Dissidence (14 page)

“Connor.”
I nudge his arm, but he doesn’t respond.
“Connor!”
I shove him harder and this time he grumbles something unintelligible at me. “Connor, get up. Let’s go
,
or I’m going without
you.” This gets his attention
,
and he forces his eyes open to look at me.

“Where are you going?”

“To find Peter,” I tell him, exasperated.

“Not without me
,
you’re not.”

“Then get up!”

“All right, all right.
I’m coming. Keep your panties on.” A lopsided smirk splits his face, and I groan in defeat. I’m never going to hear the end of last night.

“Can we just get going already?”

“I’m going,” he yawns, dragging himself out of the bed with exaggerated effort.

“And, by t
he way . . . you’re naked,
” I tease.

He glances down at himself. “I’m not naked.”

“Close enough.”

Connor shoots me a crooked grin, and somehow I feel like this has been turned around on me.

“Oh, just go get dressed so we can get out of here,” I huff
,
and I can hear Connor laughing all the way down the hall.

***

We reach the archives building just in time. After squirming out the second story window in my bedroom, and lowering ourselves fr
om the overhang to the ground—
not
as easy as it sounds—w
e join
the flow of early morning pedestrian traffic headed for the business distri
ct. I watch one after another employee
file into the building,
none of them Peter. My nerves are just about shot by the time the
crowd starts dwindling. Peter’
s never late for work.

A short guy with dark hair around our age is racing up the street in a desperate attempt to make it to work on time. I vaguely recognize him. I think his name is Paul, or Phil, or something. He went to school with us, and I’ve seen Peter talking to him now and then. Slipping into his path, I intercept him before he can duck into the building.

“Hey, have you seen Peter?” I
’m
shooting for nonchalant, but don’t really pull it off.

“Huh?” His eyes keep flicking between me and the door, clearly trying to decide if he should just blow me off.

“Peter . . . have you seen him.”

“Oh, uh, no . . . Peter moved, didn’t you hear? He went to live with his mate.” Paul / Phil
tries
to sidestep me, but I move with him.

“What do you mean he moved, why would
he
have to move?”

“I don’t know. L
isten
,
I can’t really talk right now. Sorry.” He attempts to slip past me again
,
and this time I let him.

“So, where is he?” Connor asks as I rejoin him near the statue of some guy on a horse. I have no
idea who he’s supposed to be. A
ll I know is he’s butt ugly. You’d think if they were going to make a statue of someone, they’d at least make him look good.

“Girlie?” Connor prods, dragging me back from my wandering thoughts.

“He’s not here,” I say the words, still not entirely sure I believe them.

“What do you mean he’s not here? Where is he?”

“I don’t . . .”

“What did he say?”

“Connor,” I snap.
I can understand his anxiety. I
t wasn’t just me we were counting on Peter to save, but at the moment
,
it’s just aggravating. “Can we save twenty questions for later? I have
to think.”

“So
,
what are we going to do now?”

“I still have to find Peter.” I didn’t realize how invested I was in this plan until the words pop out of my mouth.

“How are you supposed to find him if you don’t even know where he is?
Is there anyone else you can ask?”

“There may be someone.” My stomach is in knots just thinking about it, but what choice do I really
have
?

***

The bakery looks exactly the same. Same plate glass window front wall, same display cakes, same steady stream of customers pouring in and out.
Funny how life just goes on without you.
It’s impossible to see who’s behind the counter because of the morning glare, but I hope to hell it’s not Marcus.

“Okay, are you sure you want to do this?”

“Why not?”
Connor shrugs, but it’s hard not to notice his tense posture.

“I’d go in, but if Marcus spots me
,
we’re done for.”

“It’s fine. How complicated can it be to ask the guy at the register if his name’s Sal, and then tell him you’re out here, waiting for him?”

I just shrug, knowing that if things don’t go the way I’m hoping they do, it could get
very
complicated. Crouched behind the wide oak, I hope
the evil demon spawn boss from hell, Marcus, won’t see me. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t really
that
bad, and maybe most of the animosity between us came from my side, but anyone that efficient at torturing me with human interaction on near
ly
a daily basis for over three years must be at least loose
ly related to the devil. There’
s not a doubt in my mind that he would call security in a heartbeat if he knew I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.

“
Kaleigh
?”
I jump a mile, half expecting to be faced with Marcus and a squad of securi
ty officers, but it’s just—

“Sal!”

“What’s going on,
Kaleigh
? I thought you went to live in E? What are you doing back here?”

“It’s a long story, Sal.”

“I took my lunch bre
ak, so I’ve got thirty minutes. M
ake it quick.”

I launch into the C
liff
s N
otes version of my life over the past month, glossing over the details, and focusing mainly on explaining the work camps since Sal seems to be having the most trouble with that part. I can’t say I wouldn’t
be
skeptical
,
too, if I hadn’t lived it myself.

“So you broke out of the work camp and came back here?”

“Basically.”

