Sylo

by D. J. MacHale

  My clothes were gone. So were my cross-trainers. It struck me as a pretty effective security trick—taking the clothes from prisoners at night so they don’t have anything to wear in case they decide to jump the wall at midnight. It made me wonder what Kent’s escape plan was and if we were going to go at night. I couldn’t imagine going anywhere wearing old-man white boxers and flip-flops.

  I stretched out on the cot, let the squeaky springs settle, and stared up at the tent’s ceiling. I was exhausted in every way imaginable. There was no telling what the next day would bring. I had to rest and be ready. I hoped for a long night of sleep with no nightmares because I sure couldn’t stop them when I was awake. Sleep would be the only thing to stop me from seeing the image of my mother on the far side of that fence, not helping me. That would stay with me for a long time, maybe as long as the sight of Quinn about to jump from that boat…and disappearing in a lethal flash of light.

  “No worries, my friend,” I whispered aloud. “Somebody’s gonna pay for that.”

  I didn’t care who heard me.

  By the time the lights went out, I was long gone.

  The next time I opened my eyes, it was to the sound of another horn. It was the wake-up alarm. I opened one eye to see that all of my bunkmates were quietly rising and getting dressed.

  True to the soldier’s words, my jeans, shirt, sweatshirt, socks, and underwear were on the locker at the foot of my bed, freshly cleaned and folded. Even my cross-trainers were there and looked as though they had been buffed up a little. It creeped me out that little SYLO elves were scurrying around at night messing with my stuff. I dressed quickly and followed the others out, headed for the food tent. The breakfast experience was pretty much a duplicate of dinner, only with scrambled eggs, bacon, wheat toast with jelly, and juice.

  Tori sat in the same spot. I tried to get a seat across from her but there were too many ladies crammed in. All I could do was walk by and give her a little smile. She winked. I took that to mean that she was doing okay.

  I found a seat not far from Kent but we didn’t speak. When breakfast ended, he made a motion with his head as if I should follow him. The whole group was let back out into the recreation yard, where everyone quickly went about their business of doing nothing. I walked to the far end of the fairway and up to the fence where I had confronted my mother. I’m not sure why. Maybe I was hoping that she had come back to see me.

  She hadn’t.

  I scanned the compound to see that every so often a SYLO soldier would approach one of the inmates and lead them into a hut. I had to believe that everyone went through random interrogations the same as me, which was probably why nobody spoke to anybody else. If they had any secrets, Granger would do his best to get it out of them.

  “It’s why we’re all here,” Kent said. He had walked up behind me without my realizing it. “They’re afraid of us.”

  “Of us?” I repeated, incredulous.

  “They’re afraid of what we know.”

  “I don’t know anything,” I argued.

  “They don’t know that,” Kent said. “And who knows what anybody else knows?”

  “That makes no sense,” I said.

  “C’mon,” Kent said and took out the Wiffle ball. “Let’s just have a catch.”

  “Is this allowed?” I asked. “I mean, nobody else is—”

  “So let’s give ’em something to think about,” he said. Kent was back to being the cocky son of privileged parents. For once, I didn’t mind.

  He tossed me the loaded ball, and I tossed it back. It was about as innocent a scene as you could imagine. At least that’s what I hoped. I also hoped that the guards didn’t notice the odd wobble of the loaded ball.

  “There’s something about to happen,” Kent said. “Something big and they’re afraid somebody might scuttle it. That’s why we’re here. We’re the suspects. They’re looking for somebody to rat on somebody else and smoke the troublemakers out.”

  “I heard them call it an event,” I said, showing Kent that I wasn’t totally in the dark about what was happening. “Do you know what it is?”

  Kent shook his head. “And I haven’t met anybody else who does either, but that doesn’t stop SYLO from asking.”

  “How did you get the, uh, the…?” I held up the Wiffle ball. I didn’t want to use the word Ruby in case we were being listened to.

