“What exactly do people at the barracks do?”
“I can’t tell you much,” he whispered. “It’s kind of a military secret. But everyone knows they’re digging tunnels.”
“What are the tunnels for?” She had been so focused on escape that the possibility of being assigned a job hadn’t even occurred to her until that moment.
Tony tensed as they neared the president’s castle. “Don’t tell anyone I said that—we shouldn’t talk about it. Look, just answer the president’s questions and agree with what he says. Tell him about your injury and maybe he’ll assign you to work in the kitchen or something.”
He pulled the front door open and held it while she passed through. The room sprawled around her with vaulted ceilings and a huge fireplace against the back wall. Chairs with red cushions and checkered throw rugs gave it a semblance of cozy welcoming.
“This way.” He sounded far less cheerful than he had outside.
She followed him across the lobby to a hallway and through a second door. The box-sized space with gray walls didn’t share the inviting quality of the lobby. A table with one chair on one side and two on the other furnished the room. Lareina hesitated in the doorway, but Tony walked in and pulled out the chair on the lonely side of the table.
“Go ahead and sit down. He’ll be in soon.” He said it mechanically, as if he had spoken those same words many times.
Although she wanted to retrace her steps back through the front door, she obeyed and took a seat. In the silence she focused on breathing to keep her fears to herself and project calm. Only minutes passed before two men strode in, followed by Tony, who closed the door behind them.
One man wore a carefully ironed shirt and matching tie. He was a tall, thin, harsh-looking man in his early twenties. His eyes were too close together for him to be handsome, but his lack of a smile didn’t improve his attractiveness either. The other man, probably twenty years older, wore clothes similar to Tony’s and had blond hair that sat far back on his head.
The man with the close-set eyes sat down and leaned forward, studying Lareina intently. “I’m President Whitley and this here is my head of security, Officer Storey. All we ask is that you answer our questions honestly.”
Officer Storey didn’t sit, but paced behind the president from one side of the table to the other.
“What is your name?” the head of security asked.
Her heart rate thudded to the rhythm of his footsteps. “Rochelle Aumont,” she answered in a calm, steady voice. The false identity jumped to her tongue more quickly than her own name. So far so good.
“What brings you to Oak Creek?” The president revealed a slight smile.
Unable to ignore the way he studied her, she averted her eyes. “I didn’t come on purpose.” There was the truth, but it would need some embellishment. “My parents died of the fever two weeks ago, and we hadn’t kept up with rent, so the landlord kicked me out. I’d been walking for several days when I was mugged and the few possessions I had left were stolen. I got disoriented and then I ran into your wall. I was only looking for a way around it to continue on my way.” She nodded toward Tony, who stood tall in front of the door. “That’s when your guard found me.”
The president leaned back, nodding, but Officer Storey didn’t seem impressed.
“Is that how you ended up with a gunshot wound to your arm?” Storey demanded.
She nodded in reply. “I thought they just took my stuff; I didn’t even hear the shot. I didn’t notice the blood until I stopped running.” Choking, she tried for tears.
“Let’s stick to the issue,” Storey said without sympathy.
“Whoa, give her a minute, she’s not on trial.” President Whitley looked up at Tony and any hint of the warm smile he had for Lareina faded from his face. “But this young man is.” Tony stiffened more, if that were possible, but he didn’t seem surprised by the shift of attention.
“He brought an absolute stranger into our community without even considering that it could have been a trick, leaving us open to sabotage,” the president continued.
It wasn’t her battle to fight, and although she’d only known Tony for a few hours, she felt a gratitude and more importantly a debt to him that she wanted to repay immediately.
“I apologize, sir, but that’s not even close to the way it happened,” she interrupted.
Officer Storey’s eyes widened, his mouth opened a little, but he seemed to have lost the capability to form words. President Whitley shook his head disapprovingly. Lareina didn’t dare look at Tony. She had failed to keep her mouth shut and just answer the questions.
“Is that so?” Whitley’s eyebrows lifted. “Please explain.”
“Officer Acosta noticed that I was hurt.” She turned to make the bandage more obvious. “He checked my arm himself while his partner checked the area. I was freezing and starving, and I owe him my life.”
“Well,” the president said, leaning forward again, his eyes more intense than ever. “We’re lucky Acosta made a good choice this time, but one more reckless decision could mean the deaths of hundreds of people who rely on us for safety.”
Lareina shook her head. “Wait a minute, are you even listening to me—”
“Are you listening to me?” Whitley interrupted. He leaned forward with his hands on the table, fingertips almost touching hers. A single blue vein throbbed in his forehead. “You may just be an ignorant little girl, only aware of your own problems, but war is coming to Texas and it’s coming soon. We don’t take chances of security breaches around here.”
Storey looked uncomfortable, staring down at his hands as they rested on the table. He didn’t make eye contact with her and neither did Tony. Just tell them the truth and everything will be fine. She wasn’t following Aaron’s advice and she definitely wasn’t following Tony’s. The sinking feeling of a huge mistake engulfed her, but she couldn’t turn back.
