by Natalie Reid
With a heavy thumping heart, she began to jog through the streets, heading back to the house on Aileron. She cursed herself for ever thinking that she could sneak out like that, and promised herself that she would have a much better plan next time.
When she reached the house and found no movement in the windows, she breathed a sigh of relief. Her actions had been foolish, but at least there was no one there to criticize her for it. She walked up to the door with tired and wobbly legs, ready to go to bed and congratulate herself at least on her ability to sneak out undetected, when suddenly the front door swung open. Denneck stood in the doorway looking furious. Her older cousin didn’t say anything as he pulled her into the house in an angry motion and shut the door…
Neither of them had seen the figure across the street as it dashed into the shadows of a nearby bush. There, under the cover of a thick shrub that managed to keep its leaves in December, the Task Force agent took out his tablet and dialed a number.
A voice spoke on the other line, and the agent immediately whispered, “Get me the Commander.”
A moment of silence passed. Then the line clicked before the authoritative voice of his commander came on, saying, “Vin.”
“This is Sergeant Lance,” he announced himself. “I’m standing outside of a house on the west-end, number forty-one Aileron Street. I found something you might want to see.”
“What is it?” came the impatient reply.
“It’s a sergeant from the military, sir. He’s inside the house, along with someone that certainly didn’t want to be found by Task Force. And there’s something else. I’m almost positive I recognize the sergeant. He looks like the one in charge of the missing Bandit, Chance.” When Vin didn’t respond, Lance asked, “What do you want me to do sir?”
“Nothing,” Vin replied calmly. “I’ll handle this.”
“Yes sir.”
“Don’t tell anyone what you saw, sergeant. No one else on the Force can know about this.”
“You have my word.”
“Good. Now make sure no one sees you on your way out.”
At that, the line went dead, and Lance got up from the shadows and slipped out to the streets, disappearing from all sight or trace from the little cottage on Aileron Street.
* * *
The tunnels were dark and dripping with hidden water as Jessie travelled through them. The incessant plop of moisture raining in on all sides around her drove her mind crazy with thirst and mad with the never-ending torment of the water she couldn’t seem to find. She could hear it, she knew it was there, but in every crack of the tunnel she checked, every crease and crevice, there was no water.
She began to run faster down the tunnel, and the metal walls turned to dirt and rock, and up ahead she could hear the sound of screams. The Thirty were somewhere down there, huddled in corners, cowering under men with gray uniforms and dying of thirst like her.
Purple light streamed in from the end of the tunnel, and she knew she was so close to them.
Before she could reach them, a hand reached out and stopped her. She turned back around to see Tom holding onto her wrist.
Her face flashed in confusion, and she tried to tell him that she had to save them, but all that came out of her mouth were puffs of black smoke. And then Tom was pushing her shoulders back and easing her to lie down on an operating table, and she found she was no longer in the tunnel, but some room with walls that changed color with every beat of her heart. Tom’s hands reached for her chest and dove inside the skin. When they came back out, he took with him everything he put in. A lung and a piece of her heart. And the walls stopped changing color because her heart had stopped beating, and she was choking like a Potentian without air.
“Ben,” she croaked out.
Tom had vanished and her hands reached out to nothing. The sound of rushing water raged in her ears, but she still could not see it. Her throat restricted even tighter, and she groped at her neck to find that a Potentian Band was locked around it, growing smaller and smaller and blocking out air and water and everything else from the outside world.
Jessie woke with a gasp in her bed inside Bunker City. Scrambling to her feet, she walked over to the desk where she kept a stash of water, and poured it down her throat. She emptied it out so fast that she began choking on the water. She doubled over on the ground and spat out the liquid from her mouth, coughing and puttering for air. She hoped that she had not awoken Kurt. Not only would she hate for him to see her so vulnerable, but he would be exceedingly annoyed at having been awoken.
Before she could cough anymore, she pulled herself to her feet, grabbed another water bottle, and then slipped out her window and onto the streets. Once again she could feel the closeness of the cave ceiling as she walked. The air coming through her throat did not satisfy her as fresh air should have, and her lungs begged her to find some real air.
She knew in order to leave the city and find fresh air, she would need to turn around. But her feet did not want to stop, even to turn directions. So she ran to the back tunnels, hoping that the wind she created would feel better than the stagnant air that Bunker City offered.
The small twinkling lights of the piano stadium swam in her eyes as she ran the length of the top rim. She did not notice the small figure, asleep on the bench of the piano with her dark hair falling over the side, until she was only a few feet from her. Jessie stopped when she saw Nel, but the sound of her running had been enough to wake her. Nel’s body jerked into consciousness, and she looked up with wide, pale blue eyes.
“Are you alright?” the little girl asked.
Jessie rested her back against the cave wall and nodded her head.
“You don’t look alright.” Nel stood up from the piano bench to give her a closer inspection.
Jessie almost felt guilty under her stare, afraid that Nel would see she was really a thief sent to steal her away.
