The Star Dwellers (35 page)

I watch as each of the VPs writes something
on a piece of paper and then passes it across the row, to where
someone collects them before bringing them forward to Morgan in a
basket. It seems old-fashioned, but effective. Morgan extracts the
first ballot. “Yes, in support of the rebellion,” she reads, and my
heart lifts an inch in my chest. The ballot drops from her hand and
flutters to her feet, discarded. “One in favor, zero against.”

She reads the next one. “Yes. Two in favor,
zero against.” My heart is in my throat. I want to rush the stage
and grab the basket and frantically read the rest of them. Morgan’s
slow and methodical pace is killing me. I think Adele’s thinking
the same thing, because she’s squeezing my hand so hard it’s
getting sore.

“No,” she reads, and my heart sinks a little.
“Two for, one against.” There are still thirty-nine ballots and I’m
living and dying by each individual one she reads. I try to
relax.

“No,” she says. “Two for, two against.”

The next six are all against the rebellion.
I’m no longer holding Adele’s hand, and my head is resting in my
hands as I balance my elbows on my knees. “Two for, eight against,”
Morgan says. Despite Ben’s efforts with the VPs and my pitiful
speech, we’re still way behind, not even close to garnering a
majority. These men and women are still too scared of my father to
stand up to him.

But then it happens. The tide turns, almost
as if by magic. First Morgan says yes once, then twice, and then
it’s like that’s the only word she can say. By the time she’s done,
it’s thirty-two for and ten against. I hug Adele and she hugs back.
Anna is looking at us both and shaking her head in disbelief, like
she’s seen everything in her lifetime but not something like
this.

For the first time since this all started, I
actually truly believe the Lower Realms can be united in a joint
cause. With a little bit of pressure, we could possibly get the
other ten VPs to change their mind, to support the rebellion. If we
could just explain—

A screen emerges from the platform floor,
rising up next to Vice President Morgan like a phantom in the
night.

From the look on her face, I know she’s not
expecting it.

“What is the meaning of—” she starts to say,
but then the screen flashes and she gasps, along with nearly
everyone else in the audience, myself included.

“No!” I hear Adele croak, the word rough and
jagged in her throat.

The whole world spins upside down as I stare
at that screen. Ben and Elsey are each tied to a chair, their hands
behind their backs, their mouths gagged with thick black cloth.

A man, dressed in sun dweller red, holds a
gun to Ben’s head.

I know he’s going to kill them, and all I
want to do is scream
I’m here, Father, I’m here! Please, take
me, not them.
But when I try to speak all that comes out are
ragged breaths.

Adele is already on her feet when the voice
booms through the speaker.

* * *

I
’m scared but it’s
nothing compared to the determination I feel coursing through my
blood. I will not let them kill my family, not after I’ve worked so
hard to bring them all back together. I’m on my feet, prepared to
charge through the Dome, rip the place apart stone by stone until I
find them, when a voice thunders through the arena.

“Your traitorous ways are punishable by death
and death alone!” the President threatens. I’d know his voice
anywhere.

I hear the slam of doors and then a cacophony
of marching boots fills the Dome, cutting through the air like
bullets. Above us, dozens of sun dweller soldiers, decked in
polished red uniforms—they look like the same ones we saw in the
tunnels on the way to the Star Realm—point gleaming rifles and
pistols over the edge of the topmost seats.

The Resistance soldiers are on their feet,
aiming their own weapons upwards, but everyone in the room knows
they don’t stand a chance. The sun dwellers have the upper ground,
the better weapons, the element of surprise. We’re sitting
ducks.

“Don’t move!” the voice booms. “We have you
surrounded. There is no chance of escape. You have all been found
guilty of high treason and should be executed in accordance with
the laws of the Tri-Realm.”

I close my eyes.
We’re all going to
die.

“However…” Nailin says, and my eyes flutter
open. “…I am offering you one chance to avoid death. Lay down your
weapons, allow yourselves to be taken prisoner, and watch the
execution of the real traitor, Ben Rose, and his daughter…and I
will
consider a lesser sentence.”

What? No!
“No!” I scream. “You can’t
do that!”

