Girl of Glass, #1

by Megan O'Russell

  “They will not come to join us.” Dr. Wynne grasped Nola’s shoulders, forcing her to look into his face. “They will come to destroy us. You have to know the way out.”

  Dr. Wynne grabbed Kieran and Nola by the hands and ran from the house, dragging them both behind him. He ran down the stone walkway and under the great willow tree. When they were nearing the far corner of the dome, he pulled them onto the grass and into a stand of trees.

  Nola wanted to shout at him to stop, to scream they were safe. But something in the doctor’s madness swept through her, and she followed, running as quickly as her feet could carry her. Dr. Wynne stopped inches before hitting the glass of the dome. They stood, staring into the darkness for a moment. Watching the rain stream down the outside. Nola pressed her face to the glass, looking to the west, where the fire was slowly beginning to die.

  “When the time comes, and the only chance for survival is to go into the dying world, you must take the only way out,” Dr. Wynne murmured.

  Terror filled Kieran’s eyes as his father knelt in front of the glass. Slowly, Dr. Wynne dug his fingers into the top corner of the bottom pane. With the tiniest scraping noise, the pane inched forward enough for him to squeeze his fingers in, pushing the panel to the side. The second layer of glass was still there, blocking them from the rain, but Dr. Wynne didn’t hesitate. Pulling a penknife from his pocket, he shoved the blade into the crack where the pane met the metal beam, and the glass fell silently into his waiting hands.

  “This is the way to salvation.” The gleam of victory dancing in Dr. Wynne’s eyes frightened Nola more than fires and riots.

  Dr. Wynne crawled out of the passage he had created and into the rain. Spreading his arms wide, he gazed up into the storm. Lightning split the sky, silhouetting the triumphant form of Dr. Wynne.

  Nola hadn’t spoken to anyone about that night or the way out through the glass. Not even to Jeremy. Not even when the guards couldn’t figure out how Dr. Wynne had been smuggling food to the city.

  This is the way to salvation. And the way to Kieran.

  Chapter Six

  Nola sat alone at the kitchen table, poking at the food on her plate and trying to do her reading for school.

  The medicinal applications of plants must be weighed equally with their nutritional value. Also included in the assessment must be other species that would be required to maintain a proper habitat, and their accessibility—

  There was a tap on the kitchen door.

  “Coming,” Nola called. Her heart dropped when she saw a giant shadow through the window.

  Captain Ridgeway stood outside her door, his face somber.

  “What happened to my mom?” Nola asked before Captain Ridgeway could speak. “Is she sick? Did she get hurt?”

  Green Leaf is too far away. I don’t know how to get to her.

  “You’re mother's fine.” Captain Ridgeway stepped into the kitchen. As tall as Jeremy, Captain Ridgeway’s well-muscled frame overwhelmed the tiny kitchen, leaving Nola no room to breathe.

  “Oh.” Nola clasped her shaking hands together. “What happened? Is somebody dead? Is Jeremy okay?”

  “There was an incident in the city last night,” Captain Ridgeway said. “There was a fight between two groups that accelerated to the point where the Outer Guard had to become involved.”

  “But everyone’s all right?”

  “There were a few injuries,” Captain Ridgeway’s voice dropped.

  “Gentry?” Nola knew she was right before Captain Ridgeway nodded.

  He’s not just an Outer Guard. He’s Jeremy and Gentry’s father.

  “Is she going to be all right?” Nola pictured Gentry, tall and strong with short, blond hair framing her round face. Always laughing, but now she was hurt.

  “She’ll recover,” Captain Ridgeway said. “But there were a few deaths. The packs that were attacking each other dragged in bystanders that shouldn’t have been involved in their fight.”

  “Werewolves,” Nola breathed.

  “Nothing travels faster than rumors in the domes,” Captain Ridgeway said without surprise. “When we searched the casualties for identification, we found dome medicine on one of the deceased.”

  The room swayed.

