The Daybreak Bond

by Megan Frazer Blakemore

  I got onto the bed and slid closer to Julia so our hips were touching. I leaned my head next to her and our hair—the exact same color—flowed together.

  “That was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said.

  “I’m not brave,” I told her. “We both know that and we know why.”

  “I know I saw you running at that dog like in that River and Zane movie where Zane is stuck on that hostile planet and River comes in with her blaster blasting—your face looked just like hers.”

  “I wasn’t thinking, Jules. I just reacted. I don’t know if that’s the same as being brave.”

  “If it’s overcoming a dampening, I think it is.” She shifted her body and winced.

  “Julia, you realize what could happen, don’t you? Even if this, this junior EMT can fix you up a little, I mean, even if she’s very, very good, the longer you wait to get treatment for that leg, the worse it will be.”

  “I know.”

  I couldn’t look at her, so I looked at our legs. My right was next to her left—that was her good one. Next to it was her torn-up one, the blood already starting to seep through the bandage. “You’ve had your thirty percent, Julia. They’ll patch you up when we get back, but what if that’s all they’ll do?”

  “Then you’ll be able to keep up with me, Mori.” I knew she was trying to joke, but her voice sounded hollow, and when I looked at her face, the smile was pasted on. “What choice do we have?”

  The sobs hitched in my throat. I tried to push them down, but I couldn’t stop them. “I’m sorry, Julia.”

  “Hey,” she said. “You guys never really needed me on this trip anyway. You have Theo to navigate, and Benji to fix any technology problems. You’re the heart and Ilana’s the reason. I’m just the tagalong.”

  “That’s not true,” I told her. “You’re strong and smart—”

  “Okay, well, on the off chance that any tough math problems come up, I’ll bet that Ilana or Benji can solve them. Not as fast as me, but you know, it’ll be all right.”

  “We need you, Julia, you know that. I need you and I forced you to come because I was being selfish and—”

  “You didn’t force me to come.”

  “Then why’d you change your mind?”

  Julia tugged the blanket up over her waist. The whole room seemed to quiet and disappear so it was just Julia and me. “Remember when we threw the basketball into Mr. Quist’s yard?” she asked.

  “Of course.” Ilana had gone over to get Benji’s wayward shot and ended up squishing Mr. Quist’s prized cucumbers.

  “We wrote him that note and nobody wanted to sign it. Nobody wanted to get in trouble. But then you came up with that Firefly Five thing and we were all in it together. We all did the cleanup. I mean, I know you and Ilana did most of it, but we all showed up and did the job together. We took responsibility.”

  Tommy was hunched together with Benji and Ilana. The girls sat together, talking, too. Their voices were a gentle hum in the background. Still, I leaned closer to Julia and lowered my voice. “So that’s why you came along? To take responsibility together?”

  “Sort of,” she said, but she shook her head. The thing about Julia is, sometimes it takes her a while to say the things that truly matter—the things at her heart. And you can’t rush her, because if you rush her she can say the thing she doesn’t mean. Maybe that’s how she and I had ended up fighting so much this summer. She tossed a braid over her shoulder. “I was thinking about the people who built Ilana. I was thinking how they all worked together on this project, and when it started to go wrong, they didn’t really take responsibility. They just tried to shut her down, to hide their mistakes. And that’s like the exact opposite of what they teach us. When you make a mistake, you have to own it.”

  “I see,” I said.

  “I made some mistakes this summer, Mori.” She kept her eyes on her lap as she spoke. “I was jealous of Ilana and I didn’t give her a chance. I was short-tempered with you. I broke your dad’s phone. I got my latency early. I was mean. I don’t know if what I did caused any of the problems with Ilana. I think about that day on the treadmills—”

  “That wasn’t anyone’s fault,” I told her.

  “Maybe. Anyway, I made a lot of mistakes and I’m not going to be one of those people who doesn’t own her mistakes.” She glanced toward Ilana. “And I’m not going to let them—” She shook her head. “I’m just not.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I can see I’m not going to change your mind.”

  “You’re not.”

