Moon (Glimpsing Stars, 1.5) by S.K. Falls

Author:S.K. Falls
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: world of shell and bone novella, s.k. falls, world of shell and bone book 2, glimpsing stars
Publisher: S.K. Falls
Published: 2013-08-16T07:00:00+00:00

City of Ursa, New Amana

November 2078

I sit back in my chair and watch Mercury approach. A gleeful expression dances in her black eyes; a barely-suppressed smile plays on her lips.

“Have you heard?” she says in a hurried whisper before she has even stopped moving.

This is how most of Mercury’s conversations begin. She is the hub of all news passed from classified environments to BoTA, where we work. I have only been here a year, but already Mercury has found me. I do not know what she saw in my face that told her I was a kindred spirit.

Mercury and I celebrate when citizens are arrested or taken away to the Asylums. And why shouldn’t we? The fewer people we have to compete with, the higher our chance of survival. When fighting for each waking moment is a way of life, emotions such as empathy and compassion cease to matter. Those who think otherwise delude themselves. I can guarantee that their life spans are shorter than those of people like Mercury and me.

“Who’ve they caught?” I keep my tone nonchalant, but my heart races. I need it to be her—Vika Cannon. It has to be.

Mercury shakes her head, apparently reading my mind. After all this time, it’s no secret—at least not one I keep from her—who I’ve been hoping will stumble. “No one’s been picked up for the gas chambers yet.”

Hope deflates, and I am suddenly angry. Why did I think for even a moment that she would’ve been arrested? Her mother is much too important for them to make such a move without thoroughly investigating first. And that could take weeks, even months. I glare at Mercury, bitter bile splashing the back of my throat. “What, then? Out with it already.”

Mercury flinches at my unkind tone, but I don’t apologize. “Vika Cannon is a Rad. She’s on the run.”

I stare at her, unable to believe what I’ve just heard.

In our society, every waking moment is a struggle for life against death. Every day of my life, I am faced with the harsh truth: There is a finite amount of time before our resources run out. The War of the Nations—an enormous nuclear war that changed the very topography of the earth—has left New Amana utterly depleted. The poisoned oxygen we breathe, the meager food we eat, all of it is running out, fast. Our only chance of survival is to board a ship to China. But there are a finite number of ships, and a finite number of seats on those ships. Not all of us will make it out.

It is my duty to weed out every single person who does not belong so those of us who escape can preserve our identity as New Amanian citizens. Once New Amana has been cleaned of nuclear toxins and we’re allowed to return, we will be tasked with an important job: rebuilding our great nation from the ground up.

From the beginning, since I first spoke to her, I knew Vika Cannon did not belong.

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