I can’t feel anything.

I know that Aiden gets me to my feet, but I can’t feel it. My body is numb but moving with help from Aiden. He helps me walk along the tent back to where we came from. We pass the boarded-up part of the tent but stop a little before the spot where we crossed from the trees.

“Sam, are you okay?” I stare at Aiden, but all I see is the guards putting people in body bags and throwing them in a pile, where more guards pick them up and throw them in a truck.

I don’t respond to his question. I’m not okay. None of this is okay. My Dad’s body is probably in one of those body bags being tossed around as if he means nothing to anyone. He is everything to me. If he is indeed dead, then he deserves a proper funeral. Everyone does.

What they are doing isn’t right. None of it is. How do they live with themselves knowing that they have taken away people’s grandparents, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and friends? How do they expect people to listen to them after this? Everyone in the New World, including myself, will never be able to trust them ever again.

“Sam, can you hear me?” Aiden asks. I am practically leaning all my weight on him, but he doesn’t let me fall. His hand is on my face, but I can barely feel it.

The sound of the bodies hitting the ground still rings in my ears, although we have put distance between ourselves and that spot. “They killed them,” Is all I manage to say. It comes out quieter than a whisper, but I know he hears me. “They killed all of them.”

Aiden holds me tighter, “I know.”

“They just killed them. For what? I don’t understand.” If the New World is experiencing problems and there really is no good solution, then at least kick them out and put them in no man’s land. At least give them a chance at living.

The more I think about it, the more I understand why the New World would never do that. If they kicked people out, then those people could fight to get back in, and we would be at war all over again. Considering people in the towns would probably help their family members and friends who were kicked out, the New World would never win, so they would never choose that option.

Instead, they decided to kill. They chose to kill innocent people who had no idea what was going to happen to them tonight.

I think about my Dad and how I would have done anything for him to be here with me right now. I can’t help but wonder if he is with my Mom. Are they at least together in death? Are they even dead? Is there some way that my Mom could be alright? What if Devin and I are the only two members of our family left?

I don’t want the last memory of my Dad to be of him tackling two guards down so that Devin and I could run away. I know that everyone is going to die one day. I was just hoping that when he did, it would be from old age and lying on a bed peacefully. I think about what he said before he ran at the guards. He said he loved us.

Another minute goes by before I can start to feel my body again. “He’s dead. They killed him. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.” I can’t help myself, tears start running down my face, and I don’t stop them.

Aiden manages to wipe away my tears while still holding me. Fresh tears replace the ones he wipes away, but he does not stop. The two of us just stand there on the side of the tent. I’m trying to hold my mouth in order to muffle the sound of my crying while Aiden holds me and tries to calm me down.

When I regain control of my tears, I am able to ask the question I have been wondering about since I first saw the bodies. “How did they die?” I don’t expect Aiden to know, but I ask him anyway.

“What do you mean?” He asks.

“I mean, they weren’t shot,” I tell him. My voice breaks as I speak, but I continue anyway, “Yes, a few of them had blood on them, but many did not. I watched them put the bodies in the bags. There were no signs of any wounds on them. So how did they die?”

Aiden doesn’t say anything for a few minutes, but when he does, it’s just to say, “I don’t know.”

We stand there in silence for a while before I decide to say something. “When Devin and I were little, my Dad would take us over to the park after he got done with work. He would take us over to a small lake where we would sit there all day and listen to him tell us stories. When we got older, we started telling him stories that we made up. Our stories didn’t make much sense, but he would listen anyway.” I don’t know why I tell him this, but I do.

“When we would get back home, we would find our Mom sitting there on the porch making a blanket. We would sit by her and help her pick out different colors. We would even get paper and markers and start drawing the designs that we thought she should do next. After I started high school, I stopped going to the park as much with my Dad and Devin. I even stopped picking out colors for my Mom. I would still play games with Devin, but I started to ignore my parents. I’m a terrible daughter.”

“No, you are not,” Aiden tells me. “That’s just what kids do. They grow up and want independence. It doesn’t make you a bad daughter. It just makes you human.”

