Flowertown

by S. G. Redling

  “How are we going to get past the gate?” He wheezed wet breaths.

  “I don’t know. Climb it maybe? We could try to…” Ellie slowed her jog, looking around her. The gate enclosing the Feno compound from the rest of Flowertown stood wide open, unattended. She and Bing scanned the edges of the fencing for cameras, but if they were there, they had to be infrared, because the gate area and the road around it were dark.

  “Do you think it’s a trap?” Bing whispered.

  Ellie stared for a moment, listening. “No. I think it’s unmanned. I think Feno’s down to a skeleton crew.”

  “Why? Where would they go?”

  She shook her head. “Guy said something about Thursday. Something about horizons.”

  “You’ll forgive me if I don’t put a lot of stock in that piece of shit.” He stepped forward into the darkness, and he and Ellie held their breath as they passed through the open gate.

  “That is very weird, Bing.”

  He nodded. “Weird and good. Now let’s get the hell out of here and find someplace to hide for the rest of our lives. Which, considering how my ribs feel, is about three hours.” Ellie let him put his arm around her shoulders as they hurried down the darkened streets toward town.

  The power was down throughout the southern public end of Flowertown. Whatever power supply Feno used for their compound, they didn’t share it with the general population. A wet spring breeze blew down Avenue Four, and everyone who had a window had it open to catch even a whiff of fresh air. Ellie and Bing didn’t have to work hard to stay in the shadows. On the ten-block journey they passed only one Feno security truck, and it seemed in a hurry to head back to the compound.

  Bing stopped on a corner and held his side. “Where are we going?”

  Ellie looked up and down the cross streets. “I don’t know. Want to find Torrez?” Bing pointed to the west. “I don’t want to go that way,” she told him. “That way’s the detention center, and I think we should steer as clear of that as we can.”

  Bing twisted his torso carefully. “My vote is to go anywhere nobody is going to hit me.”

  Ellie stared down the darkened west street. “Why didn’t they take us to the detention center? I mean, why drive us all the way out to the compound when they could have arrested us and kept us in detention? It’s closer. It’s built to contain people. We sure as hell couldn’t have escaped from there.”

  “I don’t know. And to tell you the truth, I don’t care. We’re out now. Let’s get off the street and try to figure out what we’re going to do.”

  “Agreed. How about we go to Dingle’s Market?” Ellie squinted at Bing. “Are you in pain or are you making a face?”

  “Both. Why Dingle’s?”

  “Why not? For one thing, I’m starving. I haven’t eaten anything but half a pancake today. And another, Annabeth is the one who gave me the newsletter. I want to see what she knows about the meeting. For all we know she could have been arrested. Why are you making that face?”

  Bing followed Ellie down the street toward the market. “Annabeth Dingle creeps me out. That no-sleeping thing. It’s weird, that’s all.”

  “Seriously, Bing? We just escaped from the Feno goons and are running for our lives in the world’s smallest town and you’re afraid of an old woman?”

  “I didn’t say I was afraid of her.” Bing shoved his hands in his pockets. “I would just like to get a little weed in me before I have to face her, okay? Let’s run by East Fifth.”

  “Are you kidding me? Why don’t we just send up the bat signal? They’re going to be looking for us there.”

  “That’s the last place they’re going to look for us. Who would be stupid enough to go home when they’re on the lam?” He grinned at her as wide as he could with his split lip. “We’ll just run up the back steps, grab the weed, and reassess the situation. Besides, I’m covered in blood. I wouldn’t mind a clean shirt.”

  “This is a hell of time to get tidy, Bing.”

  Ellie insisted they at least circle the block before trying to get into their apartment building. Like the rest of the blocks they had passed, East Fifth was without power. The windows of the hardware store beneath Ellie’s window were dark, as were the neighboring apartment buildings. As they turned the corner to cut into the alley in the back, they saw several people on the top floors leaning out the window, shouting to each other. Ellie and Bing ducked down behind a dumpster, watching to see if another raid was taking place.

