by Lynda Engler
He wanted to smile at the selflessness of these rebels, but his face hurt from where the soldier had punched him and he could feel it beginning to swell. He let Isabella guide him and Clay toward the elevators that would take them to his little girls.
Isabella radioed ahead to the HSPC drivers that they were on their way. The lift seemed to take an eternity to get up to the top level where the vehicles were waiting just inside the blast valve which separated the city from the ramp that lead to the Portal. As soon as the doors opened, Malcolm rushed forward to scoop up Andra and Shia into his massive arms.
Malcolm looked over at his wife as Kalla and Clay mashed her between them in a hug and smiled. Then he put the girls down on the ground so they could reunite with her as well. Oh Belle, he thought. I don’t think life could be any better than this, ever.
September 1, 2101
Chapter Twenty-six
Isabella
The group did not immediately leave the city and the two-bedroom domi had been rather crowded for the last two days, with the addition of Malcolm, Clay, Kalla, Shia, and Andra. Luke had volunteered to stay at Teagan’s apartment to offer his cot to Clay, but Isabella did not think it was much of a sacrifice on her cousin-brother’s part. Luke really liked that girl, and they seemed happy together.
Isabella lay awake early in the morning, Malcolm sleeping quietly at her side. He felt so good mashed up against her that she did not want to move and disturb him. She glanced at the clock and it was still very early. No need to get up yet. She tried to fall back to sleep but could not. There were too many thoughts racing through her head.
She could not help thinking about how badly things could have worked out along the way, but for the most part, she was happier than she had been in her entire life. She was glad Luke found someone that he clicked with as well, considering that the alternative for a shelter kid was that at eighteen they would be transferred to another family shelter, to be paired up with another eighteen-year-old. Many family shelters participated in the draconian planned breeding program that, thankfully, Luke was now saved from. Yet one more practice that the new government might be able to change. There were alternatives of course – coming to Mt. Weather for school was one, or going to one of the military bases either as a recruit or as support staff. But for those kids like the Bellardini’s who did not care for those options – or simply did not know they existed – planned pairing was the only option.
Luke had changed so much since he had snuck out of their family shelter three months ago to chase her into the Outside. They had both changed. Grown up. Her seventeenth birthday was in four days, and Luke would have his three months later, but she was not simply thinking of biological age. They had both become adults during this time, with responsibilities thrust upon them and having had to make choices they never dreamed of, including how to create a new government.
Isabella rolled over and snuggled up against Malcolm, who sighed a bit and wrapped an arm around her but did not wake.
Thoughts continued whirling in her head. The new government – now that was something! The rebel group, buoyed by its incredible growth during the troubled last few weeks, was unofficially in charge of the process. The rebels and the military that joined them had gone on to take over the entire underground city after they freed the captives. The rebels took President Harrison and the generals into custody, and temporarily housed them on level ten, until their trials. They were accused of treason and subverting the Constitution. The government and its elected officials must follow the constitution not only in passing laws, but also in how it acted. Colonel Ericcsen from Picatinny and General Harmon from West Point were also arrested and would be flown today to Mt. Weather by rebel soldiers at each base. Civilians were temporarily running both military bases, as in recent years, both bases had become towns as well as having a military presence.
The public was behind the coup and pleased with regaining their freedoms that had eroded so slowly over time that they had not even realized what a police state they lived in until the rebels showed them. Without poverty or war, it was easy for a populace to become complacent.
Malcolm rolled over and opened his eyes. “Good morning, Belle. Waking up next to you is the most wonderful thing in the world.” He kissed her lips, gently and she brushed her fingertips lightly on his bruised cheek. The swelling was starting to go down.
She replied quietly, “I don’t think anyone else is awake yet. We don’t need to get out of bed yet, unless you are hungry.”
He smiled wickedly at Isabella, a habit he had learned from her. “You are the only thing I am hungry for.” It was another joyful hour before they got up.
* * *
Luke
He awoke next to Teagan, not having gotten much sleep all night, but thrilled to have done so. Or not done so. Whatever. Luke could not help grinning like an idiot. He was without a doubt, head-over-heels in love with this girl. Not just lust – although he had an abundance of that too – but true love. He could not imagine a better life than being here at Mt. Weather, the city he had dreamed of visiting his entire life, but never thinking he could. Now he had a life here. A good one.
Teagan opened one eye and looked at him across the pillow. “If you are going to sleep here regularly, we are going to have to figure out how to actually sleep.” Then she giggled and he knew she felt as incredible as he did.
He made a noise that might have sounded like, “Uh huh,” but wasn’t sure, then cleared his throat and tried again. “Okay. And you’re right. We have a busy day ahead of us. Good thing they delayed the first day of school until Monday with everything that happened. I still can’t believe I have to start classes in four days.”
“Yep, you are just a kid after all,” she laughed. Teagan was eighteen and was starting college, but Luke had another year to go. He had lucked out on the exams he had taken when he arrived in the city. His age would have him attending two more years, but he passed all the subject matter tests well enough to be placed in the last year of high school.
