Sunset Rising

Just as the thought entered my mind, armed guards came rushing into the room. I saw someone at the front of the room get the butt of a gun against the side of his face, knocking him to the floor. Another guard pointed his gun at the ceiling and pulled the trigger, and a loud bang reverberated through the room. I lowered my fist and gave everyone at our table a look that said, “Stop!” I did not want to be the cause of anyone being shot or hurt. Under my angry glare, Reyes stepped down off the chair and lowered his fist.

“Lockdown,” I said for Jack’s benefit.

“It won’t be for long,” he said.

“How would you know that?” Reyes asked.

“Because you were on lockdown all day yesterday. They need you to cook, clean, serve, work the mines and do all the things you do. When you don’t do them, life in the Dome comes to a halt. We’ll be off lockdown by lunch.”

As I listened to Jack, something inside me clicked, and I looked at him with new eyes. All along I had only thought of him as the famous bridegroom—as the man who would become president one day. But now I was seeing him in a whole new light. I flashed back to him at the wedding, dressed in the military uniform of a high-ranking officer. I remembered his comments about lockdowns to Bron—about how they were used to divide us. And he thought he knew when lockdown would be over.

It occurred to me that Jack possessed very valuable insight into the bourge and how they ran the Pit… insight that could come in handy if someone wanted to start a revolt.

Chapter Thirteen

We all hung back at our table as long as we could before we had to start moving toward the door.

“Take that with you,” I said to Jack, pointing to his breakfast. No one in the Pit would ever leave food behind. His full container would sit on the table like a beacon.

I stood beside Reyes as we shuffled out the door with the rest of the crowd. His hand searched for mine, and I willingly accepted it. I felt guilty for getting mad at him earlier and gave him an apologetic look, to which he responded with a sad one. We both knew we could never go back to the way we were. Our future together had disappeared the minute I agreed to be Leisel’s victim.

“I was hoping to see Summer, too,” I said. “I wonder why she wasn’t at breakfast.”

Reyes drew his brows together, and his expression became closed off. “She’s been eating breakfast somewhere else the past few days.”

“What does that mean?” I asked even though I was pretty sure I knew what it meant; Summer hadn’t been sent home early from that bachelor party. Someone upstairs had claimed her for himself.

“You know exactly what it means,” Reyes said accusingly. “I’ve only talked to her once since the night you two left for the party, and that’s when she told me about you two meeting Leisel Holt. I’ve seen her a few times since, but she doesn’t look at me. She doesn’t look at anyone. She just keeps her eyes on the floor.”

I knew why Summer kept her head down; she was ashamed. I never understood why girls who were taken as mistresses by the bourge felt ashamed and embarrassed. It wasn’t their fault. And the thought of my best friend—the happiest person I’ve ever known—being used by one of those pompous old men at the party sickened me with disgust.

When we came to the stairs, Reyes dropped my hand to encircle my waist with his arms. I knew he didn’t want to let me go, and maybe if I weren’t so consumed right now with hatred for the bourge, I would feel the same way.

“Stay safe,” he whispered and then kissed me. Reyes dropped his arms from my waist and turned to Jack. “You touch her, and I’ll kill you.”

Jack stared back at him, seemingly unfazed by the threat. I really didn’t want Reyes to create another scene, so I ignored him and joined the flow of traffic on the stairs. Jack followed me. There were armed guards positioned along the staircase who made it their job to keep everyone moving as quickly as possible. It didn’t take very long for us to get back to the apartment that was an exact replica of where I grew up, and yet was so unfamiliar.

“I have to take this off,” I said as soon as we entered the apartment. Thoughts of Summer and my dad were weighing me down enough without the bulletproof vest adding to it.

Jack lifted up one of my arms to examine the bruises Reyes gave me. “Your boyfriend’s a really nice guy.”

I jerked my arm out of his hand. “It’s none of your business.”

“You’re right. And that’s the only reason he has any teeth left.”

I ignored him and went into the bedroom, shutting the door behind me in an attempt to get a few moments alone. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to cry or be sick. Summer was always the brightest light in this dark Pit, and it tore me apart inside to think of her being abused. I was worried about my dad, too. There was no way for me to find out if he was safe or not.

I just wanted to kill someone—anyone—to make the madness stop.

I stripped down to the vest, undid the straps, flipped it over my head, and let it fall to the floor with a thud. The weight off my shoulders and chest was a relief. I put Jack’s t-shirt back on, and it hung from my ski

A loud banging on the door invaded the small apartment. I knew it would be a guard to perform the routine check-in. Reluctantly, I left the sanctity of the room and went out to answer it. I was surprised to find Jack stripped down to his waist doing sit-ups on the floor.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m a little stressed out,” he said between deep breaths, “and exercise always relaxes me.”

He jumped up off the floor and came to the door with me. I opened it. The guard held out the sca

“Want to try?” Jack asked, sitting back down on the floor.

“Why not?” It might help me work off the anger I was feeling about Summer’s predicament.

I lay down beside Jack on the floor and fell into sync with him. I had never done sit-ups before, but it seemed easy. I still wasn’t sure how it would ease my stress, though.

Jack rolled over onto his stomach. “Try this.” Balancing with one leg tucked over the other, he began to push himself up and down using his arms. “Push-ups.”

I rolled over and did the same. Up, down. Up, down. This felt like a better exercise than the sit-ups. At least I could feel some of the tension in my neck and shoulders turn into fatigue. Jack counted under his breath. We were at thirty.

My breathing was heavier, too. I was starting to sweat. “How many of these are we doing?”

“Fifty. I don’t want to push you too hard on the first time.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

After another moment he said “fifty” and stopped. I had only counted thirty-six but stopped, too.

“You’re right, it did help to relax me.” I rolled my shoulders, enjoying the feel of my weakened muscles, but I still had murderous energy flowing through me. “What’s next?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t have any equipment down here. Usually I lift weights, run the track, swim, that kind of thing.”

“I know! Teach me to fight—like you fought the guards at your apartment.”

“That’s actually a good idea. You need to learn self-defense with that boyfriend of yours.”

“I don’t think that’s fu

“It wasn’t meant to be,” he said, and pushed a small table out of our way. “We’ll start with T’ai Chi, an exercise that teaches martial arts through repetition. Just do what I do.”

He stood up straight and slowly brought his hands up to chest height, crossed them, then stretched out his right hand as he extended his right leg. He curled his right leg, bringing his knee waist high, and then set it down. Then he repeated everything with his left side. Each action was very controlled and flowed into the next. He was going slowly so it was easy for me to follow.