I look back over my shoulder to see the Recruiters running along the top of the wall toward us, crossbows drawn. They shoot at the Mudo, trying to clear a path to us but also keeping us safe, and it occurs to me suddenly that we’re useless to them dead.
The bus is crushed against the far wall of the bridge, shoved against the fence. I slide my knife back into the scabbard on my hip and rub my hands along my shirt, trying to dry off the blood and sweat. I’m just reaching for the ledge when Catcher puts a hand on my shoulder.
“Are you sure?” he asks. He can’t keep the worry from his eyes and I know he thinks this won’t work.
“Yes,” I tell him because I have to believe we can make it. I have to believe there’s a chance. Behind us one of the Recruiters is running across the road toward us, determination fierce in his eyes. As I step out onto the ledge and thread my fingers through the fence Catcher tugs two of the children from the bus and tosses them toward the Recruiter.
The man drops to one knee and lines up his crossbow. Just as he’s taking a shot more Mudo crest over the bus like water breaking a dam and they flood toward him. The Recruiters shout and let loose with their bolts. But I stay focused on the ledge and take a deep breath, telling myself to be strong. To believe in myself.
Facing me, Catcher steps into the mass of Mudo on the bridge, his body pressed against the fence. The ledge I’m standing on is barely wide enough for me to find purchase with my toes and I grip the metal links, feeling the heat of Catcher’s chest on my fingers.
“Don’t look down,” he tells me, but it’s too late. The mountain drops away beneath me, the valley below still swathed in morning mist, the sound of water thundering and echoing around us.
Mudo lunge for me, pounding the fence, trying to pry Catcher’s protection away from me. It would take only an instant, one moment of him tripping or falling back and they’d get to me, their teeth sharp against my fingertips. I swallow and feel my legs begin to shake.
“Keep your eyes on me, Gabry,” Catcher says, and I nod and raise my head, staring at him. “Are you ready?” he asks.
I nod again. And then slowly we begin to inch along the side of the bridge, Catcher staying in front of me, the Mudo pushing and pulling and moaning around him. I take a step, shift my hands on the fence and Catcher mimics my position, always keeping the dead teeth from my flesh.
I focus on each tiny movement. Each placement of my toes. Each curl of my fingers around the rusty metal. I feel the fence undulate under my touch, the Mudo rattling it.
And I concentrate on Catcher’s eyes. The way he presses his hands over mine to keep them safe. The knowledge that he’ll do anything to protect me.
Behind us the Recruiters scream and shout as they try to fight the Mudo, unwilling to give up and battling their way down the road.
“Did you know there are all these old towns and cities in the Forest?” Catcher asks me.
Sweat weaves down my neck and along my shoulders. Blood still trickles from the gash on my arm, dripping from my elbow into the void below. As we get farther out over the valley the wind streams around us, pushing my hair into my face. “What?” I ask him, the metal of the fence biting into my fingers. My toes are beginning to cramp from gripping the tiny strip of concrete.
We keep stepping, keep moving. And he keeps trying to distract me from everything but him. Not worrying about the fact that a few inches of concrete and an old flimsy metal fence are all that’s preventing me from falling hundreds of feet.
“Out in the Forest,” he says. “I came across one when I was doubling back one night to see if the Recruiters were following us. Not one of the fenced-in villages but a whole city that just died.”
I swallow and nod. I glance down and my foot slips, a hunk of the bridge dislodging and spiraling down. Catcher thrusts his fingers through the fence, trying to grab my wrists. I lock my hands on his, my entire body shaking.
“Don’t look down, Gabry,” Catcher murmurs to me. “We’re almost there.” But that’s a lie. We’re barely halfway across. The Mudo swarm around him, jostling him, but he keeps his grip firm. Everywhere around him is death. Every space is filled with their moans.
We keep stepping to the side, my feet sliding along the narrow strip of concrete, Catcher shifting along the fence, me trying not to think about the emptiness below.
