The Terrorist (Lens Book 3)

by J B Cantwell

  Finally, thankfully, I made it to the ground, where only inches of water greeted me. I turned and ran as quietly as I could after the man. He had turned the corner right into the street.

  The idiot. He’ll be seen for sure.

  Then again, this was his turf, not mine. Maybe he even had a designation, though I wasn’t able to tell by just looking at him. Was it illegal to squat in these buildings if you were still hooked up to the system?

  I bolted half a block and ducked between two buildings into another slim alleyway. And there he was, fifty feet ahead.

  I froze, but he hadn’t heard my footfalls chasing him. He rounded another corner. Then another. Gradually, he was inching his way back toward civilization.

  I wondered what time it was. It must’ve been late for him to be taking a risk like this.

  Finally, I found myself close to my old neighborhood, and I recognized our old grocery station. I wouldn’t be able to show my face around here; there would be too many people who might recognize me. And, of course, they would wonder why my designation wasn’t visible to them. But that’s not to say that someone else in the group couldn’t come begging.

  He didn’t go to the front of the station, but around the back. I poked my head around the corner, and my heart sank.

  There was a line at the back entrance. We wouldn’t be the only ones begging for food.

  I was hungry. Really hungry. But I turned away. I was certain that most of the people in that alley had Orange designations. Though, I guessed, maybe not all. A Green designation didn’t automatically mean credits for food. I remembered my own hungry childhood, my mother taking up most of the credits with her drinking. Most days I’d been lucky to get a share of nutrition squares.

  I walked away, stomach rumbling. We’d had no food since we’d escaped from the Burn. Hiding out had been relatively easy in the abandoned neighborhoods, but none of us had had a bite to eat in almost a week. Luckily, most of the houses we squatted in during the day still had running water, so we weren’t going to die.

  It just felt like it.

  I started the long walk back to where the group was hiding, so far outside the city that few people were seen. And, like in our earlier days of travel, most of the buildings were waterlogged and long abandoned.

  I wasn’t sure of the time, but I knew that the walk would take about three hours. Hopefully, the group would be waiting, ready to travel once I arrived. The longer we waited, the hungrier we would get. And the more likely it was that we would get caught.

  I dashed from alley to alley all the way to the bridge that ran over the Narrows. Even though it was all but deserted, I was still careful, walking across the lower deck, praying nobody would cross and notice me. The previous night, only two cars had passed by. There had been nowhere to hide, so I simply turned and looked out over the water. Maybe a suicidal girl wouldn’t concern them.

  Neither of them had stopped. It had been Saturday night last night. Maybe they had been rich, on their way into the city for some event that rich people took part in. A party? An affair? It didn’t matter.

  Now, with eighteen of us, it would take all night to get the group across. Maybe two nights.

  I started a jog once I set foot on the bridge, and made it across without incident. No cars tonight.

  I felt like I’d been holding my breath the entire time.

  Safe now.

  I let my breath go and hid behind a steel pillar, trying to get ahold of myself. Once I calmed myself enough, I climbed down from the bridge and started toward the empty building on Tompkins Avenue.

  The water was high here, too, but only ankle deep. Only enough to scare the people away from living here.

  I’d considered the idea of squatting here instead of in Brooklyn, but now that I’d found such a good hiding place for us all, I knew my intuition had been right. And, I knew, there were several other food stations scattered around the city. We would be okay.

  The building came into view, and I ducked around the back side where an emergency door promised entry. I knocked on it, and a few moments later, it opened.

  “Melanie!”

  I stepped inside and hugged her, relieved that I’d made it back in time.

  “There’s a problem,” she said immediately, pushing back on my shoulders so we were face to face.

  “What? What problem?”

  “David and Zach never came back last night.”

  My stomach sank. They had been on a food mission. And if they’d been caught, they could be tortured, forced to give our game away.

  Suddenly, time was of the essence. I ignored the protestation of the blisters on my toes and pushed past Melanie.

  Everyone was gathered in two of the rooms of an old apartment, most of them asleep on the floor.

  “Go wake up the people in the bedroom,” I said to Melanie.

  She crossed the room and poked her head inside.

  “Hey guys,” I said, trying to wake those in the living room gently.

  A few sets of eyes fluttered open, and people started to sit up, shaking their neighbors on the floor awake. People from the bedroom began filing in, and soon the entire group was there, waiting. Their faces glowed like ghosts in the moonlight streaming in through the window.

  Not ghosts. Not yet.

  “I found a space,” I said. “The bottom floors are underwater, but the space is hidden and big enough for all of us.”

  “Is there food?” one man asked. Jared.

  “There are grocery stations. And there’s clean water. It’s totally hidden from the street, and you basically need to swim to get in. I think we can make a go of it.”

  “Wait a minute,” he said. “We need to go underwater every time we need to leave? That doesn’t sound like such a great place.”

  “Shut it, Jared,” Melanie said. “She just risked her neck for all of us, going in alone.”

