Stealing Liberty

by Jennifer Froelich

  “But‒”

  “Trust me, okay? Meet me at the maintenance garage after you’ve gotten them through. There’ll be plenty of time.”

  It ended up being a good idea. As soon as we got to the tunnel, Paisley handed Sam his tablet.

  “Check my code,” she said.

  He tapped through screens, asking Paisley questions while Oliver and I waited. I pulled off my wig and tossed it on the ground, glad to be rid of it even if my short hair was sticking out in all directions. Meanwhile Oliver bounced from one foot to the other, his eyes focused on the hatch as he watched for Xoey.

  “Uh, guys?” Sam said. “There’s a problem.”

  He explained how the school’s lockdown protocols would engage at the first sign of a perimeter breach.

  “I’m sorry.” Paisley shook her head, pale and stricken. “I should have known.”

  “No, it’s my fault,” Sam said. “I was going to write a script to work around it, but then Brock…”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “What do we do?”

  “Override it,” Sam said. “But I can only do it from the server room.”

  For a minute, we all just stared at him.

  “I’ll go,” said Paisley.

  I knew what that meant. We all did.

  “No.” I shook my head, not willing to even consider leaving Paisley behind. “There’s got to be another way.”

  “We’re running out of time,” Paisley said. “And there is no other way.”

  She started to turn away, but Sam stopped her, grabbing her hand.

  “No, Paisley.” His voice wavered. “Let me do it. You can’t.”

  “Yes, I can.”

  “But—”

  “Don’t you know, Sam? I’d do anything for you.” Then she ran off toward the hatch.

  “Paisley!” Sam tried to follow her, but Oliver took his arm, stopping him. “We need you at the train yard. You’re the only one who can unlock the car. The one who knows how to find the right crate, remove the tracking device, and make sure no alarms are tripped.”

  “But—”

  “I’ll watch out for Paisley.” Oliver met my eyes, looking grim. “I’ve got to tell Reed about the change anyway. Make sure he gets to the train yard as soon as possible in case...”

  “In case what?”

  “Sam, just wait for Xoey and then go with Riley. She’ll show you the way.”

  Oliver looked at me again, reminding me of that day in the library so many months ago when he told me Sam could use a friend.

  Sam has to get out, he seemed to say.

  “I’ve got this,” I answered.

  Oliver nodded and disappeared through the hatch. Xoey showed up just a few minutes later.

  “Where’s Paisley?” she asked. Then her eyes widened. “Where’s Oliver?”

  I hear the train in the distance, picking up speed, pulling away from the school. I try to imagine a reality where Paisley and Oliver make it in time, but I know I’m just fooling myself.

  “Here we go,” Adam says.

  We roll to a stop at the west gate where a monitor lights up, instructing us to shut off the ignition and stay seated while we’re scanned. Time to find out if Paisley’s hack worked. Adam and I sit still while the scanner passes over the truck, checking our heat signatures, matching our nanochips to their records. My heart thumps against my chest. Will the scanner pick that up too? The two closest Sentribots rotate toward us, their gun arms positioned to open fire. My heart beats harder.

  Rain splatters against the windshield. It’s the only sound I hear. I hate this. Waiting. No control, no way to make our situation better. This is when Xoey would be praying, I realize. I close my eyes and try it. I pray Paisley got it right. I pray that, as far as the security system is concerned, Adam is Brock and I am Xu. It surprises me, how good it feels to share my worries with One who is bigger than me, so I keep praying, asking God to bless all of us, whether on the train, in this truck or, worst of all, left behind.

  The monitor dings like a microwave. The Sentribots rotate away and the gate light changes from red to green.

  “Yes!” Adam says.

  “Go!”

  Then I hear voices, shouting from behind the truck.

  I focus on my side mirror and see Brock and Xu, running full throttle from the maintenance garage. Haak and Kino are right behind them, both of them armed and aiming at the truck. Kino’s hair has fallen down and she must have kicked off her high heels, because she’s barefoot and running fast, her face twisted into rage like I’ve never seen.

