Atherton #3: The Dark Planet (No. 3) (12 page)

scurrying off in clusters and
baa
ing as they went.

"You're bothering my sheep."

Edgar jumped back and lost his footing, dropping the tablet with

a bang as it landed badly on the rocks below. It was the

shepherdess Maude, out watching the herd much later than

he'd expected.

"Sorry, Maude... I was just passing through on my way to the

grove."

Edgar and Maude knew each other well. They both understood

the secretive nature of the other.

"I see," said Maude. She was a portly woman with a round face,

known for her strong personality.

Maude leaned against a shepherd's staff and clicked her

tongue in the direction of the herd.

"Edgar's not going to hurt you. He's only sneaking back from

someplace he doesn't want anyone knowing about."

Maude raised an eyebrow at Edgar and locked her eyes with

his in the dim light of night. She was worried about him, but she

also wouldn't pry or try to stop him. After all that Edgar had

accomplished in the past she had learned to let him go about

his business.

"I have to leave for a little while," said Edgar, knowing Maude

would understand.

Maude stabbed the end of the staff into the dirt and looked off

toward the lake.

"Where are you planning to go? There's not much around the

other side."

She had been all the way around the lake in search of pastures

and found nothing better than the ground she stood on.

Edgar didn't answer. He had discovered a crack along one side

of the tablet. The two sides were still stuck together at the

middle, but in the faint light Edgar could see that one had been

damaged.

"What have you got there?"

"Something I found. I'd like Samuel to have it, because there's a

lot of writing."

Then and there Edgar struck on an idea.

"Would you give it to him for me?"

Like the majority of people on Atherton, Maude couldn't read.

She didn't want any part of books or words, so there was no risk

in having her discover what the words said. She took the tablet

and examined it curiously.

"Where are you going, Edgar?"

Edgar hesitated before answering, but in the end he knew he

couldn't leave his friends without telling them where he'd gone.

"I'm leaving Atherton, but I'll be back. Make sure you tell them

I'm coming right back. I won't be gone long."

"What do you mean, leaving Atherton?" asked Maude, stricken

with fear for the boy. "You're not making any sense, Edgar."

"Tell Samuel there are things hidden inside," said Edgar,

pointing to the tablet. "If he can get the two sides to slide apart.

And tell Isabel I'm sorry--I'm really, really sorry. I didn't have a

choice. I had to go."

"Go where, Edgar?"

Edgar looked back toward the Raven, hidden in the night. He

simply couldn't imagine leaving his friends without telling them.

"The Dark Planet. To find out why we're here."

This news came as a shock to Maude. The Dark Planet? The

words rang in her head and she knew them. There was a buried

memory that would not surface, but it left a lingering feeling.

And, oddly, a smell. Like something burning, but what? She

sniffed the air deeply but it was gone.
My memory is playing

tricks on me,
she thought. She shook her head and looked

again at Edgar.

"I'll give this to Samuel," said Maude. She knew from

experience that Edgar was venturing out on his own and that

he'd have it no other way. She removed a pack from around her

shoulders. Inside were figs, bread, and a leather pouch of

water. Maude had often come out in the night, only to find

herself sleeping with the sheep and waking hungry and thirsty.

"It's my breakfast," she said, holding out the bag. "Take it with

you. Who knows where your next meal will come from?"

"This is just what I needed!" said Edgar. "Thank you, Maude!"

"And I'll tell them where you've gone."

Maude put her arms around Edgar and they embraced for a

long moment. For Edgar it felt like Atherton itself was holding

him and wouldn't let him go. It aimed to keep him here, to keep

him from knowledge it didn't want Edgar to have.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Maude. "What if

you're about to see things you were never supposed to know

about?"

Edgar pulled away and backed up a few paces, sure Maude

was going to try to stop him.

"I can't stay here, Maude. I just can't."

He steadied Maude's pack on his shoulders and walked away,

expecting Maude to follow. But she didn't.

In the deepest part of night on Atherton, Samuel and Isabel

waited at the edge of the crevice for their friend to return. They

wondered where he had gone and vowed to wait all night if they

had to. They fretted over his safety and guessed at what he was

doing.

The Raven moved in silence, invisible against the dark sky.

Samuel and Isabel couldn't have known that before their very

eyes, as they looked out over the edge, their closest friend was

leaving Atherton without them.

THE SILO

If ever I return,

It will be on Gossamer's wings.

DR. MAXIMUS HARDING

INTO HIDDEN REALMS

CHAPTER 10THE FORSAKEN

WOOD

Sunrise on the Dark Planet was the saddest time of all. At night

a person could look out from the sterile safety of Station Seven

and imagine every thing was perfectly fine. There was so much

less devastation to see when things were truly dark, and this

made the dawning of each new day all the more depressing.

"What was that?" said Commander Judix from her bed. She

thought she'd heard something from the direction of the

forsaken wood.

Cleaners and Spikers looking for food?

Lacking evidence, her dismal outlook always pointed to the

worst possible scenario. If only she had allowed herself to

imagine what had
really
made the sound. She would have

discovered the arrival of a vessel from the forgotten world of

Atherton.

She opened her eyes and saw the time. Six a.m. Another hour,

maybe two, and she would have to face Hope, the acting

mother in the Silo next door. It was an encounter she looked

forward to with a mounting sense of dread.

