Zavier, with his ridiculously long legs, quickly got ahead of us, despite his pants and shirt clinging wetly to him. He squeezed his keeper tightly to his side as he ran. Within seconds, he was out of sight. I couldn’t blame him; his wife and daughter were at the camp.
Pol started dropping back. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Krista slowing to keep with him. “I’ve got Pol. His ankle’s slowing him down.”
I put my head down and told my legs to move faster. My pants felt like lead weights, but I pushed harder. I caught up to Melisa and we paced each other. She threw me a look of fury and confusion. How had the Ranjers found us? We had chosen the hiding place so carefully.
It didn’t matter. Lexi caught up to us, her breathing the only sound she made.
What had Wil been about to say? A terrible word came to mind—one that started with ‘k’ and ended with my family being gone.
I concentrated on running as fast as I could, ignoring the pain in my chest and legs. The people back at the camp were going to be fine. My family and everybody else had to be okay. We poured on the speed. I spared a quick thought for Pol and Krista. I’d send someone back for them once we made sure everyone in the camp was safe.
I heard the shouts and screams before I saw anything. I was still running as fast as I could, my legs beginning to protest, when the smell hit me. Something I’d smelled only once before—at the place where the Wanderers had been slaughtered. A long, broken cry lifted above the rest. Oh no. That was Zavier.
We rounded a thick cluster of trees. Beyond the trees would be the low hills with caves carved out of some them that we had been camping in for the last couple of weeks.
I slammed to a stop, my entire body paralyzed. Dark shapes lay still on the ground. Fires burned in downed trees and smoke poured out of the caves. Huge divots had been torn out of the rocky hills, as well as the forest floor.
A few people wandered numbly through the campsite. Zavier was one of them. I recognized Dyana and Jan; they must have gotten back before us. As I stood there, my mind completely blank, more squads poured in.
Melisa had gotten ahead of me in the race for the camp. Now she erupted from one of the caves—the one we called cave one. Tears streamed down her face. She fell to her knees and shouted something. It sounded like her lungs were exploding, like her throat was tearing open.
My mind began to move again, taking in the sounds of people shouting and calling for loved ones, the smells of burning, and the sight of so many of my friends fallen still. Mom and Dad.
Mom and Dad!
I ran to the cave in the middle of the camp, cave two, and clicked on the lamp strapped to my chest. Had they been on a patrol? Were they in the vegetable field? As I searched the cave, I heard a voice saying “Please, please, please,” over and over again. My voice. Who was I talking to?
They weren’t there. The cave was empty.
I ran back out to the clearing in front of the caves, dreading what I’d already seen. Maybe I could undo it if I didn’t have to see it again.
Stupid.
I stood in the middle of the clearing and stared wildly around me. Now all the squads were back. Pol’s brother David had led one squad, and he and his team were running everywhere, checking the bodies on the ground. “Any survivors?”
David looked up at my question, eyes swimming with tears. “No.”
I looked around and other squad members confirmed the same with nods and heartbroken tears. No survivors. None. Closer to the trees I saw Jan and her mother, Dyana, clutching each other tightly, crying.
No. Oh no. Was Bren’s father one of the bodies? A thought tickled at the back of my blank brain. I ignored it.
I ran to them. “Jan! Your dad?”
She shook her head, tears flying. I watched one hit her mother’s shirt and spread into a dark spot. “We can’t find him.” She scrubbed her face. “Your mom and dad?”
“Can’t find them either. They’re not in the cave.” I looked around, desperate to catch sight of one of them, but terrified of recognizing them on the ground.
I stopped, my heart frozen. A terrifying idea screamed inside my head. The Ranjers had found the camp and attacked, killing some of our group. We had come running after Wil alerted us. The Ranjers had to know that the people in the camp hadn’t been the whole group.
We had to go. Now. “Go! It’s a trap! Run!”
Heads whipped around; my shout had nearly been a shriek. Melisa got it. She nodded and grabbed a keeper off the ground. “He’s right! They knew we’d come running. Go!”
