There Once Were Stars Read Online Free Page B

elevator, the fluorescent lights flickering above my head like the stars outside. What on earth could be happening on B2?
    The elevator dings and the doors slide open. I gasp—the Outsider is standing in the middle of a small group of Order members. His right eye can barely open and is turning a terrible shade of purple, and his body is slumped forward, held up by the Order on either side of him. Our eyes connect and for a moment I see something mischievous spark inside them. A smile plays at the edge of his mouth, making my stomach twist in discomfort. Does he recognize me from the clearing?
    “You have to wait for this one to come back down Miss … ” an Order member peers down at my ID card, “ … Greyes.” She lifts an eyebrow, as she speaks my last name.
    “Okay,” I say quietly stepping back from the doors.
    “Don’t make her wait for me,” the Outsider speaks up. “By all means, where are your manners. Shouldn’t it be ladies first ?” He winks at me. “I don’t know what passes for etiquette in this dome. It’s not as if I’m going anywhere.”
    The group looks uncomfortable. Someone coughs and another clears his throat.
    “We are going up quite a ways, sir,” one of the younger Members speaks up from the rear of the elevator. “She looks like she’s going home. Only has one floor to go.”
    “Well, she can’t ride with him in here,” the Member in the front dictates. He looks back at me, obviously irritated by my unintended interruption.
    “Fine. Everyone off.”
    “And they say chivalry is dead,” the Outsider says, winking at me again as he passes by. “Make sure to send it back down for us,” he says, leaning toward me. “And don’t forget to watch your step, Miss … Greyes, was it?”
    I tear my eyes away from him, my heart racing in my chest as my name rolls off his tongue. I duck into the elevator, still able to smell the earthy odor of the outside on his skin. As I step inside, I see something crumpled up on the floor and cover it with my foot. I slowly turn and press the lobby button on the elevator. As the doors close, his gaze locks with mine again, making a tingle run down my arms into my fingers. I look down at my shoe and move my foot to the side. The crumpled piece of paper stares back at me, but it’s not really a piece of paper, it’s a photo. I lean over and pick it up as the doors ding and open up.
    I stuff the photo in my pocket, hurrying off the elevator and out of the Axis. The secretary barely looks up as I rush past. What a crazy day! And I still have to get to the clearing before the Order gets there.

CHAPTER 4
     
     
    The perimeter of the fence is heavily monitored by Order members. I anxiously time their patrols and watch for an opening at my usual entrance. There, one streetlight’s beam ends for a couple feet before the next one begins, allowing me the darkness I need to slip through and enter the forest unseen.
    Trees are the perfect cover when an entire city is built to look down. Their leaves have always stretched out like a canopy, hiding me as I ran through them below. But tonight their trunks are just as useful, allowing me to stay hidden as I maneuver around Order members who are strategically placed while the Horticulturalists carry out their assignment.
    The moonlight pierces through the trees, brightening as I approach the edge of the dome. My clearing is up ahead, but I can also hear voices. I’m too late.
    “I can’t believe we got called out for one tree,” a man grumbles.
    “Had someone been more thorough the first time around,” a woman responds, “then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
    “Sounds like we’re out here because the Director flipped out over nothing, as usual.”
    “It’s that Outsider, not this tree that has him on edge.”
    The buzzing of a saw cuts off the voice then stops.
    “It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” the man speaks up.
    “What does?”
    “How did that Outsider get around without any evidence of