  I turned to the group. “We are going to leave Julia here long enough for us to get a head start.”

  “Let’s say six hours,” Tommy said.

  “Two,” I said.

  “Mori,” Julia said, shaking her head. “In two hours, you won’t even be six miles from here.”

  “Well—” Tommy began.

  “Six miles is plenty,” Theo told him.

  “Two hours, then. Unless she takes a turn for the worse,” I said, staring right at Naya. I trusted her. “If something goes wrong, like her fever goes way up or she starts throwing up or something, then take her right away to the hospital.”

  “I will,” Naya said.

  “Take my stuff, Mori. All my extra clothes and food. I wish we had the same-size feet, I’d give you my shoes.”

  “Mine are dry now,” I told her, and I picked up her backpack, tightening the straps so it fit my smaller frame.

  Benji took supplies out of his backpack. “I’m staying with Julia,” he explained, handing the tools and extra food to Theo. He reached out and put his hand on Ilana’s arm. “You understand, right? I mean, I’d go to the ends of the earth for you, home fry, but I need to look out for Julia, too.”

  “I know,” Ilana said. She threw her arms around him and hugged him close. And then I wrapped around him, too. He made an oof sound, but I knew he felt warm and safe because, for that one moment, I did, too.

  “We should probably get going,” Theo said.

  “Right, okay, so, of course I have a plan,” Tommy said. “Let me lay it out for you.”

  “Can you lay it out while we’re walking?”

  Tommy’s face fell. “Well, part one is in motion already: Julia stays here with Naya and Benji.”

  “And part two?” Amnah asked.

  “Mouse and I sneak them out of here and get them to Cambridge.”

  “That’s a terrible plan,” Amnah said.

  “It’s not a terrible plan. You just haven’t heard the whole thing.”

  “In the history of plans, it ranks in the lowest percentile,” Amnah replied. “Right next to their big scheme to break out of Old Harmonie. Who breaks out of Old Harmonie?”

  “Let’s focus on the getting us out of here part,” Tommy said.

  I grabbed on to Julia’s hand and squeezed it tightly. “See you soon,” I said.

  “Yeah,” she said. “See you soon.”

  There actually wasn’t much sneaking involved. Trudy and Naya’s street hit a dead end at a cemetery. All the gravestones were flat on the ground and their shiny surfaces reflected back the sun in a dizzying manner. The benefit came from the high hedge that encircled the burial ground. We walked right along it and around to the other side of the cemetery and to a brick wall.

  “Where are we in relationship to the tracks?” Theo asked. “That way, right?”

  Tommy shook his head. “You’re not going by the tracks. No way.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “The tracks curve down south and then come back up and around to get into Cambridge. It’s a good eight to ten extra miles.”

  “We have a map,” I said. “Can you draw the route on it?”

  “Nah, we’re not gonna draw it for you,” he said. But he said “draw” like “drawer” and I wondered if maybe they just didn’t understand r’s out here.

  “Is this about the money?” Theo said with a sigh. “Because we really don’t have any.”<
br />
  Tommy’s smile spread across his face so wide, I thought his face might split in two. “No!” he said merrily. “Mouse and I are going to take you. It’s going to be fun.”

  “Me?” Mouse asked.

  “Yep. I need you,” Tommy said.

  “No way, McPhee,” Amnah said.

  “But I really do need her,” Tommy said, and then, as if the matter was settled, he began climbing the wall. He dug his fingers and toes into the mortar between the bricks and scurried right on up. He stood at the top with his back to us, staring out into the distance.

  “What do you think you need her for?” Amnah called up.

  “For the car, of course,” Tommy replied, and then he disappeared, jumping over the edge.

  Mouse turned to Amnah before her sister could say anything. “I’m going.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they need our help.”

  “What’s Krita ever done for you? Those jerks stole our home. They said you weren’t good enough—”

  “They aren’t Krita. They need our help and I’m helping them.” She set her lips firmly together.

  Amnah didn’t say anything. She just glowered. But she got down on one knee so that Mouse could get a boost. Mouse climbed first onto her sister’s raised knee, then onto her shoulders. Amnah stood up then, and Mouse, like an acrobat, stood on her shoulders so she could reach the top of the wall and pull herself up.