“I’m just thirsty,” she told her, breathing out the words in tired huffs.
“Don’t you have water?” Nel asked curiously.
Jessie gave her a weak smile. “I guess I just can’t seem to get enough.”
Suddenly Nel took her hand, saying, “I can show you where to get more.”
“What?” she asked, allowing herself to be gently guided by the young girl.
“There’s an underground river nearby. It’s where we get our water. I’ll take you there.”
Nel’s small hand grasped hers lightly as she led her to a part of the cave in which they could climb down to the bottom. It wasn’t too steep of a climb, and Nel maneuvered through the rocks like she had done this many times. Once they were at the bottom, she noticed a small hole in the rocks facing north to the forest. They climbed through it, and came out the other side to a different tunnel.
Jessie could tell this tunnel wasn’t for human traffic, for the bulk of space was taken up by a large pipe that was no doubt carrying water to Bunker City. Nel ran her hand along the pipe as she walked forward. Jessie made sure to hold onto her other hand, for there wasn’t any light inside this tunnel, especially when they strayed further and further away from the piano stadium.
As they walked, Jessie called out, “This doesn’t scare you? Walking in the dark?”
“The dark isn’t so scary.”
“Brave girl,” Jessie commended her, giving her hand a squeeze.
Nel returned her squeeze and continued walking in silence. Before long, the tunnel widened, and they found themselves in a more open section of the cave. Jessie could feel the air moving freely around them, but more than that, she could see the water of a river at the bottom of the cave floor. That meant there had to be a light source coming from somewhere.
Looking up, she saw there was a small hole at the top of the cave, almost like a chimney leading out towards the open forest. She couldn’t believe it. There was another way out of here! She didn’t know whether to feel happy or even more conflicted about what to do. This was her ticket out of here, the perfect p
lace to sneak Nel up to her father, but it wouldn’t mean anything if she didn’t want to come.
Giving Nel her thanks, she walked to the edge of the river. The water was flowing quickly, but she gripped the rock bank of the river as she reached a hand down and scooped up some water. She splashed it on her face and dumped it over her hair and drenched herself until she began to feel normal again. Then she lied down on the rocky ground behind her and breathed a contented sigh of relief.
“Why are you so thirsty?” Nel asked, coming to stand over her.
Jessie looked towards the roof of the cave and admitted, “I had a nightmare.”
“They make you thirsty?”
Jessie gave her a smile. “I guess so.”
The young girl nodded in contemplation. “I play the piano every time I have a nightmare.”
Jessie moved her arms behind her so she could sit up. “Is that why you were there just now?”
Nel angled her head to the floor and crouched down so she could sit next to her. Instead of answering her question, she asked, “You don’t like being underground, do you?”
“I can’t say that I do,” Jessie admitted. “I’m a pilot. I miss the skies.”
“Sometimes I think that I’ll never leave this place,” she whispered, hugging her legs to her chest.
“Where would you go if you could leave?”
“Out,” she said in a quiet voice. Her pale eyes glazed over, and Jessie got the impression that they could see far beyond the walls of the cave to someplace open and above-ground.
“Leave Aero City,” Nel continued, talking into her knees. “Find a f-field.”
As she said this last word, her eyes welled with tears, and she buried her face in her legs. Jessie quickly got to her feet so she could sit behind her. She gently drew her arms around her like her mother used to do whenever she cried, and slowly rocked her back and forth.
“What would be in this field?” she asked.
She could hear as Nel sniffed and choked back her tears.
“Flowers,” she said weakly. “Lots and lots of b-blue flowers.” Each word that came out of her mouth seemed like an effort, but she continued on. “And there would be a stream running through it. With little bubbles that run along the edges.”
“It sounds wonderful,” Jessie whispered reverently.
Nel buried her head deeper in her knees, and her back shook as she said, “It doesn’t exist!”
“Now, you don’t know that,” she said gently. “If you’ve never been outside the city, then how can you know there isn’t a place exactly like that?”
Her head lifted a little, and her nose sniffed a few times. “You, you mean… it might be out there, right now?”
“And more beautiful than how it looks in your imagination.”
Nel turned her head to look back at her. “Swear… swear to the skies?” she asked in between sniffs.
Jessie gave her a sad smile. “I can’t give you proof, Nel. You just have to believe that it might be out there; that it’s possible. So, even if you never see it, you can still feel it.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice small and fragile.
“Sometimes people and places have a way of affecting us even when they aren’t close by,” Jessie explained. “They can be as far away as possible, but you still feel them. It’s like when you stop playing a song. The notes are gone, the piano can be miles away, but the song can still touch you, almost like it left something inside of you while it was playing, some feeling of sadness or joy or longing.”
Nel curled back into herself, asking, “What if you don’t want it to still touch you? What if you just want to forget?”
Jessie drew her back into a hug and continued to rock her back and forth. She could feel the edges of paper from where Ben’s drawing was folded in her pocket. “All things heal in time,” she whispered. “Nothing can hurt you forever.”
