The New American Colonies

Stagnate air flowed into Alex’s room as the industrial air filter kicked back on, the loud hum audible throughout the entire complex. She took a deep breath, letting the air settle heavily on her lungs as she thumbed her locket, the blessing that she was outside of the radiation zone not being lost on her. She looked over the heart shaped locket intently, knowing she couldn’t let anyone find out that she had precious metals on her person. After all, the government could find a better use for it, and the best rations were rewarded to anyone who turned in a traitor of the state. Yet in spite of the risks she would not lose her mother’s locket again; it was all she had to remember her by. So she planned to put it somewhere safe, somewhere only she would be able to reach and was protected by the same system that sought to take it: the overworld. As a respected member of the recon division, and with her paranoid leader David only trusting his hand picked crew, they got liberties in the overworld they were denied in the colony. And upon asking for help David was more than happy to set a “spontaneous recon test” for that same day. He only asked that Alex be the one to pick up the filters for the team, with a cunning wink.

Sergi was a gentle man despite his imposing size, and treated everyone as an equal even if it landed him in hot water. Alex admired that about him, as he was the only person outside of her team that treated her like a person instead of a soldier despite being one of the ones deemed as not “of the soil.” A term that made most people avoid contact with him like a plague, and yet he still did everything he could to serve the colony. But something was clearly off with Sergi as he made an almost noticeable effort to avoid meeting Alex's gaze. He had never been what anyone would consider a meek man, as the only thing bigger than him was his confidence, but what Alex saw was a pup whimpering in a corner. She leaned on the counter cocking her head with a smile doing her best to not sound uncomfortable, “Hey Serg, how’s it going?

Sergi let out a light yelp before realizing it was Alex and putting on a mask of cheer, “Hallo Al! How can I help?”

“Just here for David’s order of filters, unless you’ll be free tomorrow?”

“Uh… I’m sorry Al, we can talk later.”

“Are you okay?” Alex whispered, feeling an oppressive glare burning into her, “what happened?”

“No,” Sergi barked before dropping his voice again. “Come back safe, then you worry about me.”

“Alright,” Alex sighed reluctantly, as she picked up the box of filters, feeling the paper taped underneath. She knew it had to be pretty serious if he was taking to this level of avoiding being overheard. She tried not to act suspiciously, but when the head of the patriot department passed by she knew exactly what had happened. Someone filed a false report on Sergi knowing he wouldn’t get the benefit of the doubt and would be immediately deemed a traitor. It took everything in her to not make a scene, but it would have only made things worse for the both of them. She wasn’t going to let it slide, and the expedition was the perfect place to plot.

Geared up and ready for a fight she met with the three others in her group and with a glance, David knew something was wrong. Before he could reach her, Tobi had already started in on her with flailing hands. Despite the whole team being fluent in sign language, most of the crew couldn’t read fast enough when he got worked up. Tobi’s brother, and the group's grease monkey Connor strode up and placed a hand in his face. With a solid push he laughed, “Come on Tob, she clearly can’t understand ya.”

Looking to Alex, Connor realised something was off, and lacked the sense to keep his mouth shut. Luckily for him David was quicker than his runaway mouth, clapping his hand over it and shooting him a look. David’s southern drawl rang like a bell, “Boy have you got a lick of sense in that thick skull?”

He pulled out a cigarette and lit it between his teeth, “Keep your trap closed till we hit the top.”

Connor looked to David and back to Alex the writing on the wall all to clear now, “Yup I hear ya capt’n.”

The lift rose with an overwhelming creak ticking up at a painfully slow pace. The rusted platform stuttered every twenty feet like clockwork releasing a gray bombardment of dust and dirt that swallowed the mediocre lights lining the walls. Nobody was comfortable being with their limited options. Though it was a fruitless effort, Tobi could always be seen staring above, waiting for the passage to come into view, willing it to come sooner than it possibly could. It pulled to the top and locked into place with a loud bang, causing Alex to lose her footing for just a moment before she started towards the door.

The wind wafted loose dirt through the passage, obscuring their view of the outside, and the silence outside was alarming. David instinctively took point shuffling past the boxes of emergency equipment, his sidearm at the ready, hoping his hunch was wrong. To his dismay and disgust, he found the mangled and gutted corpses of the two relay guards. Tobi was the first to follow, with Alex and Connor in tow who gave a simultaneous “What the hell?”

“We’ve gotta pull them in, radiation be damned,” David barked. “We can bury them when we come back.”

“What happened here,” Tobi signed.

