Текст книги "Sunset Rising"

Автор книги: S. McEachern

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 22 страниц)

“You get docked, too?” she asked.

He nodded. “Half a day’s credits. And since we only get half a day because of the lockdown, I’m not getting anything today.”

“Don’t you worry. You’re still living with your parents, and they can take care of you for a few years yet.” Di kissed the top of the boy’s head and gave him a bone-crushing hug. “I’ve got a couple of carts for you right over here, and by now there’s probably a few more for you to bring down. Come see me when you’re all done.”

I watched the boy take the carts and make his way out of the laundry room. He cringed slightly when he walked by Supervisor Madi. Di made tut-tutting noises beside me.

“A sweet little boy like that and she just hauls off and punches him in the mouth. It’s not right, Autumn.” Di shook her head. “There are days when I’m happy that I’m not long for this world. I turned thirty-five this year. I’ll be on the next Cull, and I say good riddance to this place.”

I was getting the impression that life in the laundry room was more hellish than anything else. “How long have you worked here?”

“Most of my life. It wasn’t always a bad place, but the past few years the supervisors have been getting meaner. This one is the meanest. Like most people working here, I’d like to find a job somewhere else, but if Madi ever found out anyone was looking for a new job, she’d beat her to death. It makes a supervisor look bad to the higher ups when too many workers want to leave.”

“So you’re saying I better get comfortable here because I’m not going anywhere else.”

“Not unless you come up with an airtight plan to get out of here.” Di cocked an eyebrow at me, which made her statement more of a question. Why would she wonder if I had a plan to escape? Did she recognize me? No, she couldn’t have. She would’ve reported me right away.

“Then you better show me how to iron these pants because I have no other place to go.” I put the pants on the ironing board.

Di gave me a thoughtful look, then stepped forward and tested the iron. “The iron gets really hot if you set it too high, and it will burn the clothes. That’s why I like to iron when the clothes are still damp—less chance of damaging them.” She showed me how to lay the pants on the board and began to run the iron over the material quickly, never stopping in one place. A washing machine buzzed behind us. “That’ll be your second load. We need to get it out now because someone will be waiting for the machine.”

We left the pants and went back to the washing machine. Di told me to sort everything out myself, and she just watched to make sure I did it right. I made a few mistakes, but she corrected me, and I took note for the next time. I ended up with two more items to iron.

We went back to the ironing board, and she let me finish the pants. She was showing me how to iron a shirt when my third machine buzzed. I went and got the clothes and sorted them, finding a few more items to iron. When I finished that task, I went back to the ironing board. Di was still with me, showing me how to do everything. I still wasn’t finished with my ironing when the first dryer signalled the load was done.

“Now we go to the folding station. This will take a bit of time to learn,” Di said.

I was feeling uncomfortable with the amount of multitasking I had to do. I still had ironing waiting to be finished, two more loads in the dryer, and now a load to be folded. The carts were stacking up too. Di took out a small board from under the counter, placed it on the back of a t-shirt, and began to fold the shirt around the board. When she was finished, she slipped the board out of the folded t-shirt and flipped the t-shirt upright. It came out perfect. Then it was my turn to try. I wasn’t nearly as fast or as good. I tried again.

“You’ll need to master this quickly,” Di said, looking in the direction of Supervisor Madi.

I understood. I tried harder. “There. How’s that?” I presented my folded t-shirt.

“Not bad,” Di said after she made a few adjustments. “Try again with this one.” She handed me another shirt. I was feeling under pressure with all the work I had piling up. I was afraid of losing track and missing something. I folded the shirt as I’d been shown. “Better,” she said.

It took me approximately fifteen minutes to fold the entire load. I was still very aware I had ironing and another load in the dryer that was about to finish, but I went back to the ironing board and did what I could until the dryer signalled it was done. I left to go and fold it. Di was now at her station getting some of her own work done. I realized I had taken up quite a bit of her time.

I was halfway through folding my third load of laundry when the bong bongs sounded, indicating the end of the workday. With the lockdown this morning, we only had half a workday, although it felt like I’d put in a full day.

“You’ll need to finish up before you go because Kai is waiting to take the last of the carts upstairs. We’ll have a busy day tomorrow trying to catch up. Lockdowns might seem like a peaceful break while they’re happening, but the work keeps piling up, and we have to stay on top of it.” Di sighed.

