Nine
We walk for a few hours before coming across a river weaving its way through the trees. It’s pretty wide, and it looks very, very deep. I back up a bit from it, feeling almost afraid of its immensity. There are tiny, tiny streams where the gardens are in each Dome, but none like this, and none this long. They usually end in a small lake about as wide as a Domeshouse and as deep as my knees. Compared to that, this river is like an ocean.
Hemmings glances around and then back at the river.
“Follow me,” He says, and walks into the water.
He takes three steps, and half his body is already submerged. He turns around and looks at me. I turn away quickly, feeling a bit embarrassed.
“Come on,” He says, waving his hand.
I stare at the water, and watch how it moves quickly around Hemming’s body. I can’t swim. No one ever taught us in the Dome’s. There was no need to. We didn’t have any lakes or rivers… Unless a miracle happens, getting into that river would mean certain death for me.
“Come on,” He says again, holding out his hand.
“We can’t swim,” Ken says suddenly, his face red.
I had forgotten he was there.
Hemmings face fills with realization. “Oh, that’s right… You’re a city girl,” He shakes his head. “You two are a disaster together. Ken, you stay above surface as a look out. I’ll take Eenie.”
Ken nods, and disappears into the trees. Hemmings holds out his hand for me to take, but doesn’t move a hair from where he stands. I start to walk forward, my heart racing.
What if I can’t do this? What if I drown?
“Come on. It’s not that hard.”
The cold water rushes past my ankles, my knees, my thighs. It reaches past my hips, and my breathing gets shallower.
What if I hit my head on something? Would Hemmings save me? If I died, would the person looking for me kill him? What if I drown? I could drown… But what if I live? What’s after that?
“Don’t freak out,” Hemmings chuckles. He holds both of his hands out for me. “You can trust me.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I can trust him. Maybe. He hasn’t killed me yet—or at least tried to… so… I guess I can. Everyone deserves a chance, right?
But he did lie to me about who he was… well I guess that doesn’t really count. He went undercover to find me. And he hasn’t lied to me since then… I don’t think. Wait, no he did… He took me to the rebellion’s camp instead of home. But there’s really no going back now… I’m so far away… and there’s no way back into the Domes. Maybe this ‘Leader’ will know another way inside…
“I can’t swim,” I tell him slowly. “I’ll drown.”
“Not if you hold my hand. I’ll drag you along behind me.”
I look across the water again.
Everyone deserves a chance, I think to myself.
“If you let go, I’ll kill you,” I say, placing my hands in his.
A chill works its way up my spine, a good one.
He laughs, and his eyes lock on mine.
“Ready?”
“I guess.”
Hemmings starts to pull me forward, and the water gets higher. Its cold fingers reach my throat, and I try to keep calm. It isn’t working. My breathing speeds up, and my vision goes blurry. Spots appear. I’m drowning. I’m drowning and I’m not even underwater yet—
“Eenie!” Hemmings says sternly, taking my face in his wet hands. “Eenie, look at me. Calm down. You’re okay.”
I close my eyes and relax my muscles. I need to calm down…
My face settles in his hands. I open my eyes and catch Hemmings watching me carefully, his eyes full with concern and something else. My face grows hot and I wiggle from his grasp. He shakes his head, and looks over to where Ken had disappeared just moments before.
“Careful…” He says, his voice low as he takes a step back and a heavy sigh escapes from his chest. “You don’t want to look like a fool in front of him.”
“Him?” I ask, and look behind me. Ken stands at the edge of the river watching us. He smiles crookedly and waves as I look back at him. “Oh…”
My match. My real match.
“All clear!” Ken calls to us.
I nod my head. I have to focus.
“Okay,” I tell Hemmings. “I’m ready to swim across.”
“Across?” He chuckles, flashing a big grin at me. “I never said anything about swimming across.”
“What?” I ask, as he pulls me under by my hand. The water stings my eyes, so I close them. Hemmings swims fast, and I clumsily kick my feet up and down to try and help.
He drags me down farther and farther, until my body feels like it’s going to collapse in on itself, and like my lungs are going to burst.
Then Hemmings lets go of my hand.
My body continues to propel forward, and my heart races even faster. Water pushes up my nose, and my head starts to hurt.
I’m going to die… I’m going to drown!
I open my eyes, the cold water making them sting. Everything is blurry and too bright. I can’t see anything but blue and light from the sun. A sudden rush of cold water starts to pull me forward.
I’m going to die… I’m going to die…
I feel Hemmings grab my hand again and pull me with the current. My vision slowly goes dark, and then all at once, I’m blind.
