Chapter 1
It was the calm before the storm. At least, that’s how I would describe it. We were eating a family dinner. It wasn’t fresh, and so I was doing my best to force it down. Then again, we hadn’t had fresh food in over a decade. Thankfully our forefathers had anticipated the blight on our crops long before it had reached us and had preserved the excess for generations. Now though, we couldn’t grow them at all. No crops, nothing to preserve. Rationed pickles were what we ate now, almost every meal. I looked across the table, my brother, Sender, was having my same thought. He picked at the pickled beets and took small bites so he could stomach them. His face slightly green. His nose upturned.
“Mom, when will we have fresh vegetables?” asked Sender. He was five. He didn’t understand the trouble we were in, and not just because of food, but because of oxygen too.
“Someday honey,” my mother, Lillian replied. You could tell her heart was breaking inside. She scraped what was left of her food onto Sender’s plate. He needed it more than her.
“Mom, you still have to eat,” I said. I was concerned about her. Since the rationing had been even more strict, she had lost weight. She gave everything extra she had to Sender and I. I knew when to save it. I had a secret store of food I knew I was going to need later. If Mother could fast, so could I.
“She’s right, Lily,” my dad, Carl, agreed, “You have to keep your strength up. You know we might be one of the first to go.”
“I know, I know,” Mom said as she waved away our concerns about her, “Sender, what did you learn in school today?
“Well—” Sender started, but was interrupted when an officer came to find my father.
“Sir,” said Colonel Chaney addressed my father with a salute.
“What is it, Colonel Chaney?” my dad asked. I could see the annoyance in his eyes. This was our first meal together in weeks. Since the crisis of food, water, and air had become extremely apparent we had hardly seen my dad. He was always strategizing with the other high-ups on what do to next. There were a few options, and none of them good. My dad always told me to be ready for anything. He said what would most likely happen was that they would evacuate the people to Earth based on position and merit. The prisoners would most likely be left behind to fend for themselves in space with little rations and little air left.
I didn’t like this plan. Most prisoners were good people that had been put in impossible situations. They had stolen rations for their starving children or medicine for their sickly parents. As fair as the Liberty Space Station tried to be, there were definitely flaws in the system. My best friend, Laila, had been imprisoned for months now. After her mother who had been failing in health accidentally spilled her ration of water, Laila snuck into the refectory and took another half ration for her. She was caught by the meal clerk, a supposed friend, and turned in. Her sentence was the “Store Room” for fifteen years. For a measly twelve ounces of water, she was given fifteen years in the juvenile detention wing. She would have her cased reviewed when she turned eighteen, just three months from now. She could be out in five years if the review board had any mercy, but they didn’t. The review board had been showing their strong arm since the crisis. Juveniles in the Store Room were on half rations, which meant our supplies would last a little while longer. They were contained and monitored. They were under control. Once she turned eighteen and if her sentence was upheld, Laila would be moved to the Prison Quarters where she would be put in a solitary room with nothing. No beds, no toilets, nothing to keep you busy but your thoughts. Most people went crazy and were then moved to the Psychiatric Wing or they died. Whether they died from loneliness or boredom, I hoped I never knew. Nevertheless, it meant less mouths to feed.
“General Collins, there has been a development in the Prison Quarters. Your presence is being requested by Prime Minister Howell,” Colonel Chaney stated shortly. He was an ambitious man that hated answering to my father. They frequently were at odds as to what they should do about the prisoners. If it were left up to him, Colonel Chaney would release them all to their fate: a walk in space, certain death. It was his belief that this would make the Liberty Space Station thrive again. Without all the extra rations being spent on worthless people and without all their dead weight, the LSS would be free and self-sustaining again.
My father held a different view. He knew how long the rations would last, and felt that between all the brilliant minds that the Liberty Space Station held, that they would all devise a plan to get as many people as possible safely to the ground. Dad knew that once we reached Earth, the rules of the LSS would not apply. He knew it would be lucky if the heads of office held onto their positions. The majority of LSS citizens did not think that it was run well. Dad knew this, and knew he would have to stay on their good side. He knew he could not condemn their loved ones to death in space. Luckily, most people of the LSS liked my father. They thought he was a good man and was good at what he did. However, there were a few that sided with Colonel Chaney and they weren’t afraid to let their agenda be known.
