Monument 14: Savage Drift (Monument 14 Series) (7 page)

“I’d never let them do tests on me,” Astrid said. Her voice was cold.

“Lots of women say this. But when they learn more, they change their mind. Very good money. Low risks.”

“They’re taking people away against their will,” Astrid said.

I tried to tell her to stay quiet with my eyes.

“For you, you need rest, okay, Mama? Take rest. Take vitamins.”

Nurse Kiyoko wrote a prescription on a pad. I thought only doctors could do that, but maybe things were different in Canada.

“Vitamin D. This will help.”

Around this moment we heard a shrill voice yelling outside the tents. A kid.

“I will just check dilation, next, mmph,” Kiyoko continued, but we hardly heard her.

“Astrid?” came the voice outside the tent. Jesus, it was Chloe. “Astrid? Dean? Where are you?”

She had to be right outside the tent.

“Chloe! What’s wrong?” I yelled.

What had happened? My heart was up in my throat in an instant.

“Where are you?” I shouted.

“Where are
you
?!” Chloe snapped back.

I stepped out of the curtain in the main passage of the tent and saw her pass by outside the open door. She had something in her hand.

“Chloe!” I yelled.

She stepped in, pushing right past the nurse in fatigues.

“Oh my God, guess what?!” she gushed. “We’re FAMOUS! Like really, really famous!”

Chloe held up a newspaper.

“Alex wrote a letter to a newspaper and they printed it and it tells our whole story, about how close we were to NORAD and everything!” She glanced at Kiyoko. “Hi.”

There was a slugline reading:
THE MONUMENT
14
.

“That’s really cool,” I tried to cover. “We’ll read it all together with the others back at the tent. We’re in the middle of something here—”

Chloe didn’t even hear me. She barreled on.

“Look, it’s all about us and how we made it from Monument to Denver and about Mrs. Wooly and everything. Astrid, look, here’s the part about you.”

Chloe pointed to a paragraph.

“Now’s not the time,” Astrid said. She pulled her shirt down, getting the gel all over it.

I helped her off the table.

Kiyoko took the newspaper from Chloe.

“But it tells our whole story! About the compounds and the black cloud and how the others went to Denver in a bus and came back for us. And now anyone can find us. Everyone can know where we are!” Chloe exclaimed. “It’s how our parents will find us!”

“Let’s go read it outside,” I said. I took the paper from Nurse Kiyoko. “Thanks again for everything.”

She looked pissed.

“Lying to a nurse is very bad,” Kiyoko said sternly. “Pregnant women, exposed to compounds, need special care.”

I grabbed Astrid’s arm and steered her away from her.

“I don’t need special care. I’m fine,” Astrid said.

We were at the door to the tent now.

“You guys! You should be happy!” Chloe complained, trailing behind us. “I thought you’d be psyched.”

“Wait!” Kiyoko called. She turned around and called for the other nurse. “You need to tell me the truth! And we need to do some tests.”

We sped away from the medical tents as fast as we could.

“I still don’t understand why you’re not excited!” Chloe whined.

Astrid turned around and grabbed Chloe by both arms.

“I didn’t want them to know my real name!” she snapped.

“Why?” Chloe asked. “That doesn’t even make sense? I mean, how am I supposed to know that?”

We left her behind.

“You know, Alex and Sahalia were really psyched about the letter. They kept it a secret and everything.”

We were headed toward, I don’t know where. Away from Chloe.

“Try a little gratitude sometime!” she yelled after us.

CHAPTER EIGHT

JOSIE

DAY 32

Sometimes we get a moment of reprieve and this afternoon,
in the courtyard, it’s a blue-sky Indian summer
kind of day and someone lends Freddy a Frisbee.

We all play, even me.

Heather’s shouting, “Throw me the Frithhhbee!”

Aidan, who’s the youngest—just 8—is somehow really, really good at it and can place the Frisbee wherever he wants.

Freddy is hyper, like always, but in the sun, on an unusually warm day, it’s okay. Everything is okay.

Inmates are watching us play now. I don’t like the way some of them look at Lori and me, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

Then Venger comes into the courtyard and I can feel him watching us.

Somehow I know to tone it down, to make it seem like I’m not having fun.

And then my instincts tell me, nope, he’s watching me too closely. I’d better stop.

