The Dark and Hollow Places - Carrie Ryan [82]
Wind swirls around us, flinging snow in my eyes and chapping my fingers that are already numb from gripping the rope ladder so tightly. Long-dead fingernails scrape along the bottom of my leg, trying to pull me down, and I lash out, kicking them away, but they stumble back to continue groping for me.
Elias pants, his arm pressed into his side and his face pale with pain. “Don’t do this, Ox,” he pleads.
My breath catches in my throat at the agony in Elias’s expression. I glance down at the Unconsecrated huddled beneath me. There are only a handful, more slowly making their way down the shore toward us.
If I jump I might be able to get clear of them, but it would be a stupid and risky move. If I twist my ankle or break my leg I’ll be useless, unable to get away fast enough. I press my head against my arms, trying to figure out what to do next.
There’s a commotion on the platform above me, and as I look up I see my sister elbowing a Recruiter in the gut and pulling the crossbow from him. Before anyone can react she grabs a sling of bolts and skids to her knees just above me.
Closing one eye, she aims at the nearest Unconsecrated clawing at my feet. “I’m not the best shot, so you might want to keep still,” she says, and I cringe as she exhales. There’s a sharp twang of string and the thunk of an arrowhead penetrating the plague rat’s skull, his body crumpling limply to the ground.
She’s aiming for the next one when Ox roars up behind her. “You want to join your sister? Fine!” he shouts, jamming his foot into her back just as she pulls the trigger. The bolt goes wide, burying itself in the shallow frozen water along the shore.
My sister teeters on the edge of the platform and I grab her just as she falls, pulling her against me with one arm, gripping the ladder tight with the other. Her feet kick at the empty air, the Unconsecrated below us an utter frenzy.
“No!” Elias screams, jolting toward us. Conall grabs one of his arms and another Recruiter the other. With a jerk of his foot Conall kicks at the back of Elias’s knees, forcing him down onto the platform. His face falls a few inches from mine.
His eyes strain with terror and panic. “It’ll be okay,” I tell him, trying to sound more sure of myself than I am. “We’ll take care of each other. I know how to survive.”
Next to me my sister’s wrapped an arm through the ladder and points the crossbow at the head of the nearest plague rat. Without any emotion or hesitation she pulls the trigger and it collapses, eyes falling slowly shut.
“Get him out of here,” Ox grunts.
It takes four men to drag a screaming and fighting Elias away. Through it all Ox stands above us, blocking the cable-car platform. My sister doesn’t bother looking at him. Instead she shoots another plague rat, clearing a path for us below.
I wait for Ox to pronounce some sort of sentence but instead he just stares at me, his hands buried in the pockets of his thick coat as if trying to figure out what it will take to break me. I smile at him, cold and mean, thinking, Nothing. I will never break for you.
Ox narrows his eyes and nods his head before turning to the few Recruiters left standing guard by the cable car. “You can let them up at sunset,” he says. “Not before.”
I have no idea what any of this means, but it can’t be good, because one of the Recruiter’s eyes go wide and he glances at me, looking concerned. “There’s a snowstorm coming in over the horizon. Should be here by the afternoon. We weren’t even going to put the other Sweepers out tonight.”
Ox shrugs. “Maybe it will get cold enough to slow the rotters down.” And with that he walks off, leaving my sister and me clinging to the ladder.
The Recruiter, a slightly older man with gray at his temples, looks at us with a deep furrow between his eyebrows. He stares at my bare hands—I didn’t have time to find any gloves. He checks over his shoulder, and when he’s sure no one’s paying attention he unwinds his thick scarf and drops it to us, saying “Good