by Amy Tintera
“Austin,” I said. “The original.”
Her head tilted up as she surveyed the building next to us, her eyes wide.
“And those guys in the van?” she asked.
“They tried to grab us.”
She gave me an amused look. “Obviously that didn’t work out so well for them.”
I plopped down in the middle of the road with her. “It did not.”
She examined the area around us, wincing as she moved. She rubbed her arm and inspected the long gash.
“They slowed our healing time,” I said. “It took me a few hours.”
She moaned. “If it took you a few hours, it’s going to take me a week.”
“Probably not quite that long,” I said with a smile.
“And so you hoisted me on your back and carried me . . .” Addie glanced behind her. “Have we been going for a while?”
“Only a couple miles.”
“Oh, only a couple miles.” She rolled her eyes, grinning as she bumped her shoulder against mine. “Is it awesome being you? Do you just sit around and revel in your awesomeness?”
I gave her a baffled look, not entirely sure how to respond to that. She laughed, pushing her dark hair behind her shoulder.
“Thank you,” she said more seriously.
“You’re welcome.”
She paused for a moment, rubbing her fingers across her forehead. “I’m sorry I got us into this.”
“I don’t think it was you who pushed us out of a shuttle.”
“But it was me who talked to too many people at the reservation about the plan. This wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for me.”
“I don’t know about that.” I shrugged. “I could have left you up there to get tortured. It’s not like it would have caused any lasting damage.”
She snorted, which turned into a full laugh. “Uh, yeah. I guess you could have. But I think I prefer it this way.” She ran her hands over her hair. “I was losing my mind there.”
“You and me both.” I hopped to my feet, extending my hand to her. “Can you walk? We should probably find somewhere to stay for the night.”
She took my hand and stood slowly, putting all her weight on her left leg. She tried to step forward and winced.
“It’s still broken,” she said. “I could drag it, or—”
“Let’s go in there,” I said, pointing to the café. “The windows are still mostly intact. Looks like it’s not about to cave in.”
She gave me a grateful look and I gestured for her to lean against me. She hobbled across the street slowly with me.
The door had been broken a long time ago, and what was left of it swung open and closed in the wind. As we walked inside, a small animal scurried across the floor and Addie moaned.
“I hate rats.”
“They don’t taste too bad.”
“Oh my God, never tell me that story.”
I shut the door and pulled a chair in front of it to keep it closed. The inside had likely once been bright green, but now the paint was peeled off the walls. Tables and chairs were scattered everywhere, and a row of booths ran along one wall. The plastic was cracked, the stuffing torn out in some places. I decided not to tell Addie there may very well have been more rats living in those seats as I gently placed her down in one.
I sat down on the other side, brushing cobwebs off the dirty table.
“Where are we going?” Addie asked, scooting back in the booth and leaning against the wall. “Austin? The real one?”
“Yes. If we can find it.” I raised my eyebrows at her. “I don’t suppose you have a map of Texas in your head?”
“Nope, sorry.” She squinted out the dirty window. “Surely we could find a map around here somewhere? At one of those old fueling places maybe? They used to sell, like, a whole bunch of stuff there. I bet back during the war people took the food and left the maps.”
“That’s a good idea, actually.”
“I’m going to pretend you don’t sound all surprised about that.”
I laughed as I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my head on them. “Sorry.”
“You think Callum and the Reboots will still go to Austin?” she asked.
I nodded, rubbing my finger across a crack in the table. “They wouldn’t stay at the reservation. And Callum knows Austin’s the first place I’d go to look for him.”
“Agreed. Maybe he murdered Micah when he found out what happened, and took over everything.”
I gave her a skeptical look. “Callum isn’t really the murdering type. He has morals.”
“Morals shmorals. I bet when he finds out what Micah did he’ll lose it.” Addie leaned her head against the wall. “The only reason he’s all high and mighty about killing people is because he was only at HARC for a few weeks. He doesn’t understand what we went through.”
I nodded, trying to hide my surprise. “Did he talk about it with you?”
“Not really. Mostly I just noticed it with you guys. Sometimes I wanted to be like, ‘Dude, chill. You’re so uppity sometimes.’”
I laughed, quickly covering it with my hand. I cleared my throat. “He’s not uppity. He’s stubborn.”
“Whatever.” She waved her hand in the air. “I think it would bug me, having to be the bad one all the time.”
I shrugged. “I’m used to it.”
“Whatever you say.” She shifted, wincing as she pulled her broken leg onto the booth. “Thank you for not leaving me there.”
“I’m going to pretend you don’t sound surprised about that.”
Addie grinned. “I’m a little surprised.”
“Don’t sugarcoat it.”
“Come on. You would barely talk to me at the reservation. It was like you’re antifriend.”
“I’m not antifriend,” I said softly, playing with dangling threads on the edge of my pants.
“Just didn’t like me, then?”
“I only ever had one friend,” I said, not looking at her. “HARC killed her not long before I escaped with Callum.”
“Oh.” She was quiet for a moment. “Why?”
