The End of Refuge Read online

  OK, I’ve been procrastinating too much. Time for me to study. Later my girl.

  Yours, Lauren

  2

  “Whatcha reading?” Derrick asked as he peered through his thick black framed glasses over Juliet’s shoulder. Juliet shut down her micro tab quickly so he wouldn’t be able to read what was on the screen.

  “Nothing,” Juliet replied, “Just a message from my pen pal.”

  “You still message your pen pal?” Derrick asked raising an eyebrow. “I stopped messaging mine as soon as the assignment was over in second grade.” He moved to the other side of the table where Juliet sat and took the seat across from her. He was tall and slender with light brown hair. Juliet guessed that he only shaved once a week since his face fluctuated between clean and scruffy. Jim came next with his dinner tray and sat next to Derrick. Cass was already seated next to Juliet.

  “Third grade,” Juliet said, correcting Derrick. “She’s the one who keeps writing me. I tried to let it go, but every time I check my micro tab, she’s sent another message.” Really, their writing relationship was pretty balanced, but Juliet’s friends already thought she was a bit strange. With such a small group of people her age living in Refuge, she didn’t want to stand out.

  “How is Lauren?” Cass asked. Juliet’s best friend was a true beauty with wavy blond hair and blue eyes. In addition to her striking face, Cass wore the uniform for her occupation in personal care. The personal care uniforms were a lot more attractive consisting of a fitted white blouse and skirt which showed off a lot more skin than the long sleeve shirt and overalls dictated by the conservatory which Jim and Juliet wore. Cass’s nice figure was evident under her uniform, and although Jim’s musculature was visible through his shirt, Juliet’s figure was swallowed by her uniform. Maybe Jim was so infatuated with Juliet because someone had told him about her ample breasts because they sure weren’t visible when she wore her uniform.

  “She’s good. Obsessed with boys as always,” Juliet said. She kept the details of Lauren’s dream about Jim to herself. “She decided to do continued education. I think that’s the first time she’s mentioned school since Mrs. Barkley graded our messages.” Their third-grade teacher had given them an outline of what to include in the messages: one sentence about themselves, one about school, and one about their favorite food. Juliet assumed that Lauren’s class had the same requirements when writing their messages.

  “Lauren did continued education,” Cass said, “even though she only writes to you about boys? You’re the one who should have done continued education. I can’t believe Derrick is the only one of us who decided to do it.”

  “I like the Conservatory,” Juliet said. Her real reasons for choosing work were a little more complex. She didn’t want to discuss her aversion from continued education, which would lead to a job in command, with her friends. Shaking her head, she pushed the image of the officer with his tie neatly held down with a tac out of her thoughts.

  “Really, Jules just wanted to spend her days with me,” Jim said. “Isn’t that right? You only like the conservatory because I’m there.”

  They all chuckled at Juliet until she said, “Stop it.” The four friends sat quietly for a while eating their dinner of some sort of grain and protein slop paired with a fresh orange, water, and a small container of pills which were mostly vitamins.

  Derrick finally broke the silence. “Is no one going to ask about the alarm this morning?”

  “I thought it was just a drill,” Cass said, flipping her hair over her shoulder to keep it from dragging in her food as she ate.

  “I’m pretty sure the alarm is only for fire, so if it wasn’t a drill or malfunction, I’d bet on fire,” Jim said.

  “It’s not only for fire,” Derrick corrected, lifting his black glasses up his face by pushing the corner with his fingertips, “but, it was a fire.”

  Juliet jerked her head up, looking straight into Derrick’s eyes. “For real? There was an actual fire?” The color drained from her face, and she felt sick to her stomach.

  “Yes, an actual fire. I saw it,” Derrick said proudly. “It started as an electrical fire in command. I helped put it out.”

  “Is that under your continued education list of duties, fighting fire?” Cass asked, flipping her hair away from her face.

  Derrick shook his head. “No, that usually falls to mechanical maintenance, but those of us in the study room were closer.” He looked at Juliet and took in her pallor and slumped posture. He reached his hand under the table to give her knee a squeeze before she quickly pulled away. “Hey Juliet,” he said in a softer tone. “No one died or got hurt or anything.” Juliet stared at her tray of uneaten food as no one said anything.

