The Hollow (Rose of the Dawn Series Book 2) (9 page)

“I don’t know
about this, Leland,” Delia’s voice is tremulous. “Something doesn’t feel right.
It all seems a little too easy.”

We’re all
huddled in a line at the mouth of this underground den. It’s much wider outside
and I’m anxious to stand.

“Of course it’s
right. We made it. We’re out. We’re freeee!” He laughs and then turning, grabs
her face, kissing it. It is hard not to feel his enthusiasm. I turn back to
Christophe and remember he stayed behind.
Has he found Jenny? Is she okay?

Even in the
excitement, no one moves.

“I guess I’ll go
first then,” Leland straightens his body. Hands on his hips he struts up and
out of the hole in the ground into a clearing at the edge of the woods. Birds
chirp and there is the rustling sound of animals foraging through leaves in the
underbrush. There are shrubs around the tree trunks and fiddleheads and ferns surrounding
them. I can see trees! Red-orange Sugar Maples, light green White Pines, and
dark green Hemlocks not far in the distance. We are at the top of the canopy
and there is nothing but trees and sky above us.

And then I
notice the shadow cast upon this open area, before the tree line. The Hollow.
Without turning and looking up, I know it is behind us.

Leland makes a
circle, his arms still open wide. “See, I told you. Everything is fine. We are
all going to be–”

Suddenly,
Leland’s body seizes in convulsion, he jumps up and falls down, landing on the
ground with a thud. His body continues to spasm.

Delia and I
scream, and she moves forward, but I grasp her shirt and pull her back into the
hole with my bionic arm.

“What’s out
there, Delia?” I ask. I can’t see with her in front of me.

“I don’t know,”
she responds. “Archer! Alex!”

Archer and Alex
turn and hurry back through the tunnel.

I crawl up to
the edge of the entrance, but Delia darts from our shelter into the clearing,
throwing herself over Leland’s motionless body. Her body starts to tremble as
she absorbs the electricity. Their eyes are closed and Leland’s mouth droops
open, a small stream of saliva drips off his cheek and onto the ground.

“Who are you? What
do you want from us?” I call. I hear Delia’s sobs muffled. Her face is down on
Leland’s chest. “Don’t hurt them! I’ll come out if you promise not to hurt
them!”

No answer.

I wait and
nothing happens. I creep toward the opening and glance out. Delia is still
protecting Leland, though her body is more slack. More drooped. The wind has
picked up and the blue sky is turning gray. The wind shifts and the humid, hot
air from the tunnel dissipates, a contrast to this cold, biting breeze.

I see movement
in the distance. Out near the trees. A person steps into the clearing. I
recognize her.

“Hara? Is that
you?”

“Rosamund!” She
answers back. I step up and out. I’m no longer afraid. For someone I barely
wanted to know, I couldn’t be happier to see her.

“Who else is
with you?” I ask as we approach each other. I look around, fearful that we will
be seen by someone inside The Hollow. She moves past me to Leland. “Who are you
with, Hara? You didn’t do this.” I look down at her attending to Leland and
Delia still lying on the ground.

“No.” A voice
steps out from some bushes on my right side. I startle. He’s holding a Taser.

“Ezekiel!” I
can’t believe I’m happy to see him, too, despite him hurting Delia and Leland.

A gurgle comes
from behind me. I run over to Leland. Delia is lying beside him on the ground.
She tries to sit up, but her arms keep buckling. Hara lifts and leans Leland onto
his side. His chest heaves. He’s breathing. I put my hand on Delia’s head and
smooth back her hair. I take her arm and help her to a seated position.

Behind us is a
massive, perfectly symmetrical brick edifice, four stories high and laid out
with three attached segments in both directions like extended bat wings. Gothic
spires and turrets, towers that reflect the light of broken stained glass
windows interrupt the skyline. It is atop a hill, above the tree line.

I look back down
at Leland and then to Hara.

“Can’t you do
something?” I ask. She puts her face near Leland’s mouth, then his chest. “He’s
definitely alive and his heart beat is strong. He will be okay.”

“No thanks to
you,” Delia turns, her finger points at Ezekiel’s chest. You can see a slight
shake to her hand.

“It wasn’t him.
It was me.”

