Sunset Rising (12 page)

He stripped down to his underwear.
I was surprised by how muscular he was. He wasn’t as muscle-bound as Reyes, but he was in good shape. And he needed to be physically fit to get down into the Pit the way I was going to take him.

“I can get us down there.
Can you get us out of
here
?”

“I don’t think my chip will unlock the apartment door anymore.
In fact, we’re going to have to dump our chips and get new ones. We’ll have to make a quick stop along the way.”

I
pulled out all the stuffing Leisel had shoved down the vest to make me look bigger then yanked Jack’s t-shirt over my head. He gave me a curious look, but didn’t say anything. I put on his pants, but they were way too big. He got a belt out of his dresser and a knife from the drawer of the bedside table. He handed me the belt, and I pulled it through the loops on the pants. Then he pulled the belt together until it was the right size, punched in a new hole, cut off the excess leather at the end, and cinched it around my waist.

He studied me for a minute.
“You better cover up that hair.” He took two hats out of the closet and handed one to me. He put his hat on and pulled the visor down to cover his face. I did the same, glad my hair was still in a tight bun.

“Ready,” I
said. We walked out into the living room and stared at the door.

After a few moments, Jack said,
“This is crazy, Sunny. We’re never getting out of here, and if we do, they’ll catch us and kill us right away.”

“So you’d rather sit here waiting to die
? If you want to stay, then stay, but I’m getting out of here. If I actually make it to the Pit, then at least I have the chance to say goodbye to my father and friends before I die.”

“Okay.
We need a plan to get out of here. I’m sure there are guards on the other side of the door. If we can create some kind of diversion to bring them in here, we can —”

I screamed at the top of my lungs.

The door opened and in rushed two Domers.

Jack grabbed the gun away from one guard
, and his leg came up to snap the other guard in the face. Neither one was expecting the assault, so Jack had the advantage. He almost had the gun when the guard jerked back to wrestle him for it. The other guard was shaking off the pain Jack had inflicted and was reaching for his weapon. I ran forward to snatch the guard’s gun to prevent him from using it, but he easily overpowered me. Jack swore under his breath. He brought his knee up and rammed it in between the legs of the guard he was fighting, seized his gun, and cracked him under the chin, knocking the guard’s head backward. Then Jack had the gun. He turned on the guard who had me locked in a choke hold and whacked him over the head with it. The guard dropped to the floor. The door stood wide open.

“You want to give me a little warning next time?” Jack
asked.

“Where’d you learn to fight like that?”
I was truly impressed with his skills. After that display, I thought we actually stood a chance of reaching the Pit.

“Military training.
Next time, stay out of the way.” He went back to the table and retrieved his computer. “Come on.”

We looked up an
d down the hall before exiting the apartment. It appeared the guards Desmond had sent away hadn’t come back yet. The carpet in the hallway muffled the sound of our footsteps, so we were able to make fast progress. Jack led us to a door with an exit sign above it. He paused for a moment to look at his computer then tapped on the screen. “Go,” he said, opening the door.

We entered the stairwell and look
ed up and down—no one but us. We headed down to the second floor and stopped in front of another door while he tapped away on his computer. I could hear movement and voices on the other side of the door. This was a busy part of the Dome.

“Through the door and
to the right,” Jack said. “Follow me. Keep your head down. Don’t make eye contact with anyone.”

Jack opened the door
, and we joined the flow of traffic as if we had every right to be there. For the second time today, I found myself parading in front of people trying to be someone I was not. The first time didn’t end so well. I was hoping this time I would be luckier.

As we walked along the hall, I overheard
many conversations. It seemed everyone was talking about the wedding and how Jack ditched Leisel for an urchin girl. And everyone was wondering who that urchin girl was. I pulled my hat down just a little lower.

Jack found the room he was looking for and
knocked on the door before walking in. I was shocked by his boldness, but I followed him, trying to act with the same confidence. We entered a large storage room with shelving units lining the walls. A few sealed bins stood off to one side.

“What are we looking for?” I whispered.

“We’re looking to replace our chips. According to the map, the surplus chips are stored somewhere in here. I don’t know exactly where, though.”

I studied the shelves and
quickly picked up on the pattern that organized them. The bins were grouped by size, and each group was in alphabetical order. I started with the smallest bins first, looking for the words “chip” or “scanning.” Jack was looking in the sealed bins off to the side.

“I found a bin labelled
‘microchips,’” I said. I pulled the bin out and looked inside. There were millions of tiny chips in a protective bag, a pair of tweezers, and an implantation device with the word “Spritze” written on the handle.

“Perfect!”
He popped open a drive on his table and, using the tweezers, took one chip and placed it in the drive. He closed it. “Who do you want to be? Name?”

