Текст книги "Sunset Rising"

Автор книги: S. McEachern

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Текущая страница: 21 (всего у книги 22 страниц)

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. 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 said.

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

“Why would he lie about that?”

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

“It would solve everything,” David said. “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 said.

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

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

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.

“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,” I whispered back.

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

“Then we’ll go,” Jack said.

“Sir, it’s suicide,” Bron said.

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

“How will you get back in?”

“I don’t know, Bron,” Jack said. Then he smiled at me. “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. 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,” I said. “Leisel probably has a search party out for us by now.”

“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,” Jack told Bron. Then he looked at David. “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 in the Dome that will stand up for 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 said.

“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 might never come back there 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 battle.

“Yes, we are,” Jack said.

“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!”

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

We reached the main level without any further incident. I wasn’t sure where we were going, 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 had 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 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 hadn’t thought of that.”

Jack extracted the chip from my hand. I took the Spritze device from him and took his chip out. He picked up a new chip, popped it into his computer, and started tapping away.

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

“Crystal.” I wanted to be named after a hero.

He took the chip out of his computer and implanted it in my hand. Then he put another chip in. “Who should I be? How about Ted, after my brother.” He typed on his computer again, and 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.”

“We’re not married this time?” I asked, disappointed.

“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 sending the message. I was trying not to think about the fact that we were going outside. My stomach was starting to tie itself into little knots.

“Done,” Jack said. “Before we go, there’s someplace 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?”

“It’s important to me.”

I smiled. “Then how can I say no?”

Chapter Thirty-Two

He opened the door and we strode out of the storage room, easily blending in to the light traffic in the hallway. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was getting late. It would soon be lights out in the Pit.

Jack led me through a maze of hallways until we came to another set of doors with two Domers guarding the entrance. He gave them a nod, and we strolled through. This section was different. Most of the doors we passed 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.”

I only saw a few 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 under guard. Jack walked toward the two Domers and waved his hand over the scanner. I did the same.

“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 as 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 I wanted to feel the warm, moist air against my skin. My nose was assaulted by scents I had never smelled before. Sweet scents 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 never thought I would get to see anything like this in my lifetime.

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

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

“Well, not mad. Annoyed maybe…” He smirked. “Come on. I’ll show you around.”

“Are all the bourge allowed to come here whenever they want?” 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 guards are permitted in here. It’s too important to the ecosystem of the Dome to allow it to be damaged in any way.”

“Why? What is it for?”

“A lot of thought went into building this Dome long before the bombs were ever launched. Because the inside of the Dome is sealed off from the outside world, it needs to make its own atmosphere, which isn’t easy. So the scientists who designed it had to think about the earth’s own processes and try to duplicate them, right down to the water and carbon cycles in order to create an atmosphere in here. The only way they could do that was to grow nature inside. So they built a rainforest, an ocean, and a boreal forest. There’s also a prairie with a freshwater lake that’s used to farm meat and grow vegetables. The rainforest produces fruits and vegetables, and the ocean provides fish. There are a lot of animals in here too as a way to restock the earth once we can leave the Dome.”

I was amazed. “An ocean, too?” He nodded. “If only Domers and scientists are allowed in here, how did you come to know it so well?”

He patted the computer in his pocket. “Because I know how to get in and out without being caught. Ted and I used to come here all the time and hide in the foliage whenever the guards walked by. We loved this place. I used to fantasize about bringing the girl of my dreams here.” He blushed.

“So I take it you never brought Leisel here.”

“No! That would have ruined this place for me.”

We were strolling along a footpath, but he stopped for a moment and pointed to something in a tree. I looked and saw some type of monkey. It was small and reddish in color.

“I think it’s called a tamarind,” Jack said. “There are a few monkeys in here that like to throw their poop at you, so stay away from them.”

I looked around nervously. “How will I know which ones they are?”

He gave me a confused look. “They’ll be the ones throwing poop at you!” I laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you if we come across any.”

“My hero.” I tucked my hand into the crook of his arm. He seemed pleased. “I have noticed that we’re the only two guards in here. Where is everyone?”

“After I made our new identities, I scheduled us to guard the rainforest for the night shift. I cancelled the two that were supposed to be here. I assume they’ll just get sent home when they show up for work. It’s late, so there’s no scheduler on duty to check with.”

“You always think of everything, don’t you?”

“I told you before, that’s how every Kenner is raised.” He gave me an admonishing expression as if my forgetting that detail was unforgivable. Then he smiled. “Come on. I want to show you the ocean before the lights go off.”

We followed along a well-worn footpath through the forest, taking care not to trample any foliage. There was an occasional rustle in the bushes, which startled me, but I quickly got used to it. I felt like all my senses were coming alive there. I wanted to see, smell, and touch everything.

