by Julie Cross
“You’re right. I didn’t mean that.” Courtney was quiet for several seconds, then finally spoke again. “So what’s going on with you and my brother?”
“What’s going on with you and Mason?” Holly’s response was such a quick reflex, it was like she couldn’t turn off her inner agent anymore.
“Mason is…” Courtney said, and my hands balled up inside my pockets. “Really interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like him before. He’s super smart but not about everything.”
Yeah, like believing me when I say that I’m going to kick his ass if he messes with my sister.
“So Jackson’s overreacting about you guys?” Holly asked.
“Totally,” Courtney said. “Now tell me what’s going on with you and my brother? Don’t say nothing. I know it’s not nothing.”
How did she know?
“It’s not nothing,” Holly said.
“I knew it!” Courtney squealed. “I’ve seen how he looks at you. I don’t care what he says, it’s more than friendly.”
“That’s how guys look at you after they’ve seen you naked,” Holly said.
What?
“What? When?” Courtney asked.
Finally, some emotion broke through Holly’s voice and she laughed. “I’m kidding.”
“Okay, not funny.” Courtney laughed, too, though. “But seriously, he’s pretty cute, right? He plays guitar, too, like really well. And sings.”
What the hell is she doing? Fixing me up with Holly? The irony was almost hilarious.
“I’m sure he’s a regular rock star,” Holly said. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from Jackson.”
Hmm … not sure what that means …
“You should see him at fourteen. He’s kind of short, but my best friend, Kelly, has a megacrush on him. I’m paranoid every time she sleeps over that she’ll sneak into his room and steal some underwear for her shrine to Jackson or something.”
Uh … what?
“Kelly,” Holly mumbled. “She lives in the building on Eighty-seventh Street, right? Blond hair, big boobs…”
“Yeah…” Courtney answered slowly. “Maybe not the big-boobs part.”
“Well, she’ll get them,” Holly said. “She’ll buy them, actually. And if you do make it back to your present, you can tell Kelly to hold off on the shrine because Jackson will come around eventually. May of 2007, if I remember right. They’ll hook up and it’ll last about two weeks.”
Shit. She wasn’t bluffing yesterday when she said she knew my history.
“Oh. My. God,” Courtney said, enunciating every word. “You have to tell me more! What else do you know?”
“Apparently not everything,” Holly said with an edge to her voice. “Hold up a sec, Courtney … you’ve got something on your back.”
I heard the plastic crunch against the ground and then a high-pitched squeal ripped through my ear. “Fuck!”
Blake’s head snapped in my direction and then Mason and Stewart stopped in front of us, turning quickly and pointing guns at every empty space. I yanked the spy gear from my ear and pressed it back into Blake’s hand.
“Sorry, stubbed my toe,” I said to Stewart and Mason.
Stewart rolled her eyes at me and then continued on with our hike. I rubbed the hell out of my ear, trying to get rid of the ringing sound. She knew. Holly knew I was listening that whole time. Great.
“Game over,” I mumbled to Blake.
He glanced wearily at me. “Maybe it was a bad idea anyway.”
We walked in silence for a good thirty minutes. Just as the sun was starting to lift over the horizon, allowing us to conserve our flashlight power, Dad, Courtney, and Holly caught up to us. Holly walked between me and Blake, keeping her eyes forward, giving no indication that she’d caught us spying on her and Courtney. “It’s too quiet, Jackson, you should sing us a song. I hear you’re pretty good.”
“He’s too busy telling everyone what to do,” Courtney said from my other side.
I decided to keep my anger under control because Holly had made a good point earlier. I tossed my arm around my sister and gave her shoulders a squeeze. “I never did say thank you for yesterday, for cleaning up my bloody mess and staying with me.”
Her shoulders relaxed like she couldn’t hold on to her anger either. “You would have done it for me.”
I closed my eyes, fighting a dozen emotions, knowing that I was never brave like that at Courtney’s age. She should know that. Why did she make it sound like I was this great person when I wasn’t? I hadn’t been then, and now … I’m still a work in progress.
