The Woodlands (#1 THE WOODLANDS SERIES) (COMPLETE)

22. HUNTED

We walked in a southeasterly direction. Alexei had an old compass he had swiped from the archives. He held it flat in the palm of his hand and shuffled around in circles until he looked off into the distance, squinted, and said, “That way.” The GPS in the reader would have been so much easier but Alexei was right, if we turned it on, it would be like a homing beacon for the Woodland soldiers to follow.

I had agreed to look for the railway line because I couldn’t come up with anything better and we couldn’t stay where we were. We hadn’t seen any evidence that people were looking for us, but I was sure they would be. Deshi explained that the antidote smoke he had engineered was designed to stick to the inside of the ventilation shafts and continue releasing small amounts of the purple cloud for another three days. He had set it up to explode with such force that every vent and shaft, every pipe, was covered. In some cases, it probably blew the pipe covers into the rooms. I told him about my sophisticated mashed potato plug. He laughed and said that it would have shot across the room like a bullet. It would take the White Coats quite a while to clean the airshafts and get the girls back inside. So we had to make the best of the head start.

I thought about the girls we had left behind. I hoped some had got away, but we hadn’t come across one yet. I wished we could have helped them. Deshi felt the same way, but our group was conspicuous enough, without adding more hysterical, pregnant girls to the mix. I felt horribly guilty about being the one that got away. But having Clara with me helped ease that guilt.

We usually walked at the back, mostly because Clara was so slow, but also because I liked to keep as much distance between Apella and myself as I could. The more I knew of her, the more I disliked her. She seemed weak and followed Alexei around, lovesick and useless. She had no skills out here in the real world, and relied entirely on him for everything. It was extremely hard to believe that she had headed up the massive, secret operation that Clara and I had been caught in. Alexei led the way, and Deshi and Joseph took turns walking behind us.

We trudged through the forest from dawn until it was nearly dark every day. There was so much to look at but we never stopped to take in the scenery. The tall pines stretched to the sky, dropping needles in our hair one minute, then we were out in a field moving through low grass and wild flowers. I loved the green, the rocks, and the flowers.

I had been underground all winter and now it was spring. I found I could recall many of the names and uses of the flowers and plants we passed. My favorite was the Campanulas, a small, delicate, purple bloom shaped like a bell. It grew in clumps in the grassier areas. I would pick them and put them in Clara’s hair, making her smile, which always made me smile.

Clara was about ready to have her baby. It seemed like it could happen at any moment and I was dreading that day. I think we all were. Every time she made an uncomfortable noise, everyone jumped. They let her rest as much as they could, but we had to keep moving. Sometimes Joseph would carry her for a spell, which she loved. She would talk with him or more, at him, about her life, her baby. She pressed him to talk about me, how we met, what happened, why was I so angry all the time?

“She’s always been like that,” he answered as he strolled through the underbrush with Clara in his arms. She was tiny, but it must have been difficult to carry her. If it was, he hid it well. He took good care of her, which I was grateful for.

“Yes, but why?” Clara pressed. I was behind them, watching her thin fingers tapping his shoulder. The sun bounced across his golden hair and absorbed into her black hair.

“She’s protecting herself. She doesn’t trust people. She doesn’t trust me anymore. I probably deserve it, though,” he sadly admitted.

“She trusts you. I don’t think she trusts herself, not yet anyway,” Clara said in her singsong voice. I rolled my eyes. I wish she wouldn’t say things like that.