The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (62 page)

Tears streamed down her face. She
turned away and tried to get Dormer to wake up.

The distant sound of a helicopter drew
nearer. Colton shielded his eyes from the sun to look up as the
aircraft approached and set down nearby. Kamiko stood a few feet
away, staring at Colton. After one last look into the dome room, he
turned away. Kamiko held out her hand for him and he stopped. Her
smile faltered just enough to be noticeable. Colton took her hand
and allowed her to lead him away from the only place in the world
that felt like home.

38

T
he Jeep was a mile away from the Dome when Haven saw the
helicopter take off. She knew the stop to refuel in Billings would
cost them, but there had been no other choice.

The chopper was long and sleek, with
two heavy machine guns jutting out from the front. It made a slow
circle over the Dome, like a buzzard circling a corpse. As the
helicopter turned, Haven suddenly knew that Colton was inside. She
felt it in her bones.

“
Drive faster!” shouted
Haven. She stood up in the back seat and held onto the roll cage
bar. The Jeep bounced harshly over the rough ground leading up to
the Dome.

“
It’s too late,” said
Bastian.

He was right. The chopper rose quickly
into the air flew in the opposite direction. By the time Roku
pulled the Jeep next to the massive hole in the ceiling of the dome
room, the helicopter was nothing more than a shrinking black speck
in the sky.

Haven jumped out of the Jeep and ran
to the hole. She fell to her knees and peered over the ragged edge.
The only light in the dome room was coming from the hole in the
ceiling. A thick shaft of bright light pierced the gloom,
illuminating a broad circle of the floor. Dormer and another
woman—Haven realized she was one of the medical facility
survivors—sat against the wall at the edge of the light, looking
up.

“
The ladder’s gone,”
shouted the woman. “She melted half the stuff in here when she
left.”

“
Is my brother
okay?”

“
Noah’s fine.”

Haven hesitated before asking her next
question. She was certain she already knew the answer. “And
Colton?”

There was a long pause. “Kamiko took
him,” said Dormer.

Haven looked up at the sky, but the
helicopter was gone. Nothing but clear, empty blue as far as she
could see.

“
Haven,” said Dormer. She
looked back down. “There’s a cure. Everyone here was
inoculated.”

Her breath escaped her and she felt
like she was going to cry from relief. “Do—do you have any more?”
she asked. Her voice was shaking and she covered her mouth with her
hand. Tears squeezed out of the corners of her closed
eyes.

“
Just enough for Marius,”
said the woman. “Kamiko destroyed everything else.”

Haven couldn’t speak. She nodded and
walked back to the Jeep. Only after she was a few feet away from
the hole could she take a deep breath and begin to calm herself
down. Marius stirred in the back of the Jeep. His eyes opened when
Haven gently brushed his cheek with the back of her hand. His face
was icy cold.

“
There’s a cure,” said
Haven. “They have it below. But the ladder’s gone. We need to find
a way down and then we’ll get you to Corva, okay?”

Marius rested his head against the
seat and nodded weakly. He closed his eyes and shivered despite the
heat.

“
What do we do?” asked
Bastian.

“
Let’s try the garage,”
said Haven.

She hopped up into the Jeep and Roku
drove over to the small, rocky mountain nearby. The garage roll-up
door at the base of the mountain was in good condition except for a
big dent right in the middle. Roku and Bastian went to either side
of the door and forced it open inch by inch. It groaned as they
pushed it upward until there was finally enough room to get into
the garage.

“
Well, that’s just great,”
said Haven after she walked inside.

Dormer’s black sedan—or what was left
of it—was parked next to several large chunks of concrete that had
fallen from the ceiling. The frame of the car had been liquefied
until all that remained was a mound of wrinkled black metal. It
looked like a melted candle.

“
So they parked the car
and then melted it.”

Bastian shook his head. “Some people,
right?”

All of the shelves lining the walls of
the garage had been overturned and some of the walls had crumbled
inward, revealing wet, red clay. Part of the roof lay in huge
pieces against the elevator cage which led down to the main dome
room. The front of the cage was bent inward until it almost touched
the back.

“
Let’s find some rope to
lower us through the hole,” said Haven. “The elevator is
useless.”

She poked around the rubble, searching
for anything that would help them descend into the Dome. Bastian
stood still, staring at the elevator.

“
You going to help, or
what?” she asked.

“
There’s a winch on the
front of the Jeep,” he said.

“
You want to lower us with
the winch?”

“
We can pull this debris
away with the Jeep and maybe coax that cage back into shape, and
bingo.”

Haven looked outside at the Jeep, then
at the pile of concrete in front of the elevator. “Worth a shot,”
she said.

A minute later Bastian was back in the
garage, pulling a long steel cable that was attached to a spool
under the Jeep’s front bumper. Roku drove the Jeep slowly forward
and got close to the garage. He waited behind the wheel while
Bastian and Haven ran the steel cable around the largest piece of
concrete blocking the elevator. Bastian fed the cable under to
Haven and she looped it back over the top, then he connected the
large metal hook to the cable, creating a giant lasso around the
chunk of debris.

Bastian gave a thumb’s up and Roku
flipped a switch in the Jeep. The spool reeled back in, pulling the
excess cable until it became taught. He shifted the Jeep into
reverse and backed slowly away from the garage.

The huge chunk of concrete
scraped loudly over the floor, pushing smaller chunks out of its
way like a glacier cutting through icy water. It hit the side of
the melted black sedan and stopped. The steel cable groaned and
there was a loud
TWANG
as the winch snapped off the front of the Jeep. Roku got out
and looked down at it, frowning.

