Sunset Rising

by S. M. McEachern

  “I recently had the privilege to meet someone very special. Someone who showed me that taking control of my own life was in my hands - not theirs! She showed me that if life is ever going to get better for us, then we’re the ones who need to change,” she shouted. “And she and her husband are trying to show you the way too. So I wrote a song for them. I wrote this song for us all.”

  The entire room was silent as she began to strum her guitar. It was a slow, haunting melody that spoke to the heart.

  Nothing’s ever been right down here

  We live and die under the rule of fear

  Into slavery we are bound

  Then they beat us down

  They sentenced us to live in a rock

  And if we cry they put us under lock

  They promise us one day we’ll see the sun

  But when we finally get one, she’s on the run

  The chords she strummed became faster, louder and she sang out with a powerful voice.

  So rise-up, rise-up

  It’s time to make a choice

  Everyone here has a voice

  It’s time you learned how to use it

  Unite! Unite!

  They’re here to help us fight

  If we turn our back on them

  Then we’re all condemned

  Her strumming became slower now, more haunting.

  You probably didn’t know

  But I overhead it said

  The Pit they want to blow

  And soon we’ll all be dead

  Don’t forget they promised us the sun

  And now that we have one, she’s on the run

  If we keep believing their lies

  We might as well say our good-byes

  Now Crystal was strumming hard and fast on her guitar. The entire room was rocking with the emotion of her music. She stood up on the chair, letting her music fill the room. She opened her mouth again and sang out.

  So rise-up, rise-up

  It’s time to make a choice

  Everyone here has a voice

  It’s time you learn how to use it

  In a world full of wrong

  They’re the only thing that’s right

  It’s time to make a stand

  It’s time to unite!

  Rise-up Rise-up!

  She strummed one last chord with flourish and raised one arm in the air. The crowd went wild. Everyone was cheering and clapping. There wasn’t one dry eye in the room. Jack gazed down at me and I saw his dark eyelashes glisten with tears.

  “She’s a hell of a song writer too,” he said.

  I nodded my agreement, too choked up to speak.

  Crystal took a bow and then jumped off the chair and started walking for the door. I didn’t want her to leave without talking to her first. I pushed my way through the crowd and caught her just before she left.

  “Crystal!” I touched her arm.

  “Sunny!” she smiled and hugged me. “Did you like it?”

  “Like it?” I asked incredulously. “It was the most beautiful song I ever heard.” I wiped the tears from my eyes. “Thank you.”

  My weak ‘thank-you’ didn’t even come close to expressing the emotion her song had evoked in me. I didn’t know how to convey my appreciation in the aftermath of her beautiful music.

  “You inspired it,” Crystal said. “You stood up for me when no one else ever did. You’re standing up for us all and I love you for it. But I have to go now - I don’t have much time.”

  She gave me a sad smile, kissed my cheek and went out the door. The crowd parted to let her through and then began to follow her. There was an exodus of people out of the common room as others joined her entourage.

  I wondered where they were all going.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  When the crowd following Crystal had left, I returned to the room to look for Jack. Despite the number of people that followed Crystal, there was a large crowd left in the room anxious for the evening’s training session to begin. I found Jack with a group of people gathered around him telling him their life stories. Many people were still wiping the tears from their eyes. They spoke of beatings, killings and rebellions. I heard a group of younger people behind me singing Crystal’s song. Jack put his arm around me and pulled me close enough for him to whisper in my ear.

  “It’s happening,” he said. I nodded.

  I knew what he meant; Crystal was uniting the Pit. I should be happy. This is what I wanted. But my mind was still on Crystal. Why was everyone following her and why did she say she didn’t have much time? I spotted her parents sitting alone at a corner table in the back of the room. Her mother was sobbing uncontrollably. I excused myself and went to talk to them.

  “Hi,” I said, sitting down to join them. “I’m Sunny, a friend of your daughter’s.” My introduction seemed a little silly even to my ears considering the song Crystal had just sung. “I wanted to say that Crystal is a beautiful singer. Her song really touched a lot of people.”

  “Forgive my wife. She’s very upset right now,” Crystal’s father explained.

  “I can tell. I wonder if there’s anything I can do to help?” I offered.

  “You’ve helped enough!” she spat at me.

  “I’m sorry?” I asked, taken aback by her anger.

  “Crystal knows what she’s doing,” her father choked out as his eyes filled with tears. “I have to trust in that.”

  “I think you need to tell me what’s going on,” I said. Alarms were going off inside my head.

  “Mr. West has forbidden her to sing down here. She’s only allowed to sing at his request,” her father explained.

  “But the camera is broken in this room. He’ll never know she sang here,” I reassured them.

  “But they aren’t broken in the other common rooms. She’s going to every level to sing her song so everyone will hear it. She’s already sung on the first three levels. It’s just a matter of time before someone upstairs hears her,” he said in despair.

