by Amy Tintera
I glanced at her again. It wasn’t just her that was slightly different, but everything. The air between us seemed lighter and heavier at the same time since she’d shown me her scars. She kept giving me this look that made me want to grab her and crush her against me.
She turned her head toward a pile of rubble that used to be a house as we walked past it. “This is pretty impressive, Callum.”
“What? That I destroyed everything?”
“No. That you managed to unite the Reboots and take over Austin. I thought it would be years before we could that, if ever.”
“I went with a ‘I’m coming, deal with it’ approach.” But I smiled at the compliment and squeezed her hand.
“I approve of that approach.” She paused. “Did you go check on your family?”
“David came and found me,” I said. “He wants me to go see our parents. I told him they could come to me if they wanted.”
“But he came.”
I smiled at her. “Yes.”
We turned onto Tony’s street and the usual chaos came into view. Humans streamed in and out the front door, and several people sat on the front lawn. I recognized one of them immediately as David, and he hopped to his feet when he saw us coming. A flash of recognition crossed his face as he looked at Wren.
“Hey,” he said as we approached.
“Hi.” I tilted my head toward Wren. “This is Wren. This is my brother, David.”
“Nice to meet you.” She held her hand out, and when David shook it I saw him blink in surprise, likely from her cool skin. He cast a quick glance down at her wrist and his eyes widened slightly.
“You too,” he said, glancing from her to me.
A yell sounded from inside, and I raised my eyebrows. “What’s going on in there?”
“I don’t know. They’ve been yelling at each other since I got here. I decided to stay outside.”
Wren slipped her hand from mine and headed up the stairs to the house. I followed her with David close behind, pushing through some humans crowded near the doorway.
Tony and Desmond stood at the edge of the kitchen, matching angry expressions on their faces. There were grumpy humans everywhere, actually. Gabe, pale but still alive, sat on the couch with Addie and Riley. A white bandage poked out from his right shoulder, and he smiled when he spotted me and Wren.
The room grew silent as they noticed Wren, and Desmond ran a hand through his hair with a sigh.
“Hey, One-seventy-eight,” he said. “Good to see you.”
She gave him an amused look, since his tone said the exact opposite. “You too. What’s going on here?”
“There have been attacks on Richards and Bonito,” Tony said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Reboot attacks on the cities. And they tried to get the Reboots out of the facilities. Without any regard for human life. Word is, the cities are mostly destroyed and lots of humans are dead.”
Wren took a quick glance back at me and I shook my head.
“That’s not us,” I said to Tony. “Everyone is here. It has to be Micah and the few that stayed with him.”
“That’s what Addie thought, too.” Tony twisted his mouth around. “They were outnumbered and it didn’t go well. HARC killed all the Reboots in those facilities. And in New Dallas.”
Wren cast a horrified look in my direction before returning her attention to Tony. “All of them?”
“That’s what they’re saying.”
“What about Rosa?”
“The facility is still running, and remaining personnel have been transferred there. New Dallas was open for longer, but we think they must have decided to eliminate all the Reboots because of the attack. But . . .” Tony winced and glanced at Desmond.
“But they’ll probably be eliminated in Rosa, too,” Desmond finished. “HARC doesn’t want to risk another incident like here. They don’t want any more Reboots escaping.”
“Word is they’re shutting down the program,” Tony said. “Suzanna was the biggest supporter of the Reboot experiment, and apparently she’s dead.”
“Yep, last time I saw her she was definitely dead,” Wren said.
“She had some other supporters,” Tony continued. “But with everything that’s happened, it’s not looking good. It won’t be long.”
I took a step forward. “We need to move quickly then. Come up with a plan of attack.” The room was silent. The humans avoided my eyes, and I couldn’t say I was surprised.
“You want to let them all die,” Wren said quietly.
“Apparently it’s the smarter plan,” Riley spat out.
“Considering what the Reboots did to Richards and Bonito, it’s the only choice we have,” Desmond said.