  Kent smiled. “Sorry, Rook. I’ve gotta watch my own ass. Until we get outta here, you’re on a need-to-know basis.”

  I tossed the ball a few more times while letting his words sink in, then said, “Sounds to me like you might be one of those people who have information they’d like to know about.”

  Kent’s answer was to smile. He tossed the ball back and said, “We go tonight.”

  He walked passed me but I grabbed his arm and said, “Tori’s coming with us.”

  He pulled away quickly. “No chance.”

  “Then I’m out,” I said and tossed the ball back to him.

  Kent looked at the Wiffle ball, weighing his options.

  “I can do this without you,” he said.

  “Then do it,” I replied. “But I don’t think you will or you wouldn’t have asked me in the first place.”

  I’d seen Kent angry before. He wasn’t good at hiding his emotions and just then he was clenching his jaw. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he flipped me off, or took a swing at me. Instead, he lobbed the ball back.

  “Okay, Rook,” he said. “But she’s your responsibility.”

  “So what’s the plan?” I asked.

  “The plan is for you to shut up and wait for me to get you,” he said with a snarl.

  He really was angry. I guess he didn’t like it when “the help” bit back.

  “What barracks are you in?” he asked.

  “First one beyond the gate.”

  “Keep your clothes on,” he said and walked off.

  I watched him for a few seconds and was about to turn away when a SYLO soldier came up and grabbed him by the arm. Kent pulled away angrily, but then gave in and walked toward the row of huts. It was his turn to be interrogated. Was it because the two of us had been talking?

  Before he went into the hut, Kent threw me a quick “See? I told you” look and stepped inside.

  I was glad to be the one holding the loaded Wiffle ball.

  The rest of the day was spent swinging between boredom and total stress. I wasn’t pulled into a hut again, but I was nervous about what Granger might have gotten out of Kent. Was the plan still on? I had no way of knowing because I didn’t see Kent for the rest of the day.

  The Wiffle ball o’ Ruby felt as though it weighed fifty pounds in my pocket. Whatever Kent’s plan was, I felt certain that it involved us taking the stuff. With the Ruby doing its work, we would have an advantage over anybody who tried to stop us—so long as we didn’t get shot. But the idea of putting myself under its influence again was terrifying, and not just because it was dangerous. I wasn’t worried about overdosing. I knew how much I’d taken from Feit and would make sure I didn’t take any more than that. I was more worried about losing control.

  Though it had given me incredible strength and impossible speed, the experience was just that—incredible and impossible. There was nothing right about doing that to your body. It was frightening, yet strangely exciting. I didn’t want to do it again, but to be honest, in some perverse way I was also looking forward to it. I wanted the feeling again and that scared me even more than the physical danger.

  There was yet another wild card in the mix. Where did the Ruby come from? I was pretty sure that SYLO had brought it to Pemberwick based on the wreckage on the bluffs and the fact that they had total control of the island. But why? Were we all being used in some massive, sinister experiment by the government? Was that the deal? Were we just guinea pigs?

  I wouldn’t have considered taking it again if I hadn’t been driven by a load of other factors. I was angry over so many things: Quinn’s death and t
he betrayal by my parents, to name just two. The new reality of my life was that there was nothing for me on Pemberwick anymore.

  Nighttime couldn’t come fast enough.

  At the end of the day, I lay on my cot, fully dressed, doing my best to pretend as though I was reading The Catcher in the Rye. I watched the various prisoners file in, take showers, or just hit their cots. I didn’t know any of them from Pemberwick Island. They had to have been summer people who had been unlucky enough to be stuck on the island when it all hit the fan…or spies planted by SYLO. Was everyone there as innocent as I was? Or did some of them have a connection to the “event”? I had no hope of finding out because if all went according to plan, I’d be out of there that night and never have to see any of them again.

  The lights went out at nine o’clock, and the barracks went dark. Soon the sounds of snoring filled the tent, but I was nowhere near sleep.

