Here Skies Surround Us

by Melanie Mcfarlane

  “I wish they’d hurry up,” he says. “I’m worried you have a concussion.”

  Finally, an emergency crew comes for Grandfather.

  “Take her with you,” Evan says to the emergency team as they load Grandfather on a stretcher. “She’s got a head injury.” He grabs my chin and kisses me softly on the lips. “I’m going to go help Roe. Okay?”

  “I’m sorry,” one of the team says. “We don’t have room. We’re full, but we’ll be right back.”

  “We’ll wait here, then,” Evan begins, but I grab his hand and pull him back.

  “Go help Roe, I’ll be okay. I’m going to go straight to the Health Center. I promise.”

  Evan squeezes my hand tighter as he bites his lips. “No, what if there are more bombs?”

  “I’ll go straight to the Health Center. Okay?”

  Evan turns, looking toward the entrance of the dome, only a few blocks away.

  “I’ll walk you to the entrance,” he says.

  I nod, knowing it’s the only way he’ll listen. He holds me close, as if I might fall again, but I’m okay. I feel stronger now that I’ve been walking a bit. But I don’t tell him this. It’s good that he thinks I’ll be tied up in the Health Center for a while.

  Evan can search out here for answers, but I know from the past that they’re usually inside, buried somewhere. You just need to know where to look.

  The Health Center was once at the edge of the finance district, where it sat between the businesses and bankers of the dome. As the finance district began to downsize due to the need for resources, it moved into the Axis. Now that people can leave the dome, the economic divide of the districts has begun to fall apart. Offices transform into townhouses, buildings are torn down to help with expansion, and the Axis is bridges the gap. One day there may only be the Axis left inside, with the few stragglers who refuse to leave.

  Evan walks me all the way to the end of the construction, where the Axis still shines as if it was only built yesterday. It reaches far above everything else, stretching an impressive one hundred floors up to the peak of the dome. I’ve been everywhere, from the roof of the Axis where Evan taught me how to shoot a gun, all the way to B3, the basement where they tested on innocent people with the same virus that put us in these domes.

  Evan kisses me goodbye, and takes off to help the others.

  Inside the Axis, the lobby has filled with desks dedicated to planning the development of the Outer Colony. But most of the desks are empty. I haven’t been back here since I left a month ago, and no one comes to greet me. Instead, the few people here turn and look at me with pity as I pass by and enter the elevator on the far wall.

  I hit the button for Floor 2, then wait in front of the shiny metal doors as they close. Even I’m shocked by my reflection. My long dark hair, which I usually keep tied back in a braid for work, juts out in all directions as if I just got out of bed. My face is covered in a mix of blood and dirt, as if I’d put on a mask, and only my dark brown eyes offer any sense of familiarity.

  When the doors open to Floor 2, I suck in a sharp breath. Last time I was here, the offices of the Delegates and Director were here. Since they disbanded, the entire floor has transformed to bright walls and shiny floors. Beds line the walls, some surrounded by closed curtains.

  In front of me is a desk, and at the helm is a nurse who looks less than impressed to see me just waltzing in. I guess a boatload of casualties weren’t on her list of to-dos for today.

  “Name and address?” Her voice is firm and authoritative. It instantly reminds me of Grandmother and I wince.

  “Natalia Greyes,” I say. “From the Outer Colony.”

  She comes around the desk and grabs my chin, flashing a light in my eyes. “Come with me,” she says, turning and walking to one of the few beds left in the room. The curtain next to me is shut, but I can hear a low moan coming from the bed.”

  “I’m not here for me.” I stop at the foot of the empty bed. “They just brought in my grandfather.”

  “I can see you’re hurt,” she says, motioning to my head. “Just let me check you over quickly. That’s what I’m here for.”

  I sit on the edge of the bed as she looks in my ears, listens to my heart, and checks over my cuts. “You’re a lucky one, Miss Greyes. Just a few stitches in your head and then I’ll clean up those hands, and you’ll be good to go.”

