The Moon Dwellers

by David Estes

  THE MOON DWELLERS

  Book One of

  The Dwellers Saga

  David Estes

  Copyright 2012 David Estes

  Nook Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to BarnesandNoble.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Discover other exciting titles by David Estes available through the author’s official website:

  http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com

  or through select online retailers.

  The Evolution Trilogy by David Estes:

  Book One—Angel Evolution

  Book Two—Demon Evolution

  Book Three—Archangel Evolution

  For Adele. Just for being you.

  Prologue

  Adele

  7 months ago

  Hands grope, men shout, boots slap the rock floor.

  Clay dishes and pots are smashed to bits as the Enforcers sweep recklessly through our house. There are more bodies in the tiny stone box that I call home than ever before. The walls seem to be closing in.

  My mother’s face is stricken with anger, her lips twisted, her eyebrows dark. Like a wild animal, her teeth snap and snarl. I’ve never seen her fight like this. I’ve never seen her fight at all.

  It takes three bulging Enforcers to subdue her kicking legs, her thrashing arms. For just a moment I am scared of her and not the men. I hate myself for it.

  I realize my sister is by my side, watching, like me. I can’t let her see this—can’t let this be her last memory of the ones who raised us. I usher her back into the small room that we share with my parents, and close the door, shutting her inside alone.

  When I turn back to the room, my mother is already gone, taken. Undigested beans from our measly supper rise in my throat.

  My father is next.

  The Enforcers jeer at him, taunt him, spit on him. As he backs his shoulders against the cold, stark, stone wall, five men corner him. Smart. They don’t underestimate him.

  He makes eye contact with me; his emerald-green eyes are hard with concentration. Despite the inherent tension in the room, his face is relaxed, calm, the exact opposite of his eyes. Run, he mouths.

  My feet are frozen to the floor. My knees lock, stiffen, disobey me and my father. I am ashamed. After all that my father has done for me, when it counts the most, I fail him.

  One of the men lifts an arm and a gun. I hold my breath when I hear the shot, a dull thwap! that doesn’t sound like a normal gun. The man moves backwards slightly from the force, but his legs are planted firmly and he maintains his balance.

  My father slumps to the floor. I feel my lips trembling, and my hand moves unbidden to my mouth. My frozen feet melt and I try to run to him, but a big body bars my way. I don’t think—just react. I kick him hard, like my father taught me. My heel catches the Enforcer under his chin and his head snaps back. Like most people, he underestimates me.

  The next Enforcer doesn’t.

  The Taser rips into my neck and tentacles of electricity slam my jaw shut. My teeth nearly snap off my tongue, which is flailing around in my mouth. They don’t take it easy on me just because I’m a kid, or a girl—not after what I did to the first guy. Still stunned by the Taser, I barely feel the thump of their hard boots as they kick me repeatedly in the ribs. My eyes are wet, and through my blurred vision I see the arcing nightstick.

  Strangely, it feels like destiny, like it was always going to happen.

  I hear my sister’s screams just before I black out.

  Chapter One

  Adele

  My heart is alive again. Because I see him. I know I should hate him—everyone else around me does.

  “Filthy mutt,” I hear one guy growl, “he should’ve stayed above.”

  “Yeah,” another guy says, “I’m surprised he’s gettin’ his shoes dirty down ’ere with the rats.”

  But for some reason I choose not to hate him. Not today. I need something to change my mood, something to bring me back to life. And he is the only option. It is the first day since arriving at the Pen that I consider suicide a viable option. Others think about taking their own lives on a daily basis—I hear their screams echo down the empty prison halls at night. And some of them have, even in the six months I’ve been here.

  I am sitting in the yard when I hear the bell chime. The yard is what we call the expansive area outside the Pen’s main building, although I don’t know who came up with the name, because it makes no sense. There is no yard, just barren rock. Real yards—with grass, bushes, and trees—are magical places that don’t exist in our world.

