Project Dandelion Page 4

  Chapter 8

  Day 3 underground started out easy enough. Becca decided to crawl back into bed after breakfast and skip the morning lecture. Willow was late because she was busy tying tiny braids through her short hair, making it stick out in every direction. Nanny explained, showing graphic photos, what radiation burns and sickness looked like. The class also covered some basic first aid skills. Katrina knew most of this already but wished she was able to take notes. Looking around the room, she noticed that not everyone was attending the class. James sat at the top of the bleachers again and smiled when she looked at him.

  Nanny explained that it would be impossible to determine the amount of damage done on the surface. If they would wait a year to emerge then statistically the cases of delayed radiation reactions and trauma from the initial blasts shouldn’t be of much concern to them.

  Dreya leaned toward Katrina. “We can choose to wait? Like choose to stay in our coffin longer than we have to?”

  Katrina shook her head in disbelief. “She is basically saying that we can opt to stay down here long enough that everyone on the surface dies who is going to die, and we can choose not to see it. This is sick.”

  “I didn’t think about it like that,” Dreya said in a soft voice while looking at her sister. “That’s why they separated us, isn’t it?” Realization cleared her eyes as she turned back to look at Katrina. “Each room is going to have to decide if they want to dig out. The vote would be swayed if she was in the same room as me.”

  “That makes sense,” Katrina nodded, “but what do we do if the people in our room don’t want to leave?”

  “I guess we can figure that out if it happens. I mean, couldn’t they just choose to stay in the room? Nanny said short periods of time for exposure would be all that is safe. Maybe we could dig out and still use the room as a home port.” Dreya was busy working the puzzle out in her head but she seemed optimistic as she began to form a plan for the future.

  “That could work. Great idea.” Katrina smiled knowing full well that the minute those doors opened, and the tunnel was dug, she would be long gone.

  *

  Back in the room while sorting through her lunch packet to pick out what to save, Dreya brought up the morning lecture and clued Becca in on what she missed. “So, I guess we have to decide as a room whether or not we should dig out when the door unlocks.”

  Becca didn’t hesitate, “Uh, of course we are digging out. I don’t want to be down here a minute longer than I have too.”

  Jayden agreed. “Even if we dig just to see what it’s like out there with the intention of staying down here, it makes sense just to check it out at least.”

  Ethan looked nervously at everyone else. “Wait guys,” he stammered. “Do you really think that is the smartest plan? We don’t know what’s out there, but we do know what is down here. There is food and safety down here. What if there are people on the surface who want to take that? Maybe we should wait for the worst of it to pass like Nanny suggested.” His eyes were pleading.

  Dreya put her hand on his back. “That is smart Ethan,” she said in acknowledgement to his fears. “You know you don’t have to leave. You can stay down here if you want and we can return after we check it out. You should lock the door after we go, and we will have a special knock so that you know that it is us. That way, you can keep the room safe and we can still come back if we need to.”

  Ethan looked relieved. “Okay. That could work.”

  Dreya smiled. “It’s settled then.” She took the remainder of her lunch down the hall to the common room.

  *

  Becca came out of the room for the exercise session. She got into a sprinting match with Lark and his buddies. They all laughed loudly trying to outdo one another. Willow sat with Laura’s group and spent the session braiding the hair of a girl from Room 5. Katrina joined James’ pace for the jog around the track. He didn’t speed up, but he did seem distracted.

  “Where are you at today?” Katrina asked after their third silent lap around the room.

  James looked at her and smiled. “Nowhere really. Just processing this all.” They kept jogging around the track, passing Dreya and Jayden who had slowed down to encourage Mia to keep going. Finally, Nanny called for them to stop and they began the stretching portion of the class. Becca stayed close to Lark and his friends.

  Katrina was sore, but the stretches felt amazing. She and James locked eyes as they were touching their toes and he stuck his tongue out at her causing them both to burst into laughter. Instead of following the body weight exercises, Anthony left Lark’s group to take a running leap at the wall trying to see how far he could climb it. His group of buddies cheered him on. Becca ran after him and everyone stopped to watch her go. She tapped higher on the wall and a loud chorus of “oh’s” filled the gym. She wore a smug smile as she sashayed back to the bleachers.