“The thing about these cities,” Catcher continues, his eyes locked on mine, “is that it’s like nothing’s changed. No one’s scavenged them because they’re overrun with Mudo. But because there aren’t any living people around, all the Mudo are downed. Just … lying there. Silent.”
I remember Elias telling me about the afternoon he spent in the old airplane monument. About the silence of falling snow. And I keep sliding along the bridge, Catcher’s hands over mine every time I shift my grip.
Just over halfway across a pile of cars are wedged against the fence, keeping it clear of Mudo. Catcher begins to scramble over them and then stops.
“What’s going on?” I ask. The wind’s stronger here, whipping moans around my body. Catcher’s sweating, rivulets rolling down his temples and along his jaw.
Mudo begin to pile against the wreck, trying to reach me but held back by the mangled metal. Catcher stares at the road on the other side.
“What is it?” I ask.
He licks his lips, his voice trembling when he answers. “There’s a gap in the bridge,” he says.
I look along the length of the fence but don’t see a break anywhere. “What are you talking about?”
“The road’s broken away,” he says. “The Mudo are slipping through. Falling.”
I glance down and see bodies raining from the bridge, reaching for me even as they fall. “Then we just have to make it past and they can’t follow us,” I say. “Then we won’t have to worry about them getting to me.”
He says nothing and I wish I could reach my fingers through the fence and grab him. He won’t look at me.
“Catcher?”
“There’s a whole section of the bridge fallen away, Gabry. I can’t get across.”
When he looks back at me his face is ashen. I slide along the fence until I’m past the cars. Then I see what he’s talking about. There’s nothing, just a gap, the concrete crumbling, rusty metal rods twisting around themselves. Beyond the gap is where the bridge lists to the side. The only thing spanning the distance is the narrow ledge where I’m standing. If it were to crumble, the entire section would collapse into the valley.
“There’s a ledge on your side too,” I tell him. More Mudo drop through the gap, their moans dimming as they fall away. “You can make it across—just hold on to the fence like I am.”
He looks at me and shakes his head. “I can’t.”
“Listen to me, Catcher.” He’s still shaking his head, staring at the gap and the drop below. “Look at me.” He turns to me, his face even whiter, his eyes wide.
“I can’t do this, Gabrielle. I can’t,” he whispers.
I feel a ripple along the fence and look back to see a Recruiter trying to follow us. Except instead of gripping the fence with his fingers the way I am, he’s using two metal hooks crudely fashioned from the scraps left from the cars.
My toes are cramping, my calves screaming. “You don’t have a choice,” I tell Catcher. “Neither of us does. We can’t stay here. We can’t go back.” I hesitate before adding in a softer voice, “Come on, Catcher.”
His hands tremble as he starts to slide off the car toward the fence. The muscles along his jaw tighten.
“You can do this,” I murmur to him as he reaches for me. He threads his fingers through the metal links and I place my hands over his. He looks me in the eye and I can see that he’s having trouble focusing.
“It’s me, Catcher,” I tell him. “Just look at me.”
He nods and I feel the way his breath quakes as it brushes against my cheeks. He steps onto the ledge and then we’re standing facing each other, our hands grasped through the fence.
Slowly I slide a foot to the side and he does the same. But when I start to reach for a new handhold his eyes go wide and his gaze drops. He starts to choke, panic bolting through him.
“Just one more step, Catcher. We can do this together,” I tell him, trying to keep my voice calm. But he’s already shaking his head, already trembling so badly that he’s having trouble keeping his toes on the narrow ledge. One of his feet slips and his mouth opens but no sound comes out. He’s dangling, the other foot losing purchase.
I struggle not to scream, seeing him hanging like that, his fingers desperately clinging to the fence.
My legs are already cramping, but I squat until my face is right in front of his. “Catcher,” I whisper. “Look at me, Catcher.”
I feel heartbeats shudder through me. I feel his pulse under my fingers. He cracks one eye open but his gaze dances around.
