****
Gem gave her wee one to its father. She would have to do the healing without Loni's energy support.
With her hands finally free, she fought Lydia for the other child. The woman was strong, and desperate, not understanding that they meant to help. Her unreasoning fear was all that filled her mind. Da attempted to help, but to no avail.
At risk to his own child, one handed, Loni endeavored to pull the dying baby from Lydia's grasp. As a last resort, he mentally slugged her. Lydia dropped in her tracks, in a dead faint.
And Gem was free to heal.
****
Lydia opened her eyes to the uncomfortable pinching, drawing of a suckling infant at her breast...and a throbbing headache.
She was laying on her mat, the baby cradled against her. Da sat at her back, hovering protectively, as if he dared not leave his family out of his sight. Loni crouched on one knee, in front of Lydia, while Gem stood a ways behind him, once more holding her own infant, and nursing, also.
When Loni noticed Lydia was awake, with an apparent throbbing headache, which he had caused, he reached gently forward, touching her temple.
Immediately, all discomfort vanished; Lydia breathed a sigh of relief, settled back. The world seemed less chaotic, now.
As she pondered the events that had gone before; those she remembered, Lydia realized what Gem had done for her baby, and how she, Lydia, had been preventing the implementation of such needed healing. Ashamed, thankful, and overwhelmed, she began to cry.
"It's okay, Lydia...all okay, now," Gem's crooning voice in her head attempted to soothe. "We are all okay, now."
But Lydia could not stem the flow of tears; tears of gratefulness...and relief...and overpowering appreciation...for this second chance at motherhood.
But then, as other actuality swarmed in, doubts pushed away happiness.
"How will we hide the little ones?" she asked with dread, brushing frustratingly at her remaining tears. "How will we keep them secret from the overseers and the Physicians? The babies are...female!"
Chapter 35
As he climbed away, Scar's smoldering wrath exploded; if he'd had two arms, he would have been throwing things. He descended away, far down deep, passing the garden level; the cattle pens; the chicken coops; the breeding pens for meat sources: pigs; goats; dogs, even cats. Down into the bowels, he went past the vats of manure, used for fertilizer on the gardens; the recyclers ...to the very guts of the huge domes.
Yes, there was more than one dome, all connected beneath the abandoned surface world, in the honeycombed caverns, that had existed for centuries, before they were used in this way. Like ants, his ancestors had burrowed beneath, to build a safe haven against nuclear war, and the resulting poisonous atmosphere they had created. The system had one flaw; if something drastic were to happen, down in the lower regions of one dome...an explosion, perhaps, the interconnection between all, would bring about a chain reaction, destroying the lot, perhaps even the entire planet.
All Scar needed to do, was figure out the how!
Finally Scar's temper cooled. On a grated ledge over the recycling vats, he sat down to think.
The one armed man intensely missed his brother; his dead twin had been the schemer; the brains of the partnership. Galar could be devious; dream up the most horrific punishments. Scar merely followed, but seldom did he not enjoy the results.
Remembering his brother, caused a curious resentment to surface. The very fact that the twins had always been the outcasts of this society, reasonably, generated first, an overwhelming loneliness, but also, today, gave birth to an unexpected bitterness.
What gave them the right to force us to work in the slaughter house? Just because we were unlike them?
And then his thoughts went to his present situation. His companions were ostracized, too. Loni because he had no ears; Da, because he couldn't understand. And their females were different, also...not normal, at least...much like he was.
Scar shivered at the realization. He was not alone, after all!
But, Flaw/Loni had just cast him out of the group!
Only for a little while. Galar always takes me back; Loni will do the same.
Perhaps, he shouldn't have touched the small one?
But...Loni's she gave it to me! Didn't she?
It was so very puzzling.
Maybe, she only meant me to hold it? She did ask for it back...
****
For a long time Scar sat reasoning. His mad turned eventually away from his fellow workers, to their shared injustices.
The others were forced to constantly work in the gardens; heavy, back breaking work, but...decidedly better than in the slaughter house or cattle pens, and easier than rendering and the kitchens. Scar had actually been enjoying crop planting and harvest; life with the gardeners had been most pleasant.
To be vengeful toward them seemed wrong.
The government; the ones who enslave us, are the real offenders...those taking advantage; using us...experimenting on us!
But what could be done against THEM?
He, Loni, and Da had built a new place outside. It wouldn't be wrong to use it...but, if he didn't do something to prevent them, the overseers would follow him out...and spoil that place, as they had done the one below.
No! I have to prevent that!
How?
The next thought came, as if someone had written it in his mind.
The recyclers!
****
The huge vats were filled with chemicals; the pipes leading out gigantic, going in all directions...one blockage would cause a back up; would result in the explosion of the whole unit.
But, Scar wouldn't stop at just one!
He went to the tool shack first. Scar still had the fruit sack he'd taken to carry the baby; he also had his backpack at his back. Inside the storage room, he found much that would be useful:
