The Bridge: A Science Fiction Survival Story

Chapter 60

In all of Dandelion 14's known history on Horatius' side of the ship, no one had jumped between walls. No one had found themselves in a room where they should not physically belong, nor had discovered passageways unknown to the vast majority of the ship. And certainly, no one had ever created such a passageway.

Until now.

The three inhabitants of the apartment were playing carrots – a game left over from before the rationing days. The premise was simple – the players gathered in a circle, and the initiator produced a full carrot. He or she then took a single bite from anywhere on the carrot's surface, and then would pass the carrot to their right. The next player would then continue, taking another bite at their own discretion, another piece of the morsel to be eliminated. They too would pass it to their right, and the circle would continue, up until the final play could finish the remainder of the vegetable in one large bite.

It was at the very end of the game when the abnormally large figure slipped from the closet without a sound, like a shadow bouncing along the wall. And it was the player who had just shoved an entire carrot into his mouth whose eyes widened as he saw him, trying to shout in terror as the morsel of food only jammed itself deeper into his throat and caused him to gag.

"Urllllfll!" he shouted as the players around him laughed, and the one closest to him, known as a "shoveler" in cases such as these, whacked him on the back. "Urlllfl!"

"C'mon, Esau, spit it out, spit it out," said the player next to him. "We wouldn't want you to choke now, not at the beginning of the feasts!"

The player raised a hand, gesturing towards the dark figure as the crowd of four laughed again. But they didn't turn around. They didn't have to, because as the figure crossed to the door in two strides, all the clues they needed were provided when it closed with a soft click.

"The closet!" Esau finally managed, the chewed bits of carrot exploding from his mouth over the other players as they whipped around, already far too late, their voices stuttering over each other as they jumped backwards.

"Tom is hungry," Tom said, his eyes on them, his voice low and dangerous. "Very hungry."

"W-w-we have plenty of f-f-ood, Tom!" said Esau, his eyes darting to the closet. "W-we can share with you! How did you get in here?"

"Tom so hungry," came the response as he held a clenched hand over his stomach and glared. "That Tom rip the wall in half."

From where she hid in the closet, Airomem suppressed a smile as Esau's and company's faces drained of blood until they reached a white so pale they rivaled the stars.

"We should, we should, ah, probably be fixing –" started Esau, moving towards Tom, but he held up a hand and the smaller man cowered backwards.

"Tom hungry and angry," he said, the muscles in his jaw pronounced. "You play games with Tom's food."

"And I've taught Tom something of the way of my people," announced Airomem, stepping from the closet and flashing her teeth. "You see, on my end of the ship, when we got hungry, there wasn't always food. Sometimes, we had to improvise, if you catch my drift. And we taught Tom here a lesson about food. Specifically, how to get more of it when none is around. Just like they did with Segni."

"Oh God, no," they whispered, moving back as Tom nodded, his eyes on the floor. "Please –"

"Oh yes," said Airomem with a low laugh. "But we'll spare you – all you have to do is stay quiet. Not a word. The slightest noise and – clack!" She brought her teeth together loud enough to make them jump. "Or, of course, you can leave."

"Of course, we'll be right on our way –" started Esau, edging towards the door, but Tom shook his head as Airomem spoke up.

"No, not by that way," she said, and pointed behind her to the open closet. "That way.

"But the others, what're they going to do to us?" he wailed, his face filled with realization.

"That does sound like a problem, one you probably should have considered before stealing the food," replied Airomem, throwing the door open wider so that the hole was fully exposed. "But is that as big as a problem as you staying in here with us?"

They left, quickly and quietly, into the hands of others that intercepted them just outside the wall. And Airomem turned back to Tom, her voice low.

"Well done. And now, for the most important part."

White light flashed as she clicked on the Omni-cutter and started to cut once more, burrowing deeper into the ship.