Savaged Earth (Surrender the Sun Book 4) Read online

  In a rare truce and without looking up, Ben knew she was aiming her words at Ames, but Ben thought Ames was just as eager to get through the day as Mrs. Johnson.

  “Class, this is the last geography test of the year. Please open your workbooks. Fourth grade…name all the major former and present U.S. cities that we know of. Fifth…name the colonial thirteen colonies as well as the present Federation Colonies. Middle schoolers…name the countries of Oceania. And high schoolers…write an essay on the effects of the Minimum and how the ice age has shifted our society’s location underground. Louna, dear. You’ve already passed. Can you please assist the intermediates?”

  “Yes, Mrs. Johnson,” Louna responded, putting her pencil down and slipping out of her seat.

  Then Ben raised his eyes in a warning as Julie sweetly mocked his sister: Yes, Mrs. Johnson.

  But Julie never turned her attention to him, nor did Louna acknowledge the slight, so Ben picked up his pen and began to write. And when he finished, he looked up at the quiet classroom, finding Louna staring back at him. She gave him a straight smile and Ben took that as a treaty of sorts and smiled back. He hated being at odds with his family, especially Louna. She’d been with him since the beginning and if she didn’t want to remember the past, then that was all right with him. That was her decision to make.

  Ben put his head down on his desk while the others worked and thought of how upset Louna got over his mentioning that Bishop wasn’t either of their fathers. But it was true. Bishop wasn’t his father. Though he loved Bishop with everything he had, he also remembered his own father, especially when he remembered what it was like living back when things were normal…back in Idaho. Before the winter stole everything forever. He remembered the glistening sunlight off the river water where his father taught him to fish. He remembered the heat of the sun on his face after standing in the shallows with his pole for hours. He remembered seeing past the sun’s reflection on the ripples and spotting fish and tiny turtles among the jeweled river rocks. He remembered his father’s smile as he baited his first hook in a rocking metal boat on Lake Coeur d’Alene. He remembered him burning hotdogs on the grill at the park and his mother laughing like she seldom laughed now. But most of all, he remembered the day when his mother knelt in the doorway when two uniformed officers arrived with the news of his father’s death. That day…he remembered in minute detail. He remembered the smell of autumn leaves on the breeze that poured through the open doorway. She wore an olive-green sweater with three-quarter sleeves, and somewhere in the kitchen NPR was talking about the history of jazz music.

  “Ben.”

  The officer kept saying he was sorry, and his mother kept saying she didn’t understand. There was some kind of mistake. She’d just spoken to him the night before.

  “Ben! Ben!”

  Mrs. Johnson stood next to him when he sat up and looked around, and he realized she’d been tapping him on the shoulder.

  He saw that Ames held back a laugh with his hand, but the rest of the class, except for Louna, did not.

  Mrs. Johnson pulled his essay out from beneath his arm. “I think that’s enough, class. Let’s move on.”

  3

  Louna rambled on as they ate dinner, her words coming out like a speeding freight train. It was something she rarely did, so Ben knew she was excited, and Bishop had a smile on his face as he listened.

  “…and Dad, she said after graduation I can apprentice as teacher’s assistant,” Louna said. “I know you wanted me to exchange with the Arizona Colony, but Mrs. Johnson said…”

  Ben was happy for her but stared at his plate, lost in thought.

  Movements later, his mother said, “Ben! Ben! Where are you?”

  “Huh? Oh…I was just remembering your bookstore. Wasn’t there a movie theatre nearby?” Ben replied. “Didn’t Dad take me to see Toy Story there once, and an ice cream shop right next to it? Do I remember that right?”

  She reached her hand over and ran it through his hair after glancing quickly at Bishop across the table. She nodded and smiled.

  He wasn’t sure what it was. Did she miss his dad still? He knew she loved Bishop. But did she miss his dad more? When someone died, did you stop loving them? Or was love a more complicated thing than what he knew? Could she love his father still but love Bishop just as much, only in a different way? Love seemed more complicated the older Ben got.

