Sunset Rising

She took a step away from me. “Are you crazy? They’ll kill you if they find you!”

“They’re going to kill me anyway. At least now it’s on my terms. What happened to you? Why are you still going up to the Dome?”

“You know why, Su

“But Jack told me he signed you up with some old guy who would fall asleep and you’d be sent home after the party. Why didn’t that happen?”

“Oh, it’s Jack now, is it? Not Mr. Ke

“I want to know what happened to you.”

“Leisel Holt happened to me. Jack may have signed me up with a deadbeat, but Miss Holt signed me up to be with her father!”

I stared at her dumbfounded. That was just wrong on so many levels. I couldn’t even begin to imagine old President Holt sexually. It was disgusting. And the fact that his daughter signed up a girl for him… “Leisel is the most evil person I’ve ever met!” Hatred for her consumed me.

“I’ve been at the Holt residence every night since the bachelor party. The only reason I get to come home during the day is that Mr. President, as he told me to call him when he gives me permission to speak, allows me to go to work in the kitchen every day. He feels that all urchins should be earning their keep. Imagine! Like I’m not earning my keep being his sex slave all night long. It’s revolting!” She shuddered. “And if that’s not enough, I have Leisel talking to me about you. Between acting like the heart-broken jilted bride in front of her father, she’s interrogating me to see if I’ve seen you and your husband down here.”

“So she didn’t tell her father that you and I are friends?” I was afraid for Summer, but as long as Holt didn’t know she meant something to me there was no reason for Summer to be drawn into my predicament.

“How could she? Leisel can’t tell him she knows who I am without admitting she knows who you are. Although given time, I’m sure she’ll come up with some story. She’s co

“So Leisel told you what she did to Jack and me?”

“Every single detail. She’s quite proud of herself. And you should know she and her guard are lovers. He and some of his friends are watching me down here to see if I lead them to you.”

“That’s why you didn’t want to talk to me in the hallway. I’m so sorry I got you dragged into all of this. I’ve really made a mess of everything. If I could rewind the past few days, I’d do things so much differently. I’d just take getting fired and damn the consequences.” I hugged her again.

“Stop it! Just stop apologizing!” She gripped me by my shoulders. “We didn’t ask to have bad things happen to us. Our only mistake was being born on the wrong side of the Dome.” She dropped her hands from my shoulders and looked at me sadly. “I’ve got to go. Being late with President Holt is not an option.”

I didn’t want her to go back to Holt, and in a desperate attempt to save her I grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving. My mind frantically tried to come up with a hiding place for her—in the apartment with Jack and me? Or a cave in the bowels of the coalmines?

“Su

“Be careful, Summer.” My words sounded hollow and ineffectual even to my ears.

“You’re the one who needs to be careful. Holt is turning the Dome upside down looking for you two. The only reason he hasn’t done a thorough search in the Pit yet is because it hasn’t occurred to him that Jack Ke

“Jack got us new chips —”

Summer held her hand up to stop me.

“Don’t tell me. If I know anything about you, Leisel will find a way of getting the information out of me.” She pulled me toward her and hugged me tightly. “You’ve always been my best friend and you always will be. I love you, Su

“Don’t you say goodbye to me, Summer! Holt is not going to win. We’ll see each other again.”

“Sure we will. Just do me a favor and stay hidden.” She gave me a sad smile and kissed my cheek. Then she was gone out the door.

It was insufferable to think I would never see her again. I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without her. Her strength, her ability to take a bad situation and turn it into an adventure enriched my life so much. But my effervescent friend was gone. The same monster that wanted me dead had enslaved her. There was no bright side to this adventure.

I rubbed the tears off my cheeks and left the bathroom. A guard stood at the far end of the hall, but he was oblivious to me. I headed back to the stairs and descended the two flights to our apartment.

“Jack?” I called out when I entered the apartment. There was no answer. “Jack?” I called out a little louder, but still there was no answer. A nervous flutter started in the pit of my stomach as my mind raced to the conclusion that he had been captured. I ran into the bedroom and found him on the mattress, flat on his back and covered in coal dust. He was snoring faintly, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Jack, wake up.” I sat down on the bed beside him. He didn’t even stir. “Jack.” I gently shook his arm. With lightning reflexes, his hand came up and wrapped around my throat. For an instant I felt him starting to squeeze. “Jack!” I choked out. He dropped his hand.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” he snapped. I could tell he still wasn’t quite awake.

“They’ll stop serving di

He rubbed his eyes to force them open. “I can’t decide what I need more—sleep or food.”

“Food. You can sleep again later, but food is only served three times a day. Miss a meal, and it will be a long time before the next one.”

“Hey, were you crying?”

“I just saw Summer.”

“Oh. Look, if you want to beat me up again, then I’ll let you know right now I’m too tired to fend you off. Just go ahead and punch me.” He threw his arms wide open on the bed to give me clear access to his stomach.

“Maybe after di

Jack sat straight up in bed and gave me a look of surprise. He was fully awake now.

“Your friend Summer is within Leisel’s reach?”

I nodded.

“Then she’s got to be part of Leisel’s plan. What angle could she be using with her?”

I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I was begi

“She set up Summer with the president the night of the bachelor party, but she couldn’t have known then that we would escape and go into hiding.”

“You’re right. Summer was part of her plan that night. How?”

The realization hit me. “Probably as insurance to make sure I did what she wanted! She threatened to tell on Summer for stealing food if I didn’t go along with her plan. If the threat hadn’t been enough to convince me, she probably would have paraded Summer out in front of me and threatened to do worse. Leisel found my weakness.”

“And now that we’ve escaped, she’s keeping Summer close. Does Holt know that you and Summer are friends?”

I shook my head.

“Leisel can’t tell him without implicating herself. Summer says she’s playing the brokenhearted victim in front of her father.”

“A little handicap like that isn’t going to slow her down. Are you sure that you and Summer weren’t seen talking today?”

“We didn’t speak to each other in public—we met in the bathroom and no one else was in there. Summer’s aware she’s being watched—Leisel has her boyfriend following her. Oh, and she said that Holt hasn’t thought to look for you here in the Pit.”