“I love you, too.” Her gaze followed mine to my dad’s face. She picked up his hand and held it in hers. “Don’t worry. I’ll look out for him.”
My dad had told me that when he and my mom were about to graduate from Sixteens & Seventeens, his mom died. She had been their math and English teacher. My mom was the one who’d helped him get through it. She’d wrapped her arms around him and whispered that everything would be okay. They’d spent hours together every day, and eventually he confessed that he’d liked her for the past twelve years. During the time when she’d had all the miscarriages, my dad had been the one to wrap his arms around her and whisper that everything would be okay. I guessed it was her turn again.
I kissed my dad’s too-hot hand as the five a.m. whistle blew.
The guards roused themselves from their seats and yelled for everyone to line up as people groaned, mothers shushed their babies, and the adults shuffled to the line. My mom and Aaren’s parents helped my dad get to his place in the line. In the midst of the mass of bodies standing and stepping over the huddled lumps of sleeping kids in the dim light, I picked up the coat I’d been using as a blanket, slipped it on the right way, and grabbed my bag, pushing the burlap sack my mom had given me inside it. I waited for Aaren; then we snuck to our secret opening behind the paneling. I took one last look at my parents before I slid it open, tossed in my bag, and ducked into the hidden hallway. Aaren did the same and let the panel shut behind him.
And just like that, we were on our own.
The dusty hallway was pitch-black, so I ran my hand against the wall as I tiptoed. When I reached the end of the hall, I felt around for the hanging rope, then handed it to Aaren. “You first.”
Aaren tried, but mostly grunted. “You don’t realize how many stomach muscles it takes to climb a rope until you don’t have them!”
I locked my hands together to give him a boost up, then let him stand on my shoulders to reach the opening in the ceiling. I climbed up the rope behind him and into the crawl space between the ceiling and the roof of the building. Bandits likely walked in the hall below us to turn in the counts for each room, so we barely let each hand and knee make a sound as we moved.
I made it halfway down the crawl space, then heard a grunt. I spun on my knees and squinted in the darkness.
Silence.
I convinced myself I was hearing things and almost continued on, when I heard the sound of fabric brushing across wood.
“Don’t move,” I whispered into Aaren’s ear. Then slowly, cautiously, I crawled along the passage back toward the opening.
“Out is that direction.”
I froze in place, stunned by the voice. “Brock? You have to go back!”
He crawled forward and nudged me ahead. “I’ll get caught if I go back.”
Frustration covered every inch of me. Brock was right—there wasn’t much time before the chaos of the lineup would die down, then every sound would be heard. Brock had been so quiet last night when I told my dad my plan, I’d completely forgotten that he was sitting next to my mom the whole time.
“You can’t come,” I said. “It’s too dangerous!”
“You need me.”
I let out a little laugh. Of all the things he could have said to convince me to let him come, he chose You need me. What did he think I needed him for? Figuring out how to climb a mountain?
“Brock …,” I began, not knowing what to say.
It was too dark to see anything in the crawl space, but I could feel his eyes on me in the cramped space. Finally, after an eternity, he said, “I can help. I need to help.”
I stared back, listening to the hopefulness in his breathing, my own breath caught in my throat. “Come on,” I whispered as I turned toward the roof-access hatch.
After I slid around Aaren, I opened it a crack. When I didn’t see anyone, I buttoned my coat, opened the hatch all the way, and crawled onto the flat roof. With the angled part of the roof behind me, I couldn’t see anything on the other side of the building. But that meant they couldn’t see me, either, so it was a good trade-off.
Twenty feet of snow-covered flat roof lay in front of where I knelt, shaking from the cold, looking out into the early-morning darkness. The half-moon made everything glow a bluish-silver—bright enough to tell where we were going, but still dark enough to hide. From the height of the roof, I couldn’t see anyone, but I could hear someone near the corner of the building, tapping his feet on the cobbled pathway like he was trying to stay warm.
