by Dan Wells
“No,” said Samm firmly, “you wouldn’t.”
“Sounds like it could also tell you friend from foe,” said Jayden, nodding. “That would come in pretty handy.”
“It doesn’t work on humans,” said Samm, “because you don’t carry any data. But yes, it does help us identify other Partials who aren’t in our unit, which makes telling my faction from the others pretty simple. It also makes it easy for other factions to find me, which might be a problem.”
“But that’s the part I don’t get,” said Kira. “The link tells you friend from foe, it tells you one unit from another — it stands to reason it would carry authority as well, right? You were created as an army, with generals and lieutenants and privates and all that: Does the link tie into that command structure?”
Samm’s answer was stiff. “It does.”
“Then how could you split into factions? It doesn’t make sense.”
Samm said nothing, stomping irately through the underbrush. After a long pause he said, “After the—” and then stopped again almost immediately, standing in the middle of the road. “This isn’t easy to talk about.”
“You have disagreements,” said Kira simply. “Everyone has those, all the time—”
“We don’t,” said Samm. His voice was even, but Kira could sense an undercurrent of … frustration? “Is disobedience really so common among humans that you can’t understand why we’d want to obey? We’re an army; we obey our leaders. We follow our orders.” He set off down the road again. “Anyone who doesn’t is a traitor.”
“We’re coming up on a bridge,” said Xochi.
The group slowed, studying the terrain in the moonlight, then stopped to confer.
“A river?” asked Samm.
“Only in a really bad rainstorm,” said Kira. “That bridge goes over the expressway; most of these roads pass over it.”
“We want to follow it west,” said Jayden, “but probably not directly. Too easy for anyone following to find us.”
Kira wondered how long it would take Mkele to figure out what their plan was; as soon as he did, he’d be right on their tail. Sneaking off the island wouldn’t be the first thing he’d suspect, which might buy them some time. She set down her bags and stretched her back, twisting from side to side to pop out the kinks. “Do we want to cut west now, or after we cross?”
“Definitely after,” said Jayden. “It’ll be the least cover we pass through until we reach the water, so let’s get it out of the way.”
Kira pulled on her pack and shouldered her shotgun. “No sense waiting around then.”
They crept forward through the trees, eyes scanning the bridge ahead, ears alert for anything that stood out from the ambient sounds. This was beyond the reach of the old urban areas, just thick forests and old-growth trees. Lighter foliage on the right probably led to an old mansion, the grounds now overgrown with kudzu and hundreds of tiny saplings. The bridge was wide ahead, easily double the width of the back road they’d been following. They crossed another narrow road and ran through the trees to the thick cement barrier at the edge of the bridge.
“Nothing to do but do it,” said Marcus. They gripped their packs and guns, took a deep breath, and ran.
The bridge was shorter than the waterways they’d crossed on their trip to Manhattan, but her fear and tension gave Kira the same feeling of dangerous exposure. The expressway stretched out for miles in either direction — anyone looking would be able to see them. We just have to hope we made it here first. They plunged back into the trees on the far side, panting from exertion, taking quick stock of the area.
“Clear,” said Samm, lowering his rifle.
“I didn’t see anyone out there,” said Xochi.
“Doesn’t mean they didn’t see us,” said Jayden. “We can’t stop until we cross the sound.”
The road continued just a short way before hitting a T, and here they turned west to follow the curve of the expressway.
Marcus jogged forward to walk by Kira’s side. “How’s your leg?”
“Hardly worth mentioning, all things considered.” In truth it itched like mad, the aftereffects of the regen box, and it was all she could do not to roll up her pants and start gouging it with a stick. She couldn’t help but worry whether she’d overdone the treatments and ruined the tissue, but she forced herself not to think about it; there was nothing she could do out here anyway. “How are you?”
“Out on a moonlight stroll with the girl of my dreams,” he said, then added, “and Xochi, and Jayden, and an armed Partial. So pretty much my secret fantasy come true.”
