Sunset Rising (18 page)

“What the hell is wrong with you, Jones?” Madi
said, coming to stand threateningly close to me.

“I’m sorry
, Supervisor. It won’t happen again.” I retrieved a shirt from the floor.

“Be thankful it
’s dirty clothes hitting the floor. You don’t want to know what’s going to happen to you if they’re clean!”

She stood there watching my every move, her hands balled into fists just waiting for me to drop something.
I didn’t give her the satisfaction. Eventually someone else caught her attention, and she left me to stomp to the back of the room. I heard her scream at another worker and looked up in time to see Madi strike the girl. Blood streamed out of the girl’s nose.

I
quickly looked away when I saw Madi scanning the room to see who else she could challenge. If only I had the courage, I would gladly confront her, but like everyone else here, I was too afraid. Some hero I was turning out to be.

Di gave me a stern look.
I tried to jolt my befuddled brain into an alert state, but it was difficult. I had a sudden urge to run away and hide in the mineshaft like Summer and I used to do when we were kids. Sometimes we’d stayed in there for hours talking about everything and nothing. Life was so much simpler back then.

I managed to get all the clothes into the washer
without dropping any, although the real challenge was going to be when I had to take the clean clothes out and get them dried and folded. I forced myself to be more methodical, concentrating on every detail, and somehow managed to get through the rest of the day without dropping anything else. But it took me forever. When the
bong bongs
heralded the end of the working day, I still had clothes to fold. I didn’t scan out until twenty minutes later.

“Jones,” Supervisor Madi said when I came up to scan out. “I don’t care what you’re upset about in your life, when you’re here in my laundry room you pay attention to what you’re doing.
I can’t say I like you very much. Hopefully, you can change my mind about that.”

“Y
es, ma’am.”

I wasn’t sure if I could oblige her
, though. After today, I didn’t like me very much either.

Jack was asleep in the chair when I got back to the a
partment. I shut the door behind me as quietly as I could, but he awoke. He looked drained. The circles under his eyes were every bit as dark as the coal smudged through his hair.

“You had to work late again?” he
asked.

“I guess that’s the way of the la
undry room. Ready to go for dinner?”

He nodded
groggily and put on his hat. I could tell he didn’t really want to go. He was exhausted and needed to sleep.

I headed toward the sixth
-floor common room. Not that I really wanted to see Reyes, but he would wonder why I had disappeared if I didn’t talk to him. I didn’t want him to come looking for me and create a scene on the floor where we lived. It was better to let him down closer to his own home and far from ours.

The common room was already quite full when we joined the
line for food. Reyes was there with Raine and Mica. Although Raine and Mica were both married, I rarely saw them out with their wives. They were always hanging around Reyes.

There was an empty seat next to
Reyes, and he patted it when he saw me in line. I headed toward him once we received our food rations, and Jack followed mutely behind. I would talk to Reyes privately once we were done eating.

“So is he going to follow you everywhere now?” Reyes
asked.

Jack was midway to sitting down and stood back up.
“I don’t mind sitting at another table.” He turned to leave.

“Stop it
, Reyes! Jack, sit down.”

Jack
hesitated a moment, then returned to his seat.

“You can’t expect me to hang out with this bou
rge and like it,” Reyes said.

“Yeah, your boy got his butt kicked again today,” Raine
said, looking at Jack.

Again?
I gave Jack a confused look. He was too good of a fighter to get his butt kicked. “You didn’t tell me anything,” I said to him.

“You can’t blame the guards, the way he walks around down there like he owns the place,” Reyes said, never taking his eyes off Jack.

I knew what he meant; Jack reeked of authority. He had a confident demeanor about him that wasn’t common in the Pit. It was bound to get him into trouble with the guards. But I still couldn’t imagine Jack putting up with someone beating him.

“What happened?” I asked Jack.

“We’ll talk about it later,” he said.

Reyes snickered.
“The guards like picking on him. He backs down pretty fast. Not so big down here in the Pit, are ya?”

Raine and Mica laughed
, too.

I was suddenly overcome with pity for Jack. “Reyes, that
’s enough! You’re behaving like a child.”

