Pearl's Number: The Number Series

by Bethany Atazadeh

  “Did you?” Jeremiah asked. “Hurt them, I mean?”

  “Not exactly…” Sol looked like someone was pounding a nail into his foot and he was enduring it, teeth gritted but not quite blocking the pain. “But I didn’t stop it either. My superior knocked Olive out. He hurt her pretty bad.”

  He didn’t say anything further. Jeremiah made a mental note to ask the girls about it later. Sol looked like just thinking about it hurt. “I made a choice that day,” the man said finally, turning to walk again without warning, as if ending the conversation, “One that I should’ve made a long time before then.”

  “To join the revolution,” Jeremiah finished, when Sol didn’t say anything further. It wasn’t really a question, he’d figured out that much. At Sol’s nod, Jeremiah dropped the topic. No need to press further, he trusted Sol if the girls did, and besides, anyone with eyes in his head could tell Sol had it bad for Olive.

  They made quick work gathering food, water, and other supplies; Theo had said the trip would take three days so they bought a week’s worth of everything just to be safe. The last stop was for a rental vehicle and gas.

  A darker woman, all curves, approached Jeremiah and Sol as they entered the enormous garage. At least three dozen cars were on display in the main show room. Her voice was dusky and low as she introduced herself to them as Lemma. After they chose a car, she asked where they were headed.

  “You’re going through Rider territory?” she repeated, her voice rising in shock. When Jeremiah nodded, glancing at Sol, she immediately said, “You do realize they barely even open that gate anymore, right? That people who travel through it have to sign a waiver now? Yeah, it’s all about understanding the risks and not holding the government of Old York responsible for whatever happens on the other side?” Every sentence she spoke turned into a question at the end.

  “Really,” Jeremiah said slowly, scowling. Sol frowned as well. Lemma stepped away to a desk on the side to finish documenting their vehicle choice and length of rental.

  “Maybe we should reconsider the northern gate,” Jeremiah said to Sol in a low voice.

  “We don’t have enough supplies,” Sol said, “and it would take twice as long…” He turned to the woman and asked casually, “Is there anything specific we should be worried about?”

  Lemma nodded. “First of all, you can’t go out dressed like that,” she paused her typing long enough to gesture toward their clothing. “The sand gets in your eyes and do you know how awful it feels during a dust storm? You’d need some kind of protection. Not to mention it’s the desert. You know you could die of thirst, right? And then of course there’s the rid–” She cut off with a squeal. “My nail!” She wailed loudly to everyone within earshot. “The bio-hating keyboard broke it off!” She continued to moan to herself, muttering about the end of the world as she gathered their paperwork.

  “False alarm,” Jeremiah whispered to Sol. “I think if we purchase some gear to protect us from the elements, we’ll be just fine.”

  14

  Jeremiah

  THEY KNOCKED ON THE girl’s overnight room not long after the car rental. The scanner flashed Sol without warning as he stood in front of the door. It pinged red, staying locked, but alerting Evie and Olive to their return.

  It was Olive who let them in again, with the phone in her hand. “Mmmhmm,” she said into the device, covering the mouthpiece as she stepped back and held the door open for them. She mouthed, “Grandma Mae,” as she pointed to the phone. “Yes. Yes, I know.” She moved into the bathroom as they entered the room, shutting the door behind her for quiet.

  Jeremiah and Sol entered the room and found Evie leaning against the headboard of her bed. “How long has she been on the phone?” Jeremiah whispered to Evie, dropping his bags by the door. He collapsed on the opposite bed, breathing a sigh of relief. His muscles ached. Sol deposited his cargo next to Jeremiah’s and walked over to the other side of the room easily, now that it was dark out and the curtain was closed. He sat in the tiny chair in the corner and leaned back with a relaxed sigh.

  “At least an hour,” Evie said, with a sympathetic twist to her mouth. “Her parents were the first 45 minutes. Now it’s Grandma Mae’s turn.”

  “Ah,” Jeremiah said, thankful that it was Olive hearing an earful, not him.

  “What did you get?” Evie asked.

