A few guards asked about my training as we watched over the field. Frank, the one I’d beaten to earn my place, seemed particularly interested. “Is it hard to learn to use knives like that?”
“It takes time,” I answered.
“Is it dangerous?”
“You don’t train with live blades when you’re starting out.”
“Would you mind showing me some moves sometime?”
“Not if you don’t mind learning from a girl.” Other men laughed at this.
But Frank shrugged.
He fell quiet then, and I waited for instructions. Ordinarily, the force split, and they planted more than one field at a time, but Longshot felt uneasy with that practice. He thought, given the numbers we’d faced earlier, that it was safest to plant them individually and not dilute our strength. After the battle that morning, I agreed.
I went over to Longshot after he settled against the wagon, Old Girl propped across one arm. “What’s the planting usually like?”
“Not like this.” His tone was grim. “Not in years anyway. Those numbers were downright … unnatural.”
That couldn’t be good news. All the way here, we’d seen evidence of heavy Freak infestation, but since I was newly arrived Topside, I didn’t know what was normal. Fade had said they didn’t live aboveground when he was a brat, but it was impossible to say when they’d first found their way out. I only knew they hadn’t spread into Stalker’s part of the runs, as he’d never seen them before hunting us.
As I considered, I decided Freaks couldn’t have been born underground, as I had been, or they wouldn’t be so widespread. The whole world seemed swollen with them, like a rotten corpse. Where they had first come from, I didn’t know, but there must be a center, the deepest part of an infected wound.
“So there were more than usual?” Stalker asked, joining us. Some of his rage seemed to have burned down during the fight, but he still wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“That was more than we’d ordinarily see in a year,” the older man answered, brow furrowed.
“You don’t usually guard the fields?” Fade asked.
Longshot shook his head. “No need. They don’t organize. They rove.”
“I told you, the ones we ran into have gotten smarter.” I’d warned him on our arrival, but I didn’t know how seriously he’d taken me.
Now he sighed. “Just what we need, as if life out here isn’t tough enough.”
The rest of the day passed without mishap. If there were other Freaks in the area, they decided to go after easier prey. But the attack left me with a strong sense of apprehension. They had lain in wait, and apparently they’d known the route that the convoy would take. They also must have been aware there would be more trips back and forth to the fields, not for a while, granted. But once the plants sprouted, the growers would return, and so the patrols would resume.
It made sense to me that they would try again.
My instincts were also telling me that if these Freaks were bright enough to plan a rudimentary ambush, there was no telling what else they might think up. These were definitely the smartest I’d ever seen, and it was downright terrifying. Stalker didn’t have enough experience with the creatures to judge; I fell into step with Fade on the way back, wondering if he felt the same.
“What do you think?” I said, low.
“The monsters are different.” He confirmed my opinion in a soft voice.
“Do you have any idea what’s changing them?”
Fade shook his head. “If I did, maybe I could help somehow.”
Yes, that was the crux of the matter. I cherished the small bit of respect I’d garnered in the fight today, and I didn’t want to lose it by circulating wild theories with no solutions. Maybe my time down below had made me reluctant to offer my thoughts to the elders, but at this juncture I couldn’t be faulted for caution. It was a precarious situation, and one that left my stomach tied in knots as we approached the front gates. We’d borne so much; the threat of losing my safe haven scared me—and if I wasn’t fighting, fear preyed on me just as much as the next person. I was just better at hiding it than most.
“What happened?” the guard called.
“Muties,” Longshot replied. “Six lost. Now open the gates ’fore it’s dark!”
A rumble went through the men on the walls, and soon the word rushed through town. From out here, I heard the hue and cry of people carrying word. The men on the wall tonight had to be glad they weren’t on summer patrol. Only a crazy person like me would feel like such a risky job made her life worth something.
They let us in without ceremony, and there were wives and husbands waiting to see if they’d lost somebody. To my surprise, I found Momma Oaks searching for me, Edmund in tow. The fact that he’d come out in the dark to meet us made me feel a little lighter. I’d wondered if he saw me as a nuisance who slept in his house and ate his food … but apparently not.
“You’re covered in blood,” she said on a little sob. Her eyes teared up, and Edmund patted her ineffectually.
“I’m not hurt.” I didn’t understand what was happening here.
“Hug her,” Longshot advised me kindly. “She’s lost children before, and now that she’s adopted you—”
“Adopted.” That was a new word. I didn’t know what it meant, but I thought it had something to do with the way her hands fluttered toward me, and then back, like she didn’t know what to do with them. Feeling awkward, I stepped in and added my consoling touch to Edmund’s. Women are emotional, his gaze said. For the first time, I shared a moment with him of complete understanding. If this was how women reacted to things in Salvation, I didn’t think I’d ever be one, no matter how many dresses Momma Oaks sewed for me.
“She’ll be all right in a minute,” Edmund told me.
“I’m fine now,” she snapped through her tears. “We should get you home and washed. Those clothes may never come clean.”
That, I understood. Down below, sometimes people would fuss about things, when it was really something else bothering them. That was a common human trait, it appeared. So, without protest, I went with my foster parents, while casting a bemused look over my shoulder at Fade. It seemed wrong that I should have both of them waiting when he had nobody. Mr. Jensen had not come to see if his assistant made it back alive.