“What? I’m the bad guy here
?” Reyes turned to look at me. I had never seen him look at me that way before. Was it anger? Hatred? “The president wants to kill you because of that bourge, and I poke a little fun at him and
I’m
the bad guy?”

“He
isn’t the bad guy either. The president wants me dead because of a decision I made, so don’t blame him for this.” I was startled to hear myself say all that. But I believed every word.

I was done blaming the bourge and Jack for the mess I made of my life.
What I did was foolhardy and stupid, and it was the reason the people I loved most in life were in danger. It was time to stop feeling sorry for myself and start dealing with the consequences of my own actions. And I knew Jack could be a good ally. He could help everyone down here and make a difference.

“
Give him a chance. He can help us get organized and push back against the bourge. He knows how they work, and he can anticipate their decisions. He can teach you all how to fight. How to defend yourselves.” I looked from Reyes to Raine and Mica.

They all burst out laughing.
Jack rolled his eyes.

“The way he cowers in front of the guards and you think
he
can teach
us
how to fight?” Reyes laughed in disgust. “Why are you defending this guy? Why are you living with him?!”

“Reyes, we’ll talk about this later,” I said in a low voice.
I should have known his temper would get the better of him. I should have known he would make a scene.

“We don’t need to talk about it later.
I see your answer written all over your face,” he said bitterly. “You know, Sunny, I waited four long years for you to marry me. I put up with your excuses when you kept postponing our marriage. I even stood by you when you chose to be a plaything at this idiot’s bachelor party instead of coming to me for help. And then you went and married him! And I’m supposed to be the sympathetic one in all of this. I’m supposed to understand that you married him to save Summer… to save the entire Pit. And up until now, I think I’ve been very tolerant. But I will not sit here while you stand by his side instead of by mine.” With that, Reyes scraped his chair back from the table and stomped out of the room.

I looked around the table
. Mica and Raine stared at me while Jack pretended to be interested in his stew.

“He’s just hurt
, Sunny,” Raine said.

Mica gave me a
deadly glare and made a show of pushing himself away from the table to follow Reyes. A few seconds later, Raine left, too.

“That went well,” Jack
said when we were alone.

“Don’t
.”

I could feel a headache coming on.
I rubbed my temples, trying to hold it at bay. I was stunned Reyes felt that way. He made it sound like I had taken him for granted all these years. He obviously didn’t understand me. But then again, he had always wanted me to be someone I wasn’t.

I was vaguely aware of a shift of mood in the room
. The dinner hour was done, and the evening entertainment was starting. Someone dragged a stool in front of the room and started singing. Other people joined in. I used to love staying here after dinner with my parents to hear the songs and listen to the stories. But I hadn’t been here since my mother was Culled. Now my father was gone, too. There was no enjoyment left in it for me.

I wasn’t sure how long I sat there with my head in my hands, but I remembered Jac
k was still sitting with me. I looked across the table at him. He seemed to be enjoying the song. It was an old one about how we came to be in the Pit. I used to love this song when I was little because there were a few verses only the children sang. The song was a bittersweet one about how we were saved, only to be cast down into slavery. Jack had his chair turned completely around to watch the singers, so I couldn’t see his face. I waited until it was done before I suggested we leave.

“Ready to go?” I thought I saw him rub his eyes before he turned back to me.
His lashes were still wet. “Are you okay?”

“The song was… moving
.” He stood up and walked toward the door. I followed him.

“How about you?
Are you okay?” he asked, once we were back on the stairs headed for the fourth level.

“Yeah
.” Lying was easier.

“You want to beat me up again?”

“Sure.” It might just be the thing I needed right now.

As soon as we entered our apartment, I went directly into the bedroom and took off the vest.
It felt so good to get the weight off my shoulders and chest. It had almost been the death of me in the laundry room. Jack was lounging in a chair when I returned to the living room.

“So, you and Reyes have been enga
ged for four years.”

I ignored him and went to the sink to get a glass o
f water.

“How
old are you?” he asked after a moment.

“Seventeen.”

