Worlds Collide: Sunset Rising, Book Two

by McEachern, S. M.

  I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. I wasn’t sure if he was being honest or just trying to take my mind off things. Either way, my breathing returned to normal.

  “You’re going to be great. Don’t worry,” he said.

  The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Our armed escorts poked the ends of their rifles through the opening, cautiously stepping into the foyer. No one was there. But a commotion from the main reception level drifted up to us. We walked to the balcony at the top of the grand staircase that I once descended as a bride. There were at least a hundred people gathered in the lobby, voices vying to be heard over one another. On the big screen dominating the room, the Kenners’ video—the fateful day we entered the Dome—still played.

  “Is it a riot?” I asked.

  “If it isn’t yet, it soon will be,” Jack said.

  I wondered if this was a mistake. When Jack presented the idea of making a public statement, I had pictured us up here on the second floor with a camera crew and no one else. This was a big crowd and they were upset.

  “Maybe this wasn’t—” I started, but someone in the crowd turned and pointed at us.

  “It’s Jack Kenner!” someone shouted.

  Another voice raised the alarm. “And the urchin girl—O’Donnell! She was the one holding the president hostage.”

  The crowd surged forward, toward the stairs. I backed up a step, but Jack held me firmly beside him. Our escorts raised their rifles, but he motioned for them to stand down. There were only a few soldiers here, and none of them had drawn a weapon.

  A camera crew pushed their way to the bottom of the staircase.

  “This is it,” Jack said. He took a communicator out of his pocket and held it up to his mouth. “Now.” I gave him a questioning look and he pointed at the big screen dominating the room. A picture of the two of us flashed up on it.

  Holding my hand more tightly, he gave me an encouraging look and we descended a few steps. The mob started to quiet. A member of the camera crew ascended a few steps, holding a microphone toward us while keeping a safe distance.

  “I guess I have some explaining to do to the good people of the Dome,” he began. All chatter ceased with the sound of his voice. His shoulders squared, his eyes unafraid to return the stares of every single person in the room, he exuded power and strength. I felt a stab of fierce pride. “First, I’d like to formally apologize for the events on my wedding day. Although it was not my intention to marry the beautiful lady standing beside me, it was the best thing that ever happened to me—that ever happened to all of you—because it gave me the opportunity to see our government from a different perspective.” He took two steps down, moving closer toward the transfixed crowd. The camera crew didn’t back away. “And it gave us the opportunity to expose the Holt regime for the corrupt organization it is. By now you’ve at least heard of, or maybe even read, the messages containing files on President Holt’s plans for a master race. Those files were taken directly from his personal computer. They are all true. My sincerest condolences go out to anyone who may have lost a child due to our president’s insanity. My thoughts are with you.” He paused and held out his hand to me. Reluctantly, I reached for it and moved to stand beside him. I loathed being in the spotlight. Jack was doing such a good job of captivating everyone I wasn’t sure why he needed me. I squeezed his hand to stop the shaking of my own. “And my thoughts are with our neighbors in the Pit—the true victims of the Holt regime.”

  Jack turned an expectant look toward me. I guessed that was my cue to start talking. I didn’t know what to say. Jack’s intro of an apology threw me off. It never occurred to me to plead for forgiveness from the bourge. To apologize for causing them any undue concern.

  “I’m not the diplomat my…husband is, but I’ll try my best.” There was murmuring from the throng at my use of the word “husband.” Jack gave me an encouraging nod. “I’m not blaming any one of you for the conditions in the Pit. If there’s one thing I learned from Jack, it’s that most people in the Dome take it for granted that we’re doing okay down there. So I’m here to clear up a misunderstanding. We are human beings, just like you. We’re not invisible machines with the sole purpose of ensuring your every need is taken care of in the Dome.” Jack squeezed my hand harder, a clear indication that I was going in the wrong direction. I cleared my throat and continued in a calmer voice. “We are people. We feel pain when we’re beaten. We feel horror when we watch a loved one be thrashed to death. We feel grief when our parents are killed in the Cull.” My voice rose in anger again. “We feel humiliation when we’re forced to perform sexual favors. But mostly, we feel outrage because we are not machines. We. Are. People.” Jack was inflicting considerable pain on my hand and I gritted my teeth against it. “But I know these things are not your fault, because you didn’t know about the conditions in the Pit.” He relaxed his grip. I took a moment to pause, perusing the faces of those staring up at me so intently, wanting my next words to count. “Now you do.”

  A sea of faces looked back at me, some shocked, most disbelieving. A part of me hated to excuse them from blame, but if our two races were ever to get along, forgiveness needed to start somewhere. And Jack was the inspiration. He had been every bit as naïve as the people standing in front of me when he first entered the Pit. Now he was the champion for change. The optimistic part of me wanted to believe there were more like him.

  “It’s important that we clear up this misunderstanding so that relations between the Pit and the Dome can begin to heal. Today is historic. The treaty no longer binds us.” An anxious ripple went through the crowd. Somewhere in the distance I heard excited shouts. I had to raise my voice. “Today will see us leave the Dome to begin a new life outside.”

