Page 6 of The Wild Zone

Clarisse shrugged. “Stay here, then. We’ll use you for target practice. Bows up!”

Her archer cronies nocked their arrows.

“Clarisse.” Harper tried to lock eyes with her. “You don’t want—”

“Nope!” She averted her gaze, not falling for his charmspeak again.

“But you don’t—”

“NOPE!” Clarisse hefted her spear. “Less charmspeak, more running, pretty boy.”

“Clarisse, this isn’t right!” Benny shouted. “We’re on the same side!”

“Besides, we’re family,” I tried. “Isn’t family the most—”

“Draw!” Clarisse barked.

The archers pulled back their bowstrings. I had no faith that they were bluffing.

“It’s okay, guys.” Grant put his hand on Benny’s shoulder, and then glanced reassuringly from Harper to Zuri to me. “We’ll be fine. Separately, we’re like this.” He wiggled his fingers like frantic spider legs. “But the five of us working together?” He curled his fingers into a fist.

“Aw.” Clarisse cocked her head. “That pep talk made me throw up a little in my mouth, but I like the effort.” She patted Grant hard on the cheek. “Keep it up, kid. You’ve got potential.”

She turned to me and gripped my chin. “And you—since you and Grant are part of our big happy Ares family, we’re gonna aim for you first. Now, get moving!” Then, in a louder voice, she added, “Take aim!”

My eyes widened. She wasn’t kidding. I grabbed Grant’s wrist, and we ran for our lives.

2

I Stab an Old Lady, but It’s Fine, Really

Grant’s motivational speech was exactly what we newbies needed to stick together.

Unfortunately, the effect only lasted about three seconds, until the first arrow whizzed past and sliced off a lock of Harper’s hair.

“Scatter!” Harper shouted.

And so we did, as Clarisse and her cronies laughed and cheered behind us.

“Wait!” Grant darted one way, then another, trying to corral everyone at once. But it was no use.

Harper sprinted east. Benny went southeast. Zuri headed south, yanking off the necklace she was wearing as she ran. When she snapped the chain, the pendant glowed, lengthening and curving into a full-size longbow. Nice trick.

I touched my necklace, a silver pendant with my name in hangul characters. It didn’t glow or transform, but it had once broken our washing machine that time I left it in my jeans pocket, so I guess it had magic properties too.

“It’s all right, KK, I’ve got you.” Grant pushed me ahead of him. “Let’s follow Benny!”

I dashed forward as arrows zipped past. One struck the ground in front of me and I scooped it up (hey, it was better than no weapon at all) and then kept running.

When we reached a creek bed, I skidded to a halt.

“What are you doing? Jump!” Grant nudged me, but I stepped to one side.

“This is part of C9!”

Grant blinked at me. “What?”

“The creek that empties into Long Island Sound.”