Silo 49: Dark Till Dawn

by Ann Christy

  On the landing, the tight cluster of family they had left just hours before had become a loose scattering of people resting on benches or enjoying a little rest on pads laid out on the grilled landing floor. It took a moment before someone they knew looked up but the grin both racers wore elicited a hoot of joy that stirred the rest of their family.

  Lillian's mother, Ruby, saw the smiles on their faces as they approached and clasped her hands in front of her face, worry and joy showing with equal measures in her expression. Lillian thought it was understandable that her mom would worry since she'd lost her husband during his run, but she couldn't help wishing that she wouldn't.

  Her little sister Clara, also biologically a half-sister, hopped up from her seat on the landing and ran toward Lillian. Her gangly twelve year old legs made her look awkward when she ran and she threw her equally gangly arms around her sister.

  Like her older sister, she dreamed of being a runner but she often had trouble breathing when around dust or plants and would never pass the physical for the race. Clara knew this but Lillian knew she still dreamed of being in the race one day and loved her enough not to mention it.

  Lillian lifted the skinny girl up and gave her a squeeze until she squealed. Lillian settled her back on her feet and turned toward her mother. Ruby wrapped Lillian in a tight hug around the neck before Clara had a chance to escape her own embrace. Lillian could hear the muffled sounds of exasperation from the poor girl, squeezed as she was between them.

  Ruby finally backed up enough to let Clara pull away. She huffed indignantly, reached into her pocket and pulled out red and blue strips of cloth. She tied one around each of the racer's arms so that the ends would flutter as they moved. Lillian dutifully flapped her arms up and down a few times to make them do just that, which delighted Clara.

  Everyone had come and stayed to wait for the results. Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Elma, Leo’s parents, also give their share of hugs and kisses to both racers. A few of the cousins had come up at some point while they had been inside. They were loudly proclaiming their congratulations from beyond the tight circle the parents made around their children.

  Even her father's parents had come and waited, though this trip to Level 34 must have been a difficult one for them to face. They congratulated her as well, but they did it with tears in their eyes. They had other grandchildren, but she was the only child of the son they lost. Lillian whispered that they shouldn't worry as she returned their hugs.

  Once all the congratulations, hugs and tears had finally ended, the family made their way to the stairs. Each started downward, the goodbyes repeating on every landing where members of the group left the stairwell for their homes.

  By the time they reached their own level, the group had grown quiet and tired. Lillian didn’t sleep well the night before from the excitement and it was catching up with her now that the deed was done. She was hungry, too. She looked at Leo and thought he looked the same.

  Since they lived just one section away from each other on the same level, it was common for the sisters and their families to eat together. Tonight they would dine at Leo's and Lillian was secretly relieved at that. She just wanted to eat and go to bed. If they had dinner in her compartment, then she would be obliged to help clean up the mess afterwards and entertain the guests for as long as they stayed.

  It wasn’t that there would be a big mess, but there would be some tidying up to do and mandatory conversation to engage in. She was sure they would couch lectures on safety in the language of concern, but it would be a tedious business. This way she could excuse herself and let Clara take the lead on helping to tidy, while she headed off to bed. Clara wouldn't mind and Lillian would do her best to make it up to her some other way.

  Their dinner of eggplant in a spicy tomato sauce, served with flat amaranth bread for dunking, was delicious and would have been enough by itself, but the family had really splurged for this meal. Whether it turned out to be a condolence meal for not being selected or one of congratulations, or a combination of both, they had certainly gone all out.

  There was goat cheese rolled in meal and then fried in costly olive oil. Another dish held spinach sautéed in pork drippings, another costly item saved for special occasions. There were nuggets of rabbit, tossed in a hot pan with peppers, onions and garlic then wrapped in lettuce and drizzled with sauce. For dessert there was even a strawberry sorbet served with honey cookies.

  Though neither Lillian nor Leo partook due to their training status, the other adults enjoyed small glasses of honey wine after the meal. Clara made a terrible face when she was permitted a taste of the wine, quickly followed by much dramatic gagging and coughing. Then she asked for another taste and that set them all to laughing.

  Once hot tea was offered, Lillian found herself enormously sleepy. In just the time it took for her mother to shift the conversation from one person to the next, she found her eyes making long blinks. She looked at Leo and saw that he was in a similar strait. Just as she was trying to figure out a way to politely go home, her mother and Aunt Elma noted their conditions and excused them, but not without another round of hugs first.

  Inside her own compartment, the air was so still and quiet after the food and joviality at Leo's that she sighed in relief. She would miss her home for the month she was in training for the race. If she won, that was another month away from her own bed as she prepared for her time outside. But after that she would be finished and it would be worth it.

  She would have first pick of job specialties, assuming her aptitude scores were up to the mark for the job she chose, and she would have her portrait on the Raceway for everyone to see forever after. Her stomach fluttered again at the thought of it all and of the race itself. Those thoughts made sleep retreat and revived her enough to get ready for bed. The effect didn't last and by the time she drank a glass of cold water and got down to her undershirt and undershorts, she was fading again. She was asleep by the time her head hit the pillow.

