“I was moving quick because I was being chased by...”
By what?
An Overseer.
Shadows.
Death.
She says, “Drop the gun.”
I didn’t even realize I was holding it, barely holding it, barely aiming it. “First, you tell me who you are and what you’re doing here. Why are you following me? And why do you have a long barreled rifle aimed at my head?”
The girl takes a step back and I turn slightly to get a look at her.
She is beautiful. She is not from here.
She lowers the barrel slightly. It’s now aimed at my chest. “The Overseer won’t stop, you know? He never rests. He never sleeps. Girls have tried to run before. Tried to escape. They never make it far. They never make it out of the Long Tunnel. They never make it past the vault door.”
“Ruby made it,” I say.
“And so did I. But I only made it because of Ruby. And because something else has been distracting the top brass, the Lord, the Collector. They’ve all been busy. Busy and distracted. It’s the only reason we were able to make it as far as we did.”
“What could possibly be so important? Why are they so distracted?”
The girl shakes her head. She hesitates. Thinking. Eventually she says, “I don’t know. But whatever it is, it’s something big. Something huge.”
Yeah, something isn’t right. And I still can’t figure it out. Not now. My mind is a mess, a haze of smoke and shadows and heat mirages. “Wait, why the hell did you escape from Wonderland? Why the hell would you want to come here?”
“You people really don’t know anything, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Wonderland isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It isn’t what it seems.”
“What do you mean?”
“Trust me, you’re better off not knowing.”
“That’s funny. I killed an Enforcer earlier. Tortured him. He said the exact same thing. Said I’d be better off not knowing. But I think I deserve to know. I think I’ve earned the right to know.”
“You haven’t earned shit.”
“I swore an oath to Ruby… I made a promise.”
She lowers the gun some more. “Did… did Ruby tell you her name?”
“Yeah.”
“She must’ve liked you…”
I think back to when Ruby hesitated. At the time, I thought she was thinking of a fake name. But maybe she was thinking about whether or not to tell me her real name.
“She must’ve liked you a lot,” the girl continues. “We agreed, if we ever made it out, that we’d use a fake name. We’d stay underground. We agreed we wouldn’t tell anyone where we were from or what was really going on. It’s better if the people don’t know.”
“Or maybe she knew she was dying,” I offer. “So she figured she had nothing to lose.”
“Maybe.”
Yeah. Maybe. I’ll never know.
“So, Wonderland?” I ask. “What’s the deal?”
“Like I said, we promised each other we wouldn’t talk about Wonderland.”
“Why not?”
“Because talking about Wonderland, knowing the truth about Wonderland, will get you killed.”
“I’m dead anyway. I’ve been poisoned. Ruby is dead. The Overseer will get you eventually.”
“It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s not me. It’s not any of the girls.”
“What? I’m not following.”
“If word gets out, if the truth gets out, it’ll be lights out for everyone. They will destroy the Buried City. They’ll kill everyone. They’ll burn it down and then flood it. Or maybe they’ll cut off the oxygen supply. They have their ways. They’ll be efficient about it. And then they’ll go after everyone in the Canyons. It’ll be a massacre. A slaughter. That’s why we promised to keep our mouths shut. And that’s why you’re better off not knowing. Ignorance is bliss, right? Well, living in ignorance is better than not living at all.”
She steps forward, towards me, and she has a needle in her hand. “But, you’re not dead yet.”
“What is that?”
“It’ll counteract the poison.”
“How can I trust you? How do I know it’s not more poison?”
“You don’t know. And you can’t trust me. Not yet. But I’m all you’ve got.”
She’s right. I’m slowly dying. The poison will kill me just as surely as it killed Ruby. On the other hand, if what this girl has in her hypodermic needle is more poison, it will finish me off quickly.
A quick and painless death is better than most people get.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
She thinks about it for a second. Maybe to think of a fake name, or maybe she’s deciding whether or not to tell me her real name.
Eventually she sticks me with the needle, right into my neck. And she says, “My name is Angel.”
Angel…
My brother used to read me parts of this book called the Bible. He would only read bits and pieces, and I only remember bits and pieces.
A valley of death.
A garden of peace.
A fallen Angel by the name of Lucifer.
A fallen Angel of Light. The Devil.
Is Angel the Devil?
I feel a warm rush up my arm. And then I don’t feel anything else.