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  Her hair was straight and gold blonde. It was as though the sun had sucked away all of its color.

  She had two baskets that looked like they’d been created with large dead leaves. The woman was older, the age our parents may have been.

  It wasn’t long before she was joined by another woman this one had hair the same dark brown color as mine. There was a slight wave to it and it was tucked neatly behind her ears.

  Both women were dressed nearly the same in handmade clothing that appeared to be made of woven threads. They were covered but still, much of their skin showed. Their legs were almost completely exposed as well as their stomachs, backs, and arms.

  The woman talked and smiled as they collected the water. It wasn’t long before there were six women at the river but the first that had arrived was turning to leave. Next the one with wavy hair and shortly after, one by one, they left.

  “I bet those where the natives Mister Paul warned us about,” Grayson said.

  “They didn’t look so scary, did they?” I asked and no one replied. “Maybe we should just talk to them. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  “Mister Paul told us to stay away,” Hayes said placing his hand on my shoulder as if he was afraid I’d take off after them. “I’m sure there was a good reason for the warning.”

  My shoulders sagged. “They could know something.”

  “It’s not worth the risk,” Hayes said.

  We waited behind the tree to see if they’d return. It felt like we’d waited for hours and still they hadn’t come back.

  I smoothed my hands over my shirt and straightened my spine. “We should finish with the water.”

  “Maybe we should move further down the river,” Grayson suggested glancing in the direction the woman had been. “Just in case they do come back.”

  “I’m not even sure we should start a fire here,” Hayes said.

  “Who knows when we’ll find water again?” I asked. “This is the perfect place to refill.”

  Hayes shook his head. “It feels far from perfect.”

  “It won’t take long,” I said as I walked over to where we’d left the backpacks just sitting in the wide open.

  I shook my head and dug around this time, finding the lighter sitting at the bottom beneath one of the bottles of water. My fingers shook as I tried to light it the way Linus had showed me. After several tries, the flame appeared and I set it next to the twigs. It took much longer than I had anticipated for the twigs to take the flame.

  “Ah-ha!” I said pointing excitedly at the small fire. My hand gripped the lighter tightly and the top where the metal piece was started burning into the skin at my thumb. “Ouch!”

  I dropped the lighter and clenched my fist. After a few moments when I was brave enough to take a look, there was a red mark that had burned me so bad it looked like it was turning purple.

  “Are you okay?” Hayes asked grabbing my hand. “Shit.”

  He pulled me along toward the river and dunked my hand in the cool water.

  “No!” I said trying to pull my hand free. “I don’t want it to get infected.”

  Hayes let go and stared at the wound. “What do we do now?”

  “I don’t know,” I said wincing as I looked at the horrible crescent-shaped burn. It felt like it was on fire and I was tempted to put it back in the water myself to extinguish the burning. “It’ll be okay.”

  But when I looked up, I wasn’t so sure I’d be okay. In fact, I didn’t know if any of us would.

  Staring at were six of the natives, each holding a spear similar to the one Grayson had been given. Their faces were completely blank.

  The tallest one stared at Hayes. “Follow.”

  Chapter Ten

  Hayes looked at me before meeting the tall native’s eyes. “No, thanks.”

  “Wasn’t giving you a choice,” the native said. “You will come.”

  He tapped the bottom of his spear on the ground and the men with him simultaneously took a step backward. They grunted in unison as they pointed their spears at us. It was as they’d been practicing all their lives for that moment.

  “Well, if you insist,” Hayes said, but the natives didn’t find him even the slightest bit amusing. But really, neither had I.

  We followed them up the river until we came to a shallow area that had several large rocks that had been placed in the water forming a bridge across. It wasn’t far from where we were that the women had come to collect the water. They must have seen us and told the rest of their group.

  Their camp wasn’t far from the river. They had several wooden buildings constructed just like we’d found. Each one was built just two feet away from the next. There was a rather high pile of scrap wood that looked broken and shredded.

  They led us straight to the middle of the camp where there was a woman sitting on a tall back chair made of the same wood as the houses. She drew in a breath when she saw us coming.

  “You’re from the city?” she asked immediately.

  The men who’d led us to their camp had taken Grayson’s spear but they had let us keep our bags. At least for the time being they had. Perhaps they just wanted us to carry them back before taking them.

  “Were you banished?” she asked when we didn’t answer.

  “What do you know about the city?” I asked looking into her gray eyes.

  She smirked as she cocked her head to the side. “I’ll ask the questions. I guess I’m right so far.”

  “Not exactly,” I said feeling a bit overconfident.

  “Tell me then,” she said crossing her legs.

  “I left. We left,” I said.

  She stared at me for a long while before her eyes narrowed and she let out a laugh that annoyed me. “There is only one way out of the city. Banishment.”

  For some reason, I didn’t want to tell her about the tunnels under the city. I had no idea what the natives would do with that information.

  “This is our land and you can’t be here without our permission,” the woman said leaning forward slightly. “We’ve been out here taking care of her and in return, she gives us food and shelter.”

  “Her?” I asked.

