Sun Rose (Rose of the Dawn Series Book 1) (7 page)

“Tithonus
isn’t dead.” Pike stands in my doorway. Even though it’s been unlocked for
days, I haven’t wanted to come out. I haven’t needed to come out. I’ve got
everything here that I need. Besides, a security scare had Ezekiel standing
guard outside my room. Something about trespassers on the premises. They ended
up being vagrants that are now interim members of the Aegis society. As far as
I can tell, Ezekiel doesn’t trust them as much as everyone else and hasn’t
slept since he posted guard. That’s all I’ve done – sleep. Maybe I should
undergo some of JJ’s psychological tests.

“How
do you know this? Did you see him?” I look past Pike, but as far as I can see,
Hara isn’t there.

“I
didn’t, but I hear he’s locked up somewhere. No one can get to him. No one
knows where he is,” Pike answers.

“Do
you know who has him?” I’ve swung my legs over the side of the bed, making room
in case Pike wants to sit down. He doesn’t.

“We
hope it isn’t the Beadledom. If they have him, we’ll never get him back, locked
up in maximum security, under heavy guard,” Pike’s voice trails off. “But this
might be worse if some other group got hold of him. Some other underground
group that we haven’t heard about.”

“Then
why would anyone say he was dead? I mean, it was a pretty elaborate death to
falsify. If he was captured, why such a story?”

Pike
shrugs. “Whoever has him must have their reasons.” He still stands in the
doorway. Ezekiel comes over and puts his hand on Pike’s shoulder. Pike turns.

“–think
someone may know we’re here–” Ezekiel whispers into Pike’s ear.

“Maybe,”
I talk to myself, “someone made up Tithonus’s death to draw you out and then
follow you back.” Neither Pike nor Ezekiel listens. They continue to whisper. Pike
looks around and then down.

“Okay.
I’ll go find out,” Pike says to Ezekiel. He turns to me, holding a candle that
he pulled out of his cargo pants pocket. I get up and take it. He doesn’t say
anything more before leaving. Ezekiel doesn’t go with him.

“JJ
wants to see you,” His tone is chilly as usual.

“In
the lab?” I refer to the space he created underground, where like Victor
Frankenstein, his obsession for taking samples, monitoring rates, and analyzing
successes and failures almost torments him, and therefore me, daily. JJ hooks
me up, monitors my vitals, and then collects data. He hasn’t drawn anymore
blood. I guess he got enough out of me the first time.

Ezekiel
doesn’t react or respond.

“Uh,
thank you.” I guess.

Ezekiel
bows his head and when he looks up, his eyebrows are a little less narrow. His
demeanor is a little less gruff. He stomps off in Pike’s direction. The only
person who ever looks moderately relaxed is Patience and I’m curious as to why.
She can’t be that simple.

I
pull a clean army-green sweatshirt over my standard issue T-shirt. At least I
have shower privileges three times a week. I won’t use the bed pan, but there
is a common bathroom in the lobby of the building. It is relatively unregulated
and private.

Passing
through the common area, it’s very quiet. No one’s around. I walk past the
fountain to the rear stairwell. I take the stairs down. At the bottom, the
cement is covered with dirt.

“JJ?
You wanted to see me?” I hold open the polyvinyl doors to the tent. The frame is
aluminum. Against the back wall is a counter, and glass cabinets are above it,
open. There is a centrifuge spinning something, the whirring sound absorbed by
these inner dirt walls.

There
is dampness in the air. Water runs down the walls not protected by plastic,
eroding it. I hear a soft splash and I run across the room to the sink. The
faucet is on and water is spilling over the counter, puddling mud on the ground.
I shut it off.

“Leave
it on, please,” Patience stands at the other end of the counter, behind a
partition. She steps out from behind it, holding a graduated cylinder in her
rubber-gloved hand. She is mixing something in a beaker. The contents of the cylinder
are a dark purplish-red. A label says Serum R.

