The Way

by Mary E. Twomey

  His plan to distance himself from everyone, save for his family and Elle crumbled as he twisted off the table and planted himself between the nurse and Grettel. He was sixteen, and well-built for his age. Naked chested and strong arms bared, he stared the nurse down with a sneer he reserved only for his enemies. “Hit me,” he dared her.

  Nurse Kalista tried to return his glare, but her trepidation was palpable as she took a step back from him. “Baird, you lay down on that table right now!”

  His eyes widened, and he knew he was bordering on psychotic as he kept his voice low and steady. “You mad about something? Hit me.”

  “Stop it!” Nurse Kalista scolded.

  Grettel whimpered and clung to the wall. Baird moved in front of the girl, acting as her shield. Though he did not know her, he knew that he could not leave Grettel to fend for herself. The marks of abuse were evident, and Baird hoped Grettel had not been scarred for life by the nurse. It took thick skin to make it through the daily tasks of The Way, and he feared what any more toughening of this tender girl would do to her. Not many things softened him, but when they did, Baird clung to the lifeline with ferocity.

  “Hit me, Vemreaux. You seem to like beating on little girls. Try me on.” He cracked his knuckles ominously. “I think I might like it. Hit me.”

  “Young man, you’ll sit down right now and…”

  “Hit me!” he shouted in her face, towering over her.

  Nurse Kalista stumbled back a few steps, tripping over her own foot and dropping her clipboard. She snatched her patient files back up off the ground, embarrassed at being intimidated by a mere Wayward. “Grettel, you clean him up and get him out!”

  Once she’d left, Baird turned and lay back on the table, making sure not to look at Grettel or her overflowing tears.

  It took an entire minute before Grettel approached him. This time when she touched his skin, it was with the air of blessing his wounds with her gratitude. “Why?” she whispered. “Why’d you do that?”

  Baird shrugged. “She pissed me off. Besides, you didn’t look like you were up for the task of putting her in her place.”

  “In her place? But she’s Vemreaux. We’re beneath her.”

  Baird reached out and gripped Grettel’s wrist, reminding himself to be gentle. “No. No, we’re not. You’re not.” He met her watery eyes, and for the first time, was not repelled by the show of tears. “She hit you often?”

  Grettel nodded, sniffing back as much emotion as she could, so that she could further attend to Baird’s back. “It’s okay. She doesn’t leave marks. Not like these.” She pointed to Baird’s bloody back. “Now, this is going to sting, so get ready.” She squirted a healthy stream of antiseptic onto the wounds, making sure to cover every raw bit. Her dainty fingers rested on his bicep in a gesture of comfort.

  Baird had never been babied. Everyone assumed that he did not need consoling, so they never bothered. He loathed the release of tension that came from Grettel’s kindness, and tensed his fist to stave of any further softening on his part.

  “Did that hurt too badly? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. She shouldn’t be hitting you, Grettel.”

  “It’s okay.” Grettel ducked her head toward his to ensure no one overheard. “Thank you, though. I’ll probably get worse from her later for it, but thank you for doing that. You don’t even know me.”

  “You don’t know me, and you’re helping me out.” Baird refused to look at her, not wanting to own up to his kind words. “Only fair I return the favor.”

  At this, Grettel managed a small smile through her sniffling. “Everyone knows you.”

  “No one knows me,” Baird countered, cursing his blatant melancholy.

  Grettel placed her delicate hand on his shoulder and rubbed a light circle on the flesh. “That’s a shame. You seem…worth knowing. Worthwhile.”

  Baird did not know what to say to this, so he settled for patting her hand. “Thanks.”

  Grettel kept her mousy voice low and bent in, so there would be no chance at being overheard. “Maybe I don’t know you, but I’ve seen you.”

  Baird stiffened and stopped breathing simultaneously. “You’ve seen me do what?”

  He could hear the gentle smile in Grettel’s response. “You watch your sister. Protect her. No one bothers her because they’re afraid of you. I’ve seen you finish your brother’s workload, too. He’s young, and they sometimes give the children more than they can handle. You always step in and make sure he’s taken care of.” She glanced down at his torn back. “How many of these beatings did you actually earn, and how many were Griffin’s?”

