Redeemer (7 page)

The first man literally rolls under the front door.

Randolph seems surprised. “You giving it another shot?”

The man—who's more like a boy—shrugs. “Third time's a charm.”

I balk. He's tried to get out two times and failed?

A few others trickle in, and Randolph moves to stand in front of us when one last body rolls under the door. She stands up and I gasp.

“Isabel!”

She frowns at me but hurries to sit at my side. “Hush, girl. Don't draw any extra attention. That's something you're going to have to learn if you're going to make a life on the outside.”

I haven't told her my story yet, and keeping quiet for the rest of my life isn't on the agenda, but I don't say so.

I'm too happy she came! I don't know how she learned I was here, or why she came, but she did. I grab her hand. “I'm glad you changed your mind.”

Her frown doesn't let up as Randolph begins his speech.

“On the north side of the wall there is a door. It's an old door, one that's not guarded or monitored in any way. It's easy to open it and walk away, but you have to be careful. The high grass is all around, and it's stopped many escapees in the past.”

He stops and scowls at me. I want to sink into the wall, but I force myself to stay straight and face him without shame.

“You'll leave tonight. Don't slow down. Don't look back.”

So it is tonight. I found Jamie only to lose her again so quickly.

Isabel squeezes my hand this time. “She's OK. And she's got your food to last a few extra meals.”

I manage a smile of thanks at the meager words of comfort.

Randolph continues. “There are people on the outside who are willing to help you. You can meet Jesper near the falls. Walk straight out the doors and keep going. You'll find the falls, and him there, eventually.”

The group is as mismatched as I could ever imagine. Isabel and I are the only women, but even she doesn't stand out as much as I do, because I'm the only one who didn't bring some sort of pack with supplies. Why didn't Randolph tell me more? Warn me I wouldn't have time to get anything together?

He gives a few more instructions, but I'm eager to leave now. I don't have any food or water, but I know Isabel, and she'll help me. We should find the falls and the man Jesper in a day or two, and from there I shouldn't need Isabel's help.

Randolph finishes and I am ready. Lesser City 4 is no longer my home, because once again, I am Free.

 

 

 

 

9

 

Seven of us in all leave the mechanic shop. We split up as we make our way to this alleged door to the outside.

Isabel's warm hand clasps mine and I glance at her. “We're in this together.”

Gratefulness washes over me. She doesn't even want to leave, but she's doing it for me. I nod as tears burn my eyes. “Together.”

Isabel and I stick together, and she pulls me to the far side of the dark building so we can stay out of sight of the guard tower. “The best way to get to that door is going back through the city.”

“It will take us hours to get back,” I say. “And then we have to make our way out of the city again.”

“It's better than taking a chance at getting stuck in the high grass.”

She makes a good point. “OK. Maybe we can stop and get another pack of supplies for me.”

“No need. I brought enough for the both of us.”

I eye her small pack but take her word for it. “Why did you come, Isabel?”

“Someone has to keep you alive.”

“But why? You don't really know me, and you definitely don't owe me anything.”

She frowns as we walk toward the city, but she keeps her face straight ahead. “You remind me of someone I once knew.”

Silence falls between us as we finish our walk down the dim road. Her words play over in my mind—someone she once knew. She must be talking about herself. Again I wonder what her story is.

Once we reach the city, we make our way left and toward the north side of the wall. Cutting down dark alleys and finally past the waste dump, we reach the outskirts of the city. The wall is within sight, and Isabel was right. There's a mostly clear path untouched by electro-grass.

I shudder just remembering lying in those currents.

Smells from the dump permeate the air. The mountains of refuse are huge and the reason hits me and sickens me at the same time. This is where they send the garbage from all the cities. They make these people—people like me—live in squalor.

Forcing my mind away from it so I can focus on escape, I turn back toward Isabel. A few others have already reached the door. Isabel holds out her arm, stopping me. She nods toward an abandoned building and I follow her behind it.

“If too many of us go through at once, someone's bound to notice. Let's wait a while.”

I nod and peek out, but others must not have had the same idea, because no sooner does one man get out than another bolts right behind him.

A bright light shines from somewhere to the right. “Hey you! Stop right there!”

I gasp but then clamp my lips shut. A guard races toward the door and the man darts through and shoves it closed. It hits with a bang, sealing the guard in and us with him.

My heart thunders in my chest and echoes through my ears. We'll never get out now.

The guard calls for help and shoves the door back open, but it's too dark and too far, and I don't know what he sees.

“What do we do now?” I hiss.

Isabel studies the situation, her dark eyes calculating. “I know another way out. It's typically more dangerous, but their focus is on this door now. We might be able to make it.”

I don't like the sound of the word “might,” but options are running thin.

She turns at my nod and leads me back through the trash dump. Massive mountains of garbage and debris line the area. We pick our way through and finally reach the main part of the city. I have no idea where she's leading me, but I follow without question as we hurry through the streets.

The city is mostly empty and silent, with only the occasional stray animal digging through the trash in the street. At least we don't have to worry about being caught here, especially since all the guards are on the other side of the dump.

“It isn't far,” she says.

By now, my legs burn and my mouth is dried out. I've now been walking for hours. Not to mention the electrocution.

“Wait.” Isabel holds out her arm. We've stopped at the side of the arena where they handed out the allowances. She peeks around the side and searches the back alley, but she must like what she sees because she nods at me and moves on.

A huge alley and loading station stretches out behind the arena, but it sits right up against the wall. The far end holds a gate, and the only thing holding the gate closed is a small lock.

“Most people don't know this gate is here,” Isabel says.

“How did you know about it?”

“I been here a long time.”

