Shadows of Glass (2 page)

“You’re awake.” Pace’s sweet and handsome face blocks my view.

“What are they?” I manage to croak out as I point upward.

Pace kneels down beside me. He puts a hand on Ghost’s head to keep him still as he
looks over his shoulder at the sky. “Stars,” he says. “Sailors of old used them to
navigate the seas.”

“They are beautiful,” I whisper and he turns to look at me once more. I see in his
face that something is horribly wrong, and the beauty of the stars is forgotten as
I quickly sit up. My head swims and my stomach rolls in protest.

“Stay still,” Pace urges me with his concern plainly showing on his face. “You should
rest.”

“The others?” I ask.

“They’re here, except…” Pace’s voice trails off and my head fills with horrible thoughts
of what more could befall us. Panic fills me. I climb to my feet, trembling with weakness
and terror. Pace sees that there is no stopping me, so he helps me up, always steady,
always there. Ghost scrambles to his feet behind me, and Cat frantically jumps away.
He is still nervous and not happy about the circumstances, and he lets us know by
meowing fretfully. How easy it would be just to sit down and cry out my fears, but
I cannot. Not now. Not ever as long as I remain strong.

The lamps we carried from the tunnels sit on rocks that are scattered about the shoreline.
Because I am a shiner, I can see fine without them, but Pace cannot see as I can in
the dark. Still the light is comforting. The sandy beach we came out on is much smaller
now, so small that I fear that we may run out of room and have to retreat back into
the cave if the water comes any closer. The ponies that came with us stand huddled
against the cliff wall. The openness has to be frightening to them, because they can’t
see. They knew the tunnels. How can they survive in this unknown world since they
are blind? I know Ghost is frightened because he stays close to my back, as if he’s
still in the harness and I’m leading him through the mines.

The children that joined up with us during our escape are gathered close to the cave
entrance with a lamp. They are recovering the things from our village that have washed
through from the flood, and I hear their excited chatter as they pull something from
the water. Alcide, who is a year younger than me, is with them as they pile the things
they find close against the stone wall that towers behind us.

James and Adam are nearby. James sits with his head down and scrubs his hands through
his hair. Adam watches the children. How long has he been awake and waiting to see
if the body of his wife—and my best friend—Peggy, who was also James’s sister, washes
out of the cave? She was lost in the flood, and the pain of it, of watching the water
rise around her and knowing there was nothing we could do, is still fresh in my mind,
along with the cries of Adam. They had only been wed a day when the flood came, caused
by an explosion in the caves after we were attacked by the bluecoats from above.

“They just woke up. They had the same problem as you,” Pace explains. “It wasn’t as
bad with the young ones, just a few spasms and they were done.” I look at him, at
his handsome face and his beautiful blue eyes. He, like the rest of us, has been through
so much, and I feel like I let him down because he had to take care of all of us once
we came outside, while I was sick and unconscious. He has to be worried about his
mother also. My father was holding her prisoner when the explosion happened. We have
no idea what happened to those above, and now, since we are outside, we have no way
to find out.

“They haven’t been deep in the mines yet,” I explain, grateful at least that the children
did not have to suffer. “They are still too young.” We don’t go into the mines until
we’re thirteen and have finished our schooling. Most of the children we found were
between five and twelve, and had been in school when the attack came. Alcide is fifteen,
so it makes sense that he would recover before the rest of us.

“I set them to working, so they wouldn’t think about their families,” Pace said. “I
thought it best if they kept busy. I wasn’t thinking about what else they might find.”

“Bodies?” I ask.

Pace shivers as he nods. “At first they cried, especially the little ones,” he explains.
“Now they look at it as helping them, even though the people are dead.”

“That’s because of you,” I say, wanting to offer him some comfort and gratitude for
what he’s done. But I also have to ask because she is … was … so dear to me. “Peggy?”

“Not yet,” Pace says as if there is some slim hope she might still be alive. I know
better than to grab onto it. I know there is no hope left for her.

