SEVENTEEN
WE WOULD REACH THE center of the city by midday, or so Malachi informed me. I couldn’t tell what time it was. As always, it was dark, just block after block of mismatched buildings and sorrowful faces.
Guards patrolled in pairs, their glowing eyes sweeping the crowds, searching for unusual behavior. Whenever we passed them, they snapped to attention and waited for Malachi to acknowledge them. They all looked the same to me, but he knew each of their names. He would nod or give a few instructions before sending them on their way. One of them leered at me and said to Malachi, “Finally taking one downtown, Captain?”
The expression on Malachi’s face made the Guard step back and jerk to attention again. I glanced at Ana for clues, but she was staring at the Guard with the same violent intensity.
When I asked why we couldn’t have brought a few Guards with us, Ana answered. “Because this isn’t an official mission. Right, Captain?”
Malachi ignored her and kept walking.
I tried to kill both time and the tension by asking all the questions that had built up in my brain over the last few days. “So how come you guys don’t have phones and stuff?”
“They have not been given to us,” Malachi replied. “Guards are outfitted by Michael and supplied with essentials by Raphael. We have not been supplied with a telephone.”
I smiled at the thought of him trying to figure out a cell.
“But you said people can grow entire buildings here—so why can’t you grow one tiny little phone?” I considered giving it a try, just to see if I could do it.
“Guards don’t grow anything,” Ana said. “It would be considered a dereliction of duty. We have certain privileges, like being able to enter occupied apartments, but we also have rules.”
“But haven’t you ever been tempted to try?”
Malachi made a strained sound in his throat. “It’s an easy decision, if the choice is between a telephone and being released into the Countryside sooner.” He stopped and turned to me. “When it’s time for you to leave this city, I’d like you to be free to go.”
“Seriously? I’m not talking about a luxury pimp palace. I’m talking about a phone. Wouldn’t it make life easier?”
Ana bumped my shoulder with hers. “If you think anything here is supposed to be easy, girl, maybe you aren’t ready to leave after all.”
“That’s enough, Ana,” Malachi said as he pivoted on his heel and resumed the hike. “And Lela, a phone would be completely possible, if a resident of this city ever decided to communicate with another person. But even if they did, who would they call?”
I couldn’t really think of a response to that as we trudged past an endless stream of people, all with glazed eyes fixed on the ground. One lady sat on a curb surrounded by piles of shoes. As I watched, a slimy pair of stilettos grew over her previously bare feet. She took them off, added them to a pile, and bent over to stare at her feet again.
I shook my head. “What about cars? Computers? TV?”
“Oh, we have TVs. They’re in all the apartments,” said Ana. “People gorge on television just like they gorge on food. I myself have been known to indulge at times. Not much else to do. I mean, the
BOOK stores in this place suck. The print’s too small, and I hate vampires.”
Malachi nodded. “As for cars…I guess they don’t seem important here. People do wander when they first get here, like your friend did, but once they settle in, they tend to stay in one place. Everything they could want is within a block or two, anyway. Some of them never leave their apartments. Besides the Guards, the only creatures who move around this city regularly are the Mazikin, but because they don’t actually belong in the city, nothing will grow for them, thank God. And, please forgive me, what is a computer?”
Ana laughed and gave Malachi a playful shove. “They’re like these enormous calculators, old man.” She gave me an amused look. “Why would anyone want one of those? Oh, I guess maybe an accountant might…and I think we have a lot of those here. But no—I think we’d notice if someone’s apartment was taken up entirely with circuit boards.”
Malachi’s smile told me he’d figured something out—and it also made my heart skip a beat or two. “Something tells me times have changed, Ana.”
“Yeah,” I replied, still staring at his mouth. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you run into that kind of thing in the near future. If you think people gorge on TV, wait until you see the Internet.”
Ana shrugged. “All right, but whatever that is, it probably wouldn’t work that well, anyway. Nothing here does.”
