The Invasion of the Tearling

by Erika Johansen

  What can he possibly want with these people?

  “This is our house, Parker,” Tear replied. “The woman belongs to us. Jonathan, take her in the back and have a good time. Afterward, we might pass her around.” He sat back down at the table and gestured Parker into the other chair. “Let’s finish up.”

  Jonathan grabbed Lily’s arm roughly and began dragging her toward a door at the far end of the room.

  “Fight me,” he muttered. “Put on a show.”

  This was actually a godsend. Lily’s nerves, frayed almost bare, suddenly sprang to life, and she hauled back and punched Jonathan in the face. He took a fistful of her hair and dragged her toward the door. Lily pawed ineffectually at his shoulder, and then they were through the door and Jonathan slammed it shut, then stood her up in front of him.

  “Scream. As loud as you can.”

  Lily drew a deep breath and screamed. Jonathan let her go on for perhaps two seconds and then clamped a hand over her mouth, muffling the scream into a grunt. He released her, and Lily moved over to perch on the arm of a puffy, misshapen chair that sat against the wall.

  “Sorry about that, Mrs. M. It’s all these people understand.”

  Jonathan hurried over to a door that stood open on the far side of the room. He shut the door, but not before Lily glimpsed something enormous in the warehouse space beyond: long bars of wood crisscrossed with horizontal beams that extended out of her range of vision. Lily had the impression of a massive skeleton, wooden goliath, half finished.

  The skeleton of a ship.

  She stared at Jonathan for several long minutes, her thoughts jumbling together around this new puzzle piece. Horses and medical equipment stolen. Transcontinental jets destroyed. Satellites brought down from the sky. A wooden ship being built by hand. The river-covered land that Lily had only glimpsed in her mind, a land where there was no Security, no surveillance, nothing.

  And then she understood.

  “You’re leaving. All of you are leaving.”

  “I can’t talk about it, Mrs. M.”

  The door slammed behind them and Tear stalked into the room. “It’s set. September first.”

  “Parker gone?”

  “No. He thinks he’ll get a crack at Mrs. Mayhew here. Animals, the lot.”

  “What’s the word on the DOD feed?”

  “Those three destroyers are still sitting a few miles outside the harbor. They’re not moving, just waiting.”

  Lily’s mouth dropped open, and she stared at them, staggered. How could Tear have gotten into the Department of Defense?

  The same way they can bring the satellites down from the sky and put out the power, her mind whispered. Technology is only as good as the people who supervise it.

  “There’s radio silence all around the edge of the terminal,” Jonathan continued.

  Tear nodded. “Hard to say when they’ll come, but I’m betting soon.”

  Lily groaned, the truth tumbling into her stomach like a pile of rocks. “You already knew.”

  “Yes.”

  She sat down in the chair, covering her face with her hands. All of this . . . the entire journey, Greg . . . she had done it for nothing. She looked up at Jonathan, her cheeks blooming with furious color.

  “I tried to save you the trip, Mrs. M.”

  Another whoop came from the room outside, and Tear rolled his eyes. “That’s long enough, I suppose. Go and tell some heroic rape stories. Get them all ready to move as soon as Dori comes back. We’ll send Parker and his bunch out by the surface tunnels.”

  Jonathan left, and Tear collapsed into an armchair near the door, perching his arms on his knees. The silver eyes gleamed at Lily, even from across the room. “I’m sorry for all of this. I’d like to shoot them as dogs, but I need them.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my people are valuable, Mrs. Mayhew. They’re intelligent and well trained. Brute force would be a waste of their talents.”

  “What happens on September first?”

  “Nothing you want to know about. How did you get here?”

  “I drove.”

  “Husband let you out in the middle of the night for a romp, did he?”

  “I think I killed him.”

  Tear looked up sharply.

  “I bashed him on the head and left him there.” Lily didn’t want to keep talking, but it was like that night in the nursery; the words tumbled out. “He wanted to me to have a baby. He wanted to take me to an in vitro doctor. It didn’t matter what I wanted.”

