She grabbed a sledgehammer that was leaning against the wall and aimed it at the center of the hood.
"I can't watch," Mr. Talbot said.
Matthias decided he couldn't either. But ten minutes later, when Mrs. Talbot backed the car out of the shed, it looked more like a crumbled heap of scrap metal than a drivable vehicle.
"Don't worry, dear," Mrs. Talbot told her husband, leaning out the window. "It's only cosmetic damage. If I make it back here, you can spend the whole winter fixing it up."
"Don't say that," Mr. Talbot said. "Don't you know how hard this is for me already?"
"Now you know how I felt all those years, watching you head off into danger," Mrs. Talbot said.
Matthias climbed into the passenger side of the car. Mr. and Mrs. Talbot were kissing each other good-bye now, and he had no desire to watch that.
Mr. Hendricks rolled out toward them, and Joel and John walked behind him.
"Be careful," Mr. Hendricks said.
"Of course," Mrs. Talbot said. She rolled up her window and put her foot on the accelerator, and they zipped past the others. "I hate good-byes," she said.
Mrs. Talbot barely slowed down as they approached the end of the driveway.
"Which way?" she asked impatiently.
"Turn right," Matthias said. 'And then left at the next intersection. The cabin's on the main road into those woods, about halfway in, I think, right after the stream."
He wished they could get there as quickly as he could give directions. Mrs. Talbot seemed to feel the same way. She sped around the corner, then pressed the accelerator to the floor. They went faster and faster; everything outside the window blurred before Matthias's eyes.
"We need to get our stories straight, in case anyone stops us," Mrs. Talbot said grimly, keeping her gaze straight ahead. She clutched the steering wheel with both hands. "I'm your mother, and I'm taking you to Population Police headquarters so you can join up."
"Join the Population Police? Why would I do that?" Matthias asked, recoiling from her words.
Mrs. Talbot sighed and glanced his way quickly before staring back at the road before them.
"I guess you didn't hear all the news lately, out at Niedler," she said. "The Population Police issued an edict that nobody but them is allowed to sell food. And nobody can buy food unless at least one member of the family is part of the Population Police."
"Oh," Matthias said. All of that seemed horribly remote to him. The car was warm — even his seat seemed to be breathing heat around him. It made him sleepy. He forced himself to stay alert. He remembered something. "When the Population Police came to Niedler, they said that the Government had a new leader and that was why we had to go to the work camp."
Mrs. Talbot sighed again, even more heavily this time.
"Yes," she said. "The leader of the Population Police took over the whole country. Aldous Krakenaur. The Population Police are in control of everything now."
"That doesn't matter," Matthias said.
"What?" Mrs. Talbot asked. She seemed so stunned that she almost drove off the road. She had to jerk violently on the steering wheel to get the car back on course.
Matthias shrugged.
"What's the difference?" he asked. "Samuel — the man who raised us — he said that governments will rise and governments will fall, and man will do evil to man, and all we can do is turn our hearts to good."
"Well, that's certainly a broad view of things," Mrs. Talbot muttered.
"Samuel didn't believe in getting involved in politics," Matthias said. He frowned in the darkness, remembering the one time Samuel had seemed to go against his own principles. "But when there was that rally for the rights of third children back in April. . Samuel went to that. I've never understood why. That's where he died."
Mrs. Talbot was silent for a moment, and Matthias was afraid he'd upset her by talking about the rally where her own daughter had died. Trees flashed by in the darkness.
"I know who your Samuel was, then," Mrs. Talbot finally said. "George got. . tapes of the rally. Because of Jen. Samuel was the old man with the long beard who went right up to the Population Police while they were shooting and told them, 'These are innocent children. What you're doing is a sin and an abomination.'"
Matthias hadn't known that. He hadn't really known how Samuel had died.
"But did it do any good?" Matthias asked. 'They still killed all the children. And Samuel." Matthias barely knew Mrs. Talbot. But somehow, in the dark, it seemed safe to confide in her. "Samuel always said everything happens for a reason. But what could have been the reason for him to die?"
