Lost Atoms

Chapter 10

There are a few things I know for certain about Navani. I know she wouldn't close her eyes for our first week when kissing; she wanted to watch, learn, and improve. I know she is terrified of bringing a child into the world, especially after her mother's miscarriage of her younger sister. And I know she isn't always afraid. Sometimes, she just wants someone to hold her close.

But if there's one thing above all I know about Navani, it's that she wouldn't break up with me lightly. She's thought this through. I wonder when she began considering it. Since leaving the dome, or earlier?

I don't know how long I'm lying down for. Zenith comes in at some point, but I pretend to be asleep, even when he says my name a couple of times. Cail comes in too, but doesn't say anything. Instead, they go in the washroom and I hear Maya's mew as Cail carries her out. The kitten's room must be ready now. I wonder if Cail was the one to come so Navani could avoid seeing me.

After that, I really do drift in and out of sleep a bit. My dream picks up where it left off.

"Cail, Zenith, Tryvon... zoners!" I say. I abandon the flowerpot for now. I can come back and get it later if possible.

Zenith bounds down the stairs and runs through the back door, pulling Cail and I with him. Tryvon is right behind us, feet pounding against the unkempt backyard.

As if it was his backup plan all along, Zenith starts climbing down the ladder to the bomb shelter. Cail follows. I'm about the get on the ladder myself when Zenith yells up, "It's locked!"

"I'll get the key!" Tryvon says, wasting no time as he runs back in the house.

"Wait!" I shout, following him as far as the kitchen.

He's gone back in the garage, and even as his arm extends out and tosses the key my way, I know it's too late for him. The jingle I should hear of the key hitting the ground is muted by a crashing on the garage door.

I bolt to the backyard again, dropping the key to Zenith. I scurry down the ladder, as he opens the door. We scamper in and darkness engulfs us.

"Where's Tryvon?" Cail hesitates before locking the door.

"Not coming," I say. My hands are on my forehead, my fingers in my hair. I can feel the pulse of my heartbeat, pumped full of adrenaline.

With the click of a lock, Tryvon's fate is sealed.

Zenith, breathing heavily beside me, says, "He could have made it, though. Why'd he stay?"

"They would have still seen him," I say. "He would have led them right to us. I think he knew he could buy us time to get in here."

Zenith turns on his phone's flashlight so we can see through the dark. I look around at the space. It's not much. A narrow room with two sets of bunk beds and a curved ceiling overhead. There's also a door at the end which might lead to a washroom of some kind. I find a battery-powered lantern hanging on a hook to my right that I lift and flick on.

"How did they find us?" Cail asks, and it's a good question. I look at the lantern, and the answer comes to me.

"He turned on the garage light," I say, shaking my head. It's long been a theory that the zoners might be tracking electricity in some homes in the Between. Even if houses run on solar power, at one point they'd been on a grid.

"There's no food in here," Zenith says, looking in a cupboard by the far door. "There's a space where it's supposed to be, but I don't think the family stocked it. We won't be able to wait out the zoners if they find out about us."