Night of Never

by Megan O'Russell

  “Trying to talk you out of doing dangerous things is as much a part of keeping you safe as punching duty.”

  Raina and Kieran came into view, both still pressed into the shadows, watching the window.

  “Has anything new happened?” Nola asked. Her mind told her she should be out of breath, panting from running down the hall, but the words came easily.

  “A few more bangs,” Raina said. “The domes are leveling everything.”

  Kieran glared at Jeremy. “Do the domes have the explosive power to pull that off?”

  Another rumble shook the ground.

  Jeremy peered out the window. “I wish I could say no.”

  A plume of fire danced in the air.

  “I don’t think they do,” Jeremy said. “It was never in my training. I never saw a stash of explosives anywhere in the domes.”

  “Did you ever see the explosives they used on the bridge?” Nola asked.

  “No,” Jeremy said, “but we knew there was a plan. That’s why the Dome Guard freaked out when Nightland broke in. They were never supposed to get across the river.”

  “But a plan to end the whole city?” Nola said. “How would they hide it, or pull it off?”

  “Never underestimate what desperate people are capable of,” Raina said. “How do you think Vamp happened?”

  “Does Emanuel know what’s going on?” Jeremy asked.

  “I’m sure he does,” Raina said. “He’ll be hiding Eden by now.”

  “We need to go.” Nola’s fingers and toes tingled. “We need to know if anyone’s coming after us.”

  After Eden.

  “Jeremy can go alone,” Kieran said.

  “I’ve already tried that,” Jeremy said.

  “I’m going, so let’s move.” Nola stepped through the patch of sunshine.

  “Don’t play Pied Piper,” Raina said. “If you let rats follow you back, you’ll sink the ship. You save a pack of strays, you kill us all.”

  Dread settled into the pit of Nola’s stomach.

  “But if you find Nettie, bring her here,” Raina said.

  “I will.” Nola nodded and started down the tunnel.

  “Promise you’ll take care of her.” Kieran’s words froze Nola in place.

  “I will always take of her,” Jeremy said. “Keep the door open for when we get back.”

  “We’ll be waiting,” Kieran said.

  “Come on.” Jeremy stepped up next to Nola. “If we’re going to get back by dark, we’re going to have to run.”

  “Let’s run.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The gun thumped against Nola’s hip, smacking her with every stride.

  Will it leave a bruise? Or do I heal too quickly now?

  The questions seemed absurd, but wondering about her hip kept away the thoughts of what the gun was meant to do.

  “Do you really think it’s the domes?” Jeremy said.

  They passed another window in the long corridor. The city had disappeared behind the smoke.

  “I don’t know,” Nola said. “Every time I think I know the line someone won’t cross, they do it. Can the glass even withstand blasts like that so close by?”

  “Yeah. The only way Nightland managed to blow a hole in the domes was by planting the charge on the glass itself. The domes were built to survive this sort of thing.”

  “Then it really could be them.” Nola ran faster, her feet barely skimming the floor. She didn’t bother slowing to look out the next window she tore past.

  “Who’s coming?” a voice shouted from around the bend.

  “Nola and Jeremy,” Nola called. “Raina’s sent us to go and see what’s happening in the city.”

  As they rounded the corner three vampires came into view.

  Twin women, heads shaved and breasts barely covered by their artfully torn tops, flanked a gangly man with freckles coating his face.

  “Raina wants you to go out there?” the man asked. “Is she trying to kill you?”

  “That would be fun.” The left twin smiled, baring her teeth.

  “We’re just trying to get information,” Nola said. “We’ll be right back.”

  “You’ll burn without a sunny,” the right twin said. “And no one gets to touch the sunny.”

  “What?” Nola shook her head. “We’ll be fine in the sun, but you need to let us pass.”

  “Sun walkers who run like vampires.” The freckled man tipped his head to the side. “What wonders have come to Nightland?”