All eyes are on me but I don’t care. Tristan
tries to put a hand on my arm, but I rip it away from him, charge
from the platform. The bullets start flying, but not at me. The
Resistance soldiers are firing at the sun dwellers! They’re not
going to give up either. They’re fighting!

I see my mom pull a pistol from beneath her
tunic and start shooting at the sun dwellers. One drops, and then
another. She reminds me now of the day the Enforcers took her away.
A fighter—a force to be reckoned with. My mother.

The sun dwellers fire back and I see soldiers
dropping amidst bursts of red. In my heart I’m sorry for them and
scared for my mom, who’s still on her feet, but there’s only one
thing on my mind: Save my dad, my sister.

* * *

I sprint after her, but the wings of angels
seem to carry her away from me. The crack of guns going off all
around us reminds me of when the sun dweller army used to train in
the fields by our house. Except this is not training. They want to
kill every last one of us.

Adele is already up the steps. She turns
quickly and yells to those on the platform to “Run!” but she
doesn’t have to tell them—they’re already on their feet and heading
for the nearest exit.

And then I see it. A sun dweller soldier—his
gun aimed from above, right at Adele. I’m too far—I won’t make it;
and he won’t miss. It’s over.

A body flies from the side, violently
smashing into her and flattening her against the steps. She cries
out in pain just as the bullet takes a chunk of the seats behind
her.

It’s Trevor. He’s saved her again. Has done
what I could not do.

I run toward them, but she’s already pushing
up, bucking Trevor off of her as if he weighs nothing. She doesn’t
thank him, doesn’t even look at him, keeps moving up the steps.

Just before she ducks into the tunnel beneath
the seats, I see her pull a gun from under her tunic.
Where did
she get a gun?
I wonder.

When I reach the steps I take a moment to
scan my surroundings, ensuring none of the sun dwellers are making
a move to follow Adele. Trevor gets back to his feet and hurriedly
follows Adele into the tunnel, and I’m about to follow when I see
Ram, standing out in the crowd, dark and bulging with strength. But
all the strength in the Tri-Realms won’t save him from hot metal
bullets. He’s pinned down behind a row of seats, with three sun
dwellers peppering shots at him. He’s trying to hold them off by
taking blind shots with his pistol, but he’s not even aiming in the
right direction. He’ll die if I don’t do something.

I take five long strides and then roll,
grabbing a gun left by a dead Resistance soldier, and feeling the
whiz of bullets as one of the enemy combatants tries to take me
down. But I know they can’t hit me. I’m too fast, too determined.
Coming out of the roll, every bit of my training kicks in. I lock
on the first target in less than a second, shoot him somewhere he
won’t get up from. But I don’t watch him fall; instead, I swing to
the next enemy, who falls when I pull the trigger. The third one
has realized I’m targeting the ones shooting at Ram and he ducks
before I can get him.

I curse and rush to Ram, who’s watching me
with a funny expression on his big face.

“You saved me,” he says.

“Yeah, yeah,” I say. “Get back to the main
body of men. Take this,” I say, handing him the rifle. I don’t hear
if he responds because I’m off, sprinting to the steps, taking them
two at a time, hoping I don’t get shot. As I approach the top I see
two forms moving swiftly toward me across one of the rows.

I swing to the side, tensing myself for a
fight, but drop my hands when I see that it’s Roc and Tawni, eyes
wide but fierce and determined. I don’t question their presence—I
just say, “Hurry!” and sprint into the gloomy hallway. Adele and
Trevor are already halfway down the curve of the tunnel, running
hard, Adele holding the gun out in front of her like she actually
knows what to do with it. Maybe she does. She seems to know how to
do everything. Gritting my teeth, I give chase, hoping to catch her
before she runs into half the sun dweller army.

I can feel Roc and Tawni just behind me,
moving on silent feet.

I know something isn’t right when we make it
a quarter of the way around the Dome without resistance. The place
should be teeming with sun dwellers, but instead, all the action
seems to be out on the platform. It’s almost as if my father wanted
us to go this way, to make it this far. The thought sits in the pit
of my stomach like a rotten egg. The crack and pop of guns provides
a symphony for the slap of our feet on the stone. I catch up to her
five steps later, grab her shoulder. “Adele, wait,” I say.

