by L. E. DeLano
“We’re less likely to screw up the story if we’re all on the same page,” Ben agrees reluctantly.
We all look over our shoulders because Ben had to raise his voice in order to say that. There’s a steady roar behind us, and as I turn to look, I’m startled to see that the marina parking lot is full of convoy trucks and soldiers, lots of soldiers. They’re all geared up, and I stare wide-eyed as a tank rumbles down the road.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask.
Ben smacks his head. “Oh yeah! I forgot. It’s the third Thursday of the month. Recruitment day.”
“Recruitment day?” I look at him like he’s crazy. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“The new quotas,” he reminds me. “We got the papers in the mail last week. They even held that special assembly at school about it, remember?”
“Ben, I have never seen these soldiers before in my life,” I tell him.
Finn shakes his head slowly in disbelief. “I’ve seen them,” he says. “And it’s best if they don’t see me.”
31
Law & Order
“What’s going on?” I ask with mounting dread. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” Finn answers, “but I’ve seen them before.” He pulls me around behind the ship’s wheelhouse, and I reach out and pull Ben in beside me.
“You’ve both seen these soldiers?” I ask.
“Not those particular soldiers, but that army,” Finn says grimly. “The New Republic of Canada. Only they weren’t here.”
The cold feeling in the pit of my stomach has now spread to all my extremities, freezing the breath in my lungs and stopping my heart for a beat.
Finn turns to look at Ben. “How much of this morning do you remember?” he asks him.
“All of it,” Ben answers. “Eversor, the boat, the announcements on TV about the annexation…”
I’m afraid to ask. “The annexation?”
“We’re part of the New Republic of Canada now, remember?” Ben says. “We had to fill out all those forms to register in school last week. And I saw the army coming into town last night on the drive home. Am I the only one who remembers this?”
“Hate to break it to you, mate, but … yes,” Finn says. “You’re the only one who remembers because the army wasn’t part of this reality yesterday.”
“Splintering,” I say, holding my hand to my mouth as if I can keep the word from being real. “She’s started the convergence.”
“Doubtful.” Finn pats himself. “I’m still here.”
“How is Ben remembering things from a week ago that we don’t know?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Ben says. “How do you explain that?”
“It appears that the lines between realities are getting fuzzy. He’s got a merged memory. A new reality with both histories incorporated into it. Our abilities must enable us to see the differences in the reality streams.”
“I need to get home,” I say, peering around the corner. “How do we get through them to the car?”
“They’re not going to do anything, St. Clair,” Ben says. “We’re both under eighteen. We’re not required service until after we graduate.”
“Wouldn’t the same hold for you over here?” I ask Finn.
“I wouldn’t chance it,” he says. “Besides, I’m eighteen now. And I’m not in school here until next semester.”
“Then let me and Ben get the car and you head down the dock to the far end.” I point off down the pier. “There’s a service road that way that goes out to the highway. I’ll meet you there.”
“I don’t know, St. Clair,” Ben says, looking apprehensive. “If they catch you helping a runner…”
“I’m going to get my car,” I tell him. “And you keep your mouth shut if they ask you about Finn.”
Ben gives me a look but he does what I ask.
“You stay low and don’t let them see you,” I say to Finn. He gives me an encouraging nod.
“Not to worry,” he says. “I’ve evaded them before. I’ll see you in a moment.”
He slinks off along the gangplank and disappears down the dock, moving fast. I motion to Ben with my hand and together we start walking toward the parking lot.
“Halt!” a soldier calls out as we near them.
Ben throws his hands up and I put my left hand in the air, but the right is still holding the mirrors.
“Put the box down!” the soldier shouts, and two more men run over to back him up. One of them lets out a shrill whistle, and a moment later, a woman in camouflage with command insignia steps out of a nearby armored vehicle and walks over to us.
“State your names and business,” she warns Ben and me, and we look at each other in panic.
“I’m Jessa—St. Clair.”
“Ben Hastings.”
“What are you doing here?” she snaps. “And what’s in the box?”
“It’s got m-mirrors,” I stammer. “Aztec mirrors from the museum. We got them on loan.”
“The paperwork is all in there,” Ben says.
“And what were you doing here at the marina?” the commander asks.
“I wanted to see the sunset on the water,” I improvise with an embarrassed laugh. “But we didn’t realize how cold it was down by the water.”
“We’re freezing,” Ben says, playing into it. “We were just fixing to head home.”
The soldier snaps her fingers at one of the men, and he moves forward, kicking the box away from me. He nudges the lid open with his gun, then squats down, pulling out the papers.
“I don’t see any mirrors,” he says. “Just some rocks.”
“They’re obsidian,” Ben says. “The Aztecs used polished obsidian since they didn’t have reflective metals.”
“That so?” the commander says. She looks at the soldier again. “The paperwork?”
“It’s reading legit,” he says. “Ben Hastings has these objects on loan for six months.”
“It’s for a school project,” I tell her. I force myself not to look over to where Finn might be. “It’s really cold out here,” I say, and I don’t have to fake my chattering teeth. “Can we please go?”
“What school?” she asks.
