“Please make your way into the building,” Anna’s voice boomed through a loudspeaker. I turned to see she had descended from the aircraft, along with a dozen crew members who, to my relief, carried my parents on stretchers, among the others who had been injured.
I also noticed that of those crew members whose hands I could see, all had thick bands around their thumbs like Anna, though hers was the only gold one. Others were bronze or silver.
What did they signify?
I barely had time to think as we were led toward the building. Bea and I were the first to scale the steps and reach the door, my aunt and uncle close on our heels.
Zina. The thought of finding my cousin inside suddenly spurred me on. I gripped the handle with the hand that wasn’t holding Bea and pushed hard. The door gave way with a low creak.
Inside was a dim, dusty hall. Sleeping people lined its edges, wrapped up in blankets. A white staircase stood in thecenter, leading to the levels above, and on either side of the staircase were doors.
I advanced slowly, trying to avoid waking the sleeping people, but as my friends and family, and the rest of our group, spilled in behind me, there was no chance of them staying asleep with the sounds of our footsteps echoing off the walls.
Then Anna’s voice boomed from behind us. “As soon as you step inside, please start spreading out. You won’t all fit in the entrance hall. Enter one of the rooms on either side of the stairs and wait there.”
As the sleeping people awoke and sat up, rubbing their eyes blearily, I recognized a few of them as members of our neighboring colony.
More anxious than ever to find my cousin, I decided to hold back from spilling into one of the rooms, and my uncle had the same idea. Jessie and Robert joined me and my family in waiting by the staircase, until Anna came into view, surging through the crowd. I went up to her, stalling her in her tracks.
She smiled briefly as her eyes lowered to me. “Tani, what can I do for you?”
“It’s Zina, my cousin. D-Do you know where your colleagues would have put a pregnant woman?”
“How about I find out?” she replied, removing a small device from her belt. She pressed a button on it and held it to her ear. “Sophie,” she spoke after a moment, “do we have a pregnant young woman named Zina in the building?” There was a pause, and then she switched off the device.
My heart pounded... and then melted when she looked at me and smiled. “Floor five, room eighteen. Take the elevator.” She pointed to a dark metal door on the left side of the staircase that I had missed during my first sweep of the room. “We’ll be bringing your parents up to a room on that level too.”
“Th-Thank you so much,” I gasped as she walked away.
Relief swelled in me so deeply that I felt almost guilty for the doubtful thoughts I had about Anna earlier.
We made our way to the metal door. For a moment, I had no idea what to do. The door had no handle. I knew the concept of an elevator, but I didn’t know how to use one?—
My uncle’s instincts proved to be better than mine. He reached out and pushed a small green button on the wall. The door rattled to life, revealing a small compartment. We bundled inside. My uncle pressed another button labeled five on a panel, which closed the door, then the lift ascended, moving slowly for about a minute, before grinding to a halt and letting us out.
We entered a long hallway, doors peppering the walls on either side. It was disturbing to see even this corridor lined with sleeping adults and children. Our people really didn’t have enough space here… and it was about to get a lot more crowded, with the rest of us arriving soon.
My uncle found the room labeled 18 first. He barely had the patience to knock before pushing open the door. I let my aunt and cousins go after him, before entering with Bea. Jessie and Robert followed close behind me.
It was another large hall, containing dozens of beds sectioned off by curtains. But it seemed that my uncle had already spotted her, as he was rushing toward the opposite end of the room.
She rested on a bed, her husband Nico sitting beside her.
Her round face split into a smile, her chestnut-brown eyes lighting up as she took all of us in.
“H-How are you—?” she began, before her parents were upon her, taking her in their arms and holding her tightly. She didn’t get another word in while the rest of us finished hugging her, and then we all stood back, looking at one another in a partial daze.
A part of me could still hardly believe she had survived.
“What happened?” she spluttered, her voice sounding uncharacteristically wheezy.
My uncle gave Nico a firm pat on the shoulder, before taking a seat next to him and explaining all that had happened in the past forty-eight hours.
“And you?” my aunt demanded after he had finished, clutching Zina’s hand. “What happened to you?”
Zina exchanged a glance with her husband. “They came for us late at night, after our Founders’ Day celebrations had ended. I’m guessing it was that same group, or maybe an affiliate. I just woke up, choking on gas.” Her eyes went darker with the memory, her expression strained, and I could recognize the trauma that still lingered there.
“We didn’t stand a chance,” Nico continued, his voice also scratchy as he leaned back and ran a hand through his blond hair. “I believe one of us did try to send off a signal, as you deduced, but failed to pull it off properly. We couldn’t even fight, and I’m pretty sure every one of us passed out. We must have been breathing in that gas for almost an hour before the Fairwell group found us. We’ve all suffered throat and lung damage. For some of us, the nurses say that our vocals will never be the same again.”
