by Ann Pino
“I wish you were able to go with us.” Cassie held her breath, waiting to see how May would answer the implied question about her health.
“I’ll do what I can around here while you’re gone. I’ve been sorry for myself long enough.” Her expression turned grim. “Rochelle told me about Eleven. I need to get well so I can kick his ass.”
“So you’re going to be okay?”
“I guess. I can’t let a kid like Rochelle down. She thinks I’m brave and she says she wants to be like me.” May made a gesture dismissing the absurd notion.
“But you are brave.”
“Bullshit. I’m the biggest coward there is, but we need to set an example for the younger ones, since they’ll be on their own soon.”
“Maybe not. There might be a Telo cure, remember?”
“Yes, the Telo cure.” May sank deeper into the pillows and closed her eyes. “I have a feeling when you get there, it won’t be what you think.”
“What do you mean? Is there something you didn’t tell us?”
“Just a feeling I have.”
“Well, there must be something there, or why all the mystery? Why the kidnappings? Why do the Pharms—”
May jerked away at the mention of Pharms. “You’re right we have to try,” she said. “I just hope this doesn’t turn out to be all ego and wishful thinking.”
EXCERPT FROM CASSIE’S JOURNAL:
The plans are made, my gear is packed, and I’m ready to deploy.
Our advance unit from St. Xavier’s found a roadblock on the first route they tried and they were scared to take the posted detour, for fear it was a trap. The twins scouted us a different route, so that’s the way we’ll head out of the city. It’ll add another five miles to the journey, but it can’t be helped, since the other roads are being monitored. The twins identified safe houses for us, so we’ll have shelter, at least.
Many of us are nervous about getting ambushed. Julilla says we shouldn’t worry because there’s no good place for a battle until we’re almost within sight of the office park where the labs and bunkers are. When we ask Alex if he agrees, he just looks tired and walks away. He’s been working too hard and not sleeping enough, because there are shadows under his eyes and he seems distracted. All the responsibility must be hard on him, since he’s the general for the entire alliance and his only experience is a year of ROTC. But that’s more than any of our other leaders have, which makes him an expert, even though I think Julilla is just as capable. She certainly isn’t running herself into the ground like he is, even though I never see her sleep and she seems to be everywhere at once, giving orders and checking that all is ready.
May is getting around a little, hobbling like an old woman because she’s still in pain. I think the Pharms did things to her that she’s not talking about, but she’s determined to be brave for the sake of Rochelle and all the younger girls being taken advantage of by the boys. She says their lives shouldn’t be defined by sex and violence. She says they need to see that being victimized doesn’t make one a victim.
She’s going to care for the baby so Rochelle can come with us. Poor Rochelle. She can’t bear to be parted from either Doc or the baby, and the confusion on her face was terrible to see. But Doc has been assigned to come with us to handle battlefield injuries, and in the end puppy love won out over baby love and Rochelle is on our medical team. Doc is happier than seems reasonable, which makes me wonder if he really does love her and is finally figuring it out. May said she was going to plant a few ideas in his head, so maybe she made him see what’s been obvious to the rest of us for a long time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Rochelle shook Cassie’s shoulder. When she didn’t respond fast enough, she did it again. “Wake up!”
Cassie sat up with a frown. In the gray light of early morning, she could make out other members of her guard unit still asleep in the dusty schoolroom. There was nothing alarming to see, nor were there any sounds to suggest danger.
Rochelle jerked on her arm with surprising strength. “Hurry.”
Concerned that something might be happening after all, Cassie scrambled to her feet. But when she reached for a weapon, Rochelle shook her head.
“Just come.”
Curious and a little frightened, she followed Rochelle out of the kindergarten room with its faded finger paintings and construction paper flowers, down the hall to the nurse’s office. At the sight of Alex lying on one of the vinyl beds, her heart sank. He was pale and sweating, his lips cracked and eyes bloodshot. Faint bruises were spreading beneath his skin. Telo.
