Shadows (27 page)

She paused, looking at the
screen and the haze of smoke and debris still being flung into the
sky from some unseen furnace below.

“
My brother
died destroying that silo,
”
she said, her eyes
glazed.

“
Do you see
these dotted lines?,
”
Jules asked, snapping them all back
to the moment.
“
Look at how they
lead from each of the silos to this distant point on the edge of
the map marking the seed silo, the one silo built outside the
poisonous dust storm.
”

Mayor Johns leaned over the
broad diagram, taking a close look.

“
They're
tunnels,
”
Jules said.
“
At first, I thought
they were merely guidelines, indicating where we should go once
outside the silo, but they're dead straight, they don't follow the
topology of the ground, the hills and the gullies, and that was the
clue that these lines revealed something
subsurface.
”

“
We found a
digger,
”
the mayor began.
“
Below the
refinery.
”

“
So did
we,
”
Jules replied.
“
But we didn't
understand what the digger was for. We thought it was so we could
dig to this distant point, but the far silo is over a mile away. It
would take months, possibly years to tunnel so far. And if the
digger failed, if something broke, we'd be stuck half-way, so we
repaired the remaining cleaning suits and walked through the
wasteland.
”

“
But?
”
Sheriff Cann asked.

“
But the
tunnels were already in place. All we needed to do was dig down
through roughly twenty feet of rock and we would have broken into
them.
”

“
And that's
how you got in here,
”
the mayor exclaimed.

“
Yes,
”
Jules replied.
“
We came
from this one, lone, distant silo outside the dust cloud. It's
stocked with tools and machines, food and supplies, but more than
that, it's stocked with knowledge, with books and instruction
manuals. It took us a week to explore all the levels. At its base,
we found an airlock, which confused us. Airlocks are for the up
top. We opened the airlock and found a network of tunnels leading
back beneath the silos.
”

Charlotte
elaborated further, saying,
“
My brother designed
Silo One, but he didn
’
t know they would
take his design and build all this. He originally designed his silo
to house workers dealing with a type of waste you
wouldn
’
t understand. I
’
ve examined his old
notes and he built an escape tunnel below the silo so workers could
avoid being trapped in the event of a disaster that cut them off
from up top. When they copied his design, they copied the tunnel
concept as well.

“
From what
we
’
ve explored, no two tunnels connect, ensuring each
silo remains completely isolated. Seems they wanted to contain any
toxic spills while providing a means of escape. They sealed the
tunnels as they only ever intended on letting one silo out beyond
the dust. All the other silos were to be
destroyed.
”

“
So
there
’
s a tunnel to the outside?
”
the mayor
cried, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

“
Yes,
”
Jules replied, but her voice sounded
weary, as if there was something more she had to say.

Charlotte
spoke, saying,
“
When we found
Charlie, he described the quake and the fire that wouldn't cease,
that's when we realized you had to be in Silo Two. It took us a
couple of days to tunnel through by hand.
”

Mayor Johns shook her head,
but not in a negative way. Susan could see she was astonished by
all she was hearing.

“
Then we're
free to go,
”
she said.

“
Almost,
”
Jules replied.

Sheriff Cann
raised an eyebrow,guessing as he said,
“
Hammond?
”

Jules nodded. Charlie must
have told her about him.

“
The
Order?,
”
Mayor Johns asked, realizing something Susan
didn't, but Jules seemed to know what she was referring to as she
spoke next.

“
He'll blow
the silo if he knows.
”

“
He can do
that?
”
the sheriff asked.

“
There was
only ever supposed to be one silo that survived,
”
Charlotte
said.
“
The Order was established to shape society
within the silos, to mold the character of those inside these
concrete coffins, to weed out those they considered
weak.
”

“
And now that
Silo One is gone,
”
Jules continued,
“
The Order
is clear: nothing changes. If anything, your IT head is more
dangerous now than he's ever been. Now, he's answerable to no
one.
”

“
But if he
knew,
”
the mayor said, pleading with Jules.
“
If he heard about the outside. If we took him to see the
blue sky ...
”

“
You don't
understand,
”
Charlotte said.
“
Hammond
has been groomed over the course of his entire life, conditioned to
believe a lie. In his mind, any deviation from The Order, no matter
how well intended, would be disastrous. In his mind, he's the
guardian of humanity's future. He won't let anything stand in the
way of his mission. He'll kill us all if he gets the chance,
convinced he's doing what's right for the greater
good.
”

“
Well,
”
the sheriff said, looking across at
Charlie and Susan.
“
We've seen that
before. We've seen how even the smallest change will cause him to
fly into a rage.
”

So what do we
do?
”
Susan asked, noting that Charlie was conspicuously
quiet through this whole discussion. He was clearly already on
board with what needed to be done.

