Dazzle Ships Page 12

  5

  Our journey took us through winding hallways that were tall and narrow. Two people could walk next to each other, but it was only designed for one. Patience led the way, then Xandrie and myself, and Felicity kept pace behind us.

  I recognized the glow goo painted on the ceiling.

  “You have that stuff, too?” I asked, pointing at the goo.

  “It was here when we got here,” Xandrie replied. “The stuff is a sticky mess. I hate it.”

  Inwardly, I giggled. It was certainly that.

  “Do you think our bunkers are joined? The Complex isn’t that far away.”

  “If they are, I don’t know about it. Since we’ve gone into the Reminder we’ve been under lockdown. No one has gone out, and until you, no one has come in.”

  “That you know of,” I corrected.

  “What does that mean?” Xandrie said over her shoulder.

  “I got in. There’s a vent to the outside. Anyone could have come in and then gone back out.” I thought it might have been better for all involved had I turned around at that first shaft.

  “A drone spotted you right away. You might have gotten in and been left alone for a while, but we would have found you eventually. I assure you, we’ve had no intruders.” She laughed. “Besides, I was looking at your Health Report while you slept in the prison. You’ve got so much metal in your blood—if everyone from the outside is the same, the sisters have nothing to worry about. You’d light up the security system like a robot.”

  I rubbed my neck under my broken necklace. “What are you saying? Why do I have metal in me?”

  Xandrie slowed down so Patience got an extra step or two on us.

  “Don’t you know about the war?”

  I shook my head.

  “It was fought with computers and drones and robot machines. Most of it was over by the time the Remainder started and we sealed ourselves off from the world. But I know there were both huge war machines and miniature versions, too. They were microscopic bot drones that tagged everyone. Often multiple times. You have a dozen different tags in your blood. That means you’ve been tracked at some point in your life by twelve different organizations.”

  “The Commander always knew were I was,” I said absently. I’d initially thought it was the Loop Tracker around my neck. “Was one of the metal bots implanted by him?”

  “Probably. Your blood is a traffic jam of nanobot architecture designed by corporate donors. A dumping ground of ancient machines still sending back data on a forgotten war.”

  “Who won that war?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

  “The dead. In war, the dead are the only winners. The rest of us get shuffled off to bunkers and caves to eke out a life until we, too, are forgotten. Then we get up and walk away like the rest of the empty souls.”

  I drifted off in thought as I lost track of our progress. The tunnel was arrow-straight with very few side tunnels or doors. If the Complex had something similar, I’d never been there. I went back and forth on whether the two systems were connected, but I was sure they’d been built by the same people. I wished Alex was with me again. He seemed to have a better eye for details.

  Long after she’d said it, the words caught up to me.

  “Why did you say that thing about getting up and walking away? You said people don’t leave.”

  “Oh, its nothing. It’s a figure of speech someone told me, I guess.”

  “And you’ve never been outside?”

  “No.”

  “So you don’t know that dead people do walk the surface? Like, for real.”

  “That can’t be true. I’m, uh—”

  She continued walking ahead of me. Down the hallway I started to see evidence of doors.

  “There was a military experiment in those early days. They caused dead people to stand up in a line. It was amusing, but also kind of sick.” Xandrie crossed her arms as if she’d caught a chill.

  “Did they stand up against one wall?”

  “Yeah. I told you, they got in a line.”

  “Was it facing east?” I said with too much enthusiasm.

  She looked back for a second before replying. “I have no idea. How would I know that?”

  “I don’t know. But back in the Complex I saw the same thing. A few times, actually. First, in the cemetery. Dead bodies had climbed out of their holes and stood near a big door to the outside.”

  “That doesn’t sound the same—”

  “Are you kidding? Xandrie, wait,” I grabbed her arm, stopping us all. “The dead people in that military experiment are exactly the same as the dead people in our bunker. The Commander—our leader—did tests on them. He tossed them away. Then they got up and walked toward the eastern wall and clawed at it for years. It has to be the same.”

