“Father Mark?”
He looked up and smiled. People were often scared of him until he smiled, he really did look like an assassin or something. Perhaps had been.
“Margaret, you’re awake.”
“Where are we?” I asked groggily.
“Near Rayle’s Pass.”
Something tightened in my stomach, where pain was growing and growing the clearer my head became, ‘til it threatened to fog it up again it was so severe. Rayle’s Pass. It set my nerves jangling. Horrors flitted through my head and I shied away; tried not to remember.
“I want Bane.” The childish words popped from my mouth.
“He’s just gone to check our sentries, make sure they’re looking in the right direction and all that. Don’t you worry, he won’t be a minute. He’s hardly left your side.”
A minute was too long, because the memories were pouring back into my mind—I couldn’t keep them out. I squeezed my eyes shut, but it was no use.
“BANE!” The cry tore from my throat, unstoppable.
Father Mark put aside his map and shifted to lay a gentle hand on my shoulder.
“Easy, Margaret, it’s all right. Bane’s coming.”
There was a crashing in the undergrowth, then I saw him, sprinting through the forest as though I were being eaten by a bear. He probably thought I was. Not likely, with Father Mark sat next to me. But Bane tore up, wild-eyed, and dropped to his knees at my side.
“Margo… you’re awake, are you all right…?”
That was all he’d time for, because I was clawing my way into a sitting position.
“Don’t try and move! You’ll hurt…”
I flung myself into his arms, blind to the agony. My nose buried itself in his hair and my arms locked around him.
“Oh. There we go, then…” He eased me into his lap and settled his arms around me, encircling me, rubbing my back as I began to howl. “It’s all right. It’s all right.” He rocked me like a baby and I just wept and wept.
I’m not sure how much time passed—I just went on crying and crying and crying.
“Margo? Is she all right? What’s the matter with her?”
“I think she’ll be all right.” Father Mark’s voice was soft and rather grim. “Let’s put it this way, if she didn’t cry, then I’d be worried.”
At that, Bane returned all his attention to comforting me and Father Mark presumably went back to his map. I must’ve cried myself back to sleep in the end, because the next thing I knew, I lay with my head in Bane’s lap and the shadows were lengthening.
“Bane?”
“I’m here. How are you?”
“I’m all right.” My voice sounded rather small, disappear-ing into the trees like the mist now creeping back out of the forest. “Have they searched for us yet?”
“Not yet. They shouldn’t. Plan was they’d think we’d gone with the Resistance in their trucks—be led a merry dance. And since some of us did go, they’re even less likely to realize they’ve been had.” His tone was dark.
“I thought you said no one would…”
“No one was meant to go with the Resistance, Margo,”
he said with a lack of apology that told me whatever had happened was not his fault. “But most of the boys took off with them. No loss: they were completely uncontrollable. S’pect the Resistance will make an example of one or two and the others will fall in line. Anyway, eleven boys bolted into the woods, came back when the trucks had left and asked to come with us. Fortunately, too, since we’re down as a mixed school.”
“Huh? School?” My stomach and thighs were burning. I shifted restlessly, but that made it even worse. Under the unzipped sleeping bag laid over me I was dressed in my own clothes on my top half—my bottom half was loosely wrapped in that plastic sheet. The idea of putting my jeans on… I shuddered and pain flared even more.
“Hey, don’t move. Take these…” He fed me a handful of pills, interspersed with swigs from a water bottle, pill, swig, pill, swig, pill… It went on forever.
“That’s a lot of pills, Bane,” I objected at last.
“We don’t have any painkillers up to the job. These are shop-bought types you can sorta take together. Father Mark counted them out for you. He said take them and don’t read the packets.”
