“Feeling better?” he asked. He squatted down in front of me and brushed my hair away from my face. “Not again.” he said, touching the bruise under my eye. “You have to get out of there.”
“I can’t,” I said shaking my head. “Madi isn’t the type of supervisor to let her workers walk away. She considers it a bad reflection on herself. Besides, I’m not exactly in the position to go looking for another job,” I joked.
“I’m afraid she’s going to kill you if you stay,” he wasn’t joking. “Maybe you need a few Liberty guards in the laundry room.”
“What’s that going to do?” I asked almost laughing. Was Jack really that naive about the way things worked down here? “A guard would never interfere with a supervisor disciplining her workers. And if a guard ever did, Madi would have him transferred out of there.”
Jack raised my face and made a closer inspection of my bruise. I could only imagine how awful I must look. I still had the bruise over my other eye from yesterday.
“I don’t want you to work there anymore,” he said in a tight voice. I could tell by the determined set to his jaw that he thought his statement brooked no argument.
“Maybe its time for you to grow up, Jack. This is life in the Pit. You think this is the first time I’ve been beaten? Do you know what it did to my parents every time I came home with a new bruise or a cracked rib? Or how I felt when I saw them beaten and broken? We live with the threat every day.” Jack dropped his hand away from my face and stood up. I could tell he was angry. “At least I know what to expect from Madi. She gets mad and she hits. It could be worse. My last supervisor sent me upstairs to be a sex toy at your bachelor party. I’d rather take what Madi’s doling out.”
I saw Jack blink quickly a few times before he turned his back on me. He raked a hand through his hair before he picked up his hat and put it back on.
“Are you okay now?” he asked in a strained voice.
“Yes.”
Without another word, he left the apartment. I didn’t expect that reaction from him. Perhaps I had been too honest. He didn’t need to know that I had been beaten before. It wasn’t really something we talked about down here anyway. Being beaten was always a humiliating experience. Everyone walked around with bruises, but no one ever said anything about them.
I raised my head upright to check to see if I was still dizzy. The world stayed in balance though. Then I noticed a canvas bag sitting just inside the door. I tentatively stood up and felt a slight rush to my head, but then it was gone. I retrieved the bag and sat back down. It was full of clean clothes, a razor and a communicator. Bron had come through for Jack. I knew the sink was still full of water and decided not to waste it.
I grabbed a bar of soap and stripped naked and bathed right there in the kitchen. The cold water felt so refreshing. I knew I was taking a huge risk. Jack could return any minute. But given how mad he was when he left, I figured it would take him a while to calm down. I dried off and rummaged through the canvas bag for clean clothes. The clothes were a lot better quality than I was used to. In fact, they were a lot better quality than anyone in the Pit was used to. I hoped they wouldn’t make me stand out.
I hung up my wet towel and was about to drain the water when I thought better of it. I could wash my hair tonight before bed. Maybe Jack’s habits were wearing off on me. I was putting the soap away when I heard the door open. I turned to see Jack looking at me from the doorway. He had a strange look on his face.
“I’m sorry about what I said earlier. I didn’t mean to be cruel,” I offered.
“Where did you get those clothes?” he asked.
“Bron must have brought them. She brought you a razor and a communicator too,” I said, pointing to the bag. “There’s some water here if you want to wash.”
“They’re really…” He stammered. “They fit you a lot better than my clothes did.”
“These are my size. Your clothes weren’t,” I pointed out. I wondered what the big deal was.
“Are you going to be able to fit your vest under that t-shirt?” he asked.
“Oh, that stupid vest! I forgot to put it back on,” I moaned. “Do you think anyone would really notice?” I wanted to stop wearing it. It was going to be the death of me in that laundry room.
“Yes, people will definitely notice. Go put it on and we’ll go for dinner. Bron came through on securing the common room too. It’s going to happen tonight.” He said.
