by Ramona Finn
“Sorry,” I mutter and swing off the vehicle.
Raj climbs off the vehicle, moving slowly as if his muscles hurt from having to keep that cage vehicle upright and moving fast. After a moment, my eyes to adjust to the dimness. It will take longer to get used to the howling of the storm that rages behind us. No one seems to want to talk, and that’s fine with me. Shoulders slumping, I sit on the hard, rock floor.
This cave isn’t like the expansive tunnels where the clan lives. From what I can see of the walls, they’re rough, black stone. The floor is strewn with more rocks and a few bones. Maybe this is what a new tunnel looks like when the clan moves and has to make new tunnels.
My breathing slows and I ask, “Are we safe?” My voice echoes against the rocks.
Wolf stands by his cage vehicle, one hand on the water. “For now.”
Bobcat and Bear gather rocks and set them into a ring. Bobcat pulls small bits of wood from the back of her cage vehicle and Bear gets a fire going. They don’t talk as they work. They just get things done. The light is welcome. It casts odd shadows to the back of the cave, but it warms the space. And I like the bright, yellow flames. Once the fire is going, Bear shuts off all the vehicle lights.
“We’ll spend the night,” Wolf says. He settles down next to the fire.
“Why don’t we head back after the storm passes? It’ll be dark and cool. Don’t you want to get the water back?”
Bobcat turns to stare at me. “Drones will be out. Looking for that water. They see fine at night and we don’t, but the AI’s going to be missing what we took. We’ll go out when it’s the hottest time. The AI never thinks we’ll do that.”
The fire is small, built with dry wood so there is little smoke. The Rogues sit close to it, but Raj sits next to me, his back against the wall. I keep glancing at the water, but Wolf doesn’t say to use any of it. Raj has some dried meat that he shares with me and a small skin of water. I scoot a little closer. It’s cool in the cave, but I don’t think it will get much colder. The tunnels are like this. They keep an even temperature.
Every now and then a loud crack like the world is splitting open reaches us. “Thunder,” Raj says. “Means a lot of lightning. That’s the sound of the shock wave generated by the wild electricity. It super heats the air.”
Why does he know this and I do not? Why did I know so much more inside the connect? I seem to be acquiring more questions instead of answers.
Every crack makes me jump a little. Turning to Raj, I ask, “Will it bring water, too? We were getting hit back there with ice—or that’s what it felt like.”
He chews on some of the dry meat, swallows and says, “Might rain. Might just be hail—that’s frozen rain—on the ground. It can be both sometimes, but rain is kind of rare.”
“Rain.” I like the sound of the word. Water from the sky is rain. And then I remember the dream where something hot and black poured into the tunnels, killing everyone. With a shiver, I hunch over and hug my knees to my chest. Rain is only water. People can survive water.
Resting my cheek on my knees, I ask, “Could the rain flood the tunnels?”
Raj shrugs. “It’s possible, but the Rogues have tunnels that are steeper and go lower down into the earth. The water will drain into those tunnels. They’ve been lined, too, with a coating of a kind of rock—bentonite—that keeps the water from seeping out.” He smiles suddenly. “It’d be a good thing if it rained a lot. We’d have all the water we want.”
“That’s…that’s actually a very intelligent idea.”
My neck tingles and I look over to see Wolf staring at us. At me. I don’t know if he overheard what we were saying. He must have. The cave isn’t that big. Something flickers in his eyes, that same warm glitter that says he’s pleased.
Well, he should be. He got his water. He might get more.
A gust of wind slips down into the cave, bringing a touch of icy and cold. The storm screeches even louder for a moment, and then dies back. It seems to me I can hear another sound—a humming of a kind like the cage vehicles make. Is it another kind of machine? Everyone seems to sit still. For once, I don’t want to ask what might be making that sound.
The wind dies down and the odd humming goes with it. Bobcat lets out a long breath and Bear says, “At least the storms ain’t as bad as they used to be.”
Mouth dry, I shudder. “Worse than this?”
Bobcat grins. “Bad enough to sweep the whole world away with the wind and lighting that took out towers like they were toys to break.”
