Word of 62’s visit to medical had spread like wildfire throughout the male barracks. Parker hadn’t looked at 62 square in the face when he’d uttered those ominous words, but everyone else had turned to stare at him. His face felt hot, his palms grew sweaty, and he knew the heat wafting over him from the woodstove wasn’t the cause. He slunk down in his seat a few inches and wished that he’d stayed in bed.
“In Hanford, the sun can dry you up if you don’t drink enough water,” Parker continued. “There are wild animals beyond the fence that will hunt you down and eat you. Our enemies in Adaline will murder you if you get too close to them. You’ll starve to death if you don’t learn to eat the plants and animals we provide you. But most dangerous of all is the history of Hanford. It’s the history of Adaline, too. Our collective past is what will kill you the fastest if you don’t learn how to protect yourself.”
“A hundred years ago, this place,” Parker waved his arm in an arc from one side of the map to the other, “was used to manufacture the most deadly parts of a weapon. This weapon was unlike anything the above grounders had ever seen. It could kill millions of people in less than a second. It was a work of genius, and the people who inhabited this town applied every skill and craft they had at their disposal in the creation of this amazingly powerful device. But the invention came at a great cost. Although much power came from the device, hundreds of tons of poison were also produced. The workers didn’t know it was poison, so they did what anyone would do with a bunch of stuff they didn’t need. They dumped it in the ground.
“We now know that the poison, called radiation, is extremely hazardous. These areas here,” Parker pointed at several shaded areas on the map, “are where we know they disposed of the radioactive waste that the reactors produced. The problem of course is that the tanks the poison was kept in leaked, and this waste product became embedded in everything. The dirt. The plants. The dust in the air.
“The people of Hanford discovered that the poison doesn’t fade with time. That for generations upon generations of humans the threat of this invisible death will be upon us.” Parker turned to face the map. “To make sure we’d be safe in the face of this danger, they constructed two facilities.” Hanford was easily seen marked out in the center of the expanse of paper above Parker’s head. He pointed to a small circle drawn on the far west side of the map. “Adaline, where we males were created,” his hand slid across the map to an identical circle marked on the far east side of the paper, “and Curie, where the females were created.”
Parker turned back toward the class and moved to sit down on the edge of his desk. He looked solemnly over the faces of the Boys and Men before him. “The only way to keep us safe from the radiation was to go below ground. Adaline and Curie were built to be secure; protected and hidden from the poison seeping down from above. All humans fled to these two sites, and there our species grew and flourished in a web of scientific discovery and technological wonder.”
Man 11 raised his hand. At Parker’s nod he asked, “If this... radiation... is still here, and still as poisonous as you say it is, then why are we living above ground now?”
“Because somehow, an unknown entity created a similar device. A bomb was detonated on the Curie site a little more than forty years ago.” Parker pointed to the red circle on the far right of the map. “The Women who lived in the upper levels were incinerated instantly. Those in the far depths of Curie suffocated when the electricity was cut and oxygen could no longer be pumped below. The toll was unimaginable.”
The room lay silent for long minutes while the group absorbed the information. Visions of what the collapse of Adaline would be like played in 62’s head. If the upper levels of his home crumbled, what would happen? How would he or any of his brothers survive?
“But there are females here,” Boy 17 replied from the seat behind 62. “So, it can’t have been total destruction.”
Parker tilted his head and nodded. “Yes. A couple hundred survivors dug out through the rubble and escaped. Through luck, they found this place and reinhabited it. They learned about the program that spawned Curie, and through that information discovered that there was a second site. Some of those survivors decided to venture into the desert when they found maps like these, and discovered Adaline, still intact. The rest, as they say, is history.”
“If there’s still radiation here,” 62 asked as he thought of his most recent trip to medical, “why aren’t we all dead?”
