Alight (The Generations Trilogy #2)(3)

The first storage room holds floor-to-ceiling racks of black bins. Gaston opens one: black coveralls made from heavy cloth. I think back to the Xolotl, to the hundreds of mutilated, tortured bodies dressed in similar outfits. It would be nice to change out of my torn rags, but the black clothes are some uniform of the Grownups, and right now I don’t want to think about the Grownups.

Four rooms hold racks of green bins. Gaston opens one of the bins; it’s full of small white packages with black letters that spell out GRAIN BAR. A second bin’s packages are labeled CRACKERS.



“All the bins are full,” Gaston says. “There’s enough food to last us—all of us—for about thirty days. Isn’t that great?”

He thinks thirty days is a long time? It will go by very quickly.

The final room holds neat racks of tools. One of Matilda’s memories rushes up, where she first saw pigs—these are the kind of tools people use on a farm. Other racks hold bins filled with smaller tools, the kind used to fix things, to make things. I see another bracer, like the one Spingate is wearing.

I’m sure there will be a need for all of these tools, but until we know what awaits us outside the shuttle, there is something we need even more.

“What about weapons?”

Spingate shakes her head. “No bracelets. Nothing.”

Damn.

“As soon as you get some rest, learn about the labs,” I say to her. “Are there more floors? I mean decks.”

“Two more,” Spingate says. “But they have half-circle handprints on the doors. They won’t open for us.”

A half-circle: the symbol on O’Malley’s forehead.

“We asked the shuttle what’s down there,” Gaston says. “It says it doesn’t know.”

I can tell it bothers him greatly that he can’t access those decks. I heard the shuttle call him Captain Xander—how can there be parts of the shuttle that won’t open for him?

We can worry about that later. I’m consumed by my need to get outside, see Omeyocan.

“Spingate, wake up the circle-stars. And O’Malley.”

She nods. “Right away. Anybody else?”

“Smith,” I say. “Tell her to learn all she can about that medical room.”

Smith seems to know how to treat cuts and scrapes. I think it has something to do with her forehead mark: a circle-cross. She’s the only one our age with that symbol. Two of the younger kids have it, though, so maybe soon Smith will have help healing our sick and wounded.



Gaston and Spingate look like they might pass out at any moment. I will make sure they rest, just not right now.

“I know you’re both tired, but I need you a little while longer before you can sleep.”

“Whatever it takes,” Gaston says instantly.

Spingate simply smiles at me, as if to say, I will always help you, no matter what.

I’ve only been alive for a few days, yet I love these two so much it hurts. Spingate and Gaston—my friends.

“Spin, you’ll come with me outside. Gaston, while we’re gone, wake up everyone else and also prepare a meal. We should all eat together.”

I lift the spear slightly, let it fall back to the hard floor with a soft clomp.

“It’s time to see our new home.”





We gather just inside the shuttle’s main door.

My circle-stars: Bishop, Farrar, Visca, Coyotl and Bawden. They wear nothing but filthy cut-off pants. On the Xolotl, they covered themselves in a paste that made them all the same color—gray. Now that material is flaking away, showing the different skin tones beneath.

We don’t have bracelets like the ones Grownups used to kill El-Saffani, but the rack of farming supplies means we are not completely unarmed. In our hands, tools have once again become weapons.

“Maybe you should stay here, Em,” Bishop says. “You could help O’Malley explore the rest of the ship.”

He holds a red axe he took from the storage room. I think about him swinging it as hard as he can, powerful muscles driving the sharp blade into a living thing, and I have to suppress a shiver.

“I’m going,” I say, adjusting my grip on my spear. “I need to know what’s out there.”



He wants to protect me. His concern makes me feel warm inside, but I will not sit back while my people face danger.

The flesh around his left eye is swollen and bruised. When he put me in the coffin—trying to save my life—I went crazy and punched him. I feel horrible about that. Such seriousness in his face. I want to reach out and touch his blond curls, but now is not the time. When I first met him, he smiled easily, seemed so happy and confident. Not anymore. He killed two Grownups. Taking those lives changed him. I hope he can find his smile again, but if he feels inside the same way I do, I doubt it.

At the back of the coffin room, I see the door in the red wall open. O’Malley and Spingate step out, walk down the center aisle to join us. He’s holding the knife I used to kill Yong. Somehow, that weapon became his.

“I’ll take a good look around the shuttle while you go outside,” he says. “But…are you sure I shouldn’t come with you?”

Does he want to see the planet, or does he also want to protect me? It doesn’t matter; we need to learn all we can as fast as we can. Besides, he’s made for thinking, not fighting.