  The high fence surrounding the prison buzzes with electricity and threatens us with barbed wire. They made the fence easy to see through, so we can see our town, subchapter 14 of the Moon Realm, a glimpse of the freedom we don’t have. And the non-prisoners can also see us, the convicted.

  A few months earlier I saw a young boy, no more than fourteen, go crazy all of a sudden and rush the fence, desperate to experience the outside world that only his eyes could taste. I was sitting right here when it happened. As soon as his hands touched the metal his body convulsed and he flew backwards onto the rock, his arm trapped awkwardly beneath his body. He didn’t die, but he can’t lift one of his arms above his head anymore. I see stuff like that happen all the time in this place.

  The bell we call the death toll—an awful keening that shivers my bones. It is called the death toll because it only rings when someone dies, as if to remind us of our only chance of escape. Sometimes the death is self-inflicted; other times, not. It isn’t ringing now, and yet I can hear it. When no one else reacts I know it’s in my head. Perhaps it’s ringing for me. I could pick a fight with a gang, let them kill me, escape this prison the only way I know how.

  But suicide isn’t me at all. Not really. I’m kind of a survivalist by nature. I think I get that from my dad. But I’ve been sentenced to life in prison. First in the Pen until I turn eighteen, which is just a few short months away, and then off to the Max, a maximum security adult prison, which wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t absolutely sure the food won’t be any better than that of the dump I’m in now.

  Yeah, things in my life are looking pretty bleak. I feel…I feel lost. And alone. More alone than I’ve ever felt, which is a hard thing for me to admit. You’d think that staying six months in one place would be plenty of time to make some friends, but I can’t seem to. Other teenagers in the Pen manage to make friends—some even seem to like each other—but I pretty much keep to myself. I’m not sure if it’s a choice or not, but I certainly don’t make an effort to meet anyone. And I guess my stay-away-from-me-or-get-a-knee-in-the-groin vibe is strong enough that no one feels like trying to make friends with me either.

  For six months my heart has withered away, slowly shriveling up and eventually dying, until I can’t feel anything. I mean, if someone pinches me it will hurt, but I probably won’t react. I find that the less emotion I put into life, the less the past seems to hurt. I can’t forget what happened, but I can try to not remember it. A subtle difference, I suppose. So I let each day slip by in a hazy routine; one where I sleep on my hard bed, eat the crap food they feed us, and perform the remedial tasks assigned to me, all the while generally avoiding raising my chin high enough to see anyone who I might one day call my friend.

  Today I do look up. Grudgingly, maybe, but I do. First, when the bell tolls in my head. Then again when
all the noise begins. After all, the racket is disturbing me. I am busy wallowing in self-pity, which I prefer to do in silence. The parade passes the Pen, just outside the fence, so close, making all kinds of noise, people cheering, drums thumping, dogs barking.

  And there he is. A beacon of light in the dark. Tristan is his name. A name I grew up hearing spoken lightly amongst my friends. That was back when I had friends, of course. When life was simple, if not particularly good. Life is never good as a moon dweller. My father would tan my backside if he heard me say something like that. “Adele,” he used to say, “we are a blessed people, a blessed family. There are many others less fortunate than us.” Yeah, tell that to the men who dragged you away from me.

  All the girls in my old school are in love with Tristan. Obviously, none of them know him, but like any male celebrity, he captures the attention of young, naïve females. But I’m not supposed to notice him. I’m supposed to be different. I’m strong, independent, rebellious. My father calls me a fighter. So I fight. Against whatever is popular, whatever is in. If the current fad is to wear dark-colored tunics then I’ll wear light. Or if the other girls really like wearing clothes every day then I’ll go naked. Not really, of course, but you get what I mean.

  Now, stuck in the Pen, it seems like an awfully big waste of energy—to swim against the current, that is. But I can’t take it back, not any of it, no matter how hard I try. No matter how much I try to wish it all away, my past is the zit that you pop, watch bleed, watch heal, only to see poking from your skin again a week later.