“A development? You mean another riot? God damn it!” said my father throwing down a fist onto the table. It made my mother and brother jump. Sender’s water spilled and he gulped. There wouldn’t be anything to drink until tomorrow.
“Have mine dear,” said my mom, “Carl, go see what they need. We will meet you back at the cabin.”
“Actually, Dr. Collins, you are being requested too. It seems there are some who need medical attention,” said Colonel Chaney disgustedly. He hated that the only man between him and being the general was married to the sole surgeon on the LSS. Their marriage locked in my parents’ position of power. I was always suspicious that my parents’ marriage had been arrange because of this, but more often than not they actually seemed to enjoy each other. My mother could get my father to laugh, a hard deed. My father often sat and held my mother at night and hummed while she relaxed after a long surgery. It was clear they loved each other.
“Surely, Raghu can handle it,” said my mom a little suspiciously, “Does someone need surgery?”
“Yet to be determined ma’am,” said Colonel Chaney obviously getting annoyed. Not being a family man, he didn’t know what it was like to have a family dinner. “The Prime Minister will meet you in the visiting hall of the Prison Quarters.”
“Thank you, Colonel,” said my father standing up from the table. He looked me straight in the eye, “Clarke, take your brother back to the room, find Norma and see if she will watch him, then meet us in the visiting room to see if you can assist your mother.”
“Yes sir,” I said grabbing Sender’s hand. He didn’t like having to stay with Norma. She was old and smelled funny, he would tell me. However, she was nice and would watch after him while the rest of us were called to duty. Norma was one of the oldest on the LSS. It was my thought that my mother secretly kept her close to us, so that nothing would happen to her. She was past the point of being helpful other than to watch the children. She was one more mouth to feed.
We walked slowly toward the room. Sender was quiet until we reached our door. “Clarke?”
“Yeah, little buddy?” I answered trying to seem like everything was ok.
“I’m worried about Mom and Dad,” he said seriously.
“Me too. But we will be on Earth soon enough. Nothing will happen to Mom because they need her medical expertise, and Dad has all the military training available. He can take care of himself, and us,” I said with a smile.
“Earth will be scary. There are dark people there,” he said sort of dreamily.
“What do you mean?” I asked but before he could answer Norma found us.
“Sender! So nice to see you. What should we do tonight? Play cards or build a volcano?” she asked happily, knowing like other little boys his age Sender liked to see things blow up.
“Volcano!” he yelled excitedly and scampered into the room. Norma followed right behind him.
“Be careful Clarke,” she added as she closed the door behind her. I was left alone in the corridor. I looked to the clock. It was almost eight o’clock curfew. I would have to hurry to the visiting room, so that I didn’t get in trouble.
I walked quickly toward the Prison Quarters. I only passed two or three people. All walking with their heads down, pretending to be busy while they tried to think out of the crisis we were in. Around the last corner I ran straight into someone. I fell. He fell. As soon as I saw who it was, I tried to maneuver in a way my whole weight wouldn’t land on him but by doing that I seemed to do a little jig in the air. Luckily, I didn’t fall completely on top of him I just caught on his left arm, but it was a close call. How embarrassing, I thought.
“Clarke.” He said laughing.
“Bo,” I choked out, trying to straighten myself, but still pinning his arm.
“You can get off my arm, anytime,” he said with a sweet smile. He was teasing and his blue eyes glinted with mischievousness.
“Oh, umm, right,” I said as a half rolled, half collapsed the rest of the way to the floor.
“Here,” he said holding out a rough hand, “Let me help you.”
“Thanks,” I said, taking his hand. He practically threw back up into the arm, he was so strong. When I finally landed back on my feet I readjusted my customary pale blue shirt and tried to dust off my white pants. Mom would not be happy I covered them with dirt. I looked up and Bo Copeland was staring at me, with an amused look on his face topped and that charming half grin of his. “What?” I asked becoming overwhelmingly self-conscious.
“Oh nothing,” he said playfully, “You just look good with a bit of dirt on you.”