I tried to hurry my folding, but it didn’t work. I just wasn’t that adept, so I made myself slow down. Working late wasn’t part of my plan for this evening. I was really anxious to find my father and Summer to make sure they were both okay. Jack would be waiting for me too, and most likely worried when I didn’t get back on time.

“Autumn, you need to concentrate or you’ll never finish,” Di said in a firm voice. She took the shirt from my hands and positioned the board in the center of the back. “Like this.” She showed me in slow motion. I tried again with the next shirt, pushing aside the panic rising up inside me.

Eventually the laundry was folded, and I could get back to the ironing. Again, I found it slow going, but I had to get it right. Di helped me every step of the way, even though I knew she was frustrated with me. I was truly grateful for her patience and kindness.

I noticed Kai standing beside the last of the carts. With a flush of guilt, I realized I had made him late. And he wasn’t even making any credits this afternoon.

“Done!” Di exclaimed when I finished the last of the ironing. “Now, put the clothes in the proper cart. I know Kai wants to get home and eat something.”

Di showed me how to stack the clothes into the cart while Kai stood by patiently. I couldn’t believe how complicated laundry was. I had a new appreciation for my old job in the kitchen.

“I’m sorry I’m so late, Kai. I’ll try to be faster tomorrow.”

“That’s okay, Miss Autumn. We always end up working late after a lockdown.” Kai took the remaining two carts and headed for the door.

“Now we can scan out. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Di said.

Supervisor Madi was waiting for us with the scanner in her hands.

“I expect tomorrow you’ll pick up the pace.” Madi glared at me. “I don’t like having to stay here late waiting for a couple of urchins to finish their work.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I waved my hand across the scanner.

It felt good to get out of the heat in the laundry room. I went in the direction of the stairs, pulling the visor of my hat lower. Few people were left in the hallways. I must have been over a half hour late getting off work. I quickened my stride and joined the few people on the stairs.

Then I saw Summer.

Chapter Fifteen

Summer looked directly at me, and I could tell by her expression that she recognized me right away. She looked terrified and dropped her gaze, refusing to look my way. I resisted the impulse to run down the stairs to meet her and instead waited for her to come up to me. Something must have been wrong because she had never ignored me before.

She gave me a sidelong glance when as she reached the fourth level and walked down the hall away from me. I waited a moment then walked after her. I tried not to get too close in case someone was watching. She ducked into the common bath, and I waited a moment before following her.

“Sunny, what are you doing in the Pit?” Summer asked the instant I stepped into the room.

“Looking for you.” I went to her and wrapped my arms around her. “The whole reason I escaped was so I could see you, Dad, and Reyes.”

She took a step away from me. “Are you crazy? They’ll kill you if they find you!”

“They’re going to kill me anyway. At least now it’s on my terms. What happened to you? Why are you still going up to the Dome?”

“You know why, Sunny. Don’t make me say it.” She sounded defeated.

“But Jack told me he signed you up with some old guy who would fall asleep and you’d be sent home after the party. Why didn’t that happen?”

“Oh, it’s Jack now, is it? Not Mr. Kenner or Mr. Almost President?” Summer really wasn’t acting like herself. Her voice was laced with bitterness.

“I want to know what happened to you.”

“Leisel Holt happened to me. Jack may have signed me up with a deadbeat, but Miss Holt signed me up to be with her father!”

I stared at her dumbfounded. That was just wrong on so many levels. I couldn’t even begin to imagine old President Holt sexually. It was disgusting. And the fact that his daughter signed up a girl for him… “Leisel is the most evil person I’ve ever met!” Hatred for her consumed me.

“I’ve been at the Holt residence every night since the bachelor party. The only reason I get to come home during the day is that Mr. President, as he told me to call him when he gives me permission to speak, allows me to go to work in the kitchen every day. He feels that all urchins should be earning their keep. Imagine! Like I’m not earning my keep being his sex slave all night long. It’s revolting!” She shuddered. “And if that’s not enough, I have Leisel talking to me about you. Between acting like the heart-broken jilted bride in front of her father, she’s interrogating me to see if I’ve seen you and your husband down here.”

“So she didn’t tell her father that you and I are friends?” I was afraid for Summer, but as long as Holt didn’t know she meant something to me there was no reason for Summer to be drawn into my predicament.

