Shadows of Glass (7 page)

“Do you think what we’ve done was part of God’s will?” Pace asks. “Do you think he’s
punishing you now for something?”

“I don’t know what to think,” I admit. “I just know that what happened to us is a
lot like what happened to Jonah. He was more scared of being trapped than he was of
what he was asked to do.”

“And you feel the same way,” Pace concludes.

“We were swallowed by the earth and it spit us out on a beach,” I say. “Just like
Jonah. And just like Jonah, I don’t want to go back into the belly of the beast. I’m
afraid I’ll never find my way out again.”

Pace takes my hand into his. “Wren, I would never abandon you. You could have left
me, when I was trapped in the tunnel, but you didn’t. You’ve got to know that I would
do the same.”

“If I had truly known what it was like for you I never would have left you alone,”
I confess.

“You had to leave me. It was the only way we could both stay alive.” I feel his hand
cup my cheek. “I promise I will not leave you behind.”

It tears my heart out to say it, but I realize I must. “If it means someone’s life
then you have to.”

“Wren…” Before he can say more we are interrupted by a shout.

“That came from inside the cave,” I say, instinctively turning my head toward the
sound.

“Don’t move,” Pace says, and leaves me. As if I could move without his help. I hear
the splash of water and then Pace’s voice again. “There are people coming,” he says,
and I can hear the joy. “They’re shiners. I can see their eyes from here.”

“Thank God,” I say, genuinely grateful despite my circumstances.

“This way!” Pace yells, and I hear him moving away from me, back up the river inside
the cave. The echo of excited voices gets louder.

“Wren!” someone calls out. I try to identify the voice in my mind as they get closer
and become louder. I hear the
baa
of a goat and the whicker of a pony. There are survivors other than the few of us.

I am so excited that I climb to my feet, cautiously, with my hands out to keep my
balance. Jonah meows indignantly at the removal of his comfortable bed and twines
between my ankles. I have no idea how big the rock is I’m standing on and the last
thing I want to do is fall into the water.

“Who is it?” I call out.

“Rosalyn!” she calls back. “And Sally and Sarah.”

“George!” Another voice, “Eddie!” And then, “Peter!”

“Peter…” I gasp, astounded that he is still alive. The last time I saw him he was
running into the battle. “How did you survive?” I call out.

“You know the rules, Wren. Always have an escape plan,” Peter calls back and the rest
call out hearty agreements.

He is right. We always have an escape plan for every cavern. But we never dreamed
we would have to outrun a wall of water. And there is something that we can’t escape:
what going out into the fresh air does to our lungs. And Peter already has the horrible
cough that signifies the start of the disease that kills our lungs from the inside.
He might not survive going outside. None of them might.

“Did anyone else survive?” Rosalyn calls out. Rosalyn is a council member also and
just a few years older than Adam. The fact that another council member is alive fills
me with such relief. I don’t want the responsibility for all these lives. Sally is
the teacher and she knows the children. It is as if a great weight has been lifted
from my shoulders.

“Adam, James, Alcide, and several of the children are with us,” I say.

“Stella?” Rosalyn shrieks. “Is my Stella with you?”

Tears run down my face and I can barely speak because I am so happy that Stella’s
mother is alive. “She is,” I manage to say loud enough for her to hear.

“Where?” Rosalyn starts but is interrupted when George calls out.

“Look at the light!”

“Is it outside? Is it safe?”

I hear them coming closer, faster. I am suddenly very self-conscious of my eyes. Will
they be able to tell that I’m blind? What will they think? What will they do? I hastily
chastise myself. I should be grateful they are alive—and I am, very much so—instead
of worrying over how they will treat me.

I hear the sound of running feet and the next thing I know, I’m lifted in the air
and swung around. I grab onto Peter and hug him tight.

“Wren! Wren! You were right! Alex found the way. You saved us. You saved all of us!”

I didn’t save all of us. Some of us are dead. I think most of us are dead. I can’t
stand the thought of any more of us dying. I keep a tight grip on Peter’s sleeve so
he cannot move away from me. “You can’t go outside yet,” I say.