“Tonight for sure?” I asked, a little shocked. He nodded as he took his dirty t-shirt off and walked to the sink. “I’ll give you some privacy.”
I went into the bedroom and closed the door. I was glad for the opportunity to lie down on the bed for a few minutes. The heat exhaustion I suffered today had really made me tired. And I had forgotten about tonight. A nervous flutter began in the pit of my stomach. How were we going to broach the subject of a rebellion with everyone? Would they laugh at us? Run us out of the Pit? I was starting to drift asleep when Jack knocked on the bedroom door.
“Ready,” he announced.
I got up, put the offensive vest on and went out into the other room. He was dressed in snug fitting jeans and a black t-shirt. He looked good. I probably looked stupid in my vest. My stomach started making noises and I quickly put my hand across my abdomen to make it stop. It sounded so loud in the quiet of the apartment.
“Let me guess. You weren’t allowed to eat today either,” Jack said wryly.
“It happens,” I shrugged it off. I put my hat on and headed out the door before we got into another argument.
We went to the fourth level common room, which was already bustling with the dinner hour rush. The line-up was long and the room was more than half full. It was a lot more crowded than our room on the sixth level. The line moved quickly and we didn’t have long before it was our turn to get our food and water. We went in search of a place to sit and saw Raine and Mica motioning for us to join them. I guessed they must be here for Jack’s training session. I was surprised to see Raine’s wife with him. I rarely saw her anymore.
“Who is that woman with them?” Jack whispered as we made our way to their table.
“That’s Raine’s wife,” I told him.
“I didn’t know he was married,” he replied.
“It’s good to see you, Flo,” I said to Raine’s wife as I sat down. Her real name was Flower, but like me she preferred the shortened form. She gave me a weak smile and went back to vacantly staring around the room. Jack secretly gave me a curious look and I subtly gave him my best tell you later look.
“Everything is set?” Raine asked Jack as we sat down.
“I’m told it is,” Jack said. He looked up at the broken camera and scanned the faces of the guards in the room. All of them seemed to be looking back at him.
I felt a nervous flutter again, but ignored it and concentrated on my food. I didn’t join the conversation until my container was empty. I absentmindedly wondered how I was going to appease Madi tomorrow to ensure I received at least water for lunch.
“How do we get started? Does everyone here know about it?” I asked Jack.
“I put the word out in the mine today. I recognize some of the people I talked to,” Jack said looking around the room.
“Yeah, Jack’s a legend down there already. And not just because he flattened eight guards, but that he got away with it. I mean we all expected he would be in a lot of trouble, but the guards are leaving him alone. I think they’re too embarrassed because they got their butt kicked by just one urchin!” Raine said, laughing. I noted that the guard count was up to eight now.
“I thought a lot more would show,” Mica said looking around. I noticed there was one person missing.
“Reyes didn’t come,” I stated. I knew why.
“I’d stay out of his way if I were you,” Mica told me. He was very serious.
“No offence or anything, but what was that this morning? You were all over him. It ripped the heart right out of Reyes,” Raine
accused.
The weight of my guilt suddenly seemed heavier than the bulletproof vest I was wearing. How could I have done that to Reyes? He deserved so much better than me.
“It wasn’t her fault,” Jack explained on my behalf. “One of Leisel’s guards followed Summer into the room and we did it to hide our faces.”
“Oh,” Mica said in mocked understanding. “Maybe next time you can just pull your hats down lower or something. It would be kinder.”
Mica had always been Reyes’ most loyal friend. I knew it must be difficult for him to watch Reyes in pain because of me. He probably hated me too.
Jack was studying the people in the room. There was no more line-up for food and the servers behind the counter were packing up to leave. Many people who had finished eating, particularly those with a small child in tow, were leaving as well. The room was no longer as crowded as it was at dinner. I could tell by the expression on Jack’s face he wasn’t pleased.
I saw Bron walk in. I didn’t expect to see her here tonight. She was always on the sixth floor.
