by Gary Paulsen
Breakfast passed him by, and then lunch. His stomach was growling and he was actually beginning to miss the watery, lukewarm porridge they served the prisoners between growing seasons.
By midafternoon the sun was beating down on him through the iron bars. He tied the rag around his head to keep the sweat from rolling into his eyes.
Finally they came for him.
The lock opened and the iron grate was pulled back. Cody squinted up at them. The two guards he’d shown the magic trick to the day before were standing above him. One of them reached down, grabbed Cody by the arm and dragged him out.
“Hey, guys, this is all a big mistake, I was only—”
A rifle butt smashed against the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. “The prisoner will not speak.”
Cody shook his head to clear his vision and managed to struggle to his knees before the second guard caught him in the ribs with the steel toe of his army boot.
Knowing that he shouldn’t just lie there and make himself an easy target for them, he rolled and then jumped to his feet. Blood trickled down the side of his face and his ribs ached like fire but he did his best not to let the pain show.
The guards pushed him up the steps and inside the building. The interrogation room was at the end of the long hall. He’d never been inside before but he’d heard the screams of the prisoners who had.
Sidoron was waiting for him, seated behind a large wooden desk in the middle of the room. The guards shoved him forward to a small metal chair in front of the desk.
After standing all night and most of the day, he was glad to sit down. Sidoron lit up one of his cigars and walked around the desk. He carefully looked Cody up and down and then sat on the edge of the desk with his arms folded.
“You’ve been with us a long time, White Fox, eh?”
Cody nodded.
“During this time you have probably come to know a lot of the other prisoners. Corrupt men who would use a bright boy like you to get what they wanted for themselves.”
Cody stared at the desktop while the commander continued. A long silver needle attached to a syringe caught his attention. He shifted his gaze and tried not to think about it.
“You’re young and don’t understand the mind-set of these types of people. They aren’t really your friends, you know. They’re only using you. If you were to turn them in, you would be perfectly justified. No one would hold it against you.”
Cody swallowed and bowed from the waist. “Your Excellency, you don’t understand. It was all a joke. I was going to return the uniform. And I was using the wire to make toys for the children in the barracks. What reason would I have to lie to you?”
The man stood. His pockmarked face was contorted with an evil grin. “So you are saying that you are happy here? You are completely loyal to our cause?”
The boy nodded again, not daring to look up.
“I wonder if you would care to prove it? See the dirt on my boots? Do you think it is becoming for a man of my importance to have such grime on himself? Of course you don’t. Get it off.”
Cody dropped to the floor and started to use his hand to wipe one of the black boots.
“No, White Fox. I want you to lick it off.”
Cody looked at the boot. A voice in his head said, Go ahead, maybe he’ll believe you and let you off.…
But his body refused to obey. His back stiffened and he moved to the chair to wait for the inevitable.
“Just as I thought.” Sidoron rubbed his hands together. “Now we can stop the games. You were planning to escape. And one or more of the adults are involved in this plot. I want to know their names. You will tell me who they are, or what’s left of you won’t be enough to feed the rats.”
“There was no one else,” Cody insisted desperately. “I was going out by myself.”
“Really?” The commander took the long cigar out of his mouth and turned the smoldering end toward Cody’s arm. “Are you sure there was no one?” He pushed it slowly into the boy’s flesh.
Cody jumped sideways, knocking the chair over. Sidoron motioned for the guards. They held Cody down on the floor while the commander burned him again and again on his arms and chest.
He could not stop the scream, a high-pitched keening sound that seemed to come from somewhere else, someone else.
“Put him back in the chair,” Sidoron barked. “Perhaps he is ready to talk now.”
Cody was in agony. And he knew this was only the beginning.
Sidoron slapped his face. “Pay attention, boy. Who are your accomplices?”
“I … I was going alone.”
A large hard-rubber club about the length of Sidoron’s forearm was lying on the desk. He picked it up and again motioned for the guards to hold the boy.
CHAPTER 9
When they threw him back in the cell, Cody landed on the bottom with a thud. He lay on the filthy floor too hurt and tired to move. Sidoron had beaten every inch of his body. Then the guards had had their fun. His shirt was ripped and he was bleeding all over.
Tomorrow would be worse.
The flies swarmed around his cuts. He didn’t even try to wave them away. Maybe Sidoron would go ahead and kill him tomorrow and it would be over. He closed his eyes, wishing that somehow he could make it all go away.
Sleep wouldn’t come. His mind would not stop hoping for some kind of relief.
Comfort did come. It was in the form of another song. A guard escorted an adult prisoner who had pulled night duty in the kitchen past the punishment cells. Suddenly the man burst out singing. “ ‘When the moon is high, my baby and I are leaving this one-horse town.’ ”
The guard yelled at the man to be quiet and punched him between the shoulder blades with the barrel of his rifle. The prisoner coughed and staggered across the compound to his barracks.
“Good old Luther.” Cody looked above him through the bars of the iron grate. The camp was quiet and the moon was on its way up.
There was no time to lose.