But I’m still conscious.
The pull of draining water makes me twist and turn, but Hemmings’ hands stay around me, steadying me. I settle on the ground as air reaches my mouth. I gasp for air, and the lights switch on. Hemmings is kneeling before me, his hands on my waist, and he moves one to my face.
“Are you okay?” He says, cupping his hand around my cheek.
I slap him.
He jumps back and sits on his butt.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” He laughs.
“You let go,” I cough, spitting out water.
“I had to,” He snaps, standing up. “I had to open the door.”
I cough a bit more.
“You couldn’t have just pulled me with you?” I croak, my hand stinging from the impact of his face.
He looks at me for a second, pondering that thought. “Well, I guess I could have done that… But, hey, I got you in here alive.”
“Barely.” I glare at him.
The sounds of a loud click and of a door opening behind me echoes off the metal walls of the room. It’s not that big of a room, but it seems like it with its gray metal-stripped walls and floor. Bolts outline each gray strip as if the whole building would fall apart if they weren’t there. There are two doors on either side of the room, one to my back and the other to my left.
Two men in blue uniforms walk through the open door as I turn around, holding their guns’ scopes up to their eyes. They’re aiming at us.
“On your feet,” The first guy in the room barks.
I stand up shakily, Hemmings holding on to my arm to steady me. He slowly pulls me back a little, as if to protect me fro them.
“I brought Eenralla Land to see the Leader,” Hemmings says to the two men, his voice loud and crisp, as if he knows what he’s doing.
There’s a slight pause as they take in what he said. Guard two turns and says something quietly to guard one, and he nods. They lower their guns.
I breathe a silent sigh of relief. I’d rather not be held at gunpoint.
Hemmings walks forward, still holding my arm.
“Don’t say anything to anyone until you see the Leader.”
I look at him, but he doesn’t look back. He stares ahead, his face stone cold and twisted into a look of authority. It’s almost like he’s a completely different person—granted, I don’t really know him that well in the first place, but he just seems… different. Serious.
I tear my eyes away from Hemmings and look forward, thinking about what’s to come. Who is this ‘Leader’, and why am I so important to him? If my name, and just my
name, is so powerful that it stopped those men from shooting at us, then I’ve got to be important or something. But why?
The two men lead us down narrow hallways, one in the front, and one in the back. We pass by people behind the glass walls standing on either side of the hall, and they stare in awe, and some start to cheer. Some press up against the glass and point at me, and some smile and laugh as we pass by. Do they know who I am as well?
“Why are they cheering?” I ask Hemmings.
He looks at me and smiles. “Because we found you.”
We fall silent as I let that thought sink in. Where else would I be besides in the Governments’ care? And why is it so important, so exciting to these people that I was found? What’s going on?
The men stop at the dead-end of a hallway. The gray wall flickers wildly, just like the hologram had when I was clocking out that day Tanner and Claire came to my house. Between each flash, I can see a white door in the center of a black wall.
“What is this?” Hemmings demands. “I asked to see the leader, not—”
“It’s a hologram,” I interrupt, and take a step forward.
A hologram. How can I see through a hologram?
The wall, I think to myself. The wall did this to you.
Maybe the wall had some sort of chemical that reached my brain… is that possible? And if so, if I can see through holograms, then what other holograms have I seen through and not noticed?
Tanner and Claire, the caretakers—Government Officials—shift to the front of my brain. They had flickered too. They were covered by a hologram. But why? Why do they need a hologram?
Who are they?
What are they?
I reach for the knob, and the hologram disappears.
Hemmings steps up behind me after a moment, standing so close I can feel his breath.
“This is the Leader’s office,” Guard number one tells us. I take one glance back at the two men. They hold their large guns against their body, the black metal shining in the harsh lighting.
Hemmings stands behind me and nods. I turn back around and take a deep breath. This is it. This is where I get my answers.
“Watch every word you say,” Hemmings says quietly, his breath rustling the hair by my ear. He’s right behind me now. I didn’t even hear him move.
“Are you coming with me?” I whisper, suddenly afraid of what lies behind the door.
He hesitates for a moment, and then he places his hand on top of mine on the doorknob. Chills work their way from my finger tips to my spine and my heart speeds up.
“Yeah,” He says.
We turn the knob together.
The door swings open quickly.