  The girls who sat out of the workout scooted closer and began to egg on the guys to challenge Becca. By the time that Lark went, the entire room was in an uproar cheering him on. He tapped the highest on the wall and not even Becca could beat him. He could barely contain his grin and flexed his arms playfully toward the crowd. They all went wild and Becca did a small curtsey in honor of her defeat.

  The workout session had already ended so Dreya yelled out, “Alright guys, time for cleaning and hygiene.” Mia and Becca rolled their eyes simultaneously.

  Lark laughed and put his arm around her. “Sorry mom. We were just having fun.”

  She shrugged him off with an awkward laugh. “I know. I just want to shower.” Lark winked at her and she quickly turned away. Dreya headed toward Tunnel 3 and motioned for Mia to go towards her own tunnel. Jayden and Katrina followed. They were cleaning the bathrooms while Jayden was sweeping the floor as Willow, Becca, and Ethan came back in laughing.

  “Thanks for cleaning our room, mom,” Becca teased when she entered through the door and saw them working.

  Dreya tensed at the word but continued cleaning silently. Becca went straight to the shower as Ethan and Willow made their beds. They had all just finished when the green light came on for dinner. Dreya left immediately with her food and pillow. After their showers, the rest of them took their food to the common room too. Jayden, Ethan, and Becca brought their mattresses.

  The movie that night was Wizard of Oz. Katrina loved the movie but there were a bunch of shouts calling “lame” and confetti of MRE wrappers were thrown at the wall as the picture started. Side stepping the litter, James walked across the floor to sit next to Katrina.

  “Decided to come down from your tower and grace us lowly peasants with your presence?” Katrina giggled.

  “Figured it was time to see how the other side lives.” He smiled back at her.

  Dreya leaned down between their heads and whispered, “You guys are getting awfully close.” She winked at Katrina.

  “Is that okay, mom?” Katrina laughed. Dreya smiled and went back to watching the movie. Becca laid sprawled on her mattress next to Lark and his friends. Ethan had scooted forward with another group that was beginning to form, the group that had cheered at the Star Wars movie. Willow sat with Laura and Anna in a huddle of girls that didn’t like to run.

  James noticed Katrina looking around the room. “You know it is much easier to people watch from back there,” he whispered while pointing to the top of the bleachers.

  She turned to face him. “I didn’t mean to,” she said, “but are you seeing what I see?”

  James looked over her head at the rest of the room. “What? Everyone moving to different groups? Is that what you are concerned with?”

  “It’s not just groups,” she laughed. “It’s cliques. This is becoming more like high school every day.”

  “Okay.” He looked at her with his eyebrows raised and a smile he caught from her laughter spread across his face. “What makes that so funny?”

  “It’s just ironic.” She was trying to keep her giggling under control. “How cliché
this all is.”

  After the movie, some of the kids stayed to talk in the common room while the rest of them went down their tunnels. Dreya pulled James aside and asked him to watch out for Mia. He knew it was more of a warning than a suggestion, but he tipped his imaginary hat and said, “Yes ma’am.”

  Satisfied, Dreya made her way to the room following Katrina, Jayden, and Ethan. Katrina laid awake for another hour until she heard Becca and Willow enter the room. She pretended to be asleep as they noisily made their way into bed.

  Just ten more days, Katrina thought as she finally drifted to sleep.

  *

  The next day was basically a repetition of the last. Becca, Willow, and Ethan missed the morning class by going back to bed after breakfast. Exercise became a big show off session for Lark’s group with less than half of everyone else actually participating. People stopped cleaning. Jayden and Dreya took the broom to the common room to try and sweep up some of the trash left over from the movie the previous night. Katrina finished cleaning the room by herself. The three of them barely had enough time to shower before the movie started.

