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Chapter 9

The five teenagers quickly decided on a plan. They would meet in Charleston and New York’s room around midnight and follow Paris out of Red Dome, down to Podkind Dome, and then into the tunnels via Dining Dome.

“But if there are tunnels under each of the hallways, why can’t we enter them from Red Dome?” Savannah had asked before they went to bed.

“We probably could,” Paris answered. “But I don’t know where the entrance to them is in Red Dome.”

“Haven’t you been in these tunnels?” Jacksonville asked. “I thought that’s how you got from here to Pod Dome in the first place?” Despite agreeing to the plan, he still sounded worried and unhappy.

“I never said I’d been in the tunnels,” Paris replied.

Jacksonville groaned, while the others just stared at Paris in disbelief. Charleston was the first to speak. He didn’t want their plan to fall apart before they’d even tried it.

“Okay, we slip out of Red Dome and down the branch until we get to Pod Dome. From there we make our way to Dining Dome and the entrance to these tunnels. Now, you’re sure you can keep Apu from sounding the alarm?” he asked Paris. “I mean, really sure, like you’ve actually walked by it at night and it doesn’t notice you? Not like this tunnel business, but for real?” But he also didn’t want to get caught.

Paris sat up straighter. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Okay, so then we follow the tunnel to the Trunk and take the elevator up to City Dome. From there…”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jacksonville interrupted. “If you can just talk to Apu and get it to ignore us, why do we have to use the tunnels at all?”

“There are other things than Apu to worry about,” Paris answered.

“Like what?” they all asked at the same time.

Paris shrugged. “It’s just best to avoid open spaces when at all possible.”

“I agree,” Savannah had said, though she’d given Paris a strange look first. “One of our professors might be out for a late-night stroll or returning from City Dome.”

And now Charleston was replaying their plan in his mind, searching for any problems or flaws, New York’s faint snoring familiar and soothing in a strange way. There was still the problem of getting into the Council of Nine building, but if there really were tunnels running everywhere, there’d surely be an entrance to them in City Dome, too. This was the big hole in their plan, but they had to try. They had to figure out who Violet was before something even worse than people jumping to their deaths happened.

For the first time in his life, Charleston didn’t think he’d be able to sleep.

He snapped awake to find Savannah hovering over him, Jacksonville right behind her. Charleston threw the covers off and swung his feet to the floor. The door was open and he could just make out Paris standing in the hallway, looking up at Apu, the blue of its eye illuminating his face.

“What’s he doing?” he whispered to Savannah as Jacksonville woke New York.

She shrugged. “Talking to it I guess.”

Charleston shook his head and quickly pulled his shirt and pants on. The four friends joined Paris in the hall and set out silently towards the exit. Charleston looked at Apu warily as they passed, but it didn’t move or sound any alarm. They slipped out of Residence Dome, Paris leading the way. The Dome’s ceiling was turned off and the night sky extended out above them in a vast, starry sheet. A half moon shown in the sky, its faint light casting deep shadows.

They reached the doors leading from Red Dome to Podkind Branch and Paris stopped. Charleston watched as the boy stared at the doors. After a moment, he turned his head slightly towards the control panel on the wall and Charleston could see his lips moving. Just then the doors slid open and Charleston nearly gasped out loud. He turned to look at New York and saw the shock he felt mirrored on his friend’s face.

He didn’t have time to dwell on this apparent miracle, however, as Paris was already silently walking down the branch, keeping close to the wall. Faint yellow lights were set in the floor at intervals that gently illuminated the passageway. Apu’s ever-present blue light shown from its place in the peresilium band that ran down the length of the otherwise glass ceiling, which gently curved to meet the peresilium floor.

They moved as quickly as they dared, sticking to the shadows as much as possible. It felt like it took forever for them to reach Podkind Dome. Once there, Charleston watched again as Paris whispered to the control panel and the doors quietly slid open.

They had never been in Podkind Dome at this time of night, and it seemed even more enormous than usual. Looking up, Charleston couldn’t tell where the dome ended and the night outside began. It was eerie. Podkind forest was a huge dark mass off to their right, while to the left the open expanse of the grassy field appeared lighter. They quickly made their way along the edge of the road, ready to dash into the woods at the first sign of a professor or Apu, but they met no one. In a few minutes Charleston could make out the shadowy shapes of the campus buildings ahead.

Podkind Campus consisted of a huge complex that housed a large auditorium, the professors’ offices, a library, and their various classrooms. Scattered around this central building were several others, the gym and Dining Dome among them, while an amphitheater big enough to seat all the Podkind was situated on the side closest to the professors’ houses. This would be where the oral portion of the Podkind’s Test would be administered. The children avoided it as much as possible. Hallways and hanging flowerbeds crisscrossed campus. In the faint light of the moon, they cast odd shadows that looked like something monstrous out of one of old Earth’s fairy tales.

