The Seeds of Man Read Free Page A

anything worse than getting beaten up, it was being stared at. It felt good to enter their tiny apartment and collapse on the couch.
    That was when Lora saw the items laid out on the floor. She looked at her father. He had a shock of gray hair, a long face, and sallow skin. “What is this stuff?”
    “Things we’re going to need,” George replied vaguely. “We’ll get into that—but first I want to know what happened today. And don’t leave anything out. The hospital has notified the protectors by now, and they will want to speak with you.”
    So Lora told him, starting with Matt, followed by the run-in with Becky and Luke’s sudden appearance. As she told the story, her father’s face began to darken and she could see the anger in his eyes. “The bastard! I would press assault charges if it wasn’t for the fact that we’re leaving.”
    Lora sat up. “We’re what?”
    “I was going to tell you when you came home from school,” George explained as he took a seat in his favorite chair. “And when you failed to arrive, I went looking. Anyway, there was a council meeting last night, and I was there.”
    “They threw you out. Matt told me.”
    George winced. “Yes. My friends and I made a last-ditch attempt to convince the council that it should carry out the mission the Canadian government had in mind back when the seed bank was constructed.”
    “Right,” Lora said sarcastically. “And how did that go?”
    “You know the answer. They said no. That’s why we’re leaving. We’re going to take some seeds and deliver them to the right people. Then we’re going to teach them how to propagate more seeds. And eventually it will make a difference.”
    Lora was shocked, dismayed, and frightened. “You’re serious? The leavers are going to leave?”
    “Yes,” George said, “that’s the plan.”
    “But it’s illegal. The only people who are allowed to go outside are the protectors and maintenance crews.”
    “We’re going anyway,” George said steadfastly. “We’ve been working on it for months, making the gear we’ll need, and gathering information. Now we’re ready. We’ll be gone by this time tomorrow night. Can you imagine?
Outside!
”
    Lora was momentarily mute in the face of her father’s boyish enthusiasm. Then she found her voice. “What about
me
? What if I don’t want to leave?”
    “I continue to struggle with that,” George admitted. “At sixteen you aren’t a child anymore. But you aren’t an adult either, and I’m selfish—I can’t bear the thought of leaving you behind. Besides,” he said hopefully, “look at what happened today. Do you really want to stay?”
    Lora had to admit that the thought of being able to leave Kristy, Becky, and algebra behind had a lot of appeal, as did the prospect of experiencing the outside world. But unlike her father, she was a pragmatist, and that meant she could see some problems looming ahead.
Big
problems. “What will we eat?” she wanted to know.
    “We’ve been stockpiling food for some time,” George replied. “Enough to last for three months. Longer if we can supplement our rations with wild game.”
    “And the barbarians?” Lora asked. “What about them?”
    “We’ll try to avoid contact with the wrong sort of people,” George said. “But if it comes to that, we’ll be ready to defend ourselves.”
    Lora knew next to nothing about weapons and fighting, and her father didn’t either. But she could tell that his mind was made up. “So you’ll force me to go?”
    George shook his head. “No, Lora . . . I won’t make you go. Stay if you must. But I hope you’ll come.”
    Lora didn’t want to leave the Sanctuary for the same reasons other people didn’t, but the prospect of parting company with her father was more than she could bear. “All right,” she said reluctantly, “I’m in.”
    George’s face lit up. “Really? That’s wonderful! Now, remember . . . What we’re going to do is a closely held