Crossed (Matched, #2)

by Ally Condie

reach for Eli’s coat but he holds it back. “No,” he says. “It’s all right. I don’t mind.”

I’ve known about the rebellion and its leader for as long as I can remember. But I never told Cassia.

Cassia and I stood in that dark green forest. Both of us had red flags in our hands.

I’d heard parts of the Tennyson poem all my life. But in Oria, after I saw Tennyson’s words on Cassia’s lips,

The poet didn’t write it for them—he wrote it long before the Society even existed.

We finally see a sign of the Anomalies: a place where they used to climb.

Then I realize they’re the juniper fruit from the tree growing near the wall.

did not notice when the stream began, only that it suddenly was.

We haven’t seen a trace of any person—alive or dead, Aberration or Anomaly, Official or rebel.

Indie finally speaks. “I’m hungry,” she says. Her voice sounds as hollow as the empty wasp’s nest.

“I’ll give you a blue tablet if you want,” I tell her. I don’t know why I’m so averse to taking them,

“No. This one is new. It’s my own words.” “How did you learn to write?”

“He taught me,” I say. “The boy I’m looking for.”

“Why are you an Aberration?” Indie asks. “Are you first-generation?”

“I am,” I say. “First generation.”

“Yes,” I say. “I caused my own Reclassification.” That’s true, too, or will be.

“She carved it out of an old tree. She worked on it for years.

“They picked her up and saved her. They told us she only wanted to try out the boat and that she was grateful they found her in time.”

“I’ve never lived near the water,” I say. “Not the ocean, anyway.”

“Later, when the Officials were gone, she told my father and me what really happened. She said that she meant to go.

“When the Officials found out what she’d told us, they gave us all red tablets.”

didn’t forget,” Indie says.

She must think I know what the red tablets do. She is like Ky and Xander. She is immune.

“Were you angry that she tried to go?”

“No,” she says. “She always planned to come back for us.”

“She’d heard about a rebellion on an island off the coast. She wanted to find it and come back for the family.”

“The one I’ve heard of is called the Rising.” “That’s the same one,”

“Do you believe in a leader called the Pilot?” I ask. “Yes,” Indie says, excited.

“Every day the sun rolls by Across the sky and through night’s door Every night the stars light high Above the earth and shine once more Any day her boat might fly Across the waves and to the shore.”

didn’t write it. And it’s not a poem,” Indie says with certainty. “It sounds like one,” I say. “No.”

“Something my mother used to say every night before I went to sleep,”

she told me that the Pilot is the one who will lead the Rising.

hadn’t heard it before, but it proves that the Pilot could come from the water.

could be either a man or a woman, coming from the sky or the water. Don’t you think?” “Yes,” Indie says,

aren’t only looking for a boy. You’re looking for something else, too.”

climb into the dark for you Are you waiting in the stars for me?

“It’s nothing like this in Central,” Eli says. “You’re from Central?” Vick and I ask at the same time. “I grew up there,” Eli tells us. “I’ve never lived anywhere else.” “It must seem lonely to you out here,”

“The original Anomalies chose to be Anomalies, back when the Society came to be,”

“And the ones who live in the Carving don’t call themselves Anomalies. They prefer to be known as the farmers.”

“Before the Society took control, there were people who saw it coming and didn’t want any part of it. They started storing things inside the Carving.”

The farmers had enough food to see them through until some of the seeds they brought could be planted and harvested.

township, because they didn’t want to use the Society’s words for that, either.” “But didn’t the Society track them down?” “Eventually. But the farmers had the advantage because they came in first.

And the Society thought the farmers would all die off sooner or later. It’s not...

Many of the people in the Outer Provinces were too afraid to try to escape to the Carving because the Society started spreading rumors about how savage the farmers are.”

“They used to be merciless to any one Society,” I say. “But we’re not Society anymore. We’re Aberrations. They didn’t kill Aberrations or other Anomalies outright unless attacked.”

“You die free out here but you die faster. The farmers don’t have the medicine

Vick nods. “So we’re going to find these people and ask them to help us. Since they helped your father.” “Yes,” I say. “And I’m hoping to trade with them. They have maps and old books.

“The same things that you and Eli have,” I say. “Information about the Society. We’ve lived on the inside.

Get something else. I don’t care. But I’m going to get a map and try to reach one of the Border Provinces.” “Wait,” Eli says. “You want to go back into the Society? Why?” “I wouldn’t go back,”

And I’d only go back far enough to send a message to her. So she’ll know where I am.”