The Union

by T. H. Hernandez

  The way his shoulders hunch and the vacant expression in his eyes makes him appear vulnerable, and some of the white hot anger I’ve been holding onto begins to cool. He’s not a smuggler and I doubt he meant for any of this to happen.

  “I wasn’t sold, but they brought Jack in to close the deal. Our dad’s had been partners and we’d been friends for years. Between that and a duty to my family to find the truth, I caved.”

  “What happened to Jack’s dad?” I ask.

  “He’s our captain.”

  “Wait, what? You work for Jack’s dad? What does he know about me?”

  “Right now, nothing. But we don’t report directly to the captain. We told our lieutenant we’re following up on some leads, leaving out the details.”

  “Does anyone know I’ve been missing all this time?”

  Bryce shakes his head. “No. Not through us, anyway.”

  I let out a small sigh of relief that the secret of the Ruins is safe for now. “Why were you posing as a student at our school?”

  He blows air into one cheek and lets it back out. “After my internship ended, we were sent undercover to investigate a mayor in the Eastern Province.”

  “Alivia’s dad.” I say.

  “Right. They thought it’d be easiest to get in with his teenage daughter.”

  “How old are you, anyway? I mean, you look like you’re our age.”

  He scratches the back of his neck. “I’m only a couple of years older. I graduated two years ago, did my internship, and started undercover shortly after.”

  “So, Alivia was part of your cover?”

  “Not exactly. I needed access to the apartment, and my relationship with her allowed me to do that.”

  “How do I fit into all this?”

  He blows out a long, slow breath. “You weren’t a part of any of this. I…”

  “He shouldn’t have gotten involved with you,” Jack says. “We were under cover. Totally against every regulation.”

  So now I know what Jack’s issue was. I turn back to Bryce. “Then, why did you?”

  “Because I’m weak. I was intrigued by you the moment we met, but Alivia was my assignment. Later, when I saw you on the train…I just…I don’t know. I’m sorry.” He drops his head into his hands. “Everything is my fault.”

  “So who were those guys who took me, then? Were you investigating them?”

  Jack nods. “Yeah. While Bryce was keeping an eye on Benton, I was looking into weapons coming across the border into the Northeastern Province. We thought they were separate investigations, but we kept running into the same players. We’re still not sure where the weapons are going, but they’re using the Union’s trains to move them. The L-Trains aren’t as heavily scrutinized for cargo, so they thought no one would notice. That helped us because they got sloppy.”

  “A guy by the name of Walker’s at the center of everything,” Bryce says. “Benton is into all kinds of stuff, but it doesn’t seem to be linked to the weapons smuggling, and that became more urgent, so they pulled me out and reassigned us to monitor the trains. We thought we had an iron-clad cover.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know how it got blown. But once Walker found out, he used you as leverage to get us to back off our investigation.”

  “The day you were taken, we were staking out a warehouse when we got a text,” Jack says. “We’d thought it was the IT guys getting back to us with a hit on a facial recognition search we asked them to run. But it was a picture of you. Tied up and blindfolded.”

  The blood in my veins chills. Even though the events are in my past, hearing about them, knowing they took pictures of me, makes my skin feel as too tight for my body.

  “When you didn’t come back from the bathroom, I went looking for you.” Lisa says. “Your flip-flop was just lying on the ground.” She pauses and twists her hands. “I asked the waiter if he’d seen you, and he checked with the rest of the staff, but no one knew where you were. Colin went back to the train while I waited at the restaurant for you.” Her voice drops. “None of it made any sense.”

  “After we got the text, Bryce took off, and I ran after him.”

  “I returned to the train.” Bryce says, voice monotone. “To prove to myself the picture was fake, make sure you were okay. Then we could figure out who sent it and why.”

  “After an hour, I gave up and went back, too.” Lisa stares at her coffee cup, folding down the corner of the paper sleeve. “When you weren’t there either, I started to panic, but then I thought you must have run into Bryce or something and went off with him. I was so mad you left without telling us, but then Bryce came flying down the hall with Jack and not you…”

  “She attacked me,” Bryce says.

