Worlds Collide: Sunset Rising, Book Two

by McEachern, S. M.

  “They’re right in front of you.”

  “Did you get too much sun today?” he asked, without bothering to whisper.

  Unmoving, I scrutinized the group standing in the forest. A couple of them were small, and it struck me they might be children. Tentatively, I moved one step toward them.

  “Hello,” I said.

  Moving only their eyes, they exchanged worried glances.

  “There’s no one there,” Jack said impatiently. To prove it, he strode purposefully toward the trees.

  They bolted.

  Startled, Jack backed up a few steps and almost fell over me.

  “Get on the bike!” he ordered, picking it up off the ground.

  I jumped on right behind him just as he switched it to gas and revved the engine to life. With a jolt, the bike lurched forward and I wrapped my arms around his waist to keep from being thrown off. He didn’t slow down until we reached town.

  We wound our way past the farms and urchin corrals and eventually parked in front of the house we shared. A security guard was at the front door. At our arrival, he unhooked his communicator and spoke into it.

  Jack dismounted the bike first. He looked up and down the street.

  “They didn’t follow us,” I said.

  “What the hell were they?”

  “People,” I said. “They spooked me at first too, but now that I’ve had time to calm down, I don’t think they meant us any harm.”

  “You can’t be sure about that.”

  We walked through the front gate and up to the door. The security guard said nothing to Jack as we went into the house, but I noticed he unhooked his communicator.

  I closed the door behind us. “There were eight of them. If they wanted to attack us, they had the advantage.”

  “Eight?” Jack asked in surprise. “How do you know that?”

  “Are you telling me you couldn’t see them?”

  He walked to the window and peeked outside. “Not until they moved. Did you get a good look at them?”

  “Yeah. They looked like they were painted or something. There were markings all over their skin and clothes, and they all had the same long hairstyle. I couldn’t tell if it was braided or twisted, but it wasn’t loose.”

  Jack narrowed his eyes and drew his brows together. “You saw them in that kind of detail?”

  “Yes. They were right in front of us.”

  “Were they armed?”

  “I don’t think so. A couple of them looked like kids.”

  “Really?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, I don’t think they followed us,” he said, although I could tell by the way he kept glancing out of the window that he wasn’t convinced. I moved to stand next to him.

  “They didn’t follow us.”

  “You should go have your shower now.”

  “What?”

  He shot me a crooked smile. “No offense, but you really stink.”

  I looked at him wryly. “Wouldn’t want to offend your sensitive nose,” I said, but he wasn’t really listening. I headed for the bathroom.

  Despite slathering my body with sunscreen, my skin had turned an even darker shade of pink, and it was slightly sore to the touch. I set the shower to a cooler temperature and washed away the day’s dirt.

  I couldn’t get my mind off the people I had seen in the forest. Where had they come from? The obvious assumption was that they came from the Dome. Maybe they were escapees from years ago. But even as the thought crossed my mind, I dismissed it.

  One of my favorite things to do with Summer was watch movies in the common room. There wasn’t a movie we didn’t like, because we really didn’t watch them for the story. They were a window into the past and showed us what the world was like before the bombs obliterated it. And what a world it must’ve been with blue sky, sunshine and people in every color, shape and size you could think of. I always wondered why everyone in the Dome looked so much alike when history showed us that we hadn’t always.

  Although the people in the forest were all dressed alike, physically they were different. Their skin ranged in color from pale to khaki to dark brown. I looked at my own skin, now pink from the sun, and thought of everyone from the Dome I’d seen out here. The sun had made their skin darker, but it still wasn’t as dark as the two I saw in the woods.

  Their eyes were different too. At least four of them had Asian eyes. I had never seen anyone in the Dome with eyes like that—only in the movies.

  But if they weren’t from the Dome, where were they from? A shiver ran down my spine and I suddenly didn’t want to be alone. I dressed quickly and went in search of Jack. I found him in the kitchen.

  “Hungry?” he asked, without turning around. My lunch had been more than a full day’s ration by Pit standards, but I would never turn down food.

  “A little. Can I help?”

  Jack took out eggs and some kind of meat from the refrigerator. “This is the only thing I know how to cook.”

  I was about to say I didn’t know how to cook anything when someone knocked on the door. Jack’s head snapped up in the direction of the sound, then back at me. He gave me an apologetic look. “That’s probably Powell. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do this tonight. Last night was hard enough.” He left to answer the door, squeezing my shoulder on his way past. I stayed in the kitchen. “General Powell, what a surprise.” Jack’s voice drifted into the kitchen.

  “He’s here,” Powell yelled to someone. “I told them you just went for a joy ride and you’d be back.”

  “Please, come in.”

  “I can come in for a drink.” I heard him stumble across the threshold and the door closed.

  “What can I get you?” Jack asked politely.

  “Oh, whatever you have stocked in your cupboard. I know it changes from week to week. And a little something to eat too, if you don’t mind. I left the mess before they served dinner.”

