Grayson stared at the knife in Hayes’s hand. “Hopefully, no one will have to use it.”
We walked slowly toward the weed-covered ruins. Grayson peeked into the window as we drew closer and shook his head.
“There’s nothing in there but more weeds,” he said. “No one will need to stab anything today.”
“It’s still too early in the day to say that,” I said.
Hayes and I exchanged an awkward look before he handed the knife back to me. I tucked it back into my backpack, wishing I had a better place to store it. Even if it was dull, it could still slice through my skin… or the bag.
“I still can’t believe you weren’t going to tell me you were going to leave the city,” Hayes said. He lowered his voice. “I guess now I knew why that night between us happened. It was your way of saying good bye.”
My eyebrows squeezed together. I was angry but he wasn’t wrong. “That night happened because we wanted it to.” I took five more steps before turning to face him. “Look, I don’t know what you want me to do or say. You’re free to go back. I didn’t make you come out here after me.”
“You’re right. There isn’t anything you can say,” Hayes said.
“I don’t want you to be mad at me,” I said. “I didn’t plan for things to be like this. We’re out here now and we’re going to have to work together if we plan to survive.”
Hayes sighed. “I’m not mad at you. I just wish I could understand. Didn’t I mean more to you than that?”
“You’re the only one I really cared about in there,” I said throwing my hand behind me toward the wall so sharply I nearly pulled a muscle in my shoulder.
“Then why wouldn’t you tell me about all this?” Hayes demanded.
“Like I said, I was protecting you from my father,” I said harshly. I swallowed hard and averted my gaze. “And I didn’t think you’d understand.”
Hayes took a step back as if I’d hit him. He didn’t have to admit it… I knew that I’d been right.
“You would have tried to talk me out of it,” I explained even though I should have kept my mouth shut. “And this is just something I needed to do. They would have gone looking for me if the situation was reversed. My brother just put everything in motion sooner than I had planned.”
I exhaled and my shoulders relaxed. My eyes glossed over before they softened.
“You’re not going to forgive me, are you?” I asked. “I can’t say I blame you.”
“Of course, I will and I already have. I just wish I could understand it better,” Hayes said before sucking in a frustrated breath. “We’re here with you. We’ll help you find them but how do you even know where to go?” He swallowed before looking into my eyes. “Or if they’re even still alive?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. But they could be and I at least need to try to find them.”
“I remember from our schooling that our world is big,” Grayson said. “And we were in the smack dab in the middle of it.”
I nodded. “We’re traveling east now, at least I think we are.”
“How can you be sure, though?” Hayes asked.
“I’m not sure but based on where the sun is in the sky, I think I’m right,” I said covering my eyes to shield them from the light as I looked around. The brightness of the world outside the wall was going to take some getting used to.
“Still there’s lots of ground to cover,” Grayson said.
We ducked under a hanging twig and into the ruins. “I know but I’ve got the rest of my life to do it.”
The zipper of my backpack was noisy in the silence of the small building. Grayson and Hayes both stared at me, waiting for a bite to eat. Their extreme hunger practically dripped from their eyes.
I handed them each a bar that Hayes had made for dessert a few nights ago. “We might have to figure out that fishing thing sooner rather than later. I didn’t pack for three hungry bellies.”
“Sorry,” Grayson said taking a large bite. He didn’t look sorry.
“I’m sure I can find things we can eat along the way,” Hayes said. “Everything we grew inside the city must have come from out here, right? Plants, nuts, berries… it might not be filling but we can forage for enough.”
“What about water?” Grayson asked.
Hayes nodded. “I’m sure we can find water. But we’ll have to boil it first just like the city does with all the water they collect from the rain and wells. Same thing, just on a much smaller scale. If only I would have brought my pot.”
“I have one,” I said patting my backpack. “But it’s small.”
“Guess you thought of everything, didn’t you?” Hayes said.
I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t think I’d have company.”
“Okay,” Grayson said loudly stopping the argument before it could start.
Hayes was still troubled by the events that had led to me leaving the city. It wasn’t something he was going to understand or get over because my leaving would have hurt him and it seemed as though I was going to do it without giving it a second thought.
There was no way I’d ever put him in harm’s way. Now that he was out here with me, I was going to have to work hard to make sure he was protected. Although I had no idea how I was going to manage to do that.
We sat there in near silence. Grayson was starting at the walls studying the brick behind the twirling vines.
Hayes was taking small bites as if making the food last longer would somehow make it more filling. He stood abruptly but then froze like a statue.
Hayes slowly reached down into my backpack and took out the knife. I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing but he quickly placed his shaking index finger over his lips.
Then I heard it. I knew why he was holding the knife out in front of him.
Something was outside.
Chapter Three
I took soft, deliberate steps toward the window. My feet moved silently, a skill I’d taught myself years ago when I’d lived with my father.