Aaren and Brock crawled out of the hatch, while I inched toward the edge of the roof on my stomach. The Fours & Fives classroom was the easiest to climb down, so I hoped it wasn’t within the line of sight of any bandits outside.
“See anything?” A gravelly voice startled me, and I crawled backward. It had come from the south end of the building—the end I couldn’t see. The man belonging to the voice walked on the pathway below in our direction.
“Nope,” a shivering bandit near us answered. “Who’d want to be out in this cold?”
“Not me,” Gravel Voice said as he neared the middle of the building. “See you in ten.”
Shivering Bandit dragged his feet as he walked, circling the building away from Gravel Voice.
“Now! We have to go now,” I whispered. At any moment, the new bandit would reach the corner where he could see us. If we weren’t quick enough, we’d have to wait another ten minutes. I crept to the edge of the roof, the wind blowing the powdery snow across my back. Then I lowered myself to the first foothold I could find in the bricks and climbed down. Brock and Aaren reached the bottom right after me, and we ran across the road and hid between my mom’s bakery and the cannery as the bandit neared the corner of the Fours & Fives classroom.
The three of us peeked around the edge of the building. I didn’t think the bandit saw us—he just looked cold. Like us. A stronger gust of wind blew the snow on the ground across the road, and he hugged his torso, then glanced around. He walked over to the tin shop and huddled under the roof overhang, shivering.
We did it! We were out, and things would be okay for everyone in the community center. I heaved a big sigh of relief.
We still had to travel east to get to the Hudsons’ shed, which meant we needed to get past this bandit. I was about to suggest we stay close to the buildings where the snow wasn’t deep, when a small thud pulled my attention to the ground at the side of the Fours & Fives classroom.
“Aaren?” A small voice carried on the wind. Brenna crouched next to the school, squinting into the darkness.
I glanced at Gravel Voice from around the corner of the cannery. I didn’t think he could see Brenna from where he stood. But there was no way she could get to us, or that we could reach her without being seen. Aaren almost took off running toward her, but I grabbed his arm.
“If we get caught, it’ll make things bad for everyone in there,” I whispered.
Brock leaned close. “Wait until I distract the guard, then go get her.” He took off behind the building, staying close to the edge. Not long after he disappeared behind the cannery, we heard a loud thunk, like a rock hitting wood, down past the tailor’s shop.
“Did you hear that?” A voice came from the other end of the community center.
“Yeah,” Gravel Voice called back. “I’ll check it out.” He pulled his hat down further, tugged his coat a little tighter around his neck, and trudged off toward the sound.
As soon as Gravel Voice disappeared from our sight, Aaren darted forward, the wind blowing the snow on the ground so much I could barely see him. He grabbed Brenna and carried her back to the cannery building. He put her on her feet, and the three of us ran along the wall at the back of the building toward Brock.
“Come on,” Brock whispered as he motioned us toward the run-off ditch that wound around City Circle.
We climbed into the ditch, but the snow was so deep, it went to Brenna’s waist. I lifted her up and shoved her into Brock’s arms as soon as he got o
ut of the other side of the ditch. When Aaren and I climbed out, we all raced toward the nearest building, the town stables. When I rounded the corner of the stable, I threw my back against the wall along with the others, panting.
“Were we seen?” I asked.
Brock peeked around the corner. “I don’t think so.”
“Are we gonna ride the horsies?” Brenna asked.
“No,” Aaren whispered. “They’d make too much noise. Brenna, why didn’t you stay with Mom and Dad?”
Brenna’s voice sounded unsure and hurt. “Because … because you’re my buddy. We’re supposed to stay together.”
“We have to get her to my family.” Aaren’s quiet voice was on the verge of panic. “Maybe we can sneak back down.”
“We can’t,” Brock said. “She’ll have to stay with us.”
I could feel waves of anger coming from Aaren. “She is five. This trip is too dangerous for her! We have to get her back.”
“If we do, we’ll get caught,” Brock said. “If we get caught, there’s no chance we’ll get to Browning.”
