PODs

by Michelle Pickett

  “And the third?” I asked.

  “You’re here.”

  Heat crept across my face. It felt like I had a thousand butterflies flying in my stomach.

  “You’re blushing.” David turned toward me, putting one leg over mine until he was on all fours above my legs. Looking in my eyes, he tilted his head and kissed me slowly. I closed I wanted">1 emergency with my my eyes and let myself get lost in his kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck. Leaning back, I pulled him down with me.

  Pulling his shirt over his head, I whispered, “Shouldn’t you wash this?” Then, I flicked open the button on his jeans, slipping my fingers just inside the waistband. “And these?” I sucked in a sharp breath when he kissed behind my ear, sending shockwaves of pleasure through my body.

  “Eva,” he murmured in my ear, his breath making my hair flutter against my skin. “Don’t tempt me.”

  “I think you’re the one tempting me. You brought me in here, blocked the door, turned on the white-noise machinery. Why was that? Just to eat?” I teased him with a grin.

  He rolled off me and threw his arm over his eyes. I scooted down and moved his arm around me. We lay on our backs on the floor, looking at the ceiling.

  “You ever think of what things would be like without the virus?” he asked.

  “A lot. Why?”

  “If the virus hadn’t hit we might never have met.”

  “I know,” I said, running my fingers through his hair.

  “If there’s one good thing that comes from this whole thing, it’s that I met you, Eva.”

  I rose on my elbow and kissed him. “I feel the same way.”

  “I’m glad we’re together.”

  “Me, too.” I kissed him again. Will I ever get my fill of his kisses? Each one feels like the first, curls my toes, and makes my insides melt.

  The lights went out. From the living area, we heard Katie scream. George, Aidan and Seth talked over each other, their voices growing more and more frantic as the seconds ticked by.

  Cold fear stabbed through me, and I gasped. They’re cutting us off! “David?”

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  We got up and felt our way out of the laundry room. Without any windows the inside of the POD was pitch-black. I wasn’t particularly claustrophobic, but the dark felt like it was bearing down on me, making it hard to breathe.

  We’d lost electricity in the entire POD. Buried alive. I clutched David’s hand tighter, feeling him squeeze back.

  The baby cried from somewhere in the POD. I could hear Tiffany trying to soothe her.

  “George?” Tiffany called.

  “Stay there, Tiff.” He bumped into me trying to find his way through the blackness. “Sorry.”

  The baby and Katie kept crying—I wanted to join them.

  Katie was hysterical. “They’re cutting us off!”

  “No—” I started, feeling my way around the furniture to where I heard her voice. With every hesitant step, I listened for the sound we all dreaded, the crunch that sealed the passage…

  “Yes! They are! This is what happened to Cam! The lights went out, and then he was gone. We’re gonna die!”

  “No, Katie.” She jumped when my hand found her arm. I leaned down to put my face somewhere near hers. “Listen! There are no sounds outside. If they were cutting us to see each other.ldor little l foff, we’d hear it. Remember how loud it was? We’d hear it. They aren’t cutting us off. There’s just a problem with the electricity.”

  “There wasn’t anything like this scheduled,” David whispered in my ear.

  I held Katie’s hand as we made our way to our bedroom. I grabbed my laptop off my bed. Seeing the light cast by the screen made it a little easier to breathe.

  “I have two flashlights in my bunk,” I said.

  After aiming my laptop at my headboard cabinet, we found my flashlights and the stash of batteries.

  Thank you, Dad! You’ll never know how much we needed these flashlights.

  We found two more flashlights in the storage closet. We set one of the lights up in the living area, where we gathered close and cast anxious glances at the sealed door, still listening for the sound that would mean our deaths.

  We heard nothing.

  “So, what’s going on? Did we blow a fuse?” Tiffany asked.

  “There’s no fuse box in here,” Josh said.

  David put his arm around me.

  Josh gave the arm a pointed look, and then rolled his eyes.