  Tear nodded. “It’s a problem. Women are selling their eggs for the price of a small bag of meth, but the rewards on the other end are enormous.”

  Lily considered for a moment. “I wanted to kill him.”

  “Well, you’ll be facing a world of hurt when you get home, one way or another.”

  Lily nodded.

  “Leave your car here. Security’s ringed the port; there’s no way you got in without their notice. They’ve seen your car and marked it as belonging to my people. Leave it here and Jonathan will take you home. You can claim you were carjacked and called him to come get you.”

  “My tag will show I’ve been here.”

  “That’s true,” he replied, and Lily saw that he’d only been trying to make her feel better.

  Three quick knocks and Jonathan came back in. “Dori’s back, sir. Nothing new out there. I told Parker we’re leaving soon.”

  “Is the gear all packed?”

  “Five minutes.”

  Tear gestured toward the closed door on the far side of the room. “Pity we didn’t have more notice. I hate to leave her here.”

  “When?” Lily blurted out. “When are you leaving?”

  “What makes you think we’re leaving?”

  “You are,” Lily muttered, her throat hoarse with tears. “On a ship.”

  “And where do you think we’re going?”

  “To the better world.”

  Tear leaned forward. Lily was struck again by his silver eyes, which seemed to reflect even the dim glow provided by the fluorescents. “Why did you come here, Mrs. Mayhew? This has nothing to do with you, and you took an enormous risk. Why?”

  Lily couldn’t answer. As a child, she used to pick a single item and stare at it for as long as possible, until her eyes had dried out and her gaze had lost all focus. She remembered taking a vast pleasure in having her gaze so captured, in being transfixed, and now she could not take her eyes from William Tear. She followed each of his movements, even the small ones: the rapid flicker of his eyes across her face, the tap of his fingers on one knee, the clench of his jaw. All things seemed to center on Tear, to hinge on him.

  I believe it.

  In that moment, Lily believed it all. There was a better world out there, somehow, and it was close . . . almost within their reach. The wheat, the bright blue river, the endless trees. If Tear asked her to die for the better world, she would do it. She wouldn’t even need to think. And if he asked Lily to die for him, she would do that too. She had never felt anything so deeply in her life.

  Her eyes had watered again; Lily tore her blurry gaze from Tear and wiped her arm across her face. When she looked up, she found Jonathan watching her, a small smile on his face. He reached out a hand and Lily clasped it in both of hers, gripping tightly. She didn’t want to let go; she thought she might drown.

  “The better world,” she gasped. “I see it. All the time.”

  “We all see it, Mrs. M.”

  Tear reached beneath her chin and tipped her face up with one finger. His eyes were so brilliant now that they seemed to glow in the dim light. “What do you see, Lily?”

  “Water,” Lily stammered. “Blue water, then cliffs, then land. Yellow land, covered with wheat. And there’s a village on a hill, next to a river. Children.”

  “What are they doing?”

  “I don’t know,” Lily admitted. “But they’re free. They’re all free.”

  Tear smiled and released her chin
. “This is the Blue Horizon.”

  Lily began to cry.

  “Five years ago,” Tear continued, “when we asked to secede, I had planned to create the better world myself, to take a small corner of America and remake it. Despite its blight, this country is an incredible creation, and a piece of it would have served us well. But it’s just as well they turned us down, for it would never have worked. Parker, people like him, they’re built to spoil things. They would never have left us alone. If not them, it would be your government, finding seller’s remorse ten or fifteen years down the line. If we made the better world in a place where others could reach it, they would only try to tear it down.”

  Lily wiped away her tears. “There’s no more land. Where can you go?”

  “The world is bigger than you think.”

  “Why do they get to come along?” she asked. “Those people outside?”

  “Parker’s people?” Tear chuckled bitterly. “Parker’s people sell their children and trade women for food. They don’t get anywhere near the better world.”

  “Sir,” Jonathan muttered from the door. Listening, Lily heard voices raised in argument outside, then a quick, light hum that she thought might be silenced laser fire. Tear gestured for her to stand, and she pulled herself from the chair. She didn’t know how tired she was until she tried to stand up.

