Sunset Rising

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “To the Pit,” he said.

  “What’s happening in the Pit right now? Are they still fighting?” I asked.

  “It’s on lockdown, although not many people went willingly to their homes. It’s not pretty down there,” he said grimly.

  “Jack, we can’t go back down there. We might start another riot if a guard recognizes us and tries to take us into custody. Everyone’s been through enough with Crystal’s execution,” I said, my voice hoarse with emotion. I didn’t want to start crying now, not while we were trying to escape Leisel.

  Jack stopped suddenly and walked back up the few steps separating us. He pulled me roughly into his arms.

  “What happened to Crystal is not going to happen to you,” he said with conviction. “I won’t let it.”

  I could plainly see that Crystal’s execution had affected Jack just as much it had me. If watching her die wasn’t horrific enough, we both knew we were doomed to the same fate.

  “You might not be able to stop it,” I said. If only we had come to Crystal’s rescue the day before. But no one could have foreseen what those monsters had planned for her.

  “I’ll do everything I can,” he promised. “As long as we can get back down into the Pit we’ll be okay for a few hours. David and Terra are waiting for us.”

  “We can’t put them in that kind of danger,” I told him flatly.

  “It’s safe. Even if guards ask them to scan in during the lockdown, no one is going to come in and search the apartment. There’s no reason to,” Jack reassured me.

  I hesitated, but had little choice left for a place to hide. I followed him down the ten flights of stairs and out into the main lobby. We walked through the lobby as if we had every right to be there. No one questioned us. When we got to the door, a guard asked us to scan in. Jack kept going right past him and I kept pace.

  “No time. There’s an emergency down there,” he said gruffly and quickened his pace. Domers outranked guards assigned to the Pit and Reception duty, so he didn’t question Jack any further.

  We strode through the doors to the Pit and began the climb down the stone stairs. I could hear a distant hum of voices and as we came closer to the first level, I could distinctly hear hundreds of voices singing Crystal’s song, just as they did last night. The emotions bubbling up inside me threatened to cut off my breathing, but I fought back the tears and won. Crystal had asked everyone to make a choice – to use their voice – and that was exactly what they were doing. They stood united.

  I wished with all my heart I could just go back to our apartment and curl up beside Jack on our bed and have a good cry. But we didn’t have a home anymore. There was nowhere left to run.

  As we passed each level, I saw at least three or four Domers still on duty. I guess with everyone singing about rebellion they weren’t going to take any chances. I was relieved to see the army gone. I wondered how many people lost their lives today. How many more would follow. The fighting was so senseless. All we were asking was to be treated with respect, but they couldn’t even grant us that.

  Jack left the stairs on the fifth level and I followed. I didn’t see any Domers on this level, just guards from the Pit. Jack raised his visor and nodded to them. They were with the Alliance. He walked a short distance down the hall before he stopped at an apartment and knocked on the door. David opened it and motioned for us to come in. I was surprised to see Bron there too.

  “Are you okay, Sunny? Did she hurt you?” Bron asked as soon as David closed the door.

  “No she didn’t hurt me. But she might come looking for Reyes. She was going to try and use him to get information out of me. Hopefully, she leaves him alone now that I’ve escaped, but she might go after him if she thinks he knows where I am.”

  “We’ll keep a close eye on him, although Reyes can look after himself. He’s been doing very well in training,” Bron said.

  “How’s Terra? Did she have the baby?” I inquired.

  “She and the baby are fine,” David assured me with a smile. “They’re in the bedroom if you want to say hello.”

  I walked over to the bedroom and peeked in. Terra was lying on the bed gazing down at the sleeping infant beside her. I knocked softly at the door, not wanting to wake the baby.

  “Sunny!” Terra whispered excitedly. “I thought I heard your voice. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. How are you?” I asked, coming into the room.

  “I didn’t know what to do when they took you. I wanted to help you, but I couldn’t even stand up,” she said, shaking her head.

  “I’m just relieved you didn’t end up having the baby in the hallway. Jack told me that David was able to get you home in time,” I said.

  “David was beside me a few seconds after the Domers took you and then Jack was running after you. David took me straight home, but with all the fighting and chaos, he couldn’t find a midwife and ended up helping me himself. I don’t know who was more scared, him or me,” she chuckled.

  “The baby is adorable,” I said, looking down at the tiny little bundle. “A little boy?” I asked.

  “A girl,” Terra said.

  “I know you wanted a boy,” I said gently, hoping she wasn’t disappointed. But by the misty-eyed look of love in her eyes, she wasn’t.

  “I’m going to name her Sunny, so she knows to fight back if someone doesn’t treat her right,” Terra said with a tear in her eye.

  “I’m very flattered, Terra. She’s beautiful,” I said. I wanted to tell her that there were prettier names out there than Sunny, but she seemed quite taken with her choice. And I really was flattered. “You better get some rest. You look exhausted.”

  I gave her a kiss on the cheek and gave the baby one last look. Terra’s eyes were already fluttering shut so I quietly left the room and joined the others.

  “There were at least a hundred casualties today, maybe more,” Bron was saying when I came into the room.

