Sunset Rising

by S. M. McEachern

  “There won’t be any food in here, but we have water,” I said. I had almost drained the glass when there was a knock at the door.

  “Is that the guard for the check in?” Jack asked me.

  I nodded and went to the door and opened it. A guard stood there with a scanner in his hands. We waved our hand over the scanner and received green lights. I realized too late that we didn’t have our hats on, but at least we covered our hair with coal. The guard moved on to the next apartment.

  “How can your Dad do the check in if he can’t get out of bed?” Jack asked with a note of concern in his voice.

  “Bron’s been the guard in that section for as long as I can remember. She’s probably checking him in,” I said.

  “Your Dad looks really sick,” Jack said softly.

  “He is,” I agreed. He was sick with grief for the death of my mother; sick with despair knowing his own death was only months away. I should be with him, but I was trapped. “And thanks to you he’s on his own,” I said bitterly.

  “I didn’t know,” Jack said defensively.

  “I told you!” I accused. “Before your wedding, I told you my dad was sick and I had to look after him. But you didn’t listen because you didn’t care,” I accused. It was his fault I was in this predicament.

  “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely.

  “I need sleep,” I informed him.

  Without another word, I escaped into the bedroom and closed the door. I didn’t care where he slept or even if he stayed. I just crawled onto the thin mattress and tried to blot out the last three days of my life. I felt so hopeless.

  Chapter Twelve

  It wasn’t the sound of the bong bongs going off that startled me awake. It was the reaction of the person in the next room that made me sit up, eyes wide open.

  “What the hell is that?” Jack said as he raced into the bedroom.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Aren’t there any windows in here? What’s going on out there?” he demanded.

  “Relax. It’s just the morning call to work. The lockdown must be over. That’s why no one came to check us in again during the night,” I said.

  “Morning call to work?” he repeated, looking confused.

  “Happens every morning down here in the Pit. We have fifteen minutes to get to the common room for breakfast. Exactly one hour from now, we need to scan in at our place of work. And we can’t be late or we’ll lose our jobs and Benjamin and Autumn will be homeless and no better off than Jack and Sunny,” I explained.

  I got out of bed. I realized I still had the bulletproof vest on and it was beginning to feel like a dead weight. “I have to take this thing off,” I announced, pulling at the offensive vest.

  “Leave it on if you can stand it. It makes you look heavier - less like Sunny,” he said.

  He was probably right. Plus the added protection against bullets might come in handy if I was caught. We went out into the living room and Jack donned his hat and threw mine at me. Hats weren’t very popular in the Pit, but there were a few people who wore them, so we shouldn’t look too out of place.

  I decided to go to the sixth floor common room for breakfast. There was already a lot of traffic on the stairs – early risers hoping to be first in line for breakfast. Technically we were supposed to stay on our own level for meals, but it wasn’t a rule the guards ever bothered to enforce. Mealtimes were about the only time throughout the day where we could socialize and the guards didn’t mind, as long as we went about it peacefully.

  We reached the sixth level and I turned toward my home to get my Dad to come to breakfast. I was hoping I could get him out of bed quickly, because I didn’t want to miss out on the food. It had been more than 24 hours since I last ate and it now appeared that I would have to go and work a full day in the laundry room. Of course that depended on if I was caught or not. As I rounded the corner in the hall, I could see Bron standing not far from my Dad’s apartment. She looked startled to see me and silently shook her head ‘no.’

  “Stop,” Jack said, grabbing my arm to prevent me from going any further. “Something’s wrong.”

  I gave Bron an inquisitive look. She mouthed the word ‘guards.’ I didn’t know if she meant someone was at my father’s house right now or if they had been there. I nervously wondered if my father was okay, or if the guards were there to kick him out of the apartment now that I was no longer there to support him.

  “Turn around,” Jack insisted. “Take us to the common room. There’ll be a bigger crowd there to get lost in.”

  Without any choice, I did as Jack requested. I had to trust that Bron wouldn’t let anything happen to my father. At least I was able to get food and water into him last night.

  There was a long line up of people already waiting for the common room to open its door. Meals weren’t served during a lockdown, so everyone was starving. I scanned the faces of the people in line hoping to see Summer or Reyes. I saw a lot of familiar faces, but not those two. I hoped no one would recognize me. The doors to the common room opened and everyone began to shuffle in to get their morning ration of food. Jack and I shuffled along with everyone else, keeping our heads down.

  When it was our turn to enter the room, I saw the big screen was lit up with the Presidential seal visible for all to see. There was going to be an announcement. People were groaning at the sight, not wanting to sit through another lecture. So much of our day was spent working that meals were considered a special time to spend with friends and loved ones. No one liked being interrupted by President Holt.

  “Again?” someone behind us complained loudly when he entered the room. “Does the President think we need more reminding of how lucky we are?”

  “Yeah, we were all real lucky yesterday,” someone else joined in.

  “Don’t start another riot!” a familiar voice boomed out. A tall, muscular boy with a crop of curly dark hair stepped out of line ahead of us to glare at the two in the back making all the complaints. It was Reyes.