  Lisa lets out a soft sigh. “I kinda went nuts. He was my last hope you were safe… So, we told them everything.”

  “While Lisa and Colin were filling us in, we got another text,” Jack says. “This one said, ‘We’ve got the girl. You want her alive, back off your investigation. Bring in anyone else and you’ll get her back one piece at a time.’”

  “They wouldn’t tell us what the text said, though.” Colin says. “But we knew it was bad, ‘cause Bryce was freaking out. Lisa ran to her room to call the police.”

  “I went after her,” Bryce says. “No way could I let her make that call.”

  “It took us a while to convince her that we are the police,” Jack says. “We showed her our credentials, explained our investigation, and finally had to show her the text to get her to believe us.”

  Lisa picks up the pieces of her coffee sleeve and drops them into the trash. “It was like straight out of a movie or something.”

  “The whole time Jack was talking to Lis, Bryce totally flipping out,” Colin says. “Kept mumbling shit and yanking on his hair.”

  “Then what?” I ask, glancing between Bryce and Jack. “Why drag Lisa and Colin out to the Ruins with you?”

  “We figured they were probably already in danger and would be safer with us,” Jack says.

  I stare at Lisa and Colin, wondering how they just went along with all of this.

  “It sounds a lot smoother now,” Lisa says, as if reading my mind. “At the time, there was lots of yelling and I punched Bryce a few times.”

  “She wanted to call your parents and your uncle,” Bryce says. “I finally convinced her that could put you in even more danger. Until Jack and I knew more, we needed to keep everyone else out of it.”

  “They always seemed to be one step of ahead of us.” Jack stands and cracks his neck. “I was worried they were wired in somehow, monitoring our communications. Our best chance of getting you back alive was finding you ourselves.”

  “The clues kept leading to the Ruins,” Colin says.

  “We tracked video feed of your kidnapping and saw where they took you off the cargo train.” Bryce says. “When we couldn’t locate you in the Union, we suspected you might be in the Ruins.”

  “We were really scared,” Lisa says. “I mean, everyone knows it’s not safe out there.”

  Jack nods. “I’ll admit, it was an obstacle we weren’t sure how to overcome at first.”

  “How’d you figure out it wasn’t toxic?”

  “I met up with a buddy of mine to get some protective gear and he clued us in. Said he’d done some investigating out there and figured it out.”

  “And you just bought this? Because honestly, I thought I was going to die at any minute once they dragged me out there.”

  “It’s not like he was going to send us out there if it was dangerous. Plus, he had pictures of plants growing out there and animals.”

  “He geared us up with camping stuff, the truck, and showed us how to get out there,” Colin says.

  “Took us awhile to get a lead on you,” Jack says. “Once we did, the place was already deserted.”

  “It was like slamming into a solid wall,” Lisa says. “We’d been so close and suddenly you were farther away than ever.”

  “It was
obvious they cleared out in a hurry, so we figured they couldn’t have gone far,” Bryce says. “Because if not, I was afraid we’d never find you.”

  “I have no idea how long they stayed in that house after I left, but I escaped the first night.”

  Lisa’s mouth drops open. “You what?”

  “I have a lot to tell you.” After everything they risked to find me, I guess I need to trust them with the lives of my Ruins friends. I don’t really have any a choice. Taking a seat on the bed, I launch into my story, only leaving out the extent of my relationship with Cyrus and the fact that I was about to fake my death.

  As I relive the last few months of my life, things start to fall into place. “I think I know where the weapons are going.” I describe the wicked looking guns I saw on the guys near the power station. “Maybe the solution to stopping the attack is nothing more than stopping the flow of weapons.”

  Bryce glances up from the floor and fixes his gaze on me. “Nothing is ever that simple.”

