The Wall (The Woodlands) (10 page)

“
So how much time do we have?” said Joseph, his face serious, his hair curling around his ears and falling in his eyes. People stopped and turned their attention to him. That assured tone of voice made everyone want to listen.

“
The diversions we set up have all been discovered and discounted. I think they will be coming back around for another sweep soon,” Gus muttered, the words tinged with accusation.

I felt a
warm hand on my shoulder and I jumped. Cal.

“
The dogs are ready to go, Dad,” Cal said. I stepped towards Joseph and let Cal’s slimy palm slip from my shoulder. Joseph folded me into his spare arm. I turned to his chest and helped him with the remaining buttons on his shirt, looking up and fake-smiling thinly. I was never good at acting different to how I felt. I swear I could almost feel Cal’s eyes boring into the back of my head. Maybe kissing an unconscious girl meant something different to him than it did to me.

Everyone was talking at once, giving orders or asking questions
, the room crowded with bodies and opinions. I felt like a child trying to get attention, having to stand on my toes just to put my head in the cloud of clashing voices and ideas.

I was done being quiet.

“Excuse me,” I shouted, but no one was listening. I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled shrilly. Everyone stopped for a second, which was long enough. Wiping my hands on the back of my jeans, I said, “What’s going on?”

Cal spoke, I wish he hadn
’t, even his voice gave me the creeps now. He directed his speech towards me, sending it on a dark, grey sloth of a cloud, his words hitting my face like wet mud. “The Woodland soldiers are doubling back. Surveillance shows they will be here in approximately two hours. We need to evacuate. Now.” He sounded all soldiery. He reached his hand out to me like he expected me to take it so he could pull me out the door. I glared at him, willing him to spontaneously burst in flames. Poof! Into dust! I imagined a swirl of Cal ash being sucked up into the air-conditioning vents. Sadly, no luck. He just stood there blinking, clueless.

Joseph
’s arm gripped me a little tighter. I happily dissolved into his chest.

Everyone stared
at me now, but I didn’t have the effect Joseph did. They looked at me like I was an annoying interruption. It was times like this I wished I was taller. “What do we need to do?” I asked, already feeling the adrenaline of flight taking over. This is what we do. We run.

Gus spoke this
time. He was all business, which suited me fine. “Pack your possessions and meet us at the dog room. We’ll fit you out and show you what to do.”

Throughout the
commotion, Apella looked shell-shocked frightened, her big blue eyes wide, her tiny body shaking. I walked to her and took her hand. Her eyes were glassy, vacant. She wasn’t doing so well. “Apella, look at me.” She stared right through me. “It’s all right. Look at me. I need your help.” I considered slapping her, my hand kind of aching to slap someone. Instead, I took Orry from Joseph and placed him gently in her lap. If I gave her something to do, maybe she would snap out of it or at least be distracted. “Can you look after him for me?” She tipped her chin ever so slightly. “You packed up?” I asked Alexei. He nodded. “Ok. I’ll meet you down there. I need to get something.”

People filed out
of the room quietly. Now that we knew what we were doing, the arguing was over. Then it was just Joseph and me. Cal turned back and gave me a lingering, wounded look as the door closed. I wished it had hit him in the face.

Joseph swayed a little and sat down on the bed. I rushed to him. He was still
a little weak. He pulled his hair from his face and searched my eyes. I gulped. Holding out his hand, he pulled me towards him. He laced his fingers in mine, heat running through them. If I closed my eyes, it would be so easy to forget everything that had just happened and fall into a pond of golden warmth. “What’s going on?” he said.

“
You heard them—we need to get moving,” I said, avoiding eye contact as I started throwing things in the pack we were given. I was vibrating. My heart not settling to a rhythm, fast, slow, beat one, beat one, two, three…

He held me still and put his hands to my face, turning it slo
wly against my resistance to meet his eyes. “I have two questions. One…” he leaned down and kissed my top lip, sparks dancing in our eyes, “why are you and Apella so chummy all of a sudden? And two…” he moved in again, his mouth pulling at my bottom lip, those sparks igniting into flame, “why were you staring at that boy like you were trying to saw him in half with your eyes?”

Lie
, I thought. I bit my lip, blinking, stalling. I was trying to come up with a decent lie, anything. Putting my hands in my pockets, all I could fish out was lint and a ball of paper that had been through the wash so many times, it had become a solid ball. I didn’t want to answer either of those questions.

“
For your information, I was trying to make him spontaneously combust!” I said.

He let his hands fall but didn
’t break eye contact. He rested his forehead against mine.

We didn
’t have time for this. “He kissed me,” I blurted. His eyes dropped down, hurt, angry—I don’t know. I put my finger under his chin, trying to lift it but it was like he was made of stone. Even in a weaker state, he was too strong for me.

“
And what did you do?” he muttered softly, still staring at the floor.

I was indignant.
What did he think I did? Jumped on him and had my way with him in front of the sled dogs? “I kicked him,” I said, standing back with my hands on my hips.

I could see his brows rise beneath the curtain of
blond curls. He pounded his hand in his fist. “Where is he? I’ll kill him.” I felt panicked. The last thing we needed was a fight. I looked at him, bewildered.

He
lifted his head, his eyes gleaming. He chuckled.

“
It’s not funny!” But I was smiling. It was ridiculous. Only I could manage to get myself in this much trouble already. I threw a coat over his shoulders and started dressing myself. Everything they gave us was pure white.

