The Island (8 page)

“Most of the people here are just like us.” She looked around like Tom had, checking to see if they could be overheard. “They don’t want any trouble. As long as you don’t plan on causing any, they’ll welcome you all here.”

“What sort of trouble would we be planning on causing?” Rachel watched Hannah and Tom.

Hannah shrugged. “I guess there was a lot of fighting here at first about how to run things, but that was back when the bombs first hit, and everyone was panicked about surviving. They figured out a system—they elect council members and have lots of meetings before they decide on things—it works pretty well. It’s been that way forever. A few years back we had some trouble from outside for a while. But we’ve had peace here for a long time now.”

“At a cost.” Tom made the comment in such a way that it was obvious he and Hannah had had many discussions about the subject.

“From outside?” Rachel wondered what that meant. Outside the cave? Outside the island?

“Hannah. Tom.” A woman called from some distance. She approached them, threading her way through groups of people. When she got closer she noticed Rachel and Pathik, and slowed. After a moment she resumed her pace and when she reached them she put her hands on her hips. “Didn’t I say not to be late for dinner?”

Hannah grinned. “Ma, we have our own unit now. We can get our own dinner if we don’t eat at general.”

“Your food’s always better than what they serve at general, though.” Tom gave the woman a charming look.

“Are these the new ones?” The woman ignored Tom and eyed Rachel and Pathik.

“Two of them.” Hannah shot an apologetic look at Rachel. “Sorry, Ma’s not in a polite mood right now, I guess.” She grinned again when her mother grimaced. “Ma,” she said, making a formal gesture toward Rachel, “this is Rachel. And this, “she indicated Pathik, “is her  . . . are you two formally attached yet?”

Pathik blushed deep red. Rachel looked at the ground, unsure what to do. They’d never talked about what was between them—not in that way, anyway. The future seemed so uncertain most of the time that Rachel didn’t let herself think about what it might mean to say more than
I love you
, and she suspected it was even more complex for Pathik. He was one of the Others, she was a Reg. Even Pathik’s grandfather, Indigo, hadn’t been able to make that kind of love work, and Rachel wondered sometimes if Pathik thought of that, too.

“Have to get a unit of your own soon if you are, won’t you?’ Hannah’s mother barreled right over the discomfort Pathik and Rachel were feeling. “Rachel, good to meet you. And your name, son?”

“Pathik.”

Hannah’s mother nodded, then smirked at Hannah. “Looks like I can still teach you a thing or two about manners.”

“What about that dinner?” Tom looked behind him at the number of eyes fixed on them. “We could stand to get out of the general glare right now, anyway.”

“Well then, off we go. And you two come eat with us tonight. There’s plenty to go around.” Hannah’s mother started off without looking to see if anyone followed.

“We should let our parents know.” Rachel looked to Pathik, who nodded his agreement.

“Polly can do that. Let’s go.” Hannah beckoned for them to follow her and set off after her mother.

“Her little sister,” explained Tom. “She’ll run a note over to them once we get there.”

The unit they entered was similar to the ones they had been assigned, but it felt like a home. The main room was filled with the trappings of family life—neatly folded clothes in a pile on one of the chairs, a tattered cloth doll abandoned in a corner, a table set for dinner, and wonderful smells wafting up out of various serving dishes.

“Have a seat there,” said Hannah’s mother, pointing at the table. “Polly! Polly, come out here.”

From one of three doorways off the main room, a child of about ten poked her head. Her eyes rounded when she saw Rachel and Pathik and she practically leapt into the room. “You’re the strangers!” The child stared, her expression so awe-struck that Rachel had to laugh.

“I’m Rachel, and this is Pathik.” Rachel smiled at the girl. “Are you Polly?’

“I am.” Polly turned suddenly shy, hiding behind her mother’s legs.

“Now, child. We need you to run a message over to the new folks in those units at the end of Sarah’s row.” Hannah’s mother shuffled through the contents of a box that she took from a shelf mounted on the stone wall, and retrieved a scrap of paper and a sharpened stub of charcoal. “This will do.” She handed the items to Rachel. “You can write a note and Polly will run it over.”

The back of the scrap of paper had some sort of advertisement printed on it. Rachel tried to read it but most of it was so faded that it was illegible. She held the pointed charcoal over the paper. “Where shall I say we are?”