  “Do you know Griffin or something?” Baird was surprised anyone watched him that closely.

  “No. But don’t worry. I know it’s supposed to be a secret that you’re nice. I can keep my mouth shut.” Grettel pointed to the gash she’d dug the pottery from. “I think you might need stitches here. I don’t do those, though. Let me call the nurse back in.”

  Baird wasn’t sure what to make of the observant girl. “No, thanks. I’ll take my chances. It’ll heal. It always does.”

  “At least let me bandage it up.” Her petite fingers made quick work of concealing the abrasions. She gathered up the gauze and bloody scraps to throw them in the trash.

  “Wait. I’ll take those.” Baird sat up.

  “The garbage?” Grettel wrinkled her nose in confusion. “But it’s unsanitary.”

  “It’s my blood. I earned every bit of that whip, so I should get to keep my blood. It’s mine. They don’t need it for anything.”

  Grettel’s fearful eyes darted to the curtain. “But that’s against the rules. Nurse Kalista would be mad.”

  “Nurse Kalista won’t find out. I’ll burn it all in the furnace later.”

  It was a test, as everything was with the people he trusted most. Baird needed to know if he’d earned Grettel’s allegiance.

  Hesitantly, Grettel handed the sodden mess over to the large man, who tucked the contraband in his armpit. She surprised Baird by resting her petite hand on his arm to stay his exit. “Please don’t get caught. And let me get you a fresh uniform. That one’s ruined.”

  “Nah. I like it. Sends a message to the Supervisors.”

  “Oh. Um, well, just be careful with those bandages. Nurse Kalista…she’s a lot worse when I’ve actually done something to make her mad.”

  Just like that, Grettel passed the test. Baird glanced out the window to his sister, who was still hard at work in the yard. He knew Blue wouldn’t be opposed to adding the meek girl to their exclusive group. Baird mentally shifted his worldview to include Grettel, tucked securely under his wing of protection.

  Baird stood, buttoning up his bloodied jumpsuit as he gave an evil grin to the girl. “I wouldn’t worry about Nurse Kalista, Grettel. She won’t be bothering you much longer.”

  Chapter Two

  The Blackout

  Two Years Later

  Blue’s arms were not tired as she hauled the fifteenth load of housing bricks to the refinery, but she was bored. Tasks that had once been exciting with their newness had grown mundane through the years she spent with her brother in The Way. Baird let her switch up jobs occasionally. She’d worked in the yard mucking scratch, in the kitchen, pressing paper, sewing clothes, laundry, in-house maintenance and even S-brick production. Finally, she’d convinced him that she should work with the housing bricks. Well, it wasn’t so much her as it was her best friend Elle who did the convincing. Elle was a year older than Blue, and even the stoic Baird was not immune to her blonde hair and beguiling emerald eyes. They’d used the angle of hauling housing bricks as inconspicuous weight training. It also helped that the furnace shed they were fired in was a kilometer away from the yard workers, so she would have more opportunities to train without fear of being seen. He reluctantly agreed. The preparation he’d had her doing of sewing clothes with her eyes shut had reached its maximum level of effectiveness.

  When Baird fin
ally conceded, Blue was so happy not to have to sit still for hours on end anymore that she almost jumped up and hugged him. Almost. Hugging was not something Baird suffered, so she settled for a grateful shove, which he returned with a smile. The condition was that either he or Elle had to work the shift with her. After much pretense of debate, Blue decided she’d like to spend her days with Elle, who knew her secret and promised Baird that she’d keep an eye on his sister.

  After a month hauling housing bricks, it proved to be like every other job. The repetition of the task was taxing, not the work itself. When she and Elle were alone, stacking bricks in the sweltering furnace room, Elle got a much needed break while Blue moved both their loads from the trolleys. The Vemreaux Supervisors never bothered them much; the room was too hot for their liking.

  “So, you think Baird noticed?” Elle asked, looking down approvingly at her chest.

