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  The girl wore a tan dress that covered her arms and dropped stiffly to her ankles. It looked heavy, itchy, and uncomfortable.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “I shouldn’t say… you should come with me and talk to Mister Paul,” she said nervously wringing her hands together. “We can sort this out, right?”

  “I’m sure we can,” I said even though I had no idea what the young woman was talking about.

  The three of us followed the girl around the side of the fence and through a gate. Once inside, she closed it and locked it behind her. She looked at us before gesturing to the top of the fence.

  “We saw you peeking in,” she said waving for us to follow. “This way.”

  The little farm wasn’t very big. The man stood, setting his drink down so he could comb his fingers through his greasy hair.

  “Oh shit, um, sorry, welcome?” the man said glancing around as if looking for more people.

  “This is Mister Paul,” the girl said bowing her head as she turned to go back to her work.

  He chuckled. “I shouldn’t have cursed. My apologies your highness.”

  “Who are you?” I asked squinting at the disheveled man.

  “I’m Paul, the girls call me Mister Paul,” he said with a shrug.

  “Okay, I gathered that much but I guess what I meant was how do you know me and what is this place?” I asked.

  The man looked confused. “You’re the president’s daughter, aren’t you?”

  “I am.”

  “Are you out here on official business?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “Should we be?”

  “What kind of trouble are we in? He’s an officer, right?” Mister Paul asked as he pointed to Grayson.

  “A guard. Why would you be in trouble?” Grayson asked.

  “For being out here. Why did he send his daughter out here?” Mister Paul asked. “This is no place for the president’s daughter.”

  I pushed my shoulders back. “My father didn’t send me. Did he send you out here to run this place?”

  “No,” the man said stiffly as he picked up his glass and swallowed down a big drink. “I don’t understand what’s going on here. Are you going to report us?”

  “No, and I wouldn’t even know what to report you for. I’ve never seen you in the city,” I said. “In any case, we won’t be going back to the city. We’ve been banished.”

  Hayes shifted his weight back and forth next to me but he kept his mouth closed.

  “I find that hard to believe. He would banish his own daughter?” Mister Paul asked his mouth hanging open as he looked me over.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” I said looking around. “Can you tell me exactly what’s going on here?”

  “We’re just farmers,” Mister Paul said.

  I looked around. “Who are all these women?”

  “They work here. Don’t worry they get paid for what they do,” Mister Paul said holding up a palm.

  “Who pays them?” I asked.

  “You know,” he said widening his stance. “I don’t think I should say anymore. How do I know you won’t go back and tell your father all about this place?”

  I rolled my eyes. “How would I even get back into the city?”

  “You’re the president’s daughter, I’m sure you have your ways.”

  “So, can I order you to tell me about all this?” I asked gesturing toward one of the fields.

  Mister Paul stared at me for a long moment. “No.”

  “If my father didn’t send you out here, then who did?” I wondered as I stared at him. “Cyrus?”

  Mister Paul blinked and I knew he recognized the name. How big was Cyrus’s operation? And who was all involved?

  “What do you farm here?” I asked looking at his cup.

  “Potatoes, herbs, eggs,” he said with a half-shrug. “You know, all the good farm stuff.”

  “Alcohol?” Hayes said pointing at the cup. “Herbs for medicines… drugs.”

  There had been medicines and booze inside the city but I’d always assumed those who had it acquired it from level two. I never even considered that there would be an underground operation to supply people with a cheaper alternative.

  “Yeah,” Hayes said with a laugh. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “I just work here. I do what I’m told. Keep the girls working,” Paul said. “That’s all I know.”

  Grayson grabbed the cup from the man. “Is this also part of your job?” Grayson sniffed whatever was inside and jerked his head to the side. He chuckled as he handed it back to the man. “You were right, Hayes, nice work.”

  “Shit,” Mister Paul said. “You know they’ll kill me, right? Your dad might even kill them.”

  “I’m not going to tell my father,” I said. “But who are they? I’ve never seen any of you before.”

  Mister Paul dropped down to his chair and poured himself another glass. “Might as well tell you because what you already know is enough to get me killed either by your dad or the people I work for. They’re extras.”

  “Extras?” I asked.

  “Babies who should have never been born according to the stupid laws,” Mister Paul said holding out his arms. “You know, only one baby per family and all that.” Mister Paul lowered his voice and leaned toward us. “But sometimes things happen and surprise, there are extra babies.”

  I swallowed hard. “I… I thought—”

  “Thought what?” Mister Paul asked.

  “That they’d grow up and get to go to school,” I said grimacing at my own foolishness.

  “Didn’t you think people would notice the extra children inside the wall? Officers would report them. Parents send them here to work,” Mister Paul said. “Although it’s not like they have a lot of options.”

  “Won’t their families miss them?” I asked.

  “Of course, but they’d rather have them alive and taken care of,” Mister Paul said. “So basically, if you go back and tell your pa about all this, you’re essentially screwing up all their lives. How will that sit with you?”