She whirls around, levels the gun at my head.
Her eyes are wild and her hands shaking. She lowers the gun.
“Tristan, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“Welcome to the party,” Trevor says from the
side.

“Where are they?” Roc says, coming up behind
us.

“They have to be in one of these rooms.
C’mon,” I say, grabbing Adele’s arm and ushering her forward. We’ve
already passed dozens of open doors, all clearly empty, so we slow
as we approach the first closed door we’ve come across.

“Shh,” I say, tiptoeing in.
One, two,
three
, I mouth, slamming my shoulder into the door and entering
side by side with Adele, the others looking over our shoulders.
It’s dark and we can’t see or hear a thing. “Wrong room,” I
say.

We leave quickly and continue our search.
Another quarter of the way around, we hear voices and as we come
around the bend we see five star dweller soldiers come into
view.

They raise their rifles.

* * *

The adrenaline is dictating my every move.
When they point their guns at us I don’t hesitate, shoving Tristan
hard against the wall, my body flush with his, just as we hear the
crack and resulting zing of energy as the bullets fly past. Across
from us, Trevor, Roc, and Tawni have managed to do the same. We
rebound off the wall in one motion, Tristan and I, charging down
the tunnel as the soldiers release their expended shells, readying
themselves to shoot again.

But they’re too late. I’m too close and my
arm is already up, my aim zeroing in on one of the soldier’s
chests. Of all people’s, it’s Brody’s voice that pops into my head:
Hold it slightly lower than the target you’re aiming at. Keep it
steady, because when you pull the trigger, it’s going to
squirm.
I lower my arm slightly, tighten my grip, and fire. The
guy jerks back as the bullet slams into the same shoulder he was
using to lift his gun. He’s thrown back into his partner, whose gun
is knocked aside by his flailing arms.

Beside us, Trevor shoots two of the soldiers
in quick succession, while Roc comes flying in with an elbow,
crashing into the last one.

Neither of the ones I hit is dead and all I
want to do is kill them. I stand over their sprawled-out forms, my
knuckles white on the gun, my finger tense on the trigger. Their
hands are over their heads, pleading, but that just makes me want
to pull the trigger more. “No, Adele,” Tristan says.

“It’s what they deserve,” I growl.

“I know, but not like this. You can’t go back
from this.”

I know he’s right, but maybe I don’t want to
go back. My teeth are grinding against each other, my breaths sharp
and animal-like through them, whistling slightly. The only thing
steady are my hands, holding death over these fools like an
executioner holding a guillotine. “We need to keep moving, find
your dad and sister,” Tristan says.

My head snaps toward him and I forget about
these guys. All that matters is my family. I lower the gun. Tristan
kicks each of the guys in the head and they slump over,
unconscious. Roc is grappling for the last guy’s gun, but Trevor
puts an end to it with a boot of his own to the guy’s noggin.

We move forward.

Soon we hear voices, muffled at first, but
then louder as we approach an open doorway. Light spills from the
room and we hear a woman say, “Should I kill them now?”

Which means they’re still alive.
Every
cell in my body is suddenly alive with energy, urging me
forward.

We hear the crackle of the reply over the
walkie talkie. “Yes, kill them now,” President Nailin says.

I charge into the room, not waiting for my
friends, and this time I’m not taking prisoners. The first thing I
see is my dad, struggling against his bindings, his eyes fierce and
steely. All he wants is to save Elsey, who is beside him, her face
as white as a sheet, all childish dreams about to be torn away from
her. A woman in a red uniform has a radio to her lips, but when she
sees me she lowers it.

I shoot her point blank in the chest and she
topples to the floor.

Two big soldiers close from either side,
grabbing at my arm that’s holding the gun. But then Tristan is
there, his fist slamming into the left guy’s skull and sending him
flying. As he grapples with the other guy, I break free and charge
toward my dad. His executioner stares at me as I approach, but I’m
not looking at him. All I see are my dad’s eyes, my eyes reflected
back at me, green and full of life and loving and kind and—