The Extraction List (11 page)

“Yeah! Cain saved us! Wasn’t it amazing?”

“Yeah…amazing.” Though Bo agreed, he did it through clenched teeth. I glanced down and saw his hands tighten into fists. “Where’s Cain now?”

Mom looked at me too.

“He’s…burying Dylan.”

“Who’s Dylan?” Bo asked.

“The guy in the van. Cain knew him. His name’s Dylan.”

Mom and Bo looked at each other.

“Does he expect us to just wait here? We don’t have time for this!” Bo started toward the driver’s seat, but Mom grabbed his arm.

“We will make time.” Like me when Mom had tried to restrain me at the mercenary camp, Bo tried to wriggle free. Mom only released him when he stopped protesting. She looked at me and smiled one of those sad smiles that people use at funerals. Appropriate but subdued. “We’re waiting here as long as he needs.” She leaned against the car, and I let myself fall beside her. Bo sighed but did the same. We made sure we faced Cain’s direction.

All I could hear was the fire from a distance, until Bo spoke up. “Riley, I wonder if they have a softball team at the compound. Maybe you can finally play!”

I smiled. “Wow! That would be amazing. Olivia and I can…” I stopped mid-sentence. Olivia and I had always talked about how neat it would be if our school had sports again. With so many kids getting hurt, the school decided having large groups of us outside where they couldn’t keep as good an eye on us wasn’t worth the risk. We practiced playing catch in the yard with Bo and Mom as often as we could, just in case they ever changed their minds. Olivia couldn’t catch very well, but she could throw better than me, Bo, and Mom put together. I bit my lip when I remembered that had been our plan the last time I saw her.

Bo put his arm around me. “You know, you were the best friend that girl could ask for. The very best.”

I looked up at him and forced a smile, wrapping my arm around his waist. Mom did the same.

By the time Cain returned, the three of us were sitting in the gravel, leaning back against the shining metal of the van. He kept his eyes forward but didn’t look at any of us. Only when he was standing right next to us did his eyes meet mine. “It’s done.”

The sun was already down, so we climbed in the van and drove it down the embankment off the side of the road for the night. The four of us climbed in the back, and though we didn’t want to, we threw the blanket that had covered Dylan over ourselves. I groaned as the tough fabric touched my cheek, and I could swear I smelled his burned remains. Mom squeezed me tight.

“So, where are we going tomorrow?” Bo asked.

“We’re meeting Jordyn,” Cain said.

“How will she know where to meet us?”

“She’ll know.”

“But how will she…?”

“Bo. She’ll know.”

I wanted to know the same thing that Bo did, but at the same time, I didn’t care what the answer was. I would see Jordyn again after all. And that meant she was okay.

Though the image of her head snapping against the floor still made me shiver.

“Goodnight, everyone.” I fell asleep to the hum of Bo’s snoring. The last thing I saw was Cain, hands folded on his chest on top of the blanket, eyes wide open, staring straight up toward the sky.

• • •

We awoke with the sun, something that I was growing used to. Back in our normal lives, I would never dream of getting up before ten, unless, of course, I had school. I looked over at Cain, and he was still in the same position he had been in when I fell asleep. His eyes were wide open. Maybe he hadn’t slept at all.

I shook Mom awake, and soon we were all up and moving. Cain climbed into the driver’s seat, Bo alongside him. Bo slammed the passenger door behind him as he sat down; he definitely wasn’t used to being second in command. Cain told us the plan: “We’re going to meet Jordyn at George’s Place. It’s a general store a few miles out that helps us. Guy’s really good at cooking the books so the government doesn’t catch on.”

“Does that mean we’ll get to eat?” I asked.

“Yes, absolutely.”

I couldn’t help but squeal. We hadn’t eaten since Jordyn’s house, and my stomach was growling in protest. Sure, it hadn’t been that long, but I was used to getting my three meals a day. We had to be careful to ration our supplies, though, because we could only carry a certain amount, only eat enough to not let ourselves starve to death, but not enough to, as Cain put it, “interfere with our speed.”

I hugged Mom and we settled back in the corner of the van. I could have sat up with Bo and Cain, but I didn’t want to leave her by herself. So we sat in the back, bouncing against the hard metal floor, and played thumb wars like we used to when I was little. I won, of course. I suspected she let me, but I still gloated at my victories.

