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"Are they still out here?" I shifted uncomfortably at the thought.
"Yes, they live in parts of the forest far away from any civilisation. No one in their right mind would willingly go near a Creeper nest. And when people began to turn into them, everyone else headed to the cities to escape. They ran for the protection they’d been promised when their taxes were paying for The Walls to be built. But the gates were shut."
"How could they do such a thing?" I shuddered.
"Things settled down out here eventually. Not everything changed for the worse. Take Kaloo, for instance. She's bigger and stronger than the old world dogs would have been but I see no disadvantage to it.
A lot of animals gained intelligence, some of the most formidable predators that live out here used to hunt alone, now practically everything hunts in packs. They all had to change in order to survive."
"So why don't we change when we eat the food now?" I asked.
Coal shrugged. "After those first few years, the changes stopped happening. It was like rapid evolution, everything that changed stayed different but didn't continue to develop after that. Maybe the chemicals are gone now, or maybe they just stopped effecting us, I don't know. But I do know that people don't suddenly die or become something different just by being out here, or eating the food."
"So why do we still live inside The Wall? They could let us out."
"Our best guess: power. There are a lot of people who have a very comfortable lifestyle living in the tops of those buildings and that would all change if everyone beneath them was suddenly free to go and make a life for themselves outside."
"But that's awful, they can't just lock everyone away because it suits their lifestyle," I snarled.
"There are plenty of things to be afraid of out here other than the contamination." He shrugged again.
"Like what?"
"You'll find out before long." Coal stood up and held out a hand to me. "But right now, we should get moving."
He helped me up then dropped my hand and stepped back, crossing the cave quickly and leaving me to get dressed as he lifted Taylor into the makeshift litter.
Kaloo
appeared at his side and stood patiently while she was strapped back onto the harness he’d made and I moved away to wake Laurie.
I didn’t know what to make of everything he’d just told me. My whole world was being brought into question and I suddenly felt like I’d been raised on a diet of lies. I wished my mom and dad were alive to hear this. They’d have known better than me what to do with the information he’d shared.
But I guessed for now, it didn’t really matter what lies I’d been told or what way the city was run. I needed to focus on getting Taylor out of here and finding him some help. Because if there was one thing in that city which I knew wasn’t a lie then it was him. And helping him was all that mattered right now.
We headed back into the forest and my brain was once again assaulted by the abundance of colour that surrounded us.
A bird shrieked as it flew overhead and I shuddered, remembering the screeches from the night before. But the trees looked peaceful enough swaying in a slight breeze, high above our heads. The humidity had returned with force and I could feel the heat of the sun punching its way down into the leafy cavern that surrounded us. The water that had soaked my clothes on my way through the waterfall was quickly drying out too.
"Did you see anything strange out here last night?" I asked Laurie as we followed Coal through the trees.
"Everything out here is strange," she hissed back. I took that to mean she hadn't seen the creature watching us from the bank and let it drop. Laurie didn't seem to be taking to the changes as easily as I was.
"Are you feeling okay?" I asked her.
"In the physical sense, yes. But other than that... I've left my whole world behind. I don't even know what to think about all of this, I spent my entire life trying to become a Warden and now I know I'll never be allowed back amongst them." She shook her head, looking defeated.
"It doesn't have to be all bad, our world was confined within a Wall before. Now it stretches out without boundaries for us to explore." I couldn't keep the grin from my face as I thought about the possibilities this world presented to me.
Laurie smiled at me though the tension lingered in her eyes. "It makes it a bit easier to take in if I think about it like that I suppose."
“Try not to think about what's ending so much as what's just beginning." I nodded enthusiastically, hoping I’d cheered her up a little.
“Speaking of which." She nudged me and gave Coal a meaningful look. "What's going on with you two then?"
"Nothing," I protested, feeling my cheeks turn a violent shade of beetroot. "Besides, he doesn't even notice me," I added, dropping my voice to be sure Coal didn't overhear us.
"He doesn't stop noticing you. I'm surprised he doesn't fall over his feet from staring in your direction instead of looking where he's heading."
