Worlds Collide: Sunset Rising, Book Two

by McEachern, S. M.

“Do I have to take her?” Maria whined.

  “Yes,” Jin-Sook said firmly.

  “I can stay and guard the prisoner while you two go,” Will suggested.

  “Go!”

  They left, squabbling the whole way down the hall. Jin-Sook gave me an apologetic look.

  “I think they actually like to argue,” she joked.

  My expression remained blank. I didn’t care.

  An awkward silence hung between us as she finished lighting the candles. “I’ll be right outside the door,” she said.

  Shutting the door behind her, I was left alone in my comfortable prison. The silence of the room contrasted sharply with the clamor of my thoughts. Jack and I had come so far only to arrive here—locked up and ready to be dragged back to the bourge.

  It was bright in the room with all the candles lit. I lifted my glasses and tried to look at the glow of the flame, but it burned my retinas. I extinguished some of them.

  Behind the curtain, I was surprised to find a toilet and sink not unlike the kind we had in the Dome. The words American Standard were inscribed on them. Warm water flowed from the faucet when I turned it on, only adding to the mystique of the place. Splashing my face with water, I thought of Jack. I hoped his accommodations were as comfortable.

  There was a knock on the door and I heard someone come into the room.

  “You’re in luck. There was still some bear meat stew left,” Will said. “Why is it so dark in here?”

  I came out from behind the curtain. “I’m sensitive to light.”

  “But I can barely see.” She set the food down on a table.

  The other two women came into the room, carrying the torch. They wedged it into a holder on the wall, where it continued to burn brightly. I dropped my sunglasses back onto my nose.

  “What’s going on?” Jin-Sook asked.

  “She likes being blind,” Will replied.

  “I’m not blind.”

  I retreated to the bed, away from the torch and my captors. They made themselves at home around the small table.

  “Do you always wear those glasses?” Jin-Sook asked.

  “The flame is a little bright,” I said.

  “Bright?” she asked in disbelief, but relocated the torch to the hallway. “Is that better?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” I tried not to look stunned by the gesture. I removed my sunglasses again.

  “Why do you hate light so much?” Will asked.

  “I don’t hate light. I’m just not used to bright light.”

  “How can you not be used to light?” Maria asked.

  “You won’t believe this,” Jin-Sook said, and repeated the story I told the Elders. The look of complete horror and astonishment on Will’s face was almost comical. I bit my lip not to laugh at her.

  Will looked at me, her mouth still agape. “You grew up in a mountain without any light?”

  “We have a type of light called fluorescent. It’s dimmer and more…diffused. It’s not like a flame.”

  “You mean you have light bulbs,” Maria said dryly.

  Her answer gave me pause. I had just assumed they wouldn’t know what a light bulb was.

  “My barangay—well, not my barangay, but the one I’m from—has some lights in the main areas. The rest of the barangays don’t have electricity yet,” Jin-Sook explained.

  “There’s nothing to making it,” Will said. “We learned as kids in school to make electricity with a potato and light a filament.”

  “Do you know how stupid that sounds, Will?” Maria said. She looked over at me. “Honest, we don’t use potatoes to power our lights. We use geothermal.”

  A giggle erupted from me at the thought of a potato power plant and I bit my lip to stop it. These women were my guards and sharing a joke with them seemed unnatural.

  “So it’s really true? You lived inside that mountain all your life?” Will asked in awe. Maria punched her in the arm. Will drew a fist to punch her back, but Jin-Sook put up a hand to stop her.

  “That’s enough, you two!” Jin-Sook said. “I apologize for their rudeness. Please, come and have something to eat.”

  I didn’t know what to make of them. With the bourge, I always knew where I stood. The food did smell good, though. Hesitantly, I got off the bed and sat at the table.

  “Your eyes are so black!” Maria exclaimed.

  I looked down at the bowl in front of me, feeling self-conscious. After a lifetime of trying to cover up my red hair so I could blend in, I had escaped the Dome only to remain an oddity.

  I took a bite of the bear meat stew. It had a strong flavor and was chewy. I took another bite. Food was food and I was hungry.

  “I love her eyes. They make her look dangerous and beautiful all at the same time,” Will said dramatically. “I wish I looked that dangerous. It would make me the best Protector ever.”

  I stole a look at Will. Her skin was dark and her large round eyes were an unusual shade of green. It was difficult to see her as being dangerous.

  Maria snorted. “You? A Protector?”

  “I’ll be as good as Jin. Maybe even better!”

  “You need to have self-control to be a Protector, Will,” Jin-Sook said.

  “I have self-control!” she said. “When I want to,” she added under her breath.

  “Which isn’t very often,” Maria said.

  “How about we give Sunny a chance to speak,” Jin-Sook suggested.

  All three looked at me. “I don’t have anything to talk about.”

  “Your husband’s kind of cute, in a foreign way,” Maria said. She leaned a little closer, looking conspiratorial. “Is he really a slaver?”

  Jin-Sook almost choked on her food. “Maria!”

  “Oh c’mon Jin. You think he’s cute too,” Maria smiled.

  I could tell Jin-Sook was trying not to smile, but her lips curved despite her efforts.