  “Sunny,” Jack called. I emerged from the kitchen just as Powell was settling his plump frame onto the sofa. “Some food and drink for the general and me.”

  I nodded silently, knowing better than to speak in front of the bourge, and returned to the kitchen. Eyeing the refrigerator, I tried to think what I could possibly make. The only work I had ever done in a kitchen was peel vegetables. I checked the refrigerator and found some carrots. Perfect. I knew how to prepare those.

  I peeled the carrots, took out two plates and arranged the vegetables on each, and then realized it looked like a sparse meal by bourge standards. They were used to having heaps of food. I sized up the bowl of eggs Jack took out of the refrigerator. I watched him make them yesterday and it hadn’t looked that difficult. I approached the stove with more confidence than I felt.

  I found the frying pan exactly where I remembered he put it. The stove was a little more difficult to figure out. All I could do was turn knobs until I noticed an element turning bright red. I put the frying pan on it. Next, I turned my attention to the eggs. I cracked their shells on the side of a bowl and their contents slipped out. It wasn’t difficult at all. Once I had all the eggs in the bowl, I stirred them with a fork. I didn’t remember him adding anything else, so I poured the eggs into the pan. They sizzled and crackled, making a lot more noise than I remembered. A burning smell filled the kitchen. Quickly, I grabbed the pan off the stove and almost dropped it when I seared two fingers on the handle.

  I bit back a cry and stuck my burning fingers under cold water. As soon as the pain subsided, I went back to cooking the eggs, but my fingers started stinging again. I found a cloth and made a cold compress.

  The pan was cooler now, so I stirred the eggs around in an attempt to make them look fluffy
like Jack’s. But mine were a dark brown on the bottom and still kind of slimy on top. I divided them between the two plates, arranging them in an effort to hide as much of the brown as I could. At least the plates looked full. On to making drinks.

  I hunted through the cupboards until I found a bottle marked Scotch. I recalled Hayley said Jack likes scotch. I took out two glasses and filled them.

  With the food and drink ready, I took them out to the living room. I was kind of proud of myself for pulling it off. It hadn’t been that hard at all.

  Both men looked up at me as I entered the room. I set the plates down on the small table between them, although with the cold compress still wrapped around my fingers it proved a little difficult. One plate landed with a clunk. I shot Jack an apologetic look and was surprised to see an expression of mirth on his face. I wondered what I had done wrong. I returned to the kitchen for the drinks.

  “Carrots and…are those eggs?” Powell asked just as I came back into the living room.

  “I think so,” Jack replied.

  I set the glasses on the table, one in front of Jack the other in front of the general.

  “And…” Powell picked up his drink and sniffed it. “Scotch?” He raised his eyebrows at me.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That will be all, Sunny,” Jack said. I went back into the kitchen, but stayed close to the door to eavesdrop. “My apologies. She hasn’t been out here long enough to have been trained in the kitchen.”

  “My point exactly, Jack. She shouldn’t have been on the farm. If she had gone with Gaia she would’ve started her training today.”

  “I’ll make sure she goes tomorrow.”

  “I want you to know that the supervisor in question has been dealt with appropriately,” he said, his words slightly slurred. “By now all the urchins in the corral know exactly who your girl is and they’ll treat her a little nicer.”

  “I appreciate that,” Jack said. “I did want to ask you about another incident from today. I came across some people in the forest —” Jack began, but Powell interrupted him.

  “You saw those little heathen buggers?” Powell asked incredulously. “You must have a keen eye, Jack, because those heathens blend in with the earth. You could be standing right next to one and you’d never know it.”

  “Heathens?”

  “Jesus Christ, you saw them—running around the forest dressed in animal skins and all painted up. They’re nothing like the God-fearing civilized people we are, Jack. They’re heathens!”

  “So you can see them?” asked Jack.

  “I haven’t personally seen them out here, although a few of my men have. The only ones I ever saw were in the Dome. The ones we captured.”

  “Yeah, the ones we captured,” Jack repeated. “I was hoping I’d get to see them in the Dome, but…what happened to them?”

  “The same thing that happens to anyone who outgrows his value. For chrissake Jack, the Dome isn’t a goddamn hotel.”

  “Of course. I just meant it would’ve been nice to see one up close. Anyway, you were saying?”

  “What was I saying? Oh yeah. We’ve been capturing the buggers over the past eighty years, running tests on them for radiation, disease, anything that could tell us the state of the environment. And we’ve interrogated them. All the captives tell the same story—the mountain gives them protection from the bad people.” Powell laughed and I heard him slap something. “Apparently our mountain has the reputation of being alive or haunted or some damn thing so the bad people stay away. Do you believe that?” Powell laughed so hard he fell into a fit of coughing.

  “There are more people?” Jack exclaimed. “Are you telling me the earth’s population survived the holocaust?”

  “Jesus Jack, Damien doesn’t tell you much, does he?” I heard the general pick up his scotch and swallow.

  “I haven’t been in the family that long. I’m sure he was going to tell me eventually. Why else would he have sent me out here?”