“What do you mean?” Peter laughs and then he stops suddenly. “Wren? What’s wrong?”

“The sun burned my eyes,” I say. “And the air does something to your lungs. We are
so full of coal that it’s painful.” I keep my grip on his sleeve, afraid if I let
go he’ll slip away from me. “Mary and Hans did not survive it.”

“Mary?” Sally says. “Where is my mother?”

“Where is Stella?” Rosalyn calls out as they come closer.

“You should stay here,” Pace calls out over their voices. I hear their voices, all
raised in questions about their loved ones, and then suddenly they stop. Even though
I can’t see them, I can feel their shocked stares.

“I’m blind,” I say. “I looked at the sun and it burned my eyes.”

“Wren…” Sally begins in sympathy.

I shake my head. “It’s not an easy transition,” I say. “The outside is beautiful but
it has its dangers. Your lungs will be purged and the sun will burn your skin. Make
sure you wear your goggles. Do not look at the sun.”

“So there is fire out there.”

“But no flames,” I say. “It truly is beautiful,” I add. “The things we saw last night…”
How do I explain a sky full of stars and the colors of a sunset to someone who’s never
seen them before? It is something they will have to witness for themselves. But first
they have to survive going out there.

“Where is Stella?” Rosalyn demands again.

“Stay here,” Pace says. “I’ll get her. I’ll get everyone.”

“So you’re saying we traded one kind of hell for another,” George begins. “You had
all those people die for no reason?”

“I didn’t…” I begin. Even though I can’t see them, I feel the accusatory stares. “We
have to learn to survive out there, just like we learned how to survive underground,
all those years ago.”

“Is there food?” Eddie asks. “Water?”

“You’re standing right beside water you fool,” Peter snaps. “It’s not Wren’s fault.
If you want to blame someone, blame those arses who brought the flamethrowers down
into the tunnels.”

Before the words can escalate into an argument between George and Peter we hear a
shriek. “Momma!” It is Stella, along with the excited voices of the others. I listen
with a smile on my face as I realize that George and Eddie both have children among
the survivors, and I hear the rush of Nancy coming to Peter and Peter’s exclamation
of joy as they stand beside me.

“What of my mother?” Sally asks.

“She died, along with Hans, when we went outside,” James explains. “We all nearly
did, except for him.” I know he is referring to Pace, who has moved next to me. Beyond
James’s callous words I can hear Adam talking to Sally, offering her words of comfort.

“It’s how much coal dust you have in your lungs,” I say. “It didn’t bother the children
much at all.”

“We can’t just stay here forever,” Peter exclaims. Of all of them, I am worried the
most about Peter. He actually dug out the coal, along with Eddie and George. James
and Adam worked on demolition with my grandfather. Sally taught the young ones and
Rosalyn kept inventory and distributed our goods. Peggy worked with her. Everyone
had their purpose in our community. Now we have to join together in the shared purpose
of staying alive. Joining together might be the most difficult thing we’ve ever attempted.

“You can’t go charging outside,” Alcide says. “It might kill you.”

“What of the others who died?” Eddie asks.

“Their bodies washed down from the village,” Alcide explains. “We burned them this
morning. We never thought there’d be more survivors.”

“The water was on our heels,” Rosalyn said. “I caught up with Sally and Sarah and
we managed to get above it in one of the tunnels. We found George and Eddie, and then
we ran into Peter. We heard the goats and followed them out.”

“Do you think anyone else survived?”

“Those that were around the lifts could have survived,” Peter says. “If they climbed
up. I was just coming in when the fool with the flamethrower shot it into the chute
below the lift.”

“Oh please let it be so,” Rosalyn says hopefully. “My Colm was with the fighters.”

“The last time I saw him he was alive,” Peter offers.

“I thought the lot of you survived it,” Rosalyn said. “I saw you from the other side
when the waters came through. I knew the council chamber would lead you above the
waters.”

“It did,” James says. “But it was nipping on our heels the entire way.”

“I’m sorry about your Peggy,” Rosalyn says to Adam.

