white powder found its beginning.
Thirty long rows of red bulbs the size of a man's head lined the
floor of the room. Brown leaves fanned out in perfect form,
which children tended and preened. One boy was carefully
picking seeds from the tips of the leaves. A very tiny girl was
trimming an overgrown plant. Two more were tilling the soil.
The vines grew from the bottom of the bulbs, through the floor,
and into the vine room below.
"You there!" said Red Eye, stopping the platform ten feet over a
boy's head. "Stop what you're doing and go help with the
trimming."
"Yes, sir!" cried the rail-thin boy of 3700 days. He came
alongside the small girl at the trimming station and began
carefully tearing bits of yellow off the edges of the otherwise
orange, floppy leaves. The leaves and the seeds were used to
make bars like the one Commander Judix had eaten a few
hours before.
The platform continued on, rising through the planting room and
into the barracks level, where the boys and girls slept. There
were three barracks in all: one for the boys, one for the girls,
and one where Hope cared for the very young children between
1500 and 2500. Only one level remained--the engine room-which was also where Red Eye and Socket slept. No one but
Red Eye and Socket was allowed in the gloom and noise of the
pounding engines.
"We'll take the new boy down to the drying room and put him
right to work with the greens," Red Eye said as the platform
arrived on the barracks level.
"Oh, no, you won't."
Red Eye and Socket whirled around and saw Hope, who had
been standing next to the platform waiting for the new arrival.
They had long grown weary of this meddling lover of cast-off
children.
"I had a feeling we might find you here," said Red Eye. "We've
already placed the boy with the green team. Aggie's been slow
today and they've fallen behind in the drying room. That girl is
getting lazier by the minute."
He smiled, feeling his cheeks push against the bottom of his
goggles.
"I hear Aggie had a beating last night. That true?"
Even with goggles to hide his eyes Socket's expression always
gave him away. "She had it coming. The little monster tried to
blind us!"
"We agreed you'd tel me before disciplining a girl. Did you
forget about that?"
Red Eye laughed and spit sprayed from his mouth. His voice
became grim and mean.
"We don't take orders from you," he said. "You're here by
invitation only."
"She's already more trouble than she's worth," added Socket.
"If it's trouble you want, it's trouble you'll get," said Hope. She
had a steely resolve that put both of the men back on their
heels. They knew the truth: If push came to shove they'd have a
hard time running the Silo without Hope. She had medical
training no one else had. When kids became sick, which
happened a lot, Hope took care of it. As for the little ones--the
snot-nosed, whining little ones!--Red Eye and Socket couldn't
stand them and refused to take care of them. None of the 1500's
would ever become 4200's without Hope's mothering.
"Just stay out of our way," said Red Eye, regaining his
confidence. "The recruits are mine to deal with."
"We'll see about that," said Hope. She put her hand in her
pocket and Socket flinched, cowering behind his brother. Hope
had another reason to be feared, but she almost never used it.
The mere fact of its existence was enough to keep Red Eye and
Socket from going too far.
The first of a two-layered bay door slid open on the outside wall
of the room. This sent all three of them moving quickly down the
hall that separated the two barracks. Hope, who was in the best
health of all of the adults, had no trouble arriving at the bay door
first.
"Do you really need to be here?" asked Hope. "Why not give
me a few minutes to make a proper introduction?"
The two men looked at the door like two hungry lions awaiting
the death of an injured animal. They weren't going anywhere.
The second-layer door slid open and exposed the barracks to
the outside world of the Dark Planet.
"He's late," said Socket, leaning out and staring down toward
the ground. There was a metal grate for a landing. It was rusted
almost clean through and didn't look like it had much chance of
holding Socket's weight.
"I see him!" announced Socket. "He's coming up the ladder."
Moments before, Shelton had opened the door and shoved
Edgar out of the armored transport.
"Up the ladder," he had said, "someone will be waiting for you."
And then, without warning, Shelton had closed the door and
driven away in a plume of flying dirt and rocks.
Edgar had been mesmerized by the sight of the Silo. The beach
on which it sat was not covered in smog like the forsaken wood
had been. Something about the wood had trapped the poison of
the Dark Planet more thickly, but here, closer to the sea, there
was a lonely breeze blowing steady with the burning smell of
oil. He could see the Silo rising tall into the sky, narrow at the
middle, wider at the top and bottom. It was covered in a cake of
rust and decay that flaked off in Edgar's hands and turned
powdery and dry.
