Unknown (Unknown Series Book 1) (32 page)

Her eyes squeezed shut and two tears streaked down. “But what if they’re right? What if the bad guys are here? What if they’re trying to keep us safe?”

“Rem, what if they
are
the bad guys? And what if they’re trying to take us to some camp like the freaking Nazis?” I asked more harshly than I’d meant, causing her face to scrunch.

“What else can you tell us?” Rylen asked Julian. “How much time do we have?” I could see Rylen’s eyes calculating, trying to figure out how he could get our loved ones safely out of that room.

“To be honest, they don’t give us information until right before something happens, and even then we don’t get the details of why. Just orders. We’re told to assume everyone is the enemy. That every person we encounter is one step away from igniting a bomb. Anyone who questions us is not to be trusted.” Through the wall were the sounds of bus engines and the hissing sputters of brakes next to the school building. “And as far as how much time? None.”

My insides lurched and panic set in.

“Julian, please,” I begged. “Can you go in there and try to get our family out?”

He pressed his lips together, but nodded. “I can try.”

Remy grasped his arm and quickly gave her parents’ names and where they were sitting, along with their descriptions. Julian’s face was pinched with worry when he put his hand on the doorknob. He stared down at it as he jostled the unmoving knob.

“Shit!” Tater exclaimed. “I forgot this door locks from the inside!”

“Tater!” I hissed.

“What? It’s been years! We used to put paper in the jamb to keep it from locking.” He grasped the top of his head with his hands and began to pace.

Rylen pointed down the narrow hall. “That door exits the side of the school.” He looked at Julian. “Can you run around and go back in through the front?”

We all went still as voices sounded outside the door.

“We all need to get out,” Julian whispered. “They’ll check the entire school, and the bald one knows four people left for the bathroom. I’ll go back in, but I have to try to avoid him.”

I went up on my toes and gave Julian a quick hug. “Thank you. Please be safe.”

“Yes, thank you,” Remy said.

The five of us rushed down the hall. Julian carefully pushed the door open a crack and peered out into the sunshine, then opened it enough to stick his head out. “It’s clear. You guys hide in that field.” He pointed to the deadened cornstalks then took off. Julian ran toward the front of the building while the rest of us sprinted into the dry field. When we got deep enough in to be hidden, we all crouched.

“I’m gonna see what’s going on,” Tater whispered. He deftly moved, weaving seamlessly to avoid moving the stalks.

Remy gave a minute whimper, and I put a hand on her shoulder. “We’re doing the right thing, Rem.” She swallowed and nodded.

I looked at Rylen, whose jaw was set tightly. He looked primed and edgy, ready to run and fight at a moment’s notice. I thought about Julian trying to sneak six people out of there, and my hope wavered. How could he possibly pull it off?

My guts felt like I was on a Tilt-A-Whirl, spinning and dropping as my heart raced. I generally tried to stay positive, especially when I was trying to keep someone else calm, but I felt an overwhelming need to make a Plan B. “What if he can’t get them out?” I whispered. “What if they’re taken away?”

“Then we’ll follow them and get them back,” Rylen said matter-of-factly. From the frozen, deadly look on his face, I knew he meant it. His confidence gave me a moment of peace. Even Remy was looking at him as if everything would be okay.

My peace was short-lived.

Voices carried to us from the front of the building where a long line of busses idled. Armed Derps were shouting orders. Feet shuffled along the sidewalks. From inside the building was a muffled, reverberating
crack
, followed by another. Remy gasped. My eyes shot up to Rylen, who had frozen.

“Was that a gunshot?” I whispered.

He gave a stiff nod, and I covered my mouth against a bout of nausea.

“God, please,” Remy whispered. “Please.” I reached for her and she wrapped a hand around my arm, pulling me close so she could press her face to my shoulder. I put my hand over hers.

“They’ll be okay,” I whispered.

As we crouched in the cornfield, full busses began to pull away. I stared at the side door, willing our loved ones to burst out, but it remained firmly shut.