“They sent goddamn kids up and they got comfortable… With how close they are to the gate, I’d hazard a guess the canids are getting bold, and we can’t risk them staying like that.”

Toni Unconsciously moved a hand to the scar on his neck with a grim look mirrored by his comrades. Silently they moved the dead inside the hallway covering their heads and torsos with thermal blankets pulled from the boxes. David slammed a fist on the wall, cursing the heads of government for using the young inexperienced troops so foolishly. Nobody could say anything, but they all knew the next words that would come from David, and they were ready. With a low growl he gave the command, “It’s time to go hunting.”

The group moved in a ragtag formation, as they followed the fresh tracks staying as low to the ground as they could. Knowing they couldn’t be too far away from their den they implemented a radio silence to lower the risk of exposure. To compensate they kept a rotating watch on each other using only asl to communicate when needed. Canids had developed as auditory hunters losing their innate eyesight and adopting living in shallow caves or digging out fox holes where their small packs could hardly fit to retain body heat in the frigid nights. And until recently, the lack of human interaction had made them skittish around the camps. Alex thought on this and gathered a bottle of lantern oil from her field pack, as an ingenious plan was formed.

David looked over the ridge and gave a hand signal to halt the others; they had finally arrived. A mound of dirt surrounded an eight foot wide hole, with a shuffling mass poking out of the top. David watched in suspended anticipation, his rifle at the ready. The minute passed like sap, and he began to fear the pounding of his heart would give them away before everyone could get into position. He could only stifle his breathing after the mound stopped moving. From the corner of his eye he could see Tobi’s hand raised with an open palm. Alex and Connor were almost in position, after laying their fire bombs around the edge. As they finally cleared the zone, Tobi closed his hand and David squeezed the trigger.

Instantaneously the hole turned into a ring of fire and canids lunged out engulfed and rolling across the ground before being taken out with focused fire. The remaining beasts burrowed deeper into the hole trying to escape the heat, and in a final assault Alex tossed the remaining firebombs into the hole. Shreeks escaped from the hole for only a moment until a soft crackle was all that remained of the den. They were confident this would keep others away for a while though not indefinitely. This victory wasn’t much but it was more than enough to lift Alex's mood, and distract her from her own problems. As she rode the adrenaline high she couldn’t begin to remember what she had come out here for in the first place.

As the opening to the Colony came into view Alex noticed a figure sitting outside, a man larger than life curled up in a ball with a bloodied mask covering his face. Before the others could process what was happening Alex had rushed over and was looking over Sergi frantically looking for signs of life. After a few rushed onceovers she let out a sigh of relief when she could feel he was still breathing. That relief was short lived as anger quickly rose to take its place threatening to boil over until David put a knowing hand on her shoulder.

“It’ll be alright,” David whispered before pulling sealed gear from an emergency locker. “He’s still breathing, and he was smart enough to grab a mask from the corpses. He’ll be just fine.”

“I assume this had something to do with why you were so pissed earlier,” Connor asked, trying to keep his distance.

“Yeah,” Alex replied, her face contorted. “Those… Those sick, twisted bastards! How could they just send people out here to die.”

“This is the truth behind their exile punishment, most people haven't been up here, so it's easier for them to deny the government would send good people to their deaths.” David reasoned, almost too knowledgeably for Alex’s comfort. “They’re not the only organized group misleading everyone though. Hadn’t you wondered why this group was so small?”

Alex’s jaw was slack waiting for an answer, the big secret that she had missed out on. David let the poor girl wonder as he tried to find the words, finally settling on a light answer that would be best. He let out a deep sigh, made sure all of the radios were off and began.

“I put together this task force to help those deemed as traitors of the state,” He waited a second to see how Alex would respond and continued. “Officially all of our relations to traitors have been wiped from the board, but now all of us have lost someone.”

“I don’t understand,” Alex said, putting herself between David and Sergi. “How do you ‘help’ them?”

“I’ve been working in secret with a couple of the other like minded recon teams, and we’ve built a camp a few miles north. He’ll be safe there till we can change things below.”

“I’m going with him, I can’t look those monsters in the face and smile.”

“I wasn’t gonna ask you to, but you have to come with me otherwise they’ll know.”

Alex groaned in defeat, knowing David was right, and she didn’t want to draw unwanted attention to their operation. But before she could leave she embraced Sergi, giving him a kiss on the forehead, and hanging her locket around his neck. She was comfortable letting Connor and Tobi look after him; they were some of the only people she could trust now. As Alex went back inside, she gave one last look back, and noticed Tobi signing “Welcome to the resistance, dear friend.”