With gritted teeth and superhuman effort he rolled over and forced himself to his feet. The cell started spinning. He reached for the wall to steady himself. He felt as if he needed to vomit, only there was nothing in his stomach. Cody chided himself. “Come on, Pierce …”
It took a few seconds for the throbbing in his head to clear. Ignoring the pain shooting through his body, he drew his best lockpick out of his pants and reached through the bars to the padlock.
It made a creaking noise when it snapped open. Cody dropped the lock and the pick into his shirt pocket, pushed up on the grate and forced himself to climb out.
Immediately he made for the cover of the shadows near the office. There was only one thought on his mind—the major—and he knew Luther wasn’t going to like it. Cody had promised her he would try to do something to get her out and now he had to keep his word. Besides, they would need her to help find the base.
His heart was pounding as he silently crept toward the back of the medical barracks. He tried the first window. It was nailed shut. So were the second and third. The wood on the fourth window had swollen from the last rain so that it stuck. After dodging the searchlight several times, he finally managed to open it wide enough to squeeze through.
He landed on a bruised shoulder in the operating room. A dim light shone in from the adjoining ward. From the cover of the surgical cabinet, he could see a duty nurse making her rounds.
When she finished, Cody crawled past the cabinet into the ward. He crossed his fingers, hoping that the patients were either asleep or too sick to notice him.
He was almost to the next door when something behind him crashed to the floor. Cody slid under one of the beds.
The duty nurse came rushing back. Cody could only see her feet and they were running straight to the bed next to his.
“Private Rykov, I’ve told you a thousand times not to get out of bed by yourself. Here, let me help you.”
Cody waited, fearing that the rapid beating of his he
art or his loud breathing would give him away.
The nurse helped the young man down the ward to the bathroom. The instant they were out the door, Cody moved out from under the bed and hurried into the next room.
The major was still there.
Wasting no time, he went to her bed and gently shook her awake. Her eyes flew open. She didn’t hesitate or ask for an explanation. Quietly she slid off the bed, grabbed what was left of her flight suit and boots from the closet and followed him on her battered hands and knees across the ward floor.
CHAPTER 10
Cody held his hand up. The major stopped behind him and waited. From the shadows near the office he could see several sets of headlights approaching the camp.
Three small units and two official-looking black cars with flags on the hoods pulled into the compound. Cody had seen cars like these and men like the ones stepping out of them before.
It was a surprise inspection. Sidoron’s superiors came several times a year to make sure everything was in order. This time they would be especially interested in two things. One would be how the indoctrination program was working and the other—Cody glanced back at the major—was hiding with him here in the bushes.
Lights started coming on in the headquarters and the guardhouse. Cody looked at the moon. It wasn’t quite up all the way.
They couldn’t stay where they were. There was no choice but to head for the sewer pit.
The major stayed right behind him. When he jumped into the pit, she didn’t falter. He went to work frantically, clearing the tunnel entrance. Without a word the major slipped into her boots and used her good arm to help.
When the opening was clear, Cody went to the edge of the smelly pit and peeked out. If Luther didn’t get here soon, they’d be forced to leave without him.
A furtive movement caught his eye at the side of the toolshed. Cody ducked so that whoever was out there wouldn’t see him. Then he heard a noise like someone crawling in the dirt on their belly.
Luther dropped quietly into the pit beside him. “We got big trouble, kid. We’d be better off to try for another night. The whole place is crawling with …” He saw the major still in her hospital gown kneeling near the tunnel entrance. Luther rubbed his chin and paused. “Just tell me one thing. Has she given them the location of the base?”
Cody shook his head.
Luther threw up his hands. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here.” He took a small spade out of his belt and darted into the tunnel.
Cody and the major followed. Luther had done an excellent job of digging. The tunnel was deep and it went out under the wire for a good twenty feet. Now all he had to do was punch out an opening through the topsoil.
Dirt fell on them as Luther dug but no one talked. In a few minutes he had a hole wide enough to crawl through.
An alarm went off.
They could hear shouting and people running.
Luther crawled over the major and grabbed Cody’s shoulders. “Listen to me and don’t argue. You were right to bring the major. We can’t let them have her information. Now it’s going to be your job to help her get away. I’m going back to draw their attention. It’ll take their minds off of her for a while and buy you some time.”
“Wait.” Cody grabbed at Luther’s foot but he was already halfway back to the pit.
“Go on,” Luther whispered. “If I’m going to play the hero, I don’t want it to be wasted.”
Numbly Cody followed the major down the tunnel to the opening and helped her out. Then he squirmed up behind her and started running.
They could hear more shouting. In moments the sound of machine-gun fire came from the camp. Cody turned. The spotlights were focused on the fence and he could see the outline of Luther’s lifeless body hanging from the top of the barbed wire.
Cody felt a hand slide inside his own and pull him along. “Come on, kid. He didn’t die so that we could stand around. We need to keep moving.”
