Boy of Blood

by Megan O'Russell

  “It hurt a lot of people,” T said.

  “There were some factories that were damaged,” Catlyn said. “We were right above the tunnels, and when the guards went in, part of our floor collapsed. The machines stopped working, and we didn’t have the parts to fix them.”

  “But Nightland was in a Vamper neighborhood,” Nola said. “How could a factory have been hurt?”

  “Nightland reached under the streets and touched more of the city than you would ever know, Nola Kent.” T leaned in, her eyes boring into Nola’s.

  The sound of her last name echoed in Nola’s ears.

  She knows. She knows who I am! The voice in her head screamed. Wouldn’t stop screaming. Her breath hitched in her chest as panic set in.

  No. No, stop it. She dug her fingers into the grass, willing the world not to slip away from her. Someone said my name in front of her. My mother, another Domer. They told her I would be in charge of her group.

  “It is an honor to help the domes.” Catlyn’s voice reemerged as the pounding in Nola’s ears quieted.

  Catlyn smiled brightly and put a hand on T’s shoulder, pulling her away from Nola. “They are offering us good pay and a good lunch. I’ve never actually eaten a piece of fruit like this.” Catlyn held up her pear. “It really is delicious.”

  “I’m glad you like it.” Nola stared down at the food on her plate, suddenly too disgusted to eat.

  “We should get back to work.” Beauford stood, his plate already clean.

  Nola nodded, leaving her mostly full plate on the ground.

  “Aren’t you going to eat that?” Catlyn eyed Nola’s food.

  Nola shook her head. Before she could say she really wasn’t hungry, Catlyn had snatched the plate, pushing the extra food onto T’s.

  “I don’t need—” T began.

  “You’ll eat and be happy about it,” Catlyn said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” T murmured, eating Nola’s leftover lunch in a few quick bites.

  The whole thing was over before Nola could think.

  “Time to move the plants?” Catlyn gave Nola a bright smile as she pulled T to her feet. “What sort of plants are they going to be adding in? Something exotic maybe?”

  “I don’t know.” Nola looked up at her mother who still stood on the platform in the middle of the dome. “They’ll let me know when we get that far.”

  Chapter Six

  Trimming back the dead plants took another hour. Then the delicate process of digging up the roots began. The living vines had to be cut loose from the trellises. Once the roots were free, everything had to be shifted down the row.

  Nola lifted the first of the root bases, her arms burning with the weight of it.

  T crouched down to lift the next one.

  “Don’t,” Beauford said, taking T under the arms and lifting her to her feet. “You keep the vine part from dragging.”

  “I can do it,” T said so softly Nola almost couldn’t hear.

  “But we won’t let you,” Catlyn whispered, looking at the ground as soon as she noticed Nola watching them.

  “Coming,” Beauford said, easily lifting the root bundle and following Nola the twenty feet down the row to where the plants needed to be transferred.

  Nola settled her roots into the freshly dug and perfectly sized hole. T trailed behind her, supporting the delicate vine.

  “Are you hurt?” Nola asked, glancing around to make sure none of the other Domers heard her. If Lenora knew T couldn’t lift, she would be taken out of the domes and sent back to the rubble of the factory Nightland had destroyed.

  “No, Miss,” T said.

  “Because if you are,” Nola said, reaching out and taking T’s sleeve, her body making the decision before her mind could reason through her action, “you can tell me. I won’t tell them, they won’t get rid of you.”

  “It’s got nothing to do with you,” Beauford said, stepping in front of T.

  He bumped Nola backward, but she still had a grip on T’s sleeve. Her slight tug on the fabric lifted the waist of the shirt, revealing T’s swollen stomach.

  “I-I’m,” Nola stuttered, letting go of T’s shirt. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “You weren’t supposed to.” T pulled the baggy shirt down, covering her stomach.

  “But if you’re pregnant, you shouldn’t be doing this kind of work,” Nola whispered, searching the rows to make sure no one could hear.