  An hour went by. Two hours and then the door to the barracks slowly creaked open. I lifted one eyelid, hoping to see Kent but instead I saw a team of white-jacket-clad SYLO workers enter quickly and pick up the dirty laundry at the foot of the cots. One worker stopped by me and for a second and I feared he might wake me up and ask for my clothes. I hoped that pretending to be so deep in sleep that I couldn’t be roused would work, but I didn’t have to worry. The guy moved on and soon the team left with their bundles.

  Another hour went by. And another. I was beginning to worry that maybe Kent’s latest interrogation had broken him and the escape was off.

  Finally, I felt a slight tapping on my shoulder. I was so surprised that I nearly screamed. I must have dozed off because I hadn’t heard the door open. Kent put his hand over my mouth to stifle any sound, then left me and padded for the door. I slipped on my shoes and followed quickly.

  The compound was lit by a series of lights on poles that reached up from outside the fences, but the place was not evenly bright like daytime. Only so much light could be thrown by temporary lamps and there were shadows everywhere. Kent was waiting for me in the shadow just beyond the door of our barracks.

  “You got it?” he whispered.

  I held up the Wiffle ball.

  “The Porta-potty,” he said. “Go inside and crush it with your foot. The seam is already scored. It should come apart easily. If anybody hears you, just tell them you had to take a leak.”

  “Why don’t you do it?” I asked.

  Kent frowned and shook his head. “I’m already on their radar. If they catch me in there, they’ll know something is up.”

  I was too nervous to hang around and debate so I hurried to the portable bathroom and stepped inside. These toilets were all over the compound because it wasn’t like they had time to bury sewer lines. Each had a white SYLO logo stenciled on the door, proving once again that the occupation had been thoroughly planned.

  Once I went inside and closed the door, it was pitch black. And it smelled bad, no big surprise. I took the Wiffle ball out of my pocket, placed it on the floor, then lifted my right foot and brought it down hard in the general vicinity of where I thought the ball was.

  I crushed it on the first shot, but the sound rang like a gunshot in that tiny plastic room. I debated about whether I should wait and see if somebody might come to investigate or to just take off. I took off. If somebody came looking, they’d find an empty potty.

  I ran back to where Kent was waiting and handed him the two halves of the plastic ball. He grabbed the half with the Ruby and dug at it with his fingers.

  “It was glued in here,” he whispered. “They dropped Elmer’s down through the holes, then sprinkled in the goods.”

  “Who’s ‘they’?” I asked.

  Kent smiled. “Let’s hope you get the chance to find out.”

  He scratched out what amounted to a palm-full of the red crystals—about twice as much as I’d taken from Feit.

  “Give me your hand,” he instructed.

  I held out my palm and he sprinkled half of the strange mineral into it.

  This was it. The moment I never thought I would face again.

  “You gotta tell me what the plan is,” I whispered. “Or I’m not taking this.”

  “It’s simple,” Kent said. “They’ve got ambulances leaving from the clubhouse all the time. Day and night. I think that’s how they bring in the prisoners. We’ll make our way over there and—”

  “How? The gates are all locked between here and there.”

  Kent held up his handful of crystals. “That’s where this comes in. This isn’t Alcatraz. They put this place up in, like, a minute. Those locks aren’t any stronger than something you’d get at a hardware store. With this in our system, we can tear right through them. Or climb over. There’s no razor wire on the interior fences, only around the perimeter. They don’t have cameras here either. If we can avoid the guards, we can make it.”

  “And then what?”

  “We stow away aboard one of the ambulances.”

  “What if there’s somebody in back, like a soldier?” I asked.

  “I hope there is,” Kent replied. “I’d love to kick somebody’s ass.”

  “Kent, that’s, like, a really lame plan.”

  “It isn’t,” he argued. “Not with the power the Ruby gives us.”

  I was hoping for something a little more clever or ironclad than Kent’s crude plan, but I wasn’t about to back out.

  “I’ve got to find Tori first,” I said.

