Rebel Princess - Book 2 (The Hope Saga) (9 page)

“How can you give up on our city, our people? We’re the last remaining survivors, and we need to stick together.”

“No, not like this. This isn’t a democracy anymore. The so-called authorities are just jailers. Brett, surely you can see that. I want to break free, to get out of here…tonight.”

He pondered my words for a minute, wrinkling up his brow. “Tonight?”

“Yeah, you, me, and anyone else who wants to go. We can sail into the sunset and never look back.”

“What about your dad, your brother, and your sister who are waiting for you on the surface? What about your aunt and your cousins?”

“We’ll find my relatives on the surface and take them with us.”

“If you break out of here, you can’t ever go near that city. Do you have any idea what they’ll do to you if you’re caught? You’ll never see the light of day again outside a prison cell.”

“It’s called sneaking. We go in under the cover of night and find them. Maybe I can gather some intel from Walter on their location. I don’t know. I just want to get our loved ones and get out. I’m done with Dante’s bullsh—”

“You can’t stir up an uprising like that and get away with it. They won’t tolerate it. You’ll be at the top of their most-wanted list, and they will find you.”

“Then we give everyone the option and leave before it can ever get back to them.”

“You’re asking me to give up everything I love and believe in, to turn my back on my family.”

“I know, baby, but if you expect me to stay, you’re asking me to compromise my convictions. I won’t be ruled by a tyrant who keeps me locked down here like a rat in a cage, waiting for some psycho to wring my neck.”

“You wanted out of here long before the killings ever started.”

“Exactly. So let’s pack a bag and go.”

“If we do, we can never come back,” he said. “If we take one step outside this city, we’ll be banned forever.”

“I can live with that, as long as I have you.”

“Do you think we can survive out there, without the others?”

“Yes. I can plant a huge garden to feed us, and the animals are starting to multiply once again. Surely, but slowly. That’s what Walter told me.”

“You’ll have to pack plenty of seeds.”

“We can take care of ourselves, without all of Dante’s rules. We’ll be free, Brett—free to live and to be together. Why should we be loyal to a city, to a government that won’t even let us look at the beautiful, blue sky?”

“I just feel bad leaving. I do a lot around here, and someone else will have to do my work.”

I cupped his cheek. “Baby, they can survive without you just as much as we can survive without them.”

“Who’s gonna plant the food? Everybody counts on you and that garden.”

“I might be the best at it, but there are others who know how to run it.”

He sighed heavily and stared at the floor. “I’ll go, if that’s what you really want,” he said. “I love you, Sky, and I’d follow you to the ends of the Earth.”

I held his chin and pulled his gaze back up to mine. “That’s so romantic.” Emotion consumed me, and I placed a kiss on his lips, then just held it there. The feel of his lips against mine was glorious, nearly weakening me in the knees.

“We just can’t go tonight,” he said, pulling away.

“Why not?”

“The workers’ trip’s been canceled. I heard the cooks talking about it. They’re not coming back till next week, so we have to wait.”

“See? This is exactly why I hate it down here. The more we depend on them, the easier it is for them to dominate us.”

“Yeah, I get it, Miss Independent,” he said, giving me a peck on the cheek. “Now let’s get outta here. I don’t want someone to walk in and find us together.”

“So…what’s up?” Rachel said when we walked cautiously back out into the hall, looking in both directions.

“Are your parents home?” I asked her in a whisper, darting my eyes around nervously.

“No.”

“Good. Then let’s go to your place. I want to show Brett all those posters and notebooks you have about the murder. Maybe we can get these murders solved before we leave.”

“He wants to see my detective work, huh?”

Brett nodded.

“So you guys are leaving?”

“Next week,” I answered.

“You can’t make a rushed decision like that. This is something we all have to talk about.”

“We’ll talk more at your place.”

“Gotcha.”

Back in Rachel’s apartment, we filled her in on the details of our plan, but she still didn’t seem too keen on the idea. 

Shaking her head, my friend said, “The simple fact is that if you leave, it’ll piss them off. What if everyone starts following your example?”

“I doubt that would ever happen,” I said. “They’re all just mindless sheep, being led around by the big, bad wolf.”

“But you’ll be making a huge statement if you go. It might put ideas in their heads.”

“It won’t matter. I’ll be long gone by the time the powers-that-be put all the pieces together.”

“Sky, it’s like… Why would you wanna bite the hands that feed you? I mean, I know you’re unhappy, but—”

“Rachel,” I said, cutting her off, “don’t you see? They’re controlling us that way, by preventing us from feeding ourselves. I say we get our own food.”

Rachel blew out a breath and looked at Brett. “You’d better get your girlfriend in line before she does something drastic and gets us all busted.”

“Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said?” I chimed in. “I’m leaving, Rachel, and there won’t be anything they can do about it, because I’ll be long gone before they even realize it. I really want you to come with us, but I can’t make you do anything you don’t wanna do.”

Rachel shook her head. “You don’t even have a solid plan. You’re flying by the seed of your plants.”

“Uh…don’t you mean ‘seat of her pants’?” Brett asked, arching a brow.

“No. It was a greenhouse pun, duh,” she said.

“Oh. Right,” he said, not bothering to laugh.

“Anyway,” she said, turning back to me, “where are you gonna go?”

“I’m not sure yet. Let’s get out the maps and plan our little road trip,” I answered.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Rachel said. “Brett turns eighteen in less than two years. That isn’t very long at all. Why don’t we just be good little girls and boy and wait it out? Think about it. If Brett goes with you, he’ll lose everything. He has parents, a sister, and countless other family. If you love him, how can you ask him to give them all up just to leave a little earlier with you?”

