Summer Ruins

by Trisha Leigh

  Deshi nods. “Yes.”

  “It’s our best bad plan,” Pax agrees.

  “Where you are, I am. No matter what.” Lucas’s soft gaze holds mine, and I know that in three days or less, we’ll know the answer to where that’s going to be.

  Chapter 36.

  Half of our little army is at work in the lab, making more of the compound that took out the Wardens at the Harvest Site. The rest of us have spent the past twenty-four hours coming up with a plan of attack for actually making the switch. The Summer Celebration begins tomorrow morning, and we’ve decided to move toward the end of the first day, just to make sure their praseodymium has been delivered and stocked. Hopefully in the black tent like we think.

  The eight of us who are going to make the swap have hunkered down in the old book depository, which is a few blocks from the site of the Celebration but not on the Others’ delivery route to and from their staging area.

  We brought some food and clean clothes, along with some glass bottles filled with explosive chemicals we found in the chemistry classrooms in case we need a distraction. Sneaking is preferable to exploding chemicals and glass, because alerting the Others to our presence could doom the operation from the start, but it makes me feel better to have the little bombs in our back pocket as a last resort all the same. The four of us might have agreed to die for the cause, but we’d rather not get more of our friends killed if it can be helped. We missed the Goblert’s appearance this morning because we left last night, but as of yesterday Mr. Morgan was still alive.

  I’m not sure why, but knowing he’s still alive gives me hope that maybe we can save some of them. Maybe the Others will even have to take a murder break since the Celebration starts tomorrow. The Prime and his family haven’t arrived yet that we’ve seen. We expect them to get here just before the Goblerts begin transporting attendees in the morning.

  Today they started cooking and dragging in huge bins filled with ice and drinks. The Elements haven’t been out of the black tent since we’ve been watching. After night falls, Lucas, Deshi, Katie, and I are going to trek back to the university to pick up the syringes filled with our praseodymium, then back here before sunrise so we don’t miss anything. Phil, Jordan, Pax, and Leah are going to stay behind and keep watch.

  During the weeks of scouting we uncovered a building filled with old medical supplies. Most of the supplies were unusable, but once Deshi told us about the injections the Others take, we made several trips there to retrieve syringes. Being in this city has been a priceless advantage—even though the Others destroyed the structures, they never bothered to sweep through and make sure they’d cleaned it of anything useful.

  Why would they? They’ve had the population under control for twenty years, no reason to believe anyone would ever wander from the perceived safety of the Sanctioned Cities. They didn’t know about us until a few months ago.

  Wolf jumps on me when we get back to Perkins Hall; I’ve tied him on a long tether out front. I hate doing that to him, and I know he despises not being able to roam, but he’d never stay behind when we leave otherwise. I’m nervous and worried enough about everyone else, there’s no way I can handle watching him get hurt in the middle of all this mess, too.

  I untie him, and he races past several buildings and disappears into a grove of trees. Lucas gives me a tired smile. “He’s going to be okay.”

  “I know. I told Brittany to cut partway through his tie before they leave tomorrow so he’ll be able to get loose before he starves.”

  He puts an arm around me. “Smart girls are really attractive, did you know that?”

  “All smart girls? Because there are plenty of those running around here right now.”

  “Well, one in particular.”

  Katie and Deshi head for the science building, but when I go to follow, Lucas tugs me back. We sit on the crumbled, sun-heated concrete steps of what’s been our home, fingers entwined. This might be our last chance to be alone together before tomorrow.

  And if things don’t go our way, it could be our last chance to be alone together in this lifetime.

  I don’t want to fritter away our time with kisses or playfulness. I only want to be next to him, and even though there’s no possible way for words to express the feelings that touch every part of me, my heart urges me to try.

  The deepening night hangs above us, the sky a huge expanse of black dotted with sparkling eyes taking in our last moments together. They’ll exist long after tomorrow, will wink down at generations of beings on unknowable planets for years to come. A breeze sighs through the trees and grass, whispering scents of summer flowers through the evening and relieving some of the oppressive heat.

  Bugs—Lucas says they’re called fireflies—light up the darkness in erratic patterns. It’s all very surreal, this perfect place called summer. If it weren’t for the looming confrontation, sitting here in the warm night, beauty everywhere, with Lucas beside me, would make me almost unbearably happy.

  I scoot closer until our hips are touching and lay my head on his shoulder. We both smell like sweat, but his familiar pine scent threads comfort through my blood. He sets his cheek on the top of my head and we exist in companionable silence for several seconds.

  “Do you think this is going to work?” I whisper, sorry to interrupt the quiet.

  His fingers tighten on mine. “I think we have to believe it will. It worked on the Wardens at the Harvest Site. There’s no reason to think it won’t again.”

  “There are variables we can’t know that could affect the outcome. You know that.” I swallow hard, lifting my head so I can look into his eyes. “If it goes wrong, if we have to fight them and we lose, I want—”

  “Althea, don’t do this. We aren’t saying good-bye.” He presses his forehead against mine, eyes serious and filled with more fierceness and love than I ever expected to have poured into me.

