ust (Silo, #3)(51)

“It’s gonna be okay,” she told Elise. But Elise didn’t know what was wrong.

“I got Puppy back,” she said. And then she remembered that Jewel didn’t know about her new pet. She looked down to see Puppy peeing on Jewel’s boot, which must be like saying hello.

“A dog,” Jewel said. She squeezed Elise’s shoulder. “You can’t keep her. Dogs are dangerous.”

“She’s not dangerous!”

Puppy chewed on Elise’s hand. Elise pulled away and rubbed Puppy’s head.

“Did you get her from the bazaar? Is that where you went?” Jewel looked to Solo, who nodded. Jewel took a deep breath. “You can’t take things that don’t belong to you. If you got it from a vendor, it’ll have to go back.”

“Puppy came from the Deep,” Elise said. She bent down and wrapped her arms around the dog. “He came from Mechanical. We can take him back there. But not to the bizarre. I’m sorry I took him.” She squeezed Puppy and thought about the man holding up the red meat with the white ribs. Jewel turned to Solo again.

“It didn’t come from the bazaar,” he confirmed. “She plucked it from a box down in Mechanical.”

“Fine. We’ll straighten this out later. We need to catch up with the others.”

Elise could tell that all of them were tired, including her and Puppy, but they set out anyway. The adults seemed eager to get down, and after seeing the bizarre Elise felt the same way. She told Jewel she wanted to go home, and Jewel said that’s where they were heading. “We ought to make things how they used to be,” Elise told them both.

For some reason that made Jewel laugh. “You’re too young to be nostalgic,” she said.

Elise asked what nostalgic meant, and Jewel said, “It’s where you think the past was better than it really was, only because the present sucks so bad.”

“I get nostalgic a lot,” Elise declared.

And Jewel and Solo both laughed at that. But then they looked sad after. Elise caught them looking at each other like this a lot, and Jewel kept wiping at her eyes. Finally, Elise asked them what was wrong.

They stopped in the middle of the stairway and told her. Told her about Marcus, who had slipped over the rails when that crazy crowd had knocked her down and Puppy had gotten away. Marcus had fallen and died. Elise looked at the rails beside her and didn’t see how Marcus could slip over rails so high. She didn’t understand how it had happened, but she knew it was like when their parents had gone off and never came back. It was like that. Marcus would never come laughing through the Wilds again. She wiped her face and felt awful for Miles, who wasn’t a twin anymore.

“Is that why we’re going home?” she asked.

“It’s one of the reasons,” Jewel said. “I never should’ve brought you here.”

Elise nodded. There was no arguing with that. Except she had Puppy now, and Puppy had come from here. And no matter what she told Jewel, Elise wasn’t giving him back.

????

Juliette allowed Elise to lead the way. Her legs were sore from the run down; she had nearly lost her footing more than once. Now she was eager to see the kids together and home, couldn’t stop blaming herself for what had happened to Marcus. The levels went by full of regrets, and then there was a call on the radio.

“Jules, are you there?”

It was Shirly, and she sounded upset. Juliette pulled the radio from her belt. Shirly must’ve been with Walker, using one of his sets. “Go ahead,” she said. She kept a hand on the rail and followed Elise and Solo. A porter and a young couple squeezed by heading in the other direction.

“What the hell is going on?” Shirly asked. “We just had a mob come through here. Frankie got overrun at the gates. He’s in the infirmary. And I’ve got another two or three dozen people heading through this blasted tunnel of yours. I didn’t sign on for this.”

Juliette figured it was the same group that led to Marcus’s death. Jimmy turned and eyed the radio and its news. Juliette turned down the volume so Elise couldn’t hear.

“What do you mean by another two or three dozen? Who else is over there?” Juliette asked.

“Your dig team, for one. Some mechanics from third shift who should be sleeping but want to see what’s on the other side. And the planning committee you sent.”

“The planning committee?” Juliette slowed her pace.

“Yeah. They said you sent them. Said it was okay to inspect the dig. Had a note from your office.”

Juliette remembered Marsha saying something about this before the Town Hall. But she had been busy with the suits.

“Did you not send them?” Shirly asked.

“I may have,” Juliette admitted. “But this other group, the mob, my dad and them had a run-in on their way down. Someone fell to their death.”

There was silence on the other end. And then: “I heard we had a fall. Didn’t know it was related. I tell you, I’m this close to pulling everyone back and shutting this down. Things are out of hand, Jules.”

I know, Juliette thought. But she didn’t broadcast this. Didn’t utter it out loud. “I’ll be there soon. On my way now.”

Shirly didn’t respond. Juliette clipped the radio to her belt and cursed herself. Jimmy hung back to speak with her, allowing Elise to walk further ahead.