  Now I understood why everyone was following her and why she said she didn’t have much time. If West has heard about her song, then he probably has guards on their way down here to get her right now. People in the Pit had been beaten to death for less of a crime. We needed to help her. Without another word I ran to Jack.

  “We have to help Crystal!” I said, pulling on his arm.

  “What’s going on?” he asked with alarm.

  “Her parents just told me that West has forbidden her to sing without his permission and she’s going to every level. We have to smash the other cameras!” I said with urgency. I went running out the door and down the hall with Jack on my heels.

  “Wait!” he said when we reached the stairs.

  He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the communicator that Bron had given him. He made sure he was on the right frequency to reach the Alliance guards then gave the order to smash out the cameras from the fifth level down to the eighth. Five guards confirmed receipt of the order.

  “It’s done,” he said.

  “I want to make sure,” I said, turning to go down the stairs.

  I heard Jack’s exasperated sigh, but he followed me anyway. I passed the fifth and sixth level and kept going until we were almost to the seventh level and the number of people on the stairs was too great to get through.

  “We’ll just have to trust that our guards got to the rooms,” Jack said.

  I heard the clatter of footsteps racing down the stairs behind me and turned to see four Domers marching toward us. They were armed.

  “Clear the way!” one of them shouted.

  Jack grabbed me and pushed me against the stone wall and used his body to block me from the guards.

  “You don’t have your hat on and your hair is almost back to its normal color. They’ll know you in a second,” he warned me.

  “But we have to help her!” I pleaded.

  “You’re my first priority. When the guards pass by us, we go back up,” he ord
ered.

  “No!” I disagreed. I wouldn’t abandon her.

  “CLEAR THE WAY!” the guards were yelling again.

  But there were too many people on the stairs to clear the way for them. One of the guards unhooked something from his belt and held it high.

  “CLEAR THE WAY OR WE USE THE GAS!” his voice boomed out the warning.

  “Dammit!” Jack said under his breath.

  Cries of fear rose up and the crowd started slowly moving forward as the people further down left the stairs. Jack and I were caught between levels and had no place to go but down. Going back up would take us right into the path of the guards. He kept me in front of him, hiding me from their view. We reached the seventh level and stepped off the stairs and joined the hordes of people there. We waited for the guards to pass by, but two remained on our level while the others kept going down.

  “Crowd control,” Jack explained. “We’re stuck here until they leave.”

  After several minutes passed, we heard a scuffle on the stairs as the guards came back up from the eighth level dragging Crystal with them. We were close enough to the stairs for me to see her. I didn’t see any new bruises on her face, so I kept hope that they hadn’t hurt her. She saw me standing among the crowd and gave me a huge smile.

  “RISE-UP!” she yelled to the crowd. They responded with a cheer, raising their fists high in the air.

  “I can’t just stand here and watch this happen!” I told Jack and wrenched myself free from his grasp.

  I pushed my way through the crowd intent on saving her. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that, but I couldn’t just let her be dragged away. I was vaguely aware of the crowd getting louder, their cries getting angrier, and then people started moving forward. Everyone wanted to save Crystal. I had almost reached the stairs, but now I was being crushed in the mob of angry people. I felt hands grab me from behind and I knew Jack had caught up to me. I tried to kick him to make him let me go, but he pushed me up against a wall and pinned me there. I was dumbfounded when he ripped off his t-shirt, balled it up and pressed it against my face. I tried to pull it away, but he kept a firm hand on it. Then I heard a shot ring out and something landed not too far from us. A few seconds later tear gas filled the hall.

  Jack’s eyes started tearing up right away. I grabbed at the t-shirt he had pressed against my face to give to him to use, but he wouldn’t take it. Instead he rearranged it to cover my eyes too. I was blind, but I could hear the chaos going on around me. I could hear Jack gasping for air. I pulled at the shirt to get it off my eyes and it shifted enough for me to peek out. In horror I watched Jack fall to his hands and knees in a fit of coughing. I knew I had to get him out of here.

  The alarms rang out signalling a lockdown. In a few minutes there would be more guards down here forcing us into our homes. I pulled at one of his arms urging him to get up. My eyes were beginning to sting and I put the t-shirt back over my face. I would be no good to him if I became incapacitated too.

  Jack managed to stand up and I seized him by the wrist and started making my way through the mob. Every time I peeked up from the t-shirt, my eyes stung. The stairs weren’t far from us, but it seemed to take forever to get there. When we finally made it, the stairs were littered with people dealing with the effects of the gas. I was appalled at the sight, but one thought kept me going past everyone; Jack couldn’t breathe. I stepped over them pulling him behind me. My eyes were beginning to sting more and breathing was becoming difficult. I was coughing now too and it was slowing our progress, but I didn’t stop moving. I could hear Jack wheezing for breath behind me.

