Out There (23 page)

I didn't think there was much to see, but he seemed so eager. “Sure.”

“Great, this way.”

The two of us left the little hut and he took me over to the other ones. “These are our rooms; we have to share so there are two people in each. But someone is always on night watch so sometimes you get lucky and get the place to yourself.”

“Night watch?”

“You know, someone sits outside and guards the Village in case wild animals come.”

“So, they are real!”

“You've never seen an animal?” He looked stunned.

“I've seen pictures.”

“What are pictures?”

It was my turn to look stunned. “It's when you capture a moment so that you can see it again, like a drawing except it's the real thing.”

“That's the strangest thing I've ever heard of.” He looked utterly amazed. “Oh, so as I was saying, the hut we were in before is the place where we keep all the medicine, and when someone gets sick they have to stay in there until they get better.”

“Why's that?”

“So they don't get the rest of us sick too.”

“In my city people never get ill any more or die from sickness.”

His eyes widened. “That's amazing! How do you do it? Could you teach us?”

“Um… I don't know exactly, it's like something they give every child when they're born so that they are immune to everything. It was invented long before The Great Wars.”

“Could you get some for us?”

“I don't even know what it is.”

“Oh.” He looked disappointed. “Well, that would change everything.” He continued walking.

I had to run after him to keep up. “How so?”

“Well, there were twelve of us at the start, but six died because of diseases. They were only babies and the men were much older, but that's our biggest fear.”

“Wow, we have very different fears in my city. Actually, now that I think about it, we don't fear that much at all.”

“You're lucky. Now here is the storage box,” he said and pointed at the large handmade box full of random things. “We keep weapons and food in here.”

“Weapons?” I imagined an army of men attacking our city and tearing it to pieces.

“To fend off animals.”

“Oh, right.”

“Hey Derron!”

We both turned round to see two boys walking over from the trees waving.

“You can meet the others,” Derron exclaimed and began running towards them.

“Yay…” I walked after him.

Derron reached the others and they all started doing this strange hugging-like thing except one of them had the boy's head under his arm and was rubbing his head with his fist and they were all shouting. Eventually they stopped just as I caught up with them and said, “Hi.”

The two boys froze. “What's that?”

“This is Ava, she's from the city.” Derron nudged me closer to the group. “She's not going to attack us, I promise.”

“He looks funny.”

“Funny?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Ava is a girl, Owen.”

“Cain, I thought you said girls were myths,” said the boy who thought I looked funny, as he turned to the other.

“Well, I haven't seen one since I was seven, I thought they were all gone.”

“I thought men went extinct, but I guess I was wrong,” I pointed at Derron as proof.

“Ava, this is Cain,” Derron said, pointing at the taller one, “and this is Owen.” He pointed at the one who called me funny looking.

“Pleasure to meet you, Ava,” Owen said and gave a little bow. “Where did you come from?” Cain asked, his face completely serious.

“The city, there are only women where I'm from. It's called Emiscyra.”

He looked at me hard, inspecting me, no doubt. “How did you find us?”

“I was in the forest and I saw Derron so I came back.”

“Cain, I was putting out the fires when I heard her calling,” Derron explained, “so I went down to the Old Village and there she was, heavily armed of course.” He winked at me.

“How can we trust you?” Cain said and narrowed his eyes at me.

“How can
I
trust you?” I asked, narrowing my eyes back.

We had a stare down, each of us refusing to answer.

“Come on Cain, she looks nice,” Owen said and elbowed Cain.

“Yeah Cain, please?” Derron asked the statue-like figure.

He looked at me seriously for a second. “Fine, I'm sure she means no harm. I'm sorry, I just want to make sure my brothers are protected.”

“Cain's a big softy,” said Owen with a wink. “Don't be fooled by the straight face.”

“And we owe him everything,” Derron added. “He was nine when the men died, whereas we were three, so he taught us all we know. Isn't that right, Owen?”

“Yeah yeah, thank you, Lord Cain.”

“Don't you mock your lord,” Cain said in a booming voice, “or I shall unleash my wrath!” He jumped on Owen and the two of them started yelling again.

“What are they doing?” I asked Derron.

“Um… I don't know. I can't really explain; it's just something we do.” He grabbed the two of them by the neck. “Boys, we do have a guest here.”

They all looked up at me and smiled, saying apologetically, “Sorry Ava.”

“It's fine,” I said, laughing.

“Come on, let's take you to meet the rest of us.” Cain took off through the trees with Owen trailing him.

“Should we follow them?” I turned to Derron.

“No, they're going to get the others.”

“Oh.”

“Don't worry, I'm sure they'll like you.”

A minute later, Owen, Cain, and three other boys came running from the thick trees into the middle of the Village, yelping. They were all shirtless.

“So this is the girl,” one of them said as he ran over.

“Ava, this is Mason,” Derron introduced me.

“Hi Ava, welcome to the Village.”

“And this is Kevin,” Derron said, pointing at a shorter boy with light blonde hair.

“Hi,” said Kevin and waved at me.

“And this is Jared,” said Derron as he pointed at the last boy who was leaning against the hut.

“Cain, I thought you told us that girls weren't real,” said Jared to the eldest.

“Well, I was wrong.”

“So we're just going to let her in?”

“Jared, she's right here,” said Derron, motioning to me.

