No one speaks as we pass through the large room to go outside. One small candle is lit for those few of us who cannot see in the dark. Pip is still asleep in his cage and the door is shut.
“Something to eat?” Rosalyn asks. Jonah meows loudly from my room.
“No thank you,” both Jilly and I say. We go out on the porch. I hear the sound of the tank as it walks away with Harry, Alcide, Peter, and Dr. Stewart inside and feel the slight tremors of its passage beneath my feet. Adam, Jon, Colm, and Joe wear packs on their backs. They have the explosives. George, Tobias, and Freddie stand beside a cart with one of the ponies hitched to it. It’s not Ghost, it’s the one I call Blue. I rub his nose as George helps Jilly into the cart and Ghost whinnies from his pen. Rosalyn, Bess, and Nancy come out of the cabin, and the cart takes off with Freddie leading Blue. George and Tobias both carry rifles and Adam, Jon, Colm, and Joe have pistols strapped to their hips. I wonder when Tobias and Colm learned how to shoot. So much has happened in such a short amount of time, yet it seems like it has been forever since we left the dome.
Levi, Pace, David, and Lucy are with the steam cycles. The engines putt-putt quietly in the darkness, and the lights are on so that they can see to drive. I hold up my finger, asking for a few seconds, and run to the ponies. “This will soon be over,” I tell Ghost as I rub his head. “No more battles, no more worries. Just peace and sunshine and green pastures.” I look up at the sky that has turned a shade lighter with the coming dawn. “Please God, let it be so,” I add. I run back to the cycles and climb on behind Pace, who looks at Levi and nods. I wrap my arms around Pace’s waist and we take off.
We ride on what was once a road. Occasionally we have to detour around a fallen tree, but for the most part it is clear, much like the road Levi and I rode on the night we went to save Lyon and Pace from the rovers. If only this morning will be the end of our battles. My stomach twists in anticipation and once more I have that feeling of being on a precipice, about to step off.
When we lived belowground there was this great chasm that was found when a tunnel was made. The young men would tie a rope around their waists, and while their friends held it they would leap out into the darkness and let the wind carry them upward as if they were flying. I was never brave enough to do it, because I was afraid of falling, or it was more I was afraid of the unknown.
Yet I feel as if I am about to do it. Only I know I won’t be flying alone. I will have someone by my side who will be there to catch me when I fall. If I fall. We have come too far to fall or to fail.
The dome rises before us, blocking out the night. It is lighter than the sky, a gray presence that looms over the wildness of the nature that surrounds us. Does it sense us? Does it know that its rule is about to be over? Will it die quietly or will it scream in agony?
We will find out the answer soon enough.
The tank waits for us. It is already in position, standing right before the dome, close enough to touch it if it moves another step. Dr. Stewart’s head sticks out from the top. Lucy hugs David and kisses him and goes to where George, Jilly, Rosalyn, Freddie, and Nancy wait. Bess joins Adam, Jon, Colm, Tobias, and Joe, and they take off around the dome to their position.
We wait. I keep my arms around Pace, and he lays his hand on mine. Levi checks his weapons. The rifles stuck in the stocks on the cycle. The pistols in his belt. The knives in sheaths on his back. The cross bow that is strapped to the seat behind him. After a while we see the Quest coming in from the direction of the sea. The night is so quiet that I hear the hum of her engines. Where are all the creatures that sing at night? Do they sense the coming battle, or is it just that time before dawn when they go to sleep and the day creatures are yet to wake up?
We are too close to the dome to see James and Lyon drop off the Quest and float down to the dome on the wings. I remember the sensation of flying with Levi. It was scary and thrilling at the same time. I know James loves it, no matter what the purpose.
Finally a red flare flies through the air.
“Ten minutes everyone,” Dr. Stewart says. Ten minutes is the time Pace and James decided it would take James and Lyon to get inside the dome, traverse the catwalk, and come down into the streets. Ten minutes hopefully will give Adam and the rest enough time to get into place. They might need longer. We don’t know how long it will take us to break through the glass. All that matters now is that James and Lyon are in place.
No one talks. We just wait. Pace gently runs his fingers over the back of my hand and it is hypnotic. I keep my head against his shoulder and wonder if I could actually fall asleep.
“It is time,” Dr. Stewart announces, and lowers back into the tank. Levi revs the engine on his cycle, and David does the same. Suddenly a blast comes out of the front of the tank and it careens into the glass of the dome. A splintering sound echoes off the glass. The battering ram retracts and then shoots forward, and we hear a definite crunch. It does it again and again and again, and then it goes all the way through.
I gasp and Pace squeezes my hand. George lets out a whoop of victory. Harry moves the tank forward. One step, then another, and it pushes against the glass and it splinters away and the tank moves onward, inside, with the next step.
Break the glass. It is done. The tank keeps moving. Levi’s cycle is beside us. He takes the crossbow from the back and gives it to me. “Just in case,” he says, and takes off, following the tank. David follows, then Pace and I. I clutch the crossbow in one hand and hang on to Pace with the other as we ride into the dome.
The last time I was on the promenade I was coming from the other direction. From here it looks much the same. The tall and skinny houses with the painted lawns lined up in neat rows on either side of the street. A few lights shine here and there. The people for the most part are still asleep. Each footstep of the tank echoes ominously and windows open and people stick their heads out. Someone screams.
And then the alarm sounds. I would not have thought it possible without any power, but it goes off, screaming overhead. The last time I heard it was the day Alex died. The day this all began.
How long before somebody shows up? How long before James and Lyon can reach Zan? How long before I see the look of complete shock on my father’s face and the amusement on Findley’s?
Harry seems determined. The tank keeps on trudging onward, down the promenade, and we follow. Royals come out of their houses, dressed in their nightclothes and robes while holding their fancy little dogs that loudly yip in panic. Larger dogs give chase while the royals stare slack-jawed at us and then at the hole in the dome. I wave and Pace laughs.
“Harry’s going to walk right up to the government building and pound on the door,” Pace says.
“If my father is smart he’ll let Zan answer it,” I reply.
We continue on. I wonder how Adam and his group are doing. Are they in yet? Have they freed the scarabs? Are they on their way to the stockyards?
A cat races by us with its ears pinned back, and then another and another. A dog runs by and outpaces them. We reach the gatehouse; Harry stomps right through it, and the guards dive out of the way. What could they do? They are unarmed, only there for show, nothing more.
We move into the shopping district, and I hear a shot ring out. Then a rumble and the ground shakes beneath us and a large cracking sound rings overhead. Pace and I both look up and then immediately cover our heads as shards of glass rain down on us.
“Find cover,” Levi yells. “Get beneath the tank!” The three cycles pull up close, and we hop off and take cover beneath. Levi takes a pistol from his holster and pounds on a leg. Alcide lifts a hatch.