Chapter 3

I rather like this one. New characters make me happy. And give me words. :)
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Piper saw the sunlight on the horizon and thought it was fire. Before last night, she’d always thought her worst fear was drowning. Wrong. It was fire. The crackling noise still writhed and sizzled in her ears, mixed with her mother’s sobs and Baylor’s terrified screams…
She’d been walking for just over four hours, and was frankly surprised she hadn’t yet fallen over dead. Her legs felt like water… water… Water would be nice. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth like she’d just downed a particularly syrupy mug of drinking chocolate. What she wouldn’t give for some drinking chocolate right now…
The true stupidity of Piper’s plight hit her that moment. Where was she going? What did she plan to do? For all she knew she could be waltzing into enemy territory, just begging to get herself killed. The wisest plan would be to make for the next closest city to Iretum—if she only knew what that city was, or how to find it. She cursed her own ignorance of the world around her. Why hadn’t they mentioned this in Current Events class? What to do when a war breaks out in your hometown and you end up stranded in the wilderness. She couldn’t remember any lesson like that.
Distracted, Piper began to notice the ground grow softer and softer beneath her feet. She could scarcely bear to get her hopes up… could it be that the soil was growing darker, richer? Could it be Nitro dirt? Could she be lucky enough to come across a city so quickly ? She looked up, and the sight tore her hope to shreds. It was a pool of water surrounded by tall grass. She thought it was called a lake—there was an artificial one for swimming in the middle of town. Her shoes squelched in the now nearly liquid ground, trying to stick behind in the mud.
As she came to the edge, she cringed at her reflection in the water. Her once perfectly straight black hair hung in wild mats around her face, and dark circles lounged lazily under her tired green eyes. There was a cut on her cheek that she hadn’t even felt before; she was sure from the looks of it that it would leave a nasty scar. The shoulder of her navy blue blouse had been ripped clean away, leaving her entire right arm exposed to the elements.
Scooping some water from the lake, she brushed it over her face in an attempt to get clean. It felt so good that she considered slipping completely into the water and giving herself a full bath, but she was only a few hours into her journey. She wouldn’t yet sink so low as to bathe like a Backwinder. She cupped more of the water into her hands and took a sip, and her parched tongue thanked her profusely. It wasn’t water from the city, not even close. Flecks of dirt tinted it a light brown, but it tasted decent enough, and it would keep her going at least a little longer. Recharged, she stood up and stretched, feeling the tension in her limbs. She couldn’t remember ever being this tired before.
Yawning widely, she turned around to find herself at the end of a gun. She gasped.
“Where do you think you’re going, Green Eyes?” the boy asked.
He looked older than her, but not by much. His eyes hid beneath his cap, masking any emotion she could have deciphered. All she could make out was a clenched jaw and reddish hair, about the color of Branson’s, peaking out from under the hat. His uniform, however, said everything she needed to know. It was brown with brass buttons, and on the breast was a book encircled with laurel leaves.
He was a Backwinder. She cursed herself for letting him sneak up on her like that. If it weren’t for her stupid ear…
“Just let me go,” she said, trying to brush past. “Just let me go and I’ll pretend I never saw you.”
“And what good would that do me?” He held the gun steady. “What side are you on?”
“My own side,” she said bitterly. The point lowered from her heart to around her belly area.
“Care to elaborate?”
“Not really,” she replied in defiance. This boy didn’t plan to hurt her. She could feel it in the tone of his voice; in the way he carried himself. Somehow, someway, he was just as lost as she was, and nobody willingly gives up a kindred spirit.
He lifted the bill of his cap, so she could see his eyes. They were chocolate brown, and they looked sad. A large scar on his left cheek marred most of his face. “Fair enough,” he said. “Ask you no questions, you’ll tell me no lies.”
“That’s about right.” She shifted her feet. “Will you put that thing down? It’d be a lot easier to have a pleasant conversation without death staring me in the face every waking minute.”
He lowered the gun and strapped it back into the carrier on his back. “What’s your name, Green Eyes?”
“Does it really matter?”
“It’d make it a lot easier to have a pleasant conversation.”
She raised her eyebrows in amusement. “Piper. Piper Conrad.”
“Patrick Blue.” He extended a hand. She eyed it for a moment, not sure whether she trusted him or not.
“Where are the rest of your people?” she asked.
“My regiment?” She nodded soundlessly, never taking her eyes from his face. His eyes shifted, refusing to meet hers. “Not here. That’s all I can say.”
So he was a deserter. She glanced at the pack on his back. It probably contained food and water, and maybe even some kind of portable shelter or a compass. She couldn’t make it around her on her own, that much she knew. She needed an ally. His hand was still extended.
“I don’t bite,” he said.
She took his hand, and he shook it firmly. “Nice to meet you.”
“What’re you doing way out here?” She could feel his eyes staring into her, noticing her civilian clothes. “Whichever side you’re on, you’re old enough to be in the army, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I’m sixteen and I’m half deaf, okay?” She thought of the boy back at the station. Maybe this boy wanted to believe she was a deserter too. She refused to be thought of as a coward.
He could tell he had touched a nerve. “Alright, alright, I didn’t mean anything by it. Just trying to figure you out.”
“I thought you had decided not to kill me.”
“Yeah, but while I’m here I might as well decide whether or not it’s worth it to stick around.”
