Page 20 of The Outcast
“But that’s the thing, Lilly. Everything is different in France. Women aren’t protected like fragile objects. You’ll have enormous freedom compared to here.”
She stared into the flames. “I like the idea of making a difference in the world, and being a hero sounds kind of cool.”
“What do you mean? Are you talking about feeling like a hero because of the important work you’ll be doing?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Allan, who was sitting on the other side of the fire, joined in on our conversation. “I’ll bet the French are going to worship us for helping them clean up their country.”
“Ehhm…” Around us the other candidates were showing up after Aubri, Indiana, and Sparrow had woken them up rather harshly.
It was six in the morning and still dark. With the flames from the fireplace illuminating her face, Aubri spoke to the candidates. “I hope you all slept well because you’ll need a lot of energy for today’s tasks. Be ready in twenty minutes. We’ll start out with our first culture class and then when there’s enough daylight to run, we’ll go for a five-mile run together. Later, we’ll give you a lesson on European botany. The high level of radiation has altered both plant and animal life in that part of the world. There are plants in Europe that you’ve never seen before and knowing which ones are poisonous can save your life.” Aubri kicked gently at Shiva’s foot when he yawned noisily. “Listen up, sleepyheads. This afternoon, you’ll be set to the ultimate test of working together when all ten of you will begin building an indoor classroom.”
A few were yawning and one raised his hand. “What about breakfast?”
Aubri looked to Sparrow to answer the question.
Sparrow flashed her straight white teeth at the candidates in a smile. “Ah, you’re in luck. Last night you proved to us that you’re able to find food if you must. But in your work as Explorers, you’ll bring provisions with you from the headquarters whenever you go on expeditions. Some of you have asked what’s in the large shed down the hill. I’m happy to tell you that it holds provisions and building materials. I’ll need a couple of volunteers to help me fetch breakfast.”
Keith and Allan both stood up right away as Sparrow continued speaking. “Today, we’ll supply you with all the ingredients needed for our meals, except the meat since there’s plenty left of the deer that Keith killed yesterday.”
Twenty minutes later, we had eaten and cleaned up the leftover provisions. I was in charge of the first culture class and started out by asking, “What have you heard about my home country?”
Aristotle, a man around thirty who was a professional soldier, was the first to raise his hand and speak up. “I’ve heard that it’s small and people live underground.”
“That’s true. About two thirds of our inhabitants live above ground in apartments, but the last third still live underground in the older part of France.”
“Do you live underground?”
“Yes; I live on the first subterranean level though. That’s not too bad since we have indirect sunlight and can tell if it’s night or day, rain or sunshine. But for those down on the third level it’s different. The worst part is that the air is stale and heavy. What else have you heard?”
“I read an interview with Belle Aurelius and she said that what she misses here in the Northlands is color. According to her, people in France are more colorful, and brave in their choice of fashion.”
“There’s truth to that. The buildings are lit up with colorful projectors, the fashion is flamboyant, and you’ll see people with vibrant colors of hair. Here in the Northlands, people don’t color their eyebrows, but in France it’s normal.”
“Why?” Bianca asked.
I shrugged. “Why not?”
Indiana spoke up. “Belle thinks color has such importance to the French culture because they lived underground for hundreds of years. They missed nature’s vibrant colors and compensated through fashion and architecture.”
“That makes sense,” Bianca agreed.
“What else have you heard?”
“Is it true that you’re smarter than people in other countries?”
I laughed. “Not me personally, but we do have a lot of smart people. In France intelligence is connected with prestige. Our culture favors book-smart people. We have competitions and awards aimed at encouraging children to study harder.”
“I’m sorry for asking this question,” Lilly said and rubbed her neck. “But what about incest? If you had a small amount of survivors underground aren’t you all relatives in a way?”
“You mean inbreeding?”
“Yes.”
“That could have been a problem if the survivors hadn’t made a strategy from the beginning to avoid inbreeding. The survival bunkers were staffed by scientists and workers who kept them ready. There was room for thousands of people, all listed as important citizens by the prime minister at the time. But in the end, a mere fraction of those people made it to safety. Instead, it was the staff that survived. You may have heard that we don’t allow romantic relationships and that’s one of the many strict rules from that time that we still live by. It may seem strange to you, but with the survivors knowing that they would have to repopulate Europe, they made the wise decision to breed according to a system. Nowadays, all of our men have to donate our sperm at seventeen while we’re in our prime. There’s a rumor back home that we’ve been exchanging sperm with the Motherlands for the past ten years or more. I don’t know if it’s true, but I suppose it would be beneficial to mix the genes. Anyway, women are inseminated without ever knowing the father of their children and as the children are raised from birth by qualified childcare staff. All kids are treated the same and school is provided from the age of five. We grow up with our friends and go on to find the job that we’re good at.”
“Are you a good Explorer?” someone asked me.