Julilla sat at his side, listening while he mumbled of tactics and weaponry. In another room Cassie could make out the sound of arguing.
“Don’t be stupid.” Elissa’s haughty tones carried through the walls. “You’ve done it before. Where were your ethics then?”
“I’m trying to do better now,” Doc said.
Mundo’s calmer tones followed. “This is the ethical choice. Lives are at stake. Maybe even the future of the human race.”
“You think the Obits are worried about a few dead kids?” Elissa said. “We can’t be, either.”
“I’ll get David or some other ex-Kevork to handle the killing part. Then you—”
“No.”
“It’s an order.”
“Take my pituitary, then,” Doc said. “I volunteer it.”
“That’s ridiculous and you know it.”
The conversation shifted to lower tones that Cassie couldn’t make out, and she looked at Julilla. “Doc does have a point.”
“If he can get a volunteer, sure. But no one’s going to offer up their brain,” Julilla said. “Not really.”
“I don’t want somebody’s brain juice,” Alex said, clutching at Julilla’s hand. “You promised me.”
“They won’t do it,” she assured him.
“They did it to Zach.”
“They won’t do it to you. I’ll kill them first.”
Rochelle had been standing with her ear pressed against the door, but now she moved away. “He’s still saying no, and he’s the only one besides May who knows how.”
Alex was reassured, but only for a moment. “Kill me,” he told Julilla. “That way we can be sure.”
“We are sure. No one’s going to inject you with brain hormone.”
“Then do it so I won’t be left behind.”
All three girls stared, not comprehending.
“Our army has to make the next camp tomorrow. We’ve got allied units skirmishing to keep the road clear, but they can’t hold off the Pharms forever, and you can’t hole up here and wait for me die. Shoot me like you promised you would.”
Julilla’s lips turned ashen, as if she might faint. “No. We’ll keep you here under guard while the rest of us move forward. That way if we find a cure in the Obit bunker—”
Cassie counted on her fingers. “If we get there tomorrow and the battle is the next day, and if they do have a cure—”
“Three days at the outside,” Julilla agreed. “You can hold on that long.”
“If you get there tomorrow and if you’re ready to engage the enemy the following day, and if the battle doesn’t turn into a siege, and if you win, and then if they even have a cure…” Alex frowned and a rivulet of blood escaped a tear duct. “That’s too many ifs. Meanwhile I’m back here behind enemy lines.”
“They might capture and torture him,” Cassie reminded Julilla.
“It’s a chance we have to take. We might have a cure in a few days.” She gave Alex a stern look. “You’re a fighter. Fight.”
“Julilla, love—”
The door of the other room opened and Mundo and Elissa sullenly filed out, with Doc following in an attitude of self-righteous victory. While Elissa stormed out the door of the clinic, Mundo approached Alex’s bedside. “I’m trying to get you some help. Doc won’t do it, but we’ll find someone else, and then after we get the cure—”
Alex sank deeper into his pil
low. “I don’t want some dead person’s brain bits in me. Can’t you respect that?”
“Not when the future of humanity is at stake.”
“Julilla can command the troops.”
“Ours, yes. They know and respect her.” Mundo looked Julilla up and down. “But the whole allied army? It would have to be put to a vote and no way would they elect a girl.”
While Julilla bristled, Alex shook his head. “They’ll vote for her because I trained her.”
“The Thespians would vote for me,” Julilla agreed. “Who do you think kept those chickenshits from running away when we went after the Christian Soldiers?”
“Elissa wants her man Jason in charge, if we can’t have Alex,” Mundo said. “He’s got a totally different plan for this fight.”
“And it’s a dumb one.”
“Exactly.” Mundo looked down at Alex. “We’re going to get you well for the battle and that’s the end of it. If you want to off yourself afterward, that’s your business.”
