Lauren Oliver - Delirium (34 page)

"Sorry I'm late," he says. He stops several feet away from me. I can see the concern in his eyes, even if he manages to keep the rest of his face composed. There are guards circulating the yard and standing just beyond the gate. This is no place for us to touch or reveal any kind of familiarity with each other.

"That's okay." My voice cracks. I feel like I might have a fever. Ever since Alex and I spoke last night my head has been spinning, and my body has been burning one second and icy the next. I can hardly think. It's a miracle I was able to get out of the house today. It's a miracle I'm even wearing pants, a double miracle I remembered to wear shoes.

My mother might be alive. My mother might be alive. That is the single idea in my mind, the one that has supplanted the possibility of all other rational thought.

"Are you ready to do this?" He keeps his voice low and toneless in case the guards will overhear us-- but I can detect the note of worry running underneath it.

"I think so," I say. I try to manage a smile, but my lips feel cracked and dry as stone. "It might not even be her, right? You could be wrong."

He nods, but I can tell he's sure he hasn't made a mistake. He's sure that my mom is in here--this place, this above-ground tomb--has been there all this time. The idea is overwhelming. I can't think too much about the possibility that Alex is right. I need to concentrate, focus all my energy on just staying on my feet.

"Come on," he says. He walks in front of me, like he's leading me on official business. I keep my eyes trained on the ground. I'm almost glad that the presence of the guards requires Alex to ignore me. I'm not sure I could handle a conversation right now. A thousand feelings swirl through me, a thousand questions whip around my mind, a thousand suppressed hopes and desires, buried long ago--and yet I can't hold on to anything, not a single theory or explanation that makes any kind of sense.

Alex had refused to tell me more after his declaration last night. "You have to see," he kept repeating dumbly, as though it was the only thing he knew how to say. "I don't want to get your hopes up for nothing." And then he'd told me to meet him at the Crypts. I think I must have been in shock. The whole time I kept congratulating myself for not freaking out, for not screaming or crying or demanding an explanation, but when I got home later I realized I had no memory of the walk at all and hadn't been keeping an eye out for regulators or patrols. I must have just marched stiffly down the street, blind to everything.

But now I get the point of shock, of numbness. Without the numbness I probably wouldn't have been able to get up and dressed this morning. I wouldn't have been able to find my way here, and I wouldn't be taking careful steps forward now, pausing a respectful distance behind him as Alex shows his ID badge to a guard at a gate and begins gesturing to me.

Alex launches into an explanation he has obviously rehearsed. "There was an . . . incident at her evaluation," he says, his voice icy. He and the guard are both staring at me: the guard, suspiciously; Alex with as much detachment as he can muster. His eyes are steel, all the warmth drained out of them, and it makes me nervous to know that he can do that so successfully--become someone else, someone who doesn't have any attachment to me. "Nothing too severe. But her parents and my superiors thought she might benefit from a little reminder about the dangers of disobedience."

The guard flicks his eyes over me. His face is fat and red, the skin on either side of his eyes protruding and puffy, like he is a mound of dough in the middle of rising. Soon, I fantasize, his eyes will be concealed behind flesh altogether. "What kind of incident?" he says, snapping his gum. He shifts the enormous automatic rifle he is carrying to his other shoulder.

Alex leans forward, so that he and the guard are separated through the gate by only a few inches. He drops his voice, but I can still hear him. "Her favorite color is the color of sunrise," he says.

The guard stares at me for a split second longer and then waves for us to pass through. "Stand back while I get the gate," he says. He disappears into a guard hut, similar to the one at the labs where Alex is stationed, and after a few seconds the electronic gates shudder inward. Alex and I start across the courtyard, toward the building entrance. With every step, the hulking silhouette of the Crypts looms a little larger. The wind picks up, whirling bits of dust across the bleak yard, sending a lone plastic bag tumbling and skipping across the grass, and the air is filled with the kind of electricity that always comes before a thunderstorm--the kind of crazed, vibrating energy that makes it seem like something huge could happen at any second, like the whole world could just dissolve into chaos. I would give anything to have Alex turn around, smile at me, and offer me his hand. Of course, he can't. He strides quickly ahead of me, spine stiff, eyes forward.

