“Who are these people?” Damien whispered, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. He’d come out of nowhere, which didn’t sit well with me.Focus on yoursurroundings.
“Friends. If shit goes down, they’ve got our back.” And I’d havetheirs.
He just nodded, looking at Josephine and his little brother, then scouring the open space for ghouls. I wasn’t stupid, I knew Damien Striker could hold his own, but if a guy who was so capable was hiring my team, then shit was probably about to get reallybad.
I walked past the perimeter of the alien pod trees and into the inner ring. This orchard was a great hiding spot, although the glow of the pods lit everything in the middle up; if someone looked too closely, they would see us all sitting inside of it. Good thing ghouls didn’t have night vision goggles or anything like that, just their super alert and heightenedsenses.
Our scientists thought these specific tree pods made the green regenerative serum and fed it to the planet through the roots system. They were everywhere though, and when we’d blown a bunch of them up, they grew back in twenty-four hours, from a hacked-off stump to a ten-foot-tall oval pod that lit up from the inside within a day. They’d be beautiful if they weren’t so creepy. Not to mention the serrated needles that stuck out all over the outside edges. They looked like hairs, but if you touched one you were quickly pierced. Those pricks burned like fire on your skin fordays.
“Emilia!” I called to the sassyteenager.
She spun, gun in one hand, spear in the other, her jaw dropping. “Kit! Dude. Oh my God, is Ronnie here?” she asked, with a mild Hispanicaccent.
I grinned. “Of course. How’ve you been? Playing nice with the boys atschool?”
Emilia was a ball buster—no one got the drop on her. I hadn’t seen them in about six months; life got busy and we stopped hangingout.
She grinned. “I dropped out ofschool.”
My heart fell. She had always been smart, but a lot of people gave up the pursuit of academics for other, more practicalthings.
“I thought you wanted to be an astronaut.” She could’ve done ittoo.
She was still grinning. “Nope. I got into the academy! Your letter of recommendation went a long way, theysaid.”
Oh shit. I’d forgotten I wrote that. It was months ago, and Santiago had asked for thefavor.
I smiled but it didn’t reach my eyes. I didn’t think she would get in, being that she had gang affiliations and no money. She was also old to be starting the program, up against girls who’d been there since they weretwelve.
“That’s great. I’m really happy for you.” I hugged her tightly. If she wanted to live this life, I couldn’t stopher.
She nodded, her long brown ponytail bobbing. “I start after the summer. I’m gonna be a badass and work my way up to commander, just like you.” Shegrinned.
I don’t know why that statement made me sad. It shouldn’t have. I should’ve been proud, flattered. It was a great thing to get into the academy and get the military training. After two years of civic duty, you were free to join the armed forces or go into private protection like me. It paid well, it was practical, but it just wasn’t what I wanted for the future of the youth ofhumanity.
“Why drop out of school? Why not do both?” I went to school and the academy, as did Ronnie. The last thing we needed were trained soldiers with noeducation.
She shook her head. “Need to help my bro with the familybusiness.”
I nodded. Santiago ran the militia like a business. Everyone paid monthly dues, and he did training exercises and camp-outs and other things. They were alwaysbusy.
“If Lieutenant Blackthorn is still there, do everything possible not to be in hisclass.”
“Why?”
“Just trust me. First day of class as a young kid, and he maced us all in the face and left the room. He’s not all there in thehead.”
I’d hoped the academy had gotten rid of him, but part of me thought they kept him around because he made good soldiers. Nothing about the Dream Wars was predictable, and neither washe.
Her eyes bugged out, and I patted hershoulder.
“You’ll be fine. I still tell people the story of the badass fourteen-year-old hellion I met in the Dream Wars who killed a ghoulie with an ice pick.” She was like Maxine’s mini me, as she should be since the grunts were attracted toher.
She grinned. “Thanks,Kit.”
I squeezed her shoulder before walking off to greet and introduce myself to the others. I didn’t hang out in the Dream Wars with just anyone, so I wanted to shake each person’s hand and assess if they were okay, not stim junkies or hotheads I needed to look outfor.
After making my rounds to the other eight people on Santiago’s team, I concluded this was a good group. I expected nothing less, but it was still my habit tocheck.
