Son of Sun, page 12
“They’ve used Graylock?” Julian said. “Are there more than a hundred Incorporation Guard with the power of Graylock in their systems just across the river?”
Fear clawed at Nola’s stomach.
“No,” Stokes said. “The Incorporation and I see eye to eye on Graylock at least. That filth has no place in the domes. If you’re going to build glass walls to keep human blood pure, you can’t defend the domes by polluting your DNA. It’s hypocrisy at an unforgivable level.”
“Then how did they use Graylock?” Jeremy said. “You’re not making any sense.”
“No,” Stokes said. “You’re not thinking.”
The trees opened up in front of them. They’d reached the rocky edge of a cliff that gave them a view of the lowlands beyond. The forest stretched out before them, but whatever evolution had preserved the Northerners’ home hadn’t touched the woods below.
The few trees that still clung to life had withered leaves hanging from their knotted branches. The trunks didn’t grow as wide and steady either. Instead, they listed to the side like zombies stumbling through the wilderness. Even the breeze carried a scent of rot the Woodlands had avoided.
“The Incorporation decided our domes population needed to be increased.” Stokes stared out over the decaying forest. “When I read the first part of the message, I thought they meant for some of the guards they’d brought in to stay with us. We had already received some new citizens. It seemed natural they would leave a few more behind. I read that damned message a dozen times before I could admit to myself I’d actually understood.”
No one spoke.
Nola watched Stokes, the man she had feared and hated, gaze out over the trees. The sun glinted off the lines in his face.
How did the world manage to hurt such a hardened man?
“It wasn’t a relocation order,” Stokes said. “It was a breeding order. Dome females between seventeen and twenty-seven had been ordered to breed. The Incorporation sent a list of assigned partners.”
Chapter Fifteen
“What?”
The trees below the cliff swayed, wavering as the world itself seemed to tip.
“Our male Outer Guard had all polluted themselves with Graylock.” Stokes’ words pounded against Nola’s ears. “Too many domes citizens had been killed. The Incorporation had sent the best of the Outer Guard from all the domes into our home. They couldn’t waste the opportunity to spread prime DNA.”
“They ordered dome women to breed with the guards?” Jeremy said.
Nola clutched Jeremy’s arm, holding him close as though he were the safe place in a game of tag.
“They sent a list of pairings,” Stokes said. “The optimal matches to create the healthiest children for the domes.”
“That’s sick.” Jeremy held Nola, blocking the swaying trees from view as he wrapped his body around her.
“All for the good of the domes,” the guard said. “The domes were built to produce healthy generations of children. How could a loyal citizen argue with the Incorporation’s logic?”
“How were they intending to impregnate the women?” Julian asked.
Nola clenched her eyes shut, pressing her cheek to Jeremy’s chest, letting his racing heartbeat thunder in her ear.
“Mating.” Hatred filled Stokes’ voice. The same hatred Nola had heard when he spoke of the vampires, Outer Guard, and Graylock. “Timed mating for the greatest chance of conception. It was deemed a waste of resources to artificially inseminate the women.”
“People didn’t go along with it,” Jeremy said. “It’s a sick plan from the twisted Incorporation. There’s no way people agreed.”
“Some did,” the guard said. “After all the hopeless violence, a chance to bring some good into the world, people thought things were finally starting to turn around.”
“And those that disagreed?” Julian said.
“Lilly.” Tears streamed down Nola’s cheeks. “Lilly was seventeen. That’s how she ended up on the outside. She said no, didn’t she?” Nola twisted just far enough to see Stokes nod.
“There were a few bold enough to outright say no,” Stokes said. “Salinger loaded them onto a boat and took them across the river. After that, no one dared argue.”
“My sister,” Jeremy said.
“Lost the day Salinger dropped fire packs on the city,” Stokes said. “She didn’t make it long enough to hear the damned order.”
