I go into the third room, frantically moving through it, searching.
I pause, a white-blonde head catching my eye.
She’s fast asleep, so I can’t see her eyes, and her hair is a few shades lighter than Bea’s, but she looks like her. A smattering of light freckles runs across the bridge of a small, sloped nose, high cheekbones barely disguised in a childishly round face. She is young, eight or nine, and slim, though not in the way Bea was.
It’s her. It has to be her.
I glance down at her shoulder, my heart in my mouth, and there it is.
7425.
‘Hey.’ My hand reaches out of its own accord, trembling as I touch her shoulder.
Her eyes fly open, and she shrinks against the wall. And there they are. Bea’s blue eyes.
‘Stay away from me,’ she says quietly. She’s uncomfortable and angry, but not actually scared, because she thinks I’m one of the other Dorm girls.
‘I know this is really scary, but you need to come with me. I need to get you out of here.’
‘Who are you?’ she asks, her eyes widening as she realises her mistake.
‘I’m your sister’s friend, and she told me that if anything happened to her, I had to come get you and bring you to a safe place.’
Lie, lie, lie, lie, my brain screams at me, but I don’t have any other option.
‘You’re lying.’
‘I’m not, I promise. Bea and I were leaving together. We were friends. She told me about you, Sophia.’
The angry look eases up on her face, allowing a tiny sparkle of hope to come through. ‘You knew my sister?’
‘Yeah. I knew her, but we need to go now.’
She looks like she can’t make up her mind for a moment, but the truth is, any girl in this room would go with me if they thought they’d actually get out. They wouldn’t really care where we were going, as long as it was away from here.
She stands up from her bed, and I move out of her way.
‘You promise you knew my sister?’
‘I promise.’
I can see her thinking, analysing the risk, and finally she nods.
‘Okay,’ she says quietly. ‘I’ll go with you.’
‘We need to go now,’ I say, catching her hand. She takes it without question, and I pull her out the door, not once glancing back.
She clings to my hand as we slip down the stairs and into the hall. The door is only pushed in since I broke the lock, and I make her wait while I check outside.
‘There’s no one there. Let’s go!’ she whispers.
‘Wait,’ I breathe, watching the movement in the guard-house. We hunker down against the door, the girl hidden safely behind it while I stare through the crack, and we wait for our opportunity.
‘What is it?’ she asks.
Two Officers are walking towards the Dorms, guns slung against their shoulders.
‘Stay down,’ I order, and she ducks her head lower as I pull the gun from my waistband.
My insides curl as I watch the Officers approach, and I try to remember everything Kole taught me as I raise the gun up between shaking hands.
I will not let her die.
I will not let her die.
I will not let her die.
The Officers get closer. One of them readjusts his gun, holding it out towards the door, and I’m sure they’ve seen the broken lock and they’re coming to investigate, I know it.
I will not let her die.
I will not let her die.
I will not let her die.
The gun feels too heavy, and my breathing is coming in short, quiet gasps as I try to get ready, to prepare for whatever comes after this.
I will not let her die.
I will not let her die.
I will not let her die.
5
At the last moment the patrols pass, distracted by the arrival of two colleagues. They switch over with the two other Officers, then continue their patrol around the Dorms. I nearly drop the gun as a wave of dizziness pours over me, relief making my knees weak beneath me. I fall back against the wall beside her, my heart thudding in my chest.
‘Two minutes,’ I tell her, and we stay very still, waiting.
I stand back up, seeing lights bobbing around the yard, and glance out as the guards pass around the corner. I gesture for the girl’s hand, taking a firm grip of her.
‘Ready?’ I ask.
‘Ready,’ she says, her eyes fierce and fiercely afraid.
We sprint without looking back. I pull her behind me, her short legs unable to keep up with me properly as I run, but we eat up the ground between us and the fence so quickly the moment barely exists, and then we are at the fence and I am climbing, glancing back to make sure she’s following, and she is, but slowly, too slowly. I throw my leg over the top of the fence and lean down, catching her under her arms and pulling her up with me. I jump off the other side, feeling the seconds drain away from us as the Officers come around the other side of the Dorms, and she jumps after me, both of us landing at the same time on the hard earth.
She falls onto her knees, but I don’t give her time to orientate herself. I grab her hand and begin pulling her along, using the cover of the trees for as long as I can. I’ve only ever been this thankful for the outcrop of trees surrounding the Dorms once before, and that was the night of the escape.
The night everything changed.
The branches of the trees cut into my arms, and the dirt is loosely packed and shifts under my boots as we run, the girl stumbling after me, but I can’t stop.
I can’t stop running. I can’t slow down. I can’t risk us getting caught.
I can’t risk losing her.
I turn around, checking to make sure she’s okay, and run straight into something. I stumble forward and then jump away, realising that the something was a person, a person with a dark hoodie and a gun.
My heart stops and I’m opening my mouth to scream at her to run, but a hand shoots up and catches mine.
‘Quincy, stop. Quincy, it’s me.’ A familiar voice. I release a strangled gasp of relief.
