“Where’s the geothermal plant located? Doesn’t it draw attention to your settlement?” asked Jack.
Dena shook her head. “It was all built inside the mountain as part of the tourist attraction. Even the wind turbines that run the pump were camouflaged, although we were only able to get a few turbines working again.”
“Where do you get all of your supplies?” asked Jack.
“From the old city. Luckily for us pipe and wire were made to be pretty indestructible. We salvage whatever we can. Come on, I’ll give you a tour.”
The lobby was getting crowded as Dena led us through an arched doorway. The ceiling in the hallway was rounded and much lower. It had a deliberate cave-like feel. Dena went into the history of the hotel and how it was a novelty for tourists to live in a “cave” powered entirely by the earth’s own heating system. Hotel guests had a private entrance into the caverns, which back then were lit with electricity. All the elements were here to convert the caverns into living spaces.
At the end of the tour, she allowed us to read the hotel flyers they had preserved. Among all the advertising pamphlets there was a map of the cavern system. It was a series of caves joined together by manmade tunnels. The map was only of the immediate tourist area, but Dena explained the valley floor was riddled with caves.
We returned to the lobby, now crowded with people staking out bed space on the floor. There was an air of excitement to the chatter filling the room. I recognized a few faces from the training field.
“As the place of our original settlement, the barangays gather here for the annual spring tournament and the winter solstice celebrations,” Dena said. Her lips tightened. “This is the first time we’ve gathered under the threat of war. I’ll admit, it makes me nervous to have our forces all in the same location.”
Jack nodded his agreement. “Whatever action you decide to take, you’d best do it soon.”
“That will depend on how the Elders vote. After all you’ve seen today, I’m hoping you both agree with me and will help sway them.”
“We’ll meet with your council, but we’re going to be honest,” Jack said.
“That’s all I ask,” Dena said. “Speaking of which, I should be preparing for the meeting. I’ll show you to your room.”
Dena took us to one of the private rooms in the hotel and we immediately protested. We’d watched the army making beds on the floor in the lobby—we shouldn’t be shown special treatment. But she wouldn’t hear of it. We were guests and would be treated well.
“You’ll probably want to get out of your wet clothes,” she said. She lit a lantern in the bathroom and showed us a hidden cord above the tub. “Hang them here tonight and hope they’re dry for morning.”
As she turned to leave, Jack stopped her. “Dena, there’s one more thing you should know before you meet with your council.” She gave him an expectant look, but he hesitated. “President Holt isn’t mentally stable. He intends to repopulate the earth with his own ‘master race’ and I believe he intends to wipe out everyone who doesn’t fit. I’ll admit, Sunny and I need your help freeing her people, but I stand by what I said earlier. If you run now, it buys you time to prepare to go up against him later.”
Dena gave him an appreciative nod. “Thanks for your honesty, Jack.”
The door clicked behind her, leaving us alone in the quiet room. Oddly, I felt momentarily awkward. It had been a while since we were alone…since we declared our feelings for each other. Now here we were in a room, dominated by a big bed, and nothing to put on once we shed our wet clothes. I was suddenly conscious that my shirt was soaked through and clinging to me. I crossed my arms.
If Jack noticed my embarrassment, he didn’t mention it. Instead, he unsnapped the cargo pocket on his pants and took out his tablet. He tried to power it up. It didn’t switch on. Next he took out his pistol and laid both on the table. “Hopefully they’ll dry out.” He looked around the room. “This place is amazing. I wonder what it was like before the war.”
I wasn’t sure if he was actually appreciating the room or the fact that the hotel still stood as a testimony to another civilization. His eyesight was poor in the dark, so it was doubtful he could see beyond the glow of the lantern. Unfortunately I could, and the blemish of suffering and decay was in this room too, mixed with centuries-old grime pulverized into the crumbling tiles.
He moved toward the bathroom and I followed, not wanting to be alone with the ghosts in this room. “I can’t believe they got a geothermal plant running again.” He turned on the faucet and smiled. “It’s hot. I’m looking forward to a shower.”
For the first time, I wished I were as blind in the dark as Jack. If only I couldn’t see the grunge of suffering maybe the ghosts in the room would vanish. I shivered and wrapped my arms tighter around me.
“You should to get out of those wet clothes,” he said. “You can have the shower first.”
He went to squeeze past me in the narrow doorway, but I wrapped my hand around his arm, preventing him. “Wait.” He stopped, our shoulders pressed together in the confined space. I didn’t want him to go. And it wasn’t just because I was a little creeped out by this place. “I don’t want to be alone.”
He laughed softly, but my expression remained serious. “I’ll be right out here.”
I loosened my grip on his arm and let my hand trail down to lace my fingers through his. My stomach began fluttering. I took a deep breath and held it, hoping he hadn’t changed his mind about me.
His laughter faded and his expression sobered. “Life’s been quite a ride lately.” He raised his free hand and smoothed my wet hair away from my face. “When Naoki pulled you out of the water and you weren’t breathing…it scared the hell out of me. I thought you were dead.”
