Z 2134 (37 page)

Jonah nodded,
then said, “Can I go save my daughter now?”

Egan shook his
head. After a horrible second, he finished with “No.”

Jonah’s gut
twisted into a knot.

He was going to
have to kill Egan — beat him to death in front of his daughter — then leave her
alone in the snow so he could go and find his.

Egan saved his
own life by saying, “Come back with us. I’ll give you something to help you
find her.”

Jonah, at a loss
for words, mustered only, “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Egan
nodded, pulling Calla closer to him. “But then I want you the hell out of my
life forever.”

Jonah nodded,
knowing that
nothing
was ever that easy.

A
na couldn’t
stop staring into the back of Liam’s head as he and Duncan walked side-by-side
through the network of catacombs, lit only by the light of Duncan’s liberated
orb, hovering above and lighting the path.

When they first
entered the catacombs, Duncan explained that they ran under the woods and would
lead past The Darwin Games borders. The catacombs had been built before the
plague and were filled with mostly empty spaces for coffins. They also
connected to the train tunnels, which would eventually lead to their
destination.

Duncan then fell
quiet, and the trio walked in silence since — thick like fog, but harder to see
through.

Ana figured
Duncan had seen Liam’s confession, like everyone in City 6, and knew he was a
traitor. Duncan was short with Liam and clearly angry over something, but still
helpful while navigating the winding tunnels toward their possible salvation.
After a forever that was likely little more than an hour, Liam stopped in his
tracks and turned to Duncan.

“I guess you
saw,” he said.

“I don’t wanna
discuss it.” Duncan didn’t bother to stop walking.

Liam followed a
step behind, quiet for five minutes or so until he couldn’t take the sour of
all the unsaid between them. He stopped again, set his hand on Duncan’s
shoulder, then pulled the man back toward him. “They were threatening to kill
Chelle’s baby —
my baby.
”

Duncan stared at
Liam, barely able to meet his eyes, let alone hold them.

“And then they
did,” Duncan said. “You brought a sword to a gunfight, then made a deal with
the devil when you found out your weapon wasn’t a match. How did that work out
for you, Liam? How did it work out for all of us?”

“What did you
want me to do? Risk my child? The woman I loved?”

“You did the
worst possible thing, Liam. You played God, burning the thin bridge between all
of our lives.” Duncan’s voice was sharp enough to cut into the countless things
he wasn’t saying.

Liam said, “I
didn’t know they’d kill Jonah’s wife. Or that they’d raid the church and kill
Rose and Iris.”

“Your hands are
bloody.” Duncan shook his head. “You should have come to me, should’ve told me.
I could have helped, no different from what I’d do for anyone else. I could’ve
protected your baby, gotten Chelle and the baby out of The City.” Duncan leaned
into Liam and lowered his voice. “I had to do it eventually, anyway.”

“What are you
talking about?” Liam almost mumbled, every word falling out slower than the one
before, each holding something horrible inside it.

“I got Chelle
out, right before I left,” Duncan said.

Liam swallowed
loud enough to hear, even if Ana couldn’t see it in the shadows. “I sent her to
West Village,” Duncan said.

“Why the hell
did you do that?” Liam said, or maybe snarled. “The passage is dangerous!”

“So was her
staying behind The Wall, at least once you said you were done spying for them
and made your death march.”

Liam fell
silent, tasting Duncan’s words on his tongue.

Ana was
embarrassed to ask, though not enough to keep the words from her mouth. “What’s
West Village?”

Duncan turned
from Liam to Ana. “It’s a village populated by City 6 dissidents and refugees.
We’ve got nearly two thousand people living there now, beyond The City’s reach.
That’s where we’re headed.”

“It’s the
village I told you about,” Liam said. “The one I wanted to get Chelle and the
baby to.”

“How long has it
been there? How has The City not discovered it yet?”

“It’s been there
for two decades, with a smart system of ever-growing independence. We’ve taken
plenty of precautions, it’s well hidden, and The Barrens are big, bigger than
you realize. Lack of perspective keeps you from seeing the big picture, Ana.
Same as everyone else. The Old Nation had a song that said, ‘from sea to
shining sea,’ and those seas sandwiched thousands of miles between them. It’s
impossible for The State to be everywhere at once. Sure, they’ve sent orbs out
to find the Village, plenty, but we’ve always been able to stop and seize them,
then reprogram them to help us track and capture other orbs. Eventually, they
stopped trying.”

“So, we’re gonna
live there now?” Ana asked.

“Yes,” Duncan
nodded.

“If The
Underground has this secret place, why not bring more people over? Start a new
proper city?”

“Limited
resources.” Duncan shrugged, as if the answer was obvious. “We can’t allow
everyone in if we expect the resistance to last. We’re selective, and there’s a
long process to get out of The City and inside the Village. New citizens are
expected to contribute, and we must be certain they won’t betray The
Underground. Few people know where the Village is, and the only way to access
it on ground level is through these old catacombs and train tunnels. Besides,”
he added, “most people are happy behind The Wall since they can’t see through
the wool over their eyes. Few even try.”

Ana glanced at
Liam. He was somewhere else, off in his own world, probably thinking about
Chelle and what would happen once they reached the Village.

Ana turned back
to Duncan. “Can you get Adam out of The City? Can we bring him to the Village?”

