Reentry

by Heather Carson

  “One of the guards said we get a new announcement today,” Becca whispered. Katrina saw that the back wall of the gym was lined with more guards than there were the previous morning. Lt. Bayer stood in the center of a group of men. He smiled at her when she caught his eye and she quickly looked away as she reached for James’ hand. James looked at her quizzically and she shook her head as they made their way to the seats.

  The music played and the flag waved across the screen. A young woman with curling red hair tied back in a ponytail stood on the deck of a ship in port. There were green mountains in the background. Hawaii maybe? Or New Zealand? Katrina strained to make them out. It’s definitely an island somewhere, she thought.

  The woman spoke with a heavy British accent. “Good morning our lovely dandelions. Today is a day for the history books. As of this morning, we have received word that over 75% of the earth has been cleared by our strategically placed military units. We have cleaned up most of the continent formally known as Asia and well as portions of what was Africa and most of the old North American and South American continents. New zones are being marked clear hourly.”

  She paused to smile while the translator caught up. “The weather has also shifted faster than we anticipated. In many places, the most dangerous of the fallout is dissipating at astronomical rates. Phase one of our plan was to keep you all safe because you are our future. I am happy to announce that very soon, phase two will begin. This phase will be reentry. I promise there will be more information in the coming days. Soon you will be on the surface and we can get you settled into your new lives under the World Republic. These lives will be rich in community and secure under the new order.” The woman was practically bouncing out of her skin with excitement. “Sources tell us that the rest of the old North America and most of Europe should be cleared by the end of the week. Your time to bloom is coming soon little dandelions.” The projection ended.

  Katrina looked around the room. The other kids sat stone faced staring at the blank screen. A few of the guards began to furiously whisper to one another. Lt. Bayer smacked his baton against the wall and all the guards jumped to attention.

  Lt. Bayer smiled as he walked to the center of the room. He stopped to pat Lark on the back before he addressed the kids. “Celebrate, dandelions.” He clapped his hands together. “You are getting out of here soon.”

  The teens began to dutifully clap. Katrina moved her hands in the motion but didn’t make a noise. She glanced over to see Dr. C leaning against the wall near Tunnel 2. Dr. C looked pale as she slowly clapped along. Katrina looked back to see all the guards gathered together in the common room. The room spun into sharp focus as the plan to escape came to her. She just had to work out the details.

  A laugh escaped her lips. James looked at her like she was crazy as the room continued to clap.

  *

  Ethan went with Dreya, Becca, and Katrina to speak with the last four kids from the tech group who didn’t want to fight back. The boys followed Ethan out of their room and into the tunnel.

  “It’s not happening Becca,” Byron said as he entered the hall. “Did you hear that this morning? We will have nowhere to go. They are taking over the planet.”

  “We do have somewhere to go,” Dreya smiled but Paul cut her off.

  “We’ve already heard about your paradise,” he said. “It won’t work. Even if they don’t track us there, they have drones. I’m sure they also have control of at least one satellite. They would find us eventually. The smart thing to do is to play by their rules. They are the ones winning.”

  “They are lying,” Katrina said in exasperation. “Did you see how the guards reacted to the news? They are confused because that isn’t what they were told. That chic was flat out lying. There is no way they could clear that much of the earth that fast. And all of Asia? You think they could clear the Himalayas in one month? No freaking way. They just want us to think they are winning.”

  “Still,” Nico said. “What’s the point in fighting? It is safe here. It might not be safe out there. Do you really want to take your chances going against them? It’s suicide.”

  “But it is a slow painful half-existence if we stay here,” Dreya said. “Other shelters have already risen up. If we all do it then we can kill their plans. We can prove that we aren’t the easily manipulated kids that they think we are. We can live and die by an idea greater than ourselves, the idea of freedom. The right to freedom and being able to live the life you want. Screw what this government tells you is safe. How do you want to live? What do you think is worth fighting for?”

