Chapter 7

Cole left Effie with Rose to go prepare for the trip. He didn’t want to get too excited yet but he had wanted to leave the city walls for a while now, and Effie was a great excuse. Cole’s father and grandfather created and maintained the gardens since they were started. His family has been in charge of keeping the citizens fed and healthy. But Cole’s mother, Faye, had been gone from the city for 15 years now. He knew she was out there somewhere. Maybe if he was lucky, he could help Effie while keeping an eye out for his mom. 

Faye had left when she got into an argument with the Council over the rights of the people. Cole was too young at the time to understand, but he knew his mother cared about the people outside the walls and had tried to bring changes to how things worked. At the time, Cole fought his father to let him go outside the barriers to help find her, so that he would bring her home. When he realized his father wasn’t going after her at all, he started to question everything.

Life is good, and I love the gardens, but there has to be more out there. Something is calling me over the barriers. Why would the council not try to find my mom? Just because she wanted to help people? Is she still alive? I have to find out somehow. Cole wondered many times over the years. Waiting for fate to tell him when to take that leap. Maybe Effie was the moment he needed. The best place to pack for the outside world is Melanee, she will have the best gear. 

“Melanee? You in here?” Cole asked as he parted the beaded curtain that led to Melanee’s quarters. 

“Yes I am, what’s up!” Melanee called down from her workspace loft above the living area. As she climbed down the ladder she grabbed a bundle of something in a bag. Handing him the bag Melanee sat down across from him at the table. Her residence was more eclectic with functional clutter on the walls, art and unfinished art along the baseboards (unhung), and woven macrame curtains from the window, silk curtains across the ceiling like banners. 

“Melanee, I am going out, I need to pack. But it needs to stay between us. You can’t tell anyone I am leaving.” an unusual statement for Melanee to hear from Cole, but exciting nonetheless. Cole opened the bag to find some scones, he placed one on each of the plates in front of them.

“Out?!? Where?! I am going with you!” Melanee said back before Cole could elaborate. 

“I came here because you’ll know what to bring, you are the only person I know who travels through the barrier with ease and never gets caught.” Cole said, grabbing her scone off her plate and taking a big bite, grinning at his statement. 

“I am going too! Simple as that, you wouldn't make it 20 yards without me.” Melanee said as she grabbed her scone back and finished it in one bigger bite. Smiling as she did too. They grinned at each other a moment before laughing. 

“Okay, fine, you come too. I dont know why I thought I could go anywhere with out you. If it gets sketchy I can always run faster than you. So that should get me through a lot.” Chuckled Cole. “But first, you have to meet someone. She is the reason were venturing out into the unknown.”

“A GIRL?!” Melanee jumped up, “When did you meet a girl? I just saw you yesterday! Who is she?”

“She isn’t a girl I met …from here, she’s from a place, outside the barrier. And she needs our help getting home, unnoticed.” Cole put emphasis on UNNOTICED so Melanee wouldn’t just run around being obvious as the next week they needed to get Effie fed, and healthy to make the journey. 

Melanee’s gray eyes grew wide and her smile even bigger. “AN OUTSIDER?! Wow! Where is she from? How did she get here? Why is she here?? What is she like?!” Melanee burst out with questions. You could never tell she was the daughter of one of the richest families in Abundance, she lived in a modest size home, with just what she needed and often only ate what she found growing. Cole wondered what her family thought of her lifestyle. But Melanee had long fought for her freedom to explore and learn as she wished. She did things her own way.

“Well I think we can discuss it on our way to meet her, but don’t freak her out, she’s been through a lot.” Cole said as he rose from the table. 

~~Meanwhile, back in Newcastle~~

Jerrico couldn’t let Effie just be lost to the river, never knowing if she made it or is out there suffering. He gathered the supplies they had left, told Paulo to follow the river till nightfall, then set up camp, the others would join them that night. They knew they should travel at night, as Jerrico and Paulo are both prime ages and healthy enough to be drafted. Technically if a mean troop leader caught them all of them would likely be drafted. 

Jerrico, Sandfly, and the boys waited till dark, and followed the river from where Effie was seen going in. Luckily it didn’t fork, but it wasn’t an easy river side to trek. 

Years prior a fire, probably started by the battle going on in Newcastle, burned a big chunk of the forest nearby. When a big storm that flooded the area came the next winter, the burnt trees fell, many swept down river destroying towns along the banks, and pulling in destroyed homes. The burnt logs seem to wedge themselves in the muddy waters, making for black wooden polylithic structures blocking the way. Like jagged crystals form in caves, the blackened trees formed peaks. The debris from destroyed towns scattered the banks, partially sticking out the mud. 

They made their way slowly for a couple hours, finally they found Paulo, not far in distance, but far enough they could camp out and wait for light unseen from the town. Traveling in the dark was hard enough over familiar territory. Who knows what was underfoot as they walked. Jagged limbs and trunks threatened to skewer them with every step. 

As the others joined Paulo around the fire, Jerrico looked up at the stars, thinking of Effie, and if she was out there safe.