“Oh…”
Wearily, I swallowed the last few and relaxed in the circle of Bane’s arms. His chest was so broad now. How long had we been apart? Four months…? It felt like forever and yet no time at all. I’d always hoped he wouldn’t fill out too too much and become all hulking, but this, this was fine. More than fine. Like curling up in the shelter of one’s very own protecting wall. Lovely. The pain was easing a bit. Perhaps I should renew my question about his school comment…
...The light was going... it was dusk. I blinked, disorien-tated. Why was I so tired? I suppose stress and skinning accounted for it. Bane didn’t seem to have moved.
“Are you all right there? Aren’t your legs going to sleep?”
“I’m fine, Margo. You’re not that heavy. Anyway, I wasn’t going to wake you, you were sleeping like a baby. You look very pretty when you’re asleep.”
“And not when I’m awake?”
“Definitely when you’re awake too. But you don’t have that cute look on your face. Though you drool less.”
“Awww. Sorry!”
He bent his back into a U shape to kiss me.
“I’m hoping to have you drooling on me for the rest of my life, so I think I’d better get used to it.”
I had to smile. It pulled muscles on my forehead and made the cuts twinge. The smile slid from my face.
“Oh, Margo, I don’t like that shadow in your eyes. What can I do?”
“Hold me. For about a hundred years.”
His encircling arms drew me closer.
“That is the point of this whole exercise, isn’t it?”
I lay nestled to him for a little longer, then finally looked around. My eyes fell on Jon, sitting nearby, munching an unappetizing looking food bar.
“Jon! Are you okay?”
His head turned towards me and his gray-blue eyes frankly glared.
“Me? I’m fine. What possessed you to pull that crazy stunt?”
I flinched from his harsh tone. Frowned.
“Jane’s life,” I whispered.
“Well, it was crazy,” he snapped. “And you lied to me!”
“I did not!” I quavered. “I said I was going to bring up the rear and I did!”
“It was crazy!”
I hid my face against Bane’s coat. My insides trembled like jelly and my eyes burned. What was the matter with me? I seemed raw inside as well as out and I couldn’t bear his anger.
“Didn’t you realize you’d be caught! Didn’t you…”
“Quit yelling at her,” growled Bane, “or I’m going to pound you, Jon!”
“Oh, you think it was a good idea, then?”
“It was a stupid thing to do! But you were even more stupid for walking out of there without her! I can’t believe you took your eyes… ears… off her for one second, after this Jane girl was taken! Don’t you know Margo at all?”
“Not as well as you, it would seem,” snarled Jon.
“No, you don’t! So don’t you dare yell at her again!”
I put a calming hand on Bane’s arm and managed to speak at last.
“It wasn’t Jon’s fault, Bane. I did trick him.”
“I didn’t say it was his fault. But if he upsets you again right now we’re going to have a falling out and that’s a fact!”
I snuggled my face into his coat and breathed in his familiar Bane smell. Heaven. Did I have the energy to try and change the subject?
“What were you saying about a school?”
“Oh, well, I’d better explain things in order. We’re going to stay here near the caves for forty-eight hours, ‘til we’re fairly sure they’re not going to search the Fellest. Caves would block infrared cameras, y’see.
Then we’re going to set off on foot and walk to York.”
“York?” I drew away from his jacket so I could look up at his face. “It must be over a hundred kilometers to York!”
“Yes, a hundred kilometers of Fellest—passes, ravines, cliffs and all—no one would try to march seventy reAssignees—okay, forty-four—all the way to York, right? Think it through. They should be convinced we’re kilo-meters away with those trucks they’ll be trying so hard to find. But they’re bound to up security in all the closest towns and cities just the same. But not in York because it’s too far away. That’s why we have to go there.”
“But…”
“Don’t worry, we have everything we need. Spare sneakers and foil blankets and rations and everything. We’ll do it in a few days. And in York we’ve got school uniforms waiting, and a bus booked, and all the necessary arrange¬ments made for a school trip to the continent.”
“Where on the continent?”
“Somewhere people like you will be safe.”
There was only one place on the continent where people like us would be safe. And it wasn’t part of the EuroBloc.
“Was this all your idea?”