  “If I don’t work, how am I supposed to eat?” T said.

  “Women on the outside do heavy work all the time while they’re carrying,” Catlyn said, taking Beauford’s arm and moving him out of the way before he could speak again.

  “But you need to be careful,” Nola said.

  “Don’t you think the Domers who brought us in here knew?” T asked. “They’re willing to let me work, so let’s just get to it before they think I’m slowing things down.”

  T held the vines up, waiting for Nola to tie them to the trellis.

  “Fine,” Nola whispered, pulling thick twine from her pocket and carefully attaching the vines, “but you don’t do heavy lifting, and if you start feeling sick, you tell me.”

  “I’m an outsider,” T said, her face unreadable. “Sick is a very relative term for us.”

  Nola opened her mouth to argue, but before she could think of anything to say, a wail rent the air, shaking her lungs and stinging her ears.

  The domes’ sirens blared, and red lights flashed overhead.

  Nola ran toward the glass, stumbling over the freshly dug holes in the ground. Heart racing, she searched the world outside for explosions and attackers. But there were no Vampers charging the domes. No bright orange flames destroying her home.

  “Everyone evacuate now!” Lenora’s voice carried over the siren. “Nola!”

  She turned to see her mother running toward her, arms outstretched. “Nola!”

  “We have to go!” Nola shouted to Catlyn, Beauford, and T. “Come with me!”

  The three hesitated for only a moment before following Nola as she ran toward her mother.

  “Nola!” Lenora grabbed her hand, and together they ran down the stairs. The other work groups had beaten them down the steps, leaving only the guards in the dome.

  “What’s going on?” Nola asked as soon as they were down in the concrete corridor. The sound of the siren was different here, echoing down the hall in a more menacing way than it had sounded in the open space of the Amber Dome.

  “Trouble in the city,” one of the guards said. “All civilians are to report to the bunkers.”

  “What?”

  Before the guard could answer Nola, her mother had dragged her down the hall.

  “This way!” Nola turned to call to her group, but the guards had stopped them in the hall, herding them with the other outsiders.

  “Where are they taking them?” she asked. “Mom, where are they taking the workers?”

  “Not our problem.” Lenora sped up to a run as they joined the throng of Domers heading toward the bunker.

  Two bunkers had been built to protect the people of the domes. One underneath the atrium and one underneath seed storage. While the atrium had been badly damaged in the Nightland attack, the bunker was buried too deep to have been harmed. Even still, instinct and fear drove all the dome residents toward the seed storage bunker.

  The scream of the sirens didn’t lessen as Nola followed the crowd deeper underground. The weight of the earth above pressed down on her lungs, stifling her breath.

  “What’s happening?” Nola repeated the question to everyone she got close to, hoping one of them might have an answer. If there was trouble in the city all the way across the river, why should the Domers have to hide? There were fights in the city all the time and riots every few weeks. But never before had the residents of the domes been sent into the bunkers.

  Nola had only ever gone into the bunkers during the biannual emergency drills. She hadn’t made it down that far when Nightland attacked.
>
  But this was no drill. Panic permeated the air. When they reached the barracks level, a long line of Outer Guard ran past in full riot gear. Thick jackets with armored vests, screened helmets, and shining pistols made the guards one congruous, and terrifying, unit.

  Jeremy would be with them, racing toward whatever terrible thing might be happening.

  “Jeremy!” Nola fought to free herself from the ever-moving crowd. But she couldn’t escape the throng. “Jeremy!” Before she made it to the hall where the Outer Guard had been passing, they disappeared up the steps, the gap closing behind them.

  Nola let the crowd sweep her the rest of the way to the bunker. Guards held the thick steel door open, waiting for the last of the Domers to make it through.

  “Keep moving in!” the guard shouted as Nola passed.

  The crowd had stopped right inside the doorway, leaving no room for the rest of the people to file in.

  “All the way to the back!” a voice ordered, and the crowd began to move. A man much taller than Nola stood right in front of her. The people behind her forced her forward, pressing her face into the man’s back.