“Is it just me, or is it getting darker in here?” I asked. My eyes were no longer feeling so light sensitive. Everything seemed dimmer.

“They simulate the sun going down and the moon coming up.”

The foliage became less dense as we travelled the path, and I noticed the soil was fading away and being replaced by white sand. The trees weren’t as tall, and fruit grew on some of them. We broke out of the forest into a clearing, and there it was. The ocean.

“It’s beautiful!” I said breathlessly. I felt strands of my hair lifting away from my face. “Is that wind?”

“The air current is generated when the warm air of the rainforest mixes with the cool water of the ocean,” Jack said.

“What kind of fish is in the water?”

“Tons of different fish and coral reefs, which provide the Dome with food. But it’s the algae that are the most important feature of the ocean, since it contributes to our oxygen supply. The enclosure itself is made of thick Plexiglas. It’s really ingenious when you think about it.”

I had never seen an ocean for real—only in books and movies. And this one looked real enough to me. It was massive. Waves lapped against a sandy beach, and crabs popped up out of the sand. Birds flew above, diving occasionally to come up with fish in their beaks. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen.

As we stood drinking in the beauty of the ocean, a dimmer, bluish light was quickly replacing the bright light of the sun.

“Is that the moon?”

“A fake moon, but beautiful anyway.”

“A beautiful ending to a horrible day. Thank you for bringing me here.” I gave him a sincere look. “I’m sorry you didn’t get the chance to share it with the girl of your dreams.”

He smiled at me. “I did. Why do you think it was so important for me to bring you here?”

My heart caught in my throat when I realized he was talking about me. He raised a hand to brush the hair away from my eyes and then cupped my face in his hands. His kiss was slow and gentle, and I wrapped my arms around him, pressing myself against him. But the bulletproof vest prevented us from making any real contact. I cursed it silently.

“You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, Sunny O’Donnell,” Jack whispered in my ear. I laughed and pushed away from him in order to see his face.

“You can say that after everything I’ve dragged you through?” I asked in disbelief. “If it wasn’t for me, you would probably be married to Leisel right now and training to be the next president.”

“Married to Leisel?” He grimaced. “Way to kill the mood, Sunny.” He pushed away from me playfully.

I caught his hand in mine. “Seriously, Jack.” I gave him a sobering look. “When I allowed myself to go along with Leisel’s plan, I ruined your life. And I need you to know how sorry I am for doing that. You would’ve been a good president, and all this fighting could have been avoided.”

Jacked studied our entwined hands. His brows drew together, and he frowned. “I wouldn’t have made a good president. My only agenda was the same as my family’s—restore democracy. I didn’t have any plans for the Pit.” He raised his eyes away from our hands and looked into my eyes. “My whole world was up here, in this Dome, sealed away from the Pit. The most consideration I ever showed the people down there was to advise the president to stop decreasing rations and concentrate more on decreasing the population through stricter controls. Do you believe that?” He shook his head and chuckled bitterly. “For most of us up here, the Pit is just a place where our coal comes from, where our sewage is treated, where our laundry is cleaned.”

My heart sank with every word he spoke. Why was he saying those things? The Jack Kenner I had come to know wasn’t like that. I dropped his hand. He looked at me apologetically.

“My time down there with you was… a revelation. My view of the Pit—god, my view of the Dome—has changed so much. I’m a better person for having you in my life. Don’t ever apologize for that.”

“So you never wanted to help us?”

“Not before I met you. You changed me. The Pit changed me. Listening to the children sing in the common room changed me. And Crystal’s sacrifice…” He shook his head sadly. “When I was growing up, my parents told me there were monsters down in the Pit. They always threatened to send my brother and me down there if we didn’t behave. Their threat always worked because we believed in the monsters. It wasn’t until I was living there with you that I found out the monsters were us.” He rubbed a hand across his eyes. “I just want to be honest with you, Sunny. You putting on that wedding dress was the best thing that ever happened to me. It was the best thing that ever happened to the Pit. Don’t be sorry.”

I remembered when Jack had asked me if I believed in fate, and now I saw why. If we had never gotten married things would never have changed in the Pit. I didn’t like what he was saying, but I did appreciate his honesty.

He picked up my hand and stroked my palm with his thumb. “Don’t hate me.”

I looked into his eyes. “I don’t hate you. I’m glad you’re being honest with me.” I didn’t want to lose Jack. We needed each other now more than ever. “But if you felt that way about the Pit, why did you come with me? I mean, once we escaped from your apartment you could have found someone to hide you.”

