by K. Weikel
Seven
“What Rebellion?”
“Well, it’s more of a hidden scientific research lab outside of the Domes. With a really heavy security system.” Ken says slowly. “Actually, no one really knows it exists. And that’s the way we want it. The Government has its suspicions though. They try and get rid of anyone that tries to settle outside the Domes, so we have to move camp every night.”
“Why do you need me?”
“I don’t know,” He says, placing his chin on his fists.
“What do you mean ‘you don’t know’?” I grow angry again.
“That’s exactly what I mean.” Ken chuckles bitterly. “You’ll have to talk to the Leader of the Rebellion. That’s where Doug was gonna take you anyway.”
“Who is that? The Leader?” I ask. “What’s his name?”
Ken shrugs. “I don’t know. Only a few specific people know in case someone goes rogue.”
“In case someone goes rogue?” I say slowly. “What’s that even supposed to mean?”
“Like, if they go and rat us out to the President.”
“Well, this is bogus,” I say after a moment of silence.
I sit on the bright green grass and smooth my mothers dress around me. Ken sighs in frustration, but doesn’t say anything as he slips his head into his hands.
I drift off into thought.
If I did go back home, what would I have to go back to?
Nad. I have my best friend to go back to. Someone has to be there for her. She can’t end up like me with no friends and a job she can barely stand… I have to be there for her. I feel like it’s my obligation, even though she loves her job and she’s a people person… but still.
“I just lost my family,” Ken says in a shaky voice.
I turn toward him. “Family?”
He nods, running his hands over his face. “Well, they weren’t blood related… But they were the only family I had. They took me in after I joined the rebellion.”
I stare off into the trees, lost in thought. Why is he being so open with me? He doesn’t come across as someone who spills his secrets to a complete stranger, like Nad.
“Why are you telling me this...?” I ask.
“Because I want you to see there are two sides to every story.”
I look down at the grass and pick at it with my fingers. There’s something about him that seems familiar to me. Multiple things about him, actually…
“Do you know how to use a bow?” Ken asks abruptly, ending the silence and standing up to offer me a hand.
I take the hint of him wanting to change the subject.
“I’m a little rusty,” I say quietly as take his hand, chills prickling my skin as they rush beneath it.
After helping me up, he walks over to a tree behind him and reaches inside, producing two quivers and two bows. He hands me a set as he slings his bow and arrows over his shoulders, and reaches in again for a knife in a sheath that he places on his hip.
We walk in silence for a long time.
I stop to take off my heels, but Ken tells me to keep them on because of all the animals and bugs, and the traps the rebels set to capture food.
And then he tells me that he doesn’t feel like carrying me. I roll my eyes at him, not amused.
I never imagined that there would be this much outside of the Domes. There’s so much green around and there are so many trees. Animals are everywhere, and there are more than I learned about in school. Birds with colorful feathers, red-furred mammals, and little squirrels rustle leaves on the forest floor and the trees. It’s almost like the Hunting Dome, only everything is better, and it’s all one ecosystem.
The Hunting Dome is filled with every habitat known to man so that we have a variety of food to eat. It’s better to explain when you are actually standing in the center of it and are walking though it. It’s actually pretty trippy.
Suddenly, a big, brown creature on four legs crosses maybe ten feet in front of us. Its massive body sways from side to side with each step, and its matted fur drapes over its skin like a heavy coat. I’ve never seen it before, not even in the Hunting Dome when my dad would take me.
“What kind of animal is that?” I ask Ken excitedly.
I’m more excited than I should be.
I clear my throat and change how I’m standing. I sound like a child. A weak child. And if I want Ken’s respect, or anyone’s, I can’t sound like a weak child.
I look at him, but he’s not worried about answering me. His eyes are fixed on the animal, and he quickly takes ahold of his bow, pulling it down low in front of him.
“If I could bring that back to camp…” He smiles, placing an arrow in the bow. “Oh, man—”
“You’re not going to kill it,” I say softly to him, my heart rate quickening.
“You wanted to be a hunter, Eenie. You know I’m going to. Don’t be stupid.”
