Read Online Contain by Saul Tanpepper - Free Book Online

them to see us, not now that
we've overheard them conspiring to do harm, presumably against my
father.
    Jonah laughs. “Sometimes, Dom, you
have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.”
    Bix's stomach growls. The
sound seems to carry all the way up the stairs. He gives me
an I can't help it shrug.
    “ Everyone could use some
basic self-defense skills,” Jonah continues. “And offensive attack
skills. It's the only way we'll survive in a fight. A little
weapons training never hurt anyone.”
    “ You can't fight
them.”
    Jonah sniffs. “I'm not worried about
them, Dom, you know that. No, I'm talking about people who want
what you have and will do anything to take it from you.”
    “ You think there are still
people like that?”
    “ I think it's dangerous to
think there aren't.”
    We reach Level Eight, and I pause with
my hand on the door handle. If I open it, they're almost sure to
hear us. We could keep going down, but eventually we'll run out of
stairs. There are only Levels Nine and Ten below us. Getting
cornered by Jonah in the dungeons is not my idea of a good time.
Especially if he's talking about violence.
    I can see the concern in Bix's eyes.
He almost shrinks inside the dingy oversized tee shirt he's
wearing. It drapes over his bony shoulders and makes him look
undernourished. His normally curly hair is sleep-flattened on one
side, wild on the other. He looks pitiful, and now I'm beginning to
regret getting him up out of bed.
    “ I hope you know I'm doing
this for you because I trust you,” Jonah finishes. “You need to
keep this to yourself.”
    The door directly above us opens, and
Dominic's response is lost when it shuts behind them. They've gone
onto Level Seven, which makes sense. They'd need a lot of room if
Jonah's going to be teaching him how to fight.
    Bix blinks like he's about ready to
cry with relief. Finally, he lets out a strangled breath. The sound
carries up through the stairwell, but no one is there to hear
it.
    After a few minutes pass, we return to
Level Six. I pull the door open and step through, but Bix reaches
out to stop me. “Aren't we going to report him?” he
whispers.
    I hold a finger to my lips to quiet
him. But I don't hear any voices drifting up from Seven. There's
only the rumble of the power plant's generators. I know they're
down there, but even if we can't hear them, I know they'll be able
to hear us.
    I pull Bix close and whisper to him
that we will tell my dad, but I need to show him the food first.
That's more pressing at the moment.
    He scowls, but follows me nonetheless
down the catwalk to the storeroom, though he keeps making these
little sounds of disgust, like he has to vent or else he'll
burst.
    The moment the storeroom door shuts
behind us, he settles against the wall and lets loose with a string
of profanity the likes of which I've only heard come out of him
once before. It was after a particularly embarrassing verbal
smackdown delivered at Jonah's hands, maybe three months ago. I
forget what the subject was, just that he was killing
Bix.
    The man can be infuriatingly logical,
which has never been Bix's strength.
    “ First chance I get," he
spits, "I’m going to strangle that jerk. Let’s see how he likes it
when we’ve got him by the short and curlies.”
    Now it's my turn to tell Bix to catch
his breath.
    “ You want me to relax?” he
squeaks. “You heard what Jonah said. He's going around training
people to fight. With weapons! He's going to attack your
father!”
    “ I've been thinking about
that, and I'm not convinced that's what he's doing.”
    “ What else could it
be?”
    “ I don't know exactly,” I
muse. “But with all his talk recently about leaving the bunker, I
wonder if maybe he's seriously thinking about doing it.”
    “ So?” Bix says. “I say let
him go. And good riddance!”
    “ Except I don't think he’s
just talking about himself or his family. I think he's planning on
taking everyone else with him.”
     
     

It's the