  “Mother Earth,” the woman said stretching out her arms. “We will do whatever it takes to protect her. And having you roaming about taking without giving back is angering her.”

  I swallowed hard. “We haven’t been out here long enough to anger her.”

  “Nonsense. Not to mention we can’t have folks from the city finding our locations.” The woman leaned back in her chair. “The big city is not to be trusted. Evil. If we could get rid of it, we would.”

  The woman with wavy hair we’d seen at the river stepped forward. “One day, Mother Earth will help. A storm so powerful it will tear the city apart.”

  “There are a lot of innocent people inside,” I said looking at the woman.

  “There are a lot of evil people inside as well,” she said.

  “How do you know what’s inside?” I asked.

  The woman in the chair held up her palm toward the wavy-haired woman. “That’s enough, Lillian.” She slowly folded her hands together, tapping her thumbs together as she looked at us one by one. “Lock them up in the cellar until I figure out what I’m going to do with them.

  The men with spears were around us in a heartbeat. The tall one led us to the back of their camp, where there was a thick piece of wood lying on the ground. Two of the men shoved it to the side, revealing a staircase made out of mud and rock.

  The man leading took one step down before someone shouted at him from behind.

  “Aaron! Wait!” she called.

  He halted and watched her with a furrowed brow as she approached. “I have my orders from Michelle.”

  “It’ll just take a second,” the voice said as she spun me to face her.

  Her hand shook as she brought it to her mouth. I instantly recognized the person staring back at me with wide eyes.

  “Sadie?” Trixie
asked.

  She didn’t wait for me to respond before she wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me hard. It was like she was afraid to let go because I might disappear.

  I pulled back slightly and looked into her eyes. Tears were streaming down both of our cheeks.

  “Is it really you?” Trixie asked.

  Trixie looked a bit different then I’d remembered but there was no doubt in my mind that it was her. She was wearing fewer clothes, the same as the other natives, and her skin was a dark tan shade. It no longer was the same pale white as mine which was likely due to lack of sunlight.

  “It’s me,” I said through the tears.

  “Why are you here?” she asked gripping my shoulders. She squeezed them tightly. “We need to talk, wait here.”

  Trixie ran off back toward the center of their camp. Aaron groaned as we stood there waiting.

  After a few minutes, Trixie came running back. She grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the others. “She’s to come with me.”

  “No, she’s not,” Hayes said staring at Trixie. “We’re not getting separated out here.”

  Trixie turned to him. “You know nothing will happen to her with me.”

  “I know nothing of the sort,” Hayes said.

  His words caused Trixie to look around the group. She would have known both Hayes and Grayson but Gina would have been a new face to her.

  “I won’t keep her long,” Trixie said stiffly.

  Hayes turned, begging me with his eyes not to leave. “I’ll be back soon.”

  “Sadie,” he said but his voice faded. He knew I wasn’t going to stay.

  I placed a quick kiss on his cheek before I could say anything, Trixie grabbed my hand and pulled me back toward the middle of the camp. We weren’t more than a few steps when I heard Aaron tell them to go down into the cellar.

  I felt bad about leaving them but I had to talk to Trixie. After all, she was one of the reasons I was outside the wall.

  We stopped when we reached one of the larger wooden buildings. Outside a piece of fabric was stretched over four wooden posts forming an umbrella that blocked out the sun.

  There were several wide logs placed in a circle. Trixie pointed at one and I sat down.

  “What are you doing out here?” she asked as she sat down next to me. Trixie was still holding my hand and my palm was starting to sweat. “Did your father banish you too?”

  I told her everything. There wasn’t a single thing I left out since the day she’d been banished. I told her about Mister Paul and the women. It didn’t matter though, she’d already known about them.

  “You escaped,” Trixie said as if trying to fully comprehend it. “All because of Ezra?”

  “Not only because of him but he threatened me. I wanted to leave on my terms rather than sit in a cell until my father banished me,” I said biting my cheek. My mouth dried as I readied to ask her about the others. “What happened to Boone and Wren? Where are they?”

  Trixie’s gaze lowered and I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Before she opened her mouth, I already knew she was about to tell me some bad news.

  “We weren’t more than a mile from the city when the beast attacked,” Trixie said swallowing hard. “Wren didn’t make it.”

  “What about Boone?”

  Trixie’s eyes flicked up for a moment. “He’s still out there… I think. I haven’t seen him since we parted ways.”

  “Why did you part ways?”

  “We’d found a cave,” Trixie said. “It was safe and we had food and water but I couldn’t take another minute of feeling like I was trapped there forever. I left him.”

  “Could he still be there?” I asked.

  Trixie shrugged. “He could be, I suppose. Wren would still be alive if it hadn’t been for your dad. All Boone talked about was getting revenge.”

  “They sealed the tunnel,” I said pressing my lips together. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back.”

  “It’s not so bad out here,” Trixie said. “The days get hot and the nights get cold. When the storms come, we hide underground. I think we’ve rebuilt this camp several times now. We have camps all over… when winter comes, we need to move. It feels like we’re frequently on the move.”