“But you did,” Julian said. “Slaughtering the city was acceptable, but treating your women as breeding mares was a step too far?”
“I swore an oath to protect the people of the domes,” Stokes said. “When the fire packs blew, my place was inside the glass, making sure that monster didn’t turn his wrath on his own people. But when word came down that they would be separating husbands and wives—sending seventeen-year-old girls to the beds of strangers—it got pretty damn clear that I only had three options: Roll over and let the devil himself do whatever he damn well pleased, kill the bastard in his sleep and let the domes banish me, or take who I could and get out. Find a way to stop Salinger from the outside.”
“So you took some guards and ran?” Jeremy said. “You just left those women—”
“I took the guards I could trust and got them and their families out,” Stokes said.
“A lot of good that does for the people you were sworn to protect who are still trapped with Salinger,” Jeremy said.
Stokes stepped up to Jeremy. Blood stained his cracked knuckles.
Jeremy shifted, holding Nola with one arm, while planting himself between her and Stokes.
“I took my people into the woods hoping for salvation,” Stokes said. “I kept them alive on the slim hope that we might be able to do something for the people we love we had to leave behind. I don’t want to hear shit from you about what a brave Ridgeway would have done. Your filthy father is still in the damned domes kissing Salinger’s ass. You haven’t done anything to help the people still trapped inside. At least I’m trying to do something. At least I’m trying to figure out how to help the women that wouldn’t follow me!”
“How old is she?” Nola’s throat tightened, pressing down so her words barely came out.
“Twenty-six.” Stokes’ face crumpled. “The Domes Council had denied her request for another baby. My daughter cried when she heard the order. At first, I thought she was terrified. I was going to tear down the domes pane by pane to save her. Then I realized how happy she was. The Incorporation gift-wrapped torment with the promise of hope. I knew I had to get out and find a way to do something. I’ve got two granddaughters. I can’t let something like this happen to them.”
“How can we help?” Julian said.
“Ha.” Stokes blinked, brushing away the brightness in his eyes. “I never thought I’d hear a Vamper suggest anything but murder.”
“We prefer the proper term vampire, actually.” Julian gave a quick nod.
“Can’t do anything about what’s happening in the domes,” Rebecca said. “They’ve got a giant helicopter and firepower we can’t match. So we make a dent.”
“A dent?” Jeremy said.
“Throw rocks at the glass until the whole place shatters.” Rebecca stared at Stokes, who had looked back out over the cliff to the crooked forest below. “Move, or you’ll miss it.”
“Right.” Stokes nodded. “Let’s move.”
He limped along the edge of the cliff, following a faint path.
“Don’t judge the captain too harshly,” the guard said. “I got my wife and little boy out with me, and my brother’s wife is five months pregnant. If I’d left somebody vulnerable behind—”
“Are we moving or are we chatting?” Stokes shouted.
Shaking his head, the guard ran after Stokes. Julian followed them, his tan suit not quite hiding the rounding of his shoulders.
Jeremy held Nola tight, pressing his cheek to the top of her head.
“It was inevitable,” Jeremy said.
“What was?” Nola wrapped her arms around Jeremy, memorizing the feel of him, blocking out the notion of ever having to know the touch of another person.
“If they’d given that order while we were still in the domes,” Jeremy said, “we’d have had to find a way out. Nola, I never would have let them touch you.”
“I know,” Nola said. “If Gentry had still been there…”
“She’d have killed them all,” Jeremy said.
Nola tipped her chin up, kissing Jeremy. “When we find her, we’ll go back to the domes and bring hell to the demons.”
“I love you.”
“Is this what glass teenagers are like?” Rebecca leaned against a tree, watching them.
“Only the ones who have almost been killed a few times, left their home, and keep balancing on the edge of a dying world,” Nola said.
“Children should be raised in the woods,” Rebecca said. “We don’t have this sort of trouble. Move, or we’ll lose the others.”
Nola took Jeremy’s hand and followed the path Stokes had taken.
