at this place. I hate the uncertainty that hangs between us, but I take a step back from him and Rena.
Then I remember Rena in all of this and pull her into a hug. “Thank you for helping me. You didn’t have to do this, any of this.” I know she’s also risked her life, and suddenly I have no idea why. She hardly even knows me. I’m nobody to her.
“It’s not just for you, it’s for all of us, Eve. If you get away, and I know you will …” She smiles. “Then we are winning. We are still free.”
I don’t know how in the course of a few weeks I’ve become someone I don’t even recognize – a soldier taking on the corrupt government, but I can’t find the words to argue with her. I understand what I must do. I nod solemnly and step away from her.
When I meet Will’s eyes again, my body moves toward him of its own accord. He crushes me against him, backpack and all, and kisses me deeply. It sends my senses spinning. His mouth is hard against mine, yet his tongue is soft and exploring. My heart clenches and though I don’t want to leave him, I know I have no other choice.
A few seconds later, Rena clears her throat, and Will breaks the kiss. My lips are still tingling and damp, and I press them together. I savor one last look at Will, his stormy, grey-blue eyes and without another word, I jog for the fence.
The entire run to the fence, I’m convinced gun fire will rain down on me any second, and my back tingles with anticipation of feeling the first blows. But it’s startlingly quiet. The only sounds are my feet, tramping through the dry grass, the backpack bumping against my back and my breath that comes in deliberate puffs.
I reach the black boulder and have the urge to look back, but I don’t. I scramble to my hands and knees and crawl toward the opening at the bottom of the fence that’s been dug away. It’s a tiny opening, barely big enough for me to get through. I stop and remove the backpack and stuff it under the opening. Then I lower myself onto my belly and shimmy and kick my way under the fence.
I feel the metal tines rake across my back, and bite my lip to keep from crying out. My back stings where the fence has clawed at my skin. I wrench myself forward and can’t go any farther. I’m stuck. I back up a few inches and then thrust myself forward again. The fence isn’t going to let me go so easy. What kind of cruel world is this, that I could survive the most brutal of attacks, yet I couldn’t make it through the one obstacle we were never meant to get through? I grip my fingers into the earth in front of me, my nails raking into the dirt, and I pull with all my strength. My shirt gives away with a tear. I pull myself the rest of the way through the fence and stand on the other side.
It is completely disorienting looking at Will and Rena from this side of the fence. It doesn’t feel free or liberating. It just feels wrong. Very wrong. My stomach recoils at what I’ve done. Surely I will be struck down any moment, taken away and made to pay for my crimes. But the night is utterly silent. The moon glows as bright as ever. I swear I see the hint of smile on Will’s face. I turn away from them and run.
Chapter 27
The smile on Will’s face at seeing me on the other side of the fence is what keeps me going for the first hour. The jog is easy, the temperature just right, and the moon is my lantern. I begin to allow myself to hope that everything will turn out just as Will and Rena said. I’m several hundred yards into the woods before I even begin to feel the ache in my wrist. But once I do, it throbs with every step. I focus on the path I’m blazing through the forest and forget about everything else.
After a little while, I begin to slow. The burst of adrenaline I felt at first fades away to awareness of my surroundings. The woods on this side of the fence are much thicker, more unruly, like they’ve never been touched. But I