“Ardenville,” Ben answers her. “We’re seniors.”
“So you’ll be joining the citizen-soldier brigade after school,” she says. “Did you get the information pamphlet?”
Ben nods. “They handed them out last week in school. We both signed up.”
“Good. We need every hand we can get to keep our towns safe.” She gestures down to the box. “Now grab your stuff and go home. We’re using this lot as a staging and transport area for the next six hours—it’s off-limits to civilians.”
“We understand,” I say, scooping up the box. “Sorry we trespassed.”
“It was an accident,” Ben echoes.
“Once you’re sworn in to the citizen-soldiers, being in an unauthorized area will go very badly for you,” the commander warns.
“We won’t do it again,” I promise her. “Thank you.”
“See that it doesn’t,” she calls after us as we walk toward my car at the opposite end of the lot.
Ben climbs into the passenger seat and we slowly pull out, waving at the soldiers as we go. I get onto the highway, carefully keeping my speed under the limit as more armored vehicles pass us on their way to the parking lot. A half mile down the road, I see the junction for the service road, and I slow the car and pull over.
Finn darts out from behind a tree and jumps into the backseat.
“Go!” he says urgently.
I pull out carefully, staying at the speed limit the whole way home. There are soldiers everywhere through town, some just milling around, some knocking on doors. I can’t believe this is happening. What does it mean?
I barely get the car in the driveway when Danny runs out the door.
“Jessa! Did you see the tanks! And the trucks?”
I look at him in confusion a
s we all walk into the house. “You guys are back from Albany already?” I ask him.
“Albany?” Mom looks up from the kitchen table, where she’s cutting a huge pile of coupons and sliding them into transparent sheet holders in a very full binder. My mom never uses coupons. Ever. “We didn’t go to Albany today. We ran to Bagley’s for some lunch—”
I raise my brows. “Bagley’s?”
“Coffee shop?” Ben supplies. “We go there all the time?”
“Mom—” I reach out and grab her shoulder. “Have the soldiers been here?”
“The soldiers?” She smiles and shakes her head. “Not yet, but, honey, it’s not a big deal. You’re still underage, and I have Danny’s disability paperwork. They’re just collecting information, that’s all.”
I let out a sigh of relief.
“Jessa, what’s wrong?” she asks, looking me up and down. “Have you been crying?”
I glance at both Finn and Ben, and I need a moment to pull myself together before I get into this and we call the police.
“I need to hit the bathroom,” I lie. “Then I’ll tell you about the day we’ve had.”
She raises her eyebrows and looks pointedly at Finn and Ben. “O … kay,” I hear her say warily as I close the bathroom door behind me.
I glance at myself in the mirror again and stare at my pale features in the reflection, and to me, it seems written all over my face that I just watched someone die. Again.
Then the reflection changes, and I see her. I recognize the room behind her, the pictures of the dolphins on the wall and the scuba gear in the corner. I realize at once from her face that something is terribly, terribly wrong.
She gives the slightest shake of her head, and her eyes fill with tears.
Help us.
She mouths the words, and a moment later she’s gone.
She’s vanished right before my eyes.
32
Torn
I stare at my own reflection, and I feel a sense of dread deep in my stomach that won’t let go.
Help us, she’d said. Not help me.
Help us.
I press my fingers to the glass, but nothing happens.
Because nothing is there.
“Jessa?” Mom’s voice carries through the door. “Are you okay?”
It takes me a moment to find my voice. “I’m just—I’m not feeling well.” I open the bathroom door, and Finn has moved into the kitchen. He’s looking at me closely—he’s not fooled by my tone of voice at all. I move up next to him.
“We need to talk to Mario. Now,” I say in a low voice. “I guess I’m hitting the NyQuil again.”
“You need NyQuil, honey?”
Mom gets up from the table and moves past me to the bathroom, where she starts rummaging through the medicine cabinet.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” Finn asks quietly. He takes my hand, squeezing it gently. “What did you see?”
“I—I’m not sure.” I turn wide, frightened eyes to his. “She’s gone. The me that swims with dolphins. She’s just … gone.”
“She’s missing?” he asks.
“No.” My head is spinning, and I’m trying to put this feeling into words. “It’s all gone. Her. Her reality. I can’t … I can’t feel it anymore.” I step over to the microwave and put my hand to the glass door, concentrating, seeing her room in my mind’s eye, but nothing happens.
“How does an entire reality disappear?” I whisper. “How?”
“It’s spreading. It is a convergence.” Finn says the word, but I shake my head wildly.
“No. No, that can’t be what happened.” I wrap my fingers around Finn’s hand. “You’re here. You’re still here. If Eversor started the convergence, you’d be gone.”
“Then what the hell is going on?” he asks.
I’m rubbing my chest because I swear I feel the ache of my loss—her loss. “I can’t believe she’s gone.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Finn says. “We need to talk to Mario.”
Mom hands me the bottle of NyQuil, and I’m tossing back a dose when we hear a pounding on the front door.
“Door!” Danny calls out. I push past Ben and Finn to get to the door, and when I open it, I’m met with the sight of soldiers in full camouflage on my front porch.
