Wanderers (3 page)

Indignation flared in Esther's breast. “But it's wrong.”

Caleb placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let it go.”

But she would have none of it. Then another thought struck her. “The extra quail we saved. The one Skar gave us.” After all the time she and her friend had put in that day, the thought of anyone stealing their supplies, as meager as they were, made her doubly furious. She turned to Joseph.

“Watch the baby,” she said. “Please.”

And with that, Esther took off in the direction her friend had indicated, still barefoot and wearing only her oversize T-shirt. Unable to stop her, Caleb had no choice but to follow.

Esther sprinted down what remained of the central street of Prin, Caleb close behind. Clouds darkened the sky and made it hard to see; still, they barreled past the devastated storefronts that served as makeshift homes for the rest of the town.

Esther stopped and, after a moment, Caleb caught up with her. He had never fully recovered from the old arrow wound in his chest; and now he had trouble breathing.

Then they both heard it.

It came from the side of the street, in the shadowy wreckage of
DEL'S FROZEN YOGURT
: a faint rustling and the unmistakable sound of breathing, quick and shallow. Esther turned and cocked her head, as if locating its source through hearing alone. Then, without a word, she sprang into the darkness, a vengeful hawk after a mouse. There was a cry, and a moment later, she dragged a struggling figure onto the street.

The bag of flour dropped from the thief's hands and broke open, its contents spilling in a faint cloud of white by their feet.

The crook glanced up, helpless, as the clouds shifted and the moon shone down. It was a boy, perhaps eight years old. He was emaciated, and the features of his face, already sharp, were made even more distinct by the shifting shadows.

His expression was a mixture of defiance and terror. Then despair seemed to overtake him; his eyes briefly closed and reopened. When he spoke, his voice was fatalistic, as if coming from one much older and wearier.

“My shoes,” he said. “They ain't no good.”

Esther and Caleb glanced down at his filthy feet. They saw the remains of what had once been sport sandals, the reason he was unable to run any farther.

They knew who he was, of course. Silas lived in the remains of the library, near the end of Main Street, with several others his age. They were scavengers, living off garbage and whatever else they could scrounge. Now he and his colleagues had apparently turned to thievery as well.

Still gripping him by his collar, Esther shook him once, hard. “You got anything to say?”

“Not much.”

“No?”

He shrugged. “Everybody got to eat.”

“Where's the bird you took?”

The boy just shrugged again. “Musta dropped it.”

He was too tired to care, and too young to be up so late in the first place. But his reaction infuriated Esther. As she raised her hand, the boy wrapped his arms around himself, bracing for her attack. Then Caleb grabbed her from behind.

“Okay,” he said, as she bucked in his arms. “That's enough!”

Esther stopped struggling. She stayed still, panting, her head against Caleb's chest.

“Go on,” Caleb said to the boy. “Get going.”

Silas glanced up, surprised. Then he turned and, within moments, melted into the darkness.

“You should have let me at him,” Esther said after a pause. Her voice was hoarse.

Caleb shook his head. “We're done with fighting. I am, anyway.”

Unexpectedly, he let her go, and she almost stumbled. Then he picked up what remained of the flour and started for home, without waiting for her.

Esther stood alone, breathing hard.

Caleb's words stung. Only recently, he had spent months immersed in violence and revenge, hunting down the variants he believed had murdered his partner and stolen his son. If he was able to renounce all of
that,
what was wrong with her?

Esther wasn't proud of the fact she had always been impulsive and hotheaded. True, some of it had burned off when she learned how to love first Caleb, and then Kai. But the terrible times they were living in brought out the worst in everyone.

Moments earlier, she had nearly beaten a starving child. Two months ago, it was an act Esther would have not only despised but been incapable of. That Caleb had kept her from doing so made her both proud of him and ashamed of herself.

As Caleb reached their building, a penitent Esther ran to catch up with him. Then they walked up the stairs together, in silence.

