She ran over to Jonah after turning the Stunner off, and helped him up.
“Is he okay?,” he asked.
“That one’s just knocked out,” she said motioning to the officer she had just taken down. “I heard they used level six on you - that was just level three. It’s off now, though.”
Jonah reached out to grab the Stunner from Talitha and walked over to the other Control Officer, still convulsing from the Stunner underneath him. He turned the officer over with the Stunner that Talitha had turned off, ceasing the connection to the officer’s Stunner, and knocked it out of his hand. He first grabbed the handle of the black stick and gave it to Talitha. He then bent down and felt the officer’s pulse - faint, but constant.
He walked over to the CFC Terminal panel and reconnected the cable.
“What are you doing?,” Talitha asked. “Shouldn’t we get out of here?”
“If I hear footsteps, this time we’re leaving,” he answered. “But since we’re still here, we might as well try again.”
She smiled at him and quickly stood beside him, using his finger on the wristile again.
“It’s back at eighty percent,” she said, continuing, “it must have saved the process, so it started where it left off when the uplink was reestablished.”
A few tense, but uneventful, moments later, the screen said Message Sent to 1,290 Contacts. “I sent it to everyone from my Education Center - I figured that would get it into the public quick enough.”
She pressed the wristile around his forearm on both ends, which released the clasp. The glass fell to the ground, uncovering the bandages that were wet with sweat and blood.
He nudged her up to the ladder, following behind her with both Stunners in one hand, dangling them as they both made their way up. Each rung was a small victory, with his body reminding him how much turmoil it had been put through.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Standing over the opening to the Facility in the middle of a desolate wasteland, Talitha looked absolutely defeated. She was scanning the horizon all around her when Jonah closed the hatch, turning the wheel to lock it.
“This… This is it?,” she asked with disappointment.
“No!” Jonah laughed. “We call this the Deathlands. I think this is what the Facility has been doing to the land, sucking all of the resources out of the ground for miles. No one comes out here.”
Talitha continued to scan the cracked landscape, obviously trying to believe Jonah. Even if there was no fire and ash, the surface she dreamed of looked nothing like this. “Then why did you come out here?” she asked.
Jonah grabbed two apples from the cart behind his bicycle, still parked where he left it, and tossed one to Talitha. “I don’t know,” he said, looking toward the trail of flags that led out of the dry expanse. “I guess something just drew me in.” He smiled as he took a bite.
Talitha turned the apple in her hands, studying it, smelling it. She cautiously took a small bite with surprised effort.
“Make sure you chew this time,” Jonah chuckled.
“What is this?,” Talitha belted as her eyes widened, taking a larger bite. The juice from the fruit dripped down her chin.
“An apple,” Jonah said, amused that in moments previous, he was in a world in which everything was confusing to him. She had been fluent in every aspect of the Facility, but here she was a newborn, experiencing everything for the first time. Here, Jonah was the expert.
“I thought it looked like an apple,” she said as she chewed, “but the taste! More than that - the texture! I’ve never… This is nothing like Food Substance!”
Jonah smiled as he readied his bike. He and Talitha were both sweating from the sun directly overhead, and Talitha’s pale skin would burn soon, though she didn’t know. She was closing her eyes, facing the bulb in the sky, with her arms wide at her sides, as if to soak as much of it in as possible.
“Let’s get you into some shade,” he said.
.- .-- .- -.- .
They followed the flags for what seemed like hours. They tried several options with the bike - both sitting on the small seat, Jonah on the Bike with Talitha in the trailer - but they decided it was better for his tattered body to slowly walk beside it than try to struggle to move it forward with both of their weight.
When they approached the final flag, the entire green landscape came into view. Talitha, having a hard time containing her excitement, broke out into a run toward Jonah’s tree. She hesitated, deciding to wait for Jonah.
He simply smiled and said, “Go ahead.”
She ran the rest of the way.
When Jonah finally crossed the threshold of dead grass - because the Facility’s harvesters had been extended even further while they were below the surface - he found Talitha picking wildflowers and smelling them individually in deep breaths. She had already been dirty, but now she was covered in actual dirt, and she was thrilled.
She asked him, “What’s this?,” and “Does this grow on its own?,” and countless other questions about each thing she touched. Jonah could only smile and tell her what he knew, though occasionally admitting, “I have no idea.”
When they passed the tree, Jonah started answering questions about his family.
“I look terrible,” Talitha said, self-consciously. “I need to sanitize myself before I meet them.”
Jonah laughed. “You look beautiful,” he said. “And don’t worry - they’re probably as dirty as we are.”
She looked back for a moment just as the Deathlands faded from view.
The story continues with
The Dirt Walkers
Available on Amazon or at www.TheDirtWalkers.com
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to my wife, Holly, for standing by me through my many creative endeavors. Sooner or later one of them will pay off! Ah, who am I kidding…
Thank you to my mom - the only reason I finished this book is because I sent her a version that was only half complete. She mentioned it often, wanting to know how it ended, which drove me to keep writing down the story I already saw in my head.
Thanks also to my dad, who showed me what it meant to work hard and follow through on the things that matter.
Thanks to all of my family, who have been incredibly supportive in everything I do.
Thanks to Jeff Brinkley, Jeff Hildebrand, Brad Lawrence, Matt Lawrence, and Andy Neale for their brotherhood in Manic Bloom, and for forcing me to grow creatively.
Thanks to Deborah T. Bickmore, Seth Ervin and Casey Eanes for sharing wisdom about the book-writing landscape. Take away the music that usually accompanies my written word, and my legs are a bit shaky.
Thanks to Michael Hutzel for making the cover of this book look way better than what I was planning on releasing. Thanks also to Kelly McClain for sharing her font wisdom.
Thanks to my beta readers for their feedback, corrections, critiques and encouragement:
Deborah T. Bickmore
Walter & Amy Campbell
Casey Eanes
Seth Ervin
Nancy Hasting
Jeff Hess
Matt & Kim Kinnamon
Eric Klumpe
Corey Maass
Elizabeth Shrum
Ann & Barney Stevenson
Holly Stevenson
Kevin & Nicole Stevenson
I owe my life to Jesus Christ, and I hope that everything I do - including this book - reflects my gratitude.
And, last but not least, thank YOU very much for reading this, and for any support you have given me. If you like this book, please tell your friends, share online, write a review, and buy copies to give to everyone you know. If you don’t like it… Well, let’s keep that between us.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Joel Stevenson lives outside of Nashville, TN with his wife, several chickens, and thousands of honey bees. He is the singer in the band Manic Bloom (www.ManicBloom.com), a songwriter, a computer programmer, and is irregularly documenting his quests in homes
teading on his blog, www.GeekOffGrid.com.
For more information, visit www.DavidJoelStevenson.com
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