There Once Were Stars by Melanie McFarlane Page A

about it.”
    “Did she write more than one notebook?” Evan asks.
    I shake my head. “I’m the only one who’ll ever remember her dreams. No one can take that from me.”
    Evan reaches over and squeezes my hand, but doesn’t let go. I intertwine my fingers through his, and look up into his eyes. Butterflies are jumping in my stomach.
    “Do you think it will be bad? The site, I mean. Do you think there will be anything left of the horror from that night they died?”
    He shakes his head and squeezes my hand again. “It’s been almost a decade. If the Order didn’t wipe that place clean, I’m sure time and the elements have.”
    I lean my head back again, letting the wind run free in my hair. But this time I can feel Evan’s touch, even with the suits between us.
    We travel another twenty minutes before Roe stops. There’s nothing here but a small hole carved from the edge of the foothills. No blood. No horror. Just rocks and dirt. What did I expect? Maybe I am a foolish kid.
    Roe climbs out of the truck to address us all. “This is our first expedition. You’ll notice that we didn’t bring much for supplies, just our basic work tools. I want us to catalogue everything we find and take photos. This is a trial run, only. If all is successful, our next expedition will be a full day. Everyone understand?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    Evan climbs out of the truck in front of me. “You okay?” he asks as he grabs my hands and helps me down.
    “Kind of silly to think there’d be something left behind. It’s really a wasteland, isn’t it?”
    “No.” He’s still holding onto my hands. “It’s not silly at all. Why wouldn’t you be curious?”
    I look up into Evan’s eyes. Maybe he doesn’t think I’m so childish after all. He shifts uncomfortably in his protection suit and I smile. It’s nice to see him out of sorts for once. His confidence is sometimes stifling.
    Unlike the sandy ground surrounding the dome, the ground here is a darker soil. I push my foot into the dirt and kick some of it up. It’s dry and brittle. But there still isn’t any sign of life.
    “These areas would have once been farmlands,” Evan explains. “You can tell by how far the site is from the dome. All the domes were small cities before they were covered. They installed the Axis tower at the same time the dome was erected, and then reinforced most of the buildings inside to withstand time, until people could be moved to the outside again.”
    “Evan, Greyes,” Roe looks at us with the same irritation I’m used to from Grandmother, “go make yourselves useful, would you? This isn’t a date. Walk the perimeter and if you see anything, do not approach it. Got it? Report back here instantly if there’s a problem.”
    I eye the firearm at Roe’s side. Easy to say, when you’re an Order member and allowed to carry protection. I wish I had something more than a camera and clipboard to protect me from whatever could be out there.
    “Don’t look so spooked.” Evan bumps my shoulder as we walk into the foothills.
    “Is anything alive out here?”
    “Seriously, Greyes? What do you think is out here?”
    He laughs and I bite down on the inside of my cheek, wishing he was more sensitive about my lack of knowledge.
    “Something obviously killed my parents.”
    His laugh cuts off short. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think of that. I was out here for weeks with Alec. We didn’t see anything, well except maybe a mouse, or the odd bird. But other than those, not a single living thing.”
    “Really?” Mice and birds are alive only in storybooks, when you’ve been closed in a dome for your entire life. But it’s not living things I’m afraid of; it’s the childhood stories about the infected, monsters who come to get little children while they lie in their beds. I know one could never get in the dome, but out here, who knows what’s survived. That childhood fear still lies somewhere deep inside me.
    “Have you ever seen an