Chapter 16 : Eavesdrop

MAXINE. There’s something wrong with Theo. This sentence stays with me even the day after I got sent to the dungeons. The very next day, it was Jonathan who got me out, which just strengthened my suspicions. There really is something wrong with Theo, and judging by the way Jonathan is avoiding my gaze right now, he knows. “How’s Theo?” I ask before we reach my room. “I’m worried about him. I saw that he had a bite on his arm and it looks like it might be festering.” “He’s alright,” is the only thing that he can say to me. He leads me to my room without another word. I already missed training classes, so I just head to the latrines to clean up before heading to the sewers to work with Theo. He’s already there, digging up another hole for a network of pipes. The materials are already arranged in the corner, stacked in huge boxes. I almost let out a laugh when I see it. I already know that he’s not really working here, but I guess the interaction with Amarantha made him just a little more tense. Or maybe she talked to him and put the idea of god right into his brain. “Good morning,” I greet, standing next to him. “How is everything going?” To my surprise, he smiles at me. “Hey! Everything is going pretty good. I got some new pipes and I’m ready to build another waterway here to make sure nothing stinks or leaks.” Without saying anything more, he heads to the little pit that he made and starts to lay down more pipes. I watch at the sides as he avoids me religiously, and it really seems that he knows what he’s doing. I want to join him down there and talk to him, maybe get more answers out of him, but that’s when I notice some papers at the side of the pit. He has a little hut in here that seems to serve as a small office. He has plans and other schematics posted on the wall too. But something else catches my attention. There’s a big map hidden under the table in the drawers. I look around to see if he’s anywhere close, but he seems to be hammering away at something. I take the paper. It’s a plan for something different. Something that leads way outside the camp borders, farther than any of the guards can see. One tunnel is already marked red. My heart starts to beat fast. This must be the reason why he was out and about last night, and why he managed to see the boy from the party even when he was well outside the borders. Without saying anything, I quickly take the map and hide it inside my overalls. He might have offered to help me escape, but I don’t trust anyone here. I will leave on my own. And that will happen tonight. * * * For the first time since I got here, I join everyone for dinner. However, the only thing I can think of is the map hidden in my shirt and the perfect time for me to leave. Bianca and Vivienne are seated in front of me, and for the first time, I talk to them normally. I interact. I eat. And I wait. An hour passes, and now we’re back in the room. We bid good night to each other, but all I do is lie down and wait. Count the hours because we have no clock. Take the map out as carefully as I can and look at it over and over until the image is burned in my head. The night wears on and at last, it’s two in the morning. The camp is breathing peacefully in unison as they all sleep. “You got this,” I think to myself as I start to make my way out of the room. My heart is in my ears but I don’t know if it’s from excitement or fear. “You can get out of here.” Thoughts of Livia fill my head. I haven’t seen her in what feels like forever, but I know that she will be happy to see me despite my condition now. We’re both eighteen now, old enough to rent a place of our own. Maybe I can even join her in college. Not to study, but to work and make a proper life for myself. Far from Paul. Far from all of this…. At last, I break into the night. It’s chilly despite being a summer night in California. There are no guards walking around, and I figure they’re all in the borders because of the boy from the party. He proves himself to be useful, after all. I make my way to the sewers. Someone turned off all the lights and I know it’s going to be hard to go down, but I run anyway. However, I find myself slowing down when I pass by Amarantha’s office, seeing the dim, almost unnoticeable light from inside. I’m about to duck and make a break for it when I suddenly hear her voice. “…when is it going to be, is all I want to ask,” she’s saying. This is the first time I heard her sound like she’s submissive. Like someone else is in control and she respects that authority. “Don’t get me wrong. I will be prepared for anything, but—” “Even a mass volume?” a man asks. His voice sends chills down my spine. It’s so deep and so rich that it feels like it’s the actual earth talking to him instead. “Yes,” Amarantha replies. “We have a lot of bed capacity. I doubt any of the tenants here would notice them getting filled like that. If nothing, I will just enforce the old rule, which is four people in one room instead of three.” “But you fail to see that these are special cases, Overseer.” The man seems to be taunting her. I can almost see her shriveling up. What are they even talking about? I might be wrong, but are they discussing expansion? Perhaps a sudden influx of tenants in the Unclaimed camp? “I know,” she mutters. “But if we just act like they’re normal cases, then we have a higher chance of not being questioned. I can just tell everyone that there is an epidemic in the human world and these people chose to live. They would not question anything.” I know I need to leave, but those last words make me freeze. So they’re planning to accommodate Humans who have turned. But they wouldn’t be turned the “normal” way. Their making up an excuse for a mass influx means that those Humans might have been forced. Or attacked. “I will find a way for that,” she continues. “If nothing else, I can separate them into a different building and just rearrange everyone—” “That will not do,” the man interjects again, this time even colder than before. “I already built a facility right outside the camp. You will send guards there first thing in the morning, and I will be transferring some of our latest subjects there. Do you understand?” “Yes.” Amarantha sounds subdued. “Yes, I will do that.” Footsteps start to echo from the office and panic seizes my throat. I try to scamper to the other side of the office just as the door opens, but I end up bumping into somebody who wraps their arms around me like tentacles and pulls me to the corner. I want to scream but a big strong hand clamps itself onto my lips. “Shh. You don’t want to get caught, do you?” My body stiffens. I know that voice. I look up and my suspicions are confirmed. It’s Theo, and he’s smiling knowingly at me. “Did you seriously not think I would notice my map missing?”