Hannah’s mother looked confused for a moment. “Oh. Yes. I’m Annie. Say you’re at Annie and Doug’s—anyone will know how to direct them if need be.”

“Pleased to meet you, Annie.” Rachel scribbled a note and handed it to Polly, who took it with an air of gravity. “My mother’s name is Vivian. She’ll be glad to meet you, Polly.”

“Be quick, Polly. Dinner’s ready.” Annie watched Polly skip out the door. She shook her head. “That child cannot
walk
anywhere.” She took three small pieces of wood from a stack on the floor in a corner. On the far wall of the unit there was a blackened metal, box-like contraption. Annie carried the wood to it, opened the front of it like it was a cupboard and tucked the wood inside.

“A stove!” Pathik stood to get a closer look. “How do you handle the smoke?”

Annie looked proud. “This unit is one of the first Keith did. Got a stove and an extra bedroom, too.” She frowned. “They reduced the sizes a while back, but we got this one before that. Smoke goes right up a tube he made, through to the outside, with baffles to diffuse it so nobody sees it who shouldn’t.” She removed the lid of a tin pot on the top of the stove and stirred the contents with a wooden spoon. “Council wanted to prohibit us using these last session, said the smoke was too much of a risk even baffled. Said we should stick with the community ovens where the cooking is all done at night. But those who have these little stoves are of the oldest stock—they were made by the first survivors. We carry some weight. And it’s nice to be able to make your own family a dinner, when you want.”

“Now if you’d just use that weight in ways that would make a difference.” Tom grumbled the words, not looking at Annie.

“Enough of that for now, Thomas.” Annie carried the tin pot to the table. “Our guests don’t need to know all about our disagreements.”

“Who is this Keith?” asked Rachel. “And where did he go?”

Everyone was silent. Annie shifted uncomfortably, Tom looked angry, and Hannah looked worried.

“Now, who told you he went anywhere?” Annie spooned stew from the pot into the dishes on the table.

Rachel looked at Hannah. She wondered if she’d be getting her in trouble if she revealed that Hannah had been the one to say Keith was gone.

“I did.” Hannah shrugged. “I was telling them about their units and it just slipped out. They’ll know soon enough anyway.”

“Look who I found flitting around outside.” A man entered the unit, Polly right behind him. He was one of the tallest men Rachel had ever seen, and there was a jolliness in his expression that made her feel instantly comfortable. “Dinner ready?”

“We’ve got guests tonight.” Annie went to the man and gave him a hug. “Where’ve you been?”

“A meeting.” The man looked at Pathik and Rachel. “I’m pleased to welcome you both. I’m Leon, Hannah’s father. And father to this little sprite, as well.” He made a playful swipe in Polly’s direction. She shrieked and ran around the table.

“Pleased to meet you, Sir.” Pathik stood.

“Sit, sit.” Leon smiled and sat himself, easing his length onto the bench at the head of the table. “Polly says your note was delivered.”

Polly nodded. “Your Ma is nice,” she said, looking at Rachel. “She gave me a sweet.”

Rachel thought of the meager supplies they had saved from the wreckage of their boat. Vivian must have found some sort of treat in the emergency food rations. “She is nice, isn’t she? Was she okay with us staying here for dinner?”

Polly nodded. “She said, don’t be too long. They
always
do say that.” Polly rolled her eyes at Annie.

“Well, time to eat, then, so we don’t make these two late.” Annie passed slices of seed-filled bread to each of the diners. For a time all talk ceased as trays and bowls were passed. When everyone had dinner on their plates, Leon looked around the table and uttered a sort of prayer.

“Keep our family—and our new friends—safe. That’s all we can ask for. Let’s eat.”

And eat they did. The food was plain, with few spices, but they had salt in abundance and that helped. Rachel watched Pathik make quick work of his stew and felt grateful, once again, that he was alive.

“You two and the rest of your group are the subject of speculation tonight.” Leon slurped the last of his stew from his bowl.

“Hannah said you don’t get many visitors here.” Rachel smiled at Hannah, remembering how she’d suggested that this might be due to the welcome visitors seemed to receive. Hannah grinned back.

“Not many, that’s for certain.” Leon dabbed daintily at his lips with a cloth napkin. Then he belched.