  “Then what?”

  “How the hell am I supposed to know?” he snapped.

  “Don’t start right now. We don’t need you being… snappish.” Tiffany said.

  “Maybe I can find the electrical panel.” Josh grabbed the flashlight off the table. I snapped another one on to take its place.

  “It must be behind the cupboards. That’s where the conduit enters the POD,” Seth pointed into the dark toward the kitchen.

  Josh scoffed. “No kidding.”

  Seth groaned. “Can I punch him now?”

  David chuckled. “He’s the electronics whiz. Let him fix the electricity first, and then have at it.”

  “You know, you two idiots can do this yourselves,” Josh said, climbing on a chair to peer into the upper cabinets.

  “Yeah, because we’re the only ones who use the electricity. You don’t use any. Ass.”

  “David…” I shook my head.

  A metallic bang from the kitchen made us all jump. “Found it. I need something I can use as a screwdriver.”

  “What about a screwdriver?” Aidan asked with a grin. He held up a small toolbox. “This was in the storage room.”

  Aidan opened the box, lifting out a hammer, plumber’s putty, and a small container filled with a variety of nails and screws as he rummaged. “Flathead or Phillips?” he asked.

  “Flat.”

  Josh snatched the tool from his hand without so much as a thank you. We all seemed to stop breathing as he undid what he assumed was the box where the electricity came into the POD. Hmm—maybe he’ll electrocute himself and we won’t have to deal with him anymore.

  Shame on you, Eva.

  “Eva,” Josh called, and I winced.

  “What?” and shook her head. Rk7 David answered for me.

  “I need someone to look in the toolbox and see if there are any wire caps and electrical tape.”

  “Here,” David said, passing the items to Josh.

  He worked for what seemed like an eternity. Drops of sweat slithered down my back. I jumped at every little noise, waiting for the crunching sound. The longer we waited, the more convinced I became Katie was right, that our POD had been cut off. My stomach twisted and I had to take deep, cleansing breaths to keep from becoming as hysterical as Katie.

  I moved to the sink and turned on the tap, taking a shuddering breath when the water came out. The air supply is still flowing. The water system is still on. They didn’t cut us off; it’s just a glitch in one part of the system, a fluke.

  As long as the water and air flow remained, I could convince myself we were safe—that we weren’t going to die a horrible, agonizing death.

  The lights flickered on and we all sighed, only for them to go out again. That happened two more times before the lights came on and stayed on. Josh eased himself down from the cupboard and jumped off the chair.

  “It was just some loose wiring. Probably made in China or wherever she’s from,” he said, jerking his thumb toward Jai Li.

  “You’re a jerk,” I said.

  “Probably made in America,” Jai Li said with an evil grin. Everyone laughed—except Josh.

  Josh sneered. “Well, I’d say you guys all owe me. I’ll take everyone’s allotted microwave popcorn this week.”

  “Wait! We owe you?” Aidan asked. “How do you figure?”

  Josh shrugged. “You’d be sitting in the dark if it wasn’t for me.”

  “No one owes you squat,” Seth said. “If you hadn’t fixed it, you’d be
sitting in the dark with the rest of us. I’d say fixing it benefitted you as much as it did us. Get over yourself.”

  “And you’re not getting my popcorn,” Katie said, walking into the bedroom.

  “Brat,” Josh called after her. She flipped him the bird. I had to cover my mouth to stifle a laugh.

  Month Ten

  My eyelids felt heavy, like someone was pressing them down, and gritty sand was rough behind my eyes. But I didn’t want to go to sleep, not yet. I wanted to talk to David. We stayed up as late as we could and talked every night. We sometimes fell asleep together in the living area. Of course, “sleeping together” meant actual sleeping. It wasn’t a cute euphemism for something else—we weren’t alone in the POD.

  Some nights we talked about silly things.

  “Favorite color?”

  “Red, you?”

  “Black.”

  “David, black isn’t a color.”