Since I couldn’t confirm Courtney’s declaration, I pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry,” I whispered into her hair.
She looked up at me, questions in her eyes … sorry for what? I shrugged and shook my head and she didn’t ask me anything else.
Dad’s gaze was on us, I felt it without even looking over. Then he cleared his throat and pointed through the trees. “This is the end of the forest here. Let’s scope it out before we walk any farther.”
Without any warning, a gunshot rang through the silent morning air. All of us dropped to the ground. Instinctively, I reached for Holly, tossing an arm over her.
She threw my arm back at me. “I’d kick you in the face again but I don’t think Blake’s had enough time to grow more blood.”
Holly glanced around and then sprang to her feet after seeing Stewart and Mason doing the same.
“Idiot civilians,” Stewart said, looking right at Blake and Courtney. “Stay behind us.” She turned her eyes to me. “Think you can hold that gun steady, Junior?”
“Steady enough to scare someone.”
She exchanged a look with Dad. He nodded, allowing me to stay up front with the big kids. From the corner of my eye, I saw Holly angling her body so it was directly in front of Courtney’s.
“A lot of them don’t speak standard English,” Blake said, moving forward. “Better let me communicate.”
I froze to my spot. “Wait … them?”
Courtney was right. I noticed nearly everyone else staring at Blake, waiting for him to explain.
“Usually they hide…” he said, stuttering through his words. “They’re harmless, seriously.”
“They?” Dad said, through his teeth. I could tell he was more than pissed about being sent on this mission without all the information.
“Basically, they’re rebels but Ludwig calls them rejects.” Blake tugged on his ponytail. “To him, they’re failed experiments. Ludwig keeps them inside the force field, too, but they have implants under their skin to prevent them from entering the forest.”
“Did Ludwig give them guns, too?” Mason snapped.
“It’s probably just a flare.”
I wasn’t sure what to think about this new revelation but there were a hell of a lot of dots on that map Grayson had showed us the other day.
The sky was nearly all the way lit up now as we approached full morning light. The forest came to a dead stop and a huge clearing of dirt and grass stood before us. We stepped out of the forest and into the wide-open world again. Tan-and-green-colored tents stood off in the distance, patched in various places. It occurred to me right then that it was a very strong possibility we were in a future version of Central Park.
As we walked, putting the trees and woods behind us, there was no sign of anyone. Not even the slightest sound of movement despite the flare we had clearly heard only minutes ago.
“Do you think it was a signal? Maybe to tell everyone to hide?” Courtney asked Blake.
“Probably.” He pointed in the distance, where I could just make out a small hill if I squinted hard enough. “That’s where the controls are.”
Dad scanned the area and then did a once-over of our group. “Holly, come with me, we’ll test out those fingerprints of yours. Blake, you, too. Stewart and Mason, follow behind and position yourself at the base of the hill, stay on the lookout.” Dad
turned to me and Courtney. “You two stay right here—”
“I’m going with you and Holly,” I said immediately. “Stewart can stay with Courtney and Mason can be on his own at the bottom of the hill.”
“We don’t need a huge entourage crowded around the control box.” Dad lifted his eyebrows, communicating silently with me.
Oh, right. He had said earlier he was going to talk to Holly. Did he mean right now? Was this really the best time?
I shrugged and took my position next to Courtney. I had to trust him, he knew what he was doing. Courtney and I watched as everyone headed away from us. She sat down right in the dirt, stretching out her legs. After a quick glance around the area, I plopped down next to her.
We had only been sitting in silence for about five minutes when Courtney tugged on the sleeve of my shirt.
“Jackson,” she whispered. “Look.”
I peeled my eyes from the direction of the hill—my current focal point—and caught sight of what had startled Courtney. “Holy shit … is that … a baby?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
DAY 14. JUST AFTER SUNRISE
Okay, so maybe baby wasn’t an accurate description considering it was walking, but it wasn’t a kid either. Emily’s a kid and this … little person … was less than half her size.