Joseph was sitting in their bedroom, next to the cradle Caleb had fashioned for Kai from an old shopping cart. The baby had gone back to sleep, and Joseph, too, was fighting to stay awake.

“Thanks,” Esther said. Joseph gave an awkward wave and then trudged to the living room, a cat at his heels.

Caleb and Esther got into bed, still not speaking. Then she touched his arm. “I—” she began, then stopped.

He glanced at her. It was clear the mood had been broken; there was no recapturing their interrupted intimacy. But that was not what she wanted.

“There's no staying here no more,” she said in a rush. “We got to leave.”

For a moment, Caleb didn't understand. “Leave?” he repeated. “What do you mean?”

“Prin.”

He didn't respond, but neither did he pull away when she draped her arm across his chest. After a few minutes, he rested his hand on hers.

They remained like that, silent and awake, until the sun rose.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

T
HE NEXT DAY
, C
ALEB LOOKED OUT UPON A SEA OF FACES
. T
HE NOISE
was deafening.

The people of Prin were in the town meeting place, the glass and brick building at the end of the main street with the mysterious yellow arches outside. This was where impassioned yet orderly gatherings used to take place, where public business was done. But soon after the destruction of the Source, the assemblages had begun to fall apart. As the famine had grown more severe, they had soon degenerated into complete chaos. Meanwhile, the boy Rafe, who had once enjoyed the privileges of being town leader, had quietly relinquished the position, leaving the town without any direction at all.

Today, Rafe sat with the others at one of the many plastic tables molded to the floor. He watched Esther and Caleb with open curiosity, as if to say, let's see how well
you
can do.

Neither Caleb nor Esther had ever called a meeting before and were unaccustomed to addressing so many at once. The townspeople were nearly anonymous in their sunglasses and hooded robes made of sheets and towels belted at the waist, worn as protection against the deadly sun. Amid the pastels, stripes, and floral patterns, Esther's red hoodie and Caleb's black sweatshirt stuck out. Bouncing Kai on her hip, she met his eyes and gave a brief nod.

“I know it don't feel good to hear it,” Caleb began, and most of the room fell silent. “But there ain't nothing here for us now. We're at each other's throats, fighting over what little's left. Stealing from each other.”

He had noticed the thief Silas against the far wall with his friends, who were as young and scrawny as he was. But the boy refused to make eye contact and so Caleb continued. “One of us has maps that could help get somewhere. A place with more food.” Joseph, already in obvious discomfort near the front door, squirmed at this indirect mention. “We can build wagons and pool all our supplies. It'll be safer if we travel together.”

Esther and Caleb had disagreed about this. She wanted it to be just the four of them—her, Caleb, Kai, and Joseph.

“There's no one else in town I trust,” she had told him. “If you knew them the way I did, you wouldn't, either.”

In fact, Caleb understood the small-mindedness of the townspeople all too well. Still, he had argued back, it was better to travel with a large group, and not only because it was safer. He knew that on the open road, loneliness and exposure were as dangerous as floods and fire. They would eventually turn you into an animal.

Even when he finally persuaded her, Caleb suspected that the real challenge would be getting the town on their side. And now, he feared he was right.

There was a brief pause as the meaning of his words sank in. Then the room erupted in noise.

Everyone was talking at once, and the response was clearly negative. Now Caleb and Esther were facing the worst-case scenario: not just skepticism, but open scorn.

One girl, thirteen or so, with eyes deeply ringed, stood up, her thin frame swallowed up by the billowing folds of her robes. In halting speech, she said what seemed to be on everyone's mind.

“You're wrong,” she said. “Sure, they ain't much to eat. But we can always get more. We can find more houses and Glean. They ain't no reason to leave.”

Esther's heart sank as the room broke into cheers and calls. She knew that if people still wanted to Glean empty houses in a depleted town, they were holding on to a past that was over. And that meant there was only one reason why everyone wanted to stay: fear.

“Besides,” the girl added, “only water we got now is from the spring. You think of that?”

