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“How much farther?” I finally ask, after about thirty minutes of hiking and listening to Noah’s off-key whistle. “We’ve already gone past the river!”

“Patience, little girl, patience,” Noah says.

Eventually we come to a small clearing, surrounded by trees. Noah plunks himself down on the ground and then reaches behind a rock to pull something out. A bottle.

“You’re kidding me, Noah! Seriously, you must be kidding me!” I stay standing, hands on my hips. My pants start to fall down and I pull them up.

“Afraid not,” he says, unscrewing the top and taking a deep swallow. “I take it you don’t want any?”

“Seriously?” I say again. “You’re going to get all drunk here at the cabin, where everyone needs you?”

“And how well do you think I would function with a massive migraine, huh?” Noah takes another swallow. “My plan here isn’t to get drunk, but to be able to cope. There’s a difference, you know.”

“Did you ever think the headaches might be caused by the drinking?” I know I sound like some preaching grownup but I don’t care.
This is what got me sent to Harmony in the first place
!

“It’s the chicken and the egg thing, I guess,” he says, shrugging. He takes one more drink, then puts the bottle down. “Look, Sophie, I’m sorry if it bugs you. I’m not drinking to bug you. I actually like you.” He reaches out his hand and I almost take it, but then realize that he’s slurring.

“See! You can’t even talk properly! You are drunk now, you are!”

Noah puts his hand down and sighs. “Friends don’t judge, you know.”

“Well, friends don’t put each other in dangerous positions, either!”

Noah looks at me, his eyes glassy. “If you’re referring to getting caught drinking yourself, don’t pin that on me. There’s only one person to blame for that and you’ll see her the next time you take a look in the mirror.”

I take a step backwards. “I think I’m going to go back,” I say. “I don’t want to be here with you anymore.”

Noah starts to stand, then stumbles. “Look, Sophie, I brought you here not to watch me drink but to talk to you about some important stuff before you go, stuff your brother isn’t going to tell you.”

“My brother tells me everything I need to know,” I say, hands back on hips. “If there’s something I don’t know, it’s because it’s not important.”

“Look, your brother is a great guy, he’s just a bit too idealistic. He doesn’t truly know what The Association is capable of. Not in the way I do.”

“They tried to kill him!” My voice comes out like a shriek and my eyes fill with tears. I need to get away from my so-called friend as quickly as possible, back to the comfort of the crowded cabin and its games of Scrabble.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!

—Mary Caswell Orr

“Let’s go over
the plan one more time,” James says, after most of the other kids have gone to sleep. Right now it’s just me, my brother, Amy, Peter, and Noah left in the main room. From the bedroom door, I hear snoring and I try not to yawn.

“Peter drives me to the main gate of ISTJ,” I say again, the plan etched on my memory. “I climb over the fence, run to the boys’ dorm, then find the side door to get in.”

“And why’s that?” James asks.

I glance toward Noah. “Because it’ll supposedly be unlocked.”

“Not supposedly, little girl,” Noah says. “It’s the door they always lock last. I know for a fact as long as you get there before 9:30, it’ll be open. That’s p.m., by the way, not a.m.”

“I’m not an idiot!” I grab a nearby cushion and whack him over the head with it. He pulls it away from me and hits me back.

“Kids, come on! This is serious, okay?” James says in his most grownup voice.

At being referred to as a kid, Noah tosses the cushion in the other direction and crosses his arms. “I’m all ears,” he mutters.

“Um, so once I’m inside,” I say, “I make sure no one is in the hall, then get to the staircase and run up to Aaron’s room on the third floor.”

“And then?” Amy asks.

“When I get into Aaron’s room, I tell him what’s going on and ask him to keep an eye on stuff for us there. Then I go to the girls’ dorm and act all crazy so they want to take me back to Harmony.”

“And what about Emily?” Amy asks.

“Oh yeah! If I can do it, I first sneak into my old room and let Emily know Phase A is starting.” I bite at my thumbnail. “Will she really know what I’m talking about? Emily?”

Amy nods. “She’s really an ESFP, you know. Best actress in the county, if you ask me!”

“Really?’ Images of my former roommate fill my mind. Emily, so sweet, so shy, so responsible, so totally ISTJ, actually an ESFP in disguise?
Really
?

“I’ll tell you who isn’t the best actress,” Noah says loudly. “Our little girl over here.” He jabs his thumb in my direction.

