In the After

My eyes narrowed. “I know you’re not sleeping,” I told her. She still pretended, but I heard her breath quicken. “You sound like a bullhorn when you sleep.”

She opened one of her eyes, then the other. “Are you here to kill me?” she asked, annoyingly innocent.

“I’m here to ask you why.” I stared into her eyes until she looked away. “How could you do that to me and Baby?” I demanded.

“I didn’t expect your voice to be so sweet,” she told me. “You were so stubborn about not speaking with me . . . I always thought you’d have an irritating voice, high pitched, you know.”

“I’m not here to discuss my voice,” I said between clenched teeth.

She sniffed. “Oh, Amy, I didn’t want to do it. But how could I say no to Paul? They saw you and Baby one day. They wanted to know where you were staying. You’d survived so long on your own and you didn’t have a gang or bows or anything. They wanted to know how you did it. I thought about telling you the truth, staying with you and Baby, but I couldn’t leave my brother. After what happened, when that Florae almost got you the night I left . . . I didn’t think you’d want me around anyway. I had to go back to my brother, even though I hated the basement.”

“What basement? I thought it was a bomb shelter. Did that not exist?” I growled.

“It did. Paul and I lasted six months in there. He protected me until we made our way to the city, and then he found the group to hook up with. He found us a safe place to stay. He saved me. We lived in the basement of some bank building. The Floraes couldn’t get through the bars. . . .”

“How do you know to call them Floraes?” I asked. Until I came here, they were nameless creatures. They were just Them.

“That’s just what everyone calls them in the other city.”

I glanced at Kay, who levelly met my gaze. “What other city?” I asked. “What is she talking about?”

“Fort Black,” Amber told me. “It’s in Texas. That’s where Paul and I were before we headed east and found our gang. They have walls surrounding the whole area.”

“How many people live there?” I asked. An entire other city.

“I don’t know. A lot. It’s like the Wild West in there. That’s why Paul and I left, to take our chances somewhere else.”

“And where’s your gang now?” I asked. “Why didn’t you stay at my house?”

“They died there, all of them. We knew those copter things were picking up people so when I saw one, I ran at it.”

I shook my head at her. She was lying. I couldn’t listen any longer. I had to leave or I would hurt her again. I turned to the door.

“Wait. What about Baby?” she called. “Can I see her?”

“I will never let you near Baby again,” I sneered.

She grimaced. “I’ve seen that mark she has . . . the one on her neck.”

“What?” I froze.

“I’ve seen it on other children, in Fort Black.”

“You are a liar.” I clenched my fists, and Kay grabbed my shoulder, pushing me toward the door. In the hall, I paced back and forth.

“Let’s go to the Rumble Room,” Kay told me. “We can talk about things there.”

“She needs to be watched,” I told Kay as we walked. “I don’t want her to be alone for an instant.”

“Why?” Kay studied me.

“Because she’ll make it her priority to fit in and find out how New Hope works. One day she’s going to disappear and when she comes back, it will be to destroy everything we have.”

“Look, Amy, even though you hold a grudge against that girl, you have to realize that New Hope is not some unprotected house in the middle of a Florae-infested city.”

“No, at least I had a fence.” New Hope was completely unprepared for the recent Florae attack and lied to cover it up. If the emitters weren’t faulty, they must have been sabotaged.

I looked at Kay and wondered how much she knew, what she was keeping from me. My mother told me nothing, Rice only slightly more. Rice, who paid so much attention to Baby and noticed her scar right away. Did Amber tell the truth about other children with the same mark?

“We’ve increased security measures since the Incident,” Kay said as we reached the Rumble Room. She scanned her key card with a glance over her shoulder and opened the door for me. “A teenage girl is not going to bring down New Hope.”

I walked through the door, wanting to believe her. She was so confident. But I knew better. Amber was trouble.

“She wasn’t lying about the city in Texas,” Gareth told me later as we huddled together on a bench in the locker room. He pulled me aside at practice after seeing how upset I was and I told him everything that had happened. “The Guardians know about it, but we were told to keep it a secret. I went there with my crew to see it with my own eyes.”

“Everyone in New Hope thinks we’re the only ones left,” I said. I stood and began to pace, nervous energy coursing through my veins.

“Listen, Amy, it’s better that way. Fort Black is a cesspool. There’s no law or order. The strong prey on the weak.” I watched him massage his left knee. It was giving him trouble lately but he didn’t want anyone to know.

“And what is it here? People are lied to. People are given a reality that isn’t real.”

“Ignorance is bliss,” Gareth said. “I’d rather not know myself. Believe me, it’s much better here.”

“Amber mentioned something”—I knelt to meet Gareth’s eyes, choosing my words carefully—“about children in Fort Black being marked. . . .”

“What, like branded?”

“Maybe. Something about the back of their necks.”

He looked at me blankly. “I didn’t see anything like that.” He shook his head. “Amber probably lied. She doesn’t want you to go check it out so she’s made up a story about children being mistreated so you’ll stay here with Baby. If her brother died, she might see you as family in some crazy-cakes, delusional way.”

“I know Amber was lying about her brother being dead.” I continued to pace. “I see the way she talks about him, you know? If she’s capable of love, she loves him. When she said he was dead, she said it like she was telling me the time.”

“So you think we need to watch her?” Even Gareth sounded doubtful. “Did you tell Kay?”

“Kay said we had twenty Guardians and too much to do.”

“You think that her gang can hurt us?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Look what two malfunctioning emitters did to us,” I said. “Sometimes ignorance isn’t bliss. Sometimes it’s just dangerous.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that we don’t have the manpower. I have to agree with Kay.”

I sighed, giving up. I would keep an eye on her by myself if I had to.

“I have to tell you something,” my mother said. “I know you’ve decided to become a Guardian.” She didn’t sound angry, more resigned. She stared down at the coffee table, deep in thought. She looked tired, with more wrinkles than I remembered.

“I think it’s what’s best for me,” I told her.

“I agree,” she said, to my surprise.

“You do?”

She looked at me wistfully. “I’m concerned, of course, but I think you’ll be an excellent Guardian. You’ve always been a quick thinker and you’ve gained certain skills living with the Floraes. . . . I think this is the best way for you to help New Hope.” She reached over to hug me.

“And there’s something else we need to discuss.” She hugged me closer. “When you class out, Adam is going to need his room back.”

“Of course,” I said. “Baby will move in with me.”

“Baby can’t live with you, not if you are going to be a Guardian,” she told me quietly.

“What?” I pulled away from her. “Why not?”