Here Skies Surround Us

by Melanie Mcfarlane

  Evan is speaking to a truck driver outside. He smiles and waves me over.

  “How are things going inside?”

  “It’s getting better.” I smile. “It’s time for the south quarter trucks to go out.”

  “That’ll help get people’s minds off all this,” Evan says. He turns to the driver. “Go ahead.”

  “I’m going to head home and clean up,” I say to Evan. “It’s time to get that key.”

  “Dammit,” Evan says. “I need to find Remy and the others. Meet me back at your place?”

  “Okay,” I say, giving him a kiss on the cheek. I watch as the truck drives away. One of the tarps slips down, revealing the blue water stamp.

  “Evan, why are those boxes stamped blue?”

  He looks at the truck and turns back to me. “Aren’t they all?” I shake my head. “Maybe they ran out of blue ink.”

  “But why stamp them at all?” I ask.

  “I don’t know, Nat. But don’t you need to meet Ali?”

  I nod and rush home, still bothered by the different colored stamps, but I must put that in the back of my mind and focus on my task. Caroline knows her key is missing and she knows I was the only one in her bedroom. I break into a run, anxious to get my hands on that key.

  The commotion in the south sector has died down, and people have gathered in small groups, discussing the water filtration trucks that have driven past. Oh, how quickly they’ve forgotten that children are facing trial tomorrow and a bomb was set off nearby. If it weren’t for the gash in the dome, you’d think this was just a regular day. Maybe here, it is.

  Back at home I quickly shower and change out of my soot-covered clothes, then make my way to the east quarter, where the Laundry dorms sit. Lunch is almost over, and that’s when Ali wanted me to come. I hope she could find the key. Once I get it, I need to come up with a plan for Ali. Maybe I can hide her at home until Alec comes back—then he’ll have to help me smuggle her out. She trusts me. It’s the least I can do.

  The east quarter is as dreary as ever, and it’s only the middle of the afternoon. The wall to the north quarter looms ominously above, with more guards watching it than the last time I was here. I walk toward the tiny dorms. It’s only been one week, but it feels like a lifetime ago. I push aside the curtain they use as a door, surprised to see Mae sitting there with some others.

  “Well, what are you doin’ back here, princess?” Mae asks.

  “I’m looking for Ali.”

  “She’s still working,” Mae says. “She’ll be another half hour or so. You can come on in and wait if you’d like.” Mae stares at me with an unwelcome grin.

  “I’ll wait out here.”

  “Suit yourself, princess,” Mae says. The other women laugh.

  I wait outside the dorm, pacing back and forth in the shadow of the large building. A light rain starts to fall, and I scramble under an old tin awning that sticks out from the dorm. Ali must have stayed behind to find the key. I hope she didn’t have any trouble. My stomach grumbles. I should have had a quick bite at home before I left.

  Mae’s voice cackles from inside, grating on my nerves. I turn toward the dorms to shout out my frustrations at the women and a loud blast sets off behind me. I stumble in confusion, my ears ringing. I look up at the Health Center that houses the Laundry department in its basement and see large clouds billowing from its windows. As I stand there staring, I’m bumped around by Mae and her friends running past me.

  Mae grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me. My ears are still ringing, and it takes me a moment before I realize she’s shouting at me. I shake my head as her words start to come through to me.

  “Get out of here!” she yells. “It’s not safe!”

  I look from Mae back to the Health Center and then it sinks in—Ali! I knock Mae’s hands from my shoulders and take off running toward the building.

  The members that were staffing the gates are now blocking people from getting too close to the blast site. I try to scramble past them, but they hold me back until Nora spots me. She waves to me and yells, “Let her through!”

  “Another bomb?” I ask, shouting above the noise of the growing crowd.

  “It happened down in Laundry,” she says. “I came out to oversee the casualties.”

  “Casualties?”

  “It’s bad,” she says, looking worried.

  “You think it’s related to what happened in the west quarter?”