“Bo!” I said surprised, punching his arm lightly.
“No seriously,” he said plucking at a dirty part of my blouse, “You ever think of taking up the mechanical side of things? I bet you’d be better at putting together an engine than stitching someone up.”
“Then who would stitch you up?” I said smiling.
Bo always had a way of making me feel butterflies. He wasn’t the most handsome teenager on the LSS, but his charm was outmatched. He was happy and made everyone smile. His sandy hair and blue eyes were in the minority on the LSS, so people took notice of him. He was tall and buff from working with engines and pumps all day as was his choice of duties. Everyone worked on the LSS. From childhood on, a person found what they were good at and was ushered into fine tuning their skills. Specialties were what the LSS needed to keep afloat, and there were experts in every field. Mine was medicine like my mother. I didn’t know if I had the talent to be a surgeon like her, but I knew that in stitching someone and helping the elderly rehab I had found my calling. General practice was what my mother called it. She told me it was far more important than a surgery here and there. Most people wanted a doctor to help them through a cold or food sickness. The people wanted this more than they wanted someone to amputate an arm or remove an appendix.
“Good point,” he said winking, “Better keep you where you’re at. Where are you going anyway?”
“Going to the visiting room of the Prison Quarters. There was another riot or something and some people need medical attention.”
“What?” he said suddenly serious. “You can’t go there.”
“What do you mean? My mom and dad are waiting for me and it is almost curfew.”
“You can’t go,” Bo said abruptly and grabbed my arm.
I tried to wriggled away. “Bo, what are you doing?” He didn’t answer, and he grip was so strong I couldn’t get away. “Bo!”
He started pulling me down the hallway, back to where I came from. I stumbled and still his grip held. I was sure he was leaving bruises. “Bo, please,” I said, “You are hurting me. Stop.”
He stopped for a brief moment and his blue eyes met mine. “Clarke, trust me.” Then he continued to pull me down the hall until we reached an old supply closet. He opened the door and threw me in. Then pulled the old heavy metal door shut behind him. It was pitch black in the closet. I couldn’t see anything. I stumbled back and landed against an old steel shelf that was empty. It made a harsh clang that reverberated for a long time. Other than that, the only thing I could hear was Bo’s breath. It was heavy, solid, and steady, just like him.
“Quiet,” He whispered.
“Will you please tell me what’s going on?” I asked as quietly as I could.
“Clarke, quiet.”
I sighed and found a smooth spot on the floor. It was cold and there was a draft coming from somewhere. I waited, and waited but not in fear. I didn’t fear Bo, though his behavior was really odd. He was one of my oldest friends. We had been born the same year. So we went through most of our schooling together. His father had been in prison since before he was born. He never told me why his father had been imprisoned. I had asked my mother once about it. She told me it was something Bo would have to tell me himself. His mother was part of the navigation crew. She was up in the cockpit making sure the LSS was in its proper orbit at all times. A terribly boring job, if you had asked me. The Earth’s gravity did most of the work for the LSS and unless it collided with a meteor or some other space station, it was set to continue its course, around and around the Earth.
It seemed like an eternity when finally, Bo spoke. “They are overthrowing Prime Minister Howell and his followers tonight.”
“What?” I said in disbelief. “Who was? How do you know this?”
“Snark built a radio so he could spy on the military officers. You know how big he is on conspiracy theories. He tuned into a scrambled frequency a few weeks ago and has been listening to Colonel Chaney make plans with several other officers to overthrow Prime Minister Howell. They think he is weak and they want to continue to live on the LSS without all the extra baggage,” explained Bo.
“You mean the prisoners?”
“Not just the prisoners, the elderly and sick too. They want to purge the LSS so they can conserve supplies until they can work out some break through to grow crops and animals again.”
“Crops. Animals. There haven’t been any of those in decades.”
