by Annie Oldham
Lily just makes it to the shade of a sprawling tree when the boots pick up speed and I can hear guns readying. Jack's eyes are as wide as mine.
“Keep going!” he hisses, and we fly down the side yard, through a pile of boxes that tumbles to the ground with the shattering of dishes. Loud, much too loud. If we keep this up, we'll never lose them. I just hope that in their formations they'll be too slow to pursue us down the side yards and they'll have to stick to the open streets. Please, oh please, I whisper to myself as I fumble across an overturned wheelbarrow buried in the grass. Please let them all stay together. Don't get orders to separate and hunt us down.
There's no time to stop and catch our breaths. We race to the back of the house. There's no fence separating this yard from the next. I look west, and there are no fences for several houses. I cut a course that way, heading toward the ocean where we were supposed to head in the first place. The weird sense of direction kicking in. Small miracles, I guess.
The grass whips and tangles around my legs, but my legs tear through it, and I plunge on, leading us west, away from boots and guns. All I hear is blood pounding in my ears and my heart racing up my throat. Lily gasps, and I want to stop for her. I want to stop for Kai, but there's no stopping. Only the race away from death.
Then the thudding is louder and more insistent in my ears. I know that sound. I haven't heard it in months, but it's been etched into my brain and it will never leave.
A helicopter.
The rest of them hear it, too, and Dave yells, “Down!”
We flatten ourselves into the grass and weeds, and there's a prickly plant next to me that scrapes into my cheeks and palms, but I can't move. I just freeze with the prickers in my flesh. Around me is nothing but panting and fear. Above us, the helicopter comes, and I see the searchlight before I see the huge metal bird. I pull the grass around me, closing the opening that exposes me to the sky. There are too many human-sized depressions all around me. There's no way they'll miss us. I only hope when the helicopter flies over, the long grass will billow and hide us well enough. I can pray.
The beating becomes unbearably loud, and I want to scream just to be heard above the noise. All I see are stars and grass and the flash of the searchlight. I wish I knew where Jack was. He could be two feet away or he could be miles. The grass shivers and then waves frantically as the helicopter gets closer, and I don't know if I can keep it in my palms. My fingers ache with clenching.
The helicopter flies over me. I can barely make out the shape of one or two soldiers with their heads out, looking. Their guns are silent and for now, that means we're safe. As the light and the helicopter passes, I finally urge the panic down and convince my body to twist around and look where the helicopter is going. It flies to what must be the edge of the town, and then it begins a sweeping arc around the perimeter. They definitely know we're here. They wouldn't spend so many resources otherwise. I stand up just enough to see over the grass. When my head pops up, so does Dave's, Mary's, and Jack's.
I point west, and Dave nods.
“Let's move before it comes back this way.”
We half-walk, half-crawl through the yards. I see no more than the disembodied heads poking up over the grass. We skirt around playgrounds, old cars, sheds. We've gone five houses down when I see a dark silhouette making its way toward us, a gun cradled in the crook of its arm. I hiss and drop, and the bodies thump to the ground around me as the others do the same.
“What is it?” Jack whispers.
Soldier, I mouth.
“How many?”
I hold up a finger.
Jack rolls over to face Dave. “Soldier. Just one.”
Through the weaving of the grass, Dave gets up to a squat, one hand planted on the ground, his whole body tense and quivering. The soldier is close now. He'll be here in a few seconds. “You grab his legs. I'll tackle him.”
Jack nods. I can't see his face, but I can imagine the deadly serious expression—the way his eyebrows furrow and his mouth turns down in a slight pucker. I hold my breath. If they don't take the soldier out quickly, then everyone will know exactly where we are.
His boots crunch on dried grass. I hold my breath. He'll be here in five more second. Five, four, three, two . . .
I haven't finished my count when his boots appear between Jack and Dave. Jack wraps his arms around his legs, and Dave springs from the grass, hurtling into the soldier's stomach and throwing him to the ground. If he weren't caught by surprise, I know he could have done a lot more damage to us. But Dave is already on top of him, ripping off the mask and helmet and pummeling his face.