  Five

  The next day was a blur for Lillian. Word of who the finalists were was not officially released until after they began training, but there was no way to keep that kind of news under wraps in the silo. Happy family members, friends and even neighbors would be unable to contain themselves and soon the whole silo was in the know. That began the endless parade of well-wishers that came to the family’s door.

  During one such visit she found out that it was Toby who had won a place as the third runner in this year's race, just as Leo predicted. A constant stream of people came and went until Lillian's mother simply stopped answering. Lillian didn't want to remain cooped up on her last day at home but she couldn't see any real alternative after the first few dozen knocks on the door.

  In the early afternoon, when Lillian was considering that it might be better just to go back up to level 34 and get some rest, Leo's family came over. At first they knocked, and the knock was ignored. Then the distinct sound of Leo's voice came through and Lillian practically jumped over the couch to answer it. The family stumbled in, Leo looking over his shoulder as he did, and Lillian quickly closed the door after them.

  Lillian hugged the various members of the family. Her mother and sister joined them from Clara's room where they had been working on her math. She went to go start water for tea, but her mother waved her away and told her to sit. Her mother was treating her extra special and Lillian decided she liked it, even if it made her feel a bit strange to be fussed over. She felt a bit of a fraud, as if at any moment her family would realize she wasn't really anything out of the ordinary and be upset she had let them make such a production over her.

  After a second wave-off by her mother, this time accompanied by a stern look and instructions to go talk to their guests, Lillian returned to the living area and flopped down rather gracelessly on the couch between Leo and Clara, bouncing both of them with her impact on the soft springs.

  "Lil!" exclaimed her sister, hanging onto the arm of the couch as she was bounced upward. />
  "Fatty," added Leo in a voice so low that only Lillian could hear him. She simply glared at him in return, but it wasn't a serious glare and he knew it.

  Her aunt and uncle sat in the two chairs opposite the couch, both of them smiling ridiculously large smiles, clearly delighted that their ‘L's’ had both been chosen and not at all bothered by the constant interruptions that must have been happening at their apartment too.

  Her mother came back, wiping her hands on a cloth and walking with that same no-nonsense stride she always used when there was something that needed to be done. She flicked the towel in Clara's direction when she got to the couch so she got up and dragged a dining chair over while her mother took the seat next to Lillian. She sat down more appropriately than Lillian's flop and Leo raised his eyebrows at her, his near constant smirk at high mark, when neither of them were bounced even the smallest amount.

  In retaliation, Lillian just pursed her lips and whispered, "You have brains like an Other." It earned her a smothered chuckle from Leo and a quizzical look from his mother.

  "Tea will be ready shortly, everyone," Ruby said, folding and smoothing the dish towel on her lap. "It's been crazy here today. Has it been the same for you?"

  Elma nodded, her smile still present though not at full strength anymore, which Lillian was grateful for since smiles that big were a little creepy. Lillian didn't think her aunt would have been able to actually speak had her lips stayed stretched out that far. "That's why we're here. I thought it might be easier to ignore if there were more people to talk to."

  All the adults agreed with that bit of wisdom and Leo's father added, "We're coming here for dinner anyhow. Who knows if it will get busier once the shifts end? Best to make a dash for it during a lull, right?"

  Again a round of nods and murmurs of agreement but afterwards an awkward silence settled over them, broken only by sporadic nervous conversation. Clara got bored quickly and started swinging her overly long legs back and forth. The problem with doing that was that her legs were longer than the ones on her chair, so she propped her legs on her hands to add height and proceeded to clunk the soles of her boots back and forth with each swing. It was annoying, but Lillian suspected that was the purpose of the rhythmic clunks.

  Lillian and Leo contented themselves with muttering insults back and forth, getting increasingly inventive with each passing round. This was an old habit for them and most of the time their parents ignored it until one of them said something that went too far beyond the bounds of decency.

  As they had gotten older and their knowledge of the silo and the behavior of people had expanded, the breadth of their insults had also expanded. Now, they were careful to keep their voices hushed as they traded words, while their parents spoke in fits and starts about everything except the fact that their children were going away for an extended period.

  "Landing Crapper," Lillian whispered to Leo with a sufficient note of disdain in her voice to express how low such a person was. It was not a new one but it was a good one and she hadn't used it in a while.

  He spluttered and whispered back, "Ewww. Nasty. But not as nasty as you, Landing Crapper Eater!"

  That was a new one and Lillian was sufficiently disgusted and impressed to give him a two fingered tap on the arm to indicate his scoring on her. He grinned. They were interrupted by her Aunt Elma before she could think of her next sally.

  "Are you two calling each other names again?" she asked, her smile now gone. "When are you two going to grow out of that? Who is ever going to want to pair up with either one of you if you keep that up?"

  Both young people giggled and Clara watched them rather keenly. She was eager to find out what they said to each other but she was simply too much younger than them to be a good target or playmate in this game. She had tried to play the game with one of her own friends at school but the girl had run to the teacher crying, and Clara had come home that day with a note about her behavior. She would never tell what it was that she had said, but she blushed terribly whenever anyone brought it up so Lillian thought it must have been a winner.