Paris turned off the main road the first chance they had. They would skirt the central complex and pass around the back of it to approach Dining Dome as far from the more heavily trafficked hallways as possible, just to be safe.

Paris stopped suddenly, signaling to the others to do likewise.

“What is it?” Savannah whispered to him.

“Look,” he pointed at a building up ahead. A small light glowed dimly in a first-floor window.

“What is that?” Charleston asked quietly.

“It’s a professor’s office,” Savannah answered.

“What do we do?” New York asked.

“We either go further down,” Charleston said, “or we sneak under.”

They all looked to Paris, but he remained silent. After a minute, Savannah spoke up.

“Let’s keep going this way. When we get to that office, we stay low, out of sight, and extra quiet.”

The four nodded their agreement and Savannah led the way along the stone wall of the main complex, which was lined with bushes and shrubbery. Crouching, they silently passed under the lit window. Charleston felt a sudden urge to peek in to see which professor was still up at this hour. Instead, he followed Savannah down the remaining length of the building, the dark half-circle of Dining Dome slowly coming into view. They stopped at the corner of the building, just across from their first goal.

“Okay, Paris,” Savannah said encouragingly. “Do your thing.”

Charleston and the others followed the slender boy to the entrance to Dining Dome. Paris once again stood before the control panel beside the doors and whispered something.

Even having witnessed it twice now, Charleston was shocked when the doors slid open. It was unnatural. Paris slipped into the dark cafeteria, the others in tow.

“Where’s this tunnel entrance?” Jacksonville asked nervously once the doors to Dining Dome shut behind them. The vast room was empty except for the tables and chairs where the Podkind ate. Buffet-style serving stations lined the far wall between the dining room and the kitchen. Charleston couldn’t shake the eerie feeling he’d had since they entered Pod Dome. Something felt off.

“In the kitchen,” Paris replied.

“Let’s…,” Jacksonville began, but Savannah shushed him.

“Do you hear that?” she asked. There was a faint metal clanging, followed by a low thud, coming from behind the doors leading to the kitchen. It sounded like fists hitting a bunching bag. Charleston and the others crouched low and crept to the door.

“What is that?” Savannah whispered.

The others said nothing. Paris stood and began talking to the door again.

“What are you doing?” Jacksonville asked. “We don’t know what’s in there!”

It was too late. The door slid open and Paris disappeared inside. The sounds continued. The four friends exchanged a look, then Charleston followed after Paris, the others close behind. In the darkness, he could only make out the vague shapes of tables and various utensils hanging from hooks above them.

The clanging sound was coming from the back of the kitchen. Charleston and the others moved cautiously after Paris, who had already disappeared from view.

“Paris,” Savannah hissed. “Where are you?”

“I’m here,” he answered loudly.

Savannah cursed something under her breath and moved deeper into the kitchen. Charleston and the others followed suit. A blue light shown faintly from behind an open door ahead. The four friends approached cautiously and looked in.

“Paris?” Savannah called again.

Paris was standing motionless and silent before a hovering Acu. He was staring into its blue orb of an eye. This time his mouth wasn’t moving.

Suddenly there was another thud followed by a clang, and Charleston looked past Paris to see two small metal doors in the wall slamming shut. A large box was lying on the floor beneath it. Charleston let out a low laugh, relief flooding his chest. “It’s just ARS being delivered,” he said, relaxing.

“Paris,” Savannah called. She peered closely at his face, which looked ghostly in the blue light of Acu’s eye. “Paris!” she said louder, shaking him by the shoulder.

He blinked, then looked at her. “See,” he said, pointing at the boxes stacked on the shelves surrounding them. They were in some kind of storage closet. “I told you they delivered our food through tunnels,” he continued, as if nothing had happened.

“Were you just talking to Acu?” New York asked from the entrance to the closet.

“No, why?”

Before any of them could answer, another box thudded to the ground, followed by the clanging of the doors. Acu quickly flew over, blue arms of energy reaching out to lift the box and move it to a shelf on the opposite wall.

“You guys will need to move,” Paris said as if nothing strange had happened.

“Is that the tunnel?” New York asked skeptically, indicating the place from where the boxes were being delivered. “I’m not sure I’m going to fit.”

“One of them,” Paris replied as he walked to the front of the closet where Acu had just deposited the latest box of foodstuffs. “But not the one we’ll be using.” He whispered something to Acu.

After a moment, there was a slight creak and a line appeared in the floor in the middle of the closet, right where they’d been standing. The floor moved as it split down the middle, its two halves angling up towards opposite walls. It was a door, or doors, only they were horizontally built into the floor. He heard a small hiss and what looked like another floor began silently rising up towards the ceiling. It was an elevator, Charleston realized as another pair of doors, these vertical and inlaid in the side, opened to reveal a well-lit, empty space.

“What the hell?” New York muttered.

“Where does it go?” Jacksonville said. “Where can it go? We’re thousands of feet in the air.”

