Chapter 23 #2
“I’m sure you didn’t come here to tell me that.”
“No, but it’s nice to see. Especially after…you know…Vinco.”
I shuddered at the memory of his wicked knife. Touching the tender area on my throat, I remembered how it could have been worse. “Thanks for saving me.”
“Anytime.” He flashed me another overly-bright smile.
I pushed to a sitting position. “Okay, Riley tell me what’s going on.”
“I found my brother.”
“Wonderful. How—no let me guess. You went to the lower levels with Mama Sheepy and found the man who still had Dada Sheepy.”
“Yep. The Sheepy family is whole again. His name is Blake and he works in the kitchen.” He beamed.
I squinted. “You have more news.”
This time, he shot me a nervous smile. “I was hoping…” He pulled a necklace from his pocket. “We could make a commitment.”
A brief pulse of fear shot through me. “You mean be mates?”
“No. At least, not yet. Our tradition is to give a gift as the first step. Sort of a symbol that we plan to see how well we get along.” He laid the necklace in my palm.
A silver pendant swung from a thin chain. “A sheep?” I asked.
“I thought it appropriate, considering what has happened.”
So much had happened, and Inside would no longer be the same. But the thought of Riley by my side sent a comforting pulse through my body.
“How do I accept?” I asked.
“You wear the necklace.”
I marveled at the detail of the sheep. “Are you sure? You don’t know everything about me—”
“I do know I felt as if Vinco shredded my heart with his knife when I found you in our storeroom, unconscious and bleeding. And leaving you with him in the holding cells was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
” He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close.
“We can take it slow. We have plenty of time.”
He kissed me. A sizzle traveled through me that didn’t stop when he drew back. My mouth tingled.
“Your answer?” he asked.
I kissed him, enjoying the sensation of happiness blooming inside me for the first time. Too soon, we parted.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Riley unhooked the clasp of the necklace. “Another one of our traditions is for me to make the pendant myself, but I had help from Logan and Anne-Jade.” He looped it around my neck then secured it, sweeping my hair out of the way.
I fingered the sheep. “Logan and Anne-Jade? Is it one of their gadgets?”
“Yes, but—” He hurried to add, “it’s inactive. If you ever get into trouble and need help, you can squeeze the pendant and it will send a signal. We can trace the signal to your location and send reinforcements.”
I laughed. “Do you really think it’s necessary now?”
“I may not know everything about you, but I do know if there is trouble, you’ll be in the middle of it.”
He stifled my squawk of protest with another kiss. After a while, I forgot to be mad.
The transition from the Travas controlling Inside to a more democratic method wasn’t smooth.
Even though each family elected a representative and each scrub “family” had a person attending organization meetings, many uppers still viewed the scrubs with suspicion and the scrubs in turn made planning difficult with their distrust and bitterness.
I had hoped to avoid all the political wrangling, but, since I understood both sides, I attended all the meeting to smooth relations.
Even so, we had a long way to go. Overcrowding remained a problem, and a few people resisted the change in their life styles.
Violence erupted on occasion, and Anne-Jade organized a security detail with members of all the families to keep the peace.
Being able to walk the hallways of the upper levels without worry was liberating.
Domotor also enjoyed his freedom from the hideout.
He was busy preaching to everyone to be patient and understanding.
All the Travas had been incarcerated for now.
The Committee would decide their eventual fate. Doctor Lamont had been confined, too.
It was week 147,007, and I had received a message to meet Logan in the control room at hour ten. He had been camped out there since the take-over, using the computers to harvest lost information.
He hunched over a keyboard, muttering and humming under his breath. I touched his arm and he almost jumped from his seat.
“Don’t scare me like that,” he said, waving a hand in front of his face.
“I’m sorry. Should I have bowed and announced my presence first? Have they coroneted you admiral yet?”
“Go ahead and be sarcastic.” He swiveled back to the screen. “I’m not going to tell you—ow! Let go of my ear, I’ll tell you.”
I released his lobe. He rubbed it.
“Logan?”
“All right. I found the answers to those final three files and accessed the information. Outside in something called Outer Space. It’s an airless and pressure less environment unable to support life.”
Sorrow and guilt welled. If we just had waited, Cog wouldn’t be floating out there. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“Sorry. Ah… Well, we are actually traveling through it. Seems it is so vast that it takes an incredibly long time to get from one planet to another.”
“Planet?”
“As far as I can tell, a planet is the real Outside.” He typed on the keyboard. The picture of the blue ceiling and greenery filled the computer’s screen. “This is our destination; we’ve been heading there for the last 147,006 weeks.”
“When are we scheduled to arrive?” But the answer popped into my mind. It’s the end and the beginning. What is it? I looked at Logan.
