The girls parted in charged silence, Marnie to go sneak a cigarette despite her promise to Gabi she would quit, and Gabi to work the kinks out of her plan for getting to the testing center. Neither could think of anything more to say on the subject of God that wouldn’t rattle them both just when they needed to remain steady and focused. Perhaps someday when they had both escaped Alder, they could revisit the topic without it feeling like lightning might strike or the ground swallow them whole. But today was not that day.
Chapter FOURTEEN
GABI SPENT days weighing her options for how to get to the testing center on the far outskirts of Alder. She could attempt to hitch a ride with one of the incoming shuttles bringing recruits from other branches. There were only four main roads leading into and out of Alder from each of the four cardinal directions, and each one was guarded by a toll and checkpoint. From the checkpoints all incoming vehicles were required to go on to the central transportation hub and register their intended route. Gabi could wait at the hub, then stow away on a shuttle from there to the testing center, but it wasn’t a foolproof plan.
How could she be certain when the shuttles would arrive at the hub? There was no way to find out, though she’d considered trying to get a letter to Jordan in Spruce to ask him about his itinerary. She couldn’t do that, of course. A question about transportation schedules in written correspondence, even if it was between two teenagers, would alert the Homefront Safety analysts. Also, how was she supposed to get on one of the shuttles without the drivers or chaperones noticing? She could come up with a story about her dad’s car having broken down and needing a lift, but that would give rise to an entirely different problem. Gabi had the enrollment form, given to each camper by their mentor, which proved that she’d been recruited to take the Witness exam. The problem was, her name and address were emblazoned across the top. Gabriela Lowell, 42 Cambium Terrace, Alder Branch. The drivers and chaperones might not know her, but everyone in the fellowship knew Sam and that he had only one child taking the exam this year. Mathew had been profiled in the bulletin as one of the year’s most promising recruits. The annual profile was a way of rallying community support for the Witness teams by putting a personal face to their work. The fact the face happened to belong to the handsome son of a well-loved councilmember was a public-relations dream.
Mathew was modest like his father and had been embarrassed by all of the attention. Gabi wasn’t wild about it either, or its impact on her secret plans. If there was any justice in the world, it would be Bradley Fiske rather than Gabi who had so many obstacles to overcome to get to the exam, though her nemesis hadn’t exactly gotten off easy. Bradley’s father, a senior manager at Unitas’s central distribution warehouse, had used his influence to hire Burton Ames himself as Bradley’s tutor. For an Apostle to serve in such a lowly capacity was unprecedented, but not strictly against guidelines. Garth Fiske had made Apostle Ames an offer he couldn’t refuse, which included the late-model Land Rover Ames had taken to tooling around in, and the wealth of fuel rations it took to keep the behemoth running. Ames was a legendary taskmaster among the Witness teams, and he wasn’t holding back with Bradley. Gabi could only imagine what transpired during his tutorials to cause the boy to show up at school each day limping, nor did she care. Ames could roast Bradley over hot coals if it kept him out of her hair.
Then there was the Noel Sutton option. As a special treat for having been recruited, Noel’s mother decided to allow him to drive himself to the testing center on the day of the exam. As one of the nurses in charge of newly admitted Returned at the Care Center, she had a shift she couldn’t miss the morning of the test and wouldn’t be able to drive him herself. When Noel shared the exciting news at school, he’d been mobbed with requests for a ride. Transportation assignments were drawn up early so that fuel rations could be pooled and those with working vehicles could provide a lift to those recruits still in need. Gabi, though in need, had not been one of those begging Noel for a ride. She’d been hoping another workable alternative would present itself, but on Saturday morning, with less than forty-eight hours before the test proctors sealed the doors of the facility to latecomers, she was desperate.
FINDING NOEL in the crowd milling around the temple after services was no easy thing. Even those who preferred the more intimate feel of the Sunday service had come to add their prayers for the success of the new recruits that Saturday. Because she would miss out on driving Noel on Monday, Nurse Sutton got permission to pick up a later shift in order to be with her son for his final service before the exam. The starched sail of his mother’s peaked nurse’s cap helped Gabi finally track Noel down. He stood with his mother in the long line for the complimentary tea made from roasted dandelion roots that fellows drank in place of coffee. The hardy dandelion, though smaller and less robust with every passing year, was one of the only life-forms that could survive in Alder’s exhausted soil.
Gabi
