The Edge of Over There

by Shawn Smucker

  Sandra pushed on a bar and opened a metal door that led out onto the roof of the building. One of Jeremiah’s guards, dressed in black, stood at the edge, looking over the city, but when Sandra and her crew came out, the guard retreated back down the steps without a word. She led them over to the side of the building where the guard had been standing, and they lined up.

  The sheer height took Leo’s breath away, and his knees shook, so he took a few steps back. They were probably twenty floors up. The city stretched away from the forest, mile after mile, all the way to the water. Most of the city was dark with nothing but empty windows and the square outlines of buildings against a not-quite-as-dark sky. But the water, off in the distance, shimmered as the Wailers approached and swept out over it, racing over the waves like the light that chases the setting sun.

  “That’s incredible,” Leo whispered, but Sandra pointed in the other direction.

  Leo’s breath was taken away again, but while the first time it had been because of his distance from the ground, this time it was because of the distance between him and the top of the tall building. He looked up and up and up, and the tall building he and Abra had seen on their walk to the city was right there, not more than five blocks away.

  The buildings around the tall building were lit up, and it reminded him of his own city on a normal night. He imagined families there, although it was hard to believe that would be the case—the city didn’t seem the kind of place that families could live or survive in, and Sandra had told him there weren’t children. But he imagined them anyway, families around the dinner table, kids shouting and parents telling them to stop shouting, people turning on the television for the night or switching on the light and opening a book. He imagined all the most ordinary things, and they put an ache in his heart, an ache for ordinary life. An ache for home.

  “Who lives there?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Sandra said. “It doesn’t matter. Jeremiah hates them, so tomorrow they’ll be our enemies.”

  Leo looked at Sandra. “Why did you bring me up here?” he asked.

  She shrugged.

  “I thought you should see it. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The city, the water.” Her voice trailed off.

  They stood there for a long time, staring into the quiet darkness of a city on the edge of war.

  “It’s a beautiful place,” she said again.

  Leo woke up the next morning having lost track of Sandra. He left the level he had slept on and walked down to the floor where they had watched Jeremiah’s speech. He found almost everyone pressed up against the glass again, so he wandered over and nudged his way through the crowd until he could see what they were staring at.

  A large table had been set up in the square where Jeremiah had stood the night before. On this morning, he was at the head of the table and there were other young leaders sitting around it, pointing at various papers strewn across the wood surface.

  “Who are those guys?” Leo asked no one in particular.

  A girl turned and looked at him. She had pale skin and a mouth that twitched when she spoke. She wore glasses, and one of the lenses was cracked. She seemed annoyed at the question.

  “The leaders of the Frenzies,” she said.

  Leo nodded. “What are they doing?”

  She sighed at his stupidity. “Battle plans.”

  Leo stared through the glass. There were easily over a hundred young people on that level alone, and when he looked closely at the surrounding buildings he could see that each building had multiple levels packed full of more young people, faces and hands plastered against the glass. They were like harmless, mindless sheep, blindly following Jeremiah to victory. Or to slaughter.

  “Let’s go, everyone outside!” a voice shouted, and everyone turned to go. Everyone except Leo. He remained at the glass, watching while all the leaders except for Jeremiah left the table. Jeremiah remained, appearing deep in thought, but it was impossible to tell if he was actually deep in thought or if he was posing for those still looking through the glass. He looked up at the building where Leo stood. Soon he was staring at Leo, with Leo staring back. They stood that way for a few moments.

  Jeremiah put his pen down on the table and walked away. Leo turned and followed the group down the stairs.

  Leo still couldn’t find Sandra, and when he walked outside he saw that everyone was being herded into different lines, presumably for different responsibilities in the upcoming war. Mostly the distinction seemed to be made by size, and Leo was directed into a line of taller young men. He waited with his arms crossed, scanning the crowd for Sandra. Still no sign of her.

  Each of the lines of people (and there were thousands of people now, waiting, shuffling forward slowly) led to a table, and most of the tables were covered with weapons. Leo noticed immediately that there were no guns. Pretty soon after that he noticed there were no “real” weapons. All of the weapons had been constructed out of something else. Knives had been made out of thick shards of glass tied tightly to wooden handles. Spears had been made the same way. There were slingshots and clubs and some things that looked like axes.

  Leo wondered about this for a long time as he waited in line. This world, this city, seemed to have provided everything someone would need to live here. There was shelter, the berries they ate every day seemed to be way more than just berries, and most of the buildings were fully furnished, though they also seemed to have never been used before.

  Yet there were no ready-made weapons. No guns or knives, no bullets or blades. It was interesting to him, and it seemed to suggest that the city would provide anything you needed, but if you wanted to destroy life or create war, you had to take the gifts it gave you and twist them into something ugly.

  He arrived at the front of the line and was given two knives, both with glass blades attached to pieces of wood that looked like they had come from a wooden pallet. He held them in his hands and they were light. The glass was thick and looked intensely sharp, and when he stared at it he could see his reflection, stretched and thin, with the red sky far above him. He wondered how he had ended up there so far from his own city, his own normal life. Now he was being swept up into a war he knew nothing about, following leaders with darkness at their core. He had to find a way out.