“She’s my sister, Brock. How can you even suggest we take her?”
I knew Aaren’s fear for Brenna was massive, because I’d never heard him talk in that voice to anyone. I couldn’t think of anything to say to calm him.
Brock’s voice came out surprisingly patient. “If we send her by herself, they might shoot her. If we find a way to return her, they’ll still know she escaped when she suddenly shows up. They’ll make her tell that we escaped, and that’d make things bad for her and your whole family. Hope’s parents, too.”
Brenna’s entire body shook. She was probably scared and cold, so I hugged her close to me. I knew Brock was right. Taking her with us couldn’t be worse than taking her back. I could tell that Aaren was considering it, too, because he’d stopped breathing like a caged wolf.
After a moment, Aaren whispered, “But I didn’t even tell my parents that I was leaving.”
Brock patted Aaren on the shoulder like he was proud of him, but I was speechless, and a little hurt. We were going to tell our parents.
Aaren looked at me like he was desperate for me to understand. “You saw how your dad reacted, Hope! My parents weren’t going to be any different. I just figured when they saw that you and I were both missing, they’d talk to your parents to find out why. But now with Brenna—”
Maybe I did understand. I might have done the same thing. “So should we hide her somewhere?” I asked. “You could stay with her until the bandits are gone.”
“If we don’t walk constantly, we’ll never stay warm without a fire, and the bandits will see the smoke.” Aaren sighed. “Maybe we should take her.”
“We’ll keep her safe,” Brock said.
“We will.” I hoped I wasn’t wrong.
We listened around the corner of the barn for any noises, but heard nothing. Being so close to them still made us nervous, so we ran. We didn’t bother to hide our footprints—we just kept to places where people had already left tracks, and stayed off the roads. We cut through farms and yards for a little over a mile until we reached the Hudsons’ house at the beginning of the third ring. We didn’t see a single bandit along the way.
When we reached the shed, it was light enough to find the snowshoes, but it didn’t occur to us until that moment that Mr. Hudson only had two sons. Which meant a total of three pairs of snowshoes. For four people. We’d have to carry Brenna.
We strapped the snowshoes to our backs with the laces meant to tie them to our feet and raced the next half mile to Aaren’s and my houses. By the time we got there, we had frozen feet and numb fingers. Brock went with Aaren and Brenna to their house while I ran into mine. In my room, I peeled off my wet pants and socks, then yanked on two pairs of dry pants and three pairs of socks. I shoved my feet into my fur-lined boots, made sure my snowshoes were tied tightly on my back, and slung my schoolbag over my shoulder. Then I grabbed my full water skin off the kitchen counter and my gloves from the basket at the door, and went out the front door to get the others.
I stayed close to the low garden fence and snuck next door to Aaren’s house. As I reached the corner of his house, I heard hoofbeats and a voice.
“Hey! There’s a kid!” I turned to see three bandits riding our town’s horses on the road that ran in front of my house, galloping toward me.
“Aaren! Brock!” I screamed. “Bandits!”
Brock flung the front door open as I ran toward it. In the doorway, Aaren tugged Brenna’s second glove on her hand and grabbed his slingshot, shoving it into his waistband, then we all ran.
“Up the hill!” I yelled. “They’ll have a hard time following on the horses. We have to get to the orchard!”
We pounded across the packed snow of the road as the horses neared my house. As soon as we reached the snow-covered rise leading up to the fourth ring, Brock lifted Brenna and placed her on the hill as high as he could and shouted, “Go! Go!”
We didn’t even try to walk up the steep incline—we climbed, our hands and feet slipping in the deep snow as we struggled upward. We half pulled, half pushed Brenna as we went.
“Get them!” a bandit shouted just before he grabbed my ankle. Brock clambered past me and jerked Brenna out of the bandit’s reach while I scraped my boot against my other ankle to shove the bandit’s hand off. The yelling of the men, the neighing of the horses as their hooves beat against the hill, and Brenna’s screaming all fueled my climb. I dug my fingers into the snow, grasping for any handhold that would help me get farther from them. One of the horses behind me rose up on its hind legs. I screamed and yanked Aaren to me just as the hoof came down, almost landing on his leg.
