you wanted to hear,” I continued ruthlessly, “but, God, Stick, wake up! This is the way things are. Sooner or later, you’re going to learn that it’s everyone for themselves out here, and the only person you can depend on is you.”
He didn’t answer, just continued staring down at the pavement. I turned away as well, leaning against the wall. I wasn’t worried. Give him a few minutes, and he’d be back to normal, talking and pretending that nothing had happened. If he wanted to keep burying his head in the sand, I wouldn’t stop him. But I wasn’t going to keep holding his hand anymore, either.
After several long minutes, Rat and Lucas still hadn’t showed. I fidgeted and glanced at the sky through the grate. Hurry up, you two. Cutting it this close to evening was already making me jumpy. But I wanted that food. I was hungry again, and knowing there was a whole stash of food out there, just beyond the wall, was driving me crazy. I’d almost forgotten what it was like not to be starving all the time. Not feeling your stomach cramp so badly you wanted to puke, only there was nothing in it to throw up. Not having to eat roaches and spiders, just to stay alive. Or share a crust of stolen bread with Stick, because if I didn’t take care of him, he would curl up somewhere and die. If we could get to that food, I wouldn’t have to worry about any of that for a long, long time. If Rat and Lucas ever got their sorry butts down here.
And then, I had another thought, one that the cynical street rat in me hadn’t had before. If we could get all that food, I wouldn’t have to worry about Stick as much. Lucas would probably be happier and less stressed, and might agree to learn how to read. Even Rat might go for it—if I could stomach teaching him, anyway. Again, I had no idea where it would lead, but every revolution had to start somewhere.
The vampires have taken everything from us, I thought, angrily kicking a pebble into a wall. Well, I’m going to make sure we take something back.
First things first, though, and that was surviving.
Several minutes later, Rat and Lucas finally showed up. Both were panting, and Rat glared daggers at me as he dropped from the ladder, his beady eyes filled with fear and hate.
“What happened?” I asked, narrowing my eyes as Lucas came down the tube.
“Ran into a couple pets near the broken statue,” he muttered as he dropped beside me, wiping sweat from his brow. “They followed us several blocks before we lost them in the park. Everyone up there is twitchy. Wish I knew what was going on.”
“This is stupid,” Rat broke in, his gaze darting up and down the tunnel, as if it was about to close on him. “We shouldn’t be going … out there.”
“Should we go back?” Stick whispered.
“No,” I snapped. “If we don’t do this now, who knows when we’ll get another chance.”
“How do we even know she’s telling the truth?” Rat continued, switching tactics now that he couldn’t scare me into giving up. “A whole basement of food? Gimme a break.” His lips twisted. “Girls don’t know what to look for out there. Maybe she saw a few empty cans and jumped to conclusions. Maybe she’s too scared to go by herself and needs a big strong guy to keep her safe.”
“Keep talking, moron. I think it’s funny when you use big words.”
“Will you two shut up?” Lucas snapped, showing how on edge he was. “We’re wasting time! Allie, you know the way, right?” He motioned me down the tunnel. “After you.”
The sky was considerably darker when we crawled out of the drainage ditch into the open, gazing around warily. Overhead, slate-gray clouds massed together, and a flicker of lightning lit up the ground.
“There’s a storm coming,” Lucas muttered unnecessarily, as a growl of thunder followed his statement. I muttered a curse. Back in New Covington, the rain would fill the wells and cisterns of the sectors, but it also drew more things out into the open. “And the sun is going down. We have to do this now.”
“Come on,” I said, pushing through weeds and bush and chest-high grass to reach the top of the bank. They followed, scrambling up the ditch until we came to the edge and the tangled, empty ruins sprawled out before us, silent and menacing in the fading light.
Rat swore and Stick was breathing hard, almost hyperventilating. “I can’t do this,” he whispered, edging away toward the ditch. “I can’t go in there. I have to go back. Let me go back.”
“I knew it,” Rat sneered. “Pissing little coward. Totally useless. Let him run home, but he sure ain’t getting my share of the food.”
Lucas grabbed Stick’s arm before he could run away. “Rat’s right. You do this, don’t expect a share of anything we bring back.”
“I don’t care,” Stick panted, his eyes wide. “This is crazy. The sun is about to go down. You’re all going to be killed.”
“Stick,” I said, trying to be reasonable, “you don’t know the way back. Are you going to go through the tunnels in the dark? Alone?”
That seemed to get through to him. He stopped fighting Lucas and cast a fearful glance at the dark entrance to the sewers. Shoulders sagging, he looked up at me, pleading. “I don’t want to,” he whispered. “Let’s go back, Allie, please. I have a bad feeling about this.”
Rat made a disgusted noise, and my annoyance flared. “No,” I said flatly. “We keep moving. There’s still some light left. We’re not going back without that food.” I looked at Stick with an encouraging smile. “Wait till you see how much there is—it’ll be worth it.”
He still looked terrified but followed silently as we sprinted through the cracked, tangled streets, leaping over roots and weaving between rusty cars to beat the coming storm. A small herd of deer scattered before us as we hurried down the sidewalk, and a flock of crows took to the air with startled, screaming cries. But other than that, the ruins were still except for our footsteps pounding over the cement and our own raspy breathing.
As I led them through the overgrown yard to the crumbled shed, the first raindrops began to fall. By the time we had crowded into the tiny building, a deluge was drumming the tin roof and pouring in through the holes. I clicked on the flashlight as I descended the ladder into the basement, half-terrified that when we got there the food would be gone. But everything was as I had left it: a section of shelf lay broken on the cement, and cans were scattered everywhere, glinting in the flashlight beam.
“Holy shit.” Rat shoved past me, stumbling into the room. His mouth dropped open as he scanned the wall of tins, his eyes gleaming hungrily. “The bitch wasn’t kidding. Look at all this.”
“Is that … all food?” Stick asked timidly, picking up a can. And before I could reply, Rat shocked me with a wild, high-pitched laugh.
“It sure is, piss-wad!” Snatching the can from Stick’s fingers, he pried the top open and shoved it back at him. “Check that out! Tell me that’s not the greatest thing you’ve ever seen!” Stick blinked in astonishment, nearly dropping the opened can, but Rat didn’t seem to notice. Grabbing two more tins from the floor, he wrenched the tops away and started digging into them with long dirty fingers.
“We don’t really have time for this,” I cautioned, but not even Lucas was listening now, busy tugging the lid off his own can. Stick gave me an apologetic look before scooping out handfuls of beans, devouring them with as much gusto as Rat, whose face was now smeared with a slimy coating.
“Guys!” I tried again. “We can’t stand around stuffing our faces all night. We’re almost out of time.” But they were deaf to my arguments, drunk on the amount of food and the prospect of filling their stomachs. That’s what being Unregistered teaches you; when you find food, you eat as much of it as you can, because you don’t know when your next meal might be. Still, all I could think of was how they were fattening themselves up for the things that wanted to eat us.
Outside, the storm had picked up, howling against the walls