The Moon Dwellers (47 page)

“C’mon,” he says, urging me to move up
to the closing doors
.
We inch
forward until we’
ve
created a human barricade.
The big guy in the front tries
to charge straight through us.
Without planning it, Cole and
I
kick at the same time.
I catch him hard in the knee and hear a crunch as it bends
backwards the wron
g way.
Simultaneously
,
Cole lays
into him with a boot in the face, using his foot like a sledgehammer.

“Argh!” the dud
e roars
, falling backwards into his friends.

The doors close
.

Chapter Eighteen

Tristan

“
I
t’s
Rivet!
” I hiss
.
“What do you make of it?”

“Exercise,” Roc says
.

“Exercise?”

“Yeah.
They’re just out for a midnight run.
You know, to keep in shape.”

I am
glad to have the old Roc back, the one who j
okes
in even the most serious
situations.
“I think we should join them, I’m feeling a bit out of shape
,
too.”

Roc nods
, grinning.

We steal from the alley and jog
along the str
eet,
moving silently on only our toes
.
We probably don’t even need to be as
careful
as we are, as Rivet and his men a
re making so much n
oise they wouldn’t hear
the grind of a drilling machine
following them
.

Our quarry reaches the city center and enters
the train terminal.
We follow
as close
as we dare
.
The
moment
we enter
the st
ation, the emergency sirens go off.
I whirl
around, half-expe
cting a squadron of troops to surround us, but there i
s no one.

“Hurry,” Roc says
, “w
e’re gonna lose
’
em.”

I spi
n around and sta
rt
cha
sing Rivet again, who’s
doubled his speed, heading straight for the turnstiles to a waiting tr
ain.
Ticketless, his men hop the barrier.
Finally
,
I can see why they a
re in such a hurry.

Four figures a
re running along
the platform, evidently aiming to
board the last car.
They are all wearing hoods, so it i
s difficult to distinguish individual features, oth
er than height.
But still I kno
w.
There a
re four of them, one much shorter
than the others.
Plus Rivet is chasing them.
It i
s her.
Adele.
Her sister.
The other two fugitives.

Following Rivet’s lead,
we
launch
ourselves ove
r the ticket machines.
There is no way we a
re going to catch Rivet’s men, much less Ad
ele and her friends.
I extend
an arm to stop Roc.

“Wait, let’s see what
happens,” I say
.

We watch
as Rivet’s men split up, half boarding a car in the middle of the train and the other half ze
roing in on the last car.
We a
re flush with the d
oors of the first car, which start to close.
One of Rivet’s men tries
to
jump on the last car but i
s met by
at least two feet, which knock
him back.

I slip
through t
he crack in the doors and pull
Roc
in
after me.

My mind is racing.
We a
re on
the train.
Rivet and his men a
re on the train.
Adele, her sister, her friends.
We couldn’t have coordinated it any better if we’d tried.

“It’s like fate,” Roc says
, reading my mind.
Maybe my father was wrong about fate after all.

“Where are we going?”

As if in response to my question
, the train start
s
moving and the speaker drones
.
“Nonstop to subchapter
twenty-six
.”

“Subchapter
twenty-six
?
But that’s where—”

“
Cam
p
Blood
and Stone,” Roc finishes.
It is another classified thing I’ve
told him.

“But why woul
d Adele be headed there?” I say
, thinking aloud.
It hit
s
me like a sucker punch from a one
-
armed
man.
“Her parents!” I exclaim
.

Roc’s
eyes widen.
“Yes,” he says
.
“It has to be.
The reporter said they were traitors.
There’s nowhere else they would’ve been taken.”

“She’s trying to get her family back.
First her sister and now her mom and dad.”

Just then I have
a flashback from the
last thrilling train ride we
had.
Waiting in the car.
Watching as the two guards switched cars, moving along the train
toward
us.
Slipping onto our train.
The fight.

I rush
down the car, not bothering to explain to
Roc.
Reaching the end I tug at the door.
It i
s either stuck, locked, or n
ot a real door, because it won’t budge.
I peer
through the glass window, l
ooking into the next car.
It is empty.
So i
s the one after that.
I’m not sure how many cars are empty before I spot
mov
ement.
I can
barely make out movin
g black blobs
several cars in front of us.

