Hell of Earth

Chapter FIVE

It wasn't the real sky. It looked like filtered glass because it was. Tinted blue, apparently as that had been the previous color of Earth's sky. The new sky was likely closer to red, but no one in the trench could confirm this. No one had been outside of the glass membrane. Except the Upgrades apparently. But, not all of them it seemed. Opal had briefly tried to talk with a few of the other kids who had the additional 'irons' hung on them and all of them had gave her a look like she was insane when she asked if they were going to try and go out of the barrier too. One girl even went as far as to tell her to shut up in case they were overheard.

"Overheard by who?" Opal held up a hand to shield her eyes from the fake sunlight. She hadn't spoken to Yue or any of the others since the evening in the infirmary. In fact the only one she'd even seen was Proga who gave her a friendly wave and a smile a few times as he patrolled for any stuck sleds.

The days were passing on seamlessly again. After the last Upgrade she tried to speak to told her it wasn't safe for her to talk to Spark, with the same look on his face that Gray and Ermine had when they gave her the message, she decided the rest of them weren't real Upgrades. Whoever they were under threat of being overheard by, had mistakenly thought them to be. If the real Upgrades came from outside why did they think she could do the same? Sure, she didn't have her memories but Ermine and Gray said she'd come from the cities on the same crate they had and they seemed very sure.

And the tunnel. Why would she bother building a tunnel to try and help everyone escape if she could just walk out of the barrier anytime she wanted.

Any time she... wanted. Opal sat up. Maybe she could just go test it. And if they were right she would be able to run away- maybe even find a way to go back around and let everyone out to the road. But if they were wrong she'd choke to death while her lungs burned up from the air. She shivered. Was that what happened to make her feel like she was burning alive? She'd managed to get a breath of that air before the tunnel collapsed? That didn't explain the rest of her body feeling like that, or the voices around her.

She needed someone to help. Pull her back if she started to choke. Gray wouldn't. Gray would immediately try and stop her. Ermine might listen though. If she got more of that medicine from Kait, Ermine might be able to step out for a second and try to pull her back in. She didn't want any of them to die but she didn't want to rot here either.

-----

"You spilled it?" Kait's mouth was a hard line. She'd told Ermine and Gray her headache was back. They'd let her go on alone this time. She hadn't spoken of escape in two shower periods now. Maybe they were starting to think she'd given up.

"I'm sorry."

"Its not easy to make, Opal." Kait sighed.

"Is that why you don't make it for everyone?"

"What do you mean?"

Opal dropped her head instead of responding. The infirmary only had one person in it today. She looked really sick. Opal watched the irregular rise and fall of the little girl's chest. So thin. Her tiny body was curled in on its self, mouth stretched open, eyes sunken. She stared at nothing. Kait had gone into the storage room. Opal took a few steps closer. The girl's mouth was moving. Was she trying to speak?

A whisper came just next to her ear. "She's dying."

Opal jumped. Had he been waiting to scare her? Spark was laughing as he motioned for her to step aside. He wiped a wet cloth over the girl's face and neck and then smeared something over her cracked lips.

"Why are you always in here?" Opal's voice was irritated.

He grinned at her. She found that unsettling.