by Megan Curd
Suddenly, a beam of light blinded me from above.
“There! The perpetrator is there!”
Three more steady beams pinned me to my spot. I was terrified. At least thirty Polatzi swarmed from all directions, flooding through every alleyway. I pressed myself against the sediment, willing myself to be invisible.
A hand gripped my right shoulder tightly, yanked me backward, and hastily dragged me over the top of the trash heap and down the other side.
I turned to see the man in the hat, the man without a mask.
“Come on, you lump,” he huffed. He ran down the alleyway and picked up Alice. Again, she let him whisk her away. If we survived this, we’d be having a talk about that.
I looked behind me to find Polatzi cascading down the mound. Boots, old masks, newspapers, and debris flew everywhere as their feet struggled to gain ground. Empty glass bottles clattered down the heap and broke into a million pieces, and the thundering of the hovercraft above roared closer.
At the end of the alleyway I found the man shoving Alice in a contraption I’d never seen before. Its spindly metal legs gleamed in the darkness, the bolts protruding slightly from the joints. The legs were bent and the body was on the ground, awaiting its driver. It hummed in anticipation, as though it were a living thing. He placed Alice gingerly in the back seat, then waved me forward.
“Let’s go!”
I paused long enough for a taser shot to miss me by a hair. I jumped into the machine beside Alice while the man climbed into the driver’s seat. His hands swept over the innumerable cogs, switches, and pulleys. Lights flashed, and the contraption came to life, the legs extending and lifting us off the ground.
We rose at least twenty feet into the air. The machine moved smoothly despite its odd construction, and the man had his hands in gloves connected to the chassis. Each time he shifted his hands, the legs stepped forward.
I heard shouts of terror from below and watched as the Polatzi scattered and dove out of the way of this…this thing. All of the hovercraft’s lights were directed at us, and I could almost touch it. My eyes burned and watered from the light.
The stranger laughed as the machine lurched forward.
Bang!
It had sounded like a shotgun going off, and now a net covered the Polatzi’s hovercraft. It struggled in vain to stay in the air against the massive weights at the bottom of the net, before finally crashing to the ground with a sickening crunch.
We covered more ground quicker than I’d ever experienced. The faster the thing went, the jerkier its motions became. I struggled to keep myself seated, and Alice clung to me for dear life. Neither of us said a word but simply stared below as old homes and vendor carts passed by in a blur.
Once out of range of the Polatzi hovercrafts, the man slowed his contraption down, and I forced my legs to move. I held onto the sides of the steel body for support and fell into the front passenger seat with relief when I reached the front. “What in the hell is this thing?”
He didn’t look at me, but kept his eyes forward as his hands continued to control our getaway. “It’s my buggy. Do you like it? It’s a play on words, you see. Back before the war, before cars and planes, people had things called buggies, but they were silly carriage-like inventions pulled by animals. I fashioned this after the common spider, which is technically an arachnid, but most people call them bugs. Hence, this is my buggy.”
I had no idea what to say, and he wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise anyway, so I stumbled to the back of the bug gadget to sit by Alice. She leaned in and whispered in my ear. “What did you ask him?”
“I asked what this thing was.” I was still trying to swallow everything that had happened.
“And what’d he say?”
“He said it was a spider bug thing.”
Alice shook her head. “I’ve seen spiders, and this is not a spider or a bug, for that matter.”
“It’s a buggy, actually,” the driver called back, still staring forward.
“Who is this guy?” Alice asked with suspicion.
He yelled over the din of the metal legs. “My name is Jaxon Pierce, but you can call me Jax. Pleased to make your acquaintance, ladies. Now why don’t you two shush and let me drive this thing.”
“You know, technically spiders are arachnids,” Alice whispered. “I don’t think this guy knows the difference between a bug and an arachnid.”
I was pretty sure that the classification of a spider was the least of our worries.