  “You lost your I-Vent?” Captain Ridgeway continued.

  Nola nodded, not trusting her voice.

  “Is there anyone who stood out to you at the Charity Center? Anyone who tried to get close to you?”

  Nola shook her head.

  “If someone is stealing dome medicine, we need to know,” Captain Ridgeway said, his eyes searching Nola’s face.

  “I just lost my I-Vent,” Nola said, her voice shaking. “I think I...”

  Kieran dead. Killed by werewolves.

  “I dropped it. The person who had the medicine—”

  “Is dead. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there trying to steal dome supplies. If a black market for our medicine is creeping into the city, it needs to be stopped immediately. Did you see anything suspicious? Anything at all?”

  “I don’t know,” Nola said.

  Captain Ridgeway nodded, his eyes still locked on Nola’s face. “If you remember anything, please come to me immediately.”

  “But—” Nola stepped in front of the Captain as he turned toward the door. “No one we know, none of our people died?”

  “No. All the guards will recover.”

  He stepped outside and shut the door behind him with a sharp click.

  Nola slid down the wall, her head in her hands.

  All the guards will recover.

  But what about Kieran?

  Had he been trapped between the wolf packs?

  What if someone had stolen the I-Vent from him? What if he had lied, and he was the one who needed the medicine? What if he was the one they had found the medicine on?

  He could be dying. He could be dead, and she would never know.

  Nola pressed her palms together, trying to stop her hands from shaking. Her breath came in panicked gasps.

  Kieran torn apart by wolves.

  I have to know.

  Nola sprang to her feet, willing herself to move quickly enough she wouldn’t have time to change her mind.

  There was only one way to know if Kieran was alive.

  5th and Nightland.

  Chapter Seven

  The damp chill of the night air cut through Nola’s coat. The wind had pushed the stench of the city all the way up to the domes. Nola crouched just outside the glass, like a child reaching for something dangerous with the certainty someone would snatch it away before she could get hurt.

  A night bird soared overhead, cawing at the darkness. Nola jumped at the sound, flattening herself against the glass. The bird kept flying into the distance, not caring that Nola stood alone in the dark. She waited for a moment, counting each breath of outside air. She pulled out her I-Vent and took a deep breath of the medicine. But still, no guards came charging toward her.

  I’m alone.

  Carefully, she knelt and slid the outer glass so it was nearly in place. No one passing would see anything amiss, but there was enough space to squeeze her fingers in to push the pane aside.

  She stood and turned toward the city. Lights glowed through the haze that hung over the buildings. She wanted to turn and crawl back into the dome and into her warm bed where she could pretend Captain Ridgeway had never come to the kitchen door.

  Kieran.

  She took a step forward. And then another. She would do this. She would find Kieran.

  One road ran from the domes to the city. The only path with lights and guards. Nola stayed away from the road, cutting through the old forest.

  She had seen pictures of what the forest had looked like before, when her mother had been young and the founders were still building the domes. The trees here had been thick and lush, their branches so dense the sunlight could barely peek through to the forest floor.

  But the trees had begun to die a long
time ago. A few still had leaves clinging to them. Most now stood like skeletons—dead and barren.

  The moon peered through the clouds, and the naked branches cast strange shadows onto the ground.

  Keep moving, Nola. Just keep moving.

  One foot, then the other. A single step at a time. Moving deeper into the woods.

  Did animals still live in these trees? Or worse, had people too poor to live in the slums of the city dared to make the dead forest their home?

  Nola moved as quickly and quietly as she could. Every now and then, a rustle in the distance would send her sprinting for a few minutes, fleeing from the unseen danger.

  Soon she neared the edge of the woods, and the city rose above her. She cut to the left toward the bridge that led into the city. The river roared beneath her. The foul stench of chemicals and rot sent bile into her throat. How many times had the bus taken them to the city, and she had never smelled the river like this. She had always been sheltered from the worst of it by the technology of the domes.

