The Invasion of the Tearling

Lily giggled, but it came out as a croak. Brave had been many, many hours ago. She didn’t know where she was now, wandering in uncharted territory. She gritted her teeth, readying herself, and tried to think of something else. “Why did you kill the assistant?”


“Salter? You know men like Salter, Lily. He’s the sort who can think of an excuse for almost anything he’s done. Salter thought that one good deed could make up for a lifetime of terrible acts.”

“Can’t it?” Lily shut her eyes, tight, as something thin and cold pierced the skin of her shoulder blade. She didn’t know why they had rescued her. Would they let her come with them to the better world? She hadn’t even done one good deed, not really. The pain was bad, but she pursed her lips—what if even a small wrong move could tip the balance?—holding them shut.

“Depends on the deed and the lifetime. In this case, no. Salter’s been Langer’s right-hand man for nearly twenty years.”

Major Langer, Lily realized. The man in charge. The accountant.

“No roadblocks yet,” Dorian remarked, her gaze pinned straight ahead. “That’s something. But there’s a lot of fire.”

“Parker,” Tear replied dismissively. “That bunch is ridiculously impressed by loud noises.” The sharp instrument worked inside Lily’s shoulder. She couldn’t stop a small moan from escaping her throat.

“Not much longer, Lily.” A spray can hissed, and burning cold spread across her open shoulder. “Thank Christ Parker and his crew never knew what else we had. But I’d bet a hundred quid most of the eastern seaboard’s on fire before the night is through.”

“Why?” Lily gasped, as another sharp point sank into the muscle of her shoulder. “Why would you let him do that?”

Tear grunted. “Hold very still, Lily. Tricky fucker.” Lily thought he had ignored her question, but a moment later he replied, “This country is diseased. The fortunate celebrate on the backs of the starving, the ill, the terrorized. The law affords no recourse to the disadvantaged. That’s a historical sickness, and there’s only one cure. But I won’t lie to you, Lily; we need the diversion as well.” Tear left her shoulder for a moment, and there was a clink of metal. “Little fucker’s buried deep in the muscle. Inept doctor … must have hurt like mad when they put it in.”

Lily blinked in surprise, realizing that she didn’t remember having her tag implanted. It had been done sometime during her childhood, she knew, but now the tag seemed like something that had always been there, a natural part of her anatomy. She had learned to be tagged, in the same way they had all learned to be under constant surveillance, not to speak of the disappeared.

A historical sickness.

“Why did you get me out?”

“The better world’s not free, Lily. I test my people. Dori, keep it steady here.”

“Sir.”

There was a final deep stab into Lily’s muscle, and she screeched against her clamped teeth. Another cold tug, and the invasion finally withdrew. Tear presented the tag for Lily’s inspection: a tiny piece of metal, so tiny that it would have fit comfortably on her pinkie fingernail. Marveling, Lily held out her hand, and Tear dropped the tag into her palm.

“Controls your whole life, Lily. Do us a favor and toss it out the window.”

After staring at the tiny metal ellipse for another moment, Lily rolled the window down and threw her tag into the night.

“Feel better, Mrs. M.?”

She turned to stare at Jonathan, ignoring the fierce pain in her shoulder. He was smiling, but his face was pale beneath its dark skin, and his entire shirtfront gleamed with blood.

“I’m so sorry.”

Jonathan waved his hand. “I’ll be fine.”

But Lily knew better. Saying sorry again seemed ridiculously inadequate, and so she didn’t repeat it, only turned to stare out the windshield, hating herself. The night landscape bloomed with fire from horizon to horizon, many towns burning behind their walls. Something else was different, but it wasn’t until they got on the freeway, heading south, that Lily was able to pinpoint the difference: she hadn’t seen a single electric light since they’d left the Security compound.

“You shut down the power.”

“Every cell,” Tear replied, digging in his medical bag. “It’s not coming back on, either. The east is dark, all the way from New Hampshire to Virginia. How’s our time, Dori?”

“Ten minutes ahead of schedule.”

“Stay on public highways. With any luck, Parker’s people will be looking for bigger game on the private roads.” Tear began to bandage Lily’s shoulder, applying some sort of salve. It stung, but Lily barely noticed. She was too busy staring out the window, her eyes full of orange flame.

Carnival, she thought. She didn’t want to imagine what was happening out there, in the world beyond this car. Everyone she knew lived behind a wall, her mother, her friends … Lily suddenly felt that she was staying afloat atop a pile of corpses, that this guilt would stay with her, with all of them, even Tear, poisoning what it touched … poisoning the better world.