Rite of Revelation (Acceptance Book 2)

by Sarah Negovetich

  Constance turns her torso around to get a better look at her backside in the pants. She turns back, meeting my eyes and shrugs. “Not exactly the most fashionable thing I’ve ever worn, but my butt looks amazing. Wait until Thomas gets a look at me in these.”

  There’s a beat of silence followed by beautiful gales laughter. It wasn’t even that funny, but none of us can stop laughing. Lack of sleep, hours of tension, and a million ways we might all die before tomorrow, and we’re in here laughing because Constance thinks Thomas will like her butt in a pair of pants.

  A knock on the door silences our laughter. “Is everyone okay in there?”

  “Almost done,” Elizabeth calls out in response to Eric’s question. We all finish lacing up the sturdy boots and head out of the room to find the guys.

  In the small square kitchen, Daniel and Thomas stop chewing to stare at the four of us walking in. Daniel swallows down his mouthful of bread and flashes me a smile that warms every inch of my skin.

  “Now that’s something I haven’t seen before.” Thomas looks Constance up and down and pulls her onto his lap.

  “No,” Daniel says, mimicking Thomas’s action, “but I think I can get used to it.”

  “Alright.” Patrice nudges past us. “Enough with the kissy face. I was promised food.”

  Eric passes around a basket filled with bread and hands us each a thick slice of cheese. “Sorry, we don’t have time for anything fancier. We can eat this now and I have more packed up to take with us.”

  The room is silent as we stuff ourselves with bread and cheese. Eric’s right that it isn’t a feast, but it might as well be a gourmet meal. The bread is still soft without even a hint of mold. The cheese is creamy and a little salty, a perfect match with the bread. It’s the best thing I’ve had to eat in over a year.

  Eric passes out backpacks to each of us. Elizabeth slides her burlap bag into hers before sliding it on. I check inside to find a canteen, a bag of food, and a thick blanket. It’s enough to last us at least a few days. I’m impressed with how much he was able to pull together so quickly. Eric stands, swinging his own bag onto his shoulders. “Time to go.”

  Gathered around the door with the lights out, our moment of fun and relaxation disappears. “The truck will stick out like a sore thumb in the city, so we have to move on foot from here on out. We’ll take the back roads again, heading west toward the mountains. Just stay close to me and we should be fine. If something does happen, everyone split up and run. They can’t chase us all at once.”

  I grab hold of Daniel’s hand and squeeze tighter. No matter what Eric says, I don’t plan to separate from Daniel unless someone drags me away kicking and screaming. Eric opens the door and we file out again, two by two, back into the fray.

  * * *

  Once we leave the courtyard, the streets are dark enough to hide our movements, but not our noise. These boots are much better than my worn out shoes from the PIT, but my feet slide around in all the extra space and they clomp with every step despite my best efforts. I’m not the only one making noise.

  The buildings spread out a bit as we head west, but bunch back up again when we hit the edge of the city. The houses and stores are older here, many of them long past the point of a new paint job. None of the buildings back home ever got this bad. I think. I never went to the edge of the city. Everything I needed was no more than a few blocks from my house. Everything feels neglected, as if no one lives here, but there are signs of life everywhere. Wash hanging on a line, a rusted tricycle tilted on its side in a yard that’s more weeds than grass. Who lives like this? Are they here by choice or because the Assignment forced them to work at jobs that can’t afford them nicer houses?

  The street dead-ends at a crossroads, guiding us to the right or left to circle back around the city. We march across the intersection and head into a grassy plain, a copse of trees visible in the distance.

  “Stay together,” Eric calls softly over his shoulder. Without the road to guide us, it would be all too easy for one of us to wander out of sight in the dark.

  The swishing grass absorbs the noise of our footsteps, but the tall reeds slow my progress. Eric increases the pace and my breath puffs out in heavy bursts. I suck air into my lungs, but the cool night air stings my throat and I cough despite my best efforts to stay quiet.

