Project Dandelion
Book I
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2019 Heather Carson
Courtesy of Blue Tuesday Books
ISBN: 9781075486876
Project Dandelion
Heather Carson
Sent to a fall out shelter to survive a nuclear catastrophe, a group of teenagers are the last hope for humanity. Can they survive living with one another first?
Chapter 1
Katrina wanted to scream. Instead, she rolled onto her belly and stretched her arms underneath the thin pillow. She buried her face into the starched white fabric. Of course they would destroy it, she thought. Nobody cares about anything. Beauty is cheap, and nothing is sacred. Natural resources are just sucked up and drained and depleted until there is nothing left. It was everyone’s fault. White collars and druggies, protestors and politicians, religious zealots and yuppies- they all were the idiots that carelessly pushed the buttons that destroyed the earth. Hot tears welled behind her eyelids and a lump formed in her throat which threatened to choke her if she didn’t swallow.
Happy thoughts, think of something happy to get through this.
Katrina scanned her memories and found herself driving down a dirt road with her father in his old Chevy pickup. She must have been nine or ten at the time, a good seven years ago. The cab of the truck smelled like dust and sap from the fresh cut wood in the back. Her father was a distinguished Sgt. Major in the Marine Corp. He didn’t need to cut his own wood, but it relaxed him and was something he took pride in, so he did it. Katrina always tagged along because they would stop for ice cream cones on the way home.
“Look up on that hill,” he suddenly shouted thrusting his finger out towards her side window. “What do you see?”
Katrina squinted as she tried to make out the shapes in the distance. Distinguishing between rocks and brush and the quickest slip of something’s tail as it darted past the horizon. This game happened way too often. “I don’t know daddy. Was it a coyote?”
He ruffled the top of her head with the calloused palm of his hand. “Sure was kid. You’ve always got to pay attention to your surroundings. Situational awareness.”
“I know dad. Don’t ever let it sneak up on you.” She rolled her eyes as her dad chuckled with his big lopsided grin. She couldn’t wait for that half chocolate- half vanilla ice cream cone.
*
There were muffled noises as the other inhabitants of the room began to stir. Katrina steadied her breathing and laid quietly waiting for someone else to move first. She scanned the room making a mental note of its interior. There were five doors in the room. Two at either end looked like a ship’s door with large heavy latches. Three doors in the middle had regular handles. A locker of some kind sat next to the far door. In the middle of the room were three sets of metal bunk beds including the one she was laying on now.
On the bottom bunk across the room a girl with dark brown hair cropped close to her ears, which was sticking up in every direction, started crying before she even opened her eyes. She didn’t try to keep it in, but she did put her face in the pillow and pull her knees to her chest. The sobbing girl’s top bunk mate was jerked awake from the movement. The bunk mate bolted into a sitting position and looked about the room before putting her head into in her hands. Her long blond hair spilled over her like a protective blanket.
The lights in the room began to brighten, turning from a soft reddish glow to a harsh fluorescent glare. The boy below Katrina, she could tell he was a boy from his snoring grunts, and the final two sleepers of the last bunk all began to grumpily shift around.
The guy on the top bunk to the right of Katrina opened his eyes wide to catch her staring at him. He looked away nervously, but she used it as an excuse to sit upright in the bed. The girl on the bunk beneath him suddenly shouted the name “Mia!” She jumped out of bed searching the room in a delirious state.
She stopped fully alert as she looked to see the boy on the bunk above hers staring back. “What did they do with Mia?” she asked him in an angry voice. He shook his head no sympathetically and the girl spun around to scan the other bunks. Everyone returned her gaze with the same hopeless expression. “Did anyone see where they took Mia?” she questioned the room. Her braid was coming undone. The rumpled grey t-shirt and black sweatpants they were all dressed in made her look tougher than her breaking voice sounded.
Willow, the sobbing girl with the disheveled pixie haircut, was the first to answer. “Do we even know where we are?” Quiet murmurs of “no” resounded around the room.
Dreya smoothed back the fly-aways of her braid suddenly conscious that everyone was staring at her. “I’m not sure. All I know is that I came here with my little sister Mia. She is only 13. My parents told me to take care of her. Why would they separate us?”
“I don’t know. But who are they anyways? And did they put a bathroom in here?” Ethan’s freckled face emerged from the bunk below Katrina. She thought he looked much skinnier than his snores had led her to believe.
Katrina was silently watching everyone’s faces as they engaged in the conversation. No one looked as if they had any clue as to what was happening. Or if they did they were skilled at hiding it. She didn’t want to speak just yet but also didn’t like the feeling of rising panic in the room. “Does anyone remember last night?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Jayden answered jumping down from the top bunk to stand beside Dreya. “I remember hugging my parents. They gave me a pill and I woke up here.” He put his hand on Dreya’s shoulder. “We will find your sister Mia, okay? If she is here than mine might be too and I can’t let Brianna freak out by herself. She is only 11.”
