Page 43 of The Compound

Fourteen

A few days later the water stopped working.

It was Becca who told me; she was waiting in the kitchen when I woke up.

It was a shock to see her. In a whisper she told me it wasn’t just the drinking water but the showers too, indoor and outdoor.

It was frightening to think of, but somehow thrilling, too.

The past week, or weeks, probably, had been nothing but endless dreariness.

The water being turned off was at least something to focus upon.

“Have you told the boys?” I asked. I knew she hadn’t: they were asleep still. Without realizing it, I had fallen into my old habit of asking questions I already knew the answerto.

“No.” She hesitated, and then said, “I have water, stashed away.”

“Where?”

“If I show you,” she said, “you can’t tell the others.”

“Okay. Fine.”

“I’ll need you to swear. This will only work if the boys don’t have access to water.”

“I swear. Jesus.”

She started walking toward the maze, and I trailed uneasily behind her.

While the edges of the maze had been burned, the general structure still remained.

I didn’t want to go in—I had entered only a few times before, and I’d never stayed long.

The maze had been a popular spot some years back—but two years ago, couples had started to go there when they wanted to have sex without being noticed by the others.

At first it was just one couple, and it was quite romantic, the two of them sneaking away, meeting there in the middle of the night—until other couples started doing the same.

It was awful; couples trying to find their way out would have to pass other residents naked in the bushes.

As viewers we couldn’t see everything, of course, but we saw enough.

Residents in the following seasons had avoided the place entirely, and we had instinctively done the same.

Becca, I supposed, hadn’t seen that season, and didn’t know the sordid reputation of the maze, or she did but was unfazed by it.

She took the maze’s turns quickly, with a light step, and once or twice I thought I’d lost her.

Eventually she stopped at an entirely unremarkable hedge, identical to all the others.

She stepped into it, and I saw something glinting there, though I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been staring.

She reemerged with a gallon of water, her tiny arms struggling with its weight.

I sat on the ground and took a lengthy pull from it.

She sat down beside me and drank from it when I was done.

“How long will it last?” I asked. It seemed an enormous amount, but I knew how quickly it would go in the heat. It was blessedly cool in the maze, the enormous hedges providing much-needed shade, and I sagged against one of them as I tried to think of what this would mean.

“Not long. Three days, maybe four.”

“Did you check the big screen?” I said. She nodded. “And the reward is water?”

“Of course.”

In the final five, the screen stayed stuck on the same task until it was completed.

Crucially, they weren’t tasks anymore, but competitions.

Whoever came in last was banished. Like any task, we didn’t have to complete it, but we didn’t get a reward unless we all took part.

I had never seen anything as extreme as the water being turned off, but I supposed that after weeks of inactivity they needed to trigger a strong response.

Six or maybe seven years ago, after a particularly dull stretch where the five residents were living happily with no conflict whatsoever, the producers had released a box of rats into the kitchen and offered the reward of rat poison.

For days it was like watching a horror movie; so many shots of them screaming, crying, literally shaking in fear.

They were finding rat carcasses in every corner of the house for weeks afterward.

“What’s the task?” I asked.

“A hundred-meter race.”

I could see her plan, now. There was no question about it: the boys would win under normal circumstances. I was fast, but not as fast as Andrew and Tom. I didn’t need to be the fastest, however. I just needed not to be the slowest. Becca knew that too, of course.

“We need to wait them out,” she said. “Without water, they’ll get weak in a day, two days tops. You and I will be fine. Either they go home just to get some water, or they do the challenge. If we wait until they’re dehydrated we can beat them.”

“How dehydrated?”

“That’s up to them.”

“Why did you tell me where the water is, though?”

“Are you asking me why I’m sharing water during a drought?

” Her tone was distinctly arch, and I gave her a blank look in response.

I understood that Becca didn’t particularly like me, but had limited options.

It would be risky to pull it off on her own, and she knew that to have a shot at Tom being banished both of us needed to beat him.

“Look,” Becca said. “I don’t mind sharing. I just don’t want Tom to have any. If I tell Andrew, he’ll tell Tom. You won’t tell Tom.”

“Girls?” Andrew called from somewhere beyond. I jumped. “Lily? Becca?”

