“Yes!” River calls back.
“Maybe there’s radiation there,” I say.
River shakes his head. “There isn’t, at least not the dangerous kind.”
What does that mean?
There isn’t enough space for us to land close to the glowing structure, so we land about a mile away, in an open space between large warehouses. We climb out onto a cracked concrete road. The air is hot and unpleasant, with a scent I can’t quite define. When the propellers stop spinning and the engine goes quiet, Buck and Josh climb out and join us.
River hurries to pull Josh aside and says, “I know that my death was horrible for you, but I thought… that if I pretended it wasn’t so bad, it would be easier for you.”
“It doesn’t work like that. It will never be easier for me. It will nevernothaunt me. I need us to pretend it never happened or act like it really was the most horrible thing in the world, and I’m never going to let it happen again.”
River pulls him into a hug. “Okay, my prisoner.”
I look away to give them this moment alone, and Buck quietly asks me, “Are you guys always so dramatic?”
“Yes.”
Josh seems lighter when he and River return, as if he unburdened something that had been weighing on him for a while. We walk down the concrete road, and the silence around us is eerie, especially with all of these abandoned structures on both sides. My heavy rifle makes me miss my old knife and the handgun Caden insisted I’d carry during our journey.
“Do you still feel that glowing thing?” Buck asks River.
“Yes. It’s like many heartbeats. They want us to come to them.”
“Maybe to kill us.”
“I don’t think so.”
I hope he’ll know for sure before we get too close to escape.
“The old world’s economy used to rely on places like these,” Timothy says. “We were rapidly progressing into a more digital-focused economy, but every physical product needed factories and production lines, making places like this crucial.”
“It’s hard to imagine how many people used to be alive to work here,” I say.
“True, and this city is small. You should have seen New York!”
“My village doesn’t need factories to be successful,” River says. He suddenly stops walking, and the rest of us do as well.
“What is it?” Josh asks, already moving his rifle in front of him.
“Something’s coming… many somethings.” He turns around to look at where we came from. I follow his gaze but see nothing out of the ordinary, yet I still reach for my rifle.
A few seconds of silence go by before River shouts,“Run!”
Anything that can scare him is bound to terrify me. We break into a run. Through the sound of our footsteps hitting the pavement, I notice a growing screeching sound from behind. I turn my head around, almost stumbling at the sight of what is chasing us.
Lizard men.
They’re green and pale, as tall as Buck, though much leaner. Even from this distance, I notice their sharp claws. And they’reso freaking fast. Maybe River could easily outrun them, but the rest of us can’t run as fast.
Buck sharply stops and turns around. He opens fire, and the rest of us join. It takes a lot more than a single bullet to bring down one of the lizard men, even when hitting their skulls. I hope the rest will stop chasing once they see we’re not defenseless, but they only run faster, with more of them joining like a wild herd.
I’m beginning to realize this whole thing was a trap. That glowing thing must have tricked River into making us come here.
“Keep running!” Buck shouts, because shooting them isn’t working.
We don’t get far before a window shatters to our right when a lizard man jumps through it. River crashes into him before he can reach us. The powerful impact sends the creature flying against a nearby wall, then Josh quickly shoots him down.