I frown at her, sure she’s exaggerating. Well, almost sure.
Wolf stands and heads to the water on his cage vehicle. He pours out a small amount into something made of metal. Coming over to us, he holds out the metal to Raj, but he glances at me when he gruffly says, “You did good today. An extra cup of water.”
Raj waves the cup toward me, then says, the words almost seeming to be dragged out of him, “That was all Lib. I wouldn’t have gotten the water without her.”
I take the cup from Wolf, and our fingers brush. My whole body warms, but I don’t know if it’s from what Raj said or from Wolf. Glancing at Raj, I see what looks like sharp suspicion in his eyes. Why? For what?
I stare back at him, eyebrows lifted. I haven’t done anything wrong. I drink half the water and almost drink it all, but that wouldn’t be fair. Pushing the cup at Raj, I keep staring at him, daring him to turn it down.
He licks his lips and looks away. But he takes the cup.
From near the fire, Bird says, her voice cheerful, “I knew she was going to be important.”
I don’t know how she could have known, but she still seems so sure of herself. It’s a little unnerving to me, but no one else seems to feel that way.
Wolf is still watching me, his expression almost curious and considering. His stare leaves me wanting to shift on the ground or tug at my hair. At least he doesn’t seem angry with me now. His hard features soften, making him seem younger. And almost… warm. I find myself being drawn to him—and that’s dangerous.
He’s dangerous.
I focus my stare on the others, watching how the ribbons in Bird’s hair seem to change color in the firelight.
Wolf goes back to the fire, and the others—Raj included—lie down to sleep.
I don’t want to shift to nonfunctional. To sleep. Not yet. I keep thinking of that calm, blue room. Of all I seemed to know in the connect. And the storm has reminded me of that dream.
Part of me wants to be in that dream again, so I could hear that soothing voice praise me once more. And part of me wants to be back in that cool, blue room. And part of me…wants I don’t know what.
It’s a terrible thing to want.
The cave is silent again. But Wolf is awake. He watches me with those intense, dark eyes of his. For once, I don’t mind. There’s something new in his gaze, something I don’t yet understand, but my skin warms and a pleasant shiver slips through me.
I lie down, my head pillowed on my arm, thinking I’ll watch Wolf back. But beneath his dark gaze, my eyes slip closed.
There is no stopping the dream.
It’s the same as before. Blackness oozing in. Death. Destruction. Panic.
I wake with my heart pounding, breathless and sweating. My stomach twists. Wolf is asleep now—everyone is. Except me. I turn and gasp against the cool, rock floor, feeling like I have to spit up whatever is in me, but nothing comes out. My stomach twists again and again, and I lie there, weak and dizzy and almost hating myself.
Shaking, I lay down again. There is no word for the wretchedness inside me. Because once again, a small part of me is grateful for the dream and for that voice that brushes over me like a soft hand.
Chapter Nine
Somehow Wolf knows when it’s morning. The lighting inside hasn’t changed much except the fire has burned out. We use lights from the vehicles to see, but Wolf only wants one on at a time. It doesn’t take long for everyone to wake, eat and get ready to leave.
I wake stiff, with the dream still clinging to me. It’s hard to meet anyone’s eyes this morning.
Raj is already up and has been checking over the cage vehicle. He glances over at me, comes over and offers me dried meat. I wave it away. I have no hunger this morning. He hesitates, like maybe he wants to say something, but in the end he just shakes his head and goes back to the cage vehicle, tugging on straps and kicking the wheels.
I try to shake off the lingering remnants of the dream and head to the back of the caves to take care of body waste. When I come back it seems like everyone else is ready to go. Bobcat and Bear sit on their vehicle. Wolf sits on his, and Bird is ready to climb on behind him. Raj is on his vehicle. All the cage vehicles have been turned to face the other way—the way out.
Heading to Raj’s vehicle, I sling my leg over and settle in behind him. Remembering how Raj looked at me yesterday, I’m not sure I want to wrap my arms around his middle, but I also don’t want to fall off. I settle for grabbing his jacket and hanging onto that.
