Greenhaus Part 1: A Storm Brews (3 page)

Ella droppe
d the rifle, doubled over, removed her mask and placed her hands on her knees, preparing herself to vomit. Thick saliva coated her mouth and the meager morning meal of grub worms crawled back up into her throat. She gasped for air; each breath stung her lungs as she inhaled. She felt the acid burning her esophagus and expected food to soon make its exit if she didn’t act fast.

She removed her canteen from her backpack and hastily struggled to remove the cap. Finally the top was off and slightly tinged wate
r rushed to her lips. A few quick gulps of the metallic water and a few more deep breaths of stinging air helped to catch her breath and stave off vomiting. After donning her mask and picking up her rifle, she resumed a light jog. As she regained her breathe, she added intermittent bursts of sprints, a pattern she maintained until returning to base camp just over an hour later.

The fortress walls, formed by buses, cars, and whatever other scrap or debris the greasers could fashion into the exterior of the c
omplex, appeared in her vision. Guards patrolled along the top of the makeshift wall, each one with a different style of weapon and uniquely decorated gas mask. An opening between two large buses served as a gate, which in truth was nothing more than random scrap welded, nailed, or otherwise thrown together, giving those who guarded it a small tower, and a wall walk with waist high cover above the gate.

Some of those on guard were spotters, like her, while some were snipers. The snipers possessed fully fun
ctional weapons and most had ammo, unlike Ella, who carried an empty rifle with a blade taped around the end of the barrel as her sole means of defense. The others were spotters, armed with a weapon more valuable than any gun, vision. Seeing things before they could see you was a powerful device in Ella’s world. She approached cautiously, so as not to alarm those guarding her home, which could make her the tragic victim of friendly fire. Their motto was shoot first and asked questions later, a policy Ella fully supported because it kept them all safe. Once the spotters identified her, they waved white cloths, indicating she had clearance to pass.

The dark green canvas tent of the camp Elders towered over the walls of the fortress. The tattered flag at its p
innacle whipped in the wind. She nodded and waved to the snipers and spotters that kept her safe as she passed the gate. Distant moaning, coming from the quarantined section of the fortress, asserted the pall of the ever present Sickness. The smells of grease and grime filled her nose and her pace moved back to a sprint.

Ella passed the pile of salvaged charcoal, grabbing a fresh hunk to replace the old piece utilized as a filter in her gas mask, her increased difficulty in breathing through the mask signif
ied the time for a change. Out of breath once again, she reached her destination, but the closed flaps told her a meeting was underway, the next move of the camp being plotted by the Elders. She entered anyway, to report her observations from the previous couple of days.
            “Elder Ashe, Elder Stone,” the young spotter exclaimed as she removed her mask, taking draws of clean air from an old salvaged oxygen tank during pauses between breathes. “Glass City will be cutting power soon, if they haven’t already. Now is the ideal time to mobilize and strike.”

“
Yes, yes, yes my dear. Just as you reported twice last week,” replied Elder May Stone from behind her gray mask, painted to look like a rock. “And the week before that. Aaaaaand the week before that,” continued the small, impish woman, whose black hair had started to reveal streaks of white.

“
And the week before that,” added Elder Derrick Ashe, the tallest member in the allied camp. “And every week since that young spotter Jesslyn Cloud was captured and you replaced her.”

“
And every week you have gotten the same answer. And you will continue to get the same answer until the time is right,” politely explained Elder May Stone. “Attacking to simply attack is silly, and pointless. We will attack, when the time is right.”

“
But they mock us with their laughter and our numbers are forever shrinking, I heard a great deal of moaning when I returned today,” a frustrated Ella yelled as she dropped her mask, clenched her fists, and slammed them on the top of the makeshift table, the old plywood top bowing as she did so. The tears of anger began to well up in her eyes before softly falling down her cheeks. She pulled her braided black hair while shouting, “We have to do something, we have to!” The strained lines and hard look of her face betrayed her youth, making her appear older. She might qualify to become an Elder someday, but few thought she would ever make it that long. The constant lump in her throat, the ever present anger and unquenchable thirst for revenge was killing her slowly. Misting blood when she coughed and sneezed be damned, Ella was hell bent on becoming Elder. She cared nothing for the plans fate had made for her, she was blazing her own trail.

Elder Ashe turned to Elder Stone and said, “
I remember the rage of age nineteen, when you think the whole world is out to get you and in return you are out to get the whole world.”

Elder Stone replied to Elder Ashe
’s statement, but clearly the message was meant for Ella, “Me too, and lucky for us we learned to harness the rage, for failing to do so will only expedite the Sickness and the impending end it brings to us all.” Then she turned to Ella and finished her thought, “Speaking of the Sickness, I see that you are already exhibiting symptoms. If I were you, I would learn to corral that temper, or you won’t be long for this place. If it gets any worse, we might have to look at giving you a new job in the camp.”

