by Amy Tintera
She put her hand over her face to cry harder, trying to yank the other one from his grasp. He would have felt cold to her. Dead.
“Dad, look at me,” he said, giving up on his mom and desperately trying to get his dad to meet his eyes. “Just look!”
They didn’t look, either of them. His dad began making a desperate waving motion with his hands. His eyes darted down the hallway as he tried to shoo his son away.
“Go.” His voice was low, strangled, as he pushed his wife behind him. “If they see you here . . .”
HARC would arrest both his parents if they found Callum here.
“But—” Callum took in a shaky breath as his eyes found something behind them.
I stood on my toes to see past his mom. A dark-haired boy stood next to the couch. David, I assumed. His eyes were fixed on Callum, but he made no move toward his brother.
“Go,” his father repeated, taking a step backward into the apartment.
He slammed the door shut.
TWENTY-SEVEN
DISAPPOINTMENT PUSHED AT MY CHEST AS CALLUM BLINKED at the spot where his parents had been. Maybe I had thought he was right about them.
I held my hand out to him, but he was alone in another world and had forgotten I existed. I slipped my hand into his and he jumped.
“Let’s go,” I said, gently tugging on his arm.
He let me lead him through the hallway and down the stairs, but he kept looking behind him, even after the door was no longer visible. I was worried he’d dart away from me and try again, so I gripped his fingers tighter as we made our way out into the cool night air.
Callum stopped in front of the building, his jacket blowing open in the wind as he turned to look at me. He was so still, so calm, that I was scared to move for fear of breaking him.
But we were out in the open, surrounded by apartment buildings with curious humans pressing their faces to the windows. I could see David two floors up, his hands against the dingy glass, his mouth open wide.
So I gently pulled on Callum’s hand and he followed me when I broke into a run. We headed back down the long road and past the brightly painted houses again. I didn’t know where I was going, but when we approached the market Callum veered off the road. He pressed his hand to the back of his neck as he walked around the side of the wooden building and I silently followed him.
He reached out and touched the tips of his fingers to the wall, letting out a heavy sigh. “I need a minute.”
He’d closed his eyes but I nodded anyway, because I didn’t know what else to do. I should have already considered ways to comfort him. I expected this. Why hadn’t I thought about it?
Standing there staring at him was undoubtedly not the right thing to do. I wrapped an arm around his waist and pressed my cheek against his shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
A few tears fell as he opened his eyes and planted a soft kiss on my forehead. He cleared his throat as he pulled away from me and wiped his fingers across his eyes, his expression tinged with embarrassment as he tried to remove the evidence of his crying.
I thought it was more embarrassing to not be able to cry at all.
“We need to go get Adina, right?” he asked.
I took that to mean he didn’t want to talk about it. I couldn’t blame him.
His hand was shaking violently when I slipped my fingers through his. I took in a deep breath. It could be because he was devastated about his parents.
Or it could be because he was about to go insane.
Either way, I refused to let him see my fear. I held his hand tighter as we ducked out of the alley and hurried down the street. The tiny houses were lined up right next to one another in this part of town, an occasional apartment complex stuck at the end of a street. They were painted as well, some with colorful drawings, others with words. Fighting words. Words that would result in immediate arrest in Rosa.
Take Back Texas.
Texans for Freedom.
Callum squinted at them as we passed. “It’s weird here,” he mumbled.
He was right. I remembered nothing clean or colorful or rebellious about the Austin I grew up in. Something had changed.
The roar of the shuttle made me turn. It touched down at the end of Guadalupe Street, and we hid against the side of a house as five Reboots stepped out. They all looked the same in their black clothes and helmets, but I could see a long, dark ponytail sticking out of the back of one helmet.
“I think that might be her,” I said, peering around the corner of the house as the Reboots split up. The dark-haired girl headed down First Street and disappeared from view.
We took off after her at a slow pace, running behind the houses to stay out of sight of the other Reboots. We crossed onto First Street and I spotted Adina standing in front of a house, looking down at her assignment slip.
Callum slumped against a wire fence, breathing heavily as he clutched his arms against his stomach. “I don’t think I should go in there with a human.”
I hesitated, glancing from him to her. He was probably right. “All right. Don’t move, okay? Yell if you start feeling . . . weird. And be ready to run when we come back.”
He nodded, waving me off. Adina was at the front door of the house, knocking as I silently hurried across the lawn. She lifted her foot and smashed in the front door.
There were no human screams as I crept up the stairs behind her. She stood in the middle of the small living room, her hands on her hips as she scanned from left to right. The house appeared to be empty.
I grabbed her around the waist and a gasp escaped her mouth. My other hand found her camera, ripping it off her helmet and tossing it against the wall.
She tore my arm off her stomach and swung at me, just barely missing my cheek. I tried to catch her eye but she came at me again, hard and fast. I ducked and swiped at her legs with my foot. She jumped over them and smashed her right fist into my cheek.
I blinked, surprised. She was good for a Thirty-nine.