“Oh, thanks,” she said sarcastically.
“It would be pretty pointless for me, you have to admit,” he said. “You have no resources, not much stealth, and a very poor sense of your surroundings.”
How dare he come along and tell her all the things she was doing wrong? He must have seen the offended look on her face. “Come on, don’t take it personally. You have to admit you weren’t exactly being careful. I could have shot you before you even knew I was there.”
“Yeah, well, why didn’t you? Take pity on the poor little lost girl, put her out of her misery.”
“Are you determined to hate me or something?”
“Look, you don’t even know what I’ve been through in the last twenty-four hours. I hate the world right now. I don’t expect you to understand.” And your uniform doesn’t help your cause, she thought.
He paused for a minute and looked at her thoughtfully.
“I watched my father die when I was twelve years old. Shot by National officials. Try me.”
He was lying. The Nation didn’t kill people unless they deserved it.
“Just go away,” she said.
“Look, Green Eyes—“
“Quit calling me that,” she said tersely.
“Whatever. Piper. Bottom line is you can’t make it on your own. We both know it. Even if you stayed here, with plenty of water, in three weeks you need food if you want to live.” He pulled a brown package out of his pack and opened it. The scent wafted over into Piper’s nostrils: beef jerky. The peppery scent made her mouth water. “Plus, I dare say you want to go somewhere, even if you don’t know where somewhere is. Come with me. I can help you. I’ll get you wherever you need to go and then I’ll leave you alone. You never have to see me again.”
Every cell of Piper’s brain told her not to trust the boy. Alliance with a Backwinder, even for the very best reasons, meant treason. In the end, though, it depended which she valued more: the Nation and the Diviner, or her own life.
And in the end, her life won out.
Maybe I can become a spy, she thought. Win the war for the Nation. Any justification she could find helped.
“Fine,” she said. The boy smiled, looking very unsoldier-like. He needed to be careful if he was going to keep up his image. He wasn’t nearly as frightening when he smiled. He began walking away from the lake.
“Wait!” she called, running after him. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know,” he replied with a wry smile on his face.
“What!?”
“I. Don’t. Know.” The twinkle in his eyes made him look like he was playing a very amusing joke on her. She hated him. With every fiber of her being she loathed this smug, arrogant, manipulative liar of a Backwinder who had lured her into this trap. She planted her feet in the cool mud.
“I’m not moving until you tell me where we’re going.” He turned around to look at her, his eyes boring into hers like bullets. They weren’t angry or unfriendly, by any means, but she had the strangest sensation that he was staring straight into the depths of her soul.
“You really don’t know how the world works, do you?” he asked with a slight edge to his tone. “I’m helping you out of the kindness of my heart. It’s no skin off my nose if you decide not to come. In fact, it would make things a lot easier for me. You’re not going to be any help and you’re just another mouth to feed. Stay here if you want. I really don’t care.”
“Then why did you offer to help me in the first place?” she retorted, more frustrated than ever. “You obviously don’t want to. Are you just going to take me straight to your Backwinder general? String me up as a spy or something? I can tell you, I don’t know anything. You’re not going to get anything out of me, so you might as well just save yourself the trouble. You could get demoted for going to all this trouble for no information.”
He paused for a moment. “So that’s what side you’re on.” Almost as a reflex, Piper clapped her hand over her mouth. She had probably just ruined any chance she’d had for survival. To her own surprise, tears welled up in her eyes. “My mother died last night. And my little brother. He was only five years old.”
His cold eyes softened. “I’m sorry.”
“YOU SHOULD BE!” she screamed at him, lashing out with every emotion left inside her fragile body. “Your people, it’s all their fault! You! This cause you’re fighting for is murdering five-year-old boys over a stupid BOOK!” She wanted to hit him, do something to retaliate, to avenge Baylor and her mother, to play the hero for just a moment, but she didn’t have the strength. Against her will, she fell to the ground, as if the full weight of the last few days had finally landed on her shoulders, and she didn’t have the strength to bear it.
He didn’t touch her. He simply spoke.
“War isn’t a pretty thing, is it? People seem to think it’s a romantic cause, ‘fighting for the Diviner, bringing honor to your country.’ Maybe those causes are legitimate, I don’t know. Maybe war is an essential part of life, maybe sometimes it has to happen. But any war that crosses that civilian line has gone too far. That’s when it stops being noble.”
She gritted her teeth and looked up at him, trying to regain a little dignity. She hated appearing this weak. “What are you, a politician?”
“Hey, it’s a free country. I have the right to express my opinions. Although being a National you wouldn’t exactly understand the whole free country thing.” He turned around and started walking away.
She let him go for a few minutes, sobbing into her knees and simply hearing the squelching of his feet in the mud. Soon it disappeared as his feet trod on drier and drier ground. She looked up. He was already several yards away. She hated herself for being upset, hated herself for wanting to trust him…
“Wait,” she said almost in a whisper, so low she knew he couldn’t hear her. “Hey, wait!” she called, much louder than before. She got to her feet and dashed after him, and found him standing still.
“You coming, or not? You better make up your mind right here. You can’t keep slowing me down like this.”
“I’m coming,” she said. “I don’t really have another choice, do I?”
“No, I don’t suppose you do.” He gave her another pointed look and turned around again, walking out toward the horizon.
And this time, she followed him.