  “If you don’t move right now, we’re going to have to tell Raina you got in our way.” Nola puffed her chest out and planted her hands on her hips.

  The right twin and freckled man looked toward the left twin. The left twin’s smile slipped away, her lips covering her teeth. Rolling her eyes, she stepped aside. The other two followed her lead, leaving a path down the middle of the hall.

  “Thanks.” Nola took off at a run, glancing behind to see the three glaring at her.

  “Nola, watch out.” Jeremy seized her arm.

  Nola squeaked as Jeremy pulled her back from the ledge. Her lungs fought to reclaim the air fear had forced from them.

  “Running faster means getting places faster.” Amusement wrinkled the corners of Jeremy’s eyes. “Super running lesson one: look where you’re going.”

  “Lesson learned.” Nola peeked over the edge. A patch of wilting grass waited ten feet below. “How do we get down?”

  “Jump.” Jeremy stepped up to the edge. “It’s not too far. Hold your core for balance and don’t forget to bend your knees.”

  He jumped off the edge like it was nothing more than the last step on a staircase, landing on the ground below with barely a sound.

  “Right.” Nola inched forward, placing her toes at the end of the moss-covered shelf.

  “Don’t worry, Nola,” Jeremy said. “I’m right here. You’ll be okay.”

  Nola pushed off the edge. Her heart vanished from her chest as reason told her pain awaited her on the ground.

  She stumbled as she landed, tipping to the side and into Jeremy’s arms.

  “I’ve got you.” He held her close to his chest. His heartbeat thundered next to Nola’s ear.

  “It didn’t hurt.” She stepped away from him. “I thought it would hurt.”

  “Your muscles are strong enough to cushion you now.” Jeremy shrugged. “Don’t try and push it too far, though. Jump from high enough, and even Graylock can’t help you.”

  “You’ve never been scared of falling. You jumped out your bedroom window before you had Graylock.” Tingles surged through Nola’s chest at the memory of Jeremy jumping down to hold her, his face still creased from sleep.

  “It was the fastest way down, and I wanted to get to you as quickly as I could,” Jeremy said. “I won’t lie, jumping out my window got a lot easier after I’d been given Graylock.”

  Nola stared into his eyes. Their color was the same brown it had always been, but lines of worry marked the corners, taking the place of the constant twinkle of joy that should have been there.

  “We should go,” Nola said. “It’s going to be a long day.”

  “Yeah.” Jeremy turned toward the city. “Run side-by-side, okay? I don’t want you running into something I can’t see, and I don’t want you behind where I can’t keep an eye on you.”

  “You don’t trust me to take care of myself?” Nola tipped her head to the side. “I do know how to use the gun.”

  “Anytime I can’t see you to know you’re safe, it’s like someone’s lodged a stone in the back of my lungs. It hurts. And it steals my breath away. You’ve lived through things that would have killed some of the best Outer Guard.” Jeremy took her hand in his. “Just stay where I can see you so I can breathe.”

  His fingers were warm and so familiar. It would be so easy to lace her fingers through his. They would run toward the flames together, their pulses keeping time.

  “Okay.” Nola pulled her hand away, adjusting her gun belt.
“As long as it’s not because you think I’m incompetent.”

  “I would never be that stupid.”

  Nola looked down the slope. The trees blocked the bottom of the mountain from view.

  Down will be easier than up.

  Rolling her shoulders back, Nola started to run.

  The sloping ground made for longer strides, but her legs didn’t tire. Keeping her gaze focused on the trees rushing past, she dodged between branches and ducked under low limbs.

  Even running at top speed, she could see the details of the bark. Claw marks where an animal had mauled a tree, cracks where lightning had split a trunk open, decay where acid rain had worked its malice.

  A waist-high rock protruded from the earth. Nola leapt onto the stone and down on the other side without breaking her stride.

  “Now you’re getting it.” Jeremy beamed at her.

