Circles in the Dust (24 page)

             
“Are you going to finish?”

             
“All right. You are with us, David?”

             
“Yes! God, I am with you. To the end. Through thick and thin, and all that. Now explain.” David’s voice rose in frustration. Mitch had been his best friend for years, and their conversations had fallen right back into place.

             
“Okay, well, we’re at the end of the line here,” Mitch began, now looking hesitant himself. “We have to be practical, right?” It was rhetorical, but David almost answered; then remembered what Mitch had threatened and zipped his lips.

             
“No ideal solution exists here. I swear I’ve tried them all. There’s no way I can get the Outliers to give up their guns and knives, or I would have done that already. Sorry to burst your bubble, but just trust me on that one. The people here are survivors, and they’re not stupid. The stupid ones died a long time ago. But some people are rash and hasty and they would just cause a rift between those of us willing to forget the past and forge ahead once we are in the Base. They are a liability, you understand? And I have to do what’s best for the whole here.

             
“So, my new plan is this. I let the angry ones, like Dmitri, go ahead and strike at the Base. They think they’re doing what they have to, when they’re only hurting themselves. I know security at the Base is tight now; no one’s gotten in for months. I tell them this, warn them, so it’s no skin off my nose when they abandon their sense and rush i
n
—”

             
“And die,” David finished.

             
“The Mayor has been adamant that the Base can only support a certain number of immigrants, David. We would risk the lives of our and their people if we all came in, I know that.” His face darkened. “At least I hope that’s true. I don’t like the Mayor, and I don’t think I can trust everything he says.” He shook his head and went on. “Anyway, it’s better that some of us survive than we all die out here, right?”

             
“Isn’t that the kind of thinking that brought the whole world to a stop?” David responded, feeling for a moment that it sounded like something Elizabeth would have said to him. “If that’s your plan, why don’t you just hop the fence? You know the guards, right?” David was trying to keep his voice calm but it cracked in silent rage and betrayed him.

             
“It’s too late for that. And I thought there was a chance of getting everyone in, to be fair. Now I know that’s not going to happen, and I won’t let the Outliers all die. You have to understand, old friend. There are women out here, someone just had a child. A child, David. New life. Do you know how important that is? And the mother, her name is Sam, you know the Base offered to let her come in with her baby, and she said no. Can you believe that? She said she wouldn’t leave everyone out in the cold. How could I abandon them now? These are the best people the old world had to offer. And one new one, the first of the new world. That kid is a damn treasure.”

             
“But you would let some of your people die to save him?”

             
Mitch turned away from David, walked over to a tree and pounded it with his fist. Droplets of water showered down on his back but he didn’t seem to notice. He was shaking his head, and David hoped he had not pushed him too far.

             
“I just want you to fully understand what you’re saying,” David explained to the back of Mitch’s head.

             
“I know what I’m doing, David,” he spat. “You don’t think I’ve sat up nights, filled with self-loathing? I hate that I have to do this, but it’s the only way. It’s their only chance.”

             
David took a deep breath and took a step toward the troubled figure. He lay a hand on his moist shoulder. He felt the man stiffen, but otherwise ignore the touch.

             
“Give me a chance, Mitch. I could be your secret weapon. Maybe I can figure out a way that doesn’t require more deaths? Just give me a week. Let me try and figure something out.”

             
“Why do you think you can do this? What makes you so special? You’re stuck out here with us now. And I won’t let you go back there. Now that you know my plan, I’m keeping you by my side at all times.”

             
“Keeping your friends close?” David joked in an attempt to ease the incredible tension between the trees on that sodden morning.

             
“Something like that.”

chapter 32

David slunk through the woods, ducking under trees, looking back over his shoulder after every few steps. The forest was dark and silent. He was far enough from the camp for the sounds of snores and the crackling fire to have long since faded away. He went slowly at first, treading lightly, carefully placing every step to avoid making a sound. He had seen no one since slipping out of Mitch’s cabin, saying he needed to take a walk and clear his head. Mitch had argued that point but seemed distracted, and after a time he had told David to “Do whatever you want. I’ve got something to take care of. You’re a big boy.”

             
Even so, David moved as stealthily through the wood as possible, knowing the chances of running into a wandering Outlier were not terribly slim; their fervor for standing watch bordered on paranoia. David thought they went a tad overboard, that their fear of being attacked was ironic, but he understood. Living in the woods long enough, you begin to realize the unpredictable is everywhere. Especially in a crumbling world with no rules.