“Tell us more about the—” Xochi started, but then a horse whinnied, and the group stopped abruptly.
“Now I’ve made the horses jealous,” said Marcus, but Jayden shushed him with a gesture.
“It came from over there,” he whispered, pointing to the north side of the road. “One of the farms I told you about.”
“So we’re close?”
“Not nearly, but we’re on the right track. We follow this road west until … until we smell seawater, I guess. If you’d told me we were coming out here tonight, I’d have brought a map.”
“West, then,” said Kira, “and quietly.”
They followed the winding road until it reached a new stretch of buildings, though even here the road was still heavily forested, and the buildings removed from the road. They rose empty and ominous from the trees, too far from arable land to be useful as farms, yet too close to the North Shore to be useful as anything else. Even bandits stayed away from here.
They continued in silence. A mile or so later the road crossed a major street, and the old world had commemorated the occasion with a strip mall, now cracked and crumbling. They debated heading north, but Jayden insisted they stay west for another mile at least.
“If we go north too soon we could get trapped in the middle of the farms, away from the water,” he said. “What was your plan, just go north until you ran out of land?”
“Pretty much,” said Kira. “There are boats everywhere.”
They heard a low rumble from behind them; an engine.
“They’re closer than I thought,” said Jayden, “and that engine sound means they’re using the jeeps. They must really be serious.” He paused, sucking in a breath. “They have maps and we don’t, they have the advantage. I admit that. But I promise you: If we go north now, we’ll get trapped between the soldiers and the farms. Someone is bound to find us.”
“This looks like it used to be a housing development behind the strip mall,” said Marcus. “We can weave through there and avoid most of their patrols.”
“Are you sure they’re not tracking us?” asked Samm. “They should be going slower than this if they’re stopping to search.”
“They don’t have to search for us, they know where we’re going,” said Xochi, echoing Kira’s thoughts from earlier. “They’re trying to reach the water first.”
“Then we go north,” said Samm. “We need to stay ahead of them.”
“You’re the boss,” said Jayden, but she could tell he didn’t like it. They stuck to the main road now, practically jogging to keep the right pace. The wide street was relatively clear, and they could move quickly even in the dim light. Xochi and Marcus were breathing heavily, struggling to keep up, and Kira was wincing with every other step, feeling lances of pain through her burned leg every time it hit the ground. Soon they heard more engines behind them, getting closer each minute, and the next time Kira turned, she saw lights behind them like glowing eyes.
“Get off the road,” she grunted, and the group dove into the greenery, burying themselves behind tree trunks and kudzu. Three small jeeps roared past, engines snarling like wild animals. Kira counted four or five soldiers in each one.
“They’re not even looking for us,” said Kira.
Marcus leaned out to peer back down the road. “Nothing behind them. You think it’s a coincidence?”
“They’re trying to cut us o
ff,” said Samm. “The only good news is that them being here means we’re probably on the right path.”
“Doesn’t do us any good now,” said Jayden. “We have to go west.”
“We don’t know what’s west of here,” said Kira. “For all we know we’d be running straight into the Grid army. These could just be outriders.”
“It’s smarter to stay on the path northward,” Samm agreed. “At least this way we know what we’re getting into.”
“Okay,” said Marcus, “but we stay in the trees. Now that they’re ahead of us, they could be waiting somewhere and watching the road.”
The trees slowed them down, and they moved almost by feel through the thick woods. Several times they had to cross side streets, and every time Kira held her breath, certain they would hear a cry of alarm, or worse yet a gunshot. Nothing came. When they reached a long stretch of ruins — old shops and offices — they crossed the main road to the far side, sticking to the cover of the woods.
Eventually even those woods thinned, and Kira looked out across a wide expanse of streets and cross streets and flat, empty parking lots. Squat buildings rose up like fat, sagging mushrooms, and the pavement was cracked and dotted with weeds and trees, but even so it was terrifyingly open.
