“I can tell you what’s going on,” a voice boomed from behind the girls.
The murmur of the crowd drowned it.
Iliyah and Nessa looked down the stairs, over the sea of heads. Emotion weighed on Iliyah.
“I have no idea,” she confessed. “It’s been like that probably a week.”
Iliyah’s hands trembled. Nessa wrapped her in a hug and said, “We’ll be okay. If anything, you can come to my house. Our packet unit is full.”
“I can tell you what’s going on,” boomed the voice again.
The second time, Nessa and Iliyah spun around in sync.
“Kommer,” Nessa muttered, observing his green jumpsuit with the black star on the chest. “What are you doing here?”
“Patrol,” Kommer replied.
She strode past him, then leaned sideways toward him.
“What can you tell me?” She demanded.
Iliyah pressed in closely to Nessa.
“What can you tell us?” Nessa corrected. “And what are you doing in those ruler identifier clothes?”
Kommer breathed deeply, then released his air cycle before answering.
“I work for the Great Dome Elite,” he said. “We can discuss personal matters later. If you want answers, you’ll accompany me to the Great Dome.”
Iliyah shrank back and whispered, “I’d rather not. My family will be waiting.”
“We will see each other again,” Nessa said.
And Nessa and Kommer watched into the lavender and orange sky as Iliyah’s figure was swallowed into the landscape.
“Why can’t you tell me here?” Nessa asked.
Kommer fidgeted and rolled his eyes skyward.
“The star will be out of view soon,” he said. “It’s best we leave at once.”
He started ahead. Nessa stood a moment, glanced around the city scape, and darted after him.
The path wrapped around the hill, and then stopped at a pentagonal door. The grass and a gunmetal wall became one. Next to the door, a green hand shape glowed from the hillside.
The door disappeared, and Nessa and Kommer peered into a grayish darkness. A row of faint glimmers gave shape to a walkway, and Kommer and Nessa stepped inside. They moved quickly through a hall of pentagonal doors.
The hallway ended at a rounded chamber, and an object hovered just above the floor. It had an elongated body and a motor underneath. In the front was a grip bar and acceleration pedals. The seats were plastic and recumbent.
“Hop on,” Kommer said. “This is the hangar, and the rooms are where we’re keeping the packet reserves for now.”
“You’re keeping them from the people?” Nessa snapped.
She thrust her leg over the back seat and settled back as Kommer took controls. A shell of transparent metals enclosed them.
“Relax,” Kommer said as he smashed the pedal with his foot. “It’s for the people. The ration.”
Nessa stared upward at the glass dome. It split apart, and she looked down as the floor receded and the night sky welcomed them in.