Summer Ruins (17 page)

I think about it for another minute. He’s right, and it’s the reason Tommy and Jas keep her illness as secret as possible, why Emmy won’t acknowledge me in public, and why the other kids run away when Jas gets an attack. They’re out for themselves, trying to stay alive. For what, I have no idea.

“Not only do they do what they’re told, but they’ll turn on us if they see a profit in it. Like the woman who tried to take Jas my first day. We have to be careful who we ask.”

“We make it worth their while. It has to benefit them, too, or they won’t agree.” Lucas settles his arm around my waist, his scent of pine going to my head. “I don’t know how we do that, but it’s the only way.”

“I’ll talk to Emmy. She might have an idea.” I remember what she said about Leah being separated for talking too often. “It might take me a day or so to do it without being seen.”

That settled, the three of us go quiet. Pax and Lucas both drop into a deep sleep within moments, Pax snoring lightly from across the room. I should have reminded him to roll over; him lying on his back means a brutal night of trying to sleep for me.

The events of the day have left residual adrenaline in me, though, and my eyes don’t want to close. Instead I flip over in Lucas’s arms until my face rests inches from his on our shared pillow. His blond curls are too long, dropping toward his eyes. I push them back off his forehead, trailing my hand to his cheek, then moving forward to press my lips gently against his.

We have an unspoken agreement about not kissing while Pax is in the room, but Lucas’s lips are there, slightly parted and full, and I can’t help it.

He wakes up slowly, tightening his arms around my waist until our bodies are flush and warm. We ease apart after a minute or two, both smiling in the dark, and he rolls onto his back, pulling me along until my cheek rests on his chest.

“Lucas?” I whisper.

“Yeah.”

“Are we ever getting out of here?”

His hand trails up my back, finally tangling in my hair. “I don’t know.”

“We’d better. I’m not spending my whole first summer surrounded by ice.”

He chuckles, and the sound vibrates my cheek. We both fall silent, and I sleep with the scene of summer that Cadi showed me—a warm lake at sunset, the scent of flowers and sunshine in the air, and the sounds of cicadas ringing in my ears—in the front of my mind.

***

I skip my shower the next afternoon to wait for Emmy in her tent. There are two beds in here, as there are in ours, and I wonder nervously who she shares with and whether or not they’ll tell on us.

At the last minute I hide underneath the bed, which seems like a good idea at the time. When Emmy does come in alone, though, she barely stifles a shriek when I reach out and touch her foot.

Relief sags her pale face when I struggle free and offer a sheepish smile.

“Althea, what are you doing under the bed? You scared me to death!”

“I know, I’m sorry. You said to find you if I needed to talk.”

“And this is the best idea you had?” She shakes her head, finally regaining some color. “I’m starting to worry about the fate of the planet being in your hands.”

I snort. “That makes two of us. Seriously, though, we have an idea but we need your help.”

I tell her about wanting to find people to switch places with Leah and Reese, the chemistry Monitor, and anyone else they know who might be willing to at least listen. If we find a way out of here, and if this thing with the Others comes down to a fight, we’re going to need as many people on our side as possible. We’ve got forty at home, but against a couple hundred Others, that won’t be enough.

“What do you think we can accomplish together?” She’s listened to me for five minutes without making a peep and her face betrays only interest.

It makes me feel better that she’s not dismissing the idea out of hand. Maybe she even knows how we can get it done. “It can’t hurt to brainstorm, now that we know what the element is that they’re mining. If we can figure out how to take it away, maybe? Leah’s been talking to the chemistry Monitor from Danbury. She might have ideas.”

The suggestion twists her mouth with disbelief. “I don’t know anything about that, but the other part—the figuring out how to amass a few people in the same station—that might actually work.”

“You know how we can do it?”

“There are plenty of families and couples, even friends, that have been separated since they arrived here.” She blinks away the growing mist in her eyes. “If we ask the right ones, they’ll be willing to trade, I bet.”

“And you’ll think about some people who might be good to bring into the fold?”

“Yeah, but I think we should start slow. Leah would know better than me, since she’s been trying to figure this out since the beginning. If we get her and Reese here, they might have ideas, too.” She pauses, listening again like she always does. “My roommates will be back any minute. You should go.”

“How long until you’ll decide who might swap?” I ask, shuffling toward the door.

There isn’t time for a shower, which is going to make for an uncomfortable evening. Hopefully the Wardens at dinner won’t notice if I change into clean clothes and wash the dirt off my face and arms.

“I’m not sure. I’ll find you. Probably in the cleansing room and not under your bed.”

“Thanks, Emmy.”

She nods and I leave, hustling from her furnicar and into ours. Lucas and Pax are clean and smell much better than me, but the dinner announcement blasts and I’m out of time. Their damp towels do a fair job on the dirt clinging to my skin, and fresh clothes make me feel a little less disgusting.

Later that night I tell them that Emmy’s going to help, but that she doesn’t know how long it might take. We’re getting used to waiting, I suppose, but instead of practice making it easier, it gets harder every day.

Chapter 18.

It’s three quiet days before Emmy invades my personal shower space again, but this time I don’t ask her to leave. With nothing to interrupt the monotony these past days, the sight of Emmy’s furtive expression shoots adrenaline down my spine, and I finish washing quickly, turning the water over to her.

I absently dry my skin and hair with my fingertips while she talks.

“I found four people. Two who are willing to switch to Station Two and two to Station Three.”

“That’s good! We can get Reese and Leah at the same time.” I bite my lower lip, thinking of Jas and Tommy. I can’t get them both, and I’ve spent hours deciding whether it would be better for them to stay or leave. I’d rather have Jas under my care during the day. She needs me more when the attacks come than overnight, so as much as it pains me, they’ll have to stay in Station Three. “Do you know a second person at Station Three who might be good? I could talk to them, maybe.”

