Island of Silence (Unwanteds) (30 page)

Eva froze. It brought back the memory of Justine telling her she’d be eliminated soon. She watched the barbed-wire shadows flying over her skin and felt a frightening sense of déjà vu. “Yes,” she said.

“I promised you that your loyalty would be rewarded with getting your old job back.”

“I remember,” Eva said. She waited in deepest dread for him to say,
“But . . .”

But he didn’t. Instead he said evenly, “I’d like to take you on as my secretary if you are willing.”

Eva felt a flood of relief build up inside of her, aching to be let out with a large sigh or a laugh or a whoop. Instead she answered affirmatively in the traditional way of Quill. “May Quill prevail with all I have in me.”

Aaron Stowe, the Wanted’former assistant secretary to the High Priest Justine; former future senior governor; former outcast, conniver, and head of the Restorers; murderer of the highly acclaimed Mr. Marcus Today; and current not-really-associate high priest of Quill through despicable means’looked out his window at the tops of cornstalks and coconut trees and enormous berry bushes of the flourishing Favored Farm as the Quillitary vehicle sputtered and chugged along. And he smiled.

He had just one final visit to make today.

Alex’s Message

H
e couldn’t think of a time when he’d been more nervous, except maybe at his Purge. Now Alex stood before the tired faces of hundreds of despondent Unwanteds, crammed into a small plot of cement and weeds, all the way down to the shoreline and spilling out the gate into Quill. All of them, filled with respect for the land and the fallen leaders they once served, were loyal despite the dire circumstances. They waited, exhausted but patient, to hear a single word of hope that would help them get through the day and keep them from desperate measures’like looking for shelter in the place that once sentenced them to death.

As the water was passed around, each Artiméan took a few swallows, no more, without having to be told, everyone confident in their fellow Unwanted to be reasonable. Sean Ranger pulled Alex aside and gave him the latest news, confirming that Mrs. Haluki had indeed died as Henry reported, and that the rest of the injured had found secret respite in a sympathetic Necessary’s home on the outskirts of one of the quadrants. “And then there’s the high priest,” Sean said. “Aaron’s got him captured, but we’re not supposed to know that. Most of Quill doesn’t know that. Aaron has just declared that Haluki appointed him as some sort of associate high priest, with equal power.”

Alex stared at Sean. “You’re not serious.”

“I am.”

Alex stared thoughtfully at the gate, not really seeing it. “Wow.”

“I know.”

“Well,” Alex said, clearing his head. “I guess he’s really going after it. I’m pretty sure he’ll go full speed ahead and do everything he can to keep us from existing, then.” He was surprised at how calm he felt about it. Maybe it could be chalked up to knowing where Aaron was and what he was doing that gave Alex a bit of serenity. “How are you getting this information?”

Sean hesitated. “I’d rather not say at this moment.”

Alex frowned. He got an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach again. Sean was up to something, always sneaking into Quill and not telling Meghan what he was doing, but Alex didn’t have time to worry about him right now. He remembered what Mr. Today once said about being honest if you wish to prevail, so he looked Sean in the eye. “Sometimes I wonder if I can trust you.”

Sean held his gaze. “I swear you can trust me, Alex. I swear it on Meghan’s life.”

Alex regarded him for a long moment, and Sean’s gaze didn’t waver. Alex held out his hand and Sean took it, shaking it firmly. No further word was needed. With that, Alex turned to the crowd, stood on a chair that Henry had brought from inside, and requested silence by holding up his hands. They shook the slightest bit.

Alex waited for the news to travel that he was about to speak. And without an amphitheater or the magic of Artimé to help his voice carry, he knew he’d have to take it slowly and speak as loudly as possible so everyone could hear.

A wave of emotion rolled through him as he looked over the bruised and battered people. When it was quiet, he set his jaw and began.

His voice didn’t crack. He didn’t break down. He just spoke from the heart, like Mr. Today would have.

“Greetings, warriors,” he said. “You’re all so brave and loyal, just like our fearless leader, Marcus Today, taught us all to be. And, well, just like he was until . . . the end. Let’s all take a minute to remember the moment we first met him.”

The Artiméans bowed their heads, remembering the day they’d been saved by the eccentric magician with that electric shock of white hair, who had come out of the gray shack to greet them and had said those fateful words: “How does it feel to be eliminated?” Year after year he did it the same way, always delighted beyond measure to save the lives of the creative and artistic, and to not only save them, but to make them, mold them, into amazing people. He taught them to think and to live and to create. To fight for what they believed, and stand up for their rights, and not fear the unknown. To feel love and warmth and acceptance after being told so often, so much, that they were useless trash, not even good enough to line the roadway of Quill.

Alex embraced the numbness he felt inside him’he was thankful for it, for once, because it allowed him to do the job he had to do now.

“Friends,” he said, breaking into the memories of hundreds of people. “Mr. Today is gone, and so is our world. We don’t have any other choice except to ask for one another’s help now.” He paused, scanning the crowd. “We’ve lost members of our families at the hands of the people of Quill, and some of our residents are missing. We also can’t forget our Silent visitors who, by chance or by fate or whatever, have joined us under some pretty weird circumstances, and we need to continue to treat them as family, despite our, um, momentary lack of lavish decor.”

A few in the crowd nodded, and Alex caught the eye of Mr. Appleblossom, who touched his fist to his heart and nodded encouragingly. That gave Alex a surge of confidence to go on. He repeated the act back to Mr. Appleblossom, finishing the nonverbal rhyming couplet.

