UnWholly

by Neal Shusterman

Page 36

 

  Miracolina considers herself up for any challenge. While she is a tithe, she has not lived the same sheltered life as most other tithes, and although she’s not a girl from the hard streets, she considers herself street-smart and world savvy. Escaping from the velvet-gloved fist of the resistance will be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

  Early on Lev personally warned her of the futility of an escape attempt. “There are sharpshooters with tranq rifles everywhere,” he said, making it sound hopeless. Yet every bit of information helps her, because Lev let it slip that although there’s a fence, it isn’t electrified. Good to know.

  She explores every corner of the huge mansion to which she has access, paying special attention to the many unused, dilapidated rooms and corridors too far gone to be restored. Most of the windows are boarded over, and all the doors to the outside are locked. But the more forgotten an area is, the less reliable those locks will be—and a padlock hasp is only as good as the wood it’s screwed into. Such as the lock on the garden door, which has an unpleasant termite infestation. Once she finds the door, she files the information away for future reference.

  The ex-tithes’ meals are usually served on chipped china that must have been part of the Cavenaugh collection in better days, but on Sundays, the finest stuff is brought out, including silver platters just large enough to fit beneath her shirt, like armor. Again, she files the information away for future reference.

  Now all she needs is a diversion—not just inside the mansion, but outside as well. Unfortunately, that’s not something she can create, so she bides her time, confident that an opportunity will present itself. An opportunity such as a tornado watch on a Sunday night.

  - - -

  The wind is already picking up at dinnertime. Talk of the coming storm rumbles throughout the crowd of kids. Some are scared, some are excited. Lev is notably absent. Maybe he’s left to avoid the storm, whisked away by his protectors to a place of greater safety. When the meal is over, Miracolina clears her plate, taking with her a couple of silver serving platters, presumably to bring to the kitchen.

  “You don’t have to do that, Miracolina,” says one of her teachers.

  “It’s okay, I don’t mind,” she says with a smile, and the teacher smiles back, glad to see her finally settling in.

  The storm hits like spring storms do, a warning wind, then a deluge like heaven itself has ruptured. Rain pours through holes in the roof into the areas that have yet to be repaired. The ballroom, where Miracolina was first greeted by Lev, is at least an inch deep with water. Pans set up beneath leaks in bedrooms fill and must be dumped. It’s like bailing out a sinking ship. The Weather Channel shows a grid of Michigan counties blinking angry red with tornado alerts.

  “Don’t worry,” says one of the teachers, “there’s a storm cellar if they call a tornado alert in our area. ” Which they do, at exactly 8:43.

  Immediately the staff begins rounding up the kids. With lightning striking and agitated kids, it’s hard to keep track of everyone. That’s when Miracolina slips away with several serving platters and disappears down a side passage, hurrying toward the termite-ridden door.

  Standing in front of the door, she shoves the larger platters under her shirt, both front and back. They’re cold and uncomfortable but very necessary. She slips two smaller platters down the back of her sweatpants, turning them into protectors for her rear. She waits for a powerful burst of lightning to fill the sky in uneven, strobing flashes, and the moment the thunder rolls in a few seconds later, she smashes the door with her shoulder. It gives on the second attempt, while the thunder is still rolling, hiding the sound of the door as it bursts open.

  There is still the remains of a path left in the middle of the ruined garden. She races down the path, immediately drenched and almost blinded by rain. Then she races from the garden into the weedy clearing that leads to the woods, in clear view of any sharpshooter, and she wonders if infrared lenses can see through sheets of rain. She knows metal is a conductor of electricity, and in the back of her mind she fears that the lightning might seek her out—but she has to believe that won’t happen. She has to believe that God has brought this storm for her, so she can escape—so she can do what she was meant to do. And if she does get struck by lightning, well, that would be a sign from above too, wouldn’t it? So she says a silent prayer.

  “Lord, if what I’m doing is wrong, then by all means strike me down. Otherwise set me free. ”

  32 - Lev

  A lightning strike is provided. Not one to strike Miracolina down, but to illuminate her for all to see. Or at least for anyone who happens to be looking.

  Most everyone is already in, or en route to the storm cellar, which may or may not stand the force of a tornado, considering how old it is. Lev, however, who has always loved storms, and actually has a window in his room to view it, is slow to leave. He stalls, taking a few moments to watch the raw violence of nature. A gust of wind rattles the old windows almost enough to break them, and a particularly long flash of lightning hits. In that flash he sees someone running across the grass and into the woods. It’s only a brief glimpse, but it’s enough for him to know exactly who it is, even if he can’t see her face.

  33 - Miracolina

  She doesn’t hear the first rifle fire, but she feels the tranq dart as it hits the silver platter strapped to her back, its barbed tip caught in the fabric of her sweatshirt. She doesn’t know where the shooter is, except that he’s behind her. She was hoping that the sharpshooters had left their stations to shelter from the storm, but at least one, maybe more, are still on the lookout—perhaps knowing that a storm like this is a clear flight opportunity for any kids not yet deprogrammed.