"Hurry it up! We can't keep this door open all day," Socket
yelled from above. Edgar had begun climbing the rusty ladder,
taking special care not to grab the rungs that looked like they
might pull free in his hand. He instead chose to hold on to the
rails along the sides to pull himself up.
"He's a strong climber," said Socket, turning back toward Hope
and Red Eye. " Really strong."
"He only wants inside," said Red Eye. "He'll slog off as soon as
there's work to be done. You can count on that." But Red Eye
had no idea what he was dealing with until Edgar crawled
inside the Silo to safety.
Edgar stood up, not the least bit breathless from the effort. As
the door swoosh ed shut behind him he became aware that he
was trapped inside the Silo, the very place of his maker's
childhood.
The three people who stood in front of him were each, in their
own way, surprising to Edgar. There were Red Eye and Socket,
with their wild hair and goggles and benders at the ready,
waiting to whip a new and unpredictable boy into shape. They
were pale and thin, mean and unhappy.
Hope, on the other hand, put him immediately under her spell.
He'd seen dark-skinned people on Atherton before, so that
didn't surprise him. She was tall and lanky and looked down at
him as if her only duty in the world was to take care of him. With
patchy gray hair and big, dark freckles beneath sorrowful eyes,
she was soulfully beautiful in a way that couldn't escape notice
by a frightened boy of twelve from Atherton.
Socket bobbed up and down to get a better look at Edgar
through his cloudy goggles.
"Something's been beating the life out of 'im."
"He's fine," said Hope. Even with the bruises and scrapes from
hitting the trees, Hope could see that there was someone very
special in front of her. "This boy's never been outside."
"Has, too!" cried Red Eye. He'd been thrown outside to fend for
himself as a child and it made him furious to look at this
seemingly perfect creature before him. "Where have you been
hiding, boy? Where? "
Edgar hadn't thought up what to say. In his awestruck encounter
with the Dark Planet it hadn't occurred to him that he might not
look like everyone else.
"You better start talking," said Socket.
Red Eye and Socket had both been thrown out of a compound
at a young age for beating up younger boys, and the thrill of
picking on someone small had never left Socket. "We can get
the information from you whether you want to give it or not."
Socket dragged his bender across the metal wall of the Silo and
it scraped sickly.
"I just... well, I don't really remember where I came from," said
Edgar. "I've been lost for a while."
It was the best lie Edgar could come up with and it didn't even
come close to tricking Hope, but it did seem to work well
enough for Red Eye and Socket.
"Maybe some work will jog your memory," he said. "And there's
plenty of that to be had. Move!"
He stepped aside and guided Edgar to walk in front of him.
"The day is already half over," said Hope. "In a few hours I'll
see you in the barracks. I'll have some food and water waiting
for you, and we'll have a look at those cuts and bruises."
Socket dug down in his greasy pocket and pulled out a bar. "He
can make it a few hours without drinking up all the water and
eating our food," he said, taking a bite.
"Get him Ramsey's old olive greens," Red Eye told his brother.
Socket scurried off and Edgar glanced around the metal
landing, overcome by the idea of Max Harding living in this Silo.
Everything about the Dark Planet was so much worse than he'd
imagined it would be.
Hope knelt next to Edgar again and looked deeply into his
eyes.
"You are something different, aren't you?" she said. She was
especially surprised by his skin and his eyes, which were both
full of life and vibrancy. "Wait until the girls get a look at you."
Edgar smiled awkwardly and Socket came banging down the
metal floor, throwing a green shirt at Edgar.
"About time," said Red Eye, who hated to be kept waiting. "Put
that on and move!"
Edgar was shoved forward onto the round platform, followed by
the two men who had taken him captive. Edgar surveyed every
thing very carefully while he changed his shirt. As they
descended from level to level, he noticed one thing above all
that interested him greatly. All through the Silo there were metal
beams and girders. The ceilings, the walls, even some parts of
the floors on the different levels were crisscrossed with an
endless array of hand-and footholds. This place was made for
climbing.
When they arrived in the drying room Red Eye nearly threw
Edgar off the platform. "He's one of you now," said Red Eye to
the green team. "But don't get used to it. He'll be leaving along
with Vasher in... what is it, Socket? Four days?"
"Four days! Four more days and you're both shipping out. And
we'll get double our reward! Ha!"
Aggie and all the other members of her team were looking at
Edgar slack-jawed, as if they'd never seen a boy before in all
their lives. Edgar didn't look like a person born on a dying,
poisonous planet. They were completely captivated.
By nightfall they would find Edgar even more interesting than
he looked.