And then he went on. “Friends, my brother, Aaron, has taken control of Quill and has announced his position as associate high priest, supposedly working in tandem with High Priest Haluki.” Alex looked down, not wanting to see the skeptical looks from the crowd that he expected there to be. But then he looked up again, knowing he needed to stand strong. “But I don’t believe he’d ever work side by side with anyone as good as High Priest Haluki. I admit it’s hard to speak badly of my brother. But I have to’I can’t think of any reason why I should protect him anymore. He chose his own way, and it’s the opposite of everything I believe in. And now I’ll just repeat what you already know: Aaron has all this evil junk in his heart, and I know he won’t stop his attacks until he can figure out how to take control of us. It would be his best day ever to finish what Justine thought she’d started with the Purge. And Unwanteds,” Alex said, his voice growing louder, “we can’t let that happen. We’ve got to stick together so we can stay strong.” He pointed at the shocking starkness of their land and said, “This is what Mr. Today saw when he first dreamed of Artimé. Now we have to begin from scratch, just like Mr. Today did’from this plot of land, this little gray shack’only we’re not alone. There are hundreds of us! We have each other, don’t we? Surely we can hold together.”

Alex looked slowly at the silent crowd, from the edge of the water to the wall to the gate and beyond. “Surely we can honor our leader by building up a bigger, stronger Artimé’something just as grand and wonderful as he could ever imagine.”

Alex had no idea how they’d do it. But he was determined to succeed or die trying. He knew he didn’t have much time.

The crowd murmured. Alex felt the ownership of Mr. Today’s vision and of their beloved Artimé emanating from the pores of the Unwanteds that surrounded him. What other choice did they have but to embrace this? For most of them, going back to Quill couldn’t possibly be an option. Alex leaned forward on the chair, a most intense look on his face, fearing rejection, but forging ahead’it was now or never. “People of Artimé,” he shouted at the top of his voice, wanting everyone to hear him. “Are you with me?”

When a rousing chorus of yeses greeted his ears, something surged inside of him, giving him goose bumps. He repeated it, pumping his fist. “People of Artimé! Are! You! With! Me!”

This time the shout rang out, loud and clear, hundreds of voices as one.

Alex grinned and waited for them to quiet down once again. And then he said earnestly, “I really want to hear it from each one of you. When I’m done, I’ll stay standing here. And I’m going to ask you, if you would, to come up here so that we can look one another in the eye and agree to go along together on this. Despite how hard it’s going to be, despite the fact that we don’t have much, despite that we’ve lost our leader and our friends and we’re scared to lose more. So, will you do this for me?”

Another thick wave of yeses greeted him in response.

“Okay.” Alex blew out a breath of relief. “That’s great. Thank you. When you come by, I’ll assign you a duty so that we can begin to take care of our most basic needs right away’water, shelter, that kind of stuff. People of Artimé, do you accept that challenge?”

“Yes!” came the reply. Each time they grew louder and louder.

Alex paused now and waited for the crowd to settle. He had one last important item to discuss.

“Finally, friends,” he said, “we need to talk about the gate. I’ve decided that despite the threat of attack from Quill, we need to leave our gate open for now.” He paused, letting the words sink in. “It was a really hard decision to make, but I have three reasons for making it.”

People remained quiet, straining to hear every word. “One, because Ms. Morning is missing, maybe even captured, but, basically, we just don’t know where she is. If she’s able to escape, we’d want her to get in. Also because of our injured, who are camping out in the home of a very generous Necessary. She’s hiding them and caring for them along with our nurses. If we close the gate, we risk locking everyone out until we’um . . . I mean until I’can figure out how to restore our world. And I’m not willing to write off anybody who wants or needs to get back in here.

“Two, because we need water, and frankly, there’s no other place to get it but Quill at the moment.” People looked at one another and nodded.

“And three, because someone, somewhere in Quill, has a key. And we don’t want any one person in Quill to hold that kind of power over us.” Alex looked at his people and said, “Are we in agreement?”

This time the agreement was quieter, but no less important. The truth was that the people of Artimé understood so much more than anyone about risk and safety, life and death, because of what they’d endured to this point. There was unity, mostly. Alex would soon find out if anyone stood against him. So far, everyone seemed to be willing to give Alex a chance.

“Excellent!” Alex said, trying to sound as upbeat and as competent as possible. “You can always come to me with your questions any time, and I promise you I will be going to work immediately to get Artimé back on its feet once again.” He surveyed them from his height once again, and then he said simply, “Thanks, everyone. Thanks for your loyalty. Together we can remain strong’strong hearts and strong wills, right? And we’ll get through it.” He made a fist and touched it to his chest, as Mr. Appleblossom had done earlier, trying to express his deepest and sincerest loyalty to Artimé. Several repeated the motion in return.

Alex stepped off the chair and soon an organized line had formed. As the members of Artimé approached, looked Alex in the eye, and said, “I’m with you, Alex,” Alex repeated the phrase back to them, “I’m with you, too.” He then created teams of workers. The most industrial and architecturally creative he appointed to clean out the shack. They needed to make as much room on the floors as possible, and to expand the little house by removing all the doors from the cupboards and rooms and making a sort of lean-to out the back door from the wood and paneling.

Alex sent the stealthiest and most robust Artiméans to sneak into the Quillitary Sector to steal barrels of water, and to collect food from the Favored Farm.

And Alex sent the most able-bodied to move the lifeless creatures out of the way of foot traffic, standing them against the wall or around the exterior of the shack like yard ornaments, so that the living could make prime use of the little space they had.

As the day wore on, Alex also set up a guard schedule for the gate, and a six-hour sleeping rotation for the shack. Finally, he sent a team of Artiméans out to see if they could find the boat and physically bring it to their little plot of land and tie it to shore.

It was exactly what Alex needed. Putting his mind to work and his body, too’it felt like he was doing something important. And indeed, he was. As he worked, his subconscious went to work too, trying to figure out how he was going to follow through on his promise to restore Artimé.