Behind the Gates (8 page)

Boys!

O
ur group leader sent us out to look for firewood,” says Alonso, who’s tall and thin with a head of thick, dark hair. He has large brown eyes that I’m horrified to find I can’t stop staring at. It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen a boy up close!

“We got so involved looking for the wood that we lost track of where we were,” says the other boy, whose name is Ryan.

“You don’t have any firewood,” Maddie notes suspiciously. I have to give her credit for the observation — I hadn’t even noticed. Of course, I’m in shock, being this close to real live boys.

“We dumped it when we realized we were lost. We’ve
been walking for a long time. I think we might be going in circles,” Ryan says.

Ryan is Alonso’s opposite, reddish blond, strongly built with bright blue eyes; also cute, just in a very different way.

“How can we even know if we’re going in circles?” Alonso says, throwing his arms wide with frustration.

“It all looks the same out here,” Ryan adds. “What I wouldn’t give for a street sign right now!”

That makes me laugh. “I take it you’re not a country boy,” I say with a slight grin.

“No kidding!” Ryan cries, breaking into a smile. “I guess it shows.”

“Kind of,” Maddie agrees wryly.

Evelyn extends her palm and shows them the compass. “This will tell you if you’re walking in circles or not.”

“I
wish
we had a compass!” Alonso cries. “Our group leader, Joe, has one, but he’s not sharing. How did you ever wrestle that away from yours?”

When he says this, I think of how Rosie has been designating different responsibilities to different team
members. Although she’s bossy, she doesn’t hog everything for herself. I make a note to remind Maddie of this later.

“This is actually mine,” Evelyn says. “I brought it with me. I’d lend it to you but I don’t know how I’d ever get it back.”

“I know,” Ryan says. “They keep us separated like something awful will happen if we got together. One cool girl waved to us one time and the headmaster had a conniption.”

“That was me!” I say.

“For real?” Ryan asks, delighted.

“Yeah, for real!”

Ryan raises his hand and I slap him five. “That was so cool — and then all the other girls started waving.”

“We noticed you might be getting in trouble because of it.”

“Yeah, we got scolded. But who cares?” Ryan answers. “It was worth it to know there were actual girls nearby. This place is so weird. I’ve been going to school with girls since kindergarten.”

“Are the three of you lost, too?” Alonso asks.

“No. Compass. Remember?” Evelyn answers. “We just came down for some water. We’ll be boiling a hearty berry and grass soup for supper. Yummy!”

“Berries and grass?” Alonso lets out a bark of laughter. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I was,” Evelyn tells him. “We’re all so hungry! But that’s all we could find to eat.”

Alonso digs in his backpack and pulls out several wax-paper packages of potato chips. Instantly, my mouth begins to water. “Here, you guys can have these,” he offers.

Ryan offers more bags of chips and two apples. “I also have some sandwiches in here that are left over from our lunch. Your group can have them.”

“We can’t take your food,” Maddie protests, though her eyes are wide with longing, too. “What will you eat?”

“We brought in lots of food,” Alonso tells us. “If we ever find our way back to our campsite, we could give you more.”

“You didn’t happen to see a creek in your travels, did you?” I ask. “I know it’s around here somewhere.”

“It’s right behind where we just came from,” Alonso says. “Come on. We’ll show you.”

They take us directly to the creek and we fill the pot with water that looks cool and fresh. “There’s nothing wrong with this water,” Evelyn says as we scoop it into the pot with the cups from our mess kits. “Rosie is just buying into all the lies they’re feeding us at Country Manor.”

“What lies?” Alonso asks.

“Our headmistress says the lake is polluted,” Maddie explains.

“We were just swimming in it,” Ryan says.

“See?” Evelyn remarks knowingly.

“What other lies?” Alonso asks, seeming keen to know.

“I’m not sure, but something is definitely going on at CMS,” Evelyn tells him. She’s in her conspiracy-theory element and finally has a new audience. “Why did they have to take all our electronic devices? If they don’t work,
just let us hang on to them. And why the big secrecy about where we are? Who’s really going to want to come hurt us? We’re just a bunch of teenagers.”

“I agree with you,” Alonso says. “Things have seemed dicey to me right from the start.”

“Paranoid much?” I crack, trying to get along, but frankly sick of Evelyn’s constant worries.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Maddie says.