The president’s eyes burned into hers, but she didn’t flinch. Despite the thick tension, he smiled. “Maybe you need to learn some respect for authority.”
The words made her stubbornness flare. She pushed her hair back from her forehead and twisted it around before tossing it over her shoulder. “Maybe you need to worry less about punishing your guards for showing normal human empathy. Mr. President, sir.”
The smile on Whitley’s face widened, became softer and more genuine. “Well would you look at that, Acosta,” he said, losing his smile and turning his glare to Tony, who remained at attention in front of the door. “Rochelle here isn’t backing down from this one. I’ll give you one more chance, so don’t mess up tomorrow.”
Officer Storey looked from Tony to the president as if trying to figure out a puzzle. “Sir, are you sure . . .”
“No worries, Storey,” the president interrupted. “Acosta, take Rochelle to Louise. Tell her she has a new roommate and trainee in the library.”
“Y-yes, sir,” Tony stammered. “Thank you, sir.”
The president stood and so did Lareina. For a few long seconds, they only looked at each other.
“Rochelle, I look forward to talking with you again. We’ll have lunch one day.” With that he left the room, Officer Story storming out behind him.
“Are you insane?” Tony exhaled the words in a hushed voice. “Do you know what could have happened to you?”
She had no idea what could have happened and decided that was for the best. “You saved my life. I couldn’t let you lose your job for that.” Her voice came out smooth and relaxed, but she kept her hands hidden under the table so Tony wouldn’t see them shaking.
Chapter 18
“All of those books have to go back to the shelves upstairs. Now,” Louise ordered from her chair at the front desk.
Lareina rested her broom against the wall. She would get back to sweeping eventually. After almost a week of working at the library, she had no complaints except, of course, about her boss, who also happened to be her roommate. Louise enjoyed giving her the
most undesirable tasks possible. Every time Lareina passed by the main desk, Louise tilted her thin face to the side so her long blond bangs revealed cold blue eyes before ordering her to scrub the floor or thoroughly dust hundreds of bookshelves. Outside of work, Louise ignored her entirely.
If she didn’t enjoy her job, Lareina wouldn’t have so pleasantly accepted orders from her boss, who couldn’t be more than two years older than her. However, shelving books on the second floor was her favorite part of the day. Louise never missed her on the main floor, so she took a little extra time and read while she returned books to their proper places in the room of endless shelves.
“No problem.” Lareina responded to the order as if it had been a polite request. Before Louise could give her another job, she gathered a towering stack of books into her arms and shuffled to the staircase. Stretching her foot out in front of her to feel for the first step then the next, she read the top title. So many books existed in the world. Even if she dedicated the rest of her life to reading, she doubted she could finish every book in the Oak Creek library.
Upstairs, sunlight streamed through the east windows, illuminating every empty space on the shelves. Examining covers for authors, she walked from one end of the room to the other and filled gaps between books. Her favorite time to be at the library was during the morning, when it was quiet, since everyone was at work. The rush usually came in around two o’clock when the factory closed for the day. The library stayed open until five, then she was off to supper at the cafeteria. The meals weren’t overly creative, but it was food that she didn’t have to steal. After supper, she had nowhere to go except the tiny room she shared with Louise and nothing to do but stare through the window until lights out at nine.
That part of the day, between supper and lights out when she had time to think, was the worst. Sometimes she feared Galloway would find out she resided at Oak Creek, and she imagined what it would be like if he just walked into the library to arrest her. There would be no escape and she would be forced to surrender. Nick was also a constant in her thoughts, and she wondered if conditions at the barracks were as terrible as Tony had implied.
During lunch breaks, she had walked every sidewalk from the library to the wall, which was only about a mile in any direction. While every path ended at the wall, one corner of the community was hidden behind a thick screen of pines. The walkway ended fifty feet from the line of trees, and signs warned against trespassing. No one ever walked beyond the paved pathways, so she didn’t either.
The president’s mansion stood next to the library. From a second story window, Lareina watched young men dressed like Tony walk in and out of a little building nestled between the library and the president’s house. Once she even saw them drag a handcuffed man inside. It seemed to be the guards’ headquarters. Would they take her there if she were caught exploring that last corner of Oak Creek? She memorized the locations of windows and shrubs just in case.
Nick never appeared in the cafeteria or the library or on the pathways between buildings. His absence from the places everyone visited at least once a day, combined with the mechanical, obedient way people shuffled through their day, made her uneasy. Although they were warm and fed, no one seemed particularly happy to live at Oak Creek. Clearly there were other dangers for them to fear. Though she hadn’t seen anything to make her think Nick was in immediate danger, the secrecy surrounding the barracks made her anxious to verify his well-being. Guilt still haunted her for leaving him and Aaron on the train, though she knew separating was the right choice with Galloway still after her.
She needed a plan to communicate with Nick since she couldn’t attempt to find him without attracting unwanted attention. Despite her persistent pestering of Tony when they ate supper together, he never revealed anything more about the barracks, and she didn’t trust him to take a message for her. The only remaining option was to break the rules and find him herself.
