Kassy Tayler: Remnants of Tomorrow

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.

“What?”

“The dome is shattering,” Levi says, just as Alcide ducks back in for safety’s sake. “There must have been a fault in the glass from before. The explosion Adam set shattered it!”

Glass continues to rain down as the dome creaks so loudly that I feel as if the girders will fall in and smash us beneath their weight. I hear screaming coming from the royal end of the promenade, and shouts of confusion sound before us. Whoever is out on the street is at risk. The glass tinkles against the tank, and we hear the guys whooping for joy inside.

This is more than I ever dreamed of when Lyon said we would break the glass. I cautiously look up and see the sky above me. For the first time in two hundred years the sun will touch the buildings and the streets. Dawn will truly come to the dome, and I will be here to see it.

Finally the glass stops falling, and we move out, looking up to make sure there is nothing left to fall. The tank moves forward again. We scrape the glass off the seats of the cycles and climb back on.

The people who live above the shops are now sticking their heads out of their windows and looking at us and at the sky in shock. Some come out. “What’s happening?” a woman asks.

“You’re free now,” I say. “Free to go outside.”

“Where are the flames?” she asks.

“There are no flames,” I say. “Look up! Look at the sky!” She does and her jaw drops open in shock and she covers her mouth. We move on. What she does next is up to her.

We hear another gunshot and it ricochets off the tank. “This is it,” Pace says. A line of bluecoats comes into view, all with weapons. Twenty, maybe more, it is hard to tell as things get really confusing all at once. They fire at the tank and bullets whine around us. We are in danger of being hit, not from the bluecoats but from the bullets that bounce off the tank. David points down an alley. “Go around them,” he yells. Pace and Levi nod. Levi follows David, who goes left, and Pace and I go right, and the tank keeps on moving, even though the bluecoats fire repeatedly at it.

“They’re just following orders,” Pace says. “You’d think they’d just lay down their guns and go outside.”

“My father won’t give up, because giving up means admitting he’s wrong.” Pace doesn’t answer and I suddenly know why. I realize what I said. My father won’t give up. He won’t give up Zan, and he won’t give up his position, because he has staked everything he has on keeping the people on the inside from knowing that the outside is safe. He would rather die than admit he is wrong. Giving up is not an option.