Solstice

by Jane Redd

  It was just a matter of time before someone broke a rule, even unknowingly, and they’d be replaced in a heartbeat.

  Our lives meant nothing. We were only a number to them. We were an instrument to push the life cycle forward. Even my experiment with the C Level women had no meaning anymore. What did it matter if there were ten less women in the city? They had no choices—nothing to look forward to, nothing to celebrate. They worked themselves to the bone day after day, with nothing to show for it but a miserable disease. Their life cycles would come to an end, and no one would even remember who they were.

  My breath was shallow, and I moved a fraction closer to Sol. I couldn’t imagine not ever seeing him again. But that’s what was about to happen. There was no way out.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “No.” I reached out slowly and touched his face. He inhaled but didn’t move. Maybe he sensed that we were in our last moments together. “I’m sorry about all of this,” I said, “about you risking this meeting to tell me what’s going on.”

  He blinked. “I’ll always protect you,” he said, his voice sounding hoarse.

  “I know,” I whispered. “That’s what makes this so hard.”

  He tilted his head, his expression confused.

  “It’s my turn to protect you,” I said. I rested one hand on his shoulder, then moved my other hand behind his neck. I lifted up on my toes and hesitated, gauging his reaction. He didn’t move, but continued to stare at me.

  I lifted my chin and pressed my mouth against his.

  Thirty-five

  Sol didn’t move for few seconds, and I thought he might be in shock.

  I had just broken a rule that could get him Demoted. I didn’t worry about myself; I was already a lost cause.

  But he didn’t pull away or run into the street calling for the authorities. Instead, his mouth moved against mine.

  My entire body burned as we kissed, and I wondered if this was what it felt like to be burned at the stake. The final seconds of life when the pain was beyond feeling, and the soul leaves the body, becoming something else entirely. Our bodies pressed together, fitting perfectly, filling every curve and angle.

  His lips were warm and his tongue hot against mine. I clung to him as one of his hands slid behind my back and the other through my hair, pulling me even closer.

  It was as if everything in my life had culminated in that kiss. All of the emotions I’d suppressed in the last sixteen years, all the times I’d watched Sol or thought about him, all of the days I’d spent in prison afraid, all of the nights I’d spent reading his last message to me. I was finally able to release all of my emotions at once, into Sol.

  I broke away to breathe, and then Sol’s mouth was on mine again. Less urgent this time. We were communicating in a new way, a silent, yet complete way, where only our souls were speaking. Every touch, every kiss was an affirmation of the emotions we had finally allowed ourselves to share.

  “Sol,” I gasped, wondering if I might self-ignite. He murmured something but kept on kissing me. It was another long moment before I forced myself to break away.

  Sol groaned and pulled me toward him again.

  “Wait,” I said. His lips went to my neck, to my ear, as his hands cradled me. “I have to tell you something.”

  He lifted his head and smoothed the hair from my face. For a moment, I was mute. I couldn’t believe I was here, with Sol, kissing him. Every part of my body tingled; I was floating above the world. But my time was up.

  It was now, or never. “I love you,” I whispered.

  Sol gazed at me and touched my cheek. His fingers slowly trailed along my jaw, then my neck. I shuddered at his touch and the new fire that came with it. He leaned into me again, and his breath brushed my mouth.

  “I have to tell you something else,” I said, the words sounding like part of a dream.

  He didn’t stop his pursuit and kissed me once more, then lifted his head, his eyes hazy.

  “I’m going to turn myself in.”

  His eyes changed immediately, and his grip tightened, holding me fiercely against him. “No, Jez.”

  “Listen to me,” I said. “If you take me back to the University, then they’ll think you caught me when I left the tram group.”

  “I’m not turning you in” Sol said, his voice rough.

  Voices came from somewhere down the street, accompanied by footsteps. It wasn’t hard to guess that the officials were expanding their search. Someone had realized I’d escaped the check point.

  “You don’t have a choice,” I whispered. “The officials are coming now.”

  “I’ve been doing some research . . . there’s a place you can hide.” His grasp tightened. “That’s why I brought you here. You have to trust me on this.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He spoke in my ear, sending a shiver through my body. “Come with me.”

  There was no place to go—the street was on one side of the small park, apartments on the other. Sol pulled me through the tiny park and stopped at the wall of a building. He crouched down and pushed away the dirt and littered leaves. There was a metal grate or door of some sort.

  “What’s down there?” I asked.

  “Your escape.”

  He lifted the door with a grunt.

  I peered into the pitch black hole. Even in the darkness, I could see there was no semblance of light.

  “There’s a ladder that takes you to the bottom,” he said.

  Someone shouted in the street; it sounded very close. My heart raced as I looked down into the blackness. “What about my implant? They’ll be able to track where I went.”

  “You should be deep enough in the ground that there will be too much interference for them to read your location properly.”

  I exhaled. Could I do this? Could I trust his research? “How deep does this go?”

  “I’m not sure,” Sol said. “But you’d better go now. I’ll return as soon as I can. Then I’ll explain everything.”

  I stared at him.

  “Jez, you have to go down there.” His gaze was fierce. “Now. These officials don’t have trackers, but it won’t be long before the government sends out authorities who do.”