  “Well, whatever. Maybe. But what does that have to do with the old women? He—no one told me anything about old people.” She walked away from me and we all closed the distance to one of the doors at the end of the hall.

  “Aren’t you worried those dead things will contaminate your living space? The sisters could all end up dead,” I declared, hoping to scare her into action. As much as I wanted to prove to her that the elderly women were responsible for everyone living to a ripe old age—with their younger bodies intact—I wanted to ensure we weren’t all going to die if those infected creatures were already inside their bunker. I didn’t want to be responsible for two bunkers getting ruined.

  “Trust me. That experiment is on a lower level. Very secure. We’re on an upper level,” she said, almost in song, as if it was a happy moment. “Also very secure.”

  “Xandrie, things outside are more complicated than I ever thought. The infection of those early days is long gone. But there is something new. The scientists continued the war. I’ve seen it.”

  She smiled.

  “The war is long over. The fact I’m going outside with you is proof of that. I have no fears the sisterhood will continue, in safety, for as long as it takes for time to run out.”

  “The Remainder?”

  She nodded.

  Just show her the old ladies and get out!

  Xandrie gave a key to Felicity and she unlocked the metal door. In that second I saw the door as an identical match to the one Alex and I had found outside the spider trap room. It lacked any of the symbols, but the construction was the same.

  It swung inward. Xandrie and Felicity both gasped as a bright light came through the gap as the door opened wider.

  “By the Goddess,” Xandrie exclaimed. Felicity and Patience both added their own worried signatures, but I pushed through them, unafraid.

  “Who was in this room, Sister Xandrie?” Felicity asked with grave concern.

  “Guidance,” was all she said in reply.

  An eight-foot hole in the roof allowed a strong beam of sunlight to pass through and shine on the carpeted floor of the large, well-arranged room. It had a pungent odor that registered a hit deep in my subconscious.

  Not death, exactly. But something near it.

  Xandrie and her escorts scurried around the room searching for the missing occupants. I studied the hole and the pile of rocks underneath. It was pretty obvious what happened, even to a nobody like me.

  But the other women couldn’t seem to come to the same conclusion. They continued to scour the place, checking every closet and bathroom. A handful of beds on the far side of the room suggested there were once four or five residents.

  Xandrie, after a long search, walked onto the little pile of rubble and looked up into the sunshine. Her red hair glowed and her porcelain-white skin seemed to rebel under the punishment. The end of her severed arm was now soaked with blood that had seeped through the bandages. A trick of the light made the stump appear a little longer than I remembered it.

  Still, she stood proud.

  “What happened?” Patience asked, from outside the glow of light.

  “I don’t know,” Xandrie replied, “but I think we have someon
e who does.”

  As before, all eyes were on me.

  Chapter 7

  Xandrie appeared to wrestle with an inner fire dancer. The red of anger permeated through the pores of her face, but she stayed just shy of absolute screaming mad rage.

  “Her,” Xandrie said, while pointing in my direction with her good hand. “She knows who did this. And where he is.”

  I took an involuntary step backward. Patience and Felicity had their knives out, but seemed unsure what to do next.

  “Sister Xandrie. You must tell us who was in here. Is someone missing?” Felicity asked before I could answer the first question.

  I looked around the ruins of the living quarters looking for signs someone had been here when the Commander ripped through the ceiling. I expected half-eaten meals or tipped over cups but saw none of that. Everything was too jumbled to say for sure.

  Xandrie paced around before finally addressing Felicity. “I kept this from you. I shouldn’t have. I’m truly sorry. But it was a secret I could not allow to interfere with our uniform sisterhood. When the Remainder began we had men and women, yes, but we also had very old sisters. The elders of our order, I called them. At first, I put them back here to protect them. Later, I kept them back here to protect you.”

  Patience stepped next to Felicity, appearing to form a two-woman interrogation panel. “From what?”

