by Jordan Rivet
She felt a bit bad about misleading Bole, but none of that mattered. She only had to keep up the charade for the rest of the day. She was done wasting time.
Late that night when the other women were asleep, Esther climbed out of her bunk. She changed back into her own clothes and carried her boots to the door. It creaked a bit when she opened it, but none of the women stirred.
Clouds obscured the moon and stars. Deep, dark shadows filled the village. Esther caught a glimpse of the evening curfew patrol heading away from the women’s dormitory, going the opposite direction as the Bunker. Good. Right on schedule. Cody had managed to find out the patrol timetable during his time helping out with virtually every task in the town. He had made genuine friends, and Esther suspected he would have liked to stay here in other circumstances. He had learned there was usually only one pair of men doing rounds at any given time. But it just took one to raise the alarm.
Esther sat on the stoop and pulled on her boots. She was tying her second lace when the dormitory door squeaked. It was Yvonne, wearing a thick woolen nightdress.
“Where are you going?” she whispered. “We’re not allowed out after curfew.”
“I wanted some fresh air. Go back to sleep, Yve.”
“I’m not stupid, you know,” Yvonne whispered. She closed the dormitory door behind her, careful not to let it slam. “Tell me what you’re up to.”
Rust. “Will you promise not to raise the alarm until morning? No one’s going to get hurt.”
“I swear.”
“I’m getting Naomi out of the Bunker.”
“I knew it!” Yvonne squealed. “Let me help you.”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble.” The path in front of the dormitory was still empty, but that could change any minute.
“She’s my best friend, Esther,” Yvonne said. “I would free her myself if I could, but I have nowhere else to go. Will you take me with you?”
“I don’t want to give the Dentist any more reasons to come after us. I’m trying to do this without getting anyone killed.”
Yvonne folded her arms. “Then I’ll raise the alarm right now.”
“Yve . . .”
“You can’t leave me behind, not if you’re really breaking Naomi out. I can help!”
Esther couldn’t have Yvonne warning anyone, and she didn’t want her to take the fall either. Enough people knew Yve had been friends with both Naomi and Esther. They could put the pieces together all too easily.
“Actually, there is a way you can help me,” Esther said, realizing that one part of her plan could go a lot smoother than she’d anticipated with a little help.
“Yeah?”
Esther stood and put her hand in her pocket. “Yeah. I don’t know how to drive.” She withdrew the key she had taken from Bole’s belt when she hugged him at the soccer game. “Want to help me steal your brother’s jeep?”
Chapter 33—The Bunker
THE JEEP BUMPED ALONG the darkened road. They kept the headlights off until they were several hundred yards outside of town. Getting the vehicle had been fairly uneventful. Yvonne knew Bole usually parked it in front of his cabin at the far edge of town—and he was a sound sleeper. They had simply taken it and driven off down the road. Until he woke up in the morning, Bole would be none the wiser. They should be long gone by then. Yvonne claimed her brother would never give them away, but they couldn’t afford the risk.
The jeep’s engine rumbled far too loudly. Every time they bumped over a root or the engine coughed, Esther was sure they were going to be discovered. Yvonne wasn’t a particularly good driver. It felt like she was swerving to hit every dip and pothole on purpose.
Yvonne bounced up and down on the seat, both hands clutching the wheel. “This is so exciting!” she said. “I can’t believe we’re going to bust her out. Do you think we’ll go to hell?”
“I don’t believe in hell,” Esther said.
“What will we do when we get into the Bunker?” Yvonne asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Esther said. “You’ll be waiting outside.”
“But—”
“If we get caught, you can say I threatened you and made you drive me out here. If you come in with me, it’ll be harder to pull off that excuse.”
“So what’s the plan?”
Esther released her grip on the jeep door to put her hand on the stolen fish knife. Something made a rattling noise beside it in her pocket. Most of the plan revolved around those two objects.
“Don’t get caught,” she said.
They passed the second of the two side roads Esther remembered from her drive with Bole and Cally.
“Turn off the lights. And slow down.”
Yvonne obliged. She clicked off the headlights, immediately plunging them into blackness. The jeep slowed to a crawl, allowing time for their eyes to adjust to the dark.
An animal made a cawing sound in the scrub. The trees took on scraggily, alien shapes, like malevolent creatures. Esther’s heart leapt into her throat. She breathed slowly. She needed to stay focused. She would be spending a lot more time amongst those trees soon. She couldn’t get freaked out now.
They reached the end of the road. The jeep bounced down the rough gravel path to the Bunker. Yvonne cut the engine and allowed the vehicle to roll to a stop.
“Okay, wait here,” Esther said. “If anyone finds you, tell them I said I’d hurt you and your family if you didn’t drive me out here.”
“Got it.” Yvonne squeezed her hand. “Be careful, Esther.”
Esther got out and approached the front door of the Bunker. It was locked, of course, so she pulled out the fish knife and went to work on the screws holding the hinges to the wall. She had checked to make sure this was possible back when Whitefern had released her from the infirmary. When the hinges were removed, Esther used her wrench to pry the door open. There was no alarm. That was a relief. She’d had no way of knowing for sure whether or not the Bunker had an automatic alarm system.