I think I actually had been—at least for a few minutes. And it would’ve been a peaceful escape from this violent world if not for one thing: regret. There was just too much unfinished business with Jack for me to leave happy. Too much to say. Too much left to live for.
“I almost lost you too, so I think I know how you felt,” I said. Maybe now he could understand why I used a syringe full of nano-surgeons to save him. His mouth curved into a crooked smile, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. I pressed my cheek against his cupped hand. “But we’re here, still very much alive.” I tugged on his wet t-shirt, trying to pull him closer, but he resisted.
“What about your no-romance policy?” He avoided looking me in the eyes when he asked, concentrating instead on putting a strand of hair behind my ear.
“I thought we both knew that stupid policy was just an overreaction on my part.”
“Yeah?” he asked. “An overreaction to what?”
He wasn’t going to make this easy on me. I couldn’t blame him. One day I was begging him to make love to me, the next I was clinging to the side of our bed trying to avoid contact. He deserved an explanation. The trouble was that I wasn’t sure I understood it all, myself. Somewhere between saying “I do” and uniting the Pit for a rebellion, I learned to trust Jack.
“Seeing you as a…bourge again,” I said truthfully.
He drew his eyebrows together in a pained expression. “Sunny, I am from the Dome, but it doesn’t make me a bourge. After all this time—”
I put my hand over his mouth to stop his next words. “I know what you’re going to say. But trusting you doesn’t come easy for me, Jack.” My breath caught on a sob. It wasn’t something I ever wanted to admit to him. But he deserved honesty. He took a step away from me, and I dropped my hand away from his mouth. “You might think you know what life is like in the Pit after being down there with me, but you didn’t grow up there. I did. I had a lifetime to form an opinion about the bourge.”
I knew I could never explain the depth of that opinion
to him. There were no words to describe how I felt when I watched my father beaten by guards to within an inch of his life. I was only eight years old the first time it happened, and it stole my voice for an entire week. But I was young and naïve. Maturity and experience taught me that a fear of the bourge was healthy and would help keep me out of trouble.
The one thing I never did learn was how to deal with the sense of helplessness I felt when I watched someone I loved being hurt—until I met Jack. He showed me that I didn’t have to be helpless.
“Nobody’s ever believed in me before,” I said. Tentatively, I brushed my fingers against his, hoping he wouldn’t snatch his hand away. He didn’t. “You were the first and it made me a stronger person.” I wound my fingers through his. “You’ve done more for the Pit than anyone else in the history of the Dome. And I’m really sorry that it’s taken my head a lot longer to figure out what my heart has known for a while. I didn’t marry the enemy. I married the hero.”
Jack didn’t say anything. He just looked at me so intently with his crystal blue eyes that I found myself holding my breath. Slowly, his lips lifted in a smile and his hand trailed down my arm, coming to rest at the hem of my shirt.
I exhaled the breath I was holding only to suck it back in again when his fingertips burned a path along my bare sides. I raised my arms above my head, felt the cold wet shirt as he pulled it off me, and heard the wet slap it made on the tiled floor. He felt warm against my cool skin as he pressed in close. His head moved toward mine.
His kiss never tasted sweeter.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I didn’t think it was possible to love Jack any more than I already did. But that was before I discovered it wasn’t just my heart that could hold love; my entire being could be filled with it too. I felt it in my toes as they made a lazy trail along his bare leg. My fingertips tingled with it as they traced his lower lip. It wasn’t just our lives that were entangled anymore. I really felt like he was a part of my soul.
His eyes fluttered open sleepily. “Good morning, Mrs. Kenner,” he said, his lips moving against my fingers.
“Is it morning already?” I asked. “It’s hard to tell without windows.” My internal clock had already synced itself with the rising and setting sun.
“I think so. Did you sleep well?”
I smiled instantly while the heat of a blush rushed to my cheeks. He knew exactly how little sleep I’d had. “Best night of my life.”
He rolled over, pushing me off the elbow I was perched on, and pinned me to the bed. “Liar,” he said, kissing my neck. It had been a while since he’d shaved, and the growth of his beard tickled. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked at me. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I thought…you were ready.”
The memory of just how ready I was made me close my eyes in a moment of embarrassment. I had no idea I was capable of feeling such exquisite pleasure, so the sharp pain of our first union caught me by surprise. It shouldn't have—experienced friends had forewarned me that the first time hurt. Still, I couldn't help the scream that escaped me. “I was ready…and it only hurt the first time.” I opened my eyes to find him looking at me. I smiled through my awkwardness. “The third time was the best, though.”
His eyes smoldered at the memory. “It was, wasn’t it?” He kissed me and I wound my arms around his neck, hoping we were headed for a fourth time. He pulled back to look at me again with those incredible blue eyes. “Do you have any idea how much I’m in love with you?”
“No. I think you better show me.” I pulled his mouth back to mine.