"I don't know," Mrs. Talbot said. "But you shouldn't think that he died in vain. After he was shot, some of the Population Police turned their guns on one another. There was… almost a mutiny in the ranks. I didn't know about it for weeks afterward. But for a long time, that was the only thing that gave me enough hope to go on living."
Matthias closed his eyes. This was too much to absorb, too much to think about when he was so tired and so worried about Percy and Alia.
"I know what it's like to live without hope," Mrs. Talbot said. "When we lost Jen. . When I thought George was doomed as well. . These are uncertain times we live in. But your Samuel was wrong if he thought it doesn't matter who's in charge of the Government. There is reason to hope for an end to all this evil. I believe it's your generation that will win the cause…"
She started telling him a long story about how a group of other kids had joined the Population Police just to sabotage it, to fight the organization's evil from inside. Her story was interesting, but her voice was so lulling and the car was so warm and the sound of the wheels on the road so soothing that Matthias slipped straight into sleep.
When he woke up, the car was stopped.
"You have impeccable timing," Mrs. Talbot told him. "Incredibly enough, we made it here safely."
The headlights of the car shone on the side of the cabin.
"How'd you know this was the right place?" Matthias asked.
"That," Mrs. Talbot said grimly, pointing at the pile of dead bodies off to the right. She shut off the headlights, turned off the car, and picked up her bag of medicines. "Maybe I should go in first, just to see."
Matthias suspected she was trying to protect him, in case Percy and Alia hadn't survived the hours he'd been away.
"No," he said quickly, picking up a flashlight. "You'll need me to show you how to open the trapdoor."
Mrs. Talbot didn't object. They both got out of the car, and the chilly night air was all Matthias needed to come fully awake.
"Don't look at the bloodstains," he told Mrs. Talbot as they stepped through the shattered doorway into the cabin.
"I've seen blood before," Mrs. Talbot said.
The circle of the flashlight's glow was eerie against the plank floor because of the blood and the shadows of all the cracks. Matthias was eager to get down to the secret room and the lantern's cozy light. He found the latch quickly and lifted the trapdoor.
"Percy? Alia?" he called softly. "I got help, just like I promised."
The lantern had gone out, but that didn't faze him. He climbed down the ladder and pointed his flashlight upward so Mrs. Talbot could see to climb down as well. Then he turned the light toward the cots. The glow was so feeble that it didn't penetrate very far into the darkness. He couldn't see…. He stepped closer. He could make out the frames of the cots, the blankets piled on top of them— the empty cots, the folded blankets.
Percy and Alia were gone.
Chapter Thirteen
Where are they?" Mrs. Talbot asked, looking around. - ', She didn't understand that they were missing. Matthias couldn't understand either. He whipped the flashlight all around, and its glow shot crazily from one side of the room to the other. Maybe Percy and Alia had crawled off their cots to go to the bathroom and then fainted before they could get back. . Maybe that might have happened to one of them, but both?
Neither of them was hudd
led anywhere on the secret room's dirt floor. They'd vanished completely.
Matthias raced back up the ladder. Maybe they were in the cabin itself….
He repeated his routine of flashing the light all around the room. The upturned chairs made shadows big enough to hide behind, so he kept getting glimmers of hope— hope that died instantly when he moved the chairs aside and saw nothing there. He scrambled to the door of the cabin.
"Percy? Alia?" he shouted hoarsely into the dark night. "Where are you?"
Mrs. Talbot grabbed his arm just as he started to step outside to search for them.
'Are you out of your mind?" she asked, her eyes blazing. 'Are you trying to find them or get us killed?"
If he couldn't find Percy and Alia, it would be like dying.
"They were here," he said furiously. "What could have happened to them? I never should have left them. This is all my fault. It's my fault Percy got shot — the Population Police must have heard him answering me. It's my fault Alia got hurt — oh, why didn't I think before I tried to stop that truck? Why didn't I—?"
