Ghost Hope

by Ripley Patton

  “No, it’s not,” I said, raising the gun and pointing it at her chest. “Show me.”

  “Seriously?” She frowned at the gun. “You just got done promising you wouldn’t hurt me. And either you’re a terrible shot or you missed Matty on purpose. Whoever you are, you’re not a killer. I know that much.”

  “Maybe not.” I lowered my weapon, pointing it at her right boot. “But I could shoot you in the foot and you’d tell me. You wouldn’t bleed out before your friends got here, and anyone can live without a toe or two.”

  “God, why are you such an asshat?” She sounded genuinely curious. “Is it because you were horribly bullied as a child about your leg?”

  “Give me my holster.” I gestured at her chest. “If you’re not going to show me, I’ll find it myself.”

  “Fine.” She took the holster off and handed it to me. “I’ll show you, mainly because I don’t want you to hurt anyone, and I’d like to get away from you as soon as possible.”

  “Likewise,” I said, picking up Mike’s gun bag and slinging it over my shoulder. I’d forgotten how heavy it was.

  “Do you have a name?” she asked. “Or should I just call you asshat?”

  “Jason,” I said, realizing too late it was probably a bad idea to give her my real name.

  “Well, Jason.” She crossed to one of the lanterns and picked it up. Then she turned to the back of the bunker. “Follow me.”

  As we approached the back wall, I could see it was covered with a detailed and somewhat pornographic mural. Between the eerie shadows cast by the lanterns and the fleshy artwork, I didn’t notice the door until she reached out and pulled it open. She held up the lantern, the light falling onto a long flight of metal stairs leading down into a dark corridor.

  “There’s a series of tunnels that connect all the bunkers and most of the main buildings of the depot,” she explained. “They were added during the decommissioning to help transport the chemicals from the bunkers to the incinerators. Then they cemented a lot of them in and blocked the entrances, so it’s like a labyrinth. There are only a few places you can still get out, and they’re not easy to find unless you know where to look. So, stay close to me. I’ve explored most of it, but that was before the dome showed up. I haven’t been down here since, and I think it might have collapsed some of the tunnels.”

  “So, if the wrong tunnel collapsed, we might not be able to get out?”

  “I can get us out,” she assured me.

  “And what about when your friends get here? They know about the tunnels, right? Won’t they just follow us?”

  “I know the tunnels better than anyone,” she said proudly. “Besides, they’ll have no idea which route we’ve taken.”

  “Okay then. Lead on,” I said, following her down into the dark underground labyrinth.

  28

  OLIVIA

  Once I found out that Mike, my sister, and Marcus were outside the dome, I barely knew what to do with myself. I didn’t hear the conversation at dinner. I blindly followed the guys upstairs to play cards afterwards. It was easy to pretend I didn’t notice that Passion, Samantha and my mother stayed behind in the kitchen, undoubtedly to enact operation “birthday cake.” And it took every ounce of effort I had not to ask Chase if he’d heard from Mike yet, but he’d promised to tell me the minute he did. I just had to be patient.

  I was picking up cards and tossing them down like a zombie when the storm finally broke over our heads. Being under the dome during a torrential downpour was like being trapped in a reverse snow globe. The world outside was swirling and crazy, but inside it was as calm as ever. Still, the sound of the splashing rain had its usual effect, so I excused myself for a quick trip to the bathroom, and when I came back five minutes later, Grant and Pete were the only ones at the card table.

  “Where are Chase and T-dog?” I asked, my heart pounding in my chest.

  “Chase got some kind of alert on his laptop,” Grant said. “Something about one of the side entrances. He said it was probably a false alarm due to the storm, but they went to check, just in case.”

  One of the side entrances? Did that mean what I thought it did? If Mike had waited until the last minute to message Chase—which he probably had—this could be it. My sister and Marcus might be inside the compound at that very moment, making their way toward us.

  Calm down. You don’t even know if they’re coming for sure.

  And then the door on the CAMFer side of the dome opened, and I turned toward it.

