Steel Lily ARC Read Online Free PDF

without a word. We didn’t need to say anything.
    There wasn’t anything to say.
    We’d just cost Legs a year of military service, if he was lucky. If he wasn’t…well, I shuddered to think of what they would do to him.
    I opened the door to the basement cautiously. The stairs were a mess. I sighed. “I’ll get those fixed this weekend when classes are out.”
    “Don’t worry about it. Just go.”
    “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
    Alice’s sigh was one of defeat. She tried to stay upbeat, more for my cause than her own I sometimes suspected, but I could tell this place was sucking the joy out of her. It took everyone’s joy. I looked back in time to catch her pull a smile together, but I knew it was a façade. No one wanted to live like this. “Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow. Do you want me to meet you at Wutherford? I could come up with an excuse.”
    “No, don’t risk it after tonight. I’ll come here.”
    Alice smiled. “Because that’s so much safer.”
    “They need me for steam, remember?”
    “God bless radiation exposure making you go all night-light and what not.”
    I pushed her shoulder, then hopped over the missing stair. “Yeah, well, this night light needs to get back to Wutherford. Lay low tomorrow, promise?”
    “Promise.”
    She shut the door and left me in near darkness. I fished my oxygen mask back out and stood there for a moment to allow my eyes to adjust to the automatic night vision of the contraption. The muffled click of Alice locking the door reached me, and I headed out.
    Keeping to the edge of the Dome, I looked through the rippled glass to the abandoned world beyond. Buildings and cars were swathed in an eerie green glow by the goggles. Suitcases littered the ground, like their owners would be right back for them. A tattered teddy bear missing one eye laid face up, staring into the nothingness.
    And yet it felt as though the bear was staring at me. Accusing me. Expecting me to fix the mess that humanity was in, one steam donation at a time.
    I wondered if there were people out there trying to get in when the Polatzi sealed the gateway. I wondered if people begged to get in here; begged for their lives.
    And here I was, practically begging to get out.
    Funny how the grass was always greener on the other side, even when I knew the other side was dead and desolate.

CHAPTER
    FOUR
    Sleep hadn’t come easily last night, and even now I knew I should sleep, but my mind wouldn’t shut off.
    The image of Legs kicking and screaming as the Polatzi pulled him away still played over and over in loops in my mind. A fresh wave of guilt washed over me, and I vowed I would somehow repay him.
    To my left, cogs whirred to life and pulled back the curtain of my ceiling-to-floor window. Out the oversized window I could look down on the rest of Dome Four, literally.
    It made me sick. I hated heights, and watching everyone else struggle below was something a sadist might enjoy, in my opinion.
    My room wasn’t anything spectacular. An old cedar chest of drawers sat against the wall across from my bed. On top was a steam-powered clock that I kept running on my own. I wouldn’t use any of the Dome’s steam. There were others that needed it for more pressing matters.
    I peeled myself out of the cotton sheets of my bed and went to shower. The intercom spluttered and informed me of the date, time, and temperature. I had twenty minutes before the airbus left for the other side of the Dome, where my Elemental Concepts course was held.
    There was no time to dry my hair, so I grabbed the first beanie on the pile of Alice’s creations and put it on. It was green and matched the old military jacket I’d found in an old surplus shop.
    With my bag and mask in hand, I headed to the door.
    Except when I opened it, there was someone standing there, waiting on me.
    A Polatzi woman stood in front of me, her broad body blocking the view of my intended hallway. Her hands were on her hips, and her piercing gaze felt