  There was a low murmur that ran through the group. Agreement? Dissent?

  “Nobody needs to come. And no, we don’t need to swim every time. There’s a ladder. I know some of you are thinking about heading north. Jared, you should join that group if that’s your opinion. But for anyone who wants to stay and fight, that’s where I’ll be.”

  Silence.

  I went on.

  “Melanie told me that David and Zach never made it back last night. Have you heard anything?”

  Heads shook. Irritation flared in me.

  “You guys need to think. As soon as they were confirmed gone, you should’ve abandoned this place. They could be captured at this point. They could be telling the Guard where we are right now.”

  “Oh, come on,” one woman said. “They would never give us away.”

  “Oh, really?” I countered. “It seems to me if I had a gun to my head, I’d at least be tempted to give the rest of you up. Does every single one of you feel certain that you wouldn’t do the same to save your own life?”

  “Why would we?”

  “Pain can be a brutal encouragement. An effective one.”

  That one I knew from experience.

  “We need to get out of here. Now. I was going to have us go two at a time from here, but I think we should all hide by the entrance to the bridge before we start to split up. We can go one by one across the span. We can time it. I’ll give each of you information about how to get there. Hopefully, we can all be in by the end of the night.”

  “What if one of us gets caught?” Mila, the injured girl spoke up. “We should have some sort of plan for that.”

  “I’m not going to tell you the final destination. Not yet. We’ll meet you at the back entrance to the grocery station. That way, if anyone gets caught, our plan won’t be compromised.”

  Most nodded in agreement, and everyone got to their feet. Three men and a woman who had decided to try their luck in Canada approached me.

  “Good luck to you guys,” I said. “Just go north. Once you’re up there you can ask for asylum. The man my friend and I met there
had done it. He’s a Canadian citizen now. He’s got a job and a house. You’ll have a shot. But it’ll be rough going to get there.”

  “Thank you,” one man said, “for getting us out of there. For getting us this far.”

  He held out his hand, and I shook it firmly.

  “Look us up if you end up there, yourselves,” he said.

  I tried to knock the scowl off my face, to look kind, but the truth was I was feeling anything but kind at the moment. My true feelings were somewhere between terror and determination.

  “Good luck,” I said. Then I turned to the group. “Good luck to us all.”

  Chapter Three

  We didn’t all make it across.

  I had given everyone directions to make it to the first landmark, but not the second, just in case. Now, the last two of our group were missing, never showing up at the other side of the bridge.

  I should’ve stayed back.

  And it was true; I should’ve. That was what a true leader would have done.

  But I had gone first, wanting to clear the path for everyone to follow.

  It was only a matter of time now, though. David and Zach would be forced to tell what they knew about us. To someone. The Service? The Guard? It didn’t seem to matter.

  “We need to go,” I said to the rest. “Stay together. We’ll do two groups, six each. Melanie?”

  “You got it,” she said. “But where?”

  I leaned in to whisper in her ear. She would be the only person who knew our planned destination. It was better that way, safer.

  “We’ll meet at the back alley of the food station at East 7th and Avenue C. I’ll hang back. We can hide while we wait for you to get farther out. If you get captured, just tell them the truth. You escaped the Burn, and since then you’ve been following a crazy person. Tell them you don’t know where you’re going, only where you’ll meet next. It’ll be easy to remember if it’s true.”

  I turned to her group. “Go,” I said. “Get off the bridge as fast as you can.”

  The group turned and rushed away, but Melanie hung back.

  “What do you really think?” she asked, her voice low.

  I paused, watching the group dash away from our hiding spot at the end of the bridge.

  “I think we’re in trouble,” I whispered. “Get them there safe, and hide as soon as you can. There are only thirteen of us now. If anyone gets caught on their own, leave them behind and find a new place to go. We won’t be able to save them.”

  It was disgusting, what I was proposing, so much like the mandate in the Service to leave the wounded behind, even if their lives could be saved.

  But this was war. We had to leave them behind. There would be no hope of breaking them free once they were caught. They were as good as dead.

  The thought made me sick to my stomach.

  All of this carnage because of me. Because of the crazy plan I’d had to break out of the burning plants.

  Everyone wanted out. It wasn’t just me.

  But that thought didn’t change the fact that many, many men and women had died as a result of the riot that had followed my call that day. My call for action.

  Had it been for selfish reasons alone? Whom, exactly, had I been trying to save?

  We waited ten minutes before starting off. I knew the part of town where the bridge ended, and I led my group in a different direction than what I’d told Melanie.

  I was headed for the washed out building I had claimed for us.

  Headed home.

  The rope was gone. I couldn’t see well in the dark, but I hoped this meant only that he’d pulled it back up to the fire escape when he’d returned. By now, he surely knew that I had gone. What I didn’t know was whether he knew I’d used his own personal exit to do so.

  “We’re going to have to get into the water,” I said, turning. “We’ll have to figure something out once we’re settled, but for now, it’s time to swim.”

