by Amy Tintera
She bolted upright, her head whipping from side to side. She didn’t appear to see any of us. She was panicked, tears starting to stream down her face. She screamed.
Riley clamped his hand over her eyes and circled his arm around her waist, pulling her to the other side of the shuttle. He turned so she was facing the wall and held tight as she struggled and screamed.
“Don’t look, okay?” he said softly. “Everything’s okay, but you don’t want to look.”
I glanced over at the other human, still motionless on the shuttle floor. Riley spoke softly to the girl as she began to sob in his arms, her whole body shaking.
“She’ll be fine,” Micah said, his voice full of sympathy, like he wasn’t the one who’d killed her.
I pushed my hands underneath my thighs for fear of reaching out to choke him. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes briefly.
“Wren,” Micah said.
I ignored him.
“Wren.”
I slowly opened my eyes, trying not to let the hate shine through.
“She’s better now,” he said. He gave me a nod, like he needed me to agree. “We made her better.”
I clenched my hands into fists beneath my thighs.
We had to get away from these people. Immediately.
SEVEN
CALLUM
I RAN FOR THE GATE AS SOON AS I SPOTTED THE SHUTTLE IN THE sky, my heart pounding loudly in my chest. It landed several yards away and a tall, muscular guy got out first, a girl wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt in his arms. He was followed by Jules, who was also carrying a dead human, then Micah, and, finally, Wren. She was pale, her face hard as stone. Micah said something to her but she walked right by him.
I couldn’t breathe. I hadn’t been able to breathe since Addie told me the hunt was actually for humans. Since she told me Micah and his friends had been slowly killing all the humans they could find and bringing back the ones who Rebooted.
Wren’s face made it worse. I’d forced myself not to panic, to be calm and rational even though I wanted to scream at all these crazy people. I had to wait and see what Wren’s reaction was, to gauge how much trouble we were in.
Apparently we were in “everyone panic, we’re screwed” trouble.
“Wren!” Micah called to Wren’s back.
Her face hardened and she threw a look over her shoulder that made Micah stop in his tracks. I swallowed as I watched his face change, the excited, friendly expression he’d been wearing around her slipping away.
She offered me her hand as she approached, relief splashed across her face. Even through my panic, I felt a twinge of happiness that she was relieved to see me. I laced my fingers through hers and squeezed.
“Come with me,” she said, pulling on my hand as she kept walking.
“They told me what the hunt was,” I said under my breath as we strode across the compound.
Her eyes flicked to mine and she swallowed, nodding slightly. I held her hand tighter.
We walked across the reservation and through the back gate. A thick band of trees was in front of the lake, and Wren didn’t stop until we were right in the middle of them. She released a rush of air as she dropped my hand and turned to me.
“We need to leave. Now.”
I hesitated, taking a quick glance back at the reservation. Addie might have been on board with that plan, given how upset she was earlier, but the rest of the Austin Reboots? We couldn’t leave them here.
“Callum, they’re going to kill all the humans in the cities.”
My eyes widened as Wren relayed Micah’s insane “we’re more evolved” plan. Visions of my mom and dad and David flashed through my brain.
“He could just free all the Reboots and leave,” I said when she finished, though I could tell by the look on her face that Micah wasn’t that rational.
“I told him that.” She rubbed her forehead, frowning at the dirt. “He said it wasn’t wrong to kill the humans because they’d kill us if they had the chance. That’s what he told me about killing those unarmed humans today. That doesn’t make any sense, right? That’s very much the wrong thing to do?”
“Yes.” I stepped forward, putting my hands on her arms. I needed for her to know how right she was about that, how much she needed to hold on to that feeling. “That is very much the wrong thing to do.”
She nodded. “Okay. We need to go, then. I don’t want anything to do with this.”
I dropped my hands, running one down my face. There was no way I could leave now, even if all the Austin Reboots agreed to come with us. I couldn’t leave my parents and brother and all the humans I ever knew to die.
“We just dropped a hundred more Reboots in their laps,” I said slowly. “If we leave, all those humans will die.”
Wren pressed her lips together. “Maybe not. The humans won before.”
“HARC trained us in combat,” I said with a humorless laugh. “This isn’t like before.”
She gave me a pleading look. “If we stay, there’s a very good chance one or both of us will end up dead in a war we care nothing about.”
“I care,” I said quietly.
Her face shifted into the emotionless stare she did when she didn’t want me to know what she was thinking, and I tried to replicate it. I didn’t want her to know I was disappointed she didn’t care. I wished her first instinct was to help, not to run.
I tried to push the feeling away. I couldn’t totally blame her for not wanting to jump back into a war when she’d just risked her life several times to save me.
“What do you want to do?” she asked a bit nervously.
I stepped closer to her, lowering my voice. “I’d like to stay long enough to find out how many Reboots will help us. Most of the people from the Austin facility are going to have family or friends in the cities. We can try to get word to the rebels about what Micah is planning. And then, when it looks like the time is right, we can split off from Micah and go to the cities.”
She blinked. “To help the humans.”
“And free the rest of the Reboots. That was the rebels’ plan anyway, to get them all out of the city.”