I can feel both of my cheeks start to burn and I look at my lap. I suddenly want to tell everyone about his little afternoon drunk-fest but decide not to.
I’m a better friend than you turned out to be!

“Sophie will do just fine,” James smiles at me, a big brother smile. “She knows the plan almost better than Amy, Peter, or I. I have no worries—”

“I didn’t say she couldn’t recite the entire plan back at you like a little parrot! I said that she isn’t the best actress in the world.”

“Who fooled the Psychologists at The Department during her Assessment?” I demand. “Who even convinced her own father, one of the Head Association Psychologists, that she wasn’t an Extra like he had believed, after all, but an ISTJ? Who did that, huh? Who?” I know my voice is getting louder and louder, but I don’t care.

“She’s got a point,” James says. “And I for one know Sophie will be able to act as crazy as the next person, so no concerns there. The crazy part is essential, remember, because it’ll make Dad think he’s in the clear in terms of you blabbing. I also think he’ll buy it—you found out that your incredibly handsome, extremely intelligent brother was killed, and you couldn’t take the news, so you lost your mind. It’s simple but it’s perfect.”

“Okay,” I say. “Although I kind of disagree about the incredibly handsome part, as long as you’ve got a nasty, scruffy beard.” I smile at my brother and he rolls his eyes.

“Now back to the plan,” says Peter. “Once they take you back to Harmony, what are you to do?”

“Find two kids named Jessie and Brendan, but don’t talk to them right away, because the adults will probably be watching me. I should wait at least a week, then slowly start to interact with them, just like I would any other kids there. After that, I’m supposed to tell them Phase A has now started. Also, I’m to follow the rules at Temporary and cheek any pills they give me.”

“And what if you get put into Intermediate?” Noah asks. “They usually give injections there. Am I right, James?”

“If you do get sent to Intermediate, and there’s no reason to believe you will as long as you follow the rules, then just figure out what time of day you’re the least drowsy and make your contacts then.” James looks at me reassuringly, but suddenly I don’t feel so great.

“And then what do you do?” Amy asks.

“Um, I wait for the Progress Meeting and try and find a way to somehow sneak in?”

Amy shakes her head. “No! You’re not to ‘find a way to somehow sneak in’. Jessie or Brendan will tell you
exactly
how to get into that meeting. Wait for their direction!”

“Oh yeah. Jessie or Brendan.”

“And what if they ask you where you’ve been in the last week since you broke out of Harmony?”

“Um, let me think.” I go over the information that James and Amy have drummed into my head during the last few days, wanting to make sure I get it right. I take a deep breath. “Because I was manic and not thinking properly, I had this overwhelming urge to visit my old camp friend. Um, her name is Clara Schepers and she doesn’t live that far away from Harmony. She has red hair and freckles and loves to knit hats. When we were at camp, we played tag all the time. When I got to her house last week, her mother felt sorry for me and let me stay. She thought I’d just had some fight with my parents and didn’t know she should have called the authorities. When she realized she needed to call them, I ran away from her house and ended up back at ISTJ.” I look at my brother and he nods for me to continue. “Um, Clara and her mother are real people who agreed long ago to be your fail-safe if the Group needed them. Clara actually did go to the same camp as me once, so if Dad finds out, this will fit. I didn’t really know her, though. Um, Clara and her mom have already been told that I’m going to use them as my alibi.” I look around the room.

“Like I said, the kid’s a bad actress,” Noah says.

Amy lets out a big sigh, while James smiles encouragingly at me.

“You were great!” James says, before coming over to me and giving me a tight hug. “You’re going to be perfect!”

Amy also comes over to hug me, but Noah remains seated, his arms crossed and his face grim.
What’s his problem, anyway
?

CHAPTER EIGHT

Nothing gold can stay.

—S.E. Hinton

I try to
sleep, but find it impossible, the presence of so many bodies in one room feeling suffocating tonight instead of comforting. Memories of having my own bedroom whenever Hannah was away at Secondary fill my mind, and I suddenly miss my old bed and the quiet of the space so much that it makes me hurt.
Maybe a part of me is an Intro, after all
! After a while, I give up trying to sleep, and creep into the main room to wait out the night. As I enter the room I see a few kerosene lanterns are lit, and Noah sitting alone on a sofa, his arms still crossed against his chest.

“What are you doing out here?” I whisper.