  My shoulders ache from running with the added weight of the backpack. Daniel tries to take my bag, but I shake him off. No way am I going to let him carry my extra weight when he’s out here with broken ribs and who knows what other injuries. I can be strong, too.

  Eric, visible in the moonlight, leads us and we each match his pace. The others are right behind us, I can tell from their labored breathing, but my entire world is the back of Eric’s head and Daniel’s strong hand in mine.

  Leaves crunch off to our right, breaking up the silence. Eric freezes and I drop to my knees out of some survival instinct, pulling Daniel down with me. The top of Eric’s head is just visible over the edge of the tall grass. I turn, searching for the others, but they must be buried down, hiding. At least, I hope they’re hiding. Eric’s head turns from side to side, searching the horizon, and I follow his movements.

  I drop back down and focus on making my breaths silent. A cramp builds in my left calf. If we don’t get up soon, the rest of my leg will follow suit and I’ll be lucky if I can walk the rest of the way.

  Eric stands, cocks back his arm and throws something in the direction of the crunching leaves. It’s too dark to see, so I close my eyes and strain to hear anything. More leaves crunch and I snap my eyes back open. Several deer jump out of the darkness, bounding into the tree line. Deer, just deer.

  I roll my shoulders, then let Daniel help me up. Eric is up and running, but I wait a half a second. Sure that we’re all still here, I ignore the building pain in my leg and chase after Eric, moving faster than before.

  As my muscles start to give out, we leave the grassy plain and dodge around the first line of trees. It’s darker in the forest. A canopy of leaves swallowing up the moonlight that guided us this far. I don’t mind. For once, the darkness is welcoming. I lean back against the rough bark of the tree nearest to me and sink down to the ground, my knees tucked up under my chin. Daniel collapses next to me and we sit in silence, catching our breath.

  “We have…” Eric puffs out the words from somewhere to my right, “to keep…moving.”

  He’s right, but I hate him for it. The thin line of trees between us and the open plain isn’t enough to hide us from searching guards. My legs are lumps of jelly, but more pain is preferable to the alternative.

  It takes another minute for everyone to get up. We can’t run anymore or risk tripping over roots and fallen branches. Without any light, everyone has to test each step to make sure they stay on their feet.

  The silence is unnerving. I want to ask so many questions, but we have to stay quiet. Even if we could talk, I don’t have the extra breath to speak. Instead, I run through a hundred different questions in my head. The biggest one being, ‘Where are we going?’

  Eric said we can’t live in the city and, for once, Daniel was in complete agreement. In school we learned a little about the geography of the Territories. There is a ton of unpopulated land in between the cities. So much of it used to hold people, but that was before the violence got out of control and the diminished population flocked to the cities for safety. Before the Machine. But no one lives there now, and it’s just forests and wild animals. None of us have the survival skills needed to live on our own in the middle of nowhere.

  Daniel squeezes my hand and I focus on the tingling of our contact. The details don’t matter so long as Daniel and I are together, right? I can’t shake the doubt sitting in the back of my head, but for now I can enjoy every second of this freedom.

  Six

  It’s hard to tell if it’s morning yet this deep in the forest, but after walking for what feels like forever, a thin film of light seeps between the trees and casts
shadows everywhere. Eric leads us to a huge boulder with a slight overhang, offering a hint of protection.

  His feet stop moving and we all fall to the ground in sync. I haven’t slept in almost twenty-four hours and the stress of each one of those hours fills up my limbs like sandbags.

  “We’ll stop here and get some rest. I won’t feel safe until we’re much farther in, but none of us is going to last much longer unless we stop for a bit.” Eric reaches into his backpack and grabs a water bottle and a small bag.

  My body fights between sleep and food, but Daniel breaks the tie for me. He grabs the water out of my bag, unscrews the top, and hands it to me, careful not to spill a single drop. I take a mouthful and let the lukewarm liquid coat my tongue before swallowing. One big gulp and I set it back down. Daniel offers me half a bread roll and a small slice of cheese. It’s not much, but it will keep my stomach from growling and that’s more than I can say about most of the meals we got in the PIT.

