NUMB

Day Forty-Six (pt. 3) - Jet

Seth is waiting on the outside of the wall with the kids when I come out. Edie and Quinn follow me, the rest of the Numb kids following them. We all stand close to the wall. In the shadows. I can hear the other Wardens walking back and forth along the wall. I motion for Seth to move once the sound fades. He goes off with three of the younger kids.

Then Quinn goes with two more.

Edie stands near me, her uneven fingers twisting the hem of her shirt. I reach out and touch her lightly, just between her shoulder blades. She jumps. But then she looks at me and her shoulders relax, her fingers still.

"It'll be okay," I whisper. Then I tell her to go with two more kids. The little girl holding onto Edie's hand looks back over her shoulder as she walks away, disappearing into the tree line ahead. I'm left with three kids to take. They link hands without me telling them to.

I listen for sounds of footsteps. Glance up even though I can't see the top of the wall from down here. Then we're off and moving quickly through the exposed gap between the wall and the trees that surround the Compound.

Everyone is waiting in the trees. Once we're all there, we make our way down the hill to where Seth has his car parked on the side of the road. There aren't enough seats in the car for all of us. Edie holds the little girl with the ponytail and another younger boy on her lap. Quinn and a few of the older ones sit in the trunk space in the very back, huddled together in the dark.

I let one of the kids sit up front with me. He's probably around seven or eight. There's a nasty looking wound that's recently healed on the side of his head, the skin around it still yellow from the bruising. When he looks at me, his expression doesn't shift at all. Even when I put on a smile for him.

He just stares at me.

My eyes drop to the badge on his shirt. Level Three. I wonder how long he's been in the Compound. If he's a newer addition or if he's grown up in there.

The ride down into Boulder is silent. Just the sound of the air blowing through the vents and the occasional shifting in the backseat. We take everyone to the place where our group meets up. We'd let them know ahead of time that we were going to try to bring some kids out with us tonight, so Ewan and Margo are there waiting for our arrival.

It's a little chaotic at first. Getting all the kids out of the car and into the house. Then we have to identify them all. Edie helps a lot with that. The younger kids are more inclined to talk to her than they are to talk to Seth.

After that, it's mostly me and Margo searching for the kid's parents. I don't know what we're going to do for the kids whose parents we're unable to get in contact with. Some of them aren't even from Boulder. Most of them are too young to remember anything about where they lived before they were in the Compound.

Edie approaches me a little while later. "I wanted to thank you, Jet."

"For getting you out of there?"

"Yes, and for everything else. For taking an interest in us in the first place. Not many people would do what you've been doing. So, thank you." She looks uncertain for a moment and then hugs me. It takes my body a moment to do what I want it to, to return the gesture. The skin of her right arm is rough against mine when I brush against it and I can feel the gaps in her fingers where her hands are on my back.

I'm filled with such a powerful feeling of hatred towards the Compound in that moment. Like if I wasn't already so motivated to get every single person out of there, this moment would be the push that set me off.

"Of course," I tell Edie. "I won't stop either. Not until all of you are safe."

She pulls away, her eyes misty as she stares up at me. "You're a good person, Jet." Then she's gone, helping with something that Margo is doing with the younger kids.

I watch everyone in the room move around me. Watch as everyone works together to help the kids that the Compound made us believe were better off locked up behind concrete walls and cut off from those who only want to see them being taken of.