Chapter Seven
“You have to stay here!” Eliza had chosen to start our morning with an argument. My favorite way to begin the day. It was my fault really, I should have left the insistence that I would accompany the group for after she had her morning coffee. “I won’t allow it Fiona.” She shrank back at my glare. “Okay, that was a mistake.”
“Really.”
“Yes, and I’m sorry.”
“Really.”
“Yes. Really. That was uncalled for and I shouldn’t have said it.”
“Mhmm.” I stood on the cold floor and stretched. The morning air was cool and I could smell the mixture of fresh dirt, rotting meat, and human activity.
“Honey, I'm just worried. I almost lost you with the epidemic. I’ve watched you work twelve, sixteen hours a day since coming up here. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’ve lost weight.” She pushed herself up on her elbows and poked me in the stomach. I looked down and had to admit she was right; the tip of her finger definitely went in less than it had before. “You’ve got circles under your eyes, and your hands are starting to shake.”
I shut my eyes and sighed. “Do you think staying here is a better idea? If you leave me here all that’s going to happen is I’ll worry about you in addition to watching nine hundred people start wasting away while they blame me for it!” Eliza didn’t reply and I heard the soft impact of her bare feet on the floor.
“Come here.” She took my hand in hers and stroked the back of it. “I’m only trying to protect you.”
“Best beloved, you know very well that I’d rush into danger anyway.”
She chuckled and kissed me. “Okay, let’s go greet the masses.”
The preparations were coming along well. Close to the shelter entrance lay a mountain of supplies. Ten sleds were lined up, side by side, their contents tidied away in plastic and metal containers. The sleds were formed from metal piping crossed into the shape of an ‘X’ and webbing stretched across the gap to form a rudimentary sling. The smallest ends of the crossed piping was wrapped in padding to protect the shoulders of the person carrying it. I hefted one of the heavier looking loads over my shoulders. Despite the fact that I was carrying a load multiple times my body weight, I didn’t feel overly encumbered. Part of me wanted to be amazed. Another part reminded me that I might not feel so light and carefree after five miles.
Dad seemed to have relaxed at the sight of a new adventure. If I could really call it relaxed. He spent most of the day walking in between the rows of resources being gathered, stopping at each bundle to circle it as if personally inspecting it. It was better than having him staring Eliza down, barely keeping his opinion to himself. The camp buzzed with a collective anxiety. There were fewer of us who understood the science behind saving the food supply than I would have liked and already rumors swirled. These people had been deceived too badly and too frequently to blindly trust in promises at this point. No amount of credibility was going to make a difference. That made me nervous. I truly believed that people still intended to work together, but we were going to come across the unknown out there. Having the group fragment halfway through the journey was not an option.
I checked in with the group I had chosen to oversee the distribution of the food. They hoarded everything into an enclosed area, around which they installed an electrically charged fence. It wasn’t impossible for someone to sabotage the simple perimeter but the threat of a nasty shock would certainly slow someone down. I also recruited two of the biggest guys I knew alongside one of the security officers to specifically guard the stockpile. They were especially happy to take on the job after Eliza gave them carte blanche to pitch any would-be thieves over the nearest hill. I had the same concerns about the people we left behind. Leaving the colony without their elected leader was iffy, but Eliza took after my father. It was her duty to run headlong into danger before everyone else. Thankfully her leadership was so new that the colony as a whole hadn’t yet come to rely completely on her. Leaving the right person in charge would make all the difference.
As luck would have it, she ended up choosing Nicole and Jason, two integral players in leading the exodus to the surface. They were both young but well liked, and both were familiar with the essentials of keeping the colony running. When I asked her why she chose a pair instead of a single leader, Eliza made the excellent point that an opposite sex pair ensured that there would be no gender bias against their decisions. The evening before we left, Jason and Nicole along with about a dozen others presented us with the best gift imaginable: new clothing. They had secretly sacrificed the productivity of the 3D printers for twelve hours in order to produce two sets of clothes for each of the hundred. The first set was lightweight and sunlight resistant; the fabric provided us an SPF of about 50, and the sleeves and pant legs were long to minimize the amount of exposed skin. The other set of clothing was similar to thermal base layers. As with the first set of clothing it was long-sleeved. The folks who designed the garments had really gone out. They were far and away more advanced than anything I had ever seen. Water-repelling, compact, easy to keep clean…Trying the outfits on felt like I was an ancient knight dressing herself for battle.
We rose before the dawn the next day to prepare. The early morning air was crisp, condensation thick on
