We climb a hill with a sharp incline, dotted with trees that get taller and taller as we advance toward the dense forest. The terrain gets steeper as we approach the tree line.
“Wow, this is quite the hike.”
“We’ll be getting to the big payoff in a minute. Hear the water? That’s the river and the first two falls. We’re coming up to the canyon, and the view is incredible.”
The roar of swift-moving water gets louder. Something about that sound has always sent my pulse racing. We pick up the pace.
The ground levels off as we walk among the evergreens. The light filters through the trees, sending soft rays to the ground and illuminating the carpet of dropped needles that cushions our steps. I spot a hawk in the lower branches a few yards away. It screeches a greeting as we pass.
“Do you have any Pips in here?” I ask.
“No, I don’t come here often enough. Plus, if Pip ever found out I had another bird in my afterlife, I’d be in big trouble.”
The trees give way to rocky terrain sloping gently downward, ending in an abrupt drop-off a hundred or so yards ahead. Hannah changes course, leading us toward a rope bridge spanning the chasm. It must be a quarter mile across, at least, and half a mile deep. We stop at the edge right before the bridge to take in the stunning view.
At the canyon’s floor is a rushing river. It’s sheer rock face all the way down from where we stand. Across the canyon is the real attraction, where two spectacular waterfalls bookend the bridge. The baffling thing is that the falls seem to have no source. They begin at the top of the ravine, but there is no lake, stream, river, or any other visible water source.
“How … ”
“No idea. It’s pretty amazing, though, right?”
“I have no words.”
“I’m glad you’re having a good time.”
“Thanks for bringing me here. It’s fantastic.”
“Thanks for coming with me.” Hannah walks over to a big boulder a couple of yards back from the edge. “Want to take a break for a few minutes?”
“Sounds good.” I take a seat next to her. “It’s so gorgeous here.” A rainbow has appeared across the canyon in the waterfall to the left of the bridge. A feeling of complete serenity passes over me, and I take a deep, grateful breath. “You were right, you know?”
Hannah turns to look at me. “About what?”
“On my first day. You asked if I died in a car crash. I don’t know if Charlie told you or not, but what Herc said about me hitting a semi was true.”
She shakes her head. “Charlie didn’t say anything. He’s very protective of you.”
Interesting.
“I was being an idiot. My phone rang, and then it fell on the floor when I was trying to get it out of my purse. I took off my seatbelt to grab it, and you can guess the rest.” I still feel queasy talking about it.
Hannah puts her arms around me and gives me a hug. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
“I guess you and I should have stuck to bikes,” Hannah says. The corners of her mouth turn up in the tiniest of smiles.
I laugh. Hard. Hard enough I almost fall off the boulder. We fall into a hopeless fit that leaves us both wheezing. “It would have been kind of hard to pedal across the Pacific,” I say, gasping and wiping away tears.
“Good point,” she says, still laughing.
It takes us a few minutes to regain control of ourselves, but the bridge beckons. My curiosity finally tempers our laughter.
“Want to go across?” Hannah asks. “There’s a trail that leads through the hills over there.”
Across the canyon are foothills I hadn’t even noticed.
“Lead the way.”
As we make our way to the bridge, we hear the sound of a twig snapping behind us. We both turn around, excited, hoping to see some wildlife.
If only.
Closing in on us are Herc and a man I recognize from Nero’s bar. The man who was watching Crosby and me from the corner table. The man who I realize looks exactly like Herc, just a few decades older.
Herc’s father.
My angry words from that night when Crosby found me in the pod come back to haunt me. I am nothing like Herc. He’s a hateful, cruel, manipulative little jerk.
They’re moving at a rapid, dangerous pace.
Hannah’s curiosity turns to alarm as they approach. “Herc?”
My defenses are up, and I take a step closer to Hannah so we’re standing shoulder to shoulder with our backs to the canyon. It’s clear we’re in trouble, but we have nowhere to go.