Mundo stomped out of the room, leaving Cassie, Julilla and Doc staring at each other while Rochelle took advantage of the clinic’s ample supplies to start giving Alex an alcohol rub-down for his fever.
“We can’t let him do it,” Julilla said. “It’s not what he wants.”
“I doubt he’ll find anyone else in the alliance who can perform the procedure.” Doc assured her.
“I wonder if we should take that chance.” Cassie darted a glance toward Alex who appeared worn out by the conversation.
“There’s only one thing he wants,” Julilla said, staring at her hands in resignation. “Growth hormone treatment doesn’t work once you’re dead.”
“I could ask David to do it,” Doc offered. “It wouldn’t be a big deal to a Kevork.”
“No,” Julilla sighed. “We had an agreement. If you could just keep everyone out of the area so Mundo won’t know for sure who did it….”
Cassie and Doc made their goodbyes to Alex, and Rochelle capped the bottle of alcohol and put it away. As the three walked into the hall looking for places to station themselves, Doc wondered aloud why Julilla had insisted on performing the execution herself.
“Didn’t you hear?” Rochelle said. “He called her ‘love.’”
“You don’t think—?” Cassie began.
The sound of the gunshot silenced her.
EXCERPT FROM CASSIE’S JOURNAL:
Julilla is our new commander, but it wasn’t without a fight. The alliance leaders and senior officers gathered in the school cafeteria and argued for hours. Mundo supported Julilla, but I suspect it was only because he had no one else trained for the job and naturally we want one of our own in the top position. He didn’t dare offer his own services because of all the infighting. There are some tribal leaders who think he has too much personal influence.
Other candidates for the command were Jason from the Thespians, whose only qualification is his status as an Eagle Scout, and Neal from the City Hall group, who was even worse. He cited having read One Hundred Years of Sea Power as a qualification. Julilla suggested he be put in charge of the navy, and got a lot of laughs.
In the end, Julilla was given the supreme command and her first act was to announce that all plans would move forward as previously agreed, with one exception. She put me in charge of the flank she would’ve led under Alex. Mundo was pissed but kept a neutral attitude while we were all together. Meanwhile, I was in a panic. What do I know about leading people? Will they even listen to me?
Mundo said as much after we went to our rooms. “Just say the word and I’ll make sure you get returned to your original assignment,” Mundo said. “There’s no shame in refusing this offer. It’s your first battle.”
“She’ll do fine,” Julilla snapped. She looked at me. “Do you want it or not?”
With both of them staring at me, I couldn’t make my thoughts quit spinning. Back at the hotel I had longed to fight. I was angry and wanted to prove myself. But out here, facing the real threat of pain, death, and failure, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to fight at all. I understood what would be expected of me, but would I be able to keep my head in a fight?
“We haven’t got all night,” Julilla reminded me.
I told her I would do it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cassie and Julilla walked the campsite, talking of strategy. They were within sight of the Obit bunker, which was part of a cluster of labs and offices that sprawled across a flat rise, artfully landscaped with dips and hills that had once been carefully manicured but were now shaggy with weeds. Walkways wound through fallow flower gardens, and the alliance’s tents and tarps filled every space that might have once been green and decorative. “I don’t like that the facility is on a hill,” Julilla said. “It’s going to be a problem.”
“It’s not a very big hill,” Cassie offered. “I wouldn’t have even noticed if you hadn’t said something.”
“They’re noticing it as they try to position the Fresnels. I hope our scaffolding is high enough to get the right angles, or whatever it is Sid says we need.” She glanced at the late afternoon sky. “Too bad we didn’t get here a few hours earlier. I’d have given the order to attack and been done with it.”
“Without our ordinance in place?”
“Surprise is our best weapon, not Thespian spotlight beams. I just hope….”