“I know. A few days ago, Colonel Chaney hit a snag. Snark and I thought that they would have to wait to put their plan into action until it got smoothed out, and so we didn’t think we had to warn anybody. Then yesterday, they changed frequencies. Snark about had a heart attack. He was sure someone was on to us listening in. Snark wasn’t able to unscramble the new signal in time. We knew what they were up to, but we didn’t know what we could do about it. So, that’s why I was hiding out in an old holding room that they don’t use anymore. I was trying to get more information. I hid there until your dad came in, then I tried to get out of there fast. It was too late to stop whatever plan Colonel Chaney had going on. And everybody knows how much Chaney hates your dad.”
“He will kill my dad.” I said horror washing over me. At that moment all I could see was Colonel Chaney’s face floating above me at dinner. His black eyes matching his black heart. “He told my parents there was a development and people needed medical attention.”
“He has your mom too?” he asked miserably. “They won’t hurt her. She’s too important.”
“They will kill my dad. They will kill him.”
“You don’t know that. They my just hold him and the Prime Minister captive until they get what they want.”
I stood there trying to comprehend what Bo was telling me.
“And you knew? Why didn’t you warn anybody? Why didn’t you warn me?”
“I wanted to! But I couldn’t have said anything. They would have known it was me and Snark on the radio. They would’ve killed us before we even got the word out. I couldn’t leave my mom. She’d die of a broken heart. And Snark has got his little girl to think about. We had to keep our mouths shut.” He was right. If he had said anything they would’ve executed him for treason.
“We have to get my parents out of there,” I said suddenly determined to kill Colonel Chaney myself.
“Ok,” said Bo putting his arm around me in a comforting way, “But first, let’s get the other people we love out of harm’s way.”
Sender. I had to get to him. He was with Norma in our room. I had to get there before Colonel Chaney or his troops did.
“What’s the fastest way back to our cabin?” I asked Bo.
“This way,” he said. He pulled some hidden lever and the shelf I had been resting on moved. It opened up the mechanics’ space behind the wall. There were thousands of electrical, mechanical, and plumbing tunnels in the LSS. You just have to know where to find them. “Follow me.”
I followed him through the opening to a lit balcony. It stretched on forever in either direction.
“Down this way,” he said pointing to the left tunnel, “Then we can hop across and follow the plumbing to your cabin.”
I gave him a nod and off we went. I had never moved so fast in my life. The LSS required that all citizens train to keep their muscles mass up and in peak fighting condition, but unless it was your job to fight, you didn’t exercise much more than that. It was clear Bo’s job had trained him to move fast, especially through these tight spaces. I had to work hard to keep up with him. We snuck out of another closet just to stumble out in front of my neighbor, Louise. She was a middle aged widow. Her husband had died when his oxygen tank leaked while he was on spacewalk repairing the LSS’s outer shell. She didn’t have children. I wasn’t quite sure what she did to keep herself busy, but she was quiet woman. She worked in the refectory as a sanitarian.
“You too better get home,” she said with a wink, “It’s almost curfew.”
“Right,” said Bo briskly holding my hand the way young lovers might.
“Ah, young love,” she said as we walked away.
Any other time, I would have laughed with Bo about her misguided observation. Not right now. Now I had to find Sender and get him to safety.
I got to our room and unlocked the door. We crept inside as quietly as possible. Norma was laying on the floor. Father’s big chair was turned over on top of her. I rushed to her side.
“Norma,” I whispered giving her a little shake. “Get this chair off of her, Bo.”
With minimal effort, he flipped over the chair. “I’ll go get her some water.”
“Norma? Norma, can you hear me?” I asked. I could feel her breathing. There was a large gash across her forehead still spewing blood. I tore off a piece of her large, airy skirt and tried to put pressure on her wound.
“Norma? Where did they take Sender? Where is Sender?” I asked my volume rising. She did not wake up. “We have to get her to Medical,” I said to Bo when he returned, “She’s ninety-one. This kind of blow to the head might kill her.”
“They were obviously looking for you, Clarke,” he said seriously, “You can’t just waltz into Medical. They grab you right then. And what about Sender? Does he have a favorite hiding spot or something? I’ll stay with Norma. You go look around. You have three minutes, then we’ve got to get you out of here.”
I nodded, unable to speak. Where would Sender hide? Then it hit me. There was an air duct under his bed, that Sender used to climb in and out of when he was smaller. He could probably still fit in there. I raced to his room. His room looked untouched. Did that mean they had grabbed him in the living room? I walked over to his bed, and tried to take a deep breath. Before I could even bend down, something shot out at my feet, twisting itself around them. It was Sender.