“Because although fatal if you ingest it, in small doses the effects of radiation are minimal. There are a few females who have lived here since Hanford Town’s first discovery and although they move quite a bit slower than they did forty years ago, they’ve avoided any noticeable side effects. The animals and plants, too, seem to flourish despite the radiation. But if it gets inside of you,” Parker shook his head, “the radiation attaches itself to your very bones and you waste away.”
“That’s why we’re supposed to keep our masks on.” 62 touched his naked face. “To keep the radiation out of us.”
“There was someone in our group who ate something off the ground. He got really sick,” 14 commented. Then he asked, “Will he get better?”
Parker shook his head. “I’m afraid not. From what I understand, he continues to deteriorate. The doctors will keep him as comfortable as possible for as long as they can.”
“Do you think he’ll die?” 62 asked.
Parker sighed. “Most likely, he will. Let’s learn from his mistake and not repeat it.” With this, Parker gave 62 a knowing look and the Boy shrank even lower in his seat from embarrassment.
CHAPTER 13
“THIS WHOLE PLACE IS trying to kill us!” 62 waved his arms wide, gesturing to the world around them as he and Blue walked from the school to the cafeteria.
Blue chuckled. “It feels that way sometimes, yeah.”
62 scrunched up his face and pinched the nose of his mask to make his voice leak out in a nasally tone. He pointed his finger at Blue. “Don’t go outside. The air might kill you. Don’t go in the main cafeteria. You might have a bad reaction to the food. Don’t go out at night. Scary things are lurking about that might eat you.” He curled his fingers and shoved his hand at Blue like he was a monster about to grab him.
“No! No! Don’t eat me!” Blue squealed and ran away a few steps. “Help! This refugee is trying to eat me!” A few people huddled in groups around low tables outside the cafeteria turned to look for the location of the shouts for help. Blue and 62 laughed.
“Seriously though, what can we do here that won’t end up killing us?” 62 shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked the dry dirt at his feet.
“We could go to the library.”
“The what?” 62 turned, interested in this new adventure.
“There’s this building on the other end of town. Hardly anybody goes there because it’s so flippin’ boring. But maybe you’d like it.” Blue stopped walking toward the cafeteria and pulled 62’s arm back to halt him. “You said you snuck some books around in Adaline?”
“Just in my dreams.” 62 shrugged. “There’s no paper in Adaline. No books.”
“But you liked them well enough, even though they were fake?” Blue’s eyes were thoughtful. 62 could almost see the gears of his mind turning behind them.
“Liked them? I loved them! They were full of amazing things. Things I could have never imagined on my own. I can’t tell you how good it was when we left Adaline that I’d read about the sky and birds and some plants before. I feel awful for the others, they had no idea what they were looking at when we crawled out of that furnace.” 62 grinned at Blue. “But I knew. Well, some of it anyway.”
“Come on then. Your meal tabs won’t get cold waiting on you.” Blue turned around and tugged on 62’s arm.
62 looked over his shoulder at the cafeteria. His stomach gurgled. “We won’t be too long, will we? I’m hungry.”
“I won’t be long. But you? You might be a while.” Blue’s mask
bobbed as he smacked 62 on the shoulder. “But don’t worry. I think you’re going to like this even more than lunch.”
The two walked through the crisp afternoon air past long rows of buildings. They turned down a gravel road, heading toward an area of Hanford that 62 had never been through before. The buildings here looked a little more worn than the part where the school was. 62 asked about the cracked cinder blocks and windows with shattered glass.
“They told you about Curie being blown up?” Blue had asked in response to 62’s questions. Blue pointed at one of the buildings. One side of it was scorched black. “They say that there were problems here, too. Like, explosions and stuff.”
62 walked quietly the rest of the way, taking in the surroundings. Some buildings seemed fine, if worn around the edges a bit more than he was used to. But others had jagged cracks through their masonry, and a few were missing walls entirely. The pair turned south once more and arrived in front of a squat brick building with the bottom panes of its windows painted black. Blue hopped up the worn steps to the front door and turned the knob. The door opened with a creak but it was so dark inside that it looked like a black hole.
