“I’m sorry,” Jilly says as if it is her fault.
“It doesn’t sound like much, but at least we had some freedom,” I explain. “We could choose who we wanted to marry, and could marry for love, like Adam and Peggy.”
“I envied them that,” Jilly says. “I would like to be in love like that.”
We keep talking throughout the day. We share stories from our lives until our voices are hoarse. I am not surprised at how different our lives are, even though we come from the same world. When we have exhausted the world inside the dome, I tell her about the things I saw outside, including the things the Hatfields shared with us about the world.
Evening finally comes, with a repeat of the meal we were served at breakfast. I worry for Levi. If this is all he’s had for the weeks he’s been prisoner, then his strength surely will not last. We finally fall asleep again, not knowing anything more about what awaits us than we did when we were placed in the cell.
I wake the next morning to Pruitt standing over us. “It’s time,” he says. Two more bluecoats are with him. Neither is Findley, and I am beginning to worry that he does not have a plan to save us.
“Time for what?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer. Instead he steps back. I wake Jilly. We both stand, and the bluecoats tie our hands before us and lead us out of the cell. Every cell door is open, except for the one across from ours. A bluecoat stands at each one, except for the one Pace and Levi share, where there are two. A prisoner is led out of a cell down the row, and I am astonished to see it is Rosalyn’s husband, Colm.
“Wren!” he starts, and the bluecoat who has him jabs him in the stomach with a thick club.
“Quiet!” the bluecoat yells. Colm grimaces and doubles over as his captor shoves him against the wall.
“Rosalyn and Stella are alive,” I say, and the bluecoat who has me jerks me around. “They are outside,” I call out only to be rewarded with a slap across my cheek that turns my head. My cheek burns and my eyes blur, still I can see Levi and Pace as they are led out of their cells with their hands bound.
“Both of you stay quiet!” Pruitt yells at Colm and me.
“Leave her be!” Pace says.
“All of you!” Pruitt yells again.
“Why?” I say. “Are you afraid to hear the truth?” Pruitt rewards me this time with a hard strike from his fist to my jaw. I stagger back from the blow and land against the wall. My vision is blurred with white lights of pain. I hear cries from everyone. Jilly, Pace, Levi, even Colm. I blink, trying to see the madness that erupts around me, but I cannot seem to find the will to breathe, much less stand straight and speak.
I am somehow on my feet. I hear Jilly crying, and my eyes finally swim into focus. Pace, Levi, and Colm are on their knees, breathing hard, with blood on their hands and faces. The bluecoats, more than I can count, do not look much better. I think they won only because there were more of them. If Levi and Pace had not had their hands bound, I think perhaps they would have had a chance.
“Wren!” Both Pace and Levi say.
“I’m here,” I say. My jaw pains me and I wince. “I’m okay.” I realize Pace and Jilly do not understand what okay means, but Levi smiles and nods and I can see the tension leaving their shoulders.
I decide it is best to stay quiet for now. More prisoners are led from the cells, all shiners, seven in all, men that we presumed were killed in the flood. The one who was in the cell next to me I recognize as one of my grandfather’s friends, Bill. He can’t seem to stop coughing, as if every move he makes rattles his lungs.
“Where are you taking us?” Jilly asks Pruitt. He doesn’t answer. We are propelled along by shoves and poked with thick sticks to the staircase. We go up two flights to the ground floor and then down the hall that leads to the closed shed where the carriage is kept. I wonder if it has enough steam left to get us where we are supposed to go. I fear that if our destination is our execution then, yes, we should make it there.
We are shoved into the back of the carriage and the door locked. There are so many of us that three sit on the floor with four on each bench. Pace, Jilly, Levi, and I all sit on one side. We feel the weight of the guards as they climb on board. I wonder if the carriage can roll with all the weight it carries, but it does as the doors are opened and we roll into the dim light of dawn.
“They are alive?” Colm asks as soon as we take off. “Outside?”
“What do you mean, outside?” a shiner asks. I think his name is Tobias.
“We made it outside,” I say to Tobias, and then to Colm, “They were safe the last time I saw them.”
“Thank God,” Colm replies, and all the shiners are looking at me. “How?”
“The flood opened up new tunnels,” I explain. “We just followed the river and it led us outside.”
“Who made it?” Tobias asks.
“George, Rosalyn, Sally. James, Adam, Alcide, and Peter and his sister Nancy. The children from the school. I don’t know all their names.”
“Peter is my nephew,” Tobias says.
“If the children survived, then my Sarah should be among them,” one of the shiners says.
“Yes, Sarah is there.”
“And my Robbie,” another says. He describes a little boy, and I smile and nod.
“I know him.” They all have hope now. They are all that is left of my people, and I am not sure of all their names. But we all know, no matter what happens, some of us will survive. We will not be forgotten.
“Anyone else?” Tobias asks. I shake my head. There is no need to tell them about Eddie and his son and how he died falling over the cliff. I look at Pace. I know he is thinking of them also.
“I am so sorry,” Levi says to the shiners and then looks at me. “Pace told me what happened. Do—”
“Who are you?” Colm interrupts.
“A friend from across the sea,” I say. “Rosalyn is with his family. They are helping us. This is Levi, and Jilly is a royal who—”
“Who angered the powers that be or she wouldn’t be here,” Tobias finishes for me. “What is to become of us?”
“We’re not heading to the dais,” Pace says. He sits closest to the door with the window. I look up and see that we are indeed heading away from it. It looks as if we are on the same route as the morning my father took me out.
“Thank God,” Jilly says. I do not feel her sense of relief. I know my father has burned people outside the dome entrance as a warning. Just because we are not going to the dais does not mean we are not going to our deaths.
“It could just mean they don’t want it to be public,” I say. I don’t want to give anyone false hope, for anyone to think we are going to be free. I know my father well enough to know there will be a price to be paid for our rebellion.
“We are to be executed?” Colm asks.
“We don’t know what is going to happen,” I say.
“Anything is better than wasting away in that cell,” Bill says.
“I can die happy, knowing Rosalyn and Stella are free,” Colm agrees.
I fear that Bill’s time is short, especially if we are going outside. At least he will be spared the agony of the fires, if that is our final destination.
“Wren,” Levi says quietly after all the interruptions. “Do you think our friend has a plan to help us?” He doesn’t mention Findley’s name, a wise move on his part. But he does make me remember something. Something that I had forgotten after being punched and having the realization that Colm and the others were alive.
“No plan, but maybe some hope,” I say. I reach down with my bound hands and pull the knife from my boot. In a matter of seconds Levi, Pace, and I have cut our bindings and the knife is quietly passed around. Levi keeps it when we are done, sliding it into his boot as Pace keeps watch through the window.