Among the Free sc-7

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

  Luke's legs were going numb from being in the same position for so long. He dared to shift them ever so slightly, without rattling the propped^up signs. Now he had pins and needles pricking up and down his legs. But there was nothing he could do about that except wince and bite his lip and stay silent.

  Luke heard more footsteps, but they stumbled, and there was an extra sound thrown in. The footsteps got closer — two pairs, Luke thought. And then they were close enough that Luke could recognize the extra sound: chains. Chains clanking and rattling and dragging on the floor.

  Luke heard the door shut. The chains rattled and the chairs creaked as people sat down.

  "I demand to be treated with more respect!" a haughty voice announced. "I am the supreme leader of the Population Police, I am in control of the entire country—"

  "Not anymore." Oscar's voice, with a chuckle. "If you'll notice, you're sitting there in handcuffs and leg irons, and I am the one in charge."

  "This is an indignity! This will not stand! Thousands of people are loyal to me — they'll come and rescue me; they'll restore me to my rightful position. And then you'll be—"

  "They can't rescue you if they don't know where you are," Oscar said, his voice still light and amused. 'And have you forgotten? Thousands of people hate you too. Thousands would love to kill you, to pay you back for everything you and your Population Police have done to them. A lot of those people are out on the front lawn cele^ brating right now. Want me to take you out to them? Want me to just yell out a window, 'Hey everybody, Aldous Krakenaur's right here. Anybody feel like visiting?'"

  Oscar was standing up, probably walking toward the door. Luke wondered if this was what Oscar had meant by holding a trial, judging the Population Police by basic human standards. Maybe he was going to let the crowd in, let them decide what Aldous Krakenaur deserved.

  Luke heard the clank of chains.

  "Please, I beg of you—"

  Luke couldn't see what was happening, but he thought maybe Aldous Krakenaur had grabbed Oscar's hand to stop him. It was hard to hear over the rattling chains, and Krakenaur seemed to be whispering now. Luke heard the word "negotiate." He heard "negotiations" and "my loyal followers" and "loyal to you." But as hard as he listened, he couldn't make out a full sentence, a full thought.

  "Well, yes, I suppose that could be arranged," Oscar said airily, as if he really didn't care. "With the code we talked about before—"

  "Yes!" The way Krakenaur said that, Luke could picture him straining against his chains, still reaching out to Oscar. "They're true believers! They'd understand that!"

  'And they would stay. . loyal?" Oscar asked.

  "Oh, absolutely!" Krakenaur assured him. 'And then you could give me—"

  "I'm giving you the opportunity to stay alive," Oscar interrupted harshly. "That's more than kind of me, I'd say."

  "But after—"

  "You've got no right to think about after. You should be thinking of new ways to be useful to me, so I don't decide to throw you out into the crowd," Oscar said. He paused craftily. "The door to this room has no lock — did anyone tell you that? It's one of those inconvenient little details that comes with taking over a building the previous occupants have left in bad shape. Just like taking over a government the previous leaders have left in bad shape… Maybe I should leave you in this room — blindfolded, handcuffed, chained to that chair. Maybe I should just leave everything to chance, to see if anyone happens to wander in here, happens to see you sitting there—"

  "No!" The panic in Krakenaur's voice was almost palpable. "You need me! I can tell you where the extra food is stored! We have plenty of food!"

  "That's a start," Oscar mused. "The rabble like food, all right. And they like me as long as I'm providing it. But I warn you — I want more than food. We'll just have to see if your promises pan out."

  Luke heard Oscar's footsteps again, brisk this time. He stopped by the door and seemed to be shutting off the security system. Seconds later, Oscar opened the door and said, "Lock him up in the attic again, Melton. He's earned the chance to see another day. Get him to tell you where the food is, and have someone check it out. And then— come back and fix this lock!"

  "Yes, sir," Melton said.

  "Wait!" It was Krakenaur, pleading again. "You can't just—"

  "I can do anything I want," Oscar snarled. 'And you can't do a thing about it!"

