I pause, realizing my mouth is dry from speaking uninterrupted for so long. I hope someone has a question to break up my monologue, but no one does. They’re all just staring at me with eyes that want me to continue. Thankfully, Roc hands me a canteen and I’m able to swish some water around to moisten my tongue and lips.
“There were dry clothes in the changing rooms. We put them on and then met my mom back outside. She had new clothes on too.
“We went down another tunnel to where the men in uniforms were waiting, none of them having spoken a word to us since our arrival. Finally, one of them spoke, an older bearded guy. ‘Do you want to tell them anything before we head through?’ he asked my father. ‘No,’ was all my father said. ‘All right,’ the man said, handing us each a pair of sunglasses. ‘You’ll need these.’ Then he opened the door.”
The breath leaves my lungs. There’s tension in the room, as if all the air’s been sucked out, as everyone leans in closer. Adele’s fingers are no longer stroking my hand, but are frozen, waiting for me to speak. I take a final deep breath, feeling sudden and unexpected emotion well up in my eyes.
“We stepped onto Earth and the sun blinded us,” I say.
Chapter Seventeen
Adele
His words have no meaning to me. They’re just words. Either he’s not being very clear or I’ve been dumbstruck.
…stepped onto Earth?
…the sun blinded us?
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Trevor says, ironically all joking filtered from his tone.
“Do I look like I’m kidding?” Tristan says, his expression more serious than I’ve ever seen before.
“You walked ‘onto Earth’?” Tawni says. Evidently she’s having trouble with the wording too.
“Yes,” Tristan says, confirming the meaningless words.
“Like a pile of rocks or what?” I say.
“No, like the surface of the earth. You know, up above.”
A shiver runs up my spine. My head spins. I feel faint. What? I’m missing something. A punch line or a piece of information—like maybe I dozed off and didn’t catch a detail or two. But I know that’s not true; I was wide awake, riveted the whole time.
“That’s the biggest load of bat turds I’ve ever heard,” Trevor scoffs.
“It can’t be,” Tawni says heavily.
But Tristan’s ignoring them, his eyes boring into mine, his face clouded with concern, his eyes thick with emotion. He’s worried about my reaction. I realize I’ve pulled my hand back from his, a reflexive sign of separation.
“You’re saying you went above? To the surface of the earth?” I ask again, because I’m still not sure what I’m hearing.
Tristan nods.
Which means…
“Earth is safe again?” Tawni asks.
Still watching me, Tristan says, “Not exactly.”
“You should tell them everything your father told you,” Roc suggests.
My head is getting hot. Tristan is still staring at me and it’s starting to annoy me. Like what he’s telling us only affects me. My hands tighten and I tuck them at my sides.
“Tristan?” Roc says again when Tristan doesn’t respond.
“Why didn’t you tell us before?” I growl. “And don’t give me any of that crap about it not being the right time.”
“I was scared of how you would react,” Tristan says, his face a blank piece of paper.
“We deserved to know before we went on this mission.”
“I know,” he says. “The longer I waited the harder it got. It’s the best-kept secret in the Tri-Realms. It’s why my father tried to capture or kill me back in the Moon Realm—when we first met. I think he knew I would tell someone eventually.”
“This is ridiculous,” I spout, my anger growing.
“Would it have changed anything?” Tristan says, his voice rising. “If I told you just before the mission, or the moment we met, or anytime along the way. Would it have changed your mind about coming, or changed the Resistance strategy, or had any impact at all?” His own hands are fisted now, too, his jaw a tight line.
I fill my lungs once, twice, three times. Try to get control of my emotions. Think logically. If he had told us there were people on the surface of the earth before we left on the mission, how would I have reacted? My shoulders slump.
“No,” I say. “It would have just fueled our desire to overthrow your father. Knowing he’s kept such a truth from the very people he’s meant to be leading…”
“Unforgivable,” Tawni finishes for me.
“That was my reaction when he told me,” Roc says. “It took him a few weeks to tell me, too. Give him a break, this is a big deal. It’s not something you tell someone in normal conversation. Can you all just back off and let him tell the rest of the story? It’s important.”
Tristan’s eyes flit to Roc’s, soften somewhat, and then return to mine, seeking approval. “Okay. I’m sorry,” I say, not sure if I mean it yet.
“Are you guys really buying this?” Trevor says.
“Shut it,” I say, warning him off with my eyes.
“Thanks,” Tristan says. “And I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. We literally walked outside onto the surface of the earth,” he starts again, trying to hammer home the crazy truth that I’m still trying to come to terms with. “Even with the sunglasses I couldn’t see for ten minutes, forced to cover my eyes with my hands, letting through a little more light minute by minute. My mother and Killen were the same, but my father adjusted quickly, because it wasn’t his first time above.”
My heart leaps suddenly as a thought hits me. “Were there clouds?” I ask, my voice a little too squeaky for my liking.
Tristan smiles for the first time in a while. “You should have seen it. The sky was dark red, spotted with bits of grainy clouds, which moved across the heavens faster than you would believe. The sun was nothing like our artificial suns. Compared to it, they are but a single hair on a person’s head, whereas it is the entire head of hair. Bright enough to light a thousand earths, it turned my skin red in only fifteen minutes.”
“It burned you?” Tawni asks.
“Yes, my gosh, how it burned. My skin ached for days and then became paper thin and peeled off as if I was a snake shedding my skin. There were trees and plants everywhere, but only in the Bubble.”
“The Bubble?” I say, curiosity getting the better of me.
“Sorry,” Tristan says. “I’m not explaining things right. I mean, there’s just so much to tell it’s hard to decide where to begin.”
“Tell them about the city,” Roc prompts.
“There’s a city?” I ask, my brain buzzing with too many questions to ask them all.
“Yes. That’s where we were. The only city left on Earth, at least as far as anyone knows. It’s called the New City, although informally people just call it the Bubble, because there’s a huge glass dome surrounding it, which looks like you could pop it by sticking a sword in the side. In reality though, it’s three feet thick and nearly unbreakable.”
“Who built it?” Tawni asks.
“Aha. Good question,” Tristan says, looking more and more comfortable with the subject now that we’re asking questions and not giving him a hard time about not telling us sooner. “Everything I’m about to tell you my father told us, so I’m assuming it’s true as he had no reason to lie or volunteer the information. Two hundred years ago, well before my father was born, my great-grandfather had his engineers build unmanned probes to send to the earth’s surface. When they returned, the rock and air samples they brought back were very encouraging. After weeks of analysis, fact checking, and experimentation, the scientists determined there was a greater than fifty percent likelihood that Earth could be safely inhabited once more.”