MY BODY ACHED from exhaustion, but I willed myself to stay awake. Alice, however, couldn’t stave off sleep. Her head bounced gently against my shoulder with each step the buggy took, and I put a hand on her head to steady her.
My muscles burned. Every time I moved, a surge of pain shot through my legs. My toes tingled as though asleep. A million thoughts sped through my mind, battling for my attention. These seats were uncomfortable. Who was this Jaxon figure? Were we going to end up dead in a ditch somewhere? Maybe that’s what happened to my parents.
The familiar twang of loss cracked like a whip across my heart at the thought of my parents. I begged my brain to shut down for a while, just long enough to make me forget the day. I squeezed my eyes shut and saw red from the pressure. I’d give steam every day of my life to go back to before my parents disappeared.
Please, God, if you’re there, let it all be a dream.
When I woke up, I noticed the buggy was stationary. I was slumped to the side of the carriage, and Alice was curled up on the seat, her head in my lap. My neck ached from being at a strange angle for so long. I pulled myself into a more comfortable position.
“You slept hard,” said a drawling voice, “though I’ve heard near death experiences can do that to a person. Personally, I avoid those like the plague.”
I turned toward the voice, the muscles in my neck protesting. I massaged them with one hand as I drank in the figure before me.
Jaxon now appeared much closer to my age than I had imagined. Artfully destroyed jeans revealed cuts and callouses on his knees, and the hem of red plaid boxers he wore underneath peeked through the holes. The sleeves of his cream thermal Henley were rolled up, revealing muscular arms. The shirt was unbuttoned enough for me to see the top of his chiseled chest.
Where the sun beamed down on him, his caramel skin was almost luminous. He seemed tense, and I could see his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed.
I’d never seen anyone like him in Dome Four. His jawbone was strong, his cheekbones set high. His nose was regal and straight and when my gaze reached his eyes, my breath caught. Stormy blue-grey eyes that reminded me of shale returned my gaze with seemingly genuine curiosity, if not a bit of humor. Strips of colored fabric were woven into his dreadlocked hair, giving it a wildly unique appearance that suited him. His smug expression made me realize he was enjoying this.
“Are you finished checking me out? If you’re not, that’s okay; I allow every new woman I meet a free five-minute gawking period. After that, it’ll cost you.”
Blood rushed to my face. I tore my eyes from his magnetic gaze and watched as he took a worn leather strap off his wrist. He pulled back his dreadlocks—deep brown streaked with blonde—into the strap. His devilish grin pulled his eyes tight at the corners. He was trouble incarnate. Trouble I may very well want to get into, given the right circumstances.
“You’re at five minutes and thirty seconds now,” he said in a purr as he leaned in toward me. I felt his breath against my cheek, and my heart raced. “I’m going to start taking payment, and I choose how that payment is issued.”
Before I could respond, Alice stirred groggily beside me. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up. “Where are we?”
“Good question,” piped Jaxon. “One that your friend here failed to ask, but it could have been because I rendered her speechless with my good looks.”
Alice moved to get a better look at him, but he emphatically covered his face, as though he were a vampire tryin
g to block the sun. “Don’t look at me!” he cried, then grinned as he winked at me. “I don’t want to make two ladies swoon in such a short period of time. How would I entertain myself tonight?”
“You’re not that handsome,” I argued mulishly.
“There’s drool on your chin. Either you’re physically unable to keep your mouth shut, or I caused you to forget how. Since when I found you, you were drool free, I’m going with the assumption that it was me.” He fished in his pocket and offered me a piece of white silk. “Here, a handkerchief for your trouble. You can keep it if you’d like. We have more at the academy.”
“You do?” squeaked Alice.
I looked up from the lustrous cloth in time to see Jaxon’s eyes widen.
“Good Lord, you two. Riggs said you were different, but he didn’t say you were different.”
I held the soft silk against my face and breathed in the clean scent. That’s when it hit me.
I wasn’t wearing a mask.
Shock surged through my body like an electric current. “I’m breathing! Without a mask!”