  No trucks came, no lights flashed, and when Ellie looked up, she saw many of the people were pointing to a spot over the rooftops of the next block. Reassured they hadn’t been spotted and that no security would descend upon them, she helped Bing out from the cramped spot. No sooner had he stretched to his full height than someone on the sixth floor yelled down to him.

  “Hey, Bing. Bing!” A young man waved his arms, trying to get Bing’s attention.

  “So much for stealth,” Ellie said.

  “Bing!” The neighbor continued to yell. “Did you see it? A plane flew over.”

  “What?” Bing shouted back. “Where? When?”

  “Just now.” The rest of the window-hangers pointed over the rooftops toward the east. “It was a single-engine plane, flew really low, landed on the other side of the barrier.”

  “That’s impossible.” Ellie shook her head. “This is a no-fly zone. Always has been.”

  Bing looked at her. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting the feeling that ‘always has been’ is getting ready to change.”

  They hurried to the back door, and Bing searched around behind the garbage cans to find the crowbar that always lay hidden for the residents. The door was unlocked but was made of heavy steel with no handle on the outside, so the residents of East Fifth made a point of keeping some sort of pry bar handy to get in the back door should the need arise. A quick jimmy and he and Ellie were heading up the steps. Bing clutched his side and let Ellie lead the way. At the fourth floor, the emergency stairwell lights were fading fast, and by the sixth floor, Bing had to keep a hand on Ellie to make it through the dark.

  “What are you? Half bat?” He banged his hip against the banister and swore.

  “Do you know how many times I’ve climbed up and down these steps in complete darkness? The lights almost never work.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess I don’t spend as much time in the back stairwell as you do. I take my dates to better places.”

  Ellie snorted. “Like you have dates.”

  Bing was breathing hard. “Well, if I did they wouldn’t spy on me.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Bing shushed her when she pulled open the door for the eighth floor. He peered into the darkness and then pulled Ellie in front of him. “Okay, Batgirl, what do you see? Is anyone there?”

  “I can’t see in the dark, Bing, I just know the layout by heart. If I had my phone I could use it as a flashlight.” She remembered leaving her phone on the bed when the goons had come.

  “If we had our phones, they’d be tracking us like bloodhounds.”

  Ellie led them down the black hall. Several steps in and one of the emergency lights flickered briefly, revealing an empty corridor, so she hurried them along to Bing’s room. It was unlocked as always.

  “Aren’t you ever afraid someone’s going to steal your weed?”

  “If somebody really wants in, a lock won’t keep them out.” Like Bing, Ellie knew the layout of the apartment by heart and tiptoed through the many pots of plants to the easy chair by the window while Bing rummaged around for a flashlight. “This will have to do.” He pulled his lighter out and began lighting a plate full of squat, half-burned candles.

  “Were you having a séance or something?”

  “I like the ambiance of candlelight. It helps me think.” He crouched down beside his coffee table and began searching through boxes.

  “What are you looking for?”

  Bing opened and closed lids, grabbing small baggies as
he went. “Different flavors for different moods. I don’t know how long it will be before I can get back here to restock. Plus I’ve got a purple weed somewhere in here that’s better than aspirin. God knows I could use it.”

  Ellie left him to his search and moved closer to the candles. While she felt safer in the dark, the shadows were making her jumpy. She knelt down and skimmed through Bing’s many books as he muttered to himself behind her. She pulled a heavy book from the shelf, holding it up in the dim light to see if she was reading the title correctly. “The Divisible Flock,” she whispered, reading aloud. She had to squint to see the subtitle. “Managing the Human Herd. Shit, Bing.”

  “Are you talking to me?” Bing was lying on his back, reaching into the undercarriage of the easy chair for something.

  Ellie leafed through the book, unable to read the dense text in the dark. “What did you mean about Guy spying on me?”

