1501146556 (S) by Joey Graceffa

Author:Joey Graceffa [Graceffa, Joey]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

FOR A MOMENT I can’t breathe. More second children? A family of them?

“Are you strong enough to move?”

I nod vigorously. If it means meeting more second children, I’m strong enough to do anything! Sleep has relieved many of my aches, given my cuts time to scab, and even my ankle is a little less swollen. I won’t be winning any races, but I can walk.

“Where are they?” I ask, and my eagerness must be apparent on my face because he laughs and says, “Easy now. You’ve waited sixteen years to meet more second children. You can wait another hour or two.”

“Are they out here in the beanstalks? Are they in the outermost circle?” I’m rewarded with another one of his sly, mysterious smiles.

“Second children are everywhere,” he says. “All over Eden, right under your feet, and you’d never know.” He springs to his own feet and offers me his hand. Even though I feel a lot better than I did twelve hours ago, I’m grateful for his help getting up.

“We have to travel fast, and be inconspicuous,” he says. “What do you have in that pack? Can you leave it behind?”

I scoop it up and sling it onto my shoulders. I haven’t even looked inside it, but it is the only thing I have from home, from Mom, and no force on Earth will make me part with it.

“That answers that question,” he says, and starts walking. I scurry to catch up, feeling somehow that he’s disappointed in me.

“When we get back into the city, you need to do exactly what I tell you. Understand? They’re actively looking for you, and the next hours will be extremely dangerous. Luckily, I know someone who can reduce the risk considerably.” He slows to wait for me. “Good thing you’re tall. You’ll look the part.”

He knows an easier route through the tangle of rubble than the one I took, and I make it through with hardly a scratch. We emerge at the back of a building and he leads me inside, through a door barely hanging on its hinges.

“Are these the second children?” I ask. In the dim light I see bodies sprawled in corners, lying on makeshift mattresses or on the cold bare floor. It’s hard to make out details, but their faces look gaunt. As we walk swiftly through, I see a young woman with a band tied tightly around her upper arm. Below it, blue-black veins bulge. There’s a needle in the crook of her arm . . .

Lachlan takes my elbow and hustles me away. “No. We’d never let a second child come to this. We take care of our own. We protect each other, from the Center, and from ourselves—to the death.”

I feel a deep shiver run down my spine.

“Don’t these people need protection, too? Even though they aren’t second children?”

I think I touched a nerve. “They have every opportunity that legitimacy can provide,” he snaps. “If they choose to destroy themselves, it’s not our problem.”

I don’t know.

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