The noise devolved into a string of curses. Relief flooded through me. I knew that voice.
“Derrick?”
A pause, then his voice rasped. “Min? Where are we? Why are we in the dark?”
“A group attacked Home Town.” My eyes were beginning to adjust to a trickle of light leaking under the building’s only door. “They were dressed in black and wore masks over their faces. They had flares, too.”
“Why are my hands are tied?” he said, a note of hysteria entering his voice.
“Mine are too. We’ve obviously been taken prisoner. Do you remember how you got here?”
Derrick coughed roughly, then spat. “I was in my cabin and ran outside, but I didn’t make it three steps.” I heard a sharp intake of breath, followed by what could only be described as a growl. “Somebody’s gonna pay for this lump on my head.”
Bile rose in my throat. “Derrick, there were twelve of them. Who could it be?”
Derrick appeared to be doing some sort of personal inventory with his limbs. “Toby and his punk-ass thugs, who else? With help from some people in the village. When I find out who, I’m gonna wreck their whole damn world.”
I thought back to the shadowy figure watching me from the forest. Derrick was right, of course—who else could it be?—but a part of me felt sure I’d recognize Toby’s silhouette anywhere. Same for the twins and those other football guys. Even their stupid postures were imprinted in my mind.
The voice I’d heard before losing consciousness. I couldn’t place it. That shouldn’t be possible, but I replayed the memory over and over in my head, and my impression didn’t waver.
Which all added up to one thing—my gut said I’d never encountered the person before.
Which was impossible.
I lifted both arms to rub the welt on my temple. Don’t get crazy. You took a blow to the head and now everything’s a mess. But I still couldn’t shake the feeling.
“What if . . . it’s someone else?”
“Who?” Derrick sounded annoyed. “There is no one else, Min. Unless you think a bunch of cavemen we haven’t noticed before decided to swim over for a battle royale.”
I resisted an urge to rip my hair out. “I just . . . I saw someone in the woods, Derrick. It was dark, and they were far away, but I swear I didn’t know the person. I . . . There’s no other way to explain it.”
Rubber soles scraped the floorboards as Derrick struggled to his feet. He stood there silently for a moment, then sighed. “Okay, Min. I learned a long time ago to trust your instincts. But if that’s true . . .” I sensed more than saw him wave his bound hands in the darkness, “ . . . I don’t even know what to do with it. How could there be other people?”
“I don’t know. It’s crazy, right?” My chin dropped. “I must be wrong. Maybe I just don’t want to believe we have traitors in our camp.”
“I hear that. At least six of ’em, huh? That’s a bitch.”
I shook my head. “Guessing is pointless. We’ll find out soon enough.”
Visibility inside the room was slowly increasing. It must be dawn, I realized. We’ve been locked in here all night.
I stumbled to the door and tried the handle. It wouldn’t budge. I’d been expecting that but still felt deflated. Someone had padlocked us in from the outside.
“You know where we are?” Derrick asked.
“A shed on the east side of the creek is my guess. But this one’s practically empty, which is weird. The only building that wasn’t packed solid yesterday—”
“Is the one with the backup radio,” Derrick finished in a rush. “Min, those idiots locked us in the new coms room.”
I squinted at the table I’d bypassed in my initial blind survey of the room. A dark, bulky object sat on its surface.
We both arrowed for it.
Derrick got there first and awkwardly ran his fingers along the unit’s sides. “Damn! There’s no line out yet. We can’t access the main antenna.” He flipped a switch, and a tiny yellow light illuminated. “Aha! The CB has juice, though. We can try calling out to other spots around the island, but I don’t know if anyone’s there to pick up. Maybe the caves.”
“Do it. They can’t have grabbed everyone, right? Someone else must have a radio.”
Derrick’s breath hissed sharply. “Hold up, I found a screwdriver next to the casing. Give me a second.”