  Will rolled her eyes. “Talk about self-control,” she said sarcastically. “Don’t mind them. They’re boy-crazy. I have no idea why. I’m never getting married.”

  “He’s not a slaver though, is he?” Jin-Sook asked.

  “No he’s not. In fact we’re trying to free the slaves.”

  Will’s head snapped toward me when I said that. “Really?” A look of respect came into her eyes. “You must be very brave.”

  “How do you plan to do it?” Jin-Sook asked.

  “We need to get a message to the Alliance, inside the Dome. If my people know the Earth is fine, they can fight their way out.”

  “What is the Alliance?” Jin-Sook asked.

  That wasn’t an easy question to answer. Part of me felt I should keep that information secret from my captors, yet another part of me wondered if they would be sympathetic. Once Jack and I were handed over to General Powell, there would be no one to shut down the tagging system. No one to knock on the Dome’s door and let the Pit know their time as slaves was over.

  Taking a deep breath, I retold how Jack and I came to be married for what seemed like the hundredth time. As I spoke, they set down their spoons and listened intently. Tears sprung to their eyes when I told them about life in the Pit…about how they dragged my father away…about Crystal’s sacrifice. I ended my story by admitting Jack and I ended up falling in love. Jin-Sook and Maria sighed. I didn’t tell them about Summer, though. I knew how ashamed she felt at being forced to be the president’s mistress. Her secret was safe with me.

  ”Even though you two are all dreamy and in love and stuff now, you’re still going to free the slaves, right?” Will asked.

  I shook my head. “Tomorrow we’ll be handed over to General Powell. We fai
led.”

  The girls exchanged silent glances, guilt and sympathy clouding their features.

  “Maybe the Elders will change their minds,” Maria said. Her hand reached out to cover one of mine.

  “I doubt it,” I said. “I understand why they’re doing it. They want the hostages back safe and sound.”

  “I wish there was another way,” Jin-Sook said.

  “There is,” I said. “I heard the shouts from the crowd wanting justice. So fight them. Take your children from them. But play by their rules and they’re only going to betray you.”

  Maria’s hand retreated from mine and Jin-Sook sat up straighter.

  “We always seek a peaceful resolution to any conflict we encounter. Fighting is only a last resort and always in self-defense,” Jin-Sook explained.

  “Yeah, and I don’t get it, either,” Will chipped in. “We spend our entire lives learning how to fight just to be told we shouldn’t.”

  “We are not taught to fight, we are taught to defend. If you want to be selected as a Protector one day, you need to know this, Will,” Jin-Sook said.

  “I’m just saying, when I’m a Protector and hunters or recruiters come around I’ll give them a reason to run,” Will said.

  “Hunters and recruiters?” I asked.

  Jin-Sook nodded and scooped up a mouthful of stew. I raised my eyebrows, looking from one to the next.

  “You don’t know who they are?” Maria asked.

  I pointed to myself. “Just came out of a mountain fully believing that humans had been wiped off the face of the Earth.”

  “Right,” Jin-Sook said. “Hunters are people who want to kill us and recruiters are people who want to enslave us.”

  “Oh,” I said. It explained nothing. I understood the whole enslavement thing—I was born into that life. But hunted? “Why do hunters want to kill you?”

  “Because we’re Asian,” Maria said. “Well, our original ancestors were anyway. The story goes that after the bombs, gangs seeking revenge on the enemy that bombed us targeted anyone who looked even remotely Asian. Eventually, the victims grouped together for their own protection and set out to find a place to live in peace. They ended up here.”

  Maybe her story made sense to her, but it didn’t to me. “Why would Asians be targeted as the enemy?”

  Jin-Sook gave me a crooked smile. “You really don’t know, do you?” I shook my head. She put her elbows on the table, crossing her arms, and leaned toward me. “Korea started the war that almost ended the Earth and there are people who still want revenge.”

  My mouth dropped open in surprise before I thought to control my reaction. I closed it quickly. It never occurred to me that anyone would still be held responsible for the war. I had always accepted that what was done was done. There was no one left on Earth to blame. That is, until Jack had told me about the Holts’ original sin. But in my world, the Holts were to blame for a lot.

  “You look surprised,” Maria said.

  All three were staring at me, waiting for me to say something. I decided it was in my best interest not to divulge that Jack had told me General Holt had tricked President Taylor into launching the warheads three hundred years ago. It wasn’t Korea that started the war. They probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. “I guess I am. If your ancestors were living here when war broke out, doesn’t that mean they were Americans?”

  Jin-Sook nodded. “Yes, they were.” She shrugged. “Emotions run high when you watch your loved ones—everyone and everything you’ve ever known—be destroyed. It’s human nature to want to place blame and seek justice.”

  I knew the feeling. How many times had I watched my loved ones get hurt or killed in the Pit? “Your ancestors were hunted and killed—did they not want to place blame and seek justice?”

  Jin-Sook leveled a sober look at me. “Our nation was built on the belief that peace will never be achieved through hatred. When hatred enters our hearts, we meditate to find the root cause and open our minds to another alternative.”