  “Attention!” a voice shouted. The person didn’t have to shout because the square, though filled to the brim with young people, was mostly silent. Of course, there were small pockets who seemed almost giddy with anticipation of the coming action, but most of the people in the square stared at their weapons. The reality of war often doesn’t begin to settle in until the weapon is fit into the hand.

  “Return to your original Frenzy for instructions!” the same voice shouted, and Leo looked around, trying to figure out where it was coming from.

  The crowd sifted in on itself as people searched for their original groups, and soon they were divided. The groups began walking, some here and some there, some in this direction and some in that, and Leo guessed that they were following some preordained plan for which group was to attack which flank and which group was to stand firm until a particular time. His group started walking down the street that traveled in the direction of the tall building. It made sense that the largest Frenzy would lead the frontal attack while some of the smaller groups looked for ways to break through.

  Leo knew he had to leave. He didn’t have time to get tangled up in this pointless war. It could take days to end, maybe weeks. Maybe even longer! Meanwhile, Abra would find the Tree and get out. Leo’s palms grew sweaty where they clutched the wooden handles of his glass knives. Adrenaline made him feel shaky. He had to get away. He had to find Ruby.

  He drifted to the back. Still no sign of Sandra or the others. He glanced up at the buildings around him and didn’t see any sign of the guards dressed in black. Maybe they were in the ranks, participating in the war. He imagined that Jeremiah would need every able body fighting, not wasting anyone to guard. As the group turned a corner, h
e slipped into the shadows of a small storefront.

  Leo dashed through the store, glancing over his shoulder. No one followed him. He went through the store into a small back room, then pushed his way through a door that led into a hallway. He ran down the hall and found a stairwell, so he went up. He figured he’d hide out for a while, let the Frenzies clear while he figured out what to do next. But when he got into the stairwell, he heard footsteps coming down, so he turned back around and took a different hallway deeper into the building. There were no lights, so he felt his way along, his fingers running over the cinder-block walls.

  He came to another door and tried to open it quietly. The click made by the latch sounded loud as a gunshot to him in the midst of that silence, and he stood there, waiting, holding his breath. When he didn’t hear any response, he crept into the room and the door closed behind him, again making a loud click. A line of narrow windows faced the outside world, allowing a dim red glow to settle in the room like mist.

  Leo realized there were others in the room. Dressed in black, they walked silently. He turned to run, but someone was at the door.

  It was Jeremiah. Who was this young man, that he could be everywhere at once, lead thousands of people without a hint of mutiny, and supply everyone with enough food and water?

  Who was he?

  What was he?

  “Hello, Leo,” he said, coming into the room. The guards formed a small circle around Leo and Jeremiah. “Where are you going?”

  “This isn’t my war,” Leo said quietly.

  “Oh, but it is,” Jeremiah said, chuckling to himself. “Haven’t we fed you and protected you? Haven’t we led you on straight paths through the city? Haven’t we given you friends? People like Sandra.”

  “Where’s Sandra?” Leo asked.

  Jeremiah smiled. “Questions, questions. But I asked you first. Where are you going?”

  Leo stared at Jeremiah, and he felt like the only chance he had in that moment was to tell the truth.

  “I’m looking for my sister.”

  “She’s not here with us?”

  “I haven’t seen her.”

  “Then she must be with the enemy.”

  Those words sank into Leo, deep and harsh. He had considered that. If his sister and his father weren’t here, with the Frenzies, they must be in the center of the city, where he’d originally thought they would be, close to the tall building.

  “I don’t know where she is.”

  “I think,” Jeremiah said, now talking to the guards, “that what we have here is a spy.” He stared at Leo. “I don’t have time for this,” he hissed. “But you might know something important.”

  Leo waited to hear his fate. Jeremiah paused for a moment.

  “Take him somewhere safe,” he said. “I have a city to win.”

  He turned and left the room.

  26

  JEREMIAH TOOK most of the guards with him, leaving only two to escort Leo “somewhere safe.” Leo was relatively sure that Jeremiah wasn’t concerned with his safety as much as his containment. The two guards each had a hand on one of Leo’s shoulders, and they pushed him through the dark hallways at a light jog, directing him here, there. They climbed stairs and ducked through an alley.

  The two were strong, and they kept their faces turned away from him as much as they could, as if they didn’t want to be identified. They ran down dark corridors without hesitating, and it seemed like they could see in the dark. He tried to start a conversation with them, hoping there was something human hidden behind their robotic obedience, but they never replied.

  One moment they pushed him faster, faster, and the next moment they stopped, motionless. He looked over his shoulder at one of them, and the guard lifted a finger to his lips.

  “Shh.”

  The three of them stood in almost complete darkness in the bowels of a building. That’s when Leo heard scurrying sounds, the lightest whisper of feet, of people trying not to be heard, not to be seen. He thought everyone was with Jeremiah, preparing to fight a war. The room’s ceiling was low, and he couldn’t see any walls.