  Chase stepped through first, catching my eye and grinning from ear to ear. T-dog followed. Behind him was my sister, enveloped in a rain poncho way too big for her, the hood thrown back, her hair dripping wet, but she was smiling too. Her eyes caught mine, then flicked behind me to Grant and Pete, moving from them to search further, puzzled.

  “Go get my mom,” I said to Grant. “And the girls too.”

  He didn’t even hesitate. He was gone in an instant.

  Right behind Kaylee, a gorgeous, petite, dark-haired woman came in, her eyes scanning much like Kaylee’s had, but they found exactly what they wanted. She let out a cry and ran straight into Pete’s arms, planting a passionate kiss on him. He did not resist. Not even a little.

  After her, came another dark-haired guy I’d never seen, but they looked so much alike they had to be related.

  Behind that guy was Mike Palmer, not smiling per se, but giving me a nod of approval.

  And last but not least, Marcus slipped into the room, his expression guarded and cautious, a bulky wet rectangular trash bag slung over his shoulder which he immediately set down.

  I’d tried very hard not to think about this moment.

  I’d already lived through it once. The lack of recognition in his eyes. The way they’d passed over me as if I were a stranger. I did not want to experience that again. Yet here he was. My Marcus. My first love, traipsing into the dome soaking wet, his shirt slicked to his extraordinary chest, his dark hair and intense brown eyes.

  Those eyes didn’t pass over me this time. They found me and locked with mine, his lips quirking into a familiar cocky smirk. I was staring at him. The longing must have been written all over my face. Hell, it was probably written all over my body.

  And he found that humorous, just like he had that first day in Calculus class when he’d caught me checking him out.

  Suddenly. Kaylee was grabbing me and wrapping her arms around me.

  Little sister, don’t be upset, her voice whispered in my mind. It will be okay.

  Being called “little sister” by tiny Kaylee felt really weird. It was hard to believe she was five years older than me. Mom had explained she’d been a preemie and very tiny when she was born. The fact that she’d been whisked away and raised in a cloistered environment probably hadn’t helped. But the family resemblance was undeniable. This was my sister.

  I heard a noise behind me, halfway between a laugh and a cry, and my mother crashed into us, enveloping us both in her arms.

  After that, the rest of the evening was a whirlwind. Kaylee had rattled stuff off in our minds so quickly, it had been hard to catch it all. She and Marcus had almost died in the desert. Reiny and Lonan had rescued them. She loved horses and they loved her. They’d seen the dome and kittens on television, and she’d gotten to ride in a moving house bus. But then Reiny’s uncle had gotten very sick and they’d taken him and Mia away in a helicopter. But he was going to be okay. The doctors were fixing him.

  Then Mike told us about the locals holding the fence open and about the new iteration of CAMF arriving. Thankfully, the police had stopped them, at least for the time being.

  That led to an argument between Marcus and Mike about Jason, who’d apparently gone missing right before they’d gotten the message from Chase to make a break for the dome. Marcus argued they should have waited for him. Mike said Jason could take care of himself and waiting would have been too risky. Personally, I agreed with Mike, but I kept my mouth shut.

  Add
to that the comedy of several of the new people asking, “Do I smell cake?” and the old crew pretending they didn’t hear it even though it sent Passion and Samantha scurrying downstairs to check “the dishwasher”. That was pretty entertaining. Of course, the girls brought back food and warm drinks for the new arrivals, and Grant and Pete went and got them towels and dry clothes.

  Then there was the fact that Reiny and Pete were obviously in love.

  After he and the men had brought up more beds and everyone agreed it was time to call it a night, I was surprised the two of them hadn’t slipped away to one of the staff suites for a little privacy. Then again, Pete was the one who’d been pushing for us to stay together in the dome for security reasons.

  From where I lay, wide awake in the middle of the night, I could see them, just at the edge of one of the partitions, two forms entwined into one shadow in Pete’s bed. Not in a sexual way, but in something just as intimate that made my heart ache.