“She was a Fifty-six, and was on her first round of those crazy drugs. She kept getting worse and worse. I think she sort of lost hope. She was upset about attacking me every night. We were roommates.” I swallowed. “She went on a rampage, killed a bunch of guards, and then basically gave herself up to HARC.”
Addie let out a long breath. “Crap. I’m sorry.”
I leaned back against the wall and stared at the sagging ceiling. “I already knew that Reboots escaped,” I said quietly. “Leb had told me at least a week before she died, and I didn’t do anything to help her.”
“You would have been in the exact same position you were with Callum if you’d helped her,” Addie said. “On the run with a crazy Reboot who needed the antidote.”
“I got it for Callum,” I said softly. “I could have gotten it for her, too.”
Addie was silent for a moment. “I sort of doubt she would want you carrying around this kind of guilt.”
“She wouldn’t.”
“Then what can you do to make it better?”
I turned to her. “Nothing. She’s dead.”
“Yeah, she is. But there are other things you could do to make it better, aren’t there?”
“Like what?”
“Like what would she have wanted you to do? Would she have wanted you to mope and never have friends and—” She stopped suddenly and winced. “Promise not to hit me until this drug wears off?”
I let out a soft laugh. “Yes.”
“Would she have wanted you to run off with Callum and leave all the Reboots in the cities to fend for themselves? Did she have a family? Would she have wanted you to abandon the humans?”
“She had four sisters in New Dallas,” I said quietly.
“Then what would she have wanted you to do?”
I stared at the table as her words sank in. I didn’t think Ever would have expected me to s
ave everyone or fight a war on behalf of the humans. She wouldn’t have expected it, but I could almost picture her face if I told her that’s what I was doing.
She would have been proud.
TWENTY-ONE
CALLUM
IT WAS DARK WHEN AUSTIN CAME INTO VIEW.
I sat in the passenger’s seat next to George, the small Reboot who was piloting the shuttle. He looked about fourteen years old and seemed entirely comfortable in the pilot’s seat. He explained to me that Micah had all kids learn to drive when they turned ten, because it would be where they were most “useful.” I’d laughed, sort of hysterically, and George hadn’t said much to me since.
The other shuttle was behind us, following our lead. It was full of mostly reservation Reboots, and I’d worried they’d take off in a different direction, abandon our plan to go to Austin. But they’d stayed right behind us the whole trip.
Riley walked up to the doorway, arms crossed over his chest. “I instructed everyone back here to put on their helmets since we’re close.”
“Thanks.”
“Jeez.” George’s eyes widened as he blinked at the Austin skyline. The buildings of the city were alight and they must have appeared huge to someone who’d been living in tents his whole life.
I turned away, staring into darkness instead. I couldn’t stop thinking about Wren, and how her current situation was entirely my fault.
Why had I made her stay at the reservation? Why hadn’t I listened when she begged me to leave? She’d said it to me: “One or both of us could end up dead.” Even though she’d said “both,” I hadn’t even heard it. I’d thought she was just worried about me. Why had I assumed she was invincible? Why hadn’t I considered that by making her stay I risked losing her?
“Callum.”
I looked up to see Riley and George staring at me. Riley cocked his head toward the pilot. “You need to tell him where you want to land.”
“Oh.” I turned to the Austin skyline. “Veer east. We’ll land in the slums, near the schoolhouse. I’ll point it out as we get closer.”
“Right in the middle of the slums, huh?” Riley said skeptically.
“Unless you have a better plan.” I suspected Riley thought my entire plan was bad. He hadn’t said much to me since I laid it all out for him on the ride over.
He slid his hands into his pockets as he leaned against the shuttle wall. “If the humans in the slums and the city join HARC, we’re screwed.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Because they’re scared of us. Because you just told Tony that Micah was planning to kill them all. They may not be on our side anymore. If they ever were.”
I strapped my helmet on. “Then we show them there’s nothing to be scared of. Try not to kill anyone.”
He gave me an amused look. “I’ll give it a shot.” He tilted his head to the Reboots behind him. “I think you might want to explain that to them, too. Maybe tell them what to do when we get there?”
I nodded and slid from my chair. Riley moved farther into the shuttle, and the Reboots quieted as they turned to me. Even Beth and the other Over-one-twenties had largely left this plan up to me, and I shifted beneath the gaze of so many people.
I wondered if Wren felt this way. She’d always seemed confident in her plans, even if they’d been conceived five minutes prior. I knew that she didn’t particularly enjoy being the center of attention, being the person everyone turned to for help, but I wondered if she was ever nervous. Did having the weight of so many lives on her shoulders stress her out?
I cleared my throat. “When we land, I’m going to Tony’s house. It’s not far, maybe a ten-minute walk. You guys stay here. A team of the best shooters should form a line outside the shuttle. I don’t know whether to expect an attack from HARC or not.”
A few faces grew eager, but for the most part no one looked excited about the prospect of a HARC attack.
“It’s really important that you don’t kill any humans unless you have to,” I said, my voice low. “If you’re under attack, I understand. But we want the humans in the slums on our side. If we’re going to get Wren and Addie and all the Reboots still under HARC control back, we can’t do it alone. If humans approach you, lower your weapons. Explain that to them.”