I'm not sure how many people are confined in the Crypts. Alex estimated it to be about three thousand. There's hardly any crime at all in Portland--thanks to the cure--but occasionally people do steal things or vandalize or resist police procedurals. Then there are the resisters and sympathizers. If they aren't executed immediately, some of them are left to rot in the Crypts.

The Crypts also serves as Portland's mental institution, and while there may not be much crime, despite the cure we have our share of crazies just like anywhere else. Alex would say because of the cure we have our crazies, and it's true that early procedures or procedures gone wrong can lead to mental difficulties or a kind of mental fracture. Plus, some people are just never the same after the procedure. They go catatonic, all staring eyes and drool, and if their families can't afford to keep them they get shoved into the Crypts as well, to molder and die.

Two enormous double doors lead into the Crypts. Tiny panes of glass, probably bulletproof and webbed with dirt and the residue of smeared insect parts, give me a blurred view of the long, dark hallway beyond, and several flickering electric lights. A typed sign, warped from rain and wind, is taped to the door. It says ALL VISITORS PROCEED DIRECTLY TO CHECK-IN AND SECURITY.

Alex pauses for just a fraction of a second. "Ready?" he says to me, without looking back.

"Yes," I choke out.

The smell that hits us as we enter nearly jettisons me backward--out the door, through time, back to fourth grade. It's the smell of thousands of unwashed bodies packed closely together, underneath the stinging, burning scent of industrial-strength bleach and cleanser. Overlaying it all is the smell of wet --corridors that aren't ever truly dry, leaking pipes, mold growing behind walls and in all the little twisty places visitors are never allowed to see. Check-in is to our left, and the woman who is manning the desk behind another panel of bulletproof glass is wearing a medical mask. I don't blame her.

Strangely, as we approach her desk, she looks up and addresses Alex by name.

"Alex," she says, nodding curtly. Her eyes flicker to me. "Who's that?"

Alex repeats his story about the incident at the evaluations. He's obviously on pretty familiar terms with the guard, because he uses her first name a couple of times, and I can't see that she's wearing any kind of name tag. She logs our names into the ancient computer on her desk and waves us through to security. Alex says hello to the security personnel here too, and I admire him for his coolness. I'm having a pretty hard time just undoing my belt before the metal detector, my hands are shaking so badly. The guards at the Crypts seem to be about 50 percent larger than normal people, with hands like tennis rackets and chests as broad as boats. And they're all carrying guns. Big guns. I'm doing my best not to seem utterly terrified, but it's difficult to stay calm when you have to strip down practically to your underwear in front of giants equipped with automatic assault weapons.

Eventually we make it through security. Alex and I dress again in silence, and I'm surprised--and pleased--when I actually manage to tie my own shoelaces.

"Wards one through five only," one of the guards calls out, as Alex gestures for me to follow him down the hall. The walls are painted a sickly yellow color. In a home, or a brightly lit nursery or office, it might be cheerful; but illuminated only by the patchy fluorescent lights that keep buzzing on and off, and stained with years and years of water and handprints and squashed insects and I don't-want-to-know- what, it seems incredibly depressing--like getting a big smile from someone with blackened, rotting teeth.

"You got it," Alex says. I'm assuming this means that certain areas are restricted from visitors.

I follow Alex down one narrow corridor, and then another. The hallways are empty, and so far we haven't passed any cells, although as we continue making twists and turns the sounds of moaning and shrieking begin to float to us, as well as strange animal sounds, bleating and mooing and cawing, like a bunch of people are imitating a barnyard. We must be near the mental ward. We don't pass any other people, though, no nurses or guards or patients. Everything is so still it's almost frightening: silent, too, except for those awful sounds, which seem to emanate from the walls.

It seems safe to talk, so I ask Alex, "How does everybody know you here?"

"I come by a lot," he says, as though this is a satisfactory answer. People don't "come by" the Crypts. It's not exactly up there with the beach. It's not even up there with a public restroom.