“
Maybe you should get your
money back,” said Bastian, grinning.

“
It’s okay,” said Haven.
“I think that cleared enough room.”

She went to the elevator and put her
hands against the bent metal cage. Bastian stood next to her and
did the same. The cage bars glowed blue and yellow as Haven and
Bastian used their energies to heat the metal. They bent the bars
back into their rightful places one at a time, as if the cage was
made of molding clay.

They removed their hands and the cage
bars cooled quickly, losing their glow and hardening into
place.

“
I’ll get Marius,” said
Haven. She went back to the Jeep. Marius was already standing next
to it, swaying slightly on his feet.

“
Everything good?” he
asked.

“
It’s getting better,”
said Haven. She took his arm and helped support his weight as they
walked to the elevator. Marius breathed slowly and heavily, like a
man in a deep sleep. His eyes were glazed over as if he were drunk.
They got into the elevator with Roku and Bastian.

“
Let’s hope this piece of
junk still works,” said Haven.

Bastian lowered the cage door. A small
control panel was welded onto one of the cage bars, and a small
silver key dangled next to a red button. Bastian turned the key and
the button lit up. He smiled and pushed down on it until the
elevator lurched in place. For a split second, Haven thought they
were going to break free of the supports and plummet to their
deaths. To go through everything they had endured only to be
flattened like pancakes right at the very end struck her as
universally cruel.

The elevator jumped again, then slowly
moved down the shaft. Haven let out a sigh of relief when it
finally touched bottom and the door slid up.

“
First floor, Housewares,”
said Bastian. He stepped aside so Haven could help Marius out into
the long, wide hallway that led to the rest of the Dome.

The four of them walked in silence,
their footsteps echoing down the corridor. The end of the hallway
was destroyed. The large door lay on its side in three separate
pieces. Haven stepped over the rubble and brought Marius to the
wall next to Dormer and the woman from the medical facility. She
eased him down and brushed her hands off against her
jeans.

“
Is the cure for real?”
she asked.

Dormer nodded. “It’s for
real.”

Bastian put his hand on Roku’s
shoulder and led him away. They spoke quietly to each other, just
out of earshot.

The woman from the medical facility
crouched next to Marius holding a syringe containing clear yellow
liquid. “I’m June,” she said. She injected Marius with the serum.
He smiled at her but was too weak to speak. “Nice to meet you,
too,” she said.

“
Where is everyone?” asked
Haven.

“
In their rooms,” said
Dormer. “Resting. Fade hit some of them harder than the
others.”

“
But are they
okay?”

Dormer looked away. “Micah and Adsen
are dead.”

“
What?” whispered Haven.
“H—How?”

“
Micah was trying to
protect us,” said June. She put the cap back on Marius’s syringe
and set it aside. “One of the soldiers thought it was a bad idea.”
She stood up abruptly. “I’ll go check on the others.” She walked
away, toward the dormitory hallway.

“
What about Adsen?” asked
Haven.

“
He was supposed to be
working on a way to make Fade more lethal,” said Dormer. “Instead
he lied to Kamiko and produced a cure. She found out after it was
too late to stop him, but that didn’t matter. She killed him
anyway.”

“
I’m so sorry.”

Dormer smiled weakly, then he looked
at her for a long moment. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“
So am I.”

“
Listen, there’s something
you should know about Noah.”

“
What happened? I thought
you said everyone was okay!”

“
They are, they are. It’s
just that—well, after Micah was killed, Noah displayed some of his
ability.”

“
What do you mean? He’s
just a boy, there’s no way he can—”

“
Haven!”

She turned as Noah ran across the room
and leapt into her arms. She hugged him so tightly that he coughed.
“Oh!” she said, loosening her grip. “Oh, Noah, I’m sorry! I was
just so happy to see you!” She kissed his forehead and his cheeks.
He wiggled away from her and then came back in and gave her a big
hug.

“
I missed you,” he
said.

“
I missed you more.” She
kissed the top of his head.

“
Micah’s gone.”

“
I know, sweetie. I know.”
She held him as close as she could. She wanted him to stay a little
boy forever, or at least for a few more years. Noah shouldn’t have
to deal with any of the problems that plagued her and the other
adults in the Dome. He was just a sweet little boy who never asked
to be cursed and never did anything to deserve the Nova ability.
Haven wondered if he would ever be safe once people found out the
truth.

Marius suddenly cried out and sat
straight up as if someone had splashed a bucket of ice water over
his face. He looked around, confused, like it was his first time in
the Dome. “What?” he said.

“
It’s okay, Marius,” said
Haven. “You’ve been given the cure.”

“
Corva!” he
shouted.

“
She’s fine,” said Dormer.
“Recovering nicely.”

Haven reluctantly released Noah and
looked into his eyes. “Noah, would you mind taking Marius back to
see Corva?”

Noah nodded and held out his hand.
Marius took it and stood up. He allowed the small boy to lead him
through the rubble and down the dormitory hallway.

Haven turned to Dormer. “Where did
Kamiko take Colton?”

He winced in pain as he stood. “Come.
I have something to show you.”

Roku and Bastian fell into step behind
her as she followed Dormer into the water processing room. A broken
cot lay against one of the water tanks. The middle of the room was
a mess of smashed equipment and broken glass. At the very top of
the pile rested a single piece of paper with strange markings
written on one side. Dormer plucked it from the pile and handed it
to Haven.

“
This was waiting for us
after Kamiko left. She must have known she wouldn’t be here much
longer.”

“
Is this Japanese?” asked
Haven. She looked up in frustration. “I have no idea what it says!
Why leave a message in another language?”