Images of Dad floated through my mind too. He was missing this. He chose to miss everything. Not just this fugitive madness, everything: my first art project for the school art fair, my first straight-A report card, just plain old ordinary board game night.

After the divorce, I got a card a week from him. A card. Bit too late if you ask me. It was basically saying, “I left you and your mom alone, but here’s a Hallmark moment just for you.” Seriously? If I ever saw him again, I’d tell him right where to stick those cards.

“Mom?” I pulled my thumb away. “I have a question.”

I paused, wondering if I should continue.

“Is it wrong that I don’t miss Dad?”

Mom’s face went blank. I saw Bo look back at her and they exchanged wide-eyed glances at each other.

“It’s not wrong. It’s a feeling. Never be mad at yourself for feeling something. That’s why they’re called ‘feelings.’ You can’t really help them coming and going. Kind of like how Grandma used to come by and stay for days whether we wanted her to or not, remember?”

I smiled. “Yeah.”

“The important thing is however you feel about Dad, you don’t let it control you. Don’t let how you feel about him make you angry inside. Understand?”

I nodded then snatched her thumb back and we battled once more. Cain watched us in the rearview mirror.

We pulled into the back parking lot of George’s Place. The van kicked up a cloud of tan dust, and the particles tickled my lungs when I got out. A very tall man stood on a wood platform that was attached to the back of the store, sleeves rolled up, with dirt on his cheeks. He gave a friendly wave, like we were doing something as normal as picking up some milk.

Cain glided out of the car, not returning the greeting. He went straight up to the man on the platform. “Where’s Jordyn? She should have been here before us.” I didn’t think it was possible, but I could have sworn I heard just a little shake in Cain’s voice. His perfect hands may have trembled too. Just then, the door to the back of the store opened. A smiling head peeked out.

“Ha! Gotcha!” Jordyn shouted, running up to Cain and throwing her arms around him.

He spoke sternly, but a smile couldn’t help but creep onto his face. “Don’t do that! This is serious!” He kissed her on the cheek. My own burned a little. “How are you? And your parents?”

“A little shaken up but okay. Nothing that’s not the nature of the business. They’re going to go into hiding for a while until this dies down a little. Probably go close to the edge of Mexico just in case.” Suddenly she turned and walked toward my mother. She winced, probably waiting for a screaming match, but Jordyn just grabbed her hand. “Claire…I’m sorry about what my dad did. He was just…”

“Scared? Believe me, I get it. And I understand.”

Shockingly enough, Jordyn gave Mom a hug. And she accepted. I looked at the faces of both women, both very different but oddly the same: both tired, both older than their years.

Though we were all happy to see each other, George brought us back to reality. “I hate to break this up, but we don’t got much time. Let’s get you your stuff and get you outta here.”

“That reminds me. Claire, let me see your arm.” Jordyn didn’t wait for a protest and grabbed Mom by the wrist, turning it bottom side up, exposing the wounds left by the Taskforce Officer’s cigarette burns. “George, I need some gauze and some antibiotics. Got any?”

“There’s some in the bag I prepared for you. I’ll grab it.” Seconds later, George was back, bandages and ointment in one hand, bag in the other. “Here you go, dear. I took it out for you so you wouldn’t have to shuffle through it all.” Jordyn smiled and gently wrapped Mom’s arm up like she’d done it a hundred times. She probably had.

Bo glanced over at Cain. “What are we doing about transportation? I don’t think we should really continue traveling in a police van. Besides the obvious, it smells like…”

“A dead man?” Cain glared at him.

“Take my truck. Got a canopy in the back so no one’ll see you.” George pointed to an old black truck sitting between the dumpsters and the side of the building.

“Thank you very much, George. What about the van though?” Bo nodded politely, and we headed toward the truck.

George grinned. “Don’t you worry. I’ll take care of it.”

George waved at us as we drove away from his store and back onto the road. Since Jordyn had returned to us, she took the copilot seat up front, and Cain demoted Bo to passenger cargo with me and Mom. “What is he going to do with the van?” Bo asked while holding on to a storage hook in an effort to keep from bouncing too hard.

