by Nirina Stone
A rough hand bruises her right shoulder as it pulls her back so hard, she lands like a sack on the hard ground below. Another raider crashes into Gideon’s back, bringing the old man down on to his face. Gideon’s yelling something towards the pillars at the top of his lungs, yelling, “She has the flu! She has the flu! She has the flu!” nonstop as the others pile on him.
She thinks the fall has made him lose him mind, until the empty air between the pillars seems to shimmer and move. What was air, from her vantage point, is a portion of the force field, from which three armed guards crouch forward with tasers pointed at the raiders.
There is no discussion, no negotiation. Instead, they’re all shot within a span of a few seconds, and the guards bring Gideon and Sidney to their feet, pulling them to walk through the pillars.
When Sidney hears a high shrill sound behind her, she sees Lashes on her hind legs, as tall as she can make herself.
The animal hops up to her, ignoring the others, and uses her tiny front paws to pull on Sidney’s pant leg, as if to pull her away. Then her shrill is even higher as if in warning, but Sidney knows she can’t carry the animal in. She certainly can’t stay out here either, not with those raiders there.
“Stop it, Lashes,” she says to the squirrel. She says it again, louder, before Lashes finally hops three feet away from them.
Then the animal makes small chit-chit-chit sounds while still on her hind legs. She chirps and shrills a couple more times.
She’s saying goodbye, Sidney thinks, as she waves back. Then the squirrel turns and jumps into the air. As she falls back to the earth, she burrows so fast, she leaves behind a tornado of red earth to land in her wake.
Sidney and Gideon slowly make their way through the gates of the Red Dome.
Chapter Sixty
Sidney
THE GUARD WALKS THEM through a glass tunnel, which keeps them sequestered from the rest of the Red Domers. “It’s okay,” Gideon explains as they follow obediently. “They will have us wash in two different liquids, then they will steam us. None of it hurts,” he assures her. “It’s to clean us of all the red dust before we can be—freed, for lack of a better term—into the civilian population.
It’s about what she expected, given how everything's so nice and clean outside of their glass, but what a relief to finally be here, to be safe. Finally be able to live like a true Allendian. She watches as Red Domers—hundreds of them roam the streets, going about their day without a care about what’s happening in the glass tunnel on their outer edges. She can see that the city is a massive replica of the city in the Blue and her eyes grow wide as she takes it all in. This has been here the entire time, she could have lived here instead of being chased all her life in the Blue. A sudden tightness in her chest makes her take in deep breaths. She can’t resent her past life—she’s here now. Alive, and safe.
The Allendians walk in groups of three to ten a time, but something they do has her pause in her tracks. That’s—weird. She watches them stop walking or stop-mid-stride three times in the span of a minute. They stare ahead, and then move forward again. It looks like a choppy unusual dance and it hits her that she knows nothing about Allendians if this is what a ‘dance’ looks like to them.
“What’s happening?” She points at them doing the stop, then stare, and then move forward again.
He snickers. “It’s called Democracy.” She wonders why he sounds sarcastic, saying the word. “They’re voting—which means they’re making decisions together about things that need work in Allenda. The Red Dome is our capital, where our government is situated. You don’t need to worry about that right now as only citizens over thirteen are required to vote.”
She breathes out with relief—because this doesn’t look like anything fun to do at all, she decides. Still, she’s curious about exactly what they’re ‘voting’ about. “What sort of decisions?” she asks as they continue ahead towards the showers.
She watches as bots walk amongst the people—it’s hard to tell the difference between them and the people, except they don’t pause and vote. The way they move, steady, but slightly stilted in their movements, remind her of some of the bots that had hunted her before Petra showed up. They’re a more basic version, she decides.
“They vote about everything,” Gideon explains. “It is the power of a true democracy. Everyone has a say in what goes on around here. Isn’t it neat?” Though she doesn’t know Gideon that well, a tone in his voice tells her he’s making it sound more impressive than it is. She wonders why.
Sure, she thinks, even though she doesn’t quite understand. All she knows is she usually had a say in the Blue Dome when Nayne would ask her for her opinion on—well some places they’d visit next. This new thing looks boring, though. She’s happy she’s far from being of age.
After their three showers, they’re taken to a room where they sit side by side and wait for “Someone important,” per Gideon.
A woman walks through the door, her yellow hair in a tight bun atop her head. Gideon introduces her to Sidney as his boss, “Stillna, CEO of ChemSoft,” and they sit for a few minutes, chatting away as they’re offered refreshments. “You’re safe now,” Gideon’s boss says. “Those raiders from The Field have tried several times to infiltrate us. They will never win. Their technology is far inferior.”
As she speaks, an attendant comes in, and they explain to Sidney that they need to extract just a bit of her blood.
She speaks with an affected accent Sidney’s never heard before, but she seems nice enough. Then she explains to Sidney the steps they’ll need to take to cure her of the flu. “You must be relieved?” she asks Sidney. “That you’ll finally be rid of this thing? This awful flu?”