  Simon laughed. “Well I sure as hell don’t want to die for an idea. I’ll tell you that.” The other boys started chuckling and Dreya’s cheeks flushed.

  Ethan cleared his throat. “We are going to die someday guys. We might as well not go down as cowards.”

  Simon stopped laughing to look at him. “Give us a while to talk. We’ll get back to you.”

  *

  The dinner packets arrived in Room 3.

  “We never got chicken fajitas before,” Jayden exclaimed as he ripped into the bag. “This is exciting.”

  Katrina laughed. “Calm down. Seriously. You aren’t going to like what you find.”

  Jayden’s eyes were sad as he looked up at her. “Man. Why do you have to crush my dreams?”

  “Well the tortillas aren’t that bad,” Katrina winked as she sat down next to James on the floor.

  Ethan walked through the doorway smiling as Dreya handed him his food. “The tech guys are in,” he said and sat down to join his roommates for dinner.

  Chapter 21

  Katrina crept to the bathroom after lights out and James closed the door behind them. “I have a plan,” she said as she sat on the counter. “Tell me what you think.”

  James sat on the floor across from her. “Let’s hear it.”

  “We need to get all the guards down here. We need to trap them all in this coffin and then we can leave.”

  “That’s a good idea,” James said. “But it will never work. There are fifty guards up there. They wouldn’t be dumb enough to all come down.”

  “Maybe not. But if we can get a bunch of them in here then we will stand a chance.”

  “What happens when they call in reinforcements?” James asked.

  “We are in the middle of the desert. It will take hours for anyone to get here,” she smiled. “And we know the back roads out.”

  “Okay,” James nodded. “This could possibly work. How do we keep them inside? They disengaged the locks. And how do we get us all out?”

  “During the movie.” Katrina jumped off the counter. “A lot of them will already be down here. We overwhelm them, take their guns, and restrain them. We’ll take their radios and call for help. Then more will come down. We will be hiding in the bathrooms and when they run in, we will run out. We’ll tie off the doors with sheets.”

  “And what do we do when we get to the surface?” James raised his eyebrows.

  “Geez, do you expect me to think of everything?” she smiled. “We need to rush them in the confusion and steal some trucks. I also need to come up with some sort of distraction during the movie.”

  James laughed. “I’ll take care of the distraction. It is the least I can do.” He stood up and took her hand into his. “You know this is a stupid plan, right? We should just escape. It would be harder to track just the two of us. We might actually stand a chance.”

  Katrina gazed into his eyes. “If you would have talked to me a month ago, I would have said the same thing. Except it is different now. There is, I don’t know, an idea I am fighting for. I have to at least try and do the right thing here.”

  “I know,” he smiled. “If we ever do make it to the cabin though, I want you to know that I want more.” James leaned down and kissed her on her jawline sending chills into her stomach and causing her heart to race.

  “Me too,” she whispered as he pulled away and held the bathroom door open for them.<
br />
  *

  Katrina woke before the lights came on in the morning. Ethan’s snores echoed through the room and she heard the steady breathing of the rest of her roommates. She pulled the wool blanket up to her chin and touched where James had kissed her last night. She groaned as she rolled to her side.

  What do I want? She asked herself. I want more answers. I want to talk to my dad, or do I now? Do I want to find out he had a part in all of this? I want to know why he left me here. I want to get to the cabin. I want James. She smiled at the dream she had been holding of them living peacefully together in the mountains. Maybe they’d have a family someday. She never really wanted kids before, but maybe.

  Katrina turned onto her stomach. If she wanted that, why didn’t she just stay here? It was what this new world wanted her to do. Except, they weren’t giving her a choice. They weren’t giving anyone a choice. They took away their free will and expected them to just fall in line for this new world because of what some scientist said about this stupid dandelion gene.

  She didn’t want to do that. Above all else, she didn’t want to just roll over and die. Didn’t want to let someone else dictate the life she would live. The right thing to do was to fight back and to help the others fight back too.