I turn away and listen to his fists thump into the man's head again and again, and I have to close my eyes and cover my ears. I know this must be done, but it's so much like what they do. Then there's a soft moan, and even though I'm not watching, there's a release of tension in the air and I feel the soldier go limp. I finally turn back, and Dave is threading the gun strap off the man's arm and fitting it over his own. Dave's left eye is already swelling shut, and Jack has a nasty gash in one arm.
Madge creeps up from behind. “We need to kill him. He'll tell the others we attacked him.”
Dave cocks his head, considering, but Jack sizes me up in a glance and then shakes his head. “No. He's out for a while. It'll be too late by the time he wakes up.”
I'm grateful to him for that. I can't watch another person die.
Dave frowns but turns and motions us forward. He leads now, the gun always ready as we hunch through the yards. In a few hundred feet, though, the grass runs out. There's a chain-link fence with a sign on it, but I can't read what it says yet. This must be where the helicopter turned and started its sweep around the town. What do we do when we come to the fence? If we climb, we'll be up high for all to see.
Madge slips in next to me and grins. “Don't stress about it, Terra. I have my cutters, remember?”
I didn't remember. It feels like a lifetime since we cut open the fence at the camp. Has it really only been—what? An hour? A little more? I smile, but I feel how wrong it looks on my face. Madge tries to look encouraging, but I probably look so messed-up there's no hope for me.
The grass runs right up to the fence and fades into weed-pocked gravel on the other side. The sign on the fence is scraped and dirty with age, but I can still read the faded red letters.
Warning. Low-flying and departing aircraft blast can cause physical injury.
The airport. Madge kneels down and grunts as she tears through each bend of wire with the cutters. Dave stands just above the grass, sweeping the gun side-to-side, watching for more soldiers; Mary is just behind him. She hasn't moved more than three feet from his side since we met up with Dave and Jack just outside of the camp. Jane creeps next to me and squeezes my hand. Lily's bright eyes crinkle at the edges, and even though I can't see her mouth, I know she's smiling. Kai sits with her back against the fence. We're all here; we've made it so far.
I look back toward the town, and the helicopter's searchlight swoops west as it turns on its circuit, coming back toward us. It will be on us in a matter of seconds. I wave frantically, and we drop into the grass and scurry a few feet from the fence. Madge curses loudly, squeezes the cutters through one last wire, and then flops on her belly next to me.
“Just a few more seconds. Can't they just leave us alone for a few seconds?”
“When did they ever leave you alone?” Mary says.
One corner of Madge's mouth turns up. “True. Should be used to it now, I guess.”
Then our lips are drawn up tight with silence. I breathe into the ground, the smell of dried grass filling my nostrils. I remember lying in the corn field in Pod #3, raking my fingers through the dirt just to feel what it was like to be alive for a few miniscule minutes. The best minutes I ever spent in the colony. The heat from the solar lamps warmed my body until I was wet with sweat. It's so much the same, yet so different now. I was a prisoner there; I'm a prisoner here. Sure I wasn't locke
d in a cell, but I didn't have my freedom. Not what I'd call freedom, anyway. And now here I am, face-down in the dirt, my fingernails crusted under with so many layers of grime I don't know if I'll be clean again, and I'm trapped under the watchful gaze of a flying machine and soldiers who don't even know my name.
The helicopter veers closer, and the shadows cast by its searchlight waver through the grass, sneaking through all the crevices, casting snakes of dark and light across my arms and hands. My breath comes out in puffs, and for the first time since we left, I shiver from cold and fear. We're so close. I can feel it. We'll cross over the airport, and then we'll be to the water. The sub will be there.
Then Madge says, “Ten minutes,” more loudly than she should because we can't hear anything over the helicopter.
What? I mouth.
“The sub comes in the ten minutes!”
