“A bird,” I said in astonishment.

Jack offered his hand to me. “Let’s go explore.”

“First I want to take this uniform off. I’m so hot.” We both stripped down to our clothes, and then I turned my back to him and took off the vest.

“That is a nasty bruise,” Jack said when he saw my naked back. “Does it hurt to breathe?”

“I’m getting used to it. I don’t think I broke any ribs.” I let the vest fall. It hit the ground with a thud. “I’ll never put that on again.” I pulled on my t-shirt.

“I won’t argue,” he said, letting his eyes rove up and down my body. “At least while we’re out here. But when we go back inside, it goes back on.”

He gathered up the uniforms and the vest and stashed them in the base of a tree.

I looked back from where we’d come. The huge mound of garbage that had accumulated over the past two hundred and eighty-three years was the only eyesore in what was otherwise paradise. I turned my back on the ugly mound and focused on the beauty of the woods.

“It’s amazing! I never thought I would ever see this.”

Jack breathed in deeply. “The air is so different out here. It’s so much… richer.”

I knew what he meant, and it wasn’t just the different smells. The air itself was almost inebriating. Breathing it in made me feel more alive, like all of my senses were suddenly put into overdrive.

“Is it just me or can I hear better?” I asked.

“I know what you mean. It’s as if my ears just opened up. Sounds are so much sharper out here.”

I forced my eyes to open wider and took in the sight around me. Every detail of the forest came into focus: shadowy areas dappled in sunlight, some areas dense while others were open. Then I realized the open area was a path, not unlike the footpaths we had followed in the rainforest.

“Come on,” I said to Jack excitedly.

The path was narrow, and we had to walk in single file. I could see depressions in the soil, and I knew I was looking at animal tracks. Animal tracks! Things were living out here. But it didn’t make sense. Radiation was toxic, which was the whole reason why we all lived in the safety of the Dome. But this paradise didn’t seem like a place that would kill us. It was warm and welcoming.

“I wonder what kind of animals made these tracks,” Jack said.

“I don’t know, but a few of them are huge.” I pointed to one large print that was surrounded by claw marks.

Jack gripped his rifle a little tighter. “Hopefully we don’t meet up with it.”

“Maybe it’s friendly.”

He didn’t look convinced.

I heard a distant trickling that sounded a lot like running water, and as we followed the path it became louder. We came upon a stream of water rushing past us in a hurry to get to the bottom of the mountain.

“A river!” I exclaimed.

I looked upstream and saw an animal drinking from it. It was a small and gentle- looking creature. I tapped Jack on the shoulder and pointed, not wanting to scare the animal away. He looked in astonishment.

Slowly he moved toward the river’s edge, careful not to startle the animal. He bent down, scooped water into his hand, and drank it. “It tastes fine.”

I tried some myself. It tasted sweet and refreshing. Better than the water we had in the Pit.

We both stood up, smiling at each other. I threw my arms around him, laughing at our discovery. The earth was fine!

“You know what this means?” I asked, hugging him close.

“We can save them.”

“We have to find a way back. We might even be able to get everyone out by tonight!” My mind whirled with the possibility of setting everyone free.

“Slow down,” Jack said gently. “Finding a way back in isn’t going to be easy. The Dome is a fortress.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means the Dome was built to be impenetrable. I told you getting back in was going to be a problem.”

“Can’t we go back in the way we came out?” But even I knew that was going to be impossible.

“Not even you could climb up against that air current with debris falling down on you.” He gave me a dry look. “I have maps of the Dome on my computer, and I’ll study them to find a weak point. In the meantime, my military survival training has taught me that our first order of business should be to find food, water, and shelter. Water we’ve found. Shelter is next.”

“Can’t we explore first?”

“We can explore while we look for shelter. I don’t know what time of day it is, but I don’t think it’s in sync with the Dome.”

We walked along the edge of the meandering river and saw several more animals along its shore. I was surprised by the amount of wildlife there was considering I had been taught to believe everything out here was dead. I couldn’t believe we had been living inside the Dome all this time when we could have been out here, free.

“Head down that path,” Jack said from behind me. “There are too many animals by the river to make camp here.”

I saw a path leading away from the river and followed it. As we walked through the forest, the sound of rushing water became fainter, and once again we could hear birds cawing and whistling at each other. Large rocks jutted out of the ground in places, speckled with bits of foliage growing in their crevices. It looked like something out of a movie.

“Wait,” Jack said. Something in the tone of his voice put me on edge. He bent down to examine something on the ground. “Look at this.”

I went back to take a look and saw long tracks dug deep into the ground. My eyes followed the length of the track, and I realized it stretched far behind us and far in front of us. It was one long continuous track.

“What are they?” I asked. The tracks didn’t belong to an animal.

“They’re tire tracks.”

Then we heard it—the low hum of a motor coming closer to us. I was about to suggest we hide when something came crashing through the forest and stopped in front of us. It was a man dressed in tattered clothes, his eyes looking at us wildly.

“Don’t just stand there!” he screamed. “RUN!”

End of Book One

A note from the author, S.M. McEachern:

 

If you enjoyed reading Sunset Rising, you may be interested in reading the Satellite Stories I am creating to go along with the series. Satellites are short stories designed to give the reader greater insight into areas of the story that the main character, Sunny, cannot see. They are an accompaniment to the series, but not a necessity. They’re just for fun! My first Satellite will be posted on February 1, 2013. For updates, you can follow me on Twitter:

Blog: http://smmceachern.wordpress.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/smmceachern

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/S.M.McEachernAuthor

Published by Clownfish Publishing

Copyright 2012 by S. M. McEachern

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express prior permission of the copyright owner.

Summary:

In a post-apocalyptic world, seventeen-year-old Sunny O’Donnell unwittingly starts a rebellion when she marries Jack Kenner.

Young Adult (16+) Science Fiction/Dystopian

Cover Art and Design: Nathália Suellen (www.ladysymphonia.com)

Edited by: Laura Koons, Red Adept Editing Services (www.redadeptpublishing.com)

Proofreader: Christina Galvez (http://bookexpectations.wordpress.com)

Author’s blog site: http://smmceachern.wordpress.com

ISBN: 978-0-9917330-0-2

ASIN: B009G321O0

Revised Kindle Edition September 2013