  “I’m really looking forward to Harvest Homecoming,” Cass said trying to cut the tension.

  “Yes, me too,” Jim said.

  “This is the first time we get to do casino night instead of the school dance,” Cass said indicating Juliet and herself.

  Jim spoke even though his mouth was full of food. “I went to casino night last year, and it was pretty freaking amazing. I won around 1,000 credits in a few hands of blackjack.”

  “Didn’t you lose a lot of credits at casino night?” Derrick asked. He was in his third year at continued education, making him the oldest of the group at twenty-two.

  Jim jabbed Derrick with his elbow, “Man, I got distracted. Rita was looking hot that night.” Both men chuckled knowingly while Cass and Juliet sighed at each other. Juliet rolled her eyes which elicited a giggle from Cass. Jim had already dated most of the women around their age but now had his sights on Juliet. She did find him attractive, and he was nice enough even if he could be pretty crass.

  A bell chimed over the PA system in the cafeteria, letting everyone know dinner was ending soon. The residents would need to head out so that the maintenance staff could clean and lock down the room until it opened for breakfast the next morning. The cafeteria wasn’t big enough for all of Refuge’s residents to eat at once. Lunch was served in shifts— first was school children, their teachers, and the few older adults who were no longer able to work, second which included Juliet and her friends consisted of all the working adults and continued education students, and finally the third shift was for the late rising teenagers. Dinner and breakfast were only served once. Families ate in their bunks, so just the unmarried adults ate in the cafeteria for dinner. They would get a few hours of free time before they had to check back into their dorms, and then lights out.

  “Blackjack practice?” Derrick asked Jim.

  “You bet. Let me go back to my dorm and grab the cards, and I’ll meet you at the pipe.”

  “Let’s go to the center,” Juliet said to Cass. She preferred spending time in the area of Refuge that was actually purposed for getting together and spending free time.

  “Yeah, right behind you, Juliet,” Cass replied. They deposited their treys at the kitchen window then the four of them left the cafeteria and went their separate ways.

  Juliet learned about the annual growth cycle for trees when she was younger, and although she saw plants every day in the conservatory, she had never seen an entire forest of trees change color in perfect unison, making a patchwork of warm reds, oranges, yellows, and browns. The Harvest Homecoming, a celebration of the changing seasons which were otherwise unapparent in Refuge, was just a week away. Life in Refuge could get pretty mundane, so four large celebrations happened each year to help lift the spirits of all the residents. Harvest Homecoming was a three-day event which combined a few traditional holidays from life before the war that the older residents had celebrated before coming underground. For all three days, the center would be decorated in all the warm colors which represented autumn.

  The first day of celebrations consisted of spending the entire day cooking and eating with family. Juliet didn’t have any family left. She was an only child and her mother had gotten ill and passed a year after she lost her father. She spent the rest of her childhood in the care of the Kaufman family, making her friend Cass more like a sister. Cass’s mother Linda treated Juliet as her own, and although Juliet loved her surrogate family, it just wasn’t the same.

  The second day of Harvest Homecoming was for the children. They would dress up in the uniform of whatever vocation they wanted to do, many children changing their mind every year, then would tour all the areas of Refuge that were normally off-limits for children, getting candies from the people working there. Juliet loved this part of Harvest Homecoming as a child, because it was her chance to see command where engineering was located, and she aspired to become an engineer. But after the fire, Juliet would avoid command, afraid of the officer with the tie held down by a tack.

  Homecoming, as Juliet heard from Cass’s father Scott, meant going back to your roots and celebrating the football team from your old high school. He argued that this celebration made more sense when people moved away from their hometown as adults instead of living statically in one place their whole lives. Refuge’s interpretation of Homecoming was just a dance. The teenagers would have a semi-formal dance in the cafeteria, and the center would be transformed into a casino where people could play cards and dice games, win credit, dance, and be merry.