“And if they don’t listen?” Beth asked.
“Don’t get confrontational. If things escalate, aim to wound, not kill.” My eyes skipped over the crowd. “Do any of you have family in the Austin slums?”
Zero hands went up. I guess that was to be expected, as almost all the escaped Reboots were from the Austin facility and HARC didn’t assign Reboots to their hometowns.
“What about Rosa?” I asked.
A bunch of hands went up.
“Okay. Good. As soon as we find Wren and Addie and get HARC out of Austin, anyone who wants to go to Rosa is welcome to join us. We’re going to follow Micah’s original plan to free the Reboots from HARC’s control. Anyone who doesn’t want to do that or thinks they can’t stand being around humans is welcome to leave when we touch down in Austin.”
A blast rocked the shuttle and I stumbled, grasping at the wall for support. We veered left and the Reboots slid sideways.
“Fence guards are firing!” George yelled, swerving us hard to the right.
I ran back to the pilot’s chair, peering over his shoulder in time to see him swing to miss a shot from the ground.
“Do you need us to return fire?” I asked, gripping the back of his chair tightly.
“Nope,” he said, increasing speed as we dove for the ground. “They weren’t expecting us. They’ve got no one in the air.”
I nodded as I scanned the sky, pointing to where I could see the top of the schoolhouse. “There. You should be able to land on the road.”
“Got it.”
“Any chance of a soft landing? I’d like you to be able to pilot this thing out of here if you have to.”
He gave me a baffled look. “Are you kidding?”
I wasn’t sure which way to take that until he swooped lower to the ground and placed us very gently on the road in front of the schoolhouse. The area around us was deserted, quiet, the patchy grass in front of the schoolhouse giving way to the dirt road we were parked on. In the distance were the outlines of houses and buildings, but there wasn’t a human in sight.
“Stay here, okay?” I said to George. “If things get really bad while I’m gone, you feel free to take off. Don’t wait for me.”
He nodded. “Got it.”
The shuttle door slid open and Beth stepped off with me, Riley right behind us. The second shuttle landed next to the first and the door opened. Isaac peered around the side, then motioned for the Reboots to follow him.
“I’m coming with you to Tony’s,” Riley said, sliding his gun from his waistband.
“I just told George to take off if things get bad here,” I said. “You’ll be stuck.”
“So will you.”
“I’m not leaving until I find Wren.”
He nodded, glancing at Beth. “You hear that? If you have to leave, don’t worry about us.”
I turned to the sky. No HARC shuttles yet and no one on the ground. If the humans had heard something, they weren’t investigating yet.
“Which way?” Riley asked.
I pointed. The directions were fuzzy in my head, but I remembered the general area. I knew what the house looked like.
I stole a glance over my shoulder as Riley and I took off running. The higher numbers had formed a line in front of the shuttles, weapons in hand but pointed at the ground. If they died or if something went wrong, that would be on me. Sure, I’d given them a choice, but it was my plan that put them here.
“They’ll be fine,” Riley said, tugging on my sleeve and making me face front again. “It’s a good plan, Callum.”
I wasn’t sure he meant that, but I gave him a tight smile anyway. I turned right on a familiar road and increased my pace until Riley and I were running
top speed down the slum roads.
The sound of gunfire cut through the night as we turned onto Tony’s street. My chest tightened as I turned to look at the sky. Two sets of lights. HARC was coming.
Tony was already on his porch as we approached, a gun in his hand as he searched for the source of the commotion. Desmond ran out the door behind him, his eyes flashing with anger when he spotted us.
“Get away!” He jumped off the porch and strode across the lawn, gun pointed at my chest.
“We’re here to help,” I said, lifting my arms in surrender. Riley took a step forward and I quickly shook my head, motioning for him to stay put.
“Like hell!”
Tony walked closer to us, pushing Desmond’s gun down. His face wasn’t nearly as friendly as it had been last night.
“Is Micah here?” he asked, gesturing to the HARC shuttles in the sky.
“No. We left him at the reservation. The Reboots we brought want to help.”
Desmond snorted. “What a relief. Are we supposed to trust everything you say now?” He glared at Riley.
“I’m on your side here.” My voice rose as I looked between him and Tony. “And I brought the Reboots to do what you wanted.” I pointed in the direction of the schoolhouse. “They’re over there right now, fighting off HARC so you can take the city back.”
“Then where will they go?” Tony asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“There’s nowhere for us to go,” Riley said.
“We’ll stay,” I said with a nod. “I’m waiting for Wren and we’ll need human allies if we’re going to rescue Reboots in the facilities.”
“So you saving us is more like you occupying us,” Desmond spat.
I clenched my fists, trying to control my anger. Wren had said I was giving the humans too much credit. Maybe she was right. Maybe we should have left and let the humans solve their own problems.
“What do you expect?” I asked, trying to keep my voice controlled. “That we roll in, protect you, and then leave? We’re not here to serve you, we’re here as partners.”
An explosion lit up the sky and I instinctively ducked, as did Tony and Desmond.
“Reboots are at the schoolhouse,” I said. “Instructed to fight off HARC but to harm as few humans as possible.”