  The doors to the Health Center swing open as an emergency team pulls a bed inside. I strain to see who’s on it, but people are in my way.

  “We’ve got an elderly woman, passed dome life expectancy,” one of the attendants says. “She’s suffered a blow to the chest.”

  “Bring her to the back.” The nurse motions to a set of doors on the far wall before turning to me. “I’m sorry. I’ll be right back, okay? Then we’ll get you all sewn up.” I cringe at her word choice as she disappears through the double doors. The emergency crew returns, then disappears back to the elevators to get more people.

  Once they’re gone, I slide off my bed and start searching the center for Grandfather. The room takes up half the floor, allowing for approximately thirty beds. Half of them already have curtains drawn. How many more people were hurt?

  I manage to peek behind three curtains before the nurse returns.

  “Uh-uh.” She shakes a finger at me. “Get back to your bed and give these people their rest. Not everyone was as lucky as you.”

  She gently pulls me back to my area. She readies a needle full of some clear liquid and has me lean my head forward. “This will pinch a little,” she warns. It more than pinches—it burns. But she’s right. I’m luckier than most. The guy I saw lying on the last bed had bandages all over his head.

  The nurse threads a needle and I brace myself. I’ve never been hurt like this, always having been sheltered by my mother and grandparents, so the needle and thread look like some sort of torture device.

  “Relax.” The nurse smirks, making me do the opposite. “That needle I just gave you is freezing the area as we speak. See.” She taps a finger on the top of my head. Though the sensation is there, the feeling is numb. She starts pulling and tugging, and though uncomfortable, it is all over in a matter of minutes.

  By the time she finishes, the emergency crew has already been back and gone again. This time they bring a child. Thankfully, another nurse attends him.

  “It hurts,” the boy cries. “I want my mom.”

  “Shhh,” the nurse coos. “Why don’t you just lie back at let me look at your leg.”

  She pulls the curtain, closing him off from the rest of the room, but his cries carry. In fact, I realize there are many cries coming from all around the room. Everyone is either afraid or in shock. I don’t blame them.

  The elevator door opens again, just as the last bandage wraps around my hand. I slide off my bed and peer around the nurse to see who it is.

  “We’ve got an elderly man, passed dome life expectancy,” one of the attendants says. “On the way here, he had a small heart attack. Chest compressions were completed and he is stable now. He has three broken ribs. A concussion was reported on scene, but cannot be confirmed as he is unconscious.”

  And that’s when I see it’s Grandfather.

  No.

  My legs shake. His body hangs slack as they move him to the bed I just left and hook him up to machines that beep and show his heart rate rising and falling with every beat. But he’s not awake. He’s unconscious.

  “You can sit with him,” the nurse offers.

  I want to sit with him. More than anything, I want to take his hand in mine and whisper to him that everything will be all right. Unfortunately, I have someone else to see first. Grandmother.

  I reluctantly wait for the elevator, contemplating what I’ll say when I see her. How will she react? Will she break into tears, or will she try to slap me again, as she did when the Order took Grandfather away? One thing I know for sure is that she’ll blame me for what
happened to him.

  When the elevator doors open, Evan’s there. I nearly collapse into his arm, except I stop myself when I see he’s with Grandmother and Xara. I’m so grateful I don’t have to do this alone.

  However, Grandmother ruins any relief I feel the moment she opens her mouth.

  “I told you it wasn’t safe out there!” She shakes her fist in my direction. “This is why I told him to stay inside. It’s your fault, always pushing us to change. You know he wants to make you happy.”

  She comes right up to my face, wagging her finger so close it takes everything not to squeeze my eyes shut. Evan pulls her back and murmurs words of comfort to her as he directs her to the room behind me.

  “For the last time, just stay away from us!” she shrieks. A nurse rushes over, asking her to quiet down, as I step into the elevator with Xara. Just before the doors shut, Evan jumps inside.

  “I’m sorry, I just thought she should know.”