  Bing grunted as he freed a plastic cylinder from the chair’s springs. “You’re kidding, right? You heard the recording. How do you think Carpenter got that? Guy obviously planted a bug when he was in your room the other night.”

  “You don’t know that. Any one of those goons could have done it. At any time.”

  “Come on, Ellie. That’s pretty thick denial. Even for you.” He opened the cylinder and breathed deep. “Ah, Willy Nilly. A very special blend. Good for what ails you. Want some?”

  Ellie shook her head, tracing her fingers over the unbroken binding of the book as Bing crawled over to join her.

  “You’re not taking the cure or anything, are you? When’s the last time you smoked?”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t feel like it. It’s like my mind is trying to pull a thousand different strings together and I don’t even know what I’m pulling at.”

  Bing took the book from her hand and put it back on the shelf. “Heavy reading isn’t what you need. You need to face the truth. And this will help.” He handed her a burning joint. She hit it, but not very hard. She didn’t want to offend her friend; she just wanted a clear head.

  “I don’t even know where to begin to look for the truth.”

  “I’ll start.” He took the joint back from her. “The first truth is you hooked up with a shitty guy who sold you out. Plain and simple.” Ellie started to protest, but he talked over her. “I know it hurts and it sucks and it’s not fair, but let’s face it: he sold out to Feno like a good little corporate drone would. I’m not saying he didn’t care about you. He probably did, as much as a jackass can. But when push came to shove, he bugged your room. He turned you in.”

  “But he’s been helping me.”

  “How?” Bing coughed out a laugh. “By bringing your phone back so he can tap your room? By not taking a rubber hose to you when he interrogated you?”

  “He also let me get away when they were busting the secret meeting.” Ellie flinched.

  “Oh really? You failed to mention that part. Guy was in on that bust?” He snubbed the joint on the bottom of his sneaker. “Well then, that certainly makes him trustworthy.”

  “Don’t start. I don’t know what to think.”

  “You do know what to think, Ellie. You just don’t want to think it.”

  “But why is this happening? What does he think I’m doing?” Ellie lay back on the floor and stared at the dark ceiling. “I’ve been invisible for almost seven years, and all of a sudden I’m a person of interest. Everyone’s watching me.”

  “I don’t know if I’d go that far.”

  “Really, Bing? Then why did Mr. Carpenter come to my office and try to arrest me? Why did they put a guard on me?” Even the small hit of the joint was making her thoughts jumble and scatter, popping up out of order. “And how did he know I wasn’t in the building when the bomb went off?”

  “You told him.”

  “No.” She shook her head, feeling the familiar softness of her thoughts. “I told him I was inside. I told the clerk I was inside. You told me to say I was in the building and to lie about my med check.”

  “Oh, so this is my fault now?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying, Bing. I’m saying that…” She rubbed her eyes, her thoughts running together. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I’m tired.”

  He braced himself on her shoulder as he unfolded himself from the floor. “I know how you feel. I’m tired too. I’m tired of bleeding and feeling my pulse under my eye, thanks to your boyfriend and his buddies punching on me. I’m tired of having my shirt glued to me with my own blood.” He pulled the shirt over his head with effort, and even by candlelight Ellie could see dark bruises coming up on his ribs.

  “That looks painful.”

  “Another keen observation from you.” He struggled to pull a black T-shirt over his head. “How do I look now?”

  “Stealthy.”

  “Excellent. How about you? Do you want to change?” He shook his head. “Let me rephrase that. Why don’t you change your shirt? You want one of mine?”

  “What?” Ellie gave a mock gasp. “And get Ellie funk on it? Never. Let’s go.”

  She led him back down the darkened stairwell, and by the time they made it to the third floor, the power was flickering back on. Down the hallway, people had their doors open to let the breeze blow through their rooms. As they passed, several people saw Ellie and ducked inside. Word of the arrest had traveled quickly. Just before the bathrooms, two teenage boys gawked at her as if she were carrying damning evidence in her arms. They didn’t avert their eyes until Ellie stopped and challenged them with a hard glare. Then they turned and found something much more interesting in the toilet closets to discuss.

