The Registry

by Shannon Stoker

  “We don’t have time. There’s still that big guy.” Andrew turned and walked.

  She looked toward Andrew with shock, but in her daze she knew he was right. She caught up to him, straightened her hat, and kept his pace. She thought about what he had said earlier to Whitney, but it was Mia and Andrew who were selfish.

  They walked back a few tracks and stepped onto one of the trains. Mia should have been in awe. This was her first train ride, but with the recent events she didn’t care. It was tall and had two floors with orange seats lining the walls. All of them faced the front of the transport. Andrew climbed the small staircase and picked a spot. Mia sat down next to him. There were no windows on the top floor.

  “Don’t cry,” Andrew said with no emotion. “It will draw attention to us. Let’s make sure we get out of here.”

  Sitting silently in the train car was not easy for Mia. Other travelers came in and took seats. Nobody paid any attention to the two of them. Mia didn’t think taking the train was the best idea, but all she could focus on was thoughts of Whitney.

  Chapter 47

  It is appropriate and expected to take joy in the enemy’s failures. After all, a failure for them is a win for you, and a win for you is a win for your country.

  —The Boy’s Guide to Service

  Grant stomped his feet in frustration. He couldn’t believe they had gotten away. Rex was still bent over catching his breath. He was more affected by the situation than Grant.

  “You almost died, boss.” Rex stood up and wrapped his arm around his stomach. “I almost died saving you.”

  “Thank you, by the way.” Grant didn’t want to appear rude.

  He looked at the back of his shirt. Rex had stretched out Grant’s collar a little. He told himself it was ruined and frowned.

  A group of eight men came running around the train toward them. With their tight black shirts and black pants, they did have a commanding effect.

  “Where were all of you?” Grant asked. “What’s the point in having a team if it can’t be relied on?”

  “Boss, this station is huge. We were split up in teams of two, like you told us,” one of them said.

  Leonard and Ross tumbled in behind. It was clear the older man was not used to fieldwork anymore. His suit was drenched in sweat.

  “Did you get her?” Leonard asked in between breaths.

  “Does it look like I got her?” Grant shook his head. He was surrounded by imbeciles.

  “Ross, go to the control room, get every train out shut down. Don’t let any more trains in or out,” Leonard said to his subordinate.

  “That’s not necessary. They’re on track five, going to the Southeast Area.” Grant wished he’d won during the more thrilling chase, but he would settle for picking her up. “If they’re still here anyway.”

  Ross looked at Leonard for confirmation and ran off. Leonard was on the verge of collapsing.

  “Make sure they don’t let anyone off that train. We’ll do a search that way,” Grant said. He looked at his group of men, who were standing there staring at him.

  “Didn’t you hear me? Track five,” Grant said, and the men scampered away. Leonard remained behind.

  He turned away and placed his hand to his brow. Before he had been enjoying the fight and the chase, but now he was starting to get annoyed. Grant did not like losing and did not like surprises. He had forgotten about the other girl. He knew it was his own mistake. He should have noticed they were missing one and told someone to hunt her down.

  “Don’t you want to go to the train?” Leonard broke Grant’s concentration.

  “No. It’s a waste of time. I’m sure they’re not on it. That boy is smart, he knows I heard him say the number.” Grant sat next to Leonard and pointed toward the ceiling. “You see that? It’s a camera. They have them all over here. We are going to let them escape and then watch for what train they got onto. If I shut down the station they’ll just find some way to get back into the city, and while I love Saint Louis, it would be too hard to hunt them down here. But if they’re going to some little place, I’ll have the upper hand again.”

  “Well, why did you send the men to the train?”

  “Because they were annoying me. I wanted them out of my sight.”

  Grant always enjoyed a worthy opponent, but this boy was not his equal. He hadn’t even been in service. Grant noticed he was clenching his fist so hard his knuckles had turned white. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on Andrew. It was a shame. The boy would have made a great soldier.