“We didn’t have anything to do with that.” Wren’s voice was still calm, but I could hear the anger beginning to seep through. “We worked against Micah from the beginning. Callum risked his life to get word to you guys about what he was planning!”
“And we appreciate that,” Tony said quietly.
“You appreciate it so much you’re going to let hundreds of our fellow Reboots die,” Addie said.
Silence again, for several seconds, until I spoke. “We can’t go in alone. We tried it in New Dallas and it failed. HARC has beefed up their security. We need human support if we’re going to have any chance of doing this.”
Tony looked at Desmond. “They could help us take down HARC.”
Desmond threw up his arms. “We’ve been through this! I don’t—”
Shouting overtook the room again and Wren turned to me, a worried expression on her face.
“Wait.” Riley’s voice rose over the others. “Stop. Stop!” The humans fell silent as he jumped from the couch, his hand on the com in his ear as he listened to something. “There are shuttles at the fences. Several already on their way into the slums.” His eyes flicked to the other Reboots in the room. “They’re saying they think they’re Reboot piloted.”
Micah. I balled my fingers into fists.
“We need to—”
Riley’s words were lost as a giant explosion rocked the ground. I flung myself over David as the house crumbled around me.
THIRTY-FOUR
WREN
I COUGHED AS I PUSHED PIECES OF WOOD AND DEBRIS OFF MY legs and struggled to a standing position in what was left of the living room.
It wasn’t much. The house was almost entirely gone. About half the kitchen was still standing, and some of the back wall was there, but a hole had been blown completely through the living room and I could see the sky. I spotted a few dead humans, and others were shouting and moaning beneath the rubble.
“Wren? Wren!”
I jumped over a piece of the kitchen table to where I could hear Callum yelling. He had a hand on his brother’s arm, pulling him from the wreckage. His expression turned to relief when he spotted me.
David looked fine except for some cuts on his arms. It appeared Callum had taken the brunt of the blast for him. One of his arms was cut so deep I could see bone, and the front of his shirt had been ripped open and his chest was black and red.
“You all right?” Callum asked David, taking a quick survey of him.
He nodded, his eyes wide and horrified as he surveyed Callum’s injuries.
I heard a rustle behind me and turned to see Riley, Addie, and Gabe limping out of the house. Riley shouted something into his com.
I grabbed Callum’s arm. “You have weapons, don’t you? Where are you storing them?”
“In the shuttle that’s parked by the schoolhouse.” He ran his hands through his hair as he looked around. “Some of them are alive under there. I need to get them out.”
“I can help,” David said.
I rose up on my toes and planted a kiss on Callum’s lips. No matter what he said about us leaving and not working with the humans, his first instinct was to stay and save them, and I liked that about him. I hadn’t realized it at first, but I liked that he had a deep sense of right and wrong and stuck to
what he believed.
“Be careful,” he said quietly.
“You too.” I gave his hand a squeeze before turning to take off down the street behind Riley.
There were only two shuttles in my line of sight, and Reboots ran past me on all sides with weapons. One of the shuttles hovered over a clump of houses at the other side of the street, firing until they were nothing but a pile of rubble.
Riley made it to the shuttles in front of the schoolhouse first, and threw a handgun and giant knife in my direction, along with a helmet. “There’s not much left!” he yelled as he slipped a gun into his own pocket.
“This is fine,” I called over my shoulder as I plopped the helmet on my head and bolted down the street. The roar of motorcycles made me turn, and I spotted Micah, Kyle, and Jules speeding past on their way to the heart of the slums. About ten or fifteen other reservation Reboots dashed in the opposite direction, guns raised.
I broke into a run. Riley and a few other Reboots pounded the dirt behind me as I sprinted after Micah. The shuttle I’d seen earlier began to spin erratically and plummeted to the ground with a loud bang.
