Pearl's Number: The Number Series

by Bethany Atazadeh

  As the buses swung around in the water, Sol attacked. One swift kick to the back of the knees, followed by a second kick in the back, and the first Lakelander man hit the ground. Sol immediately moved to the woman beside him. One punch and she went down. Everything happened so quickly, the Lakelanders didn’t even react until Sol struck the third man. They lifted their weapons, but couldn’t risk shooting without hitting one of their own.

  Noble took advantage of this distraction and leapt on the back of the man closest to him. He managed to bring him down, but as he rolled off to fight another, he froze. A slaver woman had set her gun directly against his skull in open threat. Slowly, he lifted his hands in surrender.

  On the other side of the roof, Sol continued to fight, moving faster than Evalene had ever seen him move before. He ducked as two slavers ran at him at once. He used their momentum to push one of them right off the side of the boat behind him. But the other man tackled him to the ground. Sol rolled, pinning the Lakelander underneath him, but there were too many. Swarming around Sol, they pulled him off, catching his wrists before he could take a swing at them. Peach stepped up and punched him in the gut. He groaned.

  “Don’t damage the merchandise,” Skye snapped. But she looked ready to hit Sol herself. Those with guns re-trained them on the group, most pointed at Sol now. “You’re worth more in one piece,” Skye barked at the group, “But they’ll still buy parts. Don’t tempt me.” Evalene’s eyes grew wide and she lifted her hands higher in surrounder as Skye commanded her crew, “Back to shore!”

  The slavers forced the group onto their knees in the middle of the roof, surrounded. With the weapons just inches from their faces, they didn’t dare move. There was no way they could run more than a foot without getting shot. Evalene rubbed her cheek where Skye had hit her, which stung.

  Once the buses reformed their circle around the camp, Skye and her crew members dragged each of them roughly down the ladder. The campfire was still lit. The chairs and sleeping mats still surrounded it. Many of the Lakelanders hadn’t even bothered to join the chase, lazily watching the buses return to them. Their true colors showed now.

  They hauled the group toward a specific bus that Evalene recognized as soon as they were inside. It was the one that held the cage. She felt numb. How had this happened?

  The crew members shoved all five of them into the open cell. As Peach hauled Sol in last, she took advantage of the iron bars, smashing Sol’s head into them, hard, before shoving him in. Evalene winced at the sharp metallic sound. Not expecting it, Sol didn’t have a chance to fight back. He tripped into the cage and fell to the ground, not moving. Olive cried out. Rolling him over with effort, she shook him, but he didn’t respond. “Why would you do that?” she cried, shrieking at the crew who watched them. “You just healed him!”

  Blood trickled down Sol’s forehead from the fresh wound, right next to the scar from his last head injury. Peach just shrugged.

  Skye sauntered into the bus as the lock clicked shut. One of the twins, Canyon or Crater, took the keys and hung them back on the wall. The crew members who’d dragged them into the cell, including Fern and Peach, no longer hid the cruel glint in their eyes and the wicked tilt to their grins.

  “They were left for dead in the desert,” Skye’s harsh voice spoke into the silence. She was the only one who wasn’t smiling. She spoke to her crew and ignored the group in the cell. “If not for our generosity, they would not even be alive today.” She turned to the cage then. “Which means your lives are forfeit. You belong to us and have since the moment we found you.” There was fury in her eyes as she pointed a finger at them, “How dare you steal from us what is rightfully ours.” Evalene’s jaw dropped at the accusation.

  But Skye didn’t expect or wait for an answer. “Out of the kindness of our hearts, we allowed you some freedoms.” She shrugged, smirking at the others. “It’s always easier when the tech-bait comes willingly.” They snickered at her joke.

  “But now you will suffer for your disrespect.” With her judgment pronounced, she whirled and left without another word.

  As the last man exited through the door, he flipped the light switch off, and slammed the door shut, leaving them to huddle together in the cage, soaking wet and shivering, alone in the dark.

  26

  Jeremiah

  THE SPACE WAS CRAMPED, but there was enough room to sit, and Jeremiah did so without ceremony. The others joined him on the hard cell floor.

