Chapter 7
SEVEN
When I passed my parents’ beds on my way back to my bunk, I was pleased to find their curtains open. They leaned up in bed, munching on the same kind of sandwiches I had eaten and sipping from bottles of water.
“Hey,” I said softly, reaching out to touch their hands.
Their faces lit up. “Tani!”
“How are you, my darling?” my mother asked anxiously, her eyes raking over me, as though looking for signs of injuries.
“I’m fine,” I replied. “How are you two?”
My father swallowed. “I’ve felt better, I’ll be honest.”
I eyed the support around my mother’s neck worriedly. “What is the damage, exactly?”
“We don’t know,” she replied, her voice coming out raspy.
She took a sip of water. “We only just woke up, about fifteen minutes ago, when a guy came down the aisle, saying we are going to land soon and passing out food and water.” She grimaced, her hand moving to her injured thigh as she shifted position slightly on the bed.
“We fell unconscious on that branch,” my father continued, “and I guess we’ve been out ever since. We weren’t conscious when they wrapped us up like this.” He glanced at the casts enveloping his limbs.
Well, hopefully we’d find out the extent of the damage soon. Anna had mentioned the availability of medical assistance on their islands.
“So, you haven’t seen Bea yet?” I asked.
“We have,” my mother replied.
“Uncle Vance came down to see us about five minutes ago, with her and Jack. They headed back that way.” He pointed toward the direction I’d been heading, toward the bunk Bea and I shared.
“Okay, good. So you know she and the others are safe.”
“Do you know if we lost anyone at all?” my mother asked, her expression growing tense.
My breath hitched at the thought of losing any one of our community.
“I guess we won’t know until we’re all down on the ground,” I managed.
“There are a couple of other ships following us, carrying the rest of our people. They had to move us in shifts because their aircraft aren’t big enough to carry all of us at once. ”
My mother exhaled. “Okay, well, I guess you better go get seated.”
I thought about telling them about the conversation I’d had with Anna, but then her voice suddenly crackled down from somewhere near the ceiling, “All passengers be seated, please! We are landing.”
There wasn’t time now.
I kissed my parents on the forehead and hurried down the corridor.
When I reached my compartment and pushed open the door, my eyes fell on Bea standing in the middle of the corridor. Her cheeks were flushed. She was having some kind of heated debate with our four-year-old cousin, Jack.
“But she could be in trouble!” she exclaimed, her eyes bulging.
“Doesn’t matter,” Jack replied with a little shrug, his tone impressively calm. “My papa said we can’t leave the corridor and need to sit down.”
She drew in a dramatic breath, puffing up her chest, before blowing it out. “Doesn’t matter what your papa said when Tani could be in trouble!” Her hands were sticky with sandwich paste, I realized, as she gesticulated wildly to emphasize her point.
“Well, you can go,” Jack retorted, folding his small arms over his chest defensively.
“But I can’t open the door by myself!” Bea yelled.
I chuckled quietly to myself, and then approached them, before Bea could bust a lung.
“Hey, guys,” I said, grinning as my little sister spotted me. Her face brightened instantly.
“Monkey!” she squealed and rushed toward me.
“Piglet.” I caught her in my arms and held her tightly, kissing the top of her curls, which had long escaped her pigtails and were dangerously close to becoming a jungle.
“Hey, Tani,” Jack murmured, looking rather relieved that he didn’t have to deal with Bea’s nagging anymore.
“Hey,” I said, ruffling his short brown hair.
Jessie and Robert poked their heads out of their bunks as they realized I had returned. Nervous yet relieved smiles spread across their faces.
“You have no idea how scary it was seeing you knocked out like that!” Jessie exclaimed, her tone almost accusatory.
“Yeah,” I said dryly, “that wasn’t exactly part of the plan. How did things go with you, Robert?” I took a seat with Bea.
His sandy brown hair was matted, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he’d been through the mill, but as he shrugged, his expression turned somewhat nonchalant, and I saw a little of the old Robert returning. “Okay, I guess. Managed to help a few people.”
“Ugh, the false humility.” Jessie nudged him in the ribs. “He stayed out even after he’d run out of masks to help people. He was the last into the hall, got twelve people to safety… including Rosalie and her brother,” she added in a lower, gently amused tone.
