Rebel (8 page)

I wasn’t sure that logic made any sense. I’d have to run it by Callum later, because I could almost see Micah’s point.

He shoved his gun in his pocket and looked at me expectantly,
but I didn’t know what he wanted me to say. I wasn’t going to agree with him. I wasn’t going to argue. Silence seemed the best course of action at this point.

“Let’s pack it up,” Micah said, turning away from me and heading toward the camp.

“They don’t have much,” Jules said with a sigh, yanking one of the sticks of a tent out of the ground.

My gaze turned to the two kids. Were we waiting for them to Reboot? Then what? They were going to join us after what we’d done to them?

I cleared my throat. “Are there a lot of humans out here?” I asked.

Micah smirked. “There used to be.”

“I thought HARC got all the humans together and took them to Texas. Do they escape?”

“Rarely. HARC couldn’t possibly get them all after the war. Especially those people from that country way up north.” He glanced back at Jules and Kyle. “What was that one called?”

“Canada,” Jules said.

“Right. Canada. The humans left in Canada mostly evaded HARC and started migrating south for better weather when they thought it was safe.” Micah grinned. “It wasn’t.”

“And the ones who Reboot just come with you willingly?” I asked. “After you killed them and their families?”

“Where else are they going to go?” Micah said, shoving an animal hide under his arm. “They can either stay out here
alone, go to the cities and become a slave, or join us. Not exactly a difficult decision.”

I would have picked staying out here alone, actually. Hands down.

“But, yes, there’s a transition period.” He gestured to the dead teenagers. “Grab one. It’s best we get them on the shuttle before they Reboot.”

Apparently they did not come willingly.

Kyle reached for the boy, yanking him to a standing position by one of his arms. The blood had soaked through the boy’s T-shirt and I sighed.

“Did they have a medical kit?” I asked, rubbing my fingers across my forehead.

“Yeah,” Jules said, holding out the bag she’d packed. “Why?”

“Give it to me. You should stitch them up now.”

“Why?” Micah asked with a frown. “There’s no guarantee they’ll Reboot.”

“But they might,” I said, walking closer to Jules. “If you stitch it now the wound will heal better. Especially if they’re over One-twenty.”

“Oh yeah, that’s true,” Kyle said. “The skin doesn’t always grow back together right if it’s left open too long.”

Micah’s gaze briefly moved down to my chest, a flash of sympathy crossing his face. My wounds were worse than these kids, I’d been younger and the bullet holes had been much
bigger, but still, I knew what I was talking about.

“Quickly,” he said, a hint of softness in his voice. “Jules, do one of them.”

Jules handed me a needle and a length of thread. “Give me whatever you have leftover. There isn’t much in here.”

I nodded as I took it and walked to the girl. Her long, dark hair covered part of her face and I left it there, glad I wasn’t able to see her eyes. I took a swift glance behind me as I grabbed the bottom of her shirt, but no one was watching us. Micah was deep in conversation with Kyle and Jules was hovering over the other dead human.

I yanked up the shirt and stitched the two bullet holes back together as best I could. I used the bottom of my own shirt to wipe away some of the blood, but there was too much to get it all. I pulled her top down and handed the thread off to Jules. When I turned around, Micah had the dead girl swung over his shoulder.

“Take those,” he said, pointing to a pile of animal hides and clothes at his feet.

I grabbed them and trailed behind Micah as we headed back toward the shuttle. The girl’s dark hair bobbed as we walked and I didn’t know what to hope for. Was it better to die permanently, or wake up to find that you’ve become a Reboot and everyone you knew is dead?

I didn’t know what I would have picked, if someone had given me a choice.

Micah slowed, letting Jules and Kyle pull ahead of us, and I was forced to walk beside him.

“I know this isn’t ideal,” he said quietly. “But we need as many Reboots as possible.”

“Why?”

“Because right now, the humans outnumber us. If we’re going to go after HARC, we need an army.”

I looked at him quickly. “Go after HARC?”

“Sure. Don’t you want to take revenge on them?”

I paused. Sometimes I still fantasized about snapping Officer Mayer’s neck. It would make such a satisfying sound. But I mostly just wanted to get away from them.

