by Amy Tintera
He was already charging for me as I sprang to my feet and I almost laughed. Apparently his patience didn’t last long. I ducked as he swung, whipping around to smash a punch into his side. His rib made a noise as it cracked.
He stumbled slightly and I swung again, cracking his nose this time. He blinked like he was disoriented, but I knew as soon as I felt his foot slam into my knee that he wasn’t, not even a little bit.
It was broken, and I hopped away on one foot before placing the other back on the ground and pushing back the pain that screamed up my left leg.
Micah paused, looking from my knee to my face. “Damn,” he said with a chuckle.
I grinned, gesturing with my head for him to come to me.
“Why don’t you hop over here?” he said with a smirk, taking a step back.
I laughed despite myself. I’d never fought without HARC watching my every move to make sure I wasn’t having fun. It was strange, especially since I wasn’t sure I liked Micah any better than I’d liked most of the HARC humans.
Micah laughed and I bolted forward, dragging my bad leg slightly behind me. His eyes widened in surprise but I already had his arm in my grasp. I swung him around and yanked the arm back as quickly as I could.
I sort of liked the sound of bones breaking. It was like home.
He wasn’t smiling anymore and I caught the hint of anger on his face as he began swinging again. It was quiet as we moved around the circle punching and dodging.
When I saw the opportunity to get him on the ground I took it. I swept his legs out from under him and he gasped as something cracked as he hit the dirt. He scrambled to his knees and I punched him as hard as I could, the moment he was on his feet.
He bounced up again before I could blink. He swung at me wildly and I took a small step back before aiming for the exact place I needed on his legs. I dove forward, my leg screaming in pain as I landed on my knees in front of him. I drove my palm into the spot where he was already injured, and while he screamed, slammed my foot into his other knee.
He collapsed on the ground. His fingers dug into the grass and he pulled himself halfway up before collapsing again and waving a hand. He let out a giant breath. “I give.”
It was silent for a few seconds before a few nervous giggles broke the tension. I turned to see Callum doing something between a wince and a smile. I wiped at my mouth and came away with blood.
“I told you,” Riley said, appearing next to me and putting his hands on his hips as he looked down at Micah. “Didn’t I say you’d get your ass kicked?”
“Next time you’re doing the demonstration,” Micah said, pointing at him. He managed a chuckle.
“All right. That’s fine, I’m used to Wren kicking my ass.”
I rolled my eyes at him. He’d actually won plenty of times. Okay, maybe not plenty. Like, ten percent of the time. Still, not bad.
I turned around to see Callum in front of me. His face scrunched as he lifted up his shirt to wipe off my face. He gave me an amused look as he swiped the garment across my mouth.
“What about you?” Riley asked, squinting at Callum. “You want to do a demonstration next time? You’re probably used to Wren beating the crap out of you.”
Callum laughed softly, his gaze on me. “I think I’ll pass.”
I smiled at him and he leaned down to kiss my cheek. Training felt like a hundred years ago, and my stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought of hitting Callum. I still felt a little sick whenever I thought about the time I’d beaten him up.
“You care if I skip out on this?” he asked softly. “I think they could use some help back at the reservation today.”
I shook my head. “No, go. You don’t need any more training.”
He gave me a grateful look and leaned down to kiss me before heading back toward the reservation.
“All right,” Micah said, grunting as he got to his feet. “Pair off.” He nodded to me. “Let’s get to work.”
Riley was waiting for me when we finished later that afternoon, letting the crowd file back to the reservation without him as I pulled on my sweater and tied my hair in a ponytail.
“I’m glad to see you’re still being difficult and pissing people off,” Riley said with a grin as I approached him.
“I was never difficult,” I said, a smile playing on my lips.
“No? I seem to remember a ‘I’ll stop punching you when you start ducking faster’ conversation not long before I left.”
“It’s not my fault you got slow in your old age.” Old age being nineteen, as he was only twenty now.
He laughed, which was still a weird sound to me, coming from him. He must have been so unhappy at HARC. I’d never really noticed.
“You could’ve at least let me know you weren’t dead, by the way,” I said. “I was actually kind of sad about that.”
His expression softened. “That’s a pretty incredible sentiment, coming from you.”
I frowned at him in response and he sighed.
“I’m sorry. Honestly, I wasn’t a hundred percent certain you wouldn’t rat me out.”
“Thanks for that.”
“You know how it was. You were their girl. You did everything they said, without question. I thought you even kind of liked it there.”
“I did,” I said softly. “I wouldn’t have ratted you out, though.”
He studied me for a moment. “I apologize, then.”
I sighed as I slid my hands into my pockets. “It’s all right. I can’t totally blame you. Things were different before Callum.” And Ever. But my throat closed every time I said her name aloud, and I didn’t think Riley would remember her anyway.
“So, Callum, huh? You trained a Twenty-two?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask why? Or did you start picking all your trainees based on level of cuteness?”
I shot him a look. “He asked me to.”
“He asked you to? Well, shit. If I’d known that was the way to get you to do things, I would have tried that a long time ago.”