Sneaking around the house was something I’d done on a nearly daily basis. There were times I’d come in after his strict curfew or other times when I wanted to hear what he was discussing with other city officials.
Not once had anyone heard me or if they had, they hadn’t said anything.
When I got to the opening, I saw the large beast outside of the window. It was on all fours sniffing at the ground.
There was no doubt in my mind that it was one of the beasts we’d learned about in school. One of the many reasons the wall had been built in the first place.
The disease from a bite could kill in minutes to days, depending on the severity of the wound. Poison entered the bloodstream working its way through the body. If there had been a cure, it had been lost over the years.
Then again, for all I knew, the stories could have all been made up to keep us inside. The beast didn’t look all that scary other than its size. It could have easily knocked me to the ground and there wouldn’t be much I’d be able to do about it.
I watched it as it moved around the area, sniffing and sniffing as it came closer to the building. It looked up sharply as if it had heard something we didn’t. The three of us were still frozen in place.
I looked into the beast’s cold, empty black eyes, watching as a string of drool fell from its bottom lip. A loud howl in the distance cut through the silence like a razor blade.
The beast turned toward the sound with more alertness. It hesitated for less than a second before running toward the sound, kicking up tiny pebbles that pelted the outside wall of the stone structure. In seconds the beast was out of sight but I still couldn’t draw in a full breath.
“That thing was huge,” Hayes said stepping away from the opening that had once been a doorway. “I don’t think I could have stopped it.”
Grayson nodded. “Those were the things they told us about in school. Guess they’re real after all.”
“It didn’t look like it was having trouble find
ing food based on its size,” I said. If the beast was able to find food, that meant we would also be able to find food.
“If it would have found us, we’d be dead,” Hayes said turning his head slowly until his eyes rested on mine. “We’d be its food.”
I shook my head. “We don’t know that.”
“This,” he said holding up the knife, “wouldn’t stop it.”
“Maybe it doesn’t even want to kill us,” I suggested.
“Don’t even,” Hayes said with warning flashing in his eyes. He took a step closer. “You cannot let your guard down at all. Not even for a second. Those things aren’t friendly. They’re monsters. To it, we’re food. Don’t forget that.”
I knew that he was right. And it wasn’t just the beast either. There could have been a lot of things roaming about that only would see us as food.
“There probably isn’t anyone out here,” Hayes said looking back out the doorway. “Those things probably eat anything and everything they can find.”
“But we don’t know that. We don’t know what it eats,” I said.
“We can probably still go back to the city,” Hayes said. Fear twitched at the corner of his eye.
My mouth dropped nearly to my knees. “What?”
“Just consider it,” Hayes said. “If there isn’t anything out here—”
“We’ve barely left the city and you’re declaring the world is empty?” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other before jerking my arm out and pointing back toward the wall. “You should go back.”
Hayes’s shoulders dropped. “I’m not going back without you.”
“If you’re going to stay out here with me, you need to never suggest going back again. I don’t want to go back. I never want to go back. To me, it’s just not an option,” I said my voice fading as I watched the muscles in his body shrink.
“Never?” Hayes asked.
I swallowed down the lump rising up the back of my throat. “I don’t like it in there.”
“You don’t like it in there because your friends aren’t in there,” Hayes said. “If we do find them, we can bring them back, and things can go back to normal.”
“Things will never go back to normal,” I said. “My father will never change the ways of our city. And my brother, when he takes over, he’ll make sure it’s even worse.”
“All the more reason to go back when we find them,” Hayes said.
Grayson nodded. “We can make changes. Hell, if we do find your friends, we can tell everyone that there is life out here. That could be huge to the people on level one.”
I considered his words. It was possible that maybe we could make changes in the city but first, we’d have to find proof that there was life outside of the city. Not only people out here but people living and thriving. We’d have to be able to show those on level one that they’d have a choice.
“At least think about it,” Hayes said.
“Okay,” I said. “But for now, let’s not talk about going back. If we don’t find anything, then our future is out here anyway. We’ll be the first to survive outside the wall. It won’t happen right away but we can be the proof.”
“The three of us?” Grayson asked.
I shrugged. “Guess so. Let’s get back to walking. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
“Okay,” Grayson said bending over and picking something up off of the ground.
As we walked back out into the jungle, I looked at his hands. “What did you find in there?”
“Just some stones,” he said opening his hand so that I could see them. “I think if I can sharpen them, maybe we’ll be able to make some kind of weapon or something. That blade isn’t going to be enough to protect us.”
I nodded and smiled at him. “Good idea.”
“Thanks,” he said smiling back.
We hadn’t walked for long before Hayes ran off stopping at the base of a nearby tree. “Hey, guys! Check this out.”
Grayson and I jogged over to him and looked down to see what he’d found. All I noticed was the green moss crawling up the cracked, damp tree trunk.
Hayes sliced something at the base with the knife and held it up. I blinked several times at the odd shaped thing he was holding. He was beaming.
