Outcasts (38 page)

“Hailey, you and your friend stay with Nell and follow me, okay?”

She nodded, eyes wide, and cast one last longing look at the crying girl.

“I’m here to help you, okay?” Levi said to the girl. Then he scooped her up and ran toward the door. The girl squealed, and Levi had to toss her over his shoulder to get the door open. Once he was in the hall, he clamped a hand over her mouth and ran for the stairs. Nodin opened the door, and Levi ran into the stairwell and up a flight of stairs. He didn’t dare take his hand off the girl’s mouth. He couldn’t believe he’d taken her. It was such a stupid risk. Not to mention that he felt like
he’d just abducted a little girl against her will. What had become of them all?

Ruston’s bleeding heart, anyway.

Levi ran all the way to the roof. Jordan was carrying Lucy across the plank, so he waited for Jordan to return. He looked down to the girl. “I’m not going to hurt you, okay? The scary part is over. We’re on the roof, and now we’re going to go across and then you’ll be safe with your friends. Can I let go of your mouth? Will you be quiet for me?”

She nodded, eyes wide.

Hailey arrived beside him as he set the girl on her feet and released his hand from her mouth. The girl’s bottom lip started to tremble.

“What’s her name?” Levi asked.

“Kittie,” Hailey said.

“Kittie, watch this big guy walk across that plank.”

The little heads turned to look. Jordan stepped on the plank only twice as he came back.

“Jordan, this is Kittie,” Levi said. “She’s a little scared, so why don’t you take her first. She’s promised to be very quiet. Right, Kittie?”

Kittie only stared at Levi, her eyes as wide as chicken eggs.

Levi grabbed Nell’s arm and started back to the stairs. Nodin and Yivan were standing with the stairwell door opened, watching.

Levi waved them ahead. “Down to the third floor.”

Nell led the way, clomping down the stairs louder than Levi liked. They reached the third floor and Nell ran out into the hallway. Levi stopped at the door to watch through the window, and Yivan plowed into his back. The door banged.

Levi turned and glared at the boy.

Yivan shrank back. “Sorry.”

Levi waited at the window. The first child to appear was Sarajawea, a little girl from Jack’s Peak. She wandered aimlessly down the hall, dragging a pillow behind her.

Then Nell stepped out and waved Levi to come. Levi told Nodin to get Sarajawea into the stairwell, then ran to Nell.

“I think we need the other men to help too,” she said when he
reached her. “They’re all sleeping, and I don’t know who’s who. I think I just woke up the wrong girl.”

Levi went back and told Yivan to sit with Sarajawea, then he brought Nodin with him into the girl’s dorm. Beds lined both long walls, but some of them were only bare mattresses on wire frames.

“They’re on this end,” Nell said, leading the way.

Of the five girls left, he was supposed to take two, but Levi could hardly see, and even if he could, he wasn’t sure he’d recognize Kaylee and Rosalie if he saw them.

“We’ll take them all,” he said. “Pick up a girl and carry her to the stairwell. Then come back for the last two. We’ve got to be quick and quiet, though. Can you do it, Nell?”

“I think so.”

“Good. You get this one closest to the door.”

Nell started to pick up a sleeping child, Nodin went for another, and Levi walked to the last bed in the row. He scooped up the little girl and held her close, hoping she’d sleep until he was in the stairwell.

They made it there safely, though Nell looked like she might drop her girl. Yivan and Sarajawea were sitting on the steps looking bored. Nodin passed them, taking his girl up to the roof.

“Yivan, help Nell,” Levi said, wishing his crew had a little more common sense.

Yivan jumped up and grabbed the little girl, but he got Nell’s shirt too and pulled her so hard that she fell onto her knees.

“Let go,” Nell cried.

Yivan put down the little girl, who started crying.

“That’s Rosalie.” Nell crouched down by the crying girl and rubbed her back. “Hey, Rosalie, don’t cry. We’re going to take you to your momma now.”

Levi winced. Rosalie’s mother, Susan, had died in the raid. Apparently Nell didn’t know that. But her words calmed Rosalie for the moment.

The girl Levi was holding shifted and opened her eyes, staring at him. He was pretty sure she wasn’t Kaylee.

“Yivan, take Rosalie upstairs. Sarajawea, can you walk? Go with Yivan and Rosalie?”

