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"You asked hed into his fist and nodded "I do think he felt so he said to hth or ninth shift, I don’t re into ether, after that nasty business with Silo 12--"

"My first shift," Donald said, since Erskine see He wanted to add that it was his only shift It was his final shift

"Yes, of course" Erskine adjusted his glasses "I’h to know that he didn’t show his ereed He knew al of the man he had just helped to bury

"So you’ll appreciate this, I think We were riding the lift together, and Vic turns to me and says how hard it is to sit there at that desk of his and see ere doing to the men across the hall He meant you, of course People in your position"

Donald tried to i He wanted to believe it

"But that’s not what really struckHe said--" Erskine rested a hand on the pod "He said that sitting there, watching you people work at your desks, getting to know you--he often thought that the world would be a better place with people like you in charge"

"People like me?" Donald shook his head "What does that even mean?"

Erskine smiled "I asked hi what he knew to be correct, to be sound and logical" Erskine ran one hand across the pod as if he could touch his daughter within "And how s would be, how h to do as right, instead"

•16•

It was that night that Anna ca on death, of eating thea bite, of watching her set up a computer for him and spread out folders of notes, she came to him in the darkness

Donald coe of the cot and held his wrists while he sobbed and grew feeble He thought of Erskine’s story, on what it , what the difference was He thought this as an old lover draped herself across him, her hand on the back of his neck, her cheek on his shoulder, lying there against him while he wept

A century of sleep had weakened hie that Mick and Helen had lived a life together He felt suddenly angry at her Not at Anna, whose breath he could feel on his neck, but at Helen Angry at her for not holding out, for not living alone, for not getting hishim over the hill where he could store her beauty away forever

Anna kissed his cheek and whispered that everything would be okay Fresh tears flowed down Donald’s face as he realized that he was everything Victor had assu his wife to be lonely so that he could sleep at night a hundred years later He was aher that solace when Anna’s touch made him feel so much better

"I can’t," he whispered for the dozenth time

"Shhh," Anna said She brushed his hair back in the darkness And the two of theed They were trapped together with those crates of ars

Silo 18

Do not letyou with my final breath

Take and plant me ‘neath the corn

Take me, oh Lord, another born

One for one, as per your plan

One for one, come take my hand

Bury me that I’ll take root

Plant e 5

•17•

Mission wound his way toward Central Dispatch and agonized over what to do for his friend He felt afraid for Rodny but powerless to help The door they had hilea If the trouble his friend had caused could be read by where they were keeping hiht It’d only been a fewMission had been there, had carried up part of the suit, aa body for burial Dead bodies at least were placed in those black bags the coroners used There was so suit was a different sort of bag, tailored to a living soul that would crawl inside and be forced to die there

Mission reear It’d been a roo kept Weren’t cleanings run by the saue could land a body out there, rotting on the hills, and his friend Rodny was known to wag his dangerously<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>