  Oscar's footsteps pounded out the door, followed more slowly by Melton and Krakenaur with his rattling chains. Melton turned out the lights and shut the door firmly behind him, plunging the room into darkness once again.

  Luke lay still, blinking furiously, trying to make out shadows and shapes in the relentless dark. Even after he was sure his eyes had adjusted, he could see nothing but an inky blackness: no light at all. He strained his ears, listening to make sure the footsteps were receding, but the room's soundproofing evidently worked in both directions.

  I've got to get out of here before Melton comes back and fixes the lock, Luke thought. Before I'm locked in here forever-free and trapped, all at once.

  He crawled out from behind the pile of signs, his arms stiff, h1S legs' numbness giving away to pins and needles again. He tried to remember where each stack of signs had been, so he wouldn't knock anything down.

  Nobody would hear you anyway, he assured himself, but there was a paranoid echo to that thought: If I left a mess they'd know someone had been here. Somehow they might be able to link it tome. .

  So what? Why would anyone care? Oscar fought against the Population Police, just like I did.

  Are you sure?

  Luke stopped with that thought; he couldn't argue with himself and keep moving through the darkness at the same time. He inched forward, swinging his hands out in front of him. Finally his hand brushed a doorknob, and he grabbed onto it.

  Go, quick, before Melton comes back! he ordered himself. But there was a competing fear keeping him from turning the doorknob: What if someone sees me coming out of this room? What if they report me to Oscar and he figures out I've been eaves^ dropping? Or-what if they think I've got something to do with all those horrid signs? What if they blame me?

  Luke wished he had the courage to smash all the signs to bits before leaving the secret room. That's what Jen would have done. She would have smashed them and then waited until Melton came back just so she could tell him, I did this. I took care of that part of the Population Police's evil. Let me go talk to Oscar, so I can tell him what I did too. She wouldn't have stayed hidden while Oscar was talking to Aldous Krakenaur. She would have stalked out and declared, Listen, I've got a thing or two to tell Aldous, myself.

  "I'm not you, Jen," Luke mumbled. But he managed to hold back the lesser of his fears and open the door.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Nobody stood on the other side. Luke glanced around once, then opened the nearest window and slipped out, pulling the window shut behind him. Standing safely on the ground, hidden by a row of tall bushes, Luke began to feel foolish. If nobody was guarding the unlocked room, nobody would have cared that he'd been in there. He could have walked out the front door of the building and nobody would have even noticed.

  Luke fought his way out through the screen of bushes, emerging into sunlight and the same carefree, party atmosphere he'd seen the night before. People were dancing and singing again: "No more Poppies… all the food we want…" The crowd had evidently made up new words to the theme song since the last time Luke had heard it.

  Nothing about the scene around him gave off even the slightest hint of danger or intrigue, but Luke's heart was still beating hard.

  Oscar definitely seemed upset that the door to the secret room didn't lock, Luke reminded himself.

  Stubbornly, Luke circled around to the back of the building again. A girl carrying a plate of biscuits opened the door for him.

  "Want one? We've got plenty to share," she told him, grinning.

  "No, thanks. Not now," he muttered. He walked on through the
dining room, where a huge crowd was singing as they crammed food into their mouths:

  No more Poppies

  All the food we want

  We eat by day

  We eat by night

  This is

  The greatest life!

  From the other side of the dining room, Luke tried to retrace his steps through the maze of hallways, trying to follow the same path he'd used before to reach the secret room. Once again, the hallways and the rooms he passed were deserted.

  See? he told himself. You just overreacted after seeing those signs. Oscar was only worried about the lock because he wanted to have a private meeting with Aldous Krakenaur. And he had to meet with him because. . because Krakenaur knows things that Oscar needs. Like information about where all the food is stored.

  Luke rounded the last corner before the hallway that led to the secret room. And then he stopped.

  A man was leaning casually against the wall, turning the pages of a newspaper.

