power on the ground behind him.
High in the trees, swaying through the smog, came something
that must have been fifty feet tall. The creature must have been
the queen of the pack. She was laser focused on the ensuing
battle and didn't notice the tiny presence of Edgar as she
passed by, but Edgar got a good look as she rumbled past. He
couldn't see any legs, only the long, loose neck lolling back and
forth. At the end of the neck was a beak that looked for all the
world like a ten-foot spike. A wide helmet of rocky bumps that
ran down the whole length of its wobbling neck surrounded the
back of the queen's head. Two red slits for eyes pierced the
smog as if they were lit from the inside.
Edgar watched as the sharp hammerhead rocked back lazily on
the round weight of the head and then-- FOOOSH! --shot down
with staggering speed. A sound of screaming pain ripped
through the forest.
The queen's head lolled heavily back into the air. In the maw of
the beast was a gigantic skewered and squirming Cleaner, its
legs flailing and clicking in shadow as Edgar looked on in
disbelief.
Keep going! Edgar spurred himself on. Get away from here!
Edgar's emotions got the better of him and he sobbed and
coughed, jumping from tree to tree in search of an escape from
the forsaken wood. The sound of violence grew softer until he
was far enough away that he felt confident he was alone. The
creatures who ruled this place seemed to be at war with one
another, all of them at once involved in the fight so that the rest
of the wood was surprisingly calm.
Edgar's arms ached and he felt grimy with slime from all the
bugs that had crawled along his skin. He could feel blood
dripping from more than one place on his head and face from
crashing into tree trunks over and over again.
By the time he scurried to the ground, something new was
already on the approach--he could hear it--but it wasn't like
anything he'd heard before.
What new monster have you unleashed on me now? he
wondered bitterly, wiping his eyes dry and thinking of Dr.
Harding. Adventure on a dying planet was not as appealing as
he'd imagined from the safety of Atherton.
"I can't go back up there," said Edgar. He had been lucky not to
fall, but jumping really wasn't his greatest strength and he knew
he had already been pushing his luck. One wrong move and he
could fall and become seriously injured. And then what would
he do?
And so Edgar ran as fast as his legs would carry him. The
sound behind him was somehow even more threatening than
the idea of coming face-to-face with a Cleaner, because he'd
never heard it before. His imagination conjured up a giant
creature with many teeth and swordlike claws.
Edgar kept going, dodging between trunks until the trees
disappeared unexpectedly. He stopped short but not fast
enough, tumbling over and into one of the holes he'd seen on
the glowing blue map.
He free-fell, but not as far as he thought he would. After about
thirty feet he found that something broke his fall. It was a net of
some kind, covering the hole like a soft, sunken lid.
Edgar struggled to make his way to the edge so he could climb
out as quickly as possible, certain that it was home to the giant
creature he's seen hammer its spiked head into a Cleaner.
When he reached the top and peeked over, he came face-toface with what had been following him.
"You've wandered into a very dangerous place."
Shelton had followed the instructions of Commander Judix and
took the search team out at dawn in search of children. What a
brilliant stroke of luck to find a child in one of the traps!
"Who are you?" asked Edgar, lowering himself down on the
wall and thinking of how he might escape. Whoever stood
above him was wearing some sort of mask that made him
sound like he was talking from the back of a cave. He had
goggles on as well, so that his face was completely obscured.
By the looks of him, Edgar couldn't be at all sure the figure was
human.
"I'm Shelton," said the man. "There's a place I can take you
that's safe. It's inside, away from the smog and the monsters.
And there's food and water."
"I'd rather stay here," said Edgar. He didn't like the sound of
Shelton's voice. It reminded him of the way people had talked in
the Highlands, as if Edgar was stupid and they could trick him.
The man looked back over his shoulder and two others came
alongside, whispering in their weird voices.
"Get out of there," said Shelton, looking down at Edgar. "The
Spikers are headed this way. We can't stay."
"Spikers?" said Edgar, aware that Shelton was probably talking
about the hammerheaded things he'd seen in shadows.
"Trust me, you don't want to be out here alone when they show
up."
"Where would you take me?" said Edgar, reaching for clues to
what sort of circumstance he'd stumbled into.
"It's called the Silo," said Shelton. "You may have heard of it.
There are people who will take care of you."
Shelton could see he had finally struck on something that was
likely to get things moving. He couldn't have known that he'd
used the one word that would get Edgar into the armored
transport.
Edgar scurried up the side of the hole with amazing speed and
dexterity.
"How do we get there?"
