Fadeout

Chapter 11: Silas

  “So what happened to you?” Patton asked when he heard Silas’ morning stretch.

  Silas closed his eyes and stopped moving.

  “I know you’re awake. Tell me what happened.” Two pairs of legs swung over the side of the top bunk and Patton hung his head over the edge.

  Silas rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Nothing. The Tirean is bored and wants someone to keep him company. We played games most of the day.”

  “Really? That’s it?” Patton looked disappointed.

  “Yep.”

  “I thought for sure you were gone.”

  “Me too.”

  “How are your new books?” Silas asked. He didn’t want to go into any more details.

  Patton took the bait. “One is the fifth book in a science series that they gave me books one and two last month. I don’t know if they can’t count or didn’t think I’d need books three and four. The other book is about climate changes and the last one is about political theories of the 21st century.”

  All Silas did was ask, “Are they interesting?”

  Patton went on and on about the information each chapter contained. Silas would nod every now and then, so Patton would think he was still listening, but all Silas could think about was that he might be going outside today.

  It was the biggest break Silas had made in the escape planning department and might possibly be bigger than Malina’s spying out the control room. Being outside the walls would give Silas a chance to discover what was out there. He’d have an idea of which way they should go when they got out. Perhaps he should take one of the pages out of Patton’s books so he could draw some kind of sketch of where the nearest town was or how far it was to the woods. He could see trees above the wall and mountains in the distance. Yet he didn’t know exactly how far they were and how hard it would be to find food while they were trying to get there.

  Malina didn’t seem to mind taking risks, but Silas was more cautious. He could probably get Jamar to start talking about the area and learn more than he wanted.

  The breakfast bell rang and Patton jumped down to line up by the door. Silas stretched his limbs as he stood. He felt a slight tingle in his stomach when he thought about going out of the walls. He could almost taste the fresh air. The thought of being free filled his mind so that he didn’t even notice their breakfast portion of food was small again. Two tablespoons of eggs and an inch of bacon was all he had on his plate. He didn’t bother saving either of those.

  Dark expressions filled the room. One boy two tables down shook so hard his face turned red and all the forks on the table rattled. Next to him Stephen’s mouth moved, probably trying to calm him down. And that boy was not the only one. Silas saw most of the older boys with some form of clenched teeth or closed fists. Glares were directed at the guards or the food dispenser every few seconds. The scent of frustration, like an oily, overworked sweat, filled the air and almost choked Silas. The boys were not happy, especially the older boys. They passed secret messages in angry looks and quiet nods that threatened violence.

  Even Sebastian seemed subdued. He didn’t laugh at the boy whose face was red or another boy who was shaking at Sebastian’s table. He didn’t do anything to calm the boy, but he was also not doing anything to make it worse.

  Silas wondered if the girls were reacting this way too. He didn’t think Malina would let something like less food get to her, but he hadn’t had a chance to talk with her since their meal portions were decreased. For the briefest moment he wished he weren’t going to spend time with Jamar.

  As everyone lined up to go outside, Silas felt a thick hand grip his shoulder.

  “Come with me,” Tymas said.

  Silas stepped out of line and followed Tymas. To Silas’ surprise they entered the control room, where Tymas pushed Silas so his back touched the wall and told him not to move an inch. The bell for the doors rang and Silas listened as the boys filed out into the yard and began running laps with Stephen at the head of the line. Tymas rummaged through some boxes on the highest shelf.

  Since he was waiting, Silas took the moment to look around. The room was big enough for Tymas and two other guards to work inside, as long as one of them stayed seated. There were wooden shelves pegged into the walls with one high shelf that went around the whole room. The desk was also made of wood and had three monitors running on it. One showed the empty hall in the girls ward, the middle showed the Carillians running in the yard and the third was split into four blocks that showed two sides of the cafeteria, the boys ward hallway and a blank screen.

  Malina was right about the recording system. The shelf below the one Tymas was searching held security feeds. The whole shelf was covered in dust and all the labels were dated fifty years ago. Beneath the monitors was another shelf covered in dust and three wires that were rusted and frayed at the tips. They had connected to something once upon a time, but it was gone now.

  Tymas grunted and pulled out a silver, plastic disk from one of the boxes. He walked over to Silas and attached the disk around Silas’ neck. Then he pressed something on the back and the disk started to hum. A green light flashed and then held steady.

  “If you take this off, your head will explode,” Tymas said with a cold grin.

  Silas nodded that he understood and Tymas took him main house where they both waited by two large front doors. The whole floor seemed silent. Tymas didn’t move and so Silas kept still.

  The minutes ticked by. He heard something walking on the nearby stairs, but the footsteps disappeared upward and he never saw who they belonged to. It felt strange to be wearing something around his neck. The disk’s edges were sharp and dug into his skin. He wanted to touch it and feel how it worked, but didn’t think Tymas would approve.

