Among the Betrayed

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

lia and Nina had reached the driveway to Harlow I. School for Girls before Alia deemed it safe to talk.

"Is that your school over there?" Alia asked quietly when they rounded a bend in the road.

Nina stared out at the expanse of grass and the imposing three'Story brick building. The school had no windows — that had seemed so natural from the inside, when Nina wasn't used to seeing out windows anyhow. But from the outside the lack of windows looked odd, as if the building were supposed to be a monument or a memorial, not any place that people could live.

"That's it," Nina said. 'And the woods are behind the school."

She pointed. Alia nodded and detoured around the school, skulking behind bushes and shrubs.

"What about Percy and Matthias? And. . and our food?" Nina didn't want to seem more concerned about her food sack than the two boys. But it was hard not to be, what with her stomach growling.

"They'll find us," Alia said confidently.

A few minutes later they entered the coolness of the woods. Alia sat down on a stump, and Nina sank onto the ground beside her. She took off her boots and rubbed her sore feet.

"How far do you think we walked?" Nina asked. "Couple of miles," Alia said. "How did you know how to get here?" "There aren't that many roads in use anymore," Alia said. "Percy thought this would be the right way." She looked around the woods and said cheerfully, "This is a nice place."

"I guess," Nina said doubtfully. She watched a spider climb into her boot. Were spiders poisonous? Would she survive the Population Police prison, a near drowning, and the long escape only to die of a spider bite?

Alia reached over and shook the spider out of Nina's boot. The spider scampered away.

"Thanks," Nina muttered. She wondered if she'd ever get used to being outdoors. It didn't seem natural not to have four walls around her, a ceiling above her head, and a solid floor beneath her feet. Jason had always teased the kids who were scared of the woods. No, no, she chided herself, don't think about Jason ever again.

Still. The woods were unpleasant enough now, in the warm sunshine. What would they be like when it was raining, or when winter came?

Alia obviously didn't care. She began whistling, sounding as carefree as a bird. Her whistle evidently tricked birds, too, because one called back to her, "Tweet-tweet," in answer to her "Tweet-tweet-tweet."

And then Nina realized it wasn't another bird, but Percy and Matthias. They stepped up quietly behind her.

"Safe?" Alia asked.

"Safe," Matthias answered.

The boys sat down beside Nina. As if they'd all agreed ahead of time, Percy opened the food bag and handed out what seemed to be a feast: a box of cereal, a box of raisins, and an apple for everyone. Nina didn't object. Matthias raised his apple like he was making a toast: "To our new home," he said.

"To roughing it," Percy said.

"To Nina's idea," Alia said.

Nina looked from face to face, then raised her own apple and said, "To my new friends getting us here safely."

Eating required full concentration. Chewing and swallowing was such a joy that no one spoke until they were down to the cores of their apples, picking out the last bits of flesh from among the seeds. Then Nina said what she'd worked out during her long, silent walk with Alia.

"The three of you are used to roughing it," she said. "I don't know where you lived before you were arrested, but it was outdoors. And I don't know how, but you made fake I.D.'s for third children. That's what Percy and Matthias went to get last night when we were running away. When you brought back the flashlight."

Nina waited while the other three exchanged glances. Alia nodded, ever so slightly at the other two. "Yes," Percy said softly. "You're right." "Why didn't you tell me we had I.D.'s?" Nina asked. "We could have gone somewhere else if we didn't have to hide. Somewhere with walls and a roof and a floor."

"Where?" Matthias asked. "I.D.'s aren't food. They aren't rent money. They aren't adults to answer nosy questions from the Government. I.D. cards are just pieces of plastic." Nina shrugged. Before she was arrested, she'd never lacked for food or shelter or adult care. All she'd ever missed was a legal identity. She tried a different tack.

"I could have given everything away when the Population Police saw me," she said. "Since I didn't know you'd made an I.D. card for me, I was about to scream and run. Then they would have known—"

"You thought those guys were Population Policemen?" Percy asked incredulously. "Population Police would have known to look for runaways. Those guys were just local cops. Minor league. They probably hate the Population Police as much as we do."

Nina tried to absorb this news. "But—" "Look, the Population Police wouldn't tell anyone else that someone had escaped from their prison. It'd be like. . like a blow to their pride. They like everyone to think that they're invincible, impossible to beat. So it's just Population Policemen looking for us. And if they ask the local cops, the local cops won't tell them about seeing two girls on the northbound road out of the city. That's why we're safe," Matthias said.

Nina wondered how he could sound so sure. "We lived on the streets before," Alia said softly. "In the city. We know how things work."

Nina tried to imagine it. No wonder the other three had always looked so grubby. But how had they managed it? How had they gotten food? How had they avoided being arrested years ago?

"Who took care of you?" Nina asked. "God took care of us," Alia said. "We prayed to him and he took care of us. Just like we prayed in prison and he sent us you to get us out."

Nina had heard of God before. Gran, for one, had prayed back home, even though Aunty Lystra made fun of her for it. "That's one thing the Government's right about," Aunty Lystra had said. "If there were a God out there who really cared about us, do you think we'd be living like this?" "This" seemed to encompass everything from the leaky roof to the weevils in the flour to the long line at the store for cabbage.

"You believe what you want to believe, and I'll believe what I want to believe," Gran always answered. "I, for one, see a few miracles around here."

Nina had liked the way Gran's eyes rested on her when she said that. Even when Nina was too tiny to understand the word "miracle," she'd liked it, liked the way Gran talked about God.

But she didn't understand how God could take care of three little kids alone on the streets.

"I'm thirsty," Percy announced, with a warning glance toward Alia. "Let's go find some water and explore a little."

The other three scrambled up. Nina pulled her boots back on and followed, thinking hard.

They hadn't told her everything, after all. And so she hadn't said a word about her past, either.