For the next few minutes he struggled in the dissipating gloom, mixing colorful language with groans of frustration. Finally, he hooted in triumph, and then began tugging at the cords binding my hands. They came free much faster. I rubbed my wrists in satisfaction.
“Nice work. Now try the radio.”
“You’re welcome. On it.”
Derrick turned a knob and static poured from the speaker. He depressed a button and began talking, but the static didn’t lessen. He muttered a four-letter word. “I’m not sure if this mic is working, and it’s broadcasting really weak anyway. I don’t think my voice can get through.” He began pressing the button in a pattern: three short beeps, three long, followed by three short ones again.
I got it instantly, and couldn’t suppress a laugh. “Are you seriously sending Morse code?”
“You have a better idea? The signal doesn’t seem strong enough to talk over, but maybe dots and dashes will fly. Whoever receives this will have to figure out where we are, though. How many people knew the backup radio was moved in here?”
“Not many. Maybe a dozen. It wasn’t a secret or anything.”
Derrick shrugged in the gloom. He repeated the pattern a dozen more times before dropping the transmitter. “Well, that’s that.”
I tried the door again, then pressed my ear to it, straining to hear outside. Nothing. Frustration boiling over, I stepped back and kicked the wood, and ended up bouncing on my other foot like a pogo stick as the sting engulfed my whole leg. Finally, I dropped to my stomach and tried to see under the door, where the line of daylight was creeping in. But it was no good.
“You think it was a trap?” Derrick asked suddenly.
“What?”
“Noah going to check the Outpost. You think Toby was luring him away?”
I sat back and rested my head against the wall. “The raid here and them not answering don’t have to be connected.”
Derrick gave me a look. I sighed. “But you’re right, a coincidence seems unlikely now. What I don’t get is, who could’ve done it? How could Toby bomb the silo, attack the Outpost, and then raid Home Town in such a short amount of time? Nobody could’ve traveled through that storm. Not across open water.”
“True.” Derrick spoke deliberately in the darkness. “If the Outpost really was attacked, only Toby’s fools could have done it, with no help from here. Because everyone living on this island was accounted for before and right after the storm. I’ve already asked around.” He paused. “Unless Ethan, Spence, and Cash did it, but that’s only three guys. It doesn’t add up.” He paused again. “Or maybe some Outpost people turned on the others all by themselves? But who would that be? Corbin’s group is tighter than anybody, and they never cause trouble.”
He paused again. I whispered quietly, “Or maybe those cavemen you mentioned.”
Derrick covered his face. “God help us.”
I shivered. Three possible assaults, maybe by different people, with everyone now a suspect. How deep did this go?
Fact: Twelve attackers means there’s a conspiracy. The only question is how big.
“One of us has to escape,” I said. “Find Noah. Toby might’ve surprised us last night, but they’re still outnumbered—”
The door rattled. Metal scraped metal, then something heavy fell to the ground outside.
Heart pounding, I scrambled into a crouch as the door swung inward.
Sunlight burned like fire as the gap widened to reveal
a short, powerful-looking figure in the doorway.
My lips formed a snarl. I tensed, ready to attack Toby and gouge his eyes out, but in another blink I knew it wasn’t him. A relieved smile split my face.
“Let’s go,” Sam whispered, glancing back over his shoulder. “Right now. Hurry.”
We didn’t ask questions. I crept outside, Derrick a step behind. The sun was low over the eastern mountains. No one else was in sight. Sam darted into the woods behind the shed and we raced after him, moving as soundlessly as possible. He led us up a hill, through a thick copse of fir trees, and then down into the ravine where Noah had discovered the stolen explosives. The crates were gone, but deep gouges still scored the earth.
There he halted. I opened my mouth, but Sam cut me off with a hand motion. He listened several more seconds, then, putting a finger to his lips, led us deeper into the defile. At the bottom we crawled inside a circle of pine trees and knelt, camouflaged on all sides. Finally, he nodded permission to speak.