“What is that?” I asked scrunching up my nose.
“A mushroom. It’s different from the ones we grew in the city but there was no doubt in my mind that’s what it is,” Hayes said.
Grayson took a step back as if he were afraid of the fungus. “I didn’t like them inside the city and I’m definitely not going to like them out here. How do you even know that is safe to eat?”
“I learned a little about mushrooms from our books,” Hayes said popping a piece of firm, brown and white fungus into his mouth. He closed his eyes as he thoroughly enjoyed the flavor. “Mmm.”
Hayes held out a small piece in my direction and I pressed my lips together before taking it from him. It was like I could already taste it. I popped the piece of mushroom into my mouth and chew it, letting its rich, savory, and earthy flavor coat my tongue.
“It was lovely but that’s not going to fill me up,” I said.
“They’re rich in vitamins and minerals. Might not be the most filling but they’ll help keep us healthy,” Hayes said holding out a piece to Grayson. “Come on. Don’t be afraid.”
Grayson held up his hand, looking at the mushroom like he was about to throw up. “I’m afraid. It’s probably poisonous.”
“Then you want to be out here alone?” I asked.
Grayson eyed me. “Better than eating that thing.”
“It’s not poisonous,” Hayes said. “It doesn’t have white gills, it’s not red or any of the other things my father and our books told me to look out for.”
“Your father never saw mushrooms like these,” Grayson retorted. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just don’t like them.”
Hayes broke the mushroom in half, keeping a piece for himself and giving me the other portion. “There are probably going to be a lot of things out here that aren’t the best tasting but you can’t let that stop you. This mushroom might be the one thing that keeps us alive.”
“Hopefully, you can find other things that are much less gross,” Grayson said with a wrinkled nose.
Hayes shook his head as he trimmed away more of the mushroom, leaving some of it behind. He tucked the pieces away in the front pocket of my backpack.
“He’ll change his mind if he gets hungry enough,” Hayes whispered to me as we started to walk away from the tree. “He’s wrong though, they’re delicious. Didn’t you think so?”
“It tasted like a mushroom,” I said still tasting the earthiness at the back of my mouth.
“But a really good mushroom, right?”
I smiled at his enthusiasm toward the mushroom as I picked up my pace. Even though I wasn’t sure where I was going, I knew that I wanted to get there faster.
We hadn’t gone much further before we saw a tall fence that had mostly been hidden inside a row of trees. There were beams of wood stacked side by side, only a few inches higher than Hayes was tall.
Hayes and Grayson followed me as I inched closer. I touched the rough wood, pulling my hand back before I got a splinter.
I leaned in close, trying to peer between the slats but I couldn’t see anything with how tightly together they were fitted. But I could hear something. Someone or something was inside.
Chapter Four
We walked around the perimeter, keeping our steps soft. If those inside could hear us, they didn’t confront us.
“Maybe we should leave,” Hayes said nervously.
“I just want to see inside,” I said stopping abruptly. My eyes darted back and forth between Hayes and Grayson. “I have an idea.”
Hayes cocked his head to the side. “Oh, oh. I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”
“We can’t assume everything out here is dangerous or we’ll never find them… find anything,” I sa
id flicking my eyes to the top of the fence. “Give me a boost.”
Hayes narrowed his eyes as he placed his thumb to his lip. He was considering the idea but it had taken him too long. Before he could decide what to do, Grayson was bending his knee and gesturing for me to use it as a step.
I placed my foot on his knee, looking at him to make sure my weight wasn’t too much for him. He held steady and nodded for me to proceed.
I pressed my hands to the rough wood for balance. It felt like a little pin stabbing into my skin as the bits of wood pricked my palms.
“What do you see?” Grayson asked his voice much lower than usual.
“People,” I said as I looked around the little camp.
There were at least twenty people walking around doing all sorts of different things. A group of women were doing something in a garden while another woman walked into a building that was surrounded by a copious amount of fenced in chickens.
“It looks like a farm,” I said glancing down at them.
There was only one man that I could see among them. He was sitting in a chair with his legs propped up on a wooden box. The man was slouched back and he sighed as he sipped clear liquid from a cup.
Someone cleared their throat and Grayson shook so hard it caused me to lose my balance. Hayes managed to catch me before I fell to the ground.
There was a stinging in my palm but I quickly forgot about it when my eyes met the pale blues staring back at me.
“What are you doing here?” the woman said. It almost seemed as if she knew who I was but that wasn’t possible.
“We’re sorry we were just wondering what this place is,” I said as I straightened my clothes.
“Are we in trouble? What’s he going to do to us?” she asked.
I looked at Hayes and Grayson but they were both wearing the same confused expression. “What is who going to do to you?”
“The president,” the woman I’d never seen before said.
“Do we know you?” I asked.
She shook her head. The woman took off a hat that looked like it had been woven together with dead weeds. She looked far younger than I had originally thought. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen.
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