The night she decided to go to the barracks, she stared at the ceiling after lights out, listening to the steady tick, tick, tick of the clock hanging above her bed. Initially the sound had annoyed her, but it now felt like a comfort, something she could rely on to remain constant. Louise’s steady breathing signaled that she was asleep on the other side of the room.
Cautiously, Lareina sat up and swung her feet off the bed. A spring squealed with her movement, and she froze, waiting for a response from Louise, but the room remained quiet. Tiptoeing across the room, she pulled her jacket over the t-shirt and sweatpants she had been provided with for pajamas, pushed her feet into her shoes, and slipped out the door.
Bright lights in the hallway made her blink several times before she could see clearly, but no one stood in her way. Avoiding the front door, the only allowed exit, where an official sat twenty-four hours a day, she walked into the first-floor bathroom. It was a long room of showers and toilets shared by everyone who lived on the floor. One of the showerheads dripped, but otherwise the room was silent. Unlatching the window by the sinks, she lifted it just high enough to slip outside, then turned and slid it almost closed, leaving space to pry her fingers under it upon her return. She dropped behind evergreen bushes surrounding the building and made her way to the shadow of the next structure.
Dark windows and deserted sidewalks, exactly what she had hoped for so late at night. She had completed this walk dozens of times in her imagination. Through all of those envisioned scenarios, guards stood in her way at every turn, trying to prevent her from finding Nick.
With her hands shoved deep in her pockets, she slipped through silent darkness like a shadow drifting through the night to the opposite corner of Oak Creek.
The wall of evergreens separating the barracks from the rest of the community trembled in the breeze. For a minute she hesitated to step off of the pavement, but she had to talk to Nick if she wanted to leave Oak Creek with a clear conscience. Her feet bounced across spongy grass and hands nudged needled branches aside as she forced her way through thick, untrimmed conifers.
As she emerged from the dense green cover, perfectly trimmed lawns transformed to a field of knee-high weeds. At the bottom of a gradual slope, a run-down three-story building with dirty windows and peeling paint stood illuminated in the moonlight. Behind the dilapidated structure, two sides of Oak Creek’s ten-foot wall met at a corner. Her eyes followed its perimeter until she discerned the outline of a gate, just wide enough for one person to walk through, sealed by iron bars. From her vantage on the hill, she could see large dark mounds of dirt, she supposed, sprouting from a field that stretched away from Oak Creek.
Careful to keep her footing as she crept down the gentle slope, she approached the lonely building. Deep puddles stood everywhere, hidden by overgrown weeds, surprising her with icy cold water up to her ankles.
Tony had provided one very useful piece of information after three suppers of persistent questions and pleadings for help on locating Nick. After determining they would not be overheard, he had whispered that she should check the northeast corner of the lowest floor of the barracks. With that, he made it clear there was nothing more he could do.
The windows on the second and third floor contained cracked glass, but those at the basement level had been broken out and replaced by iron bars like prison cells. She couldn’t imagine what the conditions must be like inside and although she wanted to find Nick, she hoped she wouldn’t find him there.
Determining which side of the building was north, she slid along the wall past ground level windows that only stood as tall as her knees. Balancing on her toes to avoid sinking into the mud, she squatted in front of the corner window.
Lareina took a silent breath and gripped the window bars. “Nick,” she whispered into thick darkness. “Nick, are you in there?”
Chapter 19
A cold breeze swept through the grass with an eerie rustling that sounded too much like approaching footsteps. Lareina looked back to the trees, but no one approached. Loosening her grip, she slowly released
the breath she had been holding and turned away to leave.
“Rochelle, is that you?”
She turned so quickly she almost lost her balance, but managed to wrap her hands once again around the window bars. Nick’s face slowly rose into view. His sunken eyes watched her without blinking, as if he thought she would vanish at any second. Nick leaned forward into the moonlight so she could see the grime streaked across his face.
“Are you alone?” In her surprise, she could barely speak.
“Yes, the cells are only big enough for one person. If it were thirty degrees warmer, I’d say I was lucky to get a window.” He shook his head, eyes wide with disbelief. “But how did you get here?”
“By accident. I talked to Aaron and he told me you were here too.”
Nick rubbed a hand back and forth across his forehead, smearing the dust into a gray smudge. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You always seem to be around when things go bad.” Her worry bubbled into annoyance. “What is that supposed to mean?” she started a little too loudly before adjusting her voice.
“Don’t get all upset,” Nick said without emotion. “I just mean that I’ve almost died at least four times since I met you. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.”
Lareina squeezed the bars so tight her knuckles hurt but focused on keeping her anger—and more importantly, her voice—under control. “You better not be counting the pit. You got yourself into that one.”
Nick half smiled. “But you showed up soon after. Kind of like this, I suppose. How do you keep finding me, anyway?”
“I’m not trying to find you. I’m trying to get away from you. You just keep showing up.”
“That’s an odd assessment considering I’m locked up and you’re the one who, of her own free will, came to talk to me.”
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