The Hunter

by Melissa Faye

  Chapter 10

  I WANTED TO HIDE OUT in the empty dorms, but Harrison insisted that we return to my grandparents’ house. My face was red and puffy; I wouldn’t be able to hide this from Ma and Pops. Hopefully Ridge or Harrison would come up with something to say to them.

  We arrived at the house an hour later. Ma greeted me at the door with a furious glare, but her face softened at the sight of mine and Harrison’s. She hugged us both and brought us back into the dining room for leftover dessert. I couldn’t eat. Ridge sat with us quietly. Ma gave up on asking us questions and went to bed.

  “We saw her, Ridge,” I whispered. “The traveler, the hunter, is a woman. I went after her, and she did - something. It was like I ran into a brick wall, but I wasn’t even moving.”

  “She killed Teddy. And she got away. Again.” Harrison leaned over the table and covered his face with his hands.

  “I’m so sorry...I thought the professor gave him an antidote?”

  “It wasn’t enough, I suppose,” I murmured. “Maybe he was already prepared for the second injection. It was the craziest thing, Ridge! She got younger before my eyes. She had some scars, and they disappeared. She became a younger version of herself. And Harrison - Harrison, she said your name.”

  Harrison shook his head back and forth but didn’t look up.

  “She knows Harrison?” Ridge asked.

  Harrison shook his head again.

  “He thinks I misheard her. I don’t know. But she looked at him like she wasn’t surprised to see him there.”

  Ridge patted Harrison’s shoulder.

  “If June got hit by that brick wall, she’s probably mistaken. Or the woman stared at you because you fit the type of a potential victim. It doesn’t mean she really knows who you are.”

  Harrison leaned forward until his forehead rested on the table.

  “My Gravity Boots didn’t work. If they worked, we could have stopped her and saved Teddy. The tracker antidote wasn’t enough. The woman is still out there, killing young men, and I have no other leads.”

  Ridge leaned back in his chair and folded his arms.

  “There’s nothing else we can do. I have to go back to school and test everyone else on the list. We’ll give them antidotes immediately. Encourage them to hide. Then I’ll pour over every camera in the city until I find her and take her out.”

  “Or maybe she’ll go through the list one by one until all of us are dead.” Harrison spoke, sitting up straight again. “I saw her jump out of your way, June. You can’t fight her.”

  “Then what do you want me to do?” I snapped. “I got Teddy killed by trusting my instincts. Now all I have is brute force. Testing and antidotes and overnight shifts. I’m not letting her kill again, Harrison!”

  Harrison stood from the table, squeaking the chair against the tiles as he pushed it out from behind himself. He opened his mouth as if about to speak, then headed towards the guest room. I heard the door shut behind him.

  “You’ll figure this out, June. We’ll figure it out.” Ridge looked towards the hallway where Harrison had disappeared. “The boy’s worried about his name on the list. But he knows you’ll protect him like you do everyone else.”

  “I didn’t protect Teddy, did I? Or Rami. Or her...helper. I keep getting there too late.”

  Ridge raised his eyebrows slightly.

  “June, I didn’t want to say anything while Harrison was here but...you’re missing one potential step in your plan.”

  I crossed my arms.

  “Oh? What’s that?”

  “You find someone else with a tracker. Or five other kids. You give them the antidote, or you don’t. Either way, they can’t go into hiding. You use them as bait.”

  “Ridge!” I hissed. “Are you -”

  As quickly as it came on, my anger suddenly dissipated. Ridge had a point. I had enough helpers to guard anyone who was being targeted. It would draw the traveler out, and I could finally stop her.

  “She said Harrison’s name, Ridge. I’m certain. I didn’t think so at first, but now the memory’s becoming clearer.”

  Ridge nodded.

  “I believe you. And it means he could be next on her list.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about. I think that’s why he’s worried too.”

  “We’ll keep an eye on him, June. We won’t let anything happen to him or anyone else on that list.”

