And so we couldn’t stay, because we had to go. It was as simple as that.
Maybe that was why it was so easy, on the third night, to look around the campfire and see reflected in each other’s eyes the decision we had all made.
The day of our departure dawned pale and drab as always. People rose, bundled their packs, secured the shoulder straps. The little kids played hide and seek behind the few boulders and scatterings of scrub brush this place afforded them. I heard Keely shout, “Ready or not, here I come!” Aleka circulated through camp, silently approving our work. I watched her slim figure pass among the survivors, gray as a shadow, gray as a stone. Over the past three days, I’d seen a surprising number of items we were supposed to have disposed of coming out of packs—the slippers, the bunny book, the doll’s head—but when I asked her about it, she just smiled and walked away.
She and I hadn’t spent much time together since Laman’s funeral. Unofficially, she was now the leader of Survival Colony 9, and she had better things to do than chase after me. We’d kept our relationship quiet, maybe waiting for the right moment to go public, maybe giving it time to sink in. Good news arrived so seldom in this world, it made sense to savor what little we had.
But there were still lots of questions I wanted to ask her. About my past. The power that protected me. My father. My brother. Myself. She probably couldn’t answer all of them. Still, it felt good to know that I had someone to ask.
Now she came over to my spot, where I lay fully dressed but still covered by a blanket, enjoying a few final moments of laziness, or rest, or remembrance.
“Ready to go?” she asked.
“In a minute.”
“You know what today is.”
I shook my head.
“We don’t keep track of them as well as we should,” she said. “But I wanted you to know I haven’t forgotten.”
She handed me a cloth-bound package. I plucked at the twine that held it together, peeled back the wrapping. She watched, the ghost of a smile touching her lips.
The package contained a book. But unlike the bunny book, this one appeared homemade. Its cardboard cover was charred and wrinkled, smelling both musty and pungent. Loops of string loosely bound the whole. When I opened to the first page, I saw a picture of a baby, a charcoal drawing. Thumbprints smeared the image and the edges of the page had been eaten by time, but I had no doubt who it was. Its huge, soft eyes stared back at me across the years, years I couldn’t remember, years I might never get back.
I flipped through the rest of the crumbling pages. They were all blank.
“I wasn’t able to keep it up,” she said apologetically. “But happy birthday, Querry.”
She brushed hair from my eyes. It seemed as if she was about to say something more, but she only smiled. Then she turned and walked off to supervise the others.
I tucked the book away with Matay’s pocketknife and lay on my back, hands behind my head, staring into the wide open sky.
How much memory, I wondered, does it take to make a life? The oldest member of our colony had over seventy years worth, the youngest member fewer than six. I owned no more than a tenth of his memories. But the ones I did have, were they enough? Me and Laman playing catch. Me and Korah sitting by the pool. Me and Aleka daring a rescue. Me and Keely marching through the dead of night. I remembered loss, and fear, and pain, and some small amount of joy. I remembered others. I remembered me.
And I remembered what Laman had told me, what he’d told all of us. Life, he’d said that day in the compound, isn’t a penance for the past. Life isn’t about looking back. It’s about looking ahead.
So much had changed since then, I could hardly believe he’d said it just over a week ago. I hadn’t remembered that today was my fifteenth birthday, but it seemed like a good day to begin to live the lesson he himself couldn’t always live.
What I would find in the days ahead I couldn’t guess. Maybe I’d find the world of dust and ruin endless, the monsters we’d struggled to slay in pursuit of us still. I might find that my memory had vanished for good. Or, worst of all, I might find that there was nothing left to find.
But I had found a mother. I had found a family. I had found their faith, and maybe, in time, I would find the strength to make it mine. I might find there was still life, and hope, and beauty in the world. I might find a friend. I might even find myself.
So I’d go with the survivors of Survival Colony 9, be with them, live with them, fight with them. I’d let no enemy steal what was best about us, the love that made us strong. I’d do what I could to make sure what we had lasted. Though if it came to that, I’d die with them, too.
But I wouldn’t lead them. I wouldn’t pretend I had all the answers. I’d find another way, my own way. I’d be who I was. Whoever I was.
Querry.
That was the name my mother had given me, the name of the child in the baby book. But I had another name too, and I’d carry it in honor of the man who had willed it to me.
Querry Genn.
I tried the name on my tongue. For the first time, it sounded right.
“My name is Querry Genn,” I said to the stillness of the newborn world.
Then I rose to meet the dawn.
About the Author
Joshua David Bellin has been writing books since the age of eight (though his first few were admittedly very, very short). When he’s not writing, he spends his time drawing, catching amphibians, and watching monster movies with his kids. A Pittsburgh native, Josh has taught college English, published three nonfiction books (one about monsters!), and taken part in the movement to protect the environment. You can find him online at JoshuaDavidBellin.com. Survival Colony 9 is his first novel.
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MARGARET K. McELDERRY BOOKS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Joshua David Bellin
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Book design by Sonia Chaghatzbanian and Irene Metaxatos
Photo-Illustration and jacket design by Sonia Chaghatzbanian
The text for this book is set in ITC Stone Sans Std.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bellin, Joshua David.
Survival Colony 9 / Joshua Bellin.—First edition.
p. cm.
Summary: Querry Genn, a member of one of the last human survivor groups following global war, is target
ed by the monstrous Skaldi, although Querry has no memory of why.
ISBN 978-1-4814-0354-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4814-0356-6 (eBook)
[1. Space colonies—Fiction. 2. Memory—Fiction. 3. Monsters—Fiction. 4. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.B41463Sur 2014
[Fic]—dc23
2013034595
Contents
* * *
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
About the Author
Survival Colony 9 Page 25