by Trisha Leigh
“Tommy, has it ever been this bad before?”
Tears roll down his cheeks, reminding me again that he’s just a little boy, and I try to swallow a little of my panic to calm him. My hands grasp his shoulders and he locks his gaze on me, swallowing hard. “No. She’s never fallen asleep in the middle before. Lots of times she does after and I have to hide her so no one sees.”
“Okay. We have to get her out of here, Tommy. If it’s the dust like you guys think, she won’t get better until she can breathe, and the end of the day is too far away.”
“We can’t go outside until the horn blows. The elevators don’t work before then.” His voice trembles and he moves closer to me.
I put my arm around his shoulders, holding him tight while my brain tries to figure out what to do. The idea of letting this little girl die isn’t an option, but if we get caught taking her outside, the Wardens might decide she’s more trouble than she’s worth and kill her anyway. Expose her.
The thought of Jas outside, freezing to death while some Other watches and laughs, kills a part of me. While my mind clicks through everything I know and grows more desperate with the fact that I don’t know how to help her, Tommy’s shoulders slump under my arm.
“I know another way out,” he whispers.
“What? How?”
“I wasn’t supposed to tell you. It’s our secret, Jas’s and mine. I use the old tunnels to hide her when she needs to rest, but they connect with the other stations and there are windows in the tops sometimes.” Fear washes off him in palpable waves.
“Tommy, I swear I’m not going to tell anyone about your secret. But the windows, where do they lead?”
“Outside. I guess that’s why they’re not worried about anyone using the old tunnels. Because we’ll freeze if we go out there.”
“Show me where the closest one is.” I kneel down and hook one arm behind Jas’s knees and slide the other under her shoulders, pulling her into my chest.
She’s tiny, even for a five or six year old, and doesn’t weigh much. If the exit is far, she’ll get heavy fast, though.
Tommy leads without another word, traipsing deeper into the tunnels as we leave the rest of the workers behind. He takes left and right turns from memory in the darkness. Only his outline remains visible in front of me, but I can’t help with any light because my hands are full. I give up trying to keep track of where we’re going. I’ll have to depend on him to get us back safely.
I don’t know what I’m going to do once we get Jas outside. I can keep her from freezing, but if the fresh air doesn’t help she could die anyway. Every couple of seconds I lean down so my ear hovers above her mouth, and each wheezed breath makes me want to dissolve into tears. I need to get her breathing again, then figure out the rest.
Tommy slows to a stop next to a rickety ladder, one that climbs out of sight. The top isn’t visible, but a pinprick of gray light reaches down into the darkness, revealing that there’s an exit into the permanent twilight up there somewhere.
“Stay here, Tommy. I’ll be back.”
“What are you going to do once you’re outside? You’ll die out there. Jas’ll die too. It’s too cold.” He pins me with a serious gaze.
“You saw how I could make fire in my hands, right?” He nods. “I’ll keep her warm, I promise.”
Carrying her up this ladder is a challenge. If Pax were here that would solve a lot of problems, since he could simply create a wind to blow us to the top. Jas starts coughing in her sleep, and for some reason that makes me feel as though time is running out.
I sling her over my shoulder, knowing it’s probably not safest to compress her stomach and chest but having no other ideas. I climb as fast as possible, my arms and legs burning. Soon they stop burning and go numb, like pieces of lead hanging off my body. I ignore the pain and focus on the light above, refusing to take my eyes from it until I get there.
It takes me a long time to make it. Twenty minutes, maybe more, and the black circles under Jas’s eyes look like bruises now.
There’s a hatch made of glass at the top of the ladder, right above our heads. It’s held in place with a simple metal handle and clasp, which I push open with no issues and shove Jas through before following.
I drop to the ground, my legs unable to support my weight, and the wind bites at my face and arms, tearing at my clothes like I’m being cut to pieces by a hundred knives. My power is as lame as my legs, reluctant to emerge due to my exhaustion, but if I can’t push warmth around us the whole journey will have been for nothing.
It takes less than a minute to push heat out until it warms me and expand it until Jas stops shivering and her skin grows warm again. I rub her arms, pulling her head into my lap and talking softly for the next five or ten minutes. It doesn’t take long out in the fresh air before she stops wheezing and opens her eyes. Another half an hour passes before she sits up and breathes normally. Like magic, the black circles under her green eyes have faded and she hugs me, sagging in my arms.
“Thank you.” Her head droops, and I remember what Tommy said about her falling asleep after the really bad attacks.
“Jas, I know you’re tired, but you can’t fall asleep yet. We have to get back down into the mine and I can’t carry you again. I’ll fall over, too.” I grin and make a funny face, trying to keep her engaged enough to stay awake.
Tears fill her eyes. “I can’t.”
“You can, Jas. You go into the mine every day knowing it will make it hard for you to breathe but you never say anything. You’re the strongest kid I’ve ever met.” I drop the warmth that’s shielding us, causing her to shudder. It seems to push her eyes open a little more.