“How’d you find us?” I whispered.
Sam held up a walkie-talkie. “Dot, dot, dot. Dash, dash, dash. Dot, dot, dot.”
Derrick broke into a wide smile. “My SOS worked!”
Sam shrugged. “Me and Floyd carried the radio in there yesterday. I thought it was Cash.”
“No one was guarding us?” I made a noise deep in my throat. “Sam, who did this?”
He frowned. “Toby’s gang. I was out walking last night when they hit. It was chaos at first, but they’re armed and took control of the village in minutes. Someone must’ve helped them. I couldn’t see anything from where I was hiding, so I stayed in the woods until dawn. Then I checked my radio and caught your signal.” He met my eye squarely. “On my way over here, I spotted the bald prick himself, crossing the square with Mike Nolan. Like they owned the place.”
My hands balled into fists. There it was. Confirmation. Toby Albertsson had attacked our home. I seethed with rage but was determined not to lose the big picture.
“How many others escaped?” I asked.
Sam shook his head. “Like I said, I came for you first.”
“I counted twelve attackers last night, Sam. Some of our own people must be in on this.”
“Your people,” Sam shot back.
“Anybody,” Derrick snapped. Sam gave him a hard look, but Derrick didn’t flinch. “I’m just saying, we don’t know. It could’ve been Home Towners, Ethan and his buddies, or yeah, Sam—maybe even Ridgeliners. We need to find out.”
“No one in my camp had a part in this,” Sam said coldly, but I noticed a flicker behind his eyes. He wasn’t totally sure. And it burned him.
“The solution is simple,” I said, glancing back up the defile. “We should sneak back to the village and take a look. I want to see Toby with my own eyes. Before I kill him.” I was so angry, I wasn’t sure if I was serious.
Sam nodded gruffly. “He was headed up the silo path.”
“The silo?” Derrick scratched the back of his head. “With the entrance blocked solid? What could he want up there?”
“Maybe a chance to admire his work.” I pressed a fist to my chin. “If Sarah’s right, Toby deliberately sabotaged every way into the silo before this attack. Now he controls the outside, too. He must want something. Everything leading up to now feels like chess moves to capture the place for himself.”
Derrick bared his teeth. “And when he needed us out of the way, he cut a deal with some village malcontents to help him take over. Question is, who?”
Sam was looking at me. “We know one person who spoke with Toby in secret.”
I shook my head. “Sarah ran the place already. She lived down there, for God’s sake. Plus, she was underground when the roof collapsed. No way she’d take that risk, or let five of her friends die while it happened.” I paused, thinking hard. “Toby would look for allies on the fringes. People who might feel as shut out as he did.”
I didn’t have an answer. Even Ethan didn’t truly gibe. He was more direct in his rebellions.
Then something else popped out at me. “Why wreck the silo at all? If Toby had a freaking traitor brigade lined up, and weapons for a raid, why not just attack the village first and save the trouble? Now he can’t get inside, either.”
Derrick opened his mouth, then closed it. Sam grunted. Another fact that made little sense.
“Let’s go see already,” Derrick muttered.
“There’s a promontory overlooking the silo’s front entrance,” Sam said. “A hundred yards back. We can check out who’s near the tunnel without much risk.”
We rose as one. Sam took the lead again and we snaked through the forest, swinging wide of the village until reaching the cliffs. Then we climbed carefully, creeping along a back ridge toward the silo. The sun was behind us—anyone looking our direction would be staring straight into it. Finally, we crawled onto a ledge. The crushed entry tunnel was directly across from us, about fifty feet down. Four people were milling in front of it.
Toby. Mike Nolan. His brother Chris. Cole Pritchard.
I hadn’t seen any of them in months. They seemed leaner than before. Harder. Toby had some sort of schematic in his hands and was issuing instructions. It took everything I had not to stand up and curse them out.
A moment later, three more figures emerged from the rubble.
I didn’t recognize any of them.