  Mia greeted them full of complaints about a similar scene that she had endured. “James, Anna, and me are the only ones cleaning.” She pouted dramatically while falling onto the bleachers next to her sister.

  “I’ll figure something out or say something if this continues,” Dreya reassured Mia, sweeping the hair off her face.

  “At least we don’t have to put up with everyone for much longer,” Jayden said, leaning back against the bleachers. “Nine more days and we can bust out of here.”

  Katrina and Dreya nodded in agreement. James walked over to sit beside Katrina and asked what they were talking about.

  “Just counting down our prison sentence.” Katrina fluffed her pillow behind her back. He sat down on the floor next to her while everyone else filtered out of the tunnels and into their chosen groups.

  Mia bolted upright. “I would kill for a bag of Takis right now. Do you think they would be safe to eat if we can find some on the surface?”

  “We will find you some. I promise,” Dreya told her. “Nanny said that prepackaged food would be safe to eat.”

  “Well, at least that is some good news,” Mia said. The Fast and the Furious movie came on the projector screen.

  Chapter 9

  *Content Warning* This chapter includes a suggestion of sexual assault.

  It was early in the morning and the lights were still off. The room was quiet except for the sounds of sleep coming from the inhabitants. Ethan’s snores and grunts were the loudest. Katrina heard the knocking on the door before anyone else and she opened her eyes. The banging on the door grew more rapid. Katrina came fully awake and quietly jumped off her bunk. She ran barefoot across the cold floor and undid the latch that locked the door. The door was pulled back hard out of her hands as she pushed it open. Mia stood there with wild hair and tears in her eyes.

  “Where is Dreya?” Mia was breathless and shaking. Katrina wrapped her arm around the girl and guided her to her sister’s bed. “Dreya get up,” she cried while climbing into the bunk.

  Dreya woke up startled and quickly pulled her crying sister into her arms. “Shh, shh,” she soothed her. “What is it sweetie? What happened?” Katrina stood there awkwardly hugging herself, unsure of what to do.

  Mia began to cry harder while wiping her nose. “I’m not sure,” she stammered. “I don’t know what happened exactly.” Dreya kept trying to comfort her sister as the rest of the room started to wake up. Jayden opened his eyes to see Katrina standing there and leaned over the side of the bed to find Dreya and Mia below him. He asked Katrina what was happening, and she could only shrug her shoulders in response.

  Mia finally caught her breath and started to explain, “I’m not really sure what happened. I woke up to James and Lark on the floor punching each other. Anna was sitting up and crying in her bed. Anthony and Brett got up to jump into the fight, but Lark told them not to. Then James carried Anna out of the room and told me to put my shoes on to go with them. We started to head down the tunnel and Anna kept crying. As we were leaving, Lark called her a liar and a slut. James went to lunge at him again, but I was able to pull him back. I left them in the common room and ran down here to get you. James’ face is bleeding.” Katrina ran to put her shoes on. Then she grabbed a towel from the bathroom and the cheap little first aid kit from the shelf.

  Becca was laying in her bed listening to the story. When Mia had finished, she rolled onto her back again. “Seriously? This is what you woke us up for?” She yawned loudly. “I hate drama. I’m going back to bed.”

  Katrina was already at the door and leaving as Jayden and Dreya put their shoes on. Jayden wrapped his blanket over Mia and the three of them made their way quietly out of the room, so their roommates could go back to sleep.

  She was jogging down the dark hall that was softly illuminated with the red light. The common room wasn’t much brighter when she got there. Katrina took a second for her eyes to adjust to the darkness in front of her. “James!” she called out and her voice echoed through the room and whispered back down the tunnel. She flinched at how loud and pathetic it sounded to her own ears.

  “Over here.” She heard him say. Through the blackness she was able to make out a moving shape near the dimly lit water fountain. She raced over and almost tripped on Anna who was crying while huddled under a blanket on the floor.

