Free Atherton #3: The Dark Planet (No. 3) by Patrick Carman Page A

overexposure. And after 5000 days--almost
    fourteen years old--things started to swing the other way again.
    The eyes would begin to sink deeper and darker. Soon, these
    children couldn't go outside at all without goggles and masks,
    which weren't always easy to come by.
    It was this magic age of 4200 days that had kept Station Seven
    afloat as the Dark Planet grew darker and more dangerous.
    Commander Judix finally saw Shelton's watery reflection in the
    glass.
    "Yes, Madam?"
    Shelton was a grave, humorless man. He hadn't always been
    that way, but the circumstances in which he found himself
    seemed to have drained all happiness from him. He had
    resigned himself to waiting for the end and knew it would
    come--probably sooner than later.
    Commander Judix spun around in her chair. She was the only
    person at Station Seven who could not be heard moving
    around, because she had no legs. She rolled from place to
    place in complete silence and was fond of sneaking up on
    people because it was something she could do that no one else
    could.
    "How many 4200s at the Silo?" she asked. Eleven and a half
    years old sounded so young. Commander Judix was much
    more comfortable calling them by the number of days they'd
    been alive. 4200 days sounded like a long time to have lived in
    a fallen world.
    Shelton was terrified by the sound of her voice. She had ruled
    the most powerful hemisphere, then commanded the entire
    world as it fell apart before her very eyes. She had been
    powerful beyond imagining, controlling armies and weaponry
    he couldn't calculate. And in this isolated world of Station
    Seven she remained the supreme ruler. It was an inescapable
    fact that, like King Henry or Queen Elizabeth, she controlled
    every thing within her realm from the wheelchair throne she sat
    on.
    "At last count--that would have been four days past--there were
    only two 4200's, a girl and a boy," answered Shelton in a shaky
    voice.
    "Are you positive that's all there is?" asked Commander Judix,
    alarmed. "No one new in three months' time?"
    "I'm afraid not, Madam. The wood has been very quiet as of
    late. And we lost two more of Grammel's batch last week. Most
    of what he's leaving behind isn't making it to 4000. He finds
    them along the way, you know. They're too young to be
    standing on the banks waiting for someone to save them. He
    only wants them if they're old enough and strong enough to
    work outside."
    The number of new children had been dwindling fast for
    months. Commander Judix knew this. Where once there had
    been one or two children every week stumbling into one of the
    traps in the forsaken wood, now there were hardly any. And
    Captain Grammel was bringing nothing but 2000's who were far
    too weak to survive life in the Silo. Only a year ago there had
    been nine eleven-year-olds at the Silo, but they were gone now.
    The pipeline wasn't filling up as it once had.
    "Send the transport farther out, past the wood if you have to."
    Shelton could already imagine the conversation he would have
    with the dwindling transport team.
    "It will be hard to convince them," he said. "They say the
    Spikers and Cleaners are fighting over territory more and more.
    The forsaken wood is a hazardous place, to say the least."
    A mad rage boiled under Commander Judix's skin as she
    thought of Dr. Harding and the mess he'd left behind.
    "Grammel will be here in four more days. If we can't produce at
    least three children, he's not going to leave us a hundred days'
    worth of fuel."
    Shelton was thinking of the children in the Silo. Only two
    elevens, but there was a big group of tens. Six boys and four
    girls. And there were nines and eights--at least a dozen of them
    in all. That made... what was it? Twenty-four children. And only
    two elevens!
    "It's a shame Grammel won't take them younger than 4200,"
    said Shelton.
    Grammel used the same device as Shelton, Red Eye, and
    Socket to measure the age of the children. If the tip of the device
    was touched to skin