EIGHT

He’s gone,” Dr. Ross said to Pierce, in the apartment across the street from Billy. The doctor had just lifted the end of his stethoscope off Jordan’s chest.

“Gone.”

“Dead,” Dr. Ross said.

Pierce closed his eyes briefly. Mason Lee would pay for this.

“I’ll need a copy of the death certificate,” Pierce said.

“And the body?”

“Do what you need to do,” Pierce said. “Then take it away. I’ll keep the apartment for myself.”

Caitlyn’s wait didn’t take long. The boy passed below her, the skunk smell wafting to her nose.

She lowered herself from horizontal to vertical, landing on her good foot and wincing as she set the other one down.

The noise of impact was slight, but the boy whirled around at the sound and startled her.

Not nearly as much as the sight of her startled him. That was the effect she’d intended, of course, except she’d wanted to reach forward and surprise him, touch the back of his shoulders to really make him jump.

The boy shrieked and backed away from her.

He was a mess. Greasy dark hair sticking out in all directions. Welts across his arms, red bumps on his face. His right forearm was bound by a blood-crusted strip of cloth, obviously ripped from the bottom of his shirt. He had filthy hands, dirt under his fingernails. And, of course, the smell of skunk.

“Keep going,” Caitlyn told him. The boy had a round rock in his hand, and she guessed why. “I can surprise you like this whenever I want. Except next time, I’ll be the one with a rock big enough to knock you across the head. You won’t even know what hit you.”

The boy stopped moving, squinted at her. “How did you do that?”

“I want you to leave me alone,” she answered. She reached down and grabbed her walking stick, which she’d placed on the ground at the side of the path earlier.

He squinted again. “What are you?”

She was a freak. That’s what he meant. The reminder was like someone pushed a jagged piece of glass through her skin. She blinked at the intensity of the pain. But she wasn’t going to show that the insult affected her.

She jabbed him in his chest with the tip of her walking stick. “Whatever I am, I don’t stink like you. Now go away.”

“No, no, no,” he said. “I thought you were a man. But you sound a lot like a girl. Not that I’m trying to insult you.”

“You’re not listening. If you keep following me, I’ll have to ambush you again and whack your head.”

He was still squinting. “I wish I had better eyes. Then I could see if you were a girl.”

“What difference does that make?”

“I’d be more afraid that a man would whack me. You’re not someone from the Clan, right? You’re not going to barbecue me and hang me from a tree? The way you appeared out of nowhere…that was scary.”

“I don’t want you following me.”

“As long as you’re not Clan, I have to. Else I’m going to die of starvation.”

She jabbed him again. “Leave me be.”

She jabbed his shoulder. It was the most she could force herself to do to harm him physically. She hoped the bluff would work.

“There’s a bounty on my head,” he said. “I’m a factory runaway.”

“Then keep running.”

“Ha!” he said. “There’s only one reason you wouldn’t go to the Elders to collect that bounty. You must be on the run too.”

“I just want to be left alone.”

“Show me your vidpod,” he said. “Got an Elder’s verification that you were in church last Sunday?”

“Go away,” Caitlyn said.

“See!” Smug triumph. “I knew it. Fugitive. You can’t turn me in. Just like I can’t turn you in. Hey, where’s your backpack? Have anything I can eat?”

Her backpack was hidden a few yards ahead, off the trail. Caitlyn gritted her teeth. “Go. Away. Now.”

“Or else what?” Another grin from the smudged face.

She tried to think of an answer that would scare him. In the silence, he cocked his head, but the grin on his face disappeared.

“Trouble,” he said. “We’re not alone.”

She listened. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Men,” he said. “Talking.”

He pointed upward, at the branches three-quarters the way up the trees.

Caitlyn looked.

“Skunk boy,” she said, “those are leaves.”

“Beyond the leaves. I can hear them.”

He seemed so convinced that Caitlyn looked more intently. She looked in the angle he pointed and saw the rock of the far wall of the valley. The same sheer rock wall that Caitlyn dropped from when Papa pushed her into the chasm.

She saw movement on the distant rocks. Caitlyn limped past the boy and climbed upward on the deer path.

“I was right, wasn’t I,” the boy said. He stayed close to her.

She ignored him. She reached a place where the trees thinned. It gave her a better view across the valley.

The boy jumped on a nearby rock and became as tall as Caitlyn.

“Climbers,” he said. “I can’t see much close up, but I can see far just fine. Those are climbers.”

The boy was right. A half dozen men were lowering themselves on ropes and climbing down the sheer face of the rock, high above the waterfall.

“You can hear them?”

“Not what they are saying. But enough to know they are talking. Impressed? You should be. Most people are. I can’t see good enough to count my own fingers, but I can hear stuff. It’s why I’m afraid at night. Too many things moving in the dark. I hear them all. All the time.”

Caitlyn let the boy prattle. In her head, she heard Papa’s words. “You cannot be taken, dead or alive. You must not fall into their hands.”

Who were they? What was it they wanted so badly?

Caitlyn gave the irritating skunk boy her attention again. She’d have to escape him too. But not now. If her pursuers found him, he’d most certainly tell them about her and confirm that she was still alive. She would take him away from here, then abandon him.

“Do you want to go back to the factory?” Caitlyn asked.

“I’ve been eating worms and crawfish,” he said. “I even tried killing a skunk to eat it. That’s why I stink. I’m willing to go to the Clan just to get Outside, if I can find my way there. What does that tell you?”

“Stay with me, then,” Caitlyn said. She pointed ahead where the valley widened. “We’re going to Cumberland Gap. Then Outside. But you have to keep your mouth shut and do everything I tell you.”

“You can find the Clan? You’re not afraid of becoming a floater?”

“Already, you’re not listening. You’ll need to keep your mouth shut.”

“Sorry.”

Caitlyn turned back down the path, where the backpack was waiting. Her ankle was feeling a little better. The climbers wouldn’t be down for a while, but she’d have to do her best to stay ahead of them.

“My name is Theo,” the boy said. “Do you have any food?”

Caitlyn spoke without looking back. “That doesn’t sound like silence to me.”

“Oh,” he said. “Right. Sorry again. It’s just been a week all by myself. And I’m hungry.”

“Telling me why you’re talking, that’s talking too.”

“Right. Sorry. You know…again.”

She’d give him some cheese from the backpack. Maybe that would keep him quiet.

“How did you sneak up on me back there?” he said a couple steps later. “No one’s ever done that before. My hearing is too good.”

She ignored him.

“I can hear great, but I’ve got extreme hyperopia,” he continued. “Means I’m farsighted. I can barely even count my own fingers.”

“You said that already,” Caitlyn said. “Try to count to yourself. Please.”

“Up close, you’re a blur to me. At least tell me if you’re a girl. Or just a small man with a high voice. If you’re going to escape with someone, that’s important to know, right?”

“If I feed you,” she said, “will you finally give me some peace?”

Then, silence. Blessed silence.

But a second later, he grabbed her arm. With anger, she twisted away. She turned and was about to snap at him, but his head was cocked, and he was holding up a hand to stop her.

His smudged face showed concentration. Then fear.

“Hounds,” he said. “Between us and Cumberland Gap.”