Ella thought she was d
oing a good job at hiding her symptoms, and seemed surprised anyone else paid enough attention to her to notice. “What’s the difference?” she snottily replied as another round of tears fell, “We all end up dead, why prolong the agony?” Switching topics quickly, but without recession of anger, Ella demanded answers, but fired the questions off so rapidly no time was given for reply. “So we sit here and do what? Nothing? How will that solve our problems? We sit and we rot, just like our world. Doing nothing… that is the best plan we can come up with?”

Elder Stone
’s green eyes narrowed and focused her stare on Ella. It was disrespectful for Ella to speak to Elder Stone like this, especially in front of another Elder. Elder Stone tolerated it because she too was once young, impetuous, and quick to anger, so she gave Ella the benefit of the doubt in trying times. It was apparent that Ella had reached the end of the slack that Elder Stone was giving, so she backed off a bit. Ella owed her life to Elder May Stone, who saved a seven year old Ella out roaming the wasteland alone. If found by the wrong person or camp, Ella would have met a quick and violent end after her mom died of the Sickness and her father, and the rest of their camp, was taken by the Rangers.

The
last thing she wanted was to be reassigned from her spotter position into gardening or gathering or even worse, placed as a spotter on the fortress wall. Elder Stone must have noticed the change in Ella’s disposition because she adjusted her speaking tone, composing her thoughts with a deep breath that made the short, barrel shaped woman temporarily fill with air like a balloon, “We have a plan Ella, you have to trust us. Elders Cloud, Skye, and Fire left camp three days ago, promising to return with an army double in size. Nobody is afraid to die, in fact, in order for the plan to be successful, most of us will perish. But for now, you
must
stand down and return to minicamp and get some rest. That is an order.”

Ella stewed beneath the surface, but she knew
spotters from any minicamp would gladly take her position in the hills, so she followed the orders of Elder Stone and left them to their planning. The hike to the Stone minicamp would have taken the better part of two hours even at a brisk pace, but she had no designs on making that her destination, despite the direct order from Elder Stone. Ella was tired and sorely needed the rest, but had no desire to be around other people. Due to the power down, she could not return to her bunker or spy from the hills. She had a different plan in mind. Her top priority was getting even.

So Ella followed the order to stand down. She left the fortress as commanded. But she wasn
’t headed back to the Stone minicamp as directed, she was off to explore. To find some peace and quiet, some solitude so she could plot how to go about getting that revenge she so strongly felt to be her birthright.

After swallowing the last bit of his rations, Jacob placed his things in a pile near his workstation cub
by hole. After slipping on his protective gloves, called 2nd Hands, he placed the protective face and neck guard on his head. A small filter in the back cleansed his air, while the lower portion of the mask draped down to his shoulders, creating a tight seal. He finished gearing up by tightening and then buckling his utility belt.

The 2nd Hands were bright yellow and form fitting like Jacob
’s Nu-Skin. When pulled tight, they stretched up his forearm, stopping just shy of his elbow. No matter how many times he put them on, they were always uncomfortable and constricting, requiring adjustments. He pulled them tighter, pushing his hands deep into them, wiggling his fingers. He opened and closed his fists several times until his 2nd Hands fit just right, then rolled the ends of them down almost to his wrist.

After belting his rivet gun and torch, Jacob clipped into his harness. Jacob signaled to the foreman he was ready to go up, the rest of his equipment awaiting him on the beams. He took one last look out into
the nothingness, where he thought he saw the slightest bit of movement. He focused his eyes on the distant hills, looking specifically at the ridge line for movement of some sort, but he saw nothing.
Just some trash blowing you paranoid fool,
the voice in his head announced.

The beginning of his ascent jostled him out of his trance, jerking him upward toward the sky. The unfinished steel frame of the dome waited to be completed. The rest of today and many more days
ahead would be spent welding and riveting the rest of the skeleton of the massive dome. As the pulley brought him to his perch nine stories above, he stared out the window at the hills, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever he saw, hoping, and praying to Mother Earth that it was nothing.

According to official protocol, Jacob should have reported anything unusual he spotted, so the Rangers could investigate, but he was sure it was scrap metal from a far away Outsider camp blowing in the wind. With the regularly scheduled, twice weekly powe
r down looming and the subsequent delay in production that accompanied it, he did not want to waste more time investigating scrap from an Outsider camp, and risk falling behind the production schedule set by the Sustainability Charts.  