“One reason was that I didn’t think Holt would look for me there right away, and I was right. And another reason was… I wanted to see where you would take me.” He smiled shyly.

I looked at him in surprise. Jack wanted to be with me?

“Don’t look so shocked. Do you know how hot you looked in that green dress?!”

“That tacky green dress? Ugh!” I closed my eyes at the memory. It was the most hideous thing I had ever worn.

He chuckled at my discomfort. “I didn’t say it was a tasteful dress. It left little to the imagination, and I think every man in the room stopped to look at you when you walked in. I was glad to get you out of there. But I didn’t really notice you until the next day. You were wearing my bathrobe, all the makeup washed from your face, looking so young, innocent, and beautiful. And then you told me you were willing to risk your own life to save your people. Something inside me just clicked, and I knew I had met the girl of my dreams.”

I stroked his face. “That’s the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me. I wish I could tell you I liked you then, but I didn’t. I really wanted to scratch your eyes out at one point.”

“I know, and that was part of your allure. Every other woman in the Dome wanted to sleep with the next president, but not you. You wanted to kill me.”

I laughed. He was right. “To be honest, I struggled to stay with Reyes when I went home even though I knew I couldn’t offer him a future. I just felt like I owed him. And then when we broke up I felt so… relieved. I felt free. And I let myself look at you in a different way.”

“So you do have feelings for me?” he asked cautiously.

I was happy that we were finally being honest with each other, but I felt self-conscious talking about my feelings so freely. “Of course. I don’t go around kissing just anybody, you know.”

“And now that you’re married, you better not start.” Jack pulled me to him and kissed me again. Any awkwardness I had been feeling melted away as his kiss became deeper. I wrapped myself around him, wanting to get closer. Everything about him was suddenly intoxicating.

“Damn vest!” he muttered.

I was about to offer to take the vest off when a hot, piercing pain exploded into my side. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. I couldn’t catch my breath.

Jack looked at me in surprise. “Sunny?”

I heard another bullet whip past our head.

My rifle was still slung across my back, and Jack reached behind me, aimed it, and pulled the trigger. The gun fired, jolting me against him. I heard a thud somewhere behind me. He picked me up and ran for the forest.

“Can you breathe?” he whispered. My breath was starting to return, but I was still gasping. “Where did it hit?” He set me down and pulled at my shirt.

I grabbed his arm and sucked in a breath. “It hit the vest.”

Jack nodded. “There’s another shooter. Stay out of sight.”

I was actually able to breathe, though my back screamed with each breath I took. I ducked my head when I heard another shot.

“We have to move!” Jack whispered, pulling me up with him. He had his rifle in one hand and took aim at the area the shot had come from.

“I’m okay,” I said, ignoring the pain.

We moved farther away from the beach and into lusher foliage. I listened intently for any sounds. The animals had become eerily quiet, so it wasn’t difficult to hear the twig snapping about twenty feet away from us. I looked in the direction of the sound and clearly saw a Domer moving through the forest with his rifle raised. If only I knew how to use the rifle I carried, I would have shot him. Instead, I tapped Jack on the arm and pointed. He peered into the dark forest and shrugged. I pointed again, not wanting to talk or make any sound. How he could he not see him? Jack looked again, but still didn’t see him. The guard was now a scant ten feet from us and still advancing. Jack finally saw him, took aim, and pulled the trigger. The guard dropped.

I heard the doors to the rainforest opening, followed by the sound of footfalls coming into the room. I didn’t know if they were here for us, or just responding to all the gunfire. Jack motioned for me to follow him. We stayed low, keeping to the bushes and away from the footpaths. We didn’t travel far before we came up against a stone wall.

Farther along the wall I could see the shadow of a doorway. I pulled Jack in that direction, and he shook his head. I pointed to the door. He looked, but I could tell he couldn’t see the shadow. I wondered how he could be so blind when the moonlight was so bright in here. I firmly took him by the hand and pulled him toward the door. Reluctantly he followed.

There was a scanning device on the door itself. I was about to wave my hand in front of it when Jack grabbed it and shook his head. He took out his computer and tapped away on the screen, which seemed to take forever. I could hear footsteps getting closer to us. I looked for any figures coming through the darkness, but didn’t see anything yet. Finally, the door unlocked.

We went through and silently closed the door behind us. We were in another section of the bio-dome. This section was a lot more open than the rainforest we had just left. There were a few trees and bushes, but no dense foliage to hide in. I could see several corrals with animals in them. Some of the animals were becoming restless with our arrival. I wondered if this was the prairie section Jack had told me about earlier.

We moved into the room, using the corrals as cover. The animals really didn’t like our presence. The horses were the first to start whinnying, moving about their enclosure as if to get away from us. I didn’t like being here at all.