Katrina winced at his words. Now isn’t the time to tell them, she thought, but why didn’t their parents tell them anything? Her dad had given her as much information as he could even though he was really good at keeping top secret secrets.
Ethan had finally found the door to the bathroom and Becca, the tall blond, found the second one.
Suddenly, a robotic sounding voice came on overhead through the speaker system. “Good morning all. Today marks day 1 in the shelter. I am Nanny and I will guide you through what your next steps will be. I will also answer many of your questions later during the morning lesson. Please take a moment to get acquainted with your roommates. Hygiene equipment and sanitation services are provided in your respective pods. The compartments within the lavatories should contain everything that you need. In a moment, a delivery will be arriving containing food for the morning. At precisely 7am, 12pm, and 6pm nutrition packs will arrive in your designated rooms for each one of you. Food sharing is discouraged and there will be no other sustenance given throughout the day…”
A red light came on in a Plexiglas covered cabinet within the wall. Brown plastic bags dropped into the cabinet and the light flashed to green. The cabinet hinge clicked as the unit unlocked.
Becca was the first one there and she opened the cabinet door. “It’s almost like an elevator shaft,” she said with the faintest hint of an accent that Katrina couldn’t place. “Except the chute is only small enough to fit a large cat.” The cabinet began to emit a loud beeping sound indicating it was time to close it. Everyone clasped their hands over their ears. Becca quickly removed the six packages and slammed the door shut stopping the noise. She handed out the bags around the room.
The loudspeaker continued, “After you are ready, please proceed down the hall to the common room. Note the number on your bedroom door when leaving. This is your room number and will help you find the correct tunnel to return to it. We will begin this morning’s discussion in exactly 45 minutes. Please do not be late.”
The speaker system shut off. There was a ano
ther click as the latch on the door to the right side of the room unlocked. Dreya quickly bolted out of the room clutching her package and yelling for Mia. Jayden called back over his shoulder to say that he was going to help as he took off running after her. Becca handed the last package to Katrina who took it smiling.
“What is so funny?” Becca asked.
“It’s called an MRE. Meal Ready to Eat. This is what they give out in the military,” Katrina said as she tossed the package on her bed.
Chapter 2
It took a while for the four of them to finish breakfast. Katrina helped to explain how the heating element worked from the packages. They all had the same flavor of pancakes and sausage so there was no need to try and trade for a better meal.
“How do you know how to do this?” Ethan asked her.
“My dad is in the military,” she explained. “Plus, there are instructions on the pouch.”
After breakfast, they found the trash receptacle which was behind another door located in the wall. The cabinet wasn’t locked but a loud beeping sound came out if it was left open too long. The garbage chute wasn’t big enough for anything more than small bags of waste. The four of them washed up and then began to make their way down the corridor. Katrina was the last one out and made the mental note of the number 3 on the door.
They walked down the hallway which was more of a tunnel than a hall. Soft red lights lined the floor and ceiling which allowed them to make their way without tripping over one another. Becca and Katrina had to walk slightly hunched over whereas Ethan and Willow could easily stand upright. The tunnel emptied out into a large room that reminded Katrina of a small high school gymnasium. Groups of teenagers had already gathered in the room. Katrina spotted Dreya and Jayden with a younger girl, a mini version of Dreya. They were sitting on the bleachers eating their food. There were a few other sibling pairs from the look of it. Katrina counted about five sets. Jayden kept glancing around the room as more people began to come in. Dreya waved her roommates over.
“I guess you found Mia,” Willow said.
“She found me. Well, actually, I found her,” said Mia playfully shoving her older sister with her shoulder. “I was already out here waiting by the time she came running out. The minute the door unlocked I was out of there.” She pointed toward the far tunnel. “Here come my roommates now.”
Katrina watched as a Ken doll looking figure emerged from the tunnel numbered 6. Behind him strutted out two guys who looked like they played football and a meek looking girl with curly, mousey brown hair and glasses. Jayden looked up as they entered and then looked back down in disappointment. Dreya placed a hand reassuringly on his bicep.
There were six tunnels in all, Katrina noted. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the last figure walk out of Tunnel 6. He was tall, too tall for the tunnel, and had to straighten his back after coming through the exit. He had a thick head of black messy hair and piercing eyes that instantly connected with Katrina’s from across the room. Her heart fluttered, startling her. What the heck was that? He scanned the room disinterested and climbed the bleachers to sit in the back row by himself. Ugh, Katrina thought, hipsters. I bet he plays guitar- knows like three chords- and wears expensive button up flannel shirts with designer ripped jeans. She felt better after her mental beatdown of the tall hipster kid.
Katrina quickly scanned the rest of the room and avoided looking back at him. It seemed like everyone was there if each tunnel led to a room structured the same as hers was.
The loudspeaker came back on as Nanny began to talk. “Would everyone please take a seat on the bleachers?” Most everyone already had considering it was the only place to sit. “Thank you,” The robotic voice continued. “Please direct your attention to the screen.” A large projector flashed an image of the planet on the wall opposite the bleachers. “What I am about to discuss may cause an emotional reaction from some of you. This will be a long first class as there is much to cover. I will try and allow for breaks to process information. Please comfort one another as needed.” Dreya and Mia scooted closer to one another clasping hands.