“I’m out,” I tell them. “I’m just going to watch.”

And I sit down next to Mario, on the cement bench.

I’m breathing hard. My adrenaline is up and suddenly I have the feeling that if I could exercise this way every day, maybe I could get rid of some of the rage.

I feel a little jab of hope in my heart.
Maybe I could get rid of some of the rage.

“You’re looking good out there,” Mario tells me.

I roll my eyes, and I smile. He can usually get a smile out of me.

Then I see that Aidan is holding his crotch a little between throws. He’s doing that shifty little thing with his legs that boys do when they need to pee.

I nudge Mario and point.

“Aidan needs to go.”

“Aidan,” Mario shouts. “Go take a leak.”

“In a minute,” he calls back.

I don’t blame Aidan. It’s the best moment we’ve had. Who wants to leave and go into the cesspit of a bathroom, to fend off God knows what perverts are lurking in the stalls?

“Lori okay?” Mario asks me.

“I don’t know,” I tell him.

“Don’t like her?”

“It’s not that.”

“Must be something. That girl would do sorcery if she thought she could get you to like her. Throw a friendy spell on you.”

I sigh.

The sun feels so good on my face. I don’t want to talk.

“Hmmm?” Mario prods.

“I don’t want to be responsible to anyone, Mario. I am not…”

“Not what?”

“Not safe,” I answer. My stupid voice cracks.

“I want you to remember something, Josie Miller. What you did, it was to protect your friends. You saved those kids when you attacked that soldier.”

“Killed him.”

“What?”

“I didn’t just attack him. I killed him,” I say.

“Yeah, okay, you killed him.”

“The other guy, too. The dad.”

“No-good Tad Mandry. He deserved what he got, trapping a bunch of kids the way he did. I think when you get to Niko’s farm, you’re gonna let go of all that junk. Move on. We just gotta get you outta here.”

I have the note from Niko about the farm in my pocket. He had given it to Mario, in case Mario somehow found me. The note is on a small scrap of graph paper. The paper is soft and degrading at the folds and edges. Sometimes I would just put my fingers on it, just touch it to remind myself it’s here.

In Niko’s square print, it reads:

Josie—You can trust this man. Meet me at my uncle’s farm in New Holland. Red Hill Road. I love you always. No matter what.

—Niko

No matter what
you do
.

You do
are the unwritten words.

Also unwritten: no matter who you kill.

I keep my eyes on my EZ-on mules. No way am I going to let myself feel anything, out in the courtyard. Venger standing at the fence watching us.

“You saved your friends. That’s what counts. You gotta let the rest go.”

I look at my feet so I won’t see the compassion in Mario’s eyes.

Sometimes it makes me want to break things.

Venger drifts off around the side of Excellence and I decide I can play again.

*   *   *

Courtyard period is almost over and the sun is starting to go down when Aidan suddenly begs Freddy to come to the john with him. And Freddy, of course, refuses, and Aidan starts to race for the building and wets himself.

He stops running, aghast. His chinos are turning dark brown and there’s a puddle underfoot on the cement tile deck.

“Scietto!” Venger’s voice booms out across the courtyard. “Look what your boy did!”

And Mario’s already up, crossing to Aidan as fast as he can hobble. Which is not fast. He’s old.

I get there first. “It’s okay,” I say to Aidan.

Venger is on us.

“How old are you, boy?” he sneers.

Aidan sniffles. “Eight,” through his tears.

“Eight years old and messing yourself like a toddler, aren’t you ashamed?”

My pulse is banging in my neck now.

“All right,” Mario says, drawing near, taking short, gaspy breaths. “Little accident. We’ll fix it.”

Mario puts out a hand on my shoulder to steady himself.

“Can the boy go inside and get cleaned up?”

“Courtyard period’s almost over,” Venger snaps. “He can wait out here with everyone else. It will teach him a lesson.”

A little sob/sigh catches in Aidan’s throat. His face is twisted in misery.

Venger’s a sadistic a-hole and I wish, I wish, I wish I could teach
him
a lesson.

“But this mess can’t stay on my courtyard,” Venger says.

“I’ll clean it up,” Mario says.

“Darn right you will,” Venger growls. “You’re his sponsor.”