  “Is this your main camp?” I asked as several women walked by slowly. The woman with wavy hair looked our way dropping something as she passed.

  Trixie cleared her throat. She didn’t answer my question.

  “Sadie,” she said squeezing my sweaty hand. “It’s just so good to see you again. I still can’t believe it’s really you. Out of the city!”

  “I never thought I’d see you again,” I said.

  “Your dad is an awful man… we never wanted to travel too far, you know, just in case,” Trixie said. “I was lucky they accepted me here. They’ll accept you too.”

  I swallowed hard and lowered my voice. “Are you sure about that? I think they want to kill us.”

  “They won’t kill you… I won’t let that happen,” Trixie said. Her shoulders dropped as she sighed. “Oh Sadie, your dad needs to pay for what he’s done to us. All of us. Even though I don’t care about the city, I do care about the people inside of the wall. He doesn’t deserve to be the president.”

  I looked up and saw the wavy-hair woman, Lillian, staring at me with her mouth hanging open. She blinked a slow blink before collapsing.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Lillian?” Trixie said popping up off her log seat. She knelt down next to her as another woman brought over a small cup of water.

  They helped her over to the log across from me. Lillian didn’t take her eyes off of me as she took a sip of water.

  “You’ve been working hard,” Trixie said. “Maybe you need to go lie down.”

  Lillian held up her palm as she shook her head. Her eyes were still glued to me.

  “Your name is Sadie?” Lillian asked.

  I nodded.

  “From the city?”

  I nodded again.

  The woman swayed looking like she was going to faint again. “Sadie,” she sucked in a breath and slowly exhaled, “Keane?”

  “Yes,” I said narrowing my eyes. I hadn’t ever known anyone by the name Lillian and the woman didn’t look even a little familiar.

  Lillian burst into tears and she was having trouble staying on top of the log. She was having some kind of mental breakdown and I didn’t know how to help her.

  The way she was staring at me was making me very uncomfortable. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “You’re the president's daughter?” Lillian asked barely managing to choke out the words.

  “Yes,” I said softly.

  “You have a brother… a twin. Ezra?”

  I started to feel uneasy. Maybe I shouldn’t have separated from Hayes and the others.

  “Yes,” I said squeaking out the word. It was bizarre. How did this woman know about me? My family?

  Lillian started sobbing uncontrollably. I stood feeling like I should give them privacy but the woman got to her feet and grabbed my hands.

  “Don’t go,” she begged. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. I just can’t… I never thought—”

  “Lillian,” Trixie said stepping up next to Lillian. Concern was slathered all over her face. “What is going on?”

  Lillian sniffed hard. “And you’ve… you grew up with her?”

  “Yeah,” Trixie replied.

  “And we’ve been living here this whole time together and you’ve known her. You’ve known my daughter. You could have told me all about her.”

  I tried to pull my hands free. “Your daughter?” I sucked in a breath so sharp I winced. “My mother is dead.”

  “That’s what he told you? That’s what he said happened?” Lillian said wiping away at her tears. The muscles in her jaw tightened like rubber bands about to snap. “I’m not dead. I was forced to leave the city. I gave birth to twins in the city. Sadie and Ezra. Your father wanted an hei
r. He was surprised when he got two. I knew he didn’t care about me. I was just an incubator and that was confirmed not long after you were born.”

  “This can’t be,” I said swallowing down what felt like a handful of pins and needles.

  For whatever reason, I just couldn’t grasp the fact that my father had lied to Ezra and me all these years about our mother. Wasn’t it just as possible that this woman was lying to me?

  But why?

  What would she have to gain?

  “It is, Sadie,” she said her eyes widening. “You’re my daughter. And that man inside the wall,” she said jabbing her finger toward the city, “that man isn’t your father.”

  I shook my head. It was like words were raining down on me but they were a jumbled mess I couldn’t put in order.

  “He couldn’t have children,” Lillian said. She sucked in a sharp gasp. “That bastard said he loved me. Deep down, I knew he didn’t. I was young. Stupid. I never stopped thinking about you or your brother.”

  Trixie placed her hand on Lillian’s shoulder. She could see how her words were affecting me.

  “This is a lot for her to take in,” Trixie said softly.

  “Oh, God, I know. I’m so sorry, Sadie,” Lillian said as the tears started to flow again. “I always dreamed that one day I’d be able to get back inside and see you. I never imagined I’d see you out here.”

  Lillian stared at me as if she were waiting for me to say something. But I didn’t know what to say. My life had been flipped upside down. I felt like I’d been hit in the head with a hammer and I’d been pounded down and down and down until there was nothing left of me showing.

  What was I supposed to say? Was there even a way to know if Lillian was telling the truth?

  “You think after all this time I would have been better prepared for this moment,” Lillian said with a soft, nervous chuckle. “I didn’t mean to flood you with all of this. I was in shock. I’m still in shock. Please, Sadie, can we talk?”

  “I… I just… I need to,” I said as I backed away. It felt like I didn’t have enough air to breathe.