LIKE DOC HAD said, the walk was much easier in the daylight. They stuck to the edge of town, and were able to veer off into an old, unused back road as they got closer to the edge of East Spencer territory. The narrow two-lane road wasn’t fit for cars anymore—there were huge holes and debris in the road—but it was beautiful. The trees on either side were huge, providing shade as the sun rose higher in the sky.
Lennon glanced at Maisie. She’d been quieter than usual the last couple hours.
“You feel okay?” he asked.
She started at the sound of his voice, almost like she’d forgotten he was there.
He, on the other hand, was intensely aware of her presence, and every time her hand accidentally brushed against his. He was intentionally staying on her right side, because he couldn’t brush up against her injured left hand.
“Yeah, fine.” She smiled sheepishly. “Better than you, probably. I actually got to sleep.”
“I slept for an hour or so, I think.” He didn’t feel tired.
“I would have understood, you know.”
“What?”
“If you’d gone. If you’d taken that truck to Northgate. I wouldn’t have been mad.”
He laughed. “Come on, you would have been a little mad.”
She considered for a minute. “Okay, I would have been a little annoyed. At first. But then I would have realized that I’d been unconscious for hours, and you did what you had to do.”
He watched as she pushed a strand of pink hair behind her shoulder. “I know.”
She frowned. “You know?”
“Yeah. You’re obviously a very logical person. I know we just met, but I already got that about you. I didn’t think you’d be mad. Still doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do.”
She stared at him for so long that he had to look away before his face betrayed his emotions. The way she kept watching him with a new kind of intensity was making it hard to concentrate on anything else. He hadn’t known he wanted someone to look at him that way—like she was both surprised and deeply intrigued by him—but now he never wanted her to stop.
“You’re not,” she finally said. “A logical person.”
He laughed. “Not really, no. I mean, sometimes. But I’m more of a ‘go with my gut’ person.”
She nodded. “I like that about you.”
He couldn’t hide his surprise. He wasn’t exactly surprised that she liked that about him, but that she would say it so openly.
She stopped suddenly, putting her arm out to stop him, too.
Ahead, two cops were in an off-roading vehicle, blundering through the grass.
Maisie grabbed his hand and pulled him off the pavement and behind a tree. She crouched down, and he followed suit.
They waited until the cops lumbered over the road and onto the grass on the other side. Maisie stood as they disappeared in the distance.
“Honestly, of all the stupid things to carry over from the US,” Lennon grumbled as they stepped back onto the road.
“What?”
“Cops. Why you would create your own society and then decide, ‘Hey, how about we give a bunch of power-hungry assholes the power to kill you?’ is completely beyond me.”
She let out a laugh, eyebrows raised. “Are they like that on the other side of the wall too?”
“Not exactly, but definitely similar.”
“It sounds terrible over there.”
“Does it?”
“Well, yeah. Apparently, you have some of those”—she waved her hand in the general direction of the disappearing cops—“and you’ve had the same family in charge for years, even though you’re supposed to be a democracy, and apparently you get kidnapped if you go to a place called Georgia.”
“That last one is just me. Georgians would want me to clarify that it’s actually a very nice state where people usually don’t get kidnapped.”
“It doesn’t sound great. Though…” She trailed off, her gaze distant.
“What?”
“Dad used to talk about the ocean. He had family in south Texas—what’s that area called? Rio something?”
“The Rio Grande Valley?”
“That’s the one. He’d go down there and see them and they’d go to the beach. I’ve always wanted to see the beach.”
“It’s nice,” he said softly. “Maybe you will, one day.”
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
He took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking, trying not to sound rude. “Does it feel small in here? Do you feel trapped?”
“No. Not usually. Sometimes, if I think about it….” She glanced at him. “My mom, she was British.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. She was in Austin visiting friends when it all went down.”
“Christ, that sucks.”
“Yeah. And I can’t really, like…conceive of that distance. Between the US and the UK. Or even imagine what a whole other country would look like. My dad’s parents were from Mexico, and he only went there a couple times, but I can’t really understand that, either. Even though there was no ocean involved with them, I can’t imagine traveling that distance. This”—she gestured around them—“felt nearly insurmountable.” She shook her head. “That probably didn’t make sense. I think I mean that I don’t really feel trapped unless I think about it too hard. It must have been much harder for my parents. And everyone else who remembers life before the wall.”
He nodded.
“I do actually understand why you’re so desperate to get out of here,” she said. “I know that it must feel much smaller for you than it does for me.”
“It’s not that,” he said. She shot him a look. “I mean, yes, it does feel small, but it’s more about my life outside the walls. My family and my friends. I was going to go back to school next year.” As he said it, he realized that he wasn’t going back to the same life he’d left. His dad had won the election. He was going back to a new world of secret service protection and politics and he was actually going to get to, like, hang out in the White House. It was both exciting and terrifying.
“What’s this expression?” she asked with a laugh. “You look freaked out suddenly.”
“I was just realizing how different things will be when I get back. We’re going to be moving to the White House. Stella must be losing it.”
“Your sister?”
“Yeah. She’s super into history and old buildings. Getting to live in the White House is her dream come true.”
“But it’s not yours?”
“It’s cool, I guess, but I think that both Stella and Caroline are better suited for that life. Caroline will probably be thrilled to help Mom with all the holiday decorating and picking china or whatever. I’ll just…”
She looked at him expectantly.
“Maybe it’s best I’ll be back in school next year,” he said. With secret service trailing him everywhere he went. With the entire world watching him, deciding if he was living up to his father. It was hard enough being compared to his dad before he was president, when he was just the senator who’d grown up poor, worked his way through college, and earned the reputation as the nicest guy in Congress within a few weeks of first being elected to the House of Representatives.
Lennon hoped everyone got used to disappointment.
“I’m sure you’ll find your place,” she said.
He shot her a grateful look. “I know you’re probably not going to come with me when we get to the gate, but just know that if you ever change your mind, I’ll help you. You wouldn’t have to navigate the world out there by yourself.”
“You’re right that I won’t come.” She smiled at him. “But thank you.”