"Stop it," Mrs. Talbot said, taking him by the shoulders and shaking him. "Hysteria never helped anyone. We can look for them, we can find them if you'll just calm down."
"Somebody took them away," Matthias moaned.
"Yes, probably," Mrs. Talbot agreed. "From your description of their injuries, I don't think they could have walked out of here on their own. We just need to figure out who took them and why…. I know. You go back down into the basement and see if there are any secret routes out that you missed before. I'll go outside and look for footprints."
Matthias had searched the underground room as thoroughly as possible the night before, so he didn't think much of Mrs. Talbot's suggestion. But he didn't say so. He sat numbly until she was out the door. Then he sneaked over and watched her.
She kept her flashlight trained on the ground for only a few moments. Then, when she reached the pile of dead bodies, she pointed the light straight at it.
She believes Percy and Alia might be dead, Matthias thought, so jarred by the thought that he staggered back-ward. She thinks someone just threw their bodies on the pile with the others.
He heard Mrs. Talbot gasp, and he ran outside to join her.
"Is it Percy? Alia?" he asked.
Mrs. Talbot glanced over at him like she'd forgotten who he was.
"No.. no," she murmured. "There aren't any children here. But it's. . someone I used to know. The man who sold us our daughter's fake identity card." She took Matthias's flashlight from him and switched it off. "This is too strange. Nothing makes sense. Let's go search the underground room together and wait until daylight before we look for footprints. These flashlights are too much like beacons in the dark."
"But—," Matthias started to object. He thought they'd find his friends fastest by following footprints.
"I insist," Mrs. Talbot said. "It's only about twenty minutes or so until sunrise."
Troubled, Matthias followed Mrs. Talbot back into the cabin and down the stairs. The two of them tapped on the walls and floors for what felt like hours, but no secret tunnels or hideaways appeared. Matthias showed her the safe that had contained all the false identity cards.
"Do you remember the combination?" Mrs. Talbot asked.
"Um, I think so," Matthias said. It took him a few tries, but he finally got the safe open.
It was empty too.
"So they took two injured children and dozens of fake I.D.'s," Mrs. Talbot said. "Hmm."
"What?" Matthias asked. "What do you think hap^ pened?"
"I don't know," Mrs. Talbot said. She gave him a shaky smile. "Got any guesses?"
Matthias wished he were as smart as Percy. Percy would have been able to look at the clues they had and come up with a solid answer: Oh, yes, they left with a man in a gray hat, and the serial number on his I.D. card ends in two-three, and we'll find them if we travel north by northeast for forty-five minutes.
Okay, maybe Percy wouldn't be able to figure out that much detail. But if it were Percy looking for Alia and me, not the other way around, Matthias thought, he'd know enough to tell for sure if the Population Police had come back and discovered the secret room and the fake I.D.'s and his friends. .. Oh, please, God, don't let it be the Population Police who found them.
Matthias gulped. "Let's go see if we can find any foot' prints," he told Mrs. Talbot.
She shrugged and followed him back up the ladder yet again. They closed the trapdoor behind them.
Dim light was filtering into the cabin from outdoors now. It only served to highlight the disarray. Mrs. Talbot stood at the splintered door and peeked outside.
"When it's dark out," she murmured, "I'm always terrified of what might be hiding in the shadows. But when the sun comes up, I wish for the darkness again to hide me."
Matthias brushed past her. It didn't do any good to speak of fear.
He took a few steps toward the road and then looked back. He'd left no footprints in the leaf-strewn, packed dirt. He shivered, but his chill had nothing to do with the brisk morning air.
Maybe whoever took Percy and Alia away was here yesterday when the ground thawed and then refroze, he told himself. So their footprints might still be there, encrusted in the ground, even though I can't see my own.
He peered around, his gaze taking in the sky and the woods as well as the ground.
And that was when he saw the man in the tree.