Her last word was cut off as explosions filled the air. I dove toward Jan and Dyana, knocking them down. Something slammed into my side and ignited a jagged wedge of pain.
I got back up, feeling blood drip down my hip. I grabbed Jan, ducking and pulling her hard toward the edge of the clearing. “Get out of sight!”
Jan and Dyana ran fast and I leapt behind some fallen trees, scanning the area as fast as I could. Two Ranjer pods rose into view from behind the hills and at least thirty hovering Ranjers swept incredibly smoothly across the ground, shooting at anything that moved. They all wore the same armor I’d seen on the other one, but it didn’t shift colors. Maybe it didn’t work when they were moving fast. I aimed and brought one down. They fired back. I ducked as wood chips from a mangled tree trunk ricocheted off the helmet I’d gotten from an Enforser.
The Enforsers. We needed them. The ones from New Frisko had been incredible, helping train the rest of us to use the keepers and other equipment they had, teaching us good squad discipline.
But we’d lost almost all of them on the stupid attempt to get into Anjeltown. We should have known Holland wouldn’t let us spread the truth of the Bug. The rest of the Enforsers were hiding in a separate place with the families that had babies. We hadn’t heard from them for a while, but last we heard, they were all safe. And hopefully, if we focused the Prime Administrator’s attention on us, we could keep it that way.
“Everyone get past the perimeter, fast!” I tried to pitch my voice low. Every movement brought a stab of pain from my right side—just under my rib cage. I forced myself not to look. No time.
“Pol,” Melisa said. I glanced around, couldn’t see her. “You made it, right?”
“Yeah.” Pol’s voice sounded strained.
“Help me with the pods? Koner, Nate, and David too?” Melisa must have found a good hiding place. Somehow her voice was calm. Had she found her family? Were they okay?
“I’ll help too,” I said. “James, blow it in five seconds.”
The deep voice of the only Enforser in our group came back. “Count starts… now.” A beat. “Five.”
I aimed at the pods’ propulsion units, or rather at the edge of them. That was the best chance we had to bring them down—knock the units loose.
“Four.”
“Hit the pods!” I flipped the switch on my keeper and unloaded on the pod, starting with a grenade. The kick from the keeper sent another wave of pain flowing up from my side. Blood from the wound I got in the first wave of attack trickled warmly past my hip and down my leg.
“Three.”
Explosions filled the air as a bunch of us did our best to bring the pods down.
“Two.”
The huge guns on the bottom of the pods swiveled and began firing back. I ducked behind my trees. I caught sight of a spreading red patch on my right leg.
“One.”
Chewed up wood pieces blew everywhere, scattering off my back and shredding leaves off nearby trees.
Then a massive explosion filled the entire world, followed by four more. The earth shook and trees fell. Light filled the area and it felt like a mountain-sized hand slammed me in the back, lifting and throwing me head over heels into the woods.
Chapter 3
I nearly blacked out when I hit the ground. Feeling shaky, I braced myself on a tree and checked on the campsite.
It wasn’t a campsite anymore. Dirt clods and holes littered the c
learing. Nothing moved except flames on fallen trees. Five explosions—that was all of them.
The explosions were much bigger than I’d thought they would be. Truth be told, I’d never thought we would have to use the explosives. But James had insisted that we had to be ready with a last line of defense after we lost all the Enforsers. A way to stop our enemy for long enough to let us get away.
That had to have worked.
Who was still alive? “Check in.”
My throat was dry and I tasted blood and dirt. I worked up some saliva to clean out my mouth. As everyone with an EarCom checked in, I spat the dirt out and stepped into the clearing. My head was swimming. I pressed my right hand tight against my side. I couldn’t afford to lose much more blood.
Pol’s voice came over the com. “David? Where’s David?”
No answer came.
“Koner, where’s David?” Pol’s voice went high and squeaky.
“I don’t know. We got separated when the Ranjers attacked.”
