Margaret Haddix: Among the Brave

“Me too,” Nina said.

“And me,” the chauffeur said.

Everyone looked at Joel and John, who silently shook their heads.

‘You can wait, and maybe join up later,” Trey said gently Who was he to shame anyone else for cowardice?

“Wait a minute,” Mark said. “What about me?”

Trey had almost forgotten Mark.

“This isn’t your cause,” Trey said. “It doesn’t have to be. You can go home and not worry—”

“No.” Mark was shaking his head violently. “You said all those third kids remember who they really are — don’t you think their families remember too? Don’t you think their families agonize and worry and fret, every day their kid is away? Every day of the kid’s life? My brother’s gone off without me twice already. Not again. I’ll take the truck back home and let my leg and burns heal and then — wherever you need me, that’s where I’ll be.”

Trey looked back at the grown-ups.

“We’ll do anything we can for you,” Mr. Hendricks said. “In the background. That’s — that’s the best we can do.”

He had tears in his eyes, but Trey couldn’t tell if they were tears of regret or fear. Or maybe sorrow. Maybe he was already mourning Trey and his friends.

Mrs. Talbot handed Trey the rest of the papers.

“You are responsible now for one hundred lives,” she said.

“I know,” Trey said.

He felt the full weight of the burden. He’d taken on the responsibility of rescuing Mr. Talbot and Lee and the others, and that had felt too heavy. He’d messed up again and again and again — being discovered on Mr. Talbot’s porch, rattling the weights in the Talbots’ basement, leaving the knapsack behind in the woods, crashing through the heat ducts, killing the truck’s engine right when the mob attacked. But everything had worked out in the end. Somehow, against all reason, he had faith that he could handle this responsibility as well.

With help.

Trey stood at the back of a long line of men and boys. Papers rustled under his shirt — dangerous papers, papers that could get lots of people killed. And he was waiting to walk into Population Police headquarters, the most dangerous place in the country for third children.

But he waited patiently, unfazed by the sun beating down on his head, the sullen crowd around him. His friend Lee stood by his side. And his friends Nina, Nedley, and the chauffeur were already inside.

Trey glanced over at a Population Police officer leaning lazily against a tree, watching the line.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Trey wanted to tell the officer. “The only reason you can stand there so carelessly is that you don’t know what we’re about to do.”

Trey didn’t know everything either, of course. But for once in his life, he felt brave enough to face it all.