Radioactive by Maya Shepherd Read Free Book Online Page A

leave the Legion and set up a camp in the caves. But they took scraps of the old Earth with them, items we had stored as antiques. Not just mattresses, clothes, or furniture, they even took old cars with gasoline engines to the caves. They wanted to make their new home as similar to the old Earth as possible, though at that time, hardly anyone alive had any memories of World War III.”
    I had never thought about where the rebels obtained their materials. I bet some of them gave it no thought as well. What would Finn say if he knew the mattress he slept on every night was actually owned by the Legion?
    “After they had everything set up, they chose people of different age groups from the safety zone to accompany them in the experiment. In the beginning, people were unable to cope with the situation, but they took to their new tasks quickly. Mainly they dealt with fieldwork. While the Legion commander in charge of the experiment initially kept daily contact with the Legion, their reports became less and less frequent over time. They began to live their lives outside of the Legion and forgot about their real goal. At each meeting, they called for more people, so the Legion agreed to send them the objectors and troublemakers, the real outcasts. That was a fatal mistake.”
    So that’s why there’s so many. Some of the rebels are descended from the real outcasts of the Legion. A350 shakes her head and looks at the monitors of the desert landscape.
    “Finally, a fight broke out in the caves because the people were at odds over their goals. Some of them wanted to continue to work with the Legion in order to create a future for all of the people of the safety zone, but others wanted to completely break away from the Legion. The Legion asked several times for a meeting, but only one of the soon-to-be rebels accepted the offer. When he talked about the situation in the caves, the Legion commanders were shocked. It was far worse than they thought. Therefore, they were forced to intervene.”
    I know the answer, but I have to ask, “How did they intervene?”
    “The last Legion commander in the experiment made a deal. He wanted freedom for himself and his dependents, a life without the Legion. He did not care what happened to the rest. So they agreed on a day for an attack. On this day, the Legion commander and his family and dependents left the caves. When they returned, the others were gone.”
    The Legion commanders betrayed the other rebels in order to protect himself. Without asking, I know this must be Gustav.
    “The experiment indeed failed, but the outcasts were quiet, so we could live in peace for years side by side. That is, until a year ago when the first attacks came.”
    “What changed? Why would they attack suddenly?”
    “The children from that time grew up. They know nothing of the Legion and see us only as the enemy. For everything that goes wrong in their lives, they blame us. And the older ones who do remember their time in the Legion do not want anything to do with us. They want to be independent.”
    If I did not know better, I would think she was talking about Finn. Each statement just now fits him perfectly.
    “But people cannot live in the safety zone forever,” I say quickly, just the prospect of mankind forever having to live here is cruel.
    “But people cannot be treated like animals; this is an error the Legion has already made once.”
    “But they could slowly and carefully be introduced to a life on Earth. In small steps.”
    A350 smiles at me. It is the same smile she uses when talking about the Legion. She seems to be proud of me. “I feel the same way. Talk at the next meeting about your proposal for the food allocation department and I will support you.”
    She puts both of her hands on my shoulders and looks reassuringly into my eyes. Although they are the same light blue as everyone else’s in the Legion, I think I recognize something about them. I cannot say what it is, but I feel