Joe ran a hand over his face. If things were as simple as his father had said, why had he never come back for Joe? Maybe he was dead. Joe didn’t believe it. If he’d managed to stay alive in Austin for nine years, his dad had surely managed it in New America. He wanted to find his father. Not for some big happy reunion. He just needed to know.
The rest of it — the going to New America, being a citizen — had been his dream for so long. What if the north was all a lie?
“I don’t know,” he said quietly.
Navarro exhaled heavily. “I’m not... I’m not trying to wreck things for you or hurt you. I want you to make your decisions based on what’s real. Let’s finish rounds, and tonight I’ll take you and your boyfriend to the wall.”
Joe had wanted to go this morning, hadn’t wanted to wait, not even for Devin to come along. He looked north and remembered the burden of the past nine years, the wonder and the hope and the disappointment. Beyond that wall was his father’s world. It could wait.
***
In the deepening dark, Joe kept his focus on the pinprick hole in the base of the wall. Devin and Navarro flanked him like guardians, their shoulders level with his ears. Navarro’s foot dragged, and the cane he hadn’t seemed to need this morning got plenty of use now.
“Jesus, this thing’s huge,” Devin said. The hood of a borrowed sweatshirt covered his hair, and with a pair of vision shields over his eyes, he shouldn’t attract too much attention. “Are they planning to be attacked by giants?”
Navarro grunted and held his hand over Joe’s head for a high five. As Devin complied, Joe half expected him to pee his pants or sprout an erection. The crush on Navarro was awfully strong. After Joe and Navarro had come back from rounds, Navarro had roped him into helping in the exam room, too. Devin stayed underfoot, making moony eyes at Navarro and blushing every time Navarro called him Muscles. He tripped over his own feet at least twice and hovered so close to the exam table when a girl came in with lice that Navarro finally sent him away. Joe had been relieved. He didn’t begrudge Devin’s crush, but it was slightly annoying. It also reminded Joe of the way Flix treated him. Or had treated him before Marcus fell.
Sure enough, Devin squirmed, his thick muscles twitching, and adjusted his crotch.
Joe turned to him and whispered, “Not subtle at all.”
Devin had the grace to look mortified, so Joe figured his work was done. Back to the wall.
The thing really was enormous. That hole in the base had to be a doorway, though, a way through. Navarro had said people from Purcell crossed over sometimes. Joe wondered how hard it was to get in.
As they drew closer, the setup became clearer. The hole opened over the northbound lanes of the old highway. Joe had expected American guards, but the only people moving about were a few townspeople he’d seen strolling the walkways when he and Navarro were checking on patients. The men and women held guns and faced north toward the wall like they were keeping guard, but their relaxed postures made it clear they felt no imminent threat.
“Where are the border patrols?” Joe asked.
Navarro shrugged. He glanced Joe’s way, but his eyes were hidden behind his vision shields. “I’ve lived here eighteen months. No one from the New America side has guarded this entrance in all that time.”
“We just walk on through?” Devin put a slightly shaky hand on Joe’s shoulder. “It’s that easy?”
“Nothing’s easy, Muscles. But yeah, you just walk on through.” Navarro led them right up to the deserted entrance and crossed over. Nothing happened. He turned around to face Joe and Devin, who’d stopped on the Oklahoma Territory side of the wall. “Come on. You wanted to cross.”
God, it wasn’t that simple. Nine years of Joe’s life. Nine years. He’d visited New America in his dreams. Planned for it. Prayed for it. Given up on it. Given up on his father, too. Now Navarro wanted him to cross the line that plagued and drove him?
Devin stepped across. Devin would. He was an American. Accepted. Embraced. Maybe the government would let Joe be a servant for his lover. Not that they could acknowledge their relationship, either.
To stall, Joe touched the wall, gauged it. It had to be ten feet thick, though it looked like it tapered toward the top. From a distance, he’d taken it for stone, but his hand skimmed cold, smooth metal. He rapped on it. Only muffled sound replied.
Beyond Navarro and Devin, New America stretched, as vast and empty as Oklahoma Territory. A speck of yellow light glowed in the distance. It was the only break in the bleak canvas of night.
This couldn’t be right. “Where are the people? The towns?”
“The light’s coming from Purcell. The real one.” Navarro gestured over his shoulder. “Not much else out here. Norman and Oklahoma City lie farther on, but I don’t know how many people are really left there. I’ve never been farther than Purcell.”
“Then how do you know they don’t want us, Navarro?” Joe hated how petulant he sounded, how he couldn’t force his feet to move.
Navarro came back to him. “It doesn’t take too many times being called a dirty Mexican bastard and getting shot at for the message to sink in. Are you walking over that border, or are you coming home with me?”
Navarro didn’t wait for an answer. Joe listened to him drag that injured leg away until the sound faded and he was left alone with Devin, the wall, and the stars.
Devin strode within Joe’s reach, craned his neck all around, and dropped a quick kiss on Joe’s lips. “It doesn’t feel real.”
It felt plenty real to Joe. “Are we doing the right thing, papi?”
Devin peeled off his vision shields and cupped Joe’s jaw. “Of