  “Must be,” she says. “It’s just too coincidental to be an accident. What are you doing back over here?”

  “I was supposed to meet a friend,” I say. “She stayed late to finish her work. Short girl, brown hair? Have you seen her?”

  “No,” Nora shakes her head. “I’m sorry, child. I just had a visit from Caroline, minutes before the blast. I didn’t have a chance to see anyone while I escorted her out of the building.”

  “What was Caroline doing here?”

  “Just routine checks,” she says. “Occasionally, she checks us over, top to bottom.”

  “Was she down in Laundry?”

  “I don’t know. Suppose so. Why do you ask?”

  “I need to find Ali,” I say. Panic fills my chest, tightening it up with every breath.

  A New Order member comes up and salutes Nora. I remember him from the day I was taken down to Laundry. He must be in charge of the entire building.

  “Ma’am,” he says. “One casualty so far—a young girl.”

  “Thank you,” Nora says, and then turns to me, a worried look on her face.

  “I have to see.”

  I follow Nora and the member toward the blast. Before we get there, I see a body clothed in a familiar pair of shoes followed by a nicely pressed dress. No one would have worked down in laundry dressed like that, and I know before I see the face that it’s Ali. She must have stayed behind to get ready for our outing. I stumble in the rubble, and Nora grabs me by the arm. I push her away and kneel.

  Ali’s body lies limply on the ground. I falter; her eyes stare back at mine. For a moment, I think she’s just resting there on the ground, tired from a long shift. Then I see a mark on her forehead, ever so slight and small, but its roundness gives it away, along with a trickle of blood.

  “What is this?” I ask, looking back at Nora and the New Order member. They both lean down to stare at the tiny mark.

  “It looks as though she was shot,” Nora says standing up, staring at me.

  Someone intentionally hurt Ali. It must have been someone she knew, for them to get so close to her. I search her hands and pockets, but they’re empty. I want to scream, but instead I try to get up, fumbling in the debris. Nora grabs me before I can fall to my knees.

  “This isn’t the place, girl,” she whispers as she holds me up by my shoulders. “Don’t show them they got to you. Get out of here as fast as you can.”

  I look at her with confusion. Whom is she talking about?

  “Go on, now!” she nearly yells. “Get home and tell your friends.”

  I stumble on the uneven ground, and then break out into a run. I push passed Mae and the others, who stand at the edge of the crowd. They call after me, asking what I saw, but judging by Mae’s look, she can tell by my face.

  People from the north quarter are pushing at the wall. Its flimsy metal shakes from the pressure. I can even see some trying to climb over. Did they do this? New Order members scramble as they attempt to maintain the crowd and staff the wall at the same time.

  I make my way out of the east quarter, through the streets that fill with people. The crowds get thicker, and I have to push my way through, fighting as I hold my tears. I can still hear Nora’s warning: “Don’t show them they got you.”

  Finally, I see my home up ahead. Relief washes over me when I see a light is on. Alec must be back! I burst through the front door, only to see Evan sitting at the table.

  “Nat!” he cries, standing up and grabbing me in hi
s arms. It’s the security I need to feel safe enough to cry. “I was worried about you,” he says. “I heard there was another explosion. I ran here to find you. Did you get the key?”

  “No,” I sob. “It’s Ali: she was killed.”

  “What happened? Was the explosion in Laundry?”

  “Yes, but she wasn’t killed by the blast.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I think your mother shot her.”

  The night is long. I toss and turn with images in my head of Ali lying in the rubble. When I wake up, there’s a commotion outside. Evan tells me not to worry and calms me back to sleep, but he gets out of bed to look out the windows.

  In the morning, Evan is quiet and his brows are furrowed together. Is he thinking about Quinn? Or is he thinking about what happened outside last night? For once, he shouldn’t be worried about me. It’s all I can do to stop myself from wrapping my arms around him.

  “We need to get to Court,” Evan says. “I think they’ll rush the sentencing.

  Oh, no. Of course, he’s worried about the kids. How could I have forgotten? “Why would they rush?”

