羊毛战记 Part 5 The Stranded 77

　　77

　　• Silo 17 •

　　“Hello? Walk? Shirly?”

　　Juliette shouted into the radio, the orphans¹ and Solo watching her from several steps below. Shehad hurried the kids through the farms, made hasty introductions, checking the radio all the while.

　　Several levels had gone by, the others trudging² up behind her, and still no word from them, nothingsince she’d been cut off, the sound of gunfire sprinkled among Walker’s words. She kept thinking ifshe just got higher, if she tried one more time … She checked the light by the power knob and madesure the battery wasn’t dead, turned the volume up until she could hear the static, knew that the thingwas working.

　　She clicked the button. The static fell silent, the radio waiting for her to speak. “Please saysomething, guys. This is Juliette. Can you hear me? Say anything.”

　　She looked to Solo, who was being supported by the very man who had dazed him. “We need togo higher, I think. C’mon. Double-time.”

　　There were groans³; these poor refugees of silo seventeen acted like she was the one who’d lost hermind. But they stomped⁴ up the stairs after her, their pace dictated⁵ by Solo, who had seemed to rallywith some fruit and water but had slowed as the levels wore on.

　　“Where are these friends of yours we talked to?” Rickson asked. “Can they come help?” Hegrunted as Solo lurched to one side. “He’s heavy.”

　　“They aren’t coming to help us,” Juliette said. “There’s no getting from there to here.” Or viceversa, she told herself.

　　Her stomach lurched with worry. She needed to get to IT and call Lukas, find out what was goingon. She needed to tell him how horribly awry⁶ her plans had gone, how she was failing at every turn.

　　There was no going back, she realized. No saving her friends. No saving this silo. She glanced backover her shoulder. Her life was now going to be one of a mother to these orphaned⁷ children, kids whohad survived merely because the people who had been left, who had been committing the violence oneach other, didn’t have the stomach to kill them. Or the heart, she thought.

　　And now it would fall to her. And to Solo, but to a lesser⁸ degree. He would probably be just onemore child for her to attend to.

　　They made their gradual way up another flight, Solo seeming to regain⁹ his senses a little, progressbeing made. But still a long way to go.

　　They stopped in the mids for bathroom breaks, filling more empty toilets that wouldn’t flush.

　　Juliette helped the young ones. They didn’t like going like this, preferred to do it in the dirt. She toldthem that was right, that they only did this when they were on the move. She didn’t tell them aboutthe years Solo had spent destroying entire levels of apartments. She didn’t tell them about the cloudsof flies she’d seen.

　　The last of their food was consumed, but they had plenty of water. Juliette wanted to get to thehydroponics on fifty-six before they stopped for the night. There was enough food and water there forthe rest of the trip. She tried the radio repeatedly, aware that she was running down the battery. Therewas no reply. She didn’t understand how she’d heard them to begin with; all the silos must have usedsomething different, some way of not hearing each other. It had to be Walker, something he’dengineered. When she got back to IT, would she be able to figure it out? Would she be able to contacthim or Shirly? She wasn’t sure, and Lukas had no way of talking to Mechanical from where he was,no way of patching her through. She’d asked a dozen times.

　　Lukas …

　　And Juliette remembered.

　　The radio in Solo’s hovel. What had Lukas said one night? They were talking late and he’d saidhe wished they could chat from down below where it was more comfortable. Wasn’t that where hewas getting his updates about the uprising? It was over the radio. Just like the one in Solo’s place,beneath the servers, locked behind that steel cage for which he’d never found the key.

　　Juliette turned and faced the group; they stopped climbing and gripped the rails, stared up at her.

　　Helena, the young mother who didn’t even know her own age, tried to comfort her baby as it beganto squeal¹⁰. The nameless infant preferred the sway of the climb.

　　“I need to go up,” she told them. She looked to Solo. “How’re you feeling?”

　　“Me? I’m fine.”

　　He didn’t look fine.

　　“Can you get them up?” She nodded to Rickson. “Are you okay?”

　　The boy dipped his chin. His resistance had seemed to crumble¹¹ during the climb, especially duringthe bathroom break. The younger children, meanwhile, had been nothing but excited to see new partsof the silo, to feel that they could raise their voices without terrible things happening to them. Theywere coming to grips with there being only two adults left, and neither seemed all that bad.

　　“There’s food on fifty-six,” she said.

　　“Numbers—” Rickson shook his head. “I don’t—”

　　Of course. Why would he need to count numbers he’d never live to see, and in more ways thanone?

　　“Solo will show you where,” she told him. “We’ve stayed there before. Good food. Canned stuffas well. Solo?” She waited until he looked up at her, the glazed¹³ expression partly melting away. “Ihave to get back to your place. I have people I need to call, okay? My friends. I need to find out ifthey’re okay.”

　　He nodded.

　　“You guys will be fine?” She hated to leave them but needed to. “I’ll try to make it back down toyou tomorrow. Take your time getting all the way up, okay? No need to rush home.”

　　Home. Was she already resigned to that?

