a moment before asking a strange question. “Do you believe in doing what’s best for the people in this bunker so that one day we can begin to rebuild outside and try and get back some of what we’ve lost?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you believe that it will take each and every one of us working together to make that happen?”
“I do.”
“Very well then, don’t make me regret this. AIRIA, increase Joslin Frost’s clearance level to green.”
It takes all the will that I have in my body to hold it still and without expression as a fierce thrill courses through me. This man, this monster, that I despise more than anything has just handed me the keys not only to the kingdom but to my revenge.
Chapter Eleven … Present day, AIRIA WEST
Jackson
I poke at my eggs and the freshly sliced tomatoes on my plate with a scowl and then let out a deep sigh of frustration.
“Whatever is on your mind, just spit it out, Jackson.” My father says.
I consider all the things that I want to say to him after the conversation I had with Joslin the day before but I know that she’s right and nothing I say is going to sway him so I just shake my head and go back to poking at my breakfast with a muttered, “Are you ever going to let up?” It’s hard to enjoy the fresh food knowing whose hard work had allowed us to have it, after the way my father had basically stolen all of it from Skylar.
“I do not have the time or the patience to deal with a moody teenager so whatever it is this time, get over it and get your head in the game.” He says in a cold tone.
I lean back away from my plate and study him for a moment, looking for any signs of the understanding and caring dad I always hoped he would be but all I see is the General.
“It’s not about me being moody, Dad. It’s about our life, this life! I just want to know if you’re ever going to let up on being so hardcore with everyone. I’m not talking about me, I’m used to that by now. I’m talking about all of it. Your soldiers, the people we picked up along the way, the survivors we found here, and Skylar. Why do you have to be so harsh with them all?”
He waves a dismissive hand. “I’ve explained this to you, Jackson. We only have a limited amount of time before the weather turns again. We know that the growing season will be shorter than before the bombs fell so we have to maximize our time before we are forced back inside again.”
“Yeah, I get that Dad but I heard you when you interviewed that farmer that was working with Skylar and the others. She and her people had plans to do exactly what we’re doing. They were about to start rebuilding as well, they just weren’t going to be doing it with guns pointed at them.”
He snorts contemptuously. “Oh, I’m sure they had grand plans to start rebuilding but without clear, concise leadership directing them on everything that needs to be done, they would only have gotten a fraction of the work in before it was too late.”
I roll my eyes. “What you call leadership smells a lot like dictatorship, Dad.”
“O
h, boo-hoo! So some feelings are going to get hurt and people are going to have to work harder than they want to. That’s what it is going to take to truly start rebuilding everything that we have lost. Trust me, years down the road the history books will hail me as a hero and no one will care about a few hurt feelings or sore muscles.”
“So we’re back to just surviving then? We don’t get to have any kind of life while we work to rebuild? You’ve basically got everyone not in uniform working like slaves and then what about these plans to repopulate? Sounds a lot like forced breeding to me!”
He studies me coldly for a moment before giving a small, annoyed shake of his head. “Is that what this is really about? You’re worried about your friend Joslin? You know she’s old enough and physically mature enough to have children, don’t you?”
When I just glare at him he nods knowingly. “Jackson, you have to understand, growing crops is only part of the rebuilding process. So many lives were lost when the bombs fell and in the years after that our population was decimated. It’s our duty to do everything we can to start increasing it in any way possible.” He says it like I’m a small confused child.
I glare at him in disgust. “So that’s it? Joslin, Skylar, and all the other women won’t have any say in the matter? You’re just going to pick out some men and say, go make them pregnant? Now you’re not only a dictator but you’re also a pimp?”
He cocks his head to one side, narrowing his eyes at me. “Why are you so sentimental about this girl? Joslin, I can understand because you have a history with her but what is it about Skylar that has you surging to her defense constantly? Seriously, you only met her once and that was when you were a very young child. Why do you care so much about what happens to her?”
I shove away from the table to get to my feet. “The better question would be, why don’t you? Skylar’s parents made you her godfather for a reason. Your only job in that role is to protect her! Was your friendship with her father all an act? It must have been considering the way you threw his children out of the only home they’ve had since the bombs dropped.” I shake my head at him in disgusted disbelief. “Mom would be so disgusted by this right now!”
Endless Winter Box Set: Books 1 - 4 Page 47