Reboot (27 page)

“Wren.” His voice was firm, controlled. “What just happened?”

I should have come up with a lie. A story to tell him to fill in the holes. Maybe I could just tell him he attacked someone and I pulled him off in time.

But that lie made me feel sick. He’d thank me and his gratitude would likely make me hurl.

I’d waited too long to answer and he was staring at me like he already knew something terrible had happened. I was shaking a little as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I shouldn’t have left you.”

“I hurt someone?”

I nodded. My throat burned again and I tried to swallow. It didn’t help.

“I killed someone?”

“Yes,” I choked out. He was silent and I looked up. He was perfectly still, the horror creeping over his features.

“It’s not your fault,” Addie said. “I’ve seen what the shots do and been there myself and—”

Callum held his hand up and she closed her mouth, shrugging her shoulders at me like she didn’t know what else to say.

I didn’t, either. The footsteps outside were gone so I slid down the wall beside him. His eyes were closed, his hands clasped together at the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “It’s my fault. I said I wouldn’t let you hurt anyone and I did.”

What was one more body to add to my tally? I wanted to point that out to him, to remind him that I’d killed more people than he ever would. But I doubted that would be comforting.

He shook his head, dropping his hands from his neck and looking me straight in the eye. I thought he would be sad, but his eyes were hard, angry. I braced myself, thinking he was going to yell at me, but he slipped his hand into mine and squeezed it.

“It’s not your fault,” he said. “It’s HARC’s fault.”

Addie muttered something that sounded like agreement. My head snapped up as it occurred to me that she might be in the same situation as Callum.

“Are you okay?” I asked. “Did they give you shots?”

“Yes. I’m fine for now, though. I’m between rounds.”

“What do you mean?” Callum asked.

“They do multiple rounds,” Addie said. “You must be on the first.”

“I guess. I was only there a few weeks.”

“Yeah, probably on the first, then. You start going off the deep end, then they’ll give you something that makes you feel normal again. Some sort of cure or antidote or something. Then they start it up again.”

Callum’s eyes widened with hope at the same time mine did.

“I don’t know that for sure,” Addie said quickly. “But my friends said I was a mess last week and now I’m fine. Good timing, by the way. Thanks for that.”

“Your dad might have known,” I said. It could be why he was so quick to get us the tracker locator. I made a fist and dug my fingers into my palm. Leb hadn’t bothered to check on Callum’s status.

“If there is an antidote, maybe the rebels will have it,” Callum said hopefully. “Or they’ll get it for us.”

I gave him a doubtful look. I’d barely persuaded Leb to help us, and only in exchange for something.

“I can’t stay like this.” He swallowed, turning to Addie. “I’ll just get worse, right?”

“Probably,” she said quietly. “The ones who didn’t get multiple rounds, the ones they let run the course . . . yeah, they never got better.”

The lump in my throat was unexpected, and I had to swallow several times before I could speak.

“We have to at least ask the rebels,” he said.

I nodded. “We will. And when they say no we’ll go get it ourselves.”

Addie raised her eyebrows. “Seriously? You know you’ll have to go inside HARC to get it.”

“Yes.”

She pressed her lips together as she took a step toward me. “You just broke me out and now you want to—”

A noise outside made us turn. The shed door swung open.

It was a HARC officer.

Pointing a gun at us.

I SHOT TO MY FEET AND DOVE FOR THE OFFICER, PAINFULLY aware that I didn’t have a helmet. Addie got there first, grabbing the officer’s arm just as he got a shot off. The bullet sailed past her and through the shed wall.

He fired again and Addie stumbled as the bullet hit her chest. The officer whirled around to me just as I slammed into him, knocking him into the dirt. Callum scrambled across the ground and wrestled the gun from the officer’s grasp.

The shouts outside meant the other officers in the area had heard the commotion. I stomped on the human’s leg until I heard a crack, and he screamed and clawed at the dirt to get away from me.

I jumped over him and ran through the door, reaching my hand out for Callum’s. He grabbed it and Addie dashed through the door behind him.