“Well, come on.” Blue motioned for 62 to follow. 62 hesitated at the bottom step. Blue let go of the door and let it swing shut. He trotted down the steps and put his hand on 62’s shoulder. “You made it out of Adaline, right?”
“Yes.” 62 nodded.
“And you made it all the way across the desert to Hanford?”
“I did.”
“And you made it through quarantine, met some Women doctors, and started school okay?”
62 nodded.
“Then what’re you scared of?” Blue jumped up the steps two at a time and pulled the door open again. He disappeared into the dark interior and the door swung shut behind him.
62 ascended the stairs slowly. He rested his hand on the doorknob and breathed in a great gulp of air until his chest was full and tight. Then he blew the breath out again and pulled on the door. It swung out toward him and although the hinges wailed, the door wasn’t as heavy as he’d been expecting. It swung open too fast, bouncing with a thud off of the railing behind it. He took a few tentative steps into the darkness, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the low light.
More windows along a far wall were fully uncovered and light cascaded through them. Big, hulking structures filled the space, cutting into the light and casting deep shadows all around. Blue was nowhere to be seen. 62 turned to close the door then shuffled forward down the aisle directly in front of him. He pulled his mask down and let it hang around his neck.
“Boo!” Blue lunged out from around a nearby corner.
62 felt like he’d jumped clean out of his skin. The wind rushed out of him as he wailed, “Aaaaaaagh!”
Blue doubled over in laughter. He removed his own mask from his head as he chortled, “I got you! Ha! You were so scared. You should have seen the look on your face.”
“That wasn’t funny!” 62 pulled himself back together. Blue was still snickering as 62 looked around. “What is this place?”
A gravelly voice seemed to creep through the wall to 62’s left. “It’s my library, child.”
62 leaped over to Blue and grabbed him by the arm, scared. Blue burst into even more laughter. 62 let go of Blue, crossing his arms over his chest. He set his eyebrows low and stuck out his lower lip in a pout. “Not funny.”
A female about Blue’s age stepped around the nearby corner, smiling wide. “Wasn’t it?” She winked at 62 and tilted her head toward Blue. “Can’t let this one have all the fun, now can I? Hardly anybody comes in here. I’ve got to take the pranks as they come.”
Blue stepped forward and shook her hand. “You got him good, too. I ain’t seen someone jump so high in all my life!”
A quiet chuckle escaped her wide smile. “Oh, I have. There was one guy who came in here and I followed him all afternoon, reading ghost stories through the shelves.” She hunched herself down and mimed creeping on her tiptoes. “When he’d finally had enough and headed for the door, I leaped out at him like this! AAAAAAAGHH!” She threw her arms out toward the Boys and hurled herself toward them, teeth gnashing at the air. “He jumped all the way to the end of the aisle, like he’d seen a real ghost and then was so befuddled that he couldn’t get the doorknob to work to let himself out. It was great!”
By the time Blue and the female were done laughing together, they were wiping away tears with the palms of their hands and sighing with relief from the comedy. 62 remained pouting beside them, not finding humor in any of it. When it seemed he’d finally be able to speak to them without inciting another round of laughter, he finally asked, “Okay, you got me here. You scared me plenty. Now, will one of you two please tell me what the heck is so great about this stupid place?”
“Don’t be mad.” The Girl grinned. “It was only a bit of fun.”
Blue pulled 62 to the side of the aisle where they were standing, and then pushed 62 forward into the light. “Get to where you can see a bit better. Then you’ll know what’s great about this place.”
62 squinted at the high walls on either side of him. There was something irregular about them that he couldn’t make out until he was immersed in the light of the back windows. Blue stopped him and turned him to the right, grinning like he had led 62 to the best surprise of his life. 62 stared, trying to figure out what he was supposed to be noticing about the wall in front of him.
“Well?” Blue asked after a long moment of waiting. “What do you think?”