I wrung my hands. “I’d have to wait three months after him, and you’d have to wait three months more,” I argued.

“Time will fly, and we’ll be outta here in no time,” she said.

“So…two more years and six months with a serial killer? Are you okay with that?”

She lifted a finger. “I’ve got a solution for that too.”

“Do we just sit around with our doors locked?” I asked. “Do I go after him and shoot him in the eye the way I nailed that orange in Carla’s hand?”

She playfully punched my arm. “No, silly. We just…we gotta catch the killer ourselves.”

“Uh…okay. But even if we catch the killer, that doesn’t do anything about the government keeping us down here in this aquarium when we both know the air is fine and dandy.”

Rachel’s gaze drifted to Brett’s. “We’ve got ourselves a real rebel here, huh?”

“Yeah, but she’s a rebel with a cause,” he said, stroking my hair. “Besides, rebels are usually sweaty men armed with machineguns. Sky’s more like Cinderella with this long, gorgeous, blonde hair of hers.”

“Right. Just call me Rebel Princess.”

“I like that a whole lot better than Seed Nerd or Garden Geek,” Brett said.

“Carla’s an idiot for starting that,” Rachel said.

“Look, if we’re gonna do this thing, we need to talk about it,” I said. ”I guess we’ll start with finding the strangler.”

“It’d help if we had some forensics stuff down here,” Brett said.

I blew out a breath. “I don’t think they were planning on needing that kind of stuff. Serial killers usually aren’t taken into consideration when they’re building a survival tank for the last remaining humans.”

“Well, let’s just look at what we know. He’s committed three murders,” Rachel said, jotting down notes and making lists, something she loved to do. “All young women, strangled.”

Brett decided it would be better to write his notes on the chalkboard that was hanging on Rachel’s wall. “He left no physical evidence at the scene—at least none we know of.”

“Acts of violence don’t come out of nowhere,” I said. “There has to be a motive, even if it is a psychotic one.”

“Who are the first suspects who come to mind?” Rachel asked. “List ‘em off the top of your head.”

“Carla,” I snapped, “but 90 percent of killers are men.”

“Carla definitely has anger issues, but is she really capable of murder?”

Brett shook his head. “Nah, it isn’t her. Most serial killers come from unstable families and hate their parents. Carla has the most loving parents in the world, and she adores them.”

Rachel cocked a brow. “So we’re looking at…a dysfunctional loner?”

I shook my head. “Think about it. Nobody down here fits that description. We all live too close together. Nobody could be a reclusive social misfit in these close quarters. I can’t really think of any oddballs either. Whoever it is, they’re hiding in plain sight. It’s somebody we all know and love.”

Rachel swallowed hard. “That’s scary.”

“So he’s a psychopath who seems…normal,” Brett said. “I guess we just need to keep an eye out for a psycho who appears…normal,” Brett said.

“Gee, that narrows it down,” Rachel said with an uneasy laugh.

We spent hours discussing several ideas and all sorts of possible scenarios and situations. In the long run, we weren’t much closer to finding the killer, but I was glad we were at least able to talk about it.

Chapter 12

I lay on my bed and poured all of my thoughts out into my journal, and I was thankful for the opportunity to express my emotions. On those pages, I could openly vent about how trapped and isolated I felt, as a result of our controlling government. I could say all the things it wasn’t safe to talk about. My feelings and all my pain were only between me, my pen, and my paper, and that brought me clarity, helped me to focus. The journal was truly a window to my soul, a safe place for my innermost desires. I wanted to feel that my life mattered, that I could truly make a difference in our new world, and writing it all down in my journal helped me organize my messy thoughts. I enjoyed those moments when I could be alone with my thoughts, but I would die if anyone ever found that book and read it. 

Rachel tapped on my door. “You ready?” she asked.

I quickly shoved my journal into my bottom drawer and locked it. “Yep.”

After we left my place, we delivered a few supplies to Annie’s mom. I wasn’t sure how else to show my support to a woman who’d just lost her daughter to the cruel hands of the Asha strangler, suppose I figured it was the least we could do. The poor, grieving lady’s hair was disheveled, and I couldn’t help but notice the black circles under her eyes. My heart went out to her.
No one should have to outlive their child,
I thought. She didn’t say much while we were there, and I completely understood.

”Girls…” she finally called out, just as we were making our way out the door.

“Yes?” I said. “Is there something else we can do for you?”

“I heard that you and Rachel are trying to find the murderer, that monster who killed my baby.”

“Yes. I didn’t mean to stir up anything. It’s just that—”

“I just wanted to thank you,” she said. “Mr. Tams is useless, and the authorities aren’t doing much. My poor Annie was strangled, murdered, and none of the adults around here are doing anything about it. It means the world to me that you want to help, but I don’t want you to make targets of yourselves in the process. If that killer harms either of you or anyone else…” she said, trailing off and shaking her head as a tear formed in her eye.

“You want us to stop?”

“Well, someone has to figure this all out, but I’m afraid you’re putting bulls’-eyes on your backs.” She pointed down to a pile of papers haphazardly strewn about the kitchen table, then to several notes scattered all over the coffee table. “As you can see, I’ve been doing a little investigating of my own.”

“We haven’t found any solid leads,” I replied, “but we’ve been talking to everyone.”

“That’s not a good idea, Sky.”

We talked for a few more minutes, then left. I understood why she was frightened about our involvement, but I didn’t want to stop our investigation. As Rachel had asked her questions, I’d sneaked a few peeks at her notes, and what I’d read had floored me. When we were a good ways down the corridor, I stopped and said, “She had some interesting ideas scribbled down back there.”

“Like what?”