by Laura Martin
Before I was fully aware of what I was doing, I’d turned and followed them. It made no sense. Every survival instinct ingrained in me was telling me that I should run, not walk, in the opposite direction. But I didn’t. An uneasy feeling was tugging at my guts that I knew wasn’t just an aftereffect of my panic moments before.
The marines’ behaviour was odd. I’d lived in North Compound my entire life and had only ever seen the marines act like that once. It had happened three years back when an upper-level tunnel had collapsed. Everyone had panicked, terrified that dinosaurs might finally breach our carefully constructed barriers. None had, but everyone had talked about the incident for months.
You aren’t in North anymore, I reminded myself as I hurried to keep the marines in sight. If I was going to navigate East successfully, I was going to have to remember that. A few other spectators in grey compound uniforms stopped what they were doing to run after the marines too, confirming my suspicions that this was in fact an odd occurrence. I rounded the corner by RESTROOM #5 and froze. The marines had entered the men’s bathroom and some of them were already coming out, guns held at the ready. The crowd was growing, and I glanced around in surprise. Ivan had been right about this section of the compound being more heavily populated; there had to be at least fifteen people already, and I could see a few more jogging down the adjoining tunnels to investigate. Someone jostled me roughly from behind, and I was suddenly standing at the front of the pack as angry shouts erupted from inside the bathroom, followed by a few strangled screams, gunshots, and a loud thump.
My hand went over my mouth as I swallowed my own scream, because now I knew what was going on. No sooner had everything clicked into place than Ivan was pulled from the bathroom. Two marines flanked him on the right and left, each holding on to an arm as though it was a snake that might bite. Three more marines followed them, guns drawn and trained on my grandfather. Ivan’s lip was split, and he had a cut on the side of his head, but the most alarming thing was the small bright-red hole in the shoulder of his newly acquired grey compound uniform. He’d been shot.
“Someone spotted him trying to steal,” whispered a voice from behind me. “That’s how they knew he didn’t belong.” I stiffened, unable to take my eyes off Ivan as I became uncomfortably aware of the bulky mound of stolen goods still held under my own arm.
“Where did he come from?” another voice answered back. “Did you see? He’s missing an arm!”
“I have no idea. I’m sure his presence will be explained at the next assembly.”
“They won’t wait for an assembly. This is too big. Keep your port on you. I bet they do an emergency broadcast.”
“I don’t like the look of him. The marines should have shot to kill.”
This last comment had me gritting my teeth to keep from telling those people off. The marines marched Ivan right past the crowd of onlookers. My hands balled into fists around my stolen uniforms, and tears burned behind my eyes. Ivan had his head up, staring defiantly at the crowd, and I knew the exact moment he saw me. His face softened for a fraction of a second, and he gave me the smallest of nods. An instant later his eyes were back on the crowd, blue and angry. It was time for me to get out of there. In the chaos of Ivan’s arrest, no one had noticed the other stranger in their midst, but I knew their preoccupation wouldn’t last long. Turning, I began slipping back through the crowd, murmuring apologies as I went.
Once I was clear, I headed back towards our hideout, my mind racing. It took everything in me not to sprint for safety. Instead, I forced myself to walk, not too slow, not too fast. The last thing I needed was to be wandering up and down the tunnel right after an arrest. Five minutes later I was back and was just reaching for the hidden doorway when I heard voices ahead. Thinking fast, I dropped to one knee, my pile of wrinkled uniforms and soggy boots partially concealed at my side, and made a show of lacing up one of my compound shoes. Glancing up through my eyelashes, I saw two men come around the corner, talking animatedly as they each pushed large metal carts filled to the brim with tangled coils of black hose. Luckily neither of them even glanced at me. As soon as they disappeared around the bend in the tunnel, I slipped inside the pitch-black room and shut the door behind me.
“Freeze or I shoot,” said a low voice in my ear. I jumped, dropping my armload of stolen goods.
“Don’t shoot,” I squeaked.