  In a distant floor above them a door slammed. Feet crashed down the stairs and Jamar appeared.

  “Here,” Jamar said. He held out a blue and gray knapsack with the hilts of two swords sticking out to Silas and pointed to a basket near the door. “Don’t forget the food.”

  Silas slipped the knapsack on, picked up the basket and watched as the large doors opened. Sunlight flowed from everywhere and Silas realized this was because there were no walls to limit it. The grass shimmered with dew and the line of trees where the woods began even had shafts of light penetrating them.

  There was no hesitation for Jamar. He hopped down the steps and took off for the trees with a fast walk. Tymas practically pushed Silas through the door and at once Silas felt like he had to run. He let his pace speed up until he reached Jamar and then he forced himself to slow down, even though his feet knew they were supposed to be running now like the rest of the yard.

  Silas looked around him. To his right a gravel path continued around the walls of the Cartiam and then split with the right path disappearing around the Cartiam. He could see buildings in the distance, which the left side of the path led to, one that looked like a stable and the other could have been a large storage shed. A fenced in field rolled away from the stable and butted alongside a distant edge of the forest. The field continued up a far hill and beyond where Silas couldn’t see. To his left the woods continued in a wide circle around the Cartiam and behind the woods were the mountains. Straight ahead there was a smaller hill covered in vegetation that slid down into the forest and taller trees.

  Silas made a mental note that the path went right and the mountains were on the left. It made sense that if there were towns in the area they would be connected to the path.

  “Here should be good,” Tymas said when they were halfway between the wall and the trees.

  “No.” Jamar shook his head and Silas caught a glimmer of mischief in his eyes. “I need to practice in terrain. I heard there’s a clearing half a mile from here that should do nicely.”

  Tymas grunted, but did not argue and the three of them entered the woods. There was a wide space in between the trees, almost like a path but overgrown with grass, and Jamar led them down the center of it.

&
nbsp; “Do you see this?” Jamar asked. He kicked at a bunch of loose gray rocks that littered the ground.

  “They’re rocks.” Silas looked down at them, careful not to let the knapsack and the basket of food throw him off balance.

  Jamar laughed. “Have you ever seen rocks like this? No, they’re pieces of pavement from an old highway that used to cut through here. Look,” Jamar picked up a small rock. “See this one has a bit of yellow paint on it.”

  “Why did they paint the road?”

  “I don’t know, maybe they thought it needed some color.” Jamar let the piece of pavement fall and they kept walking.

  The woods had a sound all their own. Like a stillness that magnified even the smallest sound. A single drop of water disappeared in a crackle of dried leaves. Silas kept hearing sticks and dried grass snap and crunch underfoot. The trees were so tall that their leaves created a ceiling.

  It took them longer to get to the clearing than Silas thought. He had to readjust the basket several times to keep it from digging into his hand. At last, the trees thinned out and a grassy meadow appeared. Silas wasn’t sure, but it looked like there might have been another road that intersected this one, but it had been smaller and was more overgrown.

  “Just put the basket by the tree and bring the swords,” Jamar commanded. Then he turned to Tymas. “You can wait with the food.”

  Silas placed the basket by a smooth trunk and pulled the swords out of the knapsack.

  “Do you remember anything from yesterday?”

  Silas nodded. He’d gone through the movements in his mind over and over before he fell asleep. The moment Jamar’s sword was in his hand he swung it at Silas’ head. Silas surprised himself by automatically remembering one of the high blocks.

  “Wrong one,” Jamar said. He slid his sword away from Silas’ hands so that Silas couldn’t hold the weight properly and Jamar’s blade hit Silas in the shoulder.

  “See.” Jamar attacked again and this time Silas used the right block. “Now you try attacking.”

  Silas swung at Jamar’s left shoulder and Jamar blocked it and swung his sword back so it was touching Silas’ chest. It was not a move Silas had seen before.

  “You’re dead. Try again.”

  This time Silas swung at Jamar’s right. Jamar stepped to the side and knocked Silas’ sword out of his hand.

  “Again.”

  Silas picked up the sword and made a swipe at Jamar’s right leg. Jamar blocked it and threw a strike at Silas’ left side that Silas barely managed to block. Jamar wasn’t teaching him like he did the day before. Silas felt completely overwhelmed, especially when some of the moves Jamar did couldn’t be blocked effectively with the blocks he knew. But Silas wanted to learn what he could and there was no good reason for Jamar to teach him more.

  He was surprised the owner would let Jamar teach Silas how to fight at all. Carillians and fighting were not normally mixed. If Silas was purely looking at the circumstances from a Tirean point of view, teaching fighting to Carillians made no sense. It would only be giving Carillians the tools they needed to rise up and demand freedom.