  “Ross might want to tell them they need to scrape someone off the track.” Grant patted Leonard’s back before strolling down the platform.

  Chapter 48

  Grooms have served their country and sacrificed a great deal in the process. If a wife mourns her old life, she only shows disrespect for all her husband has done to provide for her and his country.

  —The Registry Guide for Girls

  Mia concentrated on breathing. It was easy to focus on and she worried she might forget how, as the weight of her grief pressed heavily on her chest. The train doors closed and they rolled out of the station.

  Mia and Andrew were the only passengers sitting up top, affording them some privacy. Mia’s eyes glanced toward the door; at any second she expected Grant or his large buddy to walk through and grab them. But she reminded herself Grant was dead, just like Whitney.

  “How are you doing?” Andrew asked with genuine concern.

  “I can’t believe we made it out of there,” Mia said.

  “No, how are you doing? That was . . . unexpected,” he said.

  “She’s dead. It’s terrible, I’m terrible.”

  “Whitney made a decision; it was honorable. We should remember her sacrifice.”

  Remember her sacrifice? Mia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Whitney had died for her. There were so many things running through Mia’s mind that she couldn’t begin to think of what to say, but Andrew had summed it up in a single sentence with no trace of warmth.

  “What are you going to do now?” Mia asked. She wanted to mourn Whitney in her own way and not with Andrew’s help.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, he saw you help me; you can’t go into service now. You’ll be arrested. You’re a fugitive.”

  “I doubt it; he would have to mark me by my number, which he doesn’t know. Giving my description and the name ‘Andrew’ won’t be enough. And he’s dead now.”

  “What’s your number?”

  “I told you, CMW1408, what you called my last name.”

  “Oh.” Mia had assumed they were bound together now, but she was mistaken. “How long till we’re in the Southeast?”

  “We’re not going to the Southeast Area,” Andrew said. He handed her the tickets. Their destination was Yuma, Southwest Area. Mia cringed at the sight of the extra ticket. Whitney would never see the Southwest.

  “Why did you say Southeast Area then?”

  “Because”—Andrew turned to look at her—“I was planning on going to the Southeast, leaving you to continue on your own.”

  Memories of their rolling on the train platform together crossed her mind. The feeling that she might lose him too made her feel empty. She looked at her cold, closed-off traveling companion and realized that was all he would ever be. Cold and closed.

  Every time the train came to a stop Mia was sure a RAG agent would enter and take her. But at every stop people got off or on and the train kept rolling forward. Mia and Andrew didn’t do much talking the rest of the trip.

  She couldn’t blame him for wanting to leave. This was a lot of work with no payoff for him. He had put himself in so much danger just by helping her. Whitney didn’t leave her thoughts, and she couldn’t bear the idea of Andrew dying now. If they both lost their lives it would destroy her.

  Minutes turned into hours; daylight turned to twilight. Somewhere in the process Mia managed to doze for a while. She dreamed of Whitney. Happy in a loving
relationship surrounded by a huge family. They were playing together on a beach, laughing and having fun. Mia wanted to join them, but they didn’t notice her. Suddenly Whitney saw her and ran over. Mia felt tears streaming down her cheek as the two joined hands. Whitney smiled warmly and crinkled her nose at Mia. Whitney wiped the tears away and then, in a fluttery voice, said, “Stop . . . stop . . . stop.”

  “We’re the next stop.” Andrew shook Mia awake. Her skin tingled where his hand touched her. She rubbed the spot till the sensation went away and tried to process her dream. Wherever Whitney was now, she hoped she was as happy as in Mia’s fantasy.

  “Yuma?”

  Mia yawned; it was light outside again. She had no clue what time it was.

  “No, that’s the end of the line. We’re getting off in Gila Bend,” Andrew said as he stretched. “We need to look for a large car that will honk three times.”

  “What time is it?” Mia asked.

