The Book of Miranda | gxg | ❖

(42) A Way In The Wilderness

We return to the hollow together after dark. Someone's lit a fire, but only half the students are gathered around it. We've lost another dozen, slipped away into the hills while we visited the grave site of the lives we once lived. The rest conspire in clusters or sit alone on the empty hills, hugging their knees and staring into nothingness. A few have gone to sleep already. Exie orders others to wake them while I approach the guards around the teachers.

"Untie them," I say.

The guard from before gives me an exceptionally skeptical look. "Beg pardon—or don't—but I wouldn't trust a single one of these if I had a gun in hand and three days to run."

"You don't have to." I look the nearest teacher dead in the eye. "If they cooperate, you'll never have to see them again."

The girl snorts, but the fight I've braced for doesn't come. In another minute, the teachers have been untied and herded closer to the fire. Exie has found a rock to stand on. She's still shorter than most of the other students, but the tall ones have enough respect to sit for her. Everyone falls silent as she steps up on her podium.

"We have a proposition to make," she says, voice ringing clear around the hollow. "We know most of you are probably questioning where to go from here. This is your chance to make a decision: to go back to your old life, or to start a new one altogether. If you wish to return to society as you knew it, your train leaves tonight. Any former staff here who choose to cooperate"—she levels a long and pointed look at the teachers—"will be heading to a nearby town to report the fire and subsequent collapse of the school. As far as formal documentation is concerned, whoever goes with them will be that fire's only survivors."

Heads perk up all over the hollow. I watch the teachers closely, but they don't seem about to object. After the threats they've gotten, I suspect they're just glad to be getting out of this alive.

Exie continues, "The rest of you are free to leave as you please. You can find your way back to friends or family on your own, or disappear however you want to. Everyone else here, on a show of hands, will support your disappearance."

Hands go up all over the hollow. I don't see a single dissenter—or at least one stupid enough to expose themself. A binding agreement isn't the point of this exercise anyway. Exie's just letting the group see who their enemies might be if they choose to rat out their fellow students. There's profit in betrayal. I'm sure at least a few rich families will have rewards for finding their children the moment news of the school's destruction spreads.

When the consensus is finalized, another hand goes up. It's a remarkably polite gesture for this crowd, but such social norms have arisen spontaneously since Exie took over. I suspect everyone knows we're in the same boat here, so they've nothing to gain by antagonizing fellow troublemakers.

"Juliet?" says Exie.

"Is there a different option?" says Juliet, lowering her hand again.

"Like what?"

"Well... besides going in a group with them, or taking off alone. Is there any group leaving together? For anywhere, I guess."

"Some of us will be leaving together, yes," says Exie, and I see nods from other friendship clusters. "Do you mean a bigger group?"

"I'd stay with a bigger group," says Clarice.

"Same," says another student.

Barnabas nods. Gilbert beside him looks to be considering it. The hollow breaks out in murmuring as people warm to the possibility.

"Show of hands," says Exie, cutting through the stir. "Who would come along if you knew a group was sticking together?"

At least two dozen hands go up.