  Jeremiah listed the items in their bags, and added, “We rented the best heavy terrain vehicle we could afford. It’s barely larger than a car in Eden, but the wheels are as tall as you.”

  “And we got scarves for protection against the sand,” Sol added from the corner.

  “No… ‘suits’?” Evie asked, gesturing around her head with her hands.

  “No,” Sol answered, catching on at the same time Jeremiah did that she meant the protective bubble-like outerwear. “Too expensive.”

  Jeremiah sat up and reached into his pocket for the map. “All that’s left now is to plan our exact route.” Sol stayed put, since he and Jeremiah had gone over it multiple times already.

  Squinting down at the map, Jeremiah tried to focus on the options instead of Evie’s face—just a foot away from his own—peering down at the map. “Leaving from here would take three days,” he tapped the south gate near them, then drew his finger along the wall toward the gate in the north, “and this exit would take a minimum of six days due to some large bodies of water.”

  Evie scooted closer. Leaning over the map, she brought her finger to the south gate, which only served to make him notice her smooth skin. How soft were her hands? He coughed and focused on the line she drew with her finger, cutting across the lower half of the continent. “So, we’ll take the south gate and go through this ‘Rider’ territory?” she was asking, reading the name of the territory on the map and staring up at him with those wide, blue eyes.

  “Yep, that’s the plan.” Jeremiah rubbed the back of his neck, trying to shake the feeling he’d had since Theo’s overreaction.

  “Thank you.” Evie smiled up at him, blinking sleepily, moving her hand from the map to the bed just a few inches from his own hand. Jeremiah debated reaching out to cover her hand with his own.

  “We should get some sleep,” Sol piped up from the corner of the room, and Jeremiah pulled back. For a moment, he’d forgotten Sol was even there.

  He stood. “We’ll wake up early and come get you two in the morning for breakfast.”

  Sol stood with him, and they bid Evie goodnight. At the door, Sol waved a hand toward the bathroom where Olive’s voice could still be heard trying to explain. “Tell Olive good luck,” he said with a small grin.

  Evie laughed. “Will do.”

  But right as they stepped into the hallway, Olive opened the bathroom door and something on her face made Jeremiah pause. The way she clenched the phone to her chest and stared thoughtfully at the wall as if she didn’t even see them there. “What is it?” Jeremiah stepped back into the room. “What’s wrong?”

  “Not wrong, exactly…” Olive said. Confusion laced her tone.

  Evie came around the corner to join them. Before she could say anything, Sol stepped back into the room as well and asked, “Is your grandmother okay?”

  “Yeah, she’s fine,” Olive half laughed and shook her head. “It’s the weirdest thing. I thought she’d be mad at me like mom and dad, for not telling her, you know?”

  Jeremiah nodded with the others. “But she wasn’t?” he prompted.

  “No,” Olive’s face twitched between a smile and a frown. “She said she had a dream last night that we’d left.” Sol’s brows rose in surprise, but Jeremiah just nodded and he noticed Evie did too. They’d witnessed Grandma Mae’s visions before.

  “Did she see my mom?” Evie asked, hands pressed together hopefully. “Do we find her?”

  Olive’s lips pressed together as she regretfully shook her head. “She didn’t see anything from our trip. But she said she’s not worried about us… because she also had a vision of us back i
n Eden with her, standing in a church...”

  Jeremiah blinked. That could mean anything.

  They pondered the possibilities for almost an hour but the only thing they could glean from the vision was that they would make it back home safely. Or at least alive...

  With the responsibility of taking care of them weighing heavily on him, Jeremiah held onto that small comfort.

  15

  Evalene

  CLAIMING THEIR RENTAL VEHICLE turned out to mean they took stairs below ground to an underground train that sped them out to the edge of Old York in less than fifteen minutes. “Tie your scarf around your neck,” Jeremiah said, as they climbed the stairs back up to the ground level and the glass ceilings came back into view, “We’ll be going outside soon.”

