Chapter Thirty Ten Percent
CHAPTER THIRTY
Ten Percent
The gate moved one inch.
The pressure needle dropped half a pound.
Eden watched.
Not enough.
"Again."
Rhett turned the wheel.
His wound reopened.
She saw blood.
"Stop."
"Gauge."
"Rhett."
"Gauge."
She looked.
Two pounds.
Still red.
"Five percent open."
"Need ten."
They turned.
The gate groaned.
Water thundered into the west spill channel.
Blue Vault shook.
The gauge dropped.
Seven pounds.
Eight.
Then stopped.
"Hold."
Rhett released the wheel.
Eden keyed the intercom.
"Sabra. Evacuate."
No answer.
"Sabra."
Static.
Then Sabra's voice.
"Already transmitted."
Good.
Eden hated that she felt relief.
Below, fighting had stopped.
Mina's voice came through a handheld radio.
"Front secure. Rear Tollhouse pulling back west."
"Let them."
Rhett looked at Eden.
She repeated louder.
"Let them evacuate."
Mina paused.
"Understood."
Eden watched the gauges.
Pressure stabilized barely below the red band.
"How long?"
Rhett asked.
"Four hours at this rate."
"Until safe?"
"Six."
He exhaled.
"Camps?"
"Unknown."
Sabra's voice returned.
"First camp received. Second moving. Third no radio."
Eden looked at Rhett.
"Where?"
Sabra gave coordinates.
Rhett knew the land.
"South channel. Thirty miles."
"Flood travel?"
"Two hours minimum."
Eden closed her eyes.
If they waited six hours, reservoir pressure might climb again if the gate jammed.
If they opened farther before the third camp cleared, people could die.
Rhett keyed the intercom.
"What is third camp?"
Sabra hesitated.
"Water repair families. Eleven adults. Six children."
No fighters.
Of course.
Eden's anger rose.
"You put families in a spill channel?"
"It was dry for twelve years."
"That's not an answer."
"It was safe."
Nothing in the wasteland stayed safe because someone had used the word once.
Eden looked at the maintenance schematic.
A second line split from the west spill.
An agricultural branch.
Collapsed?
Unknown.
If opened, it could divert part of the flow north.
"Rhett."
He came beside her.
She showed him.
"Secondary gate."
"Where?"
"Outside the vault. Lower tunnel."
"Operational?"
She looked at him.
He sighed.
"Fine."
They left the main gate at ten percent and went down.
The lower tunnel ended at a rusted wheel buried behind mineral deposits.
Eden scraped the label.
AG-4 DIVERSION.
Rhett laughed.
"Four."
"What?"
"Four bad ideas today."
"Keep counting."
They tried the wheel.
It did not move.
Rhett braced his legs.
Eden joined.
Nothing.
Pax arrived with a tool bag.
"Finally," Rhett said.
The mechanic looked offended.
"I was securing prisoners."
"You're nineteen."
"I'm efficient."
Pax sprayed penetrating oil into the stem and fitted a chain wrench.
Three people pulled.
The wheel moved.
A deep roar changed pitch behind the wall.
Eden ran upstairs.
The west flow gauge dropped.
Agricultural branch pressure rose.
The main reservoir needle fell another three pounds.
Relief.
Real.
"We can hold ten percent longer."
Rhett came behind her.
"Long enough for camp three?"
"Yes."
Sabra heard through the intercom.
No thank-you.
Good.
Eden did not want one.
Two hours later, camp three transmitted.
Clear.
They opened the gate to twenty-five percent.
Pressure dropped steadily into safe range.
No wall fracture.
No catastrophic loss.
No dead families.
At sunset, Reservoir Three stabilized.
Eden sat on the control-room floor.
Her whole body shook.
Rhett lowered himself beside her.
Neither spoke for a while.
The gauge remained green.
Finally, Rhett said, "You did it."
"No."
He looked at her.
"Pax found the tool. Mina stopped shooting. Sabra evacuated people. You—"
"Eden."
She stopped.
He understood what she was doing.
Refusing the weight by spreading it until nothing belonged to her.
"All of that is true."
His voice softened.
"And you read the system."
She looked at the green needle.
"Yes."
"Take the piece that's yours."
Caro would have said something harsher.
Eden smiled.
"All right."
Rhett leaned his head against the wall.
"Terrifying growth."
She laughed.
The laugh broke into tears.
Eden covered her face.
She had not cried when Caro died.
Not then.
She had been too busy leaving.
Now the reservoir was safe, the convoys alive, and the pressure inside her found its own relief gate.
Rhett did not tell her to stop.
He sat beside her.
After a while, she lowered her hands.
"I'm exhausted."
"Good time for life decisions."
"Obviously."
He smiled.
She leaned against him.
No one interrupted for ten whole minutes.
It was the longest peace they had had since the bus.