“Week one million,” we said together.
I groped for a chair. We had 852,994 weeks to go! My head spun as I sat and did more math. A hundred and twenty-two more generations of people would be born, live and die in this metal cube before reaching the true Outside.
“There’s so much to learn about our past and why we’re here,” Logan said. “I’ve just scratched the surface. The Travas tried deleting all the files, but they were protected by the system’s safety guards and buried.”
“The system’s guards? What about the Controllers?”
Logan flipped his hand as if dismissing an underling. “No evidence of them. At least no indication that the Controllers are actual people. It’s the system’s operating parameters and fail safes. Also certain directives have been programmed into it, which were set by the original designers.”
“What directives?”
“Like the one about our population. Once we reach Outside, the designers wanted to make sure we had enough people to survive. These directives couldn’t be changed or altered, so the Travas must have thought they were a divine message.
” Logan chuckled. “Anyway, it’s amazing Domotor found those buried files, and was able to copy parts of them. ”
“It wasn’t Domotor. He was the leader of the group, but Nolan Garrard was the first to find them.”
“Then Garrard was a genius.” Logan tapped a finger on his chair. “Speaking of Garrard, did you want to read your file?”
My file? It took me a moment to remember the file marked with my birth week and hour. “No.”
“But it’s important. Your mother explains her actions. You need to forgive her.”
I glared at him. “She betrayed you, too. We almost lost.”
“Almost. She hadn’t told them everything about our plans. How do you think we rallied?”
“I don’t care. She told them enough. Besides, Karla could have planted the information about my birth parents in the computer. It could be a complete hoax and she’s not related to me at all.”
“There’s a way to prove or disprove the relationship,” Logan said.
“How?”
“Blood test. Those vampire boxes do more than test for pregnancy.”
Logan had overwhelmed me with information. I wondered around in a daze until I was needed for yet another Committee meeting. The uppers and lowers squabbled like children and I wished to be back in the infirmary helping the doctor. Or better yet, to be with Riley in our room.
As I let the discord roll over me, I decided I needed be the Queen of the Pipes for a little while and not worry about blood tests and overcrowding.
Returning to the air shafts, I drew in a deep breath, enjoying the freedom.
I explored more of the upper levels. With the constant threat of being caught by the Pop Cops, I had limited my forays above level four.
Now, I climbed into the Gap and investigated the space between the pipes and the ceiling of Inside.
I sensed there was a missing element. Air shafts and water pipes crisscrossed above the level. No laundry chutes or waste pipes—understandable since both of them go down to level one.
Climbing over a duct, I bumped my head on the ceiling, and realized the missing element was foam. There was no insulating foam. I sat until the pain subsided.
Why wasn’t there any foam? I shone my light on the metal panels, counting rivets. I lost track of time, but I didn’t care, planning to search the entire ceiling.
In the northeast corner, I found a hatch. It resembled the near-invisible hatches that accessed the Gap, but it had a black rubber seal around it.
No keypad. No handle.
Nervous energy coursed through me. This door was different than Gateway. I should leave it alone and tell the Committee I found another hatch. I should didn’t mean I would. Gateway had another inner door, and I couldn’t leave without seeing if this one did, too.
I pushed with my hands. Nothing. Putting more force into it, I tried again. A crackling sounded. I bent over and pressed my shoulders to the hatch, using my legs for added strength.
A slow sucking noise grew louder as I kept the pressure on. Then it popped free. I staggered with surprise. The hatch banged down off to the side as darkness spilled from the opening.
I braced for the ice cold nothing to rob me of air, but only the stale smell of dust reached me. I straightened, poking my head into the space past the doorway.
The semi-darkness stretched up to an impossible height and disappeared into black. It was like Outer Space, but with stale air and walls. Faint bluelight climbed the sides. I hoisted my body onto a floor constructed of metal sheets riveted together just like the rest of Inside.
I walked along, shinning my light. It was a huge empty space. At least, it was empty until my light lit stacks of metal sheets, pipes, equipment, barrels and I-beams. An amazing array of supplies.
In the far southwest corner, were gigantic shelves. The shelves appeared to be half completed levels. I counted them. Six. The space had room for six more levels!
No. A huge expanse loomed above the sixth one.
I knelt on the floor as understanding sucked my breath away.
The builders of Inside knew the journey would be long, and our population would grow.
Above me was plenty of room for us to expand.
No more overcrowding. No more restrictions on the number of children.
We could have large families and privacy. I could have a family.
I pressed my forehead to the cold metal floor, trying not to pass out. With a shaky hand, I grasped my pendant. I squeezed the sheep, sending the signal.
Riley, I thought, bring reinforcements, we’re going to need them.