I look once more at Adam and James. They both seem done in, as if all the life has
been sucked from their bodies, and I know I must look the same if not worse. I wouldn’t
wish what I’d been through on anyone, not even James, who I’d been at odds with since
this strange journey began, and especially not Adam, who had suffered so much for
our cause. I know how they feel. Bringing up the coal from my lungs had nearly killed
me, especially since I was weak from the battles I’d fought. Adam and James had to
have fared better than me because they were stronger, but those who were weak and
had years of coal dust inside of them, how would they survive? Even now my lungs feel
strange and sore and my throat is raw.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t any help,” I say, even though it won’t change anything. Then suddenly
a chill washes over me that has nothing to do with the night air that surrounds us.
“Where are Hans and Mary?” They are the oldest of all of us, all that was left of
our tribe of elders as all the rest had been swept away in the floods.

Pace hesitates, as if he’s searching for the right words. “They didn’t make it,” he
says. “It was too much for them.”

No …
I don’t want it to be true. I wouldn’t believe it was true, not until I saw for myself.
“Where are they?”

“With the others,” Pace says and his voice breaks. He looks away for a moment yet
keeps a strong hold onto my hand. I don’t know how long I was unconscious, and because
I was, because I wasn’t strong enough, Pace had to endure these things by himself.
It was weak of me to leave him that way, but I don’t know what else I could have done.
Maybe I shouldn’t have rushed outside, maybe I should have warned the others before
they came out. If only I had known what being outside would do to us. Like everything
else that has happened in the past days, every decision I’ve made has been difficult.
Every decision I’ve made has led to as much bad as good. I don’t know why this has
fallen on me. I don’t want it any more. I don’t want to be responsible for all this
death.

“This way,” Pace says. He pulls on my hand and I follow, regretfully, yet resolved,
since I have to know. Pretending something hasn’t happened won’t make it so. We walk
toward the children. As we approach James and Adam, they struggle to their feet and
join us. They are both quiet. Considering all that has happened, I am not surprised;
still it worries me, because I don’t trust James, not after everything that has happened.
Not after everything he’s done. We are a strange group, the four of us, with Ghost
and Cat following along after us as we walk to where the river joins the sea. What
if we are the only ones who survived? Surely, with all the people that live in the
dome, some had to have escaped. I think of our friends from above. Lucy and David,
Jilly and Harry, who joined us in the fight, and my father, Sir William Meredith,
who is the Master General Enforcer and the one we battled against in our effort to
escape the dome. Was he the one who sent the bluecoats down with the flamethrowers?
I cannot help but think it would be fitting if his decision to come after the shiners
resulted in destroying the very thing he was trying to protect. How will history remember
him when these chapters are written? I guess it will depend on who does the writing.

We come to where the river spills forth from the cave. I look at the mammoth slash
in the earth. How long has it been here? Did our forefathers know of its existence?
Was it written down someplace that this could be a way out, or did they deliberately
hide it from the inhabitants when they finalized the dome? How simple it would have
been for all of us, if we had just simply known about it from the beginning. From
the looks of it, I’d say it has been around a very long time, since way before the
dome. Possibly since the beginning of time. Was this something else my father kept
hidden from the people to preserve the bloodline of the royalty that he values so
much?

The children have been busy, sorting and stacking the things that have spilled forth
from the earth, with Alcide directing them in their endeavors. Pots and pans, blankets,
clothing, bits and pieces of furniture, and some toys lay on the sand, the only remnants
of our village. Cat stops to sniff through the things. I stop and ask one of the children,
whose name I do not know, to lead Ghost over to the rest of the ponies.

I give Ghost a reassuring pat as the little boy takes the halter. I should learn his
name; I should learn all of their names, as we might be the only ones left. Before
they were just part of the innumerable group that went to school and played in our
cavern, all belonging to someone. I had no time to worry over them as I was wrapped
up in my own life with my own group. Are we four, me, James, Adam, and Alcide, along
with these children, all that’s left of the shiners? Is this loss because of me and
the decisions I made? Was making sure Alex did not die in vain worth all these lives
that were lost along with his?

