AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I didn’t keep it for long. It got lost in the water when we went down the stream to the Rising. ”
She’s not telling the whole truth. I can’t tell where the lie comes in, but there’s no way to get Indie to talk about something when she’s decided to keep her own counsel.
“You and Hunter are the only ones who didn’t,” Indie says. “Take one of the tubes, I mean. ”
Of course. Because Hunter and I accept the truth about death.
“I’ve seen people dead,” I tell Indie. “So have you. When they’re dead, they’re gone. You can’t bring them back. ”
We are the ones who are alive. Here. With everything to lose.
“What if you needed to get something over the walls of the barricade?” I ask Indie, changing the subject. “Would you say that’s impossible?”
“Of course not,” she says. Just like I knew she would. “There are lots of ways to do it. ”
“Like what?” I ask. I’m grinning. I can’t help it.
“Climb,” Indie says.
“They’ll see us. ”
“Not if we’re fast,” Indie tells me. “Or we could fly. ”
“They’d catch us for sure that way. ”
“Not if it’s the Pilot who sends us in,” she says.
CHAPTER 12
XANDER
There’s always a feeling of excitement in the medical center when the cures come in. It’s one of the few times we get to see people who are really from outside the barricade. We’ve got medics and patients coming in all the time, but the pilots and runners who bring the cures are different. They’re not tied down to the medical center or even to Camas.
And there’s a chance that we might see the Pilot
. The rumor is that he brings in some of the Camas City cures himself. Apparently the landing within our barricade is one that only the best pilots can manage.
The first ship drops down from the sky onto the street they use for a runway. The pilot brings the ship to a stop yards away from the marble steps of City Hall.
“I don’t know how they do that,” one of the other physics says, shaking her head.
“Neither do I,” I say. The ship turns and comes toward us. It goes a lot slower on land than it did in the air. As I watch it come in, I wonder if someday I’ll have a chance to fly in one of those ships. There are so many things to look forward to after we get everyone cured.
We physics open the cases in the medical storage room and scan the tubes with our miniports. Beep. Beep. Beep. The Rising officers from the ships bring in the cases one after another.
I finish scanning the tubes in the first case. As soon as I do, another appears in front of me.
“Thank you,” I say, reaching out to take it from the officer. I look up.
It’s Ky.
“Carrow,” he says.
“Markham,” I say. It’s odd using his last name. “You’re in the Rising. ”
“Of course,” he says. “Always. ” He grins at me because we both know it’s a lie. There are about a thousand things I want to ask him but we don’t have time. We’ve got to keep the supplies moving.
Suddenly that doesn’t feel like the most important thing in the world anymore. I want to ask him how and where she is and if he’s heard from her.
“It’s good to see you,” Ky says.
“You too,” I tell him. And it is. Ky holds out his hand to shake mine and we grip tightly, and I feel him press a piece of paper into my palm.
“It’s from her,” Ky says in a low voice so the others can’t hear. Before anyone can tell us to get back to work, he heads for the door. After he disappears, I glance over at the rest of the people delivering cures and find a girl with red hair watching me.
“You don’t know me,” she says.
“No,” I agree.
She tilts her head, scrutinizing me. “My name is Indie,” she says. She smiles and it makes her beautiful. I smile back and then she’s gone, too.
I shove the paper into my pocket. Ky doesn’t come back again, at least not that I see. I can’t help but feel like we’re playing at the tables back in the Borough, when he was throwing the game and I was the only one who knew. We’ve got another secret. What does it say on that paper? I wish I could read it now, but my shift isn’t over. When you’re working, there isn’t time for anything else.
Ky and I were friends almost from the beginning of his time in the Borough. At first, I was jealous of him. I dared him to steal the red tablets, and he did. After that we respected each other.
I remember another time when Ky and I were younger. We must have been thirteen or so, and we were both in love with Cassia. We stood talking near her house pretending to care what the other was saying but really waiting to see her when she came home.