“Clarke!”
“Sender!” I let out in relief. I grabbed him up in my arms and hugged him tightly.
“Clarke, some trooper hurt Norma. He hurt her!” he said getting teary eyed.
“I know buddy. We will try to get her some help, ok? But first, you and I have to get somewhere safe.”
“Where’s Mom and Dad?” he asked looking around his room as if they should have been right behind me.
“They are still at the Prison Quarters. They… umm… they should be back soon. Something is going on, buddy. I’m not sure what. All I know is that I’m here for you and I need to get you to safety. OK?” I said trying to stay as calm as possible. How could I tell a five-year-old that his parents were captured, possibly murdered?
“Colonel Chaney has them, doesn’t he?” he said in that same sort of dreamy way as before.
“What? How did—”
Bo appeared in the doorway, “Clarke we got to go. I know a spot you and Sender can stay.”
“What about Norma?” I asked. We couldn’t just leave her there.
“I’ll come back for her,” he said sternly.
“OK. Let’s go,” I said gripping Sender tight, “Ready to go buddy?”
“Don’t worry, Clarke. Bo knows the way,” Sender said calmly and gave Bo a sheepish smile.
Bo ruffled Sender’s chocolate hair and we all made our way through the cabin, carefully tip-toeing around Norma. She was still breathing. She was a tough one. I took that as a sign that she would be ok until Bo returned for her. We crept back to the closet we had come out of before, trying not to draw attention to ourselves. It worked, at least we thought no one saw us. Once inside the closet, I took a deep breath.
There had to be some way to rescue my parents. We had to get to Earth, too. There would be no surviving on the LSS under Colonel Chaney’s tyranny. Yet, Earth was a gamble. So far, our Pioneer expeditions had come back with good news. The radiation had fallen back to livable levels. The air quality seemed to have settled back into an equilibrium, with enough oxygen to breathe on. The Pioneer troopers had seen plants and birds, signs of life. I had imagined it was much like the Earth was a long, long time ago.
We had been on the LSS for seven generations. Originally, the LSS was a conglomeration of the World’s most powerful countries. The USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, and China. After modeling the LSS’s government after the USA’s democracy, two generations in it was apparent that the LSS couldn’t function with the rules of the Earth. After a riot and several world leaders were assassinated, the LSS restructured its governing power, and it seemed to work. All the different nationalities were represented on the Council, and one elected official, the Prime Minister, headed that council. As generations passed, though, nationalities were no longer an issue. Intermixing was common in the barracks, and almost all of the current citizens were a mix of the five starter nations. So, the council became more of an advisory group to the prime minister. They were elected by sector. There were five sectors, one for each starter nation.
Other than that, the people of the LSS were groomed for the positions they held as soon as they started showing signs of being good at something. For my mother and I, it was clearly medicine. Sender was still undecided. For my father, he was a gifted leader, one that had to earn his stripes. Though not member of the council, nor did he want to be, he was one of Prime Minister Howell’s most trusted advisors. Life on the LSS was quiet as we floated around in space, but it wasn’t without its conflicts. Several other nations, like Japan, France and Canada had also launched space stations. Though they made it into the sky, Canada and France had long been gone. They were too feeble, too unorganized, to remain orbiting for this long. We had lost contact with Japan’s station for 20 years, after they sent shuttles to try to settle on the LSS without warning. Several ships didn’t make it, and for those that did, they were sent back. The LSS was unable to take on any more people. The LSS was in a delicate state of equilibrium, and it couldn’t be disrupted by a surprise group of hundreds of people. The Japanese fired missiles at the LSS as they left, damaging several corridors, but thankfully nothing necessary for survival. That was the last time we had heard from them.