  "Oh, hey, I wouldn't go that way if I were you," he said, straightening up a little. "They found some dangerous chemicals the Population Police left behind in one of those rooms back there." He tilted his head, indicating the direction of the secret room. "The new government's trying to clear it out but" — he shrugged—"you know. Better safe than sorry."

  "Oh," Luke said. He hesitated. He was pretty sure the dangerous-chemicals story was a lie, and he wanted to keep going. But the man had his legs stretched out, blocking the hallway. Luke would have to actively shove past him. The man's stance seemed casual, but Luke suspected that his muscles were tensed, and that he was ready to push Luke back if Luke persisted.

  "They asked me to warn people if anyone came by," the man said, shrugging again. "I figured it was the least I could do, given how much food I've eaten since I got here. You want some? I think someone was frying up doughnuts last time I walked through the kitchen. They ought to be done by now." He pointed off in the direction Luke had just come from. "Just go down that way, turn right, then left…"

  "Yeah, thanks. Doughnuts sound good," Luke said, retreating. He looked back over his shoulder, and the man was still watching him. "I was really just trying to find the kitchen, but I got a little, um, lost."

  He picked up speed, navigating the maze of hallways as if someone were chasing him. Or as if he were trying to run away from his own thoughts.

  Those caught up with him.

  Dangerous chemicals? Yeah, right, he fumed to himself. That guy was guarding the secret room. He was just doing it from a safe distance so even he couldn't see what he was guarding. There was probably a guard stationed at the front door, too.

  But why are they guarding all those old signs? Are those sup^ posed to be evidence for the trial, too?

  And when Oscar met with Krakenaur, what were they saying about having negotiations and using a code? Why did it seem like Oscar was.. bargaining?

  Luke was passing through the dining hall again. He barely noticed when someone stuck a doughnut in his hand. He barely heard the song crescendoing through the room: "NO MORE POPPIES! ALL THE FOOD WE WANT!"

  He stumbled out the back door, back out into the sun-light. To avoid drawing attention to himself, he went and sat down with the huge crowd forming near the wall, where Philip Twinings and Simone and Tucker were up on a stage, interviewing more people.

  I don't know anything about how governments are supposed to work, Luke told himself. Maybe that's just how things go when governments change — the new leader meets with the old leader, so they can work out lots of details. He'd liked it when Oscar had been mean to Krakenaur, when he'd said, "If you'll notice, you're sitting there in handcuffs and leg irons, and I am the one in charge." He liked thinking about how Krakenaur was chained up now, hiding in an attic the same way Luke had had to hide from the Population Police.

  Luke tried to remember how he'd thought and felt all those years he'd spent in hiding, when he'd known nobody but his parents and his two brothers — all those years before he met Jen and she changed his entire world. He'd felt powerless. Somehow he'd even understood that his parents were powerless too.

  Krakenaur didn't act like he thought he was powerless, Luke thought. He acted like he still thought he should he in charge.

  The rest of the thought came slowly. Just as Luke didn't trust himself to interpret people's expressions and body language, he had trouble reading between the lines of what people said and how they said it. He kept replaying the conversation between Oscar and Krakenaur in his head. Had Oscar sounded a little bit hesitant, a little bit awed, even as he threatened Krakenaur? Had Oscar been trying too hard to sound casual and unconcerned? Why had Oscar allowed Krakenaur to make suggestions, to bargain for his life?

  Luke thought about all the times in his life he'd been bullied or beaten up: by his brothers, by other boys when he first arrived at Hendricks School, by the Population Police when he was in their holding camp. None of them had offered to bargain with him. They'd just punched him, kicked him, bossed him around.

  As long as I was powerless, that is. As long as I wasn't threatening to tattle on Matthew and Mark, to bring in Mother and Dad. As long as the boys at school didn't need me to keep their secrets. As long as the Population Police didn't know I could escape.

  Now, sitting in a crowd of very happy people celebrating the end of the Population Police, Luke felt a horrid certainty creep over him.

  Aldous Krakenaur isn't powerless. He still has some control.