The disconnected door was very heavy, but this was the easy part. Esther leaned it against the wall and looked down the gloomy corridor. Yvonne was still waiting, peering wide-eyed over the side of the jeep. Esther took a deep breath and entered the Bunker.
Inside, the infirmary level looked just as it had before. It was quiet, with no guards in sight. The place was designed to keep people in, not out. She had to assume there would be guards in the lower levels, though.
Her boots squeaked on the floor as she walked to the elevator at the end of the corridor, passing the room where she had stayed during her illness. When she pushed the button, the elevator took a minute to arrive. That made Esther nervous. Someone had taken it down to the lower levels, and they hadn’t come back up.
She waited next to the door so she’d be out of sight from the elevator car, preparing to leap forward with her knife raised. The doors opened. The elevator was empty. Esther slammed a hand against the door to hold it open and stepped inside. She pushed the button for the Detention Level. The easy part was almost over. Had it been too simple?
The elevator descended into the earth. Passed the Storage Level. Esther breathed slowly. Almost there. Descended further. The light for the Detention Level lit up as the elevator slowed. The doors began to open. Light poured through the crack. Someone was in there. Esther threw herself back out of sight. She wanted to see how many there were before she attacked.
Esther pressed herself against the wall, praying the guards would think some fluke had caused the elevator doors to open, praying they wouldn’t start shooting straight off. They shouldn’t be able to see her in this position.
But from this angle she could see into Naomi’s cage.
It was empty. A periwinkle blanket sat abandoned on the bench, but Naomi was gone.
“Rust,” Esther hissed.
Instead of jumping out, knife raised, she let the elevator door begin to close. Was she too late?
A hand banged against the edge of the door, stoppi
ng it just before it shut.
“You made it.”
It was David.
Chapter 34—Detention Level
“SALTY HELL,” ESTHER SAID. “I almost cut your hand off. Where’s Naomi?”
“The cages were empty when I got here,” David said. He gestured down the length of the Detention Level. The lights blazed, but there were no prisoners or guards to be seen. The door to Naomi’s cage stood open.
“When was that?”
“Hours ago. I followed a Shepherd in and hid in an empty hospital room. But now the whole place is deserted. I don’t like it.”
“Why aren’t you back on the Lucinda?” Esther asked.
“Thought you might need backup. Your father took everyone to the ship, and I circled through the jungle. I found the hole Thompson cut in the barbed wire fence when he got Simon out. Ripped my sweater, though.” He held up his arm. A raw red scratch peeked through the tear in the fabric.
“What was with everything you said at breakfast?” Esther asked. She scanned the Detention Level again as she spoke. Yes, it was definitely empty. “You laid it on a little thick.”
“I trust you with my life,” David said, “but you’re not a very good actress. I had to surprise you and make you really mad if the Dentist was going to believe you wanted to stay.”
“That’s what I thought,” Esther said. “Afterwards, I mean. I was angry. It may have worked on the townspeople, but I’m not sure the Dentist bought it.”
“You might be right. My guess is he got wind of what you were up to and moved Naomi,” David said.
“But then there’d be guards here waiting for me.”
“There were. I took care of them already. They’re over behind the desk.”
“Really?”
“I’m not completely incapable,” David said. “It was one of the Elders I’ve met before and some young kid. They were surprised to see me instead of you, and that gave me the second I needed to incapacitate them.”
“Are they dead?”
David missed a beat. “No.” He looked toward the far side of the room. “At least, I don’t think so.”
“Nicely done,” Esther said. “But we’d better move.”
“Any idea where they would take your sister?”
“My guess is the bottom level here. The one without a label,” Esther said.
“I agree. You armed?”
“Sort of. I have a fish knife and my wrench.”
“The two goons behind the desk were kind enough to supply us with guns,” David said. He slung a hunting rifle forward from his back to his front and went over to the desk to pick up another one. He put it in Esther’s hands.
“Okay, let’s go.”
They stepped back into the elevator. David was about to press the button when Esther put her hand on his arm to stop him.
“I need to tell you something,” she said.
“That you love me?” David said.
“No, don’t change the subject.”
“You don’t love me?”
“Of course I do,” Esther said. A grin flashed across David’s face. “No, you need to know something about Naomi.” She met his clear green eyes. “When I talked to her a few days ago, she told me she never had a sister. She said she is from San Diego, but she was in Texas when the volcano blew.”
“I thought you recognized her.”
“I did! I mean, I think it is her. She might be brainwashed or traumatized or lying to keep me out of danger or something.” Esther swallowed. “Also, she kind of said she wouldn’t come with me if I tried to rescue her.”
David’s face emptied of expression. He stared at her as if waiting for more information.
“I’m still going down there,” she said. “And I brought some pills that I nicked from Whitefern in case we need to make her come quietly. Do you want to wait upstairs?”