Savannah was looking carefully at the sides of the elevator. “It must move sideways, as well as up and down,” she said after a moment

They entered the elevator and Paris looked at the control panel. The doors slid shut and they felt themselves move down beneath the floor of Dining Dome. There was a pause and then the elevator began moving sideways in the direction of the Trunk.

Charleston couldn’t help but smile. He looked at Savannah and could see his thoughts written on her face. She started to say something when the elevator stopped.

“That was fast,” New York said.

Paris looked at the control panel and frowned. “We’re not there yet. I don’t…”

He was interrupted by the elevator doors opening. The children gasped as one at the sight that greeted them. Two very large cylindrical orbs hovered in the corridor. They resembled Apu, only they were much bigger and had metal wings furling down behind them. Thick metal plates spotted their surface like armor, and two vent-like panels stuck out a few inches on either side. A very large blue eye glowed in the center of each, a blue eye that was staring at the trespassers.

“Uh, what are those things?” Jacksonville asked, stepping back to the far side of the elevator.

“Paris?” Savannah asked, a slight quaver in her voice. “Are these the other things you mentioned earlier?”

The boy didn’t answer. He was staring at the two orbs.

“Can you talk to these, too?”

Still, Paris was silent. The blue eye of each orb suddenly deepened in color, intensifying and growing at the same time. They floated towards the elevator.

“Now’s really not a good time to go into another trance, Paris!” Jacksonville shouted, shaking him by the shoulder.

A whirring sound came from one of the orbs.

“Try the door,” Charleston said quickly. “Paris! Shut the door!”

Paris finally heard them and snapped his eyes to the panel. Just as he did so, two ethereal blue cords of energy snaked out from the side panels of the closest orb and stretched into the elevator.

“Hurry!” Savannah shouted.

The doors slid shut, the blue tendrils withdrawing at the last second. The elevator again began moving.

“Seriously!” New York began after a few seconds of stunned silence. “What were those things?”

“I knew we shouldn’t have done this!” Jacksonville replied. “What’s the worst that could happen?!” he threw New York’s words back at him. “Well, that was pretty freaking bad!”

“Whoa! Calm down, Jax,” New York replied. “Take a deep breath.”

The elevator stopped again before Jacksonville could reply. Everyone fell silent and looked at each other apprehensively, wondering what horrible surprise would be revealed this time. Instead, they felt themselves moving up. Charleston breathed a relieved sigh.

It was a short ride. The doors slid silently open and all five glanced warily through them. There was nothing but a vast, empty room. They stepped out. To their right and left were several more elevator doors. Directly in front of them a railing ran in a large circle in the middle of the open space. It looked out of place in the room, as the floor extended unbroken all the way across the Trunk. On the opposite side were two sets of doors, one huge, reaching more than 20 feet above them, and one much smaller, set off to the left of it. It was the entrance to Podkind Branch. They’d made it to the Trunk.

Now they just had to figure out which elevator would take them to City Dome.

Charleston turned to ask Paris what he thought when a movement from the corner of his eye stopped him. He spun, expecting to see another of those armored orbs swooping up to catch them, but it wasn’t that. No, it was the section of the floor encircled by railing. Something looked odd about it, like it was…

“Moving,” he said aloud.

“What?” Savannah asked, turning to him. “Oh my,” she said, seeing what he was talking about.

The floor between the railings was disappearing downwards.

“We need to get out of here,” Jacksonville said, his voice edged with panic. “Now!”

Before any of them could move, a giant shape rose out of the darkness of the now open floor. It was another metal orb, only much, much larger. It was easily twenty times the size of Apu, and it was silently floating through the opening where the floor had been. Its blue eye was pointed upwards, while its glowing blue tentacles trailed below it, a large piece of shining metal locked in their grip.

“Here!” Paris called to them, and Charleston turned to see the pale boy standing in an open elevator.

The four friends tripped in, then turned to watch as the giant orb disappeared into the darkness above.

Followed by a second. And a third.

They huddled silently in the back of the elevator and watched as ten giant orbs rose out of the floor, each carrying a massive sheet of polished metal. Once the last one passed, the floor closed, two half-moon sides silently rising up from the blackness below to meet in the middle.

“I guess we know why that railing is there,” Charleston quipped, breaking the silence.

“What the hell were those things?!” New York asked.

“Who cares?!” Jacksonville said quickly. “We need to go before something horrible happens. Something more horrible, that is.”

“More horrible?!” Savannah asked in disbelief. “They just floated by. I say we follow them.”

“What?! You’ve got to be joking.”

“We still haven’t made it to City Dome.”

“Don’t you think those are the things Paris said we should avoid?” he asked, looking at their pale friend for support, but Paris said nothing.

“Look,” Savannah began, “they clearly don’t care about us, or they would have stopped as we cowered here in the elevator. Besides, we’re going the same direction. Aren’t you curious what they’re doing?”

“Nope!”

“Well, I am.”