The grocery store and the other shops made up the center of the Austin slums, and as I approached the wooden buildings I saw smoke billowing from several of them. I darted in between two shops and came out on the wide, dirt road that ran through the center of town.
Micah stood a few yards away, legs on either side of his motorcycle as he aimed a rocket launcher at a nearby store. He whooped and glanced behind him, doing a quick double take when he caught sight of me. He quickly masked his surprise with a wide smirk that looked anything but happy.
He kicked the stand on the motorcycle and hopped off. “Wren! Nice to see you again. How’d the bounty hunters treat you?”
I reached for my gun, even though we were both wearing helmets. I had no interest in any more chitchat with him. He grabbed his own gun, and I fired off a quick shot to his hand. The gun flew through the air and landed a few feet away. I aimed again as Micah charged me, and I squeezed off the next one too quickly. The bullet sailed past his ear as he tackled me.
We hit the ground together, the gun falling from my hand in the scuffle. Micah tried to wrap his fingers around my throat and I kicked him off before scurrying through the dirt and hopping to my feet.
His eyes were furious as he stood, his mouth set in a hard line. He rushed at me again and I slammed my foot into his knee. With a gasp he stumbled back, and I punched him across the jaw.
He retaliated so quickly I didn’t know he was swinging until the punch hit my stomach, and then my cheek. I wheezed as I ducked his next punch, slamming both my fists into his chest.
He hit the ground with a grunt. “You should be ashamed,” he said as he hopped up on one leg.
“About which part? I’m not the one who pushed a couple Reboots out of an airborne shuttle.”
“No, you’re the one who ensured we’re going extinct.”
I laughed as I inched my fingers closer to the knife hanging off my belt. “I’d say you’re the one killing us. Hundreds of Reboots in the facilities were killed because of you.”
His eyes narrowed, his fingers balling into fists. He screamed as he ran for me, limping on his left leg.
I pulled the knife from my pants. Swung it through the air.
Micah’s body crumpled to the ground. His head rolled off in the opposite direction.
I winced as I turned away, wiping the bloody blade on my pants. Riley stood over another dead Reboot body a block or so away, and he raised his arms like, “Victory!”
It didn’t feel like a victory. Callum had said once it was only appropriate to kill someone in self-defense, which this had been, but it still made me feel uncomfortable in a new, unwelcome way.
I slipped the knife back in my pocket and picked up both guns off the ground. With a sigh, I headed in the direction of gunfire.
There wasn’t much left of Austin an hour or so later. Homes all around me were destroyed. I was still on the wide road in the middle of town, and the shops and apartment buildings had huge holes in them.
I holstered my gun as I watched Riley and Addie drag Micah’s body into the pile we’d made. Burying Micah and his crew was impractical, so we’d decided to get them all together to transfer them to the edge of town for cremation.
Riley sighed, wiping a dirty hand across his forehead. It was late, the sky was black, and my body felt heavy and tired. The bodies had all been cleared and piled up, and when Addie said she was going to Tony’s house, we followed.
The roads were filled with humans, all headed in the direction of the schoolhouse. One glanced at me and I braced myself for a yell, or a glare, but one side of his mouth lifted in a smile. I blinked in surprise and turned a confused look at Riley and Addie, but a tall figure at the end of the street caught my eye.
I quickened my step and Callum’s face lit up when he saw me. A young boy was on his back, his arms wrapped around Callum’s neck.
“Hey,” Callum said, reaching for me. He leaned down for a kiss. “Everything okay?”
I nodded, glancing at the trail of humans behind him and the boy on his back. “Who is this?”
“I don’t know. I pulled him out of the rubble but he won’t talk.”
The boy frowned at me and buried his head in Callum’s shoulder.
“I’m going to the schoolhouse to see if anyone knows him. A lot of the humans are gathering there for the night. Come with me?”
I nodded and wiped a streak of dirt off his forehead. He was covered in dust, from his neck down to his pants, which had two huge holes in the knees.