“Night duty,” he says simply. “And I was waiting for you. I knew you’d come out eventually.”

“But how did you know?”

Noah shrugs. “I knew if it was me heading off to Harmony tomorrow, I wouldn’t be able to sleep.” He shrugs again. “You’re more like me that you think.”

Instead of arguing with him, I sit down on the sofa, relieved to have a friend also awake through what seems like a never-ending night.

“You wouldn’t let me talk to you before, so I need to talk now. There’s something I need to give you, but you can’t tell anyone,” he whispers. “Not even James.
Especially
not James.”

“Okay.”

“No, I mean it. You have to swear.”

Noah looks at me for a moment, as if trying to see how much he can trust me, then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a tiny box. “Open it,” he says.

I look inside and see a tiny orange pill. “What’s this, a vitamin?”

Noah snorts. “No, little girl, that ain’t no vitamin! Let’s just say that it’s a pill to help you act crazy when you need to.”

“But how?”

“It’ll make you all hyper and jittery—agitated. You’ll want to hug everyone, even Dr. Witmer, and you probably won’t stop talking. If you’re really lucky, you might hallucinate a bit. You know, act crazy.”

I stare at the pill, then put the lid back on the box, shaking my head, before handing it back to Noah. “I won’t need it,” I say firmly. “Like my brother said, I’m a really good actress.”

Noah looks at me in the only way that he can, his eyes full of worry. I sigh, then take the box back.

“So, you need to take it about thirty minutes before you want it to have an effect, so maybe pop the thing just before you go into the boys’ dorm. Put it under your tongue—it’ll get absorbed quicker that way.” He pauses. “And this part is the most important. No matter what, don’t forget to drink water before you go to sleep that night. Not so much that you can float away or anything. More like a few cups. Drink it from the toilet if you have to. Just get water into you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“You’ll probably feel pretty crappy once you come down from this,” he says. “You might even feel kind of depressed or really anxious and start to wonder if you made the right decision. Just remember it’s the drug talking, not you. Can you remember that?”

I shrug. “Yeah.”

“And one more thing—I kind of lied earlier. Sometimes they do lock the side door before 9:30. Almost never, but sometimes.”

“Why didn’t you say that?”

Noah shrugs. “I guess I didn’t want to see steam come out of your big bro’s ears. He can have a temper, you know.”

“So what do I do if it’s locked?” Suddenly I feel like the entire plan is starting to unravel, bit by bit.

Noah rubs his hair with both hands, thinking. He looks up. “If it’s locked, then we switch to my plan. Start running around the place, yelling your head off. Act as crazy as you can, screaming and laughing. Do cartwheels on the lawn if you need to. Make them think you’re off your nut. ISTJ should still be pretty easy to get into, but if it isn’t, your crazy routine will make sure you get shipped off to Harmony pretty quick. Either way, you’ll be fine.” Instead of answering, I pick up one of Noah’s hands and hold it between mine. We sit there, not saying anything, not even moving, really, until the cabin begins to fill with a pale light. For the first time ever, I wish morning would never come.

CHAPTER NINE

Is there anybody out there?

—Peter Sis

Getting into the
boy’s dorm at ISTJ is much easier than I ever imagined, thanks to Noah’s near photographic memory of the grounds. After Peter parks the car right behind the main fence, he walks with me to an isolated part of the fence and gives me a boost up.

“Are you sure you can do this?” he whispers, still cupping my foot with his hands.

“Of course I’m sure! We’ve come too far now, haven’t we?”

“Just remember if anything bad happens to you at Harmony, anything at all, you let Jessie or Brendan know. They’ll do whatever they can to keep you safe.”

“Okay.”

“And also remember what Noah said about getting into the boy’s dorm. Go through the side door, because there’s a member of the Group who should keep it open. And whatever you do, keep out of the light.”

I nod, eager to get things started before I lose my nerve. How is it possible I’ll be back at Harmony in a matter of hours? For a moment I straddle the top of the fence, filled with doubt. The image of Thomas enters my mind, sitting with his piece of string on a lawn chair, just waiting for me to rescue him. I take a deep breath and then drop over the other side, landing on a bush and scratching up my palms. Once I hit the ground I start to run, making sure to avoid any of the street lights lining the grounds. No matter what, I’ve got to be able to talk to Aaron before I pull my crazy act and get hauled back to Harmony. Will it be Temporary this time, or worse? The possibilities make me shiver.