  I glanced at the clock on my bedside table, and there was the USB Chase had given me lying beside it. I’d been so distracted I hadn’t looked at the stuff on it yet, but that was okay. I wanted privacy when I watched that footage, and 4:12 am was about as private as it got living in a dome with thirteen other people.

  So, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, pulled on my sweatshirt, grabbed the USB, and slipped between the surrounding screens. There were three places I could access a computer: The Hold computer lab, the hacker van, or the CAMFer computer lab. The Hold computer lab was the obvious choice, followed by the van. But for some reason, I headed toward the door to the CAMFer side. I’m not sure why. Maybe, I just wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t afraid, that those memories couldn’t control me. Or perhaps I wanted to keep the contents of that USB on the side where they belonged—the dark side.

  Of course, once I was through the CAMFer door, walking down the long hallway, I realized what a terrible idea it was.

  My body began to shake. My teeth were clenched. I was fucking terrified.

  Face your fears, Olivia. The CAMFers aren’t here anymore. It’s just an empty building.

  I made it to the CAMFer computer lab without bolting, sat down at the nearest station, and plugged in the USB.

  A video file icon popped up immediately, and I stared down at it. I was still afraid, so fucking afraid that it pissed me off. I reached into my sweatshirt pocket, feeling for my dad’s marker stone, rubbing my fingers across the inscription. It was a good thing Passion couldn’t sense my feelings through the dog tags hanging around my neck. I didn’t want her to feel what I was about to feel. Honestly, I didn’t want to feel it, but it had to be done.

  “You can do this,” I whispered, clicking play.

  At first, I thought there had been some kind of mistake—that Chase had given me the wrong file. I was not expecting beautiful footage of the dome taken from the perspective of a drone flying over it. There was music in the background, something orchestral that soared and fell, syncing perfectly with the scenery. These weren’t horrific clips of what the CAMFers had done to me. It was some kind of short, indie film, one that artfully transitioned from outside the compound to old video footage of the arrival of Kaylee and her captivity. God, she’d been a cute kid. Who was I kidding? She was still adorable. She had some sort of pixie quality that defied age and made you want to protect her.

  The story Chase had woven continued, depicting the warring factions of The Hold and the CAMFers and how each side had approached PSS in an equally fucked-up way. It showed Marcus and Danielle’s capture and torture. Yes, I saw her die in front of her brother, her PSS and her life slowly fading to nothing. I saw myself, a few brief scenes of what had been done to me, and relived it, tears streaming down my face. Then Kaylee entered the story once more. Chase had actually found the footage of her coming into my cell after I’d lost my hand. She touched me and the film cut to a scene of my hand pulsing back to life.

  After that, Grant and I were being marched to the dome, climaxing to the final conflict between Mr. James and Fineman, Palmer cutting Kaylee, my hand reaching into myself. Then the screen went black, as if that were the end, except the music from the first scene returned, swelling dramatically. When the darkness had lasted just long enough, the drone soared over the dome once again, the mob outside beginning to amass around it far below.

  Finally, there were a few key shots of us inside, working diligently, collecting data, with an emphasis on me and my ghost hand directing everyone. God, was I really that bossy? And as the music built to its final crescendo, text blazed across the screen in beautiful bold lettering. Come Home to the Dome. After which Chase had included GPS coordinates and map links to the dome’s location followed by the words, This is not The End. It is only the beginning.

  When the movie finished, I sat in stunned silence, staring at the screen.

  How had Chase made this beautiful, brutal thing? The entire video couldn’t have lasted more than ten minutes. God, I would never mock his movie making abilities again. What he had created—it was beyond words. This was a story that could change people’s minds about PSS. It explained what the dome was, who we were, and why what we were doing was so important. It was brilliant and powerful, and it was exactly what we needed.

  This would be the dome’s first drive-in movie. All the people out there who’d been gathering for some kind of show would finally get one.

  But it was only the first step. Once we had the public’s attention, we could release Pete and Reiny’s research and all the incriminating shit from the CAMFers’ files. As long as we had the hackers’ secure internet connection, no one could stop us. We could release all the PSS content we wanted onto the web, including this movie, and more like it.