  “That many?” I asked in shock.

  “There were just as many on their side. Of the eighty Domers sent down, only ten made it out alive. A few guards were killed too, although none were from the Alliance. The fight was as good as over once the army showed up,” Bron explained.

  “That was the first time I ever saw soldiers come into the Pit,” I said.

  “It is the first time soldiers have ever been sent down here. And the message was loud and clear. This isn’t a rebellion anymore. Holt’s declared war,” Jack said. He was thoughtful for a moment before he continued. “There was something… orchestrated about it all though. I understand why he sent Domers down here before the execution happened, but he had the army ready to go. It doesn’t make sense. If Holt publicly executed her as a fear tactic, than obviously the outcome he expected was obedience down here. But he had the army ready to go which tells me he anticipated a confrontation. Was he deliberately trying to provoke a fight?”

  “That wouldn’t make sense, sir,” Bron responded. “The Pit is too valuable. A war would destroy it.”

  “I know. That’s why something doesn’t feel right,” Jack said thoughtfully.

  “Crystal’s song,” I said out loud. “The Pit they want to blow.”

  “She did say that in her song,” David said with a stunned expression. “What are they up to?”

  “I don’t know,” Jack said, raking a hand through his hair. “And I don’t know if we have enough time left to find out,” he gave me an apologetic look.

  I could almost feel his frustration turning to panic and I went to him and put my arms around his waist. He pulled me close against him and held me there tightly. We were running out of places to hide and by now Leisel knew Jack had rescued me. She was probably convincing her father to start a door-to-door search for us down here. But I doubted we would be any safer in the Dome. Our chips wouldn’t work anymore and there was no place to hide there anyway. The Dome was only so big.

  And then it came to me.

>   “I know where we can go,” I said to Jack. “Outside.”

  “What?” he asked in disbelief.

  “Just hear me out,” I said before he could say no. “No one’s been out there in almost three hundred years – maybe it’s safe. You and I could find out. And if it is safe, then we come back and let everyone out. It solves everything.”

  “But I know Holt’s been sending out drones for years and everything has come back radioactive. It’s not safe out there,” Jack told me.

  “Well, I think we know Holt isn’t the most trustworthy person in the Dome. What if he’s been lying?” I pointed out.

  “Why would he lie about that?” Jack asked me in confusion.

  “I don’t know. Why does he want to blow up the Pit?” I countered.

  “It would solve everything,” David interjected. “It’s what our people have been praying for since we were first cast down here.”

  “He’s right. We’ve always known it’s our only salvation,” I agreed.

  “I know I can get us out Sunny, but I don’t think I can get us back in,” Jack shook his head.

  “We’ll find a way. We always have. Sometimes you just need a starting point,” I reminded him.

  Jack pulled me back toward him and rested his forehead against mine. I could tell he was struggling with my proposal.

  “I don’t know if I can watch you die of radiation poisoning any more than I want to see you in front of a firing squad,” he whispered to me. I knew he’d rather be having this conversation with me alone, but it couldn’t be helped.

  “If it’s just me you’re worried about, then you should know I’d rather die trying to save my people than waiting here to get a bullet in the head from Holt,” I whispered back.

  I pushed his head back to look in his eyes. They were wet with tears and I dried them with my fingers tips. For once I didn’t feel like crying. I knew my decision was right.

  “Then we’ll go,” Jack said.

  “Sir, its suicide,” Bron said, shaking her head.

  “Staying inside the Dome is suicide,” I pointed out. “Maybe outside we have a chance.”

  “How will you get back in?” Bron persisted.

  “I don’t know Bron. But what I do know is that every plan Sunny has ever come up with has worked. I don’t know how. She never thinks things through. But they work out. If there’s a way to get back in, she’ll find it,” Jack said, smiling at me. “This is just one more adventure she’s going to take me on.”

  “And we should get started on our adventure before we’re caught. Leisel probably has a search party out for us by now,” I warned.

  “I have my computer and if there’s any way I can find a signal out there to let you know what we’ve found, I’ll send you a message,” he told Bron. Then he looked at David to include him. “In the meantime, you two take control of the Alliance and keep everyone down here as calm as you can. Continue the training, but no more riots. I don’t trust Holt and he can annihilate everyone in the Pit just by turning off the ventilation system, so don’t give him a reason. There are some powerful families up in the Dome that will fight on behalf of the Pit, but if everyone is down here cruising for a fight and causing trouble you’ll lose their support. Just keep training and be ready to go in case the news from outside is good.”

  “I’ll try my best,” David said. “But everyone here is just so angry. It’s going to be hard to keep them under control.”

  “We’ll train harder with them. Let them work out their frustrations that way,” Bron said. “How much time should we give you?” she asked Jack.

  “I honestly don’t know. It could take a day or a week to figure out if we have radiation poisoning or not, then find a way back into the Dome… I guess if you haven’t heard from us in a month or two, odds are you won’t.”

  “A month is a long time,” David said, looking disheartened.

  “Just don’t give up hope. Even if you never hear from us again, don’t give up,” I urged him.

