Cain just nodded, freeing us from our bounds in a matter of seconds.
Bo didn’t look at Cain. As soon as we emerged from the van, he just started walking.
“Bo! Where are you going? Bo!” Mom shouted.
“Mom! Go after him!”
She hesitated, glanced at Cain, then quickly looked at me.
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “Go!”
After taking one more moment, probably deciding whether she should leave me with a man who had just killed three people, she obeyed. After all, that same person had just saved our lives.
I watched Mom until I couldn’t see her anymore then turned back to Cain. He was looking back inside the van. The corpse he had been lying next to was now sprawled unnaturally across the floor, a tangle of limbs draped over one another on top of the cold metal. The body’s shirt had slid up, and I noticed a few scars climbing along his skin. They looked a lot like Cain’s.
He just stared. My stomach turned when I realized why. “You knew him, didn’t you?”
“Dylan. Just started as a Guide. Would have been good too. Real good.” He reached into the van, grabbed Dylan by the arms, and slung him over his shoulder. “Honk the horn if you see anything. Otherwise stay put with the doors locked.”
I agreed and got into the van as Cain marched to the other side of the road and down an embankment, in the opposite direction of my mom and Bo. I waited a couple minutes, but the quiet of the van made any noise sound like monsters coming to get us. And since evidently there were monsters coming to get us, I left the van and ran in Cain’s direction.
Over the other side of the road, there was a long section of flat land, only blanketed by dirt and stones. The air was still. All I could hear was the sound of Cain’s footsteps.
Dylan’s body lay in the clearing, arms at his sides. Cain had started gathering up large rocks, making a circle around Dylan. Cain’s back was to me. “What happened to staying in the car?”
“How did you know it was me?”
“Lucky guess. Oh, and you’re only stealthy when you’re trying. When you try, you’re actually very good at it. At the mercenary camp, during Jordyn’s attack, I couldn’t hear you breathing. I can hear everyone breathing, but not you.”
Without being asked, I started helping him gather rocks. “You really think I’m good at being stealthy?”
He smiled. “Absolutely. And that is going to serve you well from now on, I guarantee it.”
I grinned despite the dead body lying very close to me. My cheeks warmed, and I wondered if he noticed anything else about me. Another new feeling, one that no guy at school had ever given me, swept over me in a wave…some mix of adrenaline and happiness sprinkled with some embarrassment. Some people might call it butterflies.
I tried to keep all the rocks the same size, but being in the middle of nowhere, my options were limited. I stuck my rocks side by side next to his. At first I wasn’t sure why he was gathering them in the first place, but then it hit me.
“This is a funeral pyre, isn’t it?”
He nodded.
“Hold on a second,” I ordered, frantically searching the ground around us. I managed to find two decent twigs and stripped a limp third one of all its attached green stuff. After sticking one twig on top of the other, I wound the bendable third one around the middle of the first two, attaching them to each other. I proudly handed my cross to Cain, glad to feel somewhat useful. Though it was horrible that he had to lose a friend, I was glad I could be there beside him.
“Where’d you learn to do that?” He smiled.
“Camp. Mom and Dad sent me there after…after my brother died. Thought it would help take my mind off it or whatever. Then the councilors taught us how to make crosses. How exactly is that supposed to help me NOT think of dead people, huh?”
Cain laughed. Maybe it was inappropriate given our circumstances, but I think it made him feel better, if only just a little. And I figured that was worth something.
But almost as soon as it appeared, the smile slowly faded from his face, and his eyes drifted toward the sky. “You’d think I’d have gotten used to saying goodbye by now. I would have thought I’d have learned that cross trick too.” He smirked weakly.
“You’ve lost a lot of people?”
He never looked me in the eye when he told me his story. He always had before then, and he always has since. But for that story, he didn’t stare at anything but the stars.
When he was around my age, Cain met the first person to really understand him: the first person to tell him to never apologize for who he was. They were going to leave America and never look back.