I saw movement and lifted my keeper. “Check for Ranjers! Did the pods go—”
“Both pods went down, I think, on the other side of the hill,” Dyana said. Where was Jan?
“Jan, are you there?”
“I’m okay, Nik.”
“We need to check those pods,” Melisa said. She had been the movement I saw. She came out of the trees, her keeper ready.
“I got them,” Zavier said.
“Me and my squad too,” Dyana said.
A cluster of people formed and set off at a run, angling around the hills. Jan’s small shape trailed behind at first, but quickly caught up. She was fast.
Melisa and I worked side by side, scouring the shredded clearing. Others formed into pairs and small groups to search, too. I forced myself to switch off the disgust and fear that kept welling up in me.
“Gather weapons and other usable things. Someone grab a suit of armor. We have to be gone soon, in case they send more Ranjers.” I need to do something about this, I thought, pressing harder on my side. But we had to move fast. They would be back. I wasn’t going to slow us down.
“Nik.” Melisa’s gesture took in all of our fallen friends. We had to leave them. “You can’t be ser—”
“Melisa,” I said, knowing what she was going to say. “I’m serious.” I raised my free hand to gesture at the destroyed campsite and devastated caves. “This is serious. Holland’s insane. He wants to kill all of us.” I gulped, remembering how this all started. “Humanity. Bren. Now his Ranjers ki—” I choked on the last bit. I couldn’t finish the sentence. And where were my parents?
Melisa’s eyes got wet, but she scrubbed the tears away. “I know!” She looked like she wanted to collapse. She stared at the ground. “I know.” Her voice was so quiet I wasn’t sure she’d said anything. Her eyes shifted to my side. “Nik! They got you?”
I shook my head. We didn’t have any time. I activated my EarCom and said, “Broadcast.” I waited a second or two. “We have to be gone as fast as possible. Gather as much as you can carry and meet at the first cave.”
Melisa crouched next to me and pulled my hand away, then peeled my shirt up. “This is bad.” She probed at the wound. I yelped. “But the bullet’s not in you.”
Dyana’s voice came over the EarComs. “Let’s have squads work together. Divide the campsite and don’t take anything you don’t need. Nate’s squad, why don’t you take care of food?”
“Good,” I said. I looked around helplessly. Dyana was better at this than me. “My squad, let’s get the north half.”
“No, Nik,” Melisa said. “You’re still losing blood. We need to close this, right now.”
“Not now!” I glared at her, forcing anger to swallow up the despair that hit every time I saw another person lying on the ground. “We have to—”
“I found David.” Koner’s voice was quiet, hoarse.
“What?” I heard Pol’s shout both in my EarCom and from across the camp. “Where?”
Koner raised his hand from a crouched position just beyond the perimeter of the camp. No. Not the bombs. Say we didn’t—
Pol shot across the camp, his twisted ankle forgotten. “No! He’s not dead!” Pol screamed as he ran.
What would it have been like to lose your parents in the first escape from New Frisko? Pol and David only had each other.
“Get him!” Melisa took off after Pol. I ran too, trying to intercept him before he got to his brother’s body. My side felt like it had a sharp stick digging into it.
“Don’t let him see!” Koner was crying.
Krista got to Pol first and wrapped her arms around his chest. She was small and Pol wasn’t going to be that easy to stop. He shoved at her, making her stumble back. But she had slowed Pol down enough that Melisa was then able to catch him by the back of his thick shirt.
“Let me go! He’s my brother!” Pol struggled, but Melisa was tall, strong, and mad.
I got to them and put one arm across his chest. “Pol, come on. Calm down. You don’t want to—”
“It wasn’t the bombs,” Koner said to me through the EarCom. “It wasn’t the bombs.”
Relief flooded me. Melisa and I held tightly to Pol, but he was still making progress—pushing me backward bit by bit.
“Let me see my brother!” Tears streamed down Pol’s face. “Let me go!” Somehow, he struggled free, landing an elbow in my stomach and tripping Melisa. He shot toward Koner. We lunged after him, but we were too late.