If Jaxon didn’t think we were crazy before, he did now. “That’s what humans do, you know, breathe.” He laughed as he placed a hand on his chest and illustrated by taking deep, exaggerated breaths. “In and out, like this. Without masks. You’ve done it before; it’s nothing new.”
“But we’re outside!”
“Yep. Another perfectly acceptable place to breathe, since the alternative would be you suffocating to death. I’d really prefer that not happen. That’s not fun for anyone involved, and it’s extra paperwork for me.”
Both Alice and I stared at Jaxon with our mouths agape. As handsome as he was, the boy was odd beyond all reasonable doubt. And he thought we were different.
Alice’s head swiveled as she took in our surroundings. She gazed up at the skies. Clouds—real clouds—reflected in her eyes and beckoned me to look up as well.
We were in a different place than when I fell asleep. This dome encircled us just as the one we knew, but the glass was clear, polished, and went on for ages. The date, time, and temperature scrolled across the top of the dome, keeping the inhabitants informed. Clouds drifted along, revealing the outside world.
I’d never seen clouds of any kind, let alone fluffy white ones.
“Are…are those real?” I asked, pointing weakly to the heavens before me.
“Of course not,” Jaxon said. “They’re a hologram to depict what we hope to have some day.”
Alice sucked in a breath. “But holograms are banned devices! They take too much energy!”
Jaxon waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t believe everything you hear from your lovely governor. We’re fine running electricity here. You two were living in the stone ages, force-fed false information. Contrary to your previous way of life, this is 2027, not 1827.” He flourished our oxygen masks in front of us, then tossed them over the side of the carriage.
“Hey!”
“Avery, we even have clean air. No masks needed.”
I didn’t recall giving him my name. It was all beginning to crash into me. The night before. The Polatzi. Our home, gone. Running for our lives. This boy who just happened to be there, who happened to know Mr. Riggs. There were too many coincidences.
My eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”
He glanced around as though searching for someone he might have missed in the carriage. After a moment, he pointed to himself. “Are you talking to me? Because I’m sure I made it clear. I’m Jaxon Pierce.”
“Yes, I know that, but who are you? How did you know where we were? How do you know us?”
Ignoring my question, he turned to the front and punched a blue button to the right of the dashboard. Suddenly, a metal trap door dropped down from the middle of the buggy, revealing a rope ladder. He turned back to us, expectancy all over his face. He waved his arms toward the ladder. “Well?”
“Well what?” I asked.
“Aren’t you going to get out?”
“Get out somewhere when we have no clue where we are? That’s insane.”
He rolled his head back toward the sky. “If Riggs sends me for one more useless person, I’m going to die.”
Alice snorted. “Are you sure you’re not being melodramatic?”
He arched an eyebrow at her, his lips curved in an audacious smile. “Are you sure you two aren’t being stupid just to test me?”
“Well, give us answers so we’re not stupid!”
I’d never heard Alice shout at someone before. I was impressed.
He shook his head and then leapt down into the hatch without warning. We leaned over the buggy’s edge to watch him. Holding onto both sides of the ladder, he slid down, disregarding the footholds unlike a normal person. As if there were any question about him being normal.
I sighed and tugged Alice out of her seat. “We may as well go,” I said, placing my foot on the first rung of the swaying ladder. “Otherwise, we’ll sit up here looking at each other forever.”
I reached the bottom more quickly than I thought I would. My feet hit firm ground, and my knees buckled.
Jaxon laughed. “You need your sea legs, sailor.”
“Oh, shut up.”
He stifled a chuckle while Alice struggled down the ladder. Her dress tangled in the rungs and under her shoes. More than once, I was pleased to hear an unladylike and more importantly an un-Alice-like expletive.
I caught Jaxon looking at me. “Are you really going to make me ask you again? Who are you?”
“As I’ve told you, I’m Jaxon. That’s all you need to know.”
He made a sweeping bow. A few stray dreads spilled over his shoulders and threatened to touch the ground.
