Rebel

by Amy Tintera

  Not dead. Definitely not dead.

  The thought of Addie being dead made panic grip my stomach. She couldn’t be.

  “Addie?” I called, turning in a circle. If she’d landed on top of a building maybe she’d be able to see me down here. I waved my arms as I turned around again. Something that looked like a HARC shuttle caught my eye at the end of the street, and my heart jumped, my fingers searching for a weapon.

  I squinted. It was the wrong color to be a HARC shuttle. All HARC vehicles were black, and this one was red, and the front end was completely smashed.

  It was a car. But HARC had banned all cars when they built the Republic of Texas. I cocked my head, turning around slowly. Were we in one of the old cities?

  A head popped up suddenly and I almost laughed with relief as Addie raised one arm to wave at me. I ran to the corner of the brick building and sank down on my knees next to her, taking a quick glance down at her body. She was dirty, her black pants covered in dust and pieces of a tree it appeared she’d taken down with her. She cradled one arm like it was still broken, and her face was bloody, a giant lump on one side of her cheek. She pointed to her face and shook her head.

  “Broken jaw?” I asked.

  She nodded. I let out a tiny sigh of relief and got to my feet, putting my hands on my hips as I surveyed the area. I was going to have to guess which direction—

  A HARC transport van was headed toward us.

  A real one this time.

  It sped over the hill and zoomed in our direction, dodging giant potholes as it made its way down the street.

  “Get up!” I grabbed Addie’s arm and hauled her to her feet. She stumbled a bit and winced as she put pressure on one leg. Her eyes widened as she spotted the vehicle.

  I took off for the intersection in front of me, Addie at my side. I whipped my head both ways as we reached a wide street, but I saw nothing but tall buildings and a few abandoned cars. Hiding in one of the buildings seemed like a shortsighted plan, and a quick pat of my pockets revealed that Micah had taken my gun and knife.

  We rounded a corner as the van swerved to my right as it raced toward us. If they jumped out maybe I could overpower them. If I could get one of their guns I might—

  I gasped as something sharp hit my neck. Addie made a similar noise as a needle sank into her neck.

  The van was right next to us now, the side door open. Two men hung out the opening, weapons poised.

  Beside me, Addie yelped, and I turned just in time to see her hit the ground, a rope wrapped around her ankles. I barely dodged a second rope, blinking stars out of my eyes. What had they given us?

  I snatched the needle out of my neck and tossed it away as one of the men jumped out of the van, gun pointed at my face.

  The world spun as I grabbed the barrel of the weapon, thrusting it up so quickly it slammed into his chin. I turned it around and fired it in his general direction. Fog was beginning to invade my brain, and I could no longer see him clearly.

  I caught a glimpse of Addie’s motionless figure on the ground as something crashed against me. I hit the pavement so hard I could hear my arm crack. A hand grabbed for my neck, my weapon, and the darkness was starting to seep into the corner of my eyes.

  A human face floated across my vision and I pushed a hand against his stomach, aiming the gun directly for his chest.

  His body made a thump as it fell. Then, silence. My eyes drifted closed.

  I woke to the sun barely peeking out from behind one of the buildings. I had to open and close my eyes a few times before they cleared, and I immediately felt the pressure of something on my leg.

  My arm ached as I tried to prop myself up on my elbows, and a quick glance revealed it was still broken. My neck burned from where the needle had punctured it, and I looked at the sun in confusion. It was much lower in the sky. I must have been out for at least an hour.

  The pressure on my leg turned out to be a dead human collapsed on me, and I squirmed out from under him. The other human lay dead beside the van, and I quickly found Addie a few feet away. Her leg was bent at a funny angle, but it looked like her jaw had healed. I poked her shoulder, but she didn’t move.

  I jumped over the potholes in the road and wrenched open the back of the HARC van. The driver had run straight into a building and was slumped over the steering wheel, dead. Otherwise, the vehicle was clear of humans.

  There were two shotguns inside, and I slung them over my shoulder and walked to the humans. They each had a handgun and one had a knife, so I relieved them of everything.