  I shake my head. “Don’t be. She needed to be told.”

  “Is he going to be okay?” Evan asks.

  “He had a heart attack,” I say, as tears run down my cheeks. “But, he’s going to be okay. He has to be.”

  “Of course he is,” Xara says, taking me into her arms as if she knows I could collapse at any moment.

  “I need to get back outside,” Evan says.

  Xara pulls me closer. “Evan thought I could take you home. You know, give you a minute to get your head together.”

  Evan looks between us, then nods. “I just want to keep you safe, Nat.”

  “We all do.” Xara smiles. “Don’t worry.”

  “I can’t believe you have a chance to visit another dome!” Xara squeals.

  We’re sitting in her bedroom, where I spent many evenings hiding from Grandmother after my parents died. This is the closest thing to a home I’ve ever had, and now that I’ve showered, re-bandaged my cuts, and borrowed a change of clothes, I feel closer to normal than I have in a long time.

  “When you get back, I want to hear all about it. Tell me how they are different, what sort of artifacts they have, and above all, are there any cute boys.”

  “That’s not why I’m going. If I go.”

  “Oh, Nat, a girl can dream,” Xara sighs. She’s always been a little boy crazy. But I know that right up there with boys, artifacts are just as important to Xara. “But seriously, what are you worried about?”

  A yawn escapes my mouth. Exhaustion is catching up with me again as the adrenalin and stress from today’s chaos fade. “As if you wouldn’t be worried to go somewhere you didn’t know anyone.”

  “You know Evan. And Alec will be there too.”

  “It’s not the same. Evan knows everyone. His family is there.”

  “Natalia Greyes, are you afraid to meet his mother?”

  “No!” I push Xara’s shoulder.

  “You are!” She bursts into laughter, falling back on her bed.

  The door to Xara’s room opens and her mother, Mrs. Douglass, comes inside. After my parents were killed, Mrs. Douglass became a mother figure to me. I often escaped to their apartment, down the hall from my grandparents, when Grandmother was too much for me to bear. Xara lost her father in the same attack that killed my parents. I was tied to the Douglass family for life.

  Mrs. Douglass took Delegate Carleton’s place, after his breakdown, and I can’t think of a better candidate to safeguard the past so we can learn from it to benefit the future.

  She crosses the room in only a couple strides and embraces me. The smell of vanilla fills my nostrils. “Natalia, I’m so glad you’re okay. I was very worried.”

  “She’s fine.” Xara sits back up. “She’s tough.”

  “I don’t know what’s going on with this dome,” Mrs. Douglass says, letting me go. “People just don’t handle change well. It will pass, sooner than later, I hope.”

  “Evan wants to take Nat back to his dome.”

  Mrs. Douglass frowns.

  “Only for a short visit,” I add. “He needs to go back and talk with his mother, tie up some loose ends.”

  “If you do, please be careful,” she says, her brown eyes warm and full of caring. “You know you can always stay with us if you’re worried about being on the outside.”

  “Mom, she’s fine! She needs an adventure, something to get her out of this crazy place until everything calms down.”

  I offer a smile, but I’m not sure how convincing it is. Sure, Xara would like an adventure—she’s never seen how scary they can be.

  “I suppose,” Mrs. Douglass sighs. “Here, I have something for you. If you’re going to leave, you better take it with you.” She hands me a photo. It’s the one I used to keep near my bedside, of my parents and me. I’m only three in this photo, and it’s the only thing I have to remind me of their faces.

  “Thank you.”

  She smiles again, this time with an edge of sadness around her eyes. “Xara, let Nat have a rest, will you? She looks exhausted.”

  “Fine,” Xara says. “Nat, mi casa es tu casa. That means my house is your house.” She hugs me and whispers in my ear. “If you get a chance to leave, take it. It’s not like you won’t come back, right?”

