Infraction

by Annie Oldham

  We run parallel to the road and it worries me. I don't know where those trucks were headed or when they'll stop, but the closer we are to the road, the closer we'll be to them.

  The road veers to the southwest, and I lead us more sharply south. It'll add some time to our run, but I don't want to be so near the road. Jack must understand because he simply nods at me.

  Behind us, Kai sucks in a breath. She's stumbled, but Madge catches her and helps her find her feet again. Kai's cheeks puff in and out, but she's still running well. She smiles at me. “I'm fine. Keep going.”

  There's a small clearing up ahead, and the moonlight filters down on the ground and is almost blinding after being in the trees. It instantly sets me on edge.

  “Let's go around it,” Jack says.

  I nod and we cut a path to the east of it. I don't want to be caught between this bright spot and the road.

  “What time is that sub coming?” Dave asks.

  “Midnight,” Mary says.

  “What time is it? How are we supposed to know if we've made it?”

  Madge holds up her wrist. “Kai stole a watch when she was in the commissary today. Guess I'm designated time keeper. It's ten-thirty. Hour and a half.”

  I wave my hand down.

  “Not so much noise,” Jack whispers.

  We fall silent and pick our way past the clearing. I hear a noise and freeze. The others stop behind me, and all I hear now are the sounds of breathing. It's much too loud.

  Across the clearing, a shape separates from the shadows: a single soldier creeps, and the plants shush-shush around his legs. I put a hand over my mouth. Luckily, he's not wearing his nighttime goggles. They dangle from his neck, and he closes his eyes and shakes his head before opening them again. He's dazed, and it doesn't look like he has anyone else with him. He has to be one of the soldiers from the truck, so there are others out here somewhere.

  Dave motions us forward, and we take tentative steps, placing our feet carefully. The others aren't as practiced at this as Jack and I are, and we're like a stampede going through the forest.

  The soldier doesn't turn, though. Not until we're almost out of sight, and Mary steps on a twig.

  “I hear you!” he shouts. His voice quavers. “I know you're out there.”

  We keep going, and my body is on fire with the tension cutting through the night.

  “I'll shoot you! I'm not afraid of monsters! Monsters aren't real. There's no such thing.” But he doesn't sound sure. Then there's a deafening click, and his gun is up and ready at his shoulder. We stop mid-stride. He thinks we're monsters, and while he may not shoot people point-blank, he'll definitely shoot a monster. I press my eyes closed, counting silently in my head. One, two, three. Still nothing, and my hands tremble.

  “I can't see you, but I can hear you!”

  Four, five, six. I don't breathe, and my lungs ache for air. Seven, eight . . .

  The gun goes off, and the bullet cracks into a nearby tree.

  “Run!” Dave shouts.

  We take off before the soldier has time to think about what he's hit, before he has time to get his head right and realize what's going on, before the other soldiers come running toward the sound of gunfire.

  We crash back into the darkness of tree-cover, and we're nothing but shadows after the brightness of the meadow. We're too loud—the soldiers will hear us coming from a mile—but we're too scared to care. That bullet could have taken down any one of us, and I've seen too many bullets and too much blood, and I can't even dream what I'd do if it had hit someone. I am a wild animal flying through the woods on nothing but adrenaline.

  Kai holds both hands under her belly to support it; Mary and Dave run in unison; Madge has a wild glint in her eyes; Jane looks radiant. Freedom agrees with her, even if we are being hunted down. Lily can't keep up, though. She stumbles and catches at tree branches. I slow with her and Jack grabs her arm.

  In the distance there's a faint glimmer of light, and I hope it's not another meadow with more delusional soldiers. This light is funny though, slashed through and quavering. Maybe my eyes are going nuts after squinting through the dark. I don't want to veer even further east. We've already gone too far from the ocean, and I don't know how much time we'll have at the end. We plunge straight toward the light.

  The trees thin and the brush thickens around my churning feet. We stumble now as brambles and thick plants grab our legs. I don't hear the heavy tramp of boots, and I hope we've outrun the trucks. I don't get too optimistic. Dr. Benedict effectively taught me that optimism always leads to trouble where agents and soldiers are concerned.

