by Tina Chan
“Start talking,” Jaiden commanded.
“First of all, I feel extremely guilty right now. I know that probably doesn’t mean much to you guys, but I truly apologize to you,” Chelsa said.
“You can save your apologies for later.”
“Just tell us why you pretended to be our friend,” Kristi said.
“It’s a long story.”
“We have all the time we need.”
“Do you remember Alex? Officer Zala contacted me shortly after Alex died. It turns out the government has known that there were four living Accidents for a while; however, the Revealers had done an excellent job of concealing our locations. By pure chance, Officer Zala happened to find me after being assigned to document Alex’s death. She offered me a deal: if I could somehow manage to steer the other three Accidents, which are you guys, into one place together where she could seize everyone at once, she would bring Alex back to life.”
Kristi closed her mouth when she realized it had fallen open in disbelief. “That sounds like something from a science-fiction book. No one has ever been brought back from the dead.”
“That’s true,” Chelsa said. “But Officer Zala knows several scientists that have been working on ways to revitalize the deceased; it’s a government funded research department and the scientists think that they will have a method to bring a person back to life using their DNA soon.
“At first, I brushed off her offer for two main reasons: first of all, the whole deal sounded preposterous; second of all, I had absolutely no idea how to find the other Accidents. Heck, I thought I was a one-of-a-kind-freak. But when I accidently met Kristi, I began to reconsider Zala’s offer. I told myself I would just pretend to befriend Kristi and let her lead me to the other Accidents then turn you all in and be done with it.
“I wasn’t expecting to actually befriend you guys. And I most definitely did not foresee myself falling in love with Jaiden.” Chelsa threw him a pleading look, which he returned stonily. She dropped her head to her hands and muttered, “I really screwed up, didn’t I?”
“You really, really screwed up,” Troop affirmed.
Chelsa’s face crumpled. She looked at Kristi, awaiting her verdict.
Kristi found her voice and said, “You hurt me, Chelsa, you’re one of the few people I trusted.”
“I know you probably don’t trust me anymore,” Chelsa said. “But will you at least not hate me?”
Kristi sighed. “I don’t know what to do or feel. I believed you were my friend—I wanted you as my friend. But your actions tonight proved otherwise. Yet, if you hadn’t changed your mind and decided to fork me over to Zala, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”
“Does that mean you’ve forgiven me?”
“I suppose. I do have a question though: was the government somehow involved with our lack of bandit encounters on South Lane?”
“Yes. As the Revealers have suspected, the government is working with several bandit groups. The bandits were instructed to leave us alone. It is also why the government didn’t try very hard to capture Kristi and Jaiden; they wanted to wait until Finn, Troop and Kristi were together before swooping in.”
Troop gave Kristi a look that read, “Isn’t that what I said before?”
“I haven’t known you for a long time,” Finn said. “But if Kristi thinks you’ve definitely had a change of heart, then you’re cool by me. But take notice, I’ll be watching your moves closely, so you better not screw up again.” Finn said the words as if simply stating a fact.
Troop didn’t offer his thoughts.
The rest of them waited for Jaiden to speak. He looked squarely into Chelsa’s eyes and said, “It’s over. Whatever we had going on between us is over.”
Then he stood up and strode out of the room.
This living room sure witnessed a lot of dramatic exits today, thought Kristi. First Finn’s mom and now Jaiden.
“Well,” she said, “just when I thought things couldn’t get worse they did.”
“You think?” Troop said sarcastically.
Jaiden didn’t join them for brunch that morning. The grownups seemed to have noticed some of the tension in the air, but to Kristi’s relief, they didn’t ask about it.
“Where’s Dr. Hanson?” she asked Finn’s dad.
Finn’s mom had left for her office shortly after making sure the teens had enough to eat. Kristi was glad she had departed—her interactions with Finn still seemed strained at best.
“He left already. He had some business to attend to and headed out when you were still asleep. He did leave this for you though.”
