“Let’s go,” Raph hissed, more insistently this time.
Juliette held up a hand. She approached Father Wendel and crouched down in front of him, rested a hand on his knee. The anger she had felt toward him over Marcus was gone. The anger she had felt as he instilled outrage in his people toward her and her digging was gone. Replacing that anger was guilt – guilt from knowing that all of their fears and mistrust had been warranted.
“Father,” she said. “Our people will be damned if they stay in this place. I can’t help them. I won’t be here. They are going to need your guidance if they’re to make it to the other side.”
“They don’t need me,” he said.
“Yes, they do. Women in the depths of this silo weep for their babies. Men weep for their homes. They need you.” And she knew this was true. It was in the hard times that they needed him the most.
“You will see them through,” Father Wendel said. “You will see them through.”
“No, I won’t. You are their salvation. I am off to damn those who did this. I’m going to send them straight to hell.”
Wendel looked up from his lap. Hot wax flowed over his fingers, but he didn’t seem to notice. The smell of burnt paper filled the room, and he rested a hand on Juliette’s head.
“In that case, my child, I bless your journey.”
????
The trip up the stairwell was heavier with that blessing. Or maybe it was the weight of the explosives on her back, which Juliette knew would’ve been useful for the tunneling below. They could be used for salvation, but she was using them for damnation. They were like the pages of Wendel’s book in that they offered plenty of both. As she approached the farms, she reminded herself that Erik had insisted she take the dynamite. There were others eager to see her pull this off.
She and Raph arrived at the lower farms, and she knew something was wrong the moment they stepped inside. Cracking the door released a surge of heat, a blast of angry air. Her first thought was a fire, and she knew from living in that silo that there were no longer any water hoses that worked. But the bloom of bright lights down the hall and along the outer grow plots hinted at something else.
There was a man lying on the ground by the security gates, his body sideways across the hall. Stripped down to his shorts and undershirt, Juliette didn’t recognize Deputy Hank until she was nearly upon him. She was relieved when he moved. He shielded his eyes and tightened his grip on the pistol resting on his chest; sweat soaked his clothes.
“Hank?” Juliette asked. “Are you okay?” She was already feeling sticky herself, and poor Raph seemed liable to wilt.
The deputy sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. He pointed to the security gates. “You get a little shade if you crowd up against them.”
Juliette looked down the hall at the lights. They were drawing a ton of power. Every plot appeared to be lit at once. She could smell the heat. She could smell the plants roasting in it. She wondered how long the skimpy wiring job in the stairwell could withstand such a draw of current.
“Are the timers stuck? What’s going on?”
Hank nodded down the hallway. “People’ve been staking plots. A fight broke out yesterday. You know Gene Sample?”
“I know Gene,” Raph said. “From Sanitation.”
Hank frowned. “Gene’s dead. Happened when the lights went out. And then they fought over who had rights to bury him, treated poor Gene like fertilizer. Some folks banded together and hired me to restore order. I told them to keep the lights on until things got settled.” He wiped the back of his neck. “Before you lay into me, I know it ain’t good for the crops, but they were already ravaged. My hope is to sweat these people out, make enough of them move on to give everyone some breathing space. I give it another day.”
“In another day, you’ll have a fire somewhere. Hank, the wiring outside runs hot enough already with the lights cycling. I’m shocked they can power all of this. When a breaker goes out up on the thirties, you’re gonna have nothing but dark for a very long time down here.”
Hank peered down the hall. Juliette saw rinds and cores and scraps of food on the other side of the gates. “How’re they paying you? In food?”
He nodded. “The food’s all gonna go bad. They plucked everything. People were just actin’ crazy when they got here. I think a few headed up, but there are all these rumors that the door to this silo is open and if you go up much further, you die. And if you go down, you die. Lots of rumors.”
“Well, you need to dispel those rumors,” Juliette said. “I’m sure it’s better up or down than it is here. Have you seen Solo and the kids, the ones who used to live here? I heard they came up this way.”