As far as we knew, the people of the LSS were the last to survive, on Earth or space. Yet, that didn’t mean we took that sitting down. Our technology had advanced, so that we could continue living on the LSS far longer than initially anticipated. We had an acting military, all trained to fight on the ground if ever the need. Some say that it wasn’t necessary to have soldiers, that they used precious resources that couldn’t be recovered. My father and Prime Minister Howell knew though, and the past Prime Ministers as well, to disband the LSS’s military would send our station into chaos. They also knew, if ever we made it back to Earth, we would need to protect ourselves from whatever was down there. We had no clue if anyone survived, and if they did, what they would be like.
“Clarke!”
“What—Oh, sorry,” I said realizing I hadn’t moved since we entered the closet. Bo and Sender were already down the tunnel. “Coming.”
As a caught up to them, Bo grabbed my arm softly, “You have to keep it together. For him.” He nodded toward Sender who had walked a little bit ahead.
“I know, Bo. I know,” I said quietly. I shook him off my arm and shook the doubt out of my head. Get to safety. Make a plan.
We followed Bo for a while. We didn’t move at the same breakneck pace as before, so that Sender could keep up. I tried to make a mental map of where we were going, but it was impossible. We changed levels, took so many turns. I didn’t know if we were even still in space by the time we made it to the damaged corridor. We exited a closet, much like the one we entered back by our cabin, and were greeted by a bright red KEEP OUT sign.
“Don’t worry,” said Bo, “It’s all been stabilized, just not repaired. You can’t float off into space or anything here. Best part, no one can find you. There’s no cameras or surveillance and the troopers stopped patrolling down here a long time ago. It’s about as off grid as you can get on the LSS. And there’s lots of hiding spots. So even if Colonel Chaney comes looking, he won’t ever get his hands on you.”
That made me feel a bit better. However, ever since these corridors were damaged, everything had been rerouted away from them, which made us a long way away from my parents.
“I’m hungry,” said Sender with a sniffle. He looked upset, but he was holding it together.
“I got you,” said Bo who reached down in his pocket and pulled out a meal bar. He handed it to Sender with a smile. “I think this was the medical wing, or recovery room, at some point. There is a whole room of stretchers down this way.” He pointed past the KEEP OUT sign. It was very dark in the corridor. The dark made the corridor more ominous than it was and it smelled musty. Everything was covered in a thick coat of dust.
“Let’s find the beds,” I said putting my arm around Sender who had eaten the meal bar in one bite.
“Ok. I am kind of sleepy,” he said yawning, “And tomorrow we get mom and dad back.”
“I hope so,” I said giving him a squeeze around his shoulders.
The third door on the right housed the stretchers, and we found some old dusty sheets in a closet in the room. I made Sender a bed while Bo rigged up an old lamp to give us some light. Then I sat down on the floor next to Sender’s stretcher. He was asleep before I even said goodnight.
“Clarke?” I looked up. Bo was standing over me, a concerned look on his shadowy face. “I need to get you some supplies. Food, water. I have to go get Norma too.”
“You can’t steal supplies! You’ll be locked up as soon as you got your hands on some. What we need to do is get my parents, then get to Earth,” I said. I had been going over it in my mind since we had left our cabin. Earth was the way out. We had to get to Earth.
“Earth? How would we even get to Earth?”
“I know you know where the old escape pods are,” I said blankly. He had talked about them years before when he had accidentally launched one repairing one of the holding docks.
“Yeah, I know where they are. Doesn’t mean they work.”
“They work. Dad has been dispatching repair men down there for years, so in case we ever had to leave the LSS they would be ready.”
“Ok…? Do you know how to run one?”
“Well, no. But what good are you, if you can’t?”
“Hey, now. The technology is outdated. It’s from Earth, like 150 years ago. I don’t know if I can run that or not. And besides, who said I was going with you? I don’t want to go to Earth. We have no idea what’s down there. I can’t leave my mom. She’d die.”
“Ok. New plan. Get my parents, get your mom, and get to Earth.”
“Clarke. I don’t want to go to Earth.” He was staring at me, his blue eyes icy. He jaw was rigid and his big body stiff. I had never seen him like this.
“Bo, you would rather stay here? Floating around in the sky, with no new food or water or air sources? You’d stay here and live under Chaney?” I asked exasperated. I knew I couldn’t do this without him. I needed his knowledge of the maintenance tunnels and machinery. I needed Snark’s radio to spy on Chaney. I needed someone to keep Sender safe with me. I needed him.