Finn’s dad handed her a sealed envelope. Troop put down his dirty dishes in the sink and peered over Kristi’s shoulder.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Hold on. Have some patience.”
She carefully slid her finger underneath the flap and pulled out a single piece of paper. In neatly printed letters were the words:
If I recall correctly, your parents believe Stevey holds valuable information in which you may be interested. Stevey’s house: 41° 39’ 58.1008” Burn after reading. Do not share this information. A driver will take you to a twenty-mile radius within Stevey’s house. The driver should arrive a bit after noon, so you will have time to gather your belongings. Your droid-horses will be transported to a stable run by a Revealer member. Good luck.
“As usual, he’s one step ahead of us,” Kristi said to herself, but loud enough for Troop to hear.
She entered the longitude and latitude into her electro-slate, then tossed the paper into the incinerator.
Clang!
Finn accidently dropped one of his crutches.
Troop retrieved it for him and said, “I’ve been meaning to ask but keep on forgetting: how did you hurt your leg?”
“Hiking accident.”
“That stinks. How much longer until you’re off crutches?”
“Um, never.”
“Never?” Kristi asked.
“I paralyzed my left leg four years ago.”
“Couldn’t the doctors do anything? If they can bring back the dead, surely they can mend a paralyzed leg.”
Finn shrugged. “I hurt my spinal cord pretty bad. The spinal cord, which is part of the nervous system, was too messed up to be fixed. As a result, I lost all sense in my leg.”
“I’m not trying to impose on your personal preferences, but have you considered getting a prosthetic?”
“My parents and I did look into it, but we couldn’t find a surgeon willing to perform surgery on me to remove the paralyzed leg; none of the surgeons we approached wanted to help an Accident. To quote the last surgeon we visited, ‘This is natural selection doing its job of making sure only the fittest survive.’”
Troop snorted. “That’s BS.”
Kristi couldn’t have agreed more. “Couldn’t Dr. Hanson remove your paralyzed leg for you?”
“He’s not a surgeon,” Finn explained. “He isn’t trained to perform operations.”
“Someone better wake Jaiden up,” Chelsa said. She had been so quiet this morning Kristi had forgotten she was still in the room. “He doesn’t know we’re leaving in a few hours.”
“Want me to do it?” Kristi offered.
“Yes, please,” Chelsa said gratefully.
Kristi left the kitchen and headed up to the guest bedroom. Jaiden was already awake and seemed to be deep in thought, sitting cross-legged on the bed.
She gently coughed, as not to startle him when she spoke, “Are you alright? We’re going to be heading out soon.”
“I don’t think I’ll be coming,” he said.
“What do you mean? Surely you’re not so furious about Chelsa you’re planning on staying behind.” Kristi couldn’t imagine solving the two cases without Jaiden. He was her brother, her friend.
“I’ve already spoken with Finn’s parents,” Jaiden continued on like he hadn’t heard Kristi. “They’ve agreed to let me stay with them until I get a
steady job and am ready to live on my own. They’re also nice enough to get me a new ID and paperwork—that’s the upside of being in contact with the Revealers.”
“Jaiden, you’re not serious! How can—”
“—it’ll be great. I’m getting the chance to have a fresh start. No one knows me in Oppidum and Finn’s parents have agreed to pose as my aunt and uncle.” Jaiden paused in his talking and looked at Kristi. “What do you think?”
She took a gulp and replied, “If this is really what you want to do, I guess I’m more than happy that an opportunity like this has presented itself to you. But at the same time, I’ll really miss you traveling with the group.”
“I want to stay here.”
Kristi dipped her head. “I respect your choice, but all the same, your company will be sorely missed. Are you still angry at Chelsa?” She asked before she could help herself.
Storm clouds rolled onto his face. “Not so much angry as hurt. I can’t believe she’s been playing us along the whole time.”
“Chelsa’s changed her loyalties.”