  We break through the last line of trees, and almost slam into buildings. They're houses, old and rundown. In the darkness, the bricks pale to ghostly gray. Landscaping has long since gone, and it's all a tangle of tall grass and weeds. Windows are smashed in almost every house I see. This isn't where we came for reclamation—that town was still too pristine, even as dilapidated as it was—this town is a disaster. Was this the first town searched for reclamation when the labor camp was built? It looks like it's been picked over a hundred times too many.

  The houses are close together, with skinny side yards separating each one by only a few feet. The streets are narrow but open. They'd be easy to walk through, giving us all a break from the obstacle course of the forest. But this easy route makes the hair on my neck stand up. It's too easy, too open. We only saw one soldier back at the meadow, which means there are almost two dozen still unaccounted for. They could have set up here in the streets, waiting for us to materialize out of the woods. We'll wind through the side yards.

  Dave nods when I write to him. “I'm with you. Too open.”

  “Just what they'd like,” Madge says, hands on her knees to catch her breath. Even though the air is chilly, her curls hang limp with sweat. “Us to come prancing down the street.”

  The side yards are filled with debris: boxes, crates, trash cans, all kinds of junk that must have been tossed aside. After Madge's astute lessons, I see a million uses for each of these, but when this town was first picked over, they didn't have Madge. I wonder if the agents keep people in the labor camps for life just because they're cruel or because they're selfish and want the skills they can imprison indefinitely. It doesn't matter now. Our skills are ones they'll never have again.

  I smell the tang of sea water mingled with dead fish. This place isn't healthy in any sense of the word, but we're close. Then I hear the boots.

  Dave holds out an arm, and we run up against the side of a house, all of our faces painted with fear. We're at the front of a side yard, next to a house that might once have been painted blue. Now the paint peels in long strips like a snake shedding its skin. I sag against the house with Lily as the tramp of boots echoes down the corridor of the street, bouncing off all the windows, the constant rhythm telling me, “We're close, we're close, we're close.”

  They're hunting for us.

  We need to hide. I see an open window leading into the basement of the blue house. I squeeze Jack's arm and point. He taps Dave and nods toward the window. We all slither through the space. I panic for a moment as Kai gets stuck in the opening, but then she rotates half on her back and slips through the rest of the way. Mary closes the window and locks it.

  We're in a small, dusty space filled with old furniture and boxes, and the scurrying and squeaking retreating into the corners tells me we share this space with smaller creatures. The smell is horrible: moldy, dank, and with the stink of animal excrement. But for a brief moment, we're safe. No one was chasing us, so they may not even know that we've made it to this town.

  My mouth is so dry I feel like I'll choke on the stump of my tongue. I look around, hoping for some sort of provisions like Jack and I found in the gas station, but there's nothing but rot here.

  Kai leans back against a stack of moth-eaten blankets and sighs deeply, rubbing her belly. Jack goes over to her.

  “Are you okay?”

  She n
ods. “The baby's really moving. I think he felt too sloshed around out there, and now he's letting me have it.” She smiles and closes her eyes.

  Lily leans into me. “I didn't know your escape would be quite so . . . vigorous.”

  I smile, and she rubs my arm.

  “That Mary called me Nell back in solitary. Who's Nell?”

  My smile fades as I wonder if Nell's safe, if Red is still there to protect her. I gently take Lily's hand. Her skin is wrinkled and soft.

  She was like a grandmother.

  “Well then I'm honored to be confused with her. So where are we going?”

  I can't help but laugh. Madge glares at me, but I shrug. Lily followed us, pushed herself to breaking, and she has no idea where we're going. I don't know if I deserve the faith she's put in me. Now I have to get her to the beach and the submarine and the promise of peace.

  To the ocean. I'm a colonist.