In the center of the room, there is a long, dark brown desk with maps and papers strewn across it. Bookcases line the side walls, and books are shoved into them at every which way they can be shoved. A tall, black chair is placed behind the desk, its back to us. Whoever wanted me here, right here, is just a few feet from me. Whoever he is, he’d better have a good reason.
“Who’s there?”
A woman’s voice.
A familiar voice.
Hemmings nudges my shoulder, and I take a few steps into the room. He shuts the door as he inches his way in as well, the tongue of the door making a loud click as it slides into the hole in the doorframe. The sound makes me jump and my heart race.
There’s no escaping this now.
I’m trapped, and I can’t get away from this, no matter what I do. I’ve come this far… maybe I can go home after this. Maybe she’ll help me get home… maybe…
“Uh…” I clear my throat. “I am—”
“Eenralla Land,” The voice says, almost shocked.
My name catches in my throat as she cuts me off, and I look down at the surface of the desk nervously, picking at my nails.
“Yes?” I squeak.
I notice a picture frame on her desk, the light overhead glinting off of the glass and making the picture that lies behind it unable to be seen. Something picks at my brain. I really want to see that picture.
“Do you know why you’re here?”
“You wanted to see me,” I say, taking a step forward to try and see the image in the frame. Maybe if I know what she looks like before I see her, I’ll have more of an advantage. She knows what I look like, but I don’t know what she looks like. I’ll be one step closer… Just one more step closer…
“No,” She chuckles quietly.
I reach for the picture and quietly lift it up from the wooden surface of her desk.
“Actually, I wanted you to see me.”
A messy little girl stares back at me. Food on her face and dirt on her hands. She smiles up at the camera, one tooth missing.
Me.
“Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to touch other people’s things?” Her hand takes the picture from me, and I look up.
Down her face runs a long scar from her scalp line to her top lip, her left eye blind.
Everything else was normal.
Except that she’s alive.
“Mom?”
She gathers me in her arms after rushing around the desk, but I stay still and I don’t move.
My mom…the Leader of the Rebellion?
She pulls back, her hands on my shoulders and a smile on her scarred face. I stare at her. It’s all I can do. I can’t speak. I don’t know what to do, what to think, what to say…
My mom.
Wide-eyed, I look into her blue eyes—the ones she gave me. My heart pounds in my ears, and oxygen runs my lungs, not able to stay in my body long enough to have it reach my brain.
“How…?”
She smiles. It’s not the smile I grew up with. It hides something, and holds something dark in it. It’s not right…
“How did I escape?”
“Alive…?” Is all I can manage.
She lets me go and sits down in one of the black chairs placed in front of her desk. I collapse into the other one, keeping my eyes trained on her as I try to control my body physically and mentally. I hear Hemmings take a few steps toward me to stand behind me.
My mom smiles again, and brushes through her long blonde hair with her fingers. She wears a white lab coat like the Government Officials do in the Domes, and a black shirt underneath it. Jeans cling to her legs, a material that is not allowed in the Domes.
Her face seems distant as I watch the memory come back to her. She smiles a small smile of bitter sweetness.
“The day they took us to die,” She starts, still looking into the distance. She shakes her head absentmindedly and starts over. “It was about two days after your father’s birthday, and the day of my birthday. I stayed calm for you. After all, we’re wired to accept death. But for some reason, I hadn’t been. I wasn’t ready to go, to leave you, to leave Brock… Maybe it was because I was a Government Official and because I was one of the ones who went door to door and saw people living their lives and led them off to their deaths…” She shakes her head, looking at the floor. “They took us in an airship to the Home Dome’s Government Building. We were led down a long dim hallway for a few miles it seemed. Then President Fiot stopped—”
“Fiot?” I repeat, the name foreign on my tongue.
She nods. “Fiot was in power before Murkas. But, of course, you wouldn’t remember that. It’s only when you turn thirteen that you start hearing about the President.”
I nod. “Oh…”
“Anyway, President Fiot turned, and there was a room filled with people. It was a lab of some sort, what with everyone walking around in purely white uniforms and outfits that match the sudden tile walls, and the long narrow tables filled with strange liquids and colors. Out of the corner of my eye, I see some kind of creature… something… inhuman. A Monster.
“It was tall, and—and purple. A tail hung from its spine and it walked on backwards legs, its’ knees pushing out the wrong way. Its claws clicked on the white tile when it walked and its eyes were big
and black. It had slits where its nose would be, and more of those slits worked all the way up to its forehead and to the back of its head—” She runs her hand along the bridge of her nose and up past her forehead, to the back of her skull. “And its teeth were like sharks.”