"You're a good climber!" said Shelton, betraying his happiness
at having found a healthy child in the forsaken wood. "That will
come in handy at the Silo. Do you happen to know how old you
are?"
Edgar didn't answer. The question sounded loaded with
meaning he didn't comprehend.
"No matter," said Shelton. "We can figure it out later." Shelton
moved to the side and Edgar saw the transport team for the first
time. Through the haze sat a machine. There was something
about it that scared Edgar almost as much as the sound coming
toward them. Edgar didn't like the idea of getting inside of it. It
was all metal and rust, big and loud like a monster in its own
right.
"We really must be going," said Shelton, trying to move Edgar
along by placing a hand on his back and giving a little shove
toward the armored transport. The boy wouldn't budge. Shelton
leaned down and stared at Edgar. "You've arrived in the worst
place on earth. I can get you out of here and take you
someplace safe, but we have to leave right now. "
Before Edgar could protest any further two men grabbed him,
one on each side, and hauled him up off his feet.
"We're getting out of here!" said one of them. "And we're not
coming ever again. You can tell Commander Judix we're
through!"
The two men dragged Edgar forward onto a ramp as he yelled
to be let go.
"Quiet, you!" said the man on Edgar's other side. "You'll get us
all killed."
Once inside the transport the ramp lifted
with a whish of air and
shut Edgar inside. The two men moved forward to the front and
Shelton stayed with Edgar in the back. All three of the men
removed their goggles and masks.
"You'll like the Silo," said Shelton, trying but failing to hide his
fear of what was coming. He moved past Edgar toward the front
and screamed. "Move this thing! They're almost here!"
The transport lurched forward loudly on a grinding circular shaft
below. It was more like a tank than a truck, and it barreled over
dead trees as it gained speed. Edgar felt like he was inside the
belly of a monster and it had begun to move, to take him
someplace and digest him.
"You tricked me!" cried Edgar. "This thing is alive!"
"What do you mean, alive? It's a machine, you stupid boy," said
Shelton. Now that he had Edgar in his grasp it was best to hate
him. It would be easier to give him up to Grammel later. "And
stop fussing so much. You're almost more trouble than you're
worth."
Edgar looked around the space for an escape. He was about to
leap for the closed door to see if he could get it open when
Shelton stepped in front of him.
"Sit down and stop thinking up dumb ideas," said Shelton,
pointing some sort of weapon in Edgar's face. "We're not out of
danger just yet."
The ride was very bumpy inside--nothing like riding the Raven-and Edgar banged his head more than once. There were four
Cleaners, all of them twenty feet long or better, chasing the
transport out of the forsaken wood. They reached the edge and
the Cleaners hesitated, as if beyond the edge of the wood lay
some hidden danger. The moment the transport was free of the
trees, Shelton screamed into a device he held to his face.
"Turn it on! Now! Turn it on!"
Edgar heard the sound of at least two Cleaners screaming from
outside. They had come up against something neither they nor
a Spiker could overcome. Not even the queen Spiker could
make her way past whatever energy protected Station Seven,
the Silo, and the beach these structures stood on.
Shelton glanced out the inch-thick glass of the armored
transport front window. He sighed deeply, knowing they'd
narrowly avoided letting a monster out of the woods and onto
the beach. He wondered how long it would take Cleaners and
Spikers to get inside Station Seven if the energy for the shield
ran out.
He didn't think it would take long.
CHAPTER 13INTO THE SILO
"Bring him to the usual place and we'll come right out and get
him," said Red Eye. As he placed the receiver against the wall,
Socket walked over to investigate.
"New one coming in?" Socket asked, genuinely surprised. It
had been quite a while since anyone had been brought to the
Silo. He had gotten in the habit of lying awake at night, rubbing
his pulsing eyes, and wondering just how many people were
left on the Dark Planet.
"What is it, a boy or a girl?" Socket wiped a finger across both
goggle lenses, which did nothing to clear his sight. His eyes
itched fiercely behind the glass.
"A boy--and they think he might be 4000 or better. Said they
couldn't get a good reading for some reason. I'm in no mood for
trouble, I can tell you that."
Red Eye's head was stil pounding as he glanced across the
drying room floor and scowled at Aggie.
"Get your head down! This doesn't concern you," he yelled.
Aggie and Teagan began tamping once more, but Teagan
couldn't help but whisper while they worked.
"Did you hear that?" asked Teagan. "They've found a boy."
"How could I miss it?" Aggie flinched as she moved to a
different drying bed, kicking pockets of white dust off the floor.
"At least those two will be busy this morning. Maybe they won't
bother us."
"I wonder how old this boy is and what kind of shape he's in."
