The Wall (The Woodlands) (17 page)

The wall was as high as the Woodland walls but made of a different material
, crumbly-looking stone that seemed like it was before the time of the Woodlands. I wondered if this was where the Superiors got the idea. Theorizing didn’t help; it was a wall and it was terrifying, and if we couldn’t see the settlement on this side of it, it must have been within the ominous structure. My expression hardened and my stomach twisted awkwardly, like it couldn’t digest the sight.

It stretched both ways as far as the eye could see. A dirty brown
color, the wall was constructed of cut stone. Our standstill had created a traffic jam but the Survivors didn’t push us, they just parted their people sea and went around. It didn’t intimidate them. They didn’t break stride as they made their way towards it.

As they passed,
Gus grunted and pushed Cal towards Joseph and me forcefully. Cal stumbled, pulled himself up, but stared at his feet as he talked. “I… I wanted to apologize for my behavior. It was,” he looked to Gus meekly, who nodded, “inappropriate.” He annunciated every word carefully and I knew Gus had written Cal’s apology for him. I stared at Cal, embarrassed and angry that he had even told Gus, mortified to be having this conversation in front of Joseph. I nodded. “Ok, well as long as it never, ever happens again…”

Cal looked
only at me, ignoring Joseph looming possessively over me, whilst I felt like I was shrinking to the size of an ant. “It won’t. I promise. Friends?”

“
Um, friends,” I lied. I truly hoped this would be the last time I would ever see him.

He walked away with the rest of them, looking over his shoulder like a wounded animal, like he expected me to follow him.

We were left staring silently at the wall that encapsulated our worst fears. The fear that we had not come to a better place and this was exactly the same as where we had come from. The thought hurt a great deal, pushing old memories I had barely buried back up to the surface.

Matthew stood with us for a while,
and then broke the quietness. “It’s not what you think.”

“
You don’t know what we think,” I snapped without thinking. It felt like this was all a trick. The very small amount of trust I had afforded Matthew sprung back to me like it was attached to elastic. The need to protect my family, my new family, whose bonds were tenuous as it was, was overwhelming. I took a deep breath.

“
I’ll go with Matthew. I’ll check it out. Then I’ll come back for you. If I’m not back in thirty minutes, leave,” I said, trying to sound sure of myself, but I was shaking as I talked.

“
No,” Joseph said. His eyes were panicked, wide and pricked. I felt the same way at the idea of us being separated but this seemed like a decent compromise and I didn’t trust anyone to do it other than myself.

“
It’s not up to you,” I said. “We’ll vote. Out of everyone here, who is the most suspicious, the least trusting?” All eyes were on me. Not proud, but satisfied, I continued, “Then it should be me.”

I kissed Joseph gently, his lips were still, set
so hard it was like kissing his elbow. “Take care of Orry. I won’t be long,” I said. He didn’t respond.

I turned away from the group and put my hand on Matthew
’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

As we peeled away from them and made our way up the incl
ine to the great wall, I wasn’t afraid. Apprehensive maybe, but not afraid. I was half hoping I was going to hate it and we could leave. Return to the woods. Matthew’s mouth was turned up at the corners. Clearly he was amused by our behavior, which was infuriating. He didn’t understand where we came from. He didn’t understand the kind of dread that a walled-in town would fill us with. A little ball of hate that had been seething in the pit of my stomach grew a little. The Superiors had damaged us all.

We were both quiet, just
the crunch of our boots in the snow. I felt hot under the sun. Hot in anticipation. Slipping and falling as we struggled to find a foothold near the base, Matthew gripped the bricks of the wall and swung himself into a small hollow. Holding out his hand, I took it and he pulled me in. There was an iron gate, which was already propped open with a rock, and dark, unlit stairs wound upwards. Matthew flicked on a torch and I followed him up the narrow staircase. Everything was wonky, like there was little thought put into how the stones might fit together but somehow they just did. It was dusty and smelled stale.

We came
out of a hole and stood on top of the wall. I looked down at my hands and traced the letters carved into the rock, ‘LH was here 1983’. There were hundreds of similar carvings. Ancient scrawl, the only thing left of a civilization now gone. Another one caught my eye: EV loves RJ. These people were long dead but their little dedication of love survived. It was kind of sweet. I remember someone got caught scratching words into the wall of Ring Four. They had their fingers crushed with a stone while everyone watched.

I
expected to see other people up there but the survivors were nowhere.

The wall
was very different to the Rings, which was a relief. It was as wide as a road, a low barrier on either side. And when I stood and surveyed the greater area, the sight baffled my eyes.

It looked like the spine
of some gigantic creature that had laid itself gently across the hills and breathed its last breath. The world grew up around its remains. The tail of the monster was endless. Curving and following the hills until it disappeared to a line and then a point. Sandy grey stone perforated the forest but seemed a part of it.