There's no time to wait for the helicopter. I risk the movement and roll over and peer into the sky. The tail of the helicopter glides over us, and I jump to my feet. Jack grabs at my ankle, trying to keep me down and keep me safe, but I shake him off. There's no time. Madge senses it too. She rises with me and flies to the fence, cutting through the remaining wire to pry it open wide enough for us.
Jack bends down and holds up the chain link, and I get Lily and Kai through first. As the rest file through, I look at the open expanse before us. The avian shapes of a few old aircraft and the hulk of a few buildings are the only cover until the ocean. My heart sinks. We'll have to run for it.
I slip through the opening, and Jack shimmies through behind me, letting the metal fall, fitting it as best he can to the existing fence, trying to make it look to the casual observer that it hasn't been tampered with. But as he does, the helicopter's light swings back one last time, and Jack's hands illuminate, pale and pink with cold, in a blaze of light. The helicopter freezes in midair.
“Run!” Jack hollers.
Horror is etched on all our faces as we turn and run as fast as we can. The brilliant look on Lily's face is gone, replaced by the haggard realization that solitary might be closer than she thinks. No. I won't let it happen. I race to her, wrap her arm over my shoulder and my arm around her waist, and practically heft her up onto my hip as I'm running. She's thin enough, but so am I after so many weeks at the camp. I can't keep it up for more than a few yards before Jack is next to me and takes her other side. Lily hop, skips, and jumps to keep up with our churning legs, and suddenly I'm back in the forest with Jack before all of this madness began, and I'm loping alongside him, easy and even, the way we did so often. Our strides match and lengthen, and though the sweat pours down my face and soaks my shirt and the goosebumps rise and my breath comes in short gasps from Lily's extra weight, I'm back where I belong, running alongside Jack.
I smile. But even as I do, I hear the gunfire start.
We dive behind a small airplane, and before I can even blink, it's pockmarked with so many bullet holes I can't count them. Kai sinks next to me, grabbing her belly. Her face is twisted into a grimace.
Jane kneels beside her. “Are you shot?”
Kai shakes her head, but what she says next almost sends me into a panic. “I'm having contractions. I think I'm in labor.”
Jack crawls over. “It's all the stress—it might not be real labor. Kai, take a deep breath. You've got to get oxygen to your baby. Try to breathe normally while you can.” Then his eyes find mine. “We need to get to that sub.”
Kai lets out a small moan, trying her best to be quiet. Jane clasps her hand.
The helicopter hovers over the runway, its light sweeping side-to-side, trying to figure out where we've gone. The soldiers in the side hang out, tethered to the bird, and as I look back, more shapes bob through the grass on the other side of the fence.
I point, and Dave nods. “They're all coming now. We've got to move. When that light swings the opposite way, we run. Everyone ready?”
Madge and Jane help Kai to her feet. The light swoops away from us, and Dave shouts, “Go!”
We race down the length of the runway, and the ocean swells in the distance, and I can barely see white foam tossed on the waves. The smell is strong now, the smell of salt and water and gunfire in the air. We're just to a pair of hangars when another burst of gunfire erupts, and we dive in the narrow space between them. Kai has her eyes closed and breathes deeply as Madge whispers in her ear. It's Mary's face that's carved into a grimace. Dave faces away from her, pointing the gun out, and it's Jack that notices her first.
“Mary?” he says softly.
Her hand clutches her side, just under her ribs, and blood oozes between her fingers. Jack drops beside her, pulls his shirt off, and ties it tightly around her torso.
“Dave!” he calls, and Dave looks back. He sees the blood, and even in the darkness, I see how white his face becomes.
“Mary?” his voice is more uncertain than I've ever heard it in my life. There's no touch of confidence, and he looks like a little boy. She reaches out her other hand and touches his face.
“I'll be fine,” she says. There's such determination in her eyes that I don't doubt her, but she twists up her face when she tries to stand.
“Don't try,” Jack says. “I have no idea where that bullet is. Dave, you'll have to carry her. Carefully. This could do more damage.”