From the trees,
Pike steps out. My heart leaps into my chest. He’s holding a small black Taser,
too.

I run up to him.
I throw myself into his arms, my face buried in his chest. He smells the same
as I remember. Like the earth and sweat. Warm. Sweet.

“Rose! We
thought you had been—” he leans back, looks at my artificial arm and stops.

“Pike!” Delia
shrieks.

Pike steps away
from me like some magnetic force is pulling him toward Delia. Still sitting on
the ground, her cheeks are soaked with tears. She tries to get up, but can’t.
He rushes to her side and helps her stand.

She moves her
shaking hands up, around his neck and stares at Pike. She hugs him close until
her arms falls to her side and she almost crumples to the ground. Pike catches
her and envelops her in his arms. And then picking her up, he spins her
around.

“Oh Pike!” she
cries, unable to stop sobbing.

“Shh. It’s
alright. I’m here. I’m fine.” His voice is soft, caring. Loving. “Please stop
crying, Mom. I’m okay.”

“Mom?” I look from Pike to Delia to
Ezekiel to Hara.

Pike holds her
at arms-length. “It doesn’t look like you. You were always beautiful. What did
they do to you?” He touches her flawless skin and holds a lock of her hair,
examining it.

“In the
hospital,” Delia begins. She looks into her son’s eyes. “After the miscarriage,
they took the fetus. And I had the regenerative gene. During recovery, they
came back for me and brought me here.” Not taking her eyes off Pike’s face, she
indicates The Hollow behind her.

“We went back
and you were gone. We were never told anything other than that you had passed
with the baby.” Pike kicks the ground with his boot. “Dad left right after,
though I didn’t believe it. I went back to the Imperial Hospital and searched,
but that was eight years ago.”

It must be how
he knew the hospital so well. They’re all designed the same.

“I’m sorry – I’m
so, so sorry.” Delia’s hands are on his cheeks. They’re both crying. “I’ve
thought about you every day.”

“When you got
out,” Pike begins. “You would’ve come find me, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course!”
Delia cries, throwing her arms back around his neck. He hugs her back.

“I hate to break
up this family reunion,” Leland weakly begins. With Hara’s help he is able to
sit upright, his arms supporting him. Hara puts a syringe back into her cargo
pants. “Thank you, Darling.” He nods at her, though I know they’ve never met.

“He just needed
a bit of a jump start. A recharge,” she says.

Ezekiel helps
him up and throws Leland’s arm over his shoulder.

“What was that?”
I ask Hara who has moved beside me. She greets me with a smile and rubs my real
arm. It feels comforting, even from her.

“Just a serum,”
she answers.

“Mine?” I ask.

She doesn’t
answer. “It works to re-animate natural organs. Luckily he still has his or
that could’ve gone way worse.”

“What are you
three doing here?” I see Pike looking at my arm and I tuck it behind my back.
Ezekiel is standing, moving in a direction away from The Hollow. Ready to move
out.

“Aegis has been
destroyed.” Hara states though her voice is timid. “Everyone was either
captured or killed.”

“Everyone? JJ?
Patience?” I ask.

She looks to the
ground. “The building was demolished, the animals slaughtered. All of the food
was burned. There’s nothing left.”

“What about
Patience and JJ?” I repeat. “And why are you three even out here?”

Hara shakes her
head. She doesn’t answer my second question.

“Serves them
right,” Pike states. By the way he is looking around, I can tell he doesn’t
like that we’re so out in the open. We’re not entirely exposed, but we aren’t
concealed, either.

“Let’s go,”
Ezekiel says.

“Dr. Flint said
they were friends of The Hollow. What did she mean by that?”

“JJ was
coordinating with The Hollow to sell his work. Someone snitched on him to the
Imperial Bead. It was only a matter of time before we all would have been found
out. He would’ve sold you, Rose, to the highest bidder had you not been
captured the way you were. He was the reason why you ran away in the first
place.” Pike is stern with me. “Don’t you forget that.”

“How do you know
that?” I feel a bit betrayed.

“I saw it all. I
was there,” Ezekiel says.

“And you didn’t
stop it? Stop me from leaving? You must have known something would happen to
me.” I’m hurt.