I dodged the next punch, grabbing her arm and twisting it behind her back. I pulled her closer to me, until her face was inches from mine. I didn’t want to speak while her com was still in her ear, so I stared straight into her eyes.
Her face crumpled in confusion and she shoved me away, lifting her arms like she was going to keep fighting me. I raised my hands in surrender, pointing with one finger to my bar code.
She hesitantly took a step forward, nudging her helmet farther up to reveal wisps of long brown hair. Her wide brown-gold eyes flew up to mine, full of suspicion and curiosity.
I reached into my pocket and she grabbed my wrist, her fingers digging into my skin. I gave her an annoyed look and shook her off, pulling Leb’s note out. I held it toward her and she frowned at it for several seconds before plucking it from my fingers.
Her eyes skimmed over the words quickly, her expression unreadable. When she looked up at me again I reached for the com in her ear. She let me take it out and I clenched it in my fist.
“Do you want to come with me?” I whispered.
“To this reservation thing?” she asked, glancing down at the note.
“Yes.” I took a quick glance behind me, through the front door. Callum was still slumped against the fence, his face lifted to the sky.
She didn’t answer for several seconds. She pressed her lips together, her eyebrows lowered in thought. When she looked up at me again I was almost certain she would say no. A few weeks ago, before Callum, I would have said no.
She barely nodded.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, carefully folding the note and slipping it into her pocket.
I crushed the com in my hand and dropped the pieces on the ground. I pulled the tracker locator from my pocket and waved it over her body until it lit up, above her left collarbone.
“Your tracker,” I whispered as I took my knife and sliced just under her neck. She didn’t flinch as I pulled the tracker out and caref
ully placed it on the ground.
“Wren,” I said.
“Addie,” she said. “You know my father?”
“Yes, but we need to run. They—”
A scream pierced the night, strangled and terrified. I whirled around to the front of the house, my eyes searching for Callum.
He was gone.
I bolted out the door, Addie’s footsteps following behind me as I flew down the steps and onto the grass.
The fence next door was open.
The front door broken down.
I raced through the yard and what remained of the front door. The kitchen was in total disarray, chairs scattered around the room, the table overturned.
“Callum?” I yelled.
A grunt came from the back room and I ran down the hallway. I came to a sudden stop at the bedroom door.
The human was sprawled out on the floor, Callum’s hands around his neck. The man’s eyes stared blankly past me.
He was dead.
Callum loosened his grip and opened his mouth wide, poised to take a big chunk out of the human’s neck.
I dove across the room, pushing Callum off before he could sink his teeth in. We hit the floor together and his teeth scraped against my arm as he growled and flailed. I pushed his arms into the wood as I hauled myself on top of him.
“Callum,” I said through gritted teeth, slamming his arms down as he struggled against me.
I looked from the dead man to Callum. I couldn’t let him see that. If I got him out of the room I wouldn’t have to tell him at all. He didn’t need to know.
“Get his feet,” I said to Addie, grabbing Callum underneath the arms.
She did as I said, yanking Callum’s feet together when he tried to kick her.
“He’s an Under-sixty?” she asked as we lifted him off the ground.
“Yes. Twenty-two.”
“She’s gone! Thirty-nine is gone!”
The man’s yell from next door made both our heads snap up. We had to hurry. Addie ran backward through the room and for the door at the rear of the house, whipping her head around every few seconds to see where she was going as we lugged Callum with us.
The front door banged open as we flew out the back and I looked desperately for a hiding place. There was no way to run far with Callum like this, not with them right behind us.
The backyard was fenced in by some rotting wood and I sprinted across the grass, Callum bouncing in my grasp. He wasn’t struggling much anymore. Instead he was blinking and shaking his head, as if trying to clear his thoughts.
Addie unhooked the gate and we scrambled into the alley, yells and footsteps not far behind us. I dug my fingers into Callum’s shoulders as we ran. I couldn’t come this far and get caught.
Addie made a sharp turn as we approached a poorly paved road dotted with run-down homes and a few shops. I let her lead since she knew the town better than I did, and I didn’t have any other bright ideas.
The shouts were louder as she tore through a yard and around to the back of a house. A dim light flickered inside and I tried to run as quietly as possible.
We were headed for a shed, a tiny rectangle-shaped one that looked like it was barely big enough to fit all three of us. Addie dropped Callum’s legs and they skidded against the dirt until he found his footing. He gently shrugged me off and I let him go as Addie threw open the shed door.
We raced inside and I stumbled over a rake and a toolbox before finding a spot against the wall. Callum slid down next to me and I wanted to tell him not to sit, to be prepared to run, but he looked so utterly freaked out that I couldn’t find the words.
Addie tried to close the door but it looked like she’d broken the lock, so she gave up and held on to the handle, keeping it closed as she leaned forward to listen. There was yelling nearby and I closed my fingers over the gun on my hip.
“Is that Adina? What happened?” Callum whispered, turning his face up to mine. His eyes were huge and worried, like he already suspected something.
“You lost it for a minute there,” I whispered as the voices outside began to fade.
