Among the Brave

Chapter Thirty-Two

They weren’t, of course. They were still miles from anyone’s home. They were fugitives now, likely to be shot on sight. And Trey still didn’t know why Nedley was helping them, who the mysterious prisoner was, or why the chauffeur had ended up in the back of their truck

Still, after about fifteen minutes, they felt safe enough to pull over by the side of the road and let Trey take over all the driving responsibilities. (Trey was so happy to finally be able to see out that he didn’t mind the bright sun in the least) Another fifteen minutes later, Trey steered the truck into a small copse of trees, totally hidden from the road. He and Nedley went back and brushed the gravel back into a normal formation, erasing all signs of their tracks.

“Why?” Trey asked. “Why did you help me and Mark?”

"Liber," Nedley breathed.

“Oo-oh,” Trey said slowly. "Then there were more in the liber club than just two.”

“There were dozens of us,” Nedley said.

“That’s great. I mean—” Trey was trying to grasp it.

“Most of us are dead now,” Nedley said. “But at least you and Mark and I have saved our leader.”

“Who?” Trey said.

“The extra prisoner in the back of the truck,” Nedley said. "Don’t you know who that is?”

Trey shook his head. Everything had happened too fast; it wasn’t like there’d been time for introductions.

“Whoever it is, are you sure he’s still alive?” Trey asked.

“Let’s go see,” Nedley said grimly.

They trudged back to the truck. Lee and the others were just beginning to sit up, to cautiously peer over the edge of the truck bed.

“Trey?” Lee gasped, his voice cracking in astonishment.

“At your service,” They said.

“You're wearing a Population Police uniform,” Lee said.

“I told you you wouldn’t believe what we had to go through to rescue you,” Mark said peevishly from the front of the truck.

“But you look so. . real,” Lee said.

Trey nodded silently He saw fear in Nina’s eyes, in Joel’s and John’s. Their gaze flickered from They to Nedley in terror. For the first time, They felt the full weight of the uniform he was wearing.

"Aw, Luke,” Mark said. “That’s no way to thank somebody who just rescued you from jail.”

Lee’s gaze steadied.

“I owe you,” he said quietly

‘And I owe you,” Trey said. He hoped there’d be time later to explain what he meant, how grateful he was to Lee for teaching him how to run, how to tackle — how to do something besides hide.

How to be brave.

“I think Mr. Talbot needs a doctor,” Nina announced.

Trey stared — the extra prisoner in the truck was, indeed, Mr. Talbot. Trey hadn’t recognized him before because he was so battered. Both his eyes were swollen shut and surrounded by huge purple bruises, his lip was split in several places, his breathing was shallow and raspy.

But suddenly it all made sense. Mr. Talbot had been a double agent within the Population Police. So had the Jiber group. Of course they were connected. Of course Mr. Talbot had been the liber leader. Jonathan Sabine must have been trying to mount a rescue mission for his leader that day back at the Talbots and he’d mistaken They for another member of the group. That mistake had saved Trey’s life.

But someone inside the liber group must have betrayed Mr. Talbot, the Sabines, and all the others who were dead now.

Nina was feeling for Mr. Talbot’s pulse.

“I don’t know — shouldn’t his heartbeat be stronger than this?” she asked.

“Average resting adult heart rate is fifty to a hundred beats per minute,” Trey said. “But an elite athlete in really good shape could have a rate as low as twenty-eight to forty”.

Lee and Nina started laughing. They stood stunned for a minute, then realized it was hilarious he’d been able to spit that out, on cue, in the midst of everything else that was going on.

Thanks, Dad, he thought. You really did teach me some useful information.

Then they were all serious again. Nedley scrambled up onto the truck and felt Mr. Talbot’s other wrist.

“He’s not an elite athlete,” Nedley said. “I don’t think this is a good pulse.”

“What are we supposed to do?” Nina asked.

“I know a place we can go,” Nedley said. ‘A place where someone can take care of him. And where the rest of us will be safe. As safe as possible, anyway”

“But can we get there without being caught?” Trey asked. “And can we trust… everybody?” He couldn’t help glaring right at the chauffeur, who had driven off and abandoned Trey back at the Talbots’ house.

Nina seemed to understand what he meant.

“They, we didn’t want to leave you behind,” Nina said gently “I–I’m so sorry I pushed you out of the car. We got scared when we saw Mr. Talbot taken away, but we were going to come back for you as soon as it was safe— we were watching through the trees. But when we saw the Population Police officer find you on the porch… How is it that you weren’t killed?”

Trey tried to understand how it must have looked to them.

“The officer who found me was working with the resistance group,” Trey said. “Just like Mr. Talbot. Just like Nedley here.”

“And me,” the chauffeur said. “I too had been fighting behind the scenes. Mr. Talbot had sent me to the Grants’ house to keep an eye on all of you. I don’t believe I did my job very well.”

“It wasn’t your fault that Mr. Talbot was captured,” Nina said soothingly “It wasn’t your fault the Population Police took over the Grants’ house.”

Trey tried to understand.

“So you were working for Mr. Talbot,” he said to the chauffeur. “Why didn’t you tell us that after Mr. and Mrs. Grant died?”

“Would you have believed me?” the chauffeur asked.

Trey doubted that he would have. He’d felt so confused then. Everything had been in turmoil.

“I thought I could just take you to Mr. Talbot and everything would be all right,” the chauffeur said.

The chauffeur was an adult, but Trey realized that he’d been every bit as stunned as Trey was to see the Population Police officials swarming over the Talbots’ property He’d felt every bit as helpless. And, like Trey he’d made a few wrong choices along the way

“We thought it was lucky that the chauffeur had seen where Lee’s family lived. We thought we were saving Lee. But when we got back to the Grants’ house, the Population Police were there too,” Nina said. “We were arrested for breaking and entering, just for driving through the front gates. We didn’t know..

“We didn’t know anything,” Lee said.

“We still don’t,” Joel muttered.

Trey had almost forgotten that the younger boy was there.

“All right, all right, enough with the rehashing,” Nedley said. “We need to go to our safe place now. I know a back way. How about if I drive?”

Trey settled into the back of the truck with his friends, and Nedley slipped behind the wheel. He drove down a rutted path Trey never would have noticed.

Trey leaned over and whispered in Lee’s ear: “What if Nedley can’t be trusted? What if he’s taking us into greater danger, instead of to safety?”

Lee just shrugged. There really wasn’t anything they could do, not with Mark’s leg broken and Mr. Talbot unconscious. And, for that matter, Lee and Nina and Joel and John and the chauffeur all looked pale and shrunken, as if they couldn’t have jumped from the truck if their lives depended on it.

“Did they feed you in prison?” Trey asked.

Lee shook his head.

“Not much,” he said. “Gruel once or twice. Maybe every third day”.

They’d gone almost a week with barely any food at all— no wonder they just sat and stared blankly, as if they didn’t have enough energy to register the sight of the trees zipping past them, the branches whipping around the truck.

Trey tensed his muscles and stared ahead, ready to defend them all if need be.

But when they emerged from the trees, Trey relaxed immediately.

A large, windowless building stood directly ahead of them, like a welcoming fortress. It was one of only two places Trey had ever felt at home.

They were back at Hendricks School.