Cassie nodded. According to their scouts, the Pharms had broken past the alliance’s skirmish units and barricades. They were now on pace to flank them by morning if they forced a march through the night. In the meantime, the alliance was camping in plain view of any Obit who might choose to look out the window of one of the office buildings, which were surely connected by tunnel to the underground facility. That they hadn’t been attacked was a source of puzzlement and everyone hoped it was because the Obits were too few in number to risk it. But if the Pharms reinforced them by morning….
Cassie and Julilla followed a path to a man-made pond of the sort that might have once had ducks or turtles for workers to toss crumbs to on their lunch break. The water was opaque and coated with algae, but a group of camp supporters were working with buckets and filters, scooping out water and pouring it through cloth and sand in the hope of making it potable or at least good for washing.
“I hope they remember to use the chlorine tablets,” Julilla said. “If everyone gets diarrhea, we might as well shoot ourselves and save the Pharms the trouble.”
“Speaking of shooting,” Cassie glanced at her, then looked away. “If you don’t want to talk about it, just tell me to shut up. But some of us were wondering if you and Alex…?”
Julilla hesitated before answering. “We had an understanding. Actually, we had several. One was that we each wouldn’t let the other suffer from Telo.”
“I see.” Cassie didn’t ask the next question because it hung in the air between them, as obvious as a banner.
“He was also a sometimes-boyfriend. Nothing serious. He was nearly twenty and we knew there wasn’t much time.”
“But you loved him anyway.”
Julilla nodded and seized on the first distraction she could find. “That looks like the twins over there, under that willow.”
Cassie looked in the direction indicated. “Are you sure? They aren’t having sex.”
Julilla gave her a playful shove and they strolled to where Danny sat holding a book while Danica lay in the grass with her head in his lap. Danny’s voice carried softly on the summer breeze as he read aloud:
And I would rather have my sweet
though rose leaves die of grieving;
than do high deeds in Hungary
to pass all men’s believing.
Danica smiled up at him with sleepy eyes. “Why Hungary?”
“Because that’s what it says in the book.”
“That’s a silly reason. How about Callahan Road?”
Danny coiled a lock of her hair around his finger. “It doesn’t sound as good, love. But if you want�
�”
Julilla cleared her throat and the twins looked at her, but made no move to get up. “We need to discuss your assignments, lovebirds.”
“We don’t have any,” Danny said.
“Exactly.”
Danica sat up, frowning. “We’re just here for the Telo cure. We’re not part of your army. You can’t tell us what to do.”
“If there’s a cure and you want first crack at it,” Julilla said, “You’ll join my army and accept an assignment.”
“What kind of assignment?” Danny asked. “We haven’t trained to be part of a phalanx or whatever it is you’re planning on doing.”
Julilla moved closer so she was standing over them. “Actually, I want you to run messages between the unit commanders tomorrow. You’re perfect for the job, since it requires speed and smarts, but also the ability to defend yourself. What do you think?”
The twins looked at each other. “Can we talk it over?” Danny asked.
“You’ve got ten minutes.” Julilla jerked her chin at Cassie and they walked a little distance away and sat on a small stone bench.
“That was a good idea,” Cassie said.
“I hope so. You think they’ll accept?”
“No telling.”
They turned their conversation to other matters and were deep in discussion of their hopes and concerns when Danny and Danica sauntered over like a pair of lazy felines. Danny glanced at his twin for confirmation, then said, “We accept. We’ll run battlefield messages for you. In return, we get the cure, even if there’s only two doses and everyone else is waiting in line.”
Although it wasn’t for Julilla to decide how a cure would be distributed, she stood and held out her hand. “Done.”
* * *
Dinner consisted of oatmeal with other foraged foods tossed in to make a thick gruel. Since it was filling and there was plenty of it, no one complained, although some of the allied groups grumbled when Julilla refused to allow alcohol. Cassie thought Julilla’s decision a wise one, although she suspected some groups, like the Thespians, would disobey orders once they went to their tents. Well, that was their business. For her part, she was going to turn in early.