  “How was your day?” Maeve asked.

  Ben shrugged his shoulders and let his eyes glaze over. “Same stuff, different day.”

  Bishop said, “Come on, Ben. You’re graduating. That’s exciting.”

  And apparently someone was expecting him to fill the silence, but he was saved by his little brother.

  Sean poked a carrot coin with his fork and said, “Jimmy said they’re moving to California Colony after school’s out.”

  “That’s because Jimmy’s dad didn’t anticipate flooding in sector four and now I have to add it to the other three I operate.” Bishop tossed his napkin next to his plate.

  “How bad is the flooding?” Maeve asked.

  “It isn’t. It’s manageable,” he conceded. “If…you heed the warnings that are included in the daily briefings.”

  “But flooding is becoming a bigger issue,” Ben asked, “as the temperatures begin to warm?”

  “Well, they are not warm enough yet. We’ve only had five days this year with temperatures close to above freezing.”

  “But that’s four more than last year,” Maeve said.

  Jackie asked, “Daddy, why do you chew on the side of your mouth?”

  “Because, Jax…I’m thinking,” Bishop replied.

  “Well, we can use more of the runoff in the greenhouse,” Maeve said. “Sure beats melting ice every morning to the right temperature to water all the crops.”

  “You can work that out with Steve,” Bishop said.

  “Actually, Alyssa is point on that,” Maeve corrected him.

  “I want to go back,” Ben stated.

  Silence.

  He’d never been afraid of Bishop in his life, but something about the man’s expression on the other side of the table told him why grown men were.

  “Where?” Bishop asked.

  Ben swallowed. “Coeur d’Alene.”

  Everyone at the table seemed frozen in place except for Sean. Sean widened his eyes and very slowly looked from Ben to his father.

  Bishop took in a long, slow breath and then, with what Ben knew was barely-controlled anger—or was it hurt?—he replied, “You’d have better luck going south, where reports of flooding due to the thaw have many leaving the underground community.”

  “I…” Was he doing this? Wasn’t this what he wanted? Wasn’t this all he could think of? Like Louna, everyone else in his graduating class was making plans for a career underground for the colonies, but not him. It wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to go home. He wanted to see what was left up there…in Coeur d’Alene. “I’ve read the reports too, Dad. There’s significant flooding all over…”

  But it was his mother who worried him more than Bishop’s reaction. She didn’t say a thing. Instead, she sat there next to him, wringing her hands in her lap, listening to the discussion, her head down.

  “But they’re not taking into account seasonal fluctuations,” Bishop argued. “I don’t see a clear window…”

  Maeve cut in, “I understand, son, that you want to return.” Her hand fluttered as she spoke, and Ben could hardly take his eyes off the rapid movement. He did this. He was doing this to her.

  “The theatre, the bookstore, the ice cream shop…the house we lived in. Sure, it’s still there, but not the way you remember.”

  “How do you know? I want to find out. I’ll go by myself and see and then I’ll return, and I’ll know. Don’t you see? I can’t stop thinking about it.”

  She pulled her hand beneath the table then. Silence.

  Not even Sean was looking around then.

  Bishop said, “I woul
dn’t feel comfortable with you going by yourself.”

  “Ames will go with me. We’ve talked about it. You trained us, Dad…you and Jax. We’re prepared. We know what we’re doing,” Ben replied.

  Maeve protested, “Alyssa needs Ames here, Ben. He’s apprenticed to the greenhouse. You had that option. Walt…her husband died last year. And they lost little Frank before that. Ames is all she’s got.”

  His mother and father exchanged sad glances. Then silence again as they all thought about the discussion. Even his chatty younger siblings seemed bereft of speech and instead seemed suddenly quite interested in various aspects of the dining room design.

  Then his mother’s hand appeared on the table again, and when her fingers touched his, they felt like ice.

