The End Is Here: Teen Dystopian Sampler by Lauren Oliver Anna Carey Michael Grant

Author:Lauren Oliver, Anna Carey, Michael Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

WHEN I GOT BACK TO SCHOOL I WAS SOAKING WET, WITH blood dripping from my hands. I hadn’t even bothered to wrap my socks around my palms as I crossed the lake, I was so focused on simply putting distance between myself and that building. I had let the thorns dig into my skin, my eyes locked on my bedroom window, numb to the pain.

As the guard circled the back of the dormitories I ran up the shore, my nightgown heavy with water. A few torches were still lit, but the lawn was dark, and I could hear the owls in the trees, like great cheerleaders, urging me on. Before that night I had never broken a rule. I was seated before every class started, my books open on my desk. I studied two extra hours every evening. I even cut my food carefully, as instructed, my pointer finger pressing on the back of the knife. But only one rule mattered now. Never go beyond the wall , Teacher Agnes had said, in the Dangers of Boys and Men seminar when she’d explained the act of rape. She’d stared at us with her watery, red-rimmed eyes until we repeated it back to her, our voices a coaxed monotone.

Never go beyond the wall.

But no gang of men or hungry wolf den beyond the wall could be worse than the fate I faced locked within it. In the wild there would be choice—however dangerous, however frightening. I would decide what I wanted to eat, where I wanted to go. The sun would still warm my skin.

Maybe I could get out the gate, like Arden had. Wait until morning, when the last shipment of supplies came in for the celebration. A window would be harder. The one by the library was close to the wall, but it was a fifty-foot drop and I would need rope, a plan, some way to lower myself down.

Inside, I crept toward the narrow, dimly lit staircase, careful not to make a sound. It would be impossible for me to save everyone. But I had to get to my bedroom and wake Pip. Maybe we could bring Ruby, too. There wouldn’t be much time to explain, but we’d pack a bag with some clothes and figs and the gold-wrapped candies Pip loved. We’d leave tonight, forever. There would be no looking back.

I bounded up to the second floor and down the hall, past room after room of girls tucked neatly into their beds. Through a doorway I could see Violet curled up, smiling in her sleep, oblivious to what awaited her the next day. I was steps from my bedroom when the hallway glowed with an eerie light.

“Who’s there?” a gravelly voice asked.

I turned slowly, the blood cooling in my veins. Teacher Florence stood at the end of the hall, holding a kerosene lantern. It threw black, looming shadows on the wall behind her.

“I was only . . .” I trailed off. The lake water was dripping from the hem of my skirt, forming a puddle around my feet.

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