“Is who still alive?” he countered.
“Robert,” I squeak.
Smith looks at the note to take a better look at what I might be talking about.
“Why would he be dead?” he asks coyly.
“You know why he would be dead!” I shout through gritted teeth.
The Library guard begins shushing me.
“Oh, shut up,” I yell at the mystery guard. He scowls at me with great hatred. “Now, tell me, Smith, has Robert Towers been through The Purifying?”
“No,” Smith huffs, “not yet. He is due to take part in The Purifying three days from today.”
I grab the note back from Smith, shoving through the Library guard at the door. As I leave the Library, I can feel my brother hot on my heels.
“What’s going on?”
“Robert Towers is going to die, for real, in three days.”
“Huh,” Eli says clueless. “What are you talking about?”
“He has been sentenced to The Purifying, Eli.”
“Yes, you read that Liz, now what are you talking about?”
“Right now, that man is the only one who could take us to The Elected headquarters once we get out of here, and he has been sentenced to The Purifying, which means death!”
Chapter Eighteen
Eli goes quiet walking beside me. He seems to be thinking about what all of this means. I’m not sure what all this means. All I know is that no matter how I feel about Robert Towers, we may need him if we are going to escape and make it to The Elected headquarters to save Shae and Syl.
“We need to get to Jake,” I whisper to Eli, “he will know what we should do.”
“Wait, if The Purifying means that Dad is going to die,” Eli breaths, “that means Samantha is going to die too.”
“If she hasn’t already,” I sigh.
We take a right into the Pod that is now our home. Right before we enter the door, I pull my brother in close so Smith can’t hear what I have to say to him.
“I know this is a lot to take in, but I know that Mom and Jake are working on a way out of here. R. J. says that we aren’t going anywhere, but if we could escape The Force, then we sure could escape this place.” I look around. “Don’t tell anyone besides Mar what is going on. We will have to find a way for all of us to meet soon. I love you, brother.”
“Okay,” Eli says, looking seriously at me.
We both enter the enormous room. Jake and Mar are waiting just inside. They both know we needed the time to read the letter, but they both also knew they would be needed when we came back. Eli smiles a bit at me before he and Mar walk into their cubby.
Jake follows me quietly into ours. He knows when I am ready to talk, I will. Instead of telling him what is going on, I hand him the note.
He takes the time to read it, and I allow him all the time I think he needs. I can tell when he is done, because he looks at me, laying the paper down on the bed. He doesn’t say anything for a few moments as if formulating the right thing to say. I like this the most out of Jake. Most boys or even men would spout out what they were thinking, and Jake takes his time to speak. Sometimes, this quality infuriates me about him, but now, in this moment, I am happy for it.
“How are you feeling about this?” He finally breaks the silence.
“I’m not sure. I don’t want him to die because he is my father, and I thought he was dead for four years…”
“But?”
“But, he has put us through so much,” I pause. “Jake, he was watching us at The Force. If he cares so much for us, then why would he have not stepped in to save us then?”
“I don’t know.”
“He doesn’t care,” I say firmly. “He never did, so why should I care that he is going to die?”
“Because we need him,” Jake says flatly. “As of right now, we have no one to take us to The Elected headquarters. Morimoto is dead…”
“And my map is gone,” I squeak.
“We have three days to figure out how to get out of here!” Jake exclaims. “We have to get our guns, which your mom may know where they are keeping those. We need to get Robert, and Samantha if she is still alive, and get out of here.”
I nod my head in agreeance.
Over the next two days, we find ways to whisper plans in the Mess Hall, in our pod, and even in the Library that Eli and I took them back to. In two days’, time, security has dropped significantly. My guess is because the longer we are here without causing a problem, the more of a chance we have of not needing to be guarded.
Yesterday, we agreed on one of us requesting to go visit Robert to know where we could find him on the day of our escape. Eli lost and went to visit our father last night. He didn’t want to but took one for the team. While he was in the bank of holding cells, he saw many men, women, and children being held in a section marked The Purifying T-22 hours. Samantha was among the group.
Our only time frame to escape and obtain Robert Towers rests sometime between two a.m. and six a.m. during this night. We hold more hope with the early hours of the morning instead of the afternoon or evening when the commons are filled with souls.
Now we are sitting in the library, pretending to read overly reproduced books, while whispering plans. Smith and one man we now know to be Burt are our only
