Page 33 of The Wild Zone

“Looking to slice off a few heads?” said a voice behind me.

I turned to find a smiling girl in an orange tank top and combat pants. Her face was sooty, her dark hair tied back with a red bandanna.

“Oh, uh…” I had the ridiculous urge to hide the scythe behind my back. “Beckendorf said I could look around.”

“Of course,” said the girl. “You sure you want the scythe, though? That dagger on your belt looks plenty lethal.” She cocked her head. “In fact, I think my dad made it. Hephaestus, I mean.”

My hand involuntarily drifted to the handle at my hip. The dagger had been at my beck and call twice now. I was glad to have it, but it wasn’t enough.

“I figured it would be good to know more than one weapon,” I said. “Can I take this and try it out?”

The girl shrugged. “Sure. But I’d be a terrible armorer if I let you take a weapon without teaching you how to use it first. Especially something as complicated as a scythe.”

She beckoned for me to follow her and then headed to a grassy patch of land just beyond the shed. The area looked like it had once been a vineyard, judging by all the stakes puncturing the ground. Now, each stake had a straw dummy tied to it, like a hay fever army.

“I’m Nyssa Barrera, by the way,” the girl said. “You’re one of the new campers, right?”

I nodded. “Katie.”

“Good to meet ya.” She reached for the scythe, and I handed it over. “So, the scythe is a weapon of opportunity. In the old days, farmers had easy access to them for harvesting. When they needed to start an uprising or whatever, they’d modify their scythes for battle. Peasants and rebels loved them.”

“Perfect,” I said. “I am both a peasant and a rebel.”

Nyssa laughed. “When using one, the most important thing to know about is the grip.” She demonstrated. “One hand in the middle for balance and one at the base for maximum torque.”

I quirked my eyebrow. “Torque?”

“The amount of force you get from rotating your body.”

Nyssa stepped up to a straw dummy and swung the scythe in a downward diagonal arc. The blade sliced cleanly through from shoulder to leg.

“Now look what happens when I choke up on the grip.” This time, her left hand stayed in the middle but the other gripped the scythe near the blade.

Nyssa swung again, but the blade got wedged in the dummy’s shoulder.

She held the scythe out to me. “Your turn.”

You wouldn’t think there’d be so many wrong ways to wield a scythe, but apparently, I knew them all. Once Nyssa was satisfied with my slicing technique, she showed how the blade could be locked parallel with the shaft, turning it into a really long polearm—like a spear, except with a sword on the end.

“That’s the war-scythe configuration,” she said. “A lot easier to use, which is why I started you with the hard stuff.”

“Thanks a lot,” I said.

But she was right. Stabbing and slicing weren’t nearly as difficult with the blade pointed straight. I was still pretty clumsy at it, though.

Then Nyssa had me try blocking attacks. That was where I excelled. It wasn’t much different from parrying thrusts in fencing—if you can imagine using a telephone pole instead of a foil. Nyssa came at me with a spear, and I easily knocked aside her weapon and thrust in my blade for a counterattack, stopping an inch from her throat.

“You’re a natural on defense!” Nyssa declared. “But don’t hold back so much on attack.”

I thought she was joking, since I’d just about given her a tracheotomy, but she looked serious.

“Trust me,” I said, “it’s better if I hold back a little.”

By the time Nyssa released me, my arms and shoulders were so sore I could barely lift the scythe.

Thankfully, Nyssa showed me that my new weapon was designed to fold like a giant pocketknife, so I could carry it with a strap over my shoulder. It was still awkward to lug around, but no more so than a quiver.

Even better, the lesson after weaponry was far less taxing. Star Sight only required me to lie on my back and stare at the ceiling. It was held in a round pavilion with a black dome, the inside of which had been painted with glow-in-the-dark dots that resembled the stars.