  “I wasn’t going to say good-bye. I was going to say thank you.” Tears try to clog my throat but I force them away. “Maybe we’re not meant to have long lives, but I feel like having you love me these past couple of months has shown me about really living—and people deserve to be as happy as I’ve been with you.”

  “If we lived a thousand years, I wouldn’t choose anything different than this moment and all of the events leading up to it,” he whispers, intensity tightening his words. “Everything that makes you you is what I adore, and without us being who we are, we may not have found each other. So if we die tomorrow, or the next day, it will be worth it. Because I got to love you.”

  He leans in, capturing my lips as swiftly as he captured my heart, and for a moment I lose myself in the salty mixture of his lips and the tears wetting my cheeks, the softness of his hands against my back, the hard outline of his chest muscles under my palms.

  We pull apart with more ease than has been typical; despite our desperation, there’s no urgency the way there has been the past several weeks. I lay my head under his chin, my hands fisted in his T-shirt. “I love you. I didn’t know it was possible to feel this much.” I pause, scared to death to give voice to the thought pounding like a pulse in my brain. “I don’t want to die, Lucas. I want more time.”

  His arms tighten around my waist, securing me against him as though they can protect me from the dangers we’re facing. “So do I, Althea. So do I.”

  ***

  “They lined up and went through the tent around six last night and again around dawn today,” Leah reports when we get back to the book depository, lugging bags of filled syringes.

  The rings around her eyes say the four of them spent the night in the building overlooking the Celebration, staring relentlessly at the black mystery tent. We don’t know for sure the praseodymium is even in that tent, but the Wardens have been stocking crates inside and there isn’t anywhere else it could be. Everything else they’ve unpacked has gone into the red-and-white striped tents, where the food and games take place, and they wouldn’t keep it there.

  I
f they’ve brought syringes, which they must have, they’re stored in that little tent.

  “So, the good news is they do take the praseodymium on a schedule. The bad news is, the Elements haven’t been moved. The first parade isn’t until the end of the second day—that’s tomorrow—so they’ll be out of the tent then, but there’s no guarantee the Others won’t put a guard on the praseodymium cache without the Elements there to police it.” Phil rolls his shoulders one at a time, then stretches his legs.

  He reminds me of Wolf; all of this sitting and waiting is taking a toll.

  I’m tired, too, even though we got about five hours of sleep the night before, which is more than we’re used to getting these days. I didn’t sleep very well. Probably because knowing it might be my last night alive makes it hard to relax. Still, the information dislodges a thought and I shake my head. “No. We need to go tonight; the Elements aren’t going to be a problem. The longer we leave those Wardens disabled at the Harvest Site, the bigger the chance they’ll be discovered and ruin our whole plan.”

  “I agree,” Deshi says. “When’s the best time to make the swap, then? Right before the sun comes up?”

  Jordan shakes her head. “You’d think so, but that’s when the Celebration’s the quietest. They start taking people for purging around ten at night and they work until sunrise. The best time would be after their evening dosage but before ten, because that’s when the Prime talks to them and then plays the video.”

  “Okay. So we sneak over to the building we’re spying from, then wait until they’re done with their injections. Six tonight. That gives us…” I look down at my wrist, forgetting again there’s no watch there, then raise my eyebrows at Pax.

  “About ten hours,” he supplies.

  Too much time, as far as I’m concerned. Now that the day is here, I’m ready to get it over with. The book depository is a few blocks away; we can’t see the Celebration site from here. We’ll move to the tan building on the edges, the one with the broken white statue out front.

  “Yeah. Let’s go ahead and go, then we can watch during the day and make sure nothing’s changing.” Lucas shoulders a bag of full syringes, heading for the front door.

  Pax, Deshi, and I do the same. All eight of us step into the midday sun and head toward the site of the Summer Celebration. In spite of everything, I’m curious to see my first one in action.

  ***

  We all go when the time comes. The four of us, the original Dissidents, are going to switch the syringes. The others are going to surround the tent and whistle if a Warden comes over for any reason. We’ve watched all day, though, and no one has gone in or out since the last of the Others took their evening injections, and now everyone is gathered in front of the big communication screen awaiting the Prime’s comments.

  We discuss leaving two Dissidents outside and two inside, in case anything goes wrong, but in the end we decide they’ll be safer without us. They’re hidden well enough, some behind bushes, others crouched behind boulders or equipment, and even if they get caught they can play dumb humans in a way we can’t.

  There’s no reason to believe this isn’t going to go smoothly, despite the fact that our parents are about to find out we’re willing to sacrifice them in order to get to the Prime and his family, but even so, the nerves doing acrobatics inside me aren’t buying it.

  To be honest, the Elements have learned a great deal about sacrifice since coming to Earth, and no matter what it means for them, I believe they’ll stay quiet.

  Clouds blot out the moon, another factor in our favor, as the eight of us sneak onto the Celebration grounds and over to the black tent. A cool breeze lifts sweaty hair off my neck, the promise of another summer storm on the horizon, and I wonder if we’ll be alive to see it.

  Leah, Phil, Jordan, and Katie take up their posts on each side of the tent, and then with a deep breath the four of us push aside the flap of heavy canvas and step inside.