But, as she held the sad girl in her arms, she could not convince even herself of her words. Though she had only known Ben for a brief time, she missed him so much it was as if she had lost a part of her family. She could see his scared face every time she closed her eyes, and try and she might, she could not change it. She could not imagine him in a world where he was happy and healthy and alive. It was an imaginary fantasy her brain told her could not exist. It was like Nel’s field; the world had no more place for these things.
Chapter 14
Second Looks
The knock came at the door in the late hours of the morning. It should have been met with prompt diligence, yet, despite the late hour, it instead acted as Griffin’s alarm clock. He had been sleeping on the couch in the front room of his apartment when the knock woke him up. He flew to his side and rolled off the couch and into a pile of discarded plastic scraps. Groaning in pain, he slowly rose to his feet.
He took no care with his appearance as he stumbled over to the door. Opening it, he blinked his eyes and looked with a hard, disbelieving stare at the girl outside.
“Griffin?” Melissa asked, her eyes wrinkling with worry.
“What?” he said in confusion, as if asking her to repeat something.
“Are…” she looked up at his sloppy appearance and then into his apartment. “Are you alright? I tried calling you several times, but you never picked up.”
“I lost my tablet,” he replied simply.
“Why haven’t you been by to see me?”
He scratched the back of his head, trying to say in a casual voice, “Yeah, that might have something to do with that guy at Mercury’s.”
She pushed past him to enter his apartment. Before closing the door, she looked out to the hallway to make sure no one had seen Griffin in his sorry state.
“I don’t understand.” She shook her head. “Did… did you think we were going to be exclusive?”
She said these words in polite disbelief, but Griffin couldn’t stand the patronizing tone in which they reached his ears.
“I’m not an idiot!” He winced and shook his head, continuing quieter. “I know how people act nowadays. I just… I liked you so much because I thought you were different.” He stared down fiercely at the floor. “I thought I would be enough.”
Melissa took a timid step towards him and placed her hand on his arm. He backed away from her touch.
“No one is that different.”
“Well I-I-I am,” he stuttered.
She looked up at him with sympathy. “Griffin, you mean much more to me than the guy at Mercury’s.”
“Well, right about now, I’m feeling more strongly about him than about you.”
“You don’t mean that.”
His face softened. “I’m sorry Melissa. I can’t… I can’t…” He shook his head. “I wish I could get past it. Just carry on knowing that dozens of men have put their hands all over you, but I can’t.”
She nodded solemnly and rubbed a hand underneath her eye. She took a deep breath and looked around at her surroundings.
“At least let me help you out of this,” she said, gesturing at the mess.
She bent down to pick up a discarded blanket, but Griffin gently pried it from her hands.
“No, please…just go,” he begged.
“I can’t leave knowing I left you like this,” she said firmly.
His shoulders slumped to his sides. “This…this isn’t about you. I found out, well, it doesn’t matter what I found out. But the one person I could tell is gone. My best friend is missing. She’s been gone for over a week. She doesn’t pick up her phone. She doesn’t come back to the apartment. I just know… I know something’s happened to her. I always knew her ideas were going to get her into trouble.”
“You should look for her,” she urged gently. “If she means that much to you.”
“I wouldn’t know where to start,” he replied despondently. “I’d just be wandering around the city.”
Melissa closed her eyes for a moment, as if gathering her courage. “There is one place you migh
t want to check,” she said sadly. “I only know it because, when my dad went missing, that’s where he showed up.”
Griffin hung his head at this news. He remembered Harper telling him that Melissa’s father was in prison. He hadn’t thought about it until now.
“It’s on the north side, not far from here,” she explained. “It’s a Task Force building where they hold prisoners for a few nights after they’re taken. No one really knows about it unless they know someone that’s been taken there.”
“Why do they keep them there?” he asked, growing more afraid with each word.
When she tilted her head to look up at him, her eyes were brimming with moisture. “To extract information,” she said, the bottom of her lip quivering.
Griffin gripped his hands into fists and tried to quell the pounding in his head as he imagined Harper, curled up in some dirt cell as a man in a gray uniform loomed over her.
“It’s on Sprocket Street,” Melissa continued, wiping her eyes. “A gray building with blue trim around windows that aren’t there.”
He reached a hand out to her, wanting to stop her crying, but pulled away before he could touch her.
“Thank you for telling me,” he said softly. “You’re, you’re a good person Melissa. Don’t think otherwise because of what I said.”
“Just not good enough for you.” She gave him a sad smile. “I can’t tell you how much I wish I was.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but he was too shocked by her words to know what to say. Finally, he decided to tell her the truth.
“For months before we met, I thought I was in love with you. I would see you walking down the street; I’d look for you every day. Before I even knew your name, I thought you were the one for me. I had imagined what you were like, what you would eat for breakfast, how you would talk to the old lady next to you on the ride over to work. I made up another person inside of you. I guess I didn’t realize how unfair that was of me.”