“Well… I talked it all through with Father Mark.”
“Wonderful, Bane,” I yawned.
“Don’t go to sleep again yet, you’d better eat something. How about some room service over here?” he called.
I lost track of a few moments then, as I waited, snug in Bane’s arms. I didn’t feel at all hungry.
“Margo?” I looked around and found Jane crouching beside us, Sarah beside her. Jane sounded unusually hesitant. “Here’s some food. Are you... okay?”
“Yeah.” I tried to sound light-hearted about it. “Teach me to run faster, huh?”
Jane didn’t smile.
“Seriously, Margo... thank you. Not just for me. For... for everyone...” she gestured, and looking further away for the first time, I saw a mass of girls and a few boys spread out at the far end of the glade, talking and eating from some sort of ration packs. “We’re free because of you.”
“It was hardly just me, Jane. And we’re not safe ye...” I broke off, with a quick glance at Sarah. “That is, we’ve a long way to go yet, you must see that.”
“Yeah, I do. All the same, we have a chance. And you can be as modest as you like, but you gave it to us.”
I blushed and tried to think of something to say as Bane took the ration pack from Jane and began unpacking it.
“Okay, Margy?” asked Sarah anxiously.
“I’m fine, Sarah.” That definitely wasn’t the most honest thing I’d ever said, but it satisfied her.
“Margo?” said Bane. “There’s baked beans and sausage
—that’s supposed to be breakfast but who cares—or corned beef hash. What do you fancy?”
“Nothing.”
“Let me rephrase that. What are you going to eat?”
“Oh... corned beef hash, sounds the most comfortable thing to be force-fed.”
“It actually hardly tastes any worse than the stuff back in there.” Jane jerked her head vaguely back through the trees. “Lover boy’s clearly been spoilt by home cooking.”
“Yeah,” said Bane, unrepentantly, “your mum’s cooking, Margo. My mum congratulated me on passing Sorting by saying I was an adult now so I could damn well cook for myself. That was about two months ago and your mum took pity on me, so I’ve been eating well since then.”
He added, “Actually, it worked rather well. As far as my mum could see, I was cooking for myself and your mum didn’t disillusion her. So your cousin Mark’s been well fed. In quantity though not in quality, needless to say.”
He ripped the top off one of the silvery sachets and produced a fork. “No fires, sorry. Too risky.”
Cold food or ending up back on the gurney.
“I’m not complaining.”
“Didn’t think you would be.”
I spooned slowly, almost too tired to chew the mush, listening to Sarah chattering to Jon about the fascinating forest.
“Squirrel... you hear, Jon? Squirrel said ‘chitter’. You hear it?”
“Yes, I did. Was it a big squirrel?”
“Very big. Very furry tail. And it said ‘chitter’. And ran off. Can I have a pet squirrel, Jon?”
“Not right now. Perhaps if you work hard and save up you can get a hamster.”
“Sarah will work hard! What work?”
I tuned out again. Sarah had a future now. She would have a job of her own, that she could take pride in...
Well, providing we got out of the EuroBloc...
...It was almost entirely dark now. Bane still didn’t seem to have moved, bless him. Jon was sitting nearby, his head slightly on one side as though he was listening hard to the sounds of the Fellest around us. Jane and Sarah must have rejoined the other girls.
“Awake, Margo?” he said.
“Umm.”
“Are you feeling better? I’m, uh, sorry I was so cross before.”
I peered at him in the dim light. His expression was rather… closed and his voice had an odd reserve in it. And
a touch of sadness. Oh. For the best part of four months
I’d cried on his shoulder, sought comfort in his arms and told him my every fear and worry. And waking, earlier,
I’d screamed for Bane and not even remembered Jon’s existence until the third time I woke up—not ‘til I saw him. Suddenly I felt awful.
“I’m… fine. I’m feeling better.” I had to say something, but it was hard to find the words. “Um… I think I… leaned on you rather hard in there. More than was fair. I’m… I’m sorry.”