  “I apologize, Lily, but there’s no way around this. Hold still and close your eyes.”

  Lily shut her eyes. Her head rocked back as a short, sharp blow landed on the corner of her mouth. There was very little pain, but she tasted blood. Tear smeared the blood across her chin, then tore the neck of her shirt in two places. “Just for show; it’ll heal quickly. Don’t forget to limp.”

  Jonathan opened the door and Tear dragged Lily outside. Dorian was blocking the doorway, her rifle trained on Parker and his men. They reminded Lily of wolves who had treed an animal.

  “This bitch is out of her mind!” Parker shouted. “Tell her to stand down!”

  “Security has ringed us. We need to get out of here now.”

  “We didn’t see anyone.”

  “Wonderful.” Tear’s voice was acid. “You have access to satellite imagery, do you?”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Fine. Stay and wait for them.”

  Parker’s one good eye gleamed with hatred. “How do we get out?”

  Tear bent to the floor and swung up a trapdoor, revealing steps that descended into darkness. Parker gave Dorian one last furious look, then squatted to peer down the stairs.

  “Flashlights?”

  “No flashlights. Our heat signature will be risky enough. It’s a straight shot through the tunnels into downtown Boston.”

  “What about the wall bitch?”

  “Jonathan likes her. He wants to take her with.”

  Parker stared at Lily for a moment. “Ah well. Not long now, anyway.”

  He made for the trapdoor, but Tear stopped him with a hand on his chest. “We have an agreement, Parker. September first.”

  “September first,” Parker replied, grinning, and Lily saw so much pure evil in that grin that she had to close her eyes for a moment. She called up the real world and realized that it was now the early morning of August 30. “September first, and we have our carnival.”

  Tear’s mouth twitched in disgust, but he nodded. “Into the tunnel. Look for a ladder beside a blue emergency light; it’ll bring you out beside Fenway.”

  Parker and his men went first. Perhaps thirty of Tear’s people had returned to the warehouse and gathered around the trapdoor; most of them carried guns, like Dorian, but several had nothing, only small receivers tucked into their ears and tiny metallic threads coiled around their index fingers. Computer techs.

  “Radio silence until you get outside the city,” Tear ordered. “We’ll meet at home.”

  So Arnie had been wrong; this wasn’t their headquarters after all. Lily followed Jonathan down the stairs and then they were into blackness, nothing but scraping footsteps and the jingling of straps that held the guns. Dorian was somewhere behind her, Lily knew, and she took some comfort from that. Occasionally she heard squeaking sounds somewhere near her feet, but even the scurrying proximity of rats wasn’t particularly frightening. These were safe people, and Lily trusted them to keep her safe, no matter where they were going.

  But what happens on September first? her mind asked, its tone plaintive. What’s the carnival?

  After perhaps half a mile, someone coughed in the darkness ahead and Jonathan grabbed Lily’s arm, bringing her up short. Parker and his men kept on moving, up the corridor, the sounds of their passage growing fainter, diminishing into silence.

  Jonathan pulled her to the right, whispering, “Stairs.”

  Lily felt her way down another staircase. She had gotten a second wind for a while, but it was wearing off now, and she thought that soon she might simply collapse. But she kept going, determined not to slow them down, not to be—what had they called her?—a wall bitch. It was an eerily apt term; Lily applied it to most of her friends and found that it fit.

  “Hold,” Tear announced, an eternity of time later. Lily paused, heard them all come to a halt around her.

  “Bang.”

  A deep thrumming echoed above their heads. The tunnel shook, concrete dust sifting down to land on Lily’s hair and face, getting into her eyes. A great breath of heat pushed against her back, and for a few moments, the tunnel was filled with a hollow roar of sound. Then it faded, and they stood once more in the quiet dark.

  “The better world,” someone murmured.

  “The better world,” they repeated, and Lily repeated it with them, liking the sound of her voice with theirs, hoping that no one would mind.