  “Is Sol going to be okay?” Olive’s voice broke. Jeremiah didn’t think he’d ever heard that note of despair in her voice before.

  “I… don’t know,” Jeremiah replied finally. He couldn’t see Sol’s injury in the darkness, only his shadow lying prone on the floor, but he couldn’t lie to Olive. It wasn’t good.

  They sat in shocked silence for a few minutes until Evie whispered, “I never should have dragged you all on this trip with me.”

  “You couldn’t have known,” Jeremiah said. It wasn’t her fault. All of them had chosen to be here. He instilled confidence into his voice that he didn’t feel, “We’re going to get out of here, don’t worry. We’ve been through worse.”

  No one else spoke. Not even Olive.

  Jeremiah stared at the metal floor, where he could just make out a shallow pool forming in the middle as the water dripped off them. Evie’s shadow pulled her foot out of it, pressing up against the wall. She kept up her brave exterior, always hiding her true feelings, but even in the dark Jeremiah could see her start to shake from cold.

  “It was a valiant escape effort,” Noble’s deep voice added, trying to encourage her as well, though he barely knew them. In the darkness, the bearded man sighed and shifted to get comfortable. “We’re only a day or so away from being sold now anyway. It was a long shot.”

  “A day is a long time,” Jeremiah said, trying to infuse optimism in his voice. But it felt like pouring out of an empty cup: there wasn’t anything left.

  No one wanted to lose the last tenuous bit of hope, so they didn’t argue. But they also didn’t say anything further. Sol still didn’t move as Olive cradled his head in her lap.

  A cloud passed over the moon, darkening the cell to the point Jeremiah couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face. He felt the cold seep into his skin through his wet clothes. Shivering, he tried to wring out the fabric where he could, but it had little effect.

  It felt like hours, although he wasn’t really sure how much time had passed, when Olive spoke up again. “Did she really believe what she said? That they own us now?”

  “Yes.” The stranger’s deep voice answered simply. He sounded like he had some experience with these people.

  “What kind of place is this?” Now Olive’s words were filled with disgust. “To think you could own a human being?”

  Jeremiah thought of Eden and the Number system, and didn’t think it was quite as far-fetched an idea as Olive believed. The moonlight slowly returned, revealing an offended scowl on Noble’s face. “We’re not all as barbaric as these people,” he told Olive, “In Seguro Falls, we would never consider slavery. We have nothing to do with this territory—no trade or even conversation—for this very reason.”

  On the other side of the cell, Evie sat up straight at the mention of the territory. “Did you say Seguro Falls?” She cut off, her head turning to Jeremiah in the dark.

  He caught the movement. She was worried because of the last time she’d been overly eager to share information with Vector. But Jeremiah shrugged. What did they have to lose at this point? “You can tell him.”

  “We’re traveling to Seguro Falls as well, looking for my mother. Would you happen to know any refugees who arrived there ten years ago?”

  “My wife is from Eden,” Noble told her. Everyone stiffened. “But she came here five years ago, not ten.” Even in the dark, Evie visibly deflated. “I’m truly sorry…” Noble added, sensing their disappointment.

  Sol stirred. “He’s waking up!” Olive said, a
tiny note of hope returning to her voice.

  “What happened?” Sol groaned. His shadowy shape struggled to sit up, touching his head. As Olive helped him, he hissed in pain.

  “We’re prisoners,” Jeremiah answered simply.

  “Ah,” Sol said as his memories returned. Without warning, he shifted to stand.

  “Whoa, whoa,” Olive said, “Where are you going? You shouldn’t be moving right now!”

  “Trust me,” he answered, tipping a bit too far to the side as he got to his feet. Olive hopped up and Noble stood too, catching him just in time.

  At first Jeremiah thought Sol wanted to pace. But Sol steadied himself and when Noble let go, he moved to the cell door. In the darkness, Jeremiah heard a scraping of metal.

  “What are you doing?” Olive asked.