  I was shaking with cold, and my heart was hammering. Sol grabbed my hand and helped me get my footing on the first rung of the ladder. He leaned down and kissed me, his mouth hard and demanding. The shouts of the officials faded into the background for a second. The kiss was over all too soon.

  “Be careful,” I said to him.

  He brushed a hand against my cheek. “I’ll return before morning,” he said in a strained voice. He kept ahold of my hand as I descended the first few rungs, then released it with a squeeze. Without a word, he replaced the metal grate.

  Darkness completely engulfed me. I felt it pressing against me, sliding over every part of my body. I clung to the cold metal rung and held on tightly as I listened to Sol’s distant voice. “No one is here. Let’s keep searching the other parks.”

  Another voice answered, but I couldn’t make out the words. Then there was only silence.

  I let out the breath I’d been holding and tried to sense where I was and what was below me. I was suspended in some sort of a dark shaft, but I couldn’t see or hear anything.

  I waited several minutes for Sol to return. Did he really expect me to climb down this dark shaft without any idea where it went or what was at the bottom? My arms began to tire. What if he couldn’t make it back by morning? He couldn’t possibly expect me to wait in this place with no food or water.

  At the thought of water, I realized I could hear something if I listened closely enough. It sounded like running water below.

  My stomach seized. Where did this ladder lead?

  Cold, shaking, and too scared of being caught to return to the surface, I started down the ladder. The going was slow since each step plunged me into deeper darkness. The sound of running water grew louder. There was definitely a s
tream of some sort, but I had no way of determining how big it was or how fast.

  Please hurry, Sol, I thought, knowing full well that he could be gone for a while. If he was even came back at all. What would I do if he didn’t come back? How long would it take for the authorities to track me down? How long before I starved or succumbed to hypothermia?

  Had Sol been right about our Harmony implants being untraceable underground? They had been traceable in the Phase Three lab—but the prison had been like an underground village unto itself. My tablet was in my pocket, but I didn’t dare pull it out to check for a signal. It might slip from my trembling fingers to the water below.

  I started counting the rungs so that if I needed to go back up, I’d have an idea how close I was to the top. The temperature continued to drop the lower I moved. At number 125, I was close enough to the flowing water to feel the moisture in the air. I touched the wall that the ladder was attached to—it was wet stone.

  I shivered and continued my descent. On the next step down, my shoe touched water. The stream quickly pushed against my boot, and even through the rubber, I could tell how cold it was. I moved my foot farther down and touched solid ground. The stream rushed over the top of my boot, just enough to send water straight in, soaking my feet immediately.

  With no choice but to continue, I lowered my other foot, assessing the strength of the current. It wouldn’t be hard to walk in. I stood there for a moment as the water rushed over my legs, soaking my pants, one hand still on the ladder. Then slowly, I felt my way along the damp stone wall. There was a small tunnel that opened on one side, where the water flowed through. A second tunnel opened up from the ladder shaft and appeared to be dry.

  I had three choices. Wait in the dry portion for Sol, or follow one of the tunnels? Both sloped downward. The bottom of the shaft seemed to be high point.

  I sat down in the dry tunnel, the earth moist and packed beneath me, but not muddy. Pulling the tablet from my pocket, I turned it on. There was one message.

  Don’t return to the University.

  It was from Sol.

  I looked at the time of the message—it had been sent when I’d been on the tram leaving the C Level district. I hadn’t checked the tablet until now. If I had seen it earlier, what could I have done? Slipped off the tram and tried to blend in with people from the C Level or B Level areas? My science group would have noticed I was missing, and it wouldn’t be long before the authorities tracked me down.

  There hadn’t been any more messages, and the signal was dead. I hoped this meant Sol was right and that my Harmony implant was also untraceable. Or I could find something to cut it out with. Again.

  I took off my wet boots and socks to let them dry a little, although the air was humid. At least I could catch my breath a little. Coming down the massive ladder had sapped my strength.

  Rubbing my cold and wet feet, I thought about everything that had happened today: meeting the C Level women, finding out that Chalice had been Banished, running from the authorities, and Sol . . . I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, trying to find some warmth.

  I closed my eyes against the thick darkness and remembered kissing Sol. It was unlike anything I had imagined, even in the most secret places of my heart. Maybe it was because I was Clinical, but I had connected with Sol in a way that was more than just physical. It had been a communion. And I knew he’d felt it, too.

  I was starting to feel much warmer. Not only did I want Sol to come back and tell me his plans, but I wanted his arms around me. Had his heart hammered as hard as mine? Had he felt like he was floating above the ground?

  I leaned against the stone wall, resting my cheek on top of my knees. Waiting to be rescued.

  Thirty-six

  I woke to a light shining in my face. It took me a couple of seconds to remember that I was sitting on the floor of an underground tunnel. I jerked back and hit my head the wall.

  At first I thought it was a flashlight, and someone was shining it at me. But then I realized it was a light embedded into the wall across from me. As my eyes adjusted, I saw another light farther down the tunnel that I was sitting in.

