Sunset Rising by S. M. McEachern

Author:S. M. McEachern
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Young Adult, sci-fi, Action & Adventure, fiction, Romance, Science Fiction
ISBN: 0991733037
Publisher: Clownfish Publishing
Published: 2012-09-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Jack was asleep in the chair when I got back to the apartment. I shut the door behind me as quietly as I could, but he awoke. He looked drained. The circles under his eyes were every bit as dark as the coal smudged through his hair.

“You had to work late again?” he asked.

“I guess that’s the way of the laundry room. Ready to go for dinner?”

He nodded groggily and put on his hat. I could tell he didn’t really want to go. He was exhausted and needed to sleep.

I headed toward the sixth-floor common room. Not that I really wanted to see Reyes, but he would wonder why I had disappeared if I didn’t talk to him. I didn’t want him to come looking for me and create a scene on the floor where we lived. It was better to let him down closer to his own home and far from ours.

The common room was already quite full when we joined the line for food. Reyes was there with Raine and Mica. Although Raine and Mica were both married, I rarely saw them out with their wives. They were always hanging around Reyes.

There was an empty seat next to Reyes, and he patted it when he saw me in line. I headed toward him once we received our food rations, and Jack followed mutely behind. I would talk to Reyes privately once we were done eating.

“So is he going to follow you everywhere now?” Reyes asked.

Jack was midway to sitting down and stood back up. “I don’t mind sitting at another table.” He turned to leave.

“Stop it, Reyes! Jack, sit down.”

Jack hesitated a moment, then returned to his seat.

“You can’t expect me to hang out with this bourge and like it,” Reyes said.

“Yeah, your boy got his butt kicked again today,” Raine said, looking at Jack.

Again? I gave Jack a confused look. He was too good of a fighter to get his butt kicked. “You didn’t tell me anything,” I said to him.

“You can’t blame the guards, the way he walks around down there like he owns the place,” Reyes said, never taking his eyes off Jack.

I knew what he meant; Jack reeked of authority. He had a confident demeanor about him that wasn’t common in the Pit. It was bound to get him into trouble with the guards. But I still couldn’t imagine Jack putting up with someone beating him.

“What happened?” I asked Jack.

“We’ll talk about it later,” he said.

Reyes snickered. “The guards like picking on him. He backs down pretty fast. Not so big down here in the Pit, are ya?”

Raine and Mica laughed, too.

I was suddenly overcome with pity for Jack. “Reyes, that’s enough! You’re behaving like a child.”

“What? I’m the bad guy here?” Reyes turned to look at me. I had never seen him look at me that way before. Was it anger? Hatred? “The president wants to kill you because of that bourge, and I poke a little fun at him and I’m the bad guy?”

“He isn’t the bad guy either.

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