  Even though I had been searching the crowd for his face, his appearance was still a shock. All I seemed to be able to do was stand there and stare at him. Now that he was in front of me, what could I say to him? How could I explain everything that’s happened? I watched him scan the line-up to see if anyone wanted to challenge him and his eyes came to rest on me. I could tell by his shocked expression that he recognized me right away. I was afraid he might give me away, so I looked past him at the guard standing at the back of the room. His eyes followed in the direction of mine and he nodded in understanding. He made a slight motion with his head in the direction of the tables. He wanted me to join him.

  “What are you doing Autumn?” Jack asked when he noticed Reyes and I communicating with each other.

  “He’s a friend. I need to talk to him,” I said in a determined voice.

  “It’s risky,” Jack pointed out.

  “Remember the only reason I came was to say goodbye to the people I love and that’s what I’m doing,” I reminded him. My life was ruined because of Jack and I wasn’t going to let him cheat me out of saying good-bye.

  “You’re right. I lost sight of our goal here. So is that your boyfriend? The guy your Dad thought you ran off and married?” he asked.

  “Does it matter?” I snapped.

  “Yeah it matters. Look at the size of that guy, and I just married his girlfriend!” Jack exclaimed, his eyes wide as he looked at Reyes. I wondered if he was joking. I had seen Jack fight and knew Reyes wouldn’t stand a chance against him.

  Now it was our turn to get breakfast. We were each handed a sealed container with a spoon and a glass of water. I saw Reyes sitting with his friends, Raine and Mica. I hesitated. I trusted Reyes, but I hadn’t always trusted his friends. Would one of them shout out my identity? I didn’t want to get caught. I had not seen Summer yet and I still wanted to check on Dad again. Reyes motioned for me to join him. He probably already told everyone we were here anyway. I went to sit w
ith him and Jack mutely followed behind me.

  “This is Benjamin and I’m Autumn,” I said firmly. I couldn’t believe those were the first words out of my mouth, but I was afraid Reyes or someone else would use our real names. I took the empty chair beside Reyes and Jack sat across from us. Reyes gave him a murderous glare before he turned his chair to face me. He put his head close to mine and talked in a low voice.

  “What happened?” Reyes asked, his voice cracking with emotion. “I waited and waited for you to come back from that bachelor party and you never did. The next thing I know you’re on television in a wedding dress marrying that… bourge!” he said, sneering at Jack.

  “It was all a mistake,” I said, not knowing where to begin. “I know what it looked like on television, but that’s not the way it was. Leisel lied to everyone.”

  “If you’re not in love with him, then why did you bring him here?” Reyes demanded.

  “He helped me escape. I owe him,” I heard myself say. Strangely, I did feel responsible for Jack. I knew I shouldn’t. It was partly his fault that I was in this predicament.

  I watched Jack take the lid off his bowl and sniff at the contents. He turned his nose up at it, but tasted it anyway. Then he put the bowl down and replaced the lid. Raine and Mica were staring at him too, not sure what to say or how to treat him. We didn’t tend to get a lot of bourge down here dining with us, particularly famous ones.

  “What the hell happened Sunny?” Reyes continued to demand the truth from me. “Do you know what it did to me to see you up there on the screen with him? The President’s daughter saying he jilted her because the two of you were in love, and then the guards dragged you off. I thought they killed you.”

  “I think the President wanted to kill me, but we were being televised. Then the guards came and took him to safety because of the riot down here,” I babbled, knowing I wasn’t answering his question.

  “Why did you do it?” he demanded in frustration, grabbing me by both my arms. I felt his fingers bite into my flesh and I winced.

  “Because the President’s daughter conned me into it!” I blurted out, trying to get free of his bruising grip. Finally he let me go. “Have you seen Summer? Did she tell you anything?” I asked him.

  “Summer told me about the President’s daughter and how she invited you to her place. But then you never came back. I went nuts trying to find out what happened to you. I thought you were… dead. I thought they must have done something horrible to you. And then I saw you on television marrying him. What the President’s daughter said – about you and him falling in love and trying to get rid of her – made sense at that moment. Why else would the two of you get married?” Reyes gave Jack another murderous look.

  “Leisel manipulated me into taking her place at the wedding. She caught Summer stealing food after the bachelor party and threatened to tell the authorities on her. She also gave me a story about an assassination plot planned against her for her wedding day and wanted me to take her place wearing a bullet proof vest. She convinced me that when she and Jack took control of the President’s office, things in the Pit would get better. So I played the decoy bride. I did it to save Summer. I did it because I believed her when she said she wanted to make things better down here. But in the end, she used us. She wants to be President herself. The whole thing was a plan to convince her father to let a woman become President.”

  “So you’re not in love with him?” Reyes asked. I shook my head no. “If you had just let me protect you in the first place, none of this would have happened. But you’re always so worried about protecting everybody else that you don’t care who you hurt!” he spat at me.

  I pulled my chair away from his, putting a little distance between us. Reyes had a habit of being hurtful when he was angry. I knew having a conversation with him right now was pointless.

  “So what happened here? Why was there a riot?” I asked Raine and Mica, changing the subject.