Sarajawea stood up, holding her pillow, and stared at Yivan. The boy picked up Rosalie and started up the stairs. Sarajawea followed.

“Okay, that’s three. And, Nell, if you take this one, that will be four.” Levi handed off the girl in his arms. “I’ll go and get the last two, but send someone down to help me, okay?”

“Okay, Levi.” Nell started up the stairs.

Levi opened the door and crept back to the dorm. He bent down and examined the first girl, then the second. They both had dark hair. He had no idea which was Kaylee.

He picked up one and set her on the edge of her bed. Her body slumped back over onto her side and she pulled for her blankets. Levi picked up the second girl and sat her on the edge of the first girl’s bed. This one stayed upright. He propped the first girl up again so that the girls were sitting side by side. He squatted before them, wrapped an arm around each, and stood. They were light, but the one on the left was slipping. He hefted them up and headed for the door.

He should have propped it open.

He pressed himself against the door, bending his knees until the backs on his fingers felt the knob. He strained to turn and pull at the same time, and only managed to make the door rattle. He thought about putting down the girls, opening the door, and picking them back up, but he kept at the knob until it finally bounced open far enough that he was able to jab his foot into the crack. He had to lean back to keep hold of the girls, but he managed to wedge his other knee into the crack and knock open the door enough to dart out.

He ran to the stairwell door, which was also closed, and set the girls on their feet. One of them started to cry. Levi opened the door and waved them through.

“Go to the stairs,” he whispered.
Okay, Mr. Strange Man.
Sure. He couldn’t blame the girl for being scared out of her mind.

The second girl stared up at him. “Are you Levi?”

Well, now he knew which one was Kaylee. “Yes. I’ve come to help you and your friend. Now go through the — ”

“You there! What are you doing with those girls?”

A woman stood at the opposite end of the hallway.

Levi shoved Kaylee and the crying girl into the stairwell. “Sit there, Kaylee. I’ll be right back.”

Levi shut the door and walked toward the woman. “Sorry, I’m a guard, and I heard a noise up here.” Yeah, that made a lot of sense. When he was close enough to know he couldn’t miss, he drew the SimScanner and fired. The woman screamed, clutched her hand to her chest. Her face distorted into an ugly grimace. She grunted and fell.

Levi holstered his weapon and carried the woman into the girls’ dorm. He laid her on one of the plain mattresses, then ran to the nearest made-up bed and ripped off the sheets. He didn’t have time to do much, but he whipped the top sheet into a long snake and used it to tie the woman’s hands to the wire headboard. He repeated the process with the fitted sheet, tying her feet to the footboard. By then she was coming to, moaning. He found a tiny stuffed cat and shoved its head into her mouth.

It would have to do.

He ran back into the hallway and sprinted to the stairwell. When he opened the door, the crying girl screamed.

“You hurt her! You hurt her!”

Perfect. Levi grabbed the girl and covered her mouth with his hand. “She’s not hurt, just sleeping. She’ll be fine.”

The girl jerked away and bit his finger. Levi growled and reapplied his hand in a way he hoped would keep her from opening her mouth. “Kaylee, come on. We have to run fast up these stairs.”

“Okay,” Kaylee said.

Levi ran up to the fourth floor, but when he turned back, Kaylee was taking her time, one hand on the rail.

“One step, stop.” She stepped up with her right foot, then brought her left foot to join it. “Two steps, stop.” Then she stepped with her left foot and brought her right to join it. “Three steps, stop.”

Oh, come on, little one.
“Faster, Kaylee. Can you go faster?”

“Four steps, stop. Five steps, stop.” She increased her speed, but not her rhythm.

Levi would just have to come back for her. He ran up. Around the bend of the fourth floor, he met Nodin coming from above.

“Here,” Levi said. “She screams and bites, so be careful.” He handed off the girl, and she managed a quick screech before Nodin got a good grip on her mouth.

Levi ran back down until he found Kaylee.

“Seventeen steps, stop. Eighteen — ”

Levi tossed her over his shoulder and headed back up the stairs. Just as he passed the door to level five, it swung open.

“Who is out of bed?” a woman said.

Her eyes met Levi’s. He fumbled for his SimScanner, but he was holding Kaylee on his right shoulder and couldn’t grab it. The woman darted back inside.

“Intruders,” she yelled. “In the girls’ dorms. Come quickly to the fifth floor.”