Grassy ground.
I marveled at this miracle as Alice reached my side. I glanced her way and giggled. Her hair was a rat’s nest of pins and bobs that weren’t supposed to be there. What was left of her chignon was smashed to the right side of her head. She’d been put through the ringer.
Jaxon took off in a long stride toward a massive gold and black skyline in the distance. The sun’s rays bounced off the hundreds, if not thousands, of windowed skyscrapers and plunged other areas into deep darkness.
I quickened my pace to stay close. When Alice and I had caught up, he began what was undoubtedly a practiced script.
“Welcome to Dome Seven. Don’t ask what the numbers mean because I don’t know and don’t care. My name is, as we’ve been over multiple times, Jaxon Pierce. You can call me Jax. I’m the resident alchemist. There are—”
“What’s an alchemist?”
His eyes darkened for a moment. “There are twenty-six residents at Chromelius Academy, all here for their unique talents and abilities. Atticus Riggs protects our kind. He finds us in the other domes and brings us back here. He gives us the chance to be ourselves.”
“Are you his delivery boy, then?” Alice asked with a sour expression.
“I’m nobody’s delivery boy, Miss Dobson. Riggs said Avery was hesitant to trust him and needed persuasion. I was the persuasion.”
“You decided to persuade her by sticking the entire Polatzi on us?” She seemed to grow taller in her irritation and seemed as though she might take a bite out of Jaxon.
“I didn’t do anything, Miss Dobson. Riggs can be quite persuasive when he wants something. He told me there would be an, ah, altercation and for me to watch for two lovely girls to be pushed from their hidey-hole like rats chased by terriers. And as he said, there you were, running wildly in the streets. No one told me the Polatzi would be involved, that there’d be so many, or that they would be as stupid as they are. One would think the governor’s special forces would possess some sort of mental fortitude. I might send him a letter pointing this out.”
“I’m sure he’ll be pleased to get a letter from the gentleman who sprung two of his people out from under him.”
Jaxon nodded thoughtfully, then smiled. “I’ll make sure to let him down easy. I’ll
put some cologne on it. Seems to make my words sound better to the ladies.”
I remained silent as I watched him stride on with his palms against the tips of the wild grass. Though I would never admit it to Alice, who had already made it clear she found his company as enjoyable as a leper’s, I found him to be an enigma. He was an intricate puzzle that probably was missing a few pieces, but I was still curious.
“By the way,” he added, “an alchemist works to transmute common metals into gold or silver, amongst other things.”
“And why would we want to do that?” asked Alice, undeterred by the boredom in Jaxon’s voice. “Iron and steel are what we need. Steam powers everything.”
Jaxon winked at me before spinning in a circle, arms extended in a simple yet grand gesture. “Ah, but how do you think this place runs? How does it look as nice as it does? Gold and silver are still the currency of the modern world, and we have it here at Dome Seven.”
WE FOLLOWED JAXON in silence after he provided his introduction to the dome. The onslaught of new sights, sounds, and smells was overwhelming. We were out of Dome Four. I was away from having to donate steam. I was free.
I laughed at the impossibility of it all.
The skyline grew in size, the sun hung low in the sky, and the shadows of the tall buildings swallowed much of the roadway ahead. But the darkness didn’t hold fear as it did in Dome Four. It held promise, dreams. Come morning light, anything was possible.
Information whizzed along the top of the dome in the holograms. It was hard to look away from the blatant use of technology. I’d never been allowed anything other than my high-end oxygen mask. What else do they have here? Computers? Phones? Tablets? The possibilities seemed endless if they didn’t run on steam.
Thousands of questions fought for the tip of my tongue and nervousness prickled the hairs on my neck, but I had to start somewhere. “Where are we?”
His voice was low, and I leaned closer to hear him.
“Like I said, Dome Seven. If you want to get technical, we’re situated on what’s left of the Twin Cities.”
“The Twin Cities?”