“Leon!” Annie flapped her napkin at him. “Can you
not,
please?”

Leon just grinned. “Good food deserves a good burp, my love.” He turned his attention back to Rachel and Pathik. “So you come from that colony on the mainland, then?”

Pathik nodded. “We call it Away. How long have you known about it?”

Leon arched a brow. “I think they knew long ago. As long as I can remember, anyway. Just stories, for the most part, about another place that got left out on the wrong side of the border systems, a place that got blown to bits like us. Just stories, until David was born, that is. When he got older we realized his talent. He definitely felt, well,
talent
, from that direction. So we knew there were people. Just didn’t know what kind of people you might turn out to be.”

“You don’t
seem
like savages.” Polly eyed Rachel and Pathik brightly.

“Polly!” Hannah shushed her little sister.

“Savages.” Pathik said the word softly. “Is that what you call us?”

Annie stood and began gathering the plates. “Apologies, young man.” She frowned at Polly. “There’s rumors about the colony, that’s all. Always have been—just talk from people who don’t know what’s over there.” She set the plates on a work table that stood against the wall. “You’ll be cleaning those tonight, miss,” she said to Polly.

“We didn’t know about you, either.” Pathik still spoke quietly, but there was something in his voice that made Rachel nervous. “We only hoped you existed. But I never heard any stories about how you were savages.”

“Don’t mind the stories, son.” Leon waited until Pathik looked up. “Most here will judge you for what you are, not what they’ve heard. People tell all sorts of tales when they’re scared, scared of everything. We’ve all been scared of everything for generations, here.” He titled his head. “Is it the same there—Away? You folks were left just like us, left to die. I imagine you have some stories about that, coming up through the years.”

Pathik thought about it. “I guess so. And I guess there are savages, Away.” He looked at Rachel. “The Roberts.”

Rachel nodded. “But they weren’t your people.” She turned to the others at the table. “Pathik’s people are good. The Roberts were a neighboring clan.”

“And are the Roberts why you all wanted to get away from  . . . Away?” Tom spoke for the first time since they’d started eating. “Were they causing enough trouble that you had to leave? Or did you have to leave for some other reason?”

“You want to know if we were forced to go.” Pathik met Tom’s gaze. “We weren’t. We didn’t do anything wrong, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Not worried, so much. Just wanted to check.” Tom didn’t look away from Pathik. “We don’t want any more trouble here than we already have.”

Pathik nodded. “That’s what I’d really like to talk about.” He took a sip of water from the chipped glass in front of him. “What kind of trouble do you already have, Tom?”

D
o you think we should go get them?” Vivian was sitting at the table, fretting.

“They’ll be fine.” Daniel didn’t look as certain as he sounded.

Malgam finished splitting up the supplies. “We’ll give them a little more time—eating dinner with those people might give them a chance to find some things out. But not too long.” He picked up one of the boxes of supplies. “I’ll take this to the other unit.”

Nandy watched him go with worried eyes. She stroked Nipper absently, glad to hear the low rumble of his purr. The fact that he seemed comfortable here reassured her; she didn’t think he would have relaxed if there was imminent danger. Nipper looked up at her as though he knew she was thinking about him and blinked slowly, once. “I think Pathik and Rachel can take care of themselves. They’ve learned a lot about that, recently.”

“I just wish we knew what to expect from these people.” Vivian massaged her temples, fatigue finally hitting her.

Malgam returned from the other unit, but before he could sit down again a knock sounded on the door. Everyone looked at each other, unspoken questions hanging in the air between them. Malgam retraced his steps and opened the door. When he stepped aside, Sarah entered the unit.

“I just came by to see that you’re all settled.” She hovered near the door.

Daniel stood. “Have a seat, won’t you?” He gestured to an empty stool. “We were just waiting for Rachel and Pathik to come back.”

“Come back?” Sarah looked uneasy. “I thought Filina wanted you to stay—”

“We’re free to go where we please, aren’t we?” Malgam had already seated himself. He glared at Sarah, who returned the look in kind.

“I’m not the one who decides what you’re free to do.” She turned to go.

“Wait, Sarah.” Nandy stood and held out her hand. Nipper rose with her, all his attention on Sarah. “We don’t mean to be rude.” She shook her head when Malgam started to protest; that small gesture from her was all it took to silence him. “We just want to understand.”