CHAPTER 14THE WAY OF THE
YARDS
"I can't believe we're doing this," whispered Isabel. It was very
early in the morning and the crisp, clear light of a new day was
just underway. Dr. Kincaid and Vincent were back at the edge
of Atherton searching for any sign of Edgar, which left the cave
empty when Samuel and Isabel entered.
"We're only going to take a quick look around," said Samuel.
"We don't have to go any farther than that if you don't want to."
But Isabel knew better. Samuel had packed enough food and
water to last for days. He was planning on a big adventure
whether Isabel went along or not.
"Come on," said Samuel. "Don't you want to see if the lock will
open? It's all we've talked about."
Isabel wasn't so sure. "Are you positive it leads away from the
Inferno?"
"Positive," Samuel assured her.
Isabel nodded, more enthusiastic than ever, and the two went
deeper into Dr. Kincaid's cave. The small bag at her side
containing her sling and dried figs made Isabel feel more
confident.
When they reached the back of the cave they found Dr.
Harding's bed. Edgar had woken up right there after falling into
the Flatlands, back in the days when Atherton still had cliffs. It
was the place they had laid Isabel when they'd escaped the
inside of Atherton before. She remembered waking there, the
way her head had felt like it was half filled with sloshing water.
But mostly she remembered how she'd stood at the edge of the
newly formed lake for the first time and felt her heart breaking.
"The last time I did this every thing changed," said Isabel.
"There was a village-- my village--and the grove. When I came
out, the places I loved were all gone."
"You don't want to come back and find things changed a
second time, is that it?" asked Samuel.
That wasn't exactly right, but it was close. Isabel looked over
her shoulder at the growing light of morning seeping into the
cave.
"I am curious to see what we'll find inside. But I worry I'll come
out and find the new grove has been overrun by monsters or the
whole place flooded and destroyed. I think about things like that
all the time."
"Back then there were also dangerous cliffs and Cleaners
crawling every where," Samuel pointed out, walking past the
bed and reaching down toward the round yellow door that was
hidden on the floor of the cave. "You had almost no food or
water and Mr. Ratikan to deal with every day. But those things
are changed for the better now. My entire world is gone. The
Highlands are under water and I'll never see them again. There
was a lot I liked about that place, but I like the new Atherton a
lot better and I don't think it's going to change again. I think this
is the world we're going to live in from now on."
Isabel thought of Edgar and let herself imagine that he was
doing fine and that he would soon return in one piece. Her mind
began to fill with the pending adventure and she knelt down
next to the door.
"Let's get on with it," she said. "They could be back anytime and
we don't want to be caught opening this thing. Can you imagine
what they'd say if they sa
w us?"
Samuel's throat tightened at the thought of missing this chance
and he went straight and fast at the dials on the yellow door.
Eight of them were embedded in the center so that he could
only see half of each spinning dial. There were mil ions of
combinations, but he had the one that would open it memorized
from the wooden tablet.
T-H-E-Y-A-R-D-S
He entered the letters, each of them clicking into place on its
dial, and heard the hissing sound of the round door releasing.
Samuel took the handle in his hand and pulled.
He and Isabel drew in a sharp breath. The yellow door was
open and the inside of Atherton lay in wait. A source of light
was pulsing softly far below.
"It's a long ladder," said Samuel, his voice shaking with
excitement. " Really long."
"You didn't mention that before," said Isabel. She was starting
to wonder whether Samuel was cut out to lead their adventure.
"Vincent carried you on his back when we came out. You were
--"
"I was almost dead, I know," said Isabel.
Samuel took out the tablet. In the dim light of the cave he had to
hold it just right to read it.
"You see this here?" he said, reading four words next to the
etched map. "There will be light."
"So we won't need any," said Isabel. "Like we talked about."
The two had agreed that carrying a lamp or fuel to burn would
be difficult, and it appeared now they wouldn't need it. Samuel
just wanted to make sure Isabel still agreed.
"Then it's settled," he said, putting the tablet back into the pack.
"We'll go down and see for ourselves. If things turn dark we'll
come back."
Isabel got down close to the hole and took the first rung of the
ladder in her hands. She had a pack of her own and it was
awkward creeping over the edge, but she managed it and
began climbing down. Samuel followed, grabbing the inside
handle of the yellow door and pulling it down over them.
"What are you doing?" said Isabel, looking up and seeing
Samuel's feet along with the bottom of the door about to be shut
over them.
Samuel tried to hold the door upright, but it was heavy and from
where he stood, he could only hold on with one hand.
"We don't want them to find it open," said Samuel, struggling to
hold the round door. "And we have the combination now--we
can open it back up whenever we want."