“Alright, everybody stand guard. We’re closing in,” Merick announces after what seems like an eternity of stubborn silence.
“Hey. Any company on radar?” Crewe asks someone on the other end of his call. Merick must have passed the cellular phone back to him sometime in transit. “Alright. We’re clear,” he tells the whole troupe as he ends the call. Apparently, this means it’s time to bail. Even Della is unbuckled with the handles of her bags in her hands before I understand that we’re leaving the van.
Out of nowhere in this darkness a distant, dilapidated homestead appears. Merick and Jerus depart from the van first. Crewe slides open the door and is next to jump out. Decklin follows, and offers a hand to Della as she dismounts from the high base of the vehicle. I unbuckle and grab the gun I’ve been issued. I hesitate to exit until I see who plans to carry the still unconscious Evvie.
Crewe opens the back door and grabs some provisions.
“It’s you,” Merick says to Crewe as he comes back around to the side of the van.
“I know,” he says, lifting the materials he’s already gathered for the job. The way he readies his gun tells me he is not going to be helping with Evvie. He has another job to do.
“Jerus and I will be close with the girl,” Merick tells Crewe, nodding for him to go ahead. I’m dissatisfied with these rough strangers handling my sister, but I’m out of jurisdiction here. I had weight to pull with Crewe being that he was responsible for abducting me, but I am completely subordinate to these veterans. The two approach the slider and indicate for Galvesten and me to lift Evvie to them. I take her legs, and together we jostle her into the arms of strangers.
“Sydney, you’re Crewe’s cover,” Merick tells me. “Catch up.” Crewe is a few paces ahead, walking tall with a flashlight to lead his way. Shouldn’t I know something about where we’re going or which direction gunfire might be coming from if I’m to be his cover?
The muzzle of my gun sweeps the dense, waist-high grasses of the field that surrounds us, and the shadowy trees that line the property. Crewe glances over his shoulder and doesn’t attempt to hide the shaking of his head that follows. I wonder if he’s irritated that Merick has sent one of the worst weapon handlers, a girl known to disregard orders, to watch his back or if he’s upset that they’ve sent me because he still feels a need to repay me for my untimely kidnapping.
I already consider that score even. He fronted the line when we returned to Miles to watch for Evvie, and he hurled himself over me when bullets flew from his brother’s rifle. Crewe doesn’t owe me anything now. His debt has been repaid.
Crewe slides the large, horse-fooler latch of a small barn, painted red and white just like I’ve seen in pictures. Only this paint is faded and has chipped and peeled enough not to resemble the pictures I’ve seen at all, especially in the dark.
Without worry, Crewe pulls the bulky door open. I’m not a step inside yet when something springs from the floor on our left. Crewe’s gun blasts in its direction. Della shrieks a distance behind us. I quickly pull my weapon back to eye level and stare down the barrel.
“Easy,” Crewe says, as he pushes my barrel toward the ground. A furry mammal lays dead in the dirt and sparse hay. “Misfire. We’re clear,” he yells behind to the others.
“Did you know?” I ask. Crewe shakes his head no and releases a guilty smile. Oddly enough, the startle may have actually relaxed him a bit. He picks the creature up by its legs. “What is it?” I ask.
“Badger,” Crewe responds, talking more to the men who arrive in the doorway. He takes a step outside and hurls the corpse. “Must have been rabid the way it came at us.” He looks to me for assurance that his secret is safe. The badger was probably moving away from us in fear. I don’t lament its loss. I’m glad Crewe is on edge enough to fire at anything that moves. It could have easily been something else.
“You’ve never seen one before, Sydney?” Decklin asks me. This must amuse him and the others. They’ve lived among wildlife for many years. The only creatures I know of are commonly domesticated pets, little birds and rodents that cross the barrier, a few larger mammals that I’ve experienced first hand during my outings, some fearsome predators that I can’t forget from the zoo in Sector Five, and the animals from which county citizens’ staple diet is derived.
Sheridan probably has farms, but I suppose out here the seeksmen can’t be as selective about their meats. They’ve probably encountered scores of species in the hunt for food. I would have liked to take a better look at the badger had Crewe not already hurled away the evidence and had this not continued to be a life and death trip from Miles to Sheridan.
“Tell Galv to lock up,” Crewe passes to Decklin. “Wait here,” he tells me. Merick and Jerus gently lay Evvie on the ground. I wonder how much longer she will be out. I need to be by her side when she wakes in case her memory lapses like mine did. I need to assure her that everything is going to be okay.