  Over Oscar.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Luke turned to the people sitting around him. He wanted to tell them, Listen — we're in big trouble. But everyone else was clapping and cheering.

  "We're back now, broadcasting live from the former Population Police headquarters," Philip Twinings was saying up on the stage. "We're ready to begin our accounting of the Population Police era. We'll be broadcasting as long as people are willing to talk."

  The crowd cheered again.

  They're doing what Oscar suggested, Luke thought, still horrified.

  But what could be wrong with people telling their stories? What evidence did Luke have that Oscar was under Aldous Krakenaur's control? What could Luke do about it, anyhow? Who would listen to him?

  Luke sat, paralyzed, letting the voices from the stage wash over him. A man talked about how the Population Police had refused to replace his grain when he accidentally spilled it. A girl talked about how the Population Police had confiscated the strawberries she grew in her own backyard. A woman talked about how much she missed her husband when he enlisted in the Population Police to earn food for his family. Luke started to relax a little.

  This is just people telling how awful the Population Police were, he thought. This won't bring them back into power. Maybe I'm wrong about everything. Maybe I misunderstood what Oscar and Krakenaur meant.

  He kept listening, the stories as soothing as a balm. The worse the horrors the speakers described, the better Luke felt.

  Nobody would want the Population Police back in power after hearing this, Luke thought again and again, during tales of beatings, maimings, cruelty, contempt.

  One boy painstakingly hobbled up to the stage, almost losing his balance. The crowd grew silent as they watched him slowly mount the steps, his upper body supported by crutches, his legs twisted and practically useless.

  "The Population Police did this to me," he said into the microphone Philip Twinings held out to him. His eyes, caught in the bright light from the camera, were wide and terrified. He seemed to be having trouble breathing. "I joined up because my family was starving. They assigned me to shovel manure. I thought I was being. . helpful. I suggested a better way to shovel, and they. . they attacked me. I almost died. I would have died… if the rebels hadn't found me… if they hadn't fed me and nursed me. You can. . look at me and see. . what the Population Police did to our country."

  He moved away from the microphone and began his slow descent down the stairs.

  He
worked for the Population Police shoveling manure? Luke thought. He was in the stables, then. That's the boy I always won-' dered about, the one who asked for a bigger shovel. The one who disappeared. This is what happened to him.

  Luke watched the boy leaning down, lowering first his crutches, then the weight of his whole body, from one step to another. He seemed to be moving in slow motion, as if he didn't quite trust the crutches or his legs to hold him up.

  He would be an ally, Luke thought. He was in the stables with me. He knows what the Population Police are capable of. I could tell him about Oscar and Krakenaur.

  Luke stood up and began fighting his way through the crowd, toward the stage. The mood of the crowd seemed to have changed under the onslaught of sad stories. Instead of having people call out, "You there! Come dance with us!" or "Sing along!" the people Luke passed now muttered, "Watch it! You stepped on my foot!" or "Stop shoving!"

  Luke ignored the complaints; he didn't want to waste any time finding the boy on crutches. When someone said, "Stop shoving!" he moved to the side and dodged around. But as he neared the stage, the crush of people began to seem impenetrable. Every time he tried to dart between people, the gap would suddenly close. He moved to the right; he moved to the left; he tried a diagonal approach toward the stage. Nothing worked. A line of bodies always blocked him.

  "Excuse me," he finally said to a man who would not move out of the way. "I'm trying to get through."

  "Nobody's allowed through," the man growled.

  "But I'm trying to get to a… friend," Luke said, stretching the truth a little because it sounded so comforting to have a friend. "He was up on the stage just now. I want to talk to him."

  "Nobody's allowed through," the man repeated, as if Luke had simply been too stupid to understand the first time. "We're protecting the people who go on stage."

  Luke looked around and realized that the line of people blocking him from the stage wasn't just a random, acci' dental formation. These people were security forces. Bodyguards. All of them were tall and muscular, with stern expressions. They only needed black uniforms, and they'd look just like Population Police prison guards.