The Dark Days - Chapter Four

Oops... today's the 11th. How many chapters do I owe you? Three, I think...


Chapter Four

"We need to get her to a doctor," I say fiercely. "And if we avoided the Peacekeepers before, it's even more important that we escape their fingers now. It's their gun that made this wound."
"She can't go back to the foraging, that's for sure," says Sage grimly. He readjusts his grip on Holly and she moans. That’s a problem. They’ll ask where she got the wound from.
"Go to sleep," says Amy softly. She takes Holly by the legs again. I take care to avoid her arm, now.
Holly's eyelashes flutter, her chocolate brown eyes showing through even in the night. "Where... I..."
"Go to sleep," I say, quoting Amy. "When you wake up, all of this will be gone."
I suppose that it's a bit hard to believe that you've woken up in the middle of the night with your two friends and a stranger carrying you, and it’s real, too. Well, Holly seems to think so because she sighs into sleep, believing that this is nothing but a bad dream and that she’s still in her house, safe and sound…
We begin walking. There seems to be an unspoken agreement to go to Dr. Anne Perils's place, because she's the best doctor around. We try to go as fast as possible, but with the constant fear of Peacekeepers it's hard. So we stick to the shadows.
Luckily, the bullet didn't go straight through Holly's arm, so it's still lodged instead. Serious, yes. Fatal, with the right treatment, no. But what worries me is what we'll say to to bosses tomorrow. The ones who pay us, work us, feed us. They can't know why Holly was shot, because I've no doubt that someone was listening in on our talk, and the Peacekeepers must be hunting for me, too.
I freeze in my tracks. Sage, whose mind must be occupied, nearly bumps into me. Holly stirs in her sleep.
Amy looks back, irritated. "What?"
"Amy," I say, as calmly was I can. "There's only one reason why Holly was shot. Someone was listening in on us."
She shrugs. "Yeah, it's occured to me."
"If they've got Holly, then they'll be after us, too."
Unlike most people, when Amy gets surprised, she seems to get calmer. "Well, that's a bummer."
We look at Sage.
"What?" he asks, uncomfortable with people staring in his eye.
"They can't know you're in the plot, too," I say. "We talked to you outside. There's no way all of the houses are bugged... So in other words, you're the only... rebel," I say in a hushed tone, "they don't know about. Tomorrow, Amy and I will go into hiding. It's up to you to bring them to our hiding place."
"Well, we do have to hide," says Amy, biting her lower lip. "But where? Somewhere big enough to contain the residents of District Eleven? Unlikely."
"There's one place," Sage says carefully. "But..."
I catch his drift. "The Underground? That’s what I suggested to Amy!"
“No!” my sister cries, on cue.
"Well, District Thirteen uses their Underground, so why not us?" Sage says, the exact thing on my mind.
Amy studies his expression. Fierce eyes, lips set together in a line, slight frown. He's serious.
The Underground was built by the Capitol, one for each district. The districts use them to store things, like electronics, fabrics, fish, crops, berries. Each one is like a maze and not all of them are used. It'll be a perfect headquarters.
"There's only one entrance," I tell him. "And it's heavily guarded."
Amy stares at the two of us. "Maybe we should start walking."
Right. As much as the rebellion is important, so is Holly.
"There's another entrance," Sage says as we slosh through the rain. I stare at him in confusion, but this time I don't stop walking.
"Another entrance? But... I thought the only one was in the Peacekeeper's Headquarters!" I say, struggling to keep my voice down.
"The mayor's house," says Sage. As if on cue, Amy and I look at each other.
"Maybelle Waters," we say together.
"Maybelle?" Sage echoes. "The mayor's niece?"
We nod.
"She doesn't live at the mayor's house-" Sage begins, but Amy cuts in.
"She sometimes stays after school to look after her cousin," she says. "Maybe I can... I mean, maybe you can talk to her after school."