“Catcher,” I whisper again and he finally looks at me. “I can’t do this without you,” I tell him. Tears blur my vision, softening the edges of his face. “I need you. I know you’re terrified. I’m terrified. But you have to do this. You have to hold on.”
“Why?” he asks, and I can tell he’s not just asking why I need him but why we’re here. Why all of this has happened to us. Why we’re bothering to keep pushing.
I think about my sister and how I have to find her. I think about Elias and how I have to do what it takes to see him again. I think about how I promised him that we can build something together. I think about my mother and what she told me life is all about: We either choose to live it or we don’t.
“Close your eyes,” I tell Catcher. He sucks in a breath and looks down into the mist and whimpers. “Remember the night we crossed the Barrier? Remember how you told me to trust you? Now you have to trust me. Close your eyes.”
Slowly he lets his eyelids flutter shut and I feel his fingers tighten even more under mine.
“You know where the ledge is—raise your left foot until you’re on it,” I tell him, and he does until we’re both standing.
“Now slide your left foot along the ledge—follow my fingers.” I guide our hands along the links. His lips part and his forehead creases in concentration. I want to laugh at how familiar the expression is but I focus on keeping my voice calm and soothing. Slowly we ease farther down the bridge.
The Recruiter is able to move faster, coming closer and closer, but I say nothing to Catcher, just keep murmuring to take the next step, to worry only about the next step.
But then the Recruiter stops. He stares at me along the length of the fence. And he looks down. I can feel his body shudder, the way it causes the fence to undulate. I know I shouldn’t. I know that looking down will only terrify me even more but I can’t help it.
The morning sun’s burned away the mist so the valley below is now clear. The scope of what I see drowns out every other sense: There’s no river, no water. Instead, hundreds of feet below the bridge the ground shifts and writhes. At first I think maybe it’s a field of some sort but then individual colors begin to pull apart.
And all at once I understand what it is. Like a river flooding its banks, the entire valley is full of Mudo. The sound is not that of a raging waterfall but the pounding of two hundred million feet. The moans of a hundred million mouths. They pour through the valley, more people than I have ever seen. More people than I ever thought could have existed in one world. And they sense me, reach for me but are trapped by the mountains.
I dig my fingers against the fence. Dizzy and hot, I press my face against my shoulder. I feel as though everything inside me has fallen away and left the shell of my body here to stare at the vision.
They’re endless, stretching beyond the horizon and spreading around me like forever. They heave and moan, frothing over each other, cresting and falling. The pure depth and vastness of it all beyond comprehension, my eyes unable to focus on any individual. Instead I’m drowned in their need. They ripple and swell, the bodies of the Mudo, like the ocean. Like the dead-tossed waves.
Chapter 49
Catcher feels me stop and opens his eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asks, panic laced around the words. I shake my head, not knowing what I can say. Not knowing how to explain it to him.
“Don’t look down, Catcher,” I whisper. “Please don’t.”
But of course he does, he can hear it in my voice. He gasps. “A horde,” he murmurs, the word already echoing in my head. We both learned about them in school and just as with the Breakers we never paid much attention, only talking about it as a way to scare the younger children and incite nightmares.
It’s overwhelming to look at them all, each spot of color a person who once was. To understand that they’ve just been lying here, downed in a sort of hibernation, waiting for the scent of a living human to awaken them. To realize that if such a huge mass of Mudo approached a city or town there would be no defense. That this is what the Recruiters have been fighting against outside the Forest.
And that someone like Catcher—an Immune who could walk among them—could direct them. Could control them.
The wind slips down the mountain, brushing over my skin, along my sweat-soaked neck. A drop of blood slithers along my arm, pooling on my elbow and then falls through the air.
“We have to keep going,” I whisper. The Recruiter’s still frozen in place behind us on the fence, staring at the horde. Back on the road the rest of them keep fighting the Mudo, taking them down one by one. Soon enough they’ll be able to chase after us again.