“Scrap.” I didn’t have a clue what that meant. I was about to ask, when Cain answered on his own. “George’s wife is an artist. She makes sculptures. Out of a lotta stuff, like metal. By tonight it will be some nice couple’s entry decoration, coffee table, or lampshade. Or something.”

“Cain, we have to make a side trip before the next stop.” Jordyn stared, as if there was no room for argument. Cain didn’t see it that way.

“What do you mean? We always have to stick to the plan. Always. You know that.”

“I know, but before you got there, George told me something. He heard that there’s twin boys in a boarding school just over the border in the next state over. The place used to be an old hotel.” She pulled out a yellow piece of paper and handed it to Cain. “Even gave me directions. They matched a description of my brothers. We have to check. Please.”

Cain set the directions on his lap.

Mom crinkled her forehead. “Jordyn, they can’t be you’re brothers. Children are always boarded in the same state where they’re from.”

Jordyn turned around in her seat and stared at my mother, sighing deeply. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“Claire, I don’t know what anybody told you, but…it’s not true. Nobody even knows where the schools are, let alone who’s in which one. And people who we’ve worked with are too worried about keeping their kids from getting taken away in the first place to worry about where they would be getting sent to. Whoever told you that there’s a neat and tidy map of them somewhere that a normal person can get to lied.” She glared at Bo. I guessed it was no longer my mother she blamed for her family’s situation. “It’s a miracle I found out about this one.”

As I glanced out the window, a realization hit me. My stomach turned, but in a good way this time. Something I definitely wasn’t used to anymore. “Yeah, Cain, please! We have to go there! If Jordyn’s brothers were only moved one state over, Olivia might have gotten moved there too! She could be there!”

Mom opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She just looked at my face and squeezed my hand tight.

Jordyn looked back at me and smiled. She didn’t ask me who Olivia was…probably didn’t care. But I was sure she appreciated me adding another point to her argument.

Cain sat silently for a moment. “Alright.”

Mom and I looked at Bo. He sat looking straight ahead, cheeks flushed. “What happened to sticking with the plan? We’re in enough danger as it is. And you want to make an extra stop? No way! Yes, there’s a school there, but Claire’s right, there’s no way your brothers are there. It would be a complete waste of time.” He slammed his fist into the side of the van. If the van hadn’t been so bouncy, he may have noticed me jump at the sound.

Cain stopped the truck in the middle of the road. Luckily there were no cars behind us. He turned around and got inches from Bo’s face. “We’re going.”

T
he road seemed to stretch on for miles when suddenly Cain made a sharp left onto a dirt road, if you could even call it a road. It looked more like a trail that was barely big enough for a car to fit through. If I had reached out the window, the trees would have swallowed my hand whole.

Finally we made it to a place where we could pull off and park the truck. The road still stretched on in front of us, but Cain explained that we didn’t want anyone knowing we were there, so the rest of the side trip would be on foot. “What if someone drives by?” I asked.

“That’s just a risk we’re going to have to take.”

Bo rolled his eyes at Cain’s answer, but said nothing.

The grass crunched under my feet as we made our way through the brush in the direction of the school. Of course I was last in line. No one wanted me to be seen if things went bad. Cain led, followed by Jordyn, Bo, and my mom. Just as we thought for sure George had led us in the wrong direction, there it was.

I swore I’d seen it in an old movie, back from when Dad and I had our horror movie nights that Mom didn’t know about. It was Dad’s way of bonding without actually having to speak to me. We would sit with a bowl of popcorn between us, watching the work of the practically ancient greats on his old video cassette player. He said that was the way horror movies were meant to be watched: grainy, with faded colors. That’s where I thought I had seen the school before.

Cain had me, Mom, and Bo stay hidden in the brush around the school while he and Jordyn searched for a way in. While huddled in my hiding place, I couldn’t help but peek through a crack in the bushes at the fortress before us.

A large iron fence wrapped around the grounds and its door towered over us. A gargoyle head that held the gate door handle in its mouth smiled a menacing grin. The grass in front of the school was tall and falling on itself, like it hadn’t been mowed in months. Weeds sat nestled every so often in the grass, huddled together in groups like they would be lonely without each other.