Once in place, Jaco
b was forced to wait for bundles of supplies to be raised and set on the scaffolding affixed to the glass of Annex 22 with large suction cups. Standing atop the steel crossbeam ninety-some feet in the air, he looked at the project ahead of him. A single wedge, one-sixth of the steel framed dome, was finished and waiting for the glassmen, who were busy attaching the last of the massive panes to the lower six floors of Annex 23. He looked at the trio of three story arches that formed the shell of the dome. Each one of their legs started at its own point on the perimeter of the hexagonal shaped annex and intersected at the top of the unfinished dome.

The steel framing inside the first of the six wedges created by the intersecting arches was finished, needing o
nly the glass to be added. Jacob and his partner, Jasper Jordan, would spend the rest of this week and the better part of next week completing the steel framing inside the next wedge.

Jacob walked himself through the long process and thought ahead to the t
ime when it would finally give life to those he was working to save. After construction of the dome ended, electrical workers would wire in the power using dead spaces called crannies. Once power was on, the exterior defenses would be activated. After the exit tunnel and decon chamber were removed, a final seal will be placed, cutting Annex 23 off from the Outside forever, sealing out its toxins and the would be assassins. After the Feasibility Study and Best-Use Analysis determined the maximum capacity for new recruits and decided the most efficient use of the space, crews got busy at work on the guts of the annex.

Our mission will forever continue, as one annex is finished, another will be started, until all the children of Mother Earth return to feed fro
m her bounty.
Jacob recited the saying, a passage from the Green Constitution, often in his head. It kept him motivated and focused on the importance of his work. It gave him purpose. It reminded him of the plight of the Outsiders and how fortunate he was to live in such a perfect world. When he pictured Outsiders living in this space, it warmed his heart.

These feelings, along with his familiarity of his job, and his comfort working alongside Jasper made him, at this very instance, make his final,
final
decision.
I’m done, no more thinking. This is where I belong.
He closed the door on the chance to try other departments, to branch out and experience something different in favor of continuing a family legacy. The weight of the world lifted off his shoulders and he breathed easily for the first time in a while. The paperwork needed just his signature, it was already filled out. Jacob couldn’t wait to put the ink on the bottom line.

Feeling anew, Jacob turned to Jasper, who was almost twice his age and normally had to be coaxed from his shell and asked, “
So J-man, how many of these do you want to do before power down?” as he held up one of the small rods, the first of their equipment drops of the afternoon.

The question was not rhetorical, but the long pause from Jasper certainly made it seem so. “
I-I-I don’t know J-boy,” he stuttered, as he tossed his hands up. “All of them?” he sarcastically answered the question with something resembling another question as he furrowed his brow, causing his forehead wrinkles to deepen and his bushy salt and pepper unibrow that resembled a large caterpillar to wiggle about as if it was attempting to crawl off his face.

Jacob was not sure whether Jaspe
r was being ill-tempered or if his response was an attempt at humor. Playing the odds, he just assumed the former and made another smart aleck remark in an attempt to pull him from his perpetual state of grump, “That’s an awful lot of beams for half a day, guess we need to get the cranes workin’ a little faster huh?”

Jacob whistled loudly, the type of ear piercing shrill that could shatter glass, some glass maybe, but not the foot thick glass that surrounded him. Then he turned his hands over and over to t
he crane operators, motioning them to speed it up. He knew they couldn’t hear him over the background noise and that they would ignore his motions to hasten their actions, but Jacob’s intention wasn’t to instruct the crane operators, it was to entertain Jasper. He shot a smile over to Jasper, who pitifully tried to hide his own smirk and when he couldn’t, he quickly turned his head away.

Jasper was usually a man of few words, and today was no different. He grew up with Jacob
’s father, into their days working together on countless engineering projects. When Jacob’s old man passed, something about his demeanor changed and all these years later, it remained altered. He became silent and withdrawn. Jasper was a hard worker and great at what he did, but wasted no time or effort with pleasantries with anyone, including Jacob.

After he served his mandatory five in Engineering and his five in Recycling alongside Harvard Niles, both then immediately reenlisted to work the rest of their days in Engineering, until one o
f their days was brought to an unceremonious end, changing the survivor of the duo forever.

Despite the obvious emotional burden he carried, day after day Jasper would wake up, don his protective Nu-Skin, and march from his studio in Zone 7 to silently bui
ld annex after annex. Jacob found it odd that a man of Jasper’s age, work history, and green ethics did not live in at least Zone 9, the highest living zone in the annexes, with access to the most extravagant shops, foods, and goods. He could likely have saved enough gredits to move into an even higher zone in Central, a place where the Centruppers, the most resourceful of citizens of the ‘Haus, lived. Most citizens just zipped through these zones in a blur on their way to the hospitality level or dreamed about living there someday.