  “Not a bad trick,” Ilana said.

  Amnah still didn’t say anything. She climbed up the wall, too—not as easily as Tommy, but she made it, and hopped over. A moment later Mouse hopped down, too.

  “We’ll lift you up,” Theo said. “We can each take a foot.”

  It was a wonder they didn’t drop me. They were strong enough, but as they each lifted me by one leg, I had to keep my body perfectly straight or else wobble all over the place. I reached my hands up and grabbed the warm, rough bricks. My knees banged against the wall as they let go, but I managed. Maybe that’s the way it is with obstacles when you really need to get someplace. Maybe you always find you have just enough to get past them.

  12

  “The People’s Republic, huh? That’s where you’re going?” Tommy asked as he walked backward along a narrow, rutted path. There were some shaggy bushes on either side of us, pricker bushes, by the look of them, the kind that tear at your skin.

  “We need to go to MIT,” Theo said.

  “Right smack dab in the center of the People’s Republic. The new C-Town. Land of the Lost.”

  “What are you talking about?” Theo asked.

  “He means Cambridge,” Amnah answered. “He just likes to seem smarter than he is and he does that by trying to sound like he knows all about the world.” Amnah scooped up a rock and tossed it at Tommy’s feet. Tommy skipped out of the way.

  “I am smart,” he said. “Smart enough to go to StepUp Charter.”

  Amnah scoffed. “I wouldn’t boast about that.”

  “What’s StepUp Charter?” I asked, wishing I could tell him to turn around and just walk forward, safely. The sun blazed, and I wiped my hair from my forehead.

  “Only the best charter school in Massachusetts. Run by Krita, of course. Pipeline to Old Harmonie. So what’s it really like up there? Is it true that everyone gets their own place and robots to do the cleaning and the cooking and when you don’t like your clothes anymore you just pop them in a machine and they’re reworked into something new?”

  Ilana marched along the side of the tracks, her feet clomp-clomping on the mix of sandy dirt and grass. I glanced over at Theo. “Not exactly,” I said.

  “Told you,” Amnah said.

  “Well, you must at least have some of that,” Tommy said. “Or, like, all the coolest video games. Like before they even get released anywhere else? I mean, have you seen BotFist Eleven? Is it bananas?” As he spoke he veered off to the left. This trail was even more faint, and passed under a huge tree. Just as we stepped out, a drone flew overhead.

  Theo grabbed my arm and pulled me to the ground. I landed hard on my elbow and winced, but managed to swallow my cry. Ilana crouched in the bushes. “Okay?” she mouthed.

  I nodded.

  The others stopped in their tracks and stared at us. Tommy’s mouth was even open a little. Who cared? We stayed right where we were until the drone flew off. Theo stood up first. He reached down and helped me to my feet. I brushed the dirt off my chest. It was sort of a losing battle, considering how dirty I already was.

  “You never seen a drone before?” Tommy asked slowly.

  “Of course we have,” Theo said. “We just didn’t want the drone to see us.”

  Tommy rubbed his chin. “Um, yeah, there are a lot of drones out here. You’re not going to be able do a nosedive every time one breezes by.”

  “We’ll do what we need to do to stay out of sight. They can’t find us until we get Ilana to MIT.”

  “Who can’t?” Mouse asked.

  “And why is this all hush-hush anyway?” Tommy asked.

  “They said Ilana was trouble,” Amnah said. “I think they all are. If you ask me. Which you didn’t.”

  Theo stood in a wide stance, perfect posture. “The less you know, the better.”

  Amnah smirked at that, and Tommy held up both his hands. “Ease up, why don’t you?”

  “Let’s just keep going. What is it you needed to show us?” Theo said.

  Ilana walked up beside me. She put one hand on my shoulder. “I’d really like to get going, if you don’t mind.” Her words were kind; tension strained her voice.

  “Sure, sure,” Tommy said. “It’s right up here.”