We scrambled the rest of the way up the hill as the men gave up trying to climb the hill and rode their horses away from us, toward the road a half mile back that led up to the fourth ring. When we reached the top of the hill, the men were already on the fourth ring, racing toward us.
I knew Brenna wouldn’t be able to move fast enough, so I picked her up. The sound of my heart thundered in my ears, and I thought my lungs would burst before we made it to the orchard, but somehow we kept running, even after we reached the first trees. About ten rows in, I fell to my knees and Brenna tumbled to the ground. My lungs and my legs wouldn’t let me take another step.
The horses stopped when they reached the edge of the orchard and reared anytime they neared the low, close branches.
“Should we go in?” One bandit’s voice carried through the crisp air.
“No. This place’s too big. We’ll wait for them to come out.” Then the bandit yelled, “You have to come out sometime!”
True, but at least I could catch my breath first.
I hadn’t noticed how light it had become until the sun poked over the mountains and glittered on the snow through the trees. Brock pulled me to my feet and we walked through the orchard, thankful the trees had kept so much snow off the ground. Without discussing it, we all headed toward the big shed full of baskets and ladders at the end of the orchard that marked our usual path into the mountains.
Sometimes, when we headed home after sky jumping, the orchard felt five miles wide, even though it was less than one. Today, though, with the bandits constantly on the border of it, shadowing us, the end of the trees came fast. When Brenna said she was too tired to go any farther, we stopped to rest and get drinks of water. The bandits stopped, too, at the spot where we normally exited the orchard, the horses scraping their hooves impatiently on the ground. We were close enough that we could see their breath in the cold air.
Aaren put his water skin back into his bag. “How are we going to get out of here?”
“We only need to make it to the Bomb’s Breath,” I whispered. “They won’t follow us through it.”
Aaren nodded. “We need a distraction.”
“I’ll distract them,” Brock said as he looked toward the men. “You go. Don’t stop until you’re past the Bomb’s Breath.”
Brock wasn’t going to be the distraction. It was bad enough I brought more people than just myself on this trip, and I wasn’t about to put any of them in extra danger.
“If I was the bad guys,” Brenna said between drinks of water, “and I saw we didn’t die in the Bomb’s Breath, I’d still chase us. ’Cause I’m brave.”
“Yes, you are.” I looked at Aaren and Brock and raised an eyebrow. Brenna had a point.
“So we die,” Aaren said simply.
I almost choked on the swig of water I was swallowing.
Aaren crouched down. “Brenna, when we get past the Bomb’s Breath, do you think we can pretend to be dead and fool the bad guys?”
“I’m good at playing dead!” Brenna fell to the ground, her eyelids fluttering and her tongue hanging out. Then she jumped to her feet again. “See?”
“Yes, you are good,” Aaren said. “Um … when we fall to the ground, let’s turn our faces away from the bad guys, okay?”
Brenna nodded like playing dead was the most exciting thing to happen to her all day.
“You ready?” Brock asked as he put his schoolbag strap over his head. His eyes were focused on the edge of the orchard, where he planned to create the distraction.
“Almost,” I said. “Brock, will you help Brenna with her schoolbag?”
As he bent to pick up the bag, I stepped toward Aaren and whispered, “Get them to the Bomb’s Breath.” Before he could react, I grabbed the slingshot from his waistband and ran.
I hoped Brock wouldn’t try to stop me from being the distraction. I was sure Aaren wouldn’t—he knew me well enough not to try. I veered to the right to draw the men farther from where Brock, Aaren, and Brenna needed to exit the orchard. As I ran, I kept my eyes on the base of the trees, where there was almost no snow. Every few trees, I spied a leftover apple from autumn and picked it up. By the time I reached the edge of the orchard, I had four.
Sky Jumpers Series, Book 1 Page 10
