28

Selah watched as Glade gave advice to the group of Landers that wanted to leave right away. She had attempted to have a private conversation with him twice in the last few minutes, but there were too many people vying for his attention. She stood there staring. Was this another person who was going to rebuff her affection?

Bodhi walked up behind her. He slid his hand onto her shoulder. “I feel your sadness.”

Selah didn’t turn. “I’m beginning to feel like a loser that no father wants.”

“Don’t feel that way. Apparently Glade is the oldest and wisest among them and they all value his counsel,” Bodhi said.

“But I’m his daughter.” Her lip trembled. She bit down on it rather than show her distress.

“I don’t know that he’s ever experienced fatherhood. You may need to teach him.” Bodhi gently turned her to face him and smiled. “Give him a little more leeway than an hour.”

Selah sighed and looked around. Where were the children? They had been a little farther away but now the spot was empty. The notes of a lilting melody drifted from the trees, sounding almost like wind instruments. Cleon and Treva walked toward the sound with Amaryllis between them.

Selah walked beside Bodhi. They rounded a stand of trees and headed toward the sound. The haunting melody, the most beautiful song she’d ever heard, lent a feeling of anticipation. A strange sense of peace. Bodhi reached for her hand. She hesitated. Was this a knee-jerk reaction to all the emotions they’d visited in the last few days? The look in his eyes melted her fear, and she slipped her hand into his.

“Do you feel that?” he said softly, his voice expressing wonder.

Prickles of excitement tapped on her chest. Strange. The thunder had subsided. She felt the change, like when her brothers had worked on a Sand Run. As they found the right fuel mix, the idle went from rough and noisy to smooth and purring.

Cleon and Treva stood off to the right with Amaryllis hiding behind them. She had been reluctant to go near the group of children, and Selah hadn’t forced the issue. The boys formed a circle, all nineteen of them holding hands. The music emanated from them.

Bodhi looked at her for an explanation.

Selah knitted her brow. “I don’t have a clue what’s going on.”

They reached the circle. Bodhi touched the boy closest to him. “The song is beautiful. What’s it for?”

“We are summoning our salvation,” the boy said softly.

Bodhi turned to Selah. “Do you know what that means?”

She grimaced. “I’ve never heard the term before.”

The rest of the Landers were filtering into the area.

She tapped Bodhi. “We’ve got company.”

“Do any one of you know what’s going on?” Bodhi yelled to the Landers moving closer.

The one who’d been the guard’s prisoner stepped forward. “It feels very familiar, but none of the others have ever heard it before.”

Bodhi turned back to the children. “Please tell us what we can do to help.”

The boy stared at the center of the circle. “You cannot help us. We do not belong here.” The song continued.

“But you can stay with us. We are all the same.” Selah pointed to the group of Landers.

“No, we are not the same,” the boy said. “We are an abomination.”

Selah looked at Bodhi. “What does that mean? Why would a child say that?”

“If you give us time I’m sure we could figure out a solution,” Bodhi said.

Selah’s hopes fell. Something was coming. She couldn’t tell if it was good or bad. “You are Landers. You have the mark. I have the mark below my collarbone,” she said.

Glade moved up behind her and touched her shoulder. Just his touch warmed her heart. “I sense we should probably move away,” he said, looking sad.

“But Father, who would think precious children are an abomination? They are just children. They have the mark on the other side of their forehead. What’s so bad about that? Mine is below my collarbone.”

The music grew louder.

“We are not children,” the boy said. “We are clones. Our mark is on the wrong side because we are mirror images of you. We are wrong for this world. We are not supposed to be here. Evil created us, not good.”

The music took on more tones. A breeze drifted across the treetops, rustling the leaves in concert with the sound.

Treva rushed over. “We had a few of their bodies. I thought they were Landers but they had the same right-sided mark.” Her eyes opened wide. “They all disintegrated into piles of dust. You’d better move away.”

The breeze picked up. The wind began to push dirt and leaves around. Selah pushed the hair from her eyes. The song moved to a higher pitch.

She turned back to the children. “Please, stay with us. We can help you.”

