Flowertown (19 page)

The light from the compound dropped off quickly as Ellie slipped in under the trees. There were still plenty of small Feno trucks parked along this road, and she wondered what they were for. Did every Feno employee get a truck? Crossing the road and slipping into the darker shadows on the other side, Ellie trotted, wanting to clear the compound and put distance between herself and Carpenter. Her fingers were trailing along the bed of a truck as the interior burst into light and two men climbed out of the cab.

Ellie ducked down, bunched small at the tailgate of the truck. She considered climbing under the truck but was afraid she would make too much noise. There was little light out on this stretch of road. It would be noise that gave her away. Holding her breath, Ellie bunched down into as tight a ball as she could manage, breathing softly through her open mouth as the two men grabbed duffels from the bed
of the truck. She thought she could feel the wind of one bag as it swung out over her head, but, like the guards in the open area, the two men didn’t notice her, talking instead about who would unload what. She waited until their footsteps faded in the darkness before she dared lift her head.

The road was dark once more. “My luck can’t hold like this much longer.” Her voice, even whispered, reassured her, and when she straightened she was happy to learn her legs didn’t tremble as much as she feared they would. She wanted to call out to Bing, to tell him to hurry his ass along, but she was afraid the guards were still within earshot. Instead she slipped to the driver’s side of the parked trucks and hurried along in the grass. As the trees grew thicker, the grass lane grew narrower, and Ellie felt safer knowing she could duck into the trees should someone else pop out of a truck.

She just didn’t think that someone would pop out of the particular truck she was passing. Once again the cab illuminated just as Ellie cleared the gas tank, only this time she was on damp grass, not asphalt, and her feet slid as she tried to backpedal. She hit the ground hard and tried to crabwalk backward, but the light from the cab flooded the ground and she knew she would be spotted. Ellie grabbed for her board, but the man before her was faster. Unlike the guard behind the classroom, he had his weapon out and trained on her before she even saw his face.

“Aw shit, are you the only person that works here?”

Guy squinted into the darkness, trying to see Ellie’s face in the shadows. “Stay where you are.”

“I’m on my ass in wet grass.”

“Put down your weapon.” Ellie sighed and his voice got louder. “Put it down.” She threw the board into the light, letting it skitter at Guy’s feet. “What are you doing here?”

Ellie climbed slowly to her feet. “I think you know what I’m doing here.”

“Carpenter reported you had been picked up.”

“Yep, that’s about the size of it. That and he tried to beat the shit out of Bing.”

With the light from the cab behind him Ellie couldn’t read his expression. She could see his gun, though, and could see it never moved an inch. “So what are you doing here?”

“Running away.”

“Ellie, I can’t let you do this.”

“Then you’d better shoot me, because I’m going.”

“I shouldn’t have let you slide this evening at the bust. I should have taken you in then. I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Don’t make me regret that.”

“It’s a little late for regrets, don’t you think?” She took a step toward him, and he raised the gun.

“Stay where you are.”

“I can’t.”

A spring wind whispered through the trees, and part of Ellie’s brain wondered at the complete lack of night sounds. When a town was surrounded by three miles of pesticides, crickets were a sound of the past. Instead there was only the rustle of young leaves. Ellie took another step forward, stepping fully into the light, hoping Guy would see her, would know her.

Guy sighed. “I keep telling myself you have no idea what you’re getting involved in. You couldn’t. You wouldn’t.”

“I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about, Guy, but I am getting out of here.” She looked over his shoulder into the shadows down the road.

“Ellie, I love you.” He slid back the action on the gun, chambering a round, and readjusted his aim. “But if you try to break containment, I will shoot you.”

“Containment?”

Before he could explain, Bing stepped out from the darkness behind Guy and brought the board down hard on his skull.

Guy fell to one knee, dropping the gun, and Bing reared back to swing again. Ellie screamed, kicking her foot into Guy’s chest, sending him reeling backward. Scrambling to her knees, Ellie grabbed the dropped gun as Guy grabbed for Bing’s feet. Bing swung the board, hitting Guy on the back and shoulders, slowing him down but not incapacitating him, and soon both men were on the ground. Ellie saw fists flying and knew Guy was taking the upper hand. She kicked Guy hard in the ribs once and then again, and when he pulled back from a very bloody Bing, she pointed the gun at his chest.