“I guess it’s now or never,” Jack said.
He nodded to Bron and she sent two of the guards to close the door. Jack got up and went to the front of the room. This was the time of the evening in the common room where people had a chance to sing or tell stories, so Jack’s presence at the front of the room wasn’t unusual. Everyone stopped talking and looked at him expectantly.
“I’ve never been up here before so I guess I’ll start by introducing myself. I’m Ben Jones,” he began. A murmur went through the room acknowledging him. Some said welcome. “Some of you may know me, but for those of you who don’t, I’m the guy who had a bit of scuffle with the guards in the mines yesterday.” An excited murmur went through the room and one person called out you kicked their butts, brother! Jack laughed. “Yeah, I kicked a few butts,” he agreed. “Some of you asked me how I was able to do that, so here I am. Anyone wanting to ask me questions or learn to throw a punch, now’s the time.”
I felt so nervous for Jack; he wasn’t just risking exposure, he was risking rejection. I held my breath waiting for someone to volunteer to go up and be the first to learn from him. No one seemed to be coming forward though. I shot Raine and Mica a pleading look, but they didn’t want to be the first to go up either. I felt so bad for Jack standing at the front of the room, on his own and not knowing what to do next. So I stood up and walked to the front of the room to stand beside him. He looked at me with relief in his eyes.
“I see my wife is volunteering to be my first victim tonight!” he joked. A laugh rippled through the crowd.
Just then the door burst open and Reyes walked into the room. He looked at Jack and me with disgust in his eyes and then looked around at the expectant crowd of people sitting in their seats watching us.
“Don’t listen to anything this filthy bourge has to say,” Reyes informed the crowd. “He’s Jack Kenner!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Reyes, what the hell are you doing?” I demanded. He just exposed us. An anxious murmur went through the crowd and all eyes were on us.
“What I should’ve done a long time ago. Bourge don’t belong down here in the Pit!” he spat. I could almost feel his rage.
“Do you know what you’ve just done?” I asked in shock.
“Sunny, your face. Where did you get those bruises? Did he give them to you?” I saw Reyes ball his hands into fists and he headed toward Jack.
“STOP!” I screamed again.
Behind Reyes I saw two guards step forward, but Jack must have called them off because they stepped back.
“Go,” Jack told me.
I stayed rooted to the spot. I couldn’t just let this happen - I had to stop it. But Jack was stepping in front of me now, cutting me off from Reyes. I saw him raise his arm and block the punch Reyes threw at him. Jack waited for his next move and blocked that too. Reyes was coming at him harder now and Jack had to back up a few steps. I moved out of the way then. This was out of my control.
Reyes kept coming at Jack and Jack continued to block his punches. At one point they ended up in the crowd and people scattered to get out of their way. I noticed that Jack never once threw a punch at Reyes, only defended himself against the rage Reyes was inflicting on him. Reyes was getting frustrated that his strikes were having no effect. I could tell he was tiring too. I felt so horrible, so guilty. What had I done to him? The fight came to an end when an exhausted Reyes desperately dove toward Jack to take him down, but Jack easily stepped out of his way and Reyes crashed into an empty chair breaking it.
“Got it out of your system yet?” Jack asked him.
“You’re an idiot Kenner,” Reyes spat out the words.
He was making a laughing stock out of himself all because of me. And it was me he should be taking his anger out on. He got off the floor and looked at the guards.
“Maybe you didn’t hear me when I said this is JACK KENNER!” he pointed to Jack. The guards looked blankly at Reyes.
“Sorry, Reyes,” Jack said, “they’re on my side.”
The crowd became very nervous when they heard that. Everyone started talking at once. Jack was still wearing his hat and he took it off now. While the coal was still concealing his sandy blond hair, there was no mistaking his blue eyes. “That’s right. I am Jack Kenner. And for the record, I didn’t give Sunny those bruises, although I’d like to have words with the person who did,” he said, giving me a fond look.
