Sky on Fire m1-2
Page 19
I KEEP TO MYSELF.
The Josie who took care of everyone – that girl’s dead.
She was killed in an Aspen grove off the highway somewhere between Monument and Denver.
She was killed along with a deranged soldier.
I killed her when I killed the solider.
I am a girl with a rage inside that threatens to boil over every minute of the day.
All of us here are O types who were exposed. Some of us have been tipped into madness by the compounds.
It depends on how long you were exposed.
I was out there for more than two days.
I work on self-control every moment of the waking day. I have to be on guard against my own blood.
I see others allow it to take over. Fights erupt. Tempers flare over an unfriendly glance, a stubbed toe, a bad dream.
If someone gets really out of control, the guards lock them in the study rooms at Hawthorn.
If someone really, really loses it, sometimes the guards take them and they don’t come back.
It makes it worse that we’re just a little stronger than we were before. Tougher. The cycle of healing, a bit speeded up. Not so much you notice, but old ladies not using their canes. Pierced ear holes are closing up. More energy in the cells, is what the inmates say.
They call it the O advantage.
It’s our only one.
The Type O Containment camp at Old Mizzou is a prison, not a shelter. The blisterers (Type A), the paranoid freaks (Type AB) and the people who’ve been made sterile (Type B), are at refugee camps where there’s more freedom. More food. Clean clothes. TV.
But all of the people here at Mizzou have Type O blood and were exposed to the compounds. So the authorities decided we are all murderers (probably true – certainly is for me) and penned us in together. Even the little kids.
‘Yes, Mario,’ I say when he starts to grumble about how wrong it all is. ‘It’s unjust. Goes against our rights.’
But every time my fingers itch to bash some idiot’s nose in, I suspect they were right to do it.
I remember my Gram talking about fevers. I remember her sitting on the edge of my bed, putting a clammy washcloth on my forehead.
‘Gram,’ I cried. ‘My head hurts.’
I didn’t say it aloud, but I was begging for Tylenol and she knew it.
‘I could give you something, my baby girl, but then your fever would die, and fever’s what makes you strong.’
I would cry, the tears themselves seemed boiling hot.
‘A fever comes in and burns up your baby fat. It burns up the waste in your tissue. It moves you along in your development. Fevers are very good, darlin’. They make you invincible.’
Did I feel stronger afterwards? I did. I felt clean. I felt tough.
Gram made me feel like I was good through and through and I would never do wrong.
I’m glad Gram is long dead. I wouldn’t want her to know me now. Because the O rage comes on like a fever but it burns up your soul. It makes your body strong and lulls your mind to sleep with bloodlust and you can recover from that. But after you kill, your soul buckles. It won’t lie flat; like a warped frying pan, it sits on the burner and rattles, uneven.
You can never breathe the same way again because every breath is one you stole from corpses rotting in the ground, unburied, where you left them to bleed out.
As I understand it, the National Government brought us here, but the State of Missouri is running the camp. The locals don’t want us released, but don’t care to pay for us to be properly cared for either. And the National Government has been slow to provide for us.
The result: not enough guards, not enough food, not enough space, not enough medical care. And they won’t let us out.
There were petitions circulating, when we first arrived. People trying to get the stable Os separated from the criminal ones. But the guards made life hard for the signature-gatherers.
Now we’re all just waiting it out.
Every week a rumour drifts through the camp that we’re to be released.
The hope is dangerous to me. It makes me care.
Q&A with Emmy Laybourne
What inspired you to write the Monument 14 books?
I think the seed of the Monument 14 series comes from two of my great loves: survivalist planning and superstores! I love to wander the aisles of superstores, checking out the goods and seeing how I would set up camp in the store, if I had to. And I’ve always enjoyed ‘worst case scenario’ thinking. It’s the worrier in me, but I’m always thinking of how I will save my kids’ lives if we’re in some terrible crisis…
I put those together and there was the central idea of Monument 14 – fourteen kids stranded in a superstore while civilization collapses.
What would be your dream cast if the Monument 14 books were made into movies?