A sharp rap on the door startled us both. Jack’s head snapped up, looking in the direction of the intrusion. “Who is it?” he asked.
“Dena sent me,” a male voice yelled from the other side of the door. “She asked if you could meet with the Elders in an hour.”
“Tell her we’ll be there,” Jack said.
Reality dispersed the happy fog that had settled around me. In a vain attempt to keep it, I buried my face in the crook of Jack’s neck and breathed in the scent of him. If I couldn’t freeze time, I could at least sharpen the memory.
“I guess our honeymoon’s over,” he said.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to say to them?”
He rolled onto his back and flopped down on the pillow beside me. “Nope. I was a little distracted last night,” he said with a smile. “We need to figure out what we’re going to say, though. I’m still torn. I feel guilty as hell telling a group of people armed with bows and arrows to go up against an elite army.”
I propped myself up on my elbow, resting my head on my hand. I knew Jack wasn’t being condescending. The fact was that Dena’s army was not as well armed as Holt’s, yet they had something Holt’s army didn’t have: strong unity.
“Their world is so different from ours,” I said, looking around the time-ravaged room. “It was born out of the ashes of destruction.”
“Wow, that’s really poetic, Sunny.”
“You know what I mean, though.”
He tucked his arm under his head and turned toward me. “Their world is primitive and our world is advanced.”
“No,” I said, tracing a finger along his stubbly jaw line. “I mean our worlds evolved differently.” I laid my head on his shoulder and snuggled in. “At least inside the Dome, we were sheltered from all the nuclear destruction. They weren’t. Think of the kind of strength it would take to not only survive on a devastated Earth, but manage to build a nation too.”
Lazily, he stroked my hair. “I can’t imagine. All I can say is the human will to survive is strong.”
“It’s like Dena said—defense isn’t just something they practice, it’s their way of life. They’ve built their entire culture on protecting themselves. You saw their skill on the training field.”
Jack shot me a droll look. “Thanks for the reminder.”
Too late I remembered he got his butt kicked. “I didn’t mean that,” I said. “I meant they all moved together, like parts of the same machine. If the bourge didn’t have automatic weapons, I think Dena’s army would have the advantage.”
“But they do have automatic weapons.”
As I thought about it, a plan started working itself out. Flint had mentioned an armory. “Aren’t weapons kept in an armory?”
“Ye-es…” Jack said.
“Are all weapons kept there?”
“Inventory is kept there…are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”
“What do you think I’m thinking?”
“About blowing up the armory.”
“Actually, I was thinking about breaking into it and arming the heathens. But your idea’s better.”
He opened his eyes wide and raised his eyebrows. “My idea?”
“It’s brilliant! If our two worlds are going to collide, then the least we can do is level the battlefield.”
He studied me for a moment. “Every soldier carries at least one sidearm, and there’s going to be some ammo around the base…” He paused again. “If we take them by surprise, we might cripple them temporarily. Of course, that’s assuming they’re not in contact with Holt yet. If they are, reinforcements would be sent out from the Dome.”
“But if Holt is trying to keep the city a secret, would he really send an army out and take the chance of being exposed?”
“Huh,” Jack said, giving me an appreciative look. “Maybe not…although if he thought he was about to lose the city, he might risk it.”
I allowed myself to feel the tiniest glimmer of hope. This plan might work. “Do you think the Elders will go for it?”
He shrugged. “It depends on Dena persuading them to stay and fight.”
“Maybe our plan will he
lp convince them. We can lay it all out at the meeting.”
“We still have a few points to work out, Sunny. Like how we’re going to get into the city and blow up the armory.”
I smiled mischievously. “I don’t know Jack. It was your idea.” His eyes widened and he made a growling noise, but before he could pin me to the bed again, I pinned him. He let me.
My hair fell around us as I held his wrists above his head. My eyes strayed from his blue eyes to his full lips. I lowered my mouth to his, closed my eyes, and let myself get lost in him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
As it turned out, the Elders had already made their decision by the time we got to the meeting. Amini was in the minority; she was the only one who wanted to leave behind the nation they had built. The others had come to the conclusion that they would have to face Holt and his weapons whether they ran or not. Nuclear war had already devastated the planet and a few, like Dena, felt they were the first line of defense against the bourge wreaking havoc again. I was undecided about whether that was noble or a little crazy, considering how the rest of the world had treated them.
The Elders left the strategy of the attack to Dena, the head of their military. She invited Naoki, Jin-Sook, and a few other Protectors to help her coordinate the plan.
Jack brought his computer tablet, vainly hoping it would work since he had the entire map of the city downloaded on it. It didn’t. Naoki found the computer interesting. From his pocket, he took out two miniature versions of Jack’s tablet. “Not so different from these,” he said.
Jack picked up one of the small screens, examining it. “It’s almost the same,” he said, his tone a mix of curiosity and disbelief. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I heard Doc. Three hundred years of tradition unimpeded by progress.
Worlds Collide: Sunset Rising, Book Two Page 25