“I told you it was going to be Sky, you big idiot,” came Chaz’s voice from the darkness to my right, sounding exasperated. A moment later the light flicked on to reveal Todd, bow drawn, pointing about three feet too far to my right and blinking in the sudden glare.
My heart was hammering, and I put a hand to my chest, bending over in relief. It took me a minute, but I finally straightened again and glared at Todd.
“That voice was you?” I asked. “Why in the world did you do that?!”
“You guys were gone for a really long time,” he said defensively. “And then we heard the marines go by and the shouting, and I don’t know, I thought you’d been caught and they’d forced our location out of you. I’m not going down without a fight.”
“Or,” Chaz offered, “you could be a complete buffle brain. I told you all you’d accomplish was scaring Sky or getting creamed by Ivan. Look at her. She’s white as a sheet.”
“Ivan was arrested,” I interrupted, stooping to scoop up the uniforms I’d dropped.
“That must be what we heard!” Chaz gasped.
I nodded, and the tears I’d been holding back ever since I’d seen Ivan ran down my cheeks. It had been so nice to have him around, to have someone else calling the shots. Now that he’d been captured, the full responsibility of everything was squarely on my shoulders, and the weight of it made anxiety bubble inside me like hot acid. I quickly wiped my tears away with the back of my hand in irritation. I did not have time to cry. “I’m not exactly sure how he got caught,” I explained. “We were both supposed to sneak into the bathroom, take a shower, and steal some uniforms on the way out. It worked fine for me. But someone must have spotted him stealing the uniforms.” I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to push away the image of that awful hole in Ivan’s shoulder. Someone gave my shoulder a friendly squeeze, and my eyes popped open to see Chaz’s concerned face peering into mine. Giving myself a firm shake, I bent down to pick up the two uniforms I’d stolen, thankful that I’d grabbed an extra one since Ivan obviously wouldn’t be getting Todd’s.
I quickly sized them up before thrusting one at Chaz. She took it, still looking stunned. Taking Todd by the shoulders, I turned him around roughly so he faced the brick wall.
“What are you doing?” he yelped, twisting his head to look at me. “I said I was sorry. What happened to Ivan?”
“You are going to have to wear the uniform I have on,” I explained. “It’s way too big on me, and it would be noticed. I think this other one is smaller.”
When Todd still looked confused, Chaz groaned. “She needs to change clothes. So will you turn around already?”
“Oh,” Todd said, his face blushing a bright red. “OK.”
When I peered over his shoulder, his eyes were squeezed shut. Reassured, I quickly got out of the baggy uniform and put on the other one I’d stolen. Thankfully this one fit much better, although it smelled marginally worse. It wasn’t a perfect fit like compound uniforms were supposed to be, but close enough. Chaz slipped into hers as well, and I nodded in satisfaction. I’d been spot on with her size.
“Your turn,” I told Todd. Chaz and I both turned to face the wall as Todd scrambled into his uniform.
“Now what?” he asked a moment later, and I turned to see him wearing the bland grey of the compound. The sight was jarring somehow. I’d only ever seen Todd in the rich hunter green of the Oaks or the vibrant blue of the lab. The grey seemed oppressive on him somehow, much more than it ever had on Shawn and me.
“Putting on the uniforms was as far as I’ve got,” I admitted, averting my eyes to stare at the crumbling br
ick wall in front of me so I wouldn’t have to see the look of disappointment on Todd’s face. Across from me, partially detached from the bricks, was the rusty iron ladder. I’d noticed it upon first entering the room the night before but promptly forgotten about it. Although with the thick coating of brick dust and rust, it did blend into the wall. Following it up, I saw that it led to a square metal plate in the ceiling.
“We should see what’s on the other side of that,” I said, pointing up.
Todd cranked his head back to look at the ceiling. “What is it?”
“Hopefully a way out,” I said, walking over to the ladder.
“I thought we just flew eight hours and risked our necks to get into the compound,” Chaz protested. “Now you want to get back out again?”
“No.” I shook my head and rubbed my sweaty palms on the sides of my pants. “But I want to know if that’s a way out of here in case this all goes badly.”
