The Dream Widow
Page 28
“But didn’t most of them go crazy anyway?”
Wilson nodded. “Who knows––either through Parvati breaking free of hibernation and trying to protect Jack or faults in the machinery––many people became unstable, even absorbed parts of Jack’s personality, including the old man we thought was Jack.”
“You’re sure this guy is the real one?”
He kissed her. “As sure as rain in springtime.”
The door rattled from a heavy knock.
“Cat’s teeth,” said Wilson, getting up from the bed. “Yes? What is it?”
“We found something,” said Mast, from the other side of the door. “You might want to see it. Both of you.”
Wilson and Badger dressed and followed Mast through the tunnels into the half-light of morning.
On the icy main plaza Robb and four hunters stood around a body covered in scraps of fur and stained black with blood. Wilson knelt beside the frozen corpse and stared into the gray, dead eyes of Darius. His throat had been ripped apart in a wide gash and dark blood covered his mouth and neck.
“Where’d you find him?”
“That’s the funny thing,” said Robb. “You told us what happened and we ran up Old Man toward the back exit, only we never made it there. Halfway through the forest we found a deep trail, like something heavy being dragged through the snow. We followed it and found the dog pulling the body back toward Station.”
The ugly black dog trotted up, his tongue lolling. Wilson rubbed the dog’s patchy scruff and patted his bulbous, tumor-covered head.
“Good dog,” he said. “That’s a good dog.”
Badger spat on the pile of frozen flesh and walked away.
REED’S FUNERAL WAS HELD a few days later. It was a symbolic gesture––radiation levels in the cavern had made it impossible to retrieve his body. Luckily none of the exhaust gases from the reactor had found their way outside.
Not yet, thought Wilson as he stood on a rocky point above the valley. Wet snow dropped through the twilight and onto the muddy tracks of villagers and four-dozen mounds in the cornfield below. The bodies of the dead lizards and Circle invaders had been burned that morning, but he could still smell the sour, coppery stench.
“Strange to think you’ve never had a cemetery,” said Jack, bundled up in a hunter’s thick leather jacket, trousers, and bearskin hat. Beside him, Badger wore a similar outfit and Parvati a bleached-white woolen dress and cloak.
“Everything’s strange after three hundred years,” said Parvati, leaning on a wooden crutch.
Wilson held out a palm and watched the flakes melt on his skin.
“No,” he said. “Everything’s gone after three hundred years.”
Badger took his hand and rubbed it. “We’re still here.”
“Right on,” said Jack. “And not to bring you down or anything, Wilfred, but we should leave the valley,” said Jack. “Radiation will leak into the tunnels sooner or later. Also, someone might come looking for that prisoner of yours, ‘Console’ Nahid or whatever she’s called.”
“You don’t understand––the rules, the founders, our entire reason for living is upside down,” said Wilson. “The people are in a state of shock over dead family and friends, and now I have to give them more bad news? I don’t know if they can handle it.”
“They’re tougher than you think.”
Parvati touched his shoulder. “Even with youth and inexperience against you, there’s no better person to lead them away from here. If the last living priest does not take up the burden of leadership, no one else will.”
“But where do we go?”
“South, to join the others.”
“I don’t understand.”
Jack cleared his throat. “Not everyone entered the caskets. Some stayed outside––those are the people you call ‘founders.’ Another group led by Greg Allen decided to risk a trip through fallout and the virus to another base. That’s where the actual Project Hyperion was to get off the ground. Here, we only worked on support machinery like the cold-sleep tech and the implants. The base in New Mexico had all the voodoo and hoo-doo, like we used to say.”
“Do you think anything’s still there?”
“It was a special place, and important enough for Greg and his team to risk their lives,” said Parvati. “Something will have survived. Even if it is the tiniest fragment of hope, it’s what your people need to pull together.”
Wilson lifted his chin and closed his eyes. The feathery ice touched his face and melted, then rolled down his face like tears of freezing water. He finally wiped his eyes and cheeks and looked down at the valley.
“Let’s do it.”
Badger hugged him around the waist. “Don’t worry––we’ll get through this.”
Jack shook Wilson’s hand in the old way––the firm and bare-handed style of the founders.
“She’s right, kid. Galactic Spaceport, here we come!”
END
Author’s Note
Thanks for purchasing my book! I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to future books in the series.
I love connecting with readers so feel free to stop by my website, Goodreads profile, or Facebook page:
dreamwidow.com
agirlcalledbadger.com
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter @stevecolegrove
Best wishes,
Steve Colegrove
Table of Contents
Copyright Information
The Story So Far (A Synopsis of Book One)
Map of Station and the Valley
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
Author’s Note