  I shook my head as I looked at each of the girls in the area. “Not well. None of this sits well with me and to be honest, it never has. I’ve always wanted better for our city.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll probably never get to go back there myself so all the paper I’m earning while taking care of this place is a waste,” Mister Paul said taking another long drink. “This is a big waste. Did I just say that? Anyway, it was just too hard for me to say no to what was offered to me.”

  “What did you do in the city?” I asked.

  Mister Paul groaned. “I was a shoemaker. Just like my old man did before he croaked years ago. Who do they have making shoes on level one now?”

  “Mr. Stevens,” I said with a shrug. I didn’t know much about the man but he’d always seemed nice enough.

  “Never even heard of him,” Mister Paul said flapping his hand in our direction. “So much has changed since I’ve last been inside.”

  “When was the last time you were there?” Hayes asked.

  Mister Paul flipped up his fingers one by one. “Oh, three years, I think? You were just a cute little bug then,” he said pointing at me.

  “Um, thanks… I think,” I said.

  “Yeah, I never really realized I couldn’t go back,” Mister Paul said taking another drink. “That’s where they got me, I suppose. They told me they could get me back in when the time was right. Get me a new identity but I might as well just stay out here and enjoy the fruits of our labors. It isn’t too bad out here anyway.”

  A massive gust of wind blew past, whipping my hair in front of my face. Mister Paul stood and quickly walked over to a thick string. A bell rang as he pulled it and all the women started tying things down.

  Mister Paul pointed to the sky. “A storm rolling in. They usually come quick.”

  I jerked my head around and looked up at the black clouds racing across the sky like demons coming for our s
ouls.

  “What do you do for the storm?” I asked just as one of the women near the gate reached down and flipped open a square metal hatch.

  Mister Paul grabbed his bottle of booze and held his cup tighter as another powerful breeze threatened to blow us down to our knees. “We hide.”

  He walked away from us as the women began calmly climbing down into the underground hideout. I looked at Hayes, trying to hide my fear of the darkness above.

  I was about to ask what we should do when Mister Paul waved at us. “Come on!”

  Chapter Five

  The walls of their underground shelter were made of stone. There were shelves stacked with supplies and there were several small cots lined up at the back of the rather large room. A bed for each girl it seemed.

  The girl who’d initially let us into the camp offered me a multicolored blanket that looked as though it had been handmade. She bowed her head, refusing to meet my eyes for more than a second as I declined the blanket. I wasn’t cold if anything I was hot. Being trapped below ground reminded me of being stuck inside the wall.

  Hayes, Grayson, and I sat down on the floor near Mister Paul who’d just poured himself another cupful of the clear liquid. The girls were all quiet, keeping to themselves.

  “Why don’t they talk together or play games?” I asked Mister Paul.

  “Years of being isolated in their homes, always having to be absolutely silent,” Mister Paul said shaking his head. “They’re used to being invisible and sadly that feeling inside them doesn’t go away easily.”

  I frowned. “How long have they been here?”

  “It varies. Many have been here longer than I have been. A few are new. They are provided with school books, they’re fed and given plenty of water.” Mister Paul turned to me with a hard look in his eyes. “They can take breaks whenever they want. I’m not hard on them, if you don’t believe me, you can ask them. I don’t have anything to hide.”

  “Will they tell me the truth?” I asked skeptically.

  “They will,” Mister Paul said.

  I stood up and walked over to the girl furthest from Mister Paul. He didn’t even seem the slightest bit nervous that I’d taken him up on his offer. He was confident. But that could have been because he’d had a lot to drink.

  The girl stood when I stopped in front of her. She folded her hands in front of her body and kept her head down.

  She exhaled a quick breath. “Can I help you, miss?”

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Bonnie,” she said softly.

  “How old are you, Bonnie?”

  Her eyes flicked up briefly. “Thirteen. My birthday was last week.”

  “Oh, happy birthday. I just wanted to talk to you… ask you a couple questions. Is that okay?”

  “Yes,” she said her body rigid.

  “Do you like it here?” I asked bending my knees slightly so I could see into her eyes.

  She nodded. “I do.”

  “Would you rather be in the city?”

  Bonnie chewed her cheek. “I miss my family and the storms scare me but otherwise I like it here enough.”

  I lowered my voice softer than a whisper. “How about Mister Paul?”

  She shook her head as if she didn’t understand my question.

  “Is Mister Paul kind to you? Is he a good man?” I asked my voice even softer. I wanted her to feel safe because I wanted her to feel like she could tell me the truth.

  “Oh, yes,” she said flicking me a wide-eyed glance. She appeared as though she was worried that Mister Paul was in some kind of trouble. “He’s very kind to all of us. He’s like a father to us. Ask anyone.”

  “Okay,” I said giving her a smile. “They’d all tell me the same thing? Each and every one of them?”

  She nodded enthusiastically. “The only thing is….”

  Her voice had faded into the thick air that surrounded us and I wasn’t sure I’d heard her say anything at all. That was until she continued.

  “He drinks a bit too much of the product,” she said slapping her hand over her mouth after the words slipped out.

  “Hmm, yes. I noticed that,” I said.

