The Surface

“Suit up!” 

Auntie Rosa threw my Surface suit at me as I walked into the decontamination area of the bunker. She was never the type of person to say she ‘needed to speak with me’ so I knew whatever it was, it was important. However, asking to speak with me while out on a Surface collection pilgrimage was something insane. Despite my concerns, I put my Surface suit over my bunker clothes and zipped myself up. She had already grabbed the masks. “Mia, don’t forget to change your clothes as soon as you get back.” I rolled my eyes. I checked my watch and synced it with my suit. I put on my Surface mask, my hazel eyes the only thing visible between the oxygen cover and the plastic head cover that connected to the Surface suit itself.

“Yes, Auntie Rosa.”

The Surface was always the same: dusty, rocky, hot, and dry as can be. I adjusted the supply pack on my shoulder with a jingle. Just outside the bunker, there was a giant...mound of some sort. Creatively, it was known as ‘the mound.’ It served as a sort of landmark for others to find our bunker entrance in the dust. It also served as a decent shield from the unexpected dust storms. Auntie Rosa was already five meters ahead of me, dusting off rocks and using tweezers to collect small samples to put into glass vials on her tool belt. Every time we stepped on the Surface, it was a race. A person could only spend so much time on the surface before it became dangerous. I looked up at the hazy, reddish sky. I let my eyes follow a dust cloud, leading me to some patchy grayish grass. Our bunker, Bunker 925, was one of three remaining bunkers in the area. The other people from other bunkers don’t really come outside and don’t respond when we offer to help, either. Though, people are aloof in our bunker, too, sometimes. Everyone’s always in the Garden Wings. The air is much nicer in there. It’s sort of calming to see all of the plants, too. I’m not really sure why. I guess I should have listened better in Auntie Rosa’s Biology classes…

“Mia, can you get me the hard box?” I let the supply pack fall gently off my shoulder and unzipped the front so the front latch could open. I removed the hard box, a box used for holding glass vials from our collections. Auntie Rosa gently put a few vials she collected into the hard box, most of them containing dirt. 

“Why are you always collecting dirt?” I asked. She looked over to me, her brown eyes contemplative. 

“I’m checking the soil,” she responded simply. She closed up the hard box putting it back into the supply pack. We both stood, dusting off our already dust-covered hands. “I keep hoping I see a change but…” her voice trailed off. 

“But what?”

“The soil isn’t doing any better. I can’t see a future where we can live outside the bunkers.” She paused again, shaking her head. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean, you will live in the bunker indefinitely. Everyone will. Well, everyone left, anyway. And afterwards...” she sighed. I shifted the supply pack slightly. We both watched a tumbleweed turn over and over until it was caught up in a small dust cloud hundreds of yards away. 

“I guess we don’t really know anything else, though,” I said, starting back towards the bunker. For some reason, Auntie Rosa looked deeply pained at that. I remembered that she did know the world outside of a bunker.

“Wait,” Auntie Rosa interrupted, her hand finding my shoulder. “I want to show you something.” Sighing, I followed her to the mound. She crouched down, taking out a large brush from her toolbelt. She firmly brushed the mound over and over, creating a thick cloud of dust. I waved the dust away with my hand, my eyes watering even through my mask.  After the dust had mostly cleared, she pulled my arm. She muttered what sounded like a prayer under her breath and suddenly gasped in delight, practically pulling me down. I caught my balance and crouched beside her.

“Look just there…” she said. I squinted.

“I can’t see anything…” Auntie Rosa pulled me so close the sides of our heads were flush. She grabbed my hand, pulling out my pointer finger and moved it to a tiny, practically microscopic hole in the mound. 

“Can you see it?” I shook my head, leaning my head closer. I closed one eye to peer inside the hole. 

“Whoa!”

“So you see it?”

“What is that!?” Auntie Rosa laughed.

“It’s a type of insect. It’s a type of woodworm or something. This is actually a really old tree stump. It’s too dry for rot so…” Her eyes sparkled. “Redwoods like this used to cover this side of the coast. Regardless, I have no idea how this little guy got here nor how many of him there are.”