I look at her strangely for a moment, not knowing what a shark is, and wondering where she heard the word from. How many animals do I not know about? How many animals are kept secret from the people that live inside the Dome?
“My heart was pounding as we walked right past it. Fiot didn’t do anything as we did, he just kept walking, keeping his focus pointed straight ahead.
“Then there was a hallway of white doors. He took your father into one of them, and told me to wait outside while someone comes to get me.
“So I waited. It wasn’t long before the… the Monster walked up to me.
“‘Follow me,’ it told me. Its voice was low and acidic, and almost inhuman. The talons on its feet echoed down the hall as I followed it, and I was sure I was going to die before I was scheduled to—if they even had a scheduled time. I tried to remain calm, but I have to admit, I was scared out of my mind. We passed by a few more white doors, and then it motioned to another door. I opened it and stepped inside, and I could feel my heartbeat in my temples.
“It had told me to take a seat in the big silver chair in the middle of the room and not to move. I obeyed, not once taking my eyes off of the Monster. The chair automatically strapped me in by my wrists and around my waist as the purple beast walked over to a long counter. It grabbed a syringe and came up to me.
“The Monster had told me to lean forward and remove my hair from my neck. There was a slight pinching sensation as the needle went through my skin and a cold feeling as the liquid poured into my bloodstream.
“I remember asking the Monster when I would die. Instead of telling me when, it just smiled and shook his head. ‘You’re too valuable,’ it had said.
“‘What does the Government want with me?’ I asked. ‘I’m at the end of my life.’
“But the Monster just looked around the room and held another needle to my hairline. It told me I would just feel a little prick, and that it will make everything better.
“Before I could see if that statement was true, it put the needle to my hair and I kicked as hard as I could at its backwards knees. They buckled and the needle ran down my face, cutting it open.
“I remember crying out in pain, and struggling out of the chair. I remember trying to get to the door in panic and my eyesight leaving me in my left eye. I remember the throbbing pain—” Her voice cuts off, and she recollects herself. “The Monster found its feet again, and ran after me. It jumped and we fell to the floor. I had to keep moving… I had to keep moving to stay alive. So I tried crawling, my blood was getting everywhere and my head felt so light. I didn’t get too far before the Monster picked me up again and slung me over its shoulder—and not carefully, might I add, although I couldn’t feel really anything besides the pain throbbing from the half of my face that had been ripped open.
“It walked up stairs with me over its shoulder. I was losing consciousness, and the adrenaline was wearing off quickly. I was still fighting, but it was clumsier than anything, and I wasn’t doing any damage whatsoever.
“Finally, it stopped and set me down.
“‘Leave,’ it had told me in an almost human voice.
“So I ran. At least it felt that way. The next thing I knew, I woke up to trees all around me, and I heard talking. There were four men around a campfire. Their eyes darted to and from the woods all around them, around us. I sat up and they looked at me. They told me they had stitched up my wounds, and that I’d been asleep for about a day or two. They asked what happened and I told them. I told them everything. They had saved my life. They deserved to know.” She lurches into a coughing fit, her body doubling over. “And that’s when the Rebellion was born. I learned those Monsters were everywhere, and that they’re taking over the Domes. They’re covered with bugs and with hologram generators. I’ve captured a handful, and I’ve learned a lot about them. Still don’t know what they really are or where they’re coming from, but I’m getting close, I think. And now that you’re here, I don’t have to worry about you getting brainwashed by one. Now you can help me.”
“Help you?” I ask, the words barely making it past my lips.
She smiles a sad, half smile. “I’m dying.”
“Of course you are. We all are—”
“Eenie…” She traces the fabric on the chair she sits in. “I’m sure you know what I mean…”
My mom can’t be dying. All those years I thought she really was dead, and she’s been alive. Alive! And I just get her back and she’s—
“And you’re going to take my place.”
“No.”
The words are out before I can catch them. My mom is sitting before me, when I thought she had been dead seven years, close to tears and reaching out to me with all of her heart…
But I can’t—won’t lead a rebellion against where I was born and raised.
Against my home.
Against the most powerful structure and Government ever created.
I won’t do it.
“Eenie—”
I stand up, dodging her hand. “You’re insane to think that I would…”
I exhale in frustration. I don’t have any more words to say, and I don’t know what to do.
I close my eyes and rub my thumb between my eyebrows, smashing away a headache. There’s no way I could lead a rebellion. I couldn’t even get Nad to listen to me the first day we met. I don’t want to be in charge of people’s lives—deaths…
My mom stands up.