I caught sight of the siblings sitting on a bunk further along, talking quietly as they sipped water.
“I’m proud of you, man,” I said, truly meaning it.
I felt tears coming to my eyes as I looked into his light blue ones, knowing how much courage it must’ve taken to have ventured out alone into that gas, especially when all of those gunshots started going off.
It had been terrifying enough with Jessie by my side.
The aircraft suddenly jolted downward. My stomach dropped and I felt a strange popping sensation in my ears.
I sealed my lips, willing myself to not throw up my sandwiches.
Bea moaned and fidgeted next to me. A few moments later, a dull shudder ran through the base of the ship and all motion stopped.
Apparently, we had touched down. Where exactly, I didn’t know, since there were no windows within my current view. And Anna had dismissed me before I got a chance to get a glimpse of the “outreach center” which was supposedly hidden behind the mountain.
“Exits are opening up on either end of the ship, so make your way to the nearest one,” Anna’s rich voice crackled down from the ceiling again, making me jump. “The injured will be carried out by medical staff separately.”
“Zina and the others are supposed to be at this place, right?” Jessie asked as we clambered to our feet.
“Yes,” I said, trying not to think “assuming she made it.”
I was anxious to return to my parents and accompany them out, but crew members ushered us all along a fixed path, toward the closest exit, and I had no opportunity to make a diversion.
A brisk, salty breeze caught my hair as we stepped out of our exit and descended a metal staircase.
“Whoa,” Bea gasped in my uncle’s arms.
Our eyes fixed on the sparkling ocean, about fifty feet away from the hard gray platform we had landed on. Behind that was “Founders’ Isle”, the mountain looming more imperiously than I could’ve ever imagined from the air.
I gaped at it as our people continued disembarking from the ship.
It looked like a glittering paradise, with thousands of glass windows catching the sun’s rays, making the whole island shimmer.
The sound of some far-off bell tolling drifted down from the heights, along with a symphony of chirping from birds of all sizes flocking among the lush trees.
Bursts of color caught my eye every now and then, flower bushes lining the gardens of homes, their delicate fragrance reaching us even here, carried down by a gentle breeze.
I studied the architecture around the mountain’s base, slopes and peaks.
The breathtakingly regal structures at the very top were too distant for me to make out details, but I could discern the buildings lower down much better than before; their style striking me as a mix of modern and ancient.
Almost all of them were hewn from some kind of white stone, and low and rectangular in shape—none more than three stories.
That was a sure contrast to Founders’ Fortress, which had to be at least thirty stories high, and who knew how many square feet, as it wrapped all the way around the middle mountain peak.
Classical columns were a running theme among the lower buildings, spanning the porch to the roof, while the glass windows were dark-tinted and so large, they spanned entire walls.
My family and friends were frozen in awe.
This had to be much more of a shock for them.
I hadn’t had a chance yet to fill them in on my conversation with Anna.
Although describing what I’d seen through the binoculars couldn’t come close to preparing them for seeing it in real life. It had hardly prepared me.
As we stood there, overwhelmed, I did my best to summarize for my companions the conversation I’d had with Anna.
“So, this is Founders’ Isle.” My aunt stared at the main island.
“Yeah,” I breathed.
“What’s that?” Bea asked.
My uncle had set her down on the ground and she pointed in the opposite direction—behind us.
I became conscious of our immediate surroundings.
The platform we had landed on was a small artificial island, and Bea was pointing at the only building it contained: a tall, rectangular structure which, compared to the sight across the water, looked completely out of place.
Its pale beige walls moldered at the edges, the glass windowpanes grimy, the wooden window frames looking like they should have been replaced decades ago.
Cracked stairs led up to a double door, whose paint was peeling.
As I gazed beyond the building, I noticed the profile of two, expansive artificial islands across the water in the distance.
This small island we had landed on was apparently some kind of designated space, for landing, and… for guests?
Anna’s words came back to me. “For more settlers, yes—there is space. We just don’t have a lot of room for guests... We have a designated area for guests, with a set amount of resources allotted to it.”
“This is where we stay?” Robert asked, coming to stand beside me. A hard frown settled on his face as he looked at the old building.
“I guess so,” I replied.
“Looks a lot less nice than over there,” my six-year-old cousin Heather remarked.