‘Kole?’ I stutter. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I came to find you. Are you okay?’ He knocks back his hood to reveal his face in the low light, the Celian City one side of us, the moon the other. His eyes glance down at the girl, and my own eyes follow to her terrified face.
There’s a pause.
‘We need to get back,’ he says. That’s it.
‘But—’
‘Let’s just get back, will we?’ He catches my arm and drags me forward. I shake him off before falling into line behind him, confused.
6
Kole raps on the red door and a few minutes later, Ly pulls it open. His eyes flick past us to the girl, and he turns to Kole sharply.
‘Don’t,’ Kole says, holding up a hand. ‘Don’t say a word.’
Ly grinds his teeth, slamming the door behind us as Kole pulls the inside door open, ushering us downstairs. I look down at the girl, shivering in her thin, grey sleep-suit, and feel a pang of regret. I should have let her get changed, or at least let her put on a jacket.
Her lips are blue, but by the expression on her face, the shivering is only half from cold. We step inside the basement, and several people glance up, giving us curious looks as we pass by.
‘Where’s Clarke?’ Kole asks someone passing us by, and they direct us down the hall. Kole pushes open a door to a small room, where Lauren and Clarke are sitting in a circle, talking. They all look up when we walk in.
‘What the …’ Clarke trails off, staring wide-eyed at the girl, then at me, then at Kole, then at the girl again.
Lauren jumps up from her spot on the ground.
‘Kole?’ she squeaks.
‘This is Sophia. Can you get blankets for her, Lauren?’ I ask, ignoring Kole as I push forward, never once releasing the girl’s hand.
‘Uh,’ Lauren blinks, licks her lips, looks around nervously. ‘Yeah. Ye
ah, of course.’
She runs off and is back in minutes.
‘Take these,’ she says, handing me a stack. ‘Nails is sending someone down with hot water in a minute. You look freezing!’ Lauren says, picking up the girl’s other hand.
I wrap two of the blankets around the girl’s shoulders, then sit her down on one of the mattresses pushed against the wall. It’s like the rest of the room has melted away.
‘Are you okay?’ I ask her in the kindest voice I can muster. Her teeth are chattering, but she nods through it.
‘Is this the place?’ she asks, looking around the small, cramped room.
‘No,’ I answer, following her eyes. She’s not sure what to think of this place, and neither am I. ‘The place I was talking about is outside the Wall. I’m gonna take you there soon.’
‘Outside the Wall?’
‘Yeah,’ I smile. ‘I know.’
‘Is it … what’s it like out there?’
‘Better than what you’re imagining. It’ll be okay, I promise.’
She smiles at me, a slow, hesitant smile that doesn’t really become anything much, but it feels like progress. ‘What’s your name?’ she asks.
‘Quincy.’ I smile. ‘And these people are my friends. They won’t hurt you, I promise.’
Lauren comes in with a cup of hot water for Sophia, which she drinks greedily.
‘I’m sorry we don’t have anything better,’ Lauren apologises, kneeling beside Sophia.
‘Quincy,’ Kole says, coming up behind me.
‘What?’
‘I need to talk to you.’
‘About what?’ I don’t look at him, instead watching Sophia as she watches us.
‘Quincy.’ His voice sounds a warning tone.
‘But Sophia needs me to stay—’
‘Lauren has it covered, don’t you, Lauren?’
‘I can stay here,’ Lauren says, nodding.
‘Fine.’
I march back out through the door. I expect him to say whatever it is he needs to say in the hall so I can go back in, because I don’t particularly want to talk to him right now anyway, but instead he walks down the hall and into a different room, forcing me to follow him.
‘What?’ I demand, closing the door behind me.
‘What in the world did you think you were doing?’ he asks, turning to face me.
‘What do you mean?’
He runs his hands through his hair as he turns away from me.
‘Why did you leave without telling me? Why did you go to the Dorms? Who the hell is that kid in there?’
‘I needed to find her,’ I say, as if that’s an answer to all three questions.
‘For future reference,’ he says, coming to stand closer to me, ‘I don’t appreciate having to track you down in the middle of the night when you decide you want to play search and rescue.’
‘I didn’t ask you to follow me.’ I grit my teeth, holding myself back from slapping him.
‘I know you didn’t. Because at least everyone else I can trust to know when they need help. With you, I always have to be watching, waiting for when you need me.’
‘I don’t need you to fight my battles!’
‘You think I’m trying to?’ he asks, with a snort of unpleasant laughter. Then he leans in close to me. ‘I’m trying to keep you from getting yourself killed, you idiot.’
‘Don’t. You. Dare,’ I growl, stepping closer to him.
‘You need to get over your ego, Quincy.’
‘I don’t have an ego!’
‘Oh, you don’t, do you? So then explain to me how you thought that you could single-handedly break into the Dorms, which, in case you didn’t notice, is crawling with Officers, and just take a girl. You don’t think that was just a little bit arrogant?’
‘It wasn’t any of your business.’
‘If you get killed, it’s my business. This is exactly what I’m talking about. You think you’re invincible.’
‘I needed to find her. I had to.’
‘You didn’t have to do it on your own, Quincy, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. You’re not on your own anymore. You’re part of a team. Start acting like it.’
He brushes past me on his way to the door, before yanking it open and slamming it closed behind him.
