Chapter 31: Heartland, Pt. 2

The wall loomed over the floodplain like a rust-streaked concrete cliff. The last few dozen yards between the river and the gate were burned clear of vegetation, ruins, and tents alike, cordoned off by barbed wire. Pursuit vehicles sat idling, their long guns manned by bored Regulars.

Civilians formed up to be screened for weapons, contraband, and disease — citizens in one line, non-citizens in another. Anya joined the latter with a small shrug. They hadn’t been able to find a uniform big enough to fit her. There were always hard labor quotas to fill, though; they’d see the size of her and get her in quick.

Dressed as Regulars, Lily and Aiden were waved right in.

“Told you,” she whispered, returning a sentry’s curt nod of greeting.

“Don’t celebrate yet.” Aiden carried himself different in the grey uniform. His eyes had changed too, somehow; Lily couldn’t place it. “Here. Wait a sec.”

On this side of the ten-meter wall, identical grey buildings stood carefully numbered in straight, orderly rows. Lines of thin, chalky-faced workers in dull yellow uniforms marched to factories and grow farms. Fog rolled in from the northeast.

Aiden pulled out tobacco and paper and rolled two thin cigarettes, utterly unbothered. He turned to a young Regular sweeping the sidewalk nearby. “Got a light?”

Lily blinked. His accent was gone — he sounded like he’d lived all his life in Delphi.

“Sure, Sergeant.” The soldier produced matches. Aiden proffered the second cigarette.

They spent five minutes discussing the weather and the quality of tobacco and the Border War and their leaking boots, as if they’d been acquainted for years.

Lily shifted uneasily. The longer she looked, the more she noticed changes to the city. Detatchments of Regulars, many of them absurdly young, accompanied Operatives in sleek black body armor. Attack dogs strained at their leads and the air smelled like a wet bonfire.

Charred marks marred the clean, bare concrete. A few buildings were pockmarked — bullet holes? — and across the square a work detail scrubbed red graffiti from the side of a warehouse. It had been something with wings.

Anya walked straight past them without so much as a glance, and Aiden flicked his cigarette butt neatly into the Regular’s dustbin.

“Keep up the good work, son,” he said. “You’re our first line of defense.”

“Did you know him,” Lily whispered, once they were around the corner.

“I do now.” Aiden’s accent was back in force. “I also know that the Border War has cut off supply lines to Delphi and the city is about to explode. They’re shooting dissidents in the streets. Privates love to talk.”

He marched them purposefully around a corner and down a spotless alley.

Anya materialized from beneath a shadowed overhang, tugging a knit cap down over her telltale blonde hair. She signed quickly, frowning.

“She says they’re doing iris scans at random,” Aiden translated, for Lily’s benefit. “Someone got pulled out of line and arrested. Petty theft.”

A patrol was passing by, but the four soldiers spared only a cursory glance at them before moving on. Nothing strange about two Regulars cornering a civilian in an alley; still, Lily’s heart kicked like an ornery horse.

“We have to get underground,” she urged, folding her arms across her stomach. She was so close, and they were just standing around talking. “An Undermarket entrance is nearby. Fairmount.”

“Can I make a suggestion,” Aiden said.

“Nope.” Lily shouldered past him, heading for the street. “Let’s go.”

—

Both Fairmount entrances were welded shut and sealed with bricks.

Lily knew, in her heart. She remembered the tunnel in that empty Wasteland city, the bones, the claw marks in the metal doors…Still, when someone outside the sealed entrance to the next station finally confirmed her suspicions, the words hit her like hailstones.

“Can I make that suggestion now, boss,” Aiden asked, scuffing the pavement with his toe.

The cement outside the Garden door still bore a stain where the bodies had been piled and burned. There had been children in the Undermarket.

So that was it. No back door, no quiet entrance. Maybe no entrance at all. A frantic voice in her mind screamed that they were running out of options, that they needed to find a way into Alpha Base now. Not tomorrow, not in an hour. Now.

Lily let that voice scream and rage for a few heartbeats, but then she balled it up and shoved it down with every other feeling she’d had over the last year.

She had work to do.