Milly responded with everyone else, their voices rising together in a proclamation of unity. “The everlasting flame gives us life and that life I giveth unto you. You warm us, feed us, and light the way. For these eternal gifts we feed that which must not fail and never grow cold.”
“Thanks be to the Perpetual Flame,” Master Jeffery said.
“Amen,” Milly said along with everyone else.
“Thus we sacrifice our own pleasure and lust for the sustainability of the community and each of us agrees that our numbers must be strictly controlled,” Master Jeffery said.
“Amen,” the adult citizens of Respite said.
“To have a child without the vote of the community is a crime of the highest order,” Master Jeffery said. “Thus we respect the sacrifices of those who weren’t fortunate enough to enjoy our paradise. So we pray to the Remembrance Wall.”
Everyone turned to the cliff wall next to the Foundation where the names of every person who’d died on Respite was memorialized via a chiseled etching.
“Amen. We shall remember you always and respect your sacrifice.”
“As is tradition, the new fire guards will be the first to cast their regrets and goals,” Master Jeffery said.
He handed Peter and Milly their slips of paper they’d made from wood pulp. They had prepared their vows ahead of time, and as Milly accepted hers, she cast a sidelong glance at Peter, who went to the fire, its flames licking the top of the indentation in the stone that served as Respite’s fireplace. He lingered there for several moments, rubbing the rough paper between his fingers.
Milly’s heart sank. His goal was to pair with her. He’d told her as much. It could never work. They were too different and there was no way they could bond, plus there was their family’s histories to consider. She didn’t think she loved Peter, but it was more complicated than that. Her chest ached. On her slip of paper was written “leave Respite.”
Master Jeffery coughed, and Milly snapped from her reverie. Everyone’s eyes were on her, even Peter’s. He’d dropped his pledge into the fire and stood waiting, smoke wrapping him in a white embrace. He thrust his chin forward and opened his eyes wide as if to say, “Get on with it and stop wasting everyone’s time.”
Milly dropped her slip into the fire and she and Peter joined Master Jeffery on the dais. One by one the people of Respite over the age of eighteen came forth to make their yearly pledge. A ragged band in clothes salvaged from the Oceanic Eco, and made from canvas, seat cushions, drapes, and animal skins. Milly’s mother, Sarah and her father, Gary, stood front and center, and Sarah winked as she passed. She searched for Peter’s father, Ben Hasten, but didn’t see him or his mother. Several of her friends sat in the first row, but they’d come by a different path, and were older than Milly. One was Tye Rantic, who stood in the front row, smiling. He waved to her and clapped. They’d become friends, and she liked listening to his stories about the gone world. Most of the older folks wouldn’t talk about what it was like before The Day.
Two hundred and nineteen people passed before the fire, each dropping a piece of themselves into the flames. When the procession had passed, Master Jeffery said, “Now we hear from the new fire guards. Peter and Milly have passed our most difficult test so they can perform our most important task.”
Master Jeffery turned to Peter and Milly. “You are hereby accepted into my service. As fire guards, it is our responsibility to ensure the Perpetual Flame never goes out. Do you agree to aid me in this endeavor?”
Peter and Milly said in unison, “I do.”
“Do you agree to put the service of the fire above all other claims?”
“I do.”
“And should this task require your life, will you give it willingly to the flame?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You may now affirm your oath to Respite and its people,” Master Jeffery said, and stepped back.
Milly looked at Peter with a face that said you first, but he didn’t move. She willed him forward by opening her eyes wide and clenching her jaw.
Peter crumbled under her stare and stalked across the dais and stopped at the rock’s edge.
“I’m not nobility,” he said, and looked Milly’s way. “But I will serve without fear, and without betrayal.”
Milly shuffled forward and looked out on the crowd. She withered inside and her confidence fled. Somebody coughed. Master Jeffery cleared his throat again. Her stomach burned as the eyes of the crowd found every flaw in her appearance. Tye nodded at her and she began, “My mother, Sarah Hendricks, was one of the first fire guards. She helped create the traditions that have guided us and kept us safe. She made the hard decisions so we could live. It is for her I set my first goal as I turn to the future. A future serving Respite, and the Perpetual Flame.”
Peter and Milly loaded logs on the fire, and the flames crackled and stung the mountainside. The citizens of Respite clapped and cheered, and finally Milly smiled.
Chapter Two
Year 2047, Respite, South Pacific Sea
Milly’s first experience with wine left her head throbbing. The party celebrating the sacrifice ceremony went on deep into the night, and when she got home, her parent’s bedroom door was closed. The buzz of the insect night symphony filled the concrete walls of Citi, the old resort that was the heart of Respite.
She went to her room and her
