Greer raised his voice again. “Hush, nerds!”
The girl got up and moved closer, stretching out on the grass in front of me. She was right on the line of too close, but I didn’t move. I watched as she picked dandelions and gathered them into a bunch.
“I was wondering,” she said. “Why did we stay? I mean, if my family and I weren’t infected, why wouldn’t we have just left?”
“Most everybody thought a cure was right around the corner,” I said. “And when it wasn’t, I don’t know, I guess some had relatives who were infected and they didn’t want to leave them. Others wanted to keep their eye on their houses or businesses or whatever. Maybe some people just didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Which one of those were you?”
Her eyes moved up and over the contours of my mask.
“I mean, you’re not infected, right?”
I nodded.
“So why’d you stay?”
My face felt like it was burning. I scrambled for an answer, but then, just over her shoulder, I saw Greer slam a book shut and toss it aside.
“What’s up, Greer?”
The girl turned around. “What’s wrong?”
He was running his palm back and forth over the stubble on his head. “Nothing. It’s just . . . you definitely weren’t at Edwards, so I was thinking Perkins, but . . . sorry. It’s tricky, since you probably looked a lot different then.”
She returned to Greer’s side. It was a little disappointing to have her suddenly gone. I watched from my spot as he went through one of the books a second time. When he came to the final page, he went back through St. Edwards and then all the others, one by one. After that he reached into the cardboard box and pulled out a sheaf of papers.
“What are those?” the girl asked.
“Missing posters.”
She waited for more, but Greer was so absorbed in his work, I jumped in.
“Some people who got caught up in the outbreak didn’t actually live here. The Guard took pictures and put them online so their families could identify them.”
“But you said I just got infected—what? Yesterday?”
“That’s what we thought, but . . .” Greer looked up from his pile of books. “What’s the very first thing you remember?”
“Those two men,” she said. “The ones who were chasing me.”
“And you don’t remember anything before that,” I said. “Nothing at all.”
“No. Why would I?”
I left my place by the trees and came into the meadow. “Once you’re exposed to the virus it takes about ten hours to do its thing. The last couple hours of that, you’re kind of going in and out. You know who you are one second, don’t know the next.”
“Sometimes people will remember bits and pieces from that time,” Greer said. “Maybe one of them will mean something.”
The girl bore down hard. It was as if there was a mountain in her path and she was scaling it one handhold at a time. “I remember standing beside a fence. It was low and black. And then . . . bells. I remember hearing bells.”
“St. Stephen’s,” I said. “This was before the men found you?”
“I think so. I was hot. I smelled flowers. And then I turned around and they were there. Those two men.”
“What did you do?”
“I ran. Oh! I think I dropped something.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “There were bells and then . . .” Her eyes went unfocused on the ground, and then she looked up suddenly. “It was a bag. Like a backpack. That’s what I dropped when I ran. A backpack. It was green. I can see it in my hand and then hitting the ground next to—”
She shook her head.
“Next to what?” I asked.
“It doesn’t make any sense.”
“What doesn’t?”
“I see a green bag on the ground next to a pink crocodile,” she said. “I must have just been confused.”
Greer and I locked eyes. “The sculpture garden,” I said. “By City Hall.”
“Guys, what is it? What’s happening?”
Neither of us said anything for a second.
“Guys!”
“You’re not in any of the yearbooks,” Greer said. “Not one of them. And you aren’t on any of the missing posters either.”
“So? What does that mean?”
Greer turned to me. There was nothing left to do but tell her.
“It means we have no idea who you are.”
11
“WHOA!” GREER SHOUTED. “Hold on! Would you wait a second?”
“I’m not going to just sit there!”
The green-haired girl had left the meadow and was racing toward camp. Greer and I were struggling to keep up.
“You guys know where I dropped that bag, right?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“So we’ll find it,” she said. “It’ll be a clue.”
I ran out ahead and blocked the way. “We’re supposed to be keeping you under wraps, okay? And besides, those guys from yesterday are still down there.”
“I don’t care! I—”