Rise An Eve Novel

those Schools you’d be trapped there indefinitely.”
    “Then what are we going to do?” Bette asked. “We can’t just stay here forever.”
    “We’re going to Califia,” I said as I sat on the edge of the mattress, looking at the girls. I rubbed my hands together, trying to warm them. “It’s a settlement up north. And there’s food, water, supplies. You can stay there as long as you need—other escapees from the Schools have.”
    Lena hugged her knees to her chest. “Are there men there?” she asked.
    “It’s all women,” I said.
    Bette kept shaking her head. “So what if it’s all women?” She looked at the other girls. “How are we even going to get there?”
    “We’re going to walk,” I said. “And if we can find some other, faster way to get there we will. But it may take us as long as a month. And we’ll hunt, and rest, and get supplies however we can, but we’ll get there. I’ve done it before.”
    I could feel Clara’s eyes on me. I didn’t turn to face her. I knew what she was thinking—that I’d driven part of the way to Califia, up the Sierra Nevada and then through to the ocean in the soldiers’ Jeep. Maybe it was stupid, foolish even, to think we could get that far on foot, but now that we were beyond the walls we couldn’t hide out indefinitely. The girls, Clara and Beatrice at least, needed somewhere they could settle. My father might remain in power for years still, his reach extending to parts of the wild.
    “How are we supposed to survive for a month?” Helene asked. “There are gangs out here who’ve murdered girls much younger than us. There was a twelve-year-old orphan kidnapped just a mile outside School, almost as soon as she tried to go beyond the wall.”
    Sarah set another bottle down, trying to seal it as best she could with one of the warped plastic caps. “But maybe that was a lie, too. Teacher Rose said that, and she said lots of other things.”
    “It’s not too late,” Bette said. “We can still go back. We’ll just find one of the soldiers and tell—”
    “You will not,” I interrupted. “You’ll come with us, and we’ll get to Califia. And maybe you don’t understand it now, but you will eventually. There is no going back at this point.”
    Bette kept shaking her head. “We don’t even know you.” She looked at a few of the other girls. “What do you think is going to happen to us out there? We’re not going to make it. I don’t care what they say—we were safe at School.”
    “You were never safe there,” Clara said. She picked up a few of the blankets and passed them to the girls, hoping to end the conversation, but I could see Bette wasn’t ready to let it go. She whispered something else to the petite girl curled up beside her, and I had a sudden glimpse of the weeks spread out before me, how difficult it would be to keep them safe.
    Beyond the front window, the sky was a mottled gray mass, the moon covered by clouds. The rain kept on, coming sideways at the front of the house. Water pooled on the floor below the window ledge. As Beatrice settled on the floor beside Sarah, my eyes focused on a single point on the horizon, the lights so small at first they were hardly noticeable. A Jeep was coming toward us, on the broken highway above—the first one we’d seen in the hours since we’d left.
    “What?” Clara asked, looking out at the road. “What is it?”
    Bette turned, noticing it at the same time. The Jeep barreled forward, speeding over the uneven pavement. A searchlight on the back went on, and someone turned it sideways, directing it at the houses, the Jeep slowing as it passed.
    I took a step toward Bette, trying to put myself between her and the front window, but she moved too quickly. She was already up, within a few feet of it, waving her hands frantically. “We’re here,” she called, her voice scratchy and shrill. “Over here!”
    I pressed my palm against her mouth, pulling her back into the room. “Just stay quiet,” I said to the rest of the girls. “Move to the sides of the window—now.” Bette struggled against me for a moment but I pulled her closer, her back to me as I kept my hand over her mouth.
    Clara ushered the girls against the front wall. She peeked out the window as the Jeep neared. “It’s slowing,” she said. She lowered her head, closing her eyes for a moment, her back pressed against the wall.
    The sky outside the window was brighter as the light passed over the houses