Botanicaust

wanted to stay.
    “ Levi, I don ’ t want to go. I want to stay here. ”
    His eyes widened, face lined with stress, doubt in his eyes. “ I ’ ll bring Josef back, then we ’ ll stay, too. I can push a broom for them if that ’ s what it takes. ”
    She shook her head, as much to fight off the tears as to deny him. The Fosselites would only consider him a drain on their resources, especially with a genetically inferior son. “ We cannot be. You are not my kind. I am science. ” She used the word he ’ d provided earlier.
    “ Tula, you are human, in spite of your skin color. You are a Child of God, and you belong with me. ” He reached one hand toward her and she used every ounce of willpower to back away. Her chest constricted as the softness in his face turned to confusion.
    Donning a mask of disdain, she said, “ God? You are like cannibal. No science. ” After so long defending him, the words hurt her throat. Every muscle tightened in anguish.
    Levi blanched. His outreaching hand fell to his side. “ Do not deny the Lord our God. ”
    Her breath caught. That was the way. She turned to the diagnostic chair so she didn ’ t have to look at him. “ Science save me. Is only way. Not God. ”
    Dr. Kaneka interjected by stepping forward with a small box he offered to Levi. “ Tell him to carry this with him. When he reaches his home, he is to push this button, and it will send out a long-distance signal. ”
    Tula glanced over her shoulder and spotted Dr. Rice propped on her stool with her arms crossed. The woman nodded in encouragement.
    Focusing on Levi ’ s chest to avoid his haunted eyes, Tula said, “ Dr. Kaneka say take with you. Push … “ She didn ’ t know the word for button and pointed to it instead. Her hand trembled and she dropped it as quickly as she could. “ When you get to Josef. They come then. ”
    “ Tula. ” The deep emotional timbre of Levi ’ s voice nearly broke her.
    “ You leave in morning. ” Lifting her head, she strode from the room. It wasn ’ t until she reached her own quarters that she sagged onto the unused bed in a puddle of tears.

    Forgive her, Lord . Inside Levi ’ s head, Samuel ’ s voice reminded him Tula was a Blattvolk. She was marked. And she ’ d denied God. There could be no salvation for her kind. His feet moved without consciousness as he followed a man wearing a red tunic back to his room. The passages reminded him of the underground tunnels back home, quiet and seldom used. To the right, the cafeteria. Past that, the library where he ’ d spoken with Rosalee. Numb to the core, he carried the beacon to his quarters, both hoping and dreading Tula would be there waiting for him. Repentant.
    His room was empty. He sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the blank white wall behind the chair. Had what they ’ d shared last night meant so little to her? Then again, she ’ d seduced him in the desert with pure, raw sex. Was he only deluding himself to justify the weakness of his flesh?
    He ’ d been willing to offer his entire share in the Old Order cooperative to free her. He thought about the electric fence, the methane operated farm equipment, the extraction house where the hog pancreases were produced into enzymes for the cystic fibrosis kids. Primitive technology in comparison to the Fosselites, but he ’ d been willing to give them anything. Perhaps there lay his sin.
    Sliding to his knees, he pressed his hands together in the comfort of the Lord ’ s Prayer. It had been a long time since he ’ d engaged in any sort of litany. The rote words did not ease him, however, and the hollowness in his chest grew from numbness to pain, then anger.
    He should have been stronger. All his life he ’ d been warned about the Blattvolk, and he ’ d allowed her to pull him into debauchery and sin. Demons could appear good if such acts achieved the greater goal of evil. She might have saved him from death, but he would have died clean.
    Penance. He needed penance. The communion service back home would be happening about this time of year. But there was no blessed water and bread here, no one to allow him to wash their feet. Levi missed it. He rocked back and forth on his knees, taking in the sharp pain on his kneecaps as if suffering might cleanse him. He needed to do something.
    Rising, he spotted a gamma pad on the small table next to the bed. Tula must have left it there earlier. Hands itching to put his feelings on paper, he picked up the