  “We better go,” Jack said, nudging me toward the door.

  “Take care of yourselves,” Bron said, looking a little misty eyed. “Your mom would be proud of you, Sunny.”

  I gave them both a hug before we slipped out of the apartment and back into the hall. The same guards were on duty and they nodded in our direction as we passed. Then we began the climb up the stairs that would lead us to the Dome. I tried not to think about the fact that I would never come back here again. It was the only home I had ever known.

  “Hey, are you two on your way to the Dome?” a Domer called out to us as we passed the third level.

  A pile of six or seven dead bodies was on the landing beside the stairs. I averted my eyes, sickened by the consequences of this fight.

  “Yes we are,” Jack said curtly.

  “Can you ask them to send down more help? These guys have been dragging bodies for about two hours now. If there wasn’t a lockdown, I’d make the urchins clean up their own damn mess,” he spat.

  “I’m on it,” Jack responded and we continued on our way.

  We reached the main level without any further incident. I wasn’t sure where we were going to go, so I blindly followed Jack. A guard waved us toward the scanner as we approached the doors into the Dome. Jack waved his hand across the scanner and it beeped green. Without much choice, I followed his lead and my scan worked too. Leisel must not have flagged my Autumn Jones chip. We went through the doors and back into the Dome.

  He went up to the second level, back to the storage room where we changed our chips before. He gave a sharp knock at the door. No one answered. We went in.

  “Maybe this will give us a little more time again,” he said, taking the box of chips off the shelf.

  “We should have done this before we went down into the Pit. I thought we were going to get caught when we had to scan in,” I said.

  “I didn’t think Leisel would cancel our chips because she’s trying to catch us. She’ll be waiting for us to scan in somewhere. Now she’ll know the last place we scanned in was coming into the Dome. She won’t have to do a search in the Pit.”

  “I never thought of that,” I said as Jack extracted the chip out of my hand. I took the tool from him and took his chip out.

  He picked up a new chip and popped it into his computer and started tapping away.

  “What would you like your name to be?” He asked.

  “Crystal,” I said decisively. I wanted to be named after a hero. He took the chip out of his computer and used the tool to put it in my hand.

  “Who should I be?” he asked, putting another chip in. “How about Ted, after my brother.”

  He tapped away on his computer again then it was his turn to get a new chip.

  “Crystal Malloy and Ted Anderson. I gave myself a pretty high-ranking last name in case I need to use the power,” Jack declared.

  “We’re not married this time?” I asked with a smile.

  “No, we’re Domers this time. Now I just need to get the message out to the Alliance that we’re headed outside and Bron and David are in charge.”

  I waited for Jack to finish typing and sending the message. I was trying not to think about the fact we were going outside. It was scary. My stomach was starting to tie itself into little knots.

  “Done,” Jack said. “Before we go there’s some place I’d like to take you. I have it all set up if you say yes,” he held up his computer.

  “But shouldn’t we go before we’re caught?” I asked warily.

  “It’s important to me,” he said.

  “Then how can I say no?” I smiled.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  He opened the door and we strode out into the hall as if we belonged there. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was getting late. It would soon be lights out in the Pit. We came to another set of doors with two Domers guarding the entrance.

  Jack gave them a nod and strolled through. I followed. It was different in this section. Most of the do
ors we passed by had windows in them and I could see what looked like laboratories. A few of the rooms even had caged animals.

  “What is this?” I whispered.

  “It’s the ‘bio’ part of the Dome,” he said.

  I only saw one or two people in the labs and they were too engrossed in their work to notice a couple of Domers walking by. At the end of the hall was another set of doors that were also being guarded. Jack walked toward the two Domers and waved his hand over the scanner. I did the same. I should be surprised that our chips worked, but I’ve learned not to question Jack’s computer skills.

  “Enjoy your evening,” one of the Domers said.

  Jack pushed open the doors and we entered a small chamber. We had to scan in one more time and then the main doors opened. My breath caught in my throat when we entered. I had never seen anything like it. Hundreds of huge trees loomed up before us and the ground was covered in thick foliage. I could hear animals and birds everywhere. I took off my helmet to get a better view. The light was a lot brighter than I was used to and I almost put my visor back on, but the air felt moist and warm against my skin and I wanted to feel it. My nose was assaulted by scents I had never smelled before. Scents of perfume mixed with earthier notes.

  “What is it?” I asked in wonder.

  “A rainforest,” Jack said. He took off his helmet, his eyes never leaving my face.

  “Thank you,” I said humbly. I never thought I would get to see anything like this in my life time.

  “I thought you might like it,” he smiled. “I remember the stack of my nature magazines you went through.”

  “I knew you were mad about that,” I said sheepishly. I shouldn’t have touched them.

  “Well, not mad. Annoyed maybe…” he said with a smirk. “Come on. I’ll show you around.”

  “Are bourge allowed to come here whenever they want?” I asked. He seemed to know his way around and yet I had never even heard of the place.

  “No!” he laughed. “No one other than the scientists and the guards are permitted in here. It’s too important to the eco-system of the Dome to allow it to be damaged in any way.”