“How did you know that? I never told you that,” I say louder.
He freezes for a moment, it seems, and for a moment I think I caught him off guard. But it could be him just focusing on where to shoot because just as quickly as he froze, he lines up his shot, aiming at the animal.
I grit my teeth and jump in front of his arrow.
“Geeze, you’re asking to be killed, aren’t you?” He growls, lowering the bow a bit in annoyance.
“If that means getting answers, then yes.”
He rolls from his feet onto his butt and rubs his forehead.
“I don’t like you,” He says.
Ouch…
“Great,” I say, my voice cracking. “The feeling is mutual.” I clear my throat. “Take me back.”
“I can’t,” He says, picking at the wood on his bow. “I’ll get thrown out.”
“Well, that sucks for you. Take me back. Now.”
He doesn’t move from where he sits, so, throwing a tantrum almost, I start to walk.
“That’s the wrong way,” He calls after me, still not moving from his seat on the ground.
I groan and turn around to look at him. “Take me back.”
He sighs and stands, the right corner of his mouth morphing into a half-smile. “Alright, but good luck getting back inside.”
He didn’t take me back to the Domes. Instead, he took me to his little rebel settlement.
“Are you kidding me?”
“You cost me the bear,” He says, and hands me off to two big guys.
They tie me to a chair. A chair. And the rope is so tight it hurts when I move. And I keep getting all of these looks from people coming and going from the humongous tent I sit in front of.
What the heck does the rebellion want me for anyway? I’m a below-average normal girl that happens to live in the Dame’s Dome, and that does no good to anyone. Not to mention my multiple screw-ups.
A short, very young, scrawny boy walks out of the tent, and looks at me with amazement, a smile forming on his face. Something about him strikes familiarity in me, and it bugs me.
What’s up with all of these somewhat-familiar people?
“What?” I snap, irritated.
He jumps, mutters something, and then comes over and unties me from the chair.
Grabbing me by the arm (I realize he’s stronger than he looks), he drags me into the tent. I could break away from him at any moment, I’m sure. I tower over him. But something holds me back, something… instinctive almost…
“This is Eenralla Land,” The boy says to the man in the center of the room. He’s leaning over a long desk with maps and papers strewn across it. His hair is sandy blonde, and it brushes across his shoulders as he looks from one map to another.
The man looks up, every muscle in his body tensing at the sight of me. I glare at him, and everyone in the room who gapes at me.
“Hello, Eenralla Land. I am Ronald McDoug,” He says, walking around the table. “Call me Doug.”
He nods to the boy holding my arm. I yank it away, the weir
d sensation of loss of warmth sticking to my skin and making me even more uncomfortable as I stand in a tent in the middle of a forest outside of the Domes. I don’t even know where I am, so that adds on to the discomfort around these people.
“Are you the one who sent for me?” I bark.
“No,” Doug chuckles, and walks back to his desk, picking up a big map and studying it. “But soon you’ll meet the one who did.”
“Why does this person want me so badly? I mean, they blew up a bus to get me out.” Venom drips from each word that comes out of my mouth. I want to leave, and I want to leave now.
The men and women in the large tent chuckle and whisper.
I try to conceal the embarrassment, but my cheeks grow hot in the mixture of emotions that swarm through my body.
“The goal at first wasn’t to get you out,” Doug says, folding the map and smiling at me.
“They were trying to get me out.”
Lease struts into the room in a tight spandex outfit, black from her neck to her high-heeled boots. Multiple knives hang from her belt, and a large laser gun is draped over her shoulder.
“You were just a perk,” She smiles and laughs at my confusion, leaning on Doug’s shoulder. “I’m like a secret agent. I pretend to be a Government Official. My ‘job’ in the Dome is to ride along in the busses for the pairing parties to make sure everything is in order. I’m also one of the highest-ranking Government Officials in the Dame’s Dome. The top Analyzer.”
She smiles and starts walking toward me. She waves the other people in the tent away, and they leave the room.
“Hm. You see Eenie, on that bus I knew exactly who you were. We’ve been looking for you for months. You weren’t supposed to have that party. We were supposed to find you before you did.”