  A noise snapped me out of my reverie and I turned, looking back through the lab door’s little window out into the hallway. There was movement, a dark form and the flash of a pale face. It was there one second, gone the next.

  My entire body went cold as if I’d suddenly been submerged in icy water.

  You’re freaking out. There was no one there.

  But I could hear someone, moving quietly, but not quietly enough.

  I had no weapon, except for the rock in my pocket and the surge of adrenaline in my veins, but it would have to be enough. I clutched my dad’s stone and turned back to the door to find someone staring right back at me.

  I jumped up as Marcus opened the door and stepped into the lab.

  His eyes flicked to the computer behind me. “What are you doing over here in the middle of the night?” he asked, his voice full of suspicion.

  “What are you doing following me in the middle of the night?” I countered. This was the first real conversation we’d had since he’d arrived, and it already sucked.

  “I saw you get up and leave the dome,” he explained, “and when you didn’t come back right away, I was concerned.”

  “Concerned about what?” I couldn’t keep the snark out of my voice. He’d followed me because he didn’t trust me. Because he’d never truly trusted anyone in his life.

  “You know what? Forget it,” he said, running his hand through his hair, his muscles rippling under his t-shirt. “I thought you might be in trouble but, obviously, you have everything under control.” He turned toward the door and I realized he was barefoot. He hadn’t even taken the time to put on socks. And he was as gorgeous as ever in just a tee and gray sweatpants, his hair all rumpled.

  “No, wait. I’m sorry.” My heart leapt when he turned back to me. “I just got creeped out, and you startled me. I should have known better than to come over here in the first place.”

  “You and me both,” he said, smiling a little. “This floor is fucking cold.” His glance slid back to the computer. “Why did you come over here?”

  I guess now was as good a time as any to let Marcus in on my plan. He was probably going to hate it, but I couldn’t do much more damage to our relationship than had already been done. I really had nothing to l
ose.

  “I was watching footage Chase pulled for me from the CAMFer side,” I said. “Well, it’s more than footage, really. He made it into a movie. Want to see?”

  “Yeah, sure. Why not?” He pulled up a chair and I sat back in mine, trying not to think about how close he was. And how far away.

  “I should warn you. It contains disturbing scenes of you, Danielle, and me.”

  “Thanks for the warning,” he said.

  And then I played it for him.

  I know I’d just seen it, but I got lost in it anyway. I barely knew I was in that room, sitting next to the boy I loved, watching some of the most horrific moments of our lives. I’d planned to pay attention and gauge his reaction. Instead, I was wrung out like a sponge, my face wet with tears. Again.

  “Shit,” he sighed, his voice wobbly. “I don’t remember most of that. How can I not remember?”

  I had the same question, but hearing him voice it with such agony—it tore me up inside.

  “So, you’re going to show this on the dome, aren’t you?” he asked. “That’s what the fancy sky show was all about this morning—to prime the crowd out there for this.”

  “I didn’t actually think of it until after the demo,” I explained. “Do you think it will work?”

  “That depends on what outcome you’re expecting. You’ve got their attention. That’s for sure. But I doubt it will work.”

  I’d known this argument was coming. Marcus was as opinionated as I was. He was also smart, crafty, loyal, and caring. You just had to come at him from the right angle to uncover those attributes, and thankfully I was somewhat at an advantage. I knew him a hell of a lot better than he knew me. So, I wasn’t going to argue with him.

  “You don’t think we should show it?” I asked. “Because I won’t without your permission. At least not the way it is now. Chase can edit out the scenes with you and Danielle if that’s what you want.”

  I could see he was surprised by that concession, but if he was the same Marcus I’d known before, the one I’d fallen in love with, there wouldn’t be any question about his answer. His mission in life had been to save people from what Danielle had been through. He just hadn’t thought quite as globally as this, although, to be fair, he hadn’t had the opportunity. And that’s exactly what I was offering him. It was strange how our roles had reversed. Now, I was the one trying to change the world and he was the one who needed convincing to join me.