Chapter 6
Heather was glad to be back in her own territory. It wasn’t anything special, really: grey ceiling, grey walls, and grey floors. One of her tribe members had discovered paint in a storage area and painted murals on the walls of the sky, a park with grass and trees, and then a beautiful sandy beach with a blue ocean. It was like looking through windows at what the world used to be like.
Her tunnel happened to be a long one, with ten subcars. Her people doubled up in each living space, but she got her own and was grateful for the rare bit of privacy. She greeted the people in her tribe as she walked along, taking time to speak with everyone who approached her. They looked at her with such hope. If the Drastans helped them build the way they did with Jerry’s district, it would give them a better chance at full and happy lives.
“How did it go?” her second-in-command, Leonard Stern, asked as he fell into step beside her. Leonard was shorter than her, with a balding head and a bitter attitude. She didn’t know why she’d ever named him her second to begin with. Maybe she’d felt guilty at first, since she’d taken over his position as second with the previous tribe leader. Also, the men in her tribe seemed more at ease with Leonard by her side. Not that he did much. They arrived at her subcar, and he followed her inside.
“Good. They liked our ideas, and in fact, they’d already started building shop locations in Jerry’s district.”
“Jerry probably had them do that since the apartments were being built.”
“Yeah, Jerry was smart to go ahead and have them build it out to make sure we have an example of how it can be done. I have to admit, it looks great.”
“You saw Jerry’s district?”
“I did.”
“Well, what does it look like?”
“The commander took some pictures of it. I can ask him to forward them to me. They pushed back the subway wall to form a courtyard, surrounded by three two-story buildings.” She described the apartments and the space for the shops and market.
“So Jerry’s having them installfull-spectrum fluorescent bulbswith a sprinkler system in the area set up for his greenhouse.”
“What’s he going to use for soil and seedlings?” Leonard asked, making himself at home on one of the benches in her living area.
The subcars were divided into sections; some of the cars were still attached to others, while a few were off track. In her subcar, she’d used the hand bars to hang sheets up to divide her sleeping space from her living space. In living space she’d left most of the seats as they were, but in her sleeping space she’d had one of the other benches taken down from where it’d been secured, and set it on top of some boxes to raise it up and make it a little more like a bed. It blew her mind to think that soon she would be able to sleep in a real bed again.
Heather frowned at him with frustration. She’d planned on changing clothes, and now she’d have to wait for him to leave.
“One of Jerry’s people used to be a botanist. She figured out how to use the soil down here, beyond the concrete, with nutrients that a Drastan scientist is helping create to make the soil sustain plant life. They’re also providing compatible seeds from Drasta. The domes also have stores of Earth seeds that we can trade for. As soon as the greenhouse is finished, they’ll begin trial plantings.”
“When will they start working on our district?”
“Soon. Commander Devlon says that since most of Jerry’s district is done, he can send some of the workers here to start. We’ll need to pick a few of our people to work with the Drastans and learn how to use their equipment, so that we can build things on our own without the Drastans doing everything.”
“I say just let the aliens do all the work.” Leonard put his feet up on the bench and tucked his hands behind his head.
“Leonard, the Drastans aren’t going to be here forever. They’ll go home eventually.” Sooner than later. Damn it! Why did the thought of Devlon leaving Earth for good bother her so much?
“I don’t care how long they’re here, as long as we get what we need from them.”
That summed up Leonard’s feelings about everything. He didn’t give a shit, as long as he got what he wanted. It reminded her of her ex-husband—and that was a disturbing thought. “I need to change before I call the other tribe leaders, Leonard.”
“I should be here when you call them. They may want to talk to me.”
She laughed at his pompous tone; it couldn’t be helped. He stood up angrily and stormed out. Maybe she should go after him and smooth things over, but she really didn’t want to. Leonard was self-absorbed, selfish, chauvinistic...fuck!He really was like Mark. She should just get rid of him.
Heather quickly changed her clothes. Walking through the construction area had covered her with a layer of plaster dust and grit. She really wanted to take a shower, but it was getting late. For safety reasons, the women and children showered during the early part of the day and the men showered in the evening. She’d missed the scheduled time for women to use the communal showers, so it would have to wait until tomorrow.
She went to her little makeshift kitchen and grabbed one of the MREs — meals ready to eat — that the dome leaders had issued to all the tribes. They weren’t as good as the ones the Drastans offered, but she gave the good stuff to her people. Leaders should made small sacrifices like that, and Heather strove to be the best leader that she could be.
It was so strange, considering her family’s disinterest and Mark’s betrayal. For a long time, she hadn’t believed in herself and was actually grateful to not have anyone depending on her. Leaving Mark had been hard to do before the disaster, but afterwards, it was ten times worse.
She’d scrambled from one place to another, trying to find food just to survive. She learned what things the tribes looked for to trade and she made sure to negotiate hard for what she needed in return. It was one of the things her previous tribe leader, Dexter, had said he admired about her. He invited her to join their tribe, wanting to use her talents for trade and negotiation.
Leonard was second to Dexter, and expected to be named next tribe leader when Dexter became sick. It didn’t work out the way he expected. The tribes also recognized Heather’s natural ability to lead and voted her in. To say Leonard was pissed about it was putting it mildly.
Heather had fought with him a lot at the beginning, but he finally relented when he realized that none of the other tribes supported him. It was a bitter defeat for him, that he still hadn’t forgiven or forgotten.