“Oh!
Sorry,” I say surprised and turn the faucet back on to a drip. She must notice
the plug in the drain.

“Can
I help you with something, Rose?” Patience has on a long labcoat, and goggles
shield her eyes. She titrates something after putting drops of something else
into a capped glass jar. The something else has a skull on the label, though it
is written in some foreign language I’ve never learned.

“Your
brother wanted to see me,” I say. I’ve never been down here for anything like
this. “What’re you doing?”

“He’s
upstairs in his room,” Patience quickly answers, then goes back to stirring
with a long, glass rod. This isn’t like her.
Who is this person?
“It’s
room 26. Second floor,” she states before going back to the other end of the
counter.

“I
know,” I say. I try to make out what the writing on the jar says, even if it is
in strange, foreign letters, but she blocks it from my view. I turn and walk
back through the plastic and upstairs to the second floor balcony rooms. I look
for 26. It’s at the top of the stairwell. I knock on JJ’s door.

“Come
on in, Rose!” He calls and I open the door and enter.
How’d he know it was
me?

“Oh!
This is a bad t-time,” I stutter. JJ is standing in a bright room in only
undershorts. I’m caught off-guard. I avert my eyes.

“No.
No, it’s fine. It’s a perfect time.”

“Ezekiel
mentioned you wanted to see me, though he didn’t say when and I was downstairs
with Patience. I can definitely come back.” I wait for his reaction. There is
none.

I
can’t look up at him. With clothes he looks small and scrawny. Bookish. Without
them, it’s obvious that he works out. A lot. He’s a perfect physical specimen.
It’s almost like he’s sculpted.

“Yeah,
this is fine timing. I wanted to talk to you about a few things. A few of your
tests.”

I
rub my forearm. The IV alone caused more residual irritation than any of his
previous tests of skin scraping, hair sampling, or cheek swabbing.

“The
ones Hara was here for?” I ask.

“Yeah.”
JJ laughs. “You’re cute.”

I
ignore his comment. I’m not sure what he finds so funny. And Hara’s only been
around once during all of the testing. She’s the only nurse. The only one
qualified.

JJ
grabs a folder on his bed and points for me to sit down. The bedspread is
maroon with some gold accents here and there. He doesn’t grab for a shirt.

“Your
body is amazing,” he says staring at me, not the folder.

“Excuse
me?” I’m sitting on his bed, but considering getting up. I’m uncomfortable with
the way he is looking at me.

“The
way your body heals itself. It’s amazing.” He looks back at the folder. “Everything
we tested for, everything we observed and recorded, your cells repair
themselves at an unparalled rate. The whole battery of tests. It isn’t normal.”

“How
about my liver?”

“It’s
great. It’s been great. Whatever toxin you were exposed to is undetectable and
I suspect would’ve killed a regular person. You’d never know you were sick.”

“So
I’m going to be fine?”

“As
far as I can tell,” JJ sits on the bed beside me. “And as far as I can tell,
you’ll be healthy for a very long time.” He takes my hands and stares at them,
caressing them with his fingertips. His nails are clean and manicured. Trimmed
and neat. Did he do that himself or did Patience do it for him?

I
pull away. The way he stares at me, touches me, hungry and intent, gives me the
chills. I rub the goosebumps away from my arms.

“There’s
actually something I wanted to talk to you about.” JJ pats his hands on his
legs. Then touches mine. His fingers dig into my thigh and I don’t move his
hand or my own body. I should, but I don’t. I can’t seem to move. This is
uncharted territory for me. I don’t know what to do.

JJ
leans back on the bed. He rests his head on the wall and I notice the colorful
tapestries. There is even a chair in the corner and a small bar with two stools
closer to the center of the room. A glass chandelier hangs from the ceiling and
it seems so out of place. He has more decorations than Pike’s, whose room looks
like mine. This is the first time I’ve been to JJ’s room and only to Pike’s
once to pick up a sweatshirt.

“About
my results?” I focus.

