Fadeout

Chapter 21: Silas

  Silas kept touching the small lump in his pocket. Each time he wanted to take it out and hold it in his hand. He didn’t want to risk a hole in his pocket ruining everything. By the time he heard voices and footsteps in the hall he could have worn a path in the floor.

  The air was tense in the hall and in the cafeteria it only got worse. Malina was one of the last girls in line and Silas watched her take her food to a table and sit down. He wished the line would move faster. The portions were a tablespoon of baked beans and one fourth of a grilled cheese sandwich. He had to talk to Malina. They needed to escape tonight. Even though Jamar promised he would take care of her, Silas wasn’t sure he could trust him to keep his word. It was his responsibility to save her.

  Once he had his food, Silas walked past Malina’s table and bent over to tie his shoe. He placed his tray on the floor and slipped his hand into his pocket.

  “We need to go tonight,” he whispered. He tied his shoelace, slowly tightening it.

  “That’s too soon,” Malina said. She crossed her arms and rested her head on the table so Silas could see her mouth.

  Silas pulled the red e-mem out and hid it in his hand.

  “The owner knows about the riot tomorrow. We have to get out tonight. Use this.” Silas had his hand holding the e-mem push himself up and felt her fingers wrap around the small ball before he let it go. As he walked away, he could feel Malina’s eyes follow him.

  It was a good thing he didn’t have much food because Silas was almost too nervous to eat what was there. He speared his beans with his fork and ate them one at a time. The thought of escape still seemed too foreign to be true, yet he liked thinking that this could be his last meal in the cafeteria. It was better than thinking that this was the last meal he would have in his right mind.

  After dinner Silas tried to rest in his bed, but every creak set his mind on fire. He went through his list of things to bring and there wasn’t much he wanted to keep. There were still several slices of bread and an orange in between his mattress. Who knew how long they would last, but at least it was something. He planned to strip the blanket off his bed, but he had no extra clothes, those were only available in the shower area, and he didn’t plan to take any of the stuffed animals. If Patton woke up he wasn’t sure what he would say. But he decided that there were two circumstances that they would take him: if Patton wanted to go or if Silas thought he’d tell on them the moment they were out of sight. They might leave Patton in the woods to fend for himself once they were safe and he couldn’t ruin the plan.

  The minutes ticked by. Patton’s heavy breathing counted down the seconds. The cell darkened and then slowly began to turn lighter. Still there was no knock and the door did not open.

  The door slid open with a clang and Silas nearly hit his head on the low bunk. His eyes crackled with sand and his head spun like it was filled with bees.

  “Let’s go,” Westminster said. He banged on the wall.

  Silas stumbled out of bed and lined up with the rest of the guys. But instead of lining up facing the cafeteria, everyone was lined up facing the yard. It probably meant no breakfast today. The owner wanted them to stay weak from hunger and make them angry at the same time.

  The yard doors opened and everyone stumbled out. Silas immediately realized how out of practice he was. He legs knew the right motions, but all his muscles were stiff and didn’t stretch and pull like they normally did. By his fourth circle of the yard it took all of Silas’ willpower to keep the pace and when their run was over Silas breathed harder than he had in a long time. His heart raced as if it would burst through his chest. Whether it was being out of shape or knowing a riot was coming, he wasn’t sure.

  Once he could breathe through his nose without coughing, he made his way over to Malina.

  “I couldn’t do it,” she said as he passed.

  “He wasn’t there?”

  “No, I need to be here for the plan. Either we all escape or no one does.”

  Silas’ heart dropped. “But the owner knows the plan. He’s going to stop it.”

  Malina shook her head. “I don’t care. He can’t stop all of us.”

  “Mal--”

  “I don’t care!” Malina hissed. The words fell hot on his face. Her voice was much louder than it should be and Silas knew if he pressed her she would explode. She would not be open to listening either.

  He kept walking. Stephen and Marcus were leaning nearby and Silas stopped near them. They didn’t move, but they didn’t seem very welcoming either.

  “Are you in?” Stephen asked. He looked straight across at the other side of the wall, but Silas knew he was talking to him.

  “Call it off. The owner knows about the riot. He plans to make everyone’s emotions peak so he can take us to the Machine.” He casually looked in their direction and saw Marcus glance at Stephen.

  All Stephen did was shrug. “How do you know what the owner knows? Did you tell him?”

  Silas didn’t answer. Stephen made it sound as though Silas and Lemuel were on speaking terms. There was nothing he could say to prove that he wasn’t and he didn’t think they would believe him if he tried.

