“Why haven’t you offered?” I volleyed back.
“I’m offering now.”
“I want Faith.” Bailey pushed out of arms and darted ahead to catch up with Kayla. “Faith.”
I listened to her prattle on. She still barely talked unless it was to her little cousin. I hoped that maybe they could have a sister-like relationship similar to Kayla and me. I certainly wasn’t planning on giving her more siblings. I never wanted to bring more innocents into our horrible world.
“We must have missed an exit somewhere,” I said what we were all thinking. Kayla had foreseen our future. The hours had indeed become days. And then weeks. We’d taken to sleeping in a huddle while taking turns keeping watch.
Bailey was taking it in stride, which filled me with a deep sadness. She shouldn’t have been—but after having been through so much in her short life, this was just another setback to her. Faith cried. She had spent her whole life at the camp. She hadn’t known fear before, and she was learning it now.
“I know, but do we dare double back?” Maverick asked.
“Shouldn’t you have special skills to help us with this, Maverick? Didn’t they make you all into weapons?” Kayla stopped short after we hit another fork in the tunnel.
Maverick shrugged. “I don’t know what skills I have.”
“Now would be a really good time to figure that out.” Kayla set Faith down and knelt beside her.
“Wawa.” Faith’s words echoed off the low ceiling.
“We are almost out of water, baby,” Kayla spoke in a soothing voice. “We will find more soon.”
“No. Wawa.” Faith pointed to the right. “Wawa.”
“Is she trying to say there is water that way?” Bolton asked.
“How could she possibly know that?” I knew my words came out harsher than intended, but I was hot, tired, and thirsty. I’d been giving almost all of my portion of the supplies to Faith.
“She couldn’t.” Kayla ran her hand over Faith’s hair. “I don’t think. But why not let her help us with this decision? None of us are doing a good job so far.”
“Agreed.” Bolton started down the right tunnel.
I really hoped Faith had guessed right.
Ten
Mason
“We have no idea who these people are.” Addison paced the small space under the threadbare overhang. It had been less than twenty minutes after meeting Thomas, but it already felt like an eternity. So many plans were made. So many possibilities floated. Yet there we were still standing on the same side of the wall.
“Well, we know who Thomas is.” I still couldn’t quite believe we’d run into him, but the population of our world was shrinking. There weren’t all that many of us left—particularly those who weren’t working for Central either directly or indirectly.
“Or we think we do. Technically we can’t know for sure.” Addison stopped pacing, and instead began fidgeting with the gold bracelet she’d been wearing since Denver presented it to her right before he left.
“You really think he’s faking it?” I might have thought the same thing if I hadn’t seen parts of Kayla in him. His cheeks, the curve of his nose. Family lines were so few and far between; it was impossible to ignore them when you saw them.
Addison sighed. “No. I don’t.”
“I don’t either. And they have the same nose.”
She laughed. “Nose? Really, Mason?”
“Yes. And cheeks. Don’t laugh. If you’d looked at him more closely you would have seen it too.”
“You have her face memorized.” It wasn’t a question.
I answered anyway. “I do.” I had everything about her memorized.
“That’s sweet.” She spun the bracelet around her wrist. “But kind of annoying. I mean despite everything, you still really care that much. I don’t see how it’s possible.”
I shrugged. “Possible or not, it is.”
Addison stopped turning the bracelet. “We can’t put this off much longer.”
“No, we can’t.” We used those words so often, talking about time as if it were the most precious commodity. And maybe it was. So much could happen in any space of time. The possibilities only multiplied the more time you gave. I tried not to think of the possibilities of what might have happened to Kayla in my absence. My survival and strength depended on believing she was okay. Most of the time it also depended on my believing she was waiting for me—but I understood that I would not and could not blame her if she wasn’t. From her perspective it would be very hard to believe I was still alive or coming back.
“We go in with them?” Addison pulled me out of my thoughts about Kayla. It was so easy to fall into a trance—picturing her eyes. Her lips. Remembering the feel of her skin.
I nodded. “I can’t come up with another plan that sounds any better, can you?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I can’t. Everything else seems even more reckless than usual.”
“This is still reckless. Completely reckless. Make no mistake about it.” I don’t know why I felt the need to remind her about that, but I did. Maybe I wanted to give her one more chance to change her mind—but changing her mind wasn’t going to protect her. Nothing was.
“Don’t worry. I won’t.” Addison rolled back her shoulders and walked over to where Thomas and a few other men talked.
We were no longer alone, but that didn’t make facing the wall any easier. Thomas and his men had no explanation for the silence, or better put, the death, of every Central force member we found. Of course, our new acquaintances could have been lying, but something about their words rang true. Either way, we needed to work with them if we hoped to accomplish anything.
“Have you made up your mind?” Thomas sauntered over. He looked so much older than his age. He was the youngest of the three siblings, but the years had most certainly aged him. They had aged all of us.
“Yes. We will join you.”
“Excellent.” Thomas angled himself so he was looking at both us and the wall. “We don’t know what we will find on the other side of the wall, but it’s a chance we have to take.”