“So, if you’re not a country boy, where
are
you from?” I ask Ryan. He’s helping me carry the pot of water, which is really heavy now that it’s full. We’ve fallen behind the rest of the group, trying to not spill any water, and I’m happy to have a chance to talk to him.

“Chicago.”

“Chicago!” I cry happily. “Me, too!”

“Wow!” Ryan says. “Cool! What do you miss most about it?”

“Not a thing,” I reply. “It’s crowded and dirty and my parents don’t let me out of their sights for a minute. What’s to miss?”

“It wasn’t always like that,” Ryan says.

He makes me think of the wide streets, beautiful stores, the theaters and restaurants. The lake. The fountain. “I know,” I agree sadly. “But that’s not how it is now. Besides, I love CMS.”

“I do, too, but I miss the Field Museum; at least, the parts that are still open,” Ryan says.

“Yeah,” I agree. The second time the river flooded, the gorgeous museum of natural history and science was practically destroyed. It was a horrible disaster. It was on a day when the museum was closed so no one was hurt, but it ruined big parts of the museum. Priceless, irreplaceable artifacts like rare fossils and skeletons of extinct animals were destroyed forever.

“Even though it’s a wreck, I loved going there,” Ryan says wistfully.

“My favorite was the Art Institute,” I remember fondly. “Before the fire, of course.” It hurts to even think about it. It was in the first year of the War and the Alliance claimed responsibility for igniting a fire that scorched through all the exhibition hallways. Everything
was destroyed. I couldn’t stand to think of my favorites, the French Impressionists like Monet and Seurat, all those great paintings charred beyond recognition.

The memory of it made me want to change the subject.

“You love CMS, too? What do you like most about it?” I ask.

“The athletic program,” Ryan replies. “There was nothing at my old school. Here it feels so good to move. They really challenge you, too. I’ve done stuff I never thought I could do.”

“Like what?”

“I just learned to swim. Never ever swam before. And it turns out I’m good at it.”

“I can’t believe it!” I cry. “I
love
to swim. They have the best pool in the world in our gym, though I haven’t gotten to really swim in it yet. So far all we’ve done is canoe. But that’s something I’d never done before.”

“Exactly!” Ryan says. “There are all these new things! I’m learning so much. CMS is awesome.”

“What do you think of Evelyn’s theories?”

“Alonso is just like her,” Ryan tells me. “He’s a great guy but I think his imagination has gone too wild. It could be that CMS is so cool that it seems too good to be true — so he thinks it can’t be, you know?”

“Makes sense.” It’s a smart conclusion, I think.

As we get closer to our campsite, I can see that Maddie, Evelyn, and Alonso are talking to Rosie. Rosie doesn’t look too happy. In fact, her arms fly up into the air in an angry gesture. She’s shouting at them.

“That doesn’t look good,” I mutter.

“No,” Ryan agrees, looking worried. “It doesn’t.”

As we get even closer, I start to hear what Rosie is shouting.

“Have you missed the point of this weekend completely? We can’t just count on running into other people with food. It’s all about taking care of
ourselves!”

“But we
did
run into people who are willing to give us food,” Maddie protests. “So we had a break; so what?”

“This is stupid!” Evelyn shouts back at Rosie. “I’ve been walking all day and I’m hungry. Starving! And they have food. I want to eat!”

“Then pick up a rifle and shoot something!” Rosie shouts back.

All the other girls have stopped what they were doing and are watching the argument.

“You’re the best shooter in the group, and you couldn’t hit anything,” Maddie reminds Rosie.

“I’m pretty good with a rifle,” Alonso offers. “I could give it a try if you’d like.”

“Nooooo!” Rosie wails. “All of you are
so
not getting it!”

I need to smooth this over somehow. I pick up our pace, closing the last yards between us and the campsite, and Ryan hurries to keep up. “I have the water!” I call out when we’ve just about reached them.

“Great, but you were supposed to carry it yourself,” Rosie snaps.

We set down the bucket and I decide to ignore the criticism. “Rosie, this is Ryan. Ryan, Rosie. And I guess you’ve met Alonso.”

“I don’t care who they are!” she shouts. “Contact with the boys is totally forbidden. They’re not even supposed
to
be
here.” She gestures toward the others in our group. “One of them is bound to slip up and say something. Then we’ll all be in trouble.”