Della and Galvesten make it inside, and Galvesten locks the hinge on the inside of the barn door. Crewe returns with a large cardboard box that he plops behind me. A few more paces through the barn, he begins to lightly stomp on the surface of the ground. I hear the hallowed thud for which he was searching. We are going below ground.
Crewe uses his feet to brush aside the stray hay that covers a wooden doorway. The handle is tiny, much too delicate for the force Crewe renders in order to lift the heavy door. He carefully sets the flashlight on the ground, directing its glow onto a few stairs that are revealed below the opening. Crewe abandons the flashlight where it lays and returns to the huddle around Evvie’s still body.
“How many do we have?” Galvesten asks, kicking the cardboard box.
“Seven. It’ll be fine,” Crewe answers readily. It doesn’t take me long to count that there were eight of us in the van. Whatever is in that box is something that one of us is going to have to go without. He digs through the box and begins throwing what appear to be wetsuits at each of our feet.
There’s a tiny, manmade lake attached to the amusement park in Sector Three in Miles County. This is another reason why I’ve been more fortunate to live in Miles County rather than any other. Some of the other counties contained part of a natural lake, but they were filled in so that the underground line of the electric barrier could be buried and to create more land for businesses and residential apartments. I’m sure Miles’ lake will be removed one day soon.
Our grandma took us there to see a water show when Evvie and I were little. I remember I was impressed by and jealous of the young girls whose waterskiing team provided entertainment before the semi-professional competition began. They were dressed in colorful, matching suits like the ones on the floor before me now as they pushed and pulled each other to climb into a floating pyramid as they skied.
“Leave it,” Crewe orders as I bend down to pick up the suit. “Alright, listen up,” he continues, although we are already silent. Crewe appears to be much more the leader of this operation than Merick does. “Your body heat will warm the suits quickly. We want to be under the sheet before they do.”
It seems as if the purpose of wearing the suits is to make our infrared energy suddenly disappear so that we can rest safely. The BOTs can trace our heat signatures from Miles to this barn, but they will not know where to go from here. Hopefully, they’ll assume we are hiding somewhere other than right under their noses.
I notice everyone but Della and myself begin to strip off their hunting camouflage and vests. I don’t hesitate to follow the others. I’m not too bashful in my spandex and running top. I might have been, had I not known that Crewe has seen me this way tons of times before. I also don’t want to stand out as the girl in the troupe as the others unconscientiously strip down to their underwear. Della makes the mistake of letting embarrassment get the best of her, and in her hesitation she winds up bringing more attention to herself.
“Evvie’s suit goes on last,” Crewe directs. “Sydney, Merick, and Jerus—you??
?re on that.”
“We’re carrying her down standing, with her arms around our shoulders,” Merick instructs Jerus. “They’ll know a horizontal body to be her.”
“Galv, you’re leading,” Crewe carries on. “Keep your suit on to bring the others’ up once they’re under. The others should be arriving soon.” Crewe takes a moment to look each of us in the eye to receive a nod of acknowledgement that we know our duty and are ready. I’m to put on the suit at my feet as quickly as I can, help wriggle Evvie’s rubbery limbs into her suit, follow Galv down the underground stairs, and return the suit to him to carry back up. I nod confidently.
“Let’s go,” Crewe claps.
I’m glad for the neon-yellow patches of my suit that are sufficiently visible in the dark. The suit is much too big for me, but I suppose that will help the neoprene mask my body heat longer. Together, Merick, Jerus, and I slide the gaping suit over Evvie, who is dressed in the running gear I had laid out for her two nights ago. Our world has changed so much in that short time.
Merick instructs me to go under while he and Jerus hoist Evvie into an upright position. The shadows from the trio behind me play tricks on my eyes as I attempt to descend the stairs. I miss my footing and fall into a curved, brick cellar. My left knee takes the brunt of the fall. It stabs with pain, but only for a few moments.
Faintly, I can see crouched bodies removing their suits. The space is tight already. I don’t know how we’re going to fit Cy and the others when they arrive.
I take charge in unzipping and peeling off Evvie’s suit while the men hold her upright. I’m afraid it’s too chill down here for her not to have some kind of cover besides her gear. Then I remember the idea is for us to be lowering our body temperature to expel less infrared energy. The colder she is—the better.
I slop out of my suit, allowing myself a second to rub my swelling knee. I collect Evvie from the veterans so they can heap their suits onto Galvesten’s arms.
