The Dreaming: Dark Star (Book 5)

1.1 The Note (Imorah)

**The year is 2261, and the location is a technologically advanced underground bunker called The Shelter.**

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Imorah awoke in the familiar dark of her room and sat bolt upright in bed. Her heart was thudding. She listened intently, and looked into the pitch darkness around her. The room was absolutely silent.

Did I fall asleep? she wondered. The last thing she remembered, she'd been waiting in bed for Sister Nita to fall asleep, so she could sneak out.

Shit! she thought, I dozed off.

She groped in the dark for her tablet on the bedside table — it was H31.5 right now. Damn! Just four and a half short hours until people woke up and started looking for her.

Imorah's heart raced. She threw the blankets off and stood up, and pocketed her tablet. She was already dressed — hadn't in fact gotten undressed — and she walked to the door of her room to listen to Nita breathing in the room next door. She quietly pulled aside the curtains, and listened closely. Yes, Nita was asleep.

Imorah returned to her bed, turned the lamp to its lowest setting, and reached under her bed to get the bag she'd packed. The bag she'd hastily made out of shirts she'd stolen while working in the laundry yesterday. It was packed with the few precious things she owned: a large piece of amethyst crystal wrapped in an embroidered cloth made by her grandma, a small portrait of her mother, and another change of clothes.

She took a book from her bedside table that she'd been reading, and opened it to where she'd hidden the small slip of paper.

It was an anonymous note she'd found in her shoe yesterday, addressed to her.

She opened the folded paper and smoothed it flat to read it again in the dim light:

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"Imorah,

Your grandmother is still alive.

She's above ground, and she needs your help.

You must escape The Shelter before convocation, before you join the Praetoria.

Find the exit that your grandmother used. You know where it is."

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Imorah bit her lip, feeling her stomach lurch with anxiety as she read the horrible note. It was absolutely horrible — everything about it made her sick to her stomach.

Convocation was in five days, when Imorah turned sixteen and officially became an adult. After the ceremony, she would leave The Shelter to start her training in the Praetoria.

It wasn't something she'd ever looked forward to, and this note made the thought of it all so much worse. Why do I need to leave before convocation? she wondered. And what exit had grandmother used? Imorah didn't know any exits. Except the one The Family had used 60 years ago, when they'd descended underground. That was before Imorah's time, and that exit was behind a secured wall. There was no way Imorah could access it.

She put the note in her breast pocket and shouldered her makeshift bag.

She had to get to the library without anyone seeing her, and it was now or never. This was one of the rare times the rotations converged and almost everyone in the Shelter would be sleeping.

She turned off the lamp and navigated in the dark to the main living space where Nita was sleeping. She was careful to be as quiet as possible, but knew that it was unlikely Nita would wake up.