Rebel Nation

by Shaunta Grimes

  They sat cross-legged on the pulled-out bed and ate the sandwiches they’d brought for their lunch at the Dinosaur. Clover didn’t realize how hungry she was until she bit into hers and her stomach cramped. “What are we going to do about the boys in the Dinosaur?”

  “We’ll go tell them tomorrow. Have them go back to Foster City and bring the ones who have it the worst.”

  “West said six total.”

  Jude took another bite and chewed silently.

  “We need to talk about this,” Clover said. “Going back to work for the Company might not be the worst thing—”

  “You aren’t going back there.”

  Clover bristled against the surety in Jude’s voice and looked down at her hands clenched together in her lap. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

  Jude waited until she looked at him again before he spoke, his voice low. “I can ask. I know going through the river scares you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Clover finished her sandwich without talking to Jude again. She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t scared, but that was such a lie that she couldn’t even get it out. She was irritated by being treated like a child who couldn’t make her own decisions, and even more irritated that she couldn’t decide whether she was arguing because she really thought going back to work for Bennett was an idea with merit, or because she didn’t like feeling pushed around. She was being pushed around either way—by Jude or by Bennett.

  “Don’t be mad at me,” Jude said. “You want to go back to the ranch as much as I do. I know you do. We don’t belong here anymore.”

  “I don’t want to drown.” Clover stopped when she realized that wasn’t all. “I don’t want you to drown.”

  “I won’t. And you won’t either.”

  “I want to do the right thing. We came back to the city for a reason. We haven’t done what we came here for.”

  “You going back to work for Bennett isn’t the answer. That’s like setting the house on fire to stay warm.”

  —

  The living room was cozy enough, with the fire glowing in the fireplace. It was a warmer-than-usual autumn, which Jude was particularly glad for now. The river would still be very cold, though. And they’d had two good rains in the last month, so it was running fast.

  “We’re still going to have to convince Bridget. I don’t think that’s going to be easy.”

  He moved around so that he leaned against the back of the sofa. “She’ll want to bring Isaiah.”

  “Do you think we should?”

  Jude ran a hand over his face. His eyes felt gritty with exhaustion. “You know there’s something going on with him and Bridget, don’t you? I mean, I don’t know how far it’s gone, but it’s there. They’re together all the time.”

  “That’s his job.”

  “It’s more than that. And if they both come back to the ranch, it’s going to be awkward for West. Uncomfortable for a while, you know?”

  “West loves her,” Clover said.

  “I know he does.”

  Clover curled around a pillow, so that her head was near Jude’s hip, but not quite touching him. He brushed a piece of her dark hair from her forehead, then kept his hand on her head. She liked constant pressure. No light, moving touches. She exhaled and he felt her relax.

  He’d gone without any family at all since the Company took his brother, Oscar, when Jude was thirteen years old. And now he had her. He wasn’t even sure how that had happened, but he knew he couldn’t let Bennett get his hands on Clover again.

  She moved her head under his hand, so that her cheek was against his leg, and within a few minutes she was asleep. She never had a problem falling asleep, no matter what was going on. Half an hour later, he had finally spun through enough scenarios of how they would get out of the city and who would come with them that his brain screamed for sleep. He looked at the pallet he’d made on the floor out of the sofa cushions and started to ease away from Clover.

  “Just stay,” she murmured.

  He slipped down so he was lying next to her and she curled against him, her head on his chest. How was he ever going to keep her safe?

  —

  Are you sure?

  Jude looked over Clover’s shoulder at West’s question. The decision to leave the city again, for good this time, came the night before, but it still felt fragile to him.

  He couldn’t stop thinking about Tim and Wally and David. The three boys were fast asleep when he and Clover reached the Dinosaur again just after dawn.

  He couldn’t get Tim’s sister, Laura, out of his head either. He didn’t even know how she’d died. Their house parents were the worst in Foster City. Worse even than Jude’s house father had been, and that was saying something.

  “Are we sure?” Clover asked him.

  They sat side by side on the bed in Jude’s room, the computer between them. Jude nodded slowly. “I am. Are you?”

  Clover? Jude?

  “I miss him,” she said. “I miss all of them.”

  Jude watched the cursor blink behind his name. “So do I.”

  “That’s not a good enough reason to go back,” she said, softly.

  “It’s not the only reason, Clover. You know it’s not.”

  We’re sure, Clover typed.

  Okay. What’s the plan.

  The plan was for West and Christopher to be at the place where the wall bridged the river—on the outside. They’d bring blankets and dry clothes and be there to help Jude, Clover, Tim, Wally, and David, plus whoever else they could save from Foster City, make it out.

  We’ll be at least a dozen, Clover typed without looking at Jude. They’d gone rounds on the walk to the Dinosaur over whether to tell West ahead of time that there would be more kids than he expected. Clover finally won when she pointed out that they wouldn’t all fit in the van.

  We said six, including you and Jude and Bridget. Jude could almost hear West sighing through the wireless connection.

  A dozen or so, Clover typed.