Until Officer Marcus Keegan brought a firing squad to Cain's doorstep.
With one last breath, this person made Cain promise to pay Keegan back. And he did…by burning his whole precinct to the ground.
Cain thought he had killed Keegan and left the country with the first group of children that he ever saved from the Parental Morality Law. He didn’t realize his mistake until a year later, when he saw Keegan’s face on the cover of an American newspaper. Not only was he alive, the media had labeled him a hero and promoted him to head of the Presidential Taskforce. My mom had never met him, but everyone she talked to had nothing but glowing things to say about him.
And the teenager who had tried to kill such an important member of the community was labeled Public Enemy Number One.
I put my hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Cain.”
Suddenly he turned toward me and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Always remember that, Riley. If you run into a Taskforce Officer without me there, protect yourself at all costs. Don’t show mercy. Because of who trained them, they won’t show any to you. You saw those scars on my back…the only time I got caught, Keegan picked up where my dad had left off. Trust me when I say the men under him won’t care that you’re a young girl…”
I nodded. His hands lingered, and he stared at me, as if he wasn’t sure I understood. Finally, he released me and turned back to Dylan. His head hung low as he tended to his friend, straightening his shirt and placing his hands on his chest, a final gesture before Dylan’s body would become part of the earth around us.
As Cain worked, I decided to ask him instead of Jordyn what happened to her family. I figured the mood couldn’t get any worse. After all, he’d had no trouble telling me the truth so far. I bit my lip and tried not to think how hard it would be for her to find us. When we were in the van, I kept expecting to hear a car speed up behind us with her smiling face in the driver’s seat. The more time went by without that happening, the more I doubted that I would see her again. “Cain? Can I ask you something?”
“Always.”
“Why did they take Jordyn’s brothers? I don’t understand. Natalie and Joe seemed super normal.”
He put his arm around me and pulled me away from Dylan’s funeral pyre. He gently led me to the two biggest rocks we could find. I sat down, and the sharp, flat stone made me wish I hadn’t. Then again, the uncomfortable seat seemed fitting for the question I had asked.
Cain leaned forward and stared straight into my eyes. Most people would have looked away from the sharp, penetrating blue. I didn’t…but I couldn’t be sure I didn’t blush just a little. “Jordyn…she wasn’t exactly the most obedient kid. She got into a lot of trouble growing up. Her parents were always home. They paid attention to her. They loved her unconditionally. Still do. But Jordyn…she wasn’t built for the country-folk, white-picket-fence lifestyle. So she left her parents’ house to do what she thought would be seeing the world. She was young, sure, but she was smart. She thought everything would be fine. Tons of young people were making it on their own, and she figured she could too.”
Cain rested his elbows on his knees and sat his chin on his hands. “Are you sure you want to know this? It’s not a happy ending. And…”
“And what?”
“I know this has to be hard on you. Figuring out that what your mother started got
turned upside down. I just don’t want you to…”
“Cain, tell me please.”
“I just don’t want you to start being angry at your mom.”
I sighed. The thought of being angry at my mom had never even occurred to me. “She’s my mom. I will never be angry at her. Ever.”
Cain paused for just a second more but gave in. “Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Jordyn figured out fairly quickly that the world didn’t support smart teenage runaways as well as she’d imagined from her sheltered upstate farmhouse. She didn’t end up being the worldly explorer she’d set out to be…she ended up starving. So she ended up having to do what she does now…to stay alive. At first, it was out of necessity, but she developed a taste for it.”
I listened as he inhaled, and the air entered his lungs with a soft rattle. “We had already set up the compound and had made a couple trips there when she heard about her brothers. She had been gone, out of her parents’ care for years, but it was enough for the Taskforce. Article Seventeen of the Morality Code states that if one child commits a crime as a minor in a multi-child household, then the parental responsibility of the mother and father is called into question and the younger children are removed from the home.”