“And yes, I’m Addie,” she said.
Callum looked at her, but she stayed focused on the outside. His head swung back to me and I had to drop my eyes because I didn’t want him to see the fear there.
“Wren.” His voice was firm, controlled. “What just happened?”
I should have come up with a lie. A story to tell him to fill in the holes. Maybe I could just tell him he attacked someone and I pulled him off in time.
But that lie made me feel sick. He’d thank me and his gratitude would likely make me hurl.
I’d waited too long to answer and he was staring at me like he already knew something terrible had happened. I was shaking a little as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I shouldn’t have left you.”
“I hurt someone?”
I nodded. My throat burned again and I tried to swallow. It didn’t help.
“I killed someone?”
“Yes,” I choked out. He was silent and I looked up. He was perfectly still, the horror creeping over his features.
“It’s not your fault,” Addie said. “I’ve seen what the shots do and been there myself and—”
Callum held his hand up and she closed her mouth, shrugging her shoulders at me like she didn’t know what else to say.
I didn’t, either. The footsteps outside were gone so I slid down the wall beside him. His eyes were closed, his hands clasped together at the back of his neck.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “It’s my fault. I said I wouldn’t let you hurt anyone and I did.”
What was one more body to add to my tally? I wanted to point that out to him, to remind him that I’d killed more people than he ever would. But I doubted that would be comforting.
He shook his head, dropping his hands from his neck and looking me straight in the eye. I thought he would be sad, but his eyes were hard, angry. I braced myself, thinking he was going to yell at me, but he slipped his hand into mine and squeezed it.
“It’s not your fault,” he said. “It’s HARC’s fault.”
Addie muttered something that sounded like agreement. My head snapped up as it occurred to me that she might be in the same situation as Callum.
“Are you okay?” I asked. “Did they give you shots?”
“Yes. I’m fine for now, though. I’m between rounds.”
“What do you mean?” Callum asked.
“They do multiple rounds,” Addie said. “You must be on the first.”
“I guess. I was only there a few weeks.”
“Yeah, probably on the first, then. You start going off the deep end, then they’ll give you something that makes you feel normal again. Some sort of cure or antidote or something. Then they start it up again.”
Callum’s eyes widened with hope at the same time mine did.
“I don’t know that for sure,” Addie said quickly. “But my friends said I was a mess last week and now I’m fine. Good timing, by the way. Thanks for that.”
“Your dad might have known,” I said. It could be why he was so quick to get us the tracker locator. I made a fist and dug my fingers into my palm. Leb hadn’t bothered to check on Callum’s status.
“If there is an antidote, maybe the rebels will have it,” Callum said hopefully. “Or they’ll get it for us.”
I gave him a doubtful look. I’d barely persuaded Leb to help us, and only in exchange for something.
“I can’t stay like this.” He swallowed, turning to Addie. “I’ll just get worse, right?”
“Probably,” she said quietly. “The ones who didn’t get multiple rounds, the ones they let run the course . . . yeah, they never got better.”
The lump in my throat was unexpected, and I had to swallow several times before I could speak.
“We have to at least ask the rebels,” he said.
I nodded. “We will. And when they say
no we’ll go get it ourselves.”
Addie raised her eyebrows. “Seriously? You know you’ll have to go inside HARC to get it.”
“Yes.”
She pressed her lips together as she took a step toward me. “You just broke me out and now you want to—”
A noise outside made us turn. The shed door swung open.
It was a HARC officer.
Pointing a gun at us.
TWENTY-EIGHT
I SHOT TO MY FEET AND DOVE FOR THE OFFICER, PAINFULLY aware that I didn’t have a helmet. Addie got there first, grabbing the officer’s arm just as he got a shot off. The bullet sailed past her and through the shed wall.
He fired again and Addie stumbled as the bullet hit her chest. The officer whirled around to me just as I slammed into him, knocking him into the dirt. Callum scrambled across the ground and wrestled the gun from the officer’s grasp.
The shouts outside meant the other officers in the area had heard the commotion. I stomped on the human’s leg until I heard a crack, and he screamed and clawed at the dirt to get away from me.
I jumped over him and ran through the door, reaching my hand out for Callum’s. He grabbed it and Addie dashed through the door behind him.
We ran across the yard and back to the poorly paved street. I whipped my head around to see a group of about five officers chasing us. I ducked as one fired, putting my hands over the back of my head like that would stop a bullet.
Addie’s long legs made her a fast runner, and she pulled ahead of us and turned left as she approached a crossroads. Bullets flew past my ears as we sprinted after her just in time to see her take another sharp left behind a two-story building. I rounded the building and she was waiting at the far edge, back pressed against the side as she watched the street we’d just come from. The officers blew past and we waited half a second before darting back out to the street and running the opposite direction.
We got to the edge of town, where the trees were thick before giving way to the open land in front of the HARC fence. We stopped in the darkness there, and I turned to look out at the houses in the distance. The HARC officers were nowhere in sight, but shuttles hovered over the city, spotlights sweeping the streets.