“What?” I gasp, my brain whirring.
She stops to stand right in front of me.
“I even knew who you were the day you were working on the light panels inside of the Dame’s Dome Government Building.”
She was the other voice. The other set of footprints. The Analyzer.
She chuckles and turns on her heel to walk back to the table.
“She’s right where we want her,” Doug says, and smiles at her.
My confusion blocks out the silence that has fallen around me, my head whirring with information and questions. Finally, Doug speaks.
“Eenralla,” He says to me, beckoning me forward. The boy that had held me by the arm scoots me forward by pushing on the upper part of my back. “We don’t mean to hurt you. If anyone tries to, inform me, and I will personally take care of them. I, and I alone, will deliver you to the person who is calling for you, and right away. Okay?”
I swallow the spit in my mouth and nod. Something inside of me tells me I can trust him. Not so much Lease, or Ken, or anyone else for that matter. It’s just something about him that tells me he is good and he means what he says.
“Good. Justin, untie her. Now, I would show you where we’re going, but only I know the way, and I don’t want anyone else to steal the information from us,” He looks at Lease and chuckles.
Lease rolls her eyes, and places her hand on one of her knives, seeming to grow impatient as Justin cuts the ropes from my wrists.
“You see, my dear, there are people in the rebellion that work for the Government. Double agents, as well as flat-out rats that just want a boost in their job or in their social status. We call those people rogues. They send information to the Domes, and they find out about us, more about the rebellion. The Government isn’t sure what to do with us yet, from what I hear from Lease, but I’m pretty sure their catching on to what we’re doing.”
“Which is what?” I ask, rubbing my wrists.
Doug smiles and winks at me. “That’s for another time, Eenralla. For now, I can just tell you that you have to be careful. Especially with who you are. There are people out there that are just waiting for you to slip up again, and are just waiting to kill you. Then there are people like me who want to help you.”
“How do I know I can I trust you?” I ask, ignoring the trust I was already starting to feel towards him.
“Do I look like the kind of man who would betray someone?”
I shake my head in agreement to his rhetorical question. “Okay.”
Doug smiles and nods back at me. “Good. Well, I’ll have Lease bring you some clothes that are easier to move in, and Justin will show you to your tent for the night. We leave tomorrow.”
“Justin,” Lease says to the boy who brought me in. “Take her to a vacant bed.”
Justin takes my arm again.
“Oh, and Eenralla,” Doug says before we move. “Don’t worry. Justin here wouldn’t hurt a fly. But just be careful who you trust out here.”
I nod.
We step out of the large tent and into the center of the small rebellion’s camp.
“I’m Justin,” He says excitedly as we pass by tent after tent.
“Yeah,” I snap, my right shoulder starting to throb. “I got that.”
He frowns, and is quiet as we pass a few more tents.
“So you’re from there?” He asks.
“Uh, yeah,” I say, acid in my voice. “Where else?”
“Well I was born out here after mom escaped,” He pauses. “What’s it like?”
“Horrible and strict.”
He frowns. “Then why would you want to go back?”
o0o0o
We travel in silence until we reach the empty tent. It’s placed just before a denser side of the forest.
“Here,” He says.
“But I’m so close to the woods—”
“You have a bow and you have arrows. You can protect yourself. Everyone else does too. G’night!” He says, and walks back towards the center of camp.
I look at the inside of the tent. A pillow and a blanket take up the entire floor underneath the puke-green material above it.
I sigh and climb in.
o0o0o
I wake up to a sound outside of my tent.
Slowly, I reach for my bow and an arrow, and crawl up to the flaps. I quickly thrust the bow out into the open, followed by my head, ready to shoot anything that seemed life threatening to me. I pull the bow tight, and see Lease smirk at me.
“Calm down,” She says as she laughs with a low, throaty sound, and holds out her hands. Something is off about her… “They’re clothes. You’re going to need to change to move with us. We leave at sunrise.”
I take the clothes without a word, and slink back inside.
Leave at sunrise?
I don’t think so.