“So you’re Alonzo,” I say, a brash, icy edge to my voice pretending little regard for the precarious position Hannah and I are in. “You’re exactly what I pictured. A wife-beating, child-killing stereotype.”
He and Herc freeze with twin looks of shock on their faces. “Wh-what did you say to me?” Alonzo sputters.
“Oh, I know all about you, Alonzo. Even how you took the coward’s way out with your service revolver.” I put my hand up to my head, pointing my finger at my temple like a gun. I grab Hannah’s hand and inch forward, trying to gain a better defensive position.
“You shut up!” Herc screams. He takes a step forward, but Alonzo puts his arm out to stop him.
“I’ll handle this, since it’s clear you can’t.” He takes an aggressive step toward me. “You’re not so good at hiding, even in dark alleys.”
Dark alleys? I’m jolted by recognition. The man and the boy arguing in the shadows when Bobby and I sneaked into the city. “It was you two. Outside Nero’s.”
He claps his hands in mock applause. “Bravo. It was only a matter of time before even you put two and two together. It ain’t that hard. And I can’t have you sniffing around, spoiling my plans. My boy here was supposed to take care of you himself, but apparently that’s too much to ask.”
“But she was with Charlie and Hannah the next time,” Herc says. “It never would have worked.”
“All you had to do was bring her to me,” he roars. He backhands Herc across the cheek and looks up at the sky. “God forgive me for raising such a little codardo.”
Herc wimpers, which draws a hard look from his father.
Hannah and I take advantage of the distraction and begin to creep forward, away from the edge of the canyon and its perilous drop. The sandy ground makes for unsure footing, and we have precious little space to maneuver.
“How can you defend him, Herc?” I ask. “I know what he did to you. I know what he did to your mom, too. He broke her arm with the same flashlight he killed you with. Then he killed himself, leaving her to make the decision to take you off life support all by herself.”
I’ve said too much. Alonzo charges up to me with remarkable speed and delivers a crushing blow to my cheek with a well-placed right hook. Stars explode into my vision and I drop to the ground. He follows up his punch with a vicious kick in the ribs. These are practiced moves, learned from years of too much power and too little oversight. I can only imagine the amount of damage this man did in his lifetime, and for the first time since my arrival, I feel genuine, unreserved sympathy for Herc. I’m getting a glimpse of what must have been his daily reality: abuse and fear.
The crunch of my breaking bones makes both me and Hannah scream. The pain is immediate and profound, leaving me desperate for Charlie’s ability to overcome injury. This isn’t real. I’m not really hurt, I tell myself, but it’s no use. The pain is blinding.
“Leave her alone!” Hannah screams.
I try to tell her to stay quiet, to stay still, but the words won’t come out. My lungs scream for air as I fight to stay conscious, struggling against the black.
“Shut your mouth,” Alonzo commands Hannah, his hand raised.
She cringes in anticipation of the blow, but his hand stops inches from her face. “Go ahead,” she says. “Big man, beating up some girls he followed out in the woods.”
He chuckles. “My son can’t even handle the likes of these tw
o.” Disgust gleams in his eyes like a disease, and he marches back toward Herc. “Is this what I raised you to be?” he demands. “How hard was it to follow them into the city and tell me where they were? What, you afraid you were going to get caught?”
Herc hangs his head.
“You look at me when I talk to you!” Alonzo screams. “I will not be disrespected like this!”
I struggle to my feet and stumble backward a few steps, queasy from the pain. Hannah puts her arm around my waist to steady me.
“It isn’t your fault, Herc. You didn’t stand a chance with a father like him.” My words are slow and painful. If I can get him on our side, three against one might be enough.
“You shut your damn mouth,” Alonzo says. “There’s nobody out here who will hear you scream. There’s nobody here to help you. My boy and I are leaving this place, and you can’t stop us.”
“You don’t have to be like him, Herc.” I try my best to hide the fear in my voice. “It’s not too late.” I stand up straight, gasping from the pain, and take a step away from Hannah. My proximity to the edge of the canyon is perilous. “Let’s go back to the dorms together, okay?”