  Back to Tristan—who is the polar opposite of a recurring blemish. Blond, curly hair. Seventeen but already over six feet tall. Strong, solid frame. A princely face. Big, navy blue eyes. An addictive smile, with right-sized lips and ivory teeth. By addictive I mean like the hard stuff—crack cocaine. Not that I’ve tried it. Drugs are hard to come by down here. Not that I would try them if I could. Anyway, Tristan’s smile is like crack, in a way. You can’t look away from it even if you want to. You need it like an addict needs his next hit.

  As he flashes a smile, I’m astonished to feel tiny bats in my stomach, despite the fact that his smile is targeted at his adoring fans. It’s like the black-winged rats are flitting about in my ribcage with needles and thread, patching and stitching my heart together again, using a bicycle pump to breathe life back into it. I’ve only ever seen Tristan’s face on a sun dweller magazine, and let me tell you, the photo didn’t do him justice. Although that was a few years ago, so maybe he’s just grown up since then, become a man.

  Suddenly, I want to be with him. Yeah, me and every other girl living in subchapter 14 of the Moon Realm. There are about a thousand of them outside the Pen, lining the streets, screaming his name and throwing flowers at him. I even see one of them chuck her undergarments at him. I guess she’s addicted to his smile, too.

  “You like him, don’t you?” a voice says from behind me.

  I turn, unable to stop the look of surprise that blankets my face. A tall, white-haired girl stands before me. A blue streak runs down one side of her hair, which is long and straight, reaching all the way to the small of her back. She has porcelain features, as if her face was drawn on by an artist. I can’t help wondering what a beautiful girl like her is doing in a place like this. For a moment I can’t speak. I worry that my stay-away-from-me vibe disappeared, but then I check and find it’s still here. And yet this girl penetrated my defenses and dared to communicate with me? My first thought: There must be something wrong with her.

  “Can I help you?” I say, probably not too nicely. My parents would be ashamed of me, but what can I say, I’m out of practice.

  “I’m Tawni,” the girl says, sticking out her hand.

  I look at her slender digits like they’re a nest of snakes, hesitate, and then eventually take them. I shiver at her icy touch, but her handshake feels surprisingly firm for how thin she is.

  “Have a seat,” I say with a slight wave of my arm. I’m getting back into the groove, remembering all the tricks my mom taught me on how to be polite—like inviting a guest to sit down. It is my stoop, after all—I sit here every day.

  With a slight grin she takes a seat next to me on the rock bench. “Thanks,” she says.

  I grin back. I can’t believe it. I’m actually smiling. Well, sort of. I think it’s a pathetic attempt, but at least my lips are curled up in a crooked, awkward, I-don’t-know-how-to-smile-for-pictures kind of way. You know, like those kids in Year Three who always end up with the worst yearbook photos? The ones with the crazy eyes and fake smiles. That’s me trying to smile at my new friend, Tawni. Or at least she’s the closest person I have to a friend at the moment.

  “Are you going to answer my question or what?” she says.

  I wrack my brain, trying to remember her having asked me a question. The shock of having my first human interaction in months seems to cause my brain to malfunction. In my mind I am thinking Uh-duh-uh-duh-uh-duh, but I don’t think saying that will win me any points with Tawni, so instead I say, “Can you repeat the question?”

  I know I sound so stupid, so formal, like a kid at school caught daydreaming by a shrewd teacher, but you can’t take back words once they leave your mouth, as my mom always used to point out when I would mouth off growing up. Tawni should walk away from me at this point, but she doesn’t.

  “Tristan—do you like him?”

  “Oh,” I say. I don’t understand the question. Like what? His looks? Well, yeah, the way I am staring at him probably gave that away. His personality? Hmmm, given I have never spoken to him—will never speak to him—that is a hard one to answer. His ruling style? To be honest, I am a bit out of the loop when it comes to politics. I know his dad is a creep, but I don’t know much about him.

