This workweek ’s artwork come fromLorenz Hideyoshi Ruwwe , who created it as the cover forJoe Vasicek ’s e - record book Desert Stars , which you may purchase at Smashwords . Viareddit .
The hair on Rafi ’s neck pricked up as Sienna nuzzled his shoulder . He almost attain out to touch her , to function his finger’s breadth through the chaotic whirl of auburn hair , but he could n’t play himself to spoil the bit . He pretended to watch the domed city , glittering gold in the distance , but he ’d rather see its glitter think over in her greyish heart .
“ Rafi , ” she aver , her regard lock away on the distant dome , “ do you remember the first metre we met ? You broke into my suite to test the lineament of the aviation . ”
He had to smile at that . He ’d been working on a hypothesis that the great unwashed who lived on the Hill breathed real air — atmosphere spell from the outside and filtered — fresh , sweet air that still retain that lineament of nature his nan always talked about . Now , out here in the desert , he had to seize a bandana to his face every time a unassailable wind blew . Never in his life had he so hanker to breathe recycled air .
“ Daddy was so cross with you , ” Sienna continued . “ He was really a shiner of a gentleman’s gentleman before you showed up . ”
“ He think I was a terrorist . ”
Sienna laughed . Her laugh out here was never the same as it had been within . Inside , among her digital tapis and tattooed furniture , he laugh was throaty . On a few occasions , he ’d heard Sienna ’s mother scold her for such an unladylike chortle . Out here , though , it was crummy and musical , like someone ’s approximation of a beautiful girl ’s laugh . “ It did n’t aid that you kept range on about breeching the dome , ” she say .
He ’d have a moment of pride in that , at the time . To hear to the bureaucrats , he was the most dangerous man in the dome , petition to take a small squad outside to see if it was potential to live there . But there were plenty of dome baby like him eager to sink their feet into the sand and finger the wind against their skins . They quietly stockpiled supplies . They made caloric gear . They learned how to set finger cymbals and purify water . When the key council got breaking wind of their plans , Rafi had been berated as an apocalyptist . But Sienna had understood his commission . After the office sent his home , Sienna show up at his tail holding a ship in a bottle , one of the many relics her family safeguard . “ Someday , you ’ll check it on the outside of the dome , ” she tell him .
Now Rafi spent his nights zipped up in a one - serviceman catch some Z’s bag and his daytime reread the only Koran he ’d managed to squirrel out of the city , a leger about a distant planet made of sand . He paced the camping ground in rhythm , hoping to palpate the earth quiver beneath his foot .
And every Saturday night , he sat on the couch with Sienna and look on the city he ’d yearn to escape .
Sienna lay a helping hand on his cheek , pinprick of energy stabbing his cutis where she made impinging . “ You should really impart popcorn next time . ”
He had n’t thought to pack popcorn . dumbfound the things one misses from civilisation .
One Nox , Rafi wake up in a sweat with one thrilling intellection : he could leave . He could compact up a bag with enough rations to last him a hebdomad or so , and beg that he could extract enough wet from the air with the water aggregator . Maybe he would find another urban center , or a turn of wood that had rebound back . He did n’t know whether Sienna would follow him . He did n’t recognize which to hope for .
But then Saturday night came . He and Sienna watched the city together , and he could n’t bear the thought of leaving this behind .
*
She had called him in the night , told him to ready his coterie , that she had regain an loss . “ Did you connect with the others ? ” he had asked , his encephalon still fuzzy from nap .
“ We can get them later , ” she had whispered into the receiving system . “ I need you to see this now . ”
In the distance , the city throb with light . “ Is this it ? ” Sienna asked . “ This is my favorite part . ”
When they had reached the border of the city , half the reserve in towage , and could position their hands against the dome , she ’d force a phial from her pack . Escape in a midget ice feeding bottle . Rafi had only recollect to contain her after she had already squeezed the eye dropper .
From the couch , they could see it . The attic cracking from the bottom up . The scrap of translucent matter raining upon the cityscape . The buildings ignite in flames . “ It ’s so beautiful , ” she whispered . “ Every single time . ”
“ Sienna ? ” Rafi did n’t have the heart to watch the urban center crumble . Every Saturday night since he bequeath , he ’d sat on that couch , the one he ’d hauled from the wreckage along with the stockpile , and he watch his city bite . Every nerve in his body felt like it was on blast , pushing him to run , to see if he could economize anyone this clock time . But he always just sit on the lounge with Sienna . “ Do you forgive me ? ”
Sienna turns to him , her eyes shine in the firelight . “ I get to spend the night with you , ” she say .
And then she was gone .
That ’s how it always get . Every Saturday night , the domed stadium seem in the distance , and Sienna was wait for him on the couch . And every Saturday nighttime , after the city fell , she would vanish once again .
He ’d looked for her body in the rubble , looked every day for a month until he decide there was nothing to find . Maybe she was a ghost , fall to concede him an time of day of torture in his monotony . possibly he ’d just depart unbalanced and his hydrophobia course on a tight schedule .
Secretly , though , he hoped that he ’d never even left the dome . He hop that Sienna ’s sire or some other bureaucrat had decided he was too dangerous and locked him up inside his own mentality . Maybe the city had n’t collapse . Maybe Sienna had n’t died after all .
And if she was still live , maybe he could stand living out the rest of his life in a little niche of his mind .
Fiction
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