“So you’d like us to go back to the cities, rescue all the Reboots, and save the humans.”
It sounded kind of hard when she put it like that. I winced. “Yes.”
“I’ll get right on that,” she said dryly.
She seemed annoyed, but at least she wasn’t furious and pointing out why my plan was stupid. It probably was stupid, but I couldn’t leave. If I left, it was the same as killing that man in Austin. Except I’d be killing everyone I’d ever cared about as a human. Even though Wren claimed emotions faded some as a Reboot, mine were still all there, same as always. It sort of sucked sometimes, to be honest.
I turned at a rustling sound to see the big blond guy who’d been on the shuttle with Wren walking through the trees toward us. Micah was right behind him.
Wren’s amused expression faded, and she looked between Micah and the other guy, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Riley,” the blond guy said as he approached, extending his hand to me.
The name sounded vaguely familiar, and I searched my brain as I shook his hand. “Callum.”
“One-fifty-seven,” Wren explained. “My trainer at HARC.”
Wonderful. Was it wrong that I was a little disappointed he wasn’t actually dead? Of all the Reboots not to be dead, it had to be this guy? The guy who shot Wren repeatedly to make her tough?
“Did you come from the Austin facility?” Riley asked.
“No, I escaped with Wren from Rosa.”
“Oh.” His face brightened as if he liked this about me, and he grinned as he looked from me to Wren.
“I’d like to speak with you,” Micah said to Wren, giving Riley a frown like he didn’t approve of him making small talk with me.
She just stared, and I began to get nervous. Silence from Wren was bad. She might have been plotting exactly how to rip Micah to shreds.
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“I’d like a chance to explain,” he said, and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Explain? How was he going to explain genocide?
Wren met my gaze for a moment, then turned to Micah with a sigh. “Fine.”
I started to protest, but she shot me a warning look. Micah had his “I will pound you with my fists” expression turned toward me, and it occurred to me that maybe open defiance wasn’t the smartest move. We were outnumbered by the reservation Reboots. Not to mention that we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with them and their arsenal of weapons.
She started to follow Micah, and Riley did the same, nodding at me. “It was nice to meet you.” He took a few steps, and when he turned around he had a grin on his face. “Good job getting Wren out. I was worried she was a HARC girl forever.”
Wren didn’t even glance back at that statement, but I had to resist the urge to tell him he was a dumbass. Anyone with half a brain could have seen that Wren was brainwashed and traumatized by HARC. She was certainly not their “girl.”
“She got me out,” I corrected with a frown.
He chuckled. “But I get the feeling you had a little something to do with that.” He gave me another approving look before he jogged to catch up with Micah and Wren.
EIGHT
WREN
I FOLLOWED MICAH ACROSS THE RESERVATION AND TO THE BIG tent. He pulled back the flap and turned to Riley, who still looked amused by meeting Callum. Riley had known me as the type of girl who didn’t think twice about romance.
“You mind checking on that new Reboot, Riley?” Micah asked.
“Sure.” Riley glanced at me.
“You can take a minute,” Micah said, before disappearing into the tent. I almost rolled my eyes. How nice of him to give us his permission.
I faced Riley. He was almost smiling, but his eyes were serious.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he said quietly.
I wasn’t sure I was glad to be here anymore, so I just stared at him.
“You did a good job on the hunt today,” he said. He put a hand on my arm, locking his gaze on mine. “Very calm and rational.”
“When you don’t know what to do, you keep your mouth shut.” Riley’s words from our first week of training echoed in my head. “Calm and rational keeps you alive. Panic makes you dead.”
I nodded, still feeling that small spark of pride I used to get when he praised me.
His serious look faded as he stepped back, replaced by a half smile. “And I see what it takes to get you out of HARC. Who knew you were such a softie?”
I rolled my eyes at him and he laughed as he walked away. I took a deep breath as I faced the tent, arranging my face into a neutral expression before I stepped inside.
The tent was empty, nothing but Micah and the guns lining every wall. He sat at the long table in the center and I sank into a chair across from him. The air felt tense, and I had the sudden urge to grab my gun. I pushed it back and cleared my throat.
“You’re upset.” He folded his hands on the table.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Let’s say confused.”
A corner of his mouth twitched. “Okay. Confused.”
“You killed unarmed humans.” I chose my words carefully, aware of the weapons on every wall around me. The hundred-plus Reboots outside were more likely to back him up than me.
“Yes.”
“And you don’t . . .” I shifted in my chair. “Do you feel guilty?”
He shrugged. He looked younger suddenly, closer to twenty than thirty. He was letting down his guard for me. “I don’t know. I did, at first. But, you know.” His eyes met mine. “After a while the guilt goes away.”
“Yeah,” I said softly. It did. Callum had made me more aware of that than ever. “But revenge. That didn’t go away.”
“No.” He leaned forward, resting his palms flat on the wooden table. “I was only seven when I died. I had to spend five years in a holding facility, and for a couple years I got to be part of a special group they experimented on. They’ve been shooting us up with drugs and running crazy tests from the beginning, you know.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t know.”