“How could she? Leisel can’t tell him she knows who I am without admitting she knows who you are. Although given time, I’m sure she’ll come up with some story. She’s conniving, that one.”

“So Leisel told you what she did to Jack and me?”

“Every single detail. She’s quite proud of herself. And you should know she and her guard are lovers. He and some of his friends are watching me down here to see if I lead them to you.”

“That’s why you didn’t want to talk to me in the hallway. I’m so sorry I got you dragged into all of this. I’ve really made a mess of everything. If I could rewind the past few days, I’d do things so much differently. I’d just take getting fired and damn the consequences.” I hugged her again.

“Stop it! Just stop apologizing!” She gripped me by my shoulders. “We didn’t ask to have bad things happen to us. Our only mistake was being born on the wrong side of the Dome.” She dropped her hands from my shoulders and looked at me sadly. “I’ve got to go. Being late with President Holt is not an option.”

I didn’t want her to go back to Holt, and in a desperate attempt to save her I grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving. My mind frantically tried to come up with a hiding place for her—in the apartment with Jack and me? Or a cave in the bowels of the coalmines?

“Sunny. I have to go,” she said softly. We both knew there wasn’t a way out of this for either one of us.

“Be careful, Summer.” My words sounded hollow and ineffectual even to my ears.

“You’re the one who needs to be careful. Holt is turning the Dome upside down looking for you two. The only reason he hasn’t done a thorough search in the Pit yet is because it hasn’t occurred to him that Jack Kenner would find refuge down here. But he’ll figure it out soon enough. He won’t stop until he finds you.”

“Jack got us new chips —”

Summer held her hand up to stop me.

“Don’t tell me. If I know anything about you, Leisel will find a way of getting the information out of me.” She pulled me toward her and hugged me tightly. “You’ve always been my best friend and you always will be. I love you, Sunny.” I felt the tears roll down her face. I knew what she was doing, and it was too much to bear.

“Don’t you say goodbye to me, Summer! Holt is not going to win. We’ll see each other again.”

“Sure we will. Just do me a favor and stay hidden.” She gave me a sad smile and kissed my cheek. Then she was gone out the door.

It was insufferable to think I would never see her again. I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without her. Her strength, her ability to take a bad situation and turn it into an adventure enriched my life so much. But my effervescent friend was gone. The same monster that wanted me dead had enslaved her. There was no bright side to this adventure.

I rubbed the tears off my cheeks and left the bathroom. A guard stood at the far end of the hall, but he was oblivious to me. I headed back to the stairs and descended the two flights to our apartment.

“Jack?” I called out when I entered the apartment. There was no answer. “Jack?” I called out a little louder, but still there was no answer. A nervous flutter started in the pit of my stomach as my mind raced to the conclusion that he had been captured. I ran into the bedroom and found him on the mattress, flat on his back and covered in coal dust. He was snoring faintly, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Jack, wake up.” I sat down on the bed beside him. He didn’t even stir. “Jack.” I gently shook his arm. With lightning reflexes, his hand came up and wrapped around my throat. For an instant I felt him starting to squeeze. “Jack!” I choked out. He dropped his hand.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” he snapped. I could tell he still wasn’t quite awake.

“They’ll stop serving dinner soon.” I stood up and massaged my neck, making a mental note to be more careful around him.

He rubbed his eyes to force them open. “I can’t decide what I need more—sleep or food.”

“Food. You can sleep again later, but food is only served three times a day. Miss a meal, and it will be a long time before the next one.”

“Hey, were you crying?”

“I just saw Summer.”

“Oh. Look, if you want to beat me up again, then I’ll let you know right now I’m too tired to fend you off. Just go ahead and punch me.” He threw his arms wide open on the bed to give me clear access to his stomach.

“Maybe after dinner. She told me she’s with President Holt. Leisel signed her up to be with her father after the bachelor party.”

Jack sat straight up in bed and gave me a look of surprise. He was fully awake now.

“Your friend Summer is within Leisel’s reach?”

I nodded.

“Then she’s got to be part of Leisel’s plan. What angle could she be using with her?”

I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I was beginning to learn that everything Leisel did had a motive behind it.

“She set up Summer with the president the night of the bachelor party, but she couldn’t have known then that we would escape and go into hiding.”

“You’re right. Summer was part of her plan that night. How?”