“Yes,” he said flatly, “The LSS is the only thing we know. We don’t even know if we can survive down there.”
“I know I can’t survive here,” I said looking away. Fear and frustration were welling up inside me and it was hard to keep them down. Sender and I couldn’t stay in an old abandon corridor to live out our days with our parents imprisoned, stealing food and water and waiting for the LSS to crash or fail.
“Clarke, I—I’m scared,” he said. My eyes shot to him in surprised. Looking at Bo, with his bright eyes and big body, fear didn’t seem like an emotion he possessed.
“Me too.”
We sat there in silence both breathing slow and hard. Each of us trying to figure out what to do next. I knew I should be hungry, but I couldn’t feel it. I didn’t feel thirsty either. What I felt was a firm resolve to kill Chaney and get my family safe to Earth, one way or another.
“Earth, huh?” he said, a slow half grin spreading across his face.
“Where else?” I said with a chuckle.
“Do you think anybody is still alive down there?” he asked curiously.
“I don’t know. My dad said that the remote areas of the world would have been less effected than the more populated areas. So maybe.”
“Remote areas? What, like Montana?” he said jokingly. We learned world geography as kids, but most of us forgot or didn’t care to remember. I knew that the world the LSS left would not be the same if we ever got back. The radiation would have changed the climate, hence changing the ecosystems there, not to mention the border lines drawn by nations past wouldn’t exist anymore. The old Montana would not be the same.
“You always liked Montana,” I laughed at him. Even in this horrible time, Bo still made me laugh.
“Yeah, I like the idea of cowboys and horses,” he said dreamily, “I’ve always wanted to see a horse.”
I laughed at his silly day dreaming expression and thought about Earth and its animals. I hoped that there would be some left.
“I’ll promise you something,” I said nudging his foot with mine.
“What’s that?” he asked smiling his best smile.
“I promise if you come to Earth with me, I’ll find you a horse.” I said seriously. I needed him to come with me. I needed him on Earth.
“Hmmm,” he said nodded and looking away.
I eyed him suspiciously. He wasn’t telling me the real reason he didn’t want to go to Earth. “Are you going to tell me?”
He continued to look away, “You know how I told you my dad was imprisoned?”
“Yes.”
“Well he wasn’t imprisoned. He left. He went to Earth.”
I looked at him dumbfounded.
“My mother said that he broke into the holding dock and took an escape pod,” he continued, “She said he was convinced that it was the only way to survive. I guess he told her that he needed to get to the ground. That we weren’t meant to live up in space. He asked her to come with him. He didn’t even know that she was pregnant with me. He promised to come back for her or to send for her. But they lost contact with the escape pod soon after it broke through Earth’s atmosphere. We have just presumed him dead since then.”
“Bo,” I said in shock, “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
“I didn’t even know him, so I’m not sad. I’d just like to know why going to Earth was so important he had to leave his wife behind. My mom has been… incomplete since he left. Even I couldn’t make her whole,” he said. The grief in his eyes wasn’t reflected in his voice. He was strong, but not impenetrable.
I knew there was no way for me to empathize with him. I had never been through something like that. I couldn’t even tell if it was guilt or abandonment he was feeling, but it made sense why he wouldn’t want to go to Earth. He would be leaving his mom. She would be inconsolable if both men she loved left her.
“What if he is still down there?” I asked. I couldn’t stop myself. As soon as I said it, I was immediately embarrassed. What didn’t matter if his father was down there? I was trying to grab any string that might pull him down to Earth with me. The look on his face told me that this wasn’t the right string to pull.
He didn’t say anything. He got up and left me. I didn’t know where he was going, but he seemed like my life line was slipping away. All Bo had to do was divulged where Sender and I were staying, and Colonel Chaney and his men would capture us. I didn’t know the tunnels. I would get Sender and I lost and we would starve or die of thirst. Bo was our only friend at the moment. He was our only chance at getting our parents back. He was the only one that could steal us food and water. He knew where the escape pods were and where my parents were being kept. He knew, and I needed him to help me get through this. I sat there praying he’d come back.