Bodhi took her by the arm. “I’ve had a moment of clarity. I’m beginning to understand. I think we need to move back.”

Selah pried his hand from her arm. “No! They need us and we need them. We can make this work. They’re only children. There must be people who will take them in.” She thought of all the time Amaryllis had spent alone without a family.

“We must go,” the boy said. “We are being summoned by—”

The last words were cut off by a howling wind. Bodhi’s mouth opened in surprise. He stared as though trying to comprehend. His eyes widened and he fell to his knees, weeping.

A funnel cloud formed high in the sky over their position.

Glade took Selah’s arm again. “We can’t help them,” he yelled over the roar of the wind. “They have no choice but to go back.” He pulled her away from the circle.

“Back where?” Selah struggled against his grasp.

“I can’t say. Not yet,” Glade said. Bodhi scrambled from the ground to help him.

The boys turned and looked at them one last time. In unison, a smile crossed their faces as their bodies collapsed to the ground.

Selah tried to charge forward. Her father wrapped her in his arms to hold her back.

The fallen boys disintegrated into sparkling molecules of light that looped and swirled and dove together into one lustrous, multi-stranded ribbon of soft colors.

Selah screamed, clutching at the air. Her legs tried to catapult her into the swirl. Glade restrained her.

The funnel of wind, like a finger pointing toward the earth, reached out to touch the ribbon, sucking it inside.

“No, no! They were only children!” Selah collapsed to the ground and pulled herself into a ball as she rocked and cried softly at the lost lives.

The funnel retreated into the sky. The roar subsided and the wind died to a gentle breeze. The funnel swirled, passing above the clouds and out of sight as the sun returned.

Selah watched Amaryllis exploring the grounds around the building lots. The child seemed carefree and none the worse for wear after what they’d experienced. Even after watching the group of rescued children turn into dust and get sucked up by a tornado, she seemed to take it in stride. Selah, on the other hand, wasn’t so indifferent. Maybe she would be later, after she discovered more explanations. Right now, no one could supply those.

She walked past Glade and Treva engrossed in the package of data her uncle had supplied. It would give the Landers safe routes to follow and help with making travel plans. Apparently Charles Ganston was a treasure trove of information because of his long association with Treva’s parents and the secrets they had imparted to him.

For the first time in a week she didn’t have a mission or purpose, and she felt disconnected.

The sounds of water lapping at the shore drew her attention. A large lake engulfed the area on the other side of the trees. She walked to the water’s edge and stood watching birds swoop over the water, chasing bugs. It reminded her of home and the lake where the farm animals drank.

Suddenly a pair of arms slid around her waist. She jerked. “You almost scared the life out of me.”

Bodhi playfully snuggled her neck. “There’s enough life in you for three women, so there’s no chance of that happening.”

She turned in his embrace to face him. “You sure do have confidence that I want anything to do with you.”

Bodhi feigned sorrow. “Are you turning me away? Let me see if I can remember. I think you called me a sea slug the first time we met, and then another time later. But you didn’t turn away when I kissed you.”

“That’s what that was, huh? I’d say it was a pretty sorry excuse for a kiss.” She moved her face closer to his.

Bodhi stared into her eyes. “You didn’t really give me a good chance. I was afraid you were going to hit me, which, I will remind you, you did at various other times.” He moved closer.

“Well, I’m not hitting you now,” Selah said.

He brushed her lips with his. She felt a surge of electricity skitter up her back. She didn’t resist. A dozen emotions pushed at her, but only one manifested. Her knees began to wobble.

Selah tenderly touched her lips to his.

Why was she kissing him? Because it felt right. It left her gasping for air.

He held her tighter and whispered in her ear, “Are you going to fall?”

“Um, I don’t know. Are you going to let go of me?”

His breath caressed her cheek. “Never, and I really mean that.”

Amaryllis ran through the trees, breathless. She stopped in front of them and fanned the air like kisses were contagious. “Glade wants you two to come back and hear the announcement from the Lander people!”

Selah and Bodhi strolled through the trees, holding hands.