I don’t know why it bothers me so much, except I thought all Glitches would stick together. And I helped Raj yesterday. But it seems I am different from other Glitches. And I don’t know why.
The engines hum into life. The sound vibrates up my legs and hips. Wolf leads with Raj behind him and Bobcat at the back. It doesn’t take long before we burst into the open air.
The outside looks the same as it did the day before. The storm passed over and is gone. I see rocks and sand, and in the distance stand the tall walls of the Norm, which seem to curve over and have no top. We’re too far now to see the damaged platform and tower.
It’s difficult for me to tell which direction we take. It all looks the same to me. The sun is higher than I thought it would be—and hot. It’s always hot.
I cling to Raj’s jacket. The fabric goes damp in my hands and the wind from our speed brushes my face. Today, I keep watching the sky. I don’t see brown clouds or anything else, and I’m glad of that. I can’t wait to be back in the cool tunnels. Moisture is already being pulled from my skin to dot my forehead and streak my back, making the cloth stick to me.
It seems like we travel for a much longer time than yesterday. We aren’t going as fast.
I have my headset on, so I ask Raj, “Do we have far to go? Are we still on a scavenge?”
At first Raj doesn’t answer, and I begin to think he isn’t going to say anything. Is this more silence we have to keep? Finally, he says, “The storm changed the path. We’re taking the long way.”
Thinking about that makes me realize that vehicles must be like people. They can’t just function without something to give them energy. But what do the cage vehicles use? And how much of it do we have left?
“Raj, is there a chance we’ll run out of fuel?” His body shakes a little, and his laugh comes over the headset. “The ATs runs on the only resource there happens to be an abundance of—the sun.”
“AT? Are they like the AI?”
“No—that’s for all terrain. AI stand for artificial intelligence.”
Frowning, I try to glance at the sun, but it is too bright. It makes sense to use the heat and light from it as energy. Things click together in my mind again—fossil fuels were once used as power, but that proved to be a finite resource. Scattered memories come to me of reading about something called Fuel Wars, but I’m not quite sure what they were. I wonder what the AI uses for fuel—sunlight, too? Or does it use water or some other organic materials? I remember something called hydroelectric and geothermal, but the words are just words. I have no images or other memories to go with them.
The scattered memories leave me feeling frustrated. I grip Raj’s jacket tighter. He reaches back to slap a hand over mine, and I loosen my hold. But I don’t let go. We’re not moving that slowly and the AT bumps over the ground, its big wheels churning up sand and climbing over rocks that now litter the path.
Every time I see a taller group of boulders, I think we’ve found the spot where we left Lion. But Wolf leads the group past. I start to try and use the distant ruins of twisted metal as guide to help me figure out which way we need to go, and it is soon clear we are making a wide loop to get where we need to go.
Wolf slows his vehicle. Raj and Bobcat do the same. We come to taller hills and boulders. Wolf puts up a hand and waves it in a circle. He pulls under an overhang of rocks. Raj and Bobcat follow him.
We come to a halt in the shade. It is at least cooler here. I expect we’ll cover the ATs, but everyone just gets off and a skin of water is passed around. The others sit down in the shade. Bobcat and Bear crouch in the back, but Bird and Wolf stay near their vehicle. Raj sits with his back to his AT. I am the only one left standing.
This is obviously a rest spot. That means we are still a long way from where we need to be. Raj pulls off his jacket and throws it over his face. His breathing deepens and roughens, and I know he has gone nonfunctional for a short time.
I glance at the ATs and see they have been left with the front parts in the sunlight and the water in the shade. They must have been left this way so they can be nonfunctional to recharge. Bird hands me the water skin and I sip some. My mouth is dry and I want to drink all of it, but I have been watching the others. The Rogues only drink a little water—as little as they can. Raj does the same. I must show the others I can do that, too.
Since there is nothing else to do, I squat down in the shade next to Raj. My calves begin to burn and my knees hurt from that, so I fall back to sit on my butt in the cool sand.
Bird glances over to me, her ribbons fluttering in a warm breeze, and she asks, “Where is your heart, Lib?”