  “Technically—”

  “Okay, sorry I said anything. Um, favorite movie?”

  “The Exorcist. Spinning heads get me every time. You?” blood checkad and pushou

  “I don’t think I have one.”

  “You have to have a favorite movie—”

  “If black can be your favorite color, then I don’t have a favorite movie. First kiss?”

  He grinned. “Ah, a gentleman would never kiss and tell.”

  “You don’t remember her name, do you?”

  “Okay, I don’t remember her name. It was the fourth grade! You?”

  “You don’t really want to know who my first kiss was. You just want me to tell you you’re the best I’ve had.”

  “Of course.”

  And other nights we talked about serious things, some sad and some happy.

  “What did you plan to do after graduation, before the virus?”

  “College. I was hoping to figure out the next step while I was there,” I admitted. “You?”

  “Veterinarian.”

  “David? Do you think anyone survived?”

  “I don’t know. But if my family survived, I can’t wait for them to meet you. They’ll love you.”

  “Mine, too.”

  We never ran out of things to ask or tell each other. It was my favorite time of day—the only time David and I had any semblance of “alone time.”

  When we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer, we’d fall asleep, usually with me on the couch and David on the floor next to me.

  “I didn’t think you’d ever wake up!” Katie squealed when I opened my eyes one morning.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked around a yawn.

  “Nothing. It’s all right. Look!”

  She pointed to the wall to the left of the couch, which held one of the few remaining white spots left in the POD. Since the day we’d first started filling them with paintings and pastel drawings we had added a little at a time, and the walls were almost covered.

  Someone had added another picture on the wall to the left of the sofa. I looked at it. Then I looked some more. It was done in red and black—flowers and hearts intertwined in a circle, with words in the center. My gaze locked on the words. Did he really draw that? Does he really feel so strongly that he’d put it there for everyone to see?

  “He did it while you were sleeping. When I got up he was painting it.” Katie bounced with excitement.

  “Where is he?”

  “Shower. Isn’t the painting wonderful? I hope I find someone as romantic as he is. You’re lucky, Eva.”

  “I know.” I smiled, still looking at the newest artwork on the POD wall.

  “You like it?” he asked quietly from the doorway.

  “Yes.”

  “It isn’t too much?”

  “Well, I guess some might think it’s a little over the top. I happen to think it’s just what the wall needed.” I stood and walked to him. I threaded and shook her head. Rk7 my fingers through his hair, still wet from the shower. Our lips touched, just grazing each other’s. “Thank you.”

  “Anything for you, Eva.”

  “And if I said I wanted you?”

  “I’d say ‘silly Evangelina, you already have me,’” he answered, tickling my lips when his moved against them.

  “Oh. My. Gosh. Get a room, would ya?” Seth headed into the kitchen, smirking.

  Josh brushed past us, filling the room with the scent of the unwashed. “You’ve got to be kidding me! ‘David loves Eva.’ Who wrote that crap on the wall? We know, we know—you’re in love. We don’t need to read about it. Now that’s all I’m gonna see when I eat.”

  “Then find somewhere else to eat,” I snapped.

  David chuckled. “You wanted her—I got her.”

  Josh glowered.

  “Whatever.” He shoved a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

  “You got me?” I whispered in David’s ear.

  He tightened his arm around my waist. “Yup.”

  I shook my head, smiling. “Actually, I think I had a little bit of a say in the whole thing.”

  David laughed. “Whatever you want to believe. Bottom line, you love me.” He quickly kissed the tip of my nose before smiling at me. His smile dared me to disagree.

  The thing was…he was right.

  Month Twelve

  “Do you think they’ll keep us together?” Katie asked, biting her lip.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, watching Faith crawl through the living room. Her chubby legs shuffled across the carpeting, her arms so fat her elbows disappeared in the rolls.

  “I heard they’re making camps, like little villages. The people from the PODs will be assigned to camps. Everyone’s talking about it online. Do you think they’ll keep everyone from our POD together?”