He
smiles. “About the opportunities.”

“I
don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Rose,
the possibilities,” his voice almost a hiss.

“I’m
not sure I like where this could be going.” I get up from the bed and head for
the door. JJ jumps up, and prevents my exit, his arms block me from getting
out. The cinderblock walls have been painted a light yellow and there are
flecks of gold throughout. The walls match the bedspread and the tapestries.

“Where’re
you going so fast?” He tries to lead me back to his bed. Everything about this
situation has my head screaming no, but my body is reacting different than I
would’ve expected. There’s no fight or flight response here. I have got to get
a grip.

“We
haven’t talked this over, yet, Rose. You don’t even know what you might be
missing. Rose, you’re very special. You could do quite a bit of good with the
right kind of direction. The right kind of management.”

“You
mean my organs could make you quite a bit of money.”

“Well
I didn’t say that, but now that you mention it,” JJ grins.

“Harvesting
my organs?” I hear the shrillness in my voice. “That’s way worse than replacing
them altogether–”

“No,
it’s not. With an AR your organs would be liquefied. In this case you’d be
donating them to say, science,” his grin widens.

“No!
I won’t do it! I won’t become someone else! Something else.”

“You’d
still be you, Rose. You’d still be you,” he grabs my shoulders.

“Let
go!” I free myself, pushing past. I turn in the doorway to face him. Patience
immediately comes to mind. “Who else wants to use me in this sick little game?”

He
pauses and takes a step back.

“I
don’t know what you’re talking about, Rose. I don’t know why you’d want me to
perform more tests. It’s not necessary at this point.”

“What’re
you talking about? I didn’t say anything about–” I squint at him. He’s pulling
a shirt on like he’s all the sudden modest.

“What’s
going on here JJ? Rose, what are you doing?” Pike says. He and Ezekiel stand
behind me, almost accusing, like I’m doing something wrong or I shouldn’t be
here.
What kind of girl does he take me for?
I push past them and run down
the stairs to my room. Tears stream down my face. I’m angry. For some reason, I’m
sad, too.

Patience
stands in the doorway of my room. The labcoat and goggles are gone.

“Rose,
what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.
I’d just like to be left alone.” I push past her and attempt to shut the door.
I can see Pike standing against the second floor railing looking down at me.

“But
I wanted to talk to you,” Patience persists.

“I’m
not really in the mood to talk right now, Patience.”
I’m trying to be neurotic.
I push her out of the way.

“Oh.
Okay. I’ll come back later, then.”

Pike
turns from the balcony and I can’t tell if it’s disappointment or disgust. He
has no idea about JJ and his motives.

“Oh
Rose, I almost forgot,” she pushes a letter through the remaining crack.
“Another letter for you.”

“Thank
you!” I snatch the letter, but before I can close the door she has pricked my
finger with something sharp.

“Ouch,”
I yelp. The door closes. I put my finger in my mouth. There’s that metallic
taste again. Now it’s too dark to read anything. It’ll have to wait until
later. It’s the first time since getting here that I’ve outright cried like a little
girl.

Like
the little girl I used to be.

16, March

Dear
Rose,

Someone
came by today looking for you. They said they wanted to purchase natural
organs. Dad almost hit the roof. What’s going on? I don’t know what any of this
means, but Dad seemed to know. I’m going to say it – if you’re in trouble, make
sure you have someone there you can trust. I don’t know how safe things are or
going to get. I don’t think I can write anymore. Just be careful.

All
my love,

Dory

I
had almost forgotten about the letter after the incident with JJ.

Someone
wants to buy my organs. Someone wants to sell my organs.
I shake my head
and jam the letter under the mattress with the others.
For money.
I’m
not sure I believe he would go through with it without my consent, but then, I
really don’t know him well enough.

I
don’t know anyone well enough.

“Who
can I trust?” Like Dory says in her letter, I need to find someone on my side.

