Alicia lived in a small apartment building made of cement blocks. Rundown, like all the buildings in Nuevo Leben, hers looked worse than the others. Traces of ancient graffiti stained the walls, peeking out from the many colors of peeling paint, and some of the windows didn't have glass. All the multi-family buildings had to pull together their own maintenance teams to care for their homes, but resources were scarce, and Alicia's home team was rarely granted priority when imports arrived. Everyone knew it was because her building housed orphans and transplants from outside the walls, but no one ever spoke such things out loud.
She constantly complained about the cracks in her walls. One in her bedroom was so large she could see through to the next unit and kept a sock stuffed in it for privacy. The old man next door gave her the creeps. I always hoped she and Tommy would do more to fix the place, but never asked about it. I didn't want her to feel embarrassed about where she lived. It's not like any of us had a choice.
We sat in a circle on Alicia's floor. A musty smell filled her room, even with the window open. I leaned against her bed, just a mattress with a pink and gold sheet. It balanced on top of ancient plastic storage bins she'd painted with brightly colored swirls and stripes. Blue and purple scarves hung in front of her small window, casting a cool light over the room in the morning sun.
"So, what's up?" Jensen asked. He put his hands behind his head and stretched out on the floor.
"Barrett and I are going on a rescue mission," Alicia said.
Jensen threw his head back in laughter. "Okay. What are you rescuing? The rest of our class from physics? Old clothes from the trash pile to repurpose? Your luxurious locks from the saltwater?" He reached over and pulled my hair.
My god, were we that one-dimensional? I punched Jen in the arm. "Shut up! She's serious.”
"Ow, what was that for?" Jen said, rubbing his arm.
Tommy poked his head in the door, glanced at Jensen and furrowed his brow. "Hey Alicia, come here for a sec."
After Alicia left, I told Jensen about the Network and the rescue mission to find the missing Nobles. The news must have floored him because he jumped to his feet and paced Alicia's small bedroom with his hands on his head.
"I don't understand how you and Alicia got mixed up in this?" he said, planting his feet in front of me.
"Tommy is part of it. He gave Alicia her recruitment news, and she told me, before I was recruited," I said.
"And who recruited you?" Jen looked mad, as if he already knew the answer to that question. I didn't want to tell him the truth, but I couldn't lie. Not to Jensen.
"Ronan Altkind was supposed to do it, but ran out of time. The mission leader, Pensey, and others from the Network found me last night and—"
"What's going on with him, Barrett?" Jensen interrupted.
"I assume by him, you mean Ronan. I've only talked to him once," I said.
"It looked like you were doing more than talking from where I stood."
"When? On the pier?" I tried to look indifferent, but the second I thought about Ronan's face so close to mine, my eyes shifted, and my cheeks flushed.
"That guy's a freak! You don't like him, do you?" He stressed the word like.
"No, I don't like him that way. We're just friends. No, not even friends. Acquaintances." I didn’t know how to label Ronan. So far, our interactions included me being embarrassed and curiously intense staring.
"Well, that's a relief," Jensen said. "Still, you stay away from him—don't even be his acquaintance."
"Why not?" I stood, slamming my hands on my hips. How dare Jensen tell me who I should be friends with, especially now that Tia was in the picture. She was a complete stranger who wasted no time swooping in to steal Jensen's attention.
"If you'd heard what I've heard about him, you wouldn't give him the time of day. And he shouldn't be trying to involve you in dangerous things like leaving Nuevo Leben to go on some stupid rescue mission. You're going to be a Noble. Does he even know that? You're needed here."
Jen had never spoken about my being a Noble in such a serious way before. Up until now, he'd acted like it was a big joke. Something to tease me about when I didn't get my way. I had no idea he worried so much about my future.
"All future Nobles take a mission, Jen."
"Yeah, maybe to the mountain lakes or the border of Brazil, but nothing dangerous like this." Jen brushed by me and pushed Alicia’s window scarves aside, peering out like he was gauging the distance between our village and Old North America.
"I wasn't planning to go, but I thought you would want to know because of your brother."
"Nick? Why?"
"Because he's a Noble. He might be in danger."
"Because he's missing, too," Alicia said from the doorway, eyes wide and shoulders tense. Tommy came in and leaned against the wall. "I'm sorry, man," he said to Jensen.
"Nick is on lockdown at the hospital," I said. "How can he be missing?"