For a long moment, I can’t think of an answer. It’s as if my mind has done a reboot and is waiting for a system restart. Licking my lips, I hand her back the water skin and say, “I’m a Glitch. Maybe I don’t have a heart.”
She shakes her head, setting her colored ribbons swaying. “I don’t think that’s true. Home is where the heart is.” She says this as if it’s something important—something someone has told her many times. I have no idea what this means.
Raj wakes and pulls his jacket off his face. Something flickers in his eyes—irritation maybe or maybe he’s just tired still. “Home is wherever you can stick around the longest. The Norm was once home.” He sounds bitter again, and his mouth pulls down.
Raj looks away, squinting as he stares across the dry, barren land. Is he trying to see the Norm? His jacket lays loosely in his lap. The breeze flutters an edge of it and I notice that the edges of the cloth are frayed. How long has Raj been outside the Norm? I decide it can’t be that long. The cloth of my tunic looks almost the same as his, but it is not frayed on the edges. However, the way the wind and sand scour everything, I think my cloth will look like Raj’s within a relatively short time.
Raj, with his cloth jacket and pants, looks out of place here. So do I. We belong somewhere with water—with cool, blue rooms where moisture hangs in the air and lingers on the skin. We belong in a place that is beautiful and calm. We should be in the Norm.
Clearly, the AI doesn’t think so. It threw us out. The Artificial Intelligence—but the name means it has a mind and knows things. So does it know better?
I close my eyes and try to conjure memories. All I can see is the blue of the connect.
Is the Norm better than that? But why is there a Norm and an Outside? I don’t understand this. Why would the AI send drones to find the water the Rogues take? The Rogues are just trying to survive. Shouldn’t the AI help them?
“Raj?” I make the word soft so others won’t hear.
He hums in response.
“The AI sent sentinels to stop Skye from taking water, didn’t it? And once we got water out, the AI sent drones after us. I heard them last night. I heard a hum that wasn’t the storm.”
Raj glances at me, eyes narrowed against the glare of the daylight.
Before he can say anything, Bird gives a gasp. I glance at her and see her eye
s have gone wide and unfocused. Her lips are parted slightly and her chest rises and falls with short, fast breaths.
Far off, I hear an odd sound that goes up high and then down low. It is a lonely, odd sound. It sounds like a call of some kind.
Wolf stands. So do Bobcat and Bear. Even Raj scrambles to his feet, so I do, too.
Smiling, Wolf nods to Bird, and she nods back. Another call—deeper than the first—echoes.
Wolf gestures to the others. Bobcat heads to her AT and pulls out a stick with a sharp point on one end. Wolf pulls something even sharper and shiny from the belt he wears.
“What’s going on?” I whisper to Raj.
Bobcat hisses at me. Turning away, she pulls out the brown cloth and covers the AT with it. Bird does the same to Wolf’s AT, and Raj covers his AT, too.
With a clap of her hands, Bird lets out a sudden laugh. Wolf motions to Bear and mutters, “Shut her up!”
Bear heads for Bird’s side, but she gives a fast twirl and puts a finger to her lips. Whispering in a singsong voice, she mutters, “Daggers in the night, teeth in the day, they howl and help us hunt what they may.”
“That was a howl?” I ask Bird.
That gets me a glare from Wolf. Bear grabs Bird—he’s twice her size—and slaps a hand over Bird’s mouth. She struggles for a moment and then stops and shrugs.
I hear the sound again—what Bird called a howl. It seems closer. The skin on my arms pucker into small peaks. Wolf and Bobcat move away from us, and it seems like they are moving toward the sound. I edge after them. I have to see what they’re going to do.
Heading around a large boulder, Wolf and Bobcat crouch low. Something making a lot of snuffling noises is heading toward them. Rocks scatter and slide. I have the sense of something watching and look up.
An animal stands on one of the higher boulders, skinny with big feet, long legs and fur. It stares down. I glance at Wolf and see him looking back up. It strikes me as if these two are almost talking without words. When I look up again, the animal is gone. Is that a wolf? I thought it would be…well, different. Another animal crashes down from the boulders in front of Wolf and Bobcat.