Out There by Kate Folk

Author:Kate Folk [Folk, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2022-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

The sun is hot on my shoulders. We walk toward the base of the foothills, Frankie and Tim forging ahead, Bradley and me picking our way slowly over the scrub. Rick waddles alone between the two groups, sun searing his bald patch.

We walk for over an hour.

“Bradley,” I say, my breath coming short. “I need to rest.”

We sit beside a juniper bush. Bradley has carried our lunches in a backpack. We drink water and bone broth. We share a Tupperware of limp kale chips. When we’re done eating we lie back and gaze into the dome of the sky.

The other men circle back, settle in beside us, and eat their own lunches. No one seems in any rush to return to the ward.

“Shouldn’t we be heading back?” I say.

“In a minute,” Bradley says.

“We want to watch the sunset,” Frankie says.

I’ve lost track of time. When Frankie mentions the sunset, I sit up, alarmed, and see that the sun has begun its descent toward the mountains. My skin prickles with awareness. Once the sun is down, it will be too late. In another half hour my bones will be too weak to stand on.

“No,” I say. “We have to go now.”

“You go on ahead,” Tim says.

“We’re watching the sunset,” Rick adds. Their voices are mechanical, as though they are reading from a script. I realize they must have planned this for weeks. Perhaps Olivia confirmed their suspicions while I was in the Skeleton. Maybe she has learned to communicate through taps of her fingers, through saliva bubbles or blinks.

I rise to my feet, my body trembling. I try to run, but my legs buckle under me after two steps.

“Poor Gumdrop,” Frankie says. “You should have remembered to take your pills.” I look at him, stunned; I realize how easily they could have found my stash of pills, those long days I was locked in the Skeleton.

The men get up. They stretch and yawn. So this is how it will happen—casually, their faces masked with benign smiles. They will murder me by walking away.

Bradley stands over me. I grasp his ankle with both hands.

“Please, Bradley,” I say. “I love you.”

“I’m sorry,” Bradley says, “but you did this to yourself.”

The sun melts into the jagged line of the mountains. I watch the men limp back to the ward. I try to crawl after them, but my body feels weighted by wet sand. My flesh sinks into the earth. My bladder wrings out its contents. Above me the sky grows cluttered with stars. The ward’s windows are stark squares of light in the deepening gloom. Greg will arrive soon and begin making his rounds, strapping the men into their pods. I dare to hope he will notice I’m missing. But the men have probably planned this part, too. They’ll simply close my pod’s lid and tell Greg they’ve already tucked me in for the night. I’m angry only at myself, for being so naïve.

Coyotes wail in the distance. Soon they will find me and sink their teeth into my boneless flesh.

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