  “This is amazing.” The bottom of the mountain came into view. “No wonder they didn’t want all the Domers to know what the Outer Guard were doing. Running this fast, it’s like flying.”

  “It’s pretty great,” Jeremy said.

  “But what?” Nola asked, hearing the hesitance in his voice. She looked over to him. “Ouch.” They’d reached the bramble field, and the thorns tore at the back of her hand.

  “Careful.” Jeremy ran with his hands high over his head.

  Nola did the same, feeling foolish as the brambles pulled at her pants like a thousand fingers searching for purchase.

  “What’s bad about being able to run this fast?” Nola asked.

  “We’re not wholly human anymore,” Jeremy said. “We’re different. If everyone took Graylock, there wouldn’t be a next generation of humans.”

  She stumbled, her legs forgetting how to move for a moment. “There’s T’s baby. And Eden. We’re not the end. We’re not the last people who will live in this part of the world.” Tears stung the corners of Nola’s eyes. She pushed herself to run faster. “The fighting and fear are going to end. Somehow, someway. And children will be born, and this monstrous world will be nothing more than a scary story to them. I have to believe that, Jeremy.”

  The field ended, tossing them into the barren trees.

  “If I don’t believe there’s going to be something good after all this, I don’t know if I can keep going. I don’t want to hurt people just to keep myself alive. But I can do it to protect T’s baby. I can fight if it means keeping her baby safe.”

  “There will be something good after this.” The gaps between the trees widened, and Jeremy moved to run right next to Nola. “I don’t know what it’s going to look like or who will be there to see it. But there will be people who do. And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you’re one of them.”

  “You have to be there too, Jeremy.” Nola kept her eyes front, though she wanted more than anything to look at him. “I can’t be the only superhero. I can’t lose you.”

  His hand brushed the back of hers.

  She didn’t pull away.

  Neither spoke as they ran past the body of the vampire who had attacked them such a short time ago. A dozen birds had found the corpse, taking advantage of the feast in mass.

  The ground shook again, and again. They turned out onto a road whose surface had been cracked by weather and time. Leaping over the potholes took more concentration than jumping over the roots of the trees.

  “That one.” Jeremy pointed between the trees to a two-story house whose red front door hung loose on its hinges. “That’s where we spent the daylight. If something happens—”

  “Nothing’s going to happen.”

  “If it does, that’s a safe place,” Jeremy said. “Raina likes you enough, she might even come looking for you there.”

  “Looking for us,” Nola said. “Say looking for us.”

  “She might come looking for us.”

  Nola hurtled over an eight-foot pothole.

  “You can’t go back to the domes. You know that, right?”

  “They tried to kill you.” Jeremy dodged around a rusted out, old car. Someone had driven sharp metal spikes into the sides. “I would never go back there. Not for anything.”

  “Then you have to promise you’re coming back with me,” Nola said.

  “I promise.”

  A knot of fear Nola hadn’t noticed melted, trickling down the back of her spine.

  More houses lined the road as they neared the city.

  The homes had all been built symmetrically. Fractured sidewalks met cracked driveways at regular intervals. These houses were so different from the crumbling stone apartment buildings in the city, Nola couldn’t imagine what life in one of them must have been like. A little lawn all her own. A car to drive into the city. The peaceful life the domes strove to create. But this idyllic outside had failed.

  What if the domes are failing right now? What if the domes are under attack as well?

  Nola shoved the thought aside. There would be no way for her to cross the river to help, even if the domes didn’t want her dead.

  The road twisted around the bend, giving them a level view of the city.

  Fire lapped at nearly every building in sight and lunged toward those that had been left unscathed by the flames.

  Dense smoke settled on the wide track of road that led out of the city.

  “We need to get off the road.” Jeremy veered left into the thin line of dead trees that covered the fronts of the tumbled down houses.

  “Why?” Nola followed him even as she asked the question.

  “There are people on the road down there.” Jeremy pointed to the wide highway at the edge of the city. “We don’t want them to see us coming.”

