Lamentations - Part Five

“How’s the garden?” Amanda asked her brother.

Alistair listened to the hum of the elevator for a moment, marveling that electricity in the PCR still ran. “It’s fine. It should get along without me for a while. Those flowers, they’re pretty independent. Not like people or dogs.”

She touched his arm. “I’m sorry we asked you to leave your post, and it you may not get to go back for a while. You’ll need to teach the rest of us how to plant and care for the seeds—you realize that, right?”

Emil butted in. “It’s their fault we became dependent on them for food. We knew how to farm just fine before they took the water from us!”

Amanda went pale from anger, but she remained silent. It was Alistair who tried to ease the tension. “We know, Emil. Our people stopped passing on the knowledge when we stopped using it. But it’ll be alright. We will survive this.”

“Yeah,” Emil vented. “We’ll survive this now that they’re gone.”

The elevator dinged. Before them was a lobby that split off to different departments. They followed the signs to the front office of the Agricultural Authority which was abandoned, but not destroyed. The walls had a sterile look about them and were lined with stainless steel shelves and cabinets.

“This way.” Emil beckoned his cousins and led them to the seed library down the hall and around the corner. Some windows lining the wall gave them a preview to the shelves and mini greenhouse inside. He swiped his keycard again.

“They let you clean in here?” Alistair stepped into the library to find rows and rows of catalogued containers the size of his index and middle finger put together. In the center was a small glass hut that housed several saplings and a multitude of sprouts under UV lamps.

“Yeah,” Amanda echoed her brother with suspicion. “They let you clean in here, Emil?”

“It’s not that hard to hack one’s keycard privileges,” Emil answered smugly. “And it’s easier to be sneaky when everything thinks you’re a First colonist moron.”

Alistair began rifling through the containers, which were alphabetical by scientific name. “At least this place is untouched. Most of these seeds should still be preserved.”

“So, Emil…,” Amanda began with a dark tone. “When were you going to tell us?”

“Hm?” Emil grunted nonchalantly.

Amanda began to release what she had been bottling. “You know! Just say it, I want to hear you say it!”

“Amanda!” Alistair whipped around. Emil wasn’t always easy to get along with, but why was she acting this way?

Emil barely moved his lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sister.”

“‘Sister?’ You still on about that? Only our grandparents use those familiar terms. In case you didn’t notice, we’re different. We’re the generation that always knew the dome. We’re the generation that killed it!”

“Whoa whoa—what?” Alistair’s eyes darted back and forth between Emil and Amanda.

Emil held his hands in front of him, pleading. “Don’t you see? We’re also the generation that returned things back to the way they should be.”

“It was genocide. All of my classmates were new colonists. They were my friends. I—I even loved one of them! ”

Emil turned red. “They were a sickness and I provided the cure. Your pain is your own damn fault.”

Amanda leapt at him, her fists all fury and scorn. She nicked Emil on the temple, her ring drawing blood. Emil fell over and held his forearms to block the blows until he could kick her off. His foot met her abdomen, and she landed on her tail bone, wincing. Alistair knelt by his sister.

Emil barked at her, “This is how you repay me! Is this how all of you are going to repay me?” He fled the library and locked the door behind him. Alistair and Amanda could still hear him through the space beneath the door. “It’s not until every trace of them is gone, is that it? I have to blow up their skeletons before you’re free from their hold.”

“‘Blow up?’ Emil, no!” Alistair banged on the door, but Emil was long gone.

“What…what the heck?” Alistair’s voice squeaked. “He did this? He killed all those people? But, how do you even know?”

It took a moment for Amanda to control her sobs before she could talk. “I’m so sorry, Alistair. I waited for him to get us into the Agricultural Authority, but I should have waited till we made it back to the Outskirts. I shouldn’t have come. I’m so sorry!”

Alistair got on his knees and held her. “I know you lost people you cared about, and I see why you wanted to murder Emil, but I need to know right now how you found out.”

“Flatus ferocia. That vial he used to play with. I looked up the name while I was at the tech school, and I remembered the symptoms. But you know where I found the information? It wasn’t in a current lexicon, it was in the archives. The strain he had was perfectly preserved long after the strains on Earth had mutated into something else.”

Alistair anxiously ran his hand through his hair. “He’s a genius, isn’t he? He can hack his keycard, he probably does know how to blow the place up.”

“We can’t let him. It could damage the aquifer.” Amanda took Alistair’s sleeve to wipe her nose. “I swear, I will kill him.”

“Let’s just get out of here first.” Alistair frantically looked around before he settled on the obvious solution. He picked up a metal stool and swung it at the glass windows with a crash. “You went to that tech school, you tell me: how is Emil going to blow up the place?”

“The generator.”

Alistair dumped his pack and reached into the pocket to make sure it was completely empty. “The seeds seem to be in good shape. Fill it to the brim and stuff your pockets. I’ll go after Emil.”

PART SIX