  Another dart whizzes past her, inches away, and from a different direction. There is more than one shooter still in place. She knows they’re going after her body because they wouldn’t risk a shot to the head, so she pulls in her arms, making herself a smaller target. Another dart hits one of the smaller platters covering her rear. She almost didn’t put those there because they hampered her ability to run. Now she’s glad she did. This time the dart doesn’t stick, it just bounces free.

  In a moment she’s in the woods with the trees whipping around her. If there are any sharpshooters here in the woods, she would be really surprised. More than likely the shots came from the mansion itself. She doubts even the most dedicated snipers would hold their positions in the woods in the middle of a tornado threat. She has no idea in what direction she’s running, but any direction is the right one if it’s away from the mansion. She knows that eventually she’ll come to a fence. She can only hope that it’s not too high to climb.

  The only view ahead of her comes from freeze-frame glimpses in flashes of lightning. Her clothes are torn and her face scratched by whipping branches. She stumbles into mud but picks herself up and continues. Then, in a flash of light, she sees a chain-link fence up ahead. It’s about eight feet high—not too hard to climb, but there’s barbed wire across the top. More scrapes, more cuts, but she’ll deal with that. She’s sure any injuries will heal before she’s unwound.

  Out of breath and near the end of her stamina, she hurls herself at the fence, but just before she reaches it, she’s hit by someone even faster than she is, who takes her down, tackling her to the wet ground. She catches only a glimpse of his face, but it’s enough to know who it is. The golden child himself has come to capture her.

  “Get off me!” she says, pushing Lev, scratching at him. She tears the platter from her chest and swings it. It connects with his head with a heavy bang. He falls, but he’s right back up again.

  “I swear I will take your head off with this if I have to!” she says. “Let me go. I don’t care if they worship you, I don’t care if you’re their patron saint. I’m leaving, and you can’t stop me!”

  Then Lev backs off, breathing heavily, and says, “Take me with you. ”

  It’s not what she e
xpected to hear.

  “What?”

  “I can’t be a part of this anymore. I can’t be what they want me to be. I’m no one’s patron saint, and they can rescue tithes fine without me. So I’m getting out too. ”

  Miracolina doesn’t have the time to figure out whether this is a trick. She doesn’t even have the time to process what he’s saying, but if he’s telling the truth, she can test his resolve.

  “Give me a boost up the fence. ”

  He does it without hesitation. He helps her up, and she scratches herself on the barbed wire coming down the other side, but at least she’s on the other side! Then Lev, the boy who she saw as her jailer, climbs over and joins her.

  “There’s a road,” he says, “maybe a hundred yards or so through the woods. We can flag down a ride. ”

  “Who would be driving on a night like tonight?”

  “There’s always someone desperate to go somewhere. ”

  The wind dies down a bit by the time they reach the road, but in tornado weather that could be a good sign or bad. They haven’t seen hail yet, and hail’s a sure sign that something worse is on the way.

  Sure enough, there’s traffic on the two-lane road—not much, just a car every minute or two, but all they need is one.

  “They won’t know we’re gone until after the storm passes,” Lev says. “If someone picks us up, promise me you won’t tell them about the mansion and what we’re doing there. ”

  “I won’t promise anything,” Miracolina tells him.

  “Please,” Lev begs her. “The other kids there aren’t like you. They don’t want to be tithed. Don’t condemn them to something that was never their choice. ”

  Although it goes against her instincts, right now the line between right and wrong is blurry enough for her to say, “Fine. I won’t tell. ”

  “We’ll make up a story,” Lev says. “We were out biking and got caught in the storm. Just go along with anything I say. Then when we’re dropped off, if you really want to be tithed, go turn yourself in. I won’t stop you. ”

  And although she doubts he’ll make it that easy, she agrees.

  “What about you? Where will you go?”

  “I have no idea,” he tells her, and there is such a spark in his eye when he says it, she can tell having no idea is exactly the way he wants it.

  Headlights approach, and the wind picks up again. They wave their arms and the vehicle, a van, pulls over to the side of the road. A window rolls down, and they hurry to the van.

  “My God. What are you two doing out here in this?” says the driver.

  “We were on our bikes—we didn’t know a storm was coming,” Lev says.

  “Where are the bikes?”

  “We left them way back,” Miracolina chimes in.

  “We’ll come get them after the storm,” Lev says. “There’s a tornado watch—we just need to get out of here. Can you help us?”

  “Of course I can. ” He unlocks the car, and Lev pulls open the side door. As he does, the dome light comes on, illuminating the man’s face for the first time. Although the moment calls, quite literally, for any port in a storm, Miracolina can’t help but be a bit troubled by the man’s face as she gets in. There’s something odd about it. Or maybe it’s just his eyes.