  Lily studies me, her eyes glinting. I smile at her, glad I don't see open hostility on her face. “I always hoped those bedtime stories I told my own babies were true.” She takes my face in both hands, and cradles me there for a moment. “I'll never get them to safety. I don't even know if they're alive or dead. But thank you, Terra. You've jump-started my old heart, and I feel like we could run another mile.”

  Jack steps beside us and gently places two fingers on Lily's wrist. His eyes close in concentration. “Good because that's what we're doing next. And your heart is going strong. As long as you let us help you, you'll be able to make it.”

  Lily gives him a stern look. “Of course I'll make it, young man. If they couldn't kill me in solitary, you certainly aren't going to do it by running me ragged.”

  Jack grins, and I can tell he sees the similarities too. I have to know if Dave knows anything more than Mary did. I take his hand.

  Nell and Red?

  His eyes are tired, the blue surfaces dull in the dim light. He puts a hand to the back of his neck. “As far as I know, Red got her out of there. We saw the choppers coming from across the Sound, and Red took her and ran. Sam helped him. A few minutes later the trucks came. Mary and I were loaded onto one truck, but it was overflowing. Everyone else was loaded onto an empty one. I didn't see any of the others at the camp. I don't know where they are.”

  I can only hope that Nell, Red, and Sam are safe somewhere, out of harm's way. I picture Nell's silver hair, her arthritic hands, her sweet smile, her way with growing things. She would shrivel and die just like one of her hydrangeas if she were in a labor camp. I wonder if she'd like the colony any better, or if she'd be like me: hating the artificial lights and the dark ocean that presses in on everything. If she'd only be happy in the open air, even if it does mean danger at every turn.

  “She'll be fine, Terra,” Jack says softly. “Red will take care of her.”

  I know it's true. If anyone can protect her, it's Red. And Sam is there too. He's young but he's strong and helpful. I turn to face the room. Everyone looks at me with expectation all over their faces, and I don't know what to do for them. What do they want from me?

  I take Dave's hand. A flicker of doubt gleams in Jack's eyes as I do, and I'm not sure why. Dave's the most natural leader among us right now, and Jack knows that. Is he jealous? Still unsure of how I feel? And why not? I realize I haven't given him any indication of how my feelings have changed—not changed, exactly, but how I understand myself now. There just hasn't been time. We'll get a free moment soon. We'll have to.

  How long do we stay?

  Dave and I peer out the window. From here we can just catch a glimpse of the road beyond the side yard. It looks vacant, but we still hear the sounds of marching soldiers, barked commands, and trucks.

  “I don't know. Madge, Jane, Lily, you've been in that camp the longest. How do these soldiers act? How long will they patrol?”

  Madge snorts. “You're sure a young pup to be in charge.”

  Dave crosses his arms over his chest, but he doesn't look angry. “Tell me about it.”

  Madge smiles. “They're out there because they think we'll come this way. Which means they won't leave until they find something that tells them otherwise.”

  Mary smacks her hand against a box. “This is insane sitting down here and hiding like penned animals. We'll miss the sub if we just hide out here, waiting to be captured. We need to go.”

  Madge nods.

  “But we can't just go through the streets,” Jack says. “There are soldiers everywhere. They'll either shoot us on the spot, or worse we'll be captured.”

  “I'm not going back.” Lily's resolute voice startles me. “I'm not going back to solitary.”

  The way her eyes shine from the slice of moonlight coming through the window hardens me. I had been wavering before, wavering between putting all their lives in danger and just hiding for the rest of our lives. But we can't hide. Hiding is just sitting still without reaching for something. We have to move. I have to move. I can't be in this limbo any longer; it sets every one of my nerves on edge.

  As I head for the stairs, Jack grabs my arm.

  “Where are you going?”

  I pull my arm away and head up. Jane sees my face and she knows. We've been cooped up together long enough that she knows. She follows me.

  Madge laughs. “I think we're finally moving. About time. I was getting the itches.”

