CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Nyla didn’t bother to set an alarm, knowing she wouldn’t sleep. For her to make it to the rendezvous point by ten-thirty, she needed to leave the house at five after ten and pick Claire up at ten-fifteen. She couldn’t be late, but it was just as dangerous to be early. A car driving around or sitting parked so late would draw suspicion.

At ten o’clock, Nyla got out of bed and dressed in the dark so no lights would draw the attention of anyone outside. She retrieved her cache of supplies and stowed a few personal items, including the photograph her grandmother had given her. They had to travel light. Her car was small and once they abandoned it they would be on foot for the rest of their journey.

Nyla peeled the bandage from her palm and placed the microchip under her pillow. The scar had healed and evidence of the chip’s extraction had nearly vanished. The pain had only lasted a couple of days and when it subsided, Nyla had felt liberated.

As she reached her bedroom door, she stopped and glanced around her room. She went to her desk, found a piece of paper, scribbled a quick note to her grandmother and placed it under her pillow next to the chip. It was simple, but said all that needed to be saidI love you. Don’t worry. Thanks for being you.

Nyla tiptoed out of her room and paused outside her grandmother’s bedroom, placing her hand tenderly on the door. She hated leaving without saying goodbye, but knew it was for the best. She looked around, but there were no sentimental tokens in the barren environment, nothing to symbolize the uniqueness of her wonderful grandmother or her adventurous mother or the love the three of them shared.

Without a sound, Nyla crawled through the kitchen window and dropped to the ground. The kitchen window wasn’t in the path of the camera focused on the house, which was why she had chosen it. She quickly made her way around the backside of the camera and swiveled the lens to look out over the desert and away from her car.

“Door unlock. Ignition on,” Nyla whispered.

She slipped into the driver’s seat, thankful her solar-powered vehicle made virtually no noise as she backed out of the driveway. Nyla turned the car’s lights off, something possible only after Ethan had bypassed the usual mode of mandatory driving lights. She didn’t look backafraid doubts about leaving her grandmother might creep into her head and make leaving difficult instead of exciting and essential.

Ruby stood at the window and watched Nyla drive away. She knew this day would comeit was inevitable. Her granddaughter was just like her daughter, there was no denying it, and there had been no point in trying to change her mind. Ruby had made a small effort, but she knew it was too little too late.

She went to the living room and retrieved her most prized possessions from their hiding place. Her treasured well-worn Bible and comfort quilt had survived undetected when SLIC had come into their home after Rachel’s arrest. Religious articles had been outlawed, but Ruby refused to give up the ties to her past, which had given her the strength to live in a world she didn’t understand.

Ruby lit a candle so as not to cast too much light and wrapped herself in her quilt of many colors. The colors of the quilt had been vibrant at one time, but had faded from age and neglect, yet still elicited the same emotions. The quilt made her feel warm and hopeful and the memories came flooding back. She touched each square lovingly. There were squares cut of fabric from her christening gown and her grandmother’s, her mother’s, and her own wedding dresses. The edges remained ragged and unfinished, so it could expand with each generation, but the tradition had died. With Rachel and Nyla unable to marry and baby christenings illegal, there was no longer any fodder to nourish the quilt’s growth or the body’s soul.

Ruby was frightened for Nyla and her friends and worried about how they would cross the Rio Bravo. The famed river was rumored to be a treacherous obstacle separating America and Mexico. The media touted it as an insurmountable obstacle, but she knew from Crystal’s mother that its power had been exaggerated and the river was shallow much of the year.

Months had passed since the desert had seen significant rain, a fact that played in Nyla’s group’s favor, but Ruby had heard a large storm was on its way. She hoped the rains would hold off or the storm wouldn’t venture far enough south to cause Nyla additional danger. The only thing she could do for them now was pray. Ruby opened her Bible to Exodus, chapter fourteen, verse twenty-one and began to read.

And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

As Ruby continued to read about Moses’ flight and how the Lord parted the Red Sea to allow the children of Israel escape the Pharaoh’s army and deliver them from a life of slavery, she began to believe Nyla and her friends might succeed. She closed her eyes and prayed that the Rio Bravo would be as generous to Nyla and her friends on their flight for freedom, and that He would shelter them underneath His wing.