Amaryllis, giggling like a normal child, ran to a stump where Cleon was setting up a game of pick-up sticks. Selah smiled. He’d spent a lot of time making games for their brother Dane, so this was right in line with his skill for entertaining kids.

The Landers sat cross-legged in a circle on the grass. Treva and Glade had walked to the construction area, pointing at places on a map. Selah wandered over to them while Bodhi joined the Landers.

Glade stopped at the cornerstone for the new government building as Treva laid out the map. He searched around for a few seconds and then stepped inside the perimeter.

“What are you looking for, Father?” Selah got a rush when she called him Father. She longed for time they could spend alone, away from these present responsibilities. But she understood. Her mother used to say, “Short-term discomfort for long-term gain.” Now Selah was beginning to understand the saying. If only her mother could be here.

Glade smiled softly at her. “I’m interested in the symbol Ganston has on the drawn image of this building. His notation called it an artifact.”

He walked to a pile of construction materials, pushed back the heavy tarp protecting them from the elements, and reached to touch a large stone block. It looked ragged around the edges, as though it had been in a demolition. His fingers traced the circle superimposed over the three entwined ovals.

“What is that?” Selah peered around his shoulder at the old stone. Why did old people care about old stuff? Mother had seemed drawn to archeology too.

“I was not sure anything significant could have survived the Sorrows,” Glade said.

Selah touched the granular surface. She would much rather take interest in the here and now and let this stuff go the way of the rusted building corpses on the shore in Dominion. Nature would reclaim them soon enough. “What’s so important about a ragged piece of stone?”

Glade re-covered it and sat down on the edge of the pile. “It’s a remnant of a very sad time in history. People went crazy back then. They destroyed many spiritual buildings and burned holy books, all in a rage for not getting what they thought they deserved. The depravity of man brought about the end of an age.”

Selah sat beside him and leaned her head on his arm. This was the first time he’d sat still long enough for her to get close. She savored the moment before it was gone. “Did you see it? Were you here?”

“No, but I did arrive shortly after.” Glade hung his head. “My shortcomings sent me here.” He covered her hand with his.

“What do you mean?” Selah felt the kinship of his touch. Her real father. The reality started to sink in. She had done it. She had found him.

He rubbed his chin. “Someday I’ll tell you, but for now I want you to know it was my deep sense of repentance that caused my capture. I needed to save you and your mother. I wasn’t running away from my responsibilities but was finally running toward them.” He rose, took her hand, and wrapped it around his arm.

Selah smiled and strolled with him back to the group. She glanced at the position of the sun. They’d been here about an hour. She’d been too excited for food, but now her stomach was beginning to growl. She and Amaryllis needed to make some weapons and do some hunting.

The Landers were on their feet and moving about.

Bodhi approached Selah and Glade. “They’ve decided they don’t want to stay, and I’m not sure they’d be safe anyhow.”

“Do they know where they’re going?” Selah asked. “I’ve never known anyone to go farther than the Mountain.”

One of the Landers spoke up. “Glade knows where we’ll be. There are many large colonies in the north. It’s just inhospitable country in the winter, very cold and a lot of snow.”

Selah cringed. Intriguing. She’d heard of snow but had never seen any. “Do you have to leave so soon?”

Another Lander spoke. “We’re only as far away as your thoughts.”

“We’re anxious to see what’s left of our families. We must take our leave,” another said.

“If we delay much longer, we will have to travel in the heat of the day, so I suggest we get started,” one said, moving away from the group.

They all clasped arms. Selah had never seen the gesture before. Each man grabbed another’s elbow with his right hand, so instead of holding hands they were clasping forearms. She liked it.

She watched them walk away, free for the first time in many years. Sadness overwhelmed her. She realized they weren’t her blood, but they were her people. She belonged somewhere no one could take away.

They watched the group move off into the woods, heading north.

“I’m worried they have no food or weapons to hunt,” Selah said.

Bodhi smiled. “You just can’t turn off the mom part, can you?”

Selah shot him a glare. “My attention to detail has gotten me this far, bucko.”

