Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (reading list txt) 📗

to the stream after I stopped stomping around their territory. I pointed them out to Olivia who stopped dead and stared.

“Come on, I’ll show you what they are.” I creeped towards the stream and snatched up a crab. It waved its claws wildly as it tried to break free. Olivia bent down to peer at it and yelped as it took a swipe at her nose with a sharp pincer.

“What the hell is that thing?!”

“It’s called a crab and I promise you it’s less scary than you think.”

“It looks like an alien!” I laughed. To a shelter-born kid I’m certain it did look like an alien. I’m sure I wondered the same thing when I was little.

“In many ways I’m sure we look like aliens to it. The pinches don’t hurt that badly and they taste extremely good when roasted over a fire.” Olivia quirked an eyebrow at me.

“You...eat these things?”

“Oh yes. As frequently as I can. You’re one of the shelter born- you didn’t grow up on food that wasn’t printed. Mind you, I barely remember the stuff myself, but some part of me does. I almost died of happiness when I ate one again.”

“Huh. What else do you remember from outside?” She motioned for the two of us to sit. When I hesitated she waved my concern away. “Never mind the time. I’ll let them know that you and I are taking a little field trip. Not planning on bolting, are you?”

I snorted. “Even if I was, do you think that I would make it more than twenty feet before you caught me?”

“No, sir!” She threw back her head and laughed, but I took note that she put the shock stick within arms reach. I set the captive crustacean back on the ground and it sprinted for the water with nary a look back at the human invaders. I sighed and laid back in the grass. The wetness from the morning dew had long since evaporated, leaving behind a soft bed of grass. Puffs of cloud floated by above us, the wind bringing the smell of the earth to my nostrils.

“I remember going to the beach. It’s an area of sand where the ocean meets the land. I remember cookouts and camping. I remember looking at the stars with my father and somehow believing that by the time I was old I might be living up there. At least, that was the plan.”

Olivia lay down beside me. “What are those?” she asked, pointing to the clouds. “I’ve seen them in media, and obviously in the simulation.”

It was a singularly interesting experience to be able to watch a grown woman discover the planet for the first time. No doubt Olivia was highly educated but out here she was full of childlike curiosity. I cracked a thin stone on the bed of the stream and showed her the layers of rock that had formed it over the millennia. We went over how to braid grass together to form basic shapes and I described to her how it was possible to weave baskets and containers. I even found a minuscule fish making its way upstream and caught it for her, its silver scales glinting in the sun. I took care to throw it back in the water before it suffocated and we watched as the fish continued its journey upstream. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for much else as Olivia’s tablet crackled to life and she was instructed to bring me back into my de facto cell.

“Thank you for showing me all of that,” she said as she opened the door to my quarters for me.

“Thank you for listening! It’s not often that an old man like me gets to pass on his knowledge to someone new. Perhaps when we leave I can draft you to spread the word and teach other people about the surface.”

A small smile. “I’d like that.” I bade her goodnight and shut the door behind me. I was struck with a sudden urge to record the day. After I had finished dictating a journal entry into my tablet, I scrounged through my belongings until I found a paper and pencil. Precious things, even now. Grabbing a binder to use as a hard surface, I sat cross legged on my bed and started to sketch. There was a lot of cursing as my hands awkwardly remembered how to use the pencil properly, but in the end I was left with a small but accurate sketch of the fish. Such a tiny creature became a beacon of hope for me. If something like that fish could make it all the way up that stream, perhaps so too could we. Humanity had survived more than a hundred thousand years on the Earth. We were tenacious. We would endure.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The math was simple. We had roughly four hundred sick; two hundred of whom were being tended to in the field hospital. Rather than risk a rapid exodus of the shelter, we came together to formulate a transitional period. Anyone who was healthy and able-bodied would start construction of basic facilities outside. Unfortunately for them—and me—that meant living outside. I was looking forward to eating succulent crab meat again but not everyone was so enthusiastic about trading their warm, dry beds for tents. However, when we pointed out that the option was roughing it or risking getting sick, most changed their minds right away. Those who were to leave were given twenty-four hours to get their affairs in order and allowed a single duffle bag each for personal possessions. Their rooms would then be converted over to space for the sick, if needed. Now that I knew other people were joining me, being outside felt less like a punishment and more of a move towards the future. I missed my family fiercely, and though most saw my killing of Gabriel as justified, news of their health and wellbeing trickled out slowly.

By the time evening fell on the first night we