“We’ll see,”
Duncan said. “It was tough enough getting Chelle out. Everyone in The
Underground is scared right now, and nobody’s sure who to trust. The Watchers have
picked up a few of our people and are looking to find who’s in charge.”

Ana wanted to
ask who
was
in charge, but didn’t want any information the Watchers
could torture her for. Instead, she asked another question, though hesitant to
do so. “What’s gonna happen to Liam when we get there? Do they know what he
did? Will they let him in?”

“We’re going to
jail him,” Duncan said. “Then try him as a traitor.”

A chill ran
through Ana. “But he was protecting his girlfriend and baby!” She surprised
herself by defending Liam.

Duncan turned
abruptly, his eyes locked onto Ana’s. “We
all
lost people for The
Underground. Every one of us. The Underground is more than a single person, or
even one family. It’s an entire society. Generations are dependent on our
rebels being able to commit to the cause. Betray The Underground, and you put
everyone at risk.
Everyone
.”

Duncan turned
and started to again walk the catacombs. Ana followed, with Liam now taking up
the rear, all three renewing their earlier vows of silence. Liam then stepped
forward and turned to Ana, his eyes soft. “I’m sorry,” he said.

His apology
seemed so heartfelt and honest it practically quivered, cutting through her
anger like a hot knife.

“It’s OK,” Ana
said, though she hadn’t fully forgiven him and still had too many questions to
make his “sorry” mean as much as he probably wanted.

But her
questions could wait. She didn’t want to ask them, especially not in front of
Duncan.

They kept
walking for what felt like like hours, now navigating the old train tunnels,
turning from one darkened passageway into another until they finally arrived at
a large metal gate. Through the thin bars, Ana saw steps leading up to the
world above — the Village!

Ana slowly
approached the steps, thinking of everything she’d been through in the last
month — her mother’s murder, her father’s sudden arrest, her testimony, his
ejection from The City, their home being taken from them and the look on Adam’s
face as his books were taken by the Watchers, her father in The Games, the
church massacre, and choosing to kill Charlotte instead of Liam.

It was all too
much.

A new orb
suddenly descended from the darkness above, hovering in front of the gate,
watching as they approached.

The hunter orb’s
energy cannon crackled with blue light, ready to vaporize any enemy. Ana
stepped back, nervous, certain they’d been caught, though neither Liam nor
Duncan seemed in the least bit fazed.

Duncan walked
right up to the orb, then stared into the monitor and said, “Harbor 1228.”

The orb
acknowledged Duncan with a blip, then moved aside. Its blue cannon fizzled to
dark. Ana sighed, fully relieved as Duncan pulled a key from his coat and
unlocked the gate. “Welcome to West Village,” he said, ushering them through
the swinging metal fence, then locking it behind them after they’d stepped to
the other side.

As they walked
toward the steps, Ana noticed thick plumes of dark smoke spiraling into the
sky.

What the…?

Duncan and Liam
exchanged horrified looks, then raced ahead together, Duncan drawing a pistol
from the depths of his coat.

Before them was
a large wooden wall, its gates wide open. Beyond the gates, the Village streets
were littered with bloodied and burned corpses. The buildings had been reduced
to smoldering, charred remains, some still on fire.

It looked as if
someone had opened the gates of hell and set forth murderous, flaming beasts
that killed everything in their path, leaving nothing behind but death and
destruction.

Ana’s mouth hung
agape as she struggled to hold back the tears.

As Ana drew
closer to the open gates, she saw the familiar “CW” logo of City Watch painted
in what looked like blood on the right gate.

“Oh God, it’s
gone,” Duncan said in a whisper. “It’s all gone.”

Liam cried out,
racing through the gate and into the Village.

“Chelle!” he screamed
out. “Chelle!”

Liam froze in
his tracks as he looked up and screamed.

Jutting from the
ground were two dozen wooden spikes, standing roughly 20 feet high.

And on each of
them a head.

Liam stood in
front of one, a woman with dark hair hanging over her bloodied, puffy face.

“Chelle!” he
screamed.

Duncan and Ana
raced to him as Liam fell to the ground screaming.

J
onah crossed
The Barrens and went back to the train station, following Egan and Calla. They
ignored the ladder where Jonah had ascended, running through a thicket of
trees, then a wide clearing and into what looked like the remains of a long
forgotten depot, with snow-covered crumbles of concrete and exposed piping.

Egan ducked
beneath a fallen concrete pillar, then descended a set of stairs into the
tunnel. Calla quietly followed her father, with Jonah right behind her.

Inside the
station, Jonah was led to a large room just inside the entrance. Egan opened
the door, Calla hovering at his side, then pointed to one of the several dozen
chairs in what had been some sort of waiting area, once upon a time.

“You can wait
there. I’ll go get Father Truth. I need to tell my wife of Dani’s death.” Egan
looked at Calla, apology for the loss like a dim light in his eyes, then turned
back to Jonah. “Father will come in a few minutes, with everything you need.”

Jonah nodded.

Calla followed
Egan from the room, leaving Jonah completely alone.

It was maybe 15
minutes before Father Truth stepped through the door. During every one of those
minutes Jonah strongly considered leaving the station, hating the thought of
Ana in The Barrens fending for herself. He finally stood and was halfway to the
door when Father came inside, carrying a large bag and a tiny smile. He sat the
bag down on a chair in front of Jonah, unzipped it, and pulled out a
miniature-sized metallic globe.