terrorists. I can’t follow Philipe. He’s crazy.”
“But we’ve all killed,” Paul said. “Doesn’t that mean we’re all crazy?”
“If you can’t see the difference, I can’t explain it to you.” I looked around at my friends, my brothers, my sister. “I’m leaving,” I said. “Does anyone want to come with me?”
“Where are you going?” James asked quietly.
“I don’t know.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Joe said. “I’m mayor here. This is my town.”
I nodded. “I understand.”
“I don’t want to leave either,” Tim said. “I’m not with Philipe, but I’m staying.”
Mary stepped forward. “We’ll come with you,” she said. “Jim and I will come.” She looked toward Jim, and he nodded.
“I’m corning,” James said.
“Me, too.” Don.
In the end, Bill and John and Tommy and Pete and Paul voted to stay with Philipe. I knew Steve and Junior would do the same, so I didn’t even bother waiting until they came back to ask them.
“How quickly can you pack?” I asked.
James gave me a wan grin. “I never unpacked.”
We were gone before Philipe and the other two had returned. I promised to call, to keep in touch, but at that moment I was not sure if I would. Too many conflicting emotions were churning within me. More than anything else, I wanted to be free of this burden of being Ignored. I wanted to be just a regular person again, to not have to worry about the suits or think about killings or plan ways to overthrow “the system.” I did not want the mantle of responsibility that I had been forced to carry ever since I’d met Philipe. I just wanted to live my life in peace and quiet.
We walked through the blowing sand to Jim’s van. Already, I was starting to regret my decision to break away. The horror of what I’d seen had already begun to fade, and I found myself starting to rationalize Philipe’s actions, telling myself he was sick, he couldn’t help it, he didn’t know what he was doing.
Already, I was starting to miss Philipe.
I thought of Sea World.
No, I told myself. I couldn’t let
I’d made a decision and I was going to stick by it.
We left the subdivision, headed through the city toward Interstate 10. The winds had died down, and above us the stars were visible. A full moon, partially risen, made the sand dunes look blue.
“So where are we going?” James asked again.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Got any ideas?”
“Back home?”
“Home where?”
“Our old homes, our real homes. Your apartment, my condo.”
“What if the suits are staking them out, waiting for us to come back?”
“After this long? Be serious.”
“Okay,” I said. “Sounds good to me. What about the rest of you?”
“I do kind of miss my house,” Don admitted.
We voted, and the vote was unanimous. “All right,” I said. “We’ll do it.” We pulled into an Arco gas station near the highway to tank up for the long drive back to Orange County. I walked into the AM/PM Mini-Mart to snag some snacks while James pumped the gas.
The man behind the counter was Ignored.
We stared at each other. There was no one else in the small convenience store but us, and I stood there, stunned, facing the man behind the counter. He was young and clean-shaven, with long brown hair, and he looked a little like Tim.
“You,” he said finally. “You’re Ignored.”
I nodded. For some reason, I thought of Philipe’s policy about not taking on anyone who had not yet killed his boss. This guy was still working. He had obviously not taken out his boss.
“My name is Dan,” he said.
“Hi,” I said warily. I had been planning to steal some Twinkies and cookies and potato chips, but I thought now that I would pay for them. I didn’t want to get this guy into trouble. He was one of us.
“Are you from Thompson?”
Thompson? I shook my head, not understanding.
“Are you going there?”
“Excuse me?”
“Thompson.”
I stared at him blankly.
His eyes widened in surprise. “You don’t know about Thompson?”
“No.” I looked out the window, saw James replacing the nozzle on the gas pump. I had no idea what the hell this guy was talking about. The thought occurred to me that he was out of it, like Paul when we’d found him.
“I’m from Thompson.”
That meant nothing to me.
“Thompson is
“Our city?”
He nodded. “Our city.”
I stared at him, suddenly realizing what he was talking about. I cleared my throat. “You mean… a city of people like us?”
“Of course. It’s the city of the Ignored.”
I had sudden visions of a vast underground world, a honeycomb of caverns and tunnels that housed a massive secret society. I thought of the buried city under Seattle. I’d seen it as a child on an old
A city where everyone was exactly like us.
The very thought of it made my blood pump faster.
Dan nodded, grinning. “I was born there. I left a few years ago, figured I’d bum around the country, get some life experience. I’m a writer. Writers need lots of life experience.”
“But… but this city… Thompson?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s filled only with people who are Ignored?”
“Yeah.” He shook his head. “Shocked the hell out of me when I saw you walk through that door. You’re the first Ignored I’ve seen in the past three years. I thought all of them lived in Thompson.”
“There’s more of us in the van. And there’s even more in Desert Palms. The mayor’s Ignored.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“Whoa.”
“Listen,” I said, “would you like to take us there, to Thompson? We’ll give you a lift. All you have to do is give us directions.”
“No way, Jose. I’m staying right where I am. Do you know how many weirdos come through those doors on the night shift?” He shook his head. “I’m telling you, between midnight and dawn, it’s a freak show.” He pointed to a ringed binder sitting next to the cash register. “And I’m getting it all down.”
I nodded, forced myself to smile. I felt sorry for the guy. Didn’t he realize what it meant to be Ignored? No matter how great his book was — and it wouldn’t be great, it would be average — no one was going to read it. No matter what he did, no one was going to pay any attention to him.
“Well, could you tell me how to get there?” I asked.