Maybe if they’d killed Callum I’d feel differently, but they didn’t. I won, and I was fine with enjoying my victory from a distance.

“No,” I said.

“What about all those Reboots left in there?” he asked. “Do you want to save them?”

My chest tightened as I realized where this was going. Did I want to jump back into the cities of Texas and fight off HARC
four
times? Four facilities, four break-ins, four battles. Or five, if HARC transferred Reboots back to the Austin facility soon.

But the intensity of Micah’s stare made me hesitant to admit how little I cared what happened to the rest of the Reboots. Now wasn’t the time for outright argument. I needed to get back
to the reservation first. Find Callum. Figure out what to do.

“I think it would be very hard,” I said slowly.

A grin spread across his face. “But it wouldn’t. I already have it all planned out.”

I cleared my throat, beating down the rising sense of dread. “What do you mean?”

“We’ve been preparing for battle for years. I managed to get schematics to all the HARC facilities. Those rebels.” He laughed, gently punching my shoulder. “They’re such trusting souls, aren’t they?”

That sounded bad. That sounded really, really bad.

“Now that we have increased our numbers so unexpectedly, we’re going to fast-track the next phase. We’re going to release the rest of the Reboots in the facilities into the cities, starting with Rosa. Then we’ll eliminate the human population.”

I sucked in a breath.
Eliminate
the human population? All of them?

“You’d be a big help in Rosa,” he continued. “Riley is the only other Reboot from that facility.” He adjusted the girl on his shoulder. “I get the feeling you’d be an asset on the front lines of anything, though.”

I swallowed before I spoke, steadying myself. “Why eliminate the human population?”

“Because they enslaved us and killed us and evolution has spoken. Our turn.”

“Evolution has spoken?” I repeated.

“They treat us like we’re some sort of evil virus gone wrong, when in reality we’re the evolved ones. The human race was dying out, and the strong found a way to survive. We should be celebrated, not enslaved.”

“Why not free the remaining Reboots and leave?” I asked. “You’ll lose more Reboots fighting a war against the humans. Not to mention we lost last time.”

“Reboot numbers were smaller last time, and they didn’t have the weapons we have. Once we get all the Reboots from the four remaining facilities we’ll be three times the size we are now. And if we leave, humans will continue to Reboot and we’ll have to keep coming back to save them. It’s easier just to get rid of them all.”

The humans were screwed. Utterly, totally, screwed.

Micah glanced at me again, hope lighting up his face. I tried to make my expression neutral, but he looked disappointed I didn’t seem more excited about his plan. I turned my gaze to the ground.

As we reached the shuttle, Riley rushed forward, his eyes bouncing between me and Micah. He was attempting to hide his nerves, but I could see them edging out ever so slightly.

Riley had told Micah he couldn’t find the humans. Yet they were right around the corner, less than a mile away. I seriously doubted Riley wouldn’t be able to find a target less than a mile away. Not unless he didn’t want to find them.

The thought comforted me only slightly as we piled into the
shuttle. Riley might not be interested in killing humans but he was still playing along.

The dead humans were placed in the middle of the shuttle with the supplies and I took a quick look at them. The boy was maybe fourteen or so, surprisingly well-fed, with plump cheeks. The girl was tall and probably pretty, but it was hard to tell with her eyes all dead like that. They were still human, dull and a light shade of green.

I turned away and caught Riley staring at me as we lifted off the ground.

“How long has it been?” Micah asked.

“Fifteen or twenty minutes,” Jules replied.

I stared at the humans as we rode in silence. I’d never seen a human Reboot. The process was long over by the time a Reboot got to HARC, and I’d never been allowed to stick around a dead human long enough to see them Reboot.

I watched them out of the corner of my eye for a long time, until I heard Micah suck in a breath.

“Look at the girl.”

My gaze flew to her, but I wasn’t sure there was anything different. Her human eyes still stared at the ceiling vacantly. I leaned a bit closer.

Her hand twitched.

“What time are we at?” Micah asked.

“Fifty minutes or so?” Jules asked. “We’re going to need a death timer to tell if she’s under sixty or not.”

