“I really should be liking this,” I said, more to myself than Mason. “Look at this place. It’s nicer than any school I’ve ever been to. There’s no homework.”
“No one telling you what to do,” he added.
Lily snorted. “Well, no one except whoever is running the school. Someone is telling us to walk out in the cold.”
“You know what I meant,” Mason said. “When we go back to the dorms, we can do whatever we want.”
“Except leave the dorms,” she said.
I checked my watch. It was past five, and getting colder. “Shouldn’t we be heading back in?”
“A bell rings when gym is over,” Lily said. “We have to wait for that. The doors don’t unlock until it does.”
“Why isn’t there a schedule?” I asked. “Why don’t we just know that gym ends at whatever time, every day?”
Mason spoke. “You know that schedule that was posted on the screens this morning? It changes every day, and there’s no pattern to it. Sometimes class starts at nine and sometimes it starts at seven. Sometimes there’s no class at all and sometimes we’re there till ten at night.”
“Why?”
“Why does anything happen here?” Lily answered. “It’s all random and stupid.”
I had to smile. At least there was someone else who was as annoyed as I was.
We made a few more loops around the track. The wind was beginning to pick up, and a group was already huddled by the doors, waiting to go inside. Curtis and Carrie appeared around the corner of the school. They sat by the doors. Jane and a few of the other V’s left the joggers and ran over to them.
As we walked close to where Havoc was gathered I tried to count them. Even in their gym clothes they looked like thugs. One girl sat on a fat stump, drawing an intricate pen tattoo onto another girl’s leg. Oakland was leaning against a long, thin rock that looked like it had been jammed vertically into the ground, and four of his friends sat around him. Unlike the rest of us, a few of the Havoc guys had ignored the rules and worn jackets.
“Are those against the dress code?” I asked, gesturing to hooded sweatshirts.
“Yep,” Mason said. “Maybe they’ll get dinged for it, but it’ll just be points.”
“Why are points a big deal?”
“Points are everything,” Lily said. I couldn’t tell whether she was being sarcastic or not.
Mouse jogged past us and slowed to a stop in the sculpture garden. Despite the cold, she had her T-shirt tied into a knot to show off her stomach, and I’d swear her already-short shorts were rolled at the waist. I know I wasn’t the only guy who noticed.
We passed Havoc and again faced the expanse of pine trees. A gust of wind blew past us, carrying tiny leaves and sticks with it, and making me shiver. The only trees nearby with any leaves were the cottonwoods by the road, but those had shed most of their foliage already. Autumn here wasn’t pretty.
“So,” I said, glancing around to make sure that no one else was nearby. “No one has answered my question. Has there ever been a serious escape attempt?”
Mason didn’t immediately say anything, so Lily spoke. “It depends on what you mean by serious. People have tried. From what I’ve been told, a lot of people used to try.”
“And no one has made it?”
“Not that we know of,” she said. “Most get caught in the act. Others we just hear about.”
“What stops them?” I asked. “Why can’t they just get over the wall and go?”
“It’s not easy to get over the wall,” Mason said simply. “And then you’ve got to get over that fence. And there are security cameras. And who knows what else.”
“I’m going to run one day,” Lily said. “Soon.”
I looked over at her. She was young and small, but there was something about her eyes that made me believe she might actually be able to. “What are you waiting for?”
She thought for a moment, her jaw set and forehead wrinkled. “I’ve never had a good time to do it. Too many Society freaks around all the time.”
“What if you went right now?” I asked. “Run into the forest and go?”
“I’m not that fast,” she said. She stared at the tree line and the tone of her voice made it sound like she might actually have been considering it. I watched her turn and look for the four-wheeler, which was stopped near the crowd of Society kids at the door. “I don’t know. What do you think, Mason? Would the Society chase us over the wall? Would they dare cross it?”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t risk it.”
We walked in silence for a while. I wondered what the dangers actually were. I was pretty fast—could they catch me if I ran into the forest? I could run in one direction, hide, and then wait for the others to pass me. It couldn’t be that hard, could it? Of course, it shouldn’t be hard at all. Every single kid in that school should have agreed with me. If the Society simply refused to enforce the security rules, we’d be fine.
The wind picked up and I had to squint to keep bits of sand and leaves out of my eyes. It stung as it blew against my legs and arms, and I stopped walking so I could turn my back to it.
“I’m going to go check on the doors,” I said as the gust faded.
I jogged across the field, leaving Mason and Lily on the track.
It was dumb that they locked us out. I made a mental note to prop one of the doors open the next time we had to come outside. But that would probably be against some stupid rule, too.
I passed the crowd of waiting students and hopped up the front steps.
“It’s still locked,” someone said. I turned to see Becky, her hands rubbing her arms to stay warm. Her bare legs were speckled with goose bumps, as were mine.
“Hey,” I said. “You’re admin. Can’t you get them open?”
“I wish,” she said, her tour-guide personality shining brightly. “I really should be back there jogging.”
“Me too.”
She took a step toward me, inspecting my face. “I heard about last night. Sorry about the nose.”
I shrugged. “Things happen.”
Becky leaned forward and whispered, “I shouldn’t say this, but Oakland was in the infirmary this morning. I think you might have cracked his rib.”
I couldn’t help a smile from breaking across my face, and it spread to hers. “Am I going to get in trouble for it?”
She shook her head. “Probably not. The V’s might lose a few points, but if it was anything serious it would have been announced this morning. I’d watch out for Oakland, though.”
“Okay.” I looked back at where Mason and Lily were waiting on the track. “Well, I might be in the infirmary tomorrow if these doors don’t open soon.”
She nodded and rubbed her crossed arms with her hands. “Me too.”
Becky moved back to her friends and I trotted across the grass to the track. Mason and Lily started walking again before I even got to them.
“Is she still trying to recruit you?” Lily asked when I reached them.
“Becky? No, just talking.”
“They’re all like that, you know,” she continued. “Becky, Laura, all the Society girls. Sweet as pie, and fake as Mouse’s boobs.”
Mason snickered.
“Becky seems nice enough,” I said.
Lily pulled her arms inside her T-shirt. “Yeah, Becky’s nice. And she’d send you to the gas chamber if the school told her to.”
Mason laughed. “That’s an exaggeration.”
“Says you,” Lily said. “And the guys in the Society are worse-arrogant and holier-than-thou. They’ve turned obedience into a sport.”
Just then the bell rang, and we immediately turned and ran back toward the school. But as we got closer, it was obvious there was a problem. No one was going inside. The doors were still locked.
Lily swore and turned away, looking at the forest.
“They do this, too,” Mason said to me, his voice a little more serious than usual. “The school, I mean. Sometimes the doors are locked. Sometimes the power goes out. Sometimes there’s no food.”
A voice was shouting over the crowd, and I turned to see Isaiah standing on the steps trying to get everyone’s attention. “The doors appear to be locked. I’m sure that this is just a malfunction in the mechanism.”