The breath scored my throat, coming faster and faster. The safe house had been destroyed. The posts were falling, one by one. And now Endurance had been demolished, too.
“We’re too late,” I said. And then again. “We’re too late.”
Our friends were gone.
Jesse was staring straight ahead, a blank look on his face.
“It’s been days,” he said. “This didn’t happen this morning.”
He was right. The dust had settled and the fires had died. Endurance had fallen days ago.
“Em,” said Chase. His shoulders were rising and falling; the collar of his shirt clung to his skin. “The orchard.”
Rebecca. Sean had told her to go to the orchard if something happened. My legs were already shaking from the run across campus, but I pushed them on again. This time I tucked the gun into my waistband and ran full out, hearing the blood rushing through my eardrums. Chase pulled ahead, which drove me on harder, until my heart felt like it might burst in my chest.
We ran through down the narrow path lined by junk as if we could outrun any danger that might be watching, but when we turned into the orchard the rows of trees were still and quiet.
Just as I opened my mouth to call for Rebecca, a shot cracked through the air. Dirt sprayed up from the ground at Chase’s feet and he threw himself backward, stumbling before he slammed into me. I grabbed his navy uniform jacket and pushed him up.
My first thought was of the Lost Boys, and when I heard the hoof beats behind us, I braced to defend myself.
“Get out!” The command was shrill, the girl’s voice familiar. A coffee-colored horse with four white socks came barreling through the trees and pulled up short before us, snorting and pawing at the ground. Astride her was a skinny girl with a dirty face and a matted cap of golden hair. The fierce look on her face said she wasn’t afraid to use the gun she pointed straight at us.
“Get out or I swear to God, I’ll…”
“Rebecca!” I lurched forward as Rebecca dropped the weapon on the ground. She leaned forward on Junebug’s neck and scrambled off, clinging to the saddle for support. I’d already reached her by then and knocked her all the way to the ground. We landed in a heap, tears smearing the sweat and dirt on each other’s faces.
“You’re alive!” She sobbed. And then she was punching me in the shoulder. “I thought you were dead!”
“You thought I was dead?” I half laughed, half hiccupped, and wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand. “What happened? Where are the others? Where is Sean?”
She glanced over my shoulder and when I looked back I found Chase, reaching to help us both up. She slapped both hands on his chest, wobbling forward. He caught her before she fell while I pulled her crutch off the back of the saddle where it had been fastened. Junebug, no longer fearsome, nipped at my blouse.
“You almost got yourself shot wearing that stupid jacket,” Rebecca was telling Chase. “I thought you were a soldier!”
“I got that,” said Chase. He grinned at her and she gave up and hugged him.
I went to pick up the gun and only then realized we weren’t alone. Will had emerged from the grove behind us, along with Sarah. As the seconds passed, several of the children followed. They looked tired, frightened, and more than a little shocked. I could see more of them lurking back in the trees, along with a few of the women I recognized from the safe house survivors.
“Is this all that made it out?” Chase asked bleakly.
Rebecca adjusted her arm in the crutch and tucked the gun back in Junebug’s saddlebag. “We evacuated when we heard the soldiers were coming.”
“So much for being off the MM’s radar,” I mumbled.
She nodded grimly. “That’s when the doctor tore the place down.”
Chase had been counting the others, but at this he promptly turned back around. “DeWitt tore Endurance down?”
“With a tractor,” piped in Will. “Him and the other council members. They wrecked the whole place.”
I remembered seeing the bulldozer in the parking lot by the other cars.
“Why?” I asked.
“So the Bureau wouldn’t find anything worthwhile when they showed up.” Jesse had arrived, his shoulders laced back and a lethal look in his eyes. I found myself taking a step away.
“We were going to take the cars when they showed up,” Rebecca continued. “It was getting dark. Ms. Rita and the other council members took off to lead them off course. I don’t know if they made it. I don’t think they did.” Her voice had lowered to a whisper. “Rocklin and a few more that didn’t go to Charlotte stayed with the doctor. The soldiers came in through the back gates. They took them—all of them, women and some of the kids, too—in a blue bus with the windows blacked out. I didn’t know what else to do. We gathered who we could, snuck out the front, and came here.”
“You did good,” said Chase, his arm still around her waist for support.
“I been looking out for us,” said Will. He was looking at Jesse, who gave him a brief nod.
“The soldiers are gone now,” I said. “We just came from there and didn’t see anyone.”
“Ember,” she said, her voice wavering for the first time. “Sean never came back.”
Beside me, Chase exhaled. “He’s been gone almost two weeks. He could still be waiting for Tucker. With the radio silence…”
“Tucker called on the radio,” she said, leaning in close. “Just before we evacuated we got a message from him. He’d reached the meeting point but no one was there. Not even the people we left with the medic at the mini-mart.”
My pulse began to pick up speed again. “Did DeWitt say anything else? Did he send anyone after him?”
“The soldiers were already closing in,” said Rebecca. “There was no one to send.”
