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“That’s...” he forced a laugh, trying desperately to grab hold of the rope tying his
hands together. But it was too tight. The girl looked at him coldly.
“You know why I even want these?” She looked at the bag of grey beads. “Lucy. My
sister. She loved sunflowers. Used to water them every day. Before they died off.” She shot
a glare at him. “She was so sad. I told her we’ll plant all the sunflowers we can once we get
down here. The sun down here won’t hurt our skin. It’ll make the sunflowers grow faster
than they ever will on the surface.”
She paused. She closed her eyes, trying to fight the flood of emotions threatening
to take over her. “She didn’t make it. I had a huge fight with her over something stupid.
Something that didn’t even matter. I ran away, hid in the warehouse. We were going to
go to the Tubes. We would’ve made it to the bunkers together. The forecast said there was
a month before the tides would come. Well, they got it wrong. The tides came the next
day.” Her voice broke. “If I hadn’t acted like a stupid brat we would’ve gotten here in time.
She would be here with me right now.”
Tears rolled down her cheek. She squatted down and buried her head in her arms.
He thought of something to say; his life could depend on it.
“Hey. I can give you all the seeds you want. That sound good?”
She wiped away the tears on her sleeve. She tightened her grip on the knife. “None
of this had to happen.”
His eyes widened in horror. But with a twist she stuffed the knife back in her pocket.
“Don’t worry. I’m not getting my hands dirty for someone like you.” She walked to his
back, and without a word, jabbed a needle into his neck.
His shoulder slumped and his head lolled to one side.
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She exhaled deeply and thought about what to do. And then with a conclusive nod,
she took out her phone.
“Saida? I need your help.”
After hauling the third crate of seeds into the trunk of her car, she already felt
drained. This is gonna take a while, she thought. She called a couple of her friends to
drive their cars there. They were going to need a lot of cars to empty the vault. And this
was just one of many more. She leaned against the car and watched the horizon, still dark
with a tint of blue.
The man was wrong, she thought. Not everything people had been doing was for
money. Money couldn’t buy you beauty or love. All those seeds? They wouldn’t bring
Lucy back. No amount of seeds could. She was gone forever.
But they would help her connect to Lucy, in a way. Not just her; all the people who
had lost someone. Mankind did need plants. Even more so now: they were the survivors’
only connection left with the surface, and all the loved ones lost to the ocean that has
almost entirely enveloped Earth now. It wasn’t just about survival. It was also about giving
meaning to this otherwise meaningless life.
Hours later, after she and her friends, who to her delight were more than ready to
have their first taste of criminal activity, had hauled away thirty crates of rare, expensive
seeds - “We’re not stealing,” she had insisted. “We’re taking back what’s ours.” - she
was in her backyard patting the soil with her shovel. Beneath it rested two sunflower
seeds, precisely six inches apart, the way Lucy had always liked it. When they grow into
sunflowers they’ll look like a couple huddled close together. She stayed in that squatting
position, thinking of Lucy, until the first rays of dawn shone upon the world, the slightly
bulging spot where she’d planted the seeds glimmering in the light.
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