Grandfather (39 page)

“We just need a cab,”
Belladonna said.

The man looked around.
“It’s going to be hard,” he said. He looked back at us and at
Ashton’s ankle. “Stay here.” He ran down the road and turned onto
another, leaving our sight.

Edgar and I sat Ashton
down onto the ground. For ten minutes, I listened to the people
nearby talking about the explosions. Grandfather’s name came up, of
course, and a lot of them talked about how they planned on going to
the arena.

“
I heard everybody is
headed over there now,” a younger lady told a random man. I knew
she was probably right. Everybody was probably just learning what
had just happened to their city, and they’d all want to attend
Cornelius’s announcement to see what he had to say.

Finally, the young man
returned to us, out of breath. “I found you a cab,” he said.
“Luck.”

“
Thank you, thank you,
thank you,” Belladonna said as Edgar and I got Ashton back up. We
followed the man to where the cab was. He was patient with us and
was sure to walk slowly so that we could keep up. We finally
reached the cab where we put Ashton in the front seat so that he
had more legroom. I took the middle seat in the back. The man in
the driver’s seat looked at us with dull eyes.

“Thanks a lot, bud,” Edgar
told the man who had gotten us the cab.

“No problem,” he
said.

Wow, he was actually
sincere. I didn’t think that the rich people knew anything about
sincerity. But I guess when disaster strikes, people tend to come
together.

Chapter
Sixteen

T
raffic was the worse I’d ever seen it. Everybody was going in
the same direction, trying to get to the arena.

The driver kept looking at
us through his mirror. “How bad is it back there?”

None of us said anything
at first. Then, Edgar answered. “Hope you never have to see
something as harsh as that.”

The driver didn’t ask any
more questions. I was glad because I didn’t want to talk about the
things I saw. It was enough that I couldn’t get the images out of
my head. Something told me I would never get them out of my head.
I’d probably think about it every day for the rest of my life. I’d
have nightmares of the girl I saw. I should’ve saved
her.

The driver didn’t even
seem to recognize me. When I caught a glimpse of myself in the
mirror, I knew why. I was completely covered in dust.

It was thirty minutes
later before we could even see the arena. Ten minutes after that,
we reached the entrance. I have to say that I had never seen so
many people in one place. There had to be thousands of people
gathered around the arena. I noticed others also covered in dust.
Large screens outside of the arena displayed a blank white screen.
I assumed Cornelius planned for there to be so many people that
everybody wouldn’t fit inside.

“You won’t be getting
inside,” the driver told us. “Sorry.”

Edgar opened the door.
“That’s fine,” he said. He dug into his pocket.

“No,” the man said. “You
guys deserve a free ride today.” Edgar nodded but still swiped his
bitcoin card across the back of the seat.

“
Take an extra twenty for
yourself,” Edgar said.

The man gave him a nod of
appreciation.

Edgar and I helped Ashton
out. The cab left and we turned to face the arena. We weren’t
getting far. We walked to the back of the crowd, hundreds and
hundreds of yards away from the arena. It looked as if the whole
city was attending. I couldn’t count the number of times I heard
the words Grandfather, explosion, and Cornelius mentioned around
me.

The crowd was growing
larger by the second. Soon, people were smothering us, so Edgar led
us to a tree that was out of the way but still close enough to
where we could see Cornelius on the big screen. I was kind of glad
that we only had to see Cornelius on screen and not inside the
arena. He could have seen me in the arena. I knew it was very
unlikely because there were probably thousands of people
inside.

Edgar had Ashton sit
against the tree. He and Belladonna were whispering about Robert
and weapons arriving soon. Did they plan to just bombard Cornelius
and shoot him down? Would that work? Before, I couldn’t imagine
myself killing anybody. But at that moment, I honestly thought I
could’ve taken Cornelius down. I think he would’ve been the only
exception because getting rid of him would mean saving others. But
killing is something you don’t know about until it actually
happens.

I watched the crowd,
hoping Cornelius would start soon. A particular woman caught my
attention. She snaked her way through the crowd, headed in my
direction. As she got closer, I could tell that she was staring at
me. My first reaction was to turn around in order to hide my face,
but she had obviously seen me. I squinted to get a better look.
Yeah, I was safe. I knew exactly who it was. What were the
chances?

“Oh dear,” she
said.

Belladonna and Edgar
looked scared. They were probably afraid she was going to announce
my existence. But I knew she wouldn’t.

“Miss Fabray,” Ashton
said, trying to get up but was unable to on his own.

“
Olivia,”
she corrected him softly as she examined the dust covering our
bodies, shaking her head. She eyed Ashton’s ankle. “I’m so sorry
you had to go through that. Such a terrible thing. You guys have
seen things I couldn’t dream of . . . things that I don’t
want
to dream about
seeing.” She grabbed my shoulders, pulled me toward her, and hugged
me. It was really weird because I had only spoken to her for a few
minutes back at Mr. Harrison’s place.

“And who are you?”
Belladonna asked.

I introduced Olivia to
Belladonna and Edgar.

“Your story just keeps
writing itself,” Olivia said. “I only hope that one day you’ll
allow me to write it.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I wanted
to say yeah back there, but –”

“But Cornelius was
watching you,” she said. “Yes, Mrs. Harrison filled me in after
Grandfather hit the news.”

“Yeah,” Ashton said. “He
still will, if you want.”

Ashton was right. I would
do it in a heartbeat. But I was still pretty sure that Mrs. Fabray
wouldn’t have been safe.

“
When a better time comes,
yes,” she said. “You know, sometimes writing stuff down can keep
you sane. Especially when things get rough and confusing. Trust me,
Carsyn. I’m a writer. I do it every day, and I’m doing
fabulous.”