  “I hid a knife in my boot,” Sol whispered. “They never searched us…” Jeremiah leapt to his feet to join him and Noble, as Sol continued to toy with the lock from the awkward position on the other side of the door. “It just barely fits…”

  Jeremiah pressed against the bars to see Sol working in the moonlight. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

  “I had some training,” Sol told him, twisting the knife this way, then that. “This one’s a bit more complicated than the locks I learned on…” Not to mention the lock was on the outside of the cell, and they could barely see their hands in front of them.

  They held their breath while Sol worked. Thirty seconds passed in silence, with only the scraping of the knife against the metal, before everyone heard the lock spring open.

  Jeremiah immediately shoved the cell door open, and everyone eagerly squeezed out of the cage into the other side of the dark room. On this side of the bus, moonlight poured in through the front windowpane in the driver’s cab. Two seats up front, a steering wheel, and not much else besides ropes and chains on the wall for prisoners.

  They were forced to stop in the middle of the bus, still essentially trapped. Climbing out and making a run for it again would likely just result in repeating the entire scenario from a couple hours ago.

  “I have an idea,” Evie whispered. Everyone’s shadows turned to her in the dark, listening. She described her plan.

  “That could actually work,” Noble’s deep voice rose in excitement.

  The older man’s approval alone encouraged Jeremiah more than he cared to admit. “Let’s do it,” he agreed. The scheme hinged on one important detail. Jeremiah moved to check. Stepping up to the front of the bus, where the driver and passenger seats stood bolted to the floor, he felt for the ignition.

  Keys jingled softly as his fingers brushed against them. Pulling them out, Jeremiah let them clink together, signaling their victory for the others to hear. “Good news!”

  “We’ll need to stay in the dark, outside the circle, so the watchman doesn’t see,” Sol cautioned everyone.

  Jeremiah agreed, adding, “Once we make our move, it needs to be fast.”

  They stood there shivering and planning in the dark. There were five of them and a dozen bus-boats. With the keys already removed from this one, that left eleven. Each of them agreed to steal the keys from two.

  Only one bus would be left alone; the bus-boat with the kitchen, and all the food and water. That’s where they would meet.

  “Move as quickly as possible,” Jeremiah hammered the reminder in one final time before they opened the bus door. “Don’t let anyone see you.” He paused as the door clicked open, whispering a final word of warning: “But if they do, fight back. Got it?”

  They snuck outside, racing around the circle in the darkness. Jeremiah and Noble had agreed to go to the opposite side of the circle, meaning they had to run the fastest. They took off, leaving everyone else behind, running in the darkness together. Jeremiah prayed no one would get caught. He and Noble split up when they reached the furthest buses, breaking away from each other without a word.

  Jeremiah climbed inside the first bus. He stole the keys, pocketed them, and jumped back out. Then he repeated the process with the next bus. Questions plagued him as he worked. Was there only one watchman? Or did they post more in the darkness outside the circle? The slavers had pursued them fairly quickly the last time. But was that because they’d noticed the empty sleeping mat? Or seen him waking up Olive and Sol, leading them out? He hoped so. Because that meant the cage worked in their advantage now.

  The next few minutes were tense.

  Jeremiah circled back, finding Evie and Olive waiting by the kitchen bus. Noble came running up from the opposite side, breathing hard. Only Sol was left. Jeremiah swiveled to glance around behind him, wondering if he should go help, when Sol’s form emerged in the darkness.

  Keys clinked together as they slipped from Sol’s hand, hitting the ground. In the nighttime hush, it felt like even the crickets fell silent at the noise.

  Waving wildly for them to hurry, Jeremiah mouthed, “Let’s go!” Yanking the kitchen bus door open, he leapt inside, climbing into the driver’s seat as the others hurdled in after him. His heart stopped for a moment when he didn’t find the keys in the ignition.

  But his foot kicked something that jingled, and he found they’d fallen on the floor. Plugging them into place, he waited for everyone to get inside. The moment Noble shut the door, Jeremiah started the engine.