Dave nods and stoops down, putting her arm around his neck, cradling her into him so her wounded side is pressed firmly against his, trying to stop the blood. She buries her head into his neck, and then her tears slip out. She still has the thin, red thread around her finger. He holds her so tightly, I wonder if he could stitch her wound back together just from loving her.
Then there's a whistling in the air. I haven't heard the sound before, and it pierces me. My brain sets off all kinds of warning signals, but my tired body just doesn't process it. It's Jack and Dave that give meaning to the sound.
“Go now!” they both yell. Jack's command cuts through the exhaustion and sends my legs churning again. The whistle grows louder and changes pitch. We've passed both hangars and are beyond another airplane when the whistle ends in a blast so loud it deafens me and throws me to the ground. My cheek grates along the concrete, and I gasp with the burning that fills me. Every inch of my skin that touches the ground feels like it's on fire. I roll to one side. My palms are skinned, bleeding, and small pebbles are ground into the flesh. I feel dizzy seeing more blood. We're all sprawled out, but Kai is already getting to her feet and stumbling toward the water. Jane trails after her, limping. Madge looks disoriented as she wobbles after them.
Dave shakes his head and then scoops up Mary. Her head lolls back, and I think she's unconscious. Please, just let her be unconscious.
Lily still lies on the ground, and her leg is twisted at a funny angle. “I can't get up,” she moans.
“Don't worry about it,” Jack says as he picks her up as softly as he would a baby. “I'm sorry, this will hurt.” She groans once, but doesn't make any more noise.
I grit my teeth, put my wounded palms on the ground, and push myself up. Run, Terra, my brain yells at me. I sprint after them all, looking behind me once. A fire blooms, and even over here I can feel the heat of it. The two hangars gape open, pouring out smoke, and their roofs send long streams of flame into the sky. The helicopter hovers near the site, its light trained on the inferno. The soldiers from the grass have finally made their way over to it, and they carefully pick their way through the rubble, shining lights into the buildings. They're looking for our dead bodies.
Chapter Twenty
My legs burn and my head throbs, but we have a few minutes now until they discover we're not there. I catch up to Jack and Lily and run beside him. Lily tries to smile, but her hand clutches her thigh, and her face is too tight for smiling.
Beyond the silhouettes racing, the water opens up before me, and I can finally hear it over the thud of the helicopter. The waves call as they scud across the sand. They don't beckon me home, but offer greeting a
nd promises of peace for my friends.
I'm amazed I can still hear peace in this world.
I search left and right down the narrow stretch of beach, and to the south in the waves, hovering just under the surface, the faint lights of a submarine glow blue. It's there; we made it. One hundred yards to go.
I make a guttural noise. Everyone looks at me, their eyes confused at my wild call. But I'm pointing frantically, my hand waving through the air toward the water, and they follow it and look to where the dark shape breaks the surface and glides to rest in the shallow water.
Madge lets out a whoop and leads the charge toward the water. She splashes in—it must be so cold now—without even breaking stride. I wasn't sure how she'd react to this moment when it came. The distrust and bitterness toward the colonies burned so deep in her, but she's surprised me once again. She thumps her hand against the sub's metal belly. It lets out a deep, hollow echo. Then there's a hiss at the top and the hatch opens slowly, propped up with a dark hand.
I recognize the halo of wild, curly hair before I even see the face. Gaea has come. I try not to look at her as I help Lily and Jack into the water, but I can't help it. Gaea's eyes are wild as she takes in the ocean, the fire burning in the distance, the figures racing through the foam toward her, and Madge yelling at her to let us up. I know it's true what I always suspected: she's never been on the Burn before.
She's a creature caught between two worlds. She despised the colony and longed for the Burn, but she could never go all the way. Why? Then her eyes settle on me, and I know. There's such churning emotion there: grief, regret, guilt, and love. She could never leave the ocean because she could never leave me and Jessa behind. It's little comfort for the motherless years she put me through. I can see the love there, the need to be near me. I can't bear it, knowing I can't return that feeling. Not yet, maybe not for a very long time.
Then another face appears next to hers, and my heart soars. Jessa. She's here.