“But I am a bad daughter,” I tell him. “My Dad wanted me to be an architect just like his father, and I wanted that too. I took the classes for it. I even took the placement test to determine if I would be accepted for an apprenticeship. I got it. I was the first female in our town to get an architect apprenticeship. When I found out, I was so happy. I knew my Dad would be happy, too, considering he helped me study for it. He stayed up with me all night when I couldn’t figure something out. He wouldn’t give me the answers to my problems, but he would give me words of encouragement and ask me to retrace my steps in order to figure out what I did wrong.”

Aiden loosens his hold on me in order to look at me better. “I turned down the apprenticeship,” I tell him. “I don’t even know why I did it. I was scared, I guess. I couldn’t even tell my Dad the truth. I lied to him and told him that I didn’t get it. He was so mad. I had to spend the rest of the week preventing him from going to the school and yelling at the teachers. I became a house cleaner instead. To this day, I can’t tell if I made the right decision or if I regret it.”

Aiden lets go of me and sits down on the ground. I do the same.

It has just been too long of a day to continue standing when it feels like the world is crashing down all around.

“I wish my parents cared that much about me. I never had that kind of relationship with my Mom or Dad. They were always working all the time, and when they were home, they favored my oldest brother Dixon.” Aiden says after I am done venting about my own father. “I didn’t mind my parents giving him all the attention. When they were looking at him, it meant that they weren’t looking at me. I got away with a whole lot. I also didn’t get away with a lot. I was never proud of my Dad, and I’m still not, especially now, but I do care for my other older brother, Alex, and my younger sister, Autumn. I don’t know where they are now, but I hope they’re doing alright.”

“They are not with you and the Jumpers?” I ask him.

Aiden is silent. He gives me a quick glance, then shakes his head no.

I decide it is a good time to change the topic. This is getting too depressing. “Why are you guys called the Jumpers anyway?” It’s been a question on my mind since Aiden and Theon first mentioned it. “Do you guys like jumping around all day like rabbits or something?”

Aiden smiles slightly at that, “No. We are not called Jumpers for jumping around like rabbits,” he says mimicking me. “Back in Tundris, our houses and apartments were built kind of high up, so when it snowed, a whole lot of people could still see the buildings. Since we would get anywhere from eight to twenty feet of snow during the winter time, it was hard to go outside.”

“A few years back,” he says, “someone found out that if you make an entranceway on your roof, then you would just have to shovel your roof, and then you can jump from one building to the next since most of them were close enough together. Jumping from roof to roof became the best form of travel in the winter, and some people would even do it in the summer.” The way he says the last part makes me think he was one of the ones who jumped rooftops all year long.

“Houses, apartments, and almost every work building were located close to each other, which just encouraged us to jump more.” Aiden continues, “As I said before, though, many of the houses and buildings were not made right. While jumping from roof to roof was fun and all, it was also dangerous since you never knew if you would be jumping onto solid ground or if the roof was going to fall through.”

“Anyway though, when we ran away from Tundris after the carnival, we were all sitting around one night, and somehow we got talking about the New World. We decided that we didn’t want to be associated with them anymore, so we came up with a new name for ourselves. While we are not our own country or anything, we figured calling ourselves the Jumpers would separate us from the New World government official type people,” he says.

“I like that,” I tell him. “I hope I don’t have to go jumping on rooftops in order to be one of you guys.”

Aiden laughs, and I laugh with him. “No, nothing like that.”

“Good,” I tell him. I am used to heights and all from climbing trees, but I would not want to go jumping off of anything.

“You just have to kiss me,” he says.

The both of us stop laughing and stare at each other.

It takes me a second to realize he’s not serious, but I don’t know if he wants me to actually kiss him or not. Is this a trick or some kind of joke? I mean, he’s good looking and all, but I just met him, and kissing a stranger in a place where so many people have died just doesn’t seem right. So why do I want to?

He leans in closer. “Relax, I’m joking,” he says. I try to read his facial expression, but he looks away to stand up. He reaches out a hand for me, “Come on, we need to get back before the sun comes up.”

Chapter 29

0 Comments