by J B Cantwell
We might not live to know.
As we walked onto the campus, I breathed a sigh of relief. Two of the Volunteers had already made it there and scouted the place.
“It’s empty,” one of them whispered to us as we approached. “We found a couple rooms on the interior, no windows. No cameras, at least none that we could see. And we can keep lookouts in a couple of the outer rooms, too.”
“That’s good,” I said.
Our clothes were still damp from the swim, but our bodies had been warmed by the walk. I knew without bothering to ask that there would be nothing to help us here like in the other buildings we’d stayed in. No clothes. No blankets. No one had lived here, and the place was even frequently devoid of students even when school was in session.
But then an idea popped into my head. Maybe nobody had lived here, but there should be an old pile of jackets and other lost items in the school’s lost and found bins. Everything was dumped into a big bucket next to the principal’s office. They might not have anything for Alex, given his size, but he didn’t need to warm himself; he was already a walking furnace.
But for Jeff …
I left the others as Jay was laying him down on the cold, hard floor of an interior classroom. His body jerked and twitched with hypothermia, unable to warm itself. I knew it wouldn’t be long before his fever would return in full force, and I could only hope that whatever magic pills he’d brought along with him would be enough to save him.
I dug through the bucket of clothes and quickly found a warm jacket for him and a sweatshirt for myself. I went into the women’s bathroom and pulled off my drenched t-shirt, replacing it with the warm, wooly sweatshirt. There wasn’t anything to be done about my wet pants and boots, but it was far less likely I’d get hypothermia with my top half covered.
“I found some tops for everyone,” I said as I walked back into the classroom. I handed the jacket to Jay, and he and Melanie helped Jeff to sit up and change into it. His lips looked blue in the darkness, but I guessed they would have in the light as well.
“Melanie,” Jay said. “Can you go back to the lost and found and see if they have anything we can use as pants? Or a blanket?”
That was a tall order, though there was clear need to get Jeff out of his wet clothes as soon as possible.
“Isn’t there a way to warm him up with body heat?” I asked. “I remember learning about that in boot camp. You both get naked and your body can heat up the other one.”
“Umm,” Melanie said.
“It’s true,” Jay said. He started pulling off his shirt.
“Wait,” I said, and my eyes fell on Alex. “You’re definitely the warmest one here.”
He scowled.
“You know we need to get moving,” he said, glancing down at Jeff.
“You don’t have to get completely naked,” Jay assured him. “Just your chest will be enough. I’ll take the front, you take the back. It won’t take long before you’ll be able to leave just he and I.”
“Oh, just do it,” I said, frustrated. “We’ll be out of here in half an hour, and you’ll probably save his life.”
He sighed loudly, then peeled off his own wet shirt and lay down heavily next to Jeff. He pulled the makeshift blanket over the two of them to lock in the heat. A moment later Jay lay down on the other side, sandwiching Jeff’s body between theirs. Jeff seemed to shudder and shake even more than just moments before.
“What’s happening to him?” I asked, suddenly concerned. “He seems to be getting worse.”
“No,” Jay said. “This is normal. It’s his body’s way of trying to warm itself up. It’s actually a good sign.”
Jeff’s breathing came in small gasps, and I found I couldn’t watch it, couldn’t watch my friend suffer like this. I badly wanted to turn away, but I knew I couldn’t.
“Come on,” Melanie said, touching my elbow. “You don’t need to see all this. There’s more for us to do.”
Relieved, I followed her out of the classroom and back over toward the lost and found, where the rest of the Volunteers were digging through whatever was left.
“Don’t you need something?” I asked her, touching her wet shirt.
“I’ll take something after the rest of them are taken care of.”
My eyes dropped to the floor, and I felt something close to shame. It wouldn’t have even occurred to me to wait for the others to go first.
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she said, reading me. “You’re going to be back out in a half hour. You’ll do us no good cold and sick.”
“Thanks,” I said, though I still felt selfish, still doubted myself.
She kept walking past the bucket of clothing and led me into a deserted classroom, closing the door behind us.
“So, what do you want me to do?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“When you’re gone. I mean, you’re the leader of this operation. But I assume I’ll be in charge while you’re away.”
“Melanie, I think you may have been in charge this whole time,” I said.
She smiled.
“No. I only helped. But now, well, we don’t know what’s going to happen to you both. You’re heading right into the thick of it. You need to tell me what you want me to do while you’re gone. And if … well … if you don’t come back.”
I took a deep breath. She was right.
“Well, like we said, secure the food, especially for you all. You can’t help pick up the pieces if you’re all starving. Keep it to nutrition squares until things start functioning again. And make sure the grocers get their fair share, too.”
“I don’t see how they’re even going to let us help them.”
“They will if you explain it all to them before it happens. There aren’t cameras behind the stores. You can go there, wait for the nightly lines to dissipate, then make your move. Don’t forget to whisper, just in case.”
“And you think that’ll be it?”
