Atherton #3: The Dark Planet (No. 3) (16 page)

four glanced at each other in silent agreement that this was

possible. It had been ninety-one days since they'd taken

Ramsey, the former fifth member of the green team. Vasher

would be the next to go, then it would be Aggie's turn. It was

something none of the remaining four liked to talk about. They

didn't know where children went when they left the Silo. Only

that they never came back.

"Let's just keep working. It won't do any good to slow down,"

said Teagan, thinking of Aggie and how she wanted her to rest

as soon as possible. Both boys nodded their agreement. They

talked nervously about the new boy and what he would be like.

Would he be older and meaner?

All four members of the green team had come from a sprawling

compound fifty miles down the beach. Tens of thousands of

people lived there, many of them orphaned children, and the

circumstances were so horrific people often wandered off in

search of something better.

"I was thinking of my dad this morning," said Teagan. She cried

about her parents sometimes. "He was a lot like you, Aggie.

Headstrong and confident."

"Do we have to dig all that up again?" said Vasher. He was the

biggest and oldest of the group. "Let's just get the work done so

we can get out of here."

Vasher didn't like all the carrying on about parents. It was the

same story over and over again, and the older he got the more

annoyed he was by it all. Parents left the compound searching

for someplace better and never came back. And when the day

came that kids couldn't wait anymore, they went looking for their

parents--and ended up in the Silo. It had happened to everyone

on the green team.

Teagan wanted to lash out at Vasher, but Aggie looked tired

and sore and she had to admit talking about their parents made

everyone sad and less productive.

Red Eye and Socket rose on the platform and passed through

the main chambers of the Silo. The platform ran the entire

length of the middle of the Silo, from the drying room at the

bottom to the engine room at the top. Red Eye and Socket

ascended through the drying room and emerged on the other

side into a high-ceilinged chamber with vines dangling every

where.

"Faster, you yellows! Faster!" yelled Red Eye at the five

children who were working there, pulling the bender from his

back and
whap! whap! whapping!
it against the rail of the

platform. "They're catching up down there!"

The sight of the bender sent the working children into a frenzy.

They were all younger than Aggie and Teagan. Picking buds

from the long vines was dangerous, but it was also one of the

easiest jobs in the Silo. When the children got older they were

usually moved to the next level up, which Red Eye and Socket

presently passed into. This was the growing room, where the

white powder found its beginning.

Thirty long rows of red bulbs the size of a man's head lined the

floor of the room. Brown leaves fanned out in perfect form,

which children tended and preened. One boy was carefully

picking seeds from the tips of the leaves. A very tiny girl was

trimming an overgrown plant. Two more were tilling the soil.

The vines grew from the bottom of the bulbs, through the floor,

and into the vine room below.

"You there!" said Red Eye, stopping the platform ten feet over a

boy's head. "Stop what you're doing and go help with the

trimming."

"Yes, sir!" cried the rail-thin boy of 3700 days. He came

alongside the small girl at the trimming station and began

carefully tearing bits of yellow off the edges of the otherwise

orange, floppy leaves. The leaves and the seeds were used to

make bars like the one Commander Judix had eaten a few

hours before.

The platform continued on, rising through the planting room and

into the barracks level, where the boys and girls slept. There

were three barracks in all: one for the boys, one for the girls,

and one where Hope cared for the very young children between

1500 and 2500. Only one level remained--the engine room-which was also where Red Eye and Socket slept. No one but

Red Eye and Socket was allowed in the gloom and noise of the

pounding engines.

"We'll take the new boy down to the drying room and put him

right to work with the greens," Red Eye said as the platform

arrived on the barracks level.

"Oh, no, you won't."

Red Eye and Socket whirled around and saw Hope, who had

been standing next to the platform waiting for the new arrival.

They had long grown weary of this meddling lover of cast-off

children.

"I had a feeling we might find you here," said Red Eye. "We've

already placed the boy with the green team. Aggie's been slow

today and they've fallen behind in the drying room. That girl is

getting lazier by the minute."

He smiled, feeling his cheeks push against the bottom of his

goggles.

"I hear Aggie had a beating last night. That true?"

Even with goggles to hide his eyes Socket's expression always

gave him away. "She had it coming. The little monster tried to

blind us!"

"We agreed you'd tel me before disciplining a girl. Did you

forget about that?"

Red Eye laughed and spit sprayed from his mouth. His voice

became grim and mean.

"We don't take orders from you," he said. "You're here by

invitation only."

"She's already more trouble than she's worth," added Socket.

"If it's trouble you want, it's trouble you'll get," said Hope. She

had a steely resolve that put both of the men back on their

heels. They knew the truth: If push came to shove they'd have a

hard time running the Silo without Hope. She had medical

training no one else had. When kids became sick, which

happened a lot, Hope took care of it. As for the little ones--the

snot-nosed, whining little ones!--Red Eye and Socket couldn't

stand them and refused to take care of them. None of the 1500's

would ever become 4200's without Hope's mothering.

"Just stay out of our way," said Red Eye, regaining his

confidence. "The recruits are mine to deal with."

"We'll see about that," said Hope. She put her hand in her

pocket and Socket flinched, cowering behind his brother. Hope

had another reason to be feared, but she almost never used it.

The mere fact of its existence was enough to keep Red Eye and

Socket from going too far.

The first of a two-layered bay door slid open on the outside wall

of the room. This sent all three of them moving quickly down the

hall that separated the two barracks. Hope, who was in the best

health of all of the adults, had no trouble arriving at the bay door

first.