“Eenie, just listen to me—”
“No!” I shout, tears welling up in my eyes. She looks stunned for a moment, but it’s suddenly replaced with anger.
“I sent out hundreds of troops to find you, Eenralla,” She says in a low voice through gritted teeth. “YOU! I wanted to find you. You’re the ONLY one that could run the rebellion that I can trust.”
She begins to walk toward me, and I step back, tripping over the chair and falling back into the seat. Hemmings jumps in to protect me, stepping between my mom and me. She looks at Hemmings for a second, and scowls.
What happened to my mother?
She pushes him down, and he hits his head on the back of the chair my mom had been sitting in. He lets out a low groan as he hits the ground and rolls onto his stomach. She weaves her way back around behind her desk like a cat closing in on her prey.
“Are you ungrateful?” She cries menacingly. “Are you unhappy that I thought of you for all these years?” She makes her way around the end of her desk and continues to slink towards me.
My back touches the wall.
“What happened to you, mom?”
At the word, her face softens, and she stops walking. Her shaking hand goes to her forehead, and her eyes shut. For a moment, she looks as if she is going to cry. I take a step forward, and she turns to look at me.
“If you go back to those Domes… to those… those Monsters…” She’s crying now, her voice is shrill. “If you go back…”
Her words are suddenly lost in her tears. She starts to sob and throws her hands over her face.
My mom is right in front of me… and I stand here watching her cry. Letting her cry.
Strangely, I don’t feel sorry for her, I don’t want to touch her. Instead, I’m filled with anger and confusion. Why would she do this to me? She’s been alive for seven years, and not once did she come to look for me herself. Not once did she ever stop by to say ‘Hey, Eenie, I’m really alive, come away with me to live outside the Dome.’ And then she turns right around and expects me to fall to her feet and kiss them because she wants to make me the leader of a rebellion that I know almost nothing about? She wants me to lead something that goes against everything I ever learned about inside the Domes, something that wants to destroy my home?
/> I don’t think so.
My mom collapses to her knees, her hand covering her mouth to quiet the sobs that violently shake her body.
It breaks my stone heart for a moment, and I take a step forward. “Mom…”
She stops crying, and stares at my feet, her eyes distant like when she told her story. I step back, and put my hands against the wall to brace myself.
“If you won’t take my place,” She says, still looking at my feet. “Then no one will.”
Her head snaps up to look at me. My heart picks up speed.
“What do you mean?” I ask, my voice cracking.
She giggles hysterically.
“I’ve been waiting all of these years to be reunited. To start the revolution… For you to meet your brother—” She looks at me and smiles, her good eye wild.
“Brother?”
She giggles some more and stands up, walking toward me, one step at a time. My eyes skirt toward the door. I’m not too far from it, but the door opens toward me, deterring me from getting into the hallway fast enough to escape from her completely.
Could I do it if I tried?
“Oh, and something else you don’t know, daughter,” She spits the word and giggles. “Your father isn’t dead.”
An earsplitting scream escapes her throat as Hemmings brings the heavy picture frame down onto her head. Glass and wood flies everywhere, and I bolt for the door, Hemmings hobbling behind me.
“Get them!” I hear my mother cry out like someone being tortured.
Simultaneously, the people we run by stand and start to chase us. Men with guns turn the corner in front of us and we stop. Hemmings pulls forward, blocking me from the men if they fire. A circle of people forms around us as the workers wait for us to surrender. Part of them look like they’re ready to jump in if they were told to, and the other parts look like they’re just confused.
A movement—Hemmings making one of the guns fall to the ground.
A gunshot.
Then, chaos.
The men move forward, and the workers step away. Hemmings punches a man in the face and yells at me to run.
So I run.
I run until I see my mother staggering out of the doorway, blood dripping from her hairline and one hand to her head. I run until the guards start to shoot.
And then I stop.
My mother is holding up a gun, and it’s pointed at me.
Hemmings doesn’t blink as he shoots her in the hand. The gun falls and a scream escapes my throat.
“MOM!”
“Eenie, run!”
I fall to the ground as I feel a bullet hit my shoulder. My vision blurs, and I feel like I’m dying. I’m going to die.
Guns firing. People screaming. My screaming.
Hemmings standing above me. He’s shooting.
Not killing. Injuring.
Hands grab me. I’m carried off the ground.
Limping.
Hemmings is limping.
Suddenly, the ground meets my side. I’m on the floor. My vision swarms. A man stands above me and smiles.
Something hits me in the head. Hard.
Darkness.