Not long after they had eaten and taken turns at the shower, Luke checked his messages on Teagan’s screen in the kitchen and saw one from Schmidt. Not Mathias Schmidt. Lester Schmidt, the ROTC cadet he had met at West Point. The message had been sent yesterday.
------------------------
To: Lucas Bellardini
From: Cadet L. Schmidt
Date: Aug. 31, 2101
Subj: I have something of yours
Luke,
Hey dawg! You’ve probably heard the news that I’m on my way down to Mt. Weather with the team bringing General Harmon in tomorrow. Can’t wait to rejoin my family and see my friends. Feels like it’s been ages since I was exiled here. Plus, I’ve been taking care of this orange ball of fur of yours and the cat is starting to get on my nerves. I think I’m allergic to it. When I get there, this beast is all yours!
Schmidt
------------------------
Luke laughed at the thought of the strange guy who had seemed so obedient and proud to be part of the military that was murdering the mutants. That guy who called him “dawg” and was working as a “special aid” to General Harmon instead of going home from school for the summer, but had instead turned out to be working as an informer for the rebel group Social Dissonance that he helped found. It must have been hard playing spy, but they could not have done all this without him.
Luke forwarded the message to his sister. That cat was her responsibility!
* * *
Isabella
Isabella had agreed to help Daphne sort out the new humans and provide temporary accommodations for those who would be going to Telemark later that month. Most of the captives had wanted out of the underground city so badly that they had to be driven out through the Portal the moment the battle was over, but some had decided to stay – as guests – for the time being.
The people of Mt. Weather were shocked when the new humans walked through their city, often eliciting gasps an
d comments, but they were more of a curiosity than a threat. Malcolm did not mind stopping to talk to human children who pointed at them, and the kids soon found a friend in the ebony man.
Their parents were more wary. It would take time for humanity to accept the new humans.
The little girls were hungry again. It seemed all they had done for the last two days was eat, and Isabella was happy to be able to get them whatever they wanted. Growing up Outside, almost everything civilized society had to offer them was new and all of her family – even Malcolm – was enjoying learning about foods and technologies that they never knew existed. Right now, they were exploring the video screen and learning about cartoons. Malcolm was ostensibly in command of the remote control but even Clay and Kalla occasionally grabbed it from him to have a go at the wonderful world of television.
On her way to the refrigerator for the umpteenth time that day, she saw the now familiar yellow envelope icon with her name on it flashing on the screen on the wall next to the fridge.
Isabella poked it with her finger and read the text message from her brother before breaking out in full-on laughter.
“What’s so funny?” asked Andra, poking her head into the kitchen.
“You will never believe it! Pumpkin is coming here!” she scooped up the small girl with the too-long legs and hugged her, while spinning around the room. The little girl was overjoyed that her cat was coming back, and Isabella thought that the feeling would probably be mutual. That goofy animal had followed the child everywhere.
Once Andra rejoined the others in the living room, Isabella prepared snacks and took them in, but upon returning to the kitchen with dirty dishes, she once again saw a flashing icon. This one was from Dr. Rosario. She read with rapt attention. The interim government had tasked him with making enough of his drug to inoculate all the people in the country, new humans, and shelter folk alike, which would allow the country to come out of hiding and live above ground in safety.
She closed the message screen and looked into the living room at her family, safe, happy, and well fed. Today was turning out to be a very good day.
A very good day indeed.
September 30, 2101
Chapter Twenty-seven
Isabella
The HSPC rumbled as it finally neared Telemark village, the occupants as exhausted as the engine sounded after its nearly seven-and-a-half-hour journey from Mt. Weather. This time the children had been allowed to play and move about the vehicle, only wearing seat belts throughout the bumpiest parts of the ride.
She called to Andra and Shia. “We are almost there. Come sit down.” The little girls had enjoyed playing with their new friend Ezbeth and teaching her the game they had learned from Reed and Summer’s children as they had traveled up the Hudson River. Isabella wondered how Reed’s widely-scattered band at Stony Point would fair – now that there would be no more danger from the military at the Indian Point nuclear plant, where mutants had been “processed” before being sent into servitude. She guessed that community would remain hidden and insular for many years to come. They preferred their primitive way of life, in harmony with the earth, and Isabella was glad they would be left alone to live as they chose in this new world. At least she hoped they would. There was no way of knowing if the military would stand down as the new government ordered them to. They had spent decades tormenting mutants. This was a whole new world for them, but there was plenty for them to do in it now that they were inoculated and could move about it freely.
“Please take your seats,” said the Spec’s driver over the intercom. “It gets bumpy from here.”
Telemark had no means of communication so they did not have the ability to let the village leaders, Oberon and Violet, know they were coming, and that they came in friendship.
“They’ll have heard the vehicle, and be hiding under the library,” said Malcolm. “You should stop at the edge of town so we can walk the rest of the way.”