Frantically I tried to piece it all together. DeWitt had been captured, just as Felicity Bridewell had reported. He’d torn apart Endurance himself to hide what we’d done here. Now Tucker had arrived at the safe house wreckage but Sean and Jack were missing. We had to find him, find out what he knew, and somehow find Sean as well.
“What do we do now?” Sarah asked. Her face had rounded since we’d arrived, and apart from a scar through her right eyebrow, barely showed any signs of the beating she’d taken in Knoxville. My gaze automatically fell to her belly. She was getting bigger. I didn’t know how far along she was, but soon she would have to find a stable place to have the baby.
“There’s a place I heard about,” I said. “I’m not positive it’s a sure thing.”
Chase’s hand came to rest on my lower back. I took a deep breath.
“I think there’s a boat from Tampa that goes to Mexico.”
I felt the weight of Jesse’s stare and wished I felt more confident about this option.
“How are we supposed to get there?” There was desperation in her wide brown eyes.
“We can take the cars,” said Chase. “But it’s probably better to lay low for a while. Stay off the roads.”
A day might give us enough time to find Sean, Jack, and Tucker. If Rebecca and the others could hold out a little longer we could be back to take them to Tampa ourselves.
Chase’s thumb rose up my spine, telling me he was thinking the same thing I was.
Sarah’s gaze passed from Chase to Jesse, and her lower lip began to quiver. “Did Billy make it?”
I tried to offer a reassuring smile. “He went to Charlotte to join the others.” I wasn’t sure what else to say.
She lifted her chin and tucked her hair behind her ears. “That’s very brave. I wish I’d gotten to say good-bye. He was…” She smiled. “He was cute, you know?”
I bit my lip. “He thought the same about you.”
She lit up. I hoped someday Billy would get to see that look.
* * *
WE agreed to stay the night and leave at dawn for the safe house wreckage. Chase and Jesse did a thorough perimeter sweep, and then returned to Endurance to scaveng
e for food and supplies. I stayed behind with Rebecca, leaning against the trunk of an orange tree while the children and Sarah laid on the grass at our feet. Both of us kept our guns on the ground beside us, listening to the crickets chirp. After a while it started to get cold, and she scooted closer, until our hips were touching. She linked her arm around mine.
“The first time I kissed Sean was in the shower at the reformatory.” She giggled.
I leaned away to look at her and found her biting her lower lip. Now I laughed. “That’s … bold.”
“Oh, please,” she said. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Then what was it like?”
She snuggled deeper into my side. “He’d been stationed there for a month. He was different than the others. You could tell he was putting on a show—he wasn’t as good at disguising it in the beginning. Once I even caught him laughing at something the headmistress said.”
Sean had always made a point of agreeing with everything the headmistress said. It was how he stayed under the radar and kept his relationship with Rebecca a secret.
“I bet that went over well.”
“He hid it in a coughing fit.” She smiled. “And that’s when I knew I had to talk to him.”
A noise crackled across the way, but it was just Will circling our position in search of trespassers. If anyone had an eye out for the Lost Boys, it would be him.
We settled back against the tree.
“I stuck a note in his pocket at line formation one morning,” she said. “It said, ‘Meet me in the showers at midnight.’”
“That is bold,” I said.
“Okay, maybe.” She snorted. “He read it and threw it away. Right in front of me. So rude. Anyway, I was sure he was going to turn me in, but nothing happened all afternoon. And I mean nothing. He didn’t even look at me.”
Of course he hadn’t. If he’d been caught ogling her he would have been busted.
“So,” I prompted.
“So I waited until midnight and snuck down the hall to the bathrooms. I thought for sure he wasn’t going to show, but there he was, hiding out in one of the stalls. Later he told me he’d been there since right after curfew in case I came early. Apparently he felt like a real creeper.”
“And you walked right in and kissed him,” I said, marveling at her audacity.
“No,” she said, aghast. “I introduced myself first.”
Some of the closest kids stirred as we fell into stifled laughter.
Chase and Jesse returned, but didn’t approach us right away. Chase motioned that they were going to do another walk of the perimeter and I nodded. He left a handful of supplies on the ground a few feet away. Some clothing, it looked like, and some food.
I watched him disappear into the darkness, wondering what I would do if we were separated.
“Sorry they destroyed the barn,” Rebecca said.
“Hmm?” I tore my eyes away from the last place I’d been able to see him.
“I know that place had sentimental value for you.” She stretched out her legs.
“Rebecca!” She shushed me with a sneaky grin.
“Sean told me before he left you two had a midnight rendezvous there. How very romantic.”
I covered my eyes with the heels of my hands, remembering with a streak of heat the hay in my hair, and the specs of dust lit by the moon through the high loft window.
“It may have been romantic.” I paused. “Thanks, by the way. For your, um … thoughtful gift.”
She was wiggling now, unable to hold the glee inside of her.
“Stop,” I groaned. “Please? Pretty please?”
She finally settled down and rolled onto her side. “I knew it when I saw you two together. You’re different, you know; the way you look at each other.”
“Different how?”
She combed her hair back over one ear. “I don’t know. Like you have a secret no one else knows.”
I liked that. A secret no one else knew.
