Seeds of a Revolution

A Story by NightWatcher13

Post WWIII, the world above ground is dangerously irradiated and absolutely frigid. People live underground in apartments in a highly regimented society, where even having seeds could send you to jail

Chapter 1

Randy walked quickly down the hall to her apartment, rushing to get inside before curfew. She got her key in the slot, heard the mechanism click, and sighed with relief. She wouldn’t have to explain another late return to the night warden.

Slipping inside, Randy set her satchel on the floor and slammed the door. A sudden pain in her leg let her know she wasn’t alone.

“Alucard!” She groaned and picked up her cat, removing his claws from her pants leg and ruffling his ears. Randy walked over to the kitchenette and opened a bag of dry food for him. Alucard sniffed it, yowled, and walked away. Go figure, Randy thought. “You know, my food’s not much better than yours!” She opened the fridge and pulled out some processed beef cakes and put one on a plate, offering the cat a piece off the edge. It was supposed to taste like burger. As she expected, he bit it and decided to eat the dry food instead.

“Curfew is now enacted! All personnel are to remain in their rooms.” The nightly message played over the fuzzy speaker in the main room, and Randy heard the bolts in her door slam shut. Even if she wanted to leave she couldn’t, she didn’t see the point of repeating the same stupid message every night. Walking over to her bed with her food, Randy grabbed her most recent book and plopped down for the night. It was 9pm, and she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere until 7am. She looked around the bare apartment - just a bookshelf, a light by her bed, which was really just a mattress on the floor, and the kitchen. There was an old radio over the kitchen; it only played CD’s now. Radio didn’t work underground, so most communication was wire transmitted, hence the speakers in the ceiling.

Like usual, it was going to be a long night.

Chapter 2

“Hey, Troy! Get over here,” Randy called to one of the other workers. Troy walked over slowly, grumbling about having to see to every little detail.

“What is it this time? More bedrock?” He looked at the spot where Randy had just been digging, and went quiet. “You are not to tell anyone you found this. Go tell the boss I want to see him down here now!” Randy walked away briskly, glad for the break it gave her shoulders. She had just found roots, which meant they were digging too shallow here. She would need to take an extra iodine tablet tonight, she decided. Diggers weren’t allotted a lot of extra provisions, but there was always at least 1 extra iodine tablet per week.

Eon saw her walking past and hobbled over. “Where are you headed off to, Ran?” Randy smiled at the old man and slowed to let him keep up.

“Got to go to the boss, found something they won’t like.”

Eon groaned. “Not more bedrock, I can’t take any more kneeling on stone and carrying away rocks.”

Randy shook her head. “Worse.” The old man nodded in understanding. They couldn’t say anything around a dig with all of the supervisors around, but he knew that few things were worse than bedrock, and all of those things indicated they were too close to a geothermal vent or the surface. Randy looked over and thought she saw him smiling. “What’s so funny?”

“I lived my whole life on the surface, Randy. Now I’ve been stuck under here, finding what work is available to someone like me. Not much, certainly nothing kind on my old joints. I just can’t help but think it’s nice to be close to it again, even if I can’t see it.” They saw the head overseer coming toward them, and Eon went on digging so he didn’t show that he knew what was up.

Randy jogged over to the boss. “Troy sent me to come get…”

He cut her off. “Don’t bore me with details. Why are you over here?”

She struggled not to show her exasperation. “I came across something while I was digging, Troy thought you ought to take a look.”

“What was it?” He glared at her impatiently.

Randy looked around at the other workers milling around. “I don’t think you want me to say right now, sir.” He continued glaring. This time she sighed. “Fine. I found roots!”

The boss’s eyes shot wide and he whipped his head around, looking to see if anyone had heard. “You can’t say things like that! That’s not what you found!” he hissed. He took off toward one of the few non-drilling vehicles and headed toward where Randy had been digging to find Troy. Troy seemed to be cordoning off the area with rail ties and fluorescent tape.

Randy walked back over to Eon, looking over her shoulder. “You’d think they’ve never had to cancel a dig spot before, with all the secrecy they put into it.”

Eon nodded. “They don’t want to admit there’s an issue, or give out any medchecks for radiation. Mark my words, tomorrow we’ll be needed at a new dig spot, and some other ‘team’ will be taking this one over, then in a month they’ll expect that everyone forgets we were even here. For the most part they’ll be right.”

Randy hurried to her dad's apartment after her shift, knowing she had about 3 hours before she had to be back home. She had grabbed some of what passed for coffee now when she left her apartment in the morning; she couldn’t stand the stuff, but it helped her dad stay awake through his shifts and still be awake enough to tutor Nick in his math classes.

There was no answer when she knocked on the door, so she waited outside in the hallway for her brother to get home from his mechanical engineering classes. She took out her book and sat on the floor to wait.

“Ray!!!” Randy heard her brother’s voice yelling her nickname. She stood back up and got ready for the tackle-hug she knew would be coming. It still knocked the wind out of her - Nick was 15, but already 6’2” and entirely muscle.

“Hi, little brother. I missed you guys this weekend.” She saw her dad walking up behind Nick, his briefcase in one hand and using the other to adjust his wire-rimmed glasses. His white hair stood out from the brown, discolored walls. “Hey, dad” she said, detaching herself from her brother and walking over to hug him. Her dad let them all into the apartment, and Nick dove straight for the fridge. Randy handed her dad the coffee.

“Thanks, Ray. I could use the fuel this week.” He sighed, poured himself a cup of leftover brew from the morning, and sat down with a piece of bread folded around what was supposed to taste like chicken salad. Nick walked over and joined their dad at the table, and Randy hopped up to sit on the counter. “Nick’s been doing extra work for class, so we’ve been getting home late every night this week. How’s everything going with the dig?”

Randy looked down. “I found some roots where I was digging. They told me not to tell any of the other workers, thankfully old Eon is smart enough to understand what all the hush-hush means. He’ll let the other workers know and make sure no one got poisoned.”

Her dad nodded. “That’s good, just don’t go around telling other people. That goes for you too, Nick. They don’t like people causing… trouble.”

Randy looked down at her watch. 2 hours until curfew, which meant about an hour and a half left here. She pulled her Mancala board out and grinned at her family. “So, who wants to get their butt kicked?” Nick looked up from the fridge, a small milk carton in his hand and a grin reaching his remaining eye.