I leave at sunset.
o0o0o
I look past the tent flaps into the darkness of the settlement. There are only a few voices in the night, but I can’t see who it is, and I’m guessing they can’t see me either.
After folding my mothers dress and placing it neatly on the pillow, I slip into the black tank and baggy camo pants. I groan, realizing Lease hadn’t given me any shoes.
Maybe she knew I was going to try and escape.
Slowly, I crawl out into the dark. I stand up cautiously, and begin to quietly walk towards the woods.
Pain suddenly shoots up my leg as I step on a rock.
I bite my tongue and take another step.
“Shoot,” I whisper, remembering my bow.
I work my way back to the tent and grab my bow and the quiver that Ken had given to me. Turning back around, I make sure no one is around. When I decide it’s safe to keep walking, I head into the woods.
I keep walking straight for what seems to be hours. My feet feel bruised and torn up, but I’m glad I left my heels back in the tent. If I hadn’t, my feet would probably have been in much more pain at the moment.
Clutching the bow around my shoulder, I jump at every sound I hear
. It’s been so long since I’ve been in an environment like this. My dad hadn’t taken me night hunting as many times as he had taken me day hunting, but the times that he did, I was able to get some really good kills in.
The Home Dome has a third tunnel branching off its back that contains the dome with the Hunting grounds—the Hunting Dome. It’s more of an imperfect circular blob. It’s filled with trees and animals to hunt so that the Cookers can make food for the Domespeople. In the Dome Regulations and Guidelines, it mentions how the jobs help each other or work with each other or together or whatever.
My dad would take me almost every day, and teach me and train me. I remember the rush I got the first time my arrow flew and the animal fell to the ground. I was only four at that time, but at age three, we were injected with a serum to learn faster, and to speed up brain growth, so that day I had let the arrow fly, I had the mind of a six year old.
My dad had congratulated me and hugged me.
“You’re a natural!” He exclaimed, squeezing me. “Just like your old Pop!”
He was about twenty-four then. He had dark hair and light blue eyes that would always seem to be shining when he’d be around my mom, and even myself. You could tell he loved us.
I hear another rustle in the treetops above me.
I busy my mind by calculating the age of my brain so I won’t freak out and forget everything I ever learned about being a Hunter.
We learn all about the medical procedures in class after we turn five.
At three, we get our first shot on the left side of our cranium (but it spreads all over our brain and it helps our brains grow). This injection lasts about eight years and adds on two years of brain growth. So by age five, my brain would have been as developed as a seven year old, until later that year we take a pill to add another year.
I step on a branch, wincing as the pain pulses through my foot, and I silence a sound wanting to escape from my throat. I start walking again after all is quiet and I’m sure no one is following me or going to attack me.
So my brain would be as developed as an eight year old. At eleven, we’re given one more injection on the right side of our cranium (which still reaches every part of the brain so that it can absorb the serum) for a boost before we have our testing done that next year. It’s for the first job we have chosen to train for, and the Government runs that operation to make sure we have stayed on track and worked hard at learning. That injection adds on two more years, so at eleven I would be…
“Ow,” I mutter, picking my foot up off of a sharp rock.
Sixteen. My brain would be developed as if I was sixteen. At thirteen, the last injection dies off, and the brain deteriorates a year back. So at thirteen… my brain would be seventeen. And then at sixteen, the injections would have completely died off, leaving the brain deteriorating to the age of sixteen.
Hm. So I guess my brain, at seventeen, is right where it needs to be.
The tree leaves rustle again overhead. I stop and look up, grabbing my bow. Whatever is up there is following me, and I know it is. I’ve been able to feel its beady eyes on my back as I walk.
Another rustle.
I pull out an arrow slowly, my heart beating faster with each passing second.
A figure is moving in the branches.
My arrow finds its way into the tree as I release the string.
I squint, looking for the dark figure.
Silence surrounds me.
I didn’t shoot it.
I listen. Closing my eyes, I try to pick out one sound.
Breathing.
My arrow pierces through the darkness, and I hear a yell from the impact.
The figure falls to the ground, the arrow in his leg.
“Ken?”