For a few seconds the fear of what had happened to Sean had faded. The hole of his absence was filled with warm memories. It was like we were living in another time. But when it came back, it hurt twice as much.
“I almost left the kids,” she confessed. “All I could think was I had to get out of there. I couldn’t get caught again.”
I squeezed her hand. “Most people would have left them.”
“We were supposed to meet here. Why hasn’t he come back?”
“We’ll find him.”
But I didn’t feel so confident. The MM could have him. His car could have broken down or been held back by debris in the road. A throbbing began at the base of my skull. Sean had left Rebecca’s side, broken his promise not to leave her, to keep her safe. We had to find him.
“I can’t go with you, can I?” she said.
I knew this had been coming. If we were going to reach Tucker and search for Sean, we needed to be light and move fast. Even with Rebecca’s advancements, we couldn’t chance her safety, or her slowing us down.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
She brushed away a tear impatiently.
“Stupid, stupid legs,” she said.
I put my arm over her shoulders, not knowing what else to do.
“Bring him back,” she said finally. “And both of you come back, too.”
CHAPTER
19
THE trip to the mini-mart would take nine hours, depending on the amount of wreckage on the highways and streets. We took the moving truck, leaving the sedan from Atlanta with the fuel gage on empty. I traded my Sisters of Salvation uniform for a pair of cropped pants and a hand-sewn tunic Chase had found, and left Rebecca with a quick, wordless hug.
I made a silent promise to myself that it would not be the last time I saw her.
Jesse drove while Chase took shotgun. I sat between them on the bench seat thinking of Tucker. It was strange and unsettling, but I found I wanted to see him again. I wanted to find out what had happened on his mission, and if he knew any more about DeWitt or the Chief of Reformation’s party, now only two days away. As we reached the highway, I flattened my hands over my thighs and turned my thoughts to Sean. I pictured him and Jack stranded on the side of the road beside a broken down car and hoped their delay was that simple.
The world passed by out of the side window. The sun grew hot, and the wind whipped my hair around my face. My worry edged into fear; the Red Zone was huge, the entire East Coast, and Sean could be anywhere within it. I imagined having to tell Rebecca we couldn’t find him, felt the hole punch through me as if she’d been the one telling me that Chase was lost.
Twice in the first hour we had to leave the main road because of abandoned cars and debris, and return to surface streets. Sean and Jack were nowhere to be seen.
I felt something brush against the back of my hand, and when I looked down, saw Chase’s knuckles. He stared straight ahead, so I did, too, but his fingertips continued to trace lines over the back of my hand, then around my wrist. It gave me hope.
In the afternoon, Jesse switched the radio to a frequency the injured had used to contact us when we were on our search for the survivors. We were within range now, and if their batteries were by some chance still working, we should have been able to pick up a signal.
No one was broadcasting.
The clouds stretched thin and high across a pale sky as we reached the outskirts of where the safe house had been. We parked several miles back, where a pile of rubble blocked the road. I searched for evidence of another car but was no longer surprised when I didn’t see one. Wherever Sean was, it was not here.
I slung a pack of medical supplies from the truck’s cab over my back. Chase took point, his gun held high and ready, while Jesse covered our backs. No one knew what to expect as we hiked through the high grass between the beach and what was left of the town, but we prepared for the worst.
It didn’t help that I had the skin-crawling sensation of someone’s eyes on my back.
&n
bsp; “Here,” Chase said quietly as a stop sign on the main road came into view. Once we reached the street I recognized the area. Two half-burned houses, their remains still black and raw, butted up against an old shipyard where half a dozen boats were turned on their sides. Three blocks down was the mini-mart where the injured had taken refuge, and as we made our way toward it I counted how many places there were to hide.
The intersection before the mini-mart was empty. The gas pumps still stood, but their hoses were ripped away. In the sun outside the entrance a man in street clothes was seated on a metal chair. He was slumped forward, asleep, his hands on his lap, his chin on his chest.
His hair was blond and messy.
“Tucker.” I started forward, but Jesse snagged my forearm.
Muscles tense, I crouched beside him behind an overturned sailboat, twenty feet away. Chase crept forward, disappearing behind the shop on the opposite side of the street.
“Listen,” Jesse whispered.
Silence. Nothing but the birds and the crash of the waves at the beach. My blood began to buzz. No shadows moved behind the broken windows. Those that had stayed behind with the medic were hurt, and I had supplies on my back that could help.
“Stay here.” Stealthily, Jesse bled into the surrounding landscape, making his way around the building.
I kept my eyes on Tucker, finding it odd that he sat in the sun when the metal awning provided shade just a few feet to his right. He seemed to sense that I was watching him because a second later he shook himself awake and rolled his head in a slow circle. Even from a distance I could see the red welts on his face, and the brown spattering of dried blood across his chest.
Someone had done a number on him.
I lowered the pack of medical supplies to the ground beside me while I waited. Across the street Chase stepped out into the open. I caught a glimpse of Jesse’s white undershirt moving through the thick emerald shrubbery behind the overturned trash cans in the back. He waved to Chase.
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