“It’s going to go badly.” Todd frowned. “Look at what just happened to Ivan.”
“Todd,” I said, turning to look him in the eye. “There is a new rule. If it’s not helpful, don’t say it. Pointing out how hopeless everything is isn’t helpful.” I tried hard to keep the frustration out of my voice, knowing that most of it had to do with losing Ivan and not Todd’s comments, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded completely.
“Sorry,” Todd muttered.
I sighed. “Think of it this way,” I tried again, more kindly this time. “When we were topside, you were the expert, right? You knew what we should and shouldn’t do to survive.”
“Right,” Todd said, and his chin tilted up just enough to show he was more than a little proud of that fact.
“Well,” I went on, “down here, I’m the expert.” I frowned. “Sort of. Would it have been helpful if I had been reminding you every two seconds topside how dangerous it was? How a dinosaur might get us at any moment?”
“No,” Todd admitted grudgingly. “It would have been annoying.”
“There it is!” Chaz grinned. “I knew you’d catch on eventually.” Todd made a face at her, but I could tell from his expression that my point had sunk in. Satisfied, I turned and gave the ladder a tentative tug to see if it would hold my weight. Two more rungs popped loose from the brick, raining dust down on us. Not an encouraging sign, but not enough to make me abandon the idea.
“That seems safe,” Todd said drily from behind me.
“Todd,” I warned.
“That was sarcasm,” he protested, “totally different. And sarcasm can be incredibly helpful.” He shouldered past me to inspect the ladder himself. “I was letting you know it didn’t seem safe before you climbed it and broke your neck.”
Chaz groaned from behind us, and I had to suppress a smile. Todd was impossible sometimes, but right at that moment, he reminded me of Shawn. A feeling that was both comforting and incredibly lonely all at the same time.
“Do you think it will hold me?” I asked.
“Yes,” Chaz said, at the exact same time that Todd said no.
“Only one way to find out,” I said as I grabbed a rung and began pulling myself up hand over hand. The iron creaked and groaned, but by some miracle it held. A minute later I’d made it to the top to inspect the metal plate. It was thick, with no apparent lock on it. But that couldn’t be right. The engineers who had helped convert the subway tunnels into East Compound never would have left an entrance unlocked. Unless, I thought, as I ran my fingers over the rough metal, they really hadn’t known about this entrance like Ivan had said. Tilting my head, I pressed my ear against the metal plate, listening hard. All I could make out was the softest of rustlings.
Well, I thought, let’s hope this isn’t a horrible mistake. It took some muscle, but with a creak, the plate lifted a few inches. Immediately a flood of dust, sticks, and rubble cascaded down on my head. I let the plate close, coughing hard as I tried to blink the grit out of my eyes. Below me, I heard Todd and Chaz yelp as the debris that had missed me hit them.
“Are you OK?” I called softly when I could finally breathe again.
“Been better,” Todd said, brushing at the sticks and dirt that now liberally covered his uniform. Before I could lose my nerve, I opened the hatch again. This time, less dust came through and I was able to shield my eyes enough that it didn’t blind me. When it finally cleared, I looked out at what had to be the inside of a building, although something felt off about that. The walls were too far apart to be a building. Littered around the hatch were piles of overgrown rubble. Weeds, vines, and even a few small trees had sprouted, making their home among the garbage left behind by humans hundreds of years ago. A few beams of light streamed in from an opening at the far end, and I squinted to make out what looked like a particularly large mound of dirt with smooth white ovals perched in its centre. My mind barely had a second to register that I was looking at a dinosaur nest before something let out an angry bellow and a gigantic square head with a sharp beak thrust itself into the gap underneath the entrance plate. I yelped, barely pulling my fingers back before the lethal beak took them off. The plate dropped and the dinosaur’s thick snout was caught for a second. It squealed in protest before yanking its head backwards, allowing the hatch to clang shut. Drops of blood, not mine thankfully, dripped from the plate onto my shoulder as I clutched the ladder, breathing hard.
“What was that?” Todd called.