  “Anything different. Our society is perfect, sisters, you should know that. We’ve gone from the mixed-up world of disorder and chaos and made it into this world—a place where conflict and tension has been nearly eliminated. If I’d allowed those old women to infest our ministries with their incessant chatter about how things used to be we’d have never moved a step in the right direction.”

  I didn’t know if I should interfere, but I wanted to be sure the two judges knew what she was saying. “So you kept them locked up, like Felix and Scarlett. Anyone who didn’t quite fit in with the rest of your girls.”

  Xandrie turned to me, finally appearing her usual calm and collected self. Her eyes remained feisty and accusatory, however. “If the Remainder has been as long as you claim, then I’ve kept this place running—me, not some military man—for almost ninety years without incident. Yes, some of us had it better than others, but all of us endured the pain and monotony for the right reason. We will soon join the saints in Heaven. Although, your coming here and this abomination with the elders demands explanation before we can return to peace.”

  Under her breath she added, “If we ever can.”

  I took the hint. I rubbed the back of my head, searching for the right way to answer. “I’m pretty sure I know who did this—his name is the Commander. But I promise you I have no idea where he is. As I’ve told you, I came here looking for your help tracking him down.”

  “And you led him right to us!” Felicity yelled.

  “I didn’t know,” I said glumly.

  “I think she’s telling the truth,” Xandrie interjected. “She was surprised to know her blood was crawling with tracking beacons. I was watching for any hint of a lie.”

  She continued in her most soothing voice. “Yes. This is all a very serious breech of our security and the sanctity of sisterhood. This is an emergency the likes of which we’ve not experienced throughout the Remainder.”

  “Felicity. Patience. You are my most trusted companions. You know me,” she said with gushing emotion. “You need me—as much as I need you. Let me stay to help protect the other sisters. After this emergency has passed I promise I will walk out the front door, or do whatever you require of me to fulfill my broken promise to join Sister—sorry, I mean Saint Valerie.”

  Even on top of the rocks she took a knee.

  “I am at your mercy,” she said, her voice unsteady.

  Felicity and Patience took a long moment of silence while they looked upon Xandrie. They had their backs to me, so I had no way of knowing what they were thinking. I figured they were going to still throw her out. Even though I didn’t want her to go with me, Alex and Wen.

  Patience shrugged her shoulders. Felicity nodded, then spoke up. “I cannot deny my anger at what you have done. What you have kept from us. But you have led us without fail all this time. Saint Valerie tricked you because of her.” She pointed to me.

  “So we will help you in any way we can. And besides, I don’t want to take over for you in these dark times.”

  Xandrie raised her head, but remained at a kneel.

  “We ask that you help us resolve this crisis, return the missing sisters, and restore our Remainder time to the peace we enjoyed throughout your reign of guidance. Does that sound satisfactory?”

  “It does,” Xandrie said in her most timid voice.

  “Then arise as our shepherd once more,” Felicity declared.

  Xandrie did rise. She smiled at her helpers, then walked toward me. As I was behind the pair, they could not see the quirky grin she gave me once she’d passed them by. It didn’t feel at all like she was sorry for how things played out, but she was nothing but serious when she spoke to me.

  “Our first task is to arrange a special session of the Sisters. But you must leave. Take that thing with you,” she indicated my staff.

  “Okay. Will you help me get back to my friends?”

  “Of course. Show me on a map where they’re located and I’ll get you through the tunnels so you can join them. Here, let me show you.”

  She indicated her bracelet on her good arm, but was perturbed when she realized she needed her other hand—now gone—to operate it. I watched her face darken as it was clear she’d lost the ability to use it.

  She smiled when she saw me watching. “Sister Felicity. Would you be so kind as to toss a map on the wall?”

  The other girl punched her bracelet and a light image emitted from her wrist and a projection appeared on the blank wall next to her.