“Go to hell.” Herc’s eyes are a mixture of hate and welling tears.
His loyalty to his father is fierce and inexplicable. He’ll never turn on him, especially not for Hannah and me, which leaves me with one last, desperate option. “No offense, Herc, but your dad is an asshole.”
Alonzo, blind with rage, charges at me like a lineman zeroing in on a running back. I wait until he is inches from me, then sidestep, placing my hands on his back and pushing him toward the canyon with all of my remaining strength. He tumbles over the edge, screaming as he makes the long plummet to the canyon floor.
Hannah carefully helps me away from the edge. “Dez, are you okay?”
“You crazy bitch!” Herc rushes along the edge of the canyon mouth, looking for a way down. “I have to go help him!”
“Don’t worry, he’s already dead,” Hannah says. “We won’t be lucky enough to have him die again.”
Herc runs a few hundred yards past the bridge and begins his slow descent down the canyon to rescue the man least deserving of his help.
“That ought to keep them busy for a while,” I say. “Let’s get out of here.”
It’s a long, painful trip back to civilization. We have to make frequent stops so I can rest, but after several hours of nervous backward glances, it seems Herc isn’t following us. I doubt Alonzo will be following anyone for a while.
“You must be getting tired, too,” I say. We stop in the low hills on the outer edge of the forest, both panting from the effort of our journey. “You’ve been practically carrying me the whole way.”
She studies my battered, swollen cheek. “Don’t worry about me. Let’s just work on getting you back where it’s safe.” She takes a deep, sad breath. “I’m so sorry, Dez.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. This should,” I gasp, wincing, “have been … a great time.” I close my eyes, trying to fight off the overwhelming pain and focus on getting back to our dorm.
“Maybe I should go ahead and get help. We could come back for you.”
“No. Please don’t leave me here alone.”
“Of course,” Hannah says. “You want to rest a little longer?”
“If I don’t get moving now, I’m not sure I’ll be able to.”
Our arduous journey back to safety comes to an end when we reach the edge of Shanti Park. Hannah plants me on the first bench we find. “Stay right here, Dez. I’m going to go get help. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I couldn’t move if I tried,” I whimper. Too drained and sore to remain upright, I lie flat, unable to think or move.
She takes off at a sprint, and for the first time in several torturous hours, I feel safe.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
“Hey, Crosby. Hannah and I went for a little hike.” I grit my teeth as he helps me sit up on the bench, but a yelp of pain escapes anyway.
“Hannah?” I ask through my clenched teeth. “Can you go ahead of us and find Charlie? Let him know what happened? The way word gets out around here, I don’t want him hearing it from anyone else. Tell him I’m okay.”
“You’re not okay.”
“But I will be. Please, just let him know we’re on our way.”
Hannah nods, and then takes off toward Jhana Park and our dorm.
“Oh, sweetie, what did they do to you?” Crosby kneels down in front of me. He puts a hand under my chin to check out my face.
“Not they. Alonzo. He was pretty awful to Herc, too, although I got the worst of it. I’m pretty sure my ribs are broken.” I look back toward the edge of the park. “I don’t think they followed us. At least, Alonzo sure didn’t.”
“You’re safe now. He will never hurt you again. I promise you that.” He stands. “I’m going to pick you up now. I know it’s going to hurt, but I promise I’ll be as careful as I can.”
“No tossing me over your shoulder this time,” I say with a shaky smile.
He slips his arm under my knees and puts his other arm behind my back. I gasp at the pain of putting my arms around his neck.
“Okay, kiddo. You ready?”
I nod, and hold my breath. He lifts me up, and I bury my face in his chest, screaming from the pain.
“Sorry,” he whispers.
The trip back to the dorm is a blur of pain and confusion. I slip in and out of a haze, perhaps from shock, or maybe from pure exhaustion.
I come back around to a state of vague awareness and realize I’m back in our suite.