             
David bent back the branches of a sapling and stepped past it. It was slick with night frost and whipped back against another, causing a small powdery explosion that made David cringe. He stood statuesque for a moment, listening for any trace of a sound in reaction to the whipping and falling of the snow, but heard nothing, and continued on.

             
David looked down at his fingers, glistening in the moonlight with the moisture of the frozen sapling he had been grasping. The frosts had come. Winter was just around the corner. A weight sunk down into his stomach, though not before he had to choke it down.

             
He was just beginning to think he had lost his way in the shadowy labyrinth when he saw the same yellow grass pop up between the trees, which themselves had begun to grow further and further apart. He stopped just before stepping out into view of the Base sentries. He could see them standing on the wall, their pale skin like beacons in the clear night. David looked up at the sky and wondered at the absurd clarity. The stars were visible in places where the clouds broke to reveal the naked sky. The open sky seemed such an odd and alien sight.

             
Drawing his attention back to the task at hand, David took a seat on the ground, his back against the chilly trunk of a tall pine, where he could see the Base unobstructed. He hoped he was not visible here in the shadows of the woods. If those guards could see him, they would no doubt be watching him with an intensity that matched his own, and then the night was sure to be long and full of disappointment. Getting away from Mitch, however, might not be so easily accomplished again, so he had to try.

             
It was cold but David had brought a blanket and wrapped himself up in it. The guards paced tirelessly along the wall, back and forth, back and forth. David counted seven that he could see; two never moved from their posts above the gate, the other five treading endlessly, heads bobbing between the points of the crude palisade, rifles held at the ready. Mitch had not been kidding when he told David of the obstacle of getting in the Base; sneaking over the wall, over those sharpened points of logs, would not be easy. Maybe when they changed the guard, or someone abandoned their post for a few moments to relieve themselves, David could slip through a blind spot.

             
David caught a blur of motion on the south side of the wall out of the corner of his eye. The guards on that side of the wall were both facing opposite each other on either side of that blur, so they made no move in reaction to it. One yawned. The time for him to rest must be coming swiftly. Or maybe he will just fall asleep on his gun, David thought. That would make things easier.

             
The other guard whipped around as a noise caught his attention. David had heard nothing but the guard was leaning over the wall now, rifle at the ready, calling something to the other guard, who came over to investigate. David turned his head to follow their eyes to the forest on the south side of the Base, though nothing seemed to be amiss. Then, a few hundred feet away, he saw the branches of a tree ruffling. He stood up then bent down and picked up a rock, cursing the Base for the umpteenth time for sending him out unarmed. Perhaps he could ask Mitch for a gun, he thought, though they probably had precious few to go around as is.

             
He slid behind the trunk he had been lying against, watching as minute movements betrayed the presence of another being. He braced his feet, ready to throw the oversized rock at the slightest provocation. He did not know who was coming but instinct took over.

             
And then he saw a white-gold flash and dropped the rock. He could not believe his eyes. He must have fallen asleep against the tree, he decided.

             
“Hello there,” he said in a hushed tone. All the movement in the trees stopped as she froze. “What in god’s name are you doing out here?”

             
“David?”

             
Elizabeth broke from the undergrowth and came into view, sidling out into the moonlight. “What the—?”

             
David marched over to where she crouched, looking warily around for the sound of his voice. “Are you alone out here?” David asked as his fingers touched her arms. She jumped back and glared at him. His face turned an impressive shade of crimson, visible even in the dim light, and he dropped his arms. Hopefully his attempt at an embrace was lost on her.

             
“So,” he said, turning away so that he would not have to meet her gaze, “let’s come away from the Base to talk. I’m assuming you don’t want them to see you out here.”

             
“And I’m sure you feel the same,” she countered.

             
“Well, it would make sneaking over that wall a little harder,” David responded.

             
“And why are you trying to get over that wall?” she asked as they retreated into the depths of the ancient wood. David stopped and sat on a smooth log once the trees were thick enough to screen them, and she joined him, sliding close, presumably so they could speak quietly, though David allowed his imagination to feed him other reasons.

             
“You notice I did not pull a gun on you when I heard you in the woods?”

             
“Sure, but I figured that was just because you were too terrified of me to move,” she said with a straight face.

             
“You are just terrifying. I do have to admit, though, it had a little more to do with my serious lack of arms at the moment.”

             
“So you were going to sneak in and steal your gun back?”

             
David raised an eyebrow at her. “Maybe.”