  I never saw a map of the Complex—at least that I remembered. It never seemed that important because someone always knew where we were going. Our daily runs were led by Mr. Bracken the first time after each memory wipe, and we then did it hundreds or thousands of times until the next reset. The map on the wall in front of me was exactly as I imagined our bunker.

  It had the elongated hexagon for the Main Hall, their equivalent of the Standing Quarter, and the six-mile long Outer Ring. A surprising tangle of inner and outer rooms linked together on the inside and outside of the giant ring, though none of them were labeled. Whoever built the Complex almost certainly built the home of the Sisterhood.

  Felicity issued a voice command and the view flipped as if showing several other levels above the main one. But those flipped by before I could get a good look at them. It settled on an overhead view of the terrain outside their bunker.

  “Can you tell from this where you came in?” Xandrie asked while pointing to the wall.

  I studied the geography, but there were no points of reference. It was all rocky hills and valleys. Each one looked the same as the one next to it.

  I shook my head. “I don’t see a river. We crossed it to get here.”

  “Sister, please widen the map to show the Colorado River,” she said in a helpful tone.

  The map shook on the wall as the girl’s wrist jiggled. When she steadied it she issued a voice command and the map expanded to include the river, the dam, and part of the lake.

  “Whoa,” I exclaimed. It was amazing technology.

  Again I studied the landscape and saw the bridge we crossed in the middle of the night. I could also see the dam and the hillside next to it where the guns had been fired at us. There was nothing special marked on the map there, so I wondered if they knew about them.

  “Well? Anything?” Xandrie asked.

  “Yes. This here.” I pointed to the highway leading away from the bridge. It didn’t show all the cars and trucks parked all over the place, but it was enough for me to draw a mental line from that area to the first canyon we turned into as we ran away. From there it got a lit
tle dodgy, but I thought I recognized the circular grotto where even now I expected Wen and Alex were waiting for me.

  “There,” I pointed so my finger made a shadow pointer to the spot.

  Xandrie addressed Felicity’s bracelet: “System: overlay ventilation external ports.”

  At that exact point the map displayed an entry point, which seemed to confirm my guess.

  “We can get out through those?” Patience said in a whisper to Xandrie.

  She was ignored.

  “Hmm,” Xandrie continued. “Those ports were supposed to be well-hidden in out-of-the-way locations. And they shouldn’t be big enough for little girls to climb through.”

  I thought back to my crawl and figured someone made a mistake. Or she had never crawled them. The vents weren’t large, but Alex was ready to jump in before I took the lead.

  He would have loved a bunker full of cute girls.

  I chuckled at the thought.

  2

  Xandrie gave me a severe look, but after a few seconds spoke to Felicity. “My trusted sister, will you be so kind as to take Sister Elle to grid K-2 and help her find the junction that will take her back to her friends? I’ll send additional instructions once you get there.”

  The other girl hesitated as if thinking, then nodded agreement.

  “I’ll arrange to have two of my people follow you out, sister, so they may help you track down this Commander of yours.”

  “Just two?” I replied, slightly hurt.

  “I know what you’re thinking: why can’t I send more? It’s quite simple. I need our girls here to protect this base. Our humble sanctuary may not seem like much to a world traveler such as yourself, but it’s all we’ve got. The order we’ve established does not suffer change easily. You saw that when we suddenly tried to bring back an old custom.”

  That was her fault!

  I kept my thoughts to myself.

  “But I’m not sending you out alone. Our chances of survival increase by at least helping you that small amount. If your Commander comes around again, we’ll still be here ready to greet him.” She tapped the gun strap on her shoulder.

  I wanted to tell her it was madness to stay inside. He already took the only things of value inside the rock tomb. He wouldn’t be coming back. But I held back because of all the fit young women I’d seen back in the Great Hall. I judged that any two of them would greatly enhance our chances of survival on the outside. Sure, ten of them would have been better, but two was more than I had before crawling inside that bag-covered grate. I wasn’t going to be difficult.