It was, Esther knew, a good point. Nearly all water in their poisoned world—rivers, rain, even the dew that covered the yellowed grass each morning—was deadly; even a few drops splashed by accident into one's mouth, eyes, or an open wound could kill a healthy teenager in days. For years, the people of Prin had relied on the diminishing stores of bottled water from the Source. Then, two months ago, the discovery of an underground spring pumping clean, safe water came like a miracle, one that had saved their lives.

“We can bring all we need,” Caleb replied. “And there's got to be other sources of safe water somewhere. We just got to find one, that's all.”

His reply was met by a ripple of discontent and, even worse, dismissal. From the corner of his eye, Caleb saw Silas and his comrades flee through the door, unnoticed. Sneaking out behind them was Joseph. Two boys, perhaps seven years old, now scrambled onto his chair and began punching each other as others watched them, laughing and shouting.

Esther decided to take a chance. “I know,” she said, speaking over them all, “that you're scared. We all are.”

For a second, there was no reaction. Then her words sank in, and all chatter dried up. Esther had succeeded in getting their attention, but not in the way she intended.

“
Scared!
” several exclaimed.

“You calling us cowards?” shouted one boy. In an instant, the mood of the crowd had turned ugly. People only quieted down when a pinch-faced girl rose to her feet. Close to eighteen, Rhea was one of the oldest people in town and well aware of the power that gave her. She was also someone who had routinely mocked Esther's sister, Sarah, and been instrumental in Esther's having once been Shunned from Prin.

“We all know what this is really about.” The quiet viciousness of her words was at odds with her sweet voice. “This is just you trying to clean up the mess you made. The mess you both made.”

Caleb didn't reply but saw that Esther, her face flushed with emotion, had turned to take in the speaker. Esther, he knew, had no love for the older girl.

“Go on,” Caleb said to Rhea.

“Everything was fine under Levi. We got plenty to eat. We had a good way of working for it, by Gleaning, Harvesting, Excavating. If we did our part, we got what we were promised. Everything worked just fine.”

By now, everyone in the room, including Rhea's partner, Sokol, was listening to her words with intent expressions, nodding in agreement.

“You two got rid of Levi,” Rhea went on, her voice rising, “and look what it got us. We don't got to leave Prin to be in the wilderness. We there already.”

Rhea's speech seemed to embolden those around her. A twelve-year-old got to his feet. Pushing his face so close to Caleb that Caleb was forced to step back, the boy spoke loudly enough for all to hear.

“It would've been better if you never come to town!”

A frightening restlessness fell over the room; ugly words had given way to the threat of real violence. Esther could see it on the scowling faces around her, the clenched fists, the angry whispers. As other boys jumped to their feet and moved toward Caleb, Esther gripped Kai so tightly, the child began to wail.

“All right,” Caleb said in an even voice. Although surrounded, he wasn't going to give them the fight they wanted; he didn't even take his hands from his pockets. “I guess that's how you all feel then.”

One who had been watching smiled to himself. Now, he figured, was a good time to remind the others of his authority.

“I think,” said Rafe as he stood up, “this meeting is adjourned.”

Feeling the hair standing up on the back of her neck, Esther took Caleb by the hand.
Surely,
she thought to herself,
they wouldn't attack the two of us. Not while we're with our baby.
Then, with stiff and deliberate steps, she and Caleb picked their way through the hostile crowd.

When they made it outside, Esther breathed with silent relief. Yet Caleb refused to storm off, as she would have done if alone. Instead, he waited by the door as the others filed past. Most avoided his eyes; a few walked by with a contemptuous gaze or a nasty parting word. One or two even shoved him, hard, and, again, Caleb didn't respond. Yet more than a few were sympathetic, even though it seemed they had been too intimidated to say so in front of the others.

“I liked what you said,” whispered Asha, a gentle fourteen-year-old with the mind of someone ten years younger. “It was good.”

Right behind her was Eli. Caleb's former rival, now friend, lingered with his usual awkwardness. He seemed uncertain how direct to be.