Sidney was born with the thing. Nayne told her the first time she realized it was when one of the hunting bots, which would usually ignore her, started chasing her one day when she was seven months pregnant. As far as Nayne told her though, there was nothing all that different about her. Sure, she sneezed every now and then and had a slight fever, but that was it.
“Well,” Sidney says, “I guess I’m happy no more assassins will be after me. It will be nice to not be chased down.”
The lady chuckles, then stands, indicating that Gideon should follow her.
When they’re gone, someone else walks into the room, offering Sidney a bowl of something cold, creamy, deliciously sweet. She asks them if she can have another, and then another after that. She leans back into her chair, content. Okay, she thinks. I’m home.
Gideon
HE WALKS WITH HER TO a room across the way, as he watches the attendant come back into Sidney’s room for another serving of ice cream. “You’re gonna spoil her, aren’t you?” he says to the CEO as they sit across from each other.
“As much as she’ll let us,” she replies with a smile. “It’s good that you got her here. Very good.”
He nods and leans back, relieved that it will all be over soon. “The people from The Field,” he says. “They don’t know about her flu.” All of the ones that chased them to the Red Dome are dead in the desert, their remains likely already being taken care of by the planet’s many animals. The rest will be absorbed by the earth. Then he remembers Henry’s being held at The Field, now. He expects that Henry won’t trust them with the information, that he’d do whatever he could to protect Sidney. Still, who knows what they would do to him to extract information if they knew? The likelihood is low, he decides. Besides, they’re far more interested in him and his strange metal chest—they’ll try to figure something out about him, they’ll be preoccupied.
“They can’t get to her anyway,” she assures him, “and she’ll be cured long before she’d need to head out there again.”
“About that,” he says. “What will happen to her after the cure?”
“We’re not in the habit of welcoming strangers here,” she says, “you know that.” He’s more than aware of that—after all, a perfect society like this is tightly run. It’s ef
ficient, its resources just enough for the two thousand eighty two Allendians living here. They’ve calculated everything they need down to the grain. Adding any ‘strangers’ to the mix will cause Dome-wide chaos. Not to mention, they’d never vote for it. Still, he says, “She’s just a child though. She may be resourceful but she can’t make it on her own out there.” He hears what he’s saying then amends it quickly. “She is more than capable of finding her own food here if necessary—she has a way with birds. I will teach her to plant her own garden.” It’s already what all citizens learn to do at a young age, anyway.
“If that’s not enough, once I’m done here this trip, I will move back to the Blue Dome, rebuild. I will—”
“That’s not necessary,” she interrupts. “We need you here.”
The CEO sighs and leans back. “Besides, we’re a couple of births short this year. We can—arrange—something,” she says. “But she’ll need to prove herself before being welcome as a citizen. That will take—time. We’ll search for a family to sponsor her.”
He’s not too worried. From what he’s seen about Sidney, he knows she’ll be more than capable of ‘proving’ her worth to the Allendians. Before he says so, one of the attendants comes in and mutters in low tones with her. She nods a couple of times.
“She carries a superior strain of the flu,” she says leaning forward with a slight frown on her forehead. “One we eradicated centuries ago, so we’ll need to create a new cure for her, using her own blood. It will take some time.”
Okay—that’s something new, he thinks. Unexpected. Though it does explain a few things he’d witnessed with the child in the Barren—such as her ability to eat fruit that would make any other Allendian sick. She’s the only case he knows of, where an Allendian carried the flu since she was a fetus. He doesn’t mention any of this to the CEO, of course. Best keep it all to himself until he confirms what he can, testing the child’s blood himself. This, he thinks, will change everything.
“Still,” he says to the CEO, “our agreement?”
“It stands, of course,” she says as she indicates the meeting is over. “She’s in room eight oh three as usual.”
HE MAKES HIS WAY OUT of the compartment and walks towards the building where he used to work. They’d moved all of the offices to a smaller area. Once most of the flu-ridden were handled, there was no longer need. He thinks about how things have changed. How they’d eliminated so many but—we didn’t have to, he thinks. We didn’t have to do any of it. Still, he shakes the thoughts off, not wanting to revisit any of the Dark Times. There’s no point in it, he thinks, as he walks towards a narrow automatic door which opens wide for him. He walks around the corner of the bed within and sits down just as the door sighs closed.
He takes her form in, remembering the last time he saw her was just a few days ago though it feels like months. Her still body under the thin white sheet is so thin, it makes his heart shudder. He takes her tiny hand in his and pushes a wisp of her thinning hair behind her ear. He leans in and kisses her on the forehead. “Thea,” he whispers, though he knows she won’t open her eyes, won’t even stir. Still, a part of him strongly believes she hears his voice at least. It’s what’s kept her alive all these years. His voice and the Red Domers’ medicine, machines that kept her breathing while he worked.
With Sidney’s ready blood, he tells himself, Thea will be cured too. She will wake from this—coma—and she’ll be fine again, and then they’ll discuss their options; together. He didn’t really believe he’d have options again, not until now.
He whispers, “I forsake all others, every other thing.” He kisses her on the forehead again. “For you are my North Star.”