  For Cass and Juliet, this would be the first year they were able to go to casino night, and they were both pretty excited about trying their hands at the casino games. Cass was particularly excited about what kind of party dresses they would wear. Although it wasn’t totally necessary to bring a date for casino night, a lot of the residents would pair up for the evening, and most of them had secured their dates already.

  “Should I go with Jim for Casino night?” Juliet asked Cass. They were crashing in their dorm together on Juliet’s bed, enjoying a lazy Sat
urday morning. Cass’s bed was still an unmade heap of blankets and far more pillows than one person could use, yet Cass always insisted she needed every single one of them. The two girls shared a dorm consisting of the two beds, two dressers, two desks, and a small closet. The dorms provided just the essentials with the expectation that residents were only in their dorms to sleep.

  “Oh my goodness, Juliet. Can we talk about anything else? You keep talking and talking about Jim. Just make a decision! Tell him, yes, you would love to be his arm candy for the evening.”

  “I don’t know,” Juliet trailed off. She had brought up the topic over and over, and even though she knew Cass was thoroughly sick of it, Juliet couldn’t help herself. “I mean, he’s nice and all. I don’t know if he actually has feelings for me, or if I’m just a convenient date since we work together.” She hugged her pillow tightly to her chest.

  “Give it a rest,” Cass sighed. “I know for a fact that Jim is totally infatuated with you. He told me that he was going to ask you to be his date, and when he talked to me yesterday, he said that he had asked you to be his date and even asked me to put in a good word so that you will be his date. Just say yes to him already. Jim is, for sure, obsessed with you.”

  “I don’t want to say yes, and then have him dump me a week later.”

  “He won’t. But if it does come to that, it’s his loss anyway. You’re a catch.”

  “You’re the catch, Cass,” Juliet said, making a scowl, “he should have asked you.” She was used to all the men their age fawning over her friend and even thought Cass was the prettier of the two. Sometimes Juliet found herself jealous of Cass’s beauty and how her looks attracted all the men’s attention.

  “You’re a catch too,” Cass said, emphasizing her point by poking Juliet hard in the shoulder with her finger. “Jim is totally into you and only you. And besides, if he wanted to ask me to be his date, I’d say no because I’ve already decided to go with Derrick as friends. Just take Jim, and the four of us can arrive together.”

  “Fine, okay. I’ll go with Jim,” Juliet said, tossing her pillow aside. She hoped this was the right decision, even though saying it aloud didn’t make her feel like it was truly settled.

  “Well?” Cass said.

  “Well, what?” asked Juliet.

  Cass gave out an exasperated sigh. “Grab your micro tab and send Jim a message right now letting him know you’ll go with him to casino night. Then we can finally stop talking about him.”

  “Can’t I just wait until I see him at work on Monday and tell him there?”

  “No,” Cass insisted. “I don’t want you to change your mind over the weekend or chicken out and not say anything when you do see him. Here, I’ll write the message for you, and all you have to do is press send.” Cass hopped off the bed and grabbed Juliet’s micro tab from her desk. She poked a few times at the screen impatient for the device to turn on, then furiously typed a message before throwing the micro tab onto the bed. It landed right next to Juliet.

  Juliet read the message her friend wrote:

  Dear Jim,

  I am so glad you asked me to go with you for casino night, and of course, I would love to be your date. I can’t imagine spending such a magical evening with anyone but you.

  XOXOXO Juliet

  Juliet looked up at Cass with a look of shock and horror. “I can’t send this message to Jim!”

  Cass stepped back to the bed and yanked Juliet’s micro tab out of her hands. “Yes you can,” she said, as she poked a finger as the screen before dropping it back on the bed. “There, it’s done. Now come on, my mom is probably already waiting for us at the boutiques. Let’s head on over there.”

  With a moan, Juliet heaved herself off her bed. “Okay,” she resigned, moving her micro tab back to where it belonged on her desk. “Let’s go.”

  Linda Kaufman was already waiting for Cass and Juliet outside of the clothing shop, one of the eight stores that made up the boutique. The sole purpose of the boutique, which was modeled after a shopping mall, was to spend credits. Cass’s work in personal care placed her in the salon of the boutique during the day.