             
She laughed. “I’m glad I was the one over the wall first then. You would have gotten yourself killed.”

             
“What makes you think this would be the first time I’ve done it?” David bluffed airily.

             
“Well, you haven’t come to see me yet…” David turned from her bemused expression and stared down at his hands. “Besides, if you knew what you were doing, you probably would have been ready when the guards turned away from each other. And you would have been waiting in the trees on that side of the Base too.”

             
David was impressed by her knowledge. She clearly had done this before. Well, obviously, he chided himself.

             
“I’m just not the professional you are,” he conceded, bringing a smirk to smudge her features. “But did you think about what would have happened if there had been an Outlier on watch walking past when you came bumbling through the trees?”

             
“Bumbling?” she said with affront. “I would have handled it. I know what I’m doing.”

             
“I didn’t mean to doubt you,” David said. “I’m sure you could ‘handle it’.” She shook her head at him, but she was laughing a little, so he joined in.

             
“You wanted to go for your gun?” she asked again. “Not …this?” She drew his bow from the long duffle bag she had set on the ground next to her. He grabbed it greedily out of her hands.

             
“Sorry.”

             
“No worries,” she said. “You must have missed her terribly.”

             
“Her?”

             
“All the things men like are feminine.”

             
David thought this over, and could only nod his head.

             
“So that was all you were headed in there for, huh?” Elizabeth asked as David was fondling his bow, running his hands over its curves, checking for any damage. Her bag was also full of all his arrows, he noted, though she had not offered them.

             
“Well, it is a little lonely out here. I don’t really have anyone to talk to that would think twice about stabbing me in my sleep at this point.”

             
She laughed again, the sound bubbling from her full lips, drifting over to slide up his body and into his ears, leaving chills in its wake. He could not help but smile when she laughed.

             
“Haven’t made a lot of friends yet?”

             
“One.” David took a sidelong glance at Elizabeth, evaluating for a moment if he could really trust her with what he had learned, though he had planned on trying to steal into her room if he could, so why was this only occurring to him now? Resolving to be more thoughtful in the future, he proceeded to tell her what he had learned of Mitch and his plans.

             
She stopped him when he described the good fortune that no one in the Base had died because of recent attacks.

             
“Whoa, whoa. What do you mean, no one died? That’s what he told you?”

             
“Yeah,” David said hesitantly. “He said it’s lucky that no one has died. He said no one has gotten over the wall, that the Base probably would have come out in force by now if that was happening.”

             
“David,” she began, and he couldn’t help but think that she said his name with the same forced patience he had been enduring from Mitch the last two days, “people have been dying. We talked about this.”

             
“We talked about there being raids, and people dying, but they’re not people from the Base, right?”

             
“A man died in an attack last night.”

             
David could not keep the shock at this from staking a claim on his face. “Maybe Mitch just didn’t kno
w
—”

             
“And a week ago,” she added. “Just about every week for a while now. It’s finally starting to look like a pattern, so they have been putting more guards out a few days after an attack until there is another one. There’s talk, David, of it being an organized, conscious effort to weaken the Base, feel us out, or something. The Outliers are digging their own grave. If the Mayo
r
—”

             
“Your father,” David cut in.

             
“Yes, my fathe
r
—”

             
“Why didn’t you tell me the Mayor was your father?” David tried to make his question sound like an innocent curiosity.

             
“I don’t know. He’s the Mayor first. He can be… a hard man, and he would not hesitate to say that he is the Mayor first and a father second.”

             
“I’m sorry,” David said, and he meant it.

             
“It’s fine,” she responded hastily.

             
“Who was it that died?” David continued.

             
“Who? It was, er, hmm… I just remember the Mayor mentioning that we ‘lost one of our own.’ I don’t know if he actually said who it was. The council wanted to keep it pretty hush-hush, so I don’t think there is going to be a funeral or anything.”

             
“They want to keep it quiet?” David asked. “How can they even keep everyone from noticing someone is missing?”

             
“Lately they’ve had the guards living in the cabins by the wall. So they’re always ready, I guess. Not many people are allowed to go over there to distract them. Since they’re only guards…” She paused, her brow wrinkling as she tried to piece it all together. After a moment she gave up and shook her head. “Anyway, they really didn’t want everyone to panic and start chanting for blood. We’re still committed to your peaceful solution.” She gave him an expectant look, as if she were a teacher looking at a student who was falling behind in class. “How is that going, David?”