I quietly rose to my feet and Courtney did the same beside me. We walked in its direction, abandoning our post. The baby continued to wobble toward us, still about two hundred feet away. It wore a T-shirt and sand-colored cloth over its backside as a diaper. Blond hair stuck out from the sides of its head and its skinny little legs and feet were bare despite the chilly morning air.
“Where’d it come from?” I whispered to Courtney.
She pointed off in the distance, toward one of those tents I’d seen earlier.
“You watched it walk all the way from there and you’re just now getting my attention?” I hissed at her.
She pressed a finger to her lips and glared at me to be quiet.
I glanced over my shoulder, toward the hill, hoping to see Blake and Dad emerging soon. Why didn’t we have coms units? I scanned the area everyone else had walked toward, squinting into the sun, trying to spot Stewart or Mason. When I turned my attention back to the baby, a little blond girl had emerged from the bushes. A giant T-shirt covered her all the way to her knees, but her feet were also bare. Courtney and I both stood there stunned as she swiped the baby up in one swift motion and took off for the tents in the distance.
What the hell just happened?
“Did you see that girl earlier, too?” I asked
“No, she must have been hiding in the bushes the whole time we’ve been here,” Courtney said. “Maybe she’s the one that set off the flare. Maybe the baby came looking for her. They could be sisters? Or brother and sister?”
“Courtney. Jackson.” Dad’s voice came from the distance. Seconds later, he appeared at our sides with Blake, Holly, Stewart, and Mason.
All of us were now shielding our eyes from the sun, which had quickly turned very bright, heating up the air around us. I still hadn’t gotten used to this weird day-and-night weather.
“We need to head back,” Blake said. “It’s getting hot really quick and we didn’t bring much water.”
Dad peeled his eyes from the tent area and nodded his agreement. “Come on. Let’s move out!”
“But Dad, we just saw—” Courtney protested.
I shook my head slightly, hoping she’d get the hint. We could discuss this when we got back to camp, where we had access to plenty of water and wouldn’t shrivel up like raisins.
We entered the woods quickly and began our journey, drifting between the trees. “Okay, so what’s the report? Is the control box there like Stewart said?”
“Yes,” Dad answered. “And we tested it out. Holly’s fingerprints scanned perfectly and she stepped through the force field without setting off the alarm.”
“And you came back?” I asked, only joking.
“What was I supposed to do?” Holly snapped. “Walk into Eyewall headquarters and put on a uniform?”
“So what’s the plan for escape day?” I wiped sweat from my forehead with the bottom of my T-shirt. I caught Holly staring at my stomach. Feeling self-conscious, I quickly dropped my shirt, covering the big ugly scar I was pretty sure she’d been looking at.
Her cheeks flushed and she turned her head, facing forward again.
Dad opened his mouth to respond to my question but Mason interrupted him. “Are we not going to talk about the big elephant in the room?”
“What elephant?” Courtney and I said at the same time.
Mason kept his eyes on Dad as we walked. “The fact that Jackson left his post and dragged Courtney with him. What the hell was that about? You can’t do that shit when we’re walking into some strange place. You didn’t see me and Stewart moving from our guard spots. We weren’t even watching the area between the woods and the hill. You left us wide open for an attack from behind.”
Wow, that’s a very anticlimactic elephant. Obviously Mason is digging for things to pin on me. Or maybe he has some irrational paranoia about being attacked from behind.
Dad shot a glance at me, lifting his eyebrows. “Mason’s right, Jackson. Everyone has to be able to trust you in these situations. You cannot, under any circumstances, leave your post.”
Okay, guess Dad’s going to patronize this irrational concern of Mason’s. I rolled my eyes. “We walked like thirty feet away. I wouldn’t exactly call that abandoning our post.”