“Is your brother okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. The other side of town wasn’t hit as hard, so he went back home. He was good. Helped me sort through the rubble of a lot of houses and get people out.”
I ran a hand down his arm and we turned to head toward the schoolhouse. Humans were spilled out onto the front lawn, and a woman shot across the dirt as soon as she spotted us, making some sort of weird, strangled noise that made me want to take a step back.
Callum knelt down, sliding the boy off his back, and the woman whisked him into her arms, crying as she kissed his cheeks.
“Thank you, thank you,” she said, grabbing Callum. She hugged him with one arm, blubbering something I couldn’t understand.
“You’re welcome,” Callum said hesitantly, shooting me a baffled look as she released him.
Tony was across the lawn next. He grabbed Callum and wrapped his arms around him. He thanked him, his voice cracking slightly, and turned to quickly walk away.
“Why is everyone hugging you?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’m likeable?”
I grinned at him, because I knew exactly why everyone was hugging him, and so did he. A human caught his eye and smiled, and he nodded at her. Callum had said that saving people was one of my favorite things, but it was he who needed that, who could muster up that kind of passion for people he barely knew.
“Rumor has it the HARC facility wasn’t hit,” he said. “I could use a rest before we figure out what to do.”
“Me too.” I laced my fingers through his and pulled him closer as we headed away from the schoolhouse. We walked in comfortable silence, his thumb occasionally rubbing circles on my hand. I considered telling him I’d killed Micah, but the words died in my throat. I was happy he was gone, but I didn’t want to celebrate, or brag, or even talk about it. Callum didn’t ask, so maybe someone had already told him.
Although the look he was giving me suggested he wasn’t thinking about Micah at all. He should be exhausted, but his eyes were bright as they met mine.
When I stopped at the entrance of the facility and rose up on my toes to give him a kiss, he grabbed me around the waist and pressed his hands into my back, bringing my body closer to his. I traced my fingers across his jaw as his lips met mine. He started to pull me closer, then stepped back, glancing down at his clothes.
; “Maybe I should shower before . . .” He let his voice trail off, leaving me to imagine what we’d be doing after.
“Me too.” My cheeks were warm, but I held his gaze, his dark eyes burning into mine.
We walked to our room for new clothes and back down to the showers. I cast a smile over my shoulder at Callum as I pushed the door open to the girls’ bathroom.
I was the first back to the room, and I sat down on the bed, swallowing down a sudden flurry of nerves. How exactly did this work? Was I supposed to say, “Hey, let’s have sex!” or did he already understand? I thought we’d sort of been giving each other signals, but maybe it was in my head.
I looked over at the glass wall. The other Reboots were around the corner, out of sight, but I certainly wasn’t getting naked for everyone to see.
The other bed still had sheets on it, so I hopped up and pulled them off. I pushed a dresser closer to the door and stepped on top. I shoved the edges of the sheet into the crack between the glass and the wall and released it. It fell down almost to the ground, covering half the room. I grabbed the other one and put it on the adjacent side, so the whole room was obscured. It was kind of obvious what we were doing in here, but maybe that worked in my favor. I wouldn’t have to say anything to Callum. He’d pick up on the hint by himself.
The sheets moved as I pushed the dresser back in its place, and Callum emerged from behind them.
He looked from them to me, a small smile on his face. “Good idea.”
“I spent long enough with those stupid glass walls,” I said, sitting down on the bed. He walked to me slowly, hands in his pockets, his expression nervous. I was relieved he wasn’t totally calm, because my hand was shaking as I reached for his arm. When I ran my fingers over his skin, he slipped his hands from his pockets and leaned closer to me.
I looped my arms around his neck and scooted forward on the bed until my legs touched his. He placed his hands on the bed on either side of me, his lips barely brushing against mine. I grabbed the buttons of his shirt and brought him closer to me, until his soft lips on mine made warmth zip through my body.