  Jack trails behind me. “Terra, are you sure? It's so dangerous out there. If anything happened to any of us, if anything happened to you—”

  I whip around to face him, wishing I could just let all the words spill out of my mouth. There are so many words right now and not enough time to write them. The pain on his face, the worry and heartache, cut at my heart. But there's never enough time. Maybe he'll see it in my eyes. All I can do is squeeze his hand and then continue on to the back of the house.

  The back door faces south and opens out to another backyard. I pull a tattered curtain back, but it doesn't look like the soldiers are patrolling the yards, only the streets. There's so many of us—and with a pregnant woman and a geriatric—maybe they think all we can do is stick to the streets. I smile grimly. If only they knew how badly Lily and Kai hate them and want to get to the ocean, then they'd never underestimate them.

  Jack touches my arm—he doesn't dare grab it this time. “Are you sure?”

  There is time for words now. You want to hide forever?

  His eyes instantly show his hurt, and I know even in writing it sounded harsh. But I can't help it. He has to know that I need to do this. This is a way that I can help these people, give them a chance for a future. It is something I can do and no one else. He falls behind me, and I feel cold without him by my side.

  Chapter Nineteen

  As I open the door, it creaks on its hinges. I wince, waiting for gunfire to erupt, but nothing happens, so I yank the door open, ripping it off like a bandage. I try to smooth the cringe off my face. I poke my head out and peer around. There's the house behind this one and then the street beyond that. It doesn't matter if the soldiers have made it that far. We're going.

  I creep down the three steps into the overgrown backyard. There's a swing set in one corner, and I wonder how long ago children actually played here. Come to think of it, I haven't seen very many children on the Burn at all, only the few at the settlement. I hope they're kept safely tucked away. Madge looks at the swing, her face wistful. My heart breaks for her. She'll never have those children back. Kai grabs her hand, and Madge accepts the unexpected gesture.

  We walk through the grass, leaving trails behind us. There's a gate separating the two backyards, but it's so rusted shut we have no hope of opening it. I hop over the fence and then turn to help Lily down as Jack boosts her up. Once we're all across, we make our way through the yard and to the back of the next house. It's a single story and feels so much smaller than the house we just came from. It's stupid, really, feeling more exposed next to this one, but I'm psyching myself out. I press into the shadows of the house and
inch along the side yard to the front and the street.

  I stop behind an overgrown flower bush. It's more wood than leaves, and the leaves are shriveled and rasp against each other as I bump up against them. I wait until we're all here, all in a line. I peer up and down the street. I don't see any soldiers, but that doesn't mean anything anymore. The moonlight offers me only so much visibility. They could be camped out on rooftops or sitting on the front porch in a rocker, their guns across their knees, just waiting.

  I'm ready to sprint across when Dave grabs me.

  “We can't all go at once. We'll be too big of a target.”

  I'm too twitchy right now. I'm glad someone here is thinking straight. I grab his hand. Me.

  Mary whisper-laughs. “Right. You're the only one who can get us to the sub. I'm quicker anyway. I'll go first.”

  Dave's eyes linger on her but he nods his head. “Be careful.”

  She puts a hand to his cheek. “Always,” she says with a smile on her face, like it's some kind of joke. I guess it is. I haven't known Mary to ever be terribly careful about anything.

  She hunches over and steps a few feet beyond the front of the house. She swivels her head side-to-side, but nothing stops her as she suddenly bursts across the yard, her legs pumping and her feet slapping across the concrete to the next patch of lawn. Something crashes a few houses down, and I jump out. Mary's still running, not safe yet behind brick and wood. I run out, heedless of Jack grabbing at my shirt, trying to stop me.

  I run, my heart racing and my breath coming in gasps. Mary still tears across the lawn. The crash comes down the street again, and I squint against the darkness. Out of the gloom comes a feline shape with a waving tail. Just a cat. I could almost laugh at myself, but then the manic grin disappears off my face as I hear the thud of boots rounding the corner.

  I wave frantically, and my friends pour out from behind the house in a ragged line, racing across the lawn, the street, the lawn for the cover of the next house. The first soldier appears at the bend of the street, and there's no way he'll miss our rag-tag bunch streaming across the moonlit open space before them.