  “Everyone’s bloody fed up with the bourge, that’s why,” Reyes answered, staring directly at Jack. I noticed Jack was glaring back at him.

  “He’s not wrong,” Mica piped in. “People started lining up for the so called feast the night before the wedding. The guards didn’t care because no one was making trouble and the night had a kind of a festive feel to it. And after waiting all night, you know what the feast turned out to be? Bread. They gave us bread with our stew. Do you believe that?” Mica was clearly angry, but I was grateful he was keeping his voice low.

  “So they’re showing us the wedding on the screen and all the well-dressed guests taking their seats, but all we see are tables heaped with food everywhere,” Raine said, joining in the story. He gave Jack a look of disgust. “Did they actually think we wanted to see your stinkin’ wedding? We only came for the food.”

  “Raine, keep it down,” Reyes warned him. The guards in the room remained oblivious to us. “You’ll start another riot and yesterday’s was bad. There were three people killed, including a little kid. We don’t need to start killing each other too. There are enough bourge doing that for us.”

  Mica picked up the story again. “And after standing in line all night then finding out we were getting nothing but bread as a reward, and then seeing all the food the bourge were going to gorge on, what else do we see? The President’s daughter came running in crying her head off. You can imagine how confused we were at first. Then we watched her fall on the floor, crying and looking pathetic and humiliated. And then someone tears off your veil.” Mica paused for a moment to look at me with a smile on his face. “It was sweet, sweet revenge finding out that the President’s daughter was humiliated by one of us. And not only that, you stole her husband. You married the next President.” Mica leaned back in his chair, smiling at the memory.

  “It’s true, Sunny… I mean Autumn,” Raine corrected himself. “The entire Pit went nuts. Everyone was laughing and clapping and cheering for Sunny O’Donnell… except maybe Reyes,” he eyed his friend to see how he was reacting. “Then the guards started telling us to keep it down. But why should we? We weren’t fighting. We were having a laugh is all. When we wouldn’t stop, they started getting rough so people started fighting back against them. That’s when all hell broke loose. The President sent Domers down and threatened to cut off our ventilation system. People down here started getting scared and grabbed their kids and ran home. They put us on lockdown.”

  “I’m sorry for everything. I really am,” Jack spoke for the first time.

  “A bourge is apologizing to us?” Raine asked incredulously. “This is another day of firsts.”

  “I don’t like to be lumped in with the likes of Holt. He’s a tyrant. For what it’s worth, I was marrying Leisel to gain control of the Dome by becoming President. There are a lot of people who don’t like the way things are under his government. Unlike President Holt, we don’t think you’re very lucky down here at all. Things need to change,” Jack confessed.

  “You mean things should change for the better in the Pit?” Reyes asked him sarcastically. “Isn’t that the same crap your fiancée fed Sunny? And look how much better off she is for it,” he said in disgust.

  Music started filling the room heralding President Holt’s announcement. A collective groan went through the crowd. But for the first time in my life, I was interested in what the President had to say. By now he knew we had escaped.

  “I bid you a good morning,” the President began. “The events of the past twenty-four hours have affected us all. My daughter’s wedding, which the entire Dome was anticipating with excitement and much happiness – has been the target of two malicious people intent on destroying the very fabric of our society. Jack Kenner, my daughter’s estranged fiancé, presented himself to me and to the entire population as a man who held great promise to become the next President. I believe I speak on behalf of us all when I say my daughter’s marriage to him was supposed to be the very symbol of hope, progress and success for the future of our society.
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br />   Only her wedding day did not turn out to be the beginning of a bright future beside the man she loved. Instead, she was traumatized!” the President was starting to yell now, his face turning red. I overheard a few people taking bets on when spit would fly out of his mouth. “Jack Kenner is a traitor! He tried to lead my Leisel down a path that would end in the destruction of our society, but she said NO to him. My daughter is faithful to her people. She held the good of the people above her own love for her fiancé and above her own personal happiness. That is why Jack Kenner inflicted pain and humiliation on my daughter,” the President was spitting with every word he said. I heard someone being congratulated behind me.

  The President paused, trying to get himself under control. Then he deliberately looked directly into the camera. “Jack Kenner is a criminal and he has escaped, with his new wife in tow. I want them found and brought before the Council to answer to their crimes of treason.”

  His words caught the attention of the entire room. Everyone was sitting up and staring at the television with shocked expressions on their faces. A murmur was going through the crowd. I wanted to sink lower in my chair, but it would only draw attention to me. I hoped no one recognized us. Jack was staring at me, telling me with his eyes to be calm.

  “We have already made a preliminary search with no luck in finding them,” President Holt continued. “Therefore I appeal to all of you. Anyone with information leading to their arrest will be rewarded with 400 credits. And for anyone found hiding them, you will be considered a sympathizer to traitors and dealt with according to our laws. Death.” The Presidential Seal flashed up on the screen, ending his address.

  “Well, that its then,” Jack said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table.

  I knew he was right. It was just a matter of time before someone recognized us and collected the reward. That was enough credits to make sure you would never be homeless, even if you lost your job. Anyone to turn that down would be crazy. I looked around the table. I didn’t think Reyes wanted to collect the reward, but maybe one of his friends.