A bird sailed overhead, cawing her greeting to the bright new morning.
“Do your people have children?” Jeremy said. “Healthy children?”
The bird twisted in the wind, gliding in a wide circle.
“Some,” Rebecca said. “Not enough to replace the older ones who die, and not all of them make it to walking age.”
The bird dove into the trees, crashing through the branches and out of sight.
“Our numbers getting smaller isn’t so bad,” Rebecca said. “Less meat to hunt, less food to grow, less water to boil. Our kind spent a long time driving the trees back to where the forests could barely survive. Might be time for the trees to drive us back so they can take over again. I don’t see any sadness in it.”
A brief squeak of pain marked the end of the life of the bird’s prey.
“But what if there are no children left at all?” Nola said.
“The last one alive needs to make sure the cook fires are out,” Rebecca said. “World’s bigger than humans. It’ll keep spinning through space without any of us to mark the passing of days.”
The path twisted and sloped down, forming switchbacks along the side of the cliff. The path was small, too narrow to have been made by humans. Nola glanced over the edge. It wasn’t a far fall. She could jump it if she wanted to. But Julian picked his way along the crumbling rocks close on the heels of Stokes and the guard.
The stench of the trees below worsened as they neared the bottom. The scent of soil crept through the foul odor, but there was something wrong with it, almost as though Nola could smell the fertility being stripped from the earth.
Stokes didn’t pause at the bottom of the cliff. He headed southeast, cutting through the tilted trees.
Julian slowed his pace as he reached the forest floor, his hat tipping side to side as he examined the trees.
“What is it?” Nola ran the last switchback to reach him, twisting to keep Jeremy’s hand in hers as they moved single file.
“I don’t know,” Julian said. “Rather, I know what’s wrong, but I can’t quite pinpoint the root of it.”
“What?” Jeremy’s gaze swept the trees.
“The dirt here is wrong,” Julian said. “The trees here are twisted but growing. Yet the forest right above seems so much healthier.”
Nola knelt, digging her fingers into the earth. A yellowish hue marked the dirt. “Something tainted the soil. I don’t know what it is from sight, but I could bring some samples back to Kieran.”
“Don’t know what good samples will do you.” Rebecca walked ahead of them, continuing down Stokes’ path. “But I can tell you why it’s different.”
“Why?” Nola wiped her fingers on her bloodstained shirt.
“Floodplain,” Rebecca said. “When the streams go over their banks, this whole place goes underwater. Only difference I’ve seen between here and up on the cliff.”
“I wish I could bring Kieran to see this,” Nola said. “I might have more training in plant preservation, but I’m not used to seeing contaminated earth.”
“If we all make it through whatever storm the domes might bring, perhaps Emanuel will allow you to take Kieran so far from safety,” Julian said.
“Maybe.” Nola followed Rebecca, her gaze flicking between the invisible path and the forest around them.
She wanted to run, to reach whatever they were heading toward, but Stokes, the guard, and Rebecca wouldn’t be able to keep up, let alone lead.
“Did it bother you?” Nola ducked under a tree that had cracked and tipped to pierce the forest floor.
“Did what bother me?” Jeremy asked.
“When I was still normal,” Nola said. “When I was slow and weak.”
“You were never slow or weak,” Jeremy said.
Nola laughed. The sound sent something scampering away through the grayish crumble of the underbrush. “Me before Graylock compared to you after Graylock? You must have thought of me as an eggshell.”
“No. I was worried I might be too strong and hurt you, but I didn’t think of you as any more fragile. Wanting to protect you never came from you being weak. You’re the most precious thing in the world to me. Graylock made me better able to make sure the world didn’t take away the person I love most.”
A warm glow of heat blossomed from Nola’s chest, soaring up to tingle her cheeks. “I love you, too.”
“Good.”
She could hear the smile in Jeremy’s voice.