  39

  Nothing Simple

  After lunch, we climb the stairs to the gleaming white A-Train and grab seats in the second car. While not nearly as luxurious as the L-Train, it’s a lot faster. Lisa and Jack snuggle together on one side of the aisle leaving the rest of us to sit on the other with me sandwiched between Colin and Bryce.

  I decided to continue on to the Western Province instead of heading back east. Going home feels like giving up, and I can’t do that. Lisa’s internship starts next week and Colin needs to be in the Northwestern Province in two weeks, so everything is moving along as if nothing happened.

  My mind drifts as I lay my head back against the seat. I called home and my parents were happy to hear we had fun on our adventure. I sent my mom pictures of my hair, which she claims to love, but says she likes the red better. I can’t decide whether to stay blond. Red hair is an oddity in the Union. Something like three percent of the population of the former United States had red hair, but in the post-war Union, less than one percent of us are gingers. I never liked my hair color, it was always another thing that made me different.

  My friends agreed to keep quiet about the Ruins and what I overheard about an attack on the Union. We’re going to work together to figure something out. Hopefully four heads are better than one, because right now, I’ve got squat.

  The trip to the Western Province only takes a few hours, but it feels more like days as the minutes crawl by. I’m cramped and confined on the train after spending so much time outdoors. When we finally approach the station, the Union sprawls out below us like colorful steps inching their way to the coast twenty-five miles west. For the first time in my life I see the Pacific Ocean, sparkling in the distance beneath a vivid blue sky.

  The Western Province is so different from where I grew up in the east. Here, pastel stucco terraced buildings are adorned with radiant flowers.

  We wait our turn to disembark then take the stairs down to the terminal, overflowing with passengers crisscrossing the tracks like scurrying ants. We walk the two blocks to catch a commuter train, Lisa, Colin, and Jack heading north to Lisa’s new place.

  Bryce and I follow them to the platform to say goodbye, and I pull Colin aside. “Are you sure you want to do this? Stay at Lisa’s I mean? Won’t it be awkward with her and Jack?”

  He shakes his head, dark, shaggy hair falling into his eyes. “I never said anything to her. I’m heading north soon anyway, so this is better.”

  “I love you, Col.” I kiss his cheek.

  He presses his lips to the side of my head. “I love you too, EvTay.”

  Lisa walks over and clutches me to her, shedding a few tears before saying good-bye with promises of talking tomorrow. After watching them go, I grab my bag and check the map on my tablet to find the quickest way to Eddie’s.

  “Hey, can I walk you to your dad– er, Eddie’s? I’d feel better knowing you got there.”

  I shrug. “Sure.”

  He takes my bag and slings it over his shoulder. We walk in silence for the first few blocks, passing lively shops with eager customers before turning down an alley and up two flights to the top level. I can still hear the muted activity from down below, but the atmosphere here is quieter, as if we’ve entered a bubble of tranquility.

  Bryce takes advantage of the lower noise level. “I’ll probably say this every day for the rest of my life, but Evan, I’m really sorry about what happened to you.”

  “I know.”

  “We’ll figure this out, I promise. I don’t know how yet, but we will.”

  I nod. “Thanks, Bryce. That means a lot.”

  We make another turn and the level opens onto a broad expanse dotted with flowering plants, grass, and palm trees on one side and large, expensive sun-washed stucco and glass apartments on the other. Beyond the gardens is a breathtaking view of the sprawling Union.

  I check the address again and locate the right apartment. A stone walkway winds from the sidewalk to the front door, lined with tall, spikey grass sprouting colorful flowers in orange, yellow and fuchsia, interspersed with low-growing plants covered in tiny white flowers. A redwood trellis over the porch, covered with pink bougainvillea is a colorful splash against the stark white building.