We ran across the yard and back to the poorly paved street. I whipped my head around to see a group of about five officers chasing us. I ducked as one fired, putting my hands over the back of my head like that would stop a bullet.

Addie’s long legs made her a fast runner, and she pulled ahead of us and turned left as she approached a crossroads. Bullets flew past my ears as we sprinted after her just in time to see her take another sharp left behind a two-story building. I rounded the building and she was waiting at the far edge, back pressed against the side as she watched the street we’d just come from. The officers blew past and we waited half a second before darting back out to the street and running the opposite direction.

We got to the edge of town, where the trees were thick before giving way to the open land in front of the HARC fence. We stopped in the darkness there, and I turned to look out at the houses in the distance. The HARC officers were nowhere in sight, but shuttles hovered over the city, spotlights sweeping the streets.

“This . . . was the entirety of your plan . . . wasn’t it?” Addie gasped, putting a hand against a tree as she tried to catch her breath. “Just grab me and run?”

“You have a better one?” Callum asked with a frown.

“I’m willing to bet I could come up with something.”

I rolled my eyes as I pulled the map of Austin out of my pocket. We weren’t far from the rebels. We could make it to their house in about ten minutes, once we were sure we’d lost HARC.

“You feel all right?” I asked Callum.

He nodded. “Okay. Still . . .” He held out his hand to show me how badly it was shaking.

“You should eat some meat,” Addie said. “It helps. Especially with the whole ‘wanting to eat humans’ thing. It, like, tricks your system for a while or something.”

“We’ll get you some as soon as we get to the rebels,” I said, taking another glance around before I plopped down on the grass. Callum sat beside me and laced his shaky fingers through mine. I wanted to climb in his lap and squeeze him until I’d convinced him—and myself—that everything was fine. I resisted, since Addie would probably not appreciate it.

She was still standing, reading the note from her father again. “Why’d he send you?” she asked, not looking up.

“Because I wanted a way out and made a deal.”

“He helped you if you helped me,” she said.

“Yes.”

“You could have broken the deal. Just taken off.”

“We don’t get the location of the reservation until I bring you to the rebels.”

She bit down on her lip and sighed. “They don’t trust us at all.”

“Leb was very good to me,” I said, guilt invading my chest as I realized the disappointment on her face was for her father. “The best officer I worked with. And he said he had other kids, so it made sense he didn’t want to risk everything.”

“I guess.” She glanced at Callum. “Did you leave because you were going crazy?”

“No, that happened after.” He let out a humorless laugh, rubbing a hand down his face. “They were going to eliminate me because I didn’t want to kill anyone.”

Addie looked away, clearly uncomfortable, and I squeezed his hand. He’d found something in the distance to stare at and I wanted desperately to change the subject.

Addie slid down onto the ground and we sat in silence for a long time, listening to the distant sound of officers and shuttles. Callum’s hand was warm in mine, but I was still trembling. I thought it was more from fear than from the wind whipping across my cheeks.

Callum’s face was turned to the ground, and I tried not to look at him, but his distraught expression was like a magnet. I found myself opening and shutting my mouth as I tried to think of something comforting to say, but there was nothing.

I’d opened my mouth for the hundredth time when Addie stood up, brushing off her pants.

“I don’t hear anything,” she said, tilting her head toward the quiet city. “Want to make a run for it?”

I nodded, offering my hand to Callum as I got to my feet. He stood and crossed his arms over his chest, letting out a big breath of air as he scanned the area in front of us. It was clear, the officers and shuttles gone.

“You all right?” I asked, lightly touching his arm.

He nodded without meeting my eyes. “I’m fine. Let’s go meet these rebels.”

THE ADDRESS LEB GAVE US FOR THE REBELS WAS PAST THE schoolhouse and in an area of town I’d known well as a child. The road curved and the houses were run-down and sad, some falling apart. It was more like Rosa in this part of the Austin slums, although many houses were painted bright, happy colors.

We half jogged, half sprinted across the town, scurrying behind buildings and trees at every noise. It was pitch-black, but the sun would start to rise any minute, and I wanted to get to the rebels before it was light out.