  It wasn’t that I disagreed with her. It was a lovely concept. But clearly she hadn’t grown up in the Pit, being beaten for the slightest infraction.

  I regarded them with a sheepish expression. “Not everyone in your nation looks Asian.” With the exception of Jin-Sook, I thought to myself. Her delicately shaped amber eyes and fair complexion were reminiscent of people I had seen in movies. Maria had soft brown hair and large brown eyes with an olive skin tone. And then there was Will—one of the most stunning people I had ever seen. Her dark smooth skin framed her green eyes.

  “Anyone who embraces our peaceful philosophy is welcome to join our nation,” Jin-Sook said.

  “Like my great-grandparents,” Maria said. “They found the nation by accident, because they didn’t know well enough to stay away from the mountain. Not everyone knows about the legends.”

  “The legends?” I asked. Then I remembered what General Powell had said—the mountain was haunted and gave them protection from the bad men.

  Will made her eyes even bigger as she nodded. “But only one legend has really stuck—Yugo. He’s a monster from the scorched lands.”

  My thoughts turned to President Holt and I couldn’t help but think that particular legend really wasn’t too far-fetched.

  “So the scary mountain keeps the hunters away?” I asked.

  Maria nodded. “Sometimes the recruiters pass through here—they aren’t afraid of anything—but usually we live undisturbed. When they do come, we know the best defense is to not be there.” She ran her fingers along her painted arm.

  “Is that why you paint yourselves?”

  “It’s not paint, it's dye,” Will said.

  “We learned from the animals how to blend in with our surroundings and we’re taught from a young age how to stand very still,” Jin-Sook said.

  “I can stand still the longest in training,” Will said. “No one ever finds me in the woods.”

  “Nobody wants to find you,” Maria said. Will stuck out her tongue.

  I remembered on the trek here how they walked on rocks and tree roots, leaving barely a trail behind them. In fact, their entire barangay was built in rock, hidden away from the outside world. They had learned to live in secret.

  “Is that why you all dress alike—to blend in and hide?”

  Maria looked at me, tilting her head to one side. “Can I ask you a personal question, Sunny?”

  I nodded.

  “Why do you dress that way?”

  I looked down at my t-shirt, shorts and work boots. They were dirty and needed a good laundering.

  “I guess I am kind of filthy. Jack and I have been on the run for a while.”

  “No, I mean they show your…um…lady curves. People can tell you’re a woman,” Maria said in almost a whisper.

  “I am a woman,” I said.

  “You shouldn’t let people know you are, though,” Will said. “The recruiters do bad things to women.”

  “What are recruiters?”

  “Gangs sent out by Ryder to recruit men into his armies,” Jin-Sook said. “The only use they have for women is to rape them or take them as camp wives.”

  General Powell had talked to Jack about men he called warlords. I wondered if Ryder was one of them.

  “So that’s why you all dress alike,” I mused. All three looked at me and I realized I had said that out loud. “I’m sorry, but I can only tell the women apart from the men up close.”

  “That’s the way we want it,” Maria said.

  Will’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Maria. “During the spring tournament you were doing everything you could to show off your lady curves in front of Dre.” Will clasped her hands to
gether and hugged them close to her cheek. “Oh Dre, look at me! Aren’t I beautiful!”

  Maria gave Will a look of disgust. “I did not look like that!”

  “Yes you did,” Jin-Sook chimed in. “You were shameless.”

  Their easy banter about boys made me think of Summer again and how we always passed the time at work talking about boys. A pang of sorrow hit me. I would probably never see her again.

  “Sorry, Sunny. We didn’t mean to upset you,” Jin-Sook said.

  It took me a moment to register that a tear had run down my cheek. I wiped it away.

  “We’re being really thoughtless—you’re probably worried about your husband. Hey, why don’t you two go and check on him and let her know how he’s doing.”

  Will was the first to jump out of her chair. “I can do it by myself.”

  “You go with Maria or not at all,” Jin-Sook said firmly. Willow sucked air through flared nostrils and blew it out in a dramatic sigh, but she followed Maria out of the room. “Sorry, I guess we get caught up in our own lives. I do realize your life isn’t so great right now.” I smiled weakly and pushed my bowl away. “You must miss all your family and friends in the Dome.”

  I did miss my family and friends…that is, if I had any family left in the Dome. I didn’t know whether my father was alive or not. And it looked like I would never get the chance to find out. Tomorrow I would be given back to the bourge and my life would be over. Everyone I loved would die because I failed. If I thought too long about it, remorse would eat up what little sanity I had left.

  “What’s a Protector?” I asked.

  She looked as if she was about to say something but decided against it. Instead, she put a smile on her face, although it looked a little sad to me. I breathed around the lump constricting my throat.

  “Protectors are those chosen to defend our nation. Every spring, the barangays gather for the annual tournament where warriors are tested for their strength, agility, fighting technique and intelligence. Only the best of the best are chosen as Protectors.”

  “You’re a Protector?”

  “Yes. I’ve been one for several years.”

  I studied her face, trying to discern her age. Twenty-five maybe? It was hard to tell. “Do you like it?”