If she had SimTalk, which she likely did, there was no point in chasing her down and stunning her. So Levi continued on, hoping Mason wasn’t far behind.

M
ason followed Penelope down the stairs, Ruston behind him, then Beshup. The SimScanner on his hip felt heavy and foreign, despite not being a killing weapon. He hoped he wouldn’t have to use it. This whole event had him terrified, not that he’d admit it aloud, especially within Levi’s hearing, but all he could think of was that day the enforcers had come to Glenrock and killed so many. Seeing his father and uncle die. Trying to save Papa Eli.

At the bottom of the stairwell, Penelope stopped at the exit door and turned to face them. “When we leave the building, whoever’s last, make sure you don’t kick out the stick that’s keeping the door propped open. Okay?” She looked from face to face, then pushed open the stairwell door and headed into the dark hallway.

They passed by classrooms filled with GlassTop desks and Wyndo wall screens. The wall screens in the hallway flashed images of artwork and assignments. Penelope led them to the front door where a thin aspen branch lay against the doorframe, keeping it open.

Penelope held the door, motioning them to come outside and get behind a hedge of bushes beside the entrance. When the three men
were behind the bushes, she carefully closed the door, making sure the branch kept it from shutting fully.

She joined them in the bushes and peeked over the top of one. Mason followed her gaze. A courtyard edged in shrubs separated the girls’ dorm building from the boys’. Concrete paths wove through the courtyard, curving and curling to different destinations: a garden of flowers, an area with stone tables, a fountain, a strange sculpture of a horse woman. It reminded Mason of Champion Park and he and Ciddah’s picnic. He wondered where she was at the moment and hoped she was safe.

“I don’t see them,” Penelope said, “but they have to be in there. Let’s run!”

She crouched low and jogged into the courtyard, head turning as she scanned the area. Mason stayed on her heels. His adrenaline was so high his hands were shaking.

“Pen,” someone said. The voice was low, and if Mason hadn’t been straining to hear, he might have missed it.

Penelope took off again, running toward a brightly colored playground.

As they approached, a figure came down the slide, twisting with the spiral until he slid off the edge and stood. Trevon.

Movement in the structure brought several more figures into the dim light of the streetlamp above. Mason recognized Jake and two faces from Jack’s Peak, but there were some new children here — children that had to be from the Safe Lands.

“Levi and Jordan are getting the girls out now,” Penelope said. “We have to hurry.”

“Who are your friends?” Mason asked Trevon.

“Grayn is with me,” Trevon said. “And Dakav and Etu brought Holt.”

“I didn’t dare ask any of the boys in my dorm,” Jake said.

“Why not?” Ruston asked.

“Most boys here are filled with the coyote’s mischief,” Dakav said.

“And Jake’s room is the worst,” Trevon said. “I wouldn’t trust those maggots with my shirt.”

Jake grimaced. “They play a lot of pranks on me.”

“The rest of you are certain there are no other boys who’d come with us?” Ruston asked.

“None,” Dakav said. “Holt and Grayn are different.”

“Maybe the littles, though,” Trevon said.

“Yeah, they don’t cause much trouble,” Etu said.

“And that’s where we’re going now,” Mason said. “Though I don’t see any reason for us all to go. How many boys are there in the littles?”

“Nine,” Dakav said.

They could get all nine. “Okay, then. Penelope, why don’t you take Trevon, Jake, Sakima, and …?” He pointed to Trevon’s friend.

“Grayn.”

“Grayn,” Mason said. “Take them to the roof. The rest of us will go for the little boys. Seven of us should be enough to fetch nine.”

“Surely some of the boys will be able to walk on their own,” Ruston said.

“That’s my hope,” Mason said.

“Are you sure you can find your way back to the roof without me?” Penelope asked. “The boys don’t know the girls’ building.”

“You just brought me through it,” Mason said. “I didn’t forget the way.”

“Okay.” Though Penelope didn’t look happy to be leaving. “Please be careful, Mason.”

“We have weapons to use if need be,” Ruston said.

Mason tried not to think about the gun on his hip. Hopefully it wouldn’t “need be.”

“Can I have a weapon?” Dakav asked.

“No,” Mason said, “but you can lead the way to the boys’ dorm.”

Penelope gave Mason one last forlorn look, then grabbed Trevon’s hand and dragged him toward the girls’ dorm. Grayn, Jake, and Sakima trailed after them.