  She tipped her head up toward the ceiling, focusing on the caged light bulbs and flashing red beams.

  Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in.

  Jeremy will be going into the city.

  Breathe out.

  Jeremy will be fighting, and I’ll be locked underground.

  Tears crept into the corners of Nola’s eyes as the thick metal door slammed shut.

  Chapter Seven

  “Find a place and calm down!” a gravelly voice shouted.

  The crowd spread, moving toward the benches and tables that lined the walls. Above the tables hung metal rectangles that could be folded down into makeshift beds.

  Please don’t let us still be trapped here when it’s time to sleep.

  As people began to sit, she scanned the crowd for her mother. Lenora glowered by the door, grilling the guard who had shut them in.

  “Has seed storage been locked down?” Lenora asked, her tone reflecting the importance of protecting the seeds. Without the seeds, there was no point in hiding in the bunker. The Domers would just starve to death.

  “We told you last time,” the guard said, “seed storage was locked down before we even came down to the bunker. The seeds are as safe as we are.”

  “I should be allowed to stay with my seeds,” Lenora spoke through gritted teeth.

  “All dome residents have to come to the bunkers,” the guard said. “I’m sorry, Ms. Kent, but the Council made that quite clear. They are unwilling to take any more chances with dome citizen lives. If you want them to change the rules, you’ll have to talk to the Council about it. Which should be easy since you’re on the Council.”

  “Don’t take that cheek with me,” Lenora said. “Why have they put us down here in the first place?”

  Nola inched closer to her mother, gazing aimlessly around the bunker while listening to the guard speak, afraid if he caught her eavesdropping he might not tell Lenora the truth.

  “There’s a fight in the city,” the guard said, his voice low. “A big one. And it’s not just in one place, it’s all over. The radio said it was like an all-out street war.”

  “War between whom?” Lenora asked. “It’s daylight, and the Vampers of Nightland all fled. The filthy, thieving, murdering cowards.”

  “I have no idea, ma’am. I honestly don’t,” the guard said. “I’m only doing as I’m told. I only know what the radio’s told me. The only thing any of us in here can do is wait for word and try to keep everyone calm. So please, Ms. Kent, sit down and relax. As soon as I hear anything, I promise you’ll be the first to know.”

  “I’d better be,” Lenora growled before turning to Nola.

  “Come along, Magnolia.” Lenora took Nola’s elbow and led her to the front bench.

  Every seat had already been filled by fearful people who spoke in hushed tones.

  “I’m so sorry, but we’re going to need to sit here,” Lenora said. “I need to stay by the door.” It was a sign of how frightening Lenora was that all five people on the bench stood without argument and walked down the bunker without so much as an angry look over their shoulders.

  “We could have gone farther back.” Nola sat next to her mother. “The guard could have found you.”

  “But here I can watch him,” Lenora said, her eyes fixed on the guard. “If he hears anything in his earpiece, I’ll know.”

  Nola nodded, though she knew her mother couldn’t see her.

  Two little girls sat across from them with their mother and father. Nola studied the children, hoping that memorizing the blonde curls on the girls’ heads would keep the horrible nightmares from coming.

  It doesn’t count as a nightmare if I’m awake.

  That one errant thought allowed the images to whirl into being. Her father, dressed in an Outer Guard’s uniform, going to stop a Vamper riot in the city and coming home covered in a plain white sheet Nola wasn’t allowed to look beneath.

  She hadn’t understood the fighting then. Hadn’t known what the screaming and terrible banging would sound like. In Nightland, she had heard the screams when the Outer Guard had blown their way in. The dust roughly coating her throat, and the horrible wailing ringing in her ears.

  When Nightland attacked, it had been worse. So much worse. Glass had shattered, and blood slicked the floor. The world stained red, breaking every promise of safety. Maybe that’s why they had all been sent so far beneath the surface. With the Outer Guard in the city, the domes were vulnerable. The domes couldn’t afford to lose any more people. There had already been too much blood and death.