“Welcome to the first day in your new home. This is an underground fallout shelter designed specifically to keep you all alive and healthy. It is realistic to assume that each of you have witnessed or heard of the mounting tensions between some of the world’s most powerful countries. As we expected, last night after continued antagonizations during world conferences and ongoing violent protests the first nuclear attack was issued targeting our country. We have retaliated which spurred a chain of events leading to the detonation of close to 9,000 nuclear weapons from all ten countries believed to hold this technology. All major cities have been targeted and the loss of life is insurmountable.”
The screen projected a map of North American blast zones that were illustrated in red fading into lighter shades of the hue.
“The country in which we reside is currently uninhabitable,” Nanny continued. “We are monitoring radiation levels now. According to projections, we hope to see the most dangerous levels significantly decrease within the next two weeks. Air quality should be considered relatively safe within the month for reentry and prolonged surface exposure. However, some models have predicted six months to a year for radiation levels to drop enough for longer human surface exposure.”
Katrina looked around the room. There were tears in some of the kid’s eyes, but no one looked visibly shaken. Maybe their parents had prepared them like her dad had. She glanced back at the hipster sitting alone at the top of the bleachers. He stared back at her with a stone face and she quickly turned to look at the screen again.
“I understand that this is hard to hear, but the world as you knew it will never be the same again. Similar situations such as this are playing out across the globe. We can assume that there have been other security measures in place to ensure survival of humanity. Our government’s preparations include a series of underground pod structures with specific criteria for inhabitants. The structure is designed with simplicity in mind and we will go over this in a future class.”
“You were chosen carefully for this position. Each one of you carries the Dandelion Gene which gives you a genetic disposition to easily adapt to any circumstance. This gene is believed to provide you with the ability to overcome challenges and survive in harsh situations. In addition to this, you are all within the 13 to 18-year-old age range and of optimal health. The combination of these traits will ensure that the human species continues as you will be able to live through the worst of the fallout and produce suitable offspring to repopulate. Finally, through no doing of your own, your parent or parents have contributed something significant to the betterment of society. Because of this, they were given a pass to allow their children who fit these criteria a space within the shelter and a chance at survival.”
Katrina watched as Jayden dropped his head into his hands knowing his little sister wouldn’t be here. Dreya pulled her own sister closer and rested her other hand across Jayden’s back. Out of the corner of her eye, Katrina saw the Ken doll straighten his shoulders with a peculiar smile on his face. She chanced another look at the hipster in the back row but this time he was staring at his feet.
“This opportunity was given to each of you and now it is your choice on what you will do with it.”
Chapter 3
The remainder of the Nanny lecture described how the days would be filled. The morning class would run until lunch time and would cover a variety of topics such as those related to survival and withstanding a nuclear winter. After lunch there would be a group exercise session. Then there were three hours for cleaning and personal hygiene. After dinner there was a free hour before a nightly movie would play. After the movie it was lights out for the night. Katrina laughed to herself when she heard all of this, picturing some government big wigs planning out a daily bootcamp schedule for a bunch of teenagers and including the movie as an afterthought to keep them happy. She couldn’t wait to see the horrible film
s they had picked.
Before breaking for lunch, Nanny explained that the reason the siblings were separated into different rooms was to give each room a fairer weight advantage when the time came to decide. Just what it was they were supposed to be deciding would also be explained later. All the sibling pairs clung to one another a little tighter after hearing this news.
“Its okay,” Mia whispered to Dreya. “I’ll go grab my lunch from the room and bring it back here. Nanny hasn’t said there were any rules against that yet.”
The clock in the common room showed 11:45am and Nanny issued the lunch warning, directing them to all proceed back to their respective rooms.
“Feeding time ladies and gents,” the blond Ken doll yelled loudly while laughing and shoving the two guys sitting next to him.
“That’s Lark,” Mia told Dreya and the rest of her group. “Flanked by the jock Brett and meathead number two Anthony.”
“I don’t like him already,” Dreya said glaring at his back, “and I don’t trust him for some reason.”
“Give it a break Dreya,” Mia nudged her sister. “He doesn’t seem so bad. He was comforting Anna, the girl with the killer curls, this morning when she woke up crying. Plus, he said he would help me find you before I took off running.” Dreya stared at her sister and didn’t say anything.
Katrina noticed the awkward silence and asked who the hipster was.
Mia laughed. “James? I don’t think he is a hipster. He is pretty quiet though. I think he just has a funny haircut or at least needs a haircut.” She kept giggling. “I’m going to get food Dreya. I’ll meet you back here in a few.”
Everyone began to shuffle back to their tunnels. Like rats, Katrina thought, happy rats. The general mood was a little too light for the circumstances, but she guessed having a few answers gave everyone a small sense of comfort. Good job Nanny, she mused. Mission accomplished for the morning.
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