  Shadows stalked across the bridge. Some in groups, some alone. Nola clenched her fists in her pockets, wishing she had thought to grab a heavy stick or rock from the woods. Anything to defend herself with.

  She quickened her pace, trying not to walk so fast as to seem scared. The metal of the bridge gave a dull thunk every time she took a step. Nola kept her eyes forward, moving with purpose, pretending she belonged.

  She was halfway over the bridge and could see the streets in front of her. The Outer Guard patrolled the city at night. If she had to call for help, would she be banished from the domes?

  A group of people near Nola’s age had bunched together at the city end of the bridge. Talking and laughing like the reek of the river and danger of the night meant nothing. Both the boys and girls wore torn up leather clothes. The girls’ tops were ripped in deep Vs, letting their pale skin gleam in the night as they hung from the boys’ arms. The pairs all stood under one man, bigger and older than the rest. He perched on the railing of the bridge, holding court over those beneath him.

  Nola turned her gaze away from the group. She was almost off the bridge. She could see the seam where metal met concrete.

  The man who stood on the railing turned to look at her. His cheeks sunk into his pale face, a scruffy beard covered his chin, and in the glow of the city lights, the man’s eyes gleamed a deep, blood red. He smiled, and a sound like a wolf growling rumbled from his throat before he tipped his head to the sky. Flinging his arms to his sides, the man howled. The group around him threw their heads back, joining him.

  Nola ran, not knowing if they would follow or where she was going. Her feet pounded on the concrete as the howling rent the night.

  Werewolves.

  Jeremy hadn’t been lying. Lycan changed people. Wolves filled the city.

  She turned a corner and pressed herself into the shadows of a building.

  5th and Nightland. Just get to 5th and Nightland.

  A sign on the corner that appeared to have been painted over and over again read 12th Street, the other read Rotland in an untidy scrawl. Nola’s hands trembled. She closed her eyes, picturing the maps of the city in her mind. The number was right, but the name was wrong. Who had renamed the streets of the city, and why had she never known?

  North. Go north to find 5th.

  Staying close to the buildings in the depths of the shadows, Nola walked, keeping her head down, trying to picture what the city would have looked like when it was still prosperous. When the river water was clean, and people rode in boats on its glittering surface.

  11th Street. 10th.

  What would it have been like to live in a city in the open air, with parks to play in and a whole world to explore?

  Nola passed a dark stairway leading down to a basement.

  A hand reached out, grabbing her leg.

  “Please,” a woman’s voice came from the shadows, low and crackling. “Please, do you have any change?”

  “No.” Nola stumbled back, wrenching her leg from the woman’s weak grasp. “I don’t have any money.”

  It was true. They didn’t use money in the domes. Currency had always been a vague concept—numbers on a screen, not something to be kept in a pocket.

  “You’re strong,” the woman muttered, crawling up the stairs. “Vamp. Do you have Vamp?” The woman dragged herself into the light of the street lamps. Wrinkles covered her thin face. Cracks split her dried lips, and the skin under her eyes hung loose in horrible bags. “I’m dying!” the woman shrieked, trying to push herself up but crumpling to the ground. “You have Vamp. I know you do!”

  “I don’t.” Nola shook her head, backing away from the woman. “I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”

  “Lycan, ReVamp. Please!” the woman screamed after her as Nola ran down the street. “I’m dying. Murderer!”

  Nola ran from the woman, not caring who saw her, her only thought to escape from the echo of the woman’s voice.

  Murderer!

  In her haze of panic, she almost ran right past the sign that read 5th Street and Blood Way.

  Turning her back to the river, Nola walked west down 5th. There were lights in the windows here. And the farther she walked, the more people there were on the streets, some walking on the cracked pavement, some sitting in doorways. The scent of the river had disappeared, replaced by the stale smell of humans and animals living too close together.

  The back of Nola’s neck prickled with the feeling of a dozen people staring at her back.

  “You,” a voice called from behind her.

  Nola quickened her pace.