"Prepare for the worst," said Aggie. She was aware of how
easily Teagan got her hopes up. "Chances are he's been out
there a long time. You know how they are when they come in
like that."
They both knew what happened when children stayed outside
too much--hollow eyes, pale skin, difficulty staying still. Kids like
that were usually moved out of the Silo the day they turned
4200. The older boys could be especially difficult to handle and
often didn't last more than a few months.
"It looks like Socket didn't hold anything back this time," said
Teagan. The girls wore olive green shorts and sleeveless shirts
like all the other children in the drying unit that day. There were
long red lines across the backs of Aggie's legs and over her
arms. They'd given her lashings on every limb.
"I'm fine. It's just so hot down here," said Aggie, running her
dusty hand across the stubble of blond hair on her head. "This
room makes every thing hurt more."
"SHUT--YOUR--MOUTHS!" screamed Red Eye. He was in a
horrible mood even by his own standards and couldn't bear to
hear the annoying voices of children who should be working.
The very idea of a new recruit--a disruptive 4000 boy, no less-gave him a raging head ache.
Red Eye and Socket made their way to the riser that ran
through the middle of the drying room, located on the bottom
level of the Silo, where the white powder was finished. When
Socket walked past Aggie, he leaned down and yelled at her so
everyone could hear.
"If this here bin's not empty, you're not going to the barracks."
He laughed and wiped his goggles uselessly again, looking at
his brother for approval.
"Come on then," said Red Eye. "Let's get out of this heat and let
them work."
The two men clanged onto the platform and held on. A moment
later the platform rose on a hydraulic tube and they were gone.
"I hate them," said Teagan. "I wish I could get one of those
benders and give 'em some of their own medicine."
"We all hate them, but there's not much we can do about it."
The voice had come from a boy among them named Vasher,
who was working at a drying bed alongside a younger boy
named Landon. Both had tightly cropped hair and the same
olive green shirts and shorts as Aggie and Teagan. They were
skinny like all the other boys with dark-ringed eyes and ashen
skin crying out for a sunny day. The four of them--Vasher,
Landon, Aggie, and Teagan--were the green team, one of four
teams that worked in the Silo. They always worked together
during the day, then parted at night to separate girls' and boys'
barracks.
"They'll put him with us in place of Ramsey," said Landon. The
four glanced at each other in silent agreement that this was
possible. It had been ninety-one days since they'd taken
Ramsey, the former fifth member of the green team. Vasher
would be the next to go, then it would be Aggie's turn. It was
something none of the remaining four liked to talk about. They
didn't know where children went when they left the Silo. Only
that they never c
ame back.
"Let's just keep working. It won't do any good to slow down,"
said Teagan, thinking of Aggie and how she wanted her to rest
as soon as possible. Both boys nodded their agreement. They
talked nervously about the new boy and what he would be like.
Would he be older and meaner?
All four members of the green team had come from a sprawling
compound fifty miles down the beach. Tens of thousands of
people lived there, many of them orphaned children, and the
circumstances were so horrific people often wandered off in
search of something better.
"I was thinking of my dad this morning," said Teagan. She cried
about her parents sometimes. "He was a lot like you, Aggie.
Headstrong and confident."
"Do we have to dig all that up again?" said Vasher. He was the
biggest and oldest of the group. "Let's just get the work done so
we can get out of here."
Vasher didn't like all the carrying on about parents. It was the
same story over and over again, and the older he got the more
annoyed he was by it all. Parents left the compound searching
for someplace better and never came back. And when the day
came that kids couldn't wait anymore, they went looking for their
parents--and ended up in the Silo. It had happened to everyone
on the green team.
Teagan wanted to lash out at Vasher, but Aggie looked tired
and sore and she had to admit talking about their parents made
everyone sad and less productive.
Red Eye and Socket rose on the platform and passed through
the main chambers of the Silo. The platform ran the entire
length of the middle of the Silo, from the drying room at the
bottom to the engine room at the top. Red Eye and Socket
ascended through the drying room and emerged on the other
side into a high-ceilinged chamber with vines dangling every
where.
"Faster, you yellows! Faster!" yelled Red Eye at the five
children who were working there, pulling the bender from his
back and whap! whap! whapping! it against the rail of the
platform. "They're catching up down there!"
The sight of the bender sent the working children into a frenzy.
They were all younger than Aggie and Teagan. Picking buds
from the long vines was dangerous, but it was also one of the
easiest jobs in the Silo. When the children got older they were
usually moved to the next level up, which Red Eye and Socket
presently passed into. This was the growing room, where the