by Lynda Engler
Five
Isabella was enraged! How could those people holed up inside a giant mountain a thousand miles away, even think about killing the mutants? So much for government of the people, by the people, for the people. Apparently, that only applied to the right people! Isabella was so angry she tossed and turned in bed for hours, unable to fall asleep. Poor old Abraham Lincoln must be turning in his grave.
She didn’t understand why everyone hated the mutants so much. They were deformed, true enough. Everyone always told her they were stupid and she knew they died young. But they didn’t seem to be a danger to anyone. Why had Johnny Appleseed insisted that they were so terribly dangerous?
Malcolm’s actions had proved to her that the mutants were not a bunch of murderous cannibals. The interactions between him and his family and what she had seen from below the pool and during her brief time with him Outside convinced her that the mutants were more like a wandering band of gypsies; nothing about them fit the bill for dangerous.
Was it was pure racism and intolerance then? Did everyone hate them because they were different? Because they weren’t “true” humans; not pure? Just like in the old days, like the injustice President Lincoln had fought against in the old world. She was coming to believe that her world was no different at all from the old one. Even after almost all of humanity was gone, they still couldn’t change. Humans were by nature prejudiced, intolerant and narrow-minded. At this moment, she hated her own people.
Still unable to sleep, Isabella slipped out of bed and being careful not to wake Abigail, went to the kitchen for a snack.
When she passed the solarium, she saw the clear night sky shining through the water. As she walked beneath the pool, the full moon wavering in the inky night, there was suddenly a person above her head. A child. She saw legs kicking in the water and then a limp body sinking to the bottom. It was dark and very hard to see, but it looked like the little girl, Shia.
Isabella didn’t see anyone coming to rescue the child. She knew that time was running out and ran to the shelter’s exit, cycled the airlock and rushed out the door. She jumped into the shallow end of the pool the same time Malcolm did. Together, they pulled the little girl out of the water and laid her on the grass. She wasn’t breathing! Isabella turned her over and pushed on her chest, over and over.
“Come on! Breathe!” she urged the unconscious child. Isabella pushed on her chest again and suddenly Shia began coughing and spitting out water.
As Shia’s eyes finally opened, the little girl grabbed her father and clung to him. Shia should have been relieved at rescue but instead was still acting afraid. Isabella finally realized that the fear in Shia’s eyes wasn’t there because she almost died. Shia was afraid of her! To reassure the girl, Isabella said, “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”
Hugging his daughter tightly, Malcolm’s eyes met Isabella’s. “Thank you for making her breathe. I woke up and she wasn’t in the tent; she sleepwalks all the time. I came outside to look for her. But how did you know she had fallen in? Were you out here watching? And where is that big suit you wear?”
In her haste to get outside Isabella hadn’t had time to put on the chem-rad suit. She was being exposed to the chemicals! Not only that, she had jumped into the pool and everyone knew that water and soil held the highest content of poisons.
When she had quickly opted to leave the suit behind, it had seemed like a good idea. But now panic was setting in. “Get me a towel or something. We need to get the poison off us!”
Isabella’s loud voice brought mutants running from all three tents to investigate. They chattered among themselves. Who is she? Where did she come from?
Malcolm rushed to his tent and came back with a blanket. Isabella dried off then quickly dried the child as well. “The contamination is highest in the soil. Water evaporates from the soil and when it rains, it pours chemicals into the water. The pool is full of it! When you bathe in that–” Isabella pointed to the pool, “you cover yourselves with poisons. You must get it off quickly.”
Malcolm took the thin, blue blanket from her and finished drying Shia. He paused and took her arm gently and held it for a moment. “I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you for saving my daughter’s life. Thank you for helping Shia, but you really must get back to your family now before you are missed.”
He turned away from Isabella and spoke to the mutants who had come to see what was going on. “Let me get Shia settled in bed and then I’ll explain about the stranger. I need to make sure that Shia is okay. Meet me at the campfire in a little while and I’ll tell you what I know of Isabella.”