“I’m with Vannah,” Charleston said. His adrenaline was still pumping from the shock of seeing those orbs.

“New York,” Jacksonville turned to his friend. “Help.”

New York shrugged. “It’s an adventure,” he remarked dryly.

“How do we even know where they’re going?” Jacksonville asked.

“Easy,” she replied. “We take the elevator up and stop at each branch.”

Jacksonville sighed. “That seems like a really, really bad idea.” However, he was quickly getting used to being the only voice of caution and reason in the group. And to being ignored. “Let’s get this over with,” he said unhappily.

Paris closed the elevator doors and they began their ascent.

The elevator stopped at the next branch. The doors opened with a soft whoosh.

Nothing.

“That’s two,” Savannah said as the doors closed and the elevator rose again.

“Two what?”

“Two branches. Ten more to go, not counting City Dome.”

They stood in silence as the elevator opened nine more times to reveal the same large empty room with the circular railing they’d seen outside of Podkind Branch. As the elevator lifted once more, Charleston felt the group tense. No one knew what to expect, but they all knew whatever it was would be at the next stop.

The elevator glided to a halt and the doors opened. Charleston heard each of them take a breath.

Nothing.

“What? Where did they go?”

“City Dome?” Charleston ventured. It was possible. As possible as anywhere else.

“Or maybe they went down one of the branches and we missed them?” New York offered.

“Maybe,” Savannah replied as the elevator started up once more towards the last stop, City Dome.

The group went silent again, their apprehension almost palpable. Charleston was equal parts nervous and excited.

The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened once again. But instead of the park with the statue of Jonathan Stiles, the children saw another large room with a railing encircling a flat space, just like at each of the other stops.

“I thought you said there were only twelve branches,” Charleston said.

“There are,” Savannah replied.

“So, what’s this then?”

“I don’t know,” she said stepping out of the elevator.

The group followed her without protest. There was no going back now. Savannah turned right out of the elevator and immediately stopped. The four others fanned out to either side of her.

Before them was a huge opening, at least three times the size of the giant set of doors leading to Podkind Branch. Through it Charleston could see the skeletal framing of a large tub stretching off into the distance away from the Trunk. The giant orbs were most of the way down the length of the tube. They were placing the large metal sheets in the frame.

“Is that what I think it is?” New York asked.

“It’s another branch,” Savannah responded. “They’re building a thirteenth branch.”

“Damn!” New York breathed out.

“Warning, language!” suddenly sounded from behind them.

The teenagers started in shock. The blue eye of Apu flashed from its spot above the elevator.

“Warning, trespassing!” followed quickly and the small, peresilium orb detached from its place and zoomed over, blue tentacles extending towards them.

“Paris!” Charleston almost yelled. “I thought you…” he stopped, not sure what exactly to call Paris’ trick, “talked to Apu,” he continued weakly.

“Violation, trespassing!” Apu sounded again. A second and third orb detached from other spots along the wall, their blue arms springing from each like thin flames.

“I did,” Paris said hotly.

“What are we going to do?” Jacksonville asked, backing instinctively towards the railing.

“You’re going to spend the foreseeable future in Detention Dome,” came a voice from behind them. “If you’re lucky.”

Charleston turned to see Professor Slive, flanked by the two armored orbs they’d encountered earlier, step from the elevator to their left. He tapped something on his wrist computer and the blue arms of Apu blinked out and the three orbs floated back to their respective alcoves. Charleston and the others were speechless.

“If you get what you deserve for this unprecedented breach of the rules,” he paused, his too-red lips smirking maliciously, “the law, in fact, then you’ll be more severely punished. Perhaps even sent to the mines,” he said, not even trying to hide his glee. “Come along.”

He stepped aside, the two large orbs moving with him, and held an arm out indicating the elevator.

After another stunned moment, they did as they were beckoned. Charleston exchanged a subdued look with Savannah and New York, while Jacksonville stared red-faced at his feet. Only Paris seemed unconcerned.

The doors closed behind them and the elevator moved smoothly up.

“Where are we going?” Savannah asked, fear in her voice. “Podkind Branch is the other direction!”

“I’m not taking you to Podkind Branch,” Slive said with a sneer. “I’m taking you to the Council of Nine.”

 

Chapter 10

Charleston and the others were silent as they followed Professor Slive through the giant park at the center of City Dome. The two armored orbs flanked them as they passed the statue of Jonathan Stiles and headed towards the largest of the large gray buildings that encircled the open space. The half moon had inched further across the sky, its faint light gently illuminating the path before them. The park was otherwise dark, the large trees a blur against the black of night. In the distance, the small blue lights of Ale flickered in and out of view. It was very quiet, as if the city itself was asleep.