“Exactly.” Addison nodded. Her doubts about Thomas seemed to have disappeared or been brushed aside.
“Just because they are dead on this side doesn’t mean they’ll be dead on the other.” A lanky teenage boy walked over.
“Isin, you missed the introductions. This is Mason and Addison.” He pointed to each of us as he listed our names. “They know my sisters.”
“Really?” His eyes widened. “Are they as pretty as he says?”
I answered immediately. “Kayla is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”
“Prettier than her?” Isin’s eyes zeroed in on Addison. “Because I can’t really believe that.”
Addison rolled her eyes. “Please. I’m probably the only girl you’ve ever seen.”
“Not the only…” he trailed off.
“But one of the only.”
“I’ve met two others.”
Addison’s lips twisted into a smile. “Okay, so lay off the fake flattery.”
“It’s not fake. You are beautiful.” He tilted his head to the side. “Honest.”
“Isin, was it?” I knew his name, but sometimes it helps to make someone think you didn’t quite care enough to internalize it the first time. “Just stop it. She’s not in the mood.”
Addison frowned. “I don’t need you jumping in.”
“No, you don’t. But we’re wasting time.” We were always wasting time. “All this talk of Kayla just makes me more motivated to get things done so we can get back.”
Addison chuckled. “Not that he’s crazy about her or anything.”
“Who’s wasting time now?” Thomas’s voice had a scolding tone.
Point taken. “What’s the plan?”
“We need to find a weakness in the force field.” Thomas pointed to what appeared to be a brick wall that reached up toward the sky. We all knew it was more than that. A
brick wall would be incredibly easy to knock down. A force field not so much.
“And how are we going to do that?” Addison tied her hair up in a high bun with a string of rope.
“We need to test it.” Thomas pulled a slingshot out of his pocket.
“A slingshot?” I eyed the small, and obviously homemade, thing. “Really?”
“You have a better suggestion?” Thomas dared me.
“You know I don’t.”
A few minutes later we were flanked out along the corner section of the wall.
“You ready?” Thomas asked Isin.
I wasn’t entirely sure why Isin, arguably one of the scrawniest of the assembled, was going to be the one using the slingshot, but I also wasn’t going to say a word.
We all watched as the rock went flying. Thomas had been right to give the slingshot to the boy. He really knew how to launch it. We all waited for the inevitable sound of the rock hitting the force field. We didn’t hear it. We didn’t hear anything. We only watched as the rock soared over the wall.
“The force field is down.” Thomas wasn’t asking a question. He was stating what all of us were thinking. How was it even possible? “This is getting stranger by the second.”
“I would say it was a trap except for all the dead men.” I looked around us. There were several bodies lying within our line of sight.
“Maybe they were dead already and were planted,” Addison suggested. “That could be the case, right?”
“No.” Thomas shook his head. “We’ve been over here long enough. I recognize some of these men. And we saw the way it happened.” Thomas lowered his eyes. “We watched them fall. It was crazy. One minute they were standing in their normal positions, the next they were all on the ground.”
“It happened in a single instant?” I should have asked these questions earlier, but there were so many things to ask. “Yet you didn’t hear or see anything? You didn’t feel anything?” I tried to understand what could have possibly happened.
“No.” Isin shook his head. “Nothing. They just fell.”
“It must have been the activation of some implant.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Another of Thomas’s allies walked over. His name was Benji, and he had to be the tallest man I’d ever met. “Someone flipped a switch or something.”
“Do you know much about how Central works? What they’ve done?” I asked.
“My guess is it’s pretty similar to you.”
His words came as a surprise. I took a moment before deciding how to reply. “You assume I know.”
“I don’t recognize you individually, but I recognize you as one of the System. It’s easy to tell if you know what to look for. There’s a look that we all have—a craziness behind the eyes.”
I nodded. What he said made sense enough. “So, it could still be a trap. We may have other enemies beyond Central.”
“Exactly.” Benji nodded. “There are many players involved in this mess.”
“Like the traders?” another man suggested.
“Or those on the other side…” I stared at the wall. How much did we truly know about what was happening on the other side of the wall?
“But they’ve solved the problem out there, haven’t they?” There was hopefulness in Isin’s voice.
“Or so we think. I don’t know where you guys got your intel, but it is entirely possible we both heard errant information.” I’d accepted it as truth at first, but the more time that passed without anyone coming over the wall to our side, the harder it was to believe it was still true. Would they have allowed us to suffer? Or to phrase it another way, would they have given up the opportunity to take over a weaker nation?
“Anything is possible.” Addison looked up at the wall. “It’s possible that a giant cockroach flipped the switch so to speak.”
“Giant cockroach?” I raised an eyebrow. “Where did you get that idea from?”
“Does it matter?” She put her hands out to either side. “The issue remains the same. We have no clue what is going on.”
“True,” I agreed. “Okay. So, we head over and see what’s waiting for us.”
“We don’t all have to go at once.” Benji glanced in Addison’s direction. “I’ll go first.”