“What? You can’t
just change the chip?”

“No, I have to make us new ones.
And we can’t be Jack and Sunny anymore—that will get us killed. So what do you want your new name to be?”

“Well if we need new names
, we might as well have new identities, too. You know, just in case we go unnoticed down there for a while. We’ll need jobs.” An idea was beginning to form in my mind. If I could get a new identity and job, then I would still be able to make enough credits to keep my father’s apartment. It didn’t matter if it was Sunny O’Donnell with him or someone else, as long as he had a partner to support him.

I could tell by Jack’s wry expression that he doubt
ed we would be down there long enough to need new identities. “You’re making it more complicated.” He tapped on his computer. “Laundry?”

“Fine.”

“And for me…” He continued to tap on his computer. “Definitely not sewage… Mines. I can work in the mines. So we need names. I’ll be Benjamin. According to the records, every other guy down there is Benjamin, so I’ll blend right in. And for your name… lots of girls named after the seasons… Summer, Winter, Autumn… weird, there’s no Spring.”

“The Cull happens every
spring. Who’s going to name their daughter after that? Use Autumn.”

“Okay… so Autumn and Benjamin Jones are now employed
, and they need a place to live.”

“
What
? We’re going to pretend we’re married?” I needed to live with my father. And it was bad enough Reyes saw me marry Jack on television without actually dragging a “husband” down to the Pit with me. How was I going to explain it was all a mistake while Jack was living with me?

“Well
, technically we’re not pretending. We actually are married,” Jack said absentmindedly as he continued to tap away on his tablet. “And you’re not leaving me on my own down there.”

“Your presence will… complicate my life
.” I hoped to change his mind. I was sure I could find someone to take him in so we didn’t have to live together.

“Boyfriend?”

I nodded.

“Don’t worry
. I’ll stay out of your way.” Somehow I wasn’t reassured. “Okay, your chip is ready.”

Jack took
a Spritze out of the bin and felt the back of my right hand until he found my chip. He placed the device over my chip and extracted it. It was painless. He fitted the new chip into the Spritze and injected it into the back of my hand.

He placed a new chip into his computer and programmed it.

“My turn,” he said, handing me the device. “Just press this button for extraction and this one to insert.”

I
did to his right hand what he had done to mine. Jack took our old chips and crushed them on the floor with the heel of his boot. “There go Jack Kenner and Sunny… I don’t even know your last name, although now that we’re married, I guess it’s Kenner. Anyway, say goodbye to them.”

“O’Donnell.
My name is Sunset O’Donnell.” I looked down where he had kicked our chips under the shelf and was struck by sadness. Why did it feel like a little death to see my chip destroyed?

Jack gave me a strange look.
“Sunset?”

“My mother named me Sunset because of the color of my hair.
I always hated it… until now. Now my name seems like a gift she gave me… something that was special to her… and it’s all I had left.” I needed to shake off the melancholy that suddenly gripped me. I was still Sunset O’Donnell. I didn’t need a chip to tell me that.

“I remember
that the night we met you were interested in a painting of a sunset. Why? Did the picture mean something?”

“Maybe.
I don’t know. I guess I was wondering how my mother knew what a sunset looked like.” Why was I confiding in him? Why did I even bring this up? We were in the middle of an escape. “Forget it. We’re running out of time.”

“You lead the way
.” Jack held the door open for me. The hallway was still busy, and once again we joined the moving crowd.

I was halfway home.

The big
steel double doors were our only way out of the Dome and into the Pit, and to get to them we were going to have to walk through main reception. The whole area was still in a state of pandemonium after that morning’s wedding debacle. Jack was hoping we could slip into a service elevator unnoticed to get to the main floor, but there were long queues at every elevator. We were going to have to go down the grand staircase in full view of everyone.

I followed the same path I
’d taken that morning as a bride and approached the top of the staircase. I hesitated for a moment, the memory still fresh in my mind, but Jack didn’t miss a beat. He wrapped an arm around my waist and swept me along with him.

Traffic on the staircase was thick, but Jack didn’t let go of me until w
e reached the last step and began our trek across the busy room. Both steel doors were open for the servants wheeling carts back out to the kitchens. I noticed that none of them were wearing kitchen uniforms and then remembered the Pit was on lockdown. The bourge had to do their own work during lockdowns. I decided that we could easily act like we’d been sent to help. I led Jack over to the line-up of carts waiting to go and motioned for him to take one. I grabbed one and started wheeling it toward the door. I looked back and saw that he was following me.