“
I believe you,” I said. I
had never thought about that, actually.

“
Good. Perhaps you’ll take
that advice and write down everything you’ve been through. Then,
perhaps, it’ll be easier when we’re both ready to get your story
out there. Agreed?”

I agreed with a nod, not
sure if I would actually ever want my life story told to others. It
was kind of nobody’s business.

“What are you doing here?”
Ashton asked. He immediately realized how dumb the question
was.

“I think the question is
what are
you
doing here?” Olivia asked. “It’s not exactly safe for you out
here. And the girl . . . where’s Marley.”

“With her mom,” Ashton
told her.

“She’s safe,” I
answered.

“Good,” Olivia said. “She
seemed lovely. As to your question, I’m here for the same reason
everybody else is. The truth.”

“The truth about
Grandfather?” I asked.

“The truth about
Cornelius,” Olivia said. “I think after the recording and letter,
it’s quite obvious Grandfather exists. And the explosion . . . my,
my.”

“The truth is that
Cornelius is the mastermind of Grandfather,” Ashton
said.

Olivia nodded. She looked
at Edgar and Belladonna, and then back at Ashton. “I think you
might be right. You know, I always felt like there was something
wrong with our President, especially after speaking to you at the
fundraiser. You guys were obviously faking everything. You, Carsyn,
have the worse fake smile I’ve ever seen.”

I figured. “It’s kind of
hard to pretend when you’re being held captive,” I told
her.

“True,” she said. “I can’t
begin to tell you how much I’d love to hear your escape story. Do
tell.”

Edgar grunted, and I knew
why. He didn’t trust Olivia yet, but I did. Still, I had to make
Edgar feel more at ease.

“
We just snuck out,” I told
her.

“
Alone?”
she said, snickering. “Trust is hard to come by during these times,
and I understand. Perhaps one day you can trust me enough to tell
me everything. You would, of course, receive a percentage
when
your story becomes
popular. Realize that I didn’t say
if
.”

“
Perhaps,” I
said.

“
And you trust us?” Ashton
asked.

“Maybe,” Olivia said. “I’m
good at reading people, just like I can read my characters. And the
one thing that I could tell about you two and Marley was that
you’re not afraid of the truth as everybody else.”

“And what makes you say
that?” I asked.

She took her time before
answering. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Ashton
asked.

“You see, Ashton,” she
started. “Being able to read people is a gift. I can’t explain it.
I just . . . know. Now you tell me if I’m wrong.”

Nobody
answered.

“Exactly,” she said. “You
guys aren’t afraid to go against Grandfather, are you?”

“Of course not,” Ashton
said.

“You have help here, I
see.” Olivia tilted her head toward Edgar and
Belladonna.

“We’re not afraid of the
truth,” Edgar said. “We know the truth.”

“Then good . . . what were
your names again?”

Belladonna and Edgar
hesitated before giving their names. I assured them that she meant
us no harm.

“Beautiful name,” Olivia
told Belladonna. “Perhaps I could use the name for a character I’m
working on.”

Belladonna didn’t say
anything.

“As I was saying,
everybody else here is afraid of the truth. And for once, they
can’t just choose not to see it. I told you two at the fundraiser
that the separation between us and those outside the wall is
holding us back. Well . . . it seems as if perhaps the time has
come for everybody else to learn that too.”

“Hopefully,” I
said.

“Now . . . being who I am
and knowing the people I know, I have special credentials that will
allow me inside this arena. I could easily get you guys in as
well.”

Ashton was excited and
said yes at once. I knew Belladonna wanted to get closer, but she
didn’t fully trust Olivia, which was understandable.

“Would be nice,” Edgar
said, slowly.

“You said before that
trust is hard to come by these days,” Belladonna said. “How can we
trust you? How do we know that you wouldn’t just take us to
Cornelius now?”

“I suppose there is no way
you can know,” Olivia said. “You just have to take that chance. I
know people don’t say it very often these days, but sometimes you
just have to have faith.”

Belladonna didn’t look
happy with this answer, so I assured her that Olivia was
trustworthy. She was still weary, but Edgar was the one to convince
her we’d be okay. “If Carsyn and Ashton trust her, then I do
too.”

When Belladonna agreed,
Olivia took out her phone and tapped a few buttons. “Thirty
minutes,” she said. I could kind of tell it was getting close to
time because the sun was starting to go down.

Ashton held out both of
his arms and Edgar and I helped him up. As before, he wrapped an
arm around each of us.

“
Let’s go,” Olivia said,
leading us into the dense crowd of people. “Excuse me,” she told
the people, holding up some sort of badge. “We need to get
through.” People cursed us as we squeezed by. It was more difficult
to snake through with me and Edgar having to practically carry
Ashton, and I was starting to think that it would’ve been a lot
easier to stay by the tree and watch Cornelius on the screen. But
when we reached a guarded door, I nearly dropped Ashton. I hadn’t
thought about that. What if they recognized me? My heart
raced.

Olivia flashed them her
badge. One of the soldiers examined it closely. He handed it back
to her and looked behind her toward us. His eyes met mine. I held
my breath. Please don’t recognize me. Please, please,
please.

“
Who are they?” he
asked.

“
Friends of Mr.
Harrison’s,” Olivia said. “As you can see, they’ve just been
through a lot. Nearly died in the explosion.”

“
Mr. Harrison,” the soldier
said in a questioning tone. “I’ve not seen him here. Where is
he?”

“
Well, I certainly don’t
know,” Olivia said. “I write books and articles for a living. I
don’t keep up with Mr. Harrison’s whereabouts.”