David sighed. “You’re killing me, Esther. Let’s get this over with. We’ve come this far, and I don’t like the idea of letting anyone else get sacrificed to the lake if we can prevent it.”
He pressed the button for the lowest level. The elevator descended. They checked to make sure the safeties were off on their guns. Esther pressed her arm against David’s for a moment. She was glad she wasn’t alone.
The light for the bottom level glowed yellow. The elevator car slowed. Esther held her breath.
The doors opened. They burst into the room together.
“That’s far enough.” The Dentist stood up from a chair in front of the elevator doors and calmly pointed a revolver at them. He had been waiting.
The Dentist wore blue-and-white-striped pajamas, which were too short for his tall frame. He was alone, except for a figure huddled in an armchair in the corner. Naomi.
The bottom level of the bunker was outfitted like a first-class stateroom. There was a small kitchen with a table, a couch, two bunk beds, and a large woven rug on the concrete floor. One entire wall was made of open shelves stocked with row after row of canned food, paper goods, and tanks of propane. A computer on the table was plugged into a brick of batteries, and a massive water tank filled most of the space at the back of the room. At a glance it was obvious a handful of people could live here for a long time.
Esther took it all in in a flash.
“Are you all right, Naomi?” she called.
Naomi lifted her hands to show that they were tied with a thick cord.
“He found out you were coming.”
“Yeah, I guessed that by now.”
Esther hadn’t lowered her gun. Neither had David.
The Dentist cleared his throat. “I warned you about filling the heads of my children with ideas about the outside world.” His golden eyes seemed to glow in the darkened space. “I told you not to seduce my people away.”
“You can’t kill her,” Esther said. She scanned the room for signs of other men. Her eyes landed on a jumble of miscellaneous parts set up in a way that looked familiar, a bucket overflowing with goopy green algae beside it. Esther realized it was a highly amateur attempt at assembling her generator.
“I can do what I please,” the Dentist said, his deep voice dangerously calm. “This is my town. Now, I have a message for you. I’ve recently acquired some new allies, and they asked me to convey their greetings before I execute you.”
“Boris,” David said immediately. “He’s your ally, I assume.”
The edges of the Dentist’s lips drooped a little, as if some of his surprise had been ruined. “Yes,” he said.
“He wanted to gloat when you told him we’d be walking into a trap,” David said.
“It’s two against one,” Esther said, still trying to sort out the connection between the Dentist and Boris. How long had they been in touch? “If you shoot either one of us, the other will take you out.”
She kept her attention on the Dentist’s trigger finger. She wouldn’t hesitate.
“Actually,” the Dentist smiled, “he wanted me to tell you that he sank your ship. The Catalina, is it? He thought you’d like to know.”
Esther gasped, and the muzzle of her gun drifted off the Dentist for an instant. He fired.
The pain that exploded in Esther’s arm was nothing compared to the way her heart imploded in her chest. David shouted her name, looked toward her. Other shots were fired. Naomi pitched out of her chair and lay flat on the floor. Esther tried to lift her gun, but she couldn’t move her arm.
Not the Catalina. It couldn’t be true. She couldn’t believe it. She thought of Bernadette and Reggie, of Byron and his family. The Cordovas and the Newtons. Neal. Judith. The people that had been her family. The ship that had been her home.
Her blood dripped onto the concrete floor. Her knees were cold. She realized she was crouched on the ground. When she looked up, the Dentist was still standing. David was on his knees, the sleek barrel of the Dentist’s revolver pressed to his forehead. No.
Time slowed.
Everything was falling apart.
“Now then,” the Dentist said. “I thought that might get your attention, Miss Harris. Here’s how this is going to work. I will shoot Mr. Hawthorne here and then throw you in the lake in front of my people to remind them what happens to anyone who crosses me.”
David’s gun was behind the Dentist, where he had kicked it. Too far away. Naomi lay prone on the floor, but she wasn’t bleeding. She twisted her head a fraction and met Esther’s eyes. She had to know her. Would she help them?
“You’re afraid,” Esther said. The Dentist’s eyes flickered back toward her, but his hands remained steady, gun pressed against David’s skull. “You’re afraid of your people. You’re terrified they’ll turn against you.”
Naomi eased her tied hands forward in front of her body, staying face-first on the floor. She was out of the Dentist’s line of sight. Their only hope.
“All men in power fear their people,” David said. Despite the gun barrel pushing into his forehead, he sounded calm, collected, sophisticated even. He sounded like himself. “I’ve seen it before. Your new friend Boris is the worst of the cowards.”
“I’m already tired of listening to you,” the Dentist said, sighing. “I’m not interested in your dramatics.”
Naomi inched forward, any sound she made muffled by the woven carpet.
“That’s why you met us here alone,” Esther said. She had begun to feel light-headed. She was losing blood. She couldn’t let the Dentist pull that trigger. “If you knew we were coming after Naomi, you should have had guards with you, not just waiting for us up on the Detention Level. But you didn’t. You’re here alone.”