“Someone there?” a Domer called out. Of course this section would be guarded, too.

Jack grabbed my hand, and we ran from behind the horse enclosure to the cows. They weren’t any happier to see us. The guard on duty was alerted and used his communicator to call his partner for backup. I desperately looked around for another door and found one on the opposite side from where we were hiding. I pointed it out to Jack. Not surprisingly, he couldn’t see it. I took him by the hand and headed in that direction. With each enclosure we left we had to run and hide behind another one. We were more than halfway across the room when one of the guards saw us. A shot rang out, and we dove behind a pigpen. I heard them running toward us. Jack took out his computer and tapped on the screen.

“Run,” he said in a low voice once he had the door unlocked.

We both stood up and made a run for the door. The guards stopped running in order to take aim and shoot at us. We ducked as low as we could, still running at full speed to make it to the door. A bullet whizzed by my head so close I felt my hair move. I resisted the urge to panic and kept going.

I heard more Domers filing into the room, and they shouted for us to stop. We didn’t. Jack was the first to reach the door, and he yanked it wide open for me to run through. We shut it quickly, and he reprogrammed the lock.

“That should hold them for a while,” he said.

We were standing in some kind of utility room. The door leading out wasn’t locked, so we just went through. We were presented with three different hallways to choose from: left, right, or straight ahead. Jack pulled up a map of the Dome on his computer and figured out where we were. He went left, and I followed. We had just reached the end of the hall and were going through a door when I heard the utility room door burst open and guards come pouring out. Jack quickened his pace, and I kept up. He was following the map he had in his palm. I wondered where in the Dome we could run and not be found. We were out of places to hide.

He led me through a maze of hallways and doors, and it seemed to me that this part of the Dome was dirty and smelled bad. We finally turned down a dead-end hall dominated by a huge steel door.

“Where are we?” I whispered, afraid of giving our position away.

“Garbage chute. This is how we get out. It’s one way.”

Jack began to do his magic on his computer, and I kept glancing nervously over my shoulder, expecting an army of Domers to come crashing down on us at any second. I decided that if that happened, I would make them shoot me right there, right then. I wasn’t going to allow my death to be put on display as some kind of fear-mongering tactic by a crazy president.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard the garbage chute door open. It didn’t open out toward us like the steel doors at the reception area of the Dome. This door retracted into the left side of the doorway. It was the thickest metal door I had ever seen.

“Not the nicest way to leave the Dome, but any other exit we take will set off an alarm,” Jack said.

We walked in together. A lot of garbage already filled the room. Most of it was mining debris, but there were barrels of chemical waste, among other things. I was thankful there was nothing organic rotting in here, otherwise the smell would be unbearable. All organics in the Dome were composted and used again. Jack tapped on his computer again, and the huge steel door closed, sealing us inside. It was so dark once the door shut that even I couldn’t see. Jack illuminated his computer and used it like a flashlight.

He touched my back, and I flinched in pain. “Ouch!”

“Those vests are good for stopping bullets from ripping through you, but they still leave their mark. You were lucky you were wearing it.”

“So this leads outside?” I asked.

Jack nodded.

“Is there air from outside in here now?” I asked hesitantly. I wondered if I was already breathing in toxic air.

“No. I’ll show you.” Still using the light from his tablet, he took my hand and led me to the back wall. “This is another door reinforced with lead that divides this chamber from an outer one. The floor we’re standing on is actually a conveyer belt. When it’s activated, this door opens, the garbage from this room is advanced into the next chamber, and the door closes. The weight of the garbage triggers a high-powered air current to turn on, an outer door opens, and the conveyer belt dumps the garbage outside. The air current is used to prevent air from outside coming into the chamber, so it doesn’t shut off until the outer door is sealed shut again. Then a ventilator comes on and sucks out any poisonous air that may have come into the room. The ventilator runs for at least twelve hours to ensure there is no radiation before the next load of garbage is moved forward. You can hear the hum of it now.”

“So if the ventilator is on, that means garbage has been dumped within the last twelve hours?”

“Yes. It won’t activate again until it’s done the twelve-hour cycle,” Jack said, raking a hand through his hair. I noticed almost all of the coal was gone. “You sure you want to do this?”

“I’m sure.” I lied. I was scared to death. Even the thought that I could be breathing poisonous air right then was terrifying to me.

“We’re both exhausted. We should try and get some rest. We’ll need all our strength soon,” Jack said.

He led me to a corner of the dump and pulled me down beside him. I laid my head on his shoulder, positioning myself so nothing touched my bruised back. He wrapped his arms around me and held me against him.

It felt good to rest.

It felt safe in his arms.