Silo 49: Deep Dark Read Online Free PDF Page A

eaten away. Nukes don’t do that. I was injured and in the hospital for a time. When I came out, everything had changed and everyone was different. Your mother started to forget things. Everyone did, except me. I ran out of my asthma medicine a few days ago and now I'm forgetting too. I can feel it slipping away. So I'm writing this now, before it's all gone. Your brother, Garrod, is with me and safe. He doesn't remember anything now except that I'm his father. He doesn't even remember his mother and she's only been gone a week.  I love you. I have always loved you. I will always love you. - Dad (Bob Hardicourt)’
    Marina almost stopped breathing as she parsed out the cramped words. Her hands were shaking so badly that the paper crackled, dangerously close to tearing, and she let it go to drift the rest of the way to the surface of the bench.

Chapter Three
    The words buzzed around in her head and a sense of unreality surrounded her. Now and then she glanced at the two papers, one face up and the other face down, to ensure they were really there. The fog lifted for a moment at some point and she suddenly realized she had no idea how much time had passed as she sat there absorbed by this inconceivable mystery.
    Having no desire to explain anything about her find, she folded the paper carefully and inserted it and the image back into the watch. She closed it tightly, listening to be sure she heard the tiny click of the catch. She put the watch back into its box and put that back into the larger box so it wouldn’t look opened at all. If something happened or someone else came to find the object and the hidden contents, she certainly didn't want that person to know that she had already seen it.
    She put her things away and left the space, operating almost robotically as she made her way out of the fabber sector and toward the main stairwell. She made the trip four levels up without really noticing her surroundings or taking note of those she greeted out of habit along the way. She arrived at her compartment to find that she had very little time before she might expect her family to return home.
    Dinner was put together in a hurry but was presentable nonetheless. Working just one level above the Bazaar and within a few levels of other shopping meant that her family enjoyed a varied diet and spent more than they probably should on food. Their assigned cafeterias provided a good breakfast and always packed her take away lunch, a privilege of her work, but she couldn't remember the last time they ate dinner there aside from fish day. That only came about once every month or two. The family always made a point of being there on time for fish day and ready to feast.
    The rest of the time the fresh produce, grains and oils of the market made up the bulk of their meals. The sticky sweetness of thick jams or tart fruits were pleasures they felt worth the expense. Today she made a salad topped with some of the herbed goat cheese her favorite seller set aside for her at the bazaar. To provide some warmth and substance, she quickly warmed a bit of leftover root vegetable stew and corn cakes. She was filling cups with a fresh batch of tea when the door opened and the chatting duo made up of her husband and daughter breezed into the compartment.
    Neither of them seemed to notice that Marina was distracted . Sela recited every detail of her day while they ate dinner with only the occasional interruption by Joseph to tone down the stories or add some point of clarification. Marina knew that she smiled in the right places, encouraged at the correct times and asked the appropriate questions, but she couldn't have recounted even a single thing that was said once the meal was over.
    She escaped to their small sitting area and pretended to read a book about learning to knit. As her family washed up the dinner dishes and planned their next day, Marina delved back into her thoughts and the dangerous find she had made.
    Part of her was angry that