“Thank you,” Adam replies softly. “She’s with the rest now. Her ashes have washed
out to sea.”

“So the explosion was in the chamber on the other side of the village, which is why
the wall crumbled,” James asks.

“I took off running as soon as I saw what he was about to do,” Peter explains. “I
managed to find a tunnel that went up and caught up with this group where the ground
had given way beneath the dome.”

“I wonder how bad the damage was above,” Pace wonders aloud. He is worried about his
mother. There is no way for us to find news about her.

“What if they’re all trapped in it,” Alcide adds. “At least we had a way out. They
have no fans, no way to keep the air circulating.”

“They have a way out,” I say. “The way Alex went. The way they took me.”

“There’s only one way to find out what’s happened above,” Adam says. “We’re going
to have to go up the cliff because we can’t survive here.”

“At least we’ve got food for today,” Pace says.

I hear a
whoop
from Alcide and another one from Freddy and then splashes from something in the water.

“What is it?” I ask Pace.

“A dead goat,” he says. “We can roast it.”

The prospect of roasted meat in my stomach suddenly makes my mouth water, and I feel
somewhat optimistic about things. Maybe my blindness won’t be permanent. Other shiners
have survived. We are outside and the world is a beautiful place, at least that small
portion of it that I’ve seen. Maybe, just maybe, things will be all right for the
lot of us. At least for the moment, we are all safe and for that I will be grateful.

5

Words,
especially those spoken without thought, can wound you as deeply as any knife thrust
or burn. They can also heal when they are spoken from the heart, and I am most grateful
for the words Pace speaks to me.

“I’m sorry for what I said before.” We sit in the entrance to the cave with our backs
against the wall. Everyone moved inside after the meal, including the animals, because
there was no shelter to be found outside from the sun. It is merciless in its attack
upon our skin, making it dry, raw, and itchy beneath its rays. I expect in time we
will become accustomed to it. Just as our shiner eyes adapted to see in the dark,
we will once more be able to stand beneath the sun. We have to, or else how could
our forefathers have survived all those years? They sailed the seas and worked the
land in all kinds of weather and so must we in time. I can only imagine what we all
look like. Pace told me everyone’s skin is pink. In my mind I can’t quite grasp the
color, as it would appear on our skin.

Jonah is beside me and his constant movements and loud purrs lead me to believe he’s
licking his fur clean from his recent meal. The world around us is quiet except for
the sound of the river, so much so that my blindness leaves me to think we are alone,
but Pace’s hushed tones lets me know that there are people around us. “About the people
from your village who died.”

“You spoke in haste,” I say. “I know you didn’t mean it.”

“It was disrespectful,” Pace continues. “You were right to do what you did. I shouldn’t
have put you in that position.”

“You can’t let James get to you,” I say. “Once he knows he can do it, he won’t stop.
If we’re going to survive this, we’re going to have to work together.”

“Whether we want to or not?”

I open my mouth to explain why we have to work together, and then I realize Pace is
teasing me. Because I can’t see his face I don’t know the intent behind his words,
but I do remember what he looks like and I can easily visualize the look on his face
at the moment. How long will it be before that memory fades?

We are so lucky. All of those who showed up today survived the purge. I don’t know
if it is because they knew what to expect or because they eased their way out into
the pure air, sitting for a while at the cave opening before venturing forward into
the new world, but they somehow managed it. It is another thing to be grateful for,
along with the meal of roasted goat we just finished.

More things have washed down now. Things we can actually use. Clothing and blankets,
which have been spread on the sand to dry. A bag of feed that, while damp, was not
moldy and was therefore rationed among the ponies and goats. Personal things, such
as brushes and combs, plates, cups and bowls, even Pip’s cage, were found strewn along
the banks of the river within the cave, and Pip is in it now, sleeping away after
his flights of adventure, according to Pace. The things scavenged from the banks of
the river are not much to testify to the community we had beneath the ground, but
to those of us who survived with nothing more that the clothes on our backs these
things are great treasures.

“You should try to get some sleep,” Pace says. “We all should. We don’t know how long
it will take us to get up there.”