As Heesham smiled, for a heavy second, I thought of Sabine. I knew he missed her. Hopefully he’d find her soon—on the other side of a gate. If they found each other here, surely they could find each other back home.
I realized the boys were staring at me, waiting.
“Y’all go ahead.” I smiled at Heesham. “But a little fyi. Thad here’s pretty hungry. He let me beat him in sprints, so I know he needs to eat.”
Thad protested as Heesham laughed. “I’ll take care of him,” Heesham promised. Still grinning, he steered Thad away, talking low.
By the fire, the pale boy still sat alone, looking as pitiful as ever. Remembering my freaky first days, I went over to our newest lost soul.
“Hey,” I said, trying not to stare at the ginormous holes in his earlobes. I could see straight through them. “My name’s Charley.”
He lifted his eyes to me, bewildered. “I’m Dex.”
“You hanging in there?” I asked, sitting beside him. Dex didn’t respond. Judging by his expression, I’d guess he wasn’t quite sure himself.
“Where were you when the gate hit?” I asked.
“Walking out of a mate’s house in Manchester. I’d left some goodies in the car, needed a bit more. Then the air fried me up like a crispy chip.” He looked at me, surprised, like he was seeing me for the first time. “Is this a trip? Or am I totally mental?”
“It’s definitely a trip.” I smiled, going for reassuring. “But you’re not imagining it, if that’s what you’re asking. It’s real. Well, as real as a freaky island in some parallel dimension can be.”
Dex stared at me like I was nuts. And to tell you the truth, it did sound a little crazy.
“Look,” I said, adopting Natalie’s soft-but-steady tone, “I don’t know what this place is. No one here does, at least no one here now. And it doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter?” he repeated blankly.
“No. It doesn’t matter what Nil is, and there isn’t time to figure it out. All that matters is survival and escape.”And the number of days you have left, I thought. Observing Dex’s empty stare, I wondered if he had any clue how long he’d been on the island. “Dex, when the team found you, did they ask you how many days you’ve been here?”
“Yeah. I think a week.” Dex sounded unsure. “I’m not certain what day it was when I left. We’d been cooked for days.” He sighed. “What a bloody mess.”
“Well, I’d err on the side of caution. Go with ten days, just to be safe.”
He nodded. “Brilliant.” Then he sort of laughed, sort of choked. “The big bloke spelled it out. I’ve got a year to ring up a gate or stay tripping here for good.”
“Um, you don’t exactly ‘ring’ them up,” I said. “The gates, I mean. They appear at noon like clockwork, somewhere on the island. We haven’t figured out a pattern, not yet, anyway. But we’re trying. And we do know when you see one, you run like crazy, because if you catch it, you’re outta here.”
“Fantastic,” Dex said miserably. “I’m screwed. I don’t even know what a bloody gate looks like. I never saw it, just felt it. I thought I’d taken a bad hit, like I was burning up from the inside, but it was the gate thing, not the smack, right?”
“Right.”
“So what does it look like?” Desperation gave his eyes life. “The gate? To get back?”
I looked at Dex, recalling my first day in the City. I remembered the shock of arrival, the unending blur of new faces, and the sense of joining the merge one day too late. I remembered the horrific moment I’d learned my days were numbered. Counting the days was my new normal.
Suddenly I felt like an old-timer, which was crazy.
Dex was staring at me, with an odd mix of hope and denial.
“Look,” I said, speaking as gently as Em, “I know you’re freaking out. Everyone does at first. And to answer your question, look for shimmering air rising from the ground. But don’t worry. If you stick around, you’ll figure it out. And you’ll have backup to help you.”
“Backup,” Dex repeated in a hopeless monotone. “Shimmering air. Running. Death.” Dex closed his eyes. “Got it.”
“Hey, look on the bright side. At least you’re not naked anymore, right?” I said, smiling. Dex jerked his head up so fast I thought he’d given himself whiplash.
Before Dex could speak, Thad reached out his hand.
“Hey, man. I’m Thad.”