“I know,” he replied, rolling his eyes.

“Ignore him, he's a jerk,” Cain said matter of factly.

“That's better than what he normally calls me,” Jared remarked.

“Are you going to stay with us?” Mason asked.

They all turned to me expectantly. “Um no, I just came to visit,” I replied.

“Well, you're welcome any time,” Cain said.

“Thanks.”

“All right boys, let's go and get some dinner,” Cain announced. “Derron, you stay here with Ava, make sure she gets home in one piece.”

“Sure thing.”

The other five of them took off and grabbed all sorts of items out of the wooden box, then ran out towards the trees, yelping again.

“Why do they yell so much?” I asked Derron as we stood in the middle of the deserted Village.

He scratched the back of his neck and replied, “It's just what we do. Come, let's go to the hill.” He began walking towards the far end of the Village.

He walked so fast I was out of breath trying to stay at his pace. It was extraordinary to see him navigate his way around flawlessly when to me it all looked like the same thing.

“Haven't we passed this tree before?” I asked.

“No,” he said, laughing. “We're almost there.”

Eventually, we reached a much larger clearing and the bottom of a somewhat steep hill.

“This is the hill,” he said, stretching out his arms.

I looked out at the trees that seemed to stretch on forever. “This is incredible,” I said and stumbled a little.

Derron rushed over to steady me. “Careful, it's hard to balance though.” He placed one hand on my waist and the other on my arm as I regained balance. I could feel the warmth of his breath on my neck and shivered slightly. Then I looked up. “Oh my gosh!” I screamed.

“What? What is it?”

“Look!” I pointed up at the sky. “There, those white things.”

“You mean the clouds?”

“I've never seen the sky before.” I said and sat down on the grass.

“Are you telling me that you've spent your entire life staring at the ground?” he asked as he sat down next to me.

“No, in my city there's a Bubble covering it, so it only projects light and dark.”

“So you've never seen a cloud?”

“No… they're amazing.”

He pointed at one. “See how that looks like a tree, that one on the left.”

“Oh yeah, and that one looks like a person standing upside down,” I said, indicating the little white spot.

“That's the cool thing about clouds, they're all different.”

“That's what my friends always tell me is my favourite thing.”

“Clouds?”

“No. Difference.”

“I like that every time you wake up, the day is going to be completely different from the last one.”

“Same! Or like how even when you've been going to the same restaurant for your whole life, there's always something new to try.”

“Restaurants are where you rest right?”

“No, you eat there.”

“There's a special place just to eat?!”

“Yeah,” I said, laughing.

“You must take me to this restaurant.”

I imagined sitting at the table with Derron, eating away, and all the other women hiding under their tables terrified, “Maybe some day.”

He smiled at me just as the sun hit his face and his eyes seemed to glow.

“I've never seen the sun either,” I said.

“I'd show you, but it's hidden behind that cloud,” he said, pointing at a cloud with a glowing light bursting from behind it. “But you can't look directly at it or it'll burn your eyes.”

“Burn them?!”

“Yeah, you should be careful.”

I quickly turned away from the glowing cloud. “So where were you before you came to the Village?”

“Well, I don't know,” he said, looking puzzled. “Cain said that the four men brought us to the Old Village but we eventually moved here.”

“Where's the Old Village?”

“It's that place that you and your friends go to; you hung a bag from the tree.”

“That was Katelyn's.”

“Who is she?”

“My best friend.” I looked out across the trees. “She died.”

“I'm so sorry, Ava. I would have loved to have met her.”

“You would have liked her.”

We sat in silence for a moment. “One of the babies that died was my brother. I never knew him really because we were so young.”

“That must still hurt you.”

“I just felt responsible.”

“You're not.” I put my hand on his shoulder.

“I know that now,” he said and picked at the grass.

I looked into Derron's eyes and saw Katelyn. He reminded me so much of her – his laugh, his smile, the way he listened to every word I said. Her memories seemed clearer around him; I could practically see her sitting with us.

“I should head home,” I announced and stood up.

“I'll take you,” he said and stood too.

“I don't think that's a great idea.”

“Let me walk you back to the Old Village at least.”

I sighed, “Sure.”

We made our way down the hill and he took me on the shortcut through the trees straight to the Old Village.

“Will you come back?” asked Derron.

I looked around at the trees. “Yeah, I'll be back after school tomorrow. So in the afternoon.”

“I'll meet you here.”

We just stood there for a moment. Then I reached over and hugged him.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“It's called a hug.” I pulled back. “In my city we do it to greet someone, to comfort someone, as a sign of friendship, or to say goodbye.”

“What was that one?”

“A sign of friendship. It means I trust you.”

He smiled at me shyly then hugged me back. “I trust you too.”

“So what do you want to do after school today?” Lexi leant over and asked me from her desk.

“I can't, I promised my mother that I would help her with this work project thing,” I began, putting my tablets into my bag.

“You sure? We could go get some food maybe.”

“I'm really sorry, Lexi,” I said as I zipped up the bag and stood to leave. “Maybe tomorrow.”

“OK…”

“Bye,” I said and ran out of the door and headed towards the tram.

Before I knew it, I was at the Bubble, then outside the Bubble, then at the Old Village, calling out to Derron, “Derron! It's Ava!”