  Everyone moves in slow motion, eating a few bites of food and spreading out the blankets Eric packed. Daniel spreads his blanket out on the ground and pulls me close so we can both share mine as a cover. Exhaustion pulls at my eyelids, but all the unknowns keep me from giving in to sleep.

  “Eric,” I prop my head on my elbow with Daniel copying my position behind me. “What are the guards going to do?”

  “Once they get the riot quelled and throw a bunch of men in Quarantine, they’ll get the film crew out on the last Airtrain. Someone will be sent to check on you and then they’ll find you missing. They might search the PIT, but once they realize I’m gone as well, they’ll know that we left.”

  Eric lays out his blanket right beside ours, but doesn’t sit down. Elizabeth moves her blanket to the far edge of the overhang. It’s not really big enough for her to go far and I’m sure she can still hear every word.

  “With no more Airtrains for the night, they’ll grab a truck to make the drive and contact the guard in Ricksburg to search my apartment. It won’t take long to find it abandoned and realize we’re gone.”

  “Then what?” Patrice asks. She sits on the other side of Daniel. Side by side, there’s no denying they’re siblings.

  Eric shrugs, tossing a small stone between his hands. “As far as I know, there’s not a protocol for escaped prisoners. They’ll search the city for sure, but I don’t know if they’ll think to check the forest. We can’t risk assuming that they won’t.”

  “But you could go back, right?” Patrice’s voice is softer without all the anger painting her every word. “You could tell them that we forced you to help us.”

  Eric paces back and forth in front of his blanket, his eyes never leaving the stone he’s tossing. “Maybe I could have, but not now. We left your clothes at my apartment. They’ll understand that means I had to have other clothes there for you already. Most of them barely trust me as is. That will be all they need to know I was a willing participant.”

  “Then you’re an idiot.” Elizabeth still has her back to us, but I don’t need to see her face to know she’s seething with anger. “If the clothes are a giveaway then you should have thrown them away, burned them. Then you could leave us alone and go back to your perfect little world.”

  Eric stops suddenly and heaves the stone at the boulder. “Maybe I want them to know what I did.” Eric’s shout echoes against the trees and a flock of birds flies out of a tree, cawing out a reprimand for disturbing them.

  “You think I’m a monster, and I can’t blame you.” Eric rubs his eyes with the tips of his fingers, and the movement ages him another ten years. “The things I’ve done are horrific and I’d take them back if I could. I hate the Cardinal. I hate what he’s done to us. I hate what he does every day, horrible things right under the noses of everyone. I want him to know I helped you escape.”

  Elizabeth stands up and marches over to Eric. He stands up, arms stretched out, hope lifting his droopy eyes, but when she gets to him, Elizabeth doesn’t give him a hug. She pushes him hard enough to knock him back down on the ground and kicks a clump of dirt at him with the toe of her new boots. “Isn’t it nice that you finally figured out what a miserable excuse for a human being you are? Looks like you and the Cardinal have a lot in common.”

  She crouches down in front of him, her face only inches from his. Daniel jerks as if he wants to stop her, but I touch his arm and shake my head. This is between Elizabeth and Eric. It’s going to happen eventually, so it might as well be now.

  “I don’t care if you free the entire PIT and set the Cardinal on fire. I’ll never forgive you. I can never forget what you did to me. To her.” She swallows hard. “Congratulations on your little act of revolution, but don’t expect me to thank you.”

  She draws back her fist like she’s going to punch him, fire writhing in her eyes. She tightens her fingers and smashes her fist into the ground, inches from Eric’s head. He opens his mouth, but Elizabeth jumps up and marches away before he can get out the first word.