  The rental section was like a massive indoor parking lot filled with cars of all sizes. Multiple garage doors lifted and lowered constantly as citizens and tourists took their vehicles in and out. The rental car Jeremiah had chosen looked like a taller version of one of the Regulator jeeps back home. Its tires were three times the size of regular tires, clearly designed for rough terrain.

  Olive climbed into the back seat and Sol followed, leaving the front seat for Evalene to sit next to Jeremiah. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Jeremiah told them, “Just have to pay and sign the waiver to use the gate.”

  Evalene felt nervous jitters that made it hard to sit still. In the backseat, Sol showed Olive how to tie her bandana properly, and Evalene tried not to interrupt, shuffling through her pack to check her gear instead. When Jeremiah returned with the car keys, they took off toward the opposite side of the rental section, away from all the rising garage doors and traffic, to a deserted corner, with only one garage door attendant who lounged half asleep outside.

  The employee jumped up to take Jeremiah’s waiver through the window and hurried to raise the door for them. Passing through the first garage door, they found a second door ahead, with two more rental employees wearing those protective bubble suits, gesturing for them to wait until the first door lowered behind them. Only when it touched the ground behind them, did they allow the second glass garage door to lift.

  Jeremiah let their car roll forward slowly out onto the red sand toward the wall. So many checkpoints to leave the city. Evalene frowned as Jeremiah pulled the car up to the guard station by what Evalene assumed was the south gate to hand them yet another form.

  The gate rose before them as tall as a three-story house. The thick wood of the gate and surrounding stone wall made it impossible to see the road ahead, but inside the fortress a massive cloud of red dust hit the windshield and side windows, blasting the vehicle with tiny pellets that almost sounded like rainfall. Evalene touched the flimsy scarf around her neck, their supposed protection from that powerful wind, and began to wonder if they should’ve gotten the bubble suits after all.

  The enormous gate swung open on hinges that were eerily silent. Putting the car in gear, Jeremiah rolled up his window and they passed through the gate uneasily.

  The lovely paved road of the Old York territory gave way to one that was cracked and heavily faded. Red sand on all sides for miles. Ahead bits of the road disappeared as sandstorms swept over it, covering it briefly, then swept it clean again.

  The intensity of the wind began to worry Evalene. Would they be able to step outside for even a moment? Their little group fell silent, watching the road, unspoken worries in the air.

  But after driving for fifteen minutes, the wind died down and visibility improved. “Who’s hungry?” Olive asked an hour into the drive, and again every ten minutes until they stopped for lunch.

  Despite wanting fresh air, they watched yet another dust storm cross the landscape without any warning and opted to eat inside the car instead. Sitting for so long quickly grew uncomfortable, but the surprise dust storms continued intermittently and the desert terrain had no end in sight.

  ***

  “Will we be in the desert the whole three days?” Olive asked as they pulled back onto the road after stopping to add gas to the tank. Evalene turned from studying the landscape where she’d been carefully focusing her gaze to avoid staring at Jeremiah. Sol pulled out their map to answer, since Jeremiah was driving.

  “About a day and a half.” Sol drew a line across the paper to show the distance. “It’s the largest territory by far.” Olive nodded, sitting back in silence. She’d been oddly quiet whenever Sol was nearby, and she was leaning on the door, unconsciously putting distance between them as they drove.

  She tilted her head back against the seat to sleep, and Evalene imitated her. But the road was bumpy and Evalene struggled to nap. When she glanced back an hour later, she found Olive had slid down the seat until her head landed on Sol’s shoulder. Evalene bit her lip to keep from laughing. Sol was too busy keeping still for her to notice.

  Evalene turned back around, smile fading. Now would be a good time to talk to Jeremiah, but whenever she looked over at him, his eyes were fixed on the road and she lost her nerve. She didn’t want to wake Olive anyway.

  Staring out at the flat, red nothing that stretched out on both sides of the road in every direction, Evalene leaned against the window instead. The rest of the day passed in utter boredom. When it was time to change drivers, Evalene volunteered, hoping it would break up the monotony of the trip and all the unsaid feelings dancing around on the tip of her tongue.