I covered my mouth with the backs of my fingers as I tried not to laugh, but one came through anyway. “It wouldn’t work as well coming from you, Riley.”
He grinned. “Awww, you’ve become all soft and mushy. It’s cute.”
“I’d be happy to show you how soft and mushy my fist is not, if you’d like a reminder.”
“I’m going to pass on that offer, but thank you.”
I smiled at him, watching as the Reboots over his shoulder disappeared inside the reservation walls. Everyone was out of earshot, and Riley glanced around as if noticing it, too.
“You like it here?” I asked quietly.
He cocked his head, his face becoming more serious. “In a way. It’s better than HARC.”
No argument there. “Micah. He’s . . . intense.”
“He is.” Riley seemed to be choosing his words carefully, studying my face as he considered each one. “You guys don’t seem to be getting along terribly well.”
“We’re civil. I did notice that some of the Reboots here seem sort of scared of him.”
“I guess they are.” Riley squinted. “I mean, yeah, they are. He kind of rules with an iron fist. Thinks it’s the best way to keep us safe.”
“You agree?”
“Sometimes.” He glanced behind him, then back to me. “You heard about the group that split off and got killed last year?”
“Yeah.”
“That happened right after I got here. I arrived at the reservation and it was chaos. A bunch of them got together and decided they were tired of the way Micah was running things. They stopped returning their hunting weapons and staged a revolt one day.”
I lifted my eyebrows. Micah had conveniently left that part out.
“Yeah,” Riley said, noticing my surprised expression. “We’re not supposed to talk about it. In fact, if you could not mention to Micah that I shared I’d appreciate it.”
I nodded in agreement. They weren�
��t allowed to talk about it? That was weird. “What happened?”
“The revolt didn’t really go that well,” Riley said. “They were mostly the older generation and kids, people who’d never been at HARC, and a bunch of the higher numbers who’d escaped from HARC or Rebooted here immediately backed up Micah. So they left instead.”
“And Micah just let them go?”
“At that point, yeah. They weren’t exactly welcome anymore, you know? Then it’s only a few weeks later, we’re on a hunt over in one of the old cities and we find them all dead, along with a few bodies of HARC officers. After that, no one was going to risk speaking out against Micah.” He gestured to the reservation. “This is really the only safe place for us.”
That might have been true, unfortunately.
“You’re sure it was HARC?” I asked. “Micah wouldn’t . . .”
Riley shook his head. “It was definitely HARC. And Micah hates them way too much to tip them off. He planned on finding the group again after the humans were taken care of.”
At least that was something. The thought had been in the back of my head since Callum had told me how scared Isaac was of him.
“I think Micah’s pretty terrified of you and all the new Reboots, to be honest,” Riley continued.
“Why’s that?”
“Because you’re challenging everything.” He gestured to me. “You’re refusing to train kids and asking questions and Micah doesn’t really appreciate that. Since the revolt, everyone has done exactly what he says.”
“You included?” I asked. “Or do you often have trouble finding humans that are only half a mile away from you?”
The edges of his mouth twitched. “I often have trouble, yes.” He ran a hand through his light hair. “I don’t like doing it. It reminds me of being at HARC.”
“I don’t blame you.” I studied him. “So when the time comes to kill all the humans in the cities . . .”
He shrugged, scrunching his face up. “I don’t know. Part of me hoped it would never happen. But now with all these new Reboots, I don’t think it can be stopped. Micah’s getting a group together for a trip to Austin tonight, which means he’s about ready to go in. He arranged a meeting with Tony and Desmond to get some fuel. And apparently they have information for us.”
“Tony and Desmond do?” I asked in surprise.
“Yeah.”
“How do you guys communicate with them?”
“Radio,” he said.
“And HARC doesn’t listen in?”
“They very well might. But we use codes.”
Guilt zipped through my chest and I let out a small sigh. I hated feeling indebted to Tony and Desmond, but I felt ill at the prospect of letting Micah use them like this. Maybe Callum was right about one part of his plan—we needed to try and warn them.
“The trip to Austin,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Micah will take a few people with him?”
“Yeah. I’ll go. Probably Jules as well. Why? Do you want to go?” He snorted. “I’m not sure that will go over so well with Micah, but I could ask.”
I hesitated. It would look suspicious if I asked to tag along. Micah would be watching my every move. The best option for warning Tony was probably slipping him a note, since conversation would be difficult with Micah around, but that would be impossible if I couldn’t even get near him.
“Pass,” I said, making a face as an idea occurred to me. “I just came from Austin, and given the state the shuttles are in, you guys are going to get stuck and have to walk a few hundred miles.”
“It’ll be fine,” Riley said. “We’ve fixed shuttles before.”
“You should ask Callum if he’ll come along,” I said. “He is great with machinery. And he could teach you guys how to use the navigation systems.”
Riley cocked his head, studying me. “Callum.”
“Micah seemed impressed with his work on the shuttles.” I shrugged. “Just a suggestion.”
“I could take one of the Reboots who’ve been here for a while. We’ve had several people work on shuttles.” His eyes bore into mine, like he was daring me to tell him the real reason I wanted Callum to go.