  Jude pulled the computer toward him before West could respond to the “or so.” Leanne knows about you. We don’t really know what that means. You guys have to be careful. For all we know, she’ll have the guard out there waiting for you.

  We will. Clover?

  She leaned over and typed, Yes?

  I’m sorry things didn’t work out there the way you hoped they would.

  She hesitated, her fingers hovering over the keyboard for a minute, then typed, What about Isaiah? Should we bring him?

  There was a long moment of silence, and Jude was sure that West and the others were talking.

  I don’t know, West finally answered. You guys will have to use your judgment. I just don’t know.

  After they logged off with West and put the computer and modem away, Jude went to wake up Tim.

  The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.

  —ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

  LETTER TO JOSEPH GILLESPIE, JULY 13, 1849

  Tim, Wally, and David didn’t believe Jude. Clover stood near the window, listening to the four boys talk, and didn’t blame them.

  “You got a ranch.” Tim laughed a little. “A television ranch.”

  “I know it sounds crazy,” Jude said.

  “Ned Waverly gave you a television ranch.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you want us to leave the city and go there.”

  “It’s better than staying here,” Wally said. “If there’s really a ranch, I want to go to it.”

  “You’re ten,” David said. “You don’t get a vote.”

  “Yes, he does,” Clover said. “Every Freak gets a vote. Even Emmy gets a vote and she’s only seven.”

  The temperature in the room seemed to drop by several degrees, but she didn’t notice the change unti
l it was too late. David stood up and took a step closer to Clover. “Who you calling a freak, hoodie?”

  “Wait a minute,” Jude said. He crossed the room and stood between her and David. “Wait a minute. It’s just what we call ourselves, okay? We’re the Freaks.”

  “The Freaks.”

  “Yes, the Freaks. And yes, we have a ranch, with plenty of food and no one trying to make you go back to Foster City. And we want you to come there with us.”

  “We’re gonna fly over the wall, then, yeah?”

  “Not exactly.”

  It took another hour, but eventually Jude wore them down. Clover mostly stayed quiet, because every time she opened her mouth, she made things worse. It was Jude telling them that they could bring others that tipped them.

  “A dozen,” he said. “Total, including us and Bridget. That’s six more. You can think of six more?”

  “I can think of twenty more,” David said.

  “Six. That’s it. For now, that’s it. You know where the wall bridges the river?” David said he did. Before his father died, the two of them had lived near there.

  “You meet us there, then. Fifteen minutes before the curfew bells. No later. We’re on a timetable, yeah?”

  “Yeah. We’ll be there.”

  —

  Clover thought Bridget looked like she might be sick. She sat on the edge of her bed with her hands on her knees, staring at the ground between her feet.

  “Are you sure we have to do this?” Bridget asked without looking up. “Are you sure it’s a good idea?”

  “I’m scared, too,” Clover said. “You’ll be fine.”

  “But . . .”

  “But what?” Jude sat next to Clover on Clover’s bed, opposite Bridget. “But you don’t want to leave?”

  Bridget’s voice was barely a whisper when she answered. “Not forever.”

  “You don’t want to leave school? Is that it?” Clover was getting frustrated. They’d spent too long at the Dinosaur, and now this. They had things to do to get ready and they were running out of time.

  “That’s not it,” Jude said.

  Bridget finally looked up. “It is. And my dad. I’m all he has, you know.”

  “I have to leave my dad, too,” Clover said. “And I had to leave my brother to come back in the first place.”

  “Well, it isn’t like you ever see your dad, anyway.”

  Clover bristled. Mango sat up and looked at her.

  “It isn’t your dad, either, Bridget,” Jude said. “Why don’t you just be honest?”

  “Fine.” Bridget lifted her chin and pushed a strand of dark blond hair behind her ear. “I’m not leaving the city without Isaiah.”

  Clover watched her stand and walk back and forth along the length of their beds. “You don’t need a bodyguard at the ranch.”

  “God,” Bridget said under her breath.

  Bridget wasn’t worried about having a bodyguard. “You’re cheating on my brother?”

  “I’m not,” she said, defensively. “I mean, we barely knew each other, anyway.”

  “Are you kidding me? You’ve known each other forever. You went to school together.”

  “I went to school with Isaiah, too, and you’ve known him your whole life. We can’t just leave him here. He’ll be accused of helping us get out of the city.”

  That part was true. “So, do we tell him?”

  “Yes,” Bridget said. “I vote yes.”

  Clover looked at Jude, who lifted his shoulders. “You know him best, Clover. What do you think?”

  What Clover thought was this: Bridget knew where the ranch was. If they left her behind, she’d be questioned. If she was questioned hard enough, she would crack. They wouldn’t be safe there, with her here.

  In fact, if Jude and a dozen Foster City kids disappeared, Clover and Bridget would both be questioned. They were the only Reno citizens who had left the city and come back in more than fifteen years. They all had to go, or no one could leave—including the boys in the Dinosaur. Clover felt the knot of conflict in her chest unwind.