  “You really believe the owner doesn’t know what happens here? Think about it...and be careful,” Silas said. He pushed off the wall and turned to go.

  “Just stay out of our way. I’m sure you won’t get hurt,” Marcus said, his upper lip slightly curled.

  Silas found an empty corner of the stone wall and sank to the dirt. A few stands of grass poked up along the wall. They practically hugged the wall for comfort from the feet that pounded next to them every day. Silas wanted to rip them out, but they were so fragile he couldn’t. Instead he threw some of the pebbles at the wall and watched as the small rocks arced next to it, sometimes wildly glancing off of the wall that jutted out. He had never felt so useless in his life.

  He could see the teens circled in one of the camera’s blind spots. Every few minutes a teen would enter the circle, disappear and then come out. Although Silas only saw one girl touch the back of her neck, he could tell all the teens that entered the circle felt like their necks were different. They would carry their head as if it was an egg balanced on a spoon and could fall off.

  They didn’t know what Silas knew. He wondered how many of them would rethink their direction if they did. In that moment it became important for Silas to warn them. They would never have a chance to make a choice if they didn’t know they had options.

  Silas stumbled to his feet, his muscles tired and tight. He walked as fast as he could, straight toward the teen circle. But before he was halfway across the yard they began to disperse. Marcus was one of them, perhaps to call it off. Silas changed direction. A girl Silas’ age bumped into him and Silas lost sight of Marcus. He tried to walk faster, but more kids were in his way.

  A piercing shout filled the air and was joined by a hundred others. Someone stepped on his foot as a rush of bodies jolted past Silas storming the walls. One guy almost ran into Silas, but pushed off his at the last moment. It took a moment for Silas to realize the guy was Sebastian. He pumped his fist in the air, screaming at the top of his lungs as he raced for the wall. It only took a minute before Silas and a handful of others were the only ones left in the center of the yard. The rest of the teens had formed human ladders and pyramids that the older teens used to mount the wall.

  Rickman saw them coming and jammed his finger on a button before Marcus and two others threw him into the yard. The guard landed in a clump in the dirt and pressed the button again before he was surrounded by kids kicking and punching him. If the button Rickman pressed was the controller, it didn’t have the desired effect on anyone. Hugle dashed into the guard tower where Lloyd was waiting and they barred the door shut.

  The boys on the wall, led by Marcus, crashed into it and although the door stayed shut something must have given because there was a shout of triumph. They crashed into the door again and again with greater intensity. A smaller g
roup was doing the same with the doors on the ground level into the wards.

  Silas quickly scanned the faces at the wall for Malina, but he couldn’t spot her. There were some girls on the wall and Silas searched for his sister among them. She was not the kind of person who would sit back and let others do the hard work. There was a group of girls and a few boys waiting in the middle of the wall path. One of the boys was Stephen. Stephen was pointing at the trees Silas knew were on the other side of the wall, along with their freedom. There seemed to be some kind of discussion and then Stephen broke away from the group and launched himself over the other side of the wall. Yet he didn’t even have a chance to disappear before there was a loud crackle of light and Stephen’s limp body flew back over the wall and crumpled in the yard. None of the other teens tried to escape.

  There was another cheer and the guard tower door cracked. At the teens’ next push the door fell off its hinge. The kids in the yard cheered as Hugle and Lloyd were dragged out of the guard tower. Silas felt unsettled. This seemed too easy and aside from access to the guards, the teens had gained nothing.

  “What should we do with them?” Marcus shouted.

  The teens shouted and cheered so loudly that Silas couldn’t hear anything else. Marcus paraded in front of Hugle and held a weapon he’d found in the guard tower to Hugle’s head. The teens screamed all the louder.

  Suddenly someone smacked right into Silas knocking him to the ground. His head hit the packed earth and his vision clouded. He blinked and when the blur cleared he saw Tymas and Westminster standing in the door to the boys ward. He opened his mouth to warn Malina, but the air was crowded with cries. Westminster was tossing three gray cylinders into the yard. Bright yellow smoke poured from the cylinders. Kids ran to the opposite side of the yard and the smoke followed them.

  Silas scrambled to his feet, but was knocked down again. The smoke curled around him and choked his nose with a smell of coconuts and moldy cheese. His eyes clouded over, yet not with blackness. A sulfur veil covered his sight, stinging his eyes and making his heart beat faster. He wanted to run, but all his muscles were paralyzed. Above everything the one thing he wanted to do was stay awake. There was something in the veil that scared him more than anything else. He had to help Malina. He had to escape. Instead the veil curled around him and Silas was dragged into oblivion.