Pol rounded some trees and pulled up short. His body went totally rigid. He gasped loudly. I stopped next to him, saw Koner, saw David. It was clear the Ranjers had shot him. My stomach heaved. I grabbed Pol on one side, Melisa getting his other. Krista appeared and took him by the shirt.
Pol’s cries got louder and deeper with every meter of separation between him and David. But he wasn’t resisting anymore.
Krista stepped away as Melisa and I wrapped Pol up, holding him tightly. My throat was so tight that it took me a moment to realize I was crying too. I scrubbed my face with my sleeve.
Within a few minutes, Dyana’s squad and Zavier appeared, reporting that they had found both pods on the ground, disabled beyond repair. They were empty and it looked like someone had been controlling them remotely.
Silence settled on the campsite as the different squads finished their work and gathered near cave one. I took in the destruction of our temporary home. Melisa found a medical kit and dealt with the canal in my side that the Ranjer’s bullet had torn open.
She offered me some painkiller. “No.” Right now I needed the physical pain.
This was worse than when the Enforsers had been shot down. I’d only met a few of them in passing. But this time I knew a bunch of these people. One had been my friend who had been with me that very first night. And my parents—where were they?
“What do we do?” I looked around. Nobody seemed to have heard me. “What do we do—I mean—with them?” I gestured at the still shapes on the ground.
Everybody looked at each other. “We don’t really have a Memorial Park,” Jan said. In New Frisko, when people died, they were cremated and the ashes were buried in Memorial Park. Was that where Bren was now? Had there been time for his family to do all that?
“We can’t just leave them like this.” Pol’s voice was raw and his eyes were bright red.
“They told us in class once that people used to be buried in wood boxes after they died,” Melisa said. “Although I don’t know why the boxes. And then they put markers in the ground where the boxes were buried.” She stared at the ground, her voice quiet.
“We don’t have any way to bury them—nothing to dig with or anything,” I said. “But we can’t stay here much longer.”
Dyana cleared her throat. She was holding Jan tightly to her side. She’d lost her son and home in the last months—all because one night I proved that the Bug was gone. “Let’s put everyone in a cave and cover the opening with rocks.” She looked at the gather
ed group. “If you don’t feel up to it, don’t worry. We’ll take care of it.” She glanced at Jan. “And has anybody seen Karl?”
“Good idea,” I said. My mind felt blank. I was forgetting something.
Krista pulled Pol to the far side of the clearing, where they began inspecting the weapons and supplies we’d gathered. A few others wandered away too, including Zavier. He hadn’t said a word since he went to check on the pods. We’d found his wife and daughter while he was gone. I watched his back as he walked off. Within a few steps, he fell to his knees, bowed his head, and began to cry silently.
His wife and daughter, gone.
A bolt of shock hit me where I stood. How could I be so stupid? My parents. “Wait a minute!” Melisa, still poking at my side, flinched at my shout. “Has anyone seen my parents?”
“Did you check the caves?” Dyana asked. She and another person were already cradling one of our fallen friends and carrying him into the first cave. “I can’t find Karl either.” Karl was her husband. Jan and Bren’s father.
“Yeah, earlier. Nothing.” Had they somehow gotten away? “Has anyone heard from them? Or checked the garden?”
Everybody shook their heads. I took off running. I heard a shout behind me, but kept going.
“Nik! Wait, you shouldn’t go alone!” Melisa caught up to me fast.
“Then keep up.” I dodged through the trees, staring hard ahead of me, wishing the trees would open up so I could see all the way ahead. My side ached, and felt like the skin was going to tear back open with every pace.
A few minutes of running brought us over a low hill where the trees were thinner to a small field just at the bottom of the hill. We’d found plants there with round and long things of varying colors on them. They looked like the vegetables we saw in books. Pol had been the first to try them. I was pretty sure the juicy red thing was called a tomato, but that was the only one I remembered. Somebody had called the long, green ones ‘kyukumbers’ or something. At least they were good.
Push (Beat series Book 2) Page 2