  “Adam!”

  “I know, I know!”

  He pushes the ignition switch, but nothing happens.

  They’re getting closer. I hear gunfire and duck just in time as a bullet comes through the side window and past Adam’s head. It lodges in the dashboard in front of me.

  “Adam!”

  “Hang on!”

  He tries the ignition again. This time, the truck lurches forward before stalling. Adam starts cursing. “Stupid old truck!”

  More bullets fly. There’s nothing I can do but duck against the seat. Adam pushes the ignition button again. The seconds that pass before the engine rumbles to life feel like hours. I see Xu through the mirror, grabbing the tailgate. Brock is right behind him. The truck lurches forward again, but doesn’t die this time. We’re halfway through the gate and picking up speed. Another bullet hits the driver side window. This time it shatters. Adam flinches, but keeps his foot on the accelerator, turning the wheel sharply, forcing Xu to let go. He tumbles backward, knocking over Brock like a bowling pin. They both crash against the gate.

  “Don’t stop! Don’t stop!” I yell.

  Not a chance. Adam is so focused on the road in front of him, he looks pained. I keep my eyes on what’s happening behind us. Xu and Brock are struggling to their feet while Kino yells at Haak. We take a corner fast, making me slide up against the door. By the time I glance back again, I can’t see any of them.

  It feels like I’m holding my breath for the next five minutes, my eyes fixed on the school’s reflection in the mirror as we race away. As soon as the lights of Windmill Bay disappear behind the last hill, I let out a victory cry and beat on the dashboard.

  “You did it! We did it!”

  He tries to smile, but it’s more like a grimace. That’s when I notice the dark stain spreading across his shoulder.

  “You’re bleeding!” I scoot closer and my heart drops to my stomach. “Adam! You’ve been shot! Pull over.”

  He shakes his head. “Can’t. They’ll catch us.”

  “I’ll drive!”

  He scowls. “Do you even know how? In the rain?”

  “I’ll figure it out. Adam, you can’t drive like this. You could…you could bleed to death!”

  He shakes his head. “We’re both dead if I stop. They’ll be coming.”

  I check the mirror again. There’s nothing but darkness behind us, but I know he’s right. Someone will be chasing us soon. Paisley says our com links shouldn’t reconnect to UDR systems way out here in the Dirt, but there are other ways of tracking us, especially on the open highway. Last night, Adam and Oliver found some alternate routes they think will make us less visible, but the first turn off is at least ten miles ahead of us. For now, I have to figure out how to stop the bleeding.

  I shift back to my seat and reach under it until my hand touches a hard plastic case, a first aid kit covered in dust. Every Red Cross truck has one. I pull it out and unlatch the lid. The contents are all messed up, like it’s been rifled through. I do the same, coming up with a small pouch labeled combat gauze. It looks too small to help a gunshot wound, but I lay it aside along with a package of sterile gloves, some medical tape and a pair of scissors, then keep digging. At the bottom of the kit, something bigger catches my eye, some kind of combat bandage with instructions written in a foreign language. I just hope it’s easy to use.

  I pull everything onto my lap and scoot across the bench toward A
dam. His skin is gray and his eyes are bloodshot, but he seems to be keeping them focused on the road. The idea of dressing his gunshot wound while he’s driving is ridiculous, of course, especially with wind and rain spitting in my face through the broken window, so I try again to reason with him.

  “Let me drive. It will only take a few seconds to switch.”

  He glances at the supplies in my lap then refocuses on the road. “You don’t know how to drive, and I don’t know what to do with any of that stuff.”

  “I can’t do this while you’re driving!”

  “Sure you can.”

  “I’m serious. My hands are shaking so badly, I’m not sure I can even open the packaging.”

  “Sorry I got shot in the wrong shoulder. I’ll do better next time.”

  “Adam…”

  “Just do the best you can. When we get to Battle Mountain, I’ll let you patch me up for good.”