“No. Probably not,” I said. “But don’t give up. Go every night. And if Alex and I succeed, make sure you get there first thing every morning.”
“And if you don’t succeed?”
I paused, unsure of what to say.
“If we don’t succeed, move to the next location and wait for word from Chambers or … I guess from Jonathan. He’ll probably find you in a few days anyway and tell you to get out of here.”
“But what do we do? I mean, what did the old Volunteers do?”
Ah. That question. It was one I’d had trouble answering for myself, not to mention for all the citizens of New York City.
“They were hackers, mainly,” I said. “They tried to get into the mainframe to weaken the system. I’m not sure if any of them are still around. Chambers will know, though I don’t know if he’ll bring the two groups together or not. I mean, are any of us hackers?”
She snorted.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so. So you’ll be the team on the ground. If Alex and I fail, find another way. The map to the location is still there for you, and no one is going to find it anytime soon. Maybe play spy and infiltrate the Champions. They might have access to explosives that we don’t know about. C4 isn’t too hard to come by; they’re bound to have enough to at least partially take down the system.”
“It seems nuts for us to try to break in with the Champions,” she said. “Aren’t they going to interrogate us, too? Like Kiyah?”
“Not if you tell them the truth. Tell them everything that’s happened up until now, then lie about the rest. Start fresh. They’re your best shot at making a difference. If you can sway them toward not killing everyone, then our goals will be the same. Well, at least partly.”
“I don’t like it,” she said.
“Well, you can always wait for Chambers, assuming he isn’t caught trying to help a group of terrorists, which is what we all are now. Follow Jay back to another, more hidden, building, somewhere that the Service doesn’t know about. That might be your best chan
ce. You’ll need to decide when the time comes.”
“Unless you come back,” she said.
“Unless I come back.”
Because, of course, there was a good chance that I wouldn’t.
“So, I guess this is it,” I said. I opened my arms to hug her, but she grabbed onto my wrists and pushed my arms down to my sides.
“This isn’t it. This isn’t goodbye. Don’t start thinking that way. You have a job to do. So go do it.”
Tough as nails.
I nodded and swallowed my tears of fear.
“Alright then,” I said, a promise. “I will.”
Chapter Nine
Twenty minutes later, Alex and I emerged from the high school campus and left the rest of the Volunteers behind. Without a lens or a watch, we could only guess at the time, but we knew we were only out a handful of hours past sunset.
We had all night.
He took my hand.
“It’s weird,” he said. “Walking away from there with you. It’s almost like before.”
“Before?”
“Before all this happened. Before we both decided to join the Service. Only then, there seemed to be no reason why we shouldn’t. I wonder what would have become of us if we’d stayed.”
I was quiet for a minute, trying to remember the intense fears I’d felt at the idea of staying in my old house, my old life. Those fears seemed like nothing compared to the battles I was waging now.
“Well, I think we would’ve been miserable. My mom never would’ve gotten sober, and your dad … Did you ever make it home? You know, to see your mom?”
I could see his jaw clench at the question, and I knew the answer, which was no.
She’d never done anything to help him, to shield him from his father’s abuse, just like my mom had never done anything to help me. Until now.
“You might want to think about a visit if we make it out of this in one piece. A lot of things have changed, for both of our mothers.”
He didn’t answer, and I didn’t press it. I noticed that the grip he had on my hand had weakened, and it occurred to me that he might be angry, that he might want his hand back, so I dropped it.
“No,” he said immediately, and he grabbed for it again, this time lacing his huge fingers with my own. “You’re the only one keeping me grounded in this thing. Don’t let go.”
I blushed, impossibly, irresponsibly giddy with this expression of love. I wanted that feeling to last, to never go away. The familiarity, and yet the nervousness, too. It was a delicious combination.
We walked. For hours, we walked. I could tell that he was holding back to wait for me, but my legs couldn’t match his stride.
I stopped, pulling a small container of water from a lost and found backpack I’d been wearing. “This won’t work,” I said, gulping the water. “I’m too slow.”
“No,” he said. “You’re fine. It’s no trouble for me to wait.”
“It may be no trouble.” I offered him the bottle, which he refused. “But it’s dangerous. You’re about as conspicuous as it’s possible to be.”
“So, what, you want to split up?”
“No, not at all. But maybe you should carry me part of the way. I know you’re fast.”
“Oh.” He seemed relieved. “I thought you wanted to hang back. I mean, I don’t want you in danger, but I also don’t want to be on my own.”
The tiny weakness of a giant man.
“I can carry you, sure. Then we can run. We’ll get there in half the time.”
I tried to imagine clinging to his back for the next twenty-four hours. It didn’t sound appealing.
“Maybe we should just try it for a few minutes. See what it’s like.”
“You worried about depending on me?” he asked, but his face wore a grin now.
“No. I’m worried about being shaken to death by your stride. I’m guessing you’re not the most gentle runner in the world.”
“We’ll see.” He knelt down, and I shoved the water bottle back into the pack.