“Another strip mall,” she whispered. “We can’t cross this.”
“You want to go around?” asked Marcus, crouching down to catch his breath. “Or just turn west? We’ve been walking north for miles now, surely we’re close to the bay Jayden was talking about.”
“That or we’ve gone too far,” said Jayden, “and we’re about to run straight into the farms.”
“I don’t know how much longer I can go,” said Xochi. Kira could barely see her face in the darkness, but her voice was starting to slur with exhaustion.
“We can’t stop,” Samm insisted.
“We don’t have your endurance,” said Jayden. “I’ve trained for this, but they could collapse at any moment. We’ve been running for what, nine miles? Ten?”
“Eight point four,” said Samm. He didn’t even seem tired.
“I’m fine,” wheezed Marcus, but Kira thought he looked ready to fall over. Xochi could barely even talk.
“We go west,” said Kira. “The sooner we get into a boat, the sooner we can rest.”
Xochi nodded and lurched forward, pained but determined. Samm jogged forward to take the lead, and the rest fell into a slow, limping line behind him.
The side road slanted west around the strip mall, then slowly curved south again. Samm gave another signal and then dropped into the bushes, waiting in tense, rasping silence as a pair of horses clopped past them. They waited longer, giving the horses time to get far ahead, then crawled to their feet and pressed forward, shambling painfully on legs too tired to move any faster. Kira’s burn was agonizing now, an unrelenting fire deep inside her leg. She curled her hands into tight fists, taking short breaths and trying not to think about it. I just need to make it to that tree. Just that one tree, and then I’ll be fine. Just a few more steps. Now that tree, just beyond. That’s all I have to do. One tree at a time.
“I can smell the ocean,” said Samm, and soon Kira could as well — salty and heavy, cool and bracing in the night air. They redoubled their efforts, panting loudly, no longer caring about stealth but simply trying not to stop. The trees gave way to another shopping center, and another beyond that. Marcus walked closer to Kira now, shaky as well but doing his best to support her. She clung to his arm and hobbled forward.
“This way,” said Samm, turning north on the next road. Moonlight glistened on a silver expanse of water, smooth as black glass, and Kira looked eagerly for a boat. There was nothing.
“It’s too shallow here,” she panted. “We have to keep going.”
“‘Boats all over the North Shore,’” Jayden muttered. Kira didn’t have the breath to respond.
Samm led them through a wide courtyard, wading through waist-high saplings with buildings on every side. They heard more hoofbeats on the road behind them, and they collapsed into the underbrush with abject exhaustion. This time the riders stopped, their horses slowly turning as they examined the area.
“Think it was them?” said one.
“That or a cat,” said the other. They eased their horses closer, still looking around. Moonlight glinted faintly off the long metal lines of their rifles.
“Too much noise for a cat,” said the first. “Give me the light.”
Kira didn’t dare to move or even breathe. The second rider pulled a flashlight from his saddlebag and handed it to the first, who clicked it on and shined it at the building on their left — a church of some kind, broken and leafy. Samm moved his rifle into position, sighting carefully at the first rider, but Kira shook her head: We can’t afford the noise.
We can’t kill our own people.
There was a soft knock on a far wall, and the riders looked up in unison. They shined the light on the building, but Kira couldn’t see anything. They led their horses toward it, and Xochi whispered softly.
“I threw a rock. Let’s get out of here before they come back.”
They crept backward through the brush, inch by inch, always keeping their eyes on the riders. Marcus stood and hurled another rock, farther this time, and the riders paused, listened, and finally followed it. Kira stood as well, leaning on Samm as she rose, and the group backed around the corner of the ruined church.
“There’s more over there,” Samm whispered, pointing west toward the bay. He looked at Kira, his eyes lost in shadow. “Sooner or later we’re going to have to shoot someone.”
Kira closed her eyes, trying to clear her head. “I know this is dangerous, and I know it might come to guns — that’s why we have them. But I don’t want to shoot anybody if we can get away with it.”
