The City Of Death

Chapter Nine- Macy

"What?" I have to admit, I'm not sure what led me to ask the question. That's the kind of question that can blow my cover. But maybe it won't. I didn't ask about what he did to Skye. I didn't ask about what happened that night and where she went. I only asked if he remembered her. Surely that's an innocent enough question, isn't it? He sighs, looking past me beyond the horizon. If I have my directions straight, he's looking out to where distance hides the City. "Probably not as well as you do." 

"What does that mean?" 

"I didn't really know her. I knew of Skye, but actually knowing her? Not really. We only interacted a few times," he answers. I can't tell if he's lying or not. I suppose it doesn't really matter. You don't have to know someone well to make them disappear. Though, if he didn't know Skye very well, it adds another piece of the puzzle. If he didn't know her well, why would he make her disappear? I can't think of any other reason other than that someone else wanted him to. There has to be another player in this game, a player I can't begin to picture right now. 

"Okay," I respond, before sighing. "So, there's a whole camp I have to settle into. Why don't you actually do your job and show me around?" 

"As the lady wishes," Atlas says, pointing in the direction of the fire pits. "Since we're right here, we'll start over there and sort of sweep around the camp, and then I'll leave you with Gemma so she can get you set up with everything you'll need. Sound good?" 

"Well, I can't think of a better way," I respond, and he nods. He walks towards the fire pits, gesturing for me to follow him. I go with him willingly. Even if I don't like being with him, I need to know my way around the camp. It'll be easier to pry the secrets out of it if I know where everything is. We walk toward the fire pits, and my eyes glance toward the message board and the one tent standing by itself. 

"Alright, so, these are the fire pits, clearly. We got the main one and the six smaller ones around it. This is where we all gather for meals. After sunset we all gather here, y'know, to talk with each other before we go to our tents, and usually there's music. As soon as Israel and Rosalie start, everyone squeezes by the main pit and we all just... sing to the sky," Atlas explains, a smile on his face. I can't imagine something like that. There's no situation inside the City where so many people gather in one space, especially not for music. There is music, yes, but normally we listen to it in the privacy of our own homes. 

"So what's that?" I ask, pointing to the message board. Atlas nods and leads me over there. It's got little pieces of felt attached to it. What attaches the felt to the wood, I'm not sure. I look over the board and realize that most of the pieces of felt have Renegade's names on them. 

"Every day, before breakfast, I come over here and post jobs that need done on the board. After breakfast, the Renegades will come over here and put their names next to a job that they're going to do that day. Most of these jobs I'm told about the night before. Some of the... leaders, I guess, come up to me and tell me what they need done but can't get done themselves," Atlas explains. "Like, for example, here. Savannah needed someone to go into the forest and get some more burdock plants. So I put that job up, and it looks like Aubriana chose to do it." 

"So how do you make sure it gets done?" I ask, and Atlas shrugs. 

"I trust that they'll do it. And if it doesn't get done today, the job and the name beside it will stay up. A Renegade only pulls their name down when the job is done," he answers. "Now, that being said, there are some jobs that the same person does every day. We just keep those names up there. No use pulling them down and putting them up all the time. Like Annalise and Savannah." I look to where their names are and see that Annalise's name is next to "cook" and Savannah's is next to "doctor".