“Stop. Stop hitting him.”

Guy was on his knees, palms up. His voice was soft. “Don’t do this, Ellie.”

“You’ve got this all wrong. Nobody’s trying to break quarantine. Why would I do that?”

“I want to believe you, Ellie, but you have to give me that gun.”

“Get off of Bing. Let him get up.” Guy kept his hands out before him as he leaned back. Bing rolled to his side,
clutching his ribs, and climbed onto unsteady feet. “We’re going to go.”

Bing leaned on Ellie’s shoulder. “Shoot him.”

“I’m not going to shoot him, Bing.” Guy began to rise to his feet, and she tightened her grip on the gun. “Unless I have to. I’ll shoot you if I have to, just like you were going to shoot me. It’s an ugly sight, isn’t it? A gun pointed at you by someone you supposedly care about?”

“Don’t do this. You don’t know what you’re getting into.”

“Shoot him.”

“Shut up, Bing.”

Bing leaned in close behind her, and she could smell the blood in his mouth. “All he has to do is yell or pick up his radio and every goon in town will be here. You have to do this.”

“You don’t have to do this, Ellie. You don’t have to do what he says.”

“I don’t have to do what you say either.” The breeze blew Ellie’s hair into her eyes, and she shook her head to clear her sight. “Where are all the guards? How did we make it this far, Guy? Why are all these trucks lined up? Is Feno pulling out? Where are you going?”

Bing squeezed her shoulder. “Do you think he’s going to tell you the truth? He tried to shoot you. He wants to arrest you, both of us, so Carpenter can beat the shit out of me.”

Guy looked at Bing. On his knees with his hands held out, he still looked like the calmest person in the group. “If anyone’s going to beat the shit out of you, it’s me.”

“Oh, you’re a real tough guy, aren’t you?” Bing spit a bloody wad at his feet.

“Tell me the truth, Guy.” She heard Bing swear behind her, spitting more blood out of his wounded mouth. “Why would you think I would break quarantine?”

Guy stared at her for a long moment and then shook his head. “We know about the plan, Ellie. We know about tomorrow. We know about Horizon. If you’ve been told something different, you are being lied to. Listen to me.” He put one foot on the ground before him and started to stand slowly. “If you’re not involved in this, you need to tell me what you know, because if you think these people are—”

Bing lunged from behind her shoulder and swung the board into the side of Guy’s skull. Guy deflected part of the blow, but Bing swung again, this time connecting to his jaw, and Ellie could see Guy had fallen unconscious. Bing moved for another strike, and she charged into his chest, knocking him backward, her arm fumbling for the board.

“What the hell are you doing? He was telling us something!”

“He was telling you bullshit.” Bing spit blood into her face, and Ellie saw tears streaking his swollen cheeks. “He was distracting you like he always does so he could grab the gun. For fuck’s sake, Ellie, when are you going to learn that you can’t trust him?” He struggled to get past her to kick at the unconscious man, but Ellie pushed him back.

“Leave him alone, Bing. He’s down. He’s out.” She wanted to check to see if Guy could breathe facedown like that, but knew Bing would stop her. She knew they were running out of time. “Let’s go. We’ve got to get the hell out of here before someone tries to radio him.” Grabbing Bing by the arm, she dragged him after her until they were both jogging, Bing struggling to take in air through his swollen nose.

“How are we going to get past the gate?” He wheezed wet breaths.

“I don’t know. Climb it maybe? We could try to…” Ellie slowed her jog, looking around her. The gate enclosing the Feno compound from the rest of Flowertown stood wide open, unattended. She and Bing scanned the edges of the fencing for cameras, but if they were there, they had to be infrared, because the gate area and the road around it were dark.

“Do you think it’s a trap?” Bing whispered.

Ellie stared for a moment, listening. “No. I think it’s unmanned. I think Feno’s down to a skeleton crew.”

“Why? Where would they go?”

She shook her head. “Guy said something about Thursday. Something about horizons.”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t put a lot of stock in that piece of shit.” He stepped forward into the darkness, and he and Ellie held their breath as they passed through the open gate.

