Sunset Rising (24 page)

I let him go, knowing I deserved his hatred.
I had led him to believe we would spend the rest of our lives together instead of being honest with him and myself. It was my fault he was hurting. I knew I should feel guilty, so I tried to ignore the elation bubbling up inside me at the realization I was finally free of him. I had so many other things in my life to worry about, and our dead-end relationship didn’t need to be one of them. Reyes would survive this.

I went back into the common room and was pleasantly surprised to see a training session in full swing.
Raine and Mica had remained, despite Reyes’s angry exit. Jack saw me and raised his eyebrows. I guessed he was asking me if Reyes was coming back in, so I shook my head. He turned his attention back to the people he was working with.

“If you can’t di
sarm your opponent, then use his weapon against him,” Jack said to the whole room. “Like this.” He motioned for a guard to join him. The guard stood with his rifle pointed at Jack. In one swift movement, Jack grabbed the barrel of the rifle and struck at the guard’s face with it. He didn’t hit the guard, but the force of the attack made the guard back up a few steps, which left him off balance. Jack seized the rifle and kicked the guard in the stomach, knocking him flat on his back, and in one final movement had the rifle pointed at the guard. Everyone clapped. Jack offered his hand to the guard to help him up. He instructed the guards to work with the people standing at the front of the room and then came over to me.

“Everything okay?” he
asked.

“You mean besides the fact that everyone in this room
knows who we are?”

“When he gets mad he makes it count, doesn’t he
?”

“He always had a temper
.” I didn’t want to talk about Reyes. I needed to close the door on that relationship. “So do I get to learn how to do this? I missed our session last night.”

“Sure.
Let me get a gun, and you can try and take it from me.”

Jack went
to the guard by the door and asked to borrow his rifle. I studied the people currently engaged with trying to get the guns away from the three guards working with them. No one was having much success. I saw how clumsy their movements were.

“Ready,” Jack said.

He stood
with both hands on the gun. I replayed in my mind how he had taken the gun away from the guard a few minutes earlier. I attempted it, but Jack was too quick, and I ended up on the floor. I jumped up and came at him again hoping to catch him off guard, but he easily pushed me away. I stepped back and thought about it. It occurred to me that as long as the barrel of the gun wasn’t pointed at me, he couldn’t shoot me. So I needed to get around the barrel and close enough to engage him in hand-to-hand combat. If I could do that, he would need to let go of the gun to fend me off.

I went at him as fast as I could
, and when I saw the nose of the gun come up, I pushed it down and used it to give me balance. I raised my leg and kicked him in his side. His grip on the gun loosened for a second, and I grabbed it with both hands while swinging my leg in a backward arc that brought me behind him. I brought the gun up under his throat and held it there. I heard people clapping and looked up to see them staring at me.

“You do catch on
quickly,” Jack said, smiling.

I loosened my grip on the rifle
, and he lowered it. “Am I scaring you, Jack?”

Suddenly Jack’s hands were on me
, and he threw me over his hip. I hit the floor with an ungraceful flop.

“A little bit
.” He stepped away and left me to pick myself up. “It’s going to be lights out soon so we should wrap it up,” he said to the room.

“Can we try again tomorrow?” Raine asked.

Jack looked around the room to see if anyone else was interested.
Most people wanted to come back. Jack asked the guards, and they agreed as well.

“You were amazing tonight,” Jack said once
we were alone. “You blew me away.”

“I guess it went w
ell.”

“You were great, but we only had maybe fifty people in that room, not nearly enough to take on the few hundred guards that patrol down here.
I told you before, power comes with numbers, and we don’t have numbers.”

“I don’t think we stand much of a chance anyway
. I expect someone in that room will gladly turn us in for the four hundred credits Holt is offering.”

When w
e arrived at our apartment, I scanned my hand across the lock and went in.

“I know.
I think that too.” Jack shut the door behind him. Then he picked up one of the chairs and put it under the doorknob. I gave him an inquisitive look. “At least it will give us a little notice if someone comes.”

“I’ve always known we’ll be caught eventually, but now that it might
be real, I’m scared.”