While the tribe’s attention was on Malcolm, Isabella slipped away to the hidden doorway of her shelter. As quietly as she could, she pulled the door shut and locked it behind her. She waited for the cleansing wash to shoot from the shower jets. She braced herself for the decontamination cycle to begin. The DeCon chamber was designed to clean the chem-rad suit with highly pressurized water, along with a bank of specialized blue lights that shone down from the ceiling and came out of the walls, shining their germ-killing rays on every piece of the suit. Now she cringed and gasped as the pressurized water hit her body and the disinfectant stung her eyes and burned her lungs. She clamped her eyes shut to avoid the blue lights. The suit hung, unused, on its hook a few feet away, the shower spray at this distance only leaving a fine mist on its white surface. That was a very stupid stunt, she thought. How many years of my life did I just lose?
* * *
Malcolm carried his small daughter to their tent and helped her change into dry clothes, then placed her on the sleeping bag and covered her with a light blanket. It was a warm night, but he didn’t want her to catch a chill after being wet. As he watched Shia fall asleep, her little chest going up and down at a steady rate, he wondered how Isabella had known that Shia had fallen in the pool. Obviously she had been watching his tribe again, but why hadn’t she been wearing the protective suit? Malcolm was grateful she had saved Shia and had even risked her own safety to do it. But why? And why should he care that the “pool,” as she called it, was poisoned? The entire world was. As if they had a safer place to bathe!
Malcolm had heard of shelter-folk but hadn’t believed the stories until he had met Isabella. How could people spend their entire lives in a hole in the ground? Sure, they were safe from the poisons, but… how could they live without sunlight or fresh air? What did they do with all their time? Malcolm just couldn’t understand it.
Sure now that Shia was sleeping peacefully and didn’t seem to be in any danger from almost drowning, he left the tent quietly and returned to the campfire. Except for the youngest children, the tribe members were all there waiting for him. Guy and Milora sat together next to Kaedo and his ten year old son, Maxi. Clay sat on a log next to his friend Maxi, with his intended mate, Kalla on his other side. Macy and Garith were on the other side of the campfire, sitting on the ground.
Malcolm did not sit down but instead stood above the group. His tribe. His family, to protect and care for. He began to tell them how they had unknowingly settled on property that belonged to Isabella and her family. That her family lived below the ground in a shelter, safe from all the poisons and radiation Outside. That Isabella had taken an interest in the mutants and had come to visit him before. That she had risked her own safety jumping into the pool to rescue his daughter. And that she wasn’t a threat to them.
What he didn’t tell them was that she usually wore a protective suit which she wasn’t wearing tonight. Since he didn’t know why, he left that part of the story out. He also left out how he felt about Isabella.
Soon the tribe members all went back to bed and Malcolm crawled into his own tent, next to Shia who was still sleeping soundly.
But he lay awake for a long time that night. He couldn’t stop thinking about Isabella.
* * *
“Get up Izz!” Abigail shouted in Isabella’s ear. “It’s your turn to make breakfast.” Couldn�
��t Abby come up with a new way to irritate her? Every day it was the same morning routine; Abby-the-morning-person ordering her out of bed.
There was a knock at the door and her grandfather came in. “Abby, please go make breakfast. I need to talk to Isabella alone.”
“But, Papa, it’s her turn!” Abigail protested. He gave her a stern look and she obeyed. All the kids knew not to get him upset.
“What’s the matter, Granpapa?” Isabella asked, sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with the heel of her hand.
“I was doing my monthly habitat inspection this morning and I found that the NBC suit was wet. The lock has been cycled too. Please tell me you didn’t go outside.” He stood over her and stared down like a gnarled old oak tree, ancient yet sturdy and wise with many years.
“I would be lying if I said that, Papa,” Isabella answered quietly and hung her head. She had known she would be in trouble, but just knowing she had disappointed the person she idolized most in the world was worse than any punishment he could dole out.
