Rise An Eve Novel

the girl with black braids asked. She crossed her arms over her chest, trying to warm herself. Her lips were a strange purple color.
    I peered outside the grate, watching the area along the wall. The City looked about a half mile off, maybe more. I could just make out the buildings rising above the wall, their silhouettes dotted with colored light. “We can’t stay here,” I said. “They’ll be searching outside the wall soon.”
    “I want to go back,” the girl with freckles said. “Why did we have to leave?”
    “You’re not safe in the City anymore,” Beatrice answered. She squeezed the water out of Sarah’s sweater, twisting it into a tight blue coil. “We can tell you more when we’re away from here.”
    I stepped into my soggy boots and zipped them up. “We need to go now,” I said. I started onto the road, away from the City wall, the rain hard on my skin. From the outside I could see where the bombs had gone off during the siege, the stone black and charred. Clara ushered the others out behind me, and they followed into the cold.
    We started past row upon row of storage containers, most with their metal grates shut, locking out the rain. A few plastic toys were scattered in one, a doll floating facedown in the inch of water that came over the curb. I wondered how bad the flooding was inside the City. It hardly ever rained, and with the tunnels mostly obstructed it would surely be days, at least, before the waters receded.
    We crossed through a parking lot and started up a low hill, the pavement rising toward a cluster of abandoned stores. When we were halfway down the street I turned, watching the spot on the horizon where the south gate stood. Far below, two Jeeps pulled outside the City wall. They rounded the corner, the mud splashing up around their tires.
    As we kept on, rain cascaded down the hill, the pavement covered with a thin, rippling layer of water. I turned back, watching as one Jeep dipped down into the soft mud. The soldiers got out and started through a neighborhood on foot, but they were going in the wrong direction. I kept going, each step easier, a lightness filling my whole body. We were out of the City. They couldn’t reach us now.

sixteen
    “HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO WAIT HERE?” SARAH ASKED. SHE stood by the window, her silhouette just visible against the sky. The moon was covered by clouds, the rain still coming down, pummeling the ledge outside.
    “Just for the night,” I said. “We’ll leave tomorrow.” After walking for more than two hours, we’d stopped in a neighborhood at the edge of the mountains, hiding in the upper floors of an abandoned house. I stepped around the broken floorboards and reached Clara just as she came up the stairs. She was trailed by two of the other girls, Bette and Helene, a few towels in their hands. “You haven’t found any more?” I asked, pointing to the small pile of blankets on the floor. There were barely enough to keep three people warm for the night, let alone twelve.
    “Most of the supplies have been picked over already,” Clara said. She looked at the ripped, stained fabric in her hands. “These aren’t ideal either . . .”
    Bette, a tall girl with wide, deep-set gray eyes and dense freckles, threw one of the towels down. “They’re disgusting,” she mumbled. “And we only found one can—just one. That’s not enough for all of us.”
    “We can look for more tomorrow,” I said. “And we’ll hunt if we have to. We’re lucky, though—we have water. That’s the most important thing.”
    Sarah watched the plastic containers sitting on the roof’s edge, waiting for them to fill. Her hair was still soaked from the rain, empty plastic containers piled by her bare feet. “Don’t,” Beatrice said, as Sarah reached through the broken windowpane, maneuvering her thin wrist to avoid getting cut on the glass. “Let me.”
    “I’m fine,” Sarah replied, holding up her hand. “See?” She picked up a white container with faded writing on it, careful not to let too much water spill over the sides. She brought it in off the window ledge, slowly replacing it with an empty carton.
    Beatrice leaned back against the wall, her eyes meeting mine for just a moment. I could see glimpses of her features in Sarah’s. They both had round, heart-shaped faces and a dimple in the center of the chin. Sarah was shorter and more athletic looking than most of the girls, and the only one who hadn’t complained yet—about the