The Reaping (13 page)

Nell opens her mouth like she’s ready to say something, but Red shakes his head. She frowns but lies back down.

“Yes, sir, of course. But I’m still going to need to see your authorization.”

Jack nods. “I have it with me. Let’s just get to the truck.”

“Yes, sir.”

The soldier follows us, but his posture is still relaxed—he doesn’t suspect anything. Not yet, anyway. I tighten my grip on the gurney to keep my hands from shaking. I don’t know if it will help because surely the soldier can hear my knees knocking together. I try to take even breaths, but my heart is pounding too hard. It’s scorching hot in here, and the sweat is already beading on my forehead and trickling down my skin. I blink a drop of it out of my eyes. I stand up straighter and try to look the part.

“It’s too hot out here,” Jack says, his tone offhand.

“Yes, sir. Can’t believe how hot it is for April.”

I look out the corner of my eye, but the agent is still counting boxes as the workers load them onto the truck, and she doesn’t notice us. We’re to the front of the truck, and Jack slips around the side where we won’t be exposed to anyone else in the loading dock.

“I have the authorization here in my pocket. Let’s just get to the rear doors. Do they give you enough to drink down here?”

I smile. Sweet, charming Jack. Just like him to keep the soldier off his guard.

“Probably, though it never feels like enough on a day like today.”

“Just pay attention to how you’re feeling. If you’re dizzy or nauseated or have a persistent headache, you need to let someone know.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Jack’s eyes dart to the oxygen tank on the bottom shelf of Nell’s gurney. It’s small, just the right size to heft. I nod. Jack keeps talking to the soldier, and he turns his back on us. Careful not to make a single sound, I bend down and undo the strap holding the tank in place. It’s heavier than it looks with the compressed oxygen inside, but not too heavy for me lift it up over my head. I grip it hard, focus on the back of the soldier’s head. I’ve ready to swing it down when a voice makes me pull up sharp.

“What are you doing?”

I fumble with the tank and clutch it to me awkwardly so it won’t clang to the floor. All the blood has drained from my face, and even though it’s unearthly hot in here, my fingers feel cold. No. We’ve come so close to be caught now. Red reaches across the small gap between him and Nell and grips her hand hard.

“I thought I told you to bring the patients to the truck bound for San Diego.”

The voice is familiar. I look up and see the physician’s assistant. She’s shed her lab coat and is wearing the black suit of an agent, and her hair is scraped back into the too-tight bun. She even wears the haughty eyes and sneering mouth. I hardly recognize her.

“Yes, of course. My apologies.” Jack smiles a we’re-in-this-together-right? kind-of smile to the soldier, and the soldier tips his head.

“This way.” She flicks two fingers and turns on her heel.

Jack and I gratefully follow her. The soldier hangs back, unsure what to do. The woman turns around.

“You are not needed, soldier. Return to your post.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He salutes and hurries back to the elevator doors.

The physician’s assistant sweeps back a thin strand of hair that has escaped her bun. “I thought you were never coming,” she murmurs. “I didn’t know how much longer I could keep this up.”

“Sorry. It took us a few extra minutes to get our friends.” Jack pats Red’s shoulder.

Her eyes lower to the floor for a brief moment. All I can hear are the shuffle of cardboard boxes and the click of her heels on the concrete. “I never knew how they felt about the agents until I was one. I hate the way they look at me—the way they’re afraid.”

The workers ahead of us look away as soon as we get past the truck. They don’t want to make eye contact with the woman. They hurry to load their cargo.

“It won’t be much longer,” Jack says.

“Thank goodness.” She turns to the workers. “All of you. Wait over there.” She points to the opposite wall.

The workers shuffle away.

“The truck is almost loaded. Get in with your friends. You won’t be able to take the beds, so they’ll have to walk—I’m sorry, ma’am, sir. Stay up as close to the front of the truck as you can. You’ll be better hidden that way. There shouldn’t be too many stops or inspections, but stay up there the whole time, just in case. I’ve put a pouch of food for the two of you,” she looks at me and Jack. “I didn’t know there would be two more, though. It might be able to last you if you ration it. Once you get to San Diego, you’re on your own.”

I clutch her hand.
Thank you.
Come with us?

Then she does something surprising. She smiles. Her face loses the sadness and fear and becomes beautiful. “No. I’m not that brave.”

I want to take her hand. I want to say, “You are one of the bravest people I’ve met up here; you just can’t see that.” I want to tell her, but there’s no time to spell the words. Instead I take both her hands and hope my eyes tell her what my fingers cannot.

I help Nell off the gurney. She stumbles as she plants her feet, but then she manages to get her footing, and she climbs up into the truck.

“But I don’t understand, Jack. How will this provide me better treatment? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Jack puts a hand to her cheek. “I’m just asking you to trust me, Nell. Let’s just get to San Diego and then we’ll explain everything. I promise.”

Nell puts her hand on top of his and studies him for a moment. Then her clouded expression clears. “Alright, Jack. San Diego.” She wags a finger at him. “And then you’d better explain everything, and I mean everything. Do you understand, young man?”

Jack smiles. “Yes, ma’am.”

Red is a little trickier. He tries to stand, but his legs buckle underneath him. Jack and I have to carry him—and I’m disturbed at how light he is—onto the truck. We guide him to the back where Nell has already found a spot behind a stack of boxes. She’s half in shadow and disappears even further into the corner as we approach.

“Lay him here, Terra.” She indicates a spot on the floor where she’s put down the blanket from her gurney.

We lower him down and he mutters curses the entire time. I knew Red had some colorful vocabulary, but I haven’t ever heard quite this many expletives used in one long, run-on sentence. Nell gives him a stern look.