I didn’t want to die now that I had found a reason to live.
I wanted to see this rebellion through and free Summer from Holt; have the chance to find my father if he was still alive; help liberate the Pit from centuries of slavery. I wanted time to finish what we started.

“You’re scared?” he asked in surprise.
“I can’t believe the girl who stood up on a chair and convinced an entire room to start a rebellion is scared.”

“And you’re not?”

“Terrified. Hey, what was wrong with Raine’s wife? She seemed a little out of it.”

“Women get that way afte
r they’re sterilized.”

“After they
’re what?”

“Sterilized
.” He had an odd look on his face. “You must know about the Sterilization Program. Your government came up with it ten years ago. If a couple doesn’t qualify to have a child, the woman is sterilized and whatever they inject her with makes her go… blank. The injection changes a woman. She’s not as… full of life as she used to be.”

Jack was staring at me with a horrified look on his face when t
he lights went out, leaving us in darkness. Maybe he didn’t know about that program.

“We should get some sleep,” I said.

“
I’ll take the chair.”

“No.
We shared last night, we can do it again tonight.” Considering the way I responded to his kiss this morning, it probably wasn’t a good idea. But we both needed a decent sleep. Jack was exhausted from sleeping in the chair, and I couldn’t afford to be tired and sloppy with Madi as my supervisor.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Just stay on your on side of the bed.” But I didn’t really mean it. I walked toward the bedroom.

“That bed isn’t big enough to have sides
.” He stumbled after me, knocking a chair over.

“You really can’t see
, can you?”

“And you’re surprised?
It’s pitch black in here.”

I took him by the
hand and guided him toward the bedroom. He took off his t-shirt and flopped down on the bed. Since he was blind in the dark, I stripped off my vest and put my t-shirt back on before I climbed in.

“It’s not pitch black in here.
The guards use nightlights, and it leaks into the apartment.”

He
opened his eyes as wide as he could and looked around the room. “I guess you have to born in the Pit to find light where there isn’t any.”

I rolled that thought over in my mind and realized just how true it was.

It felt like I had just drifted to sleep when the sound of the
bong bongs
invaded my dreams. I had barely slept all night because I kept imagining that guards were going to come crashing through the door at any moment and take us into custody. I tried to close my mind off to the annoying sound. I didn’t want to wake up. For some reason, I felt warm and safe, and I wasn’t ready to let go of that feeling. I wrapped my arms around my pillow to pull it tight under my head, but my pillow was hard and wouldn’t scrunch up. Then I realized that the sound of a beating heart was playing under my ear. The shock of what I was doing brought me fully awake. I was snuggling Jack.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry!” I flew into a sitting position.
Jack was wide awake and smiling at me… or maybe he was laughing. It was hard to tell.

“I don’t mind.”

“I was asleep.
I didn’t know what I was doing.” I rolled off the bed and stood up. “I’m so embarrassed.”

“There’s no reason to be embarrassed
.” Jack got out of bed, too. He stood close to me and brushed a lock of hair away from my face. “It’s not your fault. I’m just a hard guy to resist.” Laughter lit up his face.

I rolled my eyes at him and left the bedroom.
I went to the faucet and splashed cold water on my blushing face. Jack’s habits really were rubbing off on me. Just a few weeks ago it would never have occurred to me to waste water like this.

“Well, we made it through the night,” Jack
said. Our imminent capture was probably weighing heavily on his mind too.

“I
barely slept at all.”

“Oh, I
think you got a few good hours.” Jack gave me a wicked smile before he ducked his head toward the sink and splashed water on his face.

I dropped the
towel next to him and went into the bedroom to put my vest back on. It felt heavier every time I wore it.

“You can’t wear that again today.
It almost killed you yesterday.”

“I can’t show up to work ten pounds lighter either
,” I snapped. “I’ll just have to stay on Madi’s good side so I can get my water ration.” Although I knew that was easier said than done. She was cruising for a fight.

We put our hats on and left the apartment.
“You’re not in a very good mood today.”

“I can’t imagin
e why. My life is so fantastic.”