Pulling on the
thick, padded boots, I paused, something occurring to me. “Why aren’t you angry, or at least surprised?”

He shook his head
, laughing a little. “Rosa, I’m not an idiot. You’re a beautiful girl. You don’t think men might try and take advantage of you?” I snorted. He was an idiot. Was he serious? “But I also know you can take care of yourself.” His confidence in me was startling and probably unwarranted. I blushed, covering it by throwing him the boots and a hat, which he caught easily. He put the boots on and stood. I walked up to him and pulled the hat down over his ears, giggling. He looked hilarious. His hair was poking out at all angles under the white, wool cap. But his eyes, his eyes looked amazing, the white providing the crispest backdrop for the green. I tried not to get sucked into them and show how easily I could lose myself.

I cock
ed my head to the side like I was listening for something. “Is that why you like me, because you think I’m beautiful?” I hated that my heart was tripping over itself. That it mattered at all. It was a stupid question. No answer he gave me would be a good one.

He looked down at me and
put his hands on my shoulders, like he was going to give me a stern talking to.

“
No,” he said, finitely. I shouldn’t have been hurt. I had asked for it. I stared at the floor. My white outfit made me look like a giant marshmallow. “I love you because you’re beautiful and you don’t seem to realize it.”

At this
I laughed, waving my hand in the air as I took a step back from him. “You know, you should write this stuff down. You could make a pamphlet and hand it out to inept boys who have trouble talking to girls.”

He smirked, irresistibly
. “Well, honestly, you already think you’re right all the time. You’re pushy. I can’t imagine what you would be like if you were vain too.”

“
Nice,” I said sarcastically.

He
pulled my hat down over my ears, as I had done to him, and kissed me softly. “We need to go,” he whispered.

“
I’ll meet you there.”

“
You can’t go,” he said, his voice laced with worry. “I’ll come with you.” He determinedly stepped towards the door.

“
No. Go get ready. I won’t be long. Didn’t you just say I could take care of myself?”

“
Not fair, Rosa. I don’t like you using my words against me,” he said with a wary smile.

“
Too bad,” I said as I walked to the door. He grabbed my hand and we walked together, our hands straining as we went through the door and moved in opposite directions. Our fingers parted and he gave me one last, checking look. “Don’t be long,” he said in low growl that made me shiver.

He fell into line
with the others. I waited until he was out of sight and hurried towards the big metal door by our cabin.

I sprinted
, my lungs burning. I imagined someone was chasing me, that something was biting at my heels, and it made me run faster. I passed dark opening after dark opening. The rooms that had been filled with the noise of people talking, the smells of food cooking or coffee brewing, were now hollow, empty caverns, the doors swinging on their hinges from rushed exits. This place was even more tomblike than it had been before.

I got to the door and start
ed turning the cogs, but it was extremely hard to open. I touched the metal; it was ice cold and stuck to my hand. It was frozen shut. I hoped Apella was already down there with Orlando. I shouldn’t have left him alone.

As I was considering abandoning the door and turning around
, the ground shook violently.

Not just a small shake. It rumbled
, groaned, and threw me off my feet so I was hanging off the door handle, wondering which way was up and which way was down. I heard a woman scream and a man shouting words I couldn’t quite make out. It all churned up together and came out a chorus of terror. But there was no damage that I could see. No rocks falling, no vast cracks in the ceiling. I stupidly decided to continue. I gave the door the biggest shove I could, only managing to open it a crack, but it was enough to squeeze my small frame through. The snow was up to my waist and I pushed through it as quickly as I could, my white suit keeping me camouflaged and very warm.

The cabin was right there.
I could see it. Just the gaping eyes of the windows showed in the snow.

Four more steps.

I heard a mechanical whirring sound, metal clashing with rock, flinty chinking. The kind of sound that makes your hair stand on end and your teeth ache, like fingernails on a blackboard.

I couldn
’t see where it was coming from at first. My eyes scanned the nearby hills, searching for the origin. It didn’t take me long to see the cloud of dirt and blackened smoke on the hill opposite. Three metal blades attached to a cylinder were glinting against the snow. It was burrowing its way into the hill, like a metallic flower retreating to the earth.

I entered the cabin and grabbed Hessa
’s old capsule, feeling a swell of affection for the rough-made pack. I slung it on my back and ran towards the door in the hill, pulling myself through the snow as best I could. Desperately trying to find the edge of the door, I patted the dripping ice with my bare hands. I didn’t shut it but the light, falling snow had hidden the crack. I kept looking behind me. There were no choppers. All I could hear was the clattering and clanking of metal on rock. Then it stopped abruptly. The forest breathed a sigh of relief—way too soon.

It wasn
’t slow; there was no build up. It was quiet and then there was so much noise… I couldn’t find myself in it. My body shook, my brain squished and vibrated. I covered my ears but it invaded my head, a ringing, resounding, booming racket. The ground shifted and, thankfully, so did the door. I turned to the hill opposite, but it wasn’t there. It had collapsed in on itself like a sucked-out eggshell. It was nothing but rubble. The carcass showed the intricate steel frame that had held it together all these years. The twisted, broken metal looked frail and delicate, like it had been cut out of balsa. I searched the rest of the view—several other hills had been blown apart all in a line. Two more to go and we would be next.