  “Well, I don’t know, but if it’s true I’m sure they’ll keep us together. Why else would they put us in the same sub-POD?”

  “I hope they do. I’m not ready to start over again.”

  I smiled and gave her a quick hug. “Me, neither.”

  Tiffany scooped up the baby from the floor and bounced her on her knee, smiling at her giggles. Drool dripped from Faith’s mouth as she chewed on her fingers. Tiffany reached over to pick up the tiny nail clippers, and in that millisecond of distraction the baby flung her hand out and grabbed Josh’s cup. Juice spilled down his shirt.

  “Dammit!” he shouted, bolting upright from the couch.

  “Sorry—” Tiffany started.

  “Keep that little brat away from me!” Josh yelled.

  Faith started to cry.

  “Great, now we have to listen to her wail for an hour. That’s just fantastic.” He stomped into the bedroom.

  I got up and sat down next to Tiffany, grabbing a baby wipe to dab at the spattering of juice on the couch. “Don’t worry about him. He’s an ass. Isn’t he, Faith? You dumped that juice on purpose, didn’t you, huh? Smart little girl.”

  The baby stopped crying, and gave me a dimpled little grin. Tiffany laughed.

  I smiled and patted Tiffany’s shoulder.

  Her eyes grew serious. “She doesn’t bother you, does she? When she cries and stuff?”

  I shook my head. “No. You know we all love her.”

  “I keep thinking about how she’s my only family now. My parents won’t ever get to meet her. She’ll never know her grandparents. They would’ve doted on her.”

  I reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. “We’re each other’s family now, and she is going to be spoiled rotten. And after we get out, we—”

  A loud thud by the door made me jump. The chute. “Oh!” I made a silly face at the baby. “What’s that? Huh? What’d they send us?”

  I walked over with a cold dread congealing in my belly. It was too early for another blood check. No one was expecting more books; we were still in the middle of the current batch of classes. According to the gossip online, it had been weeks since any POD had been cut off from the main, but it was never far from my mind…from anyone’s.

  My fing
ers shook as I reached out to open the hatch. Grabbing the cool steel handle, I took a breath to steady myself. “You’re being silly, Eva,” I whispered.

  The door slid open quietly. The acrid disinfectant smell hit me, taking my breath for an instant. I pulled out the container, which felt empty.

  I unsealed the lid and reached in, feeling paper. It glided across my finger at the wrong angle. I jerked my hand back and looked at the deep paper cut. “That can’t be a good sign,” I murmured.

  “What?” David asked behind me before wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing the back of my neck.

  “Oh, nothing. We got something from the main POD.” I reached in and snatched the red paper out of the basket. “It says there’s another systems check later today. What does that make? Three this week?”

  “Something like that.”

  “I wonder what system needs checking three times in a week,” I said, squeezing a paper towel over my cut finger so I didn’t have to look at the grotesque red ooze. “And why are they sending this message through the chute? They could’ve just e-mailed it out.”

  “Don’t get paranoid, Eva. Things need checking.” He turned me around and pressed me against the wall, the chute’s handle digging into my back. He leaned down and his mouth moved over mine. My insides did cartwheels and butterflies flew around, tickling in some private places.

  I planted my hands on his chest and gently pushed him away. “Are you trying to distract me?”

  “Is it working?”

  “Yeah, kinda.” I smiled. I loved the taste of him. “It’s been a year that we’ve been down here, David.”

  ent" aid="I3QS7">“I know. It still doesn’t mean anything is wrong.” He bent his head and kissed me I wantedopmadl flightly.

  “Why do you think we haven’t heard anything about getting out of here?”

  “Have I told you you’re a worrywart?”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

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  Month Fourteen

  It was the day the last assignments for the current batch of courses were due—our final exams for the modules. We uploaded them through the online classrooms and waited for the next batch of books and course assignments. Additional MREs arrived weekly to suppleme

  The PODs Open