“You could.” I didn’t trust Riley with that information. Warning humans about a Reboot attack basically made us traitors, and he might take Micah’s side in that situation.
His lips twitched. “Say ‘please, Riley.’”
I tried to glare at him without smiling. “Please stop being a pain in the ass, Riley.”
He chuckled. “I’ll see what Micah says. You do realize I know you’re up to something, right?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I feel hurt you don’t trust me.”
I punched his shoulder as I passed him. “Payback’s a bitch.”
ELEVEN
CALLUM
“DUDE, YOU’RE INSANE.”
I grunted as I pushed the round piece of wood into the ground to make the last side of the tent and straightened to face Isaac. I squinted in the setting sun, watching as the Reboots in the distance transported water to the food tent. We were in the corner of the reservation, far enough away so that no one could overhear our conversation, but I still spoke quietly.
“Why am I insane?” I asked. I pushed back a brief moment of panic as the image of the human I killed slid into my vision. Isaac hadn’t meant “insane” in that way.
“They imprisoned you!” Isaac gave me a baffled look, a rope dangling from his fingers. He’d stopped working on the tent and was just staring at me.
Addie cocked an eyebrow at me as she hammered a post into the ground on the other side of the tent. I’d suggested we start feeling out the reservation Reboots, seeing if they all wanted to kill the humans. My idea to partner with them to fight off Micah didn’t seem to be going over so well with Isaac, my first test subject.
“And they tried to kill you!” he continued, stepping closer to me and lowering his voice. “And they would have killed you for sure when you reached twenty. And you want to go in and save them now?”
“HARC did that. I can’t blame all the humans for what they did.” I cocked my head. “Do you know why HARC does that? Kills Reboots at twenty?”
“It’s supposedly a population-control thing. They don’t need that many Reboots. Also they apparently found that nineteen or twenty was the age they started getting restless in the facilities. Doing crazy things like thinking for themselves.”
“The horror.”
“And yet you want to go back!” Isaac said with a laugh before casting around a furtive glance. “Maybe I shouldn’t say that so loud. You probably don’t want word of that plan getting out.”
“You seriously want to kill all the humans in the cities?” Addie whispered, her hands on her hips as she walked closer to us.
He squished up his face. “Well, not particularly. But I don’t really have a choice. My money’s on Micah in that battle, and I don’t want to be the one who deserted. Kind of seems like a bad choice, long-term.”
“But if we got together enough Reboots to help the humans—if we saved the Reboots in the facilities and convinced them to join us—Micah wouldn’t stand a chance. He’d be way outnumbered,” I said.
Isaac shook his head, tossing the rope he was holding to Addie. “Listen, I know you guys are new, but that kind of talk is going to get you strung up.”
“Strung up?” Addie repeated, horrified.
“Yeah. I’m lucky I didn’t get to experience that last night.” He took a step back. “I’d can it, if I were you.” He turned to go, almost breaking into a run to get away from us.
“Well, that went well,” Addie said with a sigh.
“What do you think ‘strung up’ means?”
“I think it means Micah’s an asshole.”
I snorted. “Yeah. I already figured that one out. What about the Austin Reboots? Have you talked to any of them?”
“Yeah, Beth and I have been testing the waters. Lots of them still have hu
man families, so they’re not jazzed about Micah’s plan. They’re also not pumped to run back to HARC cities, but a lot of them would at least help us save the Reboots in the facilities. We were talking about maybe swiping the schematics Micah has in his tent at some point before we leave. So that’s something.”
That was something. Not as much as I was hoping for, but at least we weren’t getting outright refusal.
A blond head caught my eye, and I squinted to find Wren walking across the reservation with Riley. She scanned the area around her, splitting off from Riley when she spotted me. She strode straight to me and rose up on her toes like she was going to give me a kiss, which seemed strange, since she’d been a bit awkward around me since last night. I was trying not to show I was still freaked out by her deciding Micah was logical, but it seemed I was failing.
But she didn’t kiss me. She leaned close to my ear, placing a hand on my chest. “If they ask you to go to Austin, say yes. Don’t seem too excited. I think you’ll have the opportunity to slip Tony or Desmond a note.”
She pulled back, giving me a quick smile before turning to walk away. I wanted to grab her hand and tell her thank you, but I got the impression she wanted to keep our interaction brief. Riley was watching us from outside the big tent.
“What was that about?” Addie asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Callum!”
I turned at the sound of a voice to see Riley waving me in his direction.
“Come on, we need you!”
I shot a grin at a confused Addie and jogged across the dirt, coming to a stop in front of Riley. He gave me this look I didn’t understand, like a cross between amusement and annoyance.
“Do whatever you have to do. We’re leaving in half an hour.”
“What? For where?” I figured playing dumb was probably the best option right now. Riley rolled his eyes.
“Austin. We’re getting fuel from the rebels. Micah expects you to show him how to use the navigation system as we travel.”
“Sure.”
“Meet me back here. I’ll get some weapons ready for you.”