"The security cameras showed him walk into the hospital's main floor bathroom, but he never came back out," Tommy said.
"Someone took him from the hospital?" I asked, chewing on my thumbnail. Our security hadn’t been breached like this since the incident with my parents. Our lives were about to change, and not in a good way.
Jensen slumped down on Alicia's bed, and Tommy sat beside him, saying something I couldn't hear.
"When do we leave?" Jensen asked through gritted teeth. Daring any of us to tell him he couldn't go.
"In a couple of days," I said, pulling out the supply list and handing it to him, "Get these things together and be ready."
"You're not going," Jensen said, grabbing the list out of my hand.
"You can't stop me," I said for no reason but to piss him off. Of course, I wasn't going.
"Don't be crazy, Barrett," Jen said, "You can't leave Anna."
"Do you guys need a minute?" Alicia asked.
"No!" I said, grabbed my bag and walked out the door. "We're done here." I stormed out and got as far as Alicia's front door before my heart sank for Jensen. I almost walked back in, but I was too upset about Jen bossing me around. I’d make up with him later. Jen and I never stayed mad at each other for long, not since we were little.
At home, I packed some of the list items into an old, brown burlap backpack with dark yellow patches. My grandmother made it for me during my first year of school. It was hideous, so I never used it, but it had more heft and durability than anything else we owned. Packing for the mission was a wasted effort since I didn't plan to go anywhere. Jensen was right. I couldn't leave Anna. Still, my hands fumbled around the apartment, gathering supplies.
I wasn't surprised when Jensen skipped school the next day, but Tia wasn't working the grill, and that made me anxious. I kept telling myself that maybe they weren't together, but I knew better. She was probably running her bony fingers through his long, gorgeous hair, comforting him. Ugh! Sitting through my classes was onerous torture, and by the end of the day, I had driven myself half mad.
I wandered to the pier while waiting for Anna to finish class, sat cross-legged, and stared out at the ocean. The sun was brutal. Sweat formed in the creases behind my knees, and my hair stuck to my neck. I wiped a pool of it from my forehead and watched a group of Bajito porpoises jumping offshore. They emerged several years after the Big Adjustment. They were no larger than cats, and the only known breed of porpoise left. I'd seen pictures and videos of large sea mammals, but most died out during the cold years after the volcanoes. Part of me always hoped that one day, I'd look out at the ocean and see a giant whale jumping.
I reached into my bag and found a rubber band to pull my hair off my neck. My namesake’s first journal was in there, too. I opened it on my lap. Reading was sure to distract me from Jensen, Ronan, missing Nobles, and whether to leave Nuevo Leben.
June 21, 2028
The decision not to go into the mountain bunker with my parents was the most difficult I've ever made. And at the same time, the easiest. The thought of spending the rest of my life underground, never seeing the stars, clouds, or sunshine again, or feeling rain, wind, or snow on my skin was too much to bear. But I'll probably die soon. Dad told me at least three nuclear power plants were melting down due to the volcano's initial blast. Yellowstone's supervolcano had been active for a few years, but no one expected it to trigger the global seismic chain reaction it did! I had a difficult enough time thinking of so many suffocating on ash, but who knows how far the radiation will go. Dad thinks it's a matter of time before international conflict breaks out. North America won't recover from this. At least not the America we know.
I seriously doubt Paul and I can outrun the chaos, and the radiation will catch us eventually. We don't even know what direction to go except south. The farther, the better. I have a constant lump in my throat, and nothing feels real. I can barely remember saying goodbye to Mom and Dad, and that happened only yesterday. It's too painful to think about. Paul and I have hardly said anything to each other since we started traveling. We know we're going the right way because the navigation systems on our phones still work, but who knows how long that will last. We are already running into interruptions on the Internet. Paul has downloaded survival books and reads them every time we rest. I'll read them, too, I guess. Eventually.
We've been too afraid to walk on the roads because looters are out in full force, and we don't have a weapon. I think we'll need to steal a gun so we can at least have a fighting chance. The thought of using a firearm is so surreal.
Paul built a fire with matches he took from the boat to Panama and roasted two gross-looking lizards on a stick. They smell good, though. That's how hungry I am, and it's only been twenty-three hours since I've eaten. I'm going to have to toughen up if I want to live. But that's the question. Do I want to live? I wonder how my parents are. What have I done? I don't know if I can survive this.