“That is very weird, Bing.”

He nodded. “Weird and good. Now let’s get the hell out of here and find someplace to hide for the rest of our lives. Which, considering how my ribs feel, is about three hours.” Ellie let him put his arm around her shoulders as they hurried down the darkened streets toward town.

The power was down throughout the southern public end of Flowertown. Whatever power supply Feno used for their compound, they didn’t share it with the general population. A wet spring breeze blew down Avenue Four, and everyone who had a window had it open to catch even a whiff of fresh
air. Ellie and Bing didn’t have to work hard to stay in the shadows. On the ten-block journey they passed only one Feno security truck, and it seemed in a hurry to head back to the compound.

Bing stopped on a corner and held his side. “Where are we going?”

Ellie looked up and down the cross streets. “I don’t know. Want to find Torrez?” Bing pointed to the west. “I don’t want to go that way,” she told him. “That way’s the detention center, and I think we should steer as clear of that as we can.”

Bing twisted his torso carefully. “My vote is to go anywhere nobody is going to hit me.”

Ellie stared down the darkened west street. “Why didn’t they take us to the detention center? I mean, why drive us all the way out to the compound when they could have arrested us and kept us in detention? It’s closer. It’s built to contain people. We sure as hell couldn’t have escaped from there.”

“I don’t know. And to tell you the truth, I don’t care. We’re out now. Let’s get off the street and try to figure out what we’re going to do.”

“Agreed. How about we go to Dingle’s Market?” Ellie squinted at Bing. “Are you in pain or are you making a face?”

“Both. Why Dingle’s?”

“Why not? For one thing, I’m starving. I haven’t eaten anything but half a pancake today. And another, Annabeth is the one who gave me the newsletter. I want to see what she knows about the meeting. For all we know she could have been arrested. Why are you making that face?”

Bing followed Ellie down the street toward the market. “Annabeth Dingle creeps me out. That no-sleeping thing. It’s weird, that’s all.”

“Seriously, Bing? We just escaped from the Feno goons and are running for our lives in the world’s smallest town and you’re afraid of an old woman?”

“I didn’t say I was afraid of her.” Bing shoved his hands in his pockets. “I would just like to get a little weed in me before I have to face her, okay? Let’s run by East Fifth.”

“Are you kidding me? Why don’t we just send up the bat signal? They’re going to be looking for us there.”

“That’s the last place they’re going to look for us. Who would be stupid enough to go home when they’re on the lam?” He grinned at her as wide as he could with his split lip. “We’ll just run up the back steps, grab the weed, and reassess the situation. Besides, I’m covered in blood. I wouldn’t mind a clean shirt.”

“This is a hell of time to get tidy, Bing.”

Ellie insisted they at least circle the block before trying to get into their apartment building. Like the rest of the blocks they had passed, East Fifth was without power. The windows of the hardware store beneath Ellie’s window were dark, as were the neighboring apartment buildings. As they turned the corner to cut into the alley in the back, they saw several people on the top floors leaning out the window, shouting to each other. Ellie and Bing ducked down behind a dumpster, watching to see if another raid was taking place.

No trucks came, no lights flashed, and when Ellie looked up, she saw many of the people were pointing to a spot over the rooftops of the next block. Reassured they hadn’t been spotted and that no security would descend upon them, she helped Bing out from the cramped spot. No sooner had he
stretched to his full height than someone on the sixth floor yelled down to him.

“Hey, Bing. Bing!” A young man waved his arms, trying to get Bing’s attention.

“So much for stealth,” Ellie said.

“Bing!” The neighbor continued to yell. “Did you see it? A plane flew over.”

“What?” Bing shouted back. “Where? When?”

“Just now.” The rest of the window-hangers pointed over the rooftops toward the east. “It was a single-engine plane, flew really low, landed on the other side of the barrier.”

“That’s impossible.” Ellie shook her head. “This is a no-fly zone. Always has been.”

Bing looked at her. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting the feeling that ‘always has been’ is getting ready to change.”