“Wow, that’s cool!” We both watched the worm until it was too hard to see. After the worm disappeared, I stood up but Auntie Rosa didn’t follow me. 

“It’s been about 15 minutes, we should probably head inside,” I reminded her, pointing at my watch. My dedication to time keeping (AKA, my desperation to go back inside) was basically the only reason she ever let me collect with her. But Auntie Rosa didn’t move.  

“Sometimes, I just want to stay out here,” she said quietly. I snorted.

“But you’d die.”

“I know.” Another tumbleweed passed by, so close it almost touched us. Even in the blistering heat, I felt as if I were frozen.

“I’ll become just like this stump: a relic of the past. A reminder of what was. What will never be again.”

“W-what? What are you talking about? People need you.” I paused for a moment. “I need you, too, you know…” I added, crouching beside her. She nodded, tears welling up inside her mask. She suddenly laughed.  

“I really hate that you can’t wipe your tears inside one of these things,” she said, smiling but still fighting a sob. “I’m sorry, I’m just being silly.”  Auntie Rosa seemed to shake herself, dust floating off her. “ But, I am getting older, Mia,” she said carefully, after a long moment. “I can’t take care of everyone forever.”

“Yeah, but you aren’t like...old-old! You’ve got time.” She sighed again, more deeply this time. 

“Considering how much time I spent outside the bunker before, when I was young, I don’t really think I’ll get to be too old. I’m already the oldest in our bunker.”

“Wait, really? What about--”

“Marty’s Grandpa? He and I were in the same graduating class.” My mouth dropped open, not that Auntie Rosa could see, but she still seemed to understand my expression. “And now it’s your turn to graduate already. I can’t believe it’s coming up this year.”

“Yeah, it’s crazy. I’m turning 18 in a month,” I said more to myself than her. She turned to face me, placing her hands on my shoulders.

“Once you’re 18, you’re officially an adult. You’ve got to start contributing to the bunker,” she began. I tried to brush her hands away but she held firm.

“I know, but--”

“I’m not going to be around forever.” The words hung in the air like the dust, swirling and swirling around us and never dropping. 

“I mean, I know that but--”

“Who is going to keep this going?” Auntie Rosa gestured all around her. I looked blankly at the mound and the far away dust clouds. The tumbleweeds. The dusty air. Thought of the woodworm.

“What do you mean? There are other biologists…” I replied, avoiding her eyes. I tried to look for something to focus on but there was nothing but the dust and the horizon. Auntie Rosa was already shaking her head before I could finish.

“They don’t care about the outside. They are the same kind of people that didn’t care about the planet when I was young and let it die. They want to find a way to colonize another planet. They want to focus all of their energy on leaving rather than trying to rebuild here now that most of everyone has left or is dead.”  Her face grew determined and she looked back toward the mound and the woodworm. “I know there is a way we’ve just...we haven’t figured it out yet. We can find a way.” She grabbed my chin and gently moved it so that it was in front of hers. Her eyes were tired and watery. Both of our masks had become foggy. We really needed to get inside.

“I need you to make me a promise…” I glanced at my watch. Twenty minutes?

“Auntie, it’s been--”

“Shh. No. I know. Listen. I need you to promise that you will protect the Surface. That you’ll try to find a way to make a home for that woodworm and the rest of us.”

“We need to get inside--”

“We aren’t going inside until you promise me…” she trailed off, taking one hand to gesture around us again. “I need you to promise me that you will find a way to make this work. We can’t keep living in the bunkers. We’ll die. We’re already struggling. Living in the bunkers is unsustainable. Do you understand me? The bunkers are a ticking time bomb and we need a solution that isn’t building a damn rocket ship with no materials or expertise to do so. So do you?”

WOOOOP.... WOOOOOP…. WOOOOP... 

The Surface suits’ alarms activated letting us know we had been outside too long and needed to get inside. I gasped, our suits fogging up even more. Auntie Rosa’s eyes were still burning through the hardened plastic. 

“Do you promise?”  she repeated, her breath beginning to become heavy. I don’t know if it was the alarm or the woodworm, Auntie Rosa’s desperation or the thought of leaving my home forever but, I promised.