“Now what?
Are you going to tell the authorities?”

“I think they already know.” I point out the obvious cautiously, giving Sal the time he needs to process and accept what I’m telling him.

“Oh, right. Huh . . . wow.” Sal’s staring off into the distance, clearly stunned, and obviously not focusing on the problem here.

“Sal, I need to find Peter.”

“He’s not here.” Sal tells me, suddenly snapping back to attention now that we’re on a topic he can handle.

“I know. Where is he? Why did he have to move?”

“From what I’ve heard,” Sal gets this gleam in his eye
,
just like he always does when he’s about to spread a good piece of gossip, “his mate has some kind of disability, so she couldn’t move. He had to go to her over in colony L.”

Sal goes on and on about everything everyone has ever said about this ‘mate’ of Peter’s, but I don’t hear a word of it. Colony L. Peter was sent to colony L.
But, not to meet his mate.
Lori mentioned that she’s worked there before.
Worked
.
Peter’s in a work camp.

Chapter 13

The look on Connor’s face tells me he’s reached the same conclusion. I let Sal go on, refusing to interrupt him, refusing to burden him with any more of the truth. We’ve already shared too much of that with him. When I finally pull myself back together enough to focus, I realize Sal’s staring at me.

“Huh?”

“I asked, when’s the last time you ate something?”

“Oh, uh . . . the other day.”

“Stay right here.” Sal’s gone before I can form a thought coherent enough to stop him.

A few minutes later
,
he’s back with a paper bag, which he shoves into my hands. Inside are two cinnamon raisin bagels, my favorite. “I have to get back to work before Marcus comes looking for me. Is there anything else I can do to help?”

“I . . . um . . . I need to get to colony L.” I spit the words out before I can think too hard about what I’m saying.

Connor stares at me like I’ve completely lost it, and maybe I have, but I refuse to acknowledge him.

“You’re serious about finding him, huh?” Sal asks, sounding amused, sheltered by his blissful ignorance. “I may be able to help you with that
,
actually. Marcus has me in charge of supplies now. There’s a train headed down that way tomorrow. I’m going to be dropping off a bunch of crates with our shop logo for them to fill with our order. Our grain comes from somewhere down near colony L.” I’m pretty sure the grain comes
directly
from colony L, but I don’t bother correcting him. “If it’s really that important to you
,
I can probably sneak you on in one of those.”

“That would be great, Sal. Thank you.” Again I force the words out in a rush before I can change my mind.

“Meet me at the station at dawn
,
then. We’ll have to have you loaded up before the train arrives.” I consider hugging the man, but it’s just too weird, so I thank him one more time before he excuses himself to go back to work.

Once we’re alone, the tension becomes unbearable. Connor just stares at me for several seemingly endless minutes, and I can see his emotions as they scroll through his eyes one after the other . . . confusion, hurt, anger,
outrage
. Then his mouth presses into a firm line and he glares at me.

“
What the hell are you thinking?”

“Connor, I . . .”

“You know what colony L is. I saw it on your face, so
please
tell me, what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking my friend is in trouble. I’m thinking it’s my fault, and he needs help. I’m thinking I’m
not
leaving him there to rot.”

“You’re thinking of going
back
into a work camp.
After we just got out of the last one.
That is the stupidest, most . . .”

“Enough!
” I shout
,
and Connor freezes, apparently stunned by my outburst. “I know it’s stupid, and idiotic, and a huge risk. I know that, all right?”

“Then why do it?”

“Because . . . I have to.”

“No you
don’t. We can just disappear. T
ry to blend in here, or go back out into the woods. We could crash in one of those pre-war towns for a while. We could make it work. This . . . this is suicide, at best. You know what they’ll do to you if they find out what you’ve done?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him quietly.

“It ma
tters to me.” His voice softens. H
is whole face has softened.

“It doesn’t matter if they kill me for trying this because I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t. Can you understand that?”

Connor takes a deep breath, and shuts his eyes. He appears to be counting to ten, trying to hold back whatever it is he really wants to say. When he opens them again
,
he only nods.

***

That
night
,
before going to bed, we agreed to sleep in shifts. Without the aid of an alarm clock, it seemed like the be
st way to ensure we didn’t over
sleep, but when Connor finally wakes me, I can tell I’ve been sleeping a long time . . . too long. Panicked, I sit up in bed and look around the room. It’s still dark.

“What?” Connor laughs. “Thought I let you oversleep? I thought about it,” he admits with a shake of his head. “This is by far the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s the only one I’ve got,” I tell him, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and still trying to orient myself “What time is it?”

“It should be dawn soon.”

“Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”

“I wasn’t tired.” His words may have been slightly more convincing had he not yawned them.

“Uh huh.”

“Besides, I like watching you sleep.”

“You know that’s creepy, and I’m never going to be able to sleep again now, right?”

Connor just smirks, and tosses me my folded pants. I opted to sleep in at least the shirt last night. Good thing
,
since apparently he’s a nighttime
perv
.