“I want to go watch with Tater,” I whispered.

“Me too,” Remy said.

“All right,” Ry whispered.

I led the way, moving slowly and carefully as I’d seen my brother do, until we got to the corner of the field where Tater was watching intently.

“I haven’t seen them,” he said before I could ask.

“Did you hear the gunfire?” Rylen asked him.

“Yeah.” Their expressions were the grave masks of soldiers.

We watched as two more busses were filled, driving away.

At the same time, Tater, Rylen, and I jolted at the sight of Mom, Dad, Abuela, and Livia being shuffled among the herd of people down the walk toward the busses. Crap, Julian wasn’t able to get them! I was relieved to see they were okay, but scared to death at the thought of them getting on a bus. So, where was Julian?

“Shit,” Tater muttered. He started to stand, but Rylen grabbed him.

“If you walk out there now, they’ll kill you,” Ry said.

Tater clenched his fists.

“My parents!” Remy said, pointing. Sure enough, her dad had his arm around her mother, who appeared to be crying. Her dad kept looking around. Remy let out a sob. “He’s trying to find me! I need to go!”

“Remy, you can’t. Just like Tater can’t. If we come strolling out of the field they’ll know we tried to escape and they’ll be suspicious of us. You saw how easily they kill, and you heard Julian say how they’re taught to mistrust.”

“I can say I just got here. That I was late.”

Tater shook his head. “They’ve got your name on the list.”

“We can’t let them be taken,” I said, watching as the line moved forward. All I could think about was gas chambers and body pits. I know it was morbid, but these people brought out the worst in my imagination.

“I’m going!” Remy shot up, and Tater grasped her around the waist with a strong arm, pulling her down until she was sitting on his lap. She struggled and he covered her mouth. He held down her arms when she clawed at his hand.

“Remy, calm down,” I whispered. “Tater, don’t hurt her!”

“I’m not! She freakin’ cat-scratched me.”

“Remy,” I said. “Promise you won’t yell or try to run, and he’ll let you go.” She breathed heavily through her nose, and her eyes shone with emotion.

Rylen took a knee beside her. “We can’t go out there. How do you think your parents would feel watching you get shot?” Remy’s eyes shut and all the fire went out of her. Tater carefully let her go and to my utter shock, Remy turned her face and buried it into Tater’s chest. He froze in confusion until her body shuddered. Then he hesitantly put his arms around her.

“It’s all right,” he whispered into her hair. At the sound of his voice, Remy pulled back abruptly, as if a trance and been broken, and jumped off his lap, moving to crouch beside me and glare at him instead. He eyed her back just as hard.

“Focus,” Ry told him.

I ignored them and watched our families. It looked like they’d end up on the same bus. My heart nearly stopped when the side door we’d come out of opened with a click. All four of our heads wrenched to the side, watching in horror as Julian came stumbling out with one hand holding his bloodied neck. He fell to his knees.

Shit!

Rylen cursed and I covered my mouth against a scream. The gunshots . . .

“Stay here,” Tater said. “I’ll get him.” He moved fast through the field, disappearing from our view, then cut across the lawn toward the school at a sprint. He was out of sight of the people in the front of the school, but I prayed nobody would hear and come to investigate.

Within a minute, Tater had carried Julian into the corn field and I raced to meet them.

I skidded in the dirt to stop beside Julian’s head. The side of his neck was gaping. It wasn’t spurting, but I was guessing the worst of the bleeding had happened in the building. I immediately grabbed and held tight with both of my hands. This was not good. This was an artery.

“Julian, sweetie,” I said. “Stay with me.”

His glazed eyes peered up at me. He’d seen enough injuries to know.

“They . . . know . . . four are . . . gone.” His words started as a rasp and ended in a gurgle that made the backs of my eyes burn.

“Julian.” I swallowed the moisture that pooled in my throat. Blood seeped from beneath my hands.

“Safecamp . . . in . . . Mo . . .” His eyes fluttered.