  The two of them leave, and I lie back on Xara’s bed, thinking about her parting words. Too much has happened, there’s no way I’m leaving now. Evan will have to do it alone. Grandfather needs me, whether Grandmother likes it or not. And then there’s Tassie. No matter how much I want to avoid him, I have to make sure Jak is okay.

  ***

  When I wake up, the dark sky outside the dome looks down at me through Xara’s bedroom windows. I shift my body and notice someone has covered me with a blanket. Mrs. Douglass—always looking out for me. On the nightstand, next to the photo of my parents, is a note with my name on it.

  Nat,

  We went outside to deliver food and blankets. Come find us when you’re up. Food in fridge.

  Xara

  I force myself out of bed and grab a sandwich from the fridge that has a note with my name on it. Xara. She takes after her mom. I can just picture her running around the apartment while I slept, making sure she handled every small detail. I stuff the sandwich in my pocket and make my way outside.

  There’s one stop I need to make before I find Xara and her mom. I need to make sure Grandfather is all right.

  I walk through the quiet streets of the dome and can see the glare of the notification screens in full operation again. We reprogrammed them during the takeover to deliver our message about the corruption that was going on inside the dome—the kidnappings, the testing, and the killing of innocent people. Now Jak has reinstated the adage of our dome: Peace. Love. Order. Dome. It chills me to see the word “Order” is still there. I hope that’s something he never reinstates.

  The Axis shines in the night, lit up by the lights from its hundreds of windows. Some floors are dark, like Microbiology. They house the virus there, and last I heard that entire floor is closed with one security guard monitoring the freezers. God forbid those ever shut down.

  The offices of the first floor are empty. Maybe everyone went outside to help in the wake of the disaster? When I step off the elevator onto Floor 2, the Health Center is busier than it was earlier. All the beds are full, and a few extra seem to have appeared, crowding the walls. All the curtains are open, except one.

  I spot Grandfather in the same bed as when I left. His eyes are closed but the monitors are still beeping, offering comfort that he is still alive. I sit on a stool and slide up to his bed, watching him sleep, taking his hand in mine.

  “Nat?” Grandfather stirs. “Honey, is that you?”

  He squeezes my hand and tries to push himself up, but he instantly cries out and falls back against the pillow. Sweat breaks across his brow and he puffs out his cheeks with short breaths.

  “Stop,” I say, jumping up and holding out my hands between us. “You need to rest.”
>
  “Oh, these old bones.” He forces a smile. “They’ve taken worse, I assure you.”

  I sit back on the stool in silence as Grandfather catches his breath. All around us machines beep, and I know somewhere on this floor one of them is keeping Tassie alive.

  “Are you okay?” Grandfather asks.

  I shake my head. “Who would do this?”

  He pats my hand. “Fear brings out the worst in people.”

  I shudder and look away so Grandfather can’t see my eyes. Who could be so afraid they’d try to hurt others? And what is it they are afraid of?

  “Evan wants me to leave with him.”

  Grandfather squeezes my hand again. “I know.”

  “You do?” I snap my gaze back to him. “But how?”

  “Alec,” he explains. “He’s been talking about it ever since he came back. He thinks you should go live with him for a little bit. He’d like to give you a new start.”

  “But this is my home.”

  “I know, honey. But just because you leave, it doesn’t mean you can’t come back. I think you should go, especially now, with all this unrest.”

  “You want me to leave?”

  “No, I want you to live.”

  Grandfather is one of the only reasons I would stay. If he thinks I need to leave for a bit, maybe I should. But leave everything I know? It’s a lot to consider.

  Grandfather starts coughing, holding his chest in pain, and I jump up to pat him on the back. “Don’t worry. It’s just because of the dust. It’ll take a few days to clean my lungs out.”

  “But Grandfather—”

  “Really, Nat, I need you to leave if things get bad. Trust Evan, he knows how bad it can get. We just want you safe.” He breaks into another fit of coughing, and all I can do is nod.

  “Visiting hours are over,” a nurse calls out.

  “I guess it’s time we say our goodbyes,” Grandfather says.