  “I’m not sure; I think it’s sometime in the afternoon, but tomorrow.”

  “Huh?” Mia was confused.

  “We’ve been on the train a long time. All you did was sleep. When you walked to the bathroom you looked like a shell.”

  Mia didn’t even remember waking up to use the restroom. She still felt tired. She told herself it was probably from too much sleep.

  The two walked down the steps and waited by the doors. There wasn’t anyone else in their train car. Mia stared at the ground, not wanting to deal with any feelings she had at the moment.

  “I wasn’t going to leave you. I just . . . You . . .” Andrew struggled with his words. “It was just a dumb idea. I was mad.”

  Mia was surprised to hear Andrew explain himself. That was something he did so rarely. She wondered if it was because she was a woman. He didn’t agree with her ideology and planned to use the Registry. She couldn’t tell if he saw her as a person or a possession.

  “I told you to go,” Mia said. “But I’m glad you didn’t.”

  She blushed as the words came out of her mouth. They were the truth. If Andrew hadn’t helped her, she would be dead or stuck with Grant.

  “There’s something else—” he started to say, but the train came to a stop and the doors popped open. Mia walked past him and onto the platform. She was sure whatever Andrew had to say, she didn’t want to hear it. It would be about boundaries or being careful.

  The station, if one could call it that, in Gila Bend was nothing like the one in Saint Louis. It resembled a fallen dream of a major hub. A giant concrete wall was the only structure. There was no roof or sister walls to match. The concrete slab stood about fifty feet high. No construction materials to finish anything were in sight, and it appeared the elements had already started to chip away at the single protector of the tracks.

  “It looks like they were building a station and stopped,” Mia said. “Does it say what to do when we exit?”

  “No. It just said to get off at this stop and wait for the car.”

  Mia was happy Andrew had moved on from whatever he wanted to say. He sat down at a bench and pulled some food from his bag. Mia wasn’t hungry.

  “Eat. You haven’t had anything in over a day.” He threw her a granola bar given to them by Frank and Alex. Mia looked at the wrapper and thought of the nice men. She hoped they were all right. There were already two deaths on her list and she didn’t want to add any more.

  “Mia, I’m not good at this, but that night. I wanted to tell you—”

  Andrew was cut off when a giant car pulled into the parking lot. It was boxy and looked like a tank. The car stopped right by them. The driver blared his horn three times in quick succession, then rolled down the window.

  “Get in,” a low voice said before honking the horn several more times, making Mia jump. “Come on, I haven’t got all day.”

  Andrew walked toward the open window and waved Mia behind him.

  “He seems crazy,” Mia said. She hung close to Andrew.

  “Yeah, but everything seems crazy,” Andrew said before holding open the door for Mia.

  Chapter 49

  All female physical desires will be satisfied with intense pleasure on a wife’s marriage night. Over the length of the marriage more pleasures will be afforded the wife, some so intense and glorious it would be unladylike to put them into words.

  —The Registry Guide for Girls

  The two comrades sat close to each other in the backseat. Mia was scared they had been tricked and this was the wrong car, but these feelings were familiar to her. She felt blind. It was hard to get a good look at the driver from the backseat. She tried to focus on their surroundings. The landscape looked flat, like the Midwest but with no green. Everything was brown and rocky. Mia began to miss her home. This area seemed so depressing.

  “I thought there were three of you,” the mystery driver said. He didn’t wait for a response. “Doesn’t matter to me. I’m glad to help the two of you. What are your names?”

  Mia felt a sharp pang over Whitney but then a warm sensation. She wasn’t sure why, but somehow she knew Whitney had found her peace, wherever that might be.

  It had never occurred to Mia that the driver would know as little about them as they did about him. They were just two kids who needed help, and he was just someone willing to give it. She began to relax when she thought about how lucky she was that there was some good in the world.

  “Amelia, but you can call me Mia.”

  “Andrew.”