  “Don’t bother trying to get away,” the voice said. A moment later a hand had locked around her arm.

  Nola clenched her fists, ready to punch whomever had grabbed her, but the man already had her by both wrists.

  “Please, I don’t have—” Nola began.

  “Anything but a dome jacket?” the man said, eyebrows raised.

  Nola glanced down at her coat. It was plain black, made for warmth, not protection from the sun or acid rain. But the man’s coat was tattered and dirty, like everything else in the city. Nola’s looked brand new.

  “Why would a Domer be out on the streets this late at night?” the man asked, tightening his ice-cold grip on her wrists. “A little thing like you clearly isn’t an Outer Guard.”

  “I’m looking for someone.” Nola tipped her chin up, staring into the man’s eyes.

  His irises were black, leaving voids where color should have been.

  “Who?”

  “That’s none of your business,” Nola said, trying to sound confident the man wasn’t going to kill her in the middle of the street.

  “Look, sweetheart,” the man whispered in her ear. His breath smelled of iron as it wafted over her. “I don’t care if you’re here to buy Vamp or get laid. But this is my territory. If a Domer gets killed here, we’ll have the Outer Guard after our heads, and the last thing I want is a riot getting all my people killed. Believe it or not, I’m probably the only thing standing between you and getting your throat ripped open.”

  Nola gasped as the man squeezed her wrists so tight she thought they might break.

  “Tell me who you want to see so I can make you somebody else’s problem to clean up.”

  “Kieran,” Nola said, “Kieran Wynne. I’m supposed to be able to find him at 5th and Nightland.”

  The man cursed under his breath. “I love it when the hero sends a pretty girl to die.”

  “He’s my friend.”

  The man took her by the shoulders, steering her roughly down the street.

  “Friends don’t send friends into Vamp territory,” the man said.

  Fear shot through Nola’s body, setting fire to every nerve.

  “What, sweetheart?” the man hissed. “You didn’t know you were being saved by a monster?”

  He smiled, showing two long fangs in the front of his mouth.

  Nola swallowed her scream.


  The man gripped her tighter, shoving her down the street. “The better to eat you with, my dear.”

  “That’s the wolf’s line,” Nola said. A Vamper was steering her through the dark. What would people think when she wasn’t in the domes tomorrow? How long would it be before they noticed?

  They’ll never find me.

  “Be glad a wolf didn’t grab you,” the Vamper laughed. “They like to fight and die. And if you think all this shit with vampires and werewolves is going to work out like a fairytale, this really is your first time in the city. Here”—the Vamper pushed her up onto the curb—“5th and Nightland. Have your friend get you out, if you make it that long. The next time you cross through my territory, I’ll let them have you. They’ll dump your dried up body into the river before the Domers know you’re gone.”

  The man turned and strode away, leaving Nola alone under a flickering street lamp.

  She looked up at the sign. 5th Street and Nightland. But there was no one in sight. No one waiting to give her help, no sign reading find Kieran alive and healthy here.

  Where are you, Kieran?

  Nola closed her eyes. A very small, very foolish part of her thought when she opened her eyes Kieran would be there. Or maybe if she called his name he would appear.

  When she opened her eyes, there was nothing in front of her but an empty street. Maybe the Outer Guard had raided the area? Why would they need to raid a place where Kieran would be?

  Muffled voices came from nearby, but Nola couldn’t see anyone. No lights on in the houses, no people roaming the streets.

  A thumping pounded from below her feet. A strong, steady rhythm. Like music. Nola studied at the ground. Trash, dirt, and soot covered the cracked sidewalk.

  Something white twenty feet away caught her eye. The thumping grew louder as she approached. Voices became distinct, and a melody broke through the noise. A metal trapdoor had been built into the sidewalk, a single word painted across its surface. Nightland.

  Nola reached into the hole in the metal door just big enough for a hand and tried to lift. She gritted her teeth against the weight of the metal, but the door didn’t budge.