CHAPTER 11
Running was torture. At first the adrenaline pumping through his veins kept him moving. He was too scared not to. But now his legs ached from the beating he had received earlier and he could feel himself slowing down.
They had been traveling fast for hours. It had been Cody’s idea to drop off into a canyon bed for cover and see where it took them.
Twice helicopters had flown over using searchlights but the two escapees had plastered themselves to the wall of the canyon and the helicopters had flown on.
Cody slowed to a walk. The major fell into step beside him. “You look pretty rough, kid. What did they want from you?”
He shrugged. “Somehow they found out I was planning to escape. They wanted me to give them my partner’s name and I wouldn’t.” A picture of Luther hanging from the fence crowded into his mind.
The major touched his arm. “He was a very brave man.”
Cody moved into a slow trot. He didn’t want to talk about it. If he hadn’t brought the woman … the thought trailed off.
He glanced back at her. She was small, not even as tall as him. Her face was still bruised but starting to look a little better. He had to give her credit. She’d taken a lot from Sidoron and had still managed to survive. The bandage on her head and the cast on her right arm were filthy from the dirt in the tunnel and from sliding down the canyon bank.
She had changed into the olive green flight suit the CCR had found her in. Both sleeves had been ripped off and it was torn in a couple of other places. Grudgingly he admitted to himself that she had kept up with him in spite of her injuries.
They trudged on through the morning and into the afternoon. A trickle of water had emerged on the base rock of the canyon floor. Cody dropped to his knees to get a drink. The major did the same.
He watched her. She held her bad arm in the air and tried to sip the water while lying on her left shoulder.
“Can I help you?” he heard himself asking.
The major sat up and wiped her mouth. “No thanks. I’ll manage.”
Cody looked at the sky. The sun was high. The CCR was probably scouring the countryside by now. He hoped they would search the roads and towns before they looked for them in the desert.
His stomach made a loud growling noise, reminding him that he’d missed several meals. “How far is the base, Major?”
She pursed her lips. “Clear across the state. We won’t be able to walk it. Sooner or later we’re going to need some kind of transportation. And by the way, the name is Toni. What’s yours?”
“Cody. Cody Pierce.”
Toni put out her left hand. “Glad to meet you, Cody. And thanks for getting me out of that place.”
Shyly Cody shook her hand. “No problem. I just hope our getting out was worth what it cost.”
CHAPTER 12
It was getting too dark to see. Cody found an overhang on the canyon wall and made the decision to stop for the night. When he was younger, his father had taught him some basic survival skills, so he knew how to make a fire, but he decided it was far too risky.
Using his wire lockpick, Cody stabbed some of the red fruit on a large cactus and gave part of it to Toni. Earlier, when they’d been by the water, he had picked some cattails and other roots. He took them out of his shirt and gave her some. “I know it’s not the best …”
Toni took it all gratefully. “After that runny oatmeal at the prison camp, I bet it tastes just fine.”
They ate in silence, barely able to see each other’s face. Cody wiped his hands on his pants. “How big is the base?”
“Big enough. Listen, it might be better if I don’t give you any details until we’re sure there’s no danger of the CCR catching up with us.”
Cody was angry. He knew she was right but all this was incredible news to him and he wanted to know more. “Couldn’t you at least tell me how our side is doing?”
Toni chose her words carefully. “Let’s just say we have gained some powerful allies. I was on my way back to the base wi
th some information that could change everything. Now, can we talk about something else?”
“Like what?”
“Like you. How old are you?”
“Almost fifteen.”
“You have any family?”
“Nope. The CCR took care of that. How about you?”
“I was married once. To another pilot. He was killed last year when they bombed Jennings Air Base in Nevada.”
They lapsed into silence again. Cody thought about how young she looked to already be a widow. He yawned and leaned back. “I guess we better try and get some sleep. We’ll have to start at first light.”
“Tomorrow we’re going to have to leave the canyon. It’s starting to head in the wrong direction.”
Cody sat up. “I don’t want to be a pest or anything, but would it be a big deal for you to tell me which direction we should be going?”
“East toward the mountains … Cody?”
“Yeah?”
“If anything happens to me I want you to find a Colonel Wyman. Tell him … proceed with Dark Angel.”
“Nothing is going to happen to you. We’re going to get through.”
Toni slid down and tried to get comfortable on the cold rock ledge. “I hope you’re right.”
CHAPTER 13
Cody’s eyes flickered and opened. A pink sun was just coming up over the sandy horizon. He sat up and looked at Toni. She was still asleep, curled in a tiny ball.
He hated to wake her but it had to be done. Reaching across, he lightly touched her arm.
“No. Not again.” Her scream ripped through the morning air.
“It’s okay, Toni.” Cody shook her. “It’s just me. You’re safe.”
Toni sat up. Her eyes were wild and she was shaking. It took a few seconds for her to realize where she was and calm down. “Bad dream …”
“I have them sometimes.” Cody sat beside her, waiting. His own experience at Sidoron’s hands had been awful. “I used to have them all the time but not so many now.”
She put her hand to her forehead. “I’m … sorry, I …”