  The crowd went into a frenzy. I couldn’t have been heard above the din even if I screamed. Cheers went up as they embraced each other.

  “That was quite a speech, Mrs. Kenner,” Jack said.

  “We didn’t even tell them the president is dead.”

  “Probably best to take it one step at a time. The doors are going to be opened—nothing can compete with that right now.”

  I looked at the ecstatic mob. “Do you think there’ll be a stampede to get out?”

  “I’ll send a message for the Alliance to get to the hangar and keep the exodus orderly.” His expression sobered and he took one of my hands in both of his. “You and I are free. We’re not fugitives anymore.”

  I caught his meaning—we didn’t need to be partners. The Alliance had won, the Pit was liberated, and we were no longer running from execution. If we stayed together, it would be because we wanted to.

  “No, we’re not.” I stepped in closer, leaning against him. “Do you think that means we’ll sleep better at night?”

  He smiled. “Not if you keep looking at me with those eyes. I can’t imagine we’ll sleep at all.”

  He caught me in the circle of his arms, pulling me even closer. I put my hands on his chest, feeling the hard muscle beneath my fingertips. I opened my mouth to give him a flirty retort, but my words were cut off when his lips pressed against mine. He took me by surprise. We were on the grand staircase with a camera crew and at least a hundred people watching us. But as the heat of his breath mingled with mine and I felt the gentle pressure of his embrace holding me to him, my arms slid around his neck. This was the moment I was finally free. Free to love the man I was labeled a traitor for marrying.

  And standing there locked in his embrace with the entire Dome watching, I was happy to let freedom reign.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  We left the grand staircase and the exultant crowd to make our way back upstairs—Jack to the eighth floor to liberate his family and me to the tenth floor to get my mom and take her out to Doc. We promised to meet at the house we shared in the
city, assuming the lock was still set for Jack’s code and no one else had moved in.

  There were armed Alliance all over the tenth floor. Bron and Evans were still searching Holt’s hard drive. My mother looked more comfortable, so I assumed the young doctor had given her some pain relief. And Leisel was still tied to a chair. How long had she been there like that? I couldn’t remember.

  I stood in front of her and she barely looked at me. The fight seemed to have left her, leaving her looking exhausted and broken. Sympathy crept into my heart and I gave it an eye roll. I shouldn’t feel anything but disdain for this woman. But she looked so pathetic now, stripped of her father’s power. I breathed out a heavy sigh and began the task of untying her restraints, starting with her legs. She gave me a wary look.

  As I worked, I stole quick glances at her. Her nose was slightly hooked. It definitely wasn’t her most flattering feature and, if anything, was a testimony that she was Damien Holt’s daughter. Her sapphire blue eyes were her best feature and I tried to imagine them black like my own. Black eyes would look out of place with her fair hair…although now that I peered into her eyes, I could definitely see the ring of contact lenses.

  Was Leisel my sister? Yeah, we were the same height, but I was pretty sure the resemblance stopped there. Almost positive.

  Summer came alongside of me. “What are you doing?”

  “She’s not a threat anymore,” I explained.

  Summer gave an exaggerated snort. “Are you serious?”

  I undid the last of the knots, and then finally removed the gag. Leisel barely moved her limbs, but by the look of consternation on her face, she was trying. Her bluish-white hands told me her circulation had cut out. I felt a little ashamed of having left her tied up for so long. Picking up one of her hands, I tried to rub the circulation back into it.

  “Leave me alone,” she said, her voice thick.

  I dropped her hand. “Okay.”

  I walked away, even though my conscience screamed at me not to. I yelled back, telling it my mother was still hurt. It was my duty to get her to a doctor. Leisel could look after herself.

  The young med student was still keeping a vigil over my mom. “Thank you for looking after her.”

  “No problem. She’s probably going to need surgery on her shoulder, but she’s stable for now.” He picked up his medical bag. “Are the doors to the outside really open?”

  “If they aren’t already, they soon will be.”

  “Well then, thank you. I need to go find my girlfriend.” He headed toward the door, but stopped midway. “Your mom’s fine to move. I gave her a shot of painkiller, so she’ll be a little woozy.” Then he left.

  “How are you doing, Mom?” I asked, leaning over her.

  She smiled. “I feel fine. Don’t worry about me.” I wondered if it was the drugs talking.

  “Summer, can you give me a hand getting my mom to Doc?” I helped my mom into a sitting position.

  “Who’s Doc?” Summer asked. She positioned herself on the other side of my mom and we hoisted her off the sofa.

  “Our doctor on the outside. He’s from the Pit.”

  “We’re going outside?” She gave me a fearful look.

  “It’s amazing.” I smiled. “You’re going to love it.”

  The only people milling around on the presidential floor were Alliance guards. I wondered where everyone was. The Forbes, Powells and Wests all lived on this floor. They must have heard the news by the now. The doors were opening—everyone was free.

  It took the elevator a long time to come to the tenth floor. I thought about using the stairs but knew it would be too difficult for Summer and me to navigate my mom down so many flights. Finally, the elevator arrived, empty. We stepped on, the doors closed, and on the next level we filled up to full capacity. It continued to stop on every floor, although no one else could fit in.