  I smear a dirty finger under my eye to stop the tears before they start. I can’t imagine the pain Elizabeth still holds after Molly died. My chest burns even thinking about losing Daniel. I can’t imagine doing any of this without him.

  Patrice, Constance, and Thomas lie down, and we all settle into an uncomfortable silence as sleep grabs hold. Eric stays sitting up on his blanket, his head scanning back and forth across the forest. Keeping watch so the rest of us can sleep.

  His gaze meets mine and I give him a small smile. I hate Eric. I really do. But he’s saved my life now, more than once. In almost no time he got a vehicle, the tools needed to remove our poison, new clothes, and packed survival bags. This wasn’t a light decision for him, and I can appreciate that. We’d be back in the PIT or dead if it wasn’t for him. Maybe that makes me hate him even more.

  I drop my head down and ignore the hard ground under my back. It’s even less comfortable than the mattresses in the PIT, but my body is too tired to care. I snuggle back against Daniel’s chest and let his steady breaths lull me into a calmer state. I have so many questions, but they can wait. We all need sleep, and I don’t think I can handle any more honest answers for a while.

  I close my eyes and try not to think about the scenarios that Eric didn’t offer up. Like what they will do back at the PIT once they realize we’re gone. They’ll do a search for sure. Will they find all the others who helped me with the hack at the Acceptance ceremony? How many more innocent lives am I responsible for?

  * * *

  My eyes flutter open and I sit up like a bolt of lightning. Leftover fear from my nightmare tears through my body and my limbs shake uncontrollably. Warm arms wrap around me. Daniel.

  What I really want is to stay right here on this sad little blanket and let Daniel hold me forever. But I also don’t want to get caught. I force myself to sit up and take in our group. The others are all in varying stages of waking up, including Eric. He must have dozed off at some point, his body’s need for sleep winning out over the need to keep watch.

  Daniel hands me the water and I take a few swigs. After one day, there is a lot less water than when we started. We need to find a new source today or we won’t have to worry about the guards finding us. The other half of my roll from yesterday is hard on the outside, but it will have to do. First, fresh water. Then food.

  There isn’t much to do to get ready. Just roll up our blankets and put on my shoes. I shove my foot into the boot and immediately regret my action. Blisters on my heel, ankle, and toes rub against the stiff material, sending little stabs of pain into my foot with each movement. What I really need is some antibiotics, a cold compress, and some lambskin wrap to keep those blisters from getting worse. But all I have is a second pair of socks dug out from the bottom of my pack. I put them on and hiss through the pain of putting my shoes on.

  I stand and test out the pain. There’s no denying it’s bad, but I can walk and that’s the important part. Daniel finishes adding our blankets to the packs
and puts both of them on his back. “Wanna tell me what had you so upset when you woke up?”

  “What do you mean?” I know exactly what he means.

  “Your face was pale as a bleached sheet and you were shaking like crazy. Something in your dreams had you pretty shaken up.” He takes both my hands and rubs his thumb in little circles along the back of my hands.

  “It was just a dream.”

  “Rebecca.” His hands give mine a single squeeze and then his thumbs continue their circular pattern. “We’re a team, and that means sharing your worries with me, even if you don’t think I can help.”

  “It was a dumb dream. A nightmare.” I close my eyes and try to force the image out of my head. “We were back in the grassy area in Quarantine. I told them I wouldn’t read the apology letter, but instead of hitting you, they killed you. A guard held a black box up to your arm and you collapsed, your body flooding with poison. I screamed at them that I changed my mind. I would read the letter. But it was too late.” I open my eyes and Daniel is even closer, practically flush against me. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  Daniel lifts my chin up with a strong hand until my eyes meet his. “I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me.”

  He leans down and kisses me gently. And then not so gently. His arms wrap around my waist and pull me closer until there isn’t a hair’s width between us. I grip his shoulders and lean into him until my arms ache; feeding on the love he passes me with every touch of our lips. I could never get enough of this, and don’t care who watches only a few feet away.