  I don’t have time to argue. The blood stain on his shoulder is spreading. I shift in my seat and start unbuttoning his shirt. There’s no way to ease it off his shoulder while he’s driving, so I grab the scissors and start cutting it away, trying all the while to keep my head out of his sight line. Still, I bump his good arm a couple of times, making him weave across the wet road.

  “This is going to get us killed anyway!”

  Adam ignores me and keeps driving.

  Once I’ve cut away his shirt I survey the damage, taking a deep breath to keep from being sick. There are two wounds, one where the bullet hit him on the back side of his left arm and one where it came out through his chest, just below his shoulder blade. I have no idea if there are any major arteries in there. It’s hard to see anything through all the blood.

  “Here we go.” I pull on the gloves and scan the back of the combat gauze package before tearing it open.

  I shift toward him again. “This is going to hurt.”

  “Just do it. I’ll be fine.”

  But as soon as I start pushing the gauze into the hole on his chest, he flinches, then goes limp, his eyes fluttering up to the roof of the truck cab.

  “Adam!”

  I twist away from him and grab the wheel, practically moving into his lap as I jam my foot against the brake pedal. We skid sideways, then bounce off the road and through several meters of desert before coming to a stop.

  Good thing Reed strapped down the Liberty Bell.

  Adam is out cold. I don’t dare switch off the ignition for fear it won’t start again, so I switch off the headlights instead and unbuckle his seatbelt, dragging him across the bench to the passenger side. My gloves aren’t sterile anymore, but there’s nothing I can do about it. There was only one pair in the kit. I pick up the gauze and begin packing it into his wound. When I run out, I dig through the first aid kit again and find more, packing the second one into the hole in his arm.

  Adam moans, but doesn’t wake up. I know I’m hurting him, but the kit contains no painkillers. I unwrap the bigger bandage and stare in frustration at the foreign instructions. I need to figure this out for myself, relying on nothing but the few medical books I managed to skim through in the Hidden Library. There are two dressing pads. One for the entry wound, one for the exit. I put the first one on his chest, then wrap the bandage under his armpit and over his shoulder, positioning the second pad against the wound in his arm. I wrap the rest of the bandage around his chest and across his back, shoving the end through a plastic clamp and pulling it tightly in the other direction to create pressure. My fingers are no longer shaking by the time I secure it all with the closure bar, but we’ve been idling long enough. We need to get back on the road.

  Adam is slumped against the passenger door, but I fasten the seatbelt around him anyway and scramble back to the steering wheel.

  “Driving can’t be so difficult,” I mutter to myself.

  It’s nice to be right for a change. Other than figuring out how much pressure to apply to the pedals and how much to turn the wheel, my biggest challenge is finding the stupid windshield wiper control and dealing with the rain coming through the broken window. It’s a bumpy first few meters, getting back on the highway, but I manage without any trouble. Still, I drive at a lower speed than Adam. My side mirrors show me nothing but darkness behind us and the truck’s cargo trailer blocks the rest of my rearview, but I feel like the Secret Service will be on top of us any minute.

  So where are they?

  The road I’m supposed to take is so dark and narrow, I almost miss it. Instead, I jump on the brakes and feel the back end of the truck slide across the road. It takes me a few seconds to figure out how to back up and head in the right direction again, but I feel better as soon as we get a couple of miles away from the highway. The road is rough and feels like it’s crumbling underneath the tires, which means I have to drive even slower than before. But it’s also bordered by huge boulders and scattered trees, making me feel hidden.

  The miles pass and I start to relax my grip on the steering wheel. I’m getting the hang of driving, and I hear no helicopters; I see no cars in pursuit. Adam keeps sleeping. His chest moving up and down reassures me he’s still alive.

  My mind travels ahead of us, wondering what will happen next. For the first time in my life, there is more than one road in front of me, more than one possibility.

  Liberty! It washes over me in undeniable waves, thrilling and terrifying all at once.

  It’s tainted though. Adam’s wounds still need serious attention, I don’t even know if Reed made it to the train in time, and Paisley and Oliver have surely been left behind.