“That one,” I said, pointing as we approached a dirt road. I slowed to a walk as we turned down it, glancing along the row of brown houses. According to the map, it was the last house on the right.

We reached the end of the street and trudged across the patchy, brown grass to the front door. This house wasn’t painted. It was brown wood and windowless at the front and narrower than the houses on either side, but extended a bit farther in back. If the point was to not stand out, they had succeeded.

I glanced around the side of the house to see a short wooden fence. I gestured for Addie and Callum to follow. “Follow me,” I whispered, quickly darting around. We hopped the fence and landed in the dirt of a tiny backyard. I crept up to the brown door at the back of the house and softly rapped my knuckles against the wood.

Nothing.

I knocked again, a little harder, casting a nervous glance at Callum. Dealing with humans made me fidgety. I hated relying on them for anything, and I could see by the hope in his eyes that he expected these people would have all the answers.

“What?” a man’s voice said very quietly, from the other side of the door.

“It’s us,” I said in a low voice. “Um, Leb sent us?”

Silence followed my words, then a flurry of noise. They were whispering to one another and running around.

I dropped Callum’s hand and reached to finger the gun at my hip. I wouldn’t draw a weapon yet. I’d give them a chance.

It took at least a minute, but the door finally swung open to reveal a bleary-eyed boy with messy, dark curls, pointing a shotgun at my head.

Giving humans a chance was a dumb idea.

I grabbed my gun, but the human quickly held out his hand for me to stop. He was trembling.

“I don’t want to use it,” he said. “We’re just cautious here. If you’d like to come inside, we’re going to need all your weapons.”

“But you get to keep yours?” Callum asked.

Callum’s easy, relaxed tone unsettled the human. I could see it in the way his eyes flicked between us, swallowing hard as he looked Callum up and down. He was much shorter than Callum—almost as short as me, actually—and he looked ridiculous pointing the gun at him. We were probably about the same age, although he could have been a bit younger.

“If you want to come inside you have to give up your weapons,” he repeated.

“Fine,” I said, holding my gun out. I didn’t need it anyway. With the way the guy was shaking, I could take his gun, break his neck, and dance on the body in two seconds flat.

I smiled as I handed it over.

“Anything else?” he asked, lowering the shotgun. He looked pointedly at Addie.

“I got nothing,” she said, holding up her hands.

I slipped the knife out of my pocket and gave him that as well. He took it, glancing over his shoulder. He shifted from foot to foot, obviously unsure of what to do next.

A man appeared behind him. He was much taller than the boy, and he gripped at the edge of the door with a massive hand. He also looked like he’d just woken up, and he ran a hand through his gray-streaked hair as he squinted at us.

“Which one is Wren?” he asked.

“Me.”

“Adina, then?” he asked, and she nodded. He focused on Callum. “And you’re Twenty-two.”

“Callum.”

“Tony,” he said. He put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “This is Gabe. Leb assured us you wouldn’t kill us. Are we all still good with that plan?”

The question was directed at me.

Callum actually laughed a little, and a smile twitched at the edges of my lips. “Yes.”

Tony jerked his head and Gabe stepped back, keeping the gun trained on us as I crossed over the threshold. The wood floors creaked beneath my boots and I squinted in the darkness as Tony led us through a hallway and into the living room. The light came from a couple little lamps in the living room. The only window, in the kitchen to my left, was covered by dark curtains.

There was another human, this one lanky with thick brown hair to his shoulders, sitting on the plushy brown couch, his eyebrows lowered in a frown. He looked to be about the same age as Tony, and he watched my every move as I stepped inside.

My eyes darted to the kitchen, but it seemed they were the only humans in the house.

Tony took big strides across the living room and stopped at the kitchen table, picking up a piece of paper. He headed back to me and held it out. “As promised.”

It was a map. I took it from him and looked from the drawing of Texas to the instructions written below. The Reboot reservation was several hundred miles north, not far from what used to be the border of Texas.

“We can help you part of the way,” he said. “You can stay here until tomorrow night, then—”