  This was an opportunity, one Silas was willing to take and learn all he could. Although it was frustrating to not know what Jamar was doing, Silas turned his focus from the millions of strikes and blocks he didn’t know to just watching the way Jamar moved. Silas might not be able to know the correct positions, but he hoped he could tell by the way Jamar would lift an elbow or twisted his knee, the general direction Jamar was going to attack next. It didn’t work as often as Silas would like because Jamar never seemed to use the same attack or block twice. Once Silas thought he knew what Jamar was going to do and he threw up a quick block that surprised Jamar. It gave Silas the split second he needed to work in an attack of his own, which Jamar quickly knocked to the side, but it made Silas almost feel as if he’d accomplished something.

  They continued going back and forth until Silas couldn’t remember how many times his sword had been knocked to the ground. Even though Jamar kept finding new moves to surprise him, Silas thought he was getting better at protecting himself and not letting his sword fly out of his hand on the first blow. To Silas’ shock they fought for 20 seconds straight before Jamar stuck his sword in Silas’ chest and said, “You died again.” But Jamar’s chest was heaving and Silas was covered in sweat that kept stinging into his eyes. His hand shook when he held his sword out.

  “Let’s eat,” Jamar said.

  Silas nodded, grateful that he could rest.

  They both turned back to the tree where Tymas was sitting. Silas noticed how all the grass around them was flattened, squashed into footprints and crumbled mounds of broken pavement. Taking two steps to the left, Silas tried to create a path back to the tree that he couldn’t see afterward, but every place he stepped left a broken gap in the otherwise straight grass. He had to remember that. When they were escaping he’d have to make sure they didn’t leave trails for others to see.

  Jamar dug into the basket and pulled out some ham sandwiches and a thermos of lemonade.

  “We’re going to eat on the other side of the clearing,” Jamar told Tymas. “You can stay here. We’ll call if we need anything.”

  Tymas just shrugged and leaned against the tree, with his eyes closed.

  With loud stomps and exaggerated shuffles, Jamar Left with the food. He motioned for Silas to do the same. Silas followed, but didn’t make an effort at the extra noise. Before they were in the middle of the clearing, Jamar ducked down and peered back at Tymas.

  “Look at this,” Jamar whispered. On the ground was an ant hill. Silas had seen them before in the yard. The younger boys liked to step on them and watch the ants come swarming out. The ants could bite, so it was a game to see how long the boys could stay close to the ant hill before they had to jump out of reach.

  “There’s another ant hill a few yards away from where Tymas is. Go sneak back and step on it.” Jamar’s mouth twisted in mischief.

  Silas glanced back at the resting Tymas. Even lying down the man was huge and he would be very angry.

  “I can’t do that,” Silas said.

  “What? Are you scared?” Jamar taunted.

  “No, I don’t think I could go back without him knowing I was there. Besides, I will have to live with him when you are gone.”

  “Fine.” Jamar stood up. “It will be more satisfying if I do it anyway.”

  Silas watched, crouched down as Jamar tiptoed back. Jamar carefully planted his feet so they wouldn’t make the dried grass snap. There were a few times when Silas heard a faint rustle, but he could also see Jamar’s movements so he knew to connect the sounds with that. Tymas didn’t appear to notice anything. His eyes stayed shut and his breathing was slow.

  Jamar inched closer and to the side. Then he smashed his foot down and tiptoed back. The whole time he giggled silently.

  “Let’s go,” Jamar said. “I don’t want him to see us when he does wake up.”

  Silas nodded and both boys jogged the rest of the way to the other side of the clearing. Without any hesitation, Jamar jumped into the trees and kept going. Silas stayed on Jamar’s heels.

  “I almost wish I could be there to see his face,” Jamar said with a laugh. “Did you bring the....”

  Jamar stopped so suddenly that Silas almost ran into him.

  “Bring what?” Silas asked.

  Jamar backed up and tripped over Silas’ foot. That’s when Silas saw what had made Jamar stop. A black bear that looked twice the size of Tymas was climbing down from a giant maple tree. It dropped to all fours and sniffed at them.

  Silas froze.

  Jamar scrambled to get up. The black bear sniffed and grunted.

  “Stop!” Silas hissed down at Jamar.

  “It’s going to attack.”

  The bear took a step toward them and Silas instantly wanted to run, but something held him. This was like the yard. New kids were coming in all the time and the older ones wanted to know what th
e new ones were made of. The older ones just wanted the new kids to know that there was a system in the yard, rules that had to be obeyed and a pecking order that had to be followed. Like the new boy Sebastian tried to pick on.

  And remembering the new boy gave Silas an idea. He threw his hands above his head, took a step closer to the bear and roared as loud as he could.