I gasped, fighting back my urge to retch out whatever was still inside me from the sandwich plate Natalie gave us. “But she just made one mistake. That’s not fair.”
“The Taskforce didn’t see it that way. After the boarding schools were set up, Natalie and Joe got a knock on the door and the Taskforce carried Matthew and Xander away. They never saw them after that. Jordyn was never the same.”
Little white dots danced in my eyes and I thought I might faint. “What do you mean?”
“She couldn’t face going home to her parents until she became a Guide. Something that would make them proud. She told me once that being a Guide makes her feel like she’s taking some of the power back. But she’s still haunted.”
My chin quivered, but I held in the urge to cry. It was a little bit ironic that I had to keep deceiving Cain so he would keep telling me the truth and trusting me not to break down at the hard stuff. I ignored the thought and took a few deep breaths. I only cried for Jordyn in my mind.
“Maybe they’re with Olivia.”
“Who’s Olivia?”
I couldn’t answer for a moment. Cain waited patiently for me to tell my own story and slung his arm around my shoulders. I hoped he didn’t notice the goosebumps that his touch sent shooting up from my skin. “My best friend. She was one of the first kids taken by the Taskforce. Her father…she needed to get away from him. She was supposed to just go to the boarding school nearby, but one night she snuck into the office to call me and I figured out she wasn’t close to us at all. I don’t know where she is.”
Cain kept his arm around me tight. Good thing too, because if it wasn’t for him I would have immediately melted into a self-pitying puddle on the ground.
I found myself telling him everything. I told him about the last time I saw Olivia. I told him about having to watch her drive away with a man who I knew was going to hurt her. I told him about feeling helpless.
I paused when I realized that Cain wasn’t blinking. He just stared. But it wasn’t in a creepy way. It was more in a way that lets you know you have somebody’s full attention—the way that makes you wonder if you’ve ever been listened to as intently in your whole life.
A chill slid up my spine. I couldn’t remember how long I’d stopped speaking. I hoped Cain wasn’t sitting there thinking I was goofy for just staring at him (or WITH him, I should say). I stuttered back into my story, right at the part where I heard Olivia’s voice for the last time.
The tears I fought off for so long slid from my eyes. Cain’s arm never left my shoulders. “I asked her if she was okay. I asked her why she couldn’t use the phone. But she didn’t want to talk about that place, wherever that place was. She asked me if it was sunny where I was. Which didn’t make sense because she was supposed to be in D.C., same as me.”
I watched Cain’s expression change. I may not have noticed if I hadn’t been staring at him for so long. His face hardened ever so slightly.
“She just made me tell her about home. About stupid stuff. It was the last conversation I had with my best friend and we talked about fried chicken and the squirrels outside… Right after that’s when I heard it. The supervisor’s voice. They caught her in the office.” I felt like I was yelling through my tears, pushing my words out along with them. “I shouted at them but they didn’t even talk to me. They just hung up the phone. Just that quick. Like she didn’t matter at all.”
I tried to breathe normally. I trusted Cain, but talking about Olivia still made my chest hurt. Maybe the fact that my best friend had disappeared wasn’t real until I said it out loud.
“I kept shouting through the phone long after they hung up. I promised Olivia I’d find her. She didn’t hear me, but I hope somehow she knows.” My breath became shallow. “And I will find her! Once I get enough money, I’m going to travel around and search for her.”
Cain smiled. I looked at him quizzically.
“What? You don’t believe me?”
“No, I definitely believe you. All you do is speak the truth. I wouldn’t put it past you to get to the compound then turn right back around and sail right on out of there.” He kept smiling, even though I was being completely serious. Normally I would have found it super condescending, but not when he did it. When he did it I felt warm.
“What then? What are you thinking?”
He gently squeezed me. “You’re going to need a little more than money to make that trip. Make me a promise, will you?”