I kept
an even pace, resisting the urge to run through the doors. There was a line, and I realized with a sinking feeling that they were going to make us scan-in to pass through the doors. I stared down at my hand where Jack had inserted the new chip. I bit my lip, wondering if it would work. I was so close to being home. Just through those doors, then I could get back to the Pit. Beeps sounded up ahead as people passed the scanner before they filed out. Armed guards stood on the other side of the door. They were always there to keep the urchins out of the bourge’s domain.

One more to go
, and then it was my turn. The person ahead of me scanned and continued on his way. I began to sweat. I moved forward and waved my hand in front of the scanner. Nothing. I tried again. Nothing. My heart pounded harder. Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at Jack. He looked nervous, too.

“Wait a minute,”
said one of the guards as he walked toward me. For just a second, there was no doubt in my mind that I had been caught, but I couldn’t run. My legs were too weak and my feet felt like dead weights. “Scanner’s been acting up all morning,” he said, hitting the side of it a few times. “Try it again. I might have to find a new one.”

The guard watch
ed as I raised my hand to try again. My hand was trembling ever so slightly, and I focused on getting it under control. I passed my hand over the scanner. A beep, and then a green light flicked on. The guard waved me through and motioned for Jack to come forward. I heard the beep behind me.

It took all of my energy to walk on my weakened legs.
I hung onto my cart tightly in case they gave out on me. Then I was through the steel doors and out into the lobby and the entrance to the Pit. The other people with carts were well ahead of me, but I knew my way to the kitchen. This was familiar territory. I walked down the hall and joined the line for the kitchen. I looked behind me and Jack was there. I gave him a worried look. Someone was bound to recognize me in the kitchen. In fact, I was sure I heard Supervisor Bailey instructing people on where to put their carts. She would know me for sure.

A few more carts pulled up behind Jack.
I shuffled ahead as the queue moved, and my panic rose with each step. I cast Jack another look.

“Hey
, buddy,” Jack said to the guy behind him in line. “Can you do us a favour and take these carts in? We were told to get back ASAP to start tearing down that altar. I guess it’s offending the president.”

The guy rolled his eyes.
“Can’t imagine why. Although you can’t blame Kenner. Leisel’s not much of a looker even if she is the president’s daughter. That urchin he married isn’t hard on the eyes, though. What’s her name?”

“Sunny O’Donnell
.” Jack grinned. “Hard to forget the pretty name that goes with the pretty face.”

I couldn’t believe how brazen Jack was being.
He was going to get us both killed.

“Sunny O’Donnell,” the man
said. “That
is
a pretty name. Yeah, sure I’ll take your carts for you. See you back in there.”

“Thanks
.” Jack turned and walked away.

He didn’t wait for me
, so I walked quickly to catch up. The hall we needed to go down was coming up on the right, and I pulled Jack into it when we came upon it. We hurried down the hall and turned left, toward the old mine shaft. No one was back there, so I broke into a run. I could see the small door to the shaft. When I reached it, I took a deep breath and pulled it open. I was relieved. They usually forgot to lock the shaft doors when they did a lockdown, and I was glad this time was no different. We went in, and I shut the door. It was dark.

“Just give your eyes a minute to adjust,” I
said.

“It’s pitch black in here
. My eyes aren’t going to adjust.”

“They will.
What about cameras? I assume there aren’t any in the shafts?”

My eyes had already adjusted, but I was
comfortable in the dark. I searched for the rope I knew was here. Years ago, the shafts were used to transport coal and mining debris up to the Dome. But the system was prone to breaking down, so they built a new one, closer to the place where debris was dumped.

“There aren’t many cameras in the Pit
—only in the common rooms. It was going to be a lot of work to put them in, and there didn’t seem to be much need.”

“We were always told that there were cameras everywhere.
That the walls have ears.”

“That’s exactly why we didn’t bother putting cameras in. Rumour seems to be working just as well.
That, and there are armed guards everywhere. Any of you get out of line, and they can just shoot you,” he said, in a joking tone.

“Oh
, Jack. You’ll soon find out that was no joke.”

I found the rope and gave it a good tug to make sure it was secure.
“Here. Use this to rappel down. I’ll go first and guide you along as best I can.” I scrambled over the side and began my descent.

“Wait!
Aren’t you going to use the rope too?” He sounded terrified.

“I don’t need it.
I’ve been doing this since I was five. And besides, I don’t think that old rope is going to hold two of us.”

I climbed down about ten feet and waited for him to start.
I heard him double- checking the rope. “Come on,” I said.

“I can’t even see!
”

He f
inally lowered himself over the side. Hanging onto the rope, he tentatively lowered one foot. I descended another ten feet and looked up. Jack hadn’t made any progress. “Jack, you’re taking too long. Trust the rope.”

