Botanicaust

bigger than her thumb swivel to follow them from its protected spot under the eaves.
    Tula stopped. Technology. Outside the Protectorate. She knew where they were. Stories drifted through the department about men who lived inside a mountain. The ones who traded the telomerase used in conversion. Doctors who could heal her organs. “ Fosselites. ”
    Levi looked back at her. “ You know them? ”
    Her eyes gleamed with unshed tears, but her smile was joyful. “ My people trade with them. They give me healing. ” She grabbed his right hand between both of hers and hugged it between her breasts, her lips trembling as if he ’ d just given her the best gift in the world.
    Foreboding erupted in Levi ’ s heart and he didn ’ t think about his hand so intimately pressed against her skin. The salt trader never mentioned the Fosselites were green people. “ Are they … Blattvolk? ”
    “ No. They … ” She struggled for the words. “ They know many much. Live long. Before Botanicaust. Have medicine. ” She smiled at him. “ Me. And Josef. ”
    Her excitement swelled his chest with joy. God was leading them both, it seemed. He nodded and kept hold of her hand as they approached the mountain side . The fence narrowed into a funnel lined by enormous light-posts jutting toward the sky like giant tree trunks with a cluster of leaves at the top. The line of posts closed in on a huge, gaping shaft embedded in the mountain.
    Absolute darkness swallowed the hole. Levi tugged the basket from Tula ’ s back, still guilty he couldn ’ t carry it. “ Light. ” He found the flame rod and let her re-shoulder the load.
    By the flickering light, they entered the passage. A thin trail passed down the center, cutting through decades or more of accumulated dirt. The walls echoed the hollow scuffle of their feet against the pavement. Air thick with dust and cobwebs clogged their nostrils. The darkness closed about them as the light from the entrance receded into the distance.
    The tunnel ended abruptly at a massive steel door sealed tight into the stone. Levi couldn ’ t see a handle or other means to open it from the outside, only a seam in the metal. He knocked against the surface, expecting a deep echo. Instead, the tapping reflected back to him like he ’ d knocked on a stone. The door must be thick.
    He put his mouth near the seam, hoping his voice would carry better than his knock. “ Hello? Can anyone hear me? I ’ m looking for the Fosselites. ”
    Tula called out, as well, in her own language.
    High in the rock above them, movement drew his attention as a cylinder swiveled to point at them. Grabbing Tula, he pushed her behind him and scanned the walls for danger, but she wriggled free and faced the cylinder, waving and shouting, “ Hello!! ”
    Clanking sounded from the door and the heavy portal shifted outward on silent hinges. Dim light peeked from the crack, and the door, as thick as a man was wide, opened enough to allow them in. Releasing the trigger on the flame wand, Levi stepped into the opening and let his eyes adjust.

    Fosselite Mountain
    Three men faced Tula, clean-shaven and pale as moonlight. They wore brightly colored short pants and sleeveless shirts; fitting for the warm, humid air filling the cavern. One of the men loomed unnaturally over the rest of the group, his long, horsey face rather sad looking as he gaped at the newcomers. A second man also looked strange, with slanted, epicant hic eyes and a receding chin. Trisomy 21?
    Tula had read about such defects, but never seen any because the Protectorate rejected imperfect genomes during embryonic implantation. And cannibals with obvious defects were culled before they reached Confinement.
    The third man looked like a cannibal except for his unusually pale skin and black-rimmed glasses. The skin wasn ’ t so horrible; according to the Protectorate emissaries, the Fosselites didn ’ t go out into the sun at all. But then Tula looked into his eyes and tried not to recoil — every capillary in his sclera must have burst, rendering the whites completely blood red. These were the Fosselites? She ’ d heard rumors they were freaks, but she ’ d never taken it to be literal.
    They don ’ t euthanize . Options opened before her. With the Fosselites ’ aid, she could safely reach Levi ’ s people. Maybe facilitate conversion without Protectorate participation — without Conversion Department policies.
    In silence, the trisomy man and the tall