　　There were nods in the group. One of the young boys pulled a water bottle out of the other’s bagand unscrewed the cap. Juliette turned and began taking the stairs two at a time, her legs begging hernot to.

　　????

　　Juliette was in the forties when it occurred to her that she might not make it. The sweat she’dworked up was chilling her skin; her legs were beyond the ache, beyond the pain: they were numbwith fatigue¹⁴. She found her arms doing a lot of the work as she lunged ahead, gripped the railing withclammy hands, and hauled herself up another two steps.

　　Her breathing was ragged¹⁵; it had been for half a dozen levels. She wondered if she’d done damageto her lungs from the underwater ordeal¹⁶. Was that even possible? Her father would know. Shethought of spending the rest of her life without a doctor, of teeth as yellow as Solo’s, of caring for agrowing child and the challenge of seeing that more weren’t made, not until the children were older.

　　At the next landing, she again touched her hip¹⁷ where her birth control rode under her skin. Suchthings made more sense in light of silo seventeen. So much about her previous life made sense.

　　Things that had once seemed twisted now had a sort of pattern, a logic¹⁸ about them. The expense ofsending a wire, the spacing of the levels, the single and cramped¹⁹ stairway, the bright colors forparticular jobs, dividing the silo into sections, breeding mistrust … it was all designed. She’d seenhints of this before but never knew why. Now this empty silo told her, the presence of these kids toldher. It turned out that some crooked²⁰ things looked even worse when straightened. Some tangled²¹ knotsonly made sense once unraveled.

　　Her mind wandered while she climbed, wandered in order to avoid the aches in her muscles, toescape the day’s ordeals²². When she finally hit the thirties it gave her, if not an end to the suffering, arenewed focus. She stopped trying the portable radio as often. The static never changed, and she hada different idea for contacting Walker, something she should have pieced together sooner, a way tobypass the servers and communicate with other silos. It was there all along, staring her and Solo inthe face. There was a small sliver²³ of doubt that she might be wrong, but why else lock up a radio thatwas already locked up two other ways? It only made sense if that device was supremely²⁴ dangerous.

　　Which is what she hoped it would be.

　　She stomped up to thirty-five dead on her feet. Her body had never been pushed this hard, noteven while plumbing²⁵ the small pump, not during her trek²⁶ through the outside. Will alone helped herlift each foot, plant it, straighten her leg, pull with her arm, lunge forward for another grab. One stepat a time now. Her toe banged on the next step: she could barely lift her boot high enough. The greenemergency lights gave her no sense of the passing of time, no idea if night had come, when morningwould be. She desperately²⁷ missed her watch. All she had these days was her knife. She laughed at theswitch, at having gone from counting the seconds in her life to fending²⁸ for each and every one ofthem.

　　Thirty-four. It was tempting²⁹ to collapse³⁰ to the steel grating, to sleep, to curl up like her first nightin that place, just thankful to be alive. Instead, she pulled the door open, amazed at the effort thisrequired, and stepped back into civilization. Light. Power. Heat.

　　She staggered down the hallway with her vision so constricted³¹ it was as if she could only seethrough a straw at her center, everything else out of focus and spinning.

　　Her shoulder brushed the wall. Walking required effort. All she wanted was to call Lukas, to hearhis voice. She imagined falling asleep behind that server, warm air blowing over her from its fans, theheadphones tight against her ears. He could murmur³² to her about the faraway stars while she slept fordays and days …

　　But Lukas would wait. Lukas was locked up and safe. She had all the time in the world to callhim.

　　She turned instead into the Suit Lab, shuffled³³ toward the tool wall, didn’t dare look at her cot. Aglance at her cot, and she’d wake up the next day. Whatever day that was.

　　Grabbing the bolt cutters, she was about to leave but went back for the small sledge³⁴ as well. Thetools were heavy, but they felt good in her hands, one tool in each, pulling down on her arms,stretching her muscles and grounding her, keeping her stable.

　　At the end of the hall, she pressed her shoulder against the heavy door to the server room. Sheleaned until it squeaked³⁵ open. Just a crack. Just wide enough for her. Juliette hurried as much as hernumb muscles would allow toward the ladder. Shuffling³⁶. Fast as she could go.

　　The grate was in place; she tugged³⁷ it out of the way and dropped the tools down. Big noise. Shedidn’t care—they couldn’t break. Down she went, hands slick, chin catching³⁸ a rung, floor coming upfaster than she’d anticipated.

　　Juliette sank to the floor, sprawled³⁹ out, shin banging the sledge. It took a force of will, an act ofGod, to get up. But she did.

　　Down the hall and past the small desk. There was a steel cage there, a radio, a big one. Sheremembered her days as sheriff. They had a radio just like it in her office; she’d used it to call Marneswhen he was on patrol, to call Hank and Deputy Marsh⁴⁰. But this one was different.

　　She set the sledge down and pinched the jaws⁴¹ of the cutter on one of the hinges. Squeezing wastoo hard. Her arms shook. They trembled.