  “Nosy little fuckers.” Ellie didn’t think to check if anyone was waiting inside her room. She threw open the door with a bang and flipped on the light, hardly noticing Rachel’s absence. She was about to continue her opinion of intrusive neighbors when Bing held his hand up to silence her. He pointed to the ceiling and mouthed the word “bug.” Ellie nodded, suddenly aware that she was being recorded. She couldn’t believe Guy would bug her room, but if they found a bug it would be hard to deny.

  Bing ran his fingers along the bed frame and underneath her nightstand. Ellie joined the search, her only knowledge of finding hidden bugs coming from watching cop shows on television. She worked her way across her nightstand, checking under dirty ashtrays and empty cans. She almost hated to search Rachel’s nightstand for fear of toppling the impossible pile of papers and magazines. Leaning back against the wall was a broken lamp Rachel insisted on keeping. Ellie turned it up, looking under the base like the cops did on TV. And just like the cops on TV, she saw a small wire with a microphone on the end.

  Ellie ripped the thin wire from the base and showed it to Bing. He held up his hands to say “I told you so” as Ellie crushed the device under an ashtray. Not satisfied with that, she held the frayed wire over her lighter until it began to smoke, then dropped it into a half-empty can of old soda.

  “I think you got it,” Bing said as she hurled the can out the open window. Ellie gripped the windowsill, feeling her fingers tingle once again with the black rage that never seemed far from the surface. Bing put his hand on her shoulder, and she shook him off.

  “What if it wasn’t Guy who put that there?”

  “Jesus, Ellie, you can’t be serious.”

  “What if it’s Rachel?”

  Bing stared at her, blinking. “That’s impossible.”

  “Is it? Why is that more impossible than Guy?”

  “Because…” He waved his hands, looking for words. “Because Rachel’s a kid. Rachel doesn’t work for Feno.”

  “Rachel said it herself—she’s worked everywhere in this place. She knew the code for the meeting. She’s on the tape with the confession and she didn’t get arrested. The wire was under her lamp, a lamp that’s never worked, that she insists on keeping.” Ellie could feel sweat on her upper lip as the hot logic of this impossible idea took root.

  Bing grabbed her by the s
houlders. “Listen to yourself, Ellie. You think Rachel is trying to get you arrested? Rachel? Who next? Me? The lady down the hall with the snot-nose kids? Annabeth Dingle? It’s Guy, Ellie. It’s Guy. It’s always been Guy. Face it.”

  Ellie folded her arms over her chest, not meeting Bing’s eyes. “It’s just that…I don’t know. I mean, why? Why would Guy do that?”

  He softened his tone and rubbed his hands over her arms. “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on or why he would use you like that, but you have to listen to me. Are you listening?” He lifted her chin until she looked up at him. “Do you trust me?” She nodded. “Something is going on, and you may be in a lot of trouble. I really need you to pull it together.”

  “I’m together.”

  “Are you? Are you sure?” He brushed her hair out of her eyes. “I’ve known you a long time, Ellie. I knew you way back when, remember? I know you don’t always like to face things the way they are.”

  Ellie turned her face from his hands and stepped back. “I’m fine. I told you that. I’m fine. Now shut up and let me find something to wear that doesn’t have your blood all over it.” She tossed her dirty shirt onto the growing heap of ruined clothes and knelt down beside the bed to find a cleaner one.

  “Shit, you still have Guy’s gun?”

  She pulled another shirt from the pile under the bed and pulled it down over the gun in her waistband. “Hell yes, I do. You think I’m going to give it back to him?”

  “No, I think you should get rid of it. I think you should leave it here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want you getting pissed at me and shooting me.”

  Ellie stepped up close to Bing. “Then don’t piss me off.”