  The arched door is a wooden behemoth with tall, narrow windows on either side. I take a shaky breath and reach out to press the doorbell. After a few seconds, the lock unlatches and the lever moves down, but nothing more happens at first. The lever moves again and the door cracks before finally opening. On the other side is a tiny princess, wearing a fluffy pink tutu and silver tiara. Pale blue eyes shine out from a porcelain face framed by bouncing red curls.

  She narrows her eyes. “Who you?”

  I squat down to her level. “You must be Quinn. I’m your sister, Evan.”

  She crosses her arms and shakes her head, whipping her curls across her face. “No. Eban has wed hair like me. You hab white hair.”

  I run my hand through my hair. “Oh, yeah. Well, it’s usually red. I colored it.”

  Her eyes widen. “Why?”

  “Oh, just for fun, I guess.”

  “I don’t like it.” She twirls around and skips into the other room, her tutu flouncing up and down as she goes.

  Bryce chuckles behind me.

  I turn to look at him. “What?”

  “I think you’ve finally met your match.” When I stand, he reaches out to touch my arm. I glance at his hand and he drops it to his side. “I’ll call you tomorrow so we can figure out a time to get together and talk about…everything…before Colin leaves.”

  “Okay.”

  He gives me a small smile. “See you tomorrow, Evansville.” He turns and disappears down the path.

  Eddie approaches the entryway with Quinn and a blond curly-haired boy of about five. He stares at me with eyes the same mix of green and brown hazel as my own.

  Deep worry lines on Eddie’s face ease with each step in my direction. For the first time, I don’t see my estranged father — the selfish rock star who traded his daughter for fame and fortune. Instead, I see a worried parent who’s relieved his child arrived safely, albeit months after she said she would.

  I let go of some of the anger and resentment. My time in the Ruins taught me the importance of family, even a flawed one. When Eddie wraps me in his arms, I don’t stiffen the way I normally would, but allow him to hold me, even if I don’t return the embrace. I’m willing to let go of some of my anger, but I’ll keep plenty in reserve for future use. You never know when a heavy dose of parental guilt will come in handy.

  “I’m so glad you’re here, Evan.” He steps back and eyes me at arms’ length. My father’s wavy cinnamon-colored hair reaches his shoulders now. He pulls me in for another hug, but doesn’t ask where I’ve been. Maybe he believes the texts Lisa sent about us going sailing, or perhaps he doesn’t think he has the right to ask after being absent most of my life.

  When he releases me, my little brother peeks out from behind his fa
ther.

  “Hello, you must be Liam.”

  He blinks at me a few times. “Wanna see my new boxcar?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  I step into the foyer, paved with terracotta tiles polished to a shine. My flip-flops slap across them as I follow Liam into the back of the apartment. It opens into a great room with floor-to-ceiling windows that flood the room in warm, natural, late afternoon light and provide a view of a lush, private garden. Liam leads me over to his trains, pulling out and naming each car for me before setting them on the tracks.

  Quinn plops down next to me on the floor where I’m sitting with my back against the lime green couch. She thrusts her tablet at me. “Wead to me, Eban.”

  I recognize Night Night Lights from when Katie and Rachel were little. Quinn lies on the white shag throw rug on the floor beside me, chin propped up on her little hands, as I begin reading.

  Eddie enters, handing me a steaming mug of coffee.

  I meet his gaze and give him a small smile. “Thank you.”

  He nods in response but I catch the light reflecting off the tears in his eyes. Perhaps I can give him a serious second chance. Maybe it took having two new children to make him realize what he missed out on with me, but I’ve changed, too. I’m no longer the unsure, bitter teen who left the Eastern Province. He’ll never be able to make up for all the years he abandoned me, but we might be able to start fresh.

  Sitting next to my half siblings, it occurs to me that Quinn and Liam are the future of the Union. I can’t sacrifice the Union to save the Ruins any more than I could allow the slaughter of the innocent people in the Ruins to save the Union.

  I look at these two little people, one with my hair, the other with eyes like mine, and I know I’ll do whatever’s necessary to protect them.

  It is my destiny, and I embrace it with everything I am.