“That’s what you think.”
Kristi decided to keep her mouth shut to prevent herself from infuriating this touchy topic.
“Love is like an onion,” Jaiden said.
Kristi wasn’t sure how to reply to this random statement, so she said the first thing that popped into her mind, “I don’t see the connection.”
“A person, like an onion, is made up of multiple layers. When you love a person, you get to take away all their layers and truly see what they’re like on the inside. You may cry as you peel away each layer and discover not all of them are sweet.”
chapter thirty-one
[ Troop ]
“I think the driver Dr. Hanson promised us is here,” Finn said, looking out the living room window.
He had barely finished his sentence when the sound of a car’s horn was heard.
Troop slung his backpack over his shoulders and headed outside.
“I still can’t believe Jaiden is ditching us,” he said.
“I don’t think he really wanted to be part of this whole fiasco in the first place,” Kristi replied. “I’m pretty sure the only reason why he came with us was because I kind of pressured him to.”
The automatic front doors swished open and they walked down the driveway to the black van idling. A nondescript man in a polo shirt and jeans came out from the driver’s side of the car.
The man checked out the group of teens and said, “I’m sent by Dr. Hanson to drive you to segment 9 of Route 56.”
“That sounds right,” Troop said.
“The drive will take around three to four days, depending on traffic and what not.” The driver opened the doors to the van and ushered them inside.
The van was made to hold nine people, so the five of them (six if counting Ghost) fit comfortably. Kristi dropped her backpack into the trunk and crawled to the backseat. Troop joined her in the back as well and thought, Not bad. I have enough room to stretch out my legs if I want and there’s a mini-fridge in this vehicle as well.
Chelsa and Finn took a seat in a separate row each. Ghost curled up in the empty seat besides Chelsa. Once everyone was settled in, the driver locked the doors and pulled out of the driveway.
“I never thought a three day drive would feel so long,” Kristi moaned.
Troop laughed and said, “We could’ve always walked. That would’ve taken over a week.”
“Only three more hours until we arrive at your destination,” the driver informed them from up front.
“Thank goodness,” Kristi muttered good-naturedly. “My butt is so sore from sitting. What time is it anyways?”
Finn briefly consulted his watch. “A bit past three.”
“I think I’m going to take a nap to pass time. Wake me up when we arrive.” She grabbed a pillow from beneath her seat and fell asleep.
Troop watched her eyelashes slowly flutter to a standstill, like the petals of a flower stilling for the night. Her breathing slowed to a steady inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. A small smile graced her lips and she let out a soft sigh.
“Troop,” said Chelsa, “what do you say we do about Zala?”
“Did she ask for an update?”
“Not yet, but she’s bound to soon.”s
Troop grunted a noncommittal reply. Chelsa returned to her ponderings.
He removed his electro-slate from his pocket and trawled through his instafication inbox, which had reached an all-time high of two hundred and twenty messages; he’d been neglecting it. Not surprisingly, most of the instafications were from Jennifer. His mom had sent a couple messages to ask how he was doing. Darrel had messaged him several times asking where he was.
Troop gave his mom a brief but to-the-point answer, letting her know he was doing just fine and not to worry about him. For Darrel, Troop replied with a vague instafication of his whereabouts. He deleted all one hundred and thirty messages from Jennifer after reading the first one.
Troop, where are you? I swear, if you don’t show your face at school or answer my messages soon, I am going to break up with you.
He was tempted to respond Jennifer, telling her that he wasn’t aware that they had been going out in the first place. He smothered the urge to do so, though, knowing nothing good would come out of it. Instead, he blocked her off his contact list.
chapter thirty-two
[ Kristi ]
Kristi woke up to people quietly chatting. She squinted her eyes open and saw Troop looking at her.
“What do you want?” she asked, her voice raspy from sleep.
“Nothing.” He averted his eyes to the scenery passing by outside.
