Rise An Eve Novel

knowing she could be so easily taken from it? What kind of life would that be?
    I shook my head, steeling myself against Quinn’s words. “This is why I was going to leave last night—this is something I have to finish alone. I don’t want anyone else to be in danger because of me. You heard it yourself, you know what’s happening in the Palace.”
    “He’ll have you executed,” Clara said. “You have to know that.”
    I stood, pulling the pack over my shoulder. “That’s why I have to find him first. There is no second-in-command. The Lieutenant doesn’t hold the same power my father does. If he’s gone, it’ll be easier once the colonies arrive. They’ll have a real chance at taking the City.”
    Clara’s hand came down on my arm, but I pulled her into a hug, burying my face in the soft mess of her hair. “I’ll be back in less than two weeks,” I said. “I promise.” I let the words hang there between us, as if saying them could make them true.
    Ruby came to my side, her face as I’d never seen it at School. She pressed her fingers to her eyes, but they were still swollen and pink. Soon I was surrounded, Quinn, Ruby, and Beatrice, whispering to be safe, to send word through the radio if something happened along the way. “You have to come back,” Ruby kept repeating. “You have to.”
    Outside, the gulls cried as they circled the bay. Some of the girls were coming up the dock, laughing as they ran. The pack felt heavier than it did when I had put it on just hours before. My hand went to my stomach, smoothing down my sweater to cover it.
    “I will,” I said, when I finally pulled away. “I will.”
    IT TOOK ME THREE DAYS TO REACH THE TUNNEL. ONCE I adjusted to the bike, the miles went quickly, and I got better at weaving through abandoned cars, keeping on side roads to avoid being seen. I still had some of the supplies Maeve had packed, the dried meats and nuts slowly dwindling with each day. I knew what I was doing was right, that I had to go back inside the walls again. But as I pulled up to the abandoned buildings outside the City, a white pillar of smoke rose up over the stone wall. The air smelled of burned plastic, the sick, stinging scent enough to make my lungs seize.
    The building was up ahead, a dilapidated school with a bent flagpole and faded green walls. Maeve had gotten the location from one of the earlier messages from the Trail. People were instructed not to write the address down, so I’d memorized it. 7351 North Campbell Road , I repeated to myself, as I had a hundred times in the last few days. I scanned the worn map I had, checking street signs to be certain.
    I passed an abandoned playground, the metal swings clanking together whenever the wind came through. I kept my headlight off and stayed close to the edge of the building, trying to keep the watchtower out of sight. One of the side doors was smashed in. I walked the bike through the broken frame, the stench hitting me first. I’d remembered it from the plague, the wet rot of dead bodies. As I started down the hall toward the room marked 198, I saw the shadow of a man, lying facedown, several yards ahead.
    I held my breath, covering my face with my sweater as I ducked into the room. Blood was smeared across the floor. Short wooden desks were overturned, piled on top of one another. Simple sentences were still printed on the far wall: The party was fun. My mother smiled. The sky is blue. I moved to the back closet, the third one in from the windows, as Maeve had described. There was a three-foot-wide hole in the floor. I listened, trying to decipher footsteps. Everything was quiet and still.
    I lowered myself down, into the blackness, clutching the sides with both hands. When I hit the ground I fumbled with the flashlight Maeve had given me, finally turning it on. The beam flew ahead, illuminating the tunnel. Mud came over the soles of my boots. There was more blood, some of it dried on the wall. A jacket, the red band still tied around the sleeve, was crumpled on the floor.
    I turned the corner, seeing for the first time how the walls changed, the mud giving way to the remnants of the old concrete flood tunnels. The corridor widened in places, until it was several feet across. A red cloth had been tied to a pipe snaking out of the ceiling, marking the threshold when I crossed inside the City. When I neared the end, I saw a figure huddled on the ground, tending to a wound on his leg. It looked as though he’d