Hello, sweet bed.
Crosby puts me down as if the slightest bump might make me shatter into a million pieces. He sits down next to me, on my injured side. Even the small bit of movement as the side of the bed sinks makes me cringe.
“Sorry,” he says. “Let’s see how bad you are now that we’re back in decent lighting.” He gives my cheek a thorough, worried appraisal.
“That man has a nasty right hook,” I say. “I guess I should have been jumping out of windows for practice, like Charlie.”
Crosby’s hand freezes on my jaw mid-inspection. “That’s not funny.”
“I’m not sure I was joking. What’s the trick, anyway?”
“To not feeling pain?”
“Yeah. I mean, Charlie has it figured out, but Delphine and Louis, they got hurt when we escaped. And they’ve been here, what, a hundred years or something?”
“Correction, they were here a hundred years. Past tense.” He places an ice pack on my cheek. “There’s really no trick to getting past pain. You just have to be ready. But it’s a hard thing to let go. Charlie’s a rare exception, mostly because—”
“He’s had lots of practice?”
“Exactly. That and stubborn determination.”
“Well, whatever it is, I’m jealous.”
“You’ll heal in no time. You’re in no short supply of stubbornness.”
“My ribs are what really hurt. Every breath I take feels like I’m being crushed.” I pull the left side of my shirt up just enough to show him the damage. The amount of pain it causes brings tears to my eyes.
Crosby takes a long look at my ribs and then pulls my shirt back down for me, saving me the painful trouble. “Good news is, by tomorrow you should be feeling a lot better.”
“Our little hike was not so great after all.” I touch my cheek gingerly.
“You ready to tell me what happened?”
“Okay.” The pain and the fear make the retelling nearly impossible, but somehow I manage. “He saw me that night with Bobby, outside Nero’s. And then after the pods when you were … ”
Crosby nods, letting me skip over the awful details.
“He was there. At the table in the corner. And he knew I saw him, and I mentioned Herc to you. He knew eventually I’d figure out that he was Herc’s dad, and he didn’t want me ruining his plans.”
“What
plans?” Crosby asks.
“He made it sound like he and Herc were going to run off together. Start a new life. Ironic, huh?” I’m teary-eyed. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what? You did what you had to do to defend yourself.”
“Pushing him—it was reflex. Herc started screaming and looking for a way down the canyon so he could go after his dad. That’s when Hannah and I got out of there.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
The door bursts open and Charlie charges through like a bull. “Dez?” He rushes to my side and takes a seat next to me. “My god, what did he do to you?” His posture is rigid. “Where is he?” he asks Crosby.
“You mean Herc?” I ask.
“I’m going to—”
Hannah walks through the door. “I already told you, it wasn’t Herc’s fault.”
“She’s right,” I say. “There’s no way he could stand up to his dad. The guy’s psychotic.”
Hannah sits down on her bed. “Is there anything else I can do?”
“If you don’t mind coming with me for a bit,” Crosby says, “I’d appreciate it. I need to talk to you about what happened.”
Charlie begins to stroke my hair, ignoring our observers. “I can’t believe he did this to you.” He looks over at Crosby. “So, what’s going to happen to them? I mean, if Herc thinks we’re going to still be roommates after this, he’s out of his freaking mind. And his dad better not come anywhere near Dez or Hannah again. Or any of us, for that matter.”
Crosby waves his hand, stopping Charlie’s rant before it gains too much momentum. “We’ve already sent guards from adult segregation to retrieve Alonzo. He will be moved to a secured housing unit in the city and placed under strict supervision.” He sits back and rubs his face. “As for Herc, I’m not sure what will happen. That will be up to Kay and other administrative staff. For now, he’ll be moved to a different dorm, but my best guess is they’ll want to work toward reintroducing him to your floor.”
Charlie shakes his head. “No way. I’m sorry, but when you head out into the wilderness to attack your floormates, you don’t get to be on our floor anymore. He’s burned his bridges.”
Life, A.D. Page 22