  EVERYTHING FELT DIFFERENT on campus when classes started up again on Monday. Two students had been killed, and the police had no new information. If they found any evidence of us at the scene of the crime, they weren’t saying it. The chief of police held a press conference and shared more information about the victims. He advised all young men who fit the profile to stay safe, be on the lookout, and not to walk around the city alone.

  Everywhere I looked, students had red eyes and hunched shoulders. Marlene was beside herself. She knew Teddy; he was dating her friend. Her entire demeanor changed. She wasn’t bubbly or loud anymore. She kept to herself or spent time with Teddy’s girlfriend.

  Harrison was back to his old self only a few days after Thanksgiving. I was suspicious at first, but started to believe his optimistic views. He helped Honey and me test more students. No one else tested positive for the tracker, but we were only halfway through the list. Harrison wanted to test more kids and do it faster.

  Professor Garvey offered more help. She took the genetic sample from Teddy to the chemistry lab to analyze the impact of her antidote. She told us the antidote worked, and we knew what that meant. The traveler was satisfied with how long the chemical was in Teddy’s system. And she hadn’t even needed to track him. He could have been taken out of his dorm in the middle of the night. It would have been easy enough with a new accomplice and the empty, pre-Thanksgiving dorms.

  “Harrison’s acting a little strange, don’t you think?” Honey asked me a few days after classes started up again. We were in our room, checking off names on the list and making sure all the data was accurate. “All the other guys who fit the profile are freaking out. I saw another guy I know from the list, tapped him on the shoulder, and he jumped and fled. He got fifty feet away before I caught up with him and helped him relax.”

  “Harrison knows more about what’s going on. That’s all.”

  “Mmm...June, I’m sorry to say it, but I don’t think so. I don’t think that would be enough. He’s acting energetic. Bouncing around more than usual. He doesn’t do any drugs, does he?”

  I passed Honey the stack of papers that we kept hidden in her desk.

  “No drugs that I know of.” I snickered at the thought. Harrison was too much obsessed with his health and exercising to do anything like that. He was training for a marathon in the spring and carefully watched everything he ate.

  Honey flipped through the pile I passed her. She bit her lip and rested her head on her hand.

  “Have we tested him yet?”

  “Not sure. I think his name didn’t come up yet. I was thinking -”

  “Look, June. I don’t even want to say it. But that drug the murderer uses isn’t only a tracker. It’s also prepping kids. Upping some of their hormones. Didn’t Rami say he felt weird before he was killed? What if this is what it looks like? You and Harrison’s friends might think this isn’t weird because he’s a peppy kind of guy to begin with. Or maybe Harrison thinks he’s putting on a brave face.”

  Harrison was different since Thanksgiving. I understood why he was nervous, and wouldn’t be surprised if he was terrified. But Honey had a valid point. He wasn’t acting like someone on a death To Do list.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing, June. Why don’t I check him?”

  “Yeah, sure.” He left his sweatshirt in our suite the night before, so I grabbed it from the common room. “Maybe there’s a hair on here you can test?”

  Honey smiled sweetly when I handed it over.

  “I’m sure it’s fine. Really. But I’ll test to make sure.”

  I stood in
our doorway, frozen in place, my hand outstretched from when I passed Honey the sweatshirt.

  “Can we test it right now?”

  Honey gave me another reassuring smile.

  “Of course.”

  I watched as Honey dug through her drawers and pulled out more of Professor Garvey’s tracker test. She refreshed our stock when we got back from the holiday, and we had a larger vial now.

  Honey squinted as she inspected the hood of the sweatshirt. It was light gray, and Harrison’s dark hair would stand out. She moved it around in front of her eyes until she found one small short hair and held it up for me.

  “It’ll be fine!” I said, hoping to resemble a cheerful, positive person.

  Honey put the hair in a small dish with a drop of the clear liquid in the vial and swished it around. The liquid turned black.

  I sat back down on my bed. Tears filled my eyes. Honey’s eyes were wet, too.

  “There’s an antidote, June...”

  There was an antidote. It hadn’t helped Teddy. And Ridge convinced me we could use the next potential victim as bait to catch the traveler in action. I hadn’t pictured Harrison as our bait. And I suddenly didn’t have faith in the plan.

