Margaret Haddix: Among the Free

"This is mandatory," he said, still moving toward the door.

"No," the woman said.

Luke stopped, certain he'd heard wrong.

"What?" he said.

"I said no," the woman said calmly. "I'm not going."

"Don't you know what 'mandatory' means?" Luke demanded. "You have to go!"

"No," the woman said again. "I have a choice. You can call it mandatory. You can call it required. But I can make up my own mind. And I'm not going."

Luke heard footsteps outside.

"What's going on in there? Why is this taking so long?" Officer Houk screamed.

Luke could hear him shoving the door, which then fell away completely from the frame, slamming to the floor. Luke jumped out of the way, but not before the door hit his leg.

Officer Houk glanced at the door on the floor, then glared at the woman.

"Come along," he growled.

"She says—," Luke started to explain, but then he felt like he was tattling.

"I'll speak for myself," the woman said. "I am through cooperating with the Population Police. You said if we followed your rules, obeyed your laws, we'd have peace and prosperity. Is this peace — men breaking into my house for no reason? Is this prosperity?" She gestured broadly at her house and yard, and Luke saw that her dress was held together with safety pins. "You said that if my son went off to work for you, we'd all have food. Now my son is gone, and I'm still starving. And you really think I care about identity cards?"

Officer Houk reached down for something on his belt. A gun, Luke realized in horror. Officer Houk pointed it at the woman and said through gritted teeth, "You — will— obey."

"No," the woman said once again, her voice steady, almost joyful.

Officer Houk lowered his gun.

Luke stared in amazement. Could it really be that easy? Tell the Population Police no — and they back down? Had anyone else ever thought to try that approach?

But Officer Houk wasn't backing down.

"I'm not wasting a bullet shooting her here, where no one else can see," he said. "Carry her out to the town square and I'll execute her there. Where all of Chiutza can learn a lesson."

He was talking to Luke. Luke was supposed to lift up this woman in his arms and take her to another place to be killed.

I have a choice. . I can make up my own mind. . The woman's words still seemed to be echoing in the room, reverberating in Luke's mind. Do I have a choice? he won' dered. If he refused Officer Houk's order, he didn't think Officer Houk would smile and put his gun away and say, Oh, you're right. We'll just leave this old lady alone. Have a nice day, ma'am. Officer Houk would probably decide to shoot the woman and Luke.

But if he obeyed… if he played a role in her death…

Oh, Trey, why didn't you think about something like this happening, back when you said we should sabotage the Population Police from within? Luke agonized.

"Pick her up now!" Officer Houk shouted. "Do it!"

Luke stumbled forward and scooped the woman into his arms. Her body was incredibly light, like chicken bones. He thought about running out the back door to carry her to safety, but Officer Houk had the gun pointed at both of them now. Luke couldn't ever run fast enough or far enough.

Luke lowered his head, putting his face against the woman's cloud of white hair.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'll try—"

The woman gave no sign that she'd heard him.

Officer Houk guided them out the doorway. Luke tripped over the broken sidewalk, and barely managed to keep from dropping the woman.

"Watch it!" Office Houk hissed.

"It's because of my leg," Luke tried to explain. "When the door hit—" His leg was throbbing now, and even the woman's slight weight seemed too much of a burden.

"Put her down here, then," Officer Houk said, pointing to a spot on the ground in front of a gathering crowd.

It seemed wrong to just drop such an old woman into the mud. But she surprised him by sliding down and standing on her own two feet. The crowd took in the sight of the regal old lady being held at gunpoint and fell silent.

"This woman," Officer Houk shouted at the crowd, "refused to obey a direct order from a Population Police officer. This is treason. This is punishable by death. I hereby proclaim her sentence. Do all of you understand her crime?"

The crowd stayed silent. Luke saw tears rolling down the face of a girl in the front row. He saw a man holding his hand over his mouth, in horror.

And he heard from behind him a muffled "Sir?"

It was the driver, back in the jeep. "Sir," he hissed. "The radio — I think you should listen…"

Officer Houk frowned, obviously annoyed by the interruption. He glanced back and forth between the jeep and the crowd, between the straight^backed, silent woman and the radio the driver was holding out to him.

"Here," Officer Houk said, thrusting the gun into Luke's hand. "Keep pointing it at her," he whispered.

The metal of the gun handle seemed to burn against Luke's skin. I have a choice. ., I have a choice. . The words seemed to roar in Luke's ears, blocking out almost every sound. Dimly, Luke was aware of Officer Houk walking back toward the jeep, muttering into the radio. Was the crowd murmuring now, too? What was Officer Houk hearing over the crackle of static?

"… resistance in Ryana… facing hostilities in several towns… calling all units back for reinforcement…"

Had Luke really heard that?

Officer Houk was lowering the radio from his ear, turning to face Luke and the woman again.

"Shoot her," he said. "Shoot her and let's go."

The gun shook in Luke's hand. He remembered one other time he'd held a gun in his hand, held all the power. I have a choice. . I have a choice. .

"Shoot her now!" Officer Houk screamed.

Refused to obey a direct order. . This is treason. . punishable by death. .

Luke dropped the gun and ran.

Luke crashed through overgrown shrubs, dodged behind falling-down shacks. He heard gunshots behind him, but he didn't stop to see who was shooting whom, or whether anyone was shooting at him. He ran faster than he'd ever run in any game of football or kick-ball or spud; he ran without stopping even when his leg ached and his breath came in ragged gasps.

And then he fell to the ground and couldn't get back up. He lay in a heap for uncountable minutes, and then he rolled over on his back to stare straight up at the sky. Wispy clouds covered a dim, faraway sun, and then all of it blurred into a sea of gray.

He was crying. That was why everything looked so blurry.

Luke wiped his sleeve across his face, smearing clumps of dirt onto his skin. Dizzily, he raised himself up on his arms.

I didn't shoot her, he thought. Oh, thank Cod, I didn't shoot her.

The tears kept coming, and it didn't matter, because no one could see him. He was out in an empty field alone, and as far as he could tell, no one had followed him.

I should hide, he thought, but he didn't move. He sat there with broken cornstalks and clods of dirt poking at him, his muscles throbbing and his lungs still desperate for air. And somehow it was almost as comforting as leaning against his horse Jenny, letting her slide her warm nose under his arm.

I'm free, he thought. I made my choice.

His legs began to feel pleasantly numb, and his breathing slowed to a normal rate. Then a frightening thought crawled into his mind: 7 could freeze.

Ice crystals glistened in the mud around him, and now there was a frosty haze in the air. The weather was changing. Carefully Luke rose to his feet, the numbness giving way to pins and needles and pain. He stood, swaying unsteadily, and looked around. The field was surrounded by trees on all sides, but one direction led back to the village, one direction led out to the road, and one direction seemed to lead to yet another field. Painstakingly Luke began walking away from all that, toward the only place where the trees were thickly clumped.