  “In case rebellions start breaking out.” He sighs, covers his face with his hands, and rubs his eyes before turning to me. “They started last night.”

  “Rebellions?” I ask. I remember the mild dissension in the crowd at the hearing, but it was nothing more than mumbling.

  “It can’t be a coincidence,” he says. “First, they raid the north quarter and take the children, and then cordon them off from the rest of the city. Suddenly, bombs start going off strategically in the east and west quarters, the two places closest to the north quarter. So now, the south quarter is feeling unrest. It all makes me uneasy.”

  “Why go to Court at all then?” I ask. Evan glances at me sharply, but I know the answer as soon as the words leave my lips: in case Caroline takes Quinn there. We just can’t risk it.

  “As soon as we know Quinn isn’t being dragged into this, I’m going straight to the Axis,” Evan explains. “You come back here and pack up. Keep it light.”

  “But what about Alec?”

  “I’m not sure what’s happened to him,” Evan says. “But we can’t wait around. He’ll be glad I got you out before everything falls apart. He knows where to find us.”

  We make our way to Court, following hundreds of others who have the same idea. The square is filling up fast. Everyone wants to hear about the demise of the children.

  Caroline, Mason, and someone I don’t recognize climb onto the stage. They take their places in the seats of judgment. Something seems different about this group. I try to put my finger on it and then realize what it is.

  “Everyone’s silent,” I whisper to Evan. “Doesn’t it seem weird?”

  “You sense it too?” he asks. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

  Mason speaks up before we can say anything more. “Please bring out the children!” he calls. The words sting the air like poison.

  One by one, the children file onto the stage and line up next to the judges. Their tiny eyes are wide with fear and wonder as they look over the crowd. I see Molly grasp Georgie’s arm. Georgie, the boy I saved from the baker. I look at the faces of the people around me. Do any of them know these children by name? Will anyone miss them?

  Caroline stands up, tall and proud in front of the crowd. She looks at the children, one by one, and then turns to the gathering.

  “Come on,” Evan says. “We need to get closer.” We push through the crowd and people give way easier than I expected. The anger and build-up from the lashings of the New Order members are absent from this sentencing. This is more surreal.

  “Today we bring before you these miscreants,” Caroline begins. “They are guilty of multiple acts of thievery and mischief. Not one of them is from our dome. Each is a refugee we took in and cared for, and how do they repay us? By stealing from us!”

  The crowd stays silent. We are close to the stage now. I can see Caroline’s eyes frown a little. Then someone from behind me shouts, “They’re just children!”

  I watch in wonder as Caroline’s face transforms. The frown is replaced with loathing.

  “Those sound like the words of the rebellion,” Caroline shouts. “Take that woman for questioning!”

  New Order members break apart the crowd and grab a woman, dragging her from the square kicking and screaming. My body tenses. I want to run to her, but doing so won’t help the children—they are my priority. Evan tightens his grip on my hand and shakes his head at me, and I listen in dismay as the woman’s cries are muffled in the crowd.

  “Would you like me to remind you where these children came from?” Caroline asks, her eyes wild now. “Would you like me to remind you what their parents did to us? Do you not remember the night they came and took our loved ones from us? They destroyed our families! Is it so long ago you’ve all forgotten?”

  The crowd begins to mumble in agreement. Someone else behind us yells out, “Sentence!” The crowd starts to chant.

  “These children are following in their parents’ footsteps! They must be dealt with!” Molly begins to wail in the lineup. My heart throbs with pain for her. I need to get to her after the sentencing. We need to save these children.

  “Sentence!” the crowd is now yelling.

  “I sentence these children to the same end their parents faced!” Caroline screams. “Death by firing squad!”

  I inhale sharply as the crowd gasps. A wave of silence overtakes the square. Had Caroline sentenced them to imprisonment for life, they would have accepted it. Had she cast them off into the wild to fend for themselves, they could have moved passed it. But death by firing squad? No one in his or her right mind could accept that. The blood of innocents would stain their city forever.