Daphne relayed that information to the drivers and soon they came to a rest near the log cabin at the western border of the new human’s community. Daphne opened both sides of the airlock simultaneously allowing all 22 occupants to exit the vehicle at once. The group was an odd assortment. Besides Malcolm’s group of six, it included Jarrick’s wife Gendi, who had been convinced to move to Telemark after Jarrick’s death. She would make a life for herself and Ezbeth there. Two engineers from Mt. Weather planned to review all of the village’s infrastructure and take inventory of anything that needed replacing before returning home. The rest were former captives who had agreed to settle, sight unseen, in the village because their own homes were either destroyed or they had no way to get back to them. They had all received their V2 injections before leaving Mt. Weather, but the new humans choosing to make the trip were not worried about contaminants Outside. After all, it was their world. Still, Gendi had beamed exuberantly and hugged Dr. Rosario when he vaccinated her only surviving child. V2 would give her daughter a significantly longer life than any she could have imagined, perhaps even 30 years. More importantly, Ezbeth’s own children could live a completely normal lifespan of 80 or 90 years.
Daphne and the two drivers from the cab wore civilian clothing on this mission, although they had not left the military. That, too, was their world, but they saw no reason to be intimidating to this community. All three carried plastic crates filled with V2 vaccine along with a supply of INH2 pills to combat tuberculosis, or the wasting disease as the new humans called it. They no longer wore chem-rad suits to protect themselves Outside, and they now opened both sides of airlock door at once, allowing everyone to exit the vehicle together.
Malcolm approached Oberon’s log cabin alone and went inside, knowing the door would be unlocked. Telemark village houses had no locks because they had no need for security, and respected other people’s homes and privacy. Malcolm soon came out reporting it was empty, as they had suspected, so they set off for the library. Isabella had begun teaching reading classes in the library to some of the village children before they had left to search for Dr. Rosario.
She turned back to Kalla and Clay and said, “We don’t all need to go. Could you take the girls home, and wait for us there? I’m sure Andra and Shia would like to show their new friend where they live.” Kalla nodded and the little girls took off toward the small home they had shared for a few short weeks, almost dragging Ezbeth along as they giggled and ran. Pumpkin followed behind the children, but then ran off into the trees, no doubt chasing a meal. He would find his way to Andra later. He always did! Gendi walked after them at a slower pace, taking more time to look at the village where she had chosen to live.
Telemark’s library was an ancient log cabin that had served as a cultural community center for the small New Jersey town for a century prior to the Final War. The new humans had restored the building and gathered all the books they could find and placed them on assorted shelves and in glass cabinets where they were safe from the elements. For the most part, mutants had lost the skill of reading, five generations after most of humanity was wiped out. The building was more of a shrine than a functional community building, but it also held the entrance to the basement of secret tunnels that had kept them safe during military raids for the last decade.
Malcolm took the lead. He opened the pantry door that held the hidden basement hatch, knocked on the floor, and in his deep, most authoritative voice, said, “It’s Malcolm. It’s safe to come out. I’ve brought friends and supplies.”
The pantry was a small room so Isabella was forced to back up to make space as the hatch door opened and Oberon’s head full of dreadlocks emerged. The dark man’s leathery skin always startled Isabella, for a moment eliciting some kind of deep-seated instinctive fear of the reptilian man. Oberon took one look at Malcolm and all but exploded out of the stairwell to clasp him into a bear hug. “Wasn’t sure if you were coming back, but I’m glad you are safe. I sure didn’t expect you to come back in a military machine!”
Oberon a
ssessed Daphne and the two people holding the boxes, but before he could inquire about them, Isabella stepped forward and hugged him. “It’s so great to see you again! These are my friends Daphne Noble, Colm Reynolds, and Reema Sura. We’ve brought medical supplies and other gifts for Telemark.”
As the village leader hugged her, his wife Violet emerged from the stairwell, quickly followed by hundreds of people, the entire Telemark village flowing up out of the hole, like water bursting from a broken dam as they flowed past their leader to gather outside in the cool autumn air. It must have been excruciatingly hot down there.
After everyone introduced themselves, the three soldiers followed Violet and Heals-with-Hands, the village medicine woman, to Violet’s home to distribute the medical supplies they brought, and explain their use. They had also brought communications equipment so the village would be permanently connected to Mt. Weather by radio. Other villagers gathered on the sandy shore of their small lake, bringing food for an impromptu celebration. The children of the community traditionally had the chore of building a campfire in the fire pit for gatherings where they shared stories. Campfire stories were not only entertaining for the children but a means of sharing news and keeping history alive.
That evening they learned that they had found Andra’s mother in the woods last week, dead from the wasting disease. The villagers buried her next to her son, Davin, the little boy that Isabella and Malcolm had adopted with Andra. Davin had died soon after their tribe arrived at Telemark. It seemed like a lifetime ago to Isabella, although it was just a few months. Violet promised to take the little girl to the cemetery tomorrow so she could say her goodbyes. Isabella turned to Andra and said quietly so only the little girl could hear, “It’s okay to cry for your mommy, String Bean.” The nickname Clay had given her fit the long-legged, skinny child well.