“Can I help you?” I ask warily.
One of them has a clipboard, and he flips through a stack of papers that are clipped into it until he finds what he’s looking for.
“St. Clair?” the soldier asks.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Your name, please?” the soldier asks, clicking his ballpoint pen.
“Jessa St. Clair.”
“What’s going on? Jessa?” My mom pushes past me to stand in the doorway. She seems just as confused as me.
“Are you Jacqueline St. Clair?” the soldier asks.
“Yes.”
“By order of the guard of the New Republic of Canada, we have orders for Daniel St. Clair and Jessa St. Clair.”
“Orders?” my mother says in alarm. She takes the papers the soldier is pushing at her and reads them, shaking her head.
“Wait—why are you here?” I ask.
“This is a mistake,” Mom says.
The soldier uses his pen to point at the papers in my mother’s hands.
“Jessa St. Clair, age seventeen, is to report for part-time training for the citizen-soldier brigade, Ardenville chapter, beginning Monday. All the details are on her conscription sheet. Daniel is to come with me.”
“Danny isn’t a soldier,” my mom says in disbelief. “This can’t be right.”
“Those are service orders, ma’am,” the soldier says. “Daniel is being collected today for transport to the processing center at Hannacroix Creek.”
“Collected?” I say, looking at my mom, and we’re both confused. And frightened. “What does that mean? What is going on?”
My eyes widen as I look past him and see the first tank, then the second as they rumble down the street. I can feel the vibration under my feet as they go by.
“He’s been reclassified to a WD,” the soldier says, pointing again at the tablet. “Working disabled. Anyone over the age of eighteen classified as WD gets relocated to a work camp after processing. He’ll be assigned productive tasks suited to his abilities. We’re on a tight schedule, so just pack the necessities. You can ship him anything else after his indoctrination period ends at Hannacroix Creek.”
“You’re going to take him away?” my mother asks in confused horror. “Where?”
“His assignment location will be determined during processing. Now, if you’ll get him ready, ma’am, we’ll be leaving in fifteen minutes.”
“Please! He has autism,” I say, reaching out for the soldier’s arm. “You can’t take him away from his family.”
“Autism, Down syndrome, deaf, blind … they all got to work,” he snaps as he slides the clipboard back under his arm. “They’re productive members of society,” he says. “Guidelines for allowable personal items are on the back of the conscription sheet, and directions to the training center in town for Jessa are on the back of her sheet as well.” He gives me a nod. “Fifteen minutes.”
And with that, he and the other two soldiers he was with head down the street to the next house. And the next. I am staring, wide-eyed and openmouthed, in a numb kind of horror as my mother weeps silently next to me.
I feel a hand settle on my shoulder.
“Are they soldiers?”
I don’t even turn to look at him. I don’t think I can.
“Yes, Danny. They’re soldiers.”
“Do you think I can ride in the jeep? Jeeps have a stick shift.”
I can’t answer him. I just put my arms around him and hold him tight. My mother has made her way to the couch, where she’s holding a throw pillow and rocking soundlessly, tears streaming down her face. She doesn’t even notice Finn as he steps into the room and motions me to meet him in the kitche
n. Danny goes to sit with Mom on the couch and she wraps her arms around him, rocking with him now.
“They’re taking him away, Finn,” I say, shaking my head frantically. “They can’t do this! They can’t!”
“They can, and they will, Jessa,” he says grimly. “You need to get his things.”
My mom pushes up off the couch. “Danny,” she says, and I can see her jaw trembling as she tries to pull herself together. “You’re going on a trip. A vacation.”
“We’re going on vacation?” His eyes light up as he stands up next to her.
“You pick out things you want to take with you. Like your movies and books,” she says. “And I’m going to go pack your clothes, okay?”
“Are you sad?” he asks. “Or is it okay now?”
She wipes her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay. But we have to hurry because the soldiers are giving you a ride and we don’t want to miss them.”
He scoops up his favorite backpack from the front room and starts putting things into it as my mom pushes past me blindly. She pauses at the foot of the stairs.
“Can you go check the laundry room for his baseball shirt?” she asks me. “You know the one he likes, with the red stripes?”
“Mom?” I can’t speak, and she pulls me in to her, hugging me fiercely. “Go,” she whispers. “We don’t have a lot of time, and that’s his favorite shirt.…” Her voice breaks and she runs upstairs.
I’m holding on to the banister because I really don’t think I can keep standing.
“I can’t believe they brought the tanks into your neighborhood,” Ben says, staring out the front window. “They’d never get them across the bridge over the creek if they head down my street.”
He’s making no sense. “You don’t live near the creek,” I remind him.
Ben snaps his fingers in front of my face. “Wake up, St. Clair. My backyard floods three times a year from that creek.”
I turn to look at Finn. “He doesn’t live near the creek.”
“He does now,” Finn says.
I put my face in my hands. “This can’t be happening. They’re signing me up to be a soldier. And they’re taking Danny away. Hanna—Hanna something.”
“Hannacroix Creek?” Ben asks. “That’s also where they take the deserters. It’s not a very nice place.”