They hurried to the back door, and Bing searched around behind the garbage cans to find the crowbar that always lay hidden for the residents. The door was unlocked but was made of heavy steel with no handle on the outside, so the residents of East Fifth made a point of keeping some sort of pry bar handy to get in the back door should the need arise. A quick jimmy and he and Ellie were heading up the steps. Bing clutched his side and let Ellie lead the way. At the fourth floor, the emergency stairwell lights were fading fast, and by the sixth floor, Bing had to keep a hand on Ellie to make it through the dark.

“What are you? Half bat?” He banged his hip against the banister and swore.

“Do you know how many times I’ve climbed up and down these steps in complete darkness? The lights almost never work.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I don’t spend as much time in the back stairwell as you do. I take my dates to better places.”

Ellie snorted. “Like you have dates.”

Bing was breathing hard. “Well, if I did they wouldn’t spy on me.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Bing shushed her when she pulled open the door for the eighth floor. He peered into the darkness and then pulled Ellie in front of him. “Okay, Batgirl, what do you see? Is anyone there?”

“I can’t see in the dark, Bing, I just know the layout by heart. If I had my phone I could use it as a flashlight.” She remembered leaving her phone on the bed when the goons had come.

“If we had our phones, they’d be tracking us like bloodhounds.”

Ellie led them down the black hall. Several steps in and one of the emergency lights flickered briefly, revealing an empty corridor, so she hurried them along to Bing’s room. It was unlocked as always.

“Aren’t you ever afraid someone’s going to steal your weed?”

“If somebody really wants in, a lock won’t keep them out.” Like Bing, Ellie knew the layout of the apartment by heart and tiptoed through the many pots of plants to the easy chair by the window while Bing rummaged around for a flashlight. “This will have to do.” He pulled his lighter out and began lighting a plate full of squat, half-burned candles.

“Were you having a séance or something?”

“I like the ambiance of candlelight. It helps me think.” He crouched down beside his coffee table and began searching through boxes.

“What are you looking for?”

Bing opened and closed lids, grabbing small baggies as he went. “Different flavors for different moods. I don’t know how long it will be before I can get back here to restock. Plus I’ve got a purple weed somewhere in here that’s better than aspirin. God knows I could use it.”

Ellie left him to his search and moved closer to the candles. While she felt safer in the dark, the shadows were making her jumpy. She knelt down and skimmed through Bing’s many books as he muttered to himself behind her. She pulled a heavy book from the shelf, holding it up in the dim light to see if she was reading the title correctly. “
The Divisible Flock
,” she whispered, reading aloud. She had to squint to see the subtitle. “
Managing the Human Herd
. Shit, Bing.”

“Are you talking to me?” Bing was lying on his back, reaching into the undercarriage of the easy chair for something.

Ellie leafed through the book, unable to read the dense text in the dark. “What did you mean about Guy spying on me?”

Bing grunted as he freed a plastic cylinder from the chair’s springs. “You’re kidding, right? You heard the recording. How do you think Carpenter got that? Guy obviously planted a bug when he was in your room the other night.”

“You don’t know that. Any one of those goons could have done it. At any time.”

“Come on, Ellie. That’s pretty thick denial. Even for you.” He opened the cylinder and breathed deep. “Ah, Willy Nilly. A very special blend. Good for what ails you. Want some?”

Ellie shook her head, tracing her fingers over the unbroken binding of the book as Bing crawled over to join her.

“You’re not taking the cure or anything, are you? When’s the last time you smoked?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t feel like it. It’s like my mind is trying to pull a thousand different strings together and I don’t even know what I’m pulling at.”

Bing took the book from her hand and put it back on the shelf. “Heavy reading isn’t what you need. You need to face the truth. And this will help.” He handed her a burning joint. She hit it, but not very hard. She didn’t want to offend her friend; she just wanted a clear head.

“I don’t even know where to begin to look for the truth.”

“I’ll start.” He took the joint back from her. “The first truth is you hooked up with a shitty guy who sold you out. Plain and simple.” Ellie started to protest, but he talked over her. “I know it hurts and it sucks and it’s not fair, but let’s face it: he sold out to Feno like a good little corporate drone would. I’m not saying he didn’t care about you. He probably did, as much as a jackass can. But when push came to shove, he bugged your room. He turned you in.”