  It’s dark in here; there aren’t even any candles or lamps to chase away the shadows. After my eyes adjust, I see the marble cages containing the Elements lining the back wall. They recognize us the moment I conjure pinpoints of fire on my palms and stand up, gaping. None of them make a peep, aside from a teary, muffled gasp that sounds as though it came from my mother.

  A few plastic folding chairs litter the grass to our right, and to the left is a single long table. Stacks of large metal boxes line the top, and once we raise the first lid it’s clear we’ve found the cache. Black foam surrounds the syringes of pink fluid, holding them steady and in place.

  The syringes they use are different than ours. “We’re going to have to dump these and replace the praseo in their syringes,” I whisper.

  We’re prepared for this hiccup; Brittany pointed out in the lab that the outdated syringes from the university probably wouldn’t look the same as the Others’. Pax and Lucas start squirting the Others’ praseodymium mixture into the grass at the back of the tent while Deshi and I empty our mixture into big plastic jars we brought for this purpose. None of us speaks or looks toward our parents while we hurry about our task. It goes smoothly, and once the Others’ syringes are empty it’s simple to fill them again, but my thin tank top clings to my sweaty back long before we’re finished.

  It’s done in less than thirty minutes. The Prime Other must have just completed his speech, because the distant drone of a television finds its way through the canvas and into my ears. Even though everyone says the Prime family sits through the video presentation, I’m ready to get out of here.

  “Let’s go.” I stuff the last of the discarded syringes into my bag and turn toward the door.

  My eyes find Fire’s. I try not to look at her but I can’t help it. My feet move toward her cage, caught in her gaze full of as much love as I saw in Lucas’s last night. It’s different, but just as desperate and sad, and jams thick wetness into my throat.

  Her fingers wrap around the marble, knuckles white as she swallows several times, trying to get something out. I put my hand over hers as tears spill down my cheeks. It shouldn’t be like this. I shouldn’t have to choose between my mother’s life and everyone else’s, but this is how it is.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She shakes her head, still unable to speak. I hear soft footsteps on the grass behind me and see Lucas approach Apa out of the corner of my eye. A check to my right reveals Deshi talking softly to Pamant. Only Pax hangs back, and it makes me equal parts sorry for him and envious of him, that he doesn’t know his father well enough to be hurting over this moment.

  I’m sure it’s still hard for him, to know if we succeed, he’ll be an orphan. But he and Vant never had the chance to form any kind of relationship.

  My mother’s eyes are clear when I turn back, and the blue pinpoints at the center of the endless black have hardened with determination. “You are my daughter, and I love you. Whatever you’ve done here tonight, whatever it means for me, it’s for the best. The four of us… we had no intention of leaving Earth with the Prime, anyway.”

  Her confession stuns me, makes the room darken and wobble at the edges. That they had changed, that the Elements are different than I used to believe, has been clear for some time, but that they had a similar conversation to ours, and agreed they wouldn’t take part in any more destruction? It swells my heart and breaks it at the same time.

  She wraps her fingers around mine, crushing my hand into the bars, and leans forward so that only I can hear her final words to me. “You are my daughter, and you are strong. Live.”

  “Thank you,” I choke out before stumbling through the tent flaps so fast I knock into Leah.

  She steadies me, her eyes frantic. “Are you okay? That took a long time.”

  Lucas crashes out next, and then Pax and Deshi. The eight of us return to our post in the crumbled tan building, then decide who will stay up to watch and who will sleep first. Everyone but Pax and Leah lies down on the hard floor to try to get some sleep. I think it will be im
possible, but my mind is anxious to escape the horrible loss of my mother for what’s probably the last time, and darkness swamps me the moment I close my eyes.

  Chapter 37.

  Lucas and I have the last shift—from four to six in the morning—so we’re awake when everyone else arrives. The Others will take their injections at six, and according to what happened at the Harvest Site that means they should start feeling the effects no later than eight or nine.

  To try to avoid a complete panic when they start dropping—especially since it probably won’t happen all at once and the Wardens and Others affected later might cause trouble—we’ve decided that everyone besides Leah and us Dissidents should sneak into the Celebration this morning and mingle. We need eyes on the ground. Even with the funny glasses that let us see closer, there are thousands of people milling around down there, including the two hundred or so Others we’re trying to keep an eye on, and we need to know as soon as it starts to happen.

  Katie’s in charge of the signal—we ripped up a white bed sheet from Perkins and she has it stuffed in her backpack—and once the first Other succumbs to the praseodymium she’s supposed to sneak to the back of the black tent, outside the grounds, and wave it. Then we’re going to get closer, to be ready once they’re all incapacitated.

  We think with the power the four of us have we can unveil everyone there before mass confusion sets in. We hope with the four of us we can even do adults without ruining them the way the Others do.

  Everyone is up and ready to go by six, pacing nervously out of sight until we give them the go ahead to take the stairs. After they’re gone, the five of us lie flat on our bellies, staring intently at the line of Others snaking in and out of the black tent, taking our poison.

  Leah clears her throat. “Katie told me they killed four humans just after midnight. She couldn’t see their faces, and none of the Celebration attendees noticed.”