Down Deep

Chapter Thirty Seven - Zdana

'Here is the problem.' Oyessa sighed motioning to a circuit board that looked as if someone had doused it with accelerant before lighting it on fire. 'We need a new vent control board and have no means to get it.'

'Did I do this when I forced the reactor to vent?' Zdana asked worried picking up the burnt board and looking it over.

'No, it is just very old.' The woman sighed. 'If we vent the fog into the city, it will have to be done manually. Without this control board, there will be no other way to redirect the steam.' Zdana shook her head.

'No.' She said. 'We were going to do it as a preventative. It is not worth sacrificing one of our people to do it.' A cold chill ran down her spine as she remembered the day a man barged into the home she shared with her poppa. He was naked and covered head to toe with blood red burns. After taking too steps, he fell on his face dead. He had been caught by the fog, but still managed to run to the Fens to warn people it was coming. 'The Fog is not a fast death. Those over the years who had been caught by it could take days or even weeks to die from the burns and poisons it is full of.' Oyessa nodded frowning and looked thoughtfully to the reactor.

'How much longer do we have. I have been avoiding looking at the clock.' The engineer asked looking back to her.

'It could be any day now. The clock says another week, but Mother is running the show.' Zdana admitted. 'I wish I knew myself. We are pushing everyone to work as fast as they can to pack their things and move stuff to where we will dig out.' Oyessa looked to her worried for a moment.

'Are you alright Zdana? You're a little pale.' The woman said motioning to a chair. Zdana just shook her head no. She had woken sick this morning and was still not feeling at her best.

'It's the last air shift I think.' Zdana told her. 'A few of the others have been reporting weakness and stomach problems. I will be fine. I want to get some practice in with my bow, then I will head home.' Oyessa nodded still looking worried. 'Let me know if there is anything I can do to help around here in the next few days. My last project is the armory, and I am not opening that until Gateway is open.'

'Xavier asked me if I would be part of the team to unload the armory.' Oyessa told her. 'I was forced to decline. There needs to be someone here to put the reactor back into hibernation mode and reconnect it back to the city grid. Everything else should shut down once the reactor is disconnected.'

'Aye, I have it on a timer. As soon as we have everyone in the tunnel going up, Gateway will seal itself again and all the air will be drawn out.' Oyessa nodded her agreement. After saying goodbye, Zdana left the reactor heading for the library.

The council had been stuck in there for the last three days helping people record their stories about life in the mines as slaves. Chaos was ripping through the Capital right now. Five of the nine remaining council had been killed or removed for their roles in the experiments taking place at Sector D. Mores had managed to escape justice along with the bitch that ordered her leg broken. Both had been smart enough to keep their names out of the experiments on Capital citizens. No one was reacting to any of the atrocities performed on the miners. Grant and a few of the others who had lived in the city reminded the council that most of the citizens of the Capital did not even know of the existence of the Fens and Deeps. They would not connect the words to living breathing beings.

That was when Grant suggested that the people of Gateway make them aware of who we were and that we were as tarren as they were. Organizing all of Gateway had been a huge effort, but she knew the pay off would be worth it. No longer carrying about what happened to the people of the Capital, most of their people wanted no part of recording their stories. Not until Zdana told them they would be keeping copies of everyone's story for their own people. So that future generations did not forget how they became free.