As we entered the downtown area, I craned my neck to see where the buildings ended. I could almost feel them breathing, decaying, and yet growing, fueled by the desires and wishes of people who didn’t know what they needed. My plan to grow my own iPod just for fun kind of evaporated at that point.
In the downtown section of the city resided those who had absolutely no desire to see beyond what they wanted. Some of them had been here for centuries, the buildings growing and evolving around them, scar tissue over festering wounds. Ana told stories of patrolling these streets, witnessing people lugging massive amounts of garbage into the high-rises. The residents here were willing to defend their precious treasures to the end. They collected junk until they were trapped in their apartments, buried in all their wishes, in all the things they’d collected to fill the emptiness that made them kill themselves in the first place. I wondered what Nadia might have been seeking when she decided to escape her life. What did Nadia think would fill her empty space?
We had been walking in silence for almost an hour, surrounded by high-rises so tall they seemed to join together at the top, closing us in. On the sidewalk, the lamps that provided us with our only light grew weaker and farther apart.
I stumbled a few times in the murk, unable to see the uneven pavement at my feet. “Jeez, can you guys see at all? Aren’t you afraid some Mazikin could sneak up on us?”
Ana laughed. “First, thanks for underestimating us like that. And second, no. Mazikin avoid downtown like the plague. It’s too much, even for them. Especially for them.”
I squinted and tried to see what lay ahead of us, but it was completely black. “They don’t seem like the types to be afraid of the dark.”
Malachi held his arm out to keep me from walking farther. “It’s not the dark, Lela. It’s this. Right in front of us. The dark tower. Put your arm out.”
I obeyed and then yanked my hand back immediately. I couldn’t really say why it felt so bad, but touching that building felt profoundly, overwhelmingly, instinctually wrong. I looked up at Malachi for an explanation, and even in the darkness I could read the regret on his face.
“We have to go through it,” he explained. “It’s not something we can go around. We’ve tried. The other Guards have no problem going through it, but for us, for humans, it’s…harder.”
I stared at him blankly. I didn’t understand what he was talking about—we couldn’t go around it? We’d been walking around buildings all day.
“But…” I pointed to the corner where the building seemed to end. Malachi nodded for me to try it. I did, walking along the edge of the building, but it somehow expanded and contorted to prevent me from going around it.
I returned to his side. “How come it does this?”
Malachi sighed. “This tower is right at the center of the city. It’s probably been here since this place was created. It stands in the middle of all of this misery, all these lost people. And if buildings can grow out of people’s wishes and desires, why can’t one grow out of their fears? It’s some sort of vortex for feelings and memories—”
“Malachi, say it plain and simple,” snapped Ana. “Walking through here will make you feel bad, Lela. Really bad. But you just keep walking, and do not stop, all right? No matter what you’re feeling, or what you remember, don’t stop walking. It’s not that far. Keep your mind on your feet.”
My eyes bounced back and forth between Ana and Malachi. I should have noticed this change stealing over the two of them during the last hour. Ana looked mad, almost grimly determined. And Malachi looked sick. He was already sweating.
I wanted to take his hand and reassure him. I felt stupid even thinking about it as I watched him square his shoulders and lift his chin, setting his eyes on the low, square entryway, the only way to get to the other side. Yeah, I wanted to reassure him, but I also wanted him to pick me up and carry me through this awful place.
He turned to me. “We could go back and circumvent all of downtown, but it would take two extra days to get to Harag. It’s why we came this way. But we could go back if you want. We don’t have to go through. I should have told you. I just didn’t—”
“I didn’t want to frighten you,” mocked Ana, mimicking his accent with devastating accuracy. Malachi snapped his mouth shut and gave her a withering look, but she didn’t back down. “Malachi, you have got to get your eye on the ball here. She is not a little girl. She is—”
“Standing right here,” I interrupted angrily, “and will see you guys on the other side.” I marched into the dark tower, wanting to get it over with before the dread could bubble up and suffocate me.
The last thing I heard as the door of the building slammed shut behind me was Malachi calling my name.