"Do you
really
need to be here?" asked Hope. "Why not give

me a few minutes to make a proper introduction?"

The two men looked at the door like two hungry lions awaiting

the death of an injured animal. They weren't going anywhere.

The second-layer door slid open and exposed the barracks to

the outside world of the Dark Planet.

"He's late," said Socket, leaning out and staring down toward

the ground. There was a metal grate for a landing. It was rusted

almost clean through and didn't look like it had much chance of

holding Socket's weight.

"I see him!" announced Socket. "He's coming up the ladder."

Moments before, Shelton had opened the door and shoved

Edgar out of the armored transport.

"Up the ladder," he had said, "someone will be waiting for you."

And then, without warning, Shelton had closed the door and

driven away in a plume of flying dirt and rocks.

Edgar had been mesmerized by the sight of the Silo. The beach

on which it sat was not covered in smog like the forsaken wood

had been. Something about the wood had trapped the poison of

the Dark Planet more thickly, but here, closer to the sea, there

was a lonely breeze blowing steady with the burning smell of

oil. He could see the Silo rising tall into the sky, narrow at the

middle, wider at the top and bottom. It was covered in a cake of

rust and decay that flaked off in Edgar's hands and turned

powdery and dry.

"Hurry it up! We can't keep this door open all day," Socket

yelled from above. Edgar had begun climbing the rusty ladder,

taking special care not to grab the rungs that looked like they

might pull free in his hand. He instead chose to hold on to the

rails along the sides to pull himself up.

"He's a strong climber," said Socket, turning back toward Hope

and Red Eye. "
Really
strong."

"He only wants inside," said Red Eye. "He'll slog off as soon as

there's work to be done. You can count on that." But Red Eye

had no idea what he was dealing with until Edgar crawled

inside the Silo to safety.

Edgar stood up, not the least bit breathless from the effort. As

the door
swoosh
ed shut behind him he became aware that he

was trapped inside the Silo, the very place of his maker's

childhood.

The three people who stood in front of him were each, in their

own way, surprising to Edgar. There were Red Eye and Socket,

with their wild hair and goggles and benders at the ready,

waiting to whip a new and unpredictable boy into shape. They

were pale and thin, mean and unhappy.

Hope, on the other hand, put him immediately under her spell.

He'd seen dark-skinned people on Atherton before, so that

didn't surprise him. She was tall and lanky and looked down at

him as if her only duty in the world was to take care of him. With

patchy gray hair and big, dark freckles beneath sorrowful eyes,

she was soulfully beautiful in a way that couldn't escape notice

by a frightened boy of twelve from Atherton.

Socket bobbed up and down to get a better look at Edgar

through his cloudy goggles.

"Something's been beating the life out of 'im."

"He's fine," said Hope. Even with the bruises and scrapes from

hitting the trees, Hope could see that there was someone very

special in front of her. "This boy's never been outside."

"Has, too!" cried Red Eye. He'd been thrown outside to fend for

himself as a child and it made him furious to look at this

seemingly perfect creature before him. "Where have you been

hiding, boy?
Where?
"

Edgar hadn't thought up what to say. In his awestruck encounter

with the Dark Planet it hadn't occurred to him that he might not

look like everyone else.

"You better start talking," said Socket.

Red Eye and Socket had both been thrown out of a compound

at a young age for beating up younger boys, and the thrill of

picking on someone small had never left Socket. "We can get

the information from you whether you want to give it or not."

Socket dragged his bender across the metal wall of the Silo and

it scraped sickly.

"I just... well, I don't really remember where I came from," said

Edgar. "I've been lost for a while."

It was the best lie Edgar could come up with and it didn't even

come close to tricking Hope, but it did seem to work well

enough for Red Eye and Socket.

"Maybe some work will jog your memory," he said. "And there's

plenty of that to be had. Move!"

He stepped aside and guided Edgar to walk in front of him.

"The day is already half over," said Hope. "In a few hours I'll

see you in the barracks. I'll have some food and water waiting

for you, and we'll have a look at those cuts and bruises."

Socket dug down in his greasy pocket and pulled out a bar. "He

can make it a few hours without drinking up all the water and

eating our food," he said, taking a bite.

"Get him Ramsey's old olive greens," Red Eye told his brother.

Socket scurried off and Edgar glanced around the metal

landing, overcome by the idea of Max Harding living in this Silo.

Everything about the Dark Planet was so much worse than he'd

imagined it would be.

Hope knelt next to Edgar again and looked deeply into his

eyes.

"You
are
something different, aren't you?" she said. She was

especially surprised by his skin and his eyes, which were both

full of life and vibrancy. "Wait until the girls get a look at you."

Edgar smiled awkwardly and Socket came banging down the

metal floor, throwing a green shirt at Edgar.

"About time," said Red Eye, who hated to be kept waiting. "Put

that on and move!"

Edgar was shoved forward onto the round platform, followed by

the two men who had taken him captive. Edgar surveyed every

thing very carefully while he changed his shirt. As they

descended from level to level, he noticed one thing above all

that interested him greatly. All through the Silo there were metal

beams and girders. The ceilings, the walls, even some parts of

the floors on the different levels were crisscrossed with an

endless array of hand-and footholds. This place was made for

climbing.

When they arrived in the drying room Red Eye nearly threw

Edgar off the platform. "He's one of you now," said Red Eye to