Jack left the stairs on the fifth level, and I followed. I didn’t see any Domers on this level, just guards from the Pit. Jack raised his visor and nodded to them. They were with the Alliance. He walked a short distance down the hall before he stopped at an apartment and knocked on the door. David opened it and motioned for us to come in. I was surprised to see Bron there, too.
“Are you okay, Sunny? Did she hurt you?” Bron asked as soon as David closed the door.
“No she didn’t hurt me. But she might come looking for Reyes. She was going to try and use him to get information out of me. Hopefully, she leaves him alone now that I’ve escaped, but she might go after him if she thinks he knows where I am.”
“We’ll keep a close eye on him, although Reyes can look after himself. He’s been doing very well in training,” Bron said.
“How’s Terra? Did she have the baby?”
“She and the baby are fine,” David said with a smile. “They’re in the bedroom if you want to say hello.”
I walked over to the bedroom and peeked in. Terra was lying on the bed gazing down at the sleeping infant beside her. I knocked softly at the door, not wanting to wake the baby.
“Sunny!” Terra whispered excitedly. “I thought I heard your voice. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. How are you?” I asked, coming into the room.
“I didn’t know what to do when they took you. I wanted to help you, but I couldn’t even stand up.”
“I’m just relieved you didn’t end up having the baby in the hallway. Jack told me that David was able to get you home in time.”
“David was beside me a few seconds after the Domers took you, and then Jack was running after you. David took me straight home, but with all the fighting, he couldn’t find a midwife and ended up helping me himself. I don’t know who was more scared, him or me.” She chuckled.
I looked down at the tiny little bundle. “The baby is adorable. A little boy?”
“A girl.”
“I know you wanted a boy,” I said gently, hoping she wasn’t disappointed. But by the misty-eyed look of love in her eyes, she wasn’t.
“I’m going to name her Sunny, so she knows to fight back if someone doesn’t treat her right.”
“I’m very flattered, Terra. She’s beautiful.” I wanted to tell her that there were prettier names out there than Sunny, but she seemed quite taken with her choice. And I really was flattered. “You better get some rest. You look exhausted.”
I gave her a kiss on the cheek and gave the baby one last look. Terra’s eyes were already fluttering shut, so I quietly left the room and joined the others.
“There were at least a hundred casualties today, maybe more,” Bron was saying when I came into the room.
“That many?” I asked in shock.
“There were just as many on their side. Only ten Domers made it out alive. A few guards were killed too, although none were from the Alliance. The fight was as good as over once the army showed up,” Bron said.
“That was the first time I ever saw soldiers come into the Pit,” I said.
“It is the first time soldiers have ever been sent down here,” Jack said. “And the message was loud and clear. This isn’t a rebellion anymore. Holt’s declared war.” He was thoughtful for a moment before he continued. “There was something… orchestrated about it all, though. I understand why he sent Domers down here before the execution, but he had the army ready to go. It doesn’t make sense. If Holt publicly executed her as a fear tactic, then obviously the outcome he expected was obedience from the Pit. But he had the army ready to go, which tells me he anticipated a confrontation. Was he deliberately trying to provoke a fight?”
Bron shook her head. “That wouldn’t make sense, sir. The Pit is too valuable. A war would destroy it.”
“I know. That’s why something doesn’t feel right,” said Jack thoughtfully.
“Crystal’s song,” I said. “‘The Pit they want to blow.’”
David looked stunned. “She did say that in her song. What are they up to?”
“I don’t know,” Jack said, dragging a hand through his hair. “And I don’t know if we have enough time left to find out.” He gave me an apologetic look.
I went to him and put my arms around his waist. He pulled me close against him and held me there tightly. We were running out of places to hide and by now Leisel knew Jack had rescued me. She was probably convincing her father to start a door-to-door search for us in the Pit. But I doubted we would be any safer in the Dome. Our chips wouldn’t work anymore, and there was no place to hide there anyway. The Dome was only so big.
And then it came to me.
“I know where we can go,” I said to Jack. “Outside.”
“What?” he asked in disbelief.
“Just hear me out. No one’s been out there in almost three hundred years—maybe it’s safe. You and I could find out. And if it is safe, then we come back and let everyone out. It solves everything.”
“But I know Holt’s been sending out drones for years and everything has come back radioactive. It’s not safe out there,” Jack said.
“Well, I think we know Holt isn’t the most trustworthy person in the Dome. What if he’s been lying?”
“Why would he lie about that?”
“I don’t know. Why does he want to blow up the Pit?”
“It would solve everything,” David said. “It’s what our people have been praying for since we were first cast down here.”
“He’s right. We’ve always known it’s our only salvation,” I said.
Jack shook his head. “I know I can get us out, Sunny, but I don’t think I can get us back in.”
“We’ll find a way. We always have. Sometimes you just need a starting point.”
Jack pulled me back toward him and rested his forehead against mine. I could tell he was struggling with my proposal.
“I don’t know if I can watch you die of radiation poisoning any more than I want to see you in front of a firing squad,” he whispered to me.
“If it’s just me you’re worried about, then you should know I’d rather die trying to save my people than waiting here to get a bullet in the head,” I whispered back.
I pushed his head back to look in his eyes. They were wet with tears, and I dried them with my fingertips. For once I didn’t feel like crying. I knew my decision was right.
“Then we’ll go,” Jack said.
“Sir, it’s suicide,” Bron said.
“Staying inside the Dome is suicide,” I said. “Maybe outside we have a chance.”
“How will you get back in?”
“I don’t know, Bron,” Jack said. Then he smiled at me. “But what I do know is that every plan Sunny has ever come up with has worked. I don’t know how. She never thinks things through. But they work out. If there’s a way to get back in, she’ll find it. This is just one more adventure she’s going to take me on.”
“And we should get started on our adventure before we’re caught,” I said. “Leisel probably has a search party out for us by now.”
“I have my computer, and if there’s any way I can find a signal out there to let you know what we’ve found, I’ll send you a message,” Jack told Bron. Then he looked at David. “In the meantime, you two take control of the Alliance, and keep everyone down here as calm as you can. Continue the training, but no more riots. I don’t trust Holt, and he can annihilate everyone in the Pit just by turning off the ventilation system, so don’t give him a reason. There are some powerful families in the Dome that will stand up for the Pit, but if everyone is down here cruising for a fight and causing trouble, you’ll lose their support. Just keep training and be ready to go in case the news from outside is good.”
“I’ll try my best,” David said. “But everyone here is just so angry. It’s going to be hard to keep them under control.”
“We’ll train harder with them. Let them work out their frustrations that way,” Bron said. “How much time should we give you?” she asked Jack.
“I honestly don’t know. It could take a day or a week to figure out if we have radiation poisoning or not, then find a way back into the Dome… I guess if you haven’t heard from us in a month or two, odds are you won’t.”