  The lights blared as Nanny’s voice came over the loudspeaker.

  Day 32 in the shelter.

  Chapter 22

  During health class, Dreya whispered the plan to Becca who took it all in smiling. Katrina watched Dr. C glance over at the girls, but she said nothing as they talked. During hygiene time, Katrina stripped the sheets from the beds and stacked them in the bathroom shower. Mia followed her anxiously.

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” she asked.

  “It’s the best plan I have right now,” Katrina smiled at the girl. “I sure hope it does.”

  *

  The lights dimmed as Spiderman played on the projector screen. Katrina silently tapped her foot on the ground. There were twelve guards leaning against the walls watching the movie as the opening scene played. Three had radios and only two carried rifles. James leaned down to whisper to Jayden and both boys stood up. Katrina inhaled deeply to steady her breath.

  “Hey man,” Jayden called out as he walked over to Lark. “Yeah you. Get up weasel. I heard you were harassing my girl the other day.” James walked beside Jayden.

  “What?” Lark said standing as he looked over to Dreya. Anthony and Brett also stood. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “We aren’t playing that game this time,” Jayden closed the distance between the two of them. “You said you were a real man, huh? Well let’s see you fight like one.” Jayden shoved him.

  “Hey,” one of the guards shouted. “Sit down and watch the movie or we are sending you all to bed.”

  “You hear that?” Jayden asked. “He said sit down.” Jayden pushed Lark again and he fell into the bleachers. Lark stood back up and Jayden cold punched him right on his healing nose. Katrina could hear the crunching noise vibrate through the gym over the sounds of the movie.

  Anthony and Brett lunged. James and Jayden began to wrestle them.

  “Knock it off,” the guard yelled as the rest of the men came running forward. One guard reached for his radio and Katrina rushed toward him. The room came alive as the kids jumped from the bleachers and tackled the guards. Katrina grabbed the radio from the guard’s hand as Dreya and Becca jumped on him. She turned to see the other kids had ripped away the guns and two remaining radios without a shot being fired.

  Dreya directed the kids to tie the guards along with Lark and his friends to the bleachers. Once she had given everyone enough time to get back to their rooms, she walked over to Lark. She held the radio out toward him. “Tell them everything is okay,” she whispered. He nodded and she pressed the button for him to speak.

  “Lt. Bayer,” Lark said calmly as he looked in her eyes. “There has been an uprising. We need immediate assistance. Help!” She clicked off the radio and Lark smiled smugly before spitting on her feet.

  “That was great,” she smiled at him. “You did exactly what I thought you would. Thanks for all your help.” The remainder of Room 3 ran down their tunnel to sit in the bathroom and wait.

  *

  Katrina heard the boots of the guards running through the room. It sounds like four men, she thought. If they sent down four men to each tunnel there wasn’t many on the surface left.

  When the guards entered the hall, Jayden and Ethan ran over to secure the door shut. Dreya and Katrina ran to the exit. “Stay behind us Mia!” Dreya shouted as she charged up the tunnel. Katrina stayed on her heels as they sprinted up the steps.

  They came up onto the surface of the earth and Katrina saw the heads of kids emerging from all six of the tunnels. The remaining guards began to fire, and a rubber bullet hit Katrina in the shoulder. She was knocked back into James and he helped her out of the hole and onto the ground. Dreya charged a guard and managed to get his rifle from him. James looked Katrina over quickly and then took off running with Jayden to find more of the guards.

  Katrina climbed to her feet while holding her left shoulder. The kids had all gotten out and the guards were outnumbered. They were getting them, she thought. She ran behind the central partition to get to the office and found Dr. C sitting behind a desk. They locked eyes.

  “Keys,” Katrina said. “We need keys to the trucks over there.”

  “Take the Humvees,” Dr. C told her. “They don’t need keys.”

  “They aren’t fast enough,” Katrina shook her head. “We need to go fast.”

  Dr. C nodded. “Wait here. I’ll go get them.” She darted behind the screen. Katrina rubbed her bruised shoulder anxiously for what felt like an eternity.