Emmy wrings out her hair, biting her lower lip. “No. I’ve been thinking since last night but I can’t be sure…”

“Can’t be sure about what?” Or who, I want to ask.

“My mom’s in Station Three. Or she was, last I heard. But she’s not right. The procedure they put us through when we arrive… most of the adults aren’t the same afterward.”

Her words chill me from the inside, and I pull my towel tighter. “What procedure?”

“There’s a processing station for when new people arrive. There are Others that wear all-white clothes, and they lay you on a cot and put something on your head. It kind of hurts, and when they’re done, they’re not in our heads anymore.” Emmy shrugs, reaching outside the curtain and grabbing a towel for herself.

My heart stops beating at the mention of white-clad Others, of cots and hats that hurt your head, at the memory of what happened to Mrs. Morgan. “What do you mean, they’re not the same afterward?”

“Most of the adults… they never talk. They stare at nothing. Some of them cry all the time. Like,
all the time
.” She pauses, tipping her head back to rinse the shampoo out of her hair. Some of them are fine, or mostly fine. Not as many.

It doesn’t surprise me, but my stomach sinks all the same. We suspected unveiling was harder on adults, maybe because they have memories of the way things were before, maybe for some other reason. It would be strange to remember two different lives. Their brains might not be able to cope with figuring out how the two combine, or if they can.

It does surprise me that the Others unveil people here at the Harvest Site. Then again, they don’t have to control their emotions to get them to comply or worry about things such as keeping up appearances or having purge rotations. If this place is as impossible to escape as Lucas says, and going outside the igloos means death, rebellion isn’t a concern, either.

I shake off my spiraling horror and try to give Emmy a reassuring smile. “Okay. So for now, Leah, the Monitor, and Reese. I can tell Reese tomorrow, and Pax can tell Leah and the Monitor. You’ll talk to the people from Station One who volunteered.” A thought sputters through my mind, one I should have considered before now. “Who are they? The people you found. Why are they helping?”

I know they have reasons but I want to hear them.

“One’s a little kid—maybe eight? He wants to find his parents. I didn’t tell him they won’t be the same. The other two are women, both looking for their Partners. They’re more okay than most of the adults. Just sad.” She steps out of the curtain and I follow, snagging her arm before she can walk out into the open.

“Wait. Where do we meet so they can switch?”

“You tell me, Althea.”

I let her go and tug on the skin around my nails. “I don’t know. I don’t want to mess this up. I’ll leave you a note after dinner, okay?”

“Sure.” She cocks an eyebrow at me. “Don’t get caught.”

Emmy saunters away, losing herself in the crowd. It occurs to me that I keep forgetting to ask who shares her furnicar. Not that it matters, but it would be nice to know exactly who I’m supposed to be avoiding.

***

The three of us get it figured out over the next day, and I leave the note under Emmy’s pillow. My paranoia almost gets the best of me, making me sure the Wardens search our furnicars while we’re out working. Lucas is right about how many of them are here, though, and there aren’t enough Wardens to patrol the mines, handle the extraction, and snoop in everyone’s private business every single day.

Which is not to say we shouldn’t be careful, but it does make it a little easier to breathe. We’ve decided having Tommy and Jas sneak Reese away and her replacement back through the tunnels is the best course of action. The kids are more mobile, and the rest of the workers are used to Tommy and Jas disappearing. They should be able to make the exchange between third count and the end of the day. That’s the plan.

We’ve decided to do this one station at a time. Reese will be first. The second day, Tommy and Jas will navigate the unused tunnels over to Station Two, get Leah and the Monitor, and exchange them for the two women from Station One. Reese, Leah, and the Monitor will have to squeeze into one furnicar, at least for now.

I waited an extra day to leave the note for Emmy because I wanted to check with Tommy and Jas first. They had to agree, and I tried to make them understand what they’re risking. Jas piped up first, eager to help, and once Tommy found out he’d be helping Pax, there was no hesitation on his part, either.

Tommy and Jas both wanted to be transferred here, too. She’s taken to clinging to my legs whenever we pass in the Southeast Main, and her spindly little arms and haunted smile make my days a little bit better. It was hard for me to tell them no. I think they understand why it’s better for me to be able to watch out for them during the day, but I know Tommy wants to see Pax.

Today’s the day. Nervous butterflies flap in my belly the entire trip in the rider, and we’re all quieter than normal. My jitters escape in the form of heat, enough to push a few beads of sweat onto Lucas’s upper lip before he gives me a look. I try to settle down but the irritated expression on Carrej’s face only makes it worse.

If this doesn’t work it could go badly for Leah and Reese, and the women who offered to swap places with them. The weight of responsibility on my shoulders grows almost too heavy to bear, and my back aches from the imagined pressure.

I can’t stop thinking about Leah. About all she’s been through since we met her, about how many times and in how many ways we’ve ruined her life.

Pax says she thinks the opposite—that we’ve saved her. Lucas sees that way of thinking but it’s harder for me. At this point, what’s Leah going to say? She doesn’t have a choice. There’s no going back.

Down in the mine my confidence returns little by little. Reese meets my gaze briefly first thing, her dark eyes steady and confident. I give her the tiniest of nods and a tight smile, and the rest of the morning and afternoon pass as slowly as they ever do. Eula glares at me, working too slowly, as though she’s egging on another confrontation.

Tommy and Jas giggle more than usual, glancing at each other and grinning, their steps light as though this is some kind of game. I can’t blame them. They
are
kids, and as far as I’ve seen, there’s nothing to entertain them here. Diversions are few and far between in the Sanctioned Cities but at least there kids get a free hour every day and weekends with their families. This constant, quiet control stifles their ability to simply be children.