  “Normally, I’d say that Baird notices everything, so of course he’d see that you went up a bra size. But since you happen to be the one area he’s clueless about...” Blue nodded as Elle placed the fortieth brick in Blue’s outstretched arms. Each brick weighed two kilograms. This was not a challenging amount for Blue to carry, but she had to do it while having a conversation and being careful not to drop any. Baird instructed them that if her voice wavered at all while lifting, that would count as showing weakness, and she would fail his lesson for the day.

  “I know, right? He can obsess about the correct form for your inverted one-handed pushups, but can’t see what’s right in front of his face.”

  “That’s the brilliance of Baird for you. I saw Larry giving you the glad eye at breakfast.”

  Elle grinned and winked. “I coulda sworn he was looking at you, girlfriend.”

  Blue rolled her eyes. Although it was true that at sixteen, her body was changing, and no amount of strategically smeared scratch could hide that, it was laughable to think that any guy would give her a second look when they had Elle to ogle. “You’re sweet, but wrong. And if you want to be with Baird, then you’ve got to make the first move. And the second. And probably the third. And you’ve got to be more obvious.”

  Elle flipped her hair over her shoulder and huffed. “How many more times can I do the lean and laugh?” She demonstrated by unbuttoning the top snap of her orange jumpsuit, leaning forward so her ample bosom pressed into her folded arms and let loose her best tinkling giggle.

  Blue quirked her eyebrow at her best friend. “You may have to revise your takedown.”

  “Ugh. Everything is a fighting term with you two. Not sexy.”

  Blue shrugged at the nature of the beast. Sweat was sliding down her forehead, not from the work, but from the furnace. Their job was to move the dried and pressed housing bricks from the workshop to the refinery, and then another Wayward, usually Marxus or Grent, fired the bricks to ensure their purity and durability. Then the girls moved them to the storage shed on the east end of The Way’s vast property.

  Today, however, Marxus was in the infirmary with a bloody fist and sprained wrist. Marxus was Baird’s right hand, and the two worked the yard together. When Baird permitted Blue to sign up for a position moving housing bricks, it was no surprise that it came with strings. Elle knew her secret, but it was apparently not enough for her to watch Blue and help her train. Marxus had to be there, as well. Marxus and Baird unofficially ran the yard, which, until they’d established themselves as Alpha dogs, was where most of the fights broke out. Both men would turn nineteen at the end of the month, and even though there were plenty of older Waywards out there, Baird’s rule was absolute. Any fights would have to go through him, and he liked a quiet work atmosphere.

  When Blue switched jobs, she should not have been surprised that Marxus was asked to put in for a similar job trade. Though he was no Baird, and he did not know their secret, Marxus looked so forbidding and had the reputation of being Baird’s dirty work enforcer, that there was no chance the girls would have a hard time in the mostly-male housing bricks job site.

  The fight Marxus had been in that morning churned in the rumor mill like a hurricane. He’d apparently taken down three older boys single-handedly for trying to get him kicked off his lead position in the furnace room. The gossip was that they hadn’t been able to land a single blow, and that Marxus’ injuries had come from punching a wall. That was how it went with rumors in The Way, though. In another day, the sprained wrist would be omitted, and there would be twelve guys he obliterated.

  Blue heard Grent approaching with Marxus’ replacement, and immediately set down the forty bricks she’d been moving. She rolled her eyes and pretended to struggle as she lifted two bricks, ignoring Elle’s quiet laughter at the theatrics. There were additional sets of footsteps now, and Blue warned Elle with a look to keep alert.

  The mask was effortless. Blue’s perfect posture slumped, shoulders inverted, and feet shuffled at the first hint of eavesdroppers. She lowered her chin so that her auburn hair tilted forward to obscure most of her face.

  “Hey, Elle,” Grent called as he strolled into the hot room. He had four older guys with him, each of whom looked like they were approaching the age limit for Building Three. Grent looked her up and down more overtly than his usual stolen glances. “You’re looking good today.”

  Elle gave him an appreciative half-smile. “You think I look good now? Wait till I’m not stuck in this hot box.” She nodded to acknowledge the four guys brought in to replace one Marxus. “Why all the extra help? Hey, Evan. Perry.” She could not recall the other two men’s names.