  Katrina wanted to reach for James, but she dropped to her knees and took Anna’s face between her hands. “Anna are you okay?” Katrina looked into her eyes. “What happened?” Tears streamed down Anna’s face as she dropped her head to her knees and rocked back and forth sobbing.

  James kneeled down and put his hand on her back before turning to address Katrina. Dreya and Jayden were just walking up. “I told you I didn’t like that guy,” he spit out the words. “That jerk was trying to rape her. I woke up to her telling him no and trying to push him off. Lark kept telling her to be quiet. I yanked him off her bunk and the creep said he was just trying to comfort her.” Katrina saw a fire flash in James’ eyes through the darkness of the room that somewhat scared her. Still, she gently turned his head toward the glow of the lights on the water fountain in order to look at his face.

  “Did you get him better than he got you?” she asked while softly touching his swelling lip.

  James winced at the touch. “I wish that I had killed him.”

  Dreya dropped to the floor and was trying to comfort Anna. Jayden started to walk towards Tunnel 6 but Mia grabbed his arm and begged him not to. “Are you okay?” Dreya asked Anna while pulling the blanket up over her shoulders. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No,” Anna whispered. “He just crawled into my bed and started talking. Then he was trying to put his hands down into my waistband and I started pushing him away, but he got more insistent.” She wiped away tears and snot with the back of her hand. “James pulled him off before anything really happened.”

  “He isn’t going to get away with this.” Dreya jumped to her feet and started walking down the hall. Katrina went to follow her, and Jayden pushed Mia’s hand off him.

  “Please stop.” Anna was crying again.

  Katrina looked at Dreya with her eyebrows raised. Dreya stopped and looked back at Anna. “He can’t get away with doing something so messed up,” Dreya said while shaking her head.

  “There has already been too much fighting.” Anna cleared her throat. “James already hit him. This whole thing is really awkward and uncomfortable now. I don’t want it to be a bigger deal than it is. I just want to find another place to sleep until we get out of here.”

  “But what if it had been Mia?” Dreya pleaded. “He deserves to be the one to leave the room.”

  “Please let it go.” Anna buried her head back into her knees.

  Katrina stopped Dreya from walking away. “We have to respect what she wants.” The lights clicked on, temporarily blinding them all. Na
nny’s voice came over the loudspeaker.

  “Welcome to Day 5 in the shelter.”

  *

  “I’ll go get our breakfast,” Mia said heading towards Tunnel 6.

  “Not alone you won’t.” Dreya quickly ran up beside her. “In fact, I don’t even want you in that room anymore. We will get your mattress and put it in our room.” Jayden agreed as he caught up with the two of them.

  Mia glared at her sister. “And what am I supposed to eat every day? My food allowance goes to that room not yours.”

  “We will figure something out Mia. Don’t argue this one though. I am not budging.” Dreya forged on ahead as Mia stared at her sister’s back.

  Katrina was dabbing the towel gently against James’ face. The blood seemed to have come from his nose but had stopped flowing and his lip was a little swollen but not cut. “You should stay in our room too,” she said softly. “You both should.” Neither one of them acknowledged her words but they didn’t say no. Katrina put the towel in James’ hands and ran to catch up with Dreya. “I think we should get their mattresses too,” she said while looking back over her shoulder.

  Dreya nodded and they continued down the tunnel. Katrina noticed how tightly Dreya’s jaw was clenched as she marched towards the room. The door was slightly ajar, and Mia pushed her way through first with Dreya, Jayden, and Katrina following behind her. The room seemed to have the exact same set up as theirs did. Katrina wasn’t really expecting it to be different. There was a smear of blood on the middle of the floor though. No doubt from James’ nose.

  Lark stood up when they walked in. His eye was swelling shut. James had gotten him good, Katrina thought smugly. “Mia!” He rushed to her. “Thank God. Are you okay? How is James?”

  Mia looked to her sister with a confused expression as Dreya stepped forward to put herself in front of her sister. Jayden moved almost as fast and positioned himself at Dreya’s side. Katrina sidestepped the three and slowly walked to the outside of the huddle.