Sunset Rising (16 page)

“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 amou
nt 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 ma
de 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 be
fore 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 wor
k. 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.

T
hen I saw Summer.

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 ga
ve 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.

“Lo
oking 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 sign
ed 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 bache
lor 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 frien
ds?” 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 s
he 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 wa
nt 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 b
ack 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 chip
s —”

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 good
bye 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.

“T
hey’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 wit
hin 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 keepi
ng 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 spea
k 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 g
ave 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 y
ou 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 abou
t 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.