Chapter Fourteen
Really, Matthias could see only eyes and maybe a dark fcboot in the shadows of one of the trees across the road. But the eyes were focused precisely.
Watching Matthias.
Alia would have seen him before I did, before he saw her, Matthias thought shakily. She would have known not to step out of the cabin.
But Matthias didn't have Alia with him, and he barely knew what to do without her and Percy making decisions with him. At least the man wasn't doing anything but watching. He didn't swing down from the tree, didn't dash across the road to attack. Matthias dropped to the ground and pretended that he had to tie his shoe.
"Mrs. Talbot!" he hissed urgently, his head bent down so the man wouldn't be able to see his lips moving. "Stay in the cabin. Someone's watching."
She didn't answer, but she didn't step out of the cabin either.
Matthias took his time fiddling with his shoelaces. Surely the man knew that Matthias had seen him. Surely if the man was going to harm Matthias, he would have already done it.
Could he be. .a helper? Matthias wondered. On our side?
He stood up, his heart thumping hard, a risky plan forming in his mind.
"Percy? Alia?" he called. 'Are you close by?"
He fixed his gaze on the eyes in the tree across the road. They bobbed up and down, once. Was that a nod? Did the man know what had happened to Matthias's friends? Had the man himself taken them?
'Are they safe?" Matthias called again, his voice hoarse.
Again, the eyes moved, in concert. Down, up, down, up. Dead brown leaves rustled around the eyes; Matthias saw a hand reach out and pull back. The man was holding up one finger. He put the finger against lips and a beard that appeared briefly in a gap in the leaves.
"You want me to be quiet?" Matthias asked.
Another nod.
The arm emerged from the branches once more. The man seemed to be waving at Matthias now — waving or trying to shove leaves out of his way.
Matthias didn't understand.
"What?" he half whispered. "Can't you just come down and tell me what—"
The finger went back to the lips, and Matthias broke off. The arm waved again and pointed off to the east.
Matthias went and stood in the middle of the road. He squinted straight down the road toward the rising sun but could see nothing unusual. He turned and walked toward the man's tree.
The man's waves became frantic now, and Matthias could understand this gesture. It meant: Go back! Get away from here!
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"Well, all right, if that's how you want it," Matthias muttered. None of this made sense to him, but he obediently backed away from the man's tree. He considered going back into the cabin to confer with Mrs. Talbot, but he didn't want to let the man out of his sight. And he couldn't be sure the man was an ally; he didn't want to expose Mrs. Talbot to any danger. If he'd had Percy and Alia with him, the three of them could have made a split-second decision. Alone, Matthias could only stand in the middle of the road, his face scrunched up in bafflement, his feet turned halfway between coming and going.
So that's where Matthias was when the four Population Police officers burst out of the woods to the east.
Chapter Fifteen
Halt!" the lead officer yelled, even though Matthias I clearly wasn't moving. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Matthias gaped at them. Look surprised but innocent, he told himself. He made himself blink once or twice, slowly. He let them march right up to him.
"I—," he started. "I was just—"
He had to work so hard to keep from glancing over at the man in the tree. He didn't want to give the man away.
"Just what?" the officer demanded. He stepped closer to Matthias and glared down his nose.
Then, before Matthias had a chance to answer, a flurry of gunshots rained down on the four Population Police officers. Three of them fell instantly, but the fourth, the one closest to Matthias, had time to pull a gun out of his shirt. He dived behind Mrs. Talbot's car and began returning fire.
And Matthias, standing by himself out in the open in the middle of the gun battle, suddenly understood. The man in the tree had been waiting to ambush the Population Police. He'd been trying to get Matthias out of the way so Matthias wouldn't get hurt too.
Matthias turned, ready to run back for the safety of the cabin. Then he froze. Mrs. Talbot was in the cabin. What if he led the Population Police right to her? What if the Population Police officer killed the man in the tree? What would happen to Percy and Alia then?
Among the Enemy sc-6 Page 5