  The bus roared to life. The noise felt deafening in Jeremiah’s ears after all their efforts to be silent. He threw the bus into gear and slammed his foot on the gas pedal. The big vehicle lurched forward with a groan. Suddenly Jeremiah worried that the kitchen bus wasn’t built to go as fast as the others. Their getaway would be short lived if the Lakelanders caught up to them. Even now he could see some of them in the headlights, waking up startled as the kitchen bus pulled away, leaping to their feet to give chase.

  He floored it. The big vehicle steadily began to pick up speed, taking off across the uneven ground, darkness all around them except for up ahead in the headlights. He breathed a prayer of thanks.

  But as they rolled out of the camp, something slammed into the sides, like a fist pounding against the bus. Whoever it was got hold of the door latch. Sol reacted quickly, even with his injury, thanks to his years of training, shoving the door hard, so that it swung open wildly, flinging the person off the bus. Olive caught his arm before he could fall out the door himself. But another sprang up in their place. This time Noble’s foot kicked out, connecting with the woman’s jaw, and she fell off into the darkness as well.

  The bus finally reached a speed that was difficult to keep up with, but Jeremiah aimed for the water anyway. Now that he’d seen what these buses could do, that felt like the best route. Sol pulled the door back in and locked it, sealing it shut.

  Closing in on the lake, they hit the water with a crash. Jeremiah hit the brakes, trying to slow the impact, and it occurred to him as the bus shuddered and dipped forward, that he didn’t know if he needed to do anything—hit any buttons, or close any holes—before they took to the water? He prayed they would float.

  For a moment, it felt like they were sinking into the shallow waters nose first, but then the bus righted itself as they hit deeper water and began to float. It swerved to the side, but when Jeremiah pulled on the wheel, it responded to the movement, turning back on course without a problem, gliding smoothly out onto the lake.

  The floodlights lay just above the water, lighting up the waves ahead, but the side and back windows were above eye level, making it hard to see what the Lakelanders were doing behind them. Olive and Noble both climbed on top of the kitchen countertops to peer out at the black sky behind them, searching for the Lakelander’s shadows.

  “They’re stopping at the water!” Noble said to the group. “We made it!” Everyone cheered. “I wasn’t sure that would actually work,” he added. “Until tonight, I thought the slaver’s driving on water was a myth!” They all chuckled nervously at that.

  Jeremiah raised a brow. He hadn’t been sure either, but Noble’s confidence ha
d been half the reason he’d decided to go for it. Evie moved to sit next to him in the passenger seat, while the others turned on the cabin lights inside the big bus and raided the large kitchen for food.

  In the light, Jeremiah glanced back and caught a good look at Noble for the first time. The big man was gaunt from not getting enough food, but his corded muscles rippled as he moved, and that scar stood out even more poignantly in the light. What was his story? Despite his appearance, the older man’s attitude was jovial and pleasant. Noble told them through mouthfuls that he hadn’t been fed in days, ever since he’d put up a fight. They passed a large water bottle around and drained it dry.

  Jeremiah kept a straight course through the middle of the large lake until, bumping along the rough ground along the shore, the bus dragged itself out of the water and onto dry land. He searched for signs of a road. It took all his focus to navigate around trees and undergrowth that popped up in the headlights, slowing them down, until finally he found a highway, pulling onto it. He breathed easier as they picked up speed, knowing there was an entire lake between them and the slavers. But there was still that muscled stranger with the scar in the back of their bus. He would need to keep an eye on the man.

  Sparing a glance at the back, Jeremiah found Noble resting against the long wall of cupboards and countertops with Sol and Olive, across from the two refridgerators, the massive stove, and more cupboards. If those were all full of food, they’d be set for weeks. Evie still sat in the passenger seat next to Jeremiah, and she leaned back in relief as they left the lake behind, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

  “Noble,” Jeremiah called back to the stranger, glancing at him in the rearview mirror. “You said you knew which way we should go?”

  Noble stepped up from the back to stand between the two front seats. “Yes, I can navigate,” he replied, peering out at the bit of ground visible through the windshield. “I know the area. If we could stop for a moment, I can try and get my bearings.”