Inside

Chapter 8

Eight

"I don't know!" Dublin yells as he is pinned to the part of wall in between the two tunnels. Pinned to the wall by Crome.

"Read the markings!" Crome yells as he pushes Dublin's face harder against the tunnel wall. "You said you knew!"

"I know some! It's an alphabet. I forgot some of the letters, bu-"

"You're WORTHLESS!"

"SHUT UP!" I yell as I cover my ears. "Shut up! Shut up! SHUT! UP!" These boys can't resolve anything without arguing! Ugh! When I get their attention, I continue. "Let him finish talking."

His blue eyes stare at me, deciding whether to listen to me or not. Then he loosens his grip. Dublin grunts when he hits the floor and Crome walks away with his head between his hands. Dublin's hands move over his legs dusting himself off. I, hoping he isn't too hurt, walk over to him and lend a hand to help him get up.

"Thanks," he says standing up. I shrug, it's not a big deal. Someone has to keep the peace. Obviously, I'm not doing so well.

We arrived to the end of the tunnel, which divides in two. All Crome wanted was for Dublin to read the markings in the wall. He thought that would tell us which tunnel to take. But Dublin only read bits and pieces. I stood shocked as I watched how Crome grabbed the back of Dublin's neck and pin him to the wall in less than a second. A blink of an eye and I would have missed it. Don't know why I still get shocked. I should know better. I know Crome explodes when things don't go his way. I should know better.

Dublin stares angrily at Crome, who turns.  Their eyes meet and Crome sighs heavely.

"I'm sorry, ok?" He says frustrated.

Before I know it, Dublin is behind Crome opening his backpack.

"What are you-"

"The papers I grabbed," Dublin begins to explain quickly before Crome's anger can boil up and out.

"Some are parts of dictionaries, science books, and some are maps."

"What?" Crome asks.

"Maps, Crome," I say excitedly. Those are Josh's maps! I almost jump and clap and scream, but I settle for simply smilling.

Dublin pulls out a yellow wad and looks at it stunned.

"Wha-these... their old and fragile and- what did you do!?" Dublin whines as he unfolds the papers.

Crome shrugs and plainly says, "I didn't think they were useful."

"Well..." Dublin struggles to find the words, so he waves the papers and says, "they are!"

Dublin walks towards me mumbling unintelligible words.

"Unbelievable!" Is the only thing I understand.

He falls on the ground and starts straightening the papers with trembling hands. I kneel down and help. All the papers I grab are rough. It's unlike paper to be so hard. Back in the buildings, the only paper books available were in the libraries. We could go and read them, but we could never take them out. If we needed any information while studying in our dorms, we would go to our closet and ask the mirror to search for the book. We could read it or have the mirror read it to us. But I preferred going to the library to read the strange titles and names of authors. Also I was strangely attracted to the papers, as weird as that sounds. Sometimes I would sit down and pretend to read just to feel the paper. Josh made fun of me for this. He would say I was obssesed with paper. He might have been right.

"Why is it so hard?" I ask Dublin.

"The Crakes wanted to conserve the old writtings, so they asked the scientists to make something that would protect the papers. After a long time, they finally came up with a chemical that the Crakes could brush on the papers and it would make the paper hard and difficult to break. It also preserves the ink in the paper. But we still have to be careful. I don't know how long these papers have been here. The chemical could have worn off."