She let out a yawn for good measure and took a sip of water.
Chelsa twisted around in her seat to face them. “Only half an hour left.”
Kristi felt her pulse quicken, anticipating meeting Stevey once more. Tendrils of doubt rooted themselves in a corner of her mind as she recalled the nightmare she had in which Stevey turned into a monstrous creature. She cleared her head of such thoughts.
“Stevey’s just an old, harmless guy that is a bit crazy,” she reassured herself.
Chelsa overheard Kristi and said, “Very crazy.”
“Is Stevey really as eccentric as you guys keep on making him to be?” Troop asked.
Kristi let out a small laugh. “You don’t know Stevey until you’ve met him.”
Chelsa’s electro-slate buzzed, announcing someone had sent her an instafication. She read the message and a grimace crossed over her face.
“What’s wrong?” Finn asked.
“Zala. She wants to have an update about how ‘things’ are going. I don’t know how I should respond to Officer Zala’s request.”
“Tell her we’re being uncooperative and don’t want to listen to you. Also let her know we’re planning on heading to New Anchorage,” Kristi added, thinking of the city furthest away from them as she could think of.
“Alright,” Chelsa said, typing back a reply. “But eventually she’s going to find out something’s not right. Zala’s not stupid.”
“We’ll worry about that later,” Troop said.
“That should be your new motto.” Kristi kicked back her feet. “Do now, worry later.”
The van slowed and came to a stop. The driver turned off the engines.
“We’re at the rest station of segment 9 of Route 56.”
Kristi barreled out the door, clambering over Ghost and inhaled a lungful of fresh air. She walked around to get the blood circulating to her legs.
“I never knew walking in a circle could feel so good.”
“It’s all in relativity,” Troop said.
“Whatever. A lot of things are all in relativity.” She stretched out her stiff legs and let out a breath as the blood rushed to the tips of her toes.
The driver unloaded the backpacks from the van and drove away. Kristi distributed energy bars to everyone and powered on her electro-sl
ate. Then she entered in the latitude and longitude of Stevey’s home into the GPS and they set off.
Finding Stevey’s shack wasn’t as hard as Kristi had anticipated. She had been expecting a ten-mile hike through the wilderness; in reality, Stevey’s cabin was within five miles of the rest stop. It was just buried deep inside the forest, meaning progress was slow, as they had to fight through bramble thickets, tripping roots, craggy rocks and even a swarm of wasps.
Finn had a difficult time maneuvering through the uneven terrain, but he managed to keep up.
“I think I see Stevey’s place.” He jerked his head to the right.
Kristi scanned the area and made out the wooden cabin camouflaged among the trees. “Nice spotting. I probably would’ve missed it.”
“Try not to be too demanding with your questions when you meet Stevey,” Chelsa advised. “He seems to be a bit paranoid and doesn’t like to be put under pressure. Also, don’t be alarmed by his appearance and discursiveness.”
“Alright,” Troop said. “From what I’ve heard, I’m expecting Stevey to be this bizarre man with a bad taste in clothing.”
“Sounds about right,” Kristi said.
She pushed her way through some pine branches and looked around for any signs of Stevey. Aside from his apparently empty cabin, there was no presence of any human being.
“Stevey!” she called out. “Dr. Hanson told us to find you.”
No reply. But there was a rustle from the bushes to their left. Five heads swiveled towards the source of the sound. Ghost let out a growl and pounced in the general direction. A fox burst out from the undergrowth and bounded away.
“Hello?” Chelsa called out.
The branches overhead rustled in response. It turned out to be only two squirrels bickering.
“Maybe he’s not here,” Finn said.
“There’s no reason why he would leave this place.” Chelsa shaded her eyes, swinging her head from side to side. “Stevey! Are you around?”
“Yes.”
They jumped at Stevey’s voice. Stevey came lurching out from his cabin. I guess he was in his cabin the whole time after all, Kristi thought.