　　Juliette adjusted herself, put one of the cutters’ handles against her neck, cradled it with hercollarbone and shoulder. She grabbed the other handle with both hands and pulled toward herself,hugging the cutters. Squeezing. She felt them move.

　　There was a loud crack, the twang of splitting steel. She moved to the other hinge and did it again.

　　Her collarbone hurt where the handle dug in, felt like it might be the thing to crack, not the hinge.

　　Another violent burst of metal.

　　Juliette grabbed the steel cage and pulled. The hinges came away from the mounting plate. Shetore hungrily at the box, trying to get to the prize inside, thinking of Walker and all her family, all herfriends, the sound of people screaming in the background. She had to get them to stop fighting. Geteveryone to stop fighting.

　　Once she had enough space between the bent⁴² steel and the wall, she wrapped her fingers in thisgap and tugged, bending the protective cage on its welds, tilting⁴³ the cage away from the wall,revealing the entire radio unit beneath. Who needed keys? Screw the keys. She wrenched⁴⁴ the cageflat, then bent her weight on it, making a new hinge of its front, warping⁴⁵ it out of the way.

　　The dial on the front seemed familiar. She turned it to power the unit on and found that it clickedinstead of spinning. Juliette knelt down, panting and exhausted⁴⁶, sweat running down her neck. Therewas another switch for power; she turned this one instead, static rising in the speakers, a buzz fillingthe room.

　　The other knob. This was what she wanted, what she expected to find. She thought it might bepatch cables like the back of the server, or dip switches like a pump control, but it was tiny numbersarranged around the edge of a knob. Juliette smiled, exhausted, and turned the pointer to “18.” Home.

　　She grabbed the mic and squeezed the button.

　　“Walker? Are you there?”

　　Juliette slumped⁴⁷ down to the ground and rested her back against the desk. With her eyes shut, micby her face, she could imagine going to sleep like that. She saw what Lukas meant. This wascomfortable.

　　She squeezed again. “Walk? Shirly? Please answer me.”

　　The radio crackled to life.

　　Juliette opened her eyes. She stared up at the unit, her hands trembling.

　　A voice: “Is this who I think it is?”

　　The voice was too high to be Walker. She knew this voice. Where did she know it from? She wastired and confused. She squeezed the button on the mic.

　　“This is Juliette. Who is this?”

　　Was it Hank? She thought it might be Hank. He had a radio. Maybe she had the wrong silocompletely. Maybe she’d screwed up.

　　“I need radio silence,” the voice demanded. “All of them off. Now.”

　　Was this directed at her? Juliette’s mind spun⁴⁸ in circles. A handful of voices chimed in, one afterthe other. There were pops of static. Was she supposed to say something? She was confused.

　　“You shouldn’t be transmitting on this frequency,” the voice said. “You should be put to cleaningfor such things.”

　　Juliette’s hand fell to her lap. She slumped against the wooden desk, dejected. She recognized thevoice.

　　Bernard.

　　For weeks, she had been hoping to speak to this man, had been silently begging for him to answer.

　　But not now. Now she had nothing to say. She wanted to talk to her friends, to make things okay.

　　She squeezed the radio.

　　“No more fighting,” she said. All the will was drained from her. All desire for vengeance⁴⁹. She justwanted the world to quiet itself, for people to live and grow old and feed the roots one day—“Speaking of cleanings,” the voice squeaked. “Tomorrow will be the first of many more to come.

　　Your friends are lined up and ready to go. And I believe you know the lucky one who’s going first.”

　　There was a click, followed by the hiss⁵⁰ and crinkle of static. Juliette didn’t move. She felt dead.

　　Numb¹². The will was drained from her body.

　　“Imagine my surprise,” the voice said. “Imagine when I found out a decent man, a man I trusted,had been poisoned by you.”

　　She clicked the microphone with her fist but didn’t raise it to her mouth. She simply raised hervoice instead.

　　“You’ll burn in hell,” she told him.

　　“Undoubtedly,” Bernard said. “Until then, I’m holding some things in my hand that I think belongto you. An ID with your picture on it, a pretty little bracelet⁵¹, and this wedding ring that doesn’t lookofficial at all. I wonder about that …”

　　Juliette groaned⁵². She couldn’t feel any part of her body. She could barely hear her thoughts. Shemanaged to squeeze the mic, but it required every ounce of effort that she had left.

　　“What are you going on about, you twisted fuck?”

　　She spat⁵³ the last, her head drifting to the side, her body craving⁵⁴ sleep.

　　“I’m talking about Lukas, who betrayed me. We found some of your things on him just now.

　　Exactly how long has he been talking to you? Well before the servers, right? Well, guess what? I’msending him your way. And I finally figured out what you did last time, what those idiots in Supplyhelped you do, and I want you to be assured, be very assured, that your friend won’t have the samehelp. I’m going to build his suit personally. Me. I’ll stay up all night if I have to. So when he goes outin the morning, I can be sure that he gets nowhere near those blasted hills.”

 

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