Across the Water

Chapter 3

192 Hours

Nine

I've been pacing for nearly an hour when Twelve and Lisa wake up. I can't stop thinking about how I'm being forced to go back inside in the Settlement where a lot of distress for me lies. But the allure of information hiding within those walls—despite the fact it's hidden between distant, disturbing memories—is too tempting. I have to go. Remembering that Twelve will be with me helps to ease the pressure in my chest a little, but it still feels like a snake is continuously tightening its grip around my upper body.

I cook some more shitty camping food for us, but I'm able to gulp it down this time. I still have a huge, shifting knot in my stomach. But the hardest task is yet to come.

Apparently, our agreement to not bring Lisa means nothing to Twelve, because he's already showing her the way up the h ill and around the fence as I trail behind them to the Settlement. They're both giggling quietly but I can't hear what they're saying. I feel a selfish pinprick of pain in my heart that Twelve might have someone else to turn to. Does this mean he cares less about me now? From the very beginning it was always just me and him, solving our problems together. Now Lisa's here, getting in the way again, like she always does.

We reach the small hole that Twelve formed in the fence yesterday on the other side of the Settlement from where we're camped out. We duck through single file onto the lawn, this time on the fenced-in side closest to the Settlement, and I instantly feel like I'm eight years old again.

This is the lawn where they used to let us play for twenty minutes after meal times. We were all beaten down and heavily guarded children at the time, so none of us had much of a will to climb over the fence topped with the wicked-looking wire. I remember how Twelve, Five, and I used to race each other from one side of the lawn to the other. That lawn used to be so meticulously trimmed and manicured, but now it's full of weeds. The surrounding fence has disintegrated enough to where Twelve could kick it down, and it doesn't even look intimidating anymore. It makes me wonder if they intended on keeping us here very long, or if they even expected us to live long enough for security to become an issue.

It wasn't even that hard for Twelve and I to escape. All we had to do was sneak into the guard's room and pull the plug on the camera feeds before lighting a small fire on the other side of the Settlement to draw all the guards away. After, we stole some towels to drape over the razor wire and climbed over the fence. Finding the courage to escape was the challenge.

The gutters are filled with seedlings stretching towards the sun, grown in soil formed from years of rot. Moss has claimed the building's brown, woody siding, making it look at home in the forest. Shingles have been thrown off the roof through seasons of rain, and the back door we use to enter the Settlement has been blown in by the years of wind. The corners and edges of the hallway are filled with decomposing leaf litter, and the moment our footsteps echo on the white tile, the resident insects scuttle away. Cobwebs lace the ceiling and vines have crept in, tracing the door frames. Frankly, it's disgusting. This place looked untouchable ten years ago, but now it's a condemnable shithole.

Twelve's now also broken the no sight-seeing rule as he runs into the first room he comes to, which is the gym. This gym was for physical and coordination testing, and as such it's filled with gymnastics equipment. There are a few treadmills and cycles in the corner, but mostly the space is filled with trampolines, balance beams, rings, vaulting and pommel horses, spring boards, rings, and bars. There's a bounty of open space for tumbling and an obligatory basketball hoop mounted on the wall above it. Every single piece of equipment is covered in years of dust.