  The path led to an old, cracked road. We walked along that for a short way. Tommy started walking faster, and Theo jogged to catch up with him. Amnah and Mouse were right behind, so Ilana and I were at the back together. “You doing okay?” I asked.

  “I guess.” She looked back over her shoulder. “I just keep thinking that we should have stayed with Julia.”

  “Benji’s with her.”

  “I know, but—”

  “I know,” I agreed. “But we need to get you to Dr. Varden.”

  “Mori,” she said. “What if Dr. Varden doesn’t want to see me? She’s the one who scuttled me the first time, right?”

  “That wasn’t you,” I told her.

  She looked straight ahead. Her profile was etched against the sun and I could see a drop of sweat on her temple.

  “That wasn’t you,” I said again.

  “Maybe,” she replied. “But Dr. Varden might not see it that way. And then what? Or what if it’s like going to see the Wizard of Oz? We follow this yellow brick road and then we get there and it turns out she doesn’t have any power at all?”

  I didn’t know what to tell her. I didn’t have another plan for us. If Dr. Varden didn’t want to help, then we were pretty well stuck. Ilana couldn’t go back to Old Harmonie, and I wasn’t about to leave her outside alone. “You know what we’ll do? We’ll go to Oakedge.”

  “Oakedge isn’t real,” she said. “It’s a mirage.”

  “No, it’s real,” I told her. And to prove it, I swung Julia’s backpack around and held it by one strap while I used my other hand to dig inside to find what I had stashed there. I pulled out two perfect sweet pea pods and handed one to her.

  Ahead of us, Tommy jogged down a slight hill toward a fence. He pulled open the gates. “Friends, your chariot awaits.”

  It was like a field of wildflowers, but instead of flowers, it was cars. They were all different sizes and colors—though nearly all slashed with rust. They weren’t lined up in any real order, zigzagging and jagged. Still, the lot was ringed by plastic triangle flags that swung in the sky like it was a carnival.

  “What is this place?” I asked as we stepped through the fence. There were ribbons on this one, too, flapping in the breeze. Ilana touched one as she walked by. “Is it a car graveyard?” I asked. In Old Harmonie, when the KritaCars broke, the
y were taken apart, usable parts salvaged, and the rest recycled. But maybe that didn’t happen out here. Maybe they just piled them up and waited for the centuries or millennia it would take for them to break down.

  “Not exactly,” Tommy said. “It’s a used car lot.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said. So the cars were used and then deposited here?

  Theo, though, rubbed his hand in his hair and said, “You want us to steal a car?” He was sweating enough that I could see round marks under his arms. I fanned my own face. What I wouldn’t give to sink down into Julia’s pool, or flop on the couch in my air-cooled home.

  “It’s not stealing. It’s borrowing,” Tommy said with a half smile.

  Theo looked at the cars a long time. I knew what he was thinking. A car would certainly save us a lot of time. But that was stealing and we weren’t thieves. “We can walk from here,” I said. “It’s really not so far.”

  “Not so far?” Tommy laughed. “You have no idea what you’re getting into, do you? First you gotta walk through the wastelands. On top of that, you want to go around unnoticed, but you stick out like sore thumbs. How you gonna walk through a town like Lexington? Or Somerville? You think you would last one minute in the ’Ville?”

  Somerville. The gardeners who’d come to fix up Ilana’s house before she’d moved in had been from Somerville. I had thought it sounded like the most beautiful place on earth, but the way Tommy said it, I wasn’t so sure.

  “We aren’t thieves,” Theo said. “We can’t take a car.”

  Amnah out-and-out laughed at that. Theo turned and glared at her, but didn’t say anything.

  “Listen, buddy, I’m trying to help you here.”

  “I’m not your buddy,” Theo said. “You’ve been real helpful and gotten us this far, but I’ll take it from here. Thanks.”

  Tommy stepped past Theo and up to Ilana. “You need to get to Cambridge, right? Well, I can get you there. I know you are friends and that’s great and all, but he’s never been out here. He doesn’t know. I do. I can get you there. I promise.”

  Ilana twisted the strap of her backpack around her finger.