Sky Jumpers Series, Book 1 (12 page)

The smell of vegetable soup and baking bread wafted from the kitchen. Aaren and Brenna sat beside me on the wooden bench where my mom usually sat for town meetings. I rocked back and forth with my arms wrapped around my knees and waited for news of my dad. My fingers were numb from the cold, but I couldn’t seem to make myself move—even to get closer to the hearth fires.

Before Mickelson let Dr. Grenwood have men carry my dad down the hall to the clinic, he demanded the town’s records so they could make a list of everyone age fourteen and over. In the last two hours, Mickelson’s men had gathered anyone who’d stayed home from the council meeting and brought them to the community center to be counted.

Now every member of White Rock huddled in the gym or in one of the classrooms. The bandits even put people in the library. This building was designed to house everyone in White Rock in an emergency, but we didn’t have much space. With bandits in every room, at least it meant there were only six in the gym with us, instead of thirty-four.

“Is it supposed to take this long?” I asked Aaren for easily the twelfth time as his dad walked toward us.

Mr. Grenwood put his hand on my shoulder to stop my rocking and answered for Aaren. “Yes, it’s normal. My wife’s good at this kind of thing, Hope. She’ll be done soon. Your mom will be in here the second that bullet comes out to let you know how he’s doing. And if you need anything, we’re just right over there.” Mr. Grenwood pointed to the rest of Aaren’s family, gathered near one of the hearth fires; then he took Brenna’s hand and led her back to them.

When Joey and Dr. Grenwood came through the door supporting my dad, I leapt up and helped them position him with his back against the wall. My mom sat next to him and held his hand with both of hers.

I knelt down, wrapped my arms around his neck, and gave him the tightest hug I dared. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be all right, pumpkin. Are
you
okay? Things got a little scary in here.” His voice sounded so strained, like even talking hurt.

I nodded and wiped away a stray tear, then turned to Dr. Grenwood. “Shouldn’t he be in a bed at the clinic?”

Dr. Grenwood tucked a curl behind her ear as she adjusted the bandage on his leg. “Yes, he should. But your dad’s tough.”

“We had our own personal bandit watching us in there”—my dad’s eyes searched the room as Mr. Newberry wandered toward us, trying not to be noticed by the bandits—“and I need to talk with the council. Is Newberry the only one here?”

“Yeah,” I said. “They split up the council—one to a room.”

He grunted, then squeezed my mom’s and my hands. “Can you two give us a minute?”

Aaren, my mom, and I scooted a few feet away but stayed close enough to hear their whispered conversation.

My dad coughed a couple of times. It was like the cough emptied his entire body of air. He took a deep breath, then said in a voice that sounded like it took more energy than he had, “Any word on how the bandits got in? Joey would’ve seen them if they came through the pass.”

“Nope. Not through the pass,” Mr. Newberry said. “Burke Davies was at the ball mill when the bandits collected everyone who wasn’t at the meeting. He said bandits were guarding the mines.”

The mines!
My mind flashed to the hole in the mine floor Mr. Williams had shown us on our field trip, then to the Harvest Festival when I saw Mickelson and the shorter man on the path by the river. I felt sick.

My dad exhaled like he was in a lot of pain. “I thought there wasn’t a way in or out through those caves!”

Mr. Newberry shrugged. “I guess we were wrong.”

His words sent chills down my back, because it was so close to what Mr. Allen had said when he talked about the choices made in World War III. I suppose, in a way, I was witnessing White Rock’s history being made.

Mr. Newberry took a breath like he was going to say something else, but the nine p.m. whistle blew, the doors at the back of the gym burst open, and Mickelson strolled in.

“Line up!”

My mom jumped to her feet. Panic filled her face as she glanced between the line forming and my dad, probably because she hated to leave him while she lined up.

In the moment she hesitated, a dark-haired bandit came over and yelled, “You heard the man. He said, ‘Line up!’ ” Then he shoved her really hard, knocking her to the floor with enough force that she skidded several feet.

People ran forward, grabbed her, and pulled her into the line.

“Get in line!” the same bandit yelled, and I turned
from my mom just in time to see it was my dad he yelled at.
My dad
. He didn’t look like he could move an inch, let alone line up.

It was too much. I couldn’t sit and do nothing while he treated my parents that way. Without thinking, I stepped between the bandit and my dad. “He can’t!” I yelled. “You guys shot him!”

I saw a blur of motion from the bandit’s arm, but he was so quick. There wasn’t any time to duck or turn as his open hand hit my face and sent me sprawling to the floor. My hand flew to the stinging pain in my cheek.

“
Everyone
over fourteen lines up. Everyone
under
fourteen stays out of the way and doesn’t make problems for everyone else.”

I wasn’t too injured to catch the threat in his voice—he’d punish everyone if I didn’t keep my mouth shut. A couple of my neighbors helped my dad while I moved away from the line. Aaren and Carina joined me, not saying a word, and Brenna buried her face against Aaren.

Mickelson and the six bandits went up and down the line and smacked people who didn’t stand straight enough, or who made the line crooked, or who muttered something under their breath. Anything they could do to make people more afraid.

The looks on the faces of everyone in my town made my heart sink into my stomach. They were so afraid and
already giving up hope. It wouldn’t take long before every one of them would hand over the Ameiphus to get the bandits to leave.

The sharp pain in my cheek slowly changed to a burning heat, and I could tell the handprint was starting to swell. But that didn’t stop me from worrying about my parents. They needed help. The entire town needed help. There was nothing any of us could do to stop the bandits. Not without weapons and not without our guard. We had neither.

Even if the bandits didn’t shoot anyone else, without our medicine, people would die. Someone had to find a way to get our guard!