“
You mean this
old
rope? Easy for you to say. You don’t even need it. I can’t see anything. How can you do this?!”

“Just lean out away from the rock, hang onto the rope
, and start walking backwards. You have the rope—you don’t need to find footholds.” I heard him take a deep breath and watched him lean out. He lowered one foot, then the other, and again.

“Hey
, I’m doing it!” he said excitedly.

He continued to
rappel in a slow and steady rhythm. I descended another ten feet. I probably shouldn’t be this close. If he fell, he would take us both down.

“How far do we have to go?” he asked.

“About a mile.”

“Pl
ease tell me you’re kidding.”

“Nope.
But we’re almost there,” I lied.

Down we
went, me staying ten feet below Jack and encouraging him along. He was painfully slow, but I tried not to get frustrated. I remembered it was hard the first time I did it, too. Of course, I was only five.

Finally
, I arrived at the sixth level. I reached over and pulled myself onto the landing.

“Almo
st there, Jack,” I called up.

When h
is feet dangled just above my head, I gave them a little tug to help him along.

“Stop!” Jack
’s voice was edged with panic. “I’ll do it myself.”

I
let go of him. I didn’t need him screaming and bringing the guards in here. He lowered himself far enough to reach over to the landing. I grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him in. He hugged the side of the shaft, testing to make sure his feet were firmly on the ground.

“That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life
.” His face was covered in a sheen of sweat.

I left him alone to collect himself and walked over to the door.
I pressed my ear against it but didn’t hear anything. There was usually traffic in the halls, but everything was quiet. Again, I had to remind myself that the Pit was on lockdown. Everyone would be in their homes.

“I keep forgetting
about the lockdown. The only people in the halls right now are the guards.”

“We can pretend we got lost or something.
Took a wrong turn and we’re trying to get back to our home. Make something up.”

His
naïveté surprised me. “The guards will shoot us on sight—they’re not going to stop and
ask
us anything.”

“They don’t fool around
down here, do they?”

“Nope.”

Jack walked toward the shaft. “What if we climb back up and…”

“
Stop!” I yelled.

He froze.
He’d been about to walk over the edge. I went to him and gripped his arm. The toe of one of his shoes hung over the edge. “Back up,” I said, pulling him back with me.

The door opened and a dim s
tream of light fell on us. We turned around slowly. The only escape was back into the shaft, and we would be nothing but target practice for the guard in there.

“Sunny?
Is that you?” someone called from the doorway.

I squinted at the guard.
“Bron?”

“It’s me.” S
he came in and shut the door. “Mr. Kenner, sir, it’s an honor.” She nodded at Jack. “What are you two doing here? I thought you were in the Dome waiting for your… trial.”

“Are you going to turn us in?” I asked.
I needed to know. I had come so close to getting home.

“I could get in a lot of trouble if I don’t
.”

“I know
. Which is why I won’t ask you to help. I just wanted to get home and see my dad before… you know…”

“That was quite a wedding
. Everyone is talking about it. Everyone’s talking about you, Sunny.” Bron smiled.

“The whole thing was an accident
, Bron. Leisel betrayed us. It’s a long story.”

“Then keep your story to yourself.
Right now you’re a hero down here. You were sent upstairs to be a plaything at a bachelor party, but instead you married the groom and made the president’s daughter a laughingstock. Don’t tell them it was an accident.”

“Don’t tell them?
Does that mean you’ll let me go and see my father?”

“I can take you to him, but you can’t stay there for very long.
There’ll be more guards down here soon for the check-in.”

“Check-in?” Jack asked.

“When we’re on lockdown, we have to return to our apartments and stay there. We can’t visit anyone or go to the common rooms. The guards frequently carry out check-ins to make sure everyone is where they’re supposed to be,” I said.

“Divide and conquer,” Jack
said.

I gave him a confused look.

“Riots happen out of anger, so if you’re left to stew together
, you might just talk and come up with a plan to revolt. If you’re separated, you can’t talk.”

“I always thou
ght we were just being punished.” It never occurred to me that the bourge would ever see us as a threat.

“You’re correct,
sir. We are under strict orders not to let them fraternize during a lockdown,” Bron said. “What will you do after you see your father? Do you have a place to go to?”

“I secured an apartment for us.
It’s on the fourth level,” Jack said.

“Well, come on th
en.” She held the door open for us. “I’ll take you to see your dad.”

I hugged her.
“Thank you, Bron.”

“I’m doing this for your mother.
I know she’d be very proud of you right now. And I’m doing this for the Kenners. I’ve been a loyal member of Liberty all of my life.”

I was shocked to hear
that Bron knew about Liberty.