Inside the Palisade (20 page)

Suddenly free, I whirl around as a small flashlight snaps on, illuminating Gamma’s familiar features.

“Surprise,” she says.

I’m too stunned to react as she grabs me by the arm and drags me toward the morgue. I start to resist, but she’s insistent. “They’re gone, Omega. We’re okay.” The morgue is empty now. Gamma rushes to the locker at the far end of the room and starts rummaging around inside.

“What are you doing?”

When she closes it, she’s wielding a burlap sack. “The medical supplies we need. For the
deman.
”

“What’s going on?”

“I’m the back-up plan,” Gamma says proudly, indicating the sack slung over her shoulder. “My mother told me everything. I know she didn’t kill the
deman,
that you’re breaking him out of here. I offered to help. She wanted to keep me out of it, but I think she finally realized she might need a Plan B. So here I am.” She indicates the door with the flashlight. “We should move. We don’t have much time.”

“Wait a second.” I take a few steps away from her, further into the morgue. “My mother’s in danger. I can’t leave her.”

“It’s going to be alright.” Gamma’s poised at the door. “My mother sent a message to Omicron. Your mom will be alright.”

Gamma knows about Omicron?

“Even if that’s true, why would you want to help us?” I wrap my arms around myself.

She settles the sack on the floor and approaches me. “Because I want to actually meet a real live
deman.
In the flesh. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you know.” She’s closer now. I take a step back and bump into the edge of one of the benches.

“This isn’t a joke, Gamma. If we do this, there’s no turning back,” I say. “You might never see your mother again. You might never see anyone again. We might all end up dead.”

“I know, and I’m with you.” She lifts my hand and squeezes it, reminding me of the way I touched Ghent not so long ago in the vehicle outside. Part of me wishes I could go back in time, back to when Gamma and I were school friends drinking hot chocolate, playing schoolyard pranks, and we didn’t know the truth about anything.

Without any warning, Gamma rises to her toes and presses her lips to mine, hard and fast. The scent of honeysuckle overwhelms me before she takes a step back and looks deep into my eyes. “Whatever happens, I’m on your side, Omega.”

“Why?” I grasp the edges of the bench so tight that my finger-nails make a scraping sound along the metal.

“Do I really need to answer that?” She grins in that familiar way of hers.

This could be the worst idea ever.

“Anyway,” she continues, “what choice do you have? The
deman’s
in a bad way and you’ll never manage the wastelands without help.”

In the end, Gamma’s right. I have no choice. Upsilon can’t come outside the walls, and I need someone to help with Ghent. It was going to be my mother, but that won’t happen now. My heart sinks at the thought of what the commander will put my mother through before Omicron can get to her. But Upsilon is already on her way. As soon as Gamma and I got to the transport with the supplies, we told her everything and she took off after Mom. Gamma and I had to move forward, to get Ghent away before anyone reports us missing.

We can only take the vehicle as far as the wall. There’s no way to get it outside and, even if we could, it would be too easy to trace, and we’d have no way to recharge it. Gamma has ditched her communicator too. Upsilon is going to report the vehicle stolen and hope they believe her story about some girls stealing it and taking it on a joy ride. We’ll have to make our way outside on foot. Hopefully, Ghent will be strong enough to walk soon. For now we’ll need to help him, and carry the packs. The vehicle is stopping and starting on the overgrown path. Gamma has never driven before. I’m in the back with Ghent, trying to rearrange the packs so they’re as light as possible. We’re dumping anything that isn’t essential so we can manage Ghent and the medicine.

We hit another deep rut. Ghent slides on the seat and groans. I drop the packs to my feet so I can check on him. I feel his forehead. It might be my imagination, but it seems a little cooler. With any luck the fever is breaking. Gamma’s mother gave her instructions about how to administer the medications, and we managed to get one of the painkillers into him before we took off.

The car lurches to a stop, and I’m thrown into the seat in front, my body blocking Ghent’s from harm. I settle him back, and grit my teeth. “Gamma, what’re you doing?”

I can only see the back of her head, but she sounds amazed. “We found it.”

The driver’s door opens and the flashlight sparks. I lean forward to see Gamma standing outside and training the beam on the bramble-covered gate in the wall. Gamma sticks her head into the car, pupils dilated. “We’re going to make it, Omega.”

She examines Ghent’s inert form. “Hmm,
demen.
Who would’ve thought? Not so scary after all.” She’s been this way since she first saw Ghent. Making a show of how unimpressed she is, but I think she’s kind of awed. I remember how scared I felt when I first saw him, although that person was nothing like the pitiful form with his head propped in my lap. His stubbly hair pokes through my trousers and scratches my skin.

Gamma reaches into the vehicle. “Pass me the packs. I’ll get them to the gate and try to open it. You get the boy out of the car.” Ghent groans and nuzzles his cheek into my thigh. “I think he likes you,” she says.

I’m guessing she hasn’t figured out exactly how much he likes me. Or how much I like him back. I wonder how she’ll react when she finds out. If he lives long enough for that to happen.

