Rise An Eve Novel

door after door locked. The crowd dispersed through the maze of hallways, trying the different exits while I waited for Clara. “Thank you, Princess,” the older man said as he started through one of the dark halls. I watched him go until he was a tiny speck, swallowed by darkness.
    The silence terrified me. Beyond the glass doors the main road was desolate except for a lone, passing Jeep. A soldier ran by on the sidewalk, the sound of his footsteps receding, returning the world to its quiet place.
    The stillness was broken by the quick popping of gunshots. A faraway voice called out from a side hallway, “Over here—I found an exit through the back!”
    Clara ran out of the stairwell, holding up her dress so she didn’t trip. Watching her now, clutching the raw-silk gown that spread out at her waist, her delicate neck decorated with a ruby pendant, I understood how much danger we were in. We were so obviously from the Palace—our hair pinned up, our gowns in custom fabrics that were nearly impossible to find now, so many years after the plague.
    A man pushed past us, his jacket slung over his arm. “Sir!” I shouted as he ran toward a dark hallway. He didn’t slow down. Instead he glanced over his shoulder, his face in profile. “Can we have your jacket? We can’t go out there like this. If a rebel sees us we’ll be shot.”
    He slowed for a moment as he considered it. Then he took off down a dim corridor and just dropped the jacket, leaving it there on the floor for us to pick up. A few women filed past after him, darting around it, until Clara and I were alone in the empty lobby.
    I draped the jacket over Clara’s shoulders. Then I unpinned my hair, letting it fall loose so it covered the sides of my face and top of my gown. It was only a fifteen-minute walk back to the Palace, maybe less, and we couldn’t stay here and wait. We followed the rest of the crowd down the empty hall, moving forward into the dark.

ten
    THE MAIN ROAD WAS EMPTY EXCEPT FOR A FEW OTHERS WHO were trying to get back to their apartments on the Strip. Metal barricades had been put up, blocking the west side of the street, preventing people from passing through. A Jeep rode past and we stopped, waiting for them to recognize us, but the vehicle just kept moving, the soldier’s eyes locked on the southern edge of the wall.
    I glanced at the sky, watching the smoke rise up in a haze, blanketing the stars. There was an orange glow coming from the north, where the fires grew in the Outlands. Two gunshots sounded in succession, then a woman’s scream.
    “Where is that shop?” I asked Clara, hurrying out ahead of her. I looked to the east, where the side streets opened up to stores and restaurants. “We passed it one day while we were walking, and you said everyone bought clothes there.”
    “It’s just another block.” She pointed to the corner ten yards ahead. I sped up, running as fast as I could in the long skirt, the tulle underpinning scratching at my legs. I didn’t stop until I’d turned onto the quiet side street. The shop was just two doors in from the road. I tried the door but it didn’t give.
    “The rocks,” I said, pointing to the bushes that lined the main strip. They were planted beside the sidewalk, the dirt surrounded by heavy stones. “Pass me one.”
    Clara found a large rock by the base of the roots and handed it to me. I aimed at the center of the glass door, launching it through the window just above the handle. The glass shattered around it, splintered and white, like crushed ice. The alarm sounded, an electric howl so loud I felt the vibrations in my chest. I unlocked the door and ran inside, toward the back, where shirts hung on a rack.
    Clara unzipped the back of my gown, helping me out of it. I pulled a black blouse off the rack, then some trousers. Clara dressed quickly, grabbing another shirt from a hanger and slipping on a pair of shoes. As she knelt down to tie them, the alarm continued its horrible wail. I looked out the shattered door, scared it would draw attention, but only one person darted past. They hardly glanced at the store as they ran.
    “These too,” I said, grabbing two hats from a table on our way out. We pulled them down over our eyes and immediately I felt more at ease, stepping back onto the main road.
    We ran in silence, our heads down, staring at the pavement. More gunfire could be heard somewhere in the north, then an explosion that cracked and rolled like thunder,