There’s a murmur of discontent from the others. “Can we just have the sandwiches?” Anne Abadi asks, though it’s more a command than a request. “We’re all really starving.”

Anne’s words are echoed by the other girls. Rosie turns toward them and seems to realize an uprising is brewing. “Do what you want,” she huffs at the group, and she stomps over to her tent. “I don’t care anymore.”

When Rosie disappears into her tent, we all just stand there for a minute, silently looking at one another.

“Do you want the sandwiches or not?” Alonso finally asks, speaking to Maddie and Evelyn. They look to me for an opinion.

“Sure. Why not?” I say with a shrug. I look to the others. “Here’s the water if anyone is thirsty or would rather make soup.”

Everyone’s thirsty. No one wants the soup.

We all eat, including Ryan and Alonso. Maddie, Evelyn, and I sit down with them.

“So, Alonso, I know Ryan is from Chicago like we are. Where are you from?” I ask.

“Nowhere,” Alonso says, looking out into the forest.

Maddie laughs lightly. “You must be from somewhere,” she insists. “Everyone’s from someplace.”

“Out east,” Alonso says. “I’ve moved around a lot. Here and there. You know.”

I get the feeling he doesn’t want to talk about his home. But that’s okay; we have more important matters to discuss. “If you guys had a compass, could you find your way back to your group?” I ask.

Alonso and Ryan nod as they chew their sandwiches.

Our map is tucked into the top of Rosie’s half-open backpack, which is still propped against a log outside her tent. I get up and slide it out. “Evelyn, could you get us back to school without the compass?” I ask.

“Definitely not,” Evelyn answers. “But I have my own, remember?” Reaching into her pocket, she hands Alonso her compass.

“Are you sure?” Alonso asks as she hands it over.

“Absolutely,” Evelyn says. “You’d better get going. You don’t have much light left. There’s a small flashlight built into it. Just press.” She demonstrates and shoots a small beam around the campsite.

Suddenly I realize how dark it really is. The other girls are all heading into their tents to sleep. “If you don’t get back, will your group search for you?” I ask the boys.

“They might. We’d better go,” Ryan says, getting up. “Thanks for your help.”

“Thanks for the food,” Maddie says.

Alonso stands by the fire and studies the compass by the flickering light from the dying flames. He turns in the direction we came from. “Okay. I think I know what to do,” he murmurs. Together, he and Ryan pick up their backpacks and head out.

Maddie yawns and stretches. “I have to sleep.”

“Me, too,” Evelyn agrees. With a wave, Maddie crawls into the tent she’s sharing with Evelyn.

“See ya bright and early for more fun and games in
the great outdoors,” Evelyn says wryly as she also heads for the tent.

Suddenly I’m hit with the overwhelming fatigue they’re feeling. But I have a problem. I’m sharing a tent with Rosie, and I’m sort of dreading getting in there with her. If she wakes up — or isn’t even asleep yet — it’s going to be tense, to say the least.

Gazing up at the sky, I see twinkling stars spinning off into a field of clear, dark navy blue. The brilliant three-quarter moon lights up everything. A beautiful night, the clearest I’ve seen in I don’t know how many years.

Luckily, my sleeping bag is still rolled and lashed to the bottom of my backpack. I know my ground cloth is rolled into it and will keep away any dampness.

In an instant, I’m up and untying the sleeping roll from my pack. I’m so tired that I’d rather sleep out here than risk facing Rosie’s anger inside our tent. Finding a flat spot covered with pine needles, I spread out my things and crawl inside the sleeping bag. In about a second, I’m asleep.

Maybe I slept a long time before I started to dream. It could be that I had other dreams that I can’t recall. But
what I remember is this: Maddie, Evelyn, Rosie, and I are captured in a dark and sinister castle. Mrs. Brewster is there sweeping the floor, using an old broom with a branch for a handle. Every time she looks up at us she cackles a witch’s frightening laugh. There’s a crystal ball on the table, and suddenly a picture appears in it. It’s my parents. I run to the ball and see them home in Chicago. Mom’s sick in bed. I have to get home to her. “Mom! Dad!” I shout, but they can’t hear me.

My eyes snap open and I sit up in my sleeping bag.

Everything is pink and bluish gray. I’m not sure where I am for a second. Smelling the charred embers of last night’s fire helps me to remember. But something’s not right. I know this for sure, though at first I can’t make sense of it.