  A mob of excited people greeted us on the main floor. It was difficult to even get out of the elevator. The steels doors that had always been used to separate bourge from urchins were now flung wide open. The sea of people in the lobby poured through, not even bothering to scan out. Alliance guards, Domers and military soldiers all worked together for crowd control.

  It was going to take a long time to reach the hangar doors.

  Above the din of excited voices, I heard my name being shouted. I searched the sea of faces until I found him—Jack. He was on the grand staircase, caught in the throng, waving at me. A man who looked an awful lot like him was at his side.

  The mob on the stairs was so thick it took forever for him to descend even a few steps. Then he hopped over the railing and dropped down onto the floor, people pushing to get out of his way. His doppelganger went next. The two pushed their way through the crowd toward us.

  “How’s your mom?” asked Jack when he reached us.

  “She’s holding up so far, but we have to get her out of here.” Her hair was plastered to her forehead and although she didn’t seem to be in pain, she could barely stand on her own.

  Jack motioned toward the other man with him. “This is Ted, my brother. Ted, this is Sunny—your sister-in-law.”

  Ted smiled and nodded at me.

  “Hi,” I said a little awkwardly. “This is my friend, Summer.”

  Jack smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Summer. My wife thinks very highly of you.”

  Summer didn’t say anything. She just gave him a curt smile and looked away.

  “Maybe we should go through the tunnel—the Pit was half cleared out when I came through hours ago,” Jack suggested.

  It was a good suggestion, except that as we got closer to the entrance, we saw that the door to the Pit had been barricaded. Someone didn’t want the urchins to go free. I wondered how surprised they were going to be to find everyone from the Pit was already outside.

  Jack took out his communicator and asked the Alliance for help. It took a while, but finally several guards found us and helped clear a path to the hangar. Jack carried my mom and I grabbed onto Summer and held tight, not wanting to lose her in the crowd.

  The hangar was already bright with sunlight and Summer put a hand up to shield her eyes.

  “It gets brighter,” I told her. “But Doc has glasses for us.”

  As we exited the Dome, Summer put her arm over her eyes. Even at this time of evening, the sun was brilliant. I cursed myself for leaving my glasses—the ones Jack had given me—in the Pit with my clothes.

  I kept my eyelids half closed, looking around to see as much as I could. People were climbing trees, picking flowers and turning their faces toward the early evening sun. Goosebumps rose up along my arms and down my back. I wasn’t sure if it was from the breeze or a side effect of the elation I was feeling at seeing everyone outside under the sun.

  I looked behind us, watching the mass exodus from the Dome, but the sight made me think of another image I had recently seen—the Kenners’ video. I tried to shake off the image of so many people running toward those very doors only to be gunned down. I tried not to think about how many bodies littered the road I was walking on. I needed to ban those images so the memory of today—the liberation of both the Pit and the Dome—wouldn’t be marred forever.

  The sound of a vehicle coming up the old road distracted me. I wondered who could be driving. Only the bourge knew how to operate a vehicle, and they were locked up in the corrals. I gave Jack a questioning look.

  “Powell, Dena and I had a conference call after you and I made our announcement,” Jack said. “The Dome is free, so everyone in the corral is, too, although they’re not getting their weapons back. Anyway, I asked them to send Alex so we could get your mom to Doc.”

  When the jeep came, we piled everyone in.

 
; Jack sat in the front seat beside Alex. “So what was that, putting me in a corral?” Alex demanded.

  “Sorry. I didn’t know who to trust,” Jack said.

  “We’ve known each other since we were kids. We were best friends at the Academy. My family has supported Liberty since…forever.”

  Alex was angry with Jack and complained all the way to the medical center. It looked like Jack was going to have to do some damage control with his friends.

  The medical center was busy. A lot of people had been injured in the conflict and this was the only medical facility available to them. But upon seeing my mom, Doc took her right away. While we waited, I found survival packs for all of us in the supply closet. About thirty minutes later, Doc came out and led me to a hospital room.

  My mom was asleep, her shoulder heavily bandaged.

  “She’s fine. Leaving the bullet in was a good call—there was little blood loss. Her shoulder joint needs to be reconstructed, but I’m confident I can replace it.”

  “Let me guess—nanorobots.”

  He nodded. “By the way, well done, Miss O’Donnell. Honestly, when you told me you were going to free the Pit, I thought it was laughable.”

  “Thanks, Doc,” I said. The sarcasm was evident. “And thank God it’s over. I’m not sure I could take any more fighting.” I looked at my mom.

  “Oh, it’s not over yet,” Doc said. “We may have won this battle, but the revolution is only getting started.”

  I stared at him for a moment, tempted to ask what he meant. But I was exhausted. And I still had one more important thing left to do before I could join my husband on that date I promised him.

  “So, when are you going to do the surgery?”

  Doc shrugged. “I can’t answer that right now. The hospital is overflowing and I’m hoping the Dome will send assistance. Check with me tomorrow. Oh, and bring Jack Kenner with you—I’d love to get a blood sample.”

  I thanked him and left.