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It was a constant pounding on the door that finally woke Rat. He opened his eyes and looked directly at his own reflection. The day before had been the first time he had ever seen a mirror, and now he wasn’t sure whether he cared to wake up to an image of himself every day. His hair stuck up in every direction and he hated the way his cheekbones seemed to be the most prominent feature of his too skinny face. There was something to be said, he decided, about living in a world without mirrors. A man ought not to have to think all the time about whether he needed to re-braid his hair or if he were handsome enough to attract a beautiful woman like Isa.
The pounding on the door ceased so Rat sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. A second later and the door to his room opened.
Isa stuttered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you wouldn’t be dressed yet.” Her face was as red as her dress and she now looked at anything and everything but him.
That didn’t keep Rat from looking at her, though. He liked the way she had her hair pulled up into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. He might have stared longer had he not remembered his nakedness and pulled the bedcovers up over himself. “I would have been up earlier but I had trouble sleeping without the rocking of the airship underneath me.”
Isa stepped into the room, although she still refused to meet his eyes. “I thought you should know that your friends are here.”
Rat hurriedly slipped on his clothes, and when his boots were laced and tied, grabbed Isa’s hand. “Take me to your moving room, then.”
Isa had to run to keep up with him. “What? You don’t want to take the stairs?”
He was too excited to slow down for anything. “Come on, woman. You can make fun of me later.” His bravery only slipped once they were in the elevator, where he was thankful he hadn’t let go of Isa’s hand.
She grinned at his pained expression. “I’ll never understand you in a million years. You’re the captain of an airship and yet an elevator scares you.”
He squeezed her fingers. “I’m not scared. This is just mere concern. I know what keeps my airship up but I haven’t the foggiest idea what makes this room go up and down.”
“You should have told me that earlier. It’s easy enough to show you.”
He looked up at the overhead lights. “And the lights; can you show me how you make the lights work?”
Isa nodded. “Of course. I’ll show you anything you want to see.”
Rat sighed. “But I can’t stay. I can’t leave Molly and Rat alone on Independence, and I should be getting its load of wheat to Freedom. My friends will be getting more worried about us by now.”
“I think you may be right.” She tugged on his hand as the door slid open, then pulled him out of the elevator.
“What do you mean?”
All she did, though, was pull him to the door that led out onto the mountainside’s narrow ledge. Isa unlatched it and pushed it open, watching his face intently.
The air was filled with airships.
“I think your friends found help,” she said.
Rat waved at Boy and Molly. “I think they did, too.” He turned to face Isa. “If you don’t mind, maybe I can come back here one day so you can show me how the elevator and lights work.”
She nodded toward the airships. “Why don’t you show your friends where the landing pad is and I can show you after you’ve all settled in?”
“Are you certain? If you do this, your life here will change forever. You do realize that, don’t you?” He looked out at all the expectant faces aboard the hovering airships. He now saw how all those men and women were a rough lot—nothing like the people he had met in this mountainside refuge, nothing at all. Few of them knew how to read much less understand math, science, history, or whatever else Isa and her friends studied and taught every day. His friends only knew how to survive in a world long ago ravished by the Great War.
Isa followed his gaze and she too waved at Boy and Molly, then slipped her hand through the crook of Rat’s arm. “We’ve been holed up in this time capsule for far too long, Rat. I don’t think that was why our ancestors build this place. I think they planned for us to share the knowledge we’ve long preserved for them with all the survivors of the Great War.”