Derrick made a choking noise beside me. Sam’s eyes widened.
I felt my pulse spike. My hands began to tingle, even as every muscle in my body tensed.
Two boys. A girl. They seemed to be our age.
The trio were dressed in black like Toby and his crew, but they looked healthier in some way. Cleaner, certainly. They listened to Toby with an air of reluctant indulgence—if Toby thought he was in charge of the others, these three might not agree. Then my mind snapped back to the bold-letter point.
I didn’t know these people, and I knew every human alive.
At least, I thought I had.
Sam snapped his fingers in front of my face. He jerked his head backward.
I blinked, nodded. We slithered away from the edge, then rose and scurried another hundred yards down off the ridge before huddling behind a circle of broken boulders.
Where we stood staring at each other like zombies. No one could think of what to say.
I covered my face, then ran both hands down it. Derrick was staring at the ground and shaking his head. He mouthed the word cavemen in disbelief. Even Sam seemed shook.
None of us could process. Finally, I just said the words aloud.
“Those were strangers down there.”
“How is that possible?” Derrick whined.
“They were our age, too.” Sam squeezed his scalp. “What the hell, Min?”
I swallowed. Took a deep breath. Spoke the words, and named them true.
“We’re not alone.” Then my voice hardened, anger seeping through the shock. “Someone else survived the Dark Star, and they’re our enemies.”
10
NOAH
I jogged up the final rise to the sea.
The empty lookout cabin waited starkly on the headland as a blazing sun rose behind it.
Ethan, Akio, and Richie were a mile behind me. We’d spent an uneasy night in the cornfield, rolled in our sleeping bags and jumping at every sound. When daylight came, the others began a final sweep of the Outpost while I hurried back to the radio. I was worried sick about Min and the others.
Something bad had happened here. So bad our friends hadn’t had time to call for help. Dark thoughts churned in my brain, centered on a bloodstained rock, a mysterious hammer, and a red arrow pointing into the wilderness.
I stormed into the cabin, ignoring the toppled chair and overturned bowl as I beelined for the receiver in the corner. We should’ve tried it last night.
But I’d been focused on Ethan’s gun and finally getting to the Outpost. I checked the battery and found a half charge. Encouraged, I flipped the switch and heard a reassuring whoosh of static. In seconds I’d tuned in Home Town’s frequency. Min had promised to have someone stationed at the radio around the clock.
“Outpost to Home Town, this is Noah.”
No response. I called again, my impatience growing. If the operator was taking a leak right now, my head might explode.
“Outpost to Home Town, pick up. This is Noah.”
Nothing. I switched frequencies. “Outpost to Caves, this is Noah. Pick up.”
White noise. I ground my teeth.
“Outpost to Ridgeline, copy back.”
I knew the last was a long shot—Sam’s camp was all the way across the island, and I doubted the signal could reach. But I was desperate. Stymied, I tried the village again. No answer. I was about to slam the transmitter to the floor and stomp up and down on it when the others stepped inside.
“Reach anyone?” Ethan asked, wiping sweat from his brow.
I shook my head angrily. “Far as I can tell, this is working. But no one’s answering.”
“So now we can’t contact the island.” Akio scratched his cheek. “Maybe it really was a trap.”
“Don’t get crazy,” I snapped, almost at myself, because I was a moment from panicking. Why would Min leave the radio unmanned? She’d promised.
“Use your head for once, Livingston.” Ethan regarded me coolly. “This whole thing is messed up. First we can’t reach anyone at the Outpost, so we boat over here and the place is a ransacked ghost town. Now no one’s picking up back there. The dots aren’t hard to connect.”
“You seem to know a lot about it. Got Toby on speed dial?”
Ethan crossed the room in two strides. I didn’t back down. Min might be in trouble, and I was a full day away from where I should be. Coming out here had been stupid. I had to get back.
“Accuse me of something again,” Ethan said softly, his face inches from mine.
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