  Leo didn’t know exactly what happened, but in a blink the guards were gone. The weight of their hands on his shoulders slid away. The sound of people wrestling, fighting wordlessly, was followed by the shushing sound of people being dragged over a floor, their clothes scratching at the carpet. Still, Leo didn’t move. Maybe the attackers had forgotten about him. Maybe they hadn’t seen him. Maybe they had seen him but didn’t care.

  “Come on,” a familiar voice whispered, and a soft hand gripped his shoulder, pulled him farther along. He followed. They moved quickly, quietly, for a few minutes before finding a patch of light. Five figures emerged from the shadows.

  Sandra and her friends. They moved like ghosts.

  “Why?” Leo asked, hugging each of them fiercely.

  Sandra looked around at the others. “I don’t know,” she admitted. She started talking again, but her voice trailed off, and she mumbled again, “I don’t know.”

  “How did you get away?” Leo asked. “What about the other guards?”

  “They have their hands full,” Mary said in her gentle voice. “It turns out a lot of people don’t want to fight a war.”

  “So, the war isn’t going to happen?” Leo asked.

  “It’s going to happen,” Sandra said. “But it’s not as organized as Jeremiah wants it to be. A lot of people deserted. We’re getting out of here. We think we might be country folk, maybe try living in the forest for a time.”

  “I have to find my sister,” Leo said.

  Sandra stared at him. “This city is going down,” she said in a serious voice. “Once Jeremiah starts what he wants to start, nothing will get out alive. Probably not even him. They’re not called Frenzies for nothing.”

  “I can’t leave now,” Leo said.

  “You really think the gate is still open?”

  “I don’t know. I doubt it. But I have to try, right? She’s my sister.”

  Sandra stood there quietly for what felt like a long time, but darkness has a way of magnifying time, stretching it.

  “Follow me,” she finally said, walking through the long room and out a door. Leo followed her as they descended. Five flights down, six flights down, seven flights down. He hadn’t realized the guards had taken him up that high. Sandra kept going down.

  It was pitch-black, and they made their way by holding to a handrail. Leo followed the gentle sound of Sandra’s footsteps, and there was nothing but the sound of their feet and the rail slipping through his hands, that line of cold metal. It was the sound of loss, the sound of movement, the sound of losing everything. If he somehow misplaced that rail, he thought he might float away into the nothingness around him.

  At the bottom, Sandra gathered them all together and struck a match. The light flared up, and everyone’s faces looked orange, flickering in the shadows.

  “Here is the door,” Sandra said, pointing. Her match went out, and all the light in the world fled with it, but she kept talking in the dark.

  “That door leads to an underground passageway. Tunnels, maybe. I’m not sure what they were for at first. But at each intersection of tunnels you’ll see arrows in different colors. Follow the red arrows and they will bring you to the basement of a house in the heart of the city. You said you wanted to get to the middle, close to the tall building. I think you’re crazy. I think you’re going in the wrong direction. If I were you, I would go to the trees and hide until this madness passes. Or leave. Head back to the doorway.”

  “Why don’t you come with me?” Leo asked in an excited voice. “Come with me! We’ll find my sister. We’ll get out of here. You can come back through the doorway with us.”

  When Sandra spoke, he knew she was speaking for all of them.

  “We can’t go back,” she said. “None of us. I’ve thought about it, believe me. But there’s nothing for us, not there.”

  “But . . .” Leo tried to interrupt. />
  “Forget it, Leo,” she said. “Forget it.”

  Leo heard sadness in her voice, and regret, and he realized that in those few short days Sandra had become his friend.

  “The red arrows will lead you to the basement of a house, very close to the tall building. If that’s what you want to do, if you think that’s where your sister is, follow those arrows.”

  “Who mapped them out? That must have taken forever,” Leo said.

  “Yeah. I don’t know. But whoever did it was organized, and they knew the city. Blue arrows go all the way to the river. Yellow ones lead to the tall building—I wouldn’t go straight there if I were you. Too many guards. Too many people.” She paused. “There are green arrows too, but we’re not sure about them. We never followed green to the end. Our investigation was interrupted.”

  “You’ve seen the water? You’ve been to the tall building?” Leo asked, surprised.

  “We’ve been close enough to hear the water, but never climbed out onto the street. We’ve been under the tall building but never inside of it.”

  “Is the passage lit?”

  “No,” Sandra said, pressing a small box into his hands. “That’s most of our matches. Walk with your hand against the wall. When you come to a turn or an intersection, light a match, follow the red arrow. Don’t use them all the time or you’ll run out. It’s not far, but there are a lot of turns. A lot.”

  Leo could hear their breath, he could smell it as it mingled with his own, there in the darkness under the city. He wanted to say a lot of things to Sandra.

  “Thank you” was all he said.

  He walked over to where he thought the door had been, but it wasn’t there. He felt around for the doorknob but couldn’t find it. He struck a match, and light burned an image in his eyes. He reached for the door handle and looked over his shoulder.