  My arm still burned as I slid the weapons into my pockets, and I frowned as I rubbed at the needle mark on my neck. What had Micah said about those drugs HARC had given them?

  I winced as I remembered him mentioning one that slowed his healing time. Great. Why hadn’t I asked him more about that? Like how long “slowed” really was. Why hadn’t I had a conversation with him about what kinds of HARC drugs I should be on the lookout for?

  Because he’s an insane person and I didn’t want to spend time with him. I sighed in annoyance. No excuse.

  I ran a hand down my face as I looked at Addie again. No telling how long she’d be out, but I couldn’t sit around and wait for her to wake up. HARC might have been tracking that van.

  I looked up, searching for some hint of where we were. A big, white sign hung askew on the building the van had hit, with only the letters S and W remaining. At the top of the sign was a P, surrounded by a whole slew of colors. It looked like it used to have bulbs all over it—I couldn’t imagine why—but most of them were broken or gone now.

  I turned to the other side of the street, where an elaborate three-story building stood. It had big windows and columns, and it was nicer than any building I’d seen in the slums. The next building was smaller, but they continued down the street, right next to one another like these humans had to make use of every bit of space.

  I squinted at a black sign with white letters on one of the buildings. Silhouette Restaurant and Bar.

  Well, that was no help.

  I turned and faced north. My eyes widened. That, on the other hand, was very helpful.

  It was the Austin capitol. The original one.

  NINETEEN

  CALLUM

  MY WORDS HUNG IN THE AIR FOR A MOMENT—“YOU’RE GOING TO want to get out of my way”—until Kyle took a step forward, gun pointed at my chest.

  “Make me.”

  I lunged at him and both our guns went off, pain screaming down my left side as the bullet tore through skin. The Reboots around me yelled as they charged forward, and shots rang out from the One-twenties guarding the tents.

  “Stay back!” someone yelled. “Don’t make us shoot you!”

  Kyle’s fist slammed across my jaw and I hit the dirt. More bullets zipped through the air around me as the Reboots ignored the warning of the One-twenties, and my chest tightened in fear. I paused on the ground, catching myself as I started to look for Wren to help me out of this situation.

  Kyle kicked me in the ribs as I attempted to get to my feet, and I let out a grunt.

  “Get on your feet and put your arms up. Block the next one.” Wren’s voice was in my head as I rolled away from his boot, poised for another kick, and sprang up.

  He aimed his gun for me and I realized I had lost mine when I hit the ground. He fired a shot into my shoulder but I swung at him anyway, ignoring the sharp pain that radiated down my arm.

  “Confuse me. Surprise me.”

  I gripped the barrel of the gun as Kyle fired again. He blinked, giving me a baffled look as I kept it steady with my shoulder. I winced as the bullet tore into flesh that hadn’t healed yet and yanked on the gun so hard Kyle stumbled. I got a grip on it and tried to swipe it across his face, but he moved out of the way too quickly.

  “What have I told you? Fast.”

  He made a move for the gun and I slammed my head into his so suddenly he gasped. He stumbled backward and I blinked through the sparks i
n my vision to grab him by the collar. I punched him once, twice, three times, until he hit the ground and tried to scramble away.

  I grabbed his foot and hauled him back, glancing up at the sound of my name. Riley tossed cuffs in my direction and they landed in the dirt next to me. I scooped them up and slapped them around Kyle’s wrist. He sat up and kicked wildly at me, and I pressed my foot into his chest, shoving his back on the ground.

  A scream made me turn and I caught sight of the tent just as it collapsed. The support beams folded in and the crash echoed through the reservation as everything went down.

  “Move!” Riley pointed a gun into the face of a Reboot and she reluctantly raised her arms, chest heaving up and down.

  “Micah’s going to kill you,” Kyle muttered, glaring at me from the dirt.

