had left there.
But Matthias knew he had choices. As soon as the grown-ups shut the door behind them, he slipped out of bed, almost knocking over the other boys with their bowl of broth.
'What are you doing?' the one boy said. Matthias didn't know if it was Joel or John. He didn't care, either.
'Shh,' he said.
He wobbled on his rubbery legs, but he made it to the door. He pressed his ear against the cool wood and listened for murmurings.
As he'd suspected, the grown-ups hadn't gone far for their discussion. They were right out in the hall.
'What are the chances that either of those children are still alive, even now?' Mr. Talbot was saying in a hushed voice.
'It sounds like the girl has a concussion and an infected wound,' the woman's voice answered. 'She should be okay, as long as the infection hasn't progressed too far. The boy — Percy? — I don't know. It depends on how the bullet went in, how much blood he's lost, how well Matthias managed to dress the wound….'
'You think you have to go help them,' Mr. Talbot said. It was a question without being a question.
'Well, of course, but—'
'You can't!' Mr. Talbot said. 'The whole countryside's unstable, it'd be like walking through a minefield — I don't know how Matthias got here without being killed. If the mobs don't get you, the Population Police will.'
'I'll drive,' the woman said.
'Oh, that's a great idea. Why not just send out flares: I'm a Baron; I used to be richer than sin; I'm the very person you hate most!''
'George, what if it were Jen, lying there in that cabin, on the verge of death? What if it were her and everyone refused to help?'
Mr. Talbot fell silent Even Matthias knew who Jen was: She was Mr. Talbot's daughter, an illegal third child who'd been raised in luxury but who had died seeking her freedom.
She and Samuel had died together.
Through the door, Matthias heard Mr. Talbot take a ragged breath.
'Theodora, I just — I don't want to lose you, too.' 'I know,' the woman said softly. 'But I have to go.' Matthias reached down and turned the doorknob. He jerked the door open.
'I'm going too,' he said. 'You're not leaving me behind.' The three grown-ups all startled at the sound of the door opening. Then Mr. Hendricks shook his head wryly.
'Theodora,' he said, 'I think you've got an assistant whether you like it or not.'
Chapter Twelve
To Matthias's way of thinking, the preparations for leaving took forever. Mrs. Talbot — for it turned out that's who Theodora was, Mr. Talbot's wife — had to pack bags of food and medicines and clothes. 'In case we have to be there several days,' she explained. 'In case your friends can't be moved.'
'Theodora doesn't travel light,' Mr. Talbot said, attempting a chuckle that somehow turned into a stifled sob. He trailed his wife around the house as if he didn't want to let her out of his sight any sooner than he had to. 'Maybe I should come too and—'
'George, you're a wanted man,' Mrs. Talbot said sharply. 'If they stop us and see you, that's it, we're all dead.'
'Don't come,' Matthias said.
He didn't understand how Mr. Talbot could be a wanted man, but it didn't matter. All Matthias cared about was getting back to his friends.
'And now we beat up the car,' Mrs. Talbot said. 'Want to help?'
'What?' Matthias asked, startled.
She led him to a shed behind Mr. Hendricks's house and flipped a switch. A long, elegant black car gleamed in the sudden light.
'If the mobs stop us, we want them to think we stole this car,' Mrs. Talbot said. 'If the Population Police detain us, we want it to look like we've fallen on hard times. Either way, this car is too… perfect.'
She grabbed a sledgehammer that was leaning against the wall and aimed it at the center of the hood.
'I can't watch,' Mr. Talbot said.
Matthias decided he couldn't either. But ten minutes later, when Mrs. Talbot backed the car out of the shed, it looked more like a crumbled heap of scrap metal than a drivable vehicle.
'Don't worry, dear,' Mrs. Talbot told her husband, leaning out the window. 'It's only cosmetic damage. If I make it back here, you can spend the whole winter fixing it up.'
'Don't say that,' Mr. Talbot said. 'Don't you know how hard this is for me already?'
'Now you know how I felt all those years, watching you head off into danger,' Mrs. Talbot said.
Matthias climbed into the passenger side of the car. Mr. and Mrs. Talbot were kissing each other good-bye now, and he had no desire to watch that.
Mr. Hendricks rolled out toward them, and Joel and John walked behind him.
'Be careful,' Mr. Hendricks said.
'Of course,' Mrs. Talbot said. She rolled up her window and put her foot on the accelerator, and they zipped past the others. 'I hate good-byes,' she said.
Mrs. Talbot barely slowed down as they approached the end of the driveway.
'Which way?' she asked impatiently.
'Turn right,' Matthias said. 'And then left at the next intersection. The cabin's on the main road into those woods, about halfway in, I think, right after the stream.'
He wished they could get there as quickly as he could give directions. Mrs. Talbot seemed to feel the same way. She sped around the corner, then pressed the accelerator to the floor. They went faster and faster; everything outside the window blurred before Matthias's eyes.
'We need to get our stories straight, in case anyone stops us,' Mrs. Talbot said grimly, keeping her gaze straight ahead. She clutched the steering wheel with both hands. 'I'm your mother, and I'm taking you to Population Police headquarters so you can join up.'
'Join the Population Police? Why would I do that?' Matthias asked, recoiling from her words.
Mrs. Talbot sighed and glanced his way quickly before staring back at the road before them.
'I guess you didn't hear all the news lately, out at Niedler,' she said. 'The Population Police issued an edict that nobody but them is allowed to sell food. And nobody can buy food unless at least one member of the family is part of the Population Police.'
'Oh,' Matthias said. All of that seemed horribly remote to him. The car was warm — even his seat seemed to be breathing heat around him. It made him sleepy. He forced himself to stay alert. He remembered something. 'When the Population Police came to Niedler, they said that the Government had a new leader and that was why we had to go to the work camp.'
Mrs. Talbot sighed again, even more heavily this time.
'Yes,' she said. 'The leader of the Population Police took over the whole country. Aldous Krakenaur. The Population Police are in control of everything now.'
'That doesn't matter,' Matthias said.
'What?' Mrs. Talbot asked. She seemed so stunned that she almost drove off the road. She had to jerk violently on the steering wheel to get the car back on course.
Matthias shrugged.
'What's the difference?' he asked. 'Samuel — the man who raised us — he said that governments will rise and governments will fall, and man will do evil to man, and all we can do is turn our hearts to good.'
'Well, that's certainly a broad view of things,' Mrs. Talbot muttered.
'Samuel didn't believe in getting involved in politics,' Matthias said. He frowned in the darkness, remembering the one time Samuel had seemed to go against his own principles. 'But when there was that rally for
