The Big Sleep (Duology)

Chapter Sixteen - Exodus

As soon as we stepped onto the small road that connected the highway to the town, Beth took off toward the farm, running full tilt. "I'll get Dad," she shouted over her shoulder as she ran.

Even if her and Dad ran both ways, it would take nearly an hour for them to return. The Speaker placed a gentle hand on my wrist, holding me in place, while he waved at Beth's back with his other hand as she disappeared around a corner. "It's enough time," he said, responding to my thoughts. "But we must hurry."

Kayle and Billy sat in a dark corner of the Red Dragon's small dining room, heads together, matching black tuques pulled low over their equally but contrastingly bright hair. They turned together at our entrance, greeting us with proud grins.

"We did awesome today," Billy said, slapping Kayle on the shoulder and letting his arm linger around her.

"Nearly half the town's on our side now." Kayle turned her smile on Billy.

"You should have seen Kayle at the school. Those kids hadn't been that into a lecture in their entire lives, that's for sure. They were obsessed with her." He frowned at our expressions. "What's wrong?"

"Not even half?" I said, pulling a chair up to the table and taking Kayle's drink from her hand.

Dr. Farrah placed a gentle hand on my back. "Our meeting went well and the Speaker promises we will be safe in his Sanctuary. I believe him, of course--"

The Speaker cut in. "But we will have to leave now."

My friends' happy faces hardened. "We'll get the word out," Kayle said, scraping the floor with her chair as she stood. She hoisted Billy up beside her.

"Of course," he said, nodding once, determinedly.

The pair hurried out of the bar, pushing their way past relaxing drinkers and knocking more than one glass from more than one hand in their rush. The Speaker smiled after them.

"I wish I could help, but I guess I'm not like them. People don't like me," I said, staring at the door long after our friends had disappeared. "Anyways," I shook my head, "I'm sorry I couldn't get anyone on our side."

"It's alright. I know how that is. If anyone knows, it's me." Dr. Farrah picked up Billy's abandoned glass and cheers'd it against mine. "People are difficult."

"Tell me about it." I said as we drained our glasses together.

"Enough with the self-pity, you two. There are more important things than your egos at stake here," the Speaker said, ushering us from the bar.

***

A few short hours later, I blinked the fatigue from of my eyes, squinting in the surprisingly bright pre-dawn light. Nearly two hundred people stood in the marketplace, overflowing out onto the narrow streets beyond, milling impatiently, eyes full of fear, darting paranoid glances back and forth.

Two hundred.

Kayle had lifted at least three thousand individual wallets from this city. We would be leaving at least twenty-eight hundred people behind, including Miss Becky and Perry, Miss Diana and nearly every classmate or friend we had ever known.

Two hundred.

The last hour had been spent arranging the people present into ten groups of twenty, each with a Regressive at their head. The Speaker stood at the front of ours.

"There's no time to wait for any more," Beth whispered.

"I know," I said.

She shook her head. "Jacob isn't here. He said he was coming with his parents. Rain, he promised."

"It's time," the Speaker said. He stood maybe twenty paces ahead of us, but his voice was in my ear, as if he standing right behind me. "Stay close. Stay quiet. Stay calm. Ready?"

"Yes," I whispered, as the response echoed down the line.

Beth took my hand in her own. In her other fist, she held our father's tight. "I wish I didn't know what was going to happen to them," she said, taking one last glance at the city around us. "To him. Dammit, Jacob. Goodbye."

We took our first step toward the highway together.

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