  “This one looks like she could use a break,” suggested Evan as he motioned to Blue. He held the door open for her to exit. “Go on, kid. Supervisor’s tied up on the yard right now, but you could probably use a water stop.”

  Haulers and refiners went through a lot of water, true, but the menace in Evan’s tone made the hairs on the back of Blue’s neck stand on end. Grent was usually quiet with the occasional covert flirt for Elle, but his confidence had not been as obvious with Marxus around to keep watch. She did not like the bravado, or the fact that there were five guys when a Vemreaux Supervisor would only have sent two for the task.

  Elle had the same thought. “Now that you mention it, I could use some water, too. Come on, Blue.”

  Grent moved to block her way out. “I already told you that you look good. It’s not water you need, and you know it.”

  The two men Elle did not know closed in behind her. She held her ground and acted as if she was not in the middle of an impending attack. “What’s this about, guys?” Elle tried to keep her voice steady. Bored, even.

  “It’s about you.”

  Perry’s brown eyes glinted with mischief and malice as he stepped in front of Elle. “You’re Baird’s girl, right?”

  “Why? You hoping to be Baird’s girl?” she joked boldly, unwilling to cower beneath the threat of their combined height, weight and strength. In truth, she and Baird never made anything official. It was simply understood that the two were together. For years, stories circulated about their various wild sex adventures, when in reality, Baird had never even kissed her. Elle squared her shoulders to Perry’s, ignoring the two men behind her whose breath she could feel through her hair.

  Perry cracked his knuckles as he looked her up and down. “Baird needs to know that he’s not in charge around here anymore. Marxus got our message this morning, but there’re too many supervisors in the yard to get close to Baird. You, on the other hand. Well, he left you wide open.”

  One of the men behind Elle surprised her by gripping her arm hard with his calloused and dirty fingers. She looked up, scowling, but her bravery did not deter his strength. Her eyes met Blue’s across the room, and she shook her head almost imperceptibly.

  Blue caught Elle’s silent warning to let her handle this, but did not even consider obeying. Evan’s heavy hand pressed down on Blue’s shoulder, causing her to stiffen. “Out you go, now,” he ordered.

  Blue froze as black wi
sps crept in at the edges of her vision. “Don’t touch me,” she warned in a quiet voice.

  Perry turned to acknowledge the open door. “That’s Baird’s sister, right?”

  Grent looked uneasy, but nodded. “She’s young, though. She’s a Jane.” He indicated her middle name. Every Wayward girl born in Blue’s year was given the middle name Jane. Elle was a year older, so she was a Louise. The guys surrounding them were older than Baird. Franklins, at least.

  “Yeah, yeah. The quiet one. I don’t know, Grent. A two-fer sounds good. What do you say, Perry?” Dureck suggested.

  “She’s just a kid, Dureck. Let her go. You want to take down Baird, go for his girlfriend,” said Grent. Elle walked around like a beacon all other women should aspire to, and every man should fantasize about. She practically screamed sex. But Blue? Grent could not justify manhandling the quiet girl who’d barely ever opened her mouth in his presence.

  Evan’s hand shoved Blue forward. “You want the sister, Dureck? Take her. I had dibs on Elle.”

  Dureck released his grip on Elle’s arm and moved toward the timid-looking girl with purpose. “Don’t be afraid. I’m doing you a favor. Word gets around that you gave it up to me, you’ll be set. Envy of all the Janes.”

  Blue shook her head, afraid not of what he’d do to her, but of what she might do to him. She couldn’t let that happen again. Baird had warned her about staying in control, dealing with problems without losing her head. She fought to stay in the moment, to handle Dureck without blacking out. The wisps were mutating into a fog that clouded her clarity. “You should leave,” she whispered to him. “Please. I’m begging you. Just go.”

  Desperation gripped Elle as she watched Blue struggle to remain timorous. Panic pinched Elle’s voice as she pleaded frantically. “No, Dureck! Take me instead! Leave her alone! Do what you want with me. You know you want to. I’m the one you came for. All of you. Just let her go.” Perry grabbed her roughly, mashed his face to hers and kissed her without mercy. Elle jerked away. “Run, Blue! Get out of here!”