7
Kole calls a meeting in the common room and tells us he wants to leave once it gets dark.
‘We’re not here to waste time,’ he says, looking at each of us. ‘The longer we’re here, the more chance of being caught. We leave tonight for the Inner Sector, get the information we need, and come back. We’ll regroup after that and decide how to move forward. Everyone understand?’
I glance around the small group, and everyone’s nodding.
Kole doesn’t make eye contact with me, and when he’s done explaining the plan, he goes for the door, but I catch him before he leaves.
‘I wanted to say,’ I grit my teeth, attempting to get this out quickly, ‘that I’m sorry for leaving to get Sophia without telling anyone. And you’re right, I’m part of a team. I understand that now.’
He looks away from me, and my heart drops, but when he looks back there’s something in his expression, like he’s trying not to smile.
‘That was genuinely really hard for you, wasn’t it?’ he asks, shaking his head as he looks at me strangely, like he can’t understand me.
‘You’re not angry?’
He takes a breath and shakes his head. ‘No, I’m not angry. I just don’t want you doing anything like that again. And it’s not about me, it’s about the entire group. We have to move together or we’ll fall apart.’
‘It won’t happen again.’
‘Then we’re good.’ He shrugs.
‘Just like that? That’s it?’
‘That’s it,’ he says. ‘People make mistakes. It’s not fair to punish them for it forever. It doesn’t make sense.’
‘Okay.’ I’d smile, but I’m in too much shock. ‘I have to go say goodbye to Sophia.’
‘Good. I’ll see you later.’
‘Okay,’ I mumble again, moving down the hall to where Sophia’s staying.
‘I won’t be gone long,’ I promise, crouching down beside her, and I’m not sure she’s aware it’s a promise, but it is. I won’t leave her behind.
‘Okay.’ She nods, but there’s a slight tremble in her hand.
‘Lauren is going to stay with you while I’m gone.’
She nods again. ‘Just, please come back. Sometimes people say they won’t be gone long and then they don’t come back at all.’
I put both of my arms around her, and she shouldn’t trust me this fast, she shouldn’t be this ready to let people inside her walls, but it’s as if the Dorms haven’t touched her, as if it couldn’t do to her what it did to me, and I’ve never been so glad for something in my life.
‘I promise you,’ I say, with a shaking voice, ‘that I will come back. No matter what.’
‘Okay,’ she says, and I have to pretend she’s not crying so I’ll be able to leave.
I’m wiping tears from my own eyes when I meet Kole and the others upstairs.
‘You okay?’ he asks gently, putting his hand on my shoulder.
‘Yeah,’ I murmur, but I sound like I’m choking.
8
Kole, Jay, Clarke and I leave the base after dark. Jay walks beside me and Clarke and Kole trail soundlessly behind us.
I shiver, and Jay looks at me questioningly.
‘I hate this place,’ I whisper, glancing around at the tall, silent buildings looming over us. The streets get quieter the closer you get to the Wall separating the Inner Sector from the Outer Sector. I know from the surveillance cameras at the power station that there’s another wall, one separating the Inner Sector from the Celian City, but you can’t see it from out here.
‘It’s not much further,’ he says, ushering us between two buildings running up against the Wall. The buildings get smaller near the huge ga
tes between the Inner and Outer Sectors, and Jay finally stops in front of a small house, completely different than any other I’ve seen.
He kicks the door roughly.
‘Damien!’ he shouts, and I glance behind us, my stomach flipping.
Kole shakes his head, as if to say Jay knows what he’s doing.
A tall, thin man with rust-coloured hair and a long face pulls the door open, looking around angrily. He freezes at the sight of Jay.
‘You owe me a favour,’ Jay states, his switchblade smile twinkling from the lights inside the house.
Thirty minutes later we are all inside the house, and Damien is walking back into the room.
‘A shipment of recruits is gonna be here in an hour,’ he says gruffly, slamming the door behind him.
‘Wonderful.’ Jay smiles.
The rest of us hang towards the back of the small building, our hands resting on our weapons as we wait with tense muscles. Jay has something on Damien, who is apparently an Officer who keeps track of what moves between the Inner and Outer Sectors. Whatever Jay has on him, it must be big for him to risk this much, and I still don’t trust it. I can’t imagine anything Jay has on him to be worse than what Oasis would do if they found out Damien had snuck us through, but when I glance over at Jay’s relaxed posture as he lounges in a chair, I wonder.
Kole glances over at me.
‘You alright?’ he asks.
I’m twitching, and I can tell it’s driving him mad, but I can’t stop.
‘I just want to get this over with.’ And back to Sophia, I add inside my head.
Kole nods gravely, looking back at the Officer standing at the door.
Now all that’s left is to wait.
A siren goes off, and Damien pulls open the door to the house, muttering about being right back. I turn to Jay the minute he’s gone.
‘This was your great plan?’ I ask, anger bubbling to the surface. We’ve been sitting in this room for twenty minutes, and I already feel like I’m losing my mind.
‘He’s not going to report us,’ Kole says coolly, leaning up against the wall.
‘How am I supposed to believe that? He’s an Officer!’
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