Adam and James splash across the water and Alcide follows them. Pace waits for me.
He stretches out his hand, and I realize I am frightened to take it. I don’t want
to see the faces of those who have died. I don’t want to know that Hans and Mary made
it out, only to die because of the fresh, clear air. I don’t want to know that so
many people drowned, but I must go on. I cannot change the things that have happened;
I can only hope to learn from them. If only the lessons did not come with such a steep
price.

Hans’s son, Freddy, who is twelve, sits beside his father’s body. Hans lies on his
back with his head against the cliff wall and his feet pointing to the sea. Beside
him in the same position lies Mary, who was the oldest of us after my grandfather
died. Both had been kind to me, when I didn’t deserve it. Hans especially, because
he knew that I had Pace hidden in the tunnels and he did not turn us in. What we will
do now without their wisdom and guidance? They were the last of our elders. Who will
we look to when a hard decision has to be made?

Their faces show the strain of their deaths, and as I look at them I also see the
horrible death that Alex suffered by being burned alive, and my grandfather’s, when
he was crushed. All of them dead now because I wished to see the sky. All of them
dead because I made decisions that affected them and changed their lives. What made
me think I should be the one to decide for all of us? I should have left it to wiser
heads than mine to make the difficult decisions. I should have thought things through
before I acted. I had this ideal in my mind about how things should be. Now that I
am faced with the harsh reality of how things are, I’m not so sure anymore. I am not
sure of anything, especially not the decisions I made.

Freddy leaves his father’s side and comes to me. He doesn’t say anything; he just
buries his head into my chest and breaks into tears. I am at a loss as to what I can
do for him, what I should do for any of us. All I can do is put my arms around him
and hold him while his body shakes with sobs. He’s lost both his parents and his home.
He’s tried to be brave, but there comes a point when you have to give in to the sorrow.
I wish I could cry like Freddy. Have Pace wrap his arms around me and just cry into
his chest until the tears come no more, but I can’t. I’m afraid that if I start I
won’t be able to stop. I console Freddy as best I can until his sobs subside, gone
as suddenly as they came. He smiles briefly, nods, and then steps away as if he is
embarrassed by his display of emotion.

There are more bodies beyond Hans and Mary. So many that I cannot count them. Alcide
has tried to lay them out, but some of them are so broken that it was an impossible
task and they lie at strange angles with their arms and legs in awkward poses, beaten
by the floodwaters and the stone walls that they tumbled past on their way to the
sea. It is heartbreaking to see babies among them. The last minutes I spent in the
village were with Jasper’s wife and small son. I can still hear the boy’s laughter
as Pace entertained him with the tricks he’d taught Pip. So many lives lost. The cost
is immeasurable.

“Who have you found?” Adam asks Alcide, as if it would make a difference.

“Abner,” he says and looks at James. “Your parents are here. Jasper and his wife…”
his voice trails off. There is no need for Alcide to list them. We know everyone who
was in the village is dead, including Peggy. Still Adam asks and Alcide shakes his
head.

“Do you think everyone is dead?” Freddy looks up at me with a tear-streaked face.
“My mother?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “We won’t know…”

James interrupts me. “Until they show up.”

“James,” I say in frustration. Freddy shouldn’t have to deal with these horrors. None
of these children should, yet there’s nothing else we can do at the moment. We have
no place else to go. Before I can chastise James any further, we are interrupted by
a shout from the children.

We turn to look and they point at the water coming from the cave. Another body has
washed down. Adam takes off at a run and we follow him. His cry rings off the cliff
walls as he picks the body up from the water. Peggy is limp in his arms, like a cloth
doll. I catch a sob in my throat as James runs to help Adam. She was my best friend
and all I can do is watch as they lay her gently and tenderly in the sand. A horrible
sound comes from Adam as he takes her hand into his and pushes the hair back from
her face with the other.