  “That’s a mistake,” he said quickly. “The longer we’re running around out here, the better chance we’ll have of getting caught.”

  “Too bad,” I said. “She’s coming or I’m staying.”

  Kent clenched his jaw. “All right, but we’ll go to the clubhouse first. I’ll wait for you but if I get the chance to jump an ambulance, I’m going alone.”

  “Understood,” I said.

  The two of us looked to each other. There was no more putting it off.

  “I’m trusting you, Kent,” I said.

  “And I’m trusting you.”

  With that, he lifted his hand and licked off the Ruby.

  “Now you,” he said.

  I stared at the pretty red crystals. They looked so innocent. I thought of the rush of adrenalin I had gotten when I had taken it before. Adrenalin and power. I lifted my hand.

  The last thought I had before licking it clean was the sight of two graves by the seaside that held the remains of two dead horses.

  TWENTY

  The effect from the Ruby was instant and dramatic.

  As before, it felt like an electric charge had fired up every nerve in my body. Any trace of fatigue was wiped away. My head cleared. In a word, I felt powerful. There was a moment of fear as I remembered the dangers of what it was doing to my body, but it didn’t last. I felt as though I could see better, hear better, and leap over any fence that stood in my way.

  “I am so ready,” I said to Kent.

  “After you,” he replied with a sly smile.

  I scanned the area, looking for any SYLO guards. I was surprised to see that none were around. Did they really believe that once everybody went to sleep in their underwear, nobody would try to escape? That was fine by me. I took off sprinting for the gate that led to the seventh fairway and the women’s section of the compound. The distance was maybe fifty yards but I was there in an instant. Anyone running that fast would have to appear as a streaking shadow to a guard who happened to be looking. My confidence soared.

  The Ruby was doing its job.

  The gate was locked, no big surprise, but Kent was right. It wasn’t exactly a formidable device. It would have stood up to a normal person trying to break through, but at that moment I wasn’t a normal person. I laced the fingers of my right hand through the lattice of the door and pressed my left hand against the frame. I knew I could break it open because I had to break it open. I gritted my teeth, gripped the fence, and pulled.

  The lock snapped and the door opened as easily as if it were a fli
msy latch on a dollhouse. The metal lattice of the door was bent and twisted by the sheer force of my grip. I had a feeling of complete dominance. I couldn’t wait to use it again. I was ready to tear down an entire section of fence, if need be.

  I turned back to see Kent running up behind me.

  “Don’t stop now,” he whispered, breathless.

  I ran through the gate, confident that Kent would close it to cover our tracks. I sprinted the distance of the corridor, sure that my fleeting shadow wouldn’t be seen, until I reached a gate on the far side. Tearing this open was as easy as opening the first. We had arrived at the driving range, beyond which was the clubhouse where I had been repeatedly Q-tipped. An ambulance was parked in front.

  Kent caught up and closed the gate behind us. Without a word we both sprinted for the safety of the shadows behind a row of Porta-potties. My confidence was high. I felt invincible. It took a load of willpower to stay calm, both physically and mentally. All it would take was being spotted by a SYLO guard and we’d be done. No amount of the Ruby would protect us from a bullet.

  “You still want to go after Sleeper?” Kent whispered.

  I nodded.

  Kent frowned, then peered around the corner—and quickly pulled back. He held a single finger to his lips. There was no need to explain. Somebody was out there. He held his hand up as if to say, “Don’t move.”

  I heard the door of the Porta-potty squeak open. Whoever was out there had come to take a leak. All we had to do was wait him out, but that was easier said than done. The Ruby was surging through my body, demanding that I move. It felt like a bomb had gone off inside of me and the only way I could release the pressure was to do something physical.

  I heard the splash of the guy peeing and hoped that was all he had to do. If he had gone in there with a magazine, I’d have to scream. I looked at Kent to see how he was holding up. He was doing better than me. He held both hands out as if to say, “Stay calm.” I clenched my fists, hoping that pumping them would help relieve the pent-up energy.