"I'll try," says Sage, a frown line appearing on his forehead. "Look... it's just that... are you sure that your plan's going to work? Aryn, you're the mastermind of this, right?"
I nod.
"What's your plan to rebel?"
"I have one," I say mysteriously. I do, actually. I'm just not ready to tell them yet. If I do, they'll abandon me utterly. If I have a full district under command, then it's too late to step down. Then they'll have to stick with it. Which is why I say, "I'm just not going to share it."
Sage sighs. "I figured you would say that. But Aryn, take note that this'll be hard. We mean next to nothing to the Peacekeepers; we're just here to fill in the gaps. They can kill all of us."
"Then they lose their supply of food," I say simply. "The Underground food can't last forever. If it works, we can use it."
"Perfect," says Amy sarcastically. She rolls her eyes and turns around to walk. We've already left the main road and onto the doctor’s street.
Sometimes, I think that Amy doesn't take me too seriously.
"So Maybelle can help us," says Sage.
"Yeah," I reply. Just then, a cold breeze comes by and I shiver. I've just noticed how cold I am.
"Amy?" I ask. "Are you cold suddenly?"
She turns around. "Now you tell me? Before I wasn't but now you asked me I am!"
"Keep your voice down," Sage urges her. We are almost at Dr. Perils's front door. I wonder what she'll say about three kids turning up in the dead of the night, but I can only hope that she agrees to help us.
We knock on the door. Everyone knows that Dr. Perils is a light sleeper. We continue knocking until a light flickers on in one of the windows.
The door opens and a warm, golden glow spills from inside. "Dr. Perils-" I begin to say, but I freeze.
It's not the doctor. It's her daughter, Chime Perils, who's in my class at school. We're not friends, but not enemies. Just classmates. She stares us down.
Fortunately, I know Chime as a kind one. Once a squirrel got hurt and she treated it herself. Being a daughter of a doctor helps, but I think that she's started showing more compassion because of what happened to her father. He died after a fatal injury when a tree fell on top of him. It's a long story.
"What are you doing here?" she hisses at us. "It's ten already!"
Only ten? It has felt like four hours since I argued with Holly!
"Someone's hurt," I say. At the word hurt, Chime's nasty expression melts off.
"Why're you wet?" she asks. We're all soaked to the skin.
"Rain," I reply. "Chime, please, can you help us? She's got a gunshot wound!"
She immediately turns serious. "Mother!" she yells to the upper landing. Another light flickers on, and Dr. Perils comes down in her nightgown.
"What?" she asks, clearly tired.
"Gunshot wound to the arm," says Chime. Her mother doesn't ask anything, simply nods and takes Holly in her powerful arms. My friend looks like a crippled and fragile doll in Dr. Perils's arms.
"You can sit down," says Chime hasily, pointing to a few wooden chairs to the side of the hallway. "Don't worry about being wet... Um, you can go home and change."
I shake my head. Why would we change? The new clothes would just get wet again. So the moment Chime leaves to help her mother, I collapse in one of the chairs.
"She has to be okay," I say, exhausted.
Sage sits down next to me. "She will."
We sit in silence for a few seconds, and finally I can't stand it. "Do you think Maybelle will help us?"
"She's arrogant, yes, but she's not a snob. Besides, we'll need her intelligence."
"Right," I say.
"She'll be valuable in a rebellion," Amy says. "It's helpful for someone smart when you're trying to overthrow the Capitol."
Sage sighs. "Aryn Rosalina," he says, "We don't even know for sure if we're going to go for it!"
"You said yourself that you're going to help!" I say, hushed but on the inside, my temper is flaring.
"I just want our chances to be as high as possible!" he retorts. "I want this rebellion to succeed on the first try!"
I'm about to yell out a comeback to that but suddenly, I take notice of something – someone – beside me.
Chime, her face drained of blood, ashen white, leaning against the doorway. She speaks in a hushed tone.
"What did you just say?" she whispers. "Something about… a rebellion?”