  And Jude and Bridget were both right. She’d known Isaiah all her life. She couldn’t leave him here to be punished for something he didn’t even know about. “Okay, let’s tell him.”

  Bridget brightened in a way that Clover didn’t exactly like. The two of them fit what they could into their packs. Clover took the notebook that Jude had copied some of Waverly’s letters into before they left the ranch and wrapped it in one of the plastic bags they’d taken from her house. Jude had already wrapped his computer and modem as well as he possibly could and cushioned them in the clothes in his pack.

  They found Isaiah sleeping in his unlocked room in the boy’s dorm. He should have been studying, Clover thought. He didn’t test into the Academy, and keeping up appearances meant keeping up his grades. Not that any of that mattered anymore.

  “Isaiah?” Bridget leaned over and touched his shoulder.

  He smiled and reached for her, then yanked away and sat up when he noticed that Clover and Jude were in the room as well and that all three had their full packs. Clover wondered how often he left his door unlocked for Bridget. “What’s going on?”

  Bridget sat down next to him. “We need to talk.”

  Isaiah ran his hands over his face, and then over his cropped hair. “Hold on,” he said, then walked into the bathroom he shared with the boy who had the room next to his.

  “How much does he already know?” Jude asked Bridget. “You might as well tell us.”

  Bridget’s face went scarlet and she wouldn’t look at Jude. Clover either, for that matter. “He doesn’t know where the ranch is.”

  “But he knows there is one?”

  “I had to talk to someone. You two have each other, I needed—”

  “You could have talked to us,” Jude said.

  Bridget just shook her head.

  “Does he know that West is alive?” Clover asked.

  “He was so upset. Imagine if you thought West was dead and no one told you the truth. I couldn’t stand to see him so sad.”

  “He’s a guard,” Jude said. “Do you know what could have happened?”

  “I’m telling you, he’s a Freak. You’ll see.”

  “What do you need to talk to me about?” Isaiah stood in the bathroom doorway, looking more awake.

  Clover didn’t know where to start. Isaiah already knew about the ranch and about West. Did he know about the other kids? “What exactly do you already know?”

  “I know lots of things,” Isaiah said.

  “About West and the ranch.”

  “I know that West isn’t dead.” Isaiah’s voice was even, and angry, and something clicked for Clover. He’d been distant lately, although she didn’t really register it until right now. “You should have been the one to tell me that.”

  “You shouldn’t know that at all,” Jude said.

  “I know there is some ranch somewhere outside the city that he’s holed up in.”

  Clover waited, to see if Isaiah would say more, but he just looked at her. “We’re leaving the city. Tonight.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “Yes,” Jude said, “we can.”

  “Why would you want to?” Isaiah looked at Bridget. “What’s going on?”

  “There’s too much to explain right now,” Clover said. When she thought about telling him about the Freaks, about Leanne, about Bennett trying to put her back to work at the Company—it definitely was too much. “We have to go tonight. You’ll just have to trust us.”

  Isaiah was completely focused on Bridget. “You’re not thinking about leaving?”

  She looked miserable, sitting on the chair by the window, her arms wrapped around herself. “Are you going to go?”

  “Well, you aren’t going
anywhere without me. And I’m not going anywhere if I don’t know more about what in the hell you guys are talking about.”

  Clover started to tell Isaiah about Bennett but then stopped herself. He would want to know how she knew, and she didn’t want to tell him about Leanne. “Bridget has to come with us,” she said.

  “Why does she have to?”

  “Because if she doesn’t, she’s going to be questioned when Bennett realizes that Clover is gone,” Jude cut in. “And so will you.”

  “I can handle questions.”

  “Maybe you can,” Clover said. “But do you want to put Bridget through that?”

  “Tell me what the hell is going on, or I’m going to be forced to stop you. For your own good, Clover, so don’t look at me like that.”

  Would Bennett be able to find out which ranch the Freaks were at, if Isaiah told him that they were hiding at one? The Ponderosa used to be a theme park. Bennett might not ever make the connection. Bridget could lead him right to it, though. “You should come with us, Isaiah.”

  “Not until I know why you’re leaving.”

  “We aren’t going to tell you,” Jude said. Isaiah gave a short, hard laugh. “Not until we’re out of the city. Then we’ll know for sure.”

  “Know what?”

  “That you’re one of us.” Jude tilted his head. “Maybe you want to ask West some questions.”

  “Leaving the city is stupid. No one leaves the city.”

  “Bridget,” Clover said. “Are you going to say anything? Tell him that we have to go.”

  Bridget opened her mouth, but all that came out was a hard gasp. Her wet eyes and blotchy face made Clover want to scream.

  “Do you want to be questioned?” Clover asked. “Do you want to end up a ghost, like Jude’s brother? Just gone? Because that’s what will happen if you stay. We have to go, and if you don’t come with us, Bennett will come after you until you tell him what you know.”

  Had she forgotten that all of their lives were turned upside down because Bennett was sure that Bridget knew something she shouldn’t? West had been forced to help her, which was the only reason he was out of the city in the first place.