I slide my feet back through the hatch, finding a rung and stepping down several to make room for Jas. Her feet, clad in the same worn boots as everyone else, dangle through and I help her find footing. “You’ve got to close the hatch. It’s not too heavy; you can do it.”
She does after a minute or so of trying, and we take forty-five minutes or so to get back to solid ground. Tommy lights up when he sees her walking on her own, and they give each other a little-kid hug that spews happiness through my exhausted limbs.
I have no idea how many times this has happened to Jas in the past, but this is the third time it’s happened in the weeks I’ve been here and every time it’s been worse. If I hadn’t been here today, if it had been a Warden instead, Jas would be dead.
“We’d better hurry, you two. The workday must be about over, and Carrej gets mad if I’m not up waiting when the horn goes off.”
Not that I care all that much—Carrej has proven to be a benevolent captor, as Wardens go, and leaves me alone more days than not. He checks on me about twice a week and seems satisfied that I’m doing my job, that the workers are doing theirs, and never says much.
We get back in plenty of time and I’m waiting at the top of the elevator bank when the horn blows a little while later. Carrej nods at me, then tells me some joke about a guy in his Main who tripped and banged his head, then fell on his pickaxe and sliced open his leg. It’s not funny to me, but I smile appropriately, too tired to spar with him. If he wants to believe that I’m coming around to the Others’ way of thinking or report that to the Prime, so much the better.
The less time they spend thinking about us or watching us, the more chances we’ll have.
I can’t wait to tell Lucas and Pax about the tunnels that connect the Stations through the mines. The fact that I finally have an idea for how we can meet with the people we need to see from other stations, that we can maybe use our combined brainpower to figure something out—or at the very least, to inform them of any plans back home—makes enduring everything a little bit easier.
Chapter 17.
“So, you think there are these escape hatches outside all of the stations, and we could climb down and meet people from other stations in the tunnels? Like Leah?” Pax’s question sounds skeptical, which I’m used to from him. It distracts me for a mi
nute, the way he says her name, and I stare.
It irritates me more than it should, mostly because he’s right that my idea sounds useless. “Yeah. Except I don’t know when. They lock us in at night, and if we get stuck down there we won’t have a way back inside in time to meet the Wardens in the morning.”
“Maybe during work hours?” Lucas suggests halfheartedly.
“No. They’re too far away. The stations. We’d never get to a common place, meet, and get back before someone did a count and noticed they were missing. We only do the count in our Mains and there are countless more. We’d have to do it overnight. It’s the only time they’re not counting us.” I get up and pace in the darkness, but the chill in the air gets to me after a minute and I flop back under the covers, pulling them to my chin and pushing a little heat through my skin.
The boys are both silent, but their shallow breathing tells me they aren’t asleep. This has to be the answer. There has to be some way we can use Tommy and Jas’s knowledge. No one else knows about the abandoned connecting tunnels, and if the Wardens do, they don’t expect anyone to be able to slip away unnoticed.
“What about this?” Lucas’s breath tickles the hair on the back of my neck. “The people who would help us move through the tunnels during the day until they all end up in Station One, then they come up at the end of the day with everyone else.”
It’s a good idea. I turn it over and over in my mind, but I find the hole quickly enough. “None of us patrol Station One. The counts will be off and the game will be over before it starts.”
“Plus they won’t have anywhere to sleep,” Pax points out.
A light bulb blinks in my mind. “We get people to switch places with them.”
Another long silence tells me they’re considering it. Lucas’s hand moves over my side and teases the hem of my shirt. His soft fingertips brush the bare skin around my belly button, distracting me from saying anything for a moment. Instead I sink back into his chest, enjoying being near him.
He presses a silent but not-too-short kiss to the side of my neck, under my jaw. “That’s the answer, Althea.”
“Maybe so, but how are we going to convince people to switch? They may not be veiled anymore, but these people are still robots. They do what they’re told and they sure don’t want to get into trouble.” Pax rolls onto his back and springs squeak. “It’s like you said, Winter. The Others have an endless supply of workers back home, and these people are disposable. They’ve exposed three people from my station this week alone. The last one just for having a coughing fit and asking for water.”
I think about it for another minute. He’s right, and it’s the reason Tommy and Jas keep her illness as secret as possible, why Emmy won’t acknowledge me in public, and why the other kids run away when Jas gets an attack. They’re out for themselves, trying to stay alive. For what, I have no idea.
“Not only do they do what they’re told, but they’ll turn on us if they see a profit in it. Like the woman who tried to take Jas my first day. We have to be careful who we ask.”
“We make it worth their while. It has to benefit them, too, or they won’t agree.” Lucas settles his arm around my waist, his scent of pine going to my head. “I don’t know how we do that, but it’s the only way.”
“I’ll talk to Emmy. She might have an idea.” I remember what she said about Leah being separated for talking too often. “It might take me a day or so to do it without being seen.”
That settled, the three of us go quiet. Pax and Lucas both drop into a deep sleep within moments, Pax snoring lightly from across the room. I should have reminded him to roll over; him lying on his back means a brutal night of trying to sleep for me.