  Dr. C finally reappeared holding three sets of keys. “These are all I could find.” She handed them to Katrina.

  “Thank you for being kind.” Katrina turned to leave.

  “I’m sorry sweetheart. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Get out of here as fast as you can.”

  Katrina ran back to the fight. James lifted the butt of a rifle and knocked out a guard. Dreya and Mia were tying another guard to the poles. No one was firing anymore. She let out a long whistle and held up the truck keys.

  “Ethan!” Willow screamed as she dropped to the ground and lifted his limp body from the dirt.

  “Help me carry him to the trucks,” Becca called out. “We need to get out of here.”

  Katrina’s eyes met with James’. He smiled at her and nodded. They did it, she thought, they actually freaking did it. Katrina smiled ear to ear as she turned to run to the trucks to get them started.

  Once she cleared the tents, she saw a stream of headlights coming down the dirt road kicking up a field of dust in their yellow beams. Katrina turned to look back at James.

  Lt. Bayer grabbed her by the neck and put his cold revolver against her temple. She quickly tossed the keys to Dreya. “Go!” Katrina screamed. “Go now!”

  “Go where?” Lt. Bayer laughed. “You kids sure picked a bad night for an uprising. That’s the new unit coming in right now to replace us. In a few seconds, there will be double the amount of guards here than on any other day. Silly girl.” He pushed his forehead against Katrina’s cheek. “I expected better from you,” he whispered.

  Katrina threw her head to the side to smack it into his face. He laughed as he rubbed his chin and tightened his grip on her neck until she passed out.

  Chapter 23

  Katrina came back to consciousness hearing Dreya scream at the guards. The kids were all zip tied to the main poles that held up the tent structure. Katrina tried to free her arms, but she couldn’t move her shoulder.

  “You can’t control us,” Dreya shouted. “You can’t keep us locked up against our will. This isn’t fair. We deserve a chance to decide our own fate!”

  “You are getting the world handed to you on a silver platter little girl. Yet you are still complaining,”
a short man with greying hair said as he stood next to Lt. Bayer surrounded by a group of new guards. “I thought this dandelion gene thing made them passive and easy going.”

  “Well you got that wrong,” Dreya spat. “Dandelions are weeds. You can’t make us stop and you can’t kill us. We are stronger than you.”

  Stop it, Dreya. Stop, stop, stop, Katrina thought as her head cleared.

  “Is this the leader then?” the grey-haired guard said as he lifted her to her feet. “Get her out of here. She is someone else’s problem now.”

  “No!” Mia screamed as they threw Dreya onto the ground and twisted her arms behind her back. “Leave my sister alone you assholes!” Mia struggled against her restraints. “Let me go. Let me go with her.”

  “Shut up,” the grey-haired man pointed at Mia. “I’m done playing with you kids. Your sister chose her fate.”

  Dreya pushed her chin into the dirt on the ground to turn her head as she looked for Katrina. Once they secured her hands and feet, two men lifted her up. “Take care of her,” Dreya whispered. Katrina nodded with tears in her eyes as they carried Dreya away to the trucks.

  *

  Katrina was fully alert as she looked around to the faces of the other kids sitting on the ground while tied to the poles. The flood lights under the tent illuminated the guards in the center. Ethan sat propped against the wall looking around. Across from them, half hidden in the dark, sat James staring at her. She watched the relief cross his face when he saw her focus on him.

  Jayden was trying to reason with the guards. “You can’t take her away sir. It was all of us that decided to act. There wasn’t a central leader.”

  “Shut up kid,” the grey hair man said.

  “Listen…” Jayden pleaded.

  “General Edwards told you to shut up,” Lt. Bayer shouted. “Now is the time for you to listen.” Jayden closed his mouth as he glared at Lt. Bayer. Mia’s cries fell softer. The guards were released from the shelter and the rest of the new guards came marching over from their vehicles.