“You looked
completely capable of taking care of yourself,” Ezekiel answers.

I had kicked JJ
in the groin.

Ezekiel
continues, “I had no idea you were going to run out, though. I tried to catch
up—”

“Guys,” Leland
interrupts. He is regaining his strength from the serum and in the daylight,
he’s greener than he was inside. “We should really get somewhere more hidden.
You know, a little less exposure. Unless they’re preoccupied with other things,
they’ll be after us if they aren’t already and we won’t know until it’s too
late.” He still leans on Ezekiel.

“Until we’re
captured again.” Delia states.

“Or shot,” I
add.

“We need to get
out of here,” Leland looks around. “Where’re Archer and Alex?”

“They went back
inside,” I say.

“Then we don’t
have the headstart we think we do.” Leland states. The living sounds around us
have stopped. There is nothing.

Ezekiel types
something into the implant on his arm. “They’ve already blocked all signals.”
Ezekiel looks up.

“Where do we go?
Pike?” Delia asks. She has deep worry lines on her face that I didn’t notice in
the dark of The Hollow. I wonder if they have appeared in the moments since
re-uniting with her son.

“Where are we?”
I ask, not knowing a thing about The Hollow or its specific location. We’ve all
moved past the tree line and into the forest, among the trees. We have moved
beyond a grouping of bushes and thorny brambles, one of many that dot a dried
up, barren field leading to the top of the hill where The Hollow is. The only
way we’re getting out of here is if we go down.
But which way?

“We are nowhere.
We are near nothing,” Pike answers. I want to be closer to him, but he’s ahead
with Delia. His mother.

“That’s not
true,” Ezekiel counters.

“How did you get
here then? Can we go back that way?” The air has become humid and heavy and The
Hollow seems closer than it did minutes ago. I look back at the hulking
building so far, but so close. Faces flash in the windows. Attendants. The disappeared.
And then they’re all gone. I look away. “How did you know to come here?”

“We have a car at
the bottom of the hill and off the road in a culvert. We just have to hike
down, but I’m not sure your friend here is going to make it. He looks sick.”
Ezekiel turns to Leland, who now holds himself up. The faint green pallor of
his skin is getting brighter every second we stand out in the daylight.

“I’ll make it, I
can get there. But if I can’t I know two strong men who would be ever so
gracious to help.” The wind whips around and the sky is dark.

Ezekiel turns,
shaking his head. Delia nudges Pike and he smiles despite himself. Ezekiel
takes the lead followed by Hara and Leland. Delia lets go of Pike’s arm and he
hangs back a few paces with me.

“I didn’t think
I would see you again,” I tell Pike. The wind and the dark are behind us. He
looks around, on edge. As we travel downhill, the trees are not as thick, but
the understory is becoming denser. The route we’re taking has us winding down
and around.

“We heard a
rumor about The Hollow, and how Tithonus might be held inside.”

“He is! I was
with him!” We pick up speed as we step over branches and around rocks. The
slope is relatively gradual and safe.

“Did he tell you
anything? Foretell you anything?” Pike asks.

“No. I can’t
remember. But something happened and, and—” I stop. I can’t remember.

“And what,
Rose?” Pike stops us. We’re about halfway down the hill. The base is much
closer and I can see the dark black of the car below.

“And I don’t
know what happened.” I admit. I look down. He takes my hand anyway. The new
one. I can tell he hesitates for a moment, before taking hold completely. A
small burst of energy travels down my shoulder through the rest of my body.
I’ll take it. I’ve missed that.

“Please try,
Rose. If you think of anything—”

“I will tell
you.” I promise. He lets go of my arm. The current is gone and my shoulder is
once again heavy. We catch up to Leland leaning on Ezekiel and Delia standing
beside the car. Hara is opens the back door. I look up and behind me. The
Hollow towers above the trees and shrubs that we are hidden among.

“We aren’t all
going to fit in that,” I say. I don’t even know what to call it. All I’ve ever
used was our private rail car. We never used anything that ran on fossil fuels.

“We won’t,”
Ezekiel agrees as he lowers Leland into the backseat. “It’s one of those old
Hybrid machines.” The car is small and camouflage to blend in with the trees,
but high off the ground with large tires.