The rush of adrenaline Charleston had been riding since they’d snuck out of Red Dome was fading quickly, leaving panic and a growing fear in its wake. How had Slive known where they were? Those menacing looking armored orbs they’d narrowly escaped leaving Podkind Branch must have reported them, but why specifically to Slive? Why wouldn’t those things go to someone else, like their parental core or even the Planners? They were the ones who’d structured everything in their lives – their studies, their free time, everything down to the smallest shrub in Podkind Dome – so why hadn’t they been informed of this breach of conduct instead?

It didn’t matter now, Charleston knew, his panic increasing. Slive, the professor who hated him and his friends, had been the one to catch them sneaking about. There would be no mercy or understanding. ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ he remembered New York asking so cavalierly a short while ago. The answer to that question now seemed full of possibilities that hadn’t been there before. Would they get kicked out of school? Of Pod Dome entirely? Where would they go if they were expelled? Surely not to the mines. His dream of the Dome Guard now seemed farfetched. His heart sank.

The Council of Nine Building loomed before them, huge and sprawling, its central portion rising high into the dome sky more stories than Charleston could count. It was topped with a large oval structure resting on curving peresilium legs. To either side of the building stretched three levels of dark windows encased in gray stone. The group made their way up the steps and to the entrance, where Slive tapped something into his wrist computer. The large doors clicked loudly, then opened out towards them.

Slive led the children inside to a massive foyer. Couches and chairs were scattered haphazardly around a desk sitting squarely in its center. Behind the desk was another statue of Stiles, this one of him holding a book in one hand, the other stretched out to nine figures surrounding him in various postures of power and reflection. Further behind the Founder were the recessed doors of elevators and, to their left and right, more doors leading to the building’s wings.

Slive led them to one of the elevators, its doors sliding open as they neared. Charleston did a double take when he noticed a directory board hanging on the wall next to them. Slive hurried them in while the two armored orbs floated away towards the exit. The doors slid shut and, to Charleston’s surprise, they descended. The doors opened once more to reveal a long, white hallway.

“Go straight to the end of the hall and turn right,” Slive commanded.

They did as they were told, passing several windowless doors as they walked. After the turn, they went down another long, white hall with still more doors leading off to both sides.

“Stop,” Slive said at one such door, unremarkable from the others in every way. He pulled it open and gestured the children inside.

It was a large, nondescript white room with a bench that ran the length of the three walls before them. There was nothing else in it. Charleston turned to look at Slive, but he was met only with the slamming door and the sound of a key locking them in.

They were in jail.

“What’s the worst that could happen?!” Jacksonville, his dark eyes flashing, exploded at New York. “It’s an adventure!” he said again in his best mock-New York voice. “And now we’re in jail! JAIL! Who knew there even was a jail in New Washington, but now we know!”

“Calm down, Jax,” Savannah said, touching his arm. “It’ll be okay.”

“Okay!? What will be okay about getting kicked out of school and sent to the mines?”

“No one is sending us to the mines,” Savannah soothed.

“How do you know?!” Jacksonville continued to shout, the others’ apparent calm only aggravating him more. “Why are you all okay with this? We’re in jail! I told you we shouldn’t have snuck out of Red Dome OR followed those stupid orbs!”

“Take some deep breaths, Jax,” Charleston replied. “Remember what Professor Duman taught us. We have to calm our minds before we can think or act clearly.”

“What’s there to think about? What’s there to do?” the boy shouted, though less loudly.

“Well, for starters,” Charleston said calmly, “we need to get our stories straight so we can get to the nineteenth floor.”

“What?” they replied in unison.

“That’s where records are kept,” he replied. “I saw it on the board between the elevators upstairs.” The fear and panic he’d felt over getting caught had disappeared in light of this new opportunity. Maybe they could still find out who Violet was.

“No, no, no, no!” Jacksonville said, shouting again by the final no. “We are NOT sneaking around the Council of Nine Building! Are you crazy! Look what happened to us just for sneaking out of Red Dome!”

Charleston ignored his friend and focused on Savannah.

There was a sparkle in her eye, but she still asked, “How do you propose we get to the nineteenth floor? We’re locked in.”

Charleston’s mind raced. “We always knew it’d be hard to sneak into the Council of Nine building, right? That was the main problem with our plan all along.”

“One main problem,” New York chimed in.

“But we’re in!” Charleston smiled. “We made it to the Council of Nine building. Now we just have to make sure they let us leave.”

Jacksonville barked a laugh, then went back to glowering.

Savannah’s face brightened. “Paris,” the dark-skinned girl turned to their quiet friend, who had once again faded into the background. “Do you think your trick would open doors here, too?”

Paris shrugged. “Probably. If they’re computer activated,” he added, nodding towards the door to their cell, which was noticeably not.

“What’s our story, then?” Savannah asked, smiling despite the situation.

Charleston felt his adrenaline beginning to pump once more. “We’re burnt out from studying every free minute and we, being the immature teenagers we are, cracked under the pressure and wanted to have a little fun. Hearing about these tunnels from Paris, we decided to do what every podling has dreamt of and sneak out of Residence Dome and explore the city at night.”

