Tim, a garbage handler in a post-apocalyptic bunker, loses the little he has. But then he finds Amy, the redhead with an attitude. Together, they will try to change the world they live in.
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Tim is one of those who shovel the shit and clean away th...
Humanity's yearning for knowledge has been its downfall.
Humanity's strive for creed will be its salvation.
The Manuals of the Bunker, Vol. 1, Verse 20
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"This is so engineered!" Ed exclaimed. He liked that word, using it for everything that fascinated him.
It had taken us a long time to get from the smithy to the pump room. First, Ed had had a hard time climbing up and down the ladders—afraid of the height and of entering the realm. And then, as we had reached the tunnels, he had kept stopping along the way, adoring the smooth walls and marveling at every old girder or rusty metal bar he saw.
As we had passed the garden, with the lamps dangling above the plants, he asked about the wires and the electricity. Most of his questions had gone unanswered. According to George, the ones who had known this stuff had been killed in the cave-in they had had, some time ago.
Amy had told me that their group counted hundreds of people. I hadn't believed her back then, and now I knew the truth. The few I had seen were all that was left.
When we finally arrived at the hall with the pumps, Ed examined the pipes, trying to guess where they came from and where they went. Then he investigated the four pumps. He thought that there might be one for each swamp.
We now stood before the silent one, the one with the red lights. My friend ran his hand along its curved casing. "I think there's a wheel inside, with paddles attached to it. It's spinning, and it's pushing the water." He moved on to a smaller box arranged at one side of the curved section. "And this must be the engine. The part that makes the wheel turn."
Next, he crouched and touched the lights at the base of the machine. "This is where you control it. It's called a control panel. The craner has told me so."
"Right," Amy said. "And it has buttons. Ye can push them."
She was leaning against the wall next to us, her arms crossed. The rest of her folks had retired to the other end of the hall, ladling their smelly broth and talking among themselves while eying us.
I wondered if we could trust them. Would they let us go when Ed fixed the pump? Did they suspect I'd go straight to the bishop once I got out of here? To save my father? I just could tell the Church what I found down here and that we fixed the pump. That would prove that my father was innocent.
And it would betray these folks. Maybe bring the guards down here.
Amy's dark-eyed gaze was right on me.
Did I really want to tell the bishop about them, about her? Wasn't there another way to stop the trial?
"They've got numbers on them, and letters." Ed pointed at small inscriptions below the controls. "But I can't make sense of this stuff. Did anyone operate them while the pump was still running? Push the buttons, I mean?"