We sat quietly, and eventually he moved on. I heard him head toward the tennis court, the call of our names becoming dimmer.

Becca whispered, “Are you still thirsty?”

“No.”

“Good. See where the sun is now? Wait until it’s directly above the skylight in the bedroom before you have another drink.”

“I don’t think I’ll remember how to get here.”

“You don’t need to. I’ll be here. I’ll hear your step and come and get you.”

“You’re going to stay here?”

“I can’t risk the boys finding me. If we’re all together they’ll force us to do the task. I’ll need you to bring food to me, though—at least twice a day. When you’re here, I can give you water. Pretend to be as thirsty as the boys, and don’t let them see you come. That’s the most important thing.”

“Okay,” I said. I was eager to go; the maze was eerie, even in the daylight.

“Lie low today,” she said. “By tomorrow they’ll be desperate.”

I left the maze and sat on a stump where the orchard used to be. When it grew too hot I moved to the tennis court. Eventually I had to use the bathroom, and went into the house. Andrew was sitting on a chair by the front door and jumped up as soon as I walkedin.

“Oh, thank Christ, Lily, there you are. I was looking everywhere. Where were you?”

“Just around.”

“Sam would have killed me if anything had happened to you. I would have killed me if anything happened to you. Look, I’ve got some bad news. The water’s been turned off. Did you already know?”

“No. Do you think you can fix it?”

“No,” he said, and ran a hand through his hair. “They’ve turned it off. I guess they want us to do a task and get rid of someone.”

“Huh,” I said.

“Here’s the thing. I know I’ve been kind of MIA for the last while.

It’s just—well, it’s been hard without Candice.

But you get that, now. I know how you must be feeling without Sam.

I have to be honest, I woke up a couple of mornings ago, and I kind of thought—well, what’s the point, right?

What am I doing? But the water going off woke me up.

I mean, Jesus, look at this place. This was paradise not so long ago.

We’ve let it go to shit, and it’s my own fault, I know it is.

But I think we can get it back to something like it used to be.

And I know that doing tasks in the last five means getting rid of someone, but we’ve been put in a position where we don’t have a choice.

I don’t want anyone to go, I really, really don’t, but we can’t make it without water. ”

His explanations sounded a lot like an apology. He knew that we girls would lose, too.

“Sure,” I said, and he smiled at me, relieved. “I’m going to use the bathroom,” I said, and he nodded. I was nearly down the hallway when he called my name. I turned. He looked apologetic.

“The thing is…if the water isn’t working, it might be best if we don’t use the toilet. I can dig you a hole outside, if you like?”

—

When the sun was above the skylight, I returned to the maze. I got lost at once and drifted around for a while, until Becca appeared and led me to the right spot. I wondered if she’d let me wander on purpose.

“Did anyone see you?”

“No, no.”

“But you spoke to them? They know the water’s gone?”

“I spoke to Andrew. He knows.”

“Did he ask to do the task?”

“No, but I think he was leading up to it. Do you mind if I take a drink?”

“Sure. It’s hot, right?”

“Yeah. It’s hot.” I took measured sips. It was her water, and I was only allowed to share it out of her good grace. “It’s okay,” she said. “Go ahead and have another pull. We need to stay strong.”

I took one more gulp, and then set it down.

There was a lot left. It looked like it would last us days, but I remembered that the water had only been gone for a couple of hours.

I wanted to wash, but not in front of her.

Sometime while we had slept the pool had been drained and, bizarrely, so had the pond.

The fish that had lived there lay on the muddy ground, like nuggets of gold.

“Do you think I could take a small bottle of it with me?”

“Absolutely not. If they see it they’ll have questions. They might follow you here. Did you bring me food?”

“Oh. Shit. I forgot. I’m sorry, Becca. It honestly slipped my mind.”

She looked at me, clearly deliberating whether I had intentionally decided not to bring the food in an attempt to weaken her, or if I was genuinely that empty-headed. “Remember next time, please.”

“Right. Well, I guess I’ll see you later, then.”

“Don’t you think you should stay in the maze until it gets dark?”

“I don’t want to be a bitch,” I said, “but I really, really don’t want to stay in this maze. So I’m going to go, and I’ll see you later.”