The
door creaks open, but no one is there. I blow out the candle. I get up and walk
over to close the door all the way, but think twice. I step outside my room. No
one’s around, except for something behind the fountain.

My
footsteps make soft shushing sounds on the dirt floor. I lift them higher, but
it slows me down.

As
I approach the fountain, I don’t hear anything but running water and the sound
of my own heartbeat in my ears. I almost don’t see anything until I get closer.
A shadow from behind the fountain moves slightly. Enough for me to notice its
size.

“Ezekiel?
What’re you doing?”

Ezekiel
drops his arm, but I think he’s finished transmitting whatever it is he was
entering into his implanted computer.

“Are
you sending something? I didn’t think that was okay. Will the Imperial Bead
catch you? Will they find out we’re here?” I’m nervous and confused.
Isn’t
it really bad if we get caught?

“Keep
it down, keep it down.” Ezekiel pulls on his long sleeves. I hadn’t noticed the
extent of the tattoos on his dark skin before. They completely cover his upper
arms. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

“Well,
what were you doing then?” I accuse. “You’ll get us caught,” I say, though I
don’t know what this means or how it could happen. Still, I feel empowered like
I have some sort of right.

“So
what? What happens to you if we get caught? You go back to your affluent life. The
life you had before.”

“I
– I –” I wasn’t expecting this.

“And
if your organs get replaced?”

“But
you know that won’t happen. Not now,” I say. He’s scaring me.

Ezekiel
ignores me. He doesn’t even look at me. “You’ll get to live even longer. The
rest of us here don’t have that option, don’t have that money, the resources,
or family connections.”

“Why’re
you talking about this?” The room spins.
Or is it me that’s dizzy?

“Because
you can stand to hear it. You need to hear it,” he says, taking a breath.

No
I can’t.
I
gasp for air.

“You
leave here and your life goes back to normal. I leave here and I have nothing.”

“What?”
My mind races to Pike. “How could you have nothing?”

Ezekiel
turns on me. “If I get sick, I don’t heal like you do. None of us here do.”

“But
you can be made comfortable here. If you’re ill,” I sound naïve and I know it. I
understand somewhat, I think.

“We’ve
all been exposed to so many neurotoxins that our tissue can’t repair or
regenerate any longer. The Imperial Bead doesn’t care about us out there. In
here, we have each other. If we get caught, we lose all of that. See, Rose–”

It’s
the first time he’s called me by my name.

“–we’re
not like you. We don’t want to be like you.”

His
words sting. I haven’t felt this before. Hurt. I may cry.

“Why
don’t you get AR’d then?” I don’t know what to say, so I say something stupid.

He
doesn’t answer. I shouldn’t have asked.

“I
haven’t done anything,” I say after a minute. “You’re transmitting messages.”

“You’re
the reason I’m transmitting messages, Rose! Who do you think tells your sister
you’re okay?”

“You
transmit to Dory? How do you know my sister?” I don’t know what I feel about
this or how I should feel.
How does Dory know anyone from outside?

He
pushes me out of the way and I’m angry. I want to push him back, but think
better of it. I turn and stomp up the two flights of stairs to Pike’s room. As
I walk down the hallway, my anger diffuses and I stop a few doors down from his
room. Hara closes Pike’s door as she exits. She doesn’t notice me as she walks
off in the opposite direction. I change my mind and turn to go back down the
way I came.

“Rose,
can we talk?” JJ stands a few feet down in his open doorway. This time he is
fully clothed. Still, I’m startled and disarmed. I don’t want to be disarmed.

“I
was coming up to speak to Pike.”
To tattle on Ezekiel
, I think, but not
now that he was just entertaining Hara.

“Oh.
He’s not even here. In Aegis,” he specifies. “Come in. It’ll take just a few
minutes. I want to clear up some things.”

Not
this again.

“I’m
not sure this is a good idea, JJ,” I pause as I see Ezekiel coming up the
stairs behind me. “Just for a minute,” I say and follow him into his room.
What
am I doing?

The
door closes behind me.