  We made it to the fifth level and the air was clear. I took his t-shirt away from my face to make better time. The stairs were still thick with traffic, but moving steadily. I could hear the arrival of the extra guards. We were almost to the fourth level. I pushed through the crowd and nearly lost my hold on Jack’s arm. His eyes were still closed and tearing badly. I looked around and saw other people in the same shape trying to find their way home.

  I reached our level before we met the guards on the stairs. Instead of going straight to our apartment, I ran to the bathroom. He needed to rinse the gas out of his eyes. There were a few other people already there with the same idea, but they made room at the stone tub for Jack. His eyes were still closed against the sting, but as soon as he felt the water he madly splashed it in his eyes. He dunked his entire head under, scrubbing at his hair and the back of his neck. When he came up for air, his eyes were open.

  “Come here,” he said pulling me down to kneel beside him. His voice was deep and hoarse.

  I splashed the water in my own face. My eyes weren’t as bad as Jack’s, but they were still stinging quite a bit. The water felt cool and relieving.

  “All the way,” he said roughly, plunging my head into the freezing water. He pushed all of my hair in as well and splashed water along the back of my neck. I came up gasping for air when he finally let go of me.

  “What did you do that for?” I stammered.

  “You have to get the gas off your skin and hair,” he said. Then he looked at everyone in the room. “When you get home, strip your clothes off and wash them.”

  More people staggered into the bathroom and Jack and I left to make room for them. The halls were still thick with traffic and I could hear people moaning and crying. Guards were yelling at them, telling them to get to their homes. But most were too desperate to get to water and relieve their stinging eyes.

  As soon as we walked into our apartment, Jack unzipped his jeans and almost tore them off his body. He ran to the sink and filled it with water. It was then I saw the rash on his back. I grabbed one of the towels off the rack, soaked it and started rinsing his back. His sharp intake of breath told me it hurt. I realized he must have taken a good dose of it when he was blocking me.

  “Thank-you for saving me,” I said sincerely.

  Jack gave me a smile and was about to say something when he went into a fit of coughing. My eyes were beginning to sting again and I wiped at the tears, which only made them worse. I opened the cupboard door to get him a glass for water but I could barely see now. My eyes were starting to roll up in the back of my head. I wiped at them again and it made them even worse.

  “Stop rubbing your eyes. It’s on your hands,” he said, gripping my wrists and wrenching them away from my face. He bent his head close to my t-shirt and his eyes started tearing again. “It’s all over your clothes.”

  He grasped the collar of my shirt in both hands and ripped the front of it open and let it fall to the floor. I still had the vest on so it didn’t soak through to my skin, but the outer shell of the vest would have to be washed off. I took it off, careful not to drag it across my face.

  “Now the pants,” Jack said impatiently.

  I unzipped them and took them off. Once I was down to my underwear, Jack let me rinse my eyes and face. I was conscious of the fact that we were using a lot of our water ration. I prayed we didn’t run out. He gathered up our clothes and put them outside the door of the apartment and then came back to wash his hands. I rinsed the towel with fresh water and sponged his back off again.

  “Does it hurt?” I asked of his rash.

  “A little. It’s just a mild chemical burn so it should be gone by tomorrow. The canister must have went off right behind me,” he said.

  “It did. I watched it hit the floor,” I confirmed. “I didn’t think tear gas was this bad.”

  “Tear gas has been used so much down here that no one is afraid of it anymore, so they changed the formula to make it more… effective,” he explained.

  Then I remembered he already had his t-shirt over my face before they had even released the canister. “How did you know they were going to use the gas?”

  “Because it’s the order I would’ve given if I was in charge,” he told me.

  “You do have insight,” I said, once again confused over whether or not I liked this side of Jack.

  “Just be
cause I was trained by them doesn’t mean I’m one of them,” he responded defensively. “And I think my insight has been valuable.”

  “It has been valuable. I’m sorry.” I finished wiping his back with the wet towel. “Better?” I asked.

  “Thank you,” he nodded. He had been leaning on the counter over the sink, but now he turned around and leaned against it. “Tonight was just the first battle. There’s going to be more.”

  “Crystal was amazing. Her song really brought everyone together,” I said. I felt goose bumps rising up on my skin when I thought of her song… and when I thought of the inner strength it must have taken for her to defy West and do what she thought was right.

  “Every battle has its heroes, and she was definitely the hero tonight. No matter what happens, always remember she knew exactly what she was doing,” Jack said gravely.

  “What does that mean?” I asked. He seemed to be suggesting something.

  “Hopefully nothing,” he countered, giving me a weak smile.

  We locked eyes for a moment while I pondered if I should challenge him to tell me what he was really thinking. But did I want to know? Maybe it was best to wait and see what would happen rather than torture myself with my imagination.

  I noticed Jack’s eyes had wandered down the length of my body and I became conscious of the fact that we were both standing there in just our underwear.