  4

  As he followed the booming live music down the corridor in the original part of the silo, Ben entered the Grand Room that dated back to the 1940s. It was once a meeting space for the hundreds of personnel who secretly lived and worked underground around a Trident Missile during the Cold War era. Since then, the space had been retrofitted, of course, by the man who took it over after the military dumped the site, into a grand living room. But now, since the Minimum, the room was converted into a gathering space for special occasions once again. Only this time, it wasn’t a military meeting. It was a graduation. And when Ben walked through the double doors, the entire floor rocked with the beats of Ames and The Beast’s newest tunes.

  On stage, his best friend, dressed in a dark navy graduation gown, held the mic close to his mouth and belted…something about a girl. When he pulled the mic away, he opened his eyes again, and smiled in a way that told Ben his best friend was likely making one of the happiest memories of his life, right at that very moment.

  “Is it what you expected?” Julie asked, still wearing her gown as well as she brought him a cup filled with amber liquid.

  “What, the party?” Ben replied, pulling his graduation cap off and taking the cup.

  “Yeah,” she yelled over the music. “Isn’t it great? We finally get to move on.” She winked at him. “Oh! Ames asked me if Louna was dating anyone.” She laughed a little. “I said probably not.” She took a long sip of her beer and nodded her head to the tunes.

  Ben looked at the side of her pretty face, her long, dark flat-ironed hair, her petal pink shaded lips, and thought there was likely not much rattling around in there…past the beautiful exterior. He took a gulp of his own beer and looked around the room, spotting Louna helping their mother and the other ladies serve slices of pizza and beer.

  “What do you mean?” Ben said.

  “Well, you know…he likes her. Maybe they’re a match, like us. Maybe they’ll move on together, too.”

  “No. I mean, what do you mean about us moving on?”

  She smiled and half-closed her eyes. “You know…” she looped her arm into his. “Most couples move out into their own apartment after graduation, while going through their apprenticeships.”

  He swallowed another gulp of beer.

  “I, for one, am ready to ditch my little sister’s room for my own space. I’ve had it with my mom.”

  Ben investigated the crowd. “Why not just move into the singles bunker? You can share an apartment and have an entire room to yourself.”

  “Pft!” She yanked her arm from his, gave him a dirty look, and walked away.

  “What?” Ben called after her.

  She didn’t turn around.

  Ben loosened the tie his mother made him wear under his graduation gown and took another long pull from his beer.

  “Don’t drink that too fast,” Louna cautioned as she brought him a plate of pizza. “Wanna sit?”

  He nodded and followed her to an empty table. Louna sat down and he realized she was all eyes and smiles, taking in the high ceiling, balloons, the stage, and Ames.

  “You look happy,” he commented between the beat and the bites.

  She nodded. “I am…But you’re not.”

  The statement was really a question. He knew her well enough growing up, she never pried. So it was an option to engage with an answer or avoid with a smile.

  He smiled.

  She pointed to their mother. “They’re all talking about us. They look so happy.”

  He nodded. She was right. His mother sat at a nearby table, along with Cassie and Alyssa. Their loud voices were a result of too much beer, or they were trying to be heard over the music. He wasn’t sure which, but likely a little of both.

  Changing the subject, he said, “So you’re going to be the next Mrs. Johnson.”

  She smiled and tore off another bite of pizza. “I’m going to be Miss Louna.”

  “Excited?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded. “I love the kids.”

  “Are you going to move into the singles quarters? Or stay home?”

  He watched her as she stole a glance at Ames on the stage and avoided making eye contact with her brother. “I don’t know yet. I think I’m staying home for a while. Mom and Dad are fine with it, and I get along sharing a room with Jackie.”

  “Wait, you had this conversation with Mom and Dad?”

  “Well, yeah. Haven’t you?”

  He chewed a dry piece of pepperoni and shook his head. “I just don’t feel like this is my…” He was about to explain more but suddenly Bishop, Jax, and Yeager wheeled out a humongous cake emblazoned with sparklers and thick frosting that read Congrats!