  The New Order members grab the children one by one and start to line them up at the back of the stage. Molly is the first to burst into tears. I sway against Evan, and he lets go of my hand to steady me. The crowd around me is still silent, or at least it seems that way; all I can hear is my heartbeat thundering in my ears.

  “No,” I say quietly.

  “Shhh,” Evan whispers.

  “No,” I say louder, stepping away from Evan. Molly’s cries have spread across the group. The younger children are sobbing hysterically now. Other people in the crowd begin to mumble in agreement with me.

  “No!” I yell this time. The crowd in front of me parts and Caroline looks down at me. Her look is that of a maniac out of control. I do not waver.

  “You can’t do this!” I scream, turning from Caroline to the people. “They’re children! You know it’s wrong!”

  “Take her away,” Caroline yells, a sly grin creeping across her face.

  “She’s right,” a man next to me speaks up. “This is wrong.”

  “Look at them!” another woman shouts. “They’re just little kids.”

  I turn back to Caroline. “Everyone here knows this isn’t right. You can’t kill them for small crimes like stealing. They didn’t hurt anyone!”

  “Don’t listen to the Outsider,” Caroline spits at me. “She wants to divide us.”

  It’s too late. The crowd is starting to shout but this doesn’t faze her; the children are already in place. She nods to a New Order member, who looks lost for a moment, and then lifts his gun with a shaky arm.

  “NO!” I scream, throwing myself at the stage. “Take me instead.”

  “Nat!” Evan calls from behind me. “No!”

  The member lowers his gun and turns toward me, raising an eyebrow. It’s Jeb. For a moment, I think he’s grateful for an interruption. Then a smirk crosses his face when he sees that it’s me. Now he can get payback.

  “Why would I want you instead?” Caroline asks.

  “Because you’re right,” I say. “I’m an Outsider. I’m from another dome.”

  “That’s not enough,” Caroline says. A smile plays at the edge of her
lips. She wants me to beg for my sentence.

  “My dome had the virus and tested it on innocent people,” I continue. “When your dome had the chance to stop them I was the one who thwarted it.”

  People in the crowd gasp. It’s what Caroline wants—to distract them from the innocent lives being held hostage on stage.

  “No, Nat!” Evan yells. I turn to look and see two New Order members are holding him back. There’s no one to protect me now.

  “If you let the children go, I will take their place,” I say. “I’m more valuable as a prisoner.”

  Caroline stares down at me as I stand at the edge of the stage. Something flickers in her eyes. The crowd silently listens.

  “All right,” she says. “You, in exchange for the children.”

  I exhale in relief. “You won’t regret this. You can use me as bait—”

  “Except the oldest boy,” Caroline quickly adds.

  Jeb lifts his gun and fires before I can react. I freeze and watch in horror as Georgie crumples into a pile on the stage. Molly screams, still holding Georgie’s limp hand. Her screams ring in my ears. Jeb slowly lifts the gun at her. Suddenly I’m behind him, knocking him over. I grab his gun and point it at him, watching as it fires and he crumples to the ground. I slowly realize I am the one clicking the trigger, and I can’t stop. I point the gun at Caroline, but the barrel is empty.

  “Nice try,” Caroline says, standing up. “You just sealed your fate.”

  Her words mean nothing to me. As she leans toward me, I see something shine from around her neck. It’s the key—the key that Ali was going to bring me before she was killed. I lift the butt of the gun and strike Caroline in the face.

  The crowd goes crazy after our charade, and nothing seems real. Citizens overtake the stage, blocking my view of the children, carrying them away to safety. New Order members flow into the square, trying to take control, but the people fight back. It is total chaos.

  Caroline and Mason pull me off the stage and behind their seats, where Mason opens a door that leads into a small room. This room opens to a large ramp that disappears down into darkness. At first, I’m confused, but then I remember how our dome had an emergency exit ramp built out from B3. The ramp where I killed all the infected with a bomb.