“Do you love Colton?”
Sri Sa nodded.
“Then guess what—you’ll also be happy when we leave this place.”
“Do you realize how hard it will be for me to continually block all of us from the grains? Especially now that they’ll be hunting for me again?”
“Gee, and here I thought you were strong enough to sacrifice yourself for others.”
Sri Sa looked like she wanted to choke Alexnya again. If she’d been powered by the grains that ruled the world, Alexnya was sure she would have tried. The grains Alexnya had grown up knowing never forgave slights, no matter how much the world changed around them.
But Sri Sa merely sighed and shook her head. “Yeah, point taken. I deserved that.”
Alexnya stood up as the howls of the anchors outside built louder, as they’d finally realized they couldn’t force the doors open.
“Now what?” Chakatie asked.
“You can always return home,” she said. “But I imagine the grains won’t be happy with what happened here. I think you and your family should stick with Sri Sa and the rest of us for a while.”
Chakatie cursed. “I won’t be a day-fellow. I won’t.”
“The grains betrayed you,” Alexnya said. “You can’t want to still serve them?”
“I never served the grains—I served this world and my family.”
“You can keep doing that. It’ll just be different than before.”
Alexnya could see that Chakatie was tempted—anyone facing a death sentence always searched for a path to freedom.
The inner doors to the biosphere opened. Sri Sa staggered through and found Colton inside and hugged him. The waiting day-fellows and anchors were shocked that Alexnya and Chakatie were still alive, but Chakatie waved them off. They could deal with all the questions later.
The two of them looked at the sun shining through the biosphere, at the grass and trees and the lake and the grain-free perfection all around them.
“It’s beautiful in here,” Chakatie said. “But a beautiful prison is still a prison.”
“So you’re not mad at me?”
“Give me time. Still, it wouldn’t have worked, all of us staying in here. Guess we’ll see if traveling together makes more sense.”
“Look at Sri Sa,” Alexnya whispered. “What do you think about her?”
Chakatie gazed at Sri Sa, who was still hugging Colton in a smothering embrace. Colton was tapping his emotions over and over, hugging her back.
“I see an unstable anchor created by deviantly programmed grains,” Chakatie stated.
“Maybe. But she’s also different than the grains we’ve always known—her grains are programmed to change. Maybe that’s something the world needs right now.”
Chakatie snorted. “What makes you say that?”
“Because what the world’s been doing isn’t working. I don’t know about you, but I’m done letting the grains do what they want with my life.”
Alexnya didn’t wait to see Chakatie’s response. She walked toward Mita and Ae to ask if she could travel in their wagon.
The caravan departed the next morning, traveling deeper into the biosphere. The anchors were still trying to force their way in, but the biosphere had been created to survive the end of the world and refused to break even under repeated anchor attacks.
After hitching the horses, the day-fellows rode their wagons and the anchors walked. They made their way together around the lake and through the grasslands. Through the forests and hills. Beneath the rainbow-lit sky. Watching deer and wolves and rabbits and birds watch them back without a worry that any grains were also observing them.
Alexnya rode in the wagon driver’s seat next to Ae, who taught her how to manage their horses, Butterlove and Patty. Mita was napping inside the wagon while Colton and Sri Sa walked in front of the horses, keeping watch for holes and obstacles, since there weren’t any roads inside the biosphere for them to use. The rest of the caravan followed.
Whenever they reached the biosphere’s far side, Sri Sa said she would hack one of the secondary doors and the caravan could escape before the anchors caught them. And if the worst happened and anchors were there, Chakatie and her family had pledged to shield them.
Alexnya wasn’t sure how long that alliance would last—Pinhaus looked like he still hated her, although he’d also gone out of his way to thank her for saving Chakatie’s life. And many of the anchors and day-fellows were definitely uncomfortable with their new traveling partners.
Still, for now everyone was working together. For now, that was enough.
Alexnya breathed deep of the pure air, enjoying her final days in the biosphere.
“It’s not natural, is it?” Ae asked. “Us being in here.”
“Nah, but still nice.”
“The world can’t live without change,” Ae said. “The grains forgot that.”
“The grains were programmed to forget that,” Alexnya said. “But way back when, humanity also forgot we can’t live without the world. So in a way, we’re all at fault.”
Alexnya looked at Colton and Sri Sa, who walked hand-in-hand. Many of the day-fellows and anchors were disgusted by the relationship between them, but Alexnya thought it was sweet. Sri Sa was still too prone to violence and Colton still emotionally broken. But both of them were changing before her eyes—that had to be a good omen for the group’s travels.
With a grunt Chakatie pulled herself up onto the driver’s seat. All the anchors, including Alexnya, had been feeling a little out of sorts since Sri Sa severed their connections to the outside grains. They could still power up their bodies, but they were now getting used to no longer being connected to every other grain in the world.
“The grains will come after us,” Chakatie muttered. “Probably been easier to just let ourselves be executed.”
“Maybe,” Alexnya said. “But don’t you find this amazing, all of us being together? Day-fellows and anchors, rogue grains and Sri Sa, all together. That’s got to mean something.”
“Means we’re going to die well before we change the world.”
Alexnya sighed. “I liked you better when you were defiant.”
Chakatie gave her the finger, and they laughed.
© Copyright 2020 Jason Sanford
Jason Sanford - [BCS299 S03] Page 6