He was right
, though. My mood was particularly bad. Not only was I feeling vulnerable with my identity exposed, I wasn’t altogether happy that not many people had showed up the night before. All the hope I convinced myself of seemed to have been dashed with a bad night’s sleep. And the only thing I had to look forward to was going to work in a room that was hotter than Hades under the glare of a sadistic supervisor. I was exhausted.

Jack put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him as we walked toward the common room.
I stiffened at his touch at first, but decided to let him do it. We looked like any other married couple on their way to breakfast. I put my arm around his waist.

“Try to remember we have people down here on our side now,” he said in a low voice. “Even if someone
wants to turn us in for the credits, it will probably be Liberty guards who come looking for us.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him.
“You mean Alliance guards?” He gave me a wry smile. “I wish I could feel as confident as you do.” Maybe it was the lack of sleep the night before, but I really couldn’t shake this feeling of doom.

It was still early
, and there wasn’t a big line-up to get into the common room. A guard stood by the door as usual.

“Good morning
, sir. Ma’am,” he said as we walked through the door.

Jack bid him
good morning, but I was too shocked to speak. No one had ever called me “ma’am” before, let alone a guard.

“Why did he call me that
?” I whispered.

“He’s trained to show respect
to his leaders.”

“But I’m not his leader
.”

T
he woman serving the food greeted us with a huge smile. She grabbed one of my hands with both of hers and held it warmly for a moment. “You’re doing a good thing,” she said. She gave Jack a smile too before she passed us our containers of food, water, and cups of hot tea. “A treat this morning.”

“Hot te
a? What’s going on?” I said to Jack once we were seated.

“You’re a hero to your people
, Sunny. They want to do nice things for you.”

“But I haven’t done anything to deserve the title
.”

I wasn’t a hero.
I had been a naïve girl who had fallen for Leisel’s lies and was on the run from her father. I suddenly felt bad for keeping that truth to myself so everyone would think I was someone I was not.

“Sure you have.
Stop being so hard on yourself.”

I gulped my breakfast down and drank my water. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a lunch break today or not, so my meal was especially important to me.

The room was star
ting to fill up, and it surprised me every time someone walked by and greeted us. Some people I recognized from the night before, others I didn’t. It concerned me that so many people knew who we were.

“Drink the tea.
It lowers body temperature, which you could use in that hot laundry room,” Jack said.

“Really?”
I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not, but I drank the tea anyway.

I absentmindedly watched Crystal leave the room.
The day before I would have run to catch up with her and try to find out what she knew about Jack, but there was no longer any doubt in my mind she knew who we both were. I wondered if she would tell Madi.

“Sunny?”
Jack said.

“What?”

Jack gave me a puzzled look.
“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.
Just preoccupied. I guess now that everyone knows who we are I’m feeling vulnerable. I don’t know how you’re not feeling that way, too.”

“I am feeling that way
. I’m just better at ignoring it. I take comfort in the fact that we have guards down here on our side. I know you still don’t trust them, though, and I understand." He picked up my hands from the table, held them in his, and looked at me with his intense blue eyes. “I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe.” I appreciated his reassurances, but I just didn’t believe them. He was every bit as powerless as I was.

“I better get to work.
I’m usually there waiting for Madi, and I don’t want to disappoint her this morning!” I tried to sound cheerful. I really did need to shake off the melancholy mood.

Jack and I stood
up at the same time. He slung his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me against him as we walked through the door and out into the hall. I knew he was just trying to show his support and put me in a better mood.

“Be careful at work.
Drink water today,” he said then kissed the top of my head and started the climb down the stairs toward the coal mine. I watched him go until he was out of sight.

I walked the few flights up to the laundry room.
Crystal was already there, as I knew she would be.

“Good morning
, Sunny.”

I stopped dead in my tracks and gave her a blank look.

“Don’t look so surprised.
Everyone knows who you are now. Although, I figured it out the first time I saw you with Jack Kenner.”

So I had been right.
She had recognized him. “How do you know Jack?” There was no point in keeping secrets now.

“I sing at all the p
residential parties and dinners. In fact, it’s the only time I’m allowed to sing. I used to see Jack there all the time when he was engaged to Leisel. As much as I hate the bourge, Jack was hard to miss. I was supposed to sing at their wedding reception.”

