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long was Rose part of whatever this is?”
    With a closed expression, he stared into my eyes. “Since before her brothers went to the Cavern of Death. They were the members who brought her in.”
    Nodding my head once that I understood, I dismissed him and turned to look at Crowley. Pushing down my emotions, I focused my dead gaze onto him. “To answer your question, Rose gave me two things: a map and a vid disc, telling me that no one must ever know because it would put the whole cavern under a death sentence. She gave these things to me to help me escape to the surface with my sisters. Obviously I told Tristian and now I am going to tell you, but I need your word––for what it’s worth––that for now everything will remain between the three of us.” Receiving a nod, I continued. “There are over four hundred occupied caverns with populations ranging from five thousand to one hundred thousand each. These figures come from the vid disc that we watched. I’m not sure how many are occupied by Contributors, but Rose led me to believe most of them were. We also saw that it was the government, not the Contributors that set into motion the cleansing called the Revelation. They had lost and instead of accepting defeat, they destroyed the surface, forcing us to admit defeat or die above. Unfortunately that isn’t the worst that the vid disc has shown us.” Stopping to take a breath, I closed my eyes and hardened my heart to what I was about to say. “Twenty years after the destruction of the surface, the animals brought below sickened and died, greatly reducing the caverns’ food sources. There were riots running rampant through the caverns. To hold control, the government brutally put the Contributors down and forced them to sign a new treaty that solved all the government’s problems. The new treaty took care of population control. It took care of the sick and old, allowing for a young workforce at all times”––stopping, I looked into Crowley’s eyes, holding them to mine to make sure he understood what I was about to say––“and it took care of the food shortages because every year a new herd of cattle is butchered.”
    Shaking his head in confusion, he said, “I don’t understand, you said that all of the animals died thousands of years ago. How could there still be meat?” Instead of answering him, I just stared at him, forcing him to accept the truth staring him in the face. Minutes passed and a hundred emotions flashed across his face before I saw the truth of my words sink in, followed by the horror its reality brings. “You’re wrong,” he whispered in despair, turning to his son. “Please tell me it’s not true,” he pleaded. 
    “I can’t,” Tristian softly answered before angrily swiping the stray tear that drifted down his cheek.
    As mad as I was at Tristian and his father, I shared their grief and burden of this truth. Rising from the couch, I laid a gentle hand on Crowley before moving away. This was not something that needed to be shared. Each had to deal with this horror alone as they came to terms with their own guilt of what they had unwittingly done and what had been done to their children, families, and friends. Walking to the door, I quietly let myself out, wondering if any of us would ever come to terms to with what had been done in the shadows of the Cavern of Death.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 4
    By the time I got up in the morning, Josie and Tina were gone. A quickly left message in the kitchen stated that they had gone to work at the fabric factory for their shift and would return later. I knew they were avoiding me, having feigned sleep when I had returned last night so they wouldn’t have to speak to me. The silence of the house was unsettling. I was rarely home alone, so I never realized how quiet it could be. Was this how it was when you were the last member of your family? Was this what they came home to until it was their time to enter