Her hand twitched again and I gripped the bottom of my seat, holding my breath.

Her body convulsed, a huge gasp escaping her mouth as she slammed her chest into the air, then back to the floor.

She was still again, but her eyes were closed.

Riley slowly unbuckled his seat belt and edged onto the floor between her and the boy. He sat next to her still body.

She gasped twice more, her body jerking like she was having a seizure.

“Is this normal?” I whispered.

“Yes,” Riley said without turning around.

Her eyes flew open. The dull light color was gone, replaced by bright green.

A strangled noise escaped her throat, like she was in pain. Was Rebooting painful? I frowned, trying to remember, but there was nothing to that memory but the screaming and panic.

She bolted upright, her head whipping from side to side. She didn’t appear to see any of us. She was panicked, tears starting to stream down her face. She screamed.

Riley clamped his hand over her eyes and circled his arm around her waist, pulling her to the other side of the shuttle. He turned so she was facing the wall and held tight as she struggled and screamed.

“Don’t look, okay?” he said softly. “Everything’s okay, but you don’t want to look.”

I glanced over at the other human, still motionless on the
shuttle floor. Riley spoke softly to the girl as she began to sob in his arms, her whole body shaking.

“She’ll be fine,” Micah said, his voice full of sympathy, like he wasn’t the one who’d killed her.

I pushed my hands underneath my thighs for fear of reaching out to choke him. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes briefly.

“Wren,” Micah said.

I ignored him.

“Wren.”

I slowly opened my eyes, trying not to let the hate shine through.

“She’s better now,” he said. He gave me a nod, like he needed me to agree. “We made her better.”

I clenched my hands into fists beneath my thighs.

We had to get away from these people. Immediately.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

I RAN FOR THE GATE AS SOON AS I SPOTTED THE SHUTTLE IN THE
sky, my heart pounding loudly in my chest. It landed several yards away and a tall, muscular guy got out first, a girl wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt in his arms. He was followed by Jules, who was also carrying a dead human, then Micah, and, finally, Wren. She was pale, her face hard as stone. Micah said something to her but she walked right by him.

I couldn’t breathe. I hadn’t been able to breathe since Addie told me the hunt was actually for humans. Since she told me Micah and his friends had been slowly killing all the humans they could find and bringing back the ones who Rebooted.

Wren’s face made it worse. I’d forced myself not to panic,
to be calm and rational even though I wanted to scream at all these crazy people. I had to wait and see what Wren’s reaction was, to gauge how much trouble we were in.

Apparently we were in “everyone panic, we’re screwed” trouble.

“Wren!” Micah called to Wren’s back.

Her face hardened and she threw a look over her shoulder that made Micah stop in his tracks. I swallowed as I watched his face change, the excited, friendly expression he’d been wearing around her slipping away.

She offered me her hand as she approached, relief splashed across her face. Even through my panic, I felt a twinge of happiness that she was relieved to see me. I laced my fingers through hers and squeezed.

“Come with me,” she said, pulling on my hand as she kept walking.

“They told me what the hunt was,” I said under my breath as we strode across the compound.

Her eyes flicked to mine and she swallowed, nodding slightly. I held her hand tighter.

We walked across the reservation and through the back gate. A thick band of trees was in front of the lake, and Wren didn’t stop until we were right in the middle of them. She released a rush of air as she dropped my hand and turned to me.

“We need to leave. Now.”

I hesitated, taking a quick glance back at the reservation.
Addie might have been on board with that plan, given how upset she was earlier, but the rest of the Austin Reboots? We couldn’t leave them here.

“Callum, they’re going to kill all the humans in the cities.”

My eyes widened as Wren relayed Micah’s insane “we’re more evolved” plan. Visions of my mom and dad and David flashed through my brain.

“He could just free all the Reboots and leave,” I said when she finished, though I could tell by the look on her face that Micah wasn’t that rational.

“I told him that.” She rubbed her forehead, frowning at the dirt. “He said it wasn’t wrong to kill the humans because they’d kill us if they had the chance. That’s what he told me about killing those unarmed humans today. That doesn’t make any sense, right? That’s very much the wrong thing to do?”