The Seclusion by Jacqui Castle

Author:Jacqui Castle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkshares
Published: 2018-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

IT WAS MAGNIFICENT. An enormous bowl-shaped depression with a raised rim. The steep, lifeless edges revealed striations in the earth—a mix of bright reds, browns, and oranges. Images on a screen did not do it justice and I stared in awe. Not even the sprinkling of Compos around the rim, like ants crawling on a left-out bowl of milk, diluted my fascination.

We had both memorized the specs of the nuclear bombing and had been given tests on the details throughout our training. It left a crater with a diameter measuring approximately two miles wide and 450 feet deep. The radiation in the vicinity remained at lethal levels for twenty-six years, and the area still isn’t free of radiation, I recited to myself. Due to America’s swift retaliation, we have remained free of further nuclear threat to this day.

I remembered what my father had said—that some suspected the bombing was not the work of foreign terrorists at all, but rather staged by the Board to get people to fear the outside and submit to the new laws of the land. It sounded crazy when I first heard it, but after what we had seen in Wildcliff, it now seemed par for the course.

The Compos did not move around a lot, mostly stayed two at each post, spaced at equal distances around the rim. Compo vehicles were parked along the road near the site. I spotted three drones hovering above the crater. Rexx and I stayed still. One drone started to wander closer, and we flattened ourselves against the cube behind us. Did it realize we were here, or did the drones always check the passing cargo flats? There was no way to know as it continued toward us. The drone was about the size of a crow.

I tried to think of what on earth we could do, if there was anything we could use if it approached. I quickly thought through the contents of the backpack. Was there something we could throw that we were willing to part with? We could go without a meal or two, but if our protein bars didn’t knock the drone down, then all we’d have done was waste food. It continued straight for us, and I felt every muscle in my body tense as it approached. The drone dropped as it approached the back of the cargo flat, maintaining the same speed. Neither Rexx nor I dared speak, just in case it had an audio sensor. Then it disappeared. I could no longer see it. Where is it? I mouthed to Rexx. It must have been behind us, out of view. I considered peeking around the cube behind me, to see if I could spot it, but I froze. It had appeared right next to Rexx. Hovering right by the opening, staring at us. Then Rexx did something that I would never have expected. In a flash, he reached out and grabbed it. Grabbed one of its quadcopter legs, pulled it down, and chucked it underneath the cargo flat.

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