The Invasion of the Tearling

“I bashed him on the head and left him there.” Lily didn’t want to keep talking, but it was like that night in the nursery; the words tumbled out. “He wanted to me to have a baby. He wanted to take me to an in vitro doctor. It didn’t matter what I wanted.”


Tear nodded. “It’s a problem. Women are selling their eggs for the price of a small bag of meth, but the rewards on the other end are enormous.”

Lily considered for a moment. “I wanted to kill him.”

“Well, you’ll be facing a world of hurt when you get home, one way or another.”

Lily nodded.

“Leave your car here. Security’s ringed the port; there’s no way you got in without their notice. They’ve seen your car and marked it as belonging to my people. Leave it here and Jonathan will take you home. You can claim you were carjacked and called him to come get you.”

“My tag will show I’ve been here.”

“That’s true,” he replied, and Lily saw that he’d only been trying to make her feel better.

Three quick knocks and Jonathan came back in. “Dori’s back, sir. Nothing new out there. I told Parker we’re leaving soon.”

“Is the gear all packed?”

“Five minutes.”

Tear gestured toward the closed door on the far side of the room. “Pity we didn’t have more notice. I hate to leave her here.”

“When?” Lily blurted out. “When are you leaving?”

“What makes you think we’re leaving?”

“You are,” Lily muttered, her throat hoarse with tears. “On a ship.”

“And where do you think we’re going?”

“To the better world.”

Tear leaned forward. Lily was struck again by his silver eyes, which seemed to reflect even the dim glow provided by the fluorescents. “Why did you come here, Mrs. Mayhew? This has nothing to do with you, and you took an enormous risk. Why?”

Lily couldn’t answer. As a child, she used to pick a single item and stare at it for as long as possible, until her eyes had dried out and her gaze had lost all focus. She remembered taking a vast pleasure in having her gaze so captured, in being transfixed, and now she could not take her eyes from William Tear. She followed each of his movements, even the small ones: the rapid flicker of his eyes across her face, the tap of his fingers on one knee, the clench of his jaw. All things seemed to center on Tear, to hinge on him.

I believe it.

In that moment, Lily believed it all. There was a better world out there, somehow, and it was close … almost within their reach. The wheat, the bright blue river, the endless trees. If Tear asked her to die for the better world, she would do it. She wouldn’t even need to think. And if he asked Lily to die for him, she would do that too. She had never felt anything so deeply in her life.

Her eyes had watered again; Lily tore her blurry gaze from Tear and wiped her arm across her face. When she looked up, she found Jonathan watching her, a small smile on his face. He reached out a hand and Lily clasped it in both of hers, gripping tightly. She didn’t want to let go; she thought she might drown.

“The better world,” she gasped. “I see it. All the time.”

“We all see it, Mrs. M.”

Tear reached beneath her chin and tipped her face up with one finger. His eyes were so brilliant now that they seemed to glow in the dim light. “What do you see, Lily?”

“Water,” Lily stammered. “Blue water, then cliffs, then land. Yellow land, covered with wheat. And there’s a village on a hill, next to a river. Children.”

“What are they doing?”

“I don’t know,” Lily admitted. “But they’re free. They’re all free.”

Tear smiled and released her chin. “This is the Blue Horizon.”

Lily began to cry.

“Five years ago,” Tear continued, “when we asked to secede, I had planned to create the better world myself, to take a small corner of America and remake it. Despite its blight, this country is an incredible creation, and a piece of it would have served us well. But it’s just as well they turned us down, for it would never have worked. Parker, people like him, they’re built to spoil things. They would never have left us alone. If not them, it would be your government, finding seller’s remorse ten or fifteen years down the line. If we made the better world in a place where others could reach it, they would only try to tear it down.”

Lily wiped away her tears. “There’s no more land. Where can you go?”

“The world is bigger than you think.”

“Why do they get to come along?” she asked. “Those people outside?”

“Parker’s people?” Tear chuckled bitterly. “Parker’s people sell their children and trade women for food. They don’t get anywhere near the better world.”

“Sir,” Jonathan muttered from the door. Listening, Lily heard voices raised in argument outside, then a quick, light hum that she thought might be silenced laser fire. Tear gestured for her to stand, and she pulled herself from the chair. She didn’t know how tired she was until she tried to stand up.