“No problemo,” Mario says. “Say, can I send the girl for a rag?”

“I’d recommend it,” Venger says. “This puddle better be gone by dinner bell or you’re all docked.”

None of the kids can stand to lose a meal. We’re all stick-skinny as it is.

Dinner’s in maybe ten minutes so I run.

*   *   *

My feet slide on the linoleum in my stupid house shoes. Not the first time I’ve cursed these things.

I nearly crash into a fat man in stained overalls who’s gazing listlessly out of a frosted window.

“Watch it!” he yells.

I skid away, not bothering with an apology.

*   *   *

When I return to the courtyard, with one of our two towels, it’s maybe three minutes to the bell.

Mario and the kids are standing there. Aidan’s shivering and crying. Heather’s crying now, too.

I drop to my knees and begin to wipe up the puddle.

Then,
bam,
there’s a foot pushing me over.

“I said SCIETTO was supposed to clean it up!” Venger says.

“She’s sorry, she’s sorry!” Mario sputters.

For his sake, I speak. “I’m sorry,” I say.

The dinner bell rings.

“Yeah, you’re sorry,” Venger spits. “Seeing as you’re so eager to clean, I guess you can stay out here and clean it good.”

Venger pushes Aidan and Heather toward Plaza 900.

“Say, Mr. Venger,” Mario stammers. “I’ve been meaning to apologize about that mess at the fence a few days ago—”

“Go on,” Venger says. “Scietto, take your brats and feed them!”

“Josie wanted to apologize, too, didn’t cha, hun?”

Mario is telling me to beg.

He knows Venger’s been waiting for some way to pay me back for my defiance at the gate.

I am not going to beg.

I drop to my hands and knees and start to scrub.

“No, she’s too proud to apologize,” Venger says. “It’s okay, Scietto. I’ll take care of your girl. Go on, now, go have your supper.”

Mario says nothing in reply, and for that I am glad.

He gets the kids out of there, before Venger changes his mind.

CHAPTER NINE

DEAN

DAY 32

Astrid was saying, “Oh my God,” on repeat.

I seemed to be stuck on, “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay!” she finally snapped. “She’s totally going to track me down. With that letter she has my real name, my whole story. She’s going to rat me out!”

Her face was flushed and her breathing shallow. She was going to make herself sick with this, I thought, and then I burst out, “Enough! Stop! We have to think about what she said.”

I held her two arms and got her to look at me.

“She said that most women who hear about the testing refuse at first but then change their minds when they hear about the money.”

Her expression shifted into doubt.

“And she said pregnant women who’ve been exposed need special care, Astrid. I think we should come clean with her and listen to what she has to say. We need to think about the health of the baby.”

“Do you think that I’m not worried about the health of the baby?” She was furious now. “I lie there at night and I feel it moving inside me. And I worry so much about what might be wrong! I just want to get somewhere safe.”

“But it is safe here!”

Astrid looked away from me. I went on. “I just … I can’t think that the US Army would take women away without their consent. It would be totally illegal, Astrid. It would be immoral. Wrong.”

I waited for her to say something like, “It’s illegal for them to keep the Os locked up at Mizzou.” Or, “Wasn’t it immoral when the US government made the compounds in the first place?”

Instead she just looked me in the eye and said, “I want to find Jake.”

*   *   *

I fumed.

We searched the camp for Jake and I fumed.

Here I was, totally supporting her, trying to help her to calm down and think rationally, and she was going to turn to Jake at the first disagreement.

Maybe Jake was right. Maybe I was whipped. Maybe I gave in to her all the time. Why else would she shut me down when I tried to talk sense to her?

The man of the hour, of course, was nowhere to be found.

Not in the dining hall. (Thankfully they were still serving breakfast. I wolfed down two bacon and egg sandwiches while Astrid stood waiting irritably, almost tapping her foot with impatience. She wouldn’t eat anything but a banana. Said the smell of eggs made her want to puke.)

He was not on the grounds—that we could see.

And not in the rec hall.

We couldn’t find Alex and Sahalia, either, for that matter.

*   *   *

Finally, we ran into Mrs. McKinley and Mrs. Dominguez, out with the little kids, way, way down on the eleventh green. They were building a playhouse in a thick stand of trees at the edge of the course that bordered the road.