“
We take him
out,
”
Charlotte said, with a sense of ruthlessness that
belied her dainty features and soft complexion.
“
If he gets
to the kill switch in the server room he can take down the entire
silo, killing everyone.
”

“
You're
talking about a revolution?
”
the sheriff
said.

“
Not a
revolution,
”
Charlotte replied coldly.
“
An assassination.
”

“
But they've
fortified IT,
”
the sheriff replied.
“
You'll never get in there.
”

“
We have
to,
”
Jules said.
“
If Hammond gets even
the slightest hint that outsiders have breached the silo he'll blow
this place, and there'll be another smoking hole in the ground.
From what we could see passing by IT at night, his fortifications
are more than just a few barricades around the entrance. He's dug
in deep.
”

“
I can get
you in,
”
the mayor offered.
“
My pass is good for
all levels. I'll be able to get you through the
turnstile.
”

“
Then
what?
”
Susan asked.

“
Then you
leave him to me,
”
Charlotte replied.

The mayor
turned to Sheriff Cann, asking,
“
What about your
boys? Can they help us?
”

“
I wouldn't
want to risk someone squealing,
”
he replied, rubbing
the stubble on his chin.
“
Michelson is by the
book. He'll feel conflicted about where his loyalties should lie.
And the others are going to look to him as sheriff. Nah, if we
include them, someone will alert Hammond. And besides, they're
spread throughout the silo. The only way to get their help would be
to talk with them over the radio and that would tip our hand to
Hammond. He doesn't miss anything over the
airwaves.
”

The sheriff paused. No one
else spoke, not wanting to break his train of thought.

“
Your pass
will get us into the sheriff's office,
”
he said, looking at
the mayor.
“
We can pick up a
couple of service revolvers from there, give ourselves a bit more
firepower.
”

“
You'll have
to be quick,
”
the mayor said, handing him the
pass.
“
Michelson's like you, an early
riser.
”

The sheriff got up and
hurried to the office. Although he was wearing coveralls, Susan
could make out the bulky outline of the knee brace Charlie had made
for him beneath the thick material.

“
After we
secure IT, then what?
”
the mayor asked.

“
We start an
orderly evacuation,
”
Jules replied.
“
There's
not a lot of room in that tunnel, so it's single-file, taking only
what you can carry. We start with the Uppers and move down floor by
floor, using Supply as a staging area. We'll need mechanical to
keep the lights on and everything running smoothly until we've
cleared the silo.
”

Susan could see something
in the mayor's eyes, the realization that what had seemed so
robust, almost eternal, was coming to a brisk end. The silo had
dominated their lives. The silo was all they'd ever known. The
thought of leaving the silo had to be scary for her.

What waited
for them out there? They all dreamed of blue skies and green grass,
but life demanded more than lying in a meadow watching clouds float
by. There had to be systems and structures, ways and means of
working together for a common good. The silo was a machine, Susan
understood that. Each class within the levels represented a
division of labor as crucial as the leavers within a loom. Outside,
they
’
d need the same kind of structures. Specialization was
the hallmark of civilization. By abandoning the silo they were
walking away from the social alliances and support mechanisms that
made life possible. What would they do without a generator? How
would they survive without water flowing through pipes? Where would
they sleep? What would they eat? It would take considerable time to
build similar communal infrastructure beyond the silo, and Susan
could see that terrified the mayor. Jules must have sensed it too
as she spoke softly.

“
We can do
this,
”
she said, and Susan noted how although Jules was
an outsider she was including herself in support of them. That had
to be reassuring, she thought.

The mayor had a blank stare
on her face.

Jules reached
across and touched gently at her fingers, saying,
“
They've schooled us to see change as evil, telling us
certainty comes from doing the same things the same way, over and
over, but it's a lie. Change is nothing to fear. We can learn from
the past, but we cannot take the past with us into the future.
Humanity has thrived on change for thousands of years. Change
brings new opportunities.

“
I know it's
scary to see everything you've worked for, everything you've
invested your time and energy in abandoned, but you've got to
remember, you're embracing something greater:
Freedom.
”

The mayor
nodded.

“
It's going
to take a lot of work,
”
the mayor said.

Jules
laughed, adding,
“
Yes. It
is.
”

The sheriff came back to
the table carrying a bag. He pulled out several revolvers. Brass
bullet casings were visible in the round cylinders. He placed a gun
in front of the mayor, slid another over to Jules and handed one to
Charlie, but Charlie's right hand was bandaged so he offered it to
Susan.

“
You've got
six shots,
”
the sheriff said.
“
Just pull back on the hammer and the gun is cocked, ready
to fire. I couldn't find any spare ammo, so this is going to have
to do.
”