EPILOGUE
She heads south in a steady run, sees that a storm has passed through and, though she keeps her scanners set high for tracks or any sign that the three travelers went this way, she finds nothing.
Still, her memory banks tell her they were on track for the Red Dome and she sets her sights for the Dome, working through calculations and coming up short every time. There’s far more broken within her now than she’d originally anticipated.
The red dust strengthens her some, but not her memory, not her full knowledge of whatever happened in the Blue Dome. In fact, all it does is give her the ability to run faster, her only goal being the Red Dome. They’ll fix her, then she can find Sidney—the girl, Henry—the raider, and the old man—she never registered his name.
She only comes to a stop when something—a sense or a pull of sorts draws her South-South West. This is off the path of the Red Dome, she realizes, but she turns anyway, meaning to take a quick look and get back on her way in short time.
As she walks down a ramp, she stops again, tilts her head to the right.
“What are you doing here? HOW are you even here. I saw you die—” he says, quickening his pace up the ramp. “And how did you—I had this distinct feeling I needed to come outside—like you called me or something, but I heard nothing. How did you do that?”
She recognizes him immediately, before a line of sunshine illuminates his face, and she smiles. “Henry.” It’s only been a few days, a week tops since she saw him last, but he looks more weary somehow. Worn out.
He stops walking and offers a smile back. “You remember my name. The last time I saw you come together, you’d lost most of your memory for a while.”
She tries to recall this ‘last time’ he mentions, but nothing comes up. All she remembers is waking in that dome alone, confused. Then their names, their faces—the last people that she’d seen. She remembered where they were heading. That was all. All this runs through her mind as he stares at her, as if unsure what to say next. He goes with, “I guess the rains must have finally stopped if you’re back in one piece. Right? Wasn’t that what was keeping all the silver dust separated like that?”
It sounds familiar, so she nods.
“Well it’s about time,” he states. “I was starting to wonder what in the world Gideon was up to in there. I was starting to get worried about Sidney.”
She ignores the rest of what his says for she urgently needs to know. “Sidney. Is she alive? Where is she?”
His smile widens. “Yes, yes, she’s alive and well. She lives in the Red Dome now. She’d be so keen to see you, I tell ya. It was bloody tough to get her to leave the Blue Dome, nar impossible to have her start to talk about anything else but you for a while there—”
“She’s in the Red Dome,” she clarifies. “You are certain. Why are you not with her? Did you not travel there, together? How are you here—in this place—?”
“Well—” he says, “a lot has happened since then.” He frowns at her. “Wait. Petra, how much time do you think it’s been since we saw each other last. Since the bonfire?”
“Four days,” she says, “possibly seven. My timeline—my insides require maintenance.”
He steps back as his eyebrows raise. He runs a hand through his hair and she notices small streaks of silver running across the sides of his head as he speaks.
“Petra,” he says, his eyes back on her face. “We haven’t seen you in four years.”
TO BE CONCLUDED in ‘THE LAST DOME’, on pre-order now...
THANK YOU FOR READING ‘Sidney’s Escape’, Book 2 of the Allendian Post-Apocalypse series. I hope you join me for the final instalment, right here (grab it while it’s on a quick sale!) If you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review at your favorite online shop. Thank you!
Read on for a short excerpt from The Last Dome:
Lashes hops up and chitters as it grabs a paw full of sand and shoves it into its mouth, holding it in one of its handy cheek pouches. “What are you doing, crazy?” Sidney says though she’s seen Lashes do this before. “How have you been?”
Chitters and chirps tell her that Lashes has been busy out here. Probably building a nest, she imagines, probably chasing smaller critters and collecting more sand in her cheeks. Looking left then right, Sidney sees that t
he others are far enough away. Even if they can see Lashes from here, she’s the exact same color as the earth. They won’t be able to see her clearly. Sidney pulls out a tiny ration bar she’d taken from the house this morning, breaks it apart and shares it with the animal.
Lashes greedily grabs it in its right paw, the other one on Sidney’s hand as she chews away at the thing. Sid has no idea what it actually feeds on out here, well other than the little red worms that squirm and slide in her bucket.
“I haven’t seen you in a while.” She reaches down and lets the animal nudge her hand. “I’ve missed you. You know, you’re my only real friend out here. Well, other than Thea, I guess.”
Her schoolmates are friendly enough, but she’s too different from them. They were all born in the Red Dome, all used to this strict life of home and school and home again. She doesn’t understand why they’re all happy to stay there, not one of them adventurous enough to explore anything beyond the small strips of land they’re allowed to collect wormlets.
Lashes turns around and hops away just as knocks reach her ears—the hologram Prof’s three-knock sound reminding them they have five minutes left, then back in the dome they go.
She sighs aloud and sits back as she stares out into the Barren. She misses the Blue Dome from time to time. The silence, what with no anthems every few hours to tell all civilians what time of the day it is. She misses the way she was free to wake when she wished—it was always early anyway, but still—free to eat when she wished, to swim, walk around, read, or just be... without any specific constraints or timetables. Without getting in trouble every time she’d decided to climb a structure or say anything ‘unusual.’