Instead, Jasper opted for personal trips aboard the Bullet to other Greenhaus colonies. The Newer Orleans, New Denver, and New Chicago colonies were among his favorite destinations and he visited them whenever he accrued enough f
ree time or got far enough ahead of demand to slip away for a couple days.

Jacob on the other hand, had only been aboard the Bullet one time as a kid, when his father brought him to Newer Orleans on an emergency work trip. While one load of supplies was dr
opped and he waited for the next, Jacob looked over at Jasper, who was inventorying the fresh drop. Jacob thought about engaging him in conversation, but instead let his mind drift to the day he rode the Bullet. He vividly remembered the elevator ride to the top. It was near dusk and the clear glass tube sucked them quickly from Zone 1, the floor level, to Zone 15, the highest level not only in Central, but the entire ‘Haus and the jump off point for all inter-colonial travel. The gold colored signs were bright and invited the eyes to stare. The hint of blue cast upon everything by the dome brightened in proportion to the darkening sky.

Stepping off the elevator onto the deck, something
as simple as taking a few strides, became quite the task. Having never been that high, it was hard to get used to seeing the ground so far away through the elevator floor and it froze him in place. His father pulled him from the elevator, and had to balance carrying their bags and pulling the bewildered child, so taken aback by the sights and sounds of Hospitality that he stumbled around in a state of intoxication, continually getting separated from his father.

After checking in at the glass help desk, the father and son duo grabbed a snack at the traveler
’s lounge while the world outside the ‘Haus went black. The colors inside came alive. In addition to the cool blue light from the glowing dome above, the wires running through the crannies all around them lit up the exterior. The dull glow the electricity exhibited during the day seemed almost fluorescent at night; the current flowed like water through the wires and over the top of the domed ceilings.

Jacob remembered how he loved running the catwalk above Zone 15 and how he returned to Hospitality many times to do just that.
Watching the blue current race through the dome above him and through the lines all around the perimeter became his favorite pastime, he spent many a lonely day this way after his father’s passing. Reminiscing about the time he came here with his father, watching the Bullets come and go.

He followed the current back and forth countless times while he waited for the Bullet to pick them up that day. Stopping in the middle when the viewing tube was unoccupied, to take a look at the beauty of the life living w
ithin the Gardens so many zones below him. Beneath him was a bustling city, and he watched the people go to and fro as he cruised the catwalk. Jacob took much delight in the whooshing noise the circular doors made when he triggered their opening, then running through them and listening to them close, making the same noise in reverse.

Of all the things he saw that day, nothing made a lasting impression like seeing the Tesla Coils from above for the first time. The immensity of the giant coils, sitting atop
the tall, thick rods and steel frame support, was something that could only be appreciated from so high. The massive metallic sphere that sat atop the coil buzzed with energy running up the length of the coil before stopping at the sphere. Sparks arced off the top, waiting for something to stray into range so it could quickly make acquaintance and just as quickly say goodbye. Time and time again, the arcs angrily returned first back to the sphere, then down the coil, and finally back to the lines where they tirelessly ran until power down made them vanish.

Despite all the unique visual stimuli; the colors, the frightening heights, the coils, Jacob could not forget the anticipation of traveling for the first time. After hearing the whistle to board, Jacob pu
t on his G-suit and strapped into his chair, where he became antsy, squirming to get a look. He hated the shackles on his wrists and ankles and the restraints that bound his torso just as much as the brace that steadied his neck and head, because it made him feel helpless. Once all the other passengers were strapped in, a loud horn bellowed and an automated voice came over an intercom, instructing passengers on what to expect as the Bullet rolled slowly out of the station. After the instructions finished, the Bullet stopped.

The G force created by the start up was a thrill unlike any other he had experienced and erased his disdain for his constraints. His stomach felt like it was floating, he could feel the skin on his face pull back. The constraints may hav
e been unnecessary, it was hard enough to blink an eye, let alone move his limbs, the G force prevented it. He wanted to turn away, to watch the blue glow of the ‘Haus disappear after takeoff, but the velocity of the speeding Bullet prevented all movement. The thrill was not one he would experience again, though he often thought about traveling more, he really had no good reason to do so, opting instead to stack his credits.

His reminiscing was interrupted by the loud clanging of the newly arrived material
s. Bundles of steel used to form the framework were lowered onto the scaffolding, where they would await attachment. Jasper shuffled down to the end of the beam, taking full precaution so as not to slip. He positioned the piece of steel, aligning the holes between the crossbeam on which they were standing and the tall curved beam that formed the wedge they were filling in. After attaching the bolts necessary to stabilize the metal, Jacob moved in and welded a bead at each of the four contact points to give added stability as Jasper moved to place the next piece of steel.