Shades of Freedom Read online

  “Fine, you go back to Jerrac and tell everyone. The next thing you know you'll have everybody murdering everybody else to make sure they are the ones that don't miss out on living. It would all but kill off the only people left on the planet. Only the very top officials on Jerrac and the dozen or so guards on the ship run know the real truth.”

  Johan sighed. Peitor was right; telling everyone at Jerrac would cause massive panic. So what did they do now? It seemed that the State did know what it was doing after all. True, the social structure of Jerrac was wrong but in the whole scheme of things they were doing what they could for the people.

  “You said 'hopefully'.” Kala joined in the conversation.

  “Pardon?” Peitor queried.

  “You said when the water level dropped you could wake up some of the sleepers, hopefully. What did you mean by that?” Kala looked concerned and Johan wondered how he had missed that part of the conversation.

  “Well, nobody's ever tried to bring any of the sleepers back. It should work.” Peitor sounded apologetic.

  Johan's disgust with the State returned instantly. How could they do this without knowing if it even worked? They might as well just kill them to start with!

  “I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist that you join the sleepers. You're part of the quota for this lunar phase, and we have to keep to our quota.” Old Peitor tried to get out of his chair but his shaky legs gave way and he sank back into it.

  Peitor had obviously been down here far too long if he expected Johan to jump into the freezer with no guarantee that he would ever come out again. Johan tried to figure out how they would get out of this.

  “When was the last time you went up those stairs?” Johan looked at Peitor's bent and knarled body that would never be able to get up the stairs.

  “About thirty years,” Peitor replied.

  “Well, I'm afraid we're going to have to turn you down.” Johan took Kala's hand and began to lead her to the steps.

  “I have a transmitter here that lets me talk to the ships when they arrive. I can have this place flooded with guards in less than ten minutes.” If Peitor was trying to sound threatening it didn't work. He sounded tired and old.

  “Then you leave me no choice!” Johan let go of Kala's hand and stepped menacingly towards the old man, Peitor all but disappeared back into the comfy looking chair in his effort to pull away. Johan pulled an electrical cord down from the wall, hoping it wasn't a vital part of the machine, and tied the old man to his chair. “I don't imagine it will hold you forever but it will give us time to get out of here.”

  Johan turned and hurried back up the stairs, quickly followed by Kala, and they raced back through the frozen sleepers to where they had left the others. Thankfully, all the people that had been gassed were up and walking, very unsteadily, but alive.

  “Quick, we have to get out of here!” Johan ordered.

  “Are we going back home,” Katee asked, still clutching her doll.

  “No, we can't go back there ever,” Johan replied and nobody argued. They appeared content to trust his judgement and follow wherever he led. Johan headed back towards the beach, supporting Gil as he went. Someone had bandaged Gil’s head with an old shirt and he wondered where it had come from.

  Johan paused briefly in the first chamber as Kala looked in one of the crates. Clothes! They were sending the clothes of the sleepers back to Jerrac! The State had no feelings at all.

  Johan led them all down the tunnel which was now in darkness. That was probably what the cord had been for. They stopped as they reached the beach and looked out at the two ships.

  “And now?” Damon queried.

  “Flatten yourselves against the wall and don't move,” Johan told them as guards could be seen running down the gangways of both ships. “After being out in the bright light the guards won't be able to see us in the dark tunnel.”

  Everyone did as they were told and Johan held his breath as the guards all rushed past.

  “Now, we take one of the ships,” Johan said hoping his nervousness wasn't showing in his voice.

  “What about the sleepers?” Kala asked. “It doesn't feel right to be leaving without having woken them up.”

  “We can't do anything for them, yet. We'll come back when we know if what the old man said was true,” Johan tried to sound convincing but he had no idea if they would ever find out the truth, or if the sleepers could be brought back to life at all. He said a silent goodbye to his parents and made himself a promise that he would come back for them one day.

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