The realization hit me. “Probably as insurance to make sure I did what she wanted! She threatened to tell on Summer for stealing food if I didn’t go along with her plan. If the threat hadn’t been enough to convince me, she probably would have paraded Summer out in front of me and threatened to do worse. Leisel found my weakness.”

“And now that we’ve escaped, she’s keeping Summer close. Does Holt know that you and Summer are friends?”

I shook my head.

“Leisel can’t tell him without implicating herself. Summer says she’s playing the brokenhearted victim in front of her father.”

“A little handicap like that isn’t going to slow her down. Are you sure that you and Summer weren’t seen talking today?”

“We didn’t speak to each other in public—we met in the bathroom and no one else was in there. Summer’s aware she’s being watched—Leisel has her boyfriend following her. Oh, and she said that Holt hasn’t thought to look for you here in the Pit.”

“Why not?”

“She said it hadn’t occurred to him that you would hide down here.”

“So his own prejudices are preventing him from making good decisions again.”

I gave him a curious look. I wasn’t sure I was following.

“Holt would never be caught dead down here, and he thinks I’m every bit as prejudiced as he is. See, I told you he’d keep repeating his mistakes. At least it gives us a bit more time.” He gave me a weak smile. We both knew that eventually we would be caught and killed.

“Then let’s use the time we have left. Did you think about what I asked you? About teaching the miners how to defend themselves?”

“You’re asking me to do the impossible. First of all, Reyes is never going to trust me, so his friends never will either. Second, there is no place away from the eyes of the guards to teach them. Third, it took me years to learn martial arts, and I have maybe a few days at best before I’m caught.”

“So now I know why your family still hasn’t won against the Holts,” I said, almost to myself.

Jack gave me a blank stare.

“You talk yourself out of every good plan. Sometimes you just need a starting point.” I found it frustrating to want to do something to help my own people, but being told I couldn’t. If Jack didn’t want to help, I would find another way. “Never mind. Let’s go to dinner before there isn’t any left.”

“Sunny,” Jack began, but I walked out of the apartment. I was almost to the sixth level when he caught up. “That wasn’t fair,” he said when he came up beside me.

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” I didn’t need him to convince me my plan was a bad idea. I had already made up my mind. If people saw me as a hero, then I needed to live up to the title. I wanted my death at the hands of the president to at least inspire change.

At the risk of missing dinner, I turned toward my father’s apartment. If he was still in bed, perhaps I could convince him to come and eat with us. I found Bron in her usual spot.

“Sunny…” she said and her expression was sympathetic. “I wanted to come and see you right away, but there were Domers down here.”

“What is it?” I knew something bad had happened to my father.

“They took him. I tried to intervene, but there was nothing I could do.”

“They took him?” I repeated stupidly. I’d seen her form the words and I’d heard them, but my brain refused to accept the information.

“I’m so sorry. I wish I could have done something.”

“Are there still Domers down here?” Jack asked.

“No. They left with her father.”

I turned on Jack. “Where did they take him? You of all people would know where they would take him. Tell me!”

“Sunny, I don’t know —”

“Tell me!” I yelled.

But he didn’t tell me. He just looked at me with a defeated expression, and I wasn’t ready to be defeated. In only a few months my entire life had been shattered beyond recognition. The only anchor I’d had left in my life was my dad still living in our family home where I grew up. He couldn’t be gone.

“Tell me!” I yelled again.

But he just shook his head, and my anger flared. I was sure he knew where they took him, and I would do anything to get that information out of him. I pummelled my fists against his chest, but he grabbed my wrists, preventing me from doing much damage.

“Sunny.”

I didn’t want to hear his lies. “You tell me!”

“I’m going to take her home,” he said to Bron over my head.

“This is my home! And I’m not going anywhere with you!”

I tried to break away from his hold on my wrists, but he pulled me down the hall with him. I wasn’t ready to leave my home yet. I needed to see for myself that Dad wasn’t in there. Maybe Bron had made a mistake. I pulled against his hold, but he just tightened his grip.

“Let me go! I need to go back and see. Maybe he’s still in bed, and Bron just didn’t see him,” I sobbed.

Jack pulled me to him by my wrists and looked into my eyes. “He’s gone, Sunny. They have him.”

I didn’t want him to tell me that. I didn’t want to believe it. But somewhere deep down inside, I knew the truth. Bron said Domers took him. Domers didn’t come down here to kick people out of their homes. There was only one reason they would come for my father. Me.