“So we’re going
to have to split up and go in different directions,” Pike says. He let’s go of
my hand. “Zeke, hold up.”

I watch him a
mere fifteen feet away from me and I never thought I’d see him again. He walks
back to me and my heart skips a thousand beats.

“They’re going
to go to the safe house. It’s in the city. It will bide us some time to figure
things out,” Pike says.

“Where’re you
going?” I ask.

“I’m going with
you.” He states.

“With me? Where
am I going then?” I watch Hara get in the backseat with Leland and look to
Delia. She looks worried, like she’s getting prepared to lose her son again.

“You are I are
going back into The Hollow–” Pike’s words surprise us all.

Everyone stops
to pay attention. Ezekiel slams the trunk shut and tosses a pair of boots at my
feet. There is a two-inch layer of dirt on my feet. I hadn’t realized they were
bare all this time. I rub them on the leaves of some skunk cabbage. As some of
the dirt falls away, I realize I can’t feel a thing.

“To get
Tithonus,” he says. I knew it. It’s why they came here. Not for me. Not for
Delia, but for Tithonus.

“Pike, please,
rethink this.” Hara has gotten out of the car and is as close to Pike as ever.
“We have Rose and your mother, who we had no idea was even inside! Maybe we
should take this as a sign.”

I wonder what’s
happened with them in the time I’ve been gone. Possibly nothing. Probably
everything. I’m just as glad that she’s not coming with us as I was to see her.
I lean down and tie up the boots. They’re big, but better than nothing.

“The only sign
we’ll get will be from Tithonus.” Pike responds.

“If you two go
back there, it’ll be a death sentence. They’ll be waiting for you,” Hara
finishes.

“You can’t go
back in. Not now. Not ever,” Delia looks from me to Pike. She puts a hand on
her son’s wrist and he looks down at it.

“You may not
have a choice,” Ezekiel points above the tree line into the sky, up at The
Hollow. A nearly invisible dome has generated in the distance and it gives off
a hazy glow in the darkness surrounding it. Lightning flashes from it to the
sky, not the other way around. “You’re not getting in with that up and they’re
not chancing anyone else getting out. I can feel it from here. You’d never get
through those tunnels, though I suspect they’ve collapsed them by now.”

I can feel it,
too. Negative electricity: an excess of electrons and our protons attracted to them.

“You need to
come with us,” Delia takes his hands.

“No,” he pulls
away. “You continue to the safe house. Rose and I will meet you in a few days.
I have another plan. We will meet you there, I promise.” He kisses his mother’s
cheek and escorts her to the car. She’s too tired to put up much of a fight and
he helps lower her in the front seat. The door’s closed and I see Leland
resting with his eyes shut, leaning against Hara. Her eyes burn holes into
Pike’s. He looks away.

“We’ll see you soon.”
Ezekiel has one foot in the car. The engine is already running. His hand is on
the roof and he puts it up, waving goodbye.

“You will, Zeke.
Just have something to do first.” Pike waves back as Ezekiel closes the door,
the car rumbling along the ditch away from us. Away from The Hollow.

“Pike,” without
everyone else and no way to get around, the desperation of our situation sinks
in. I want to get as far away from The Hollow as possible, but now we’re stuck
here.

“Listen, Rose,
we can’t keep you with the rest of everyone else. You’re too—” Pike searches
for the word.

“Valuable?” I’ve
begun to anticipate my worth.

“No. That’s not
exactly what I was thinking. You’re too dangerous.”

“What do you
mean, dangerous?” Now I’m afraid, and insulted.

“I mean, if they
get caught with you, they’ll get killed,” Pike sounds irritated, but I don’t
know why.
Is it because he would rather be with them than with me?

“I would get
them killed. You’re right.”

Pike stares up
at the sky, but I don’t follow his gaze. It sinks in.
Oh no.

He looks back
down, but not at me. “So we have to get as far away from them as we can.”

“What about you,
Pike? You’re in danger then, too.”

“I can take care
of myself.”

“I know,” I say
under my breath. We’re still in the ditch, following the same path the
converted car did. As we walk on, the cement becomes the beginning of a small
stream.

“We’re out of
sight, so I don’t think we have to worry.” Pike states, a few feet ahead of me.