“It’s a
n express night train,” Roc says
, approaching from behind.
“There’s no car
-
to
-
car access.
The train won’t stop because of the security alarms either.
They’re fully automated.
”

“How do you now so much about Moon Realm trains?”

“That’s what they pay me the big bucks for.”

When I turn around, Roc’
s grin
ning.
“What’s so funny?” I say
.

“Well, besides my
witty
sense of humor, the fact that we’re on this crazy train headed for sure death brings a bit of a smile to my face.”

“You’re an odd one,” I say
.

“That coming from Mr. Love-at-first-sight-chase-the-girl-all-over-the-Tri-Realms-getting-kidnapped-by-rebels-and-cannibals.”

“Hey, there wa
s only one cannibal, not plural.
And I’m not sure if it’s…
love.
”
I say
love
like it’
s some s
ort of a rare disease that can
only be prove
n
by a series of medical tests.

“If you so say so.”

With at least a couple of hours
of travel ahead of us, I settle
into a booth.
Roc sel
ects a booth opposite mine.
I try
to focus m
y mind on my feelings.
I’m not sure if it i
s even possible to think about
your feelings.
I always seem
to just feel things without
really comprehending what I am feeling.
It’s like there i
s this eternal gulf between my heart
and head, and each time I try
to construct a bridge
to span it, a gust of wind
blow
s
it over.

I know I feel
something for Adele, despite the fact that, as
Roc constantly points
out, I’
ve
never even spoke
n
to her.
I’m su
re most people would say it’s just a crush, because I think she i
s beautiful, but I’
ve
been surrounded by beautiful people—at least by Sun Realm standards—all my life and never felt anything for them.

She is different.
Yeah, I am
drawn to her look
s, but it feels like more than
me
just
being a typical guy chasing a tunic.
Behind her exquisite beauty is a person, who I feel like I’m
getting to k
now from afar.
She i
s strong—
there i
s no doubt about that.
The proof: escaping prison, navigating through the
Lonely Caverns
, fighting off Rivet’s men, attempting a suic
ide mission to rescue her parents
from one of my father’s
traitor camps
.
All pretty gutsy.

But I can
also
tell there i
s a tenderness to her.
I felt it when she looked back at me when I was fighting Rivet.
Like she felt sad that I should have to struggle for her sake.

Adele is funny, too.
I have no proof for that.
Can’t explain how I know.
But I know as sure as I kno
w my mother
loved
me
.
If I tell Roc I think Adele i
s funn
y I’ll
never be
able to live it down.
I’m not
going to tell Roc.

“Tristan?”

I look at Roc.
I’ve
been
staring into space, but that i
sn’t unusual fo
r me these days.
Roc is staring at my hands.
I look down and realize they a
re clasped tightly and I
am
runn
ing them over
and over
each other, fierce
ly massaging them.
I stop, separate them, place
them on my thighs.

“You okay?” Roc says
.

“Uh, yeah.
Just a little nervous
,
I guess.”

“About what to do when the train stops?”

“Not what to do,” I say
.
“How to do it.”

“You’ll do it,” Roc says
.
“We’re here for a reason.
I sense it.”

I search
Roc’s brown eyes for t
he truth.
For a moment I sense it
, too
, try
to
snatch it out, but then it fades
away, disappearing, just like all the good things in my life always
seem to do.
Sometimes Roc seems
so confident and serious, like now, and other times so helpless, like in the midst of a fight, or when we were captured.

I try
to tur
n my philosophical thoughts off and
focus on the task at hand.
“Right, I’ll need your help, Roc, there are just too many of them for me to handle on my own.”

Roc’s wise eyes turn
fearful in an instant.

“We’ll get through it together.
I won’t let
anything happen to you,” I say, knowing we might
both be dead by day’s end.

Roc nod
s, purses his lips, seems
to resign himself
to the certain violence that i
s headed our way, like a meteor on a collision course with
earth
.