The events of the day have left residual adrenaline in me, though, and my eyes don’t want to close. Instead I flip over in Lucas’s arms until my face rests inches from his on our shared pillow. His blond curls are too long, dropping toward his eyes. I push them back off his forehead, trailing my hand to his cheek, then moving forward to press my lips gently against his.
We have an unspoken agreement about not kissing while Pax is in the room, but Lucas’s lips are there, slightly parted and full, and I can’t help it.
He wakes up slowly, tightening his arms around my waist until our bodies are flush and warm. We ease apart after a minute or two, both smiling in the dark, and he rolls onto his back, pulling me along until my cheek rests on his chest.
“Lucas?” I whisper.
“Yeah.”
“Are we ever getting out of here?”
His hand trails up my back, finally tangling in my hair. “I don’t know.”
“We’d better. I’m not spending my whole first summer surrounded by ice.”
He chuckles, and the sound vibrates my cheek. We both fall silent, and I sleep with the scene of summer that Cadi showed me—a warm lake at sunset, the scent of flowers and sunshine in the air, and the sounds of cicadas ringing in my ears—in the front of my mind.
***
I skip my shower the next afternoon to wait for Emmy in her tent. There are two beds in here, as there are in ours, and I wonder nervously who she shares with and whether or not they’ll tell on us.
At the last minute I hide underneath the bed, which seems like a good idea at the time. When Emmy does come in alone, though, she barely stifles a shriek when I reach out and touch her foot.
Relief sags her pale face when I struggle free and offer a sheepish smile.
“Althea, what are you doing under the bed? You scared me to death!”
“I know, I’m sorry. You said to find you if I needed to talk.”
“And this is the best idea you had?” She shakes her head, finally regaining some color. “I’m starting to worry about the fate of the planet being in your hands.”
I snort. “That makes two of us. Seriously, though, we have an idea but we need your help.”
I tell her about wanting to find people to switch places with Leah and Reese, the chemistry Monitor, and anyone else they know who might be willing to at least listen. If we find a way out of here, and if this thing with the Others comes down to a fight, we’re going to need as many people on our side as possible. We’ve got forty at home, but against a couple hundred Others, that won’t be enough.
“What do you think we can accomplish together?” She’s listened to me for five minutes without making a peep and her face betrays only interest.
It makes me feel better that she’s not dismissing the idea out of hand. Maybe she even knows how we can get it done. “It can’t hurt to brainstorm, now that we know what the element is that they’re mining. If we can figure out how to take it away, maybe? Leah’s been talking to the chemistry Monitor from Danbury. She might have ideas.”
The suggestion twists her mouth with disbelief. “I don’t know anything about that, but the other part—the figuring out how to amass a few people in the same station—that might actually work.”
“You know how we can do it?”
“There are plenty of families and couples, even friends, that have been separated since they arrived here.” She blinks away the growing mist in her eyes. “If we ask the right ones, they’ll be willing to trade, I bet.”
“And you’ll think about some people who might be good to bring into the fold?”
“Yeah, but I think we should start slow. Leah would know better than me, since she’s been trying to figure this out since the beginning. If we get her and Reese here, they might have ideas, too.” She pauses, listening again like she always does. “My roommates will be back any minute. You should go.”
“How long until you’ll decide who might swap?” I ask, shuffling toward the door.
There isn’t time for a shower, which is going to make for an uncomfortable evening. Hopefully the Wardens at dinner won’t notice if I change into clean clothes and wash the dirt off my face and arms.
“I’m not sure. I’ll find you. Probably in the cleansing room and not under your bed.”
“Thanks, Emmy.”
She nods and I leave, hustling from her furnicar and into ours. Lucas and Pax are clean and smell much better than me, but the dinner announcement blasts and I’m out of time. Their damp towels do a fair job on the dirt clinging to my skin, and fresh clothes make me feel a little less disgusting.
Later that night I tell them that Emmy’s going to help, but that she doesn’t know how long it might take. We’re getting used to waiting, I suppose, but instead of practice making it easier, it gets harder every day.
Chapter 18.
It’s three quiet days before Emmy invades my personal shower space again, but this time I don’t ask her to leave. With nothing to interrupt the monotony these past days, the sight of Emmy’s furtive expression shoots adrenaline down my spine, and I finish washing quickly, turning the water over to her.
I absently dry my skin and hair with my fingertips while she talks.
“I found four people. Two who are willing to switch to Station Two and two to Station Three.”
“That’s good! We can get Reese and Leah at the same time.” I bite my lower lip, thinking of Jas and Tommy. I can’t get them both, and I’ve spent hours deciding whether it would be better for them to stay or leave. I’d rather have Jas under my care during the day. She needs me more when the attacks come than overnight, so as much as it pains me, they’ll have to stay in Station Three. “Do you know a second person at Station Three who might be good? I could talk to them, maybe.”
Emmy wrings out her hair, biting her lower lip. “No. I’ve been thinking since last night but I can’t be sure…”
“Can’t be sure about what?” Or who, I want to ask.
“My mom’s in Station Three. Or she was, last I heard. But she’s not right. The procedure they put us through when we arrive… most of the adults aren’t the same afterward.”