Savannah nodded. “Sounds plausible.”

Jacksonville was watching the exchange, his mouth agape in horror. “This is a bad joke, right? Or a nightmare?”

The sound of the lock turning prevented them from answering.

“Mom!” the five podlings cried in unison as Claire stepped through the door.

“Children,” Claire said, her usually kind face stern. She sounded disappointed, though there was anger underneath as well. “What have you gotten yourselves into?”

The five podlings all crowded around their mother, hugging whatever part of her they could get their arms around, relief filling each of them. It wasn’t Slive. Everything would work itself out now.

“Listen to me carefully,” Claire began once she’d extricated herself from their embraces. “You’re to go before the Council of Nine and tell them what happened. Everything that happened.”

Charleston’s heart sank at this news. He’d hoped Slive had been bluffing about that part.

“Professor Slive never should have brought you here,” she said. “But since he did, the Council wants to see you before you can go home.”

“We aren’t getting sent to the mines?” Jacksonville asked.

Claire half laughed, half scoffed. “Of course not. No one is ever sent to the mines. It’s all done robotically. Professor Slive was just trying to scare you.”

The children visibly relaxed at this news.

“That doesn’t mean you won’t be punished,” she continued, her voice suddenly stern. “But tell the truth and that will go a long way in helping your cause.” She paused a moment and reached her hands out, inviting them all back in for another hug. “Now,” she continued after a moment, releasing them, “the Council will see each of you individually, beginning with,” she turned to Charleston, “Charleston.”

“Why me?”

“Alphabetical order,” she said with a shrug.

“Mom,” Savannah spoke up, her voice small and frightened. “Can we go in reverse alphabetical order?” She was cowering now. “I just want to get it over with.”

Claire smiled and patted Savannah on the shoulder. “That’s fine, dear,” she said and started towards the door, Savannah a few steps behind.

“Meet at nineteen!” she whispered to Charleston as she passed, her fear gone.

 

♦

 

Charleston sat alone in the now empty white cell. An angry Jacksonville had only just left with Claire to go before the Council. “I’m not a rat,” he’d assured them, “but I’m not sneaking to the nineteenth floor.”

Charleston had told the others what Savannah whispered on her way out. The plan was set. At least, as set as it could be without knowing what to expect.

“We go before the Council, then we take the elevator to floor nineteen!” he’d said excitedly.

Jacksonville had stared at Charleston in disbelief.

“Uh, Char,” New York began, “I like the idea and all, but how exactly are we going to do that? I doubt the Council will turn us loose to find our own way back to Podkind Dome.”

“Finally!” Jax seconded. “Someone else sees the idiocy of all this.”

“I didn’t say that,” New York replied quickly. “I agree with Char this is likely our only chance to sneak into the records room. I just think it’s a poor chance.”

“Who cares if this strange girl is from New Washington or not?” Jax asked, his voice rising. “She tells Charleston to find out and we all go along with it! Look what happened already because we listened to her!”

Charleston stared silently at his friend a moment before continuing. “You’re right, Big Apple,” he said, turning to New York. “We probably won’t be able to sneak to the records floor, but let’s just be ready for any chance we have. Savannah obviously wants to try first, but this also means you, Paris, won’t be far behind her. Find her and use your trick to start searching the rooms. We’ll catch up.”

If we can, hung unspoken in the air between them.

And now he was alone, left to stew on both their plan and what the Council would say and do to him for sneaking out of Red Dome. In his desire to find out who Violet was, he’d pushed the impending conversation and likely punishment to the back of his mind. But now it would be his turn to face the Council. He ran a sweaty hand over his shorn head again and again until he lost feeling in both.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Claire waved a hand for him to join her in the hall. She looked grim and tired. Charleston didn’t know what time it was, but he knew it was late. The Council must have been roused from bed to punish them. That didn’t bode well.

Charleston meekly followed Claire back down the long, white hall to the elevators. “Are all of these rooms like the one we were in?” he asked as they went, wondering if behind each door sat some unfortunate person.

Claire looked at him and then away. “No talking now, child. I will always be your mother, but I am now firstly functioning as the Voice of the Council.”

Charleston looked down and remained silent the rest of the way. The elevator ride was considerably longer this time as it climbed to the top of the building. The doors opened into a large marble foyer with a circular table in the center and cushioned benches in alcoves along the walls. Claire led him past the table and to a set of double doors opposite the elevator. She pushed them open and took Charleston into another room almost identical to the first. It was made of the same marble and was entirely windowless. A large round table dominated the room, which itself was very big. Rectangular screens similar to the ones used on Founder’s Day hung in a semi-circle before him. He could just make out the silhouettes of a single figure in each.

“The Council wishes to know why you broke the rules and snuck out of Red Dome,” Claire said with no preamble, her voice formal and serious.

Charleston looked back and forth between his mother and the screens, wondering how Claire knew this was what the Council wanted to know.

