Earth Legend (19 page)

Chapter Thirteen

I am almost killed.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were
routine except for a bit of time spent filling out the paperwork to
transfer out and for arranging to return the bike once I no longer
needed it.

I was so eager to have all the last-minute
details at work done that I actually arrived early Friday and had
to wait until Constance Reiwer got there and unlocked the place. As
the other employees sauntered in one by one, they said goodbye and
pretended to mean it. Saul was truly sad.

Constance poked a finger at Saul. "Time to
check the oak trees in the nearby parks. See how they are doing. It
might take all day." He knew Saul and I were friends. True toh is
character, he planned to keep us apart as much as possible on this,
my last day.

So we went our separate ways. Saul
imperceptibly shook his head and rolled his eyes in a look that
said he'd find a way to see me some time during the day so we could
have a proper goodbye. Then he headed out the front door and I went
to the nursery at the back of the greenhouse complex.

There was a lot to do. I found myself
surprisingly busy. By midafternoon, I was sweating and tired but
confident that the trees would be okay with Saul. Of course, I'd
already told him that he could come to me for help any time and I
intended to repeat those instructions when he came to say
goodbye.

I was in the middle of saying goodbye to the
trees when a slight sound caught my attention. Outside of the
greenhouses but loud enough to break my focus. Saul?

I looked but saw no one so I went back to the
trees. Five minutes later, another sound came and this time it was
Saul using his comunit to open the back door. "Hey Elle."

I waved him over. Letting the door slam
behind him, he came at a half-run. He wasn't smiling. I rubbed a
sore spot on my lower back. "What's up, Saul?"

"They are here."

"Who?"

"Those people from the restaurant."

My breath stopped. Those were the people who
hated me. "Here? To see me?"

"I don't know. I didn't listen, just came
around the back way to tell you. Warn you."

I thought. There could be a rational
explanation for their being here. "Then I'm glad it's close to
quitting time." I tried to laugh but it didn't come out right. "And
I'm glad that Constance Reiwer is such a dictator. He'd never let
anyone in his greenhouses who doesn't belong."

Saul stepped nervously from one foot to the
other. "They were angry and they were drunk."

I didn't want to panic unnecessarily. "All
the more reason for Constance not to let them in."

"I don't like it, Elle. You should
leave."

"I don't intend to stay late. Not one second
more than necessary. But I can't leave early. It would look funny
and Constance Reiwer would figure out some way to use that fact
against me. You know he would."

"Yeah, I do know." He heaved a sigh, then
brightened. "It's almost time to leave. It'll be okay." He hugged
me tight. "But be careful, huh?" I promised and he picked up a
sapling to transplant. Even thought that wasn't his job today he
couldn't ignore plants that needed help. He'd make sure the trees
were okay when I was gone. "I'll give our boss my report on the
oaks. It'll drag it out as long as necessary. I'll be around."

The next two hours dragged. We both jumped at
every sound. When the clock finally said it was time to quit, we
cleaned up with a hose and what was left of a bar of soap. I pulled
my hands through my hair and we both dried ourselves on our shorts.
Then we headed for the main greenhouse where Saul would give his
report. He'd lie and say he'd been gone all day checking out trees
and I'd punch out for the last time.

We didn't make it. While still deep in the
bowels of the greenhouse complex, where there was no easy entrance
or exit, we heard a sound. People. Several of them. Except there
was no reason for anyone to be there. We were the only ones working
so far from the main room. We looked uneasily one way and another
but saw no one.

Then the lights went out. There was minimal
faux sunlight streaming through the glass ceiling but that wasn't
much. The greenhouses depended mostly on grow lights spaced
throughout the various buildings so as to provide perfect
conditions for plants with differing light requirements. So thought
the greenhouses did take in light from our fake sun it wasn't much.
Without grow lights, nothing would live. With them out now and just
the light from outside, the place resembled a garden at
twilight.

We could see but not clearly so we both
jumped when several figures loomed mere yards away. Men, one of
them carrying a glowstick so we knew they were responsible for the
lights having been turned off. Why else bring their own light?

One of them pointed. "There she is."

The man beside him, larger and moving with
the kind of swagger that said he was the leader, faced me. The man
from the restaurant. The leader of the group that wanted me dead.
"Indeed she is here, just as we thought." He took a couple of steps
until feet separated us.

Saul moaned. This was my fight, not his.
"Run, Saul. Get out of here." I then whispered into my comunit to
call for help, but it was dead. The lights weren't the only thing
that had been turned off. Communication was also gone.

"I can't leave you alone with these men. They
are dangerous." Saul was so scared he could hardly get the words
out but he stood steadfast beside me.

"Go, Saul, and don't stop until you are where
your comunit works. Call Cullen."

"Cullen Vail?"

"Tell him what's happening." I made a shooing
motion. "Go!"

He ran, skirting around the group of men but
they didn't stop him. They wanted me. I faced the half dozen men,
feeling very alone. I couldn't speak until I took a deep breath,
then I asked, as calmly as possible, "Are you people lost? We don't
usually have visitors at the greenhouse."

"We're not lost."

"It's late. Quitting time. Everyone will be
gone soon."

They laughed. "Everyone else is already
gone."

"Not yet." I didn't know the time without a
working comunit but I'd given myself extra time in case there was
more paperwork to complete before clocking out for the last time.
"It's not quite quitting time." I pretended to think. "I'm quite
sure that if you hurry back the way you came, you can catch the
head grower before he leaves."

"Nope. Won't happen. He's gone. They're all
gone." He didn't come closer but he thrust his head forward. I
could see the lines in his face. "We suggested they leave and they
agreed. In fact, we insisted and they didn't argue."