“You clean that mouth up right this second, Red.” She looks at me. “I’m sorry you had to hear that, Terra.”

“I’ve just never been so helpless in my life,” Red says, his breath coming short. He lays his head down, and Nell runs her hand down his cheek.

“That’s why Jack and Terra are here. We’ll get you to San Diego and get you the help you need.”

Red looks at us, a probing look that says, “You
are
aren’t you?”

I nod and take his hand.
Going somewhere safe.

He raises an eyebrow. He looks skeptical, and I don’t blame him. We’ll see how it goes when I actually tell him where we’re going.

I turn back to the doors, and the physician’s assistant closes one side. She gives me one last smile and then closes the other door, and we’re lost in darkness. The truck’s engine rumbles to life, but then the shouting begins.

“Who are you?”

Jack has been molded into my side, but now he sits up stick-straight.

“Why are you wearing an agent’s uniform?”

The woman’s voice is muffled, but I catch the pleading edge to it. She starts begging. I don’t need to hear the words to know this is going to go terribly, terribly wrong.

Jack’s feet scrape on the floor of the truck as he presses himself as far as he can against the wall.

“Why were you overseeing the loading of this truck?” The agent’s high-pitched, nasally voice slices through every sound around me.

“They’re going to open it,” Jack whispers, and we crouch down as close as we can to Nell and Red. I can’t see anything in the darkness, and I feel like I’m breathing so loudly the agents can hear me all the way out there.

The woman is pleading again, and I hear scraping against the doors of the truck like she’s trying to stop them from opening it. Then a dull thud and she doesn’t say anything more.

The doors rattle and then a shaft of light breaks the darkness and swings wider. I pull my legs up to my chest. All I can see are the boxes stacked in front of me all the way across the truck. Please don’t search it. Please don’t search it.

“Everything looks in order, ma’am.” It’s the same soldier who walked us over here.

“Get in there and take a closer look,” the agent snarls.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Red’s breath catches in his throat and he starts to cough. Jack clamps a hand over his mouth.

“What was that?”

“Not sure, ma’am. I’m checking it out.”

There’s a thump of boots as the soldier clambers in, and I close my eyes and listen to the slow pacing as he searches the truck, making his way back to where we hide.

“Anything?”

“Not yet, ma’am. It’s too dark in here to see much.”

“Well take off your mask, idiot.”

Scuff, scuff, scuff. He comes closer, and I press myself over Nell and try to shield her. She seemed so happy in the hospital. Granted, it was an obscene, false happiness, but she doesn’t know that. I can’t let her die this way.

Finally, inch by inch, the soldier steps into view. He looks behind the boxes across from us, and then his head swings our way and he freezes.

It’s dark back here, but not that dark. I know he can see us.

I have seen only one other soldier without a mask on. That time I had been surprised at how young the soldier was. This time, I’m surprised at the kind face looking back at mine. I can’t see what color his eyes are in the dimness, but I see he’s a middle-aged man. He could be a father. He could have a daughter my age; he could have a son Jack’s age. Nell and Red could be his parents. I’m not sure what thoughts are running through his head, but his face isn’t anything I ever expected. It belies the rigid posture and the gun held up to his shoulder. He keeps the perfect soldier’s stance, but his face is soft.

“What did you find?” The agent’s voice makes me jump, and I hold my breath as I stare at the soldier. Two long, interminable seconds pass—it could be a thousand years.

“Nothing, ma’am.”

I let out my breath, and I hear two sighs beside me. Jack and Red were holding their breath too. Nell is probably just so confused she has no idea what’s going on.

“Then get out of there.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I realize there are tears in my eyes as the soldier backs away. I hear the thump as he jumps from the truck. The doors close and encase us in darkness again. The truck’s engine groans and then we’re moving—bumping and swaying as we drive away.

My heart aches that I’ll never know what happened to the physician’s assistant. Half of me hopes she isn’t killed for her disobedience. Half of me hopes she is so she’s spared any misery. And I hope the soldier gets to go home to a family.

I never imagined I’d find people who work for the government who are truly kind.

Chapter Ten

The truck jostles us along for hours, with nothing but fuel stops to punctuate the time. The rear door never opens to let in time-telling daylight. My eyes adjust, though, and with the slivers of sunlight that creep in through a nook here and a cranny there, I make out the shadowed outlines of Jack, Nell, and Red. In the darkness, my fingers find a few water bottles and a few plastic packages of food. Jack and I have an unspoken arrangement that most of this will be for Nell and Red.

“Come on, Terra. You need a drink too,” Red rasps.

I take a miniscule sip just to appease him. Nell was weakened in the hospital, but after a good drink and some food in her, she perks right up. Red, on the other hand, can barely sit up.

“Good, Red,” Jack says, and another food wrapper crinkles. “Now see if you can take another bite.”

“I don’t understand why he’s so weak. The doctors told me he was in intensive care because they could take better care of him there.”

“When was her last dose?” Red says.

Jack sighs. “Probably twelve hours ago. She still won’t believe us.”

“What are you two talking about?”

I can just imagine Nell’s hands on her hips. I close my eyes and smile. Then I take her hand and squeeze it once.

“You two are talking in riddles, and now Terra’s holding my hand like I’m a feeble old woman who needs some reassurance. Will one of you please just speak up?”

“Red?” Jack says. He’s right. If someone is to tell her, it should probably be Red.

Red tries to speak, but the words get caught in his throat. He coughs. “Nell, there’s no easy way to tell you, dear.”

“Oh, stop it, Red. Whatever you have to say stop hemming and hawing.”

“It’s the loyalty serum.”