He snorted, but his head turned away slightly.
“Don’t apologize. We leaned on each other. That’s… that’s what friends are for, huh?”
What more could I say? I’m afraid you’re in love with me and I’m sorry?
“Well, I’m glad you looked out for each other.” There was only a faint edge to Bane’s voice, though his arms tightened around me.
“You’re welcome.” Jon’s voice was rather flat. “Well, I think I’m going to turn in.”
He took up a shiny silver square and began to unfold it with a lot of rustling. And unfold it. And unfold it. It was quite hypnotic watching it become a blanket. Rustle. Rustle. Rustle…
...Full dark, now. Where was Bane! He no longer loomed over me… where? Oh… there. Lying beside me. I was still tucked in his arms. I relaxed, my breathing steadying.
“Okay, Margo?”
He’d felt my flinch, or he’d been awake.
“Fine. You’re here. It’s all fine.”
I lay and thought about the clever plan he’d laid out to me, for getting the best part of fifty reAssignees to the other side of the continent. A school group. Yes, it was probably the only way. But… My thoughts ground on and my heart began to sink. I swallowed hard. Oh Lord, I don’t feel like being brave right now, or strong, or doing the right thing. I just want to hide in Bane’s arms for about a million years…
“Bane?”
“Yes, Margo?” He sounded resigned.
“You… you do realize we can’t possibly go with the others, don’t you?”
“Why’s that, Margo?”
“Because… I don’t think I’m being arrogant when I say that my picture is probably going to be on the front page of every newspaper in the EuroBloc.”
“Too late. It already is.”
“Well, then. I certainly can’t go with them. They’ve got a good chance of getting through, on their own.”
Bane sighed.
“I know. It’s all arranged.”
“It is?”
“Yes. We’ll be going separately.”
“Oh. Why didn’t you say before?”
“Because…” His arm tightened around me, protectively. “Because I’m a lot more selfish than you, Margo, and if you hadn’t said anything, I wasn’t going to either. Because I reckon our chances of making
it are a heck of a lot higher with the others. But… I knew you’d probably point out their chances were lower and refuse to go, so… I made other arrangements.”
“Which are?”
“Don’t freak out, okay? But… we’ll be posing as New Adults backpacking before university.”
It took a moment for it to sink in.
“Walking? We’re walking all the way across the Euro-Bloc! I’ve no skin on my thighs, Bane!”
“It’s okay. Father Mark says you’ll heal quite quickly. I’ll carry you to York, then we’ll go with them on the bus across the Channel bridge and split off from them on the other side. Pitch camp for a few days or however long and then start ambling in easy stages until you’re all better. It’ll be fine.”
“Carry me? All that way? And how will we get food on the continent? We won’t be able to buy from shops, we can’t scan our IDs at the cash registers…”
“Calm down, Margo. It’s going to be all right, okay?”
Maybe, maybe not. But I didn’t seem to have the energy to argue about it right now.
Someone lying nearby rolled over with a rustle of foil blanket and Jon’s voice came from the gloom.
“And what are you planning to do with me, Bane? I can’t go with the others either. I’m far too recognizable. And wherever you leave me, they’ll know you’ve been there and bang goes the idea we’re all with those trucks. I told you you should’ve left me outside the Facility.”
“Well, you’re coming with us, aren’t you?” I said. “Bane?”
Bane’s hesitation was only momentary.
“Yes, Jon’s coming with us.”
“You’ve got what he needs?”
“Yes, I got stuff for three. Since I had a feeling you’d manage to drag him out of there and there’s a whole list of reasons why we can’t leave him behind.”
“You seriously intend to haul a blind person all the way across the EuroBloc?” said Jon. “Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me.”
“Oh, don’t give me that poor little blind boy rubbish,” retorted Bane. “One of us to guide you, and you’ll be fine. Anyone would think you wanted to be back in the Facility waiting to die!”
There was silence for a moment.
I Am Margaret Page 31