“Think about what?” 62 couldn’t figure out what was special about this place. It was dirty, dark, and now that two people had jumped out at him it felt even creepier than it had from outside.
“These, you dummy.” Blue reached forward and grabbed one of the rectangles protruding from the wall. He slid it out of its home, rubbed it on his shirt to remove some of the dust, and handed it to 62.
He turned the item over in his hands. It was solid feeling, warm from resting in the sunlight, and smooth. He turned it again and one side opened, pages falling down from where his thumb caressed them. 62’s eyes went wide. He looked at Blue and held the pages up for his friend to see. “It’s a book!”
“Of course it’s a book. What else would we keep in a library?” The female came close.
“He’s never been in a library before,” Blue offered. “He’s from Adaline.”
“Oh.” The female’s nose wrinkled. “No wonder you smell funny.”
“I don’t smell.” 62’s eyes squinted. “Not any more than you above grounders do, anyway.”
“Hey, hey, hey.” Blue stepped between them and put his hands out to either side. “We’re all friends here, okay? Look. This is 62. He had somebody smuggling him books in Adaline. So, he’s seen ‘em before and he likes ‘em.”
The Girl’s scowl softened a bit. “You’ve read books before?”
“Yeah. Just a couple.” 62 looked away, unsure why he felt suddenly embarrassed.
Blue announced, “This is Matilda. She’s our librarian.” When 62 looked back at him blankly he added, “She’s the one who keeps all the books.”
“It’s Mattie, thank you,” she corrected. “But yeah. These are my books.”
62 looked toward the wall where the book in his hands had been. All the ridges he’d assumed were just some weird above-ground wall system were actually books. Rows and rows of books. There were books all around him. He trotted off to the end of the aisle and rounded the corner. He looked down the row to find more books. He moved to the next aisle and the next, his heart thumping against his chest with excitement. Hundreds and hundreds of books were stacked in neat rows along dozens of shelves. Soon he was running in loops through the building, looking high and low, finding books everywhere he went.
“Hey!” Blue’s arm reached out as 62 zipped past another row of shelves, yanking him to a stop.
62’s eyes were wild. His smile reached from ear to ear. He laughed harder than
Blue and Mattie had laughed at him earlier. He squealed with delight. “There’s books here, Blue! So many! I didn’t even know this many books existed, but here they are! Everywhere, Blue. They’re just everywhere!”
“I know.” Blue grinned. 62 shoved the book that he’d been holding at Blue and spun on his heel, taking off at a sprint around the corner and down another aisle, cackling like a madman.
Mattie came up behind Blue. “I take it your friend likes books a bit.”
“I guess so.” Blue leaned against a tall bookcase and tossed the book 62 had given him onto the shelf beside him. “I don’t see the point, really. But I figured he might like it here.”
Mattie sighed and picked up the discarded book. “This doesn’t go here, you know.”
“I know. But the librarian will find it and put it away.” Blue winked. “I’m outta here. Don’t have too much fun without me.”
Blue put on his mask and left the library. Mattie shuffled back toward the shelf where the book she held belonged. 62 skipped through the stacks, running his fingers along the bound spines.
CHAPTER 14
THE SHELF IN 62’S ROOM now had so many books on it, he’d had to lay them down on their side and stack them vertically. When the wood creaked under their weight, he’d taken some off and stacked them in neat piles on the floor. They were a lot heavier than 62 had imagined they’d be, and Blue complained each time 62 asked him to help carry more books back from the library. It had taken the pair of them four trips in all, but when Mattie had said he could borrow as many as he liked, he couldn’t turn down her offer. She’d only said he had to take good care of them and not dog-ear the pages. When he’d asked what that meant, she handed him some bookmarks that she’d made and told him not to worry about it. She didn’t want to show him what a dog-eared page looked like so he wouldn’t get any wild ideas about using them.
The Adaline Series Bundle 1 Page 42