Escaping her bed and flopping down in the safety of her chair

was a complicated business, but one she was proud to handle

on her own. She had always preferred to manage these difficult

tasks herself without the aid of some idiot feeling sorry for her.

And she didn't want any fake parts attached to her, either. Her

legs were gone and that was that.

Commander Judix rolled her chair to a small window and

looked out. To gaze at the forsaken wood in the pale morning

light was to see the shattered remains of what once was. The

trees were last to go. They looked for all the world like a stand

in the deepest part of winter, or a burned-out forest reaching

helplessly towards the sky. It was the smog that made a person

realize the trees could never return. It snaked through grey

limbs, strangling their trunks. And somewhere in there were

monsters of a kind Commander Judix couldn't think of without

trembling.

She rolled away from the window and opened a cooling unit.

There was a small plastic bottle of milky water inside and she

removed it, mixed in two spoonfuls of white powder from a

container, and gulped it down. It left a chalky white film that

made her compulsively chew and lick at her waxy lips until the

feeling went away. There were small bars of food in the cooling

unit as well, and she took one, eating it without the slightest

emotion.

Commander Judix rolled in front of a mirror and pinned up her

brown hair. She hadn't washed it in nine days, not because

there was no water, but because the thought of having it dry and

brittle after a good scrubbing was almost too much to bear. After

five days her hair was soft as silk. She could run her fingers

through it for hours and not tire of the feeling. Soft hair was

something she could control, a small but meaningful pleasure

she hated giving up.

Looking again at the time, Commander Judix decided there was

probably enough of the early morning left to ride down the

corridor to Dr. Harding's laboratory. She hadn't been there in so

long, but things were getting desperate. Against her better

judgment she couldn't help but maintain enough hope to at

least check the old lab every few weeks. What if the blip

returned and Atherton came back online?

"I wonder what bad news today wil bring?" she said. She didn't

have to wait as long as she'd expected for trouble to arrive.

Already she could hear the familiar sound of footsteps coming

down the corridor that led to the Silo. From the distinctive long

stride and a light step, she could tell that Hope was coming.

Remember who's in charge here. Don't let her push you around.

Commander Judix rolled to the door and opened it.

"I won't let you take them. They're too young."

Hope had long since given up saluting or offering any other

signs of respect. As far as she was concerned this was not the

president or the supreme ruler. Station Seven was no longer a

command post doing important scientific work. It was an outpost

of the apocalypse like all the others. Some of the old rules of

behavior simply didn't apply.

"You're calling a little early this morning, don't you think?"

"You can't have them,"
Hope declared. She was a tall, graceful

woman with black skin. Her hair was very short and peppered

with white. She had the fierce eyes of a mother protecting her

children.

"We have no choice," said Commander Judix, engaging her

chair. Hope jumped out of the way as it passed by and started

toward Dr. Harding's laboratory.

"Don't do this, Jane," said Hope. She watched as Commander

Judix's chair stopped, spun around, and motored back. Hope

had called the commander by her first name, something she

hadn't done in a very long time.

Commander Judix looked up at the tall woman in front of her

with icy resolve. "We agreed that if you stayed you wouldn't

make trouble. Coming over here--
badgering
me this way at six

in the morning--and calling me that
name
... it's a lot of trouble all

at once."

Hope knew she was on shaky ground. She commanded almost

no power at Station Seven, less it seemed as time had gone on.

She had come to the Station as a doctor, but it was the children

who made her stay long after almost everyone had fled. It was

Hope's job, in the face of so much darkness, to keep the

youngest abandoned and orphaned children of the Silo from

dying before her eyes.

"You told me you'd never go below 4200," said Hope. She was

fighting mad. "You let two tyrants run the Silo and ship these

kids off to God knows where"--Hope trembled

momentarily--"Shelton said you might even take a
ten
-year-old.

You can't do that, Jane! I won't let you take them."

"Stop calling me that name!" Commander Judix screamed with

such force her emotionless, pallid face actually shaded with

color.

They heard steps clattering from two or three different

directions, the empty tin echo bouncing every where. It was

hard to say how many people were on their way.

"If I ask for a ten-year-old, you'll give me a ten-year-old," said

Commander Judix, trying with all her might to remain calm. "Or

would you rather I shut this whole operation down? Where will

all your precious children go then?"

Hope knew the awful truth. There was only one person who

could shut down Station Seven, and that was Commander

Judix. She alone kept the station running. It had been her

sickening idea from the beginning, but it was also a sort of

insurance policy. Every ten days she went to a keypad and

punched in a series of nine numbers. If the numbers weren't

entered, the power grid would go into irreversible shutdown.

Within a few days the air filters would fail, the defenses would

be down, every thing would be over.

"I know where I'll go when I don't enter the numbers," continued

Commander Judix. "I'm a former leader of the free world. Just

because this place has failed doesn't mean I can't escape. I've

already held on for years longer than anyone else would have.

There are plenty of places in this broken-down world where I

can sit this out in peace and quiet until the very end."

She was lying, of course. Station Seven was better than most

other places on the Dark Planet. The remaining enclaves,

scattered across the globe, were overcrowded, disease ridden,

and always short on food and water.

"What's happened to you?" asked Hope.

"When was the last time you looked outside?" asked

Commander Judix. "Our choices become more limited every

day. Our choices become
harder.
And I have to make those