“We might not have a choice,” said Samm.
The bushes rustled behind them, and Kira heard the stamp and snort of the horses. Samm raised his rifle, but Kira stopped him again.
They waited, holding their breath, praying for the soldiers to move on. An eternity later, they did.
“They’re moving south,” Samm whispered. “Don’t waste it — move.”
The group was practically running now, watching the ground in front of their feet because they couldn’t see any farther. The road plunged into forest, and soon the dark shape of a massive house rose out of the trees beside them.
“There,” said Kira. “A lot of these mansions have private docks.”
They swerved to the left, through the grounds and around the house to the harbor. The yard behind was a maze of exotic plants and flowers that must have once been a giant garden. They followed a winding, overgrown path to the edge of the sound, black water lapping softly against the shore, but there was no dock and no boat. The ground was soft and marshy, and they slogged north to the next mansion, their heavy shoes becoming even heavier with mud. The next house had a narrow wooden walkway that turned into a dock, and their feet clumped loudly as they ran out over the water to a large white boat.
“Hallelujah,” Kira whispered, but Samm shook his head.
“The water level’s dropped, or the shore’s been packed with sediment. It’s sitting up on mud.”
Kira looked again and saw that the boat was listing slightly to the side, pushed up out of the water and tilted over toward one edge. “What do we do?”
“The marsh goes on forever,” said Samm, looking north. “It’s this or nothing.”
“Then we push it out,” said Jayden. He stowed his rifle over his shoulder and jumped into the water with a splash. It reached almost to his waist. He put a hand on the boat and rocked it; it didn’t move easily, but it moved. “Everybody get in here.”
Kira glanced over her shoulder nervously before jumping into the sound, gasping in shock at the cold water. The others followed, bracing their shoulders against the hull and heaving in unison. It tilted but didn’t move; Kira slipped in the mud, barely catching herself before
falling face-first in the icy water.
“Again,” said Samm, setting himself firmly against the side. Everyone got into position. “One, two, three, push.” They strained against the slick side of the boat, pushing with all their strength. It moved a few inches. “Again,” said Samm. “One, two, three, push.” They shoved against the boat with everything they had, moving it another few inches — farther this time, but not far enough. “Again,” said Samm. “One, two—”
A light clicked on, blinding them — a bright white beam from a flashlight on the dock, shining against the white boat and lighting up the entire group. They froze, blinking, too shocked to move. The holder of the flashlight said nothing, simply staring, twenty yards away.
I have my gun, thought Kira, feeling its weight on her back. I can pull it around in seconds. But will it do any good? We can’t push this out before backup comes looking — we can’t get away even if we fight back.
Nobody moved.
The light clicked off.
“Clear!” the silhouette shouted. It was a girl’s voice. Yoon. “There’s nothing here. I checked out the sound; just an old boat shifting in the waves.” The silhouette waited, watching, then turned and walked away. Kira realized she’d been holding her breath, and let it out softly.
“Was that the girl who went to Manhattan with you?” asked Marcus. “I think we owe her a cookie.”
“I think we owe her a whole damn bakery,” said Xochi. “If I wasn’t hip deep in mud, I would kiss her on the mouth.”
“Shut up,” said Jayden. “They heard us before, they’ll hear us again.” He braced himself against the boat one more time and mouthed, One, two, three. They pushed, moving the boat nearly a foot this time. They pushed again, then again, over and over, dragging the boat nearly twenty feet through the shallow marsh. Forty feet. Eighty feet. They could see more lights on the shore, more searchers. They pushed the boat again, forcing it through the mud, praying the soldiers wouldn’t hear them.
The water got deeper as the harbor opened up, and soon the boat was floating freely, they pushed it even farther, toward water deep enough to take their added weight. Samm helped them into the boat, then climbed in himself. Marcus and Jayden found oars, and they pushed north toward open water.