I don't question that.

We slip into the dark alley and move toward the gate. Isabel jiggles the lock, but it's secure. Frowning, she glances around.

“Isabel.” I nod toward a few loading tools leaning against a door to the arena. “A shovel.”

She snatches it and smacks the head against the lock. The clang rings way too loudly in the still night, but it's the only way. Her pack falls from her shoulders, and a few contents spill out. I pick them up and move away from her.

As she works on the lock, I mess with the doorknob on the door where I found the shovel. The door swings open without a sound. I gasp and pull back, but then I see the inside. Shelves line the walls of the small room, and the shelves hold boxes. I move inside and light a match from the pack Isabel brought. The boxes hold medicine bottles. Each one is unmarked but full of small white pills.

My stomach rolls and I back away. The match burns too close to my fingers and goes out. I ignore the burning pain and light another match. Glancing behind me, I see Isabel still whacking at the lock. I make a split decision and toss the match into a box. The flame spreads quickly, and I step out and close the door.

I have no idea if the pills will catch fire, but at least I tried.

Isabel hits the lock again and again, and I move to the side of the building to keep watch.

Nerves play tricks on my eyes and I see a guard who is there one minute and gone the next. “Hurry Isabel.”

She grunts in reply and gives the lock one last gargantuan smack. The lock clatters to the ground and she yanks the gate open without a pause.

I glance down the side alley one last time and then hurry to catch up with Isabel.

“Watch out for the tall grass on either side of the road,” she says.

She doesn't need to remind me of that.

But it's not hard, as long as I stay on the clear path. We jog for long, silent minutes, and finally I stop her.

“I need a break, Isabel. I'm thirsty.”

She nods and pulls me into an alcove of trees, then retrieves a canister of water from her pack. “Here.”

I take a long drink and try to steady my heavy breathing. “Don't you think that was way too easy?”

She shakes her head and shrugs. “They were preoccupied. There aren't enough guards as it is.”

But her explanation doesn't sit well. If that's truly all the guards Lesser 4 has, something is terribly wrong. There were more guards in the Middle Cities, and those don't even house criminals.

“How are we supposed to find Jesper now?”

Isabel straightens and looks around, but it's clear she's been turned backwards in her direction, too. “We don't have to meet Jesper. There are others.”

“But how do we find them?”

She grins and the serious Isabel is gone. This is the woman I met my first day in line. “I reckon we walk, sugar.”

We make our way back to the road. “I doubt there's any electro-grass this far out,” she says. “The tall grass will make a good hiding place if we have to dive.”

Memories of a few months ago filtrate through my mind, memories of hiding in the grass with Guard Nev. The memories fight for space in my mind, sucking up the area like a tornado. Finally, I have to let out the memories.

“I tested as Greater.”

Isabel glances at me but doesn't speak. I don't let that discourage me. I'm ready to tell her my story, and I want to hear hers in return.

“It started when my mom got sick.”

Mom. My heart hurts just thinking her name.

Isabel listens to my story without comment. I tell her about Mom's illness, and how the Greaters refused to give her chemo. I tell her how it sent me on a journey to Jesus Christ as well as the rebellion. I tell her how it led me to Lesser City 4.

We climb small hills and make sharp turns as I talk, and finally, as I'm finishing up and the sun rises, we find a rocky area and hide behind it.

“I was born Greater,” Isabel says.

Her words don't surprise me, not since I heard the man in the church call her Greater.

“Lived life and loved life,” she says. “But once I tested, and began my training, I had to travel outside the city. They took me out west and used me to develop new cities. I asked what the cities were for, but no one would give me an answer. Once the people moved in, and I saw how the Lessers were treated as slaves—not able to leave their compound, not even being told they were working for the Greaters—I protested. The other Greaters didn't understand my protests, and they certainly didn't like it. That's when I was sent away.”

So she had helped develop the cities in the west.

“You were sent to Lesser 4 right away?”

She smirks and shakes her head. “Not exactly. Lesser 4 hadn't really been classified yet, but they stuck me there anyway. There were no walls around the city, just a bunch of us misfits. Once they had more of us, they decided they'd better lock us in. That's when the wall was put up.”

“That's how you knew where each of the doors were.”

She nods.

“Has security always been so lax?”

“No.” Her words are swift and sure. “That's only been the last couple years.” Her gaze moves out to the open plains beyond the rocks. “Things are changing. It's the only reason I decided to help you.”

Her words sink in as I attempt to relax against the rocks. “How did you know I was even trying to make a difference?”

She pauses way too long.

Finally, she turns to me and stares me straight in the eye. “Your last name's Norfolk, ain't it sugar?”

My heart stutters and then restarts in double speed, and my throat closes so suddenly I can barely swallow. Instead of answering, I give a small nod.

“Your momma was a Greater, too.”

 

 

 

 

10

 

I stare for what must be centuries. Finally, I shake myself and look away. It's too hard to think of Mom, let alone thinking of her in some other light than what I know is true. “No, you must be thinking of someone else.”

“Mya Norfolk? I'm not thinking of someone else. She was Mya Upstart back then.”

My thundering heart is back and I shake my head. She has to be wrong. Mom grew up a Middle and gave a Lesser boy her lunch when she was young. It was what got me started on my journey to help the Lessers.

Isabel sighs. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that.”

She's so sure of it, and she seems truly sorry she had to be the one who broke the news. These are the things convincing me she tells the truth, but if it's all true, what about the truths I was told growing up?

A rumbling breaks the silent air, and thoughts of Mom will have to wait.

Isabel and I move slowly to peek at the road. Nothing's there.

Isabel looks up and points.