No help would come. I gulped, trying
desperately to think what to say next, to stall them as I gauged
the distance around them. They were facing me and close but it was
a large room. If I could sidle towards the wall, moving in what I
hoped would seem an aimless motion, I might be able to break into a
run and get out of there before they realized what I was doing.

The plants would help. They would hide
me.

No they wouldn't, they couldn't, because we
were in the room packed with chemicals that had been intended to be
used as fertilizer that Saul had pointed out to me on my first day
of work. There were no plants in the room. None to help me
disappear.

But I had to do something. I had to try. I
kept talking, heard myself babbling without knowing what I was
saying as I ever so slowly moved sidewise. If I could get close
enough to the wall where all those boxes and bags of chemicals were
piled, I might make it. From the corner of my eye, because I dared
not look directly anywhere for fear of giving away my plan, I saw
that there was an opening in those piles. A small path through
which I could see the door. It would be a tight squeeze, but I'm
small and it was my only chance.

The leader took a step towards me, his lip
curling as he got close. "You are an abomination. Trash. A female
who'll contaminate our blood lines." Another step. "If we let you."
Soon he'd reach me. "We're here to see that doesn't happen."

I moved. Dodging sidewise I ducked to avoid
the arm that reached for me and ran flat out for that small opening
among all those bags and boxes of chemicals.

"Stop her!"

They were too late. I was in what turned out
to be a crevice in the piles and, as I saw the door ahead, I bent
low and speeded up.

"Don't let her get away!"

They came after me but they were larger than
me, they didn't fit easily into that crevice and had to push the
bags and boxes aside.

"Get her! Someone do something!"

The man with the glowstick threw it at me. It
arced high in the air but I was running full out and it fell behind
me as I reached the door to the next greenhouse, one filled with
plants. I sent ahead a plea for help and they heard. I pulled a
reserve of energy from somewhere inside of me and burst through the
door, slamming it shut as soon as I was through.

A huge sound erupted behind me. I was so
intent on running that I didn't dare turn to see what had made it.
But the sound of shattering glass and the heat that swept through
the greenhouse I was in told me what had happened. The mixture of
chemicals that make up a glowstick give off light but they also
give off heat. When it was thrown into those tons of chemicals that
were never turned into fertilizer, the whole pile exploded.

It was going up fast. That first explosion
was followed by another and then another. And still I ran, not
daring to turn and see what was happening. I didn't know what
chemicals had been stored in that room, nor did I know how much was
in those bags and boxes but I knew that fertilizer can and does use
ingredients that are used to make bombs. Such a bomb was now going
off.

The only reason I didn't die was that the
whole thing didn't go off at once, but the series of explosions
behind me meant that the group of men that had come for me was
undoubtedly dead or dying and I would join them soon if I didn't
get out of there fast.

The plants did what they could. As I ran,
they gave their lives to save mine, bending and swaying over me,
taking the heat and pressure of the explosions. I felt their agony
and heard their silent screams. They had no chance of surviving,
their roots were anchored deep in the artificial soil but, in
dying, they kept me alive.

For a while. As the explosions died away, the
fire began and the entire greenhouse complex became a flaming torch
so hot that even the carefully controlled humidity evaporated as
the devastation moved from one house to the next, following me as I
ran, catching up to me before I reached safety.

Smoke roiled around me and that was one thing
the plants couldn't help with. I had to slow down and, as the fire
came from behind, the smoke got worse and I knew I was lost. And
that I'd die.

"Elle!" Cullen's voice cut through the
smoke.

"I'm here!"

"I'm coming. Keep calling."

I shouted his name over and over as I
stumbled through the dark of that smoke and flame filled place
towards the sound of his voice. Then something loomed in front of
me and morphed into the solid body of Cullen Vail. I fell into his
arms.

"This way." He half dragged, half pulled me
until, with renewed strength brought on by the knowledge that I
might survive after all, I found myself able to run through the
smoke without help though, as for that, he refused to let go of
me.

We went back the way he'd come until he
paused because he was uncertain where precisely we were in that
maze of buildings. I finally got my wits about me and asked the
plants for direction, something I'd not thought to do while running
for my life. The plants spoke. I pointed the way. Cullen, not
asking how I knew, took off in that direction.

After what seemed like hours and was probably
minutes, the smoke cleared and we could see the main greenhouse
ahead. It was filling with firemen in their unearthly gear. As we
stumbled into the main room they stopped us and asked about anyone
else in the path of the fire.

"There were some men. They started the fire.
I didn't see them come out." I shrugged helplessly. A head nodded
grimly because we all knew no one in that inferno could still be
alive. Then he passed us by on his way into the smoke, followed by
the rest of his crew.

We went outside. I gulped clean air, gobs and
gobs of it. Pure, fresh air made by the plants that made up the
farm that was the spaceship Destiny as I explained to Cullen what
had just happened and who the men were who'd set the greenhouses on
fire.

"I'm putting you in protective custody."

I'd been in jail for too many months. I
planted my feet. "I'm going home."

"You live in an apartment. Difficult to
protect. There may be more idiots out there."

"They don't know where I live." I hoped they
didn't know. I threw Cullen's hand away from my waist and started
for my bike. "And nothing you can do will stop me."

With a disgusted grunt that said something
about not having the time to argue, he followed. Our bikes were
nearby. We started for New Rochelle without a word, Cullen
following closely, turning every so often to see if we were being
followed, eyes roving constantly over the landscape. I felt totally
safe though I'd never tell him that the fact of his being, of his
character, of his commitment to his job and to me, contributed to
that feeling.

We passed several vehicles on the way. They
were filled with men and women pulling on fire gear as they moved
and were going as fast as possible towards Center City.
Communication on the Destiny was excellent. Hoards of people were
headed towards the greenhouses to help fight the fire. The Destiny
was a huge farming community but it was also a ship and fire on a
ship is exceedingly dangerous.