“Nope. A single,” Jason shouted.
Damn, I thought. Because if it was a double, Jason would make it. But it wasn’t his day. Or mine. Or anyone else’s. It was a single gate, with no takers.
His face flushed from his sprint, Jason strolled back, catching his breath. No need to run now, not for another twenty-three hours and fifty-nine minutes.
Charley’s eyes stayed closed.
“Hang on, Charley,” I murmured. “We’re almost there.”
Leaving the black sand, I wove through the trees, grateful for the shortcut through the cliff. Almost running but not, I kept one foot on the ground, trying not to jostle Charley. Soon I saw the ring of A-frames. Close enough to see people by the water, too far for them to hear. I’d just left the cliff behind when Jason caught up with me, loaded with his gear and mine. And Charley’s.
“Now what?” he huffed.
“Find Natalie,” I said. “Tell her about Kevin and Charley. Tell her we need help. Tell her about Kevin first!”
With a nod, he took off, running almost as fast as when he chased the gate. But this time his head was high, and he was grinning like a fool.
I looked down at Charley. Her golden eyes were still closed.
“Hey, Charley,” I whispered. “Welcome to Nil City.”
CHAPTER
11
THAD
DAY 278, AFTER NOON
The sound wave hit us before we reached the City’s edge. Whoops and cheers blasted through the air; news of Kevin’s success was spreading fast.
Charley didn’t move.
Natalie came running, tears streaming down her smiling face. But when she got a solid look at Charley, her grin faded. Eyes on Charley, Nat shifted into full-on command mode, one step shy of barking orders.
“That’s a lot of blood, but head injuries bleed so much, it’s hard to tell how bad it really is,” Natalie said as we walked toward the A-frames. “She might have a concussion. Someone needs to stay with her tonight and wake her every few hours.”
I almost interrupted to tell her I knew all about concussions, but she was on a roll so I let her go. I’d smacked my head into a tree snowboarding when I was thirteen, knocked myself out, then spent the entire night throwing up—and that was with a helmet. Without one, I’d have died for sure. I still wear a helmet when I board. Or did.
Nil had snow, but I’d never touched it. It dusted the peak of the tallest mountain, and we didn’t have the clothes or the gear to play on it. A snowcapped mountain, a total Nil tease.
Charley moaned, and I cut Natalie off mid-sentence. “Let’s get her settled,” I said, praying I hadn’t shaken Charley on the way back and made her concussion worse. The sooner I could lay her down, the better. “Where?”
“My house,” Natalie said. “I’ll clean up her head and stay with her.”
“I’ll stay,” I said quickly.
She looked at me, curiously. “Not yet. Rives needs you. He and Bart got into it about watch. Someone needs to settle Bart down.” Natalie grinned. “As in you.”
Bart.Charley and Bart, two polar opposites—the contrast was vintage Nil. Bart was like a gnat, the kind that buzzed around your ear, persistent and annoying, regardless of how many times you swatted it away. Right now the last person I wanted to deal with was Bart, and he was the one pulling me away from Charley. Classic.
Slipping into Nat’s A-frame, Charley in my arms, I moved toward the bed on the right.
“No!” Natalie jumped to block me. “Not that bed. This one.” She pointed to the other bed.
“Nat, you’re killing me,” I groaned as I stumbled to the other bed, which looked exactly like the first. My forearms were dying; my quads weren’t much better. Sometimes Nat’s leadership slipped into irritating bossiness, like now. The bed didn’t matter; Charley did.
Once Charley was settled, Natalie went to work treating Charley’s gash. Neosporin and Motrin would have been great, but we were stuck with salt water and deadleaf. I watched Natalie wrap a cloth around her own hand, then pick up a handful of mashed deadleaf and press it against Charley’s wound. Throughout Natalie’s doctoring, Charley never moved.
