Beneath the Shadowlanders

Chapter Eleven: Gabriel

Oh, great. Now she's bringing home strays. I lead the way, Gin and this new boy – Orion – close at my heels. It's only midday, but after that run-in with the shadow, I don't want to take any chances. The shelter is only a few blocks away, and our packs are about as full as they can handle anyway. Besides, it's lunchtime and I know Gin is probably as hungry as I am.

We duck into our shelter, Orion close behind, and start flicking on lamps.

"Whoa." The new kid is clearly awestruck.

As I look around the shelter, I realize he's probably right to be. We've really done quite well for two kids in a bomb shelter in the apocalypse. The place is almost homey. I gesture toward the many piles of pillows around the room. "Have a seat."

"Thanks." He plops down into a pile near the door.

"So," Gin sits down across from him, "how did you find your way up here? I thought all the passages were closed off so the shadows couldn't get down into Underland."

"Not all of them. There are plenty of military-use passages still open. They're heavily guarded and locked most of the time, of course."

"So, you're military," I state, derision creeping into my voice. Great. Just what we need.

"God, no." He almost looks offended. "I didn't come up through the military tunnels. I came up through the ventilation shafts."

"You what?" Gin is on the edge of her... pillow, I guess?

"Yeah, I climbed up the vent shafts into the abandoned subway tunnels. I came up a few blocks from where I found you guys." He leans back into the stack of pillows, scowling slightly. "Alright, your turn: how did you get that shadow to leave you alone?"

Gin and I share a look. I grab a can of mixed vegetables off the shelf, popping the top with my knife and pouring the contents into two bowls. I hand one to Gin.

"Well, it was Gin's idea, really," I start, settling myself in next to my sister. "She should probably explain it."

Gin shoots me a Medusa of a glare before sighing and agreeing. "Well, it started when the population migrated to Underland. Originally, we were supposed to go with them, you know? But they wouldn't let us be independent – I was only 14, and Gabe was 13 – and we didn't want to risk them splitting us up or shoving us into group homes."

"What about your parents?"

"They were divorced, long before the rebellion. Our mother died in one of the first attacks. We have no idea what happened to our father. So, when we found out they wouldn't let us live on our own, we decided not to go." She shrugs. "We'd been on our own for a few months already, we figured we could make it."

"What do you mean, you 'decided not to go'? Wasn't it mandated?"

"Will you shut up and let me finish? Now, we were lucky to find this abandoned shelter. It was still stocked with blankets and canned goods. It even has a backup generator that hasn't failed us yet. We holed up in here for the first few months. It was miserable. The stench grew unbearable – I mean, come on, two teenagers locked in a bomb shelter for months? – and when we started to run low on food we realized we had no choice. We had to venture back out.

"The first time we set out, we only hit the few houses closest to us. That's where we found our packs. We were outside for all of 45 minutes. It was the most terrifying 45 minutes of my life. When we got back, we restocked the shelves with the few cans of food we had found and vowed to ration them more carefully.

"We got bolder and bolder as time went on, eventually making our way to the nearby houses and apartment complexes – those are goldmines, by the way – without running into any shadows. And then, one day we were in the library, and there it was. It was small, but it was angry. It almost killed Gabe." She rests a hand on my knee. "It kept roaring at us. It was horrible. I didn't know what to do. We didn't have weapons yet. We were completely helpless, and I just started thinking about how, when the shadows first rebelled, they kept saying all they wanted was respect – equality – they just wanted to stop being tread on. So, I got down on my knees and started begging. I apologized for disturbing it, and begged it not to hurt us. I figured we had nothing left to lose, you know? I told it we respected its space, and that we didn't know it was there. Next thing I knew, it had gone back to sleep, and Gabe and I were rushing out of there like the place was on fire. We didn't really process what had happened until we got back here."

Gin stops to let this all sink in. The new kid just sits there, mouth agape, for a good thirty seconds, before exclaiming, "Are you serious?!" He nearly leaps out of the stack of pillows. "How did you know that would work?"

"I didn't." Genevieve blushes. "But I was desperate and it was all I really had left."

"Do you know what this means?! This is revolutionary!" He's practically jumping out of his skin now, pacing back and forth across the floor. "The scouts have spent years trying to find a way to defeat the shadows. This changes everything. We don't need to defeat them. We need to coexist with them!" He stops suddenly, turning to face us. "This is what we've been missing!"

Gin and I just stare blankly at him. I know we're thinking the same thing. This kid has lost his mind.

He starts pacing again, muttering to himself. "I have to go back. I have to tell them. They're never going to believe me, but they have to. This has to work." He leans in and stares directly at the two of us, hands spread in exclamation. "Don't you get it? Don't you understand?"

We shake our heads.

"They can come back. Everyone. They can return to the surface."