I tried to
imagine him at a stuffy party as Leisel’s fiancé but couldn’t. The Jack I knew didn’t fit the image of presidential heir. And the thought made me a little mad. I didn’t want to think of him as a bourge, particularly one who had a relationship with the president’s daughter. Yet he must have fit in at those parties.

“What was he like up there?” I asked hesitantly, not sure I really wanted to know.

“I never talked to him personally, but he always seeme
d polite to everyone. I did notice that whenever they brought girls up from the Pit for their parties, he never touched them. That is, until he left with you the night of his bachelor party.”

“You were there?
At the bachelor party?” I asked in surprise.

Crystal nodded.
“I was serving the head table. I belong to Malcolm West, one of the president’s closest advisors.”

“You
belong
to Malcolm West?” She nodded again. I wasn’t really sure how it worked between a bourge and someone he claimed as his own. “Just like my friend belongs to Holt,” I mused out loud.

“You know Summer?”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. It never occurred to me that she would know Summer, too. “Yes. But don’t tell anyone she knows me!” I was horrified that I had just divulged that information. “If Holt ever knew she was my friend, he’d use her to get to me.”

“I promise I won’t say anything.
I feel sorry for your friend. The president is really crazy, and he seems obsessed with her. Don’t get me wrong, I hate being touched by Malcolm, but at least he’s not insane like Holt. There’s no way out for her.”

“What do you mean there’s no w
ay out for her?”

“President Holt has killed every
mistress he’s ever had. He’s fanatical about keeping the bloodlines clean—you know, bourge and urchins. As soon as he convinces himself she’s pregnant, he’ll kill her.”

“What?”
In my utter shock and disbelief, I couldn’t even process the information she’d just given me. “Convinces himself? You mean she doesn’t even need to be pregnant?”

“None of the girls he’s killed has ever been pregnant.
Rumour has it he’s not capable of having children. And if the rumours are true, Leisel’s mother took an urchin lover and Holt killed her for it, but kept the baby as his own.”

“Is Summer in any danger yet?”

“No. It usually takes a year or two before he turns on his mistress. It depends how long he stays obsessed with her.”

President Holt was a bigger monster than I
had ever imagined. The rebellion became that much more important to me in that moment. I had to find a way to get Summer away from him before he turned.

“Do you see Summer a lot?”

“At least once a week Holt and Malcolm have dinner together in the president’s suites. I sit in the corner with my guitar and sing quietly, while Summer serves them. I’ll probably see her tonight. It’s the president’s birthday, and Leisel is having a small dinner party for him.”

“If you talk to her, can you tell her
I think about her all the time? That I miss her horribly?”

“We don’t get much of a chance to talk
.” A sad, scared look came over Crystal’s face. “When the president and Malcolm are alone, they talk, and… well… Summer and I
hear
things. Things we shouldn’t hear.”

“Like what?” Crystal looked scared and I wanted to know why.

“Forget it. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I would be killed if I ever repeated what I heard.” Crystal shook her head. “Is it true you and Jack are organizing a rebellion?”

“Yes, but it’s hard to start a rebellion with only fifty people.
Not enough people are interested.”

“They’re interested.
They’re just scared.”

“About the things you’ve heard
,” I began, but Madi walked around the corner, and I cut off my words.

“Conspiring again? Don’t let me interrupt,” Madi said sarcastically.
She unlocked the door and walked into the laundry room, letting the door slam in our faces.

I tried not to let Madi irritate me, but already my hand was itching to slap her across the face.
It was going to be a long day in my current mood. I scanned in and went to my workstation.

I was feeling better about Crystal now that we had talked.
I thought someone in the Dome was using her, but it still surprised me to learn that she knew Summer. I felt closer to Crystal now. I understood her better.

I took a cart full of dirty laundry and started sorting it.
I tried to shut everything else from my mind and concentrate only on the clothes. I didn’t want a repeat of the day before. I needed water in order to work in this hell.

“Good morning,
Autumn,
” Di said cheerfully as she came to stand beside me. I guess she knew that wasn’t my real name, too.