“Uh,” he began, trying to calm his nerves and control his breathing, “we were tired of studying and wanted to blow off a little steam.”

“Why did you think sneaking into City Dome was the way to do this?”

And so the questioning went, Claire speaking for the Council, who remained dark shadows within dark screens, and Charleston giving the agreed upon story. It was a short story to tell, but the Council asked the same questions in different ways, as if trying to root out the lie. But, after the first few questions, Charleston began feeling more comfortable. The Council never spoke, at least not so that Charleston could hear, and so it was easy to ignore the shadowy screens and just talk to his mother.

Finally, when he’d gone over the reasons for their excursion half a dozen times and from numerous angles, Claire went silent for a long time.

“The Council understands and sympathizes with you,” Claire began and Charleston felt a sense of relief rush over him. “You and the others have been working extremely hard preparing for your Test. The Council is not unreasonable and knows the pressure you have been under can lead to acting out.” Claire paused. “However, consider this your get-out-of-jail-free pass. Any further misbehaving will result in a more severe punishment, not excluding expulsion from both school and Podkind Dome.” She paused again. “Lastly, the Council encourages you to pay more attention to the skills Professor Duman has been teaching you. Understanding why you want to act out should lead you to choose not to.”

Charleston tried his best to look properly chastised as Claire led him out of the room.

“I will take you downstairs,” Claire continued, “where you will be escorted back to Red Dome. Your punishment will be determined by your parental core.”

Charleston’s relief evaporated as quickly as it had appeared. So they would be punished after all. That was a matter for later, though. Now, he had to figure out if he could make it to floor nineteen.

The trip down was over in an instant, the elevator doors opening onto the foyer before Charleston even registered they’d begun their descent. Claire motioned for him to step out. She remained inside. “We’ll talk later,” she said ominously. “Go,” she added, pointing to the exit on the opposite side of the vast space. “Ale is waiting outside.”

Charleston paused a moment, then turned and headed for the exit. As he passed the statue of Stiles, he turned to see Claire standing in the elevator and watching him with hard, calculating eyes. A shiver went down his spine. He looked away, picking up his pace as he did so. Just as he reached the exit, he risked another look back. She was gone.

He dashed back towards the elevators, hoping Savannah and the others had been given this same window of freedom and that they’d taken it. Expecting Ale to swoop through the front doors any second, Charleston skidded to a halt in front of the elevator and held his breath. Would the doors open automatically, or would they recognize him as an unauthorized visitor?

Nothing happened. The doors stayed closed.

Heart sinking, Charleston reluctantly turned to go, then stopped. Without realizing it, he’d gone to the same elevator he’d come down in. But Claire had only just taken that one back up! That’s why it hadn’t opened! He stepped to the elevator on his left.

The doors slid open.

He leapt in and pressed the button for the nineteenth floor, adrenaline beating a steady rhythm in his temples as the elevator lifted. A few moments later and he was staring down a long, dark hallway. He stepped from the elevator and cautiously started down the passageway, ears straining to catch any sound of Savannah and the others. A dozen feet down the hall he came to the first door. It was made of dark wood with a gleaming silver handle and a control panel in the wall next to it. Charleston gently tried the knob, prepared for alarms to sound as he did so.

It was locked.

He continued down the hallway, trying each door he came to as he went. They were all locked. He was at the end of the passage. Only one door remained. He took a deep breath and turned the handle.

Locked.

Cursing, he stood there with his hand still gripping the silver handle, unsure what to do. Had he been the only one to make it here? Were the others already back in Red Dome? Would Ale be waiting to arrest him downstairs?

Just then, a sound behind him jolted him out of his thoughts. He spun and saw one of the first doors he’d already tried creak open. Paris poked his head into the hall, but said nothing.

“I tried this door and it was locked!” Charleston whispered, as he passed through the open door.

Paris shrugged.

“Where are the others?”

“This way,” the boy said, waving a hand for Charleston to follow.

Only then did he register his surroundings. They were in a large room full of row upon row of cabinets nearly reaching the ceiling. Each cabinet was divided into sections and each section had a label and a handle. Charleston glanced between the rows as Paris led him deeper into the room. The cabinets were numbered, but otherwise indistinct one from the other.

“You made it!” Savannah whispered loudly when he and Paris reached the final row. She and New York were standing by a computer on a desk nestled between two of the dark cabinets.

“What have you found?” he asked excitedly.

“Records is right,” Savannah said, her eyes widening. “These cabinets have every single resident of New Washington in them! There’re files on everyone!”

Charleston smiled, his pulse quickening. “Well? Did you find Violet’s?”

Savannah shook her head. “She’s not in the database,” she answered, her tone full of significance.

“What? How is that possible?”

“Char,” she began softly. “She lied to us. She’s not from New Washington.”

Charleston said nothing. There was nothing to say. If Violet wasn’t from New Washington, then where was she from? And why, if she wasn’t from here, had she told them to come find that out?

“We should go now,” New York said.