  The clothing shop was buzzing with excitement as women selected dresses for the upcoming celebration. Juliet easily spotted Linda in the crowd. She was a tall elegant woman with short blond hair and striking green eyes. Cass was filling out to be a beauty just like her mother but hadn’t yet adapted the graceful way Linda carried herself.

  “Hi mom!” Cass shouted.

  “Hi Linda,” Juliet said, giving her a brief hug. “How was work?”

  “Oh, you know, the usual,” Linda replied. “The sweetest little kid came in this morning with a broken arm.” Linda worked as a nurse in the medical wing. “Let’s get to shopping, shall we? Now, I don’t know if Cass told you, Juliet, but she already has a dress for the Homecoming night. Our only goal for shopping today is to get a suitable dress for you.”

  “Yes, I know,” Juliet said. “Cass showed it to me.” She couldn’t believe that the tiny clingy black dress Cass had in their closet had ever been worn by Linda, but it certainly looked great on Cass. The plunging neckline showed off her décolletage, and the ribbon-thin straps showcased her toned arms and shoulders. The skirt came down to mid-thigh, so Cass sent the dress to her friend Rita to hem it just a little shorter so she could also show off as much leg as possible. It exposed too much skin for Juliet’s tastes.

  “Now, Juliet,” Linda said walking through the store, brushing her hand against some of the dresses as they walked past. “I really think green is your color.” She plucked up a dress in a vibrant emerald green and held it in front of her body. Instantly her eyes sparkled like emeralds, reflecting the color off of the dress.

  “No,” Juliet mused, “That color would look great on you. I was thinking something black.”

  “Okay,” Linda conceded, and they walked around the store debating dresses until Linda sent the two young women to the dressing room for Juliet to try some clothes on.

  Like most young women, Juliet didn’t enjoy looking at her figure in dress after dress. She preferred not to show much skin and having a larger chest, every dress she tried on showed much more cleavage than she was comfortable with.

  Finally, after countless dresses, Cass was fed up. “Juliet, you have to wear something! Here, try this on.” She grabbed a dress from the growing pile of dresses that Linda kept coming back and adding to. She thrust forward a bright red dress.

  “I can’t wear that!” Juliet exclaimed.

  “Why not?”

  “It’s… it’s…” Juliet stumbled on her words. It looked like the tiny little dress Cass had in their closest, only in a shocking color.

  “What?” Cass pressed. “It’s red? Like a tomato? I happen to know on good authority that Jim likes tomatoes. Just try it on.”

  Juliet could feel her cheeks grow hot and was sure her face became as red as the dress. She snatched it from her friend and stepped back in the dressing room. When she came back out, Linda had just returned to add even more dresses to the huge pile.

  “Oh, wow, Juliet,” Linda exclaimed. “Oh honey, that dress is perfect.”

  Juliet didn’t want to admit it, but this might really be the perfect dress. She turned to the side to let Cass and Linda see her from every angle. It did have the same thin ribbon straps on the shoulders as Cass’s dress, but Juliet didn’t have bad arms, and the neckline was much nicer than she expected. The whisper-thin fabric draped nicely on top, covering her cleavage. It fluttered down to mid-thigh, showing off her figure underneath without being skin tight. She would have never picked it on her own but liked how she looked wearing it. “I do like it,” she finally said.

  “Well, then it’s settled,” Cass said. “This is the dress you’ll wear for casino night.”

  “This is the dress,” Juliet repeated.

  “All right girls,” Linda said. “Let’s go purchase this and then go next door for some ice-cream, my treat.”

  “Sounds good,” Cass said.

  Juliet went back into the dressing room to change, pulling her gray scrubs back on. Most of the people in Refuge wore scrubs as their casual wear since they were provided without charge. Even though they did nothing for her figure, or any figure really, she felt she looked nicer in the everyday wear than she looked in her work overalls. She had never worn anything like this red dress before and hoped by next week she could muster the courage to actually wear it out.