  “Well, considering the UAVs never came back the first time we sent them out, it was lucky for us the heathens made their home around our mountain. Otherwise, we might still be living inside the Dome afraid to come out.” The general set his glass down with a thump. “About eighty years ago, we sent the first mission outside the Dome to collect samples. That’s when they found a couple of heathens nosing around our garbage. They were the first ones we brought in for questioning. From the information they’ve given us, we’ve surmised the earth’s population was pretty well devastated from the holocaust, but not completely wiped out. Population has increased over the past three hundred years and people are beginning to form small societies. The heathens tell us there are two warlords—one in the north and one in the south. They’re rivals and like to cause each other trouble.”

  “Is that why you’ve turned this city into a military base camp?”

  “We need to be ready for anything that comes our way. Although, I say bring on the bad guys. Wait until they get a load of us!” Powell chuckled. “The only advanced technology left on earth exists inside that Dome and we own it.”

  “Are you sure we’re the only ones with advanced technology? Its seems to me if people survived the holocaust, maybe technology did too.”

  “It’s possible, but doubtful. We interrogated a lot of heathens and they all told the same story.” There was a pause in the conversation. “Think about it, Jack. We have all the power. One day you’ll be the president of the goddamn world.” Someone took a drink and I assumed it was Powell since he slurped it.

  “I never thought of that,” Jack said thoughtfully. “So have you made contact with them since you’ve been out here?”

  Powell snorted in disgust. “Yeah. The buggers stole some of our livestock the first winter. Came at a real bad time because some kind of influenza was ripping through the camp. We lost a lot of good men that winter.” There was a short pause before he continued. “We didn’t have any houses then—just the shacks. I put together a task force to deal with them because there was no way I was going to let them get away with it. But the buggers are masters of camouflage, and it took weeks to find them. Anyway, they claimed it wasn’t theft because they left behind a bag of dried weeds—said it was a trade!”

  “How did you deal with them?”

  “Harshly,” Powell said in a firm voice. “The first time it was a couple of cows, the next time it will be a piece of technology. Right now we’re superior, and we want to stay that way.”

  “Absolutely,” Jack agreed. “We can’t have heathens running around with our technology. I mean, what would the world come to?”

  “I knew we’d see eye to eye. You’re my kind of man, Jack,” Powell said in a heavily slurred voice. “I think you’ll make a damn fine president one day.”

  “Thank you, General. I appreciate your support.”

  I heard an empty glass hit the table. “Well, I best be getting home. Gaia’s probably wondering where I am.”

  “I’m sure she’s distraught. Thanks for stopping by, general.”

  I heard him walk Powell to the door.

  “Remember what we talked about—no more giving your security the slip. I know your wife likes to mess with her guards, but out here riding around the countryside by yourself isn’t safe. Have a good night Jack.”

  “Good night.”

  I heard the door close and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Chapter Nine

  Jack was still standing at the door, hand on the knob, when I ventured into the living room. I cleared my throat and he looked up at me. A smile spread across his face.

  “How did you manage to burn eggs and yet not quite cook them?” He walked toward me and unwrapped my compress. “And you burned your fingers too.
No blisters though.”

  “What can I say? I wasn’t trained in the kitchen.”

  “So you were listening.”

  “I heard everything,” I agreed. “By the way, what’s a UAV?”

  “An unmanned aerial vehicle.” He shrugged. “A drone.”

  Jack looked as tired and haggard as I felt. He put both hands up to his face and covered his eyes for a moment before he dragged them away.

  “I don’t believe those people are heathens, Jack, any more than I believe they’re dangerous.”

  “One thing’s for sure—they’re not as dangerous as we are. I mean, it’s incredible to find out that humans not only survived the holocaust, but they’re beginning to rebuild civilization. Three hundred years of struggling to survive and the Dome’s on a collision course to wipe it all out.”

  “We’ll find a way to stop him.”

  “I don’t know how!” he snapped.

  His flash of anger stunned me.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

  “Don’t you get it? This isn’t just about freeing the Pit anymore! We can’t let that man loose on this world. The whole reason Holt wants to kill everyone in the Pit is to repopulate the earth with his master race. So do you really think he’s going to tolerate the chance that bloodlines might get mixed with people considered heathens? Or anyone else on the planet?” It was obvious he didn’t expect me to reply because aside from taking a breath, he kept right on going. “Holt has nuclear warheads, tanks, helicopters, automatic weapons and the ability to replicate them all.”

  He stared at me as if demanding an answer. I didn’t have one. If President Holt really was insane enough to kill everyone in the Pit, then it was reasonable to believe he wouldn’t stop there. And what could we do about it? We were just two people against an entire army.

  Jack rubbed the heels of his hands against his closed eyes. I was beginning to fear he was about to lose it. The thought was a little scary since I considered myself the weaker of the two of us. I needed him to keep it together.

  Sitting down on the sofa, I pointed to the floor in front of me. “Sit here.”