IVY ROE:
She set a few bags of groceries on the table. She ran over and hugged Andi, Chaos, me. Her hands were shaking. Her uniform was stiff, smelled like tennis shoes.
Andi set a bowl of rice at her seat. Told her to eat, to tell us what happened.
“Overnight training,” she said. Chaos caught my eye and raised her eyebrows, a silent we were right.
“It was—” Elise tugged at her beanie “—not that bad. I learned a lot.”
Chaos sucked in a breath. “Your arms, your knuckles.”
Blotchy and bruised and scraped. Elise stared into her bowl. “They’re trying to make sure we’re ready. They’re trying to keep us safe.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Walter pull Daisy’s hand, creep upstairs. If only I could do that, too. If only I could hide, ignore Elise and her disheveled ponytail. Instead, I asked, “Ready for what?”
“For my assignment. For the Run-downs.”
Silence. I guess none of us knew what to say. I closed my eyes. In my head, I took two pins and raked a lock. Slowly, patiently. In my head, the lock clicked open, I pulled open the door and ran. Ran and ran and ran.
“Tell me what you did,” Andi said, “for overnight training.”
Elise chewed on her rice for a long time. Kept staring into her bowl. “They separated us into groups,” she said, “Run-downs versus Corps.”
Run-downs’ goal: to sneak up on the Corps. Steal their baton.
Corps’ goal: to keep their baton and arrest any law breaker, put them in the Cooler—a small room to keep criminals localized.
Elise said again, “It wasn’t that bad.”
But as she kept talking, I could picture the entire thing, and it seemed pretty bad. Elise, in full uniform, infrared goggles over her eyes. Total, complete darkness. The outline of a tent here, a broken-down car there. Someone creeps up behind her. She hears something, or maybe she turns at the right time, and she pulls his arm, sweeps her foot. Handcuffs. Pulls him to the Cooler. Maybe he fights back, tries to get free. Maybe she punches him, twists his arm.
“I don’t know, it all happened so fast.” Elise blinked rapidly. “The adrenaline, the way you had no choice.”
Chaos gripped the edge of the table. She said, “Wait,” but trailed off, mumbled the rest of her sentence.
“Then we switched teams,” Elise continued, “and I was smarter. I stuck to the crowded areas. When I got caught, I stayed completely still. I didn’t get hurt as bad.”
More silence. Andi set a damp towel next to her. A tiny tube of antiseptic.
Elise said, “There was no way to tell you. I can’t even imagine how worried you were.”
Andi’s voice was quiet. “You’re home. You’re safe.”
I almost missed it. Elise lowered her head, and her beanie slid. A tiny tattoo behind her ear. Three rings. Not even a second before she readjusted her beanie, covering it.
Did anyone else notice? Was it really just me? I glanced at Andi and Chaos. Their expressions hadn’t changed.
I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes. I thought: right now, an owl is flying through the air. Silent wings. Looking for something to catch. I thought: right now, the sun is burning though four million tons of hydrogen.
Someone squeezed my hand. Chaos. I almost pulled out of her grasp, but I didn’t, and she led me upstairs. To our room.
“Think of your facts,” she whispered to me. “Think of stars, and rivers, and mitosis.”
And I tried. I really tried. But when I closed my eyes, pulled my covers up to my chin, the only thing I could think of was Elise. Elise tightening the laces of her boots. Elise wiping her face with the back of her hand, smeared blood across her cheek.
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