Addison shook her head. “You don’t have to go in on your own. That’s crazy.”
“Once I’m in I can send a signal all is well, and you can follow. Or—”
I didn’t let him finish the statement. “Or you’re dead.”
“We haven’t heard from anyone once they’ve gotten even close to the wall, let alone to the other side of it.” Addison started toward the wall. “We have no idea what’s over there.”
“Why does that change anything?” Benji followed her. “Why should we all risk our lives when we don’t have to?”
“Let’s stick to reality here. We are all already risking our lives.” It’s not that I wanted Addison to scale the wall, but I knew very well she wasn’t going to sit back while others did. “Whether we go over the wall or stand right here, each and every one of us is in danger. Some more than others.” I didn’t specify Addison, but everyone knew what I meant. “For all we know we are being watched at this very moment—there may be guns trained on us ready to strike.”
“That’s enough of that, Mason.” Addison glared. “I’ll go over with you, Benji.”
“Of course, you will.” I smiled. “Do you think I doubted that for a second? But I’m coming too. If you go, I go.”
“Let’s all go.” Thomas turned so he was looking at us, his back to the wall. “As Mason said, we could all die here too. We might as well stick together.” Thomas was certainly the leader of his group. I wondered how that dynamic had developed since he was not the oldest nor the strongest. “Do you both have climbing gear?” Thomas looked at Addison and me.
“No, but we can climb.” Addison raised her chin.
“You think Denver left us without supplying us with everything?” I pulled off my backpack and pulled out ropes and picks.
Addison took the ropes from me. “When did Denver give you all this stuff? How did I miss it?”
“He didn’t give it to me as much as he left it. You know he’s prepared for everything.”
“Okay, let’s do this.” Addison unfurled the rope.
“Let’s do this and somehow make it back alive,” Thomas mumbled.
Those were my sentiments exactly.
Eleven
Maverick
It was time for Faith to live up to her name. We were all putting our faith in her as we made our way down the damp, cramped tunnels. We were in even more trouble than the others realized. Our water supply was almost gone. Pretty soon we’d have to make some tough decisions about who got water and who didn’t. I already knew who’d get it first, but eventually there’d be another round of decisions to make. I couldn’t even think about it.
“Wawa.” Faith’s voice sounded eerily strong. If it weren’t for the simple nature of the phrase, I would have thought it was someone much older speaking.
“You are sure it’s this way?” Kayla asked with care. She seemed to be trying to sound supportive but also realistic. “It’s okay if you change your mind.”
Faith rested her head on her mother’s shoulder. “Wawa.”
We took that as a yes.
The ground became increasingly damp as we continued on.
“The kid is on to something.” Bolton walked in the very back.
“Of course, she is.” Quinn walked right in front of me. “If you didn’t trust her, why did you let her lead?”
Quinn and Bolton were never going to stop fighting. I understood Quinn’s reservations, but she needed to put her anger aside. Bolton had been nothing but an ally so far. Yes, he had his sights set on Kayla, but that was for Kayla to figure out. Right now, she seemed completely determined to wait for Mason. Considering the situation, we were in, I didn’t think we had any reason to think about any of that stuff for a whi
le. Survival was the most pressing thing on any of our minds.
“Puddle ahead,” Kayla called over her shoulder.
“Puddle?” I asked the question a second too early, as my boot hit a shallow puddle moments later.
I allowed myself some optimism. We had no reason to trust that this water was safe, but we had a filtration system. If it came down to it, we could survive on a puddle for a few days.
We continued further. An even deeper puddle. And another until they were deep enough that the water was spilling over into my boots.
“Do you want me to hold you, Bailey?” I called. If Faith was right and we were heading into significant water, it was going to be nearly impossible to help both girls.
“Yes.” Bailey ran back toward me. I scooped her up.
I’d grown to love the little girl. She had such a sweet disposition. She was extremely quiet, but what she didn’t say with words, she said with her eyes. I’d never met anyone with such expressive eyes. That’s what made it hard in the darkness. We were only using our lights as necessary.
The water continued to rise the further we moved. Before we knew it, the water was knee deep. Then waist deep. Then chest deep.
“So, we found water,” Bolton pointed out the obvious. “Now what?”
“We found water!” Quinn yelled, her voice echoing through the water-filled passage. “Can’t you be grateful for a moment?”
“If we drown this doesn’t help us. We need to find solid ground.” Bolton, as usual, was all about reality. I was too, but I didn’t want to put a damper on everyone’s excitement too quickly. Hope could be a powerful force. Besides, Faith had been right. True, it could have been a lucky guess—it was 50/50 after all—but somehow, I knew it was more. Either she’d been able to hear something none of the rest of us could, or maybe she just knew. These were all questions I wanted to discover, but first, Bolton was right. We needed to find solid ground.
“We will find land.” Kayla pushed forward in the dim light of her headlamp. She was holding Faith as much out of the water as possible. “The question is whether we find it before we can’t stand anymore.”
Conflicted (The Corded Saga Book 3) Page 5
