“You’re seeing stars, if you ask me. Did I accidentally hit you in the head with a shovel out there?” She finishes her plate in record time.
Every day it seems like we get less. More for the Leeches to eat. Their towering complex is gated, surrounded by armed guards. Some days I think about reaching through the iron bars and plucking an apple from the tree that stands just out of reach. But then I’d be another body for Talan to scoop up, and as much as she drives me crazy, I can’t let her go through any more of this life alone. She’s the closest thing I have to family.
“God, I’d do anything to be fat,” Talan says. “Wouldn’t you? Think about it, Zephyr. Just imagine being so full you wouldn’t be able to breathe.”
I keep my mouth shut. The Leeches might not care about our well-being, but they do listen to everything we say.
I’m convinced they watch me the closest. As I eat, I can feel their eyes boring into my back. Sometimes I imagine they know me. Really know me, the way that not even my mom or dad did. I shovel my food into my mouth and let it slide down my throat. It tastes of dirt and earthworms.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Talan growls. She stands and I look up.
The Leeches have gathered across the room. They take turns using their short black whips, lashing someone. I wince.
Those who step out of line pay for it. The jagged scars on my back are proof.
“We spend our lives committing ourselves to your safety,” a Leech barks. Everyone goes quiet and every head turns to look at him.
“We devote our lives to making this world a better place! We command you to obey us, because we want to keep you from pain!” he shouts. He’s tall, dark-haired, and lean-faced. Axel Worth. The Head Officer of the Wards. “And this is how you repay us?”
Two Leeches haul the bloodied man up to his feet. Blood drips from his nostrils. “This man stole extra rations,” Officer Worth says. “This man spat in the face of our authority. He spat in your faces.”
Talan huffs beside me. “Can we finish eating now?”
I stomp on her foot beneath the table to silence her.
“Do you know what we do to those that disobey?” Worth yells.
No one answers. He scans the crowd, passes right over me, and I look away. I don’t draw attention to myself. That’s why I’m still alive, and Talan should take a lesson from me before she gets a rifle butt slammed in her face.
“We end them!”
Worth pulls out a pistol. I don’t look away as he levels it and squeezes the trigger. Blood splatters against the glass barrier and drips slowly down, like rain on a windowpane.
No one moves. No one gasps, or shouts, or cries, because we’ve all seen it before.
“What. An. Idiot,” Talan says to me.
“I was thinking the same thing,” I say, and we finish our meals. They leave the body on the floor.
After lunch, the Wards will pick it up.
CHAPTER 5
MEADOW
I make it to the train tracks right on time.
There is a hiss and a puff, and in the distance, I can see the Red train coming first, hurtling toward me. The tracks skirt the town for the most part, bordering the beach and marshes. But right in the center of the Shallows, by the Rations Hall, the train runs along the street.
The people desperate enough to try for a spot on one of the trains start to crowd around the tracks like locusts. Some push and shove, while others just stand there and try to scream their way to the front. The ground starts to vibrate, and when the Red train slows to an almost-stop, the fighting begins.
Everyone is unforgiving and deadly, and I stay far away.
I wait until the Blue train comes, just like Koi told me to. It is no better than the Red, and I stand back and watch as citizens tear at each other like wild animals.
The last car glides past me, a rusted metal box with a ladder on the back for maintenance. There are already others doing what I am about to do. Soon there will be no more spots left on top. I run, pushing myself onto the balls of my feet, dodging left then right. I spread my arms and leap.
My hands grasp a rung and I hold on tight, legs dangling, swinging dangerously close to a man stretching to yank me off. I kick him, hard, right in the face, and scramble up the ladder as he grabs at the air.
The top of the train is covered in seagull waste, but it keeps the metal from getting too hot. I haul myself up onto my stomach and lie there with the others, heaving for air. The boy closest to me looks away the second I glare at him. He will not be a threat today.
At some point the tracks will fork. One train will go east, toward the Perimeter. The other will go west, past the Graveyard, toward the Initiative Headquarters. I hope that I have made the right choice.
If only Koi could see me now. I smile, and watch as the buildings recede. Thousands of tents litter the surrounding marshlands. Homes for Wards of the State. Sometimes I imagine that if I were a Ward, things would be easier. If I didn’t have Peri or Koi to take care of, I could live free. I could do whatever I wanted, when I wanted, and if I died, I would not leave anyone behind.
But my brother and sister are the little piece of happiness I can call my own in this world. I can never lose them.
The Graveyard stands like a ghostly mountain range in the distance, piles of trash stretching to the sky. Four steam towers drop a constant fog over the Graveyard, working in vain to conceal the stench. Seagulls swoop down, picking at the piles.
Everyone in the Shallows knows to avoid the Graveyard at all costs. The Pirates are not the only dangerous gang out there. The Gravers are by far the worst. As the train barrels past, I start edging my way toward the back of the car, ready to leap if I have to. But the Blue train stays true to course, racing in the direction I want it to go. I watch as the Red train fades into the distance. I wonder if the people inside and clinging to the roof will find a better life. It’s possible their lives will end today.