“Seventeen? I married a teenager?” He sounded shocked. “Wait a minute, are you telling me that you and Reyes got engaged when you were only thirteen?”

“Yes.
What’s so strange about that?”

“I’m twenty and that’s a young age in the Dome to get married.
Usually people wait until they’re about twenty-five.”

“Well
, when you face certain death at thirty-five, you speed up your life a little bit.”

“You’re right.
That was thoughtless of me.” He had the decency to look ashamed. “Now I really deserve that butt kicking you want to give me. Let’s warm up with a few push-ups.” He fell to the floor and starting doing push-ups.

I join
ed him. Working out the other night really had helped ease some of my anger.

“Speaking of getting your butt kick
ed, what happened today?”

He shrugged it off.
“Just like they said.”

“I’ve seen you fight, Jack.
I can’t imagine you cowered.”

“And what do you think would’ve happened if I grabbed the guard’s gun and shoved i
t down his throat?”

I thought about it for a moment. Not that I wouldn’t want to see a guard eat a gun, but
he was right. All the guards would’ve been on him. “I see your point. You were right about Reyes and his friends, too. They’re not going to cooperate. Maybe we can find someone else who wants to learn your skills.”

I had decided I didn’t want to give up on my plan
to help change things. After all the hardship I had brought on my father and Summer, I owed it to them to try to make things right. I didn’t want to fail.

Jack stood up and went into his T
’ai Chi stance. I followed. He began the fluid movements and I tried to keep up, but he seemed to be going a lot faster tonight.

“So you want to start stopping people in the hall and ask them if they want to join the rebellion?” Jack asked
, his tone light.

“Well, it sounds stupid whe
n you say it like that.”

“Alright, we’re all warm
ed up now.” Jack faced me in a defensive stance. “Take your best shot.”

“I don’t feel like it anymore.”

“Come on.” He flicked a hand out at me, stopping inches from my face. “Pretend I’m Reyes. You must be mad at him.”

I threw the heel of my hand toward his face, which he blocked easily.
I followed with a roundhouse kick at his stomach. He pushed me away.

“That’s weak
, Sunny,” he said. “Come on. The other night you just about ripped my head off when you were mad about Summer.”

I had been really mad about Summer.
Even the thought of her now in the clutches of that crazy president was making me angry. He had my father, too. My anger snuck out of the place where I thought I’d had it tucked safely away and gripped me again.

I threw a punch as hard as I could at Jack, then another. He blocked them
both, but I kept coming at him. First with my right leg followed swiftly by my left. He threw a right punch at me, but I pulled my head back and he missed. I instinctively knew he was going to follow with his left fist, and I ducked. He missed again. He was smiling at me. I came at him to wipe the smile off his face, but he turned, and I missed. He grabbed me from behind.

“I see the boyfriend isn’t the key to getting you mad.
Your best friend is,” he whispered in my ear.

I drove my elbow as hard as I could into his stomach.
As soon as I made contact, I heard his breath forced out of him. I realized I might have hit him too hard.

“I’m sorry!” I turned around to see if he was okay.
He was bent over, holding his stomach. “Jack, are you hurt?”

“I’ll be fine,” he choked out.

I felt a little helple
ss watching him struggle to get his breath back. He finally straightened up and gently touched a couple of his ribs.

“Nothing broken
.” He limped off to sit in a chair. “Maybe I should have told you the first rule of sparring before I started teaching you. You don’t actually hurt your partner.”

“Sorry.
I guess I let my frustrations get the better of me.”

“I don’t suppose there’s a hot shower in here?” he asked, even though he
must have known the answer.

“No.”
I laughed at the thought. “But I can take you to the common bath.”

He got up from the chair.
“Take me.”

I
found a couple of towels and a bar of soap in a cupboard. “We only have about forty-five minutes left before lights out. We need to be back by then.”

We left the apartment and headed toward the bathroom.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack changed his mind when he saw where he had to bathe. It wasn’t anything like the private hot shower in his apartment. We reached the bathroom, and I was silently relieved to see that the water had been changed recently. It wasn’t bad at all.