  Nola squinted, trying to make out what Jeremy had seen. Dozens of tiny ant-like things moved around on the highway. As she watched, one ant charged another, sending the other dots scattering to the sides of the road.

  Pain sliced through Nola’s face as she tumbled backwards. The ground pummeled the air out of her lungs as she landed in the dirt.

  “Nola.” Jeremy knelt beside her.

  “What happened?” Nola touched her cheek. Blood stained her fingers.

  “You hit a branch.” Jeremy pulled off the pack and took out a bottle of water. “Running into things hurts more when you’re moving faster.”

  “I think there’s a fight on the road.”

  Jeremy ripped off part of his sleeve. “Hold still.”

  Nola gritted her teeth as he poured water onto the gash.

  “Sorry.” He dabbed at the wound.

  Each touch sent stars dancing in Nola’s eyes.

  “We have to get the tree bits out before you start to heal.” Jeremy trickled more water onto her cheek. “Your body can work foreign objects out, but it hurts like hell.”

  “Thanks.” Nola gasped as he pulled an inch-long splinter from her cheek.

  “I think that’s it.” He trickled water onto her face again, peering into the wound. “You should be able to heal fine now.”

  “Is it really bad?” Nola cringed at her own whimper.

  “You’re still beautiful,” Jeremy said, “and in an hour it’ll be like it never happened at all.”

  He passed Nola the water bottle.

  Nola took a long drink. The water trickled coolly down her throat, washing away the gritty dryness she hadn’t noticed before.

  Jeremy stood and looked out toward the road.

  “Should we cut around the fight?” Nola asked.

  Jeremy rubbed his hand over his face. “I say we head right toward it. That many people, someone is bound to know how all this started.”

  “Right.” Nola sprang to her feet, a jolt of joy flipping in her stomach at the ease of her movement.

  “We should go a little slower though.” Jeremy pointed at the road. “People are starting to come up.”

  A group of ants had indeed moved beyond the fighting and up the road, all bunched together like they were afraid of being attacked at any moment.


  Jeremy took a drink and tossed the bottle back in his pack.

  “What if it was the domes?” Nola asked.

  Jeremy started jogging, always choosing the path that allowed Nola room to run by his side.

  “Jeremy?” Nola said when no answer had come for more than a minute.

  “I just can’t believe it could be them. That I served as a guard and never knew we had access to those sorts of weapons. That my father would give an order like that.”

  “He gave the order to kill me.”

  Jeremy flinched at her words.

  “I thought that was the lowest,” Jeremy said. “The worst thing my father could ever do, and to me it is.”

  “But if he ordered the destruction of an entire city—” Nola began.

  “Then he had a lot further to fall than I ever imagined.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nola peered out from her perch twelve feet up in a dying tree. Her arms didn’t ache from the climb, and her fingers had no trouble clinging to the crumbling bark.

  Four men and three women marched up the road. Two of the men supported a third between them. The fourth man leaned heavily on a woman’s shoulder, while the other two women carried children in their arms. Soot stained all their faces. Blood and dirt marked their tattered clothes.

  Nola shifted carefully on the branch that held her weight, ignoring the open air beneath her as she leaned toward Jeremy’s ear.

  “Where are they going?” she whispered.

  Jeremy loosened his grip on the limb he dangled from, pressing his shoulder into Nola’s. “I’m not sure they even know. They might not be running toward anything, just away from the city.”

  The urge to call out and stop the group, to tell them to hide in the house with the broken red door until she could lead them safely to Nightland, fought to burst from Nola’s mouth.

  The rats will sink the ship.

  Anger tensed Nola’s fingers. The bark cracked beneath her grasp.

  “We should talk to them,” Jeremy said, “find out what they know.”

  “We should help them,” Nola said.

  “We can’t.”

  “We can go without eating for a day,” Nola said. “We can at least give them the food.”