I couldn’t have stopped the flood of tears that came pouring out even if I’d had the strength to try. I had been so naïve to trust Leisel. I thought she had been worth the risk of helping, and yet it had cost me far more than I ever could have imagined. Just thinking of her set every fibre of my being tingling with hatred, and it sapped the rest of my strength. I felt my legs give out from under me, and Jack let go of my wrists to catch me.

“I’m going to take you home.”

“No. I don’t want to go.”

“What the hell are you doing to her?” Reyes yelled from down the hall.

I lifted my head from Jack’s shoulder and looked up to see Reyes bearing down on us. He looked like he was ready to kill Jack. I pushed away from him, hoping my legs would hold me up. They did.

“Reyes, it’s not what it looks like.”

But Reyes didn’t listen. He headed straight for Jack. “I told you not to touch her,” he ground out between clenched teeth. He pushed Jack hard, making him back up a few steps.

“He wasn’t touching me like that!”

Reyes was taking another run at him, and I put my hand on his arm and stopped him. I saw Jack getting ready to spring at him. I knew what damage Jack could do to Reyes, and I silently pleaded with him to leave Reyes alone. I saw Jack relax.

“Then what the hell was he doing?” Reyes looked at me for the first time. “You’re crying.” He gave Jack another accusatory glare.

“Can we go somewhere and talk?” I asked Reyes calmly.

He turned back to me and gave me a nod. I slipped my hand into his and walked down the hall with him. I hadn’t been alone with Reyes since the night I was drafted to work at the bachelor party, and I owed him so much.

“They took my father,” I said when we’d found a place to be alone.

“I heard. It’s always big news when Domers come into the Pit. You know I’m still here for you.”

He looked into my eyes and brushed away my tears. I looked back into his dark eyes. When he wasn’t angry or upset, he had kind and loving eyes. I always thought they were his best feature. He brought his lips to mine, and we kissed. The kiss was gentle at first, but then he became more aggressive. He backed me up against the wall, and his hands started searching under my t-shirt.

“Stop!” I said, breaking away from his lips.

“I don’t want to stop this time.” He kissed my neck while his hands continued their search despite my struggles. “What are you wearing?”

“God, Reyes, this is not the time!” I pushed hard against his arms, trying to free myself from him.

“It’s never the right time, Sunny.” He dropped his hands from me and took a step back. “I don’t understand. We’ve been together so long! If you loved me you would want to.”

“For god’s sake, Reyes! I just found out that my father’s been taken into custody. I don’t know if he’s being tortured or already dead.” I was astonished by his complete lack of sympathy.

“And I might lose you.” Despair laced his voice.

Now I understood his desperation to make love to me, even though it wouldn’t help either one of us. In fact, it would just make things more difficult. Not only was I a felon on the run, I was legally married now. “Oh, Reyes,” I said softly. “I’m sorry I did this to you. I’m sorry we can’t be together.”

“We can still be together. You don’t have to live with that bourge.”

“But I don’t have anywhere else to go and neither does he.”

“Who cares if he has somewhere to go? Get rid of him, and I’ll move in with you.”

I tried to figure out what he was asking of me. Why was he bringing this up now, just when I was trying to deal with the news of my father? Didn’t Reyes know that my life was a mess? Why was he trying to complicate it even more?

“You know what you’re asking is impossible,” I said, shaking my head. “The first time we had to scan in during a lockdown, we’d be caught and arrested.”

“Or maybe you just don’t want to get rid of him.”

“What?”

“Maybe your marriage to him wasn’t an accident. Maybe it happened exactly like the president’s daughter said!” He took another step away from me.

“No. It happened exactly the way I told you. I didn’t lie. I’m not in love with Jack, but that doesn’t mean I want to see him hurt. Right now, our new identities are the only thing keeping us safe.” As I said the words a little voice inside my head started laughing at me. Safe for how long? I wondered if I was going crazy. How could Reyes demand a future with me when I could be dead tomorrow? Didn’t he know my life was as good as over?

“I don’t know what to do,” he said in frustration.

“Neither do I.” We looked at each other for a moment, knowing we had reached an impasse. Finally I broke the silence. “It’s going to be lights out soon. I need to get back.”

“Think about what I asked.”

I smiled sadly and gave him one last kiss before I made my way back to the apartment. I could think about it all I wanted, but nothing was ever going to change.