I'm thinking he won't elaborate further, and I'm about to press him for a more detailed answer, when he blows air out of his cheeks and says, "My father's here. That's why I come."

I really didn't think that anything could further surprise me at this point, or penetrate the fog in my brain, but this does. "I thought you said your father was dead."

Alex told me a long time ago that his dad had died, but he'd refused to give any details. "He never knew he had a son": That's the only thing Alex had said, and I figured it meant that his dad was dead before Alex was born.

Ahead of me, Alex's shoulders rise and fall: a small sigh. "He is," he says, and makes an abrupt right turn down a short hallway that ends at a heavy iron door. This is marked with another printed sign. It says LIFERS. Underneath the word, someone has written in pen, HA HA.

"What are you--" I'm more confused than ever, but I don't have time to finish formulating my question. Alex pushes his way out the door and the smell that greets us--of wind and grass and fresh things--is so unexpected and welcome that I stop speaking, taking long, grateful gulps of air. Without realizing it, I've been breathing through my mouth.

We're in a tiny courtyard, surrounded on all sides by the stained gray sides of the Crypts. The grass here is amazingly lush, reaching practically to my knees. A single tree twists upward to our left, and a bird is twittering in its branches. It's surprisingly nice out here, peaceful and pretty--strange to be standing in the middle of a little garden while enclosed by the massive stone walls of the prison, like being at the exact center of a hurricane, and finding peace and silence in the middle of so much shrieking damage.

Alex has moved several paces away. He is standing, head bowed, with his eyes on the ground. He must have a sense too of the peacefulness here, the stillness that seems to hang in the air like a veil, covering everything in softness and rest. The sky above us is darker than it was when we first entered the Crypts: Against all the grayness and shadow, the grass stands vivid and electric, as though it is lit up from inside. It will rain at any second. It has to. I have the sensation of the world holding its breath before a giant exhale, balancing, teetering, about to let go.

"Here." Alex's voice rings out, surprisingly loud, and it startles me. "Right here." He points to a shard of rock sticking up crookedly from the ground. "That's where my father is."

The grass is broken up by dozens of these rocks, which at first glance appeared to be naturally, haphazardly arranged. Then I realize that they've been deliberately tamped down into the earth. Some of them are covered in fading black markings, mostly illegible, although on one stone I recognize the word RICHARD and on another DIED.

Tombstones, I realize, as the purpose of the courtyard dawns on me. We're standing in the middle of a graveyard.

Alex is staring down at a large chunk of concrete, as flat as a tablet, pressed down into the earth in front of his feet. All the writing is visible here, the words neatly printed in what looks like black marker, their edges slightly blurred as though someone has been continuously retracing them over a long period of time. It says WARREN SHEATHES, R.I.P.

"Warren Sheathes," I say. I want to reach out and slip my hand into Alex's, but I don't think we're safe. There are a few windows surrounding the courtyard on the ground floor, and even though they are thickly coated in grime, someone could walk by at any moment, look out, and see us. "Your father?"

Alex nods, then shakes his shoulders, a sudden movement as though trying to jerk himself away from sleep. "Yeah."

"He was here?"

One side of Alex's mouth quirks up into a smile, but the rest of his face remains stony. "For fourteen years." He draws a slow circle in the dirt with his toe, the first physical sign of discomfort or distraction he has given since we arrived. In that moment I am in awe of him: Since I've known him he has done nothing but support me and give me comfort and listen to me, and all this time he has been carrying the weight of his own secrets too.

"What happened?" I ask quietly. "I mean, what did he . . . ?" I trail off. I don't want to push the issue.

Alex glances at me quickly and looks away. "What did he do?" he says. The hardness has returned to his voice. "I don't know. What all the people who end up in Ward Six do. He thought for himself. Stood up for what he believed in. Refused to give in."

"Ward Six?"

Alex avoids my eyes carefully. "The dead ward," he says quietly. "For political prisoners, mostly. They're kept in solitary confinement. And no one ever gets released." He gestures around him, to the other shards of stone poking up through the grass, dozens of makeshift graves. "Ever," he repeats, and I think of the sign on the door: LIFERS, HA HA.