They walked on, the bubble of happiness in Nola’s chest battling against the decay of the forest, which worsened as they walked farther southeast.
Toward the city.
Where the domes had corralled workers, the humans they had deemed unworthy of salvation. Where the factories had poisoned the water. Where smog hung heavy in the air. Where the streets were lined with filth that spread disease.
“Julian,” Nola said.
“Yes?”
“When you traveled here, did you pass places where people still lived in healthy cities?” Nola said.
“Not in the way you’re hoping,” Julian said. “I would love to tell you that all you were ever taught in the domes was pure propaganda and there are places on this planet where human civilization still thrives. But I will not stoop so low as to feed you a comforting lie. The architects have built other safe havens, and there may be more small communities like Rebecca’s that have managed to find healthy land where they can survive, but even if they exist, I doubt you could find them.”
“Wouldn’t have found us at all if it hadn’t been for the blight,” Rebecca said.
“And shooting me with an arrow,” Nola said.
“Ha.” Rebecca skirted the bank of a stream.
They followed the water, Nola trying to ignore the yellow froth bubbling against the rocks.
Time dragged on. The sun rose higher in the sky, its rays cutting through the chill of the morning. They reached the edge of the slanting forest and entered what might have been a meadow. All the plants had died, leaving nothing but cracked earth with a yellowish tint behind.
Stokes tromped through the barren dirt without acknowledging its danger or sadness.
The dull pounding of their footsteps became a lament, a dirge for the dying world. Their trek, a dutiful viewing of all that had been destroyed.
Nola hadn’t been able to stand being locked in safety while those outside suffered. She had seen ill humans. Had witnessed the violence of desperation. But there was more to the end than the pain people could feel.
We made everything around us hurt, too.
A heavy stone weighed down her lungs.
This isn’t the time to grieve.
Stokes slowed his pace as he moved out of the clearing and into a forest that had rotted much like the trees along the river by the domes.
Shaking her head, Rebecca moved to the front of their pack, slipping silently between the trees.
Stokes drew his weapon. The guard did the same.
As though a silent signal had been given, Jeremy stepped in front of Nola, leaving Julian at the back. The rasp of Julian drawing his sword sent Nola’s heart racing, anticipating whatever enemy approached them. She drew her weapon, forcing herself to take slow, deep breaths even as the air stung her lungs.
A glint of metal up ahead caught her eye, but Rebecca kept moving forward.
She opened her mouth to shout a warning, but Stokes spoke first.
“Damn fine job you did, boys.”
Chapter Sixteen
Nola’s grip on her gun faltered as she tried to decide between aiming at Stokes or the glint of metal in the trees.
“Not too hard,” a female voice answered. “We’re still waiting on two of the boys though.”
“This should be enough.” Rebecca stood under the glinting metal. “Sixteen marks all running together. That should scare the spider into coming.”
The metal shifted, twisting in the breeze. The thing was tiny, too small to be a weapon.
“What is this?” Jeremy stepped forward, his gaze sweeping the trees.
The click of a weapon sounded up ahead.
With enough force to break normal bones, Jeremy knocked Nola to the ground. Something hard slammed into her shoulder.
“Hold your fire!” Stokes shouted.
“What the hell is going on, Captain?” a man asked.
The pain in Nola’s shoulder faded as her body raced to heal.
“Found Ridgeway with Rebecca,” Stokes said. “He’s not an Outer Guard, not anymore.”
“You’re sure about that?” the female voice asked.
“I left before any of you did.” Jeremy stood, lifting Nola with him and keeping her pressed to his back. “I’ve got more reason to doubt you than you do me.”
“Is that Magnolia Kent?” the female voice asked.
Nola peeked around Jeremy. A woman stood between dead trees, her gun pointed at Jeremy’s chest.
“I know you,” Nola said. “I talked to you in the domes.”
“So the Ridgeway boy really did run after you.” The woman laughed. “I didn’t think Graylock left enough human in a person to love like that.”