She expected the worst, but he only sat down quietly on the bed next to her, his icy blue eyes like daggers plunging into her. “You went out to see those mutants.” It was a statement, not a query.
“Yes, Granpapa. I couldn’t let them leave without finding out more about them. I was curious.”
“I hope you satisfied your curiosity because I’m not going to allow you to go out there again. Do you grasp the seriousness of your actions? How much danger you put yourself – and all of us – in?”
“But Granpapa! You go out. The suit keeps you safe.” She didn’t mention that she wasn’t wearing the chem-rad suit on her last trip above.
“That only keeps you safe from chemicals and radiation. It can’t protect you from other dangers. I don’t want to see you hurt. What do you think I’ve been doing all my life?” he demanded, his voice showing his frustration with her.
“Keeping us safe, Granpapa.” She began to twist a strand of her hair and then realized the nervous habit could betray the secret she still kept from him – that she hadn’t been wearing the chem-rad suit. She dropped the lock of hair.
He nodded. “I’m locking the NBC suit up from now on. It’s for your own good, my Bella. I do this out of love.”
“I love you too, Granpapa,” Isabella replied without any warmth in her words. No more suit. She would never see Malcolm again, she thought.
* * *
Malcolm took Clay and Maxi hunting that morning, while the rest of the tribe cut trees. They hadn’t been able to find another deer, but they got two rabbits, a few squirrels and a possum. Milora would use the greens Isabella had brought along with the meat to create a savory stew for lunch and dinner. Both Maxi and Clay were already extremely accurate with a slingshot, like all mutant children, learning it at a young age. Now they were developing their skills with the bow and arrow as well. After lunch Malcolm joined in cutting trees. It was a long and exhausting day, yet highly productive.
When dinner was over, Malcolm went into his tent and pulled out the book Isabella had given him. Half an hour later, all he had figured out was that it was printed after the Final War was over. It seemed to be a plan from the government for the future of the United States. But did the United States even exist anymore? Malcolm wished he was a better reader. But he really wished that the strange girl would come back and read it to him. He found himself so drawn to her – like no other woman, even Shia’s mother.
Six
Days rolled into a week and Isabella went on with her life. She worked in hydroponics, she cooked, she cleaned, she studied, she read books, she played her harmonica and she sunned herself in the solarium. She had never really thought about it before but she was surprised at how boring her life was. Her life was utterly without meaning. She yearned to see Malcolm again!
She tossed and turned in her bed, unable to stop her mind from crazy thoughts. She was intrigued by Malcolm and attracted to him in a way she couldn’t have thought possible for any man. She knew that wanting to go Outside to see him was insane and dangerous and stupid and…
Oh, how can I not go? she thought as she crept silently out of her bed and past her sleeping sib.
Since her grandfather had locked up the NBC suit, going out without it meant every moment she was exposed was taking days, maybe weeks, off her life. She took along a flashlight and a dozen charged batteries, plus a bag of vegetable seeds and water purification tablets. The tablets would kill the bacteria and viruses in the water, but the aftertaste was terrible. But at least it would help Malcolm’s tribe in some small way.
She found herself wanting to be a part of Malcolm’s tribe, even if only in small ways like giving them things they could use.
It was just past midnight and she could see the outline of the three tents by the fading campfire light. Malcolm’s was the middle tent and she crept in quietly. There were five sleeping bags inside, all occupied.
Isabella tapped her finger on the first person’s shoulder – Malcolm slept closest to the tent flap – to wake him and instead found his hand instantly covering her mouth.
“Shh!” He gently took her outside to keep from waking the others.
“What are you doing here? Where’s your safety suit?” he asked. But he was smiling, so she could tell he wasn’t altogether displeased with her presence.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she lied. “I brought you some things. Can we talk?”