  “Swim?” Mila asked. She was still clutching her side where a bullet had pierced through her flesh, but she had been mobile for the past week, forcing herself to keep up with the rest of us.

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “It’s only waist deep. But there’s a current. You’re going to need to hold on and push your way through to the entrance.”

  “I’ll get you,” Josh said to her. The two had been joined at the hip since our escape, him helping her out, sometimes even carrying her when she passed out from the pain.

  It was amazing that she’d made it this far.

  “Okay, everybody ready?” I asked.

  Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.

  I took it as a yes.

  I turned and started splashing my way through the flooded alley, the group following me single file as the water got deeper and deeper. It was colder than I remembered, and I shivered. Then, turning the corner, the current hit me.

  Don’t stop.

  I put my hand behind my back.

  “Grab on! Everyone stay together!”

  It was risky, speaking so loudly, but it was a message I had to get across, especially for Mila’s sake.

  I pushed against the water until I got to the storefront. I made my way into the building and out of the current. One by one, the others joined me, and at the very end of the line, Mila was passed out in Josh’s arms.

  Still alive, though.

  “Come on,” I said, relieved that we had all made it inside. “It’s not far to the dry part of the building.”

  They followed closely behind me, and together we made our way up the stairwell to the fourth floor. I waited at the top.

  “Is she alright?” I said to Josh. I could barely see, but when I touched her arm, she was stone cold.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Where is this place? Let’s just get there.”

  I turned and rushed down the hallway to the door halfway down, to the room that would hide us all.

  But it was blocked.

  The man had barricaded it with several scrap pieces of wood and a few rusty nails.

  He didn’t want us staying. There was no other explanation.

  I kicked at one of the boards in frustration.

  We were weak. Every last one of us. We needed to find a way in that wouldn’t require brute force. I wracked my brain, trying to think about whether or not I’d seen any tools lying about. But no, there had been nothing.

  I slumped down to the floor, exhausted.

  “Everybody sit,” I said. “We’ll figure something out.”

  Outside, the sky was beginning to lighten. There wasn’t much time, but I was so tired.

  Josh lay Mila down on the floor. Her body shivered, but she remained unreachable.

  This wasn’t a time to rest. Not for me.

  I stood up again, hands shaking.

  “Wait here,” I said. “If you guys find anything, some sort of tool, anything, try to get us into that room. I’ll be back in an hour with the others.”

  “What if we get caught?” Josh asked. He looked down at Mila, his expression concerned. He really did care about her.

  I shrugged.

  “Tell them the truth. You were brought here by me. That’s it. Since I forced you all to have your chips cut out, you’ve been at my beck and call. Tell them that.”

  Josh nodded, then sat and started taking off Mila’s boots.

  “She’s frozen,” he said.

  “I know,” I said. “Do what you can for her. I’ll be back soon.”

  But it wasn’t soon. It took me nearly an hour to sneak my way over to the food station, and once I got there, there was no sign of Melanie or the rest of the group.

  As light slowly began filtering down from the rising sun, I started to get worried. Had they been discovered? What was their reason for not showing themselves now? The alley was deserted. There was no one to be found.

  I had to get out of there. The sun was coming up fast now. Monday morning. People would be on their way to work anytime. Maybe already.

&nbs
p; I only had one choice to make, only one place for me to go.

  I turned and ran out of the alley as fast as my feet would carry me, then sprinted down the street until I found my way to the backside of the apartment building I had grown up in.

  Mom’s place.

  I felt like a little kid, tears welling up in my eyes and splashing across my cheeks as I ran.

  Too much. Too much pressure.

  I was probably being tracked right now. I felt certain that Mom was being watched, the authorities waiting for her to make a misstep. I was putting her at incredible risk.

  But I didn’t have a choice. I had to do something. So many missing. And with Mila at death’s door.

  I climbed up the fire escape that ran down the backside of the building. Behind the building, water. Nobody would be walking back here today, not unless they were hunting for me. I thought about the cameras.

  There’s nothing you can do about that.

  I had no idea whether the surveillance included video, no proof there was any kind of surveillance at all.

  I made it to her floor and peered through the sliding glass door.

  There she was, sitting stock still on the couch, watching something on her viewscreen.

  My heart sank. If she were back to drinking again, then there truly was no hope for us. In that moment, so desperate, I felt sure of this. I, alone, could fix the mess I had made.

  Then, she looked up. Her mouth formed my name.

  Riley?

  She stood up from the couch and rushed to the door, unlocking it and pulling me inside and into her arms.

  “I can’t believe you’re here. They told me you were dead.”

  “They did?”

  I hoped beyond hope that this was true, that the Service really did believe this.

  “Yes. There was a message on my lens.” She gulped. “Just like when Dad …”

  She didn’t speak again.

  I didn’t waste any time.

  “I need help. There’s a group of us. We’ve found a place to hole up. But we have no way to get food.”

  “Aren’t you stationed at the Burn?” she asked.

  “We broke out,” I said. I pointed to my temple. “No chips. All of us.”