After the initial thrill of their reunion subsided, Marnie and Jordan had demanded Gabi’s account of how she’d finagled spots on a Witness team for her and Marnie.
“That’s so messed up,” Marnie said when Gabi recounted how Sam had insisted she still needed the pills despite her improvement. At that point in the drive, Marnie was only halfway through her first day without cigarettes, and her emotions were running high. “No wonder you were desperate to get away, though I’m surprised he backed down just because you threatened to tell everyone you were adopted if he didn’t get the three of us on a team.”
“Me too, actually,” Gabi admitted, “but councilmen have to be above reproach. He’s been passing me off as his all these years. I think he must have had to pay off at least one person at the Care Center to keep it secret. Someone had to deliver me, right?”
“Are you okay?” Jordan asked. “It must have been so hard to confront your dad. The bulletins always make him sound like such a family guy.”
“He’s not my dad,” Gabi stated. It had been hard, and if Sam’s only sin had been lying about being her father, she would have balked at the idea of blackmail. But his reaction to her threat to reveal the true story of her birth and her refusal to take her pills hinted that there was more to it than he let on. That combined with the memory of him disappearing into D Wing with Messenger Nystrom had been enough to ease her guilt. What Sam and Messenger Nystrom were doing in the name of Unitas was beyond forgiveness.
“But why would your dad, I mean Sam, force you to take pills that made you sick? It just doesn’t make sense,” Marnie asked, gnawing savagely on her thumbnail to appease her nicotine craving.
“I don’t know,” Gabi admitted. “We never got to that part. He couldn’t force the pills down my throat, and he was in round-the-clock council meetings right up until we left. I’m sure there was a lot of resistance to putting us on a team.”
Jordan didn’t ask many questions as Gabi told her story. When she got to the part about passing out on the cross-country course during the physical test, he shrank into his seat and ducked his head.
“Hey, Jordan,” Gabi said, “you know that wasn’t your fault, right? You couldn’t have helped me. If you had, you wouldn’t be here right now. I had a Plan B, but you didn’t.” Gabi placed her hand on his arm, which vibrated with tension under his travel uniform.
“I came back,” Jordan mumbled, his chin dipping into his collar.
“On the course?”
“Yeah, I… when I lost sight of you, I got nervous. You looked ready to drop when I left, so I waited for Ruth to pass me, then doubled back. I wasn’t that far ahead anyway. I got over the hill and saw Trainer Foulkes crouched beside you on that flat stretch through the field. You were totally out. He looked up and shouted at me to keep going.”
“But then how did you pass the test?” Marnie asked.
“Second-highest score on the written, I guess, and passing the physical part, though it took me three and a half hours. By the end, some people were just laying by the side of the trail waiting for stretchers to carry them back to the gym.”
“Thanks, Jordan,” Gabi said, touched by his selflessness.
“Who got first?” Marnie asked.
“First in the written? You did,” Jordan answered. “Didn’t they at least mail you the results? I assumed that’s how you made it onto the shuttle when I saw you guys climb on. Highest score on record.”
Gabi laughed as Marnie’s jaw dropped. “Marnie, you’re a genius!” Gabi teased, tipping the girl’s mouth shut with an index finger under her chin.
“Shut up, Lowell,” Marnie grumbled, hiding a smile.
THE VANS finally rattled to a stop after dark on the third day, and not a moment too soon. Seventy-two consecutive hours of travel on worsening roads had taken its toll on the bodies and morale of the Witness teams, and there were moans all around as everyone disembarked for their first night of camping.
Jordan had ceased responding to Gabi and Marnie’s attempts at conversation after lunch, only grunting in acknowledgment when they passed him his brown-bag dinner. When their van rolled past the pockmarked sign reading “Welcome to Spruce Branch, Unitas Incorporated since 2058,” the two girls understood why. As the vans drew abreast of the sign, the pockmarks resolved into bullet holes, and what lay beyond it was a blacked-out shambles. Piles of debris smoldered where buildings had once stood. The Unitas Distribution Center at the end of Main Street remained standing since it was built using reinforced concrete, but all the windows were blasted out.
“Why would they stop here?” Marnie whispered to Gabi as they climbed out of the van behind Jordan. “We passed way better spots to camp on the way in.” There was shattered glass everywhere, and no shelter in sight. The smoke stung Gabi’s eyes, and there was a smell in the air that reminded her of the Care Center.
“This way,” Apostle Sykes called before Gabi had the chance to search the darkness for Mathew. Just knowing he was nearby calmed her, no matter how angry