They made their way to the other side of the pool where they wouldn’t risk disturbing any of the tribe and sat on the grass. The full moon shone silver and white in the midnight sky. Stars twinkled brightly – pin pricks in a black velvet curtain. How different they looked from the distorted, blurred stars Isabella had seen through the pool water in her shelter.
Malcolm stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. In a way he was. “You are beautiful without the weird suit,” he said to her in a soft whisper that seemed out of place coming from a man so big.
Isabella smiled, somewhat embarrassed by his comment, then showed Malcolm what she had brought. She laid everything on the grass one by one. “You can have the flashlight and the batteries. You won’t have any way to recharge them, but they’ll last you a long time. The seeds are for you to plant. And I figured if you purified drinking water you may live a little longer.”
“Isabella, thanks for your gifts, but how long do you deem those tablets are going to last? And won’t the vegetables grown-up in the polluted soil still hurt us?” asked Malcolm in his odd, mutant dialect.
“So? Just give the kids clean drinking water. It could slow down their deaths; maybe even give them a few extra years of life. And what’s wrong with a varied diet? I bet you get bored with just meat and the wild greens you find. If you don’t want them…” She started to gather the batteries together into a pile.
“No, I do. I just be in awe you are helping us. Why?”
Isabella stilled her hands and stared at the ground for a long moment and finally answered, “I like you.”
“You don’t even know me. What if I ate you?” Malcolm’s bright white teeth gleamed in the moonlight when he smiled.
“Very funny. I can’t explain it, but something keeps calling me out here. Granpapa found out I’d been sneaking out so he locked up the NBC suit. He figured that would keep me from you.”
“Guess he figured wrong,” said Malcolm, smiling and looking deep into her eyes, holding her gaze with his own.
“Isabella, you risk yourself for us. I really like you. Accept as true that I’ve never liked anyone so much. You are pretty and generous and caring. But don’t you need to go back to your safe dwelling? If you stay Outside you’ll just become like us,” he said seriously, his smile fading. He took her small hands in his own large ones and held them tenderly.
“Just like you? What, turn into a mutant? Do you think I’ll go blind, or lose an ear or an arm or something? Nothing will happen to me, except that I’ll die an early death. But I�
��m already dying!” She pulled her hands away from him and jumped to her feet, her long brown hair spilling around her shoulders.
“Dying? How can that be? You are the healthiest person I’ve ever met!” He slowly raised his tall frame to stand in the dark beside her. Her head only came to his chest.
She looked up at his face and said, “I’m dying of boredom. I’m living a useless life. I spend my time learning from books about a world I’ll never see. I read about people who died long before I was born. I read about their adventures, their achievements, things I’ll never experience. I am isolated in 4,000 square feet of white walls, recycled air, purified water, and hot house vegetables. I’ve never eaten meat. Before you came, I’d never even been in that pool or walked farther than the walls of my home. And in a little over a year, there are plans to marry me off to a man I’ve never met so they can use me like breeding stock and I can make babies and raise children. Children that will grow up and do what I’ve done – nothing. We’re just sitting and waiting.”
“What are you waiting for? You know the world won’t be safe for at least another fifty years. Even if you live that long, you’ll be sixty-six! But Belle, even if you are an old woman like your grandmother by then, at least you will live. In five or six years I’ll probably be dead.” Malcolm turned away from her and sat down crossing his legs, his head bent so low it was almost in his lap.
Isabella scooted closer to him where he sat on the grass. “But you’ve done something with your life. You’re raising a daughter, you’re protecting a whole tribe and you’re exploring the world. I’d like to do those things too.”
Malcolm raised his head and looked into her eyes. “But Isabella, you will. You’ll raise children. Good, strong, healthy children that are beautiful like you. You’ll protect them like I protect Shia. You’ll teach them things, things I don’t even know, like how to read. You’ll pass them knowledge.” He frowned and lowered his eyes back to the ground, seemingly searching for comfort in the earth he knew so well.