Wire arcs into a canopy overhead. It is uncomfortable to lean against, but there isn’t enough room to be away from it. I pull Evvie into my lap. I’m glad she’ll continue to rest comfortably.
“It won’t be long now,” Della says, noticing Evvie’s grumblings as I move her.
“What is this?” I ask Merick, standing across from me. Galvesten returns down the stairs with our clothing.
“This is an old wine cellar,” he says as he pulls on his trousers. I pull on my jacket, but decide to use the pants to blanket Evvie and myself. The bulletproof vest isn’t going to do me any good to wear. If we’re fired upon down here, it won’t be by bullets. It’ll be bombs, which this puny vest can’t protect against.
“What about the canopy?” I ask. Crewe closes the hatch overhead, leaving us in complete darkness.
“We constructed it. The clear sheets you saw are acetate. A few feet from the hatch we’ve laid thick, glass panes over our heads. Both block penetration of the thermal imaging systems the BOTs use. It makes target acquisition pretty tough.”
I’m glad Merick is here. He’s an intelligent soldier who, unlike the Davids brothers, has been in combat and handles himself with composure. He makes me feel safe, even calm.
Something itches on my left knee, the one I fell on. When I scratch it, I feel a plethora of warm, wet blood that caused the sensation.
“Della,” I call, alerted. “I think I’m bleeding.”
“Where?”
“My knee.” The impact must have caused the skin to split open when I fell down the stairs.
“Bad?” Galv asks.
“There’s a lot of blood,” I decide. My hand is covered with it.
“I’ll go up,” Galv announces. I hear some fussing and assume he’s getting back into his neoprene suit that’s only been cooling for a minute. He thuds up the stairs and knocks for help with opening the cumbersome cellar door.
“Has Cy called yet? I need my bags and the light,” we hear Galv tell Crewe.
“No. What’s going on?”
“Sydney fell down the steps. She might need a few stitches.”
“Jeez, yeah,” Crewe groans. The bright light attacks our eyes as he hands it over. Galv passes the light to Della while he waits for Crewe to retrieve his bags just inside the barn door.
“It’s not me! It’s Evvie!” I shout when the beam of light reveals that the blood I felt on my knee was only a portion of what’s been steadily streaming from Evvie’s wrist. Galv rushes down the creaking stairs with the bag and squats down. The bodies in the tight tunnel shuffle around to allow Della to get in closer as well. Galvesten unwraps Evvie's wrist, putting pressure on the vein while Della unzips that pesky bag.
“The seal must have broken open while they carried her down.” Della’s right. The men held her contorted arms against their shoulders to make her limp body upright like the rest of ours. Her wrist probably opened up then.
Galvesten hurriedly disinfects a small, slightly curved needle. I’m surprised he bothers with this precaution, being that Evvie was the last person the needle was used on, and he and Della don’t seem to follow much for medical protocol. Galvesten soundly threads a synthetic line and snips a length with some kind of surgical scissors. This time I watch as he pokes the needle through the skin close to where Della is now holding.
“Keep pressure,” he tells her. “Let’s give it another minute to clot.”
Evvie’s head stirs in my lap. I lament that she could possibly be feeling all of this. Trained to do so, Decklin lowers his head to his feet as he sits cross-legged to the left of the little pool of blood. Galv presses the needle through the skin again. This time, I drop my head back and look up at the acetate and wire concoction above. It’s still too much for me as Evvie squirms in my lap, fighting to regain consciousness and confront her torturer. I close my eyes and breathe deeply.
A moment later I feel a wet cloth and long fingernails wipe the residual blood from my leg. I start to look down, but Della stops me. “Not yet, honey. We’ve still got to wrap it. You just sit tight.” They don’t need another hyperventilation scare from me.
The cell phone rings above. “Good. We’re clear in here too,” Crewe says. That has to be Cy on the phone. It turns out they weren’t obliterated. They’re perfectly well. I’ll get to see Cy again after all. “Galv, about done with the light?” he calls down.
“I’m coming up,” Galvesten answers.
“Are you still in the suit?” Crewe asks. “Better change it,” he says as he throws down a fresh one. With Galvesten’s doctoral adrenaline heightened, the suit is likely to match his body temperature by now. Della zips up the bag while Galv unzips his suit and squirms into the new one. I scoot Evvie closer into my lap to make room for the new arrivals at the barn door.