I smiled back at him. My respect for him was growing. He could have really hurt Reyes if he had wanted to, but he didn’t.
“Is that bourge down here with you O’Donnell?” someone from the crowd demanded. I stepped out the corner and walked over to Jack.
“He is,” I confirmed.
“How come the guards are on his side?” someone else questioned. Strong agreement rose up among the room. They eyed the guards suspiciously.
“You may find this hard to believe, but there are people in the Dome who are on your side. People who want to see things change down here,” Jack began.
“On our side?” someone shouted out at him in disgust. “I’m thirty-two years old and not once in my lifetime have I ever seen anyone from the Dome down here fighting for us!” People started loudly agreeing.
“And since when are guards here to help us?” someone else chimed in. “More likely they’re here to shoot us in case we do something they don’t like!”
I could feel the crowd starting to turn on us. The more questions they asked, the more nervous they became. They were talking themselves right into a riot. I realized they were just too suspicious of Jack and his guards. Everyone had been through too many years of abuse from the bourge to trust them now. And they weren’t going to listen to a bourge who was almost President.
“If you don’t trust him, trust me,” I said loudly. Not many people looked in my direction because they were too caught up in their own fears. Jack gave me a defeated look, but if we gave up now I knew the only thing we would have achieved tonight was exposing our identities. In a desperate attempt to get their attention, I stood up on a chair and whistled as loud as I could. Most people stopped talking and looked at me. “TRUST ME!” I shouted loudly. The room finally became quiet. I stood on the chair looking at their expectant faces, knowing that whatever I said now could change the course of life in the Pit forever.
“The bruises on my face came from my supervisor,” I began, pulling back my hair to show everyone. “And last month a different supervisor ordered a guard to beat me when I was too slow at my job. I got a few cracked ribs from that one. You might wonder why I was slow at my job, knowing that I would probably be beaten for it. The answer is I was sad. Sad because my mother had to join the Cull last Spring,” I felt the tears sting my eyes as I talked of her. “How many people here have lost someone to the Cull?” Everyone in the room raised their hand. “How many people here have been beaten?” All hands remained in the air. “And how many of you are
fed up?” At this, even the people sitting down in a chair stood up to raise their hand higher.
“I am one of you. I have the scars to prove it. I’ve suffered the beatings, I’ve lost my mother, my best friend is a plaything for the bourge and now they have my father. I didn’t marry a bourge to escape the Pit. I married Jack Kenner because he said he wanted to change things for the better down here. He told me about Liberty, an organization with a few thousand members who all want the same thing; to see President Holt replaced with a government that will give us all equal rights. A government we can be a part of.”
I looked at the crowd as I said this and saw their shocked expressions. Although there had been uprisings in the Pit before, no one had ever suggested getting rid of the President. It was a new idea. It was a dangerous idea.
“You want us to join some bourge organization to get rid of the bourge?” someone shouted out. “Something doesn’t make sense here,” he said distrustfully.
“It makes sense if you stop thinking of Jack and these guards as bourge. They’re members of Liberty and they’re here to join with us,” I replied.
“I’m not joining some bourge organization!” someone called out and was met with a round of approval.
“Then let’s make our own organization. Liberty and the Pit will join and become the Alliance,” I suggested. “They have skills they can teach us and we have power in numbers.”
“I know about his skills,” a man said, looking at Jack. “I’m David Chavez and I work with you in the mine. I saw what you did for that kid. The guards were going to beat him and you stopped them… and I didn’t lift a damn finger to help,” he said, his eyes bright with tears. I saw a few other men in the crowd hang their heads in shame. “My wife’s about to have a baby and all I’ve been able to think about is what if it was my kid? When the guards want to beat my child, will I stand there and do nothing again? If I have a daughter, will I stand by and watch her taken upstairs to be used by the men in the Dome?” He shook his head in disgust and the tears rolled freely down his cheeks. “I want better for my kid. I’ll join you.”
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