Glade laughed. “Ganston left us a map of the north. I showed them the communities where they could find sympathetic allies and procure weapons or supplies. They’ll be fine. They’re grown adults.”

Treva grinned. “Yeah, really old adults.”

Selah ran her hands through her hair. “Okay, I’ll stop. So what are we going to do?”

The six of them sat down where Glade and Treva had the package open.

“We’re welcome to stay here,” Treva said. “My uncle has work crews coming daily. His community will leave the Mountain in about a month.”

Selah looked at Glade. “I don’t think it’s safe for us to stay here.”

“I agree with that assessment. It may be safe in the future, when this place gets established. I got the impression from Commander Mojica that there were Landers in the Mountain that no one knows anything about,” Glade said.

Everyone sat up straight.

“What do you mean? More prisoners?” Selah asked.

“There were no others in the labs,” Treva said.

Glade raised both hands. “I’m sorry I said that. It was just an impression I got from our conversation. Mojica told me she altered Selah’s bio-signature in the system so the search fleet couldn’t find her. And she also changed the report where Selah was questioned by a transport at one of the stations. ”

Selah put a hand to her mouth. “I forgot all about that.”

“It just seemed that she knew more about the situation than I would have expected. With her in command, I’m sure if there were other captives we’d have gotten them out also. Right now staying here might set us up for capture again. We’d do better to go north.”

Selah looked at Bodhi and Cleon. “Do you guys agree?”

Cleon shrugged. “I’m the odd man out here. I’m the only one who’s not marked, so I have to go with what you all think is safe.”

Amaryllis squeezed in next to Selah and looked at her with big eyes. “Do I get to go too?”

Selah hugged her. “Yes, you go wherever I go.” She’d figure out this little sister thing later when they all had time to rest and regroup, but at least the child wouldn’t be alone.

“Treva, what about you?” Selah asked, holding her breath. The girl had grown on her, and she saw her good influence on Cleon.

“I’d like to be here for my uncle when his community starts. He’s carried a huge burden, and I love him for it. He wrote in my letter that he always knew my father was a Lander, and he’s protected me from the very moment they died. He knew there was a possibility that I could acquire the mark, but he never wanted to ask me about it, in case it didn’t happen.”

“So does that mean you want to stay?” Cleon asked. His countenance fell as he slipped his hand into hers.

Selah knew he might elect to stay with her. How would she deal with leaving her brother behind?

Treva thought for a minute. “I guess we could come back after the town is built.”

Cleon beamed from ear to ear. “Yes, I’m sure we could do that. Couldn’t we?”

He looked at Bodhi and Selah. They nodded in agreement.

Glade raised a finger. “We should head northeast, to the original colony I came from before I went south twenty years ago. We should be safe there.”

“Will the colony still be there?” Selah asked.

He reached to hug her. “Yes, the colony is called TicCity. In the ancient world it was called Atlantic City, New Jersey. Unlike in the south below the Mountain, Landers are not hunted in the northern areas. There are large homogenized cities of Landers and normals just waiting . . .” His words drifted off.

“Waiting for what?” Selah pressed her forehead to his shoulder.

“Waiting for answers that I can’t give them until I get back to my original work of searching for the old woman,” he said.

Selah lifted her head to look at him. “An old woman? Excuse me for laughing, but after twenty years she may be dead.”

Glade shook his head. “Not this old woman. She was among the first of us to come here. She’s out there somewhere. I just need to get back to finding her. Besides, you’ll get to be near the ocean again.”

Selah pulled back to look at him. “How do you know about my ocean?”

Glade smiled broadly. “I couldn’t be with you, my child, but I’ve taken pains to watch over you all these years.”

She pursed her lips. “We really need to have a talk.”

Her father tipped his head to touch hers. “Well, we’ve got about a week’s travel from here to the coast and then north. That should make me a captive audience to your questions.”

Selah’s heart raced. A 150-year-old woman. What kind of journey would this new quest be? She dismissed the fear trying to creep in and allowed her emotions to soar. She had found her father and would get her ocean back too.