  I raised my eyebrows, glancing at the scene around me. The One-twenties were on the ground, most of them cuffed as the Austin Reboots pointed guns at them. It looked as though Micah was going to be seriously outnumbered when he returned. I didn’t think he was going to get a chance to kill anyone.

  The wind whipped across my face as I caught myself looking for Wren again, checking to make sure she was okay, waiting for instruction. I took in a shaky breath as I lowered my eyes to Kyle again.

  “Not if I kill him first.”

  The shuttle landed outside the gate as the sun started to set.

  I tightened my grip on the gun in my right hand and scanned the Reboots around me. Some of our group was pretty beat up, and I cast a worried look at Beth as she finished taking inventory of the Austin Reboots.

  Kyle and the rest of them sat tied up or handcuffed a few feet away. We’d positioned the twenty or so Reboots so Micah would have a clear view of them.

  The rest of the reservation Reboots appeared to have split in two groups: some were hiding in tents or packing their bags, hoping to avoid all the drama. They had no interest in going to the cities with me or with Micah. The others were with us.

  “Two dead,” Beth said quietly, twisting her hair around her finger as she took a spot beside me and stared at the landing shuttle.

  I winced, taking a quick glance around. I probably hadn’t known them, but I felt guilty all the same.

  “That’s better than I would have expected,” Riley said from my other side.

  The shuttle door opened and my heart pounded in anticipation. Wren could still be in there. She could have overpowered Micah or he could have changed his mind.

  Micah stepped out, followed by Jules.

  Then nothing.

  My heart sank.

  I released a slow breath. Calm. What chance did a few human bounty hunters stand against Wren? She’d probably already taken them all out and was halfway to Austin by now.

  I stepped away from the group and strode toward Micah. The smug, self-satisfied look on his face intensified as he met my eyes, but I could see a flicker of doubt as he took in the crowd of Reboots behind me and his tied-up cohorts beside us.

  I stopped in front of him. “Where’s Wren? And Addie?”

  Micah pushed his sleeves up his arms. “I explained that there were rules here. Wren and Addie broke them, so I had to deal with it.”

  “You dropped them in bounty-hunter territory.”

  He smiled at me. Smiled, like he was so proud of himself. Like he’d won. Everything in my body shut down for a split second and I couldn’t move or breathe or think.

  I slowly took a step back. The gun felt heavy in my hand suddenly and I gripped it harder.

  “Get in,” I called over my shoulder.

  There were suddenly Reboots all around me, rushing for the shuttle, yelling. Isaac ran past me with fuel containers in both hands and immediately started refueling the shuttle Micah had returned in. A few reservation Reboots formed a circle around him, protecting him as the rest piled inside.

  “Stop!” Micah yelled.

  No one even paused. Micah glanced at Kyle and his other loyalists tied up on the ground again, and rage flashed across his features.

  He lunged for me and I quickly ducked, darting out of the way so fast he hit the ground. He jumped to his feet and I lifted the gun. Clicked off the safety.

  His face was tight with fury, his eyes focused on me.

  “Go ahead,” he said, taking a step closer, so the barrel of the gun was almost touching his forehead. “Please. Prove to everyone you’re no better than a human.” He jerked his head to the reservation. “You’re already doing a bang-up job of killing us all anyway.”

  I slowly lowered the gun. He’d taken Wren and he was a murderer and a psychopath and he deserved to die.

  But a weight lifted from my chest as I realized I wasn’t going to kill him. Maybe I would have liked to. Maybe it would have made me feel better.

  I still wasn’t going to do it.

  “We took all the fuel out of the other shuttles,” I said as I clicked the safety back on. “And told the rebels what you were planning.” I nodded at the meager crowd of defeated reservation Reboots behind me. “So there won’t be any further communications with them.”

  The shuttles roared to life and I glanced over my shoulder to see Riley waving for me to get on.

  I met Micah’s gaze as I took a step backward. “Did you really think you could just get rid of her and everyone would listen to you?” A smile started to form on my lips. “Do you really think you killed her by handing her over to a few humans?”

