Broken Lands (Benny Imura 6)

“Nor do I,” said Ford.

“Me neither,” said Spider.

“Actually,” added Urrea, “I think she was happy to unburden herself. Imagine how it must have felt to carry the weight of all that and have no one to tell.”

“That’s what I thought while she was talking,” said Gutsy.

“Which means what?” asked Alethea. “Do we trust her now?”

Gutsy considered, but shook her head. “Not if anything we say or do puts Sarah in more danger.

Other than that? Yes. I trust her.”

She waited while the others thought about it. One by one they nodded. Alethea was last, and her nod was reluctant. “It’s not that I don’t trust her,” she explained, “it’s just that she might be forced into a spot where she has to pick Sarah or us. What do we do then? It’s not like we can move to another town, because there isn’t one.”

It was an unfortunate truth.

“Okay,” said Spider, “now that we know all this stuff—and it’s a lot to swallow, I got to tell you—what do we do about it? I mean, I’d love to go find Captain Collins and kind of, y’know, beat her head in with a stick, but . . .”

“They have an army,” said Ford. “We don’t.”

“This,” said Urrea, “is the kind of conversation resistance groups have had since there have been corrupt regimes. So, like, forever. We know who the good guys are, we know who the bad guys are, but the odds are so unfair that any move we make could result in us being swatted. And I’d also like to point out that none of us have guns, and they have a lot of them.”

Gutsy chewed on that, but before she could comment, Ford spoke up. “Personally, as horrified and outraged as I am about what the scientists in the lab and these Rat Catcher soldiers are doing, I’m going out on a limb here and saying that I’m ten times more scared of this Night Army.”

Alethea shook her head. “That’s almost too big a problem to think about right now.”

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” admitted Spider.

A lot of minutes crawled by without anyone saying much. Sombra went and stood by the back door, so Gutsy let him out, then cleaned up his mess. Back inside, she set down food and fresh water for him. All in thoughtful silence.

“Alethea’s right,” said Urrea.

“About what?” asked Spider.

“There isn’t another town.”

“Thank you, Mr. Wizard,” said Ford. “Would you also like to suggest that water is wet and the sky is blue?”

“My point,” said Urrea, “is that we are faced with a choice most resistance groups don’t have. And that choice is no choice.”

“Huh?” said Spider and Alethea.

“We have New Alamo or we have the Broken Lands. That’s not an actual choice. There are no equal benefits to weigh. So, I suppose I should say that we don’t have a choice of location. We have to stay here. The one choice we do have is whether we can risk taking action or not.”

“Kind of already know that,” said Gutsy, sitting down at the table again.

But Ford shook his head. “No, because even there the choices are limited. If we take no action, then—given that we are all living in the research lab—we will eventually become test subjects. Like Mama, like Diego and Maria Cantu, like Mirabelle Santiago, like all the others. Like the soldiers who ‘volunteered.’ If the scientists are willing to do that to their own soldiers, then what chance do we have of living full and rewarding lives?”

“None,” said Gutsy.

“None,” agreed Ford. “Which means the real choice is whether we accept the risk of rebellion.”

“They could kill us all,” said Spider, then shook his head. “No. They will kill us all. If we fight back, then maybe there’s a chance they won’t.”

Clearly no one thought much of their chances.

“I agree with Spider,” said Alethea. “Look, I don’t have a lot of friends in town, but there are people I care about. People I don’t want to see turned into lab rats.” She cut a look at Gutsy. “I think we all have people we care about here.” Gutsy knew Alethea was referring to Alice. They shared a private smile, but Spider caught it and gave a small nod.