  So, because I don’t really understand the question, I just sit dumbly, hoping she will think I’m a nut and leave me alone. Not really. I do sit dumbly, but I’m not hoping she will leave. Truth be told, I’m glad to be talking to someone. Conversing—in an awkward sort of way. Tawni seems okay, and already I am feeling less alone. My urge to rush the fence and send thousands of volts of electricity shooting through my body has almost passed.

  I have a sudden desire to be close to someone again, to know someone, to have a friend. The desire is so strong it takes me by surprise. I am so used to keeping everyone away from me that I forgot how good it feels to have people close by. My whole body tingles from the conversation. Very weird.

  Surprisingly, Tawni doesn’t leave. Instead, she answers for me. “Yeah, I know. I like him, too.”

  I’m not sure which of the potential questions she is answering, maybe all three. His looks, his personality, his ruling style. Maybe she’s another one of his crazed fans, obsessive to the point of throwing underwear.

  The parade passes slowly—Tristan will be out of sight in a few minutes, moving down another street, probably heading toward Moon Hall, where the local politicians gather to do whatever it is that they do. Mostly screw us over. I crane my neck, trying to get a final glimpse of his smile.

  “I don’t think he’s a bad guy,” Tawni says.

  “Mmm, really?” I say, only half listening.

  “No. I mean his dad’s a jerk, but I don’t think kids should be judged by what their stupid parents do.”

  My ears perk up. I glance at Tawni. Her slight grin has melted. Her lips are pursed and thin. My brain starts functioning again. Doing the math, so to speak—figuring things out. Like I always did with my dad. My dad and I liked to solve puzzles together. Any kinds of puzzles really. Word puzzles, math puzzles, riddles—that sort of thing. I know I shouldn’t be thinking of my new friend Tawni as a puzzle, but I can tell there’s some hidden meaning behind her words, some revelation about her past. I am suddenly interested in her. Where she comes from, who she is, what she has done to land herself in this hellhole.

  I assume she still has hope—that much I gather from the fact that she doesn’t hate Tristan just because of w
ho he is. The hopeless tend to be the hardest on the sun dwellers, particularly the ones in a position of power. I can also tell from her words that she harbors animosity toward her parents, presumably for something they’ve done, something that reflects badly on her. Maybe it’s all linked to why she’s in the Pen wasting her days away like me. But I’m only speculating.

  I glance at Tawni and see that she’s looking toward the parade, so I turn back to watch. The lead car, in which Tristan is standing, is about to turn the corner. He’s waving to his adoring fans, smiling his mesmerizing smile, when he looks at me. Right at me, like his eyes are gun sights and I am their target. Despite the distance, they pierce me to my very soul, instantly warming my recently resurrected heart. I am captivated, frozen in place, like I’ve turned to stone. It’s as if there’s an invisible tether between our eyes linking us together. It’s not like I can read his mind or anything—nothing that farfetched—but I just feel something for him, like I know him. I don't know exactly—it’s hard to explain.

  As I stare at him, his face changes. Gone is the smile. Gone are his piercing eyes. All swallowed up in a frown. At first I think I was rude, that I have stared too long, but then I feel a presence approaching from the side, a dark shadow.

  I turn my head and see a guy.

  I’ve seen him around the yard before. A teenager in a man’s body. Six-five, about two hundred and fifty pounds, covered in tats: he is one of the local gang leaders. Not a good guy.

  “Hey, beautiful,” he says.

  I ignore him and look at Tawni, hoping he will pass straight by me. He doesn’t. Tawni shrugs.

  “Hey,” he says.

  I keep ignoring him.

  “I said ‘Hey,’” he repeats.

  “I heard you the first time.” I still don’t look at him, not wanting to inadvertently extend an invitation with eye contact.

  “You should watch your mouth,” he says.