  I ducked as I stepped onto the shuttle, grasping the edge of the door as I looked at him. “There’s no way Wren is dead,” I said as the shuttle began to lift off the ground. “I’d be scared, if I were you.”

  TWENTY

  WREN

  I TRIED TO START THE VAN AGAIN, BUT APPARENTLY HAVING A DOOR in its engine wasn’t a good thing. I didn’t know the exact distance from old Austin to New Austin, but it wasn’t too far to walk. Twenty miles, maybe. Once Callum found out what Micah did, he’d head straight for the cities to find me. We’d been planning to go to Austin, and it was our home, so I felt pretty confident he’d go there first.

  I left the shotguns and put one handgun in my pants, one in Addie’s. I emptied the vehicle of ammo before I left, but they didn’t have much extra.

  I walked to Addie and knelt beside her. “Addie,” I said quietly, shaking her shoulder. I didn’t know why I was being quiet, because as far as I knew, old Austin had been deserted for over twenty years. The streets were quiet, empty, the only sound the wind rustling the trees.

  “Addie!” I shook her harder, but she didn’t stir.

  I let out a long sigh as I looked at the HARC van. It was possible they would send someone to check why it had stopped in the middle of old Austin.

  I squinted ahead at the capitol. That was north. New Austin was northwest, but I wasn’t exactly sure how west. I ran my hand down my face as I tried to remember the old maps of Texas. I couldn’t picture the new cities mixed with the old. I needed a map, even an old one.

  I grabbed one of Addie’s arms and hauled her over my shoulder. I groaned under her weight as I stood. Hopefully she’d wake up soon. I didn’t know how far I could carry her.

  My leg burned as I limped forward, and I kept my broken arm close to my chest. I steadied Addie with my right arm, hooking it around her neck to keep her in place.

  The capitol really was so much bigger. I’d heard about it, and I knew the one in the New Austin rico was nothing more than a small knockoff, but I hadn’t realized by how much. The huge, round dome was on top of a massive base, and there appeared to be a statue of a person at the very top. They’d missed that detail in the new version.

  I glanced at the buildings on either side of the wide road as I walked. I’d hoped to see one of the old cities with Callum, and it was too bad he wasn’t here now. He probably would have known more about the city than I did.

  There were still cars parked on either side of the street, rusting and missing parts. Some were even abandoned in the middle of the road.


  It must have been nice to have access to something with wheels all the time. That would have been really helpful right about now.

  I hobbled to the end of the street and turned to look at the capitol as I headed west on the street that ran in front of it. Part of me wanted to go inside, see what was left of it, but I didn’t think going in any building was particularly safe. Nothing was sturdy, and the last thing I needed was to be buried alive in the middle of a dead city.

  I turned north again when I reached a street that was somewhat clear. The buildings were huge on this street, twenty, thirty stories tall with hundreds of windows.

  There was some destruction, some streets that were more rubble than buildings, but overall it wasn’t as bad as I’d been led to believe. I thought Austin was gone, mostly destroyed, but it was more like it was deserted. Had all these people died of KDH?

  It seemed sad they’d rejected Reboots. Micah was right on one count—we had a found a way to survive. Maybe if the humans hadn’t panicked, we could have stayed in this city. Humans or Reboots could have lived in these buildings instead of tents and thrown-together houses.

  But HARC had always been about control, so maybe starting their own cities and fencing the humans in was more appealing. Or maybe it really was the only way to contain the virus and keep humans safe. What did I know?

  It was just getting dark when my leg finally started to heal and Addie moaned. She squirmed on my shoulder and I stopped and slowly kneeled down as I slid her off onto the concrete.

  She blinked at me, rubbing one of her arms. The gashes on her arms and legs were still open, and one of her legs was broken. Given how many hours it had taken me to heal, she had quite a ways to go.

  I estimated I’d barely made it two miles, maybe less, and we’d stopped in the middle of the road. A big, redbrick building was to my right, and on my left a gray building with big windows and a blue sign that read Kerbey Lane Café. She looked left, then right, then left again.

  “Where are we?”