  Nola’s breath caught in her chest.

  “You’re all right, Magnolia.” Lenora squeezed her daughter’s hand. “Take a deep breath. That’s all you have to do to stay calm.”

  I wish that were true.

  Five hours passed before the guard at the door lifted his hand, pressing his fingers to his earpiece. His brow wrinkled for a moment, and before it looked like he had finished listening, Lenora shot to her feet, ready to question the poor man.

  Nola glanced back at the rest of the bunker. Some people had already pulled beds down from the walls, but most still sat on the benches, talking quietly to their neighbors or staring silently at the walls.

  Lenora’s movement drew the attention of those nearest her. Silently, Nola followed her mother.

  “What’s going on?” Lenora asked in a hushed tone.

  “They’re coming back from the city.” The guard held up a hand when it looked like Lenora was going to ask another question. “That’s really all I know.”

  “Is anyone hurt?” Nola asked, dropping any pretense she wasn’t listening.

  “Yes.” Fear touched the guard’s eyes. “All medical personnel please come to the front of the bunker!” the guard shouted, his voice resonating through the concrete space. It was big enough to fit all the residents of the dome, but the hard walls allowed his voice to reverberate loudly enough for everyone to hear.

  The medical personnel sprinted to the door. Sound burst out around the bunker, people shouting to know what had happened, who needed help.

  “Silence!” the guard bellowed. “Only medical personnel will be allowed out now. That is the only information I have. Everyone else, please stay seated.”

  He punched a code into a panel at the side of the door, and the metal bolt slid aside. The medical personnel ran up the hall, but Lenora stepped in front of the guard when he tried to close the door.

  “If it is safe enough for them to work on patients, it is safe enough for me to check on my seeds.”

  “Ms. Kent—”

  “Dr. Kent,” Lenora corrected.

  Neither of them noticed Nola standing only a foot away. Without any thought of consequences, she darted through the door and up the stairs, following the line of medical staff.

  Jeremy had gone out into the city. If he was hurt, sh
e had to be with him.

  She slowed to a walk.

  Be with him and do what? You aren’t a doctor.

  Nola took a breath, letting the calm of the hall fill her. The sirens had stopped blaring. The only noise was the fading sound of footfalls as the doctors ran toward their patients.

  You need to get to Jeremy, because he would find a way to get to you.

  She didn’t run up the stairs. Instead, she looked carefully around each corner, making sure she didn’t meet anyone who would try to send her away.

  She didn’t see another person until she reached the tunnel level. Guards tore through the halls, carrying stretchers that bore their injured comrades. Doctors ran between patients, assessing the ones who needed the most immediate treatment.

  Dome Guard were mixed in with Outer Guard.

  They took all of them into the city.

  Nola pressed herself to the wall, trying to catch a glimpse of Jeremy. Or better yet, hear his strong healthy voice giving an order. But she didn’t see him. He was tall enough that his dirty-blond hair should have been visible above the crowd. Unless he was one of the ones who kept their helmet on.

  Gentry Ridgeway came into view, carrying a stretcher with an older black-haired man lying unconscious on it. Trying to walk as though she was meant to be there, Nola started out into the hall, following Gentry, hoping she would know where her younger brother might be.

  “Out of the way,” a guard barked as he ran past the others. The guard on his stretcher gasped rattling breaths. Blood stained one side of his chest, and the mark grew wider every second. One of his arms had been severed at the elbow. The sight of raw flesh sent bile into Nola’s throat.

  Jeremy. Find Jeremy.

  Nola staggered down the hall, following Gentry, ignoring someone’s warning of, “Miss, you need to get out of here!”

  Most of the gurneys had been brought into the largest medical room. Screams of pain and shouted orders filled the air. Nola staggered as the stench of blood and chemicals slammed her in the face.

  No longer caring about being caught, Nola tore down the row, searching for Jeremy. But none of the people in the room wore Outer Guard uniforms.