  “Well, Mia and Andy, my name is Roderick Bernard Rowe. You can call me Rod.”

  Mia inched away from Andrew and gave him some breathing room. She had a good feeling about Rod.

  “Are you going to help me cross the border?”

  “Why yes, I do believe I am.”

  Relief filled Mia’s heart. Her journey was almost over. She glanced out the window again. She could see mountains off in the background. They looked spectacular, and the sun wasn’t so high anymore, causing purples and reds to appear throughout the landscape. Without noticing she did, Mia moved herself as far away from Andrew as she could get.

  “Where are we going?” Mia asked, growing more confident.

  “Theba; it’s about twenty minutes outside the Bend. I’m a carpenter, drive all over the area fixing things for people,” Rod said. He was cheery.

  He turned off the main highway and onto a side street. Houses started appearing.

  “It’s pretty quiet out here. About five years ago they wanted to make it a tourist spot or place for older people to settle in the warmth. Those plans went under when the developer realized it was too hot here for vacation. That’s why the station is here.”

  Mia liked how chatty he was. It made her anxiety fade away.

  “Did you find us on a message board?” Mia asked.

  “Yes. The Internet is good for something,” Rod said.

  “Was it about puppies and poetry?”

  He let out a whooping laugh. Mia looked at Andrew, who shrugged. He knew as much as she did. When their driver finally stopped laughing he spoke.

  “Are either of you familiar with Sam’s Spot?”

  Mia looked at Andrew, who shook his head.

  “No.”

  “It’s a website. People sell their junk, services, pets, vacations. Really anything you could buy online. There are millions of postings. It makes it hard for the government to track them. You two were listed for sale under the pets section. I thought it sounded like people who needed help and not actual animals.”

  “Is there a chance you could’ve shown up at the station and found dogs?” Mia asked.

  “Yes. And there is a chance someone could’ve thought they’d be purchasing some pooches. It’s a roll of the dice. Really it’s dumb luck we found each other. I’m sure there are other places on the Internet to look, but you two were found on Sam’s Spot.”

  As the drive continued Mia noticed the houses got farther and farther apart, giving the homes more privacy. They weren’t as far apart
as farmhouses, though. Nothing would grow in this climate.

  “Why do the houses get more spaced out?”

  “Cattle land. Well, not so much anymore, but there were lots of ranches out here. Now people just like their space I guess.” Rod turned the wheel and pulled into a driveway.

  Mia was used to mile-long driveways, but this was short, maybe twenty-five feet. The car pulled all the way into a garage. Rod did not unlock the doors till the garage door went all the way down. The garage held another car as well, a small, sporty convertible. Mia was getting the idea that carpentry did well for Rod.

  Mia guessed Rod was just younger than her father, in his late forties. In the garage she got a better look at him. He had a slight belly and was shorter than Andrew. His frame was dusted with a bushy sandy-blond beard and thick hair down to his ears.

  The garage was clean but bare except for the cars. Not even a workbench. The door opened into a large kitchen with clean, crisp black appliances and a freestanding island. A small dining area was attached. The whole floor was open; a midsize room with some mismatched couches and a television set was just to the right. Two doors were on the left and a set of stairs was visible in the corner next to the front door.

  “Welcome to my abode.” Rod dropped his keys on the table.

  “Did you just move in?” Mia asked. She noticed how empty the place looked; there wasn’t a bit of warmth or a personal touch anywhere.

  “Nope, lived here for about seven years now.” Rod walked over to the stairs. “Upstairs, two bedrooms and a bathroom; here’s the first floor, and here is the basement.” Rod signaled to one of the two doors on their left. “I’ll give you the grand tour later.”

  The house was clean, cozy, and plain. Mia thought it shared these traits with its owner.

  Just when Mia was starting to settle in, the unmistakable sound of shoes against the pavement and whistling came from the front door. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Andrew stepped in front of her and raised his fists, placing himself between her and whoever was coming in.