I take an angry bite of the chocolate bar.
I’ve barely started chewing when the trike screeches at me again, and I force Jeff’s hand onto the scanner for the hundredth time. It was a little awkward in the beginning, pushing Jeff out of the trike only to drag him back on board after I realized I needed him to operate the thing. It was also upsetting for all the people who watched me do it.I know this, because they never stopped trying to kill me.
Apparently everyone on this island is armed.
Jeff was armed, too, which was lucky for me. Before I raided the glove box for snacks, I made sure to check him for weapons. Now I sit back and stretch, dried blood flaking off my body like confetti. When the sun shifts, offering me a fleeting reflection in the windshield, I’m so surprised by the sight of my own face I have to do a double take. I can practically hear the sound of Kenji’s voice, holding back laughter—
You look like someone took a bloody, chunky, runny shit on your face. Do you understand what I’m saying? The word I’m looking for isdiarrhea. Do you know what diarrhea is? It’s you.
The thought almost makes me smile, and then it almost kills me. Suddenly I miss home so badly the feeling nearly penetrates.Fearnearly penetrates.
I take a tight breath. Less than ten minutes left. The forest grows thicker and denser as we get farther from the populated region of the island, shrouding our destination in mystery.
My knee bounces.
There’s a reason Warner never led a mission into the Ark. His theory was that our only chance at winning a fight against The Reestablishment 2.0 would involve luring them back to the mainland. He has all kinds of ideas about the dark shit they might be developing out here and doesn’t think we’re ready to match them on their home turf.I thought he was losing his touch. Going soft.
Now I realize I should’ve listened.
This is a suicide mission. I was worse than stupid for thinking I knew better than Warner, and stupider than that for thinking I could do this on my own. The moment this tricycle touches land I’ll be surrounded. I still have no idea how I’m going to get out of here. I don’t know what they’re planning for me or why they’ve kept me alive so long. I’m mostly just making it up as I go, hoping things will work out. And right now the sting of real emotion is burning a hole in my heart and I have to beat it down. I can’t let these assholes see me sweat.
I force myself to look at Jeff. “So. Jeff. Who made you think you had to lose ten pounds to be loved?”
“Beginning initial descent,” says a smooth female voice. “Touching ground in five minutes.”
“Five minutes?” I straighten in my seat so fast Jeff jolts beside me, falling into my arms. I shove him back into his chair and peer out the open door.
We’re descending over the sea, the water shimmering in the rising light, and as the trike makes a steep turn toward land, I catch my first glimpse of the warehouses in the distance—just as Jeff slumps into my lap again. Irritated, I shove him back into his seat.
I return my eyes to the scene, and my irritation is quickly replaced by confusion. From this vantage point it’s absolutely clear: these are not warehouses.
They’rehomes.
Shitty cottages clustered together in one of the most bleak, postapocalyptic scenes I’ve seen in a long time. People mill about, parents and children looking grim and malnourished. The fresh snowfall of yesterday is already soot-stained and dirty, rays of sunlight struggling through a thin layer of smog. The scene comes together all at once, with little time to reflect before we touch down—
“Input verification.”
The biometric scanner shrieks once more in angry warning. Annoyed, I turn to grab Jeff’s hand.
Except, suddenly, Jeff’s seat is empty.
“Oh. Shit.”
I scramble, craning my neck out the other open door as if I might catch him still tumbling to his second death—but of course the effort is useless. I’ve lost Jeff, and now the air-trike is pissed.
“Warning,” says the voice. “Input verification.” It won’t stop yelling now. “Warning. Input verification. Warning. Input verification—”
I consider placing my own hand on the screen, but then I think it’s probably a lose-lose situation to straight up verify that I’ve stolen Jeff’s vehicle, so, instead, I decide to panic. I’m only about fifteen feet off the ground but the thing is refusing to land, and I don’t know what’s worse: the fact that I’m drawing attention to myself, or the fact that I was right about being mobbed by The Reestablishment. As predicted, there’s a swarm of armed soldiers waiting in the distance, where larger, more impressive versions of my air-trike litter the landscape like toys.I’m guessing those will be much harder to steal.
“System shut down in five, four, three, two—”
The motor cuts out and suddenly I’m free-falling, everything happening so fast I never get to decide whether to jump. The steel frame strikes the ground with thunderous force, juddering to a chaotic stop as waves of pain rocket through my battered body.
I blink, and it seems to take forever.
My ears are ringing. I touch the side of my face and my hand comes away wet. Red. I suck in a breath as the pain spirals, pinching a shard of glass out of my arm just as I hear a young girl scream.
I stiffen at the sound.
