The Circadia Chronicles: Omnibus: The Complete Colonization Sci-Fi Series by Heather Heckadon (books to read to get smarter .txt) 📗

“Yes, we knew what was causing the darkness. We took it as a challenge. It’s kind of beautiful, don’t you think? Everything that exists here on Circadia has to earn it. The trees have to adapt or they die. The grass has to grow harder and stronger than anything we’ve ever seen on Earth or it’ll cease to exist...and the people. The people here on Circadia have to be resilient and ready to fight. To me, that is beautiful. To earn your right to live is beautiful,” he said. “I’d be happy to stand with anyone who calls Circadia home. Do you wish to join us?”

“What do you mean ‘join us?'” I asked.

“I mean, would you like to make the promise, like we did before? It’s okay if you don’t. You’re our leader, and I’ll follow you no matter what. But I figured if anyone deserved to bear the symbol, it would be you. I’ve been kind of rallying the troops. A few of the others have taken the oath, and bear the symbol upon their arm as well. The tattoo, I mean.” Pulling his arms up into a shrug, he said, “I feel like it just makes us one. That’s all I want. For everyone to feel like they’re one. Like they belong.”

I thought for a moment, back on my life before Circadia, and how I never felt like I was home. I thought about how I had never once fit in anywhere in my entire life, and now that I was here, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. I hadn’t thought of Circadia’s harsh realities as beautiful before, but they were. I knew that even though the grief from losing Garrett had made me sick, and the loss of Idris was shattering, there was still nowhere else in the universe I would rather be. I would rather be the last person left on Circadia than thriving back on Earth.

“Where do I sign up?” I asked, giving him a grin.

“It’s going to be painful,” he said. “Just like everything else on Circadia, it’s not going to be easy. I’ve carved a needle from a piece of pipe, and have created ink from Circadia’s own berries, simmered down. It will be a traditional tattoo.”

I nodded. It fit. I held out my arm and he went to work. The pain was there, but it felt good. Like it was drilling home the fact that we were going to win. This was our home, and we weren’t going down without a fight. We were one.

Chapter Eleven

Seven days passed, and I realized there wasn’t a single person left without the symbol on their arm. The days had welded us together, and we were ready to take on the challenge. Plans had been made, and everyone was heading out to their posts, ready for war. Traps had been set, waiting for the unsuspecting souls who would be led to them. The woods were riddled with them and people ready to take action when the traps didn’t quite do the job.

The woods were unusually quiet. The last couple of days, the trees had watched as Leslie’s crew had done inspections daily. Looking for any sign of where we might be hiding and returning back to camp no wiser than when they entered. We had watched them doing this for days, their lights shining into the empty darkness, but today there was no one wandering about the woods. It set an eerie tone to the day.

Each step I took echoed. I first put my heel down and slowly set down the rest of my foot, but the dry flower weed still crunched under my feet. My steps were quieter than the rest but still too loud. With no birds and very few bugs on Circadia, even the slightest noise stood out. We inched through the woods to our post as stealthily as possible, but I still had the feeling someone could hear us. That they were watching us. I strained my eyes trying to see into the emptiness, looking for any kind of movement illuminated only by the faint light of the moon, but I still couldn’t see anything.

When we reached the trees marked with tiny carvings to indicate our places, we went up. Climbing into the branches was a tedious job. Making sure to not miss a step and fall was treacherous. One fall and it could alert the whole woods to our whereabouts. Every foot placement was precarious and dangerous. Each hand hold was a life or death situation for the entire group.

Reaching the branch that hid me the best and gave me ample space to move about, I situated myself for a long night. I thought once I was in position in the tree, I would be nervous, but nothing gave me greater pleasure. We had a plan, and we were acting on it. The plan was to wait in the trees through the night until morning, making them think the woods were empty. When morning came, we would scope out the camp to see if the virus had taken effect. Whether or not it had, we would begin initiating the attacks. The attacks included the traps, luring, and full on hand to hand battle. I hoped that the virus had taken effect, it was our only true shot. Until morning though, we would wait.

Gazing up into the sky, I caught sight of Earth through the trees. The lights from the populous glowed in the darkness. I wondered momentarily if they had any idea what was going on up here, or who we even were. We were about to write the history of an entire planet not so far from them, but did they know? The question plagued me, but I moved on. I looked around at the stars surrounding us and took note of how close they appeared. It felt like a dream, to sit in a tree- star gazing at a time like