Page 52 of After the Storms

“Don’t you think you did it for a reason?” I plead. “You weren’t wanting a little chaos to change things?”

“I wanted…” There’s no good way to end that sentence, and he rises, refusing to look at me or say the thoughts out loud. I feel the scream that’s about to escape from his chest because I feel it just as much.

“I… I need a minute,” he says, walking away and slamming the door of the bathroom. I hear water running and him stomping around, and I look over the drawing again, trying to make sense of every line and note. If only Sam had enough time to get more information for me. If he’d known we were coming, he could have helped us understand what this all means.

Alex takes his time, but I don’t move from the couch. We have to leave soon, and being late isn’t an option. The door creaks open, and I let out a sigh of relief when I notice he looks calmer.

“What happens if we hand that over to someone? What’s in it for us?” Alex stands in the doorway, rubbing his hands with a towel. He throws it into the sink and comes back over, sitting beside me on the couch. “If it’s out of our hands, we won’t be part of any escape plan. It’s the same as burning it. Safer for us if we do.”

“They might try to use it in some way, even if there’s no chance of escape. It’s a distraction, a chance for the Eminent to look away from us,” I offer. “And what if it works? What if people could get out?”

Alex tightens his jaw, looking at the ground rather than meeting my gaze.

“Could you get on a team going above ground?” I ask. “Could you try? They’ll try to do this when Dean comes, which will be soon. He’s not a man with patience. Maybe you could… see if there’s any opening in the ground outside if you went up there.”

“Fuck off,” he snaps, standing and throwing the paper across the room. He takes a few long strides back to the bathroom, where he’ll surely slam the door and stare at nothing because he broke the mirror in his last tantrum. This room may be bigger than most, but there aren’t a lot of places to escape from each other.

“Frederick knows about it!” I yell out. “He was at a meeting about it. I swear to you, I swear on the lives of my kids.” I rush to the papers, pick them up, and walk over to him. “You tell him you know he attended a meeting to overthrow the Eminent, but you’ll stay quiet if he gives this to the right people.” I slam the pages against his chest, turn on my heel, and head back to the couch.

“How the fuck do you know all the things you do? You’ve been with me since you woke up?”

I writhe my hands and bite my lip, unsure how to answer. “I need you to trust me.”

Alex stands frozen in the bathroom doorway, and my heart pounds in my chest. I still think we can find a way out of the tunnel that almost reaches the surface, but someone needs this drawing. We can’t just walk through their construction, and if they finish the work, this has something that could tell everyone what stands between us and freedom. There’s a reason I have it. I feel it.

“Please, Alex. Ask him. He’s your friend. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I don’t have friends down here,” he sneers. “I don’t have a wife.” He points a shaking finger at his temple. “All I’ve got is a little rat that trying to feed a disease into my mind. Stop it, Row.”

He walks back into the bathroom, shutting the door between us and ending our conversation.

But he doesn’t take the drawing and destroy it. He lets it fall to the floor outside the door, and I know he’s in there thinking things over, deciding if he can trust me.

Alex has the pages in his hands while I get dressed. I see him from the corner of my eye slide them into his vest while he narrows his eyes in my direction. We don’t speak of it, but I allow a flutter of hope to grow inside my heart.

As we walk toward the Eminent’s floor, I try to convince myself things will work out. I could argue it either way.

Depending on how you look at it, my family has been lucky at every turn or experienced every misfortune imaginable. We saved Luke just in time, twice. We’ve survived even when we were stowaways, and when Dean had men on the Galene watching our every move. My psychotic stalker keeps us on the run, but also saves my life.

Things fit together for us somehow. I can’t believe that meeting Sam and becoming a family with BeLew and our daughter was for nothing. We have a chance. The storms are over, or the worst of them are, and if we could just get out…

The elevator opens to a foreign floor, snapping me out of my thoughts. We step out onto plush carpets and soft lighting. Paintings hang in a perfect line up and down the hall, and they’re not just any boring art. I recognize the pieces but can’t put my finger on them until I notice the larger piece that stands out from the rest. It’s familiar, and a memory from my french history class comes back. I stared at this artwork for an entire semester, and I think it was the subject of one of my papers.

“Is that theLiberty Leading the People?” I ask.

Alex crinkles his nose. “What?”

I slow my steps as I pass it, and I’m sure it’s the same painting exhibited in the Louvre a few years ago. I resist the urge to touch it and hurry to catch up to Alex, only to see The Venus de Milo.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I rush out.

“Yeah, I recognize that one,” Alex says. He’s nonchalant, unaffected by the pieces of history we’re milling around. “Stay here and admire it. Don’t move.”

I stay in place, but notice Frederick and Lori appear from the corner of my eye. She finds her way next to me, gawking the same way at the artwork surrounding us. Our jaws hang open, staring at the pieces.

“Well, that’s audacious,” she whispers.

“Is it?” I sigh. “What didn’t they collect if they wanted it? Everyone was just worried about food — survival. Shit like that.”

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