Mat
thew was grinning, hands on hips, so pleased with himself that I wanted to slap him.

“
Where’s the settlement?” I asked. Looking over the edge of the wall, all I could see were trees—the place was thick with them. I couldn’t for the life of me see any signs of people, no houses, no light, just woods. It was like Gwen and the others had stepped into the clouds.

This was all a big joke to him but I didn
’t get it. Then he walked over to the edge of the wall and pointed to a small, metal disc that was stuck to the parapet. When I observed the sides more closely, I could see they lined the whole side of the wall that faced away from the train station. I walked back over to the opposite side and waved at Joseph and the others but they didn’t respond. Then I yelled. Heads moved in my direction but they still couldn’t see me. Confused, I walked back to Matthew.

He took my hand and place
d it in front of one the metal discs. The sky flashed and a shaft of a view appeared before me. Roofs of houses nestled in amongst the trees. Little cabins with light-colored, wooden shingles covered in snow, narrow roads with people walking along them. I gasped and then I smiled, big and full, the grin splitting my face. I removed my hand and the view was replaced with the woods again. Then I covered another one, revealing a slightly different view that was connected to the one before like a sliding puzzle. Further out, past the wooden shacks, I could see a city in the distance. The most important thing I couldn’t see was another wall. The land was divided by the great structure but not surrounded by it.

Matthew explained.
“This was once called the Great Wall. It spans most of the border between Mongolia and China. We didn’t build it, but it was perfect for our needs. I think it’s at least a few thousand years old.”

I wasn
’t really listening. I was thinking of those little cabins surrounded by trees. Each looked different, each one was handmade, not handed over, with a character of its own.

“
How do we get down there?” I asked, jumping a little, curiosity sending shivers of excitement through my whole body.

“
There are some stairs a bit further along. We just walk down.”

“
Then what?” I felt confused, but only wanted to know more, the instinctual runner in me didn’t kick in this time.

“
You’ll have to go through quarantine and then you can choose a place to live.”

“
Ok,” I said excitedly. “Show me the stairs.”

Matthew showed me the entry point
, a neat set of metal stairs held up by scaffolding, which led to ground level on the other side of the wall, and then we went back to the others.

They had taken some convincing, aside from Joseph, who still wanted to walk head first into danger without a second thought.
Watching him dipping his shoulders and trying to squish his hulking form up the narrow stairs was amusement enough. Now we were all standing up there—they looked so confused. Apella stared this way and that, as I had, looking for evidence of people. Alexei blinked like a mole staring at the sun. Deshi distractedly squeezed Hessa’s chubby little arm too tight and he started crying.

It was mean, but
I couldn’t help myself. They followed me and we walked along the wall a way. I’d asked Matthew to be quiet and let me explain it to them but I hadn’t told him what I was planning to do.

Without
warning, I stood on a parapet, talking as I walked. “It’s pretty fascinating really, this wall was here way before the war, before the Woodlands, all of it.” Jumping from parapet to parapet and back again, I pretended to lose my balance, teetering and flailing my arms. I stepped off the wall, concealing myself behind the projection that kept the town camouflaged. Crouching on the first step, I snickered as I heard them scream and gasp. Then I popped my head back up, my body cut in half by the projection, like half of my body was missing and I was a floating torso in the sky.

Joseph growled at
me, his brow furrowed in a worried anger I had seen many times before, “That wasn’t funny Rosa.”

I shrugged and walked back to them.
I thought it was hilarious.

“
Ingenious,” Alexei muttered, flapping his hands back and forth over the discs.

“
Apparently, they were used for festivals and such, projecting giant images in to the sky for an audience to watch,” Matthew said. “This used to be a tourist destination.”

I rolled that word around in my head, t
ourist. We had learned about them in class, about the wastefulness of our predecessors. We were told people used to fly around the world on ‘holidays’. Poisoning the earth and wasting time they could have otherwise spent working. The idea of a holiday didn’t sound that sinister to me but then I was never a true believer in the Superiors’ propaganda.

They all took turns sticking their heads over the edge to see what we were getting ourselves into. We all agreed we would try it.

“There is one stipulation,” Matthew said seriously. “You will all have to go through quarantine before you can become part of the community. It means two weeks in hospital. If you are ok with that, then I’ll take you now.”

I wish I had thought about it longer. Not just said
‘yeah yeah’ and ignored half of what he was saying. I was too anxious to get down to the trees. They called to me and the rest was just dull humming.

We agreed to the conditions, n
ot thinking to ask why they needed us to do this and what exactly it would involve. We all stepped off the edge of the wall and hit the metal steps with a clang, like we were diving off a board into silky, black water. There was no turning back now.

It was beautiful.

No. More than that. If I had concocted an idea of the perfect home for my child and me, this would be it. I stomped down the steps, enjoying the metallic vibrations, and held out my hands, sweeping the frozen leaves as I went. I wanted to climb. I wanted to run.