Margaret Haddix - Among the Betrayed

After that, one of them went to the garden every night and picked a day's worth of food. They tried to pick no more than one tomato from each plant and dig up no more than one potato from each row. They stayed away from the cabbages because picking a huge cabbage head would leave a gaping hole that anyone might notice. But there was still plenty of food to eat. Nina just wished some of the plants grew bread or fruit — she was getting sick of vegetables.

"If we could even cook the potatoes—," she complained one evening over raw green beans.

"Someone would see the fire," Matthias said. "They'd find us."

Percy shrugged. "At least we have food."

Nina sighed. She wished one of the others would gripe even once — about the discomfort of sleeping on roots and itchy leaves, about the rain that had fallen on them half of one night, about the muddy taste of the water they drank from the stream. But the way they acted, you'd think the woods was a palace, you'd think the raw vegetables were gourmet food. She wondered yet again about their lives before the Population Police had captured them.

"What did you eat in the city, when you were living on the streets?" she asked.

"Same kind of food as everyone else," Percy said, brush' ing dirt from a carrot.

"Sometimes we'd find doughnuts in the garbage outside a bakery," Alia said dreamily, as if that were one of her dearest memories.

Nina shuddered. "Didn't you make any money from selling fake I.D.'s?" she asked. "How did you manage to do that, anyway?"

"Let's just say it was a nonprofit operation," Matthias said. 'Anybody mind if I have the last potato?"

Nina could tell when she'd had a door slammed in her face. Matthias had as good as said, "Don't ask any more questions." She did, anyway.

"Do you think you could start doing that again?" she asked. 'And I could help you. Why didn't you think you could go back to the city and live on the streets again? I could come with you — we could work together…. Maybe we could even find doughnuts again." She grinned a little at Alia. Suddenly it all seemed possible — even eating doughnuts out of the garbage. The woods and the raw veg-etables were only temporary. They had to make some plans beyond the next day. When the garden died… when winter came… they had to be ready.

"We were arrested when we lived in the city, remember?" Percy said harshly. "Someone betrayed us. We don't know who. So — we can't go back. We wouldn't know who to trust."

Nina blinked back tears she didn't want the others to see. She stood up.

"I'll go to the garden tonight," she mumbled. "It's my turn."

Listlessly she threaded her way between trees, stepped out onto the lawn that led to the garden. She'd forgotten the flashlight, but it didn't matter. It was still early for a trip to the garden. The shadow from the boys' school was only beginning to stretch across the lawn. The red toma-toes gleamed in the last glow of twilight.

"Tomatoes, potatoes, beans, and carrots," Nina muttered to herself. By comparison, even doughnuts plucked from a trash Dumpster sounded good. She reached the edge of the garden and picked her first vegetable: a cucumber, just for variety's sake.

Knowing that someone had betrayed the other three kids made her feel worse than ever. Even if their story came out only in bits and pieces, she felt more like she understood them now. No wonder they hadn't wanted to trust her in the beginning, when the hating man first put her in the prison cell with them. Maybe she should tell them about the rest of her story, after Jason betrayed her. Maybe she should tell them about the hating man wanting her to betray them. Maybe then…

Nina didn't know what would happen if she told the others everything. Maybe it would just give them some-thing to betray her with.

The world seemed to contain entirely too many betrayals.

Nina pulled an ear of corn from one of the stalks at the edge of the garden. She pulled back the husks, wondering if the cob inside actually contained something worth eat-ing. None of the corn so far had been edible, but Nina still had hope. She brought the tiny nubs of grain up to her mouth, bit, and chewed thoughtfully. Not bad. She looked toward the next row of cornstalks, hoping for bigger ears.

Then she froze.

There in the cornstalks, his face distorted with anger, a boy stood glowering at her.

"You!" he hissed. "You're the one who's been stealing from my garden!"

"No, wait, I can explain—"

But the boy rushed forward, grabbed her by her wrists. Another boy joined him from behind and clutched Nina's right arm. Nina looked from one to the other. She recog~ nized them both now.

"Lee! Trey!" she screamed. "Don't you remember me? I'm Nina. I used to meet you in the woods—"

"Yeah. And then you helped Jason try to betray us," Lee snarled back.

"I didn't! I didn't!" Nina screamed.

But it was no use. They were dragging her away. toes gl

"Tomal to herself, trash Dumps the garden and'-for variety's sake.

Knowing that s<

Nina tried to dig her heels in, to hold back. She tried to yank her arms out of the boys' grasp. She remem' bered them both as skinny, wimpy kids — like little rabbits beside Jason's brawn. But somehow they'd developed muscles. Even squirming was useless.

Lee and Trey half pulled, half carried Nina past the school and down a driveway. Then they turned down a path. A stone cottage loomed ahead of them. Nina made one last attempt to jerk away from the boys, but they only tightened their grip.

"Where are you taking me?" Nina demanded.

"To Mr. Hendricks," Lee said abruptly.

Nina wondered who Mr. Hendricks was. It had never occurred to her that Hendricks School might have been named after a real person. Was there a Mr. Harlow, too? A Mrs. Harlow?

Nina didn't know how she could wonder such things at a time like this. They were in front of the cottage now, and Lee was pounding on the door.

"Mr. Hendricks! Mr. Hendricks! We found the thief!"

The door opened. Nina, looking straight ahead, didn't see anyone there. Then she looked down, like the boys were doing.

A man in a wheelchair sat before them.

"Indeed," he said.

Lee jerked on Nina's arm, drew her into the house.

'And what do you have to say for yourself, young lady?" Mr. Hendricks asked when all three kids stood before him in the foyer.

Nina opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"Surely you have something to say, some defense to give," Mr. Hendricks said.

"I don't know what to tell you," Nina blurted. "I don't know whose side you're on."

Mr. Hendricks chuckled.

"Then I guess you'll have to tell me the truth," he said.

Everyone waited. Nina kept her teeth clenched firmly together. It was all over now. This Mr. Hendricks would undoubtedly call the Population Police, and she'd be arrested all over again. This time, she was sure, the hating man wouldn't give her any more chances to prove herself. The only thing Nina could hope for now was that some^ how Percy, Matthias, and Alia could avoid being caught, too. Somehow she'd have to warn them….

"So, you're not talking?" Mr. Hendricks said. "Perhaps my young friends here might tell me what they observed, and we'll go from there."

"Sir," Lee began. "We caught her eating our corn. And she was putting lots of our vegetables into her bag there."

Nina realized she still had the old, smelly burlap bag slung around her neck. Quickly, before anyone might ask how one girl could possibly eat all that food, she said, "I was hungry. Very hungry."

"Ah," Mr. Hendricks said. "Now we hear an excuse." He squinted, seeming to look far off into the distance. He shook his head, ever so slightly, his thick white hair barely moving. "Boys, I believe I can handle this situation by myself now. Why don't you take her into the living room and then go resume your posts?"