  After a moment, as though by collective consent, the entire group began walking again. They were moving through a labyrinth of tunnels now, sometimes going up staircases, sometimes down, sometimes slipping through narrow crevices that made Lily feel claustrophobic, trapped. She kept going, focusing on the present, for the future was not to be considered. She couldn’t imagine what was waiting for her at home.

  Perhaps twenty minutes later, she followed Jonathan up a ladder and emerged through an open manhole into a dark alley, where she found herself surrounded by dumpsters that clearly hadn’t been emptied in years.

  “Help Dori up when she comes,” Tear told Jonathan. “She won’t want help, but do it anyway. That bullet hasn’t quite finished with her yet.”

  Lily tucked her arms around herself. The air was warm in late August, but she was wet through with perspiration, and wind seemed to sneak up beneath her jacket.

  What happens on September first?

  “Get your fucking hand off me!” a voice hissed from the manhole.

  “Shut up, Dori.” Jonathan hauled her up from the hole, rifle and all. “Everyone knows how tough you are.”

  “I could put you down, South Carolina.”

  “Sure you could.”

  “We need to move.” Tear was staring at the mouth of the alley. Lily could see nothing, but she believed him; he reminded her of a dog on point, scenting danger that was invisible to the eye. After ten people had emerged from the manhole, Jonathan replaced the cover, and Lily remembered something Arnie had said once: that the Blue Horizon liked to split its forces to prevent losses. The rest must have moved on in the tunnel.

  “Come on, Mrs. M.”

  They went one at a time from the mouth of the alley, vanishing in all directions. Dorian touched Lily’s shoulder in passing, but when Lily turned, she was already gone. Tear tugged at her arm and they both followed Jonathan up a street that Lily didn’t recognize. Office buildings, long derelict, reared above both sidewalks. Each window seemed to tell its own story of breakage, and Lily heard the telltale sounds of people inside, shuffling and muttering, but she couldn’t see anyone. The glow of smog above their heads was beginning to dim with approaching dawn.

  “Get the car,” Tear said, and Jonathan mo
ved off into the mist. Lily swayed on her feet and Tear grabbed her elbow, steadying her.

  “You’re in a lot of trouble, Mrs. Mayhew. Tell as good a story as you can about the car, but Security will eventually think to look up your tag. They’ll want to know what you were doing here.”

  “Have you ever been in custody?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happens?”

  “You try to live through it.”

  “And what happens on September first?”

  Tear’s jaw tightened. “I can’t tell you.”

  “In case they torture me?”

  “Yes.”

  Lily considered this for a moment, feeling her stomach knot up. She closed her eyes, tried to think of the better world. But all she saw was the school doorway, Maddy’s tousled head disappearing forever. A car pulled up in front of them, and it took Lily a moment to recognize her Lexus, Jonathan at the wheel. The car’s sleek, black frame seemed alien, grotesque on this broken street.

  “Get in. Jonathan will take you home.”

  “Can’t I . . .” Lily took a deep breath. “Can’t I stay here, with all of you?”

  Tear looked at her for a long moment. “No, Mrs. Mayhew. I’m sorry. There are already too many. A lot of good people will be left behind.”

  Lily nodded, trying to force a smile, but Dorian’s voice rang in her head: The better world’s not for people like you. She got into the car, barely registering the plush leather seats. Tear began to close the door, and she grabbed his wrist, almost in desperation. “I don’t know how I get through this.”

  Tear put a hand on her cheek. Warmth seemed to sink into her skin, bringing her back from the cold place in her head. “I promise you, you will get through it.”

  “You can’t promise that.”

  “Yes, I can. Believe me, you’re tougher than you imagine.”

  “How do you know?”

  He withdrew his hand, straightening up. The silver eyes glimmered. “I know, Lily. I’ve known you all my life.”

  The door slammed in her face and a fist thumped twice on the roof. Jonathan floored it, and Lily was thrown back in her seat. She twisted around, wriggling until she could look out the back windshield and see William Tear staring after them, his tall frame standing military-straight under the lights of Boston.