  I exhaled, trying to calm my racing heart, and I realized two things: There were lights in this tunnel . . . and someone had turned them on.

  I wasn’t alone.

  My first thought was that Sol had arrived. I looked around but didn’t see anyone. I couldn’t hear anything except for the running water. I didn’t know if the lights were a good thing or a bad thing.

  How long had I slept? Minutes? Hours? I turned on the tablet again, but there was still no signal, so the time log wasn’t accurate.

  I slowly stood, stretching my aching body. Walking closer to the water, I peered down the other tunnel where the stream ran its course. It was still pitch dark looking downstream, but with the light from the dry tunnel, I could see that the water was muddy and carried small bits of debris. It didn’t look clean enough to drink, but my mouth and throat were so dry that I decided to take a sip anyway. I knelt down and scooped a handful of water. It was cold and gritty. I took a few more swallows.

  I moved back to where my socks and shoes were drying out. They were both still damp, so I probably hadn’t been asleep more than an hour or two. I walked to the light and sat next to it, hoping to draw some of its heat into my body. Eventually I fell asleep again, leaning against the wall, and by the time I woke up I knew Sol was late.

  It must be morning above ground, maybe even midday. Where was he? Had something happened? My stomach turned over with a sharp hunger pain, and my body felt weak. I reached over and patted my socks and shoes—they were mostly dry—as much as they were going to be in a damp tunnel.

  I tugged them on and walked back toward the ladder. “Hello?” I called upward.

  My own echo made me shiver.

  I looked back down the tunnel at the first light. Maybe I could go a little ways to investigate and then come back and see if Sol had arrived. Surely he’d call for me. I walked past the first light to the second and then stopped and listened. Nothing. Looking back toward the bend in the tunnel where I’d slept, I gauged how far I’d come—maybe thirty feet. The tunnel floor sloped downward and turned, but it wasn’t dark ahead, so there was probably another light.

  Before following the tunnel farther, I turned to look at the shaft with the ladder. It was one way out, that I knew, but would it be one that I could rely on? It emptied back into the professors’ neighborhood and the University—two places I couldn’t go back to.

  I looked down the lighted tunnel again, wondering how many lights I’d have to pass to get somewhere. Anywhere.

  As I continued moving, I tried to imagine all sorts of scenarios that I could be walking into. Maybe the tunnel would eventually connect to the Phase Three lab, or some other place where I’d be put through more tests. Or perhaps the lights turned on and off automatically, and I really was alone hundreds of feet below the ground.

  What if Sol came, and I was too far away to hear him? What if the authorities discovered the shaft? What if Sol had already been exposed and was being questioned?

  The ground was rough and uneven, as were the walls, but every thirty or so feet, there was a light embedded into the rock. Then I heard a soft clicking sound. I paused, listening carefully. I took a few more steps in silence, then heard it again.

  I looked up. The ceiling was dark, but I could just make out a metal box with a lens. I took a few more steps, my eyes on the camera.

  It moved.

  Someone was watching me.

  My palms went damp. Should I turn and go back? What would Sol want me to do? He’d just said to wait for him, but had he ever been in this tunnel? Did he know where it led?

  My breathing was shallow as I kept walking. The tunnel curved erratically and then narrowed significantly. I hesitated. I was now quite a ways from the main shaft.

  Walking around the next bend, I came face to face with a metal door. I looked up t
o see two cameras pointed at me. There didn’t seem to be a hand scanner to open the door so I looked back and forth between the cameras and the door. “Hello?” I said at last.

  I took a couple of steps forward and placed my hand on the door. Just as I touched the metal, I thought I heard a voice say “No.” Something jolted through me, like a shock from an agitator, and I fell backward, landing on the ground. My whole body tingled. The door had an electric charge in it. I sat up and dizziness washed over me

  “Jezebel,” a voice said, coming from everywhere at once.

  My eyes flew open, and I stared at the door. The voice sounded familiar.

  But that was impossible.

  The voice was impossible.

  The door slid open and three people rushed out, wearing all black. I held up my hands in defense. Two remained standing, while the other knelt down, his golden-brown eyes on me.

  My mouth fell open. “Rueben?”

  His smile was just as I remembered it, brilliant white against his sun-touched skin.

  He tugged me against him with a laugh, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling his vibrant warmth beneath my cold hands. I closed my eyes and breathed in sunshine.

  Rueben was alive. He was here.

  “You made it,” he whispered in my ear. “I knew Sol would get you here safely.”

  I pulled away. “Sol?” I whispered, my throat raw. I had so many questions. How was everything connected?

  Rueben held out his hand. “When I found out you were the Carrier, I knew I couldn’t leave you behind. Come inside. You’ll be safe with us until Sol arrives.”

  Rueben knows. Somehow he knows I’m a Carrier. I looked at Rueben’s outstretched hand, then up at him. He smiled, and I wanted to smile back, to trust him.

  I knew him, yet I didn’t know him.

  Behind me stretched a dark labyrinth of tunnels a hundred feet below the earth. In front of me was hope, possibly survival. I raised my hand and placed it in Rueben’s, and he pulled me effortlessly to my feet.

  Hand in hand with Rueben, I stepped through the door, into my future.