  As dusk settled, she flicked on the lights, reminded of a similar drive six months before, when she’d escaped from Eden, aiming for a place of freedom like the Divided States. Instead, she’d been swept up into the revolution. Given a role. She barely even recognized the girl she used to be. Was that why Jeremiah had lost interest? What about her mother? Would Pearl even recognize her now?

  The little bits of road revealed in the headlights and the stars above were relaxing, and Evalene drove for a few more hours, deep in thought, before stopping to fill the tank again and handing it over to Olive.

  By the time the first hints of dawn on the horizon touched her face, Evalene woke and stretched, feeling tired yet unable to sleep any longer. Every muscle ached in the cramped space. Her eyes registered Sol in the driver’s seat before she quietly turned to lean against the window and stare at the landscape.

  It was only because she was studying the skyline, admiring the beautiful colors as the sun rose, that she even noticed the strange dust cloud in the distance.

  At first, she thought it was just another dust storm blowing in their direction. But as it moved along the horizon, it stayed the same shape and general size, until a few minutes later, when it started growing closer. It seemed too small to be a dust storm. But if it was a car, then it was definitely off-roading, because it wasn’t on the highway either.

  Squinting at it, Evalene thought she could almost make out multiple shapes. Was it more than one car? No… the shapes didn’t quite line up for that.

  Ten seconds ticked by as the cloud grew closer. A wind swept across and allowed Evalene to finally make out that there was not just one, but a dozen vehicles, long and thin, with only one wheel in the front and one in the back. Each one had a single Rider.

  Evalene’s heart skipped a beat. “Jeremiah,” she yelled, her voice startling in the quiet of the sleepy car. “Jeremiah wake up!” He and Olive woke, alarmed. Evalene jabbed the window where the group barreled down the hill toward them fast, too fast. “Riders!”

  16

  Evalene

  THE RIDERS DROVE RECKLESSLY. All at once they split away from each other, separating into a dozen individual Riders instead of one unit. They came at the vehicle from all sides, surrounding it in less than a second.

  Evalene sat in the backseat, struggling to breath as she took everything in. The Riders wore black masks to hide their faces and rode bikes that looked like motorcycles, except much, much larger. The tires alone were larger than those on their rental, at least as tall as Evalene herself, raising them up to the same height as the car. The
y had a wind screen that wrapped around the whole front of their bikes, protecting their face and sides from the wind like the bubble suits. At the front of each of their bikes was an elaborately designed horse head. The sculpting was so detailed and unique to each bike that if not for the machine underneath, Evalene would’ve been sure they were riding actual horses.

  Sol gripped the wheel. He stepped on the gas until the rental car flew down the highway at top speed. The Riders whooped and hollered, audible even with the windows rolled up. They had no problem keeping pace. A few of the bikes even raced on ahead.

  The Riders to the left and right pulled out weapons that looked like a mix between a large bow and a gun. Both girls gasped from where they sat in the backseat. “Keep going!” Jeremiah encouraged Sol, but one look at his face told Evalene he was just as worried as they were.

  The weapons fired out huge arrows, hitting the wheels on both sides simultaneously, creating a loud thunk followed by a wild screeching of tires as Sol lost control and the car careened wildly off the road, narrowly missing one of the Riders on the left before it hit a dip. As the car plunged down the slope, it flew sideways and rolled.

  Evalene held on to her seat belt for dear life, nearly colliding with the ceiling multiple times. The windows shattered and though she closed her eyes and threw up her hands to block her face, she felt the glass cut her exposed skin as it flew about the car. Each time they rolled, she was thrown against the seat belt and the air was knocked out of her lungs. When they finally crashed to a stop, Evalene hung upside down. She choked and coughed as she hung there, struggling to breath, feeling the blood rushing to her head. A seatbelt unclicked, as Jeremiah fell out of his seat onto the roof underneath him. He hissed as his hand hit more glass. The girls both reached to their seatbelts. “Wait—” Jeremiah coughed and tugged at a blanket shoved in one of the seat pockets. He threw it down across the glass scattered underneath them. “Okay, now.”