She did survive it. And she was no more equipped than I was to go on the Network mission. The heat made it impossible to sit and read anymore. I packed the journal back in my bag and left the pier. Anna was waiting outside her class, Ballroom C of the old resort.
"Anna, you are going to get to and from school on your own tomorrow," I said. "You're nine years old, and it is time you were a little more independent."
"Are you mad at me?" she asked.
"No, of course not. I just want you to be strong and capable. In fact, why don't you cook dinner tonight? I'll supervise."
"Ooh, that sounds like fun. I'm going to make spaghetti squash with cilantro and tomatoes."
"That's perfect. I'll show you how to make bread, too."
Grandma was still fine in the kitchen, but forgetful, and sometimes left things to burn. It was safer for all of us when I did the cooking, but now Anna needed to prepare to be the head of the household in case I left with Jensen, Alicia, and the Network.
Dinner was a disaster. Anna tried, but everything came out either undercooked or burnt. Half of the tomatoes were inedible, and the bread was a brick. With our limited food supplies, we couldn't afford to let anything go to waste, so we all went to bed a little hungry. I realized I'd been too protective of her. And also, I shouldn't leave.
At 2:00 a.m., the sound of a door closing startled me awake. I got up to check it out and found my grandmother sitting on the balcony. She looked too thin sitting there in her robe. She stared at the ocean again, and I worried her mind was becoming fragile. "Hey, Grandma," I said. "Can't sleep?"
"Oh, Barrett, honey, I didn't mean to wake you. I'm usually quieter when I come out here."
"Do you do this often in the middle of the night?"
"Now and then. I like to watch the ocean at night. Especially when the moon is full, like tonight."
The white foam of the breaking waves glowed in the moonlight. I wrapped my arms around Grandma's waist.
"It's beautiful."
"Do you want to tell me what tonight was all about?" Grandma asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Anna in the kitchen," she said.
"I just thought it was time she learned. What if she needs to take care of herself one day? I mean, you and I could get struck by lightning or something."
Grandma gave me her 'nice try' look. "What's going on? Are those journals getting to you? I was sure you were old enough to handle them."
"No, it's not that. Don't get me wrong, they are intense, but …" I hesitated.
"But what?" she asked.
"Did you hear about Nick?"
"Jensen's brother Nick?"
"Yes. He went missing last night," I said.
"Oh dear, that's awful. Well, no wonder you are acting strange. What can I do to help?" Grandma pushed the sleeves of her robe to her elbows.
"Well, it's more about what I can do to help," I said. "There's a group of people who are going to look for him. I could go."
"But you are a future Noble. You can't go on some wild goose chase." Grandma sounded upset that I would even suggest leaving.
"I know. I don't want to go. But with Jensen leaving, I'm torn about it."
"Barrett, he's a good friend, but he's nothing more. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"That he doesn't love me?"
"That's right. Be there for Jensen, of course, but don't risk your future for a man with whom you have none."
"We may have a future together," I said weakly.
Grandma looked at me with sympathetic eyes. "Maybe you do, Little Peapod, but maybe you have different journeys to take first. Let Jensen take his, and you focus on what's important to you and our community."
She was right, but my stomach tightened hearing her say those things. Grandma leaned her head on my shoulder and looked back at the ocean. "Sleep on it, at least."
She knew so much more than I'd told her and would support me in whatever I chose to do—even if she disagreed with it.
The next day, I stayed late at school to tutor math since I wasn't allowed back at the water lab for my scheduled shifts. A few minutes after my last tutee left, the door opened, and Ronan walked in.
He caught me off guard, and I jumped, dropping pencils everywhere. Ronan Altkind was the last person I expected to see in the school, especially after hours.
"Barrett, I have to talk to you."
"Now? I'm busy," I said, gathering my pencils and packing my things.
"Now. It's important."
"Okay, let me just finish up. I'll meet you outside. How did you find me in here anyway?"
"You’re easy to find."
"I met your friends, by the way, when you stood me up at the pier."
"Please, Barrett." He walked out in a hurry, and panic thumped at my chest. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and ran out.
Ronan stood next to the building with his hands in his pockets, his shoulders tense.
"Okay, I'm here. What's going on?" I asked. "Is the Network mission starting?"
"Soon. Did Pensey tell you everything?" Ronan asked.
"I think so. They told me you were in charge of my recruitment."
Ronan sighed and looked at me curiously.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I was supposed to recruit you, but something came up, and I had to leave town before I found the right time. But that's not why I'm here now."