Jesse was on her feet and running towards a break in the gate. We were all following her, but I was still having trouble with the idea of taking orders from my little sister. This was the kid who thought that coward meant, “to move towards a cow.” This is the kid who thought that you could tell a person was evil if their fingers formed a steeple while they were talking. This is the kid who said that if a genie told her it was against the rules to wish for more wishes, she would simply wish for more genies.
Come to think of it, that kind of made sense. And it also made sense to follow Jesse at that moment because I had no idea where to go. Besides the little voices, check that, the little feelings in my head told me it was the right thing to do. I also knew we didn’t have long before the soldiers realized they were chasing a cat and not following our trail.
I suddenly felt wild and free and it occurred to me that it was the first time I’d been outside the compound, outside any compound, since this all started. First I stayed in the confines of my house, then Ghost’s house, then the jeep, then the refugee center, then the helicopter, and then the domed community of New Arlington. But I had busted out into unguarded space, where nothing was protected nothing was paved. I found myself tripping over weedy vines and rocky, lumpy soil and I was seriously, seriously regretting my choice of shoes. Of course had I known I would be running for my life, again, instead of trying to impress a boy from school, I would have worn something a little more sensible. I guess if I’d have known I would end up killing the boy from school, I wouldn’t have gone at all.
I couldn’t run as well as the others. I stumbled into a half-buried boulder in my open-toed stilettos and it made me remember every swear word I’d heard in my life. I had my split-kit hanging off one shoulder and my mother’s hanging off the other and they kept swinging around and pulling me off-balance. My heels frequently caught in the weeds or they’d sink into the softer patches of dirt. I tripped up on dry vines and nearly fell. I would have taken those damn shoes off if it weren’t for the thorns under my feet, thorns that were already scratching away at the exposed skin between the silky straps of my stilettos. The others were way ahead of me and if it wasn’t for Houston checking behind himself and running back to pick me up, I would have been left behind for good. And why not? The others deserved to get away, they didn’t kill anyone. They didn’t take an innocent life. I deserved to be left behind. I deserved to be caught.
No wonder I couldn’t follow them. Guilt goggles make it hard to see straight.
But Houston wasn’t having any of it. He refused to let me fall behind. My heel sunk into the soil and tripped me up again, making me face plant in the dirt. “What’s wrong with you?” asked Houston. “You used to run faster than me!”
Was he serious? Only a guy wouldn’t notice the high heels that were holding me back. “Oh I don’t know, Houston,” I snapped. “I just thought the ground needed a hug.”
“That skirt can’t be of much help. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to go on a hot date before you run for your life?”
“What’s wrong with my skirt?” I said with irritation. “Do you think it’s too short? Too tight?”
“Not if you’ve been shot in the butt and need a tourniquet.” He reached out a hand and pulled me to my feet. I swear I could feel him smiling at his own joke in the darkness.
I wondered if I would be more of a help if I stopped running. I would have made a great diversion. I could strike a pose and look extra-helpless. And when the soldiers caught up to me I could do what Killer did and lead them on a wild goose chase so the rest could escape. A slow, stuttering, trip-tastic wild goose chase.
Just when I thought I couldn’t go any farther we stopped. We were standing in the middle of the field, almost where it came up to the hills that lead up to the Shenandoah mountains. I could still see our complex behind us. Worse yet, I could see the bouncing points of light from the soldier’s flashlights and hear the distant sound of Naked’s barking. I felt fear rising up in my throat, threatening to choke out any rational thought. Why weren’t we running? They’d catch up to us if we didn’t get moving soon!
But Jesse just stood there with an expression that was half irritation and half exasperation. She put her hands on her hips and pouted. “I swear this is where she was!”
“Where who was?” asked Margaret between gasps of air.
“The de….uh, the girl. My, um, my friend. This is where I last saw her, right before she disappeared.”
“Are you sure she wasn’t a ghost? That would ‘splain why she dizzappeared.” The little boy wasn’t trying to make fun of Jesse. His voice sounded sincere and cute at the same time.
Jesse didn’t think it was cute. She fixed him with an Are-You-Kidding-Me? stare and emphatically said, “There’s no such things as ghosts.” I didn’t point out that Ghost got his name from her, because that’s what she thought he was when she first saw him in the window across the street.
Houston asked the question that was on all of our minds. “What was a little girl doing outside the compound?” But Jesse ignored him and started testing the ground with her foot. It ticked me off that she was playing with a memory that may or may not have been real. She was annoying Margaret as well. “We can’t wait around here! We should run for those hills and see if we can hide in the trees!” She turned around and started to walk away. Part of me wanted to follow her. Part of me wanted to see what Jesse could find. All of me knew that Naked would sniff us out and find us if we didn’t do something soon.
Margaret turned around to see if anyone was following her. I looked at Jesse to see if she remembered where she meant to take us. I didn’t get to look very long. She took her split kit off her back and dropped it. It disappeared instantly. A split second later so did she. She was there in front of me, and then with a yelp of surprise she was gone. Where did she go?
Houston was on his hands and knees in a flash, feeling around the area where we last saw her. He reached into a black space and called out, “I think it’s a tunnel!” Before I knew it, he dropped his two kits into that black hole and disappeared after them.
“Is he crazy?” Margret cried out. “He doesn’t know where that goes!”
“All I know is that it goes away from the soldiers and towards my sister,” I said before I jumped down after them.