Milly set the ear up as taught, connecting the transceiver to the makeshift antenna made from metal salvaged from the Oceanic Eco. When the moon reached the right place in the sky, she flicked the “on” button. Nothing. Only the buzz of what Aragorn called static. That’s all Milly ever heard. That’s all anyone had ever heard with two alleged exceptions a long time ago. Radio signals could travel for thousands of miles, and the purpose of the ear was to catch one of these voices in the void and prove they weren’t the only survivors on Earth.
The nothing continued for nineteen minutes, then fate changed Milly’s life.
At first she thought it was her mother calling her through the static, but then the disturbance fell away and a female voice said the same thing over and over on a loop until the signal cut out and the static returned.
“I don’t even know my real name?” Milly said. She and Peter fed the fire. Her mother had been dead six months, and it was three since the message. As far as she could tell, Peter kept his promise and told no one. He was content forgetting about it because then he wouldn’t have to do anything. He could drink corn whiskey at Old Days and drift through life like a fern leaf. She had bigger plans.
“That’s bezoomny talk,” Peter said.
“No, really. Leonard said his pa said Milly is short for Mildred. Maybe my name is Mildred and I don’t even know it.”
“You believe it all? The fire guards and all the crazy stuff in the Foundation? A wave taller than trees? How stupid do they think we are?” Peter said.
She knew he was just saying what he thought she wanted to hear, and a piece of her loved him for it. The rest of her despised him for it. Only the weak pander to someone to gain their affections. “I believe, just like all the sacred texts, that the truth lies somewhere in-between. There has to be something else out there, Peter.”
“What?”
“More,” Milly said.
“The book your mother was reading when she…”
“I know, I know. An island on an ocean planet. I don’t believe it. There was land before we came here,” Milly said.
“Before the water rose,” Peter said.
“You want to…” Milly checked herself. Do you want to find out? she wanted to say, but she didn’t. Instead she changed the subject. “Does it upset you that people think we’re sleeping together? Cheating on our spouses?”
Peter reeled back as if stuck. “I wasn’t aware people were talking at all.”
She knew he loved her, but she’d never felt that way about him. She also knew she could use his affections against him whenever she wanted. “Do you want to take a walk?”
“Leave the Perpetual Flame unattended?” Peter said.
“Stop calling it that. Nobody is here.” Milly chuckled as she watched Peter tremble as his desire for her and the fear of not doing his duty tore him in two. Desire won and Peter joined Milly as she left the Womb.
Did she lead him on? Yes. Was she a tease? Yes. Did she use him like a fishing pole? Yup, but as Milly lay looking at the stars, she felt no guilt at all. They’d walked the island, and she’d ranted about everything wrong with Respite. They’d kissed, but he seemed afraid to touch her, so they rested on the beach, and Peter fell asleep.
He woke with a start four hours later. Milly pretended to be asleep. The night’s chill had set in, and blackness still surrounded them. Peter took several sharp breaths as his mind calculated how long they’d been away. “Milly. Wake up Milly. We gotta get back. The moon… oh shit, we gotta get back.” Peter shot to his feet and Milly pretended to come awake.
“What is it?”
“We fell asleep!”
They ran back and darkness filled the Womb, and nothing was visible except the faint glow of embers that had been the sacred fire.
Peter took down a torch and tried to light it with his fire rocks. The tapping of the two stones rang in the stillness, sparks shooting across Milly’s feet. The torch caught and Peter lit the rest. Then he tossed his torch onto the embers of the Perpetual Flame and went to get wood.
“Wait,” Milly said. She lifted the torch and handed it back to him. “Get me something to dig with.”
“I need to light that before someone sees! Get out of the way,” Peter said.
“Peter, help me or I’ll tell Tris about tonight.”
“What? That we kissed? Big deal,” Peter said.
“And that we let the fire go out while we were doing it?”
Shock froze his face, and he said nothing.
“Being threatened doesn’t feel very good, does it?” Milly said.
He looked away. Peter’s father had held her mother’s transgressions over her, threatening to tell all of Respite if Sarah didn’t do what he wanted.
“Get me something to dig with,” she said again.
This time he obeyed and returned with a shovel made from old world metal, bamboo, and dried vine. Milly pushed aside the hot embers and dug through years of ash, dirt, garbage and noni wood sludge. She found nothing. Black muck covered her from head to toe, and she smelt like ash. When the shovel twanged on something hard, she had a moment of joy, but it was soon dashed.
Beneath the fire was solid stone, nothing more.
Chapter Five
Year 2065, Respite
Milly