“The reason we won’t be using this as an exit,” I said as I began climbing down shakily.
“Are you OK?” Todd asked when I reached the ground again.
I nodded, staring back up at the metal plate. “It’s a nesting area,” I explained. “I didn’t get a good look at the dinosaur, but based on that gigantic head and the beak, I’d say a triceratops?” I glanced at Chaz for confirmation.
“I doubt it was a triceratops. I got a look at the snout when it came through. Triceratops aren’t quite that narrow through the nose. Maybe it was a centrosaurus or even a pentaceratops.” She sighed, looking wistful. “Now that would really be something.”
“Yeah,” Todd said drily. “It would be a real honour if Sky had been eaten by one of those.”
Chaz snapped out of her wistful haze and looked at Todd in surprise. “Oh, ceratopsians aren’t carnivores, so they’d never eat Sky. They are extremely territorial about nesting grounds, though, and they can be deadlier than a T. rex. Their heads are some of the most lethally designed in nature.”
I shut my eyes, trying to remember the sketch I’d made of a pentaceratops in my journal. Which, unfortunately, was still back at Boz’s lab. “I bet it was a pentaceratops,” I said.
Todd groaned. “You two are impossible. The only really important things you need to know about dinosaurs are if you can eat them or if they can eat you.”
“What matters is that we can’t use that as an exit.” I sighed.
“OK,” Todd said. “But before we worry about exits, let’s worry about finding my mom and stopping the Noah’s plan.” He smiled broadly and elbowed me in the ribs. “Did you see that?” he asked. “Helpful.”
Chaz snorted. “Congrats.”
“You’re right,” I said. “We need to get going.”
“Which brings us back to the question I originally asked,” Chaz said, crossing her arms. “Where are we going? We need a plan.”
I bit my lip. “We need to find a map of the compound. And don’t ask me how we do that,” I warned Todd before he could interrupt me. His jaw snapped shut with an audible click. I sighed. “I’m still working on that. Once we have a map, we start searching for the Noah’s headquarters. Ivan seemed to think that our plug could do the most damage there, and since we only have one shot, we need to make it count.” Taking a deep breath, I inspected Todd and Chaz. Stepping forward, I busily brushed off the last bits of dust that had dropped on them when I’d opened the hatch. Before she could protest, I used the last of our water to smooth down Chaz’s spiky hair. No one in the compound had hair like that. Satisfied
that they’d pass a cursory inspection, I gave myself a once-over. The dinosaur blood on my shoulder was unfortunate, but other than that I was OK. I put my hand up to my hair to smooth it and froze.
“What’s wrong?” Todd asked.
I turned to them, wide-eyed. “My hair,” I said.
“What about it?” Todd asked. “It doesn’t look that bad. In fact, it’s downright tame compared to the usual mess it’s in.”
Chaz elbowed him hard in the ribs with a groan of exasperation. “What?” Todd said defensively. “It usually looks like a squirrel or something tried to nest in it!”
“It’s red,” I hissed.
“Right …” Todd said slowly, looking to Chaz for support. “Am I supposed to understand what you’re talking about or is this some kind of girl thing?”
I rolled my eyes. “I have to do something to cover my hair,” I explained. “It’s an unusual colour, and it won’t take long for people to realise they’ve never seen me before. I got lucky earlier that it wasn’t noticed.”
“Want me to cut it off?” Todd offered, pulling out the small knife he’d received from Ivan.
I considered the idea for a moment, then shook my head. “No. A bald girl would stand out just as much as a redheaded one would. Besides,” I said, giving the knife a dubious look, “I can’t imagine you’d do a real good job using that thing.”
“So what you’re saying is that you’d like to keep both your ears.” Chaz grinned. Todd looked slightly insulted, but she just pushed past him to pick up one of the discarded jumpsuits that lay in a heap on the floor. She grabbed the fabric between her teeth and ripped off a long section from one of the legs. With the ease of years of practice, she deftly wound the fabric around my head, tucking loose red curls inside the makeshift turban. When she was done she stepped back to survey her handiwork.