I lift the packs to Gamma, making sure the snaps are fastened. They’re sturdy canvas, courtesy of Omicron. They should last us for a while, even in poor terrain. My mother already gave me directions to a shallow riverbed she located on her last trip. As long as the water’s flowing, she said, it’s safe to drink. And there’s a trail of brush to give us cover most of the way. We should be able to make it there in a day, and we have enough water in our packs to last until then. Gamma grabs the bags and heads for the wall with the flashlight. I silently watch her start picking away the brambles to clear the gate. They look like they’re growing there naturally but I know my mother arranged them that way when she came back inside yesterday. Gamma calls out over her shoulder, “Any time you want to get your butt over here and help, Omega, would be great.”

“Coming!” I call, as I pull myself out of the car and brace my arms under Ghent’s shoulders to hoist him out. He’s heavier than I realized. I haven’t had to lift him on my own, and I strain under his weight, only managing to get him seated on the ground, propped against the vehicle. I take a step back. It physically hurts to see him like this. I’m going to need Gamma’s help to lift him. I turn to call for her, when I hear his voice.

“Meg?” It’s thin and reedy, but it’s him. I whirl around, and he’s lifting a hand to me even though his eyes are closed. The motion is jerky and his forehead creases with the effort, but he knows I’m here. I drop to my knees and his arm collapses in my lap.

Oh Ghent.
It takes all my self-control not to throw my arms around him. He looks so fragile, but he knows I’m here. “Ghent?” I keep my voice as steady as possible, not wanting to frighten him. “Ghent, I’m here. It’s going to be alright.”

“Meg.” His voice is a little stronger. His eyes blink open, searching in the darkness for my face. When he finds it, he stares deep into my eyes. And it really is him. Despite the pale skin and the sweat pooling around his collar. He’s alive, and he’s going to be okay. If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to make sure of that.

“Did anyone ever tell you, you have beautiful eyes?” He sighs, and his lips quirk into a semblance of his old smile, right side curving higher than the left. “My Meg.”

Then he sinks back against the car, his eyes drifting shut.

I’m going to get him out of this. I’m going to keep us safe. Somehow. We’re all still alive and we’re going to make it. We’re going to get out of here. If there’s a sanctuary out there, we’ll find it. Gathering all my strength, I loop his arm over my shoulders and haul him to his feet. His head lolls into my neck, but he’s holding some of his own weight now. His facial fur prickles my skin, reminding me of what he said to me at the reflection pool. He’s a different gender, not a different species. Even Gamma knows he’s a real person just like us.

If we can all understand that our similarities are more important than our differences, maybe we’ll make it, find somewhere safe and free to live. And maybe we’ll convince others that we should all pull together somehow.

Perhaps we’ll even come back someday and share what we’ve found … outside the palisade.

This is the part where I get to thank everyone who helped me create this story and, as I knew would be the case, I don’t know where to start and I know I’m going to leave out tons of folks who were highly instrumental in this book getting written and published. Family must be thanked first because my tribe puts up with a mom who works and writes full time. So to Patrick, Sean, Brianne, and Megan go my thanks for their support and understanding

In terms of the writing itself, I’d be nowhere without my writing instructors and critique groups. This story started out in the first novel writing class I ever took, a young adult writing course taught by Molly Breen. Molly is quite simply the best, and it’s impossible to put into words how wonderful it’s been to enjoy her teaching, support, and advice over the years on this and other projects. While Molly is a hard act to follow, Annemarie O’Brien picked up the slack in her young adult writing course and gave me endless support which continues to this day.

Thanks also to the instructors in the Fiction Writing Certificate program at UCLA who helped me along the way, especially Jessica Barksdale Inclán who knocked this manuscript (and my psyche) into shape at the last minute when I was ready to throw up my hands in despair. Thanks also to the rest of the UCLA crew I worked with on this project: Robert Eversz, Caroline Leavitt, and a big shout-out to amazing speculative fiction author Alyx Dellamonica who worked through an early draft of the manuscript and taught me to get the adult characters out of the way. If anyone thinks there are still too many adults clogging up the plot, it’s definitely on me.

The gals in the Katy Critique Group in Houston were invaluable in keeping my spirits up and keeping me going even when they didn’t understand why anyone would write about an
all-female society where the lead character had weird eyes for no apparent reason. So thanks, hugs and kisses to Maria Ashworth, Dee Leone, Elena Radulescu, Tina Wissner, Kathy Slaughter, Monica Shaughnessy, and Mandy Broughton. Some of my beta readers who I thank from the bottom of my heart for reading through (often multiple) drafts were Cassandra Robertson, Deborah Halverson, Wendy Nelson-Tokunaga, and Ann Gronvold.

While I know I’ve left many people out, most of them are either friends from Stanford, UCLA, or SCBWI, so I’m hoping that this big general thank you to those institutions will suffice. Feel free to email and yell at me if I should’ve mentioned you by name and I didn’t.

And of course thanks to the folks at John Hunt/Lodestone for taking a chance on yet another new author, especially to Maria Moloney for her copy-editing expertise.

To my readers, thanks for giving me a chance. If you enjoyed the book and want to find out more about what I’m up to, please visit my website (
kcmaguire.com
) where you can follow me on Facebook or Twitter, or drop me a line via email. If you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads or Amazon, and if you didn’t, please let me know. I’ll always be a student of writing and will be grateful for any feedback.

K C Maguire

February 2, 2015

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