The Ways We End (Dark Collections Book 1) by Ann Christy

Author:Ann Christy [Christy, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: teen fiction, planetary colonization, gay, horror, women's fiction, YA science fiction, women science fiction, action, space colonization, female lead characters, time travel, space opera, ghost stories, adventure, mutants, colonization, post-apocalyptic science fiction, family life, dystopian, lgbt, light horror, first contact, psychological thriller, stalking, future earth, ghost, AI, androids, urban legend, action and adventure, post-apocalyptic fiction, female villains, hard scifi, space exploration, dystopian science fiction, coming of age, biological warfare, artificial intelligence, short reads, friendship, genetic engineering, superheroes, teen science fiction, strong female leads, robots
Publisher: Ann Christy
Published: 2016-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

Seven

There’s a fine covering of that black dust over everything when the light of dawn is bright enough for her to see. The lid of her pot is covered in it, the stones that she used to hide her fire pit are too. When she wipes her face, there’s a grainy feeling and her hands come away darkened with it. And it shines a little, which she didn’t notice before.

After a moment, Five has a sense of familiarity. It takes a moment more before she understands what it is; coal dust. Of course. Even in the village where they can’t get enough food, there are still deliveries of coal. Five has brought endless bags of it home from the dispensary and those tickets in their ration books are never unfilled.

Coal dust means something else here though, especially when combined with the sound of machinery. That sound has faded now that the forest is coming alive and the morning breeze has kicked up, but she heard it. Mines?

If there are mines nearby—Five learned about mines in school—then that means people. And people means she’ll need to be careful.

Five drinks down the pot of water, using only a little of it to wash the dust from her face and hands, then packs up quickly. Rather than simply throw dirt onto her fire to be sure the last coal is out, she dismantles her fire pit, spreading the stones and filling the hole until she’s satisfied that there’s no way anyone would see evidence of her without knowing precisely where to look.

It’s hard to know what direction the sounds came from, but curiosity tugs at her as well. She’s been alone in the forest and even though it’s dangerous, Five craves the sight of people. Settling her pack on her back, she argues with herself. Eventually, the more reasonable part of her prevails and she continues southward, the same direction as the day before. She’ll keep her eyes open and watching, but finding a better path down the mountain is more important than easing her loneliness by seeing human faces.

Nibbling on leftover fern heads as she walks, she listens for the sound of machinery to return. If anything, the occasional hints of sound grow more infrequent until they stop altogether. As always, Five gathers edibles as she walks, but it takes a while for her to notice how little there is to harvest. All the plants that are edible are small and there’s not nearly enough low greenery here.

It reminds her of how bare the forest gets in the foraging areas of her village.

Five stops in her tracks, suddenly realizing exactly where she is. She’s in some other village’s foraging area, and one that has been stripped bare in the recent past. Glancing at the forest floor around her, her experienced forager’s mind tallies what she sees. A tree stripped of bark is nearby and she touches the exposed inner bark. It’s dry and changing color, so not too recent. Looking up, she sees leaves, so the tree is still alive.

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