  “It’s fine. It’ll be ok.” I smiled mindlessly towards June and took back Harrison’s sweatshirt. “He’ll be fine. I’m not worried!”

  Honey knew I was lying. Honey always knew when I was lying.

  HONEY WENT OUT SO I could tell Harrison about the tracker in privacy in our room.

  “Are you sure?” he asked with wide eyes. I looked over at the plastic dish on Honey’s desk where his hair and the tester still sat. Harrison followed my gaze. The liquid was unmistakably black.

  “The antidote?”

  “I emailed Professor Garvey already. Honey’s going to pick up more of the antidote in an hour.”

  Harrison sat on the bed, and I crawled up next to him.

  “You should tell Ridge,” he muttered.

  I nodded and texted Ridge. He called immediately.

  “Have Harrison come here after he gets the antidote. You can stay here too. We’ll both keep watch for the traveler.”

  Harrison shrugged.

  “Sure. Fine.”

  Harrison and I packed bags and met back in my room. When Honey came back with a dose of the professor’s antidote, I let her know we were going to hide for a few days. Honey promised to make up excuses for us as needed.

  Ridge left the door open for us as always. Harrison hadn’t spoken on the subway ride over. He dropped his bag at the door and flopped onto Ridge’s couch. I nodded to Ridge and we sat together at the kitchen table.

  “One of us will always be awake. We’ll take shifts.” I pulled out the Some Gun. “Have you used this before, Ridge?”

  He took it in his hands and played with it a little too casually for my liking.

  “Nah, but I got it. I can point and click.”

  “I’ll stay up with Harrison tonight. You can get some sleep and take over in the morning.”

  Ridge raised an eyebrow.

  “He’ll be ok, June. The traveler probably won’t find him now that the tracker’s gone and he’s hiding out here.”

  I shrugged. Travelers usually had their ways of getting the information they wanted. Especially this one.

  After Ridge went to bed, I sat with Harrison on the couch with the Some Gun in my hand. We turned on the news. No new leads about the murders. Potential targets were urged to be on alert.

  I lay on the couch with my head in Harrison’s lap and he played with my hair for a while. He wouldn’t sleep, though I wouldn’t stop pestering him about it. He didn’t want to talk, either, so we mostly lay there for a while.

  I noticed Harrison slow down, and got off his lap so he could at least lie across the couch. I grabbed a snack in the kitchen and watched Harrison’s eyes open and close as he tried to keep himself away. I smirked. He claimed he wouldn’t be able to sleep, but he was going to lose it at any moment.

  Suddenly, the room went entirely white. Not black. White. I turned helplessly and called out Harrison’s name. I couldn’t hear anything, including my own voice. I held up my arms. I knew they were there, but I couldn’t see them. I could reach out and touch the table in front of me. I stepped backwards and ran into the counter. I shouted again, but there was no sound. I stumbled towards the couch, or at least towards where I thought the couch was. I bumped against something or someone, but didn’t hear or see it. It moved away. I slammed my leg into the coffee table and cursed soundlessly.

  My mind whirled. Am I dreaming? I pinched myself and willed myself to wake up. Nothing.

  I screamed again and again, but nothing came out. I stumbled around the living room until I was certain both my shins were covered in bruises from running into everything. I knocked over something, but didn’t hear a noise when it hit the floor. My breathing grew faster. And faster.

  Until suddenly, everything was normal again. I yelled out and blinked rapidly. I looked at my limbs - everything was there. The kitchen. The living room. Ridge came running out of his bedroom. I turned to the couch.

  Harrison was gone.

  Chapter 11

  “HE’S GONE, RIDGE! YOU calm down!”

  Every sentence came out as a scream. Ridge’s voice was calm, and I hated him for it.

  “I don’t know where he is. He could be dead. If I find him, what would I even do? What am I going to do, Ridge?”

  I screamed in frustration.

  “June, sit down right now.”

  I hadn’t heard Ridge use that stern voice since I set his dining room table on fire. My knees buckled and I sat right down on his couch.