“Did you search up someone else?” Charleston asked, a thought coming to him. “Someone we know is from New Washington?”

Savannah sighed, but turned to the computer. “How about Mom,” she said as she typed in Claire’s full name. “That’s weird,” she said after a moment.

“What?” Charleston asked, leaning towards the computer.

“She’s not here, either.”

“Try Dad,” New York suggested.

Savannah typed Martin’s name in and waited. “He’s here,” she replied, letting out a breath. “That’s strange.”

“Why is Dad in there but not Mom?”

“Try Stan and Liz,” Charleston suggested.

“They’re here, too,” Savannah replied after a moment. “Why would Violet tell us to come here just to find out what we already accused her of?” Savannah asked in confusion.

“Yeah,” New York added, puzzled. “If her goal is to get us to trust her, why show us the proof she isn’t to be trusted?”

“What exactly are in these files anyway?” Charleston asked. He was as confused as they were. They must be missing something. It just didn’t make any sense.

Savannah shrugged and nodded towards the nearest cabinet. “See for yourself.”

Charleston turned and pulled one of the handles. “Are they alphabetical?” he asked as he grabbed a random folder and opened it. “Number 535-41-9803,” he read aloud. “Name, Stephanie Davidson. Date of birth, October 8, 4015. Occupation, Dome Guard. Date of death…blank.”

“I’m not sure,” Savannah replied.

“Help me find out,” Charleston said.

It took a few minutes, but they eventually realized the folders were organized by year of birth. From there, it was a moment’s work to find the most recent folders.

“She’s younger than us by a few years, right?” Charleston was saying as he led them to a cabinet in the back corner of the room. “So she’d be among the most recent folders.”

“If she’s in them at all,” New York said skeptically.

Charleston pulled the bottom drawer open and flicked through the files without pulling any out. “It’s us,” he said, disappointment in his voice.

The four went silent, the final proof Violet was not from New Washington hanging unspoken between them. “I just don’t get it,” Charleston said. “We must be missing something.”

Savannah nodded. “It is strange.”

“She told us to go to the Observatory,” Charleston continued, “and she was right about that. There must be something here we’re supposed to find!” he said in frustration.

“She said it was somehow connected to the Cure,” New York started slowly, as if voicing his thoughts. “And the Cure slows aging to a minimum,” he continued.

“Meaning, people live a really long time,” Savannah picked up, her face brightening with realization before it clouded over once more. “But that’s impossible.”

“What is?” Charleston asked, looking back and forth at his two friends. He wasn’t following their train of thought.

“Let’s find the first records,” Savannah said, her voice full of excitement and something that sounded almost like fear.

“If it’s chronological,” New York began as he started towards the front of the room, “then the oldest records should be this way.”

“I’ll head that way,” Savannah said, indicating the opposite side from where New York was already walking. “Char, you take the middle. Paris,” she began, but the boy had already disappeared down one of the middle rows of cabinets.

Charleston did as he was told, though he still hadn’t put it all together yet. “We still looking for Violet, right?” he asked as he surveyed the front row of cabinets. There were so many of them.

“Maybe,” Savannah called out. “I’m not sure. Stiles invented the Cure soon after the first domes were completed,” Savannah continued. “That means we should find records of the people who lived here before the Cure and after it was first administered.”

“I’m still not following,” Charleston replied, opening a cabinet at random and flicking through files. “None of these files have names! Are we supposed to read every file to find Violet’s?” It was an impossible task.

“No,” New York said. “We’re looking for the oldest files.”

Charleston stopped mid flick as realization dawned on him. “You think Violet has been in New Washington since the beginning? That would make her thousands of years old! Even the Cure doesn’t make people immortal.”

Neither of his friends answered.

“Why wouldn’t she be in the computer’s database then?” Charleston continued.

“Found it!” Savannah called out excitedly.

Charleston hurried over to his friend, New York not far behind. Savannah was standing at an open cabinet in the corner, file in hand.

“Is it Violet’s?” Charleston asked, his own voice full of excitement.

“Not just hers,” Savannah said, indicating a group of files she’d already looked through. “There are dozens of them here. Look at the date of birth,” she said, and Charleston again heard a note of fear, or horror, in her voice.

“2953,” Charleston read.

“That’s not possible,” New York replied and stepped past Charleston and Savannah to reach the other files. He grabbed them all in one huge hand and began opening them. Charleston joined him. “This can’t be true,” New York continued. “All of these files have the same year of birth.”

“Look at their names!” Charleston said, taking hold of the files and flipping them one by one in New York’s hands. “Red. Blue. Yellow.”

“They’re all named after colors,” Savannah said.

“Just like we’re named after cities,” Charleston added. Dread filled him at this discovery. Something was definitely not right here. He looked at his friends. “Violet is from New Washington. And she’s thousands of years old.”

 

The Podkind is a science fiction/fantasy novel written by Johnny Cycles. Click here for the next installment!