Behind the Gates Read Free Page B

eyebrows skeptically. “Do you really think you need to do that?”
    “How can you be so trusting?” Evelyn asks.
    “It’s just … school! What makes you so suspicious?”
    “Maybe I’ll feel better when I get my cell phone back,” Evelyn allows.
    I think maybe she’s just nervous. New school, new place — we’re all just trying to get a grip on this.
    But, still … I’ll feel better when I have my cell phone again, too.
    When I return to my seat, Maddie’s eyes are still wide-open. “What did you find out?” she asks.
    “Oh, it’s nothing,” I say. I tell her about Evelyn’s crazy ideas.
    “What if she’s right?” Maddie asks quietly. “Or maybe they’re just getting us out of the way because … I don’t know, because something really bad is about to happen?”
    I pat her hand and say, “Things are already pretty terrible, aren’t they? They just want to keep us safe.”

Chapter 3
    I shift in my seat, trying to stretch out my back a little bit. We’ve been traveling for what feels like forever, and I’m starting to get bored.
    Maddie writes on her notepad. I see her trying to check her ClickNet page, but she can’t get online. A box of snacks gets passed back — dried fruit and soy bars. We were told to bring our own canteens of water for the ride. Even fancy boarding schools don’t throw money away on bottled drinks.
    Outside the bus window I see nothing but trees. I’ve never seen so many trees. “Where are we?” I ask Maddie.
    Glancing up, she blinks at me, as though my voicehas just called her back from some faraway place. “I don’t know,” she says. “I haven’t really been looking.”
    Peering over the top of my seat, I check to see if Evelyn is still keeping track. Her eyes are fixed on the passing scenery, though she’s not writing anything down.
    I don’t seriously think there’s any danger. I do like the idea of knowing where I am, however.
    Evelyn looks up and sees me, then gets out of her seat and comes over. She leans in to us and whispers, “From what I can tell, we’ve been going northwest this whole time, so we’re probably in Minnesota somewhere.”
    “Oh, okay,” I say.
    “I don’t think taking us closer to Canada makes any sense,” adds Evelyn.
    I raise my eyebrows, silently asking the question,
Why?
    “You know, because the Alliance has most of Canada now,” Evelyn explains, as though it should be obvious, as if everyone is keeping close track of the War.
    “Oh, right,” says Maddie, and her face darkens with worry.
    Evelyn returns to her seat and I follow her across the aisle. I lean over to her and whisper, “Could you please stop freaking out my” — I almost say
my friend —
“sister? She’s worried enough as it is.”
    Evelyn shrugs. “I think we should keep our eyes open,” she says. “Even if we don’t like what we see.”
    This is totally the opposite of the way I see things. Things are usually fine, and smarter people than me are working hard to make sure that everything turns out okay. Like my parents. Like Maddie’s parents.
    Back in my seat, I watch the passing trees for a while longer until my eyes feel heavy and I let them slowly slide shut.
    The squeal of the bus’s air brakes shakes me from a dreamless sleep. We’ve stopped in front of a huge, old-fashioned building. It is — just as its name says — a country manor, a massive stone building with ivy creeping down its sides.
    “Wow,” I say to Maddie as I rub sleep from my eyes.
    “Seriously wow,” Maddie agrees, staring at the building wide-eyed. “This place looks like the old summer house of a queen or something.”
    “I know.” All my worries about CMS disappear. How cool is this, to be living in a palace?
    Slowly we all rise from our seats, gathering the few things we brought on board. Maddie gets up and stretches. “Here we go.”
    A shiver of excitement shoots through me.
    “Yeah, here we go,” I say as we move into the aisle and let the flow of