  “The traveler took Harrison. You have Harrison’s DNA and can track him on Ridge’s Map. You can find where he is right this second. But if you don’t calm down, you’ll miss your chance. We’ll lose him, June.”

  I kept my eyes on Ridge and tried to slow my breathing. I stared. I breathed. I stared. I wiped my eyes.

  “What if we lose him, Ridge?”

  Ridge didn’t remember when Harrison was killed by a political candidate last month. He didn’t remember what that felt like. I went back in time and fixed it. This time, I didn’t have a reliable time travel device. No more do overs.

  Ridge fumbled in my messenger bag until he found Ridge’s Map. He passed it over to me. I pulled out Harrison’s bag, found his comb, and pulled out a small black hair. My fingers shook as I slipped the hair into Ridge’s Map.

  Harrison was several blocks away. They were still moving.

  “He’s alive.” I showed Ridge the screen. “He’s alive for now.”

  Ridge grabbed our coats from the hook on the wall and threw mine towards me.

  “Then let’s go.”

  “What will we do?”

  “We’ll find her, save Harrison, and you’ll send her home. That’s what we always do.”

  RIDGE GRABBED US A cab, and I helped the driver navigate using the display on Ridge’s Map. Harrison’s dot stopped moving. The traveler had him in an apartment building. We had the driver drop us off two blocks away. I took off on a full out sprint while Ridge tossed the driver much more cash than was needed.

  “Wait up, June!” Ridge shuffled along behind me, panting heavily, but I couldn’t slow myself down. I ran so fast that my lungs burned. I almost missed the apartment door.

  The street was quiet. I wasn’t sure if the building was inhabited, but all the windows were dark and I didn’t dare try the buzzer. I shot the door’s lock open with the Some Gun and deftly pulled the J-DAR out of my bag with my left hand.

  “Where is she, June?” Ridge called when I was already up a flight of stairs. I shushed him and kept going. She was several stories up.

  I took the stairs two at a time, holding the J-DAR out in front of me. I finally arrived. The fifth floor.

  The hallway was quiet. I waved to Ridge, three flights behind, to stop moving. I listened carefully as I approached the north side
of the building. That’s where the traveler had Harrison. I crept slowly down the hall. I wanted to run, to dash in and throw the woman aside. I remembered Ridge’s face when I took those calming breaths not twenty minutes earlier, and made myself breathe deeply. I was three doors away.

  Two.

  One.

  I tripped, stifling a curse and throwing my hands towards the wall to steady myself.

  There was a man laying on the ground, and from the looks of it, he was dead. It must have been another one of the traveler’s accomplices. He appeared to be in his mid- to late-thirties, but she hadn’t bothered to steal his youth. He lay completely still. His eyes were still open. Ridge caught up and blanched at the sight.

  I frowned at Ridge and stood in front of the door where the traveler had Harrison. My mind raced. Last time I saw her, I had the element of surprise and it still wasn’t enough. This time, at least, I was arriving much sooner. I wasn’t sure what her preparations looked like, but she had to be in the early stages at this point. I had time. A small window.

  If I’m lucky.

  Ridge caught up with me and huddled by my shoulder.

  “What’s the plan, June?” he whispered.

  I rifled through my messenger bag. I needed more weapons for when Ridge came out with me. Or for next time Harrison fought a traveler with me, I told myself.

  I pulled out the Shusher. The user wore it like a backpack, and when it was turned on, the wearer was completely silent. No footsteps, no breathing noises, no voice, no squeaking floorboards. I passed it to Ridge, and he put it on without question.

  “I’m going straight for the traveler,” I explained. “You wear the Shusher, and when I have her distracted, you get Harrison out of there.”

  “I don’t like this, June.” He snapped the Shusher’s straps across his chest. “Let the record show. I think we should both go after her.”

  I bristled at Ridge’s attempt to lighten the mood but forced myself to go along with it.

  “Duly noted, Ridge, but you don’t have a weapon and don’t like fighting. Last time, Teddy was strapped to a stretcher and looked totally out of it. If the traveler’s preparing Harrison the same way, she could be drugging him right now. Do you know how to remove an IV?”