Suddenly I realized that Mr. Hudson’s mantra of “work with your strengths” could actually apply to me. So many times I’d thought about the things I’d willingly trade for being good at inventing. But for the first time ever, I thought about what I
wasn’t
willing to trade. I definitely wouldn’t trade my physical abilities. Maybe the fact that I always took too many risks could be a strength.

A fire burned in my chest as strong as the fire shaped like a bandit’s hand on my cheek. Maybe
I
could get our guard.

I went through everything in my head. I could escape through the loose paneling Aaren and I had found that led into the closed-off hallway. And I could go through the Bomb’s Breath and over the mountain to get to Browning. I didn’t exactly know where Browning was, except that it was northeast of us—the direction of the rock formation at the top of the mountain that looked like a shovel. If I started on the path we took to our cliff, I could continue on, keeping the Shovel in sight. When I reached the crest of the mountain, I’d be able to look down and see Browning on the plains. It was an entire town with almost as many people as White Rock, so it couldn’t be hard to find.

The more I thought about it, the more I decided it
might be possible. It wouldn’t be like sneaking off to sky jump, though. It could take a while. And if I went without telling my parents, they’d panic. But telling them would mean I’d have to confess to my dad that I’d jumped into the Bomb’s Breath. I think every time he even heard the words
Bomb’s Breath
, he thought of his childhood friends who’d died. If I told, he’d be so horrified, sky jumping would be over for me forever.

Losing the Bomb’s Breath wasn’t the biggest reason not to go, but the other reasons were too painful to think about.

Moment by moment, my dad looked worse. His face twisted in pain, and his skin was so pale, it was white. I knew he could pass out at any minute. The bandits had everyone counted, but still they harassed people and made them all stay in line. Maybe they did it to scare us. Maybe they did it to punish the town because of my outburst. Or maybe they did it to make my dad stand there longer.

Whatever their reason, it convinced me I’d made the right choice.

“I have to get them,” I muttered.

Aaren’s eyes bored into me, probably trying to figure out what I meant. I turned to him. “Aaren, I’m going to Browning to get our guard.” I stuck my hands in my pockets to keep them from shaking as both Carina’s and Aaren’s eyes widened and Brenna looked at me in
confusion. “I can sneak out. They only count fourteens and older, so they wouldn’t miss me. You heard my dad and Mr. Newberry. They’ve got men guarding the mines, so no one could go for help that way. The only way to get help is by going through the Bomb’s Breath and over the mountain. You know as well as I do that no one else would even consider it.”

Aaren shook his head. “No, Hope. You can’t go. You—What about your parents?”

My mom stood in the line with her shoulders hunched, her trembling arms hugging her torso. I pictured my dad’s big, strong arms wrapped around her, protecting her from all harm like he always did. When I looked to my dad, though, he seemed anything but big and strong and capable of protecting her.

“I’ve helped my mom treat gunshot wounds before,” Aaren said. “Bandits make their own bullets. They aren’t sterile, and they aren’t made of good metal like the ones we have. They break apart more. They cause bad infections.”

I shook my head while he talked. This was the part I couldn’t face. The thoughts I didn’t want to have or they’d overwhelm me. Make me not want to go. I wished he’d stop, but he didn’t.

“You think he looks bad now? This is the beginning,
Hope! He
will
get worse and worse, and without any Ameiphus he could die, and you wouldn’t be here.”

Brenna looked up with horror on her face. “Hope’s dad is going to die?”

It was obvious Aaren had forgotten that Brenna was with us. “Oh, sorry, no. He’ll be fine. Um …” He looked around until he spotted his thirteen-year-old sister, Beth, standing next to his ten-year-old sister, Lily. “Beth is right over there. See? Will you go to her for a few minutes?”

Brenna looked up at me with worry in her eyes, then ran to her sisters.

As soon as Brenna was out of hearing range, I whispered, “I know.” I could barely breathe. “But don’t you see? That’s why I have to go! If I can get to Browning and bring back the guard members to save us, we can give him Ameiphus!”

Carina looked at Aaren and me, then grabbed my shoulders. “Hope, listen. It’d be crazy to go! And what about your mom? If your dad’s going to get worse, can she handle that? She needs you!”

“But I might make it back in time. And if I don’t go, he
will
die.” I gestured to everyone in the line. “And what about them? Without the Ameiphus, a lot of them will die, too.” I watched my dad as the people around him held him up. The lady next to my mom had an arm around
her shoulders. “People here help each other,” I whispered. “That’s what I’m trying to do, too.”

Aaren and I watched the line of those fourteen and older for a long time, seeing everyone flinch whenever a bandit walked past them. Carina just stared at me.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Aaren spoke. “You’re right. There’s not more than a couple of people up there who believe we can make it out of this without giving up the Ameiphus. We need our guard.”

We all stood in silence as several bandits came in, one at a time, to report the count from each of their rooms.

“Do we tell your parents, or do we just sneak out?” Aaren asked.

My eyes went to his stomach. To where his shirt covered his injury. “Aaren … I don’t want you to go.”

He didn’t say a word.

Going alone scared me more than I was willing to admit. I didn’t know which was worse—trying to do something this big alone, or risking Aaren getting hurt more. Then I realized that it didn’t matter. Aaren would find a way to join me. That was the kind of friend he was. He’d never leave me to do this alone.

“You’re going to come anyway, aren’t you?” I asked.

He grinned. “Yep.”

I watched my mom’s worried face as she looked past several people in the line to where my dad was being held
in a standing position by those on either side of him. “Then yes,” I said. “We tell.”

“The numbers are in,” Mickelson announced. “You’re free to leave the line.”

I let out a breath I’d been holding for too long and ran toward my parents.