Among the Brave

Chapter Fifteen

Trey jerked back, like he actually thought he could get away from this horrible news Mark had just revealed.

“No,” he moaned.

“Maybe that kid’s lying,” Mark said tonelessly. “But I don’t know. Why would he lie?”

Trey realized he was trembling. He tried to stop, to regain control of his muscles, but it was useless. He was mere yards away from the headquarters of the Population Police, the people who had wanted to kill Trey ever since he was born. He had every right to tremble.

Without thinking about it, he plunged his hand into his pants pocket and clutched the false identity card his mother had given him after his father died. He’d carried it with him ever since. It was his only protection against certain death.

“Trey?” Mark said. “Maybe my brother’s not in there. Maybe he and his friends — your friends — maybe they escaped before the Population Police took over.”

Mark thought Trey was trembling on Lee’s behalf. Mark thought Trey was only worried about his friends.

“Maybe the chauffeur who took Lee was working for the Population Police the whole time,” Trey said, and was instantly ashamed. Why was he trying to upset Mark?

“We’ve got to find him,” Mark said.

But he didn’t suggest a plan, just stared dully out at the line of new recruits for the Population Police.

Trey couldn’t help staring at the line too, even though it terrified him. He couldn’t see the line’s beginning or its end. It seemed to go on forever, all those men and boys.

“That many people want to work for the Population Police?” Trey whimpered. “Do they all hate third children so much? Does everyone?”

“No,” Mark said, finally looking away from the line. “They probably don’t know anything about third children. They’re just hungry.”

“So what? Who isn’t?” Trey asked.

Mark sighed.

“Apparently the Population Police announced this morning that nobody can sell food now except the Population Police,” he said. “And nobody can buy food unless at least one person in the family works for the Population Police. So everybody’s joining up. So they don’t starve.”

Trey closed his eyes, suddenly feeling dizzy with hunger himself. Or maybe it was just fear again. He’d been so terrified for so long, he would have thought he’d be numb to the emotion by now. But he wasn’t. Fear seemed to have taken control of every nerve ending in his body He couldn’t quite make sense of what Mark had said. lf the Population Police controlled the food supply… If everybody joined the Population Police.

He was doomed. So was every other third child. So was the entire country.

“Listen,” Mark was saying. “I–I told that kid I had food to sell. I told him he didn’t have to join the Population Police. I don’t know, I guess I went a little crazy. I was even telling him how to grow food….”

Mark’s words took a while to sink in.

“What?” Trey asked. “What if he turns you in? What if the Population Police are offering a big reward for turning in people who try to sell food illegally just like they offer rewards for turning in third children?”

Trey didn’t wait for Mark to answer. He grabbed Mark’s arm and began tugging.

“We’ve got to hide!” Trey screamed frantically “Now!”

Blindly he crashed back through the woods, pulling Mark along with him.

“Trey! Shh! You’re — someone’s going to hear us!” Mark hollered.

Trey stopped with a jerk — not because of Mark’s protests, but because eight lines of barbed wire stretched directly in front of him. He’d thought he’d been running deeper and deeper into the woods, but in his panic he must have gone in circles. He was back at the dual fences surrounding the Grant estate.

He and Mark stared in silence at the gleaming silver barbed wire. Then Mark whispered, “They’re gone now.”

“Huh?” Trey said. He was a little mesmerized by the barbed wire. One barb was suspended mere inches from his right eye. What if he hadn’t seen it? What if he hadn’t stopped?

“The workers,” Mark said impatiently “They finished up and left. So…” He took one small step closer to the fence.

Trey snapped out of his trance.

“You still want to crawl through?” he hissed. “You’ve got to be kidding! It’s not safe! Not with the Population Police in there now. Look, Mark, I know you’re brave and all, but — you can’t save Lee!”

“I have to try” Mark said quietly.

“You won’t even make it through the barbed wire,” Trey argued frantically

“Sure I will,” Mark said. “Don’t you know how many barbed-wire fences I’ve crawled through in my life? I’m practically the barbed-wire champion. Ain’t never — I mean, haven’t never — gotten a scratch since I was about three years old!”

Trey didn’t bother telling him his grammar was atrocious, even without the “ain’t” Mark wasn’t waiting for Trey’s approval anyway He took another step forward, past Trey.

“Just watch,” Mark said, a daredevil grin plastered across his face.

He took off his knapsack and tossed it aside. Then he eased his right foot between two of the lowest lines of barbed wire. Neither wire touched his leg. Trey took a step back so he could see better as Mark crouched down and began moving the rest of his body through. With one hand, he reached for the wire above to hold it away from his head.

“Aaahh!” Mark screamed. He dropped the wire, and it bounced against the entire length of his back. He jerked away, his voice cut off mid-scream. But he was still caught in the fence. His body sagged against the bottom wire.

Without thinking, Trey grabbed a stick and poked at Mark’s body knocking him off the wire. The stick brushed the fence, and Trey’s wrists and knuckles tingled strangely He dropped the stick and jumped back, totally panicked. He’d been crazy to use a stick damp from the ground. Water conducted electricity. And the barbed-wire fence, he realized, had been electrified with dangerous amounts of voltage. He stared at Mark’s motionless body, sprawled on the other side of the fence. Trey wasn’t even sure that Mark was still alive.

Above them, on the original stone fence, a light suddenly clicked on, flooding the entire area with an intense glow. Frantically Trey scuttled backward, desperately searching for shadows to hide in. Seconds later, he heard the sound of marching feet, coming right toward him. He dove into a bush, breaking branches. Trembling, he reached back to steady the leaves, to hide all signs of his frantic dive.

“Intruder discovered in second quadrant,” a man’s voice boomed nearby.

Trey dared to peek out through the leaves. Four men in uniform were standing beside the barbed-wire fence, staring down at Mark.

“Deactivate fence so we can retrieve the intruder,” the voice boomed again.

There was a buzzing, and then Trey saw one of the men bend down and pull Mark’s body under the fence. The barbed wire caught on his clothes, but the man didn’t seem to care.

“Retrieval finished. Reactivate,” the first man said. Trey saw that he was speaking into a walkie-talkie of sorts.

One of the other men lifted Mark and tossed him over his shoulder, carrying him like a sack of potatoes. Mark’s eyelids fluttered — he was alive!

But then the lights went out. The men marched away and Trey was left alone once again.

Chapter Sixteen