“A baby wandered right up to us,” Courtney said. “What were we supposed to do? And there was a little girl hiding in the bushes. She’s probably the one who set off the flare.”
Mason had clamped his mouth shut the second Courtney had started talking. I guess if it’s Courtney’s fault, he isn’t going to whine about it. Our walking pace had increased significantly as if the urgency of the oncoming heat wave pushed us forward faster.
“And I’m pretty sure I saw more people out there where those tents are. How come those people can’t come into the woods or our area?” she asked Blake. “You said they couldn’t pass through here but we can?”
He scratched the back of his head, diverting his eyes from Courtney’s. “They have trackers embedded in their skin. They’ll get shocked if they pass through the invisible boundaries.”
“What? Like a dog collar?” Courtney stared at Blake incredulously as if to say, you’ve got to be kidding me. And I couldn’t help agreeing with my sister. It seemed very inhumane.
Blake opened his mouth and then shut it again quickly, not sure how to respond.
“Well, we’re going back, right?” Courtney asked.
“To escape?” Dad said. “Yes, but probably not for a couple days. We have to wait for—”
“No, I mean to help them.” Courtney looked from one of us to the other as if her point couldn’t be more clear. “They probably need food and clothes. That baby had almost nothing on.”
“Courtney,” Dad said. “We don’t know what they have. Just because your brief assessment provided one scenario—”
Courtney jumped in front of us, stopped walking, and turned to face the entire group. “You didn’t see it either!” She turned to me, looking totally desperate for help. “Tell them, Jackson!”
There wasn’t much to tell other than what she’d already stated, but I was pretty sure my silence would further her frustration. “Um … yeah, there was a baby and…”
Courtney folded her arms across her chest and I could see she was seconds from stamping her foot and throwing a tantrum right here in the woods. Because despite my sister’s heart of gold, there was no way to shake the privileged, spoiled kid out of her. And Courtney was far more spoiled than me. She had almost always gotten her way with Dad.
“Then we can all go back and get a more accurate assessment right now,” she demanded.
Holly shrugged and turned to Dad. “I’ll go back with her if that�
��s what she really wants.”
“Me, too,” Mason chimed in. “We can get some pictures.”
“No one is going back there, understood?” Dad said sharply. “We’re returning to Grayson, Lonnie, and Sasha and we’re going to finalize our plan to get out of this year.”
Courtney didn’t budge from her spot. “We have tons of food, clothes, water, medical supplies. If we’re leaving and we’re going out that way, then we should bring them the supplies. We’re not going to need any of it, right? We don’t even have to go all the way over to the tents. We can just leave some stuff in the field for them to get, can’t we?”
“I don’t know, honey,” Dad said. “We don’t know anything about what you saw. Let’s see what Grayson and Lonnie think, all right?”
“You’re just saying that so I’ll shut up about it. I can tell you’re not going to do anything and neither is anyone else. There are babies, Dad. Babies!” She was so determined, I could see the tears about to show themselves. “I don’t care what you say, I’m getting some stuff and I’m going back there. Jackson will come with me. This is just like … just like…” Courtney closed her eyes, her tongue resting on the roof of her mouth. “The green … the green hair…”
“Green hair?” I said.
It was Holly who leaped toward Courtney first as her eyes rolled up in the back of her head. I felt my heart stop, the only sound in my ears was the rush of blood and a dull ringing as my limbs went numb.
All I could do was watch as Holly and Dad caught my sister in what seemed like slow motion, lowering her to the ground. I hadn’t seen this happen the first time and neither had Dad. Courtney had been in gym class and I’d been clear on the other side of the school building, in Geometry. I heard the buzz in the hallway, the slightly abnormal sounds of something going on during class. A girl who had sat behind me got a text about Courtney’s seizure and told me what had happened even before the principal came in to say that they had already taken her to the hospital and that my dad was there and I was supposed to go meet him right away. But I never had to watch this. By the time I saw her, she was almost normal again, despite the horrible news Dr. Melvin had delivered.
