“Old enough to be dead, young enough to be Changed. Her mom’s dead, for sure. I think her dad died years ago. She said that she, her mom, and a couple brothers were living with her grandparents. They might be alive.”

“Then how’d she end up here if she still had family?”

“I never asked, but I don’t think she liked home much. Anyway, when she ran, she only got about a mile into the Zone—”

“Zone?” The guard had said that, too.

“Yeah, like ‘buffer zone,’ the cushion between Rule and everybody else. The dogs caught her. That’s another reason she hates them so much.”

“A mile’s still pretty far. That means she had to slip an escort, too.”

“Well, she got pretty friendly with the guards. I think she bribed one by, you know …”

“No, I—” And then she got it. “Oh, that’s just gross.”

“Some of these guys are gross,” Sarah said matter-of-factly. “They only look like grandpas. Anyway, that’s why Jess always has to be around when the older guys come in. If a guy our age visits, though, she leaves so we can, you know, talk and stuff. They want us to get to know those guys.”

“What happened to the guard that Lena … you know …”

“They Banned him, like they did with that guy you recognized.”

“And people just nicely decide not to sneak back in?”

“I guess when they know they’ll be shot, they decide not to.”

“No way.”

“Way. Reverend Yeager’s really strict about it. Like, once he’s decided you’re Banned, that’s it. There are a lot of guards in the woods.”

“Like, walking around?” She wasn’t sure she’d want to be out there after dark, even with a rifle.

Sarah shook her head. “Tree stands. You have to know where to look. Even then, they move around, so you can’t predict where

they’ll be.”

“You know a lot about this.”

“Oh. Well … Peter and I are … we talk.” The way Sarah said that, Alex thought they maybe did a lot more than just talk—in which case, Tori was in for a major disappointment.

“So what do you have to do to get permission to leave?” asked Alex.

“Why would anyone want to?”

“Well,” Alex said, momentarily flustered, “what if you want to try and find family or something? I mean, if I wanted to.”

“Oh, we’ll never get permission. They got us, they’re going to keep us.”

Rule, Alex thought, was like a commercial for an insecticide: roaches check in, but they don’t check out. “And you’re okay with that?”

“Well, sure,” said Sarah. “I mean, it’s not like we’ve got a ton of choices.”

That made her think of something Lena had mentioned that made no sense. “Is that what they mean by Chosen? Like, is it the same as Spared?”

“No. Chosen means that someone picks you.”

“Picks you?”

“Yeah.” A pause. “A guy.”

“A guy?”

“Yeah. A guy, you know, decides … that he wants … you know …”

“What?” Alex said, much louder than she intended. “They give us to a guy? To go live with him?”

“Yeah, but not with any of the old ones,” Sarah said reasonably. “They give us to guys our age. One of them picks one of us, and if the Council says it’s okay, then we go live with him. We get our own house, which is way better than here. Anyway, the idea is we live together and get to know each other.” She paused. “It’s like that old Amish thing. You know, bundling? Only we get to live together, not just get in the same bed.”

Neither sounded good. “Are you serious? You’re serious. Are we … if a guy picks us, do they expect us to, you know, sleep with him?”

“If we want to, I guess. It would be normal. Not right away, of course …” Sarah faltered. “No one’s supposed to force us. But … sure. I mean, that’s what people living together do.”

No, that’s what people in love do. Even if they lock you in some guy’s house, they can’t make you feel that way. “And they’ve done this to some girls already? It’s only been a couple of months.”

She felt Sarah nod. “I think they were doing it before for a real long time. All I know is no one’s asked to go back. The Council says you can if you want to, but no one has. I mean, think about it. You get your own house. You make up your own rules … well, pretty much. It’s not like you get to go wherever you want, but it’s not safe outside Rule anyway, so who cares?”

My God, no matter what Kincaid said, it was like a cult. “So no one has ever refused.”

“Well, I think Lena was worried that this one guy was going to ask.” Sarah sighed. “It was Peter, okay?”

“I thought Tori liked Peter.”

“Tori.” A snort. “Peter is so not interested. Greg’s got this complete crush on her, though. It’s kind of embarrassing, you know? Like a seventh grader asking out a senior.”

“So what happened with Lena and Peter?”

“He started hanging around a lot and asking to walk her places … you know.”

“Like a date?”

“About as close as you get to one in Rule, yeah. I think that’s how she figured out which guard was working where. After they brought her back, Peter was so mad, he wanted her Banned, but you’d have to pretty much murder someone for that to happen to one of us, and even then I’m not sure the Reverend would do it. We’re really valuable.”

“What if we say no?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say no to Peter,” Sarah said. “And if you’re smart, you won’t say no to Chris either.”

55

Sarah fell asleep soon after. Alex stared into the shadows on the ceiling, her brain going like a runaway train.

She had been so stupid. How could she not have seen this? This was why people kept saying that she—and every other girl—was so valuable: because a girl could be paired up with a guy. Hell, the way things were going, maybe a girl would end up paired with more than one.

Because they were valuable. Because they could make babies.

It really was the end of the world as she had known it.

Rule wasn’t a sanctuary.

It was a prison.

Tags: Ilsa J. Bick Ashes Trilogy Horror
Source: readsnovelonline.net