I can happily, happily name a few names, but remember that within a year or two my suggestions may be irrelevant because young actors age themselves out of roles… With that in mind, here are my dream choices for some of the lead roles:
Dean – Graham Phillips (The Good Wife – he’s so wonderful in it!)
Astrid – Brigit Mendler (Good Luck Charlie – she’s ready for her first dramatic role)
Jake – Josh Hutcherson (a little movie we know as The Hunger Games!)
Niko – Jake T. Austin (The Wizards of Waverly Place – I know, a silly show, but I think Jake has the chops!)
Josie – China Anne McClain (A.N.T. Farm – another comic actress who will get the chance to do some real acting here)
Brayden – Sterling Beaumon (Lost – check out his photo. Whoa!)
Sahalia – Elle Fanning (Super 8 – I was blown away by her performance in this movie!)
Alex – Joel Courtney (Super 8 – the perfect Alex. Or Dean, in about three years!)
Payton – I’m a huge Zac Efron fan – wouldn’t he make a terrifying Payton?
What songs would be on the Sky On Fire soundtrack?
The Sky On Fire soundtrack would be filled to the brim with Radiohead! It’s what I listen to when I write. Their music is slightly futuristic-sounding, you can really sink your teeth into the lyrics and melody, and there’s something slightly sinister going on at the same time.
Which character in the series do you most relate to?
Dean. Dean’s my boy. I relate to the way he feels that he’s an observer and slightly on the outskirts of the social structure, at least at the beginning of the series. That’s certainly how I felt when I was his age. Dean is always trying to do the right thing – sometimes he succeeds, but not all the time. I identify with that, too.
Who would be at your dream dinner party?
Shakespeare. Bam. His name popped into my mind before I was even done reading the question. I know you’re probably thinking, ‘Everyone says Shakespeare’. That’s because we have to. It’s our imagination-ly duty to put Shakespeare at the top of the list of any and all time-travel-allowing invitation lists. Just accept it.
I’d also like to meet E. E. Cummings, American playwright Thorton Wilder, Jane Austen and the poet Emily Dickinson. (I will seat Jane and Emily together, of course.) Michelle and Barack Obama go on the guest list, absolutely. Then I’d add Anne Lamott, because I think she would consent to hold my hand and help me to calm down so I can stop grinning like a doofus and ask Shakespeare some intelligent questions. Actually, you know what, I’m going to add my dear Shakespeare professor, Don Foster. He’ll know what to ask. Lastly, my Mom and Dad, because they throw the best dinner parties in the world, and I will need the help of their considerable social graces to pull this thing off.
Is there a book you wish you had written?
Fire by Kristin Cashore. I absolutely love the world she has created with the Graceling series. Fire is a fantastic heroine – tough as nails, deeply flawed. And what a ride Cashore takes us on in each and every novel she writes! I have no idea if she plans to continue the series, but I never, ever want it to end…
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What advice would you give to aspiring young writers?
If you’re going to be an artist of any kind, you will need to learn how to turn off your internal critic when you are working. You cannot create and judge your work simultaneously. It just doesn’t work that way.
For this reason, I’d recommend taking an improv class! When you are doing improv, you learn very quickly how to shut that internal critic off – or he shuts you down. You can also learn a lot about story structure and character development on your feet in front of an audience.
Where is your favourite place to write?
I work in a lovely little office with cream-coloured walls hung with lots of photographs and art. It sits right next to a cafe where they serve local, organic food and is a one-minute walk away from my kids’ school. It is the perfect office for me – better than I ever could have dreamed!
Follow Emmy on Twitter: @emmylaybourne
Copyright
Text Copyright © 2013 Emmy Laybourne
First published in the US in 2013 by Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Hodder Children’s Books
This ebook edition published in 2013
The right of Emmy Laybourne to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form, or by any means with prior permission in writing from the publishers or in the case of reprographic production in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency and may not be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
E-pub conversion by Avon DataSet Ltd, Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire
ISBN: 978 1 444 91473 3
Hodder Children’s Books
a division of Hachette Children’s Books
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An Hachette UK company
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