  I swallow a knot in my throat, wishing there was a way to go back and do it differently. When I got to Windmill Bay, I didn’t expect to make friends. I didn’t care about anyone. Nothing mattered except finding my sister. Now my priorities are all messed up in my head, even now that I’m one step closer to Lexie.

  Paisley made it possible, which is another reason it hurts so much to leave her behind. She and I were late to get dressed for the dance because we were in the laundry room, nailing a piece of plywood to the back of the cupboard to seal up the Hidden Library.

  It was Reed’s idea. “If Kino finds it, she’ll destroy it. All the books, music. Everything.”

  We all agreed, but when we were done filling the cupboard with mops and cleaning supplies to complete our camouflage, Paisley and I just stood there staring at it.

  “No one will ever find it,” she said.

  “Did we do the right thing?”

  “I don’t know.”

  There was no going back to rethink things. It was already past time to get dressed for the dance.

  “We’ve got to go,” I said.

  Paisley stopped me. “First, I found something on the dark net for you. About The Rose.”

  My heart stopped. It was the first time in days I thought about Lexie.

  “Tell me.”

  She did and now I’m finally free to go searching for my sister. Instead, I’m imagining turning the truck around and going back for Paisley.

  I don’t, though. I drive on, pushing away tears I didn’t mean to cry. Somehow, the only thought comforting me is the idea of Paisley and Oliver tearing the back out of the laundry room cabinet and finding refuge back inside the Hidden Library.

  An hour passes and I take another road curving north. This one is worse than the last. Still, every minute we get farther from Windmill Bay, I breathe a little easier. Is it too early to hope no one will find us? That Battle Mountain is too small of an outpost to activate our com links?

  Adam is awake now but we don’t talk. I know he’s hurting because he groans every time we hit a rough patch, which is pretty often. It must be bad though, because he hasn’t said anything about taking over for me.

  Another half hour passes in silence, then he heaves an enormous sigh.

  “This is taking forever. We should dump the Bell somewhere. Make up time.”

  I glance away from the road and stare at him. “You can’t be
serious.”

  “I am.”

  He’s already been shot, the only thing keeping me from slugging him. “You want to dump the Liberty Bell in the middle of the desert? Are you out of your mind?”

  “I just don’t care about a useless hunk of metal. What does it matter whether it’s here or in Japan?”

  “It’s ours! Doesn’t that mean anything to you? The freedom it stands for? It’s something we’ve never had. Something our grandparents’ generation gave away for…for what? A government promising them free stuff?”

  “I don’t have time for symbols. I just want a safe place to hide. Somewhere you won’t be beaten with a belt, Riley. Where Sam won’t be anyone’s punching bag. Where I can listen to a little music in peace and try to forget…”

  “Forget what?”

  “Everything.” He closes his eyes.

  I sigh, thinking about Paisley and Oliver. Adam doesn’t know they stayed behind, and I can’t find the words to tell him.

  “I think we’re both saying the same thing. If people hadn’t sold off their liberty a long time ago, you would already have those things. You would have had them your whole life.” I laugh. “Can you imagine? We’d probably take it for granted. We’d waste our time wishing for something far less important.”

  Adam doesn’t answer, but I’m okay with the silence. I’m trying to imagine the world I just described. One where my parents could read what they want or say what they think without getting arrested. One where I am so safe and free, I have time to care about dresses, makeup, and dances instead of escape plans and stolen monuments.

  “Anyway, no one ever followed us from Windmill Bay.”

  Adam closes his eyes. “That’s because I disabled all the other transports this afternoon.”

  “Adam! Why didn’t you tell me that?”

  He shrugs. His words slur as he begins to fall asleep. “There’s still the helicopter to worry about. And drones.”

  It’s past midnight by the time we get to Battle Mountain. At least it stopped raining. Adam’s still asleep. I don’t wake him. When we reach the edge of town I switch off the headlights and crawl down Main Street, our tires crunching on gravel and debris left scattered across the road. We circle several pot holes and plunge through a few, making me bounce up and down on my seat. Adam doesn’t even stir, which worries me.