“No time like the present, I guess.”
“Hey, this was your idea,” he reminded me.
I climbed on and gripped my arms around his neck.
“Just let me know if I’m choking you, okay?”
He laughed. It was a musical sort of sound, free from the stress and peril that we were in. It reminded me of all the years we’d spent walking around Brooklyn together, free from our fears, if only for a little while each day.
Maybe it would be like that again someday. Maybe someday soon.
“You ready?” he asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
He broke into a run, and he was immediately so fast that I wondered how long I would be able to hold on.
But it wasn’t as bumpy as I’d feared, and he held my legs to his sides with those enormous arms. All I needed to do was keep myself upright.
“Wow,” I whispered in his ear.
He immediately started running faster until the wind was whipping through my hair. We hit the bottom deck of the bridge that ran over the Narrows at a full-out run. This was good. The bridge was the most exposed part of our journey.
His breathing became faster with each stride, but he almost seemed to like it. I remembered my own single phasing, the way I’d felt afterward, like I could conquer anything. The enormous energy I’d felt had been overwhelming, and soon I was climbing the walls of that place like a spider, desperate for physical exertion.
“I think you need to get out more,” I said.
He laughed.
“Kind of hard to lately. With all the guns and torture and swimming and all.”
“True.”
Then I saw something that made my blood run cold.
Headlights.
“Better speed up,” I called.
What time was it? One? Two?
But as the car whizzed by, it didn’t slow.
We were halfway across now.
Just let us get there.
I could feel his body underneath mine, his muscles pumping like a machine. I gripped his shoulders hard and tried not to slow him down.
It would only be minutes, maybe even just moments, until we were across. But then I heard it.
Sirens.
I cursed under my breath.
No. No. No.
Not like this. Not when we were so close.
The flashing red lights were just visible as they shone against the steel of the bridge.
And then we were over. Alex jumped from the on-ramp to the ground below, and I almost fell then. But he didn’t stop. He just held onto me and kept on going.
He took us into some sort of industrial neighborhood. Good, as it would be easy to hide. Bad, as it was likely patrolled.
Motion lights clicked on as we ran by the buildings. Would the Guard see? Were they close enough?
“We have to hide,” I whispered as loudly as I dared.
“I know,” he said through gasps of air. “But where?”
I searched all around, and a recent memory popped into my head.
“Dumpsters!”
He didn’t hesitate. We turned into the next parking lot we found, but we found the dumpsters were all locked. I hopped off his back and checked a second set. Locked.
That didn’t matter though. Alex was a Prime. More than a Prime. He wrenched one of the locks out of the socket and flipped up the lid. Then held out his hands, forming a cup for my foot, and lifted me up so quickly I nearly went flying. I hit the garbage, which provided a safe landing, but which was just as smelly as the dumpster I’d found a few nights before. Then, he jumped in after me and closed the lid quietly behind him.
Where before there had sirens, now there was only silence.
“We need to bury ourselves. I can’t lock it from in here. And if they come …”
I didn’t need to have it explained to me, though the idea of digging through and then covering myself with old lunches was disgusting. Still, I’d seen worse at the
Burn, though I didn’t have my protective uniform here to shield me from the mess.
“They’ll have infrared,” I said, hoping beyond hope that our bodies wouldn’t be readable behind the thick steel of the dumpster. I dug a hole in the garbage and climbed into it, then covered myself from head to toe. I could hear Alex doing the same thing next to me.
“Shh,” I said. I thought I could hear something, but the sirens had been shut off, and the lights of the cars were dimmed.
I had been peeking out of a tiny hole in the metal, and I moved away from it instinctively at the first sign of the Guard.
Then I heard it. The quiet screech of breaks on metal, and then the telltale sound of a car door opening and closing, quietly, and with great care.
Footsteps. The sound of a radio that surely reached all the way back to headquarters. And then, the squeak of a rusty dumpster lid. Our dumpster lid.
I held my breath, and I hoped with everything I had that Alex could manage to do the same, even after the giant effort of the run here.
“They’re not here,” a voice said. “I told you. I saw lights farther up.”
The lid to the dumpster slammed down. And then came a sound I hadn’t expected.
It was the lock on the outside of the dumpster being turned on its hinges and engaging the lid.
Stuck.
I cursed that stupid bridge, and the driver of the vehicle, too. The Service had probably been watching it, waiting for me to show up again. Maybe they thought I would even come back for the two Volunteers they’d stolen away in the night.
But I wouldn’t go back for them. I couldn’t. It would mean the death of me, and likely of everyone else I’d traveled with from the Burn.
But now it seemed as though I might be seeing them again soon, regardless of the choices I’d made the night we traveled over the bridge and into Brooklyn. I hoped the two men hadn’t held a grudge for my abandoning them, though I wouldn’t blame them if they did.
We waited for the quiet noises of the cars to die down, and soon enough we were greeted with the beautiful sound of silence.
I sighed, and I heard Alex do the same.