  Everyone stood and clapped loudly. Ben said, “When did Jax arrive?”

  Louna heard the question and leaned in, yelling in his ear, “Last night. You were already in bed.”

  The music began again and the parents, all smiles, cut the cake into slices above the sparkling candles, and Ben couldn’t help but think, What? This is it? This is what we’re celebrating?

  All they had to look forward to was taking old worn-out things from the past and repurposing them into something useful for the present, like televisions. There were no current shows. All they did was watch old movies from a life that no longer applied to them, and they simply lost interest in watching them after a few years. Screens remained blank, so they were mostly for security and surveillance.

  The same thing went for music. Radio was only for communication. And like Ames, there were a few who learned instruments and played live tunes whenever the occasion called.

  Life was simple. Too simple for Ben. After graduation, you were assigned to apprentice for one of the needed positions in the colony. There was the option of going off to exchange with another graduate in one of the other colonies, but it was the same existence all over.

  Then, if you were lucky enough, you could find a marriage partner and start a family of your own, but the thought of sharing a space with Julie for more than a few hours made Ben shudder. Then again, the new homes they were digging out and building where the streets ended were pretty cool. They were far enough away that you actually had to walk to a bus stop to get into town. And when they ran out of space, they just dug out more roads and built more houses.

  Still, that was no reason to settle down with a girl that was mean to your sister and if you were honest, you could barely stand her yourself.

  Ben had finished his second beer by then, and his cake, when the chatter subsided. The band was drunk, and the grand room looked as if there was an explosion of plates, forks, and streamers. Louna and Ames were rolling around large gray trashcans, scooping up the mess, and the parents still laughed with faces as red as their Solo cups. Ben was wondering if his cheeks were as red as his mother’s when he suddenly found Jax standing beside him.

  “Got something for you, kid.”

  Ben nodded but Jax was already walking out the door and Ben realized he was apparently supposed to follow him. So he stood up and dropped his plate and cup into the trash as he left and hurried to catch up.

  It was quiet as Ben entered the apartment. Everyone else was still at the party. He wasn’t sure where Sean and Jackie got off to,
but likely the littles were having a sleepover at someone else’s house for the evening. They were the littles, and he and Louna were the bigs—that’s how his mother referred to the two sets of children in the home because of the big age span. The reference worked in quick pinches.

  “There you are,” Jax said. “Thought I’d lost you.”

  “Well, you took off kinda fast.”

  “You gotta keep up, young man. I have something for you. Thought you might be able to use this, now that you’ve graduated.” Jax held out a large pack used for long overnight treks up top. Ben had used one several times when they took their year’s expeditions out in the elements for a week in the summer.

  “Well, thanks, Jax.”

  “It’s what’s inside, dummy.” Jax smiled.

  “Oh,” Ben said.

  “I mean, the pack’s a part of the gift but it’s what’s inside that I meant for you to have now that you’re a grown man.”

  Ben eyed him. No one had ever told him that before. Not even Bishop.

  “I don’t think I’m totally grown yet.”

  “Just open the pack.”

  He unlatched the clasps and inside there was a dead animal. Or at least, the fur of one. He pulled the hide out and realized it was not one, but many dead animal pelts sewn together into a coat. A coat that, when Ben put it on, fit him perfectly and had no use below Hatch Five.

  5

  Ben woke the next morning with a vague awareness that someone was watching him. Glancing at his little brother’s bed, he spotted the familiar bundle beneath the covers. But then at the foot of his own bed, someone silently stood vigil. The jolt his body made right after seeing this confirmed his suspicion.

  “Dad?”

  No one answered but the next thing he knew something soft and furry landed hard against his chest.

  “Put it on. Let’s go,” Bishop commanded.

  Ten minutes later, Ben stepped outside Hatch Five, boots crunching on ice. “I don’t understand why I couldn’t take a shower first. I smell like greasy pizza and stale beer.”