  “He needs it to sleep, though, Miss. He’s had it hard. Please don’t be mad at him. I do worry they will notice the missing product,” Bonnie said.

  My head tilted slightly. “Does someone from the city collect the items you harvest?”

  “Several people come with carts during the night,” Bonnie said.

  “How far from the city do you think we are?” I asked unsure she’d even know the answer.

  She shook her head. Her eyebrows drooped as much as her frown. Bonnie looked disappointed… like she had failed me because she didn’t have the answer.

  “I’m not sure, Miss,” Bonnie said. “They come once a week, depending on the storms.”

  “Thank you for your time,” I said before turning to walk away. She grabbed my arm and I stopped.

  Bonnie hopped in front of me like a little child in need of attention. “There are whispers that you are the president’s daughter.”

  “I am,” I said wishing I would have felt comfortable lying.

  “Do you think we’ll ever be allowed back into the city?” Bonnie asked. She cleared her throat. “Don’t misunderstand, please. I’m happy to be here working a good job but like I said, I miss my family. One day I would like to see them again. My sister and I were awfully close.”

  My shoulders fell heavily with my long exhale. “I don’t know. I wish I could say that things will change in the city but I fear that they won’t.”

  “Can’t you go back and be president?” Bonnie asked. “You could fix it all.”

  Sadness bubbled up in my stomach. I wished I could tell her that fixing everything was an option but I knew that it wasn’t. My father and my brother wouldn’t ever allow it. For me to make any kind of meaningful change, it would have to be over my father’s dead body and quite possibly my brother’s as well.

  “I don’t think I can go back,” I said each word painfully pushing out from between my lips. Not because of my feelings on never returning because I knew it would disappoint Bonnie and the others if they were listening.

  Bonnie nodded but I could tell by her contorted expression that she didn’t understand why. The young girl thought it should be as simple as walking back to the city and telling my father to stop all the horribleness. If only it would have been that easy.

  The hatch rattled above us, sending a jagged chill through my spine. Bonnie looked just as frightened as I felt.

  “That happens all the time,” she said lowering herself down on her cot. The small girl wrapped the blanket around her shivering shoulders. “We’ve always been fine, though.”

  “Good to know,” I said keeping my eyes on the hatch as I walked back over to Hayes and Grayson.

  They were both staring at the shaking hatch door too. I looked over at Mister Paul in his chair but he’d apparently decided it was a good time for a nap. Or maybe he’d passed out.

  “Did you learn anything?” Hayes asked.

  “They’re fine here, at least she says they are. Says he’s good to them.” I jerked my chin toward the aggressively rattling door. “She also said this happens all the time.”

  Hayes’s head bobbed up and down. “Guess all we can do is wait it out.”

  “I wonder what it’s like out there,” Grayson pondered.

  The rain tapped vigorously on the hatch and the occasional gust of wind whistled through the cracks but beyond that, it was impossible to know what was going on outside.

  “It can’t be good if they have to hide in this shelter. There were several buildings but yet they came down here,” I said.

  “Which is one of the reasons I’m worried,” Hayes chimed in. “When we’re out there, we’re not going to have a shelter like this when the next storm pops up and one thing we already know is that they can be quite frequent.”

  I lowered my voice. “Well, i
t’s not like we’re going to stay here.”

  Hayes opened his mouth but snapped it shut before uttering another word.

  “Our only choice is to keep going,” I said.

  The quiet in the room was almost haunting. It felt like our voices were loud even though we were trying to keep quiet.

  The storm raged on for what felt like hours before a girl walked up to us with three small bundles. It looked like a cleaned leaf with something packed inside.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “Food,” she said pointing at a corner of the leaf that was tucked inside itself. “You open it there.”

  I smiled at her and she bowed her head before walking away. Carefully, I unwrapped the leaf and looked at the cold mush inside.

  “It looks like mashed up potatoes with carrots mixed in,” I said.

  “And possibly mushrooms,” Grayson said scrunching up his nose.

  Hayes raised the leaf up to his mouth and took a bite of the mush. “Hmm, not bad. Could use a touch of salt.”

  “Maybe you should have a talk with their cook, you know, chef to chef,” I said bumping Hayes lightly with my elbow.

  Grayson took a reluctant bite. Hayes had been right that if Grayson was hungry enough, he’d eat.

  “It’s not bad,” Grayson said. “Much more filling than poisonous mushrooms, wouldn’t you say, Sadie?”

  “It’s food. It’ll fuel us for the journey ahead. That’s all that really matters. I’m not going to be picky,” I said before taking another bite. “Hayes is right though, it could use a touch of salt.”

  After we finished our meal, I leaned back against the wall. The only light underground came from the candles and the small window in the hatch. But very little light came from the window so it must have been close to night time.

  Sitting there in the near darkness listening to the raindrops smack the metal hatch was nearly enough to lull me to sleep. But when Hayes wrapped his arm around me and I rested my head against his chest, that was all I could take. I was out like a light.

  It felt only minutes had passed when Hayes was shaking me awake. The light filtering in through the hatch was so bright, I had to close my eyes. But before I had, I saw the girls climbing the ladder to head back out to their tasks.