  Ruby threw up her hands in disgust and said, "Let's play a game or something. These two are impossible! I don't know why we're upset to have them go for a full thirty day cycle. We should be happy about it."

  She got up and opened the closet, Clara trailing behind her. They called out game names until finally one was called that received positive responses. The group played, the game progressing a bit awkwardly because of the odd number of players, while they continued to ignore every knock on the door. The knocks eventually became less as the shift change grew near and the game finished, Clara winning handily. Both mothers got up to make dinner and very soon delicious smells began to permeate the apartment and probably seeped into the hallways as well.

  The knocks increased again as the shift changed, probably due to well-wishers on their way home, but it was short lived. It was considered impolite to knock on doors unless invited to after a certain time if the door was marked with the green dot of a first shift worker or with the smaller green dots for children attending school. A few slips of rough paper were shoved underneath the door and Lillian eagerly retrieved each as they came through.

  One was a card, folded from a single large sheet of the bumpiest sort of pulp paper, and signed by the entire class of first year primary students at the school in the Mids. On it was drawn the obligatory red and blue coverall wearing figure which might be vaguely discerned as female. A giant Good Luck had been written in the uncertain hand of a child.

  On another there was a short note from her boss where she was shadowing during her current thirty-day cycle. She could take 24 thirty-days to rotate around and find out what she really wanted to do, but so far she still just wanted to be a medic. In the note, he expressed his pride in her and hoped she would choose to return to the water plant after she won the race. He also told her the betting odds were running in her favor and he would be sure to put some chits on her. She smiled at that and showed Leo, gloating only a little at his frown.

  When dinner was ready, Lillian was again surprised at the lavishness and obvious expense of what was laid out on their table. Today there was an egg, goat cheese and onion pie, one of her particular favorites. Chicken casserole with big, meaty chunks generously spread throughout was paired with little brown bread rounds. Lentils stewed with onions, spices and tomatoes was added as a tribute to Leo, since it was one of his favorites. A medley of vegetables, including the costly parsnip, completed the meal.

  Again the extended family feasted until well past the point of satiety. Once they were finished, Lillian and Leo offered to do the cleaning up. They dashed through the dishes in a hurry to prevent the food from becoming a crust on any of the pots or dishes.

  Lillian broached the topic of going up to the training center this evening rather than waiting for early morning, completely prepared to be told no. Instead, Leo appeared relieved at her offer. He admitted that he hadn't been looking forward to a climb that early and then starting on some unknown physical training. Their only problem was how to bring it up to their parents, who were clearly going to want to keep them as long as they could.

  They eventually decided on honesty and were relieved to find that all the parents were willing to forego that last evening so that the pair could get a good rest in before starting their training. Lillian's mother tried to keep her smile unfettered by any grief or worry, but Lillian could see it in her eyes nonetheless.

  For so long she had been so entirely focused on winning the race that she pushed the fact that her mother had lost her husband doing the exact same thing out of her mind. Now that she was about to say goodbye to her, she could see how very hard it was for her. She had been through this same goodbye before, back when she had a baby at home and her whole life in front of her. She knew the potential consequences of a win better than Lillian did.

  Her mother had assumed her running and dreaming of winning the race was no different than the fant
asies of many children. Something she would someday grow out of. But she had a lot of her father in her, a need to be unfettered and see beyond the walls. More than once Ruby had tried to talk Lillian out of competing, and she had wanted to be an obedient daughter, but it didn’t stop the yearning. Eventually, her mother had given her blessing and never wavered in her support.

  She allowed her mother to help her pack, though there wasn't much to bring other than a few personal items and mementos. Leo dashed off to pack his own bag and returned by the time Lillian was done. As she walked out of her bedroom with her mother, Lillian saw Leo clamped in the tight embrace of his mother and heard her crying a little as she clung to her son. Leo gave Lillian a pained expression over his mother’s head. His father eventually stepped in to break the embrace, though gently, telling her to let the poor boy go before she broke him.

  Once the goodbyes were finally done, or as done as they could be, Lillian and Leo made their escape. They were waylaid by congratulations over and over, but their purposeful strides upward toward the training center hinted to those they passed that their greetings should be brief. It helped to speed their journey that it was considered rude to stop on the stairs, so most of what they dealt with were quick hellos, fast handshakes and a few claps on the back in passing. They didn't run, though it was tempting to do so, in order to let their overlarge dinners settle and to reserve whatever energy they could for the next day. They chatted about what training might consist of, the strengths and weakness of Toby and about the dreaded tank of water they were supposed to run in.

  The levels flew by and so did the time. By the time they crested the landing on 34, the lights had dimmed for the day and there was just one attendant in the lobby. They got lost going back toward the rooms in the training area even after they finally figured out that the card they had been given was actually a key and got the door to the training section open. Once they did find their rooms, they were delighted to discover that they were next door neighbors. The single larger room that had been carved in two housed the both of them. Both were tired and their goodnights consisted of a grunt from Leo and a wave from Lillian.