“Where, Julian? Stay with us.” I looked up at Tater and said, “Pat his cheeks.”

Tater did, and Julian’s eyes opened. “Mojave.”

“They’re taking them to Mojave Desert?” Rylen asked.

His eyes closed and he let out a barely audible sigh of, “Yeah.” His chest heaved with great effort and he commanded, “Get . . . out . . .”

Julian went still, and his blood flow slowed beneath my fingers. I could barely see him through the tears that began to silently trail down my face. “No,” I whispered. In two days I’d watched two people I cared about breathe their last breaths. I’d held their lives in my hands and been unable to save them. Remy sat at Julian’s feet, staring at us from just above her knees, watching as the guy she used to flirt with died.

“No,” I said louder. “Wrap his neck in something. One of your shirts.” I grasped Julian’s chin and tipped it up, pinching his nose to begin CPR.

“He’s gone,” Tater said. “He’s lost too much blood.”

“No.” I bent to take his mouth, and Rylen pulled me back, holding me tightly.

“He’s gone,” Tater repeated. “You heard what he said. They’re looking for us. We need to get the fuck away from the school.”

Another bus pulled away, but we couldn’t see it. I began panting, struggling to breathe.

“Oh, my God . . . that was their bus. They took them.”

“We’ll get them back,” Rylen assured me. He looked at Tater and down at Julian. “We should take his uniform.”

I watched, helpless, as my brother and Rylen stripped Julian’s dead body down to his boxers and undershirt. I’d seen countless crime scenes and accidents, and watched people die. It was never easy, but never before had I felt such loss and desolation as I did at that moment. I’d sent Julian back into the school. He’d died trying to help us.

I put a hand on Julian’s chest. “I’m so sorry, Julian.”

The guys worked quickly to hide the blood, covering it in loose dirt and fallen stalks.

“Come on,” Rylen whispered, touching my shoulder. “We have to get further into the field.” Rylen bent as if he were going to hoist Julian’s body up.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“We can’t leave his body. We’ll take him and bury him when we can.”

“Yeah,” Tater whispered. “If they found his body without the uniform they’d know.”

Tater helped Remy up, and the four of us moved just in time. We were halfway into the huge field when the side door banged open and stern voices rang out. We went completely still, sinking down. I looked, but all I could see were yellowed stalks, dirt, and sky. From the corner of my eye I saw Rylen on a knee, leaning to the side to balance the weight of Julian’s body over his shoulder.

Shouts periodically filled the air, and it sounded as if Derps were running around the perimeter of the field. What if they came out here? We might be able to outrun them, but they could blindly shoot into the field and we couldn’t outrun bullets. Remy and I hunkered close, breathing fast, and I listened so intently it felt as if my eardrums throbbed.

We remained there for what seemed like hours, our bodies alert, until voices faded and eventually cars started, their tires crunching in the distance. Then silence rained down upon us and our reality became achingly clear.

They’d taken our families. And we were officially outlaws.

W
e waited in the field awhile longer to be sure everyone was gone before we moved toward the farmhouse at the other end of the crops. The house was empty, of course, but we were there for one purpose: to bury Julian.

We stayed close to the edge of the cornfield in case we needed to run back in to hide. Remy cried quietly the entire time the guys and I took turns digging, and then lowered him into the ground, each holding one of his limbs. Then we covered him in dirt and stood there, exhausted in every way possible.

We moved closer as Remy said a quiet prayer for Julian’s soul and for the safety of us and our families. When she finished, we stared at each other. My only comfort was knowing there were three people in front of me who understood exactly how I felt at that moment. We weren’t alone. As long as we had each other, there was hope.

“Should we go back and see if our cars are still there?” I asked. If they weren’t, we were screwed.

Tater and Rylen both nodded, and the four of us headed back through the dried stalks toward the school.

At the other end of the field, we stared out at the eerily silent school grounds. When we were sure not a soul was in sight, we darted to the parking lot.