I hoped he wasn’t about to ask me to agree to something I didn’t want to do. “Okay…”
He glanced down at his tattoo, examining the lines on his arms as if they had just appeared. Then he removed his arm from my shoulders and made me turn to face him head on. “Only make the trip when you’re ready. You’re going to run into things that you won’t like—that will completely scar you. You have to know that going into it and become ready to handle it. When we get to the compound, just stay there for a while. Get a little normalcy back. Normalcy is highly underrated these days.”
“But Olivia…”
He leaned closer. “Riley, you are important too. When we get there, stay put for a while. Please? And besides, your mom needs you too right now.”
I sighed. “Okay. I will. For both of you.” The last four words came out before I could stop them. Cain just smiled. This time I didn’t feel warm, I felt weird—exposed.
Shouting came from a distance, but seemed to be getting closer.
“That’s my mom.” I rose from our rock.
“Go ahead. You don’t want to see this next part anyway.” He held a lighter in his fingertips. I didn’t want to say out loud what the next step to Dylan’s funeral would be. As I turned and went back towards the car, the crackle of flames hovered in the air.
“Where were you, Riley? I was so worried!” Mom hugged me. “We came back and you weren’t here!”
Bo stood beside her and wrapped us both in his arms. “Everything is going to be okay, Riley, you’ll see.”
“Yeah! Cain saved us! Wasn’t it amazing?”
“Yeah…amazing.” Though Bo agreed, he did it through clenched teeth. I glanced down and saw his hands tighten into fists. “Where’s Cain now?”
Mom looked at me too.
“He’s…burying Dylan.”
“Who’s Dylan?” Bo asked.
“The guy in the van. Cain knew him. His name’s Dylan.”
Mom and Bo looked at each other.
“Does he expect us to just wait here? We don’t have time for this!” Bo started toward the driver’s seat, but Mom grabbed his arm.
“We will make time.” Like me when Mom had tried to restrain me at the mercenary camp, Bo tried to wriggle free. Mom only released him when he stopped protesting. She looked at me and sm
iled one of those sad smiles that people use at funerals. Appropriate but subdued. “We’re waiting here as long as he needs.” She leaned against the car, and I let myself fall beside her. Bo sighed but did the same. We made sure we faced Cain’s direction.
All I could hear was the fire from a distance, until Bo spoke up. “Riley, I wonder if they have a softball team at the compound. Maybe you can finally play!”
I smiled. “Wow! That would be amazing. Olivia and I can…” I stopped mid-sentence. Olivia and I had always talked about how neat it would be if our school had sports again. With so many kids getting hurt, the school decided having large groups of us outside where they couldn’t keep as good an eye on us wasn’t worth the risk. We practiced playing catch in the yard with Bo and Mom as often as we could, just in case they ever changed their minds. Olivia couldn’t catch very well, but she could throw better than me, Bo, and Mom put together. I bit my lip when I remembered that had been our plan the last time I saw her.
Bo put his arm around me. “You know, you were the best friend that girl could ask for. The very best.”
I looked up at him and forced a smile, wrapping my arm around his waist. Mom did the same.
By the time Cain returned, the three of us were sitting in the gravel, leaning back against the shining metal of the van. He kept his eyes forward but didn’t look at any of us. Only when he was standing right next to us did his eyes meet mine. “It’s done.”
The sun was already down, so we climbed in the van and drove it down the embankment off the side of the road for the night. The four of us climbed in the back, and though we didn’t want to, we threw the blanket that had covered Dylan over ourselves. I groaned as the tough fabric touched my cheek, and I could swear I smelled his burned remains. Mom squeezed me tight.
“So, where are we going tomorrow?” Bo asked.
“We’re meeting Jordyn,” Cain said.
“How will she know where to meet us?”
“She’ll know.”
“But how will she…?”
“Bo. She’ll know.”
I wanted to know the same thing that Bo did, but at the same time, I didn’t care what the answer was. I would see Jordyn again after all. And that meant she was okay.
The Extraction List Page 8