“They had some nasty stuff in the works. Stuff to make us weaker, crazier, all kinds of shit. Half the kids there didn’t even make it to a full facility. It was worse than the large-scale experiments they’re doing now.”
“My friend died from one of their experiments,” I said quietly.
His face softened. “The recent one meant to diminish brainpower? Make us more compliant?”
“Yes. It almost killed Callum, too.”
“And that still doesn’t make you want revenge?”
I paused, truly considering it. “Maybe.”
“I always wanted to get even. I used to stare at Suzanna every day and plot how I would kill her, down to the last detail.”
“Suzanna Palm? The HARC chairman?”
“Yeah. We spent a lot of time together.”
“You did?” I asked in surprise. I’d only seen the chairman of HARC a handful of times during my five years at the Rosa facility. I’d known she was in charge of all HARC operations, but was never totally clear on her role.
“She runs most of the important experiments herself. She’s the controlling type, can’t delegate.” Micah leaned closer to me, his face serious. “You can’t even imagine the things they’re working on, Wren. And I’ve been gone for years. Those drugs they were developing, they’re probably further along now. Or ready.”
“What were they working on?” I asked.
Micah sighed. “I got a little bit of everything. One of them slowed my reflexes down to where I could barely move. One made everything I saw purple. One made me want to eat humans alive. One slowed down my healing so much it was hours before a wound closed.”
I swallowed. I’d never considered how lucky I was to have died at twelve, and not earlier. I’d never bothered to ask the other Reboots what they did all those years in the holding facility.
“So, after I escaped, I decided it needed to stop. We can’t trust the humans. Even those rebels who claim to be helping us are just using us so they can get rid of HARC. I mean, they made it pretty clear they didn’t want us hanging around after they helped us escape, right? Who cares if we had families or lives in the city before? Now that we’re Reboots, we’re just supposed to leave and never come back.”
I nodded. “I’m not dying for them.” Desmond had said it to me a couple nights ago, when he tried to convince the other rebels not to help us.
“I didn’t come to this decision lightly,” he said. “When I got here, I tried to focus more on the reservation, to let go of my anger, but the human attacks were constant. Not even just from HARC. Human stragglers in the area would try to raid the reservation and kill as many as possible. They weren’t scared of us out here like they were in the cities. They hadn’t seen what we were capable of. We put up those signs to deter them, to warn them, and they didn’t listen. The Reboots who left, the older generation? They didn’t want to fight HARC. That’s why they left. They wanted to go live somewhere peacefully and leave the humans alone.” He ran a hand over his face. “And HARC killed every one of them, because they could. I moved the reservation out here so they would know we weren’t hiding or running, but it wasn’t an aggressive move. They showed up and attacked us anyway. They won’t stop, Wren.”
I focused on the table, a frown crossing my face. The rebels were a small group of humans. The majority had been just fine with HARC imprisoning Reboots and killing us at will.
Micah scooted closer, touching one of my hands. I slid it from his grasp. “I understand that not all humans are bad. I really do.”
I met his eyes. He was being serious.
“Tony? That one human who’s the leader of the rebels? He’s always been really nice to me. He talks to me like I’m an equal. I had an older brother in New Dallas who might still be alive. Maybe he grew up to be a nice human.” He clasped h
is hands together. “But a few exceptions aren’t enough. A few humans who can tolerate us are not enough to convince me that all Reboots will be safe. By letting them live, I risk all the Reboots. I made a really difficult choice, but I truly think it was the right one.” He took in a breath. “Do you see my point?”
I absolutely saw his point. It was logical. He’d decided he wanted to save his people—the Reboots—and he was willing to take risks and make terrible sacrifices to do it. Hadn’t I done the same thing with Callum? Hadn’t I let Addie come into the HARC facility with me, even though I knew it was dangerous? Hadn’t I risked my own life, as well as those of at least twenty human rebels, to save one person?
Hadn’t I known that if we succeeded, plenty of human guards would be killed by the freed Reboots? Hadn’t I decided that was acceptable?
“Wren,” Micah said quietly.
I swallowed, looking up to meet his eyes. “I see your point.”
NINE
CALLUM
I STOOD BEHIND THE CROWD AT THE FIRE PIT THAT EVENING, watching as a group of young Reboots pulled out instruments and began playing a lively song. People gathered around and started singing and dancing. It seemed odd for the mood to be so jolly when a few of their own had just gone on a killing spree.
Some of the Austin Reboots had joined in the festivities, the firelight flickering off their happy faces as they grabbed hands and laughed, but the majority sat in groups apart from the crowd, their faces grim. Word had spread among our group about Micah’s plans, and most of us were not pleased.
Wren stood not far away with Micah, her face tight as she nodded at something he said. His expression wasn’t as openly adoring as it had been, but they were clearly civil and she hadn’t emerged from his tent earlier that day with his head on a stick.
She caught me staring and widened her eyes slightly, like she was annoyed at being stuck with him. I laughed and a small smile started to form on her face. I gestured for her to come over, but she nodded at Micah, who was talking rapidly, and rolled her eyes.