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

"Let's go," one of the large, armed men said. He walked off, and we followed. The other three men surrounded our group to create a perimeter.

They escorted us through the facility and the grounds toward the entrance to the main gate. The closer we drew, the louder the crowd on the other side became. We stopped abruptly at the main gate. My hands shook and my breath caught in my throat. I looked at Smith and Jane, who seemed to have the same nerves. I shot a glance at the brothers, who stared at the gates for a moment before raising a hand to give the order to open them. Two of the armed men pushed to the front, opened the doors slowly, and waved for us to follow them out. As the gates swung wider, the screams and cries grew more desperate.

I stepped through the opening to see an encampment larger than I had ever imagined.

Makeshift tents made of old cloth and blankets stood cramped on the chilly ground. Smoke and smog filled the entire area and threatened to suffocate any life left. The stench was horrid. It smelled of unwashed bodies and rot. Buildings behind the encampment were collapsing and broken. It looked like a war zone that no one bothered to clean up afterward. As far as the eye could see, it looked like a scene straight out of a post-apocalyptic movie from before.

Dirty and unkempt people roamed through the maze of camps. Their skin stuck to their bones, revealing malnourishment and dehydration. Mothers cried while attempting to comfort their starving children. One child ran in front of us while eating cardboard to satisfy his hunger. My chest ached. I wasn’t sure if it was guilt or pain. Men and women formed a tunnel as we walked through and begged for food.

"Keep walking. Don't make eye contact and don’t speak to them," Phillip ordered.

"Why?" I asked.

"It antagonizes them and provokes them to push harder."

"We don't have anything with us, though." A tear quietly rolled down my cheek.

"They know we have access to food that they don't, Aella. These people would do anything to eat tonight, and I don't blame them, but we can't help."

I stopped talking or listening and gazed out over the vast amount of people. Sad eyes looked back to me. There were so many of them, and they seemed so full of hopelessness. I was overwhelmed.

"What's the rest of the city like?" Smith asked over the noise.

"This. Maybe not quite as concentrated, but it’s the same situation everywhere. They congregate around our facility because we’re the only place with food for quite a distance."

"How do you have so much food there?" Jane asked.

Ross Herrold threw her a sideways glance with a crooked smirk.

"What?" she asked.

"You're gonna laugh, but we were one of the leaders in 'space foods.’" He laughed as a woman reached up from the ground to grab his arm.

"Please, sir! I'll take anything!" she pleaded.

The gunman next to him quickly grabbed her hand and removed it. "Please stay back, ma'am. Thank you."

She melted back into the dust and rubble surrounding her. Broken.

I wrenched my neck to watch her as we walked and Jane and Ross's conversation continued. "You've got to be kidding me. I don't even know what that means." Jane laughed.

"I'm sure you've heard of astronaut food. We make that, but make it awesome! Think gourmet astronaut food."

"But why?" Smith asked.

"Simple. Mentality. The biggest task of a space team is the astronauts’ mental status while in space. We found food helps tremendously, so of course, that's what we sent with them. We improved the basics and sent them delicious foods. Other crews heard about it and requested our help. The stability and ease of eating isn’t an easy feat. They’re quite expensive meals, so we decided to make it lucrative. Of course, the nuclear winter hit before we ever got our first shipment out." Ross rubbed his head. "Worked out okay, I guess. We ended up with food."

"Talk about the ultimate test of your product," Smith said. "Sorry, guys."

"Nah. It's okay. It gave us the ability to influence change in our world, which is what we've always wanted," Phillip replied.

"The astronaut food wasn't your only project though." I didn't like to think about the weapon of mass destruction they’d created, but it was there.

The brothers’ heads hung low. "No," Phillip agreed. "It wasn't. That ended up working out okay too. We didn't specialize only in weaponry and food, by the way. We still have projects underway."

The torrent of people next to us seemed to grow in numbers and urgency. "Please!" they begged. We stopped all conversation since it was too loud to continue. "Please!"

I watched tears silently stream down Jane's face. Smith's face looked tortured and twisted like he'd be sick. As I watched the two go through their emotions, a bright light caught my eye in the sea of people, then more. They were all holding smartphones with the screen glowing in the night. "Hey!" I yelled at Ross. "Why does everyone have phones? How can they afford service right now?"

His eyes went wide with a realization. "I totally forgot that part!" he exclaimed. "While you were gone, another private space tech operation launched what they call WorldNet. It's basically all these probes in space that cover the globe and provide everyone with free internet. That happened before the nuclear war of course. The debris knocked some out, but for the most part, they still function. Made a lot of internet providers mad, but worked great for communication nowadays!"

My jaw dropped. A huge technological advance had taken place in our absence, and now we were back and learning about it for the first time. It felt like we saw the future. "So, everyone can access the internet now if they have a phone?"

"Yes, Aella. Everyone," Phillip confirmed. "Keeps everyone connected in some