Bursts of stars exploded through her vision as she yanked back with one swift movement. The branch didn’t break, and she screamed with effort as she tried again. This time, she heard a quiet snap, and she gasped for breath as she moved to break the second one.
Amber fell onto her back the moment she finished, sobbing as she tried to gather her nerve for what was coming next. The part underneath her leg was impossible to reach, which meant there was only one way to free herself. She sucked in a breath as she swallowed her tears, propping herself up on her other leg. This was the moment she would find out if the injury was severe enough to make her bleed out, the moment she would discover if she had reached the place her bones would rest, and her heart pounded in her ears as she clenched her teeth.
The light flickered as its battery ran low, and with a quiet wail, she began to stand.
†
Day Ten
Ayn jogged throughout the night, searching the darkened road ahead for any sign of Amber. He was sure he was close, but by the time morning came, he still hadn’t found her.
The road ended at a collapsed bridge, and he cursed under his breath as he stared over the edge at the riverbed far below him. It was going to take time to cross this, time he didn’t have. He clenched his teeth, running along the edge of the embankment until he found a place to climb down.
The steep incline pulled him forward as he made his way down; he focused on the ground as he fought to keep his balance, his feet sliding in the loose dirt, when he noticed the crisp edges of several empty divots where rocks had once been. Something had recently disturbed them―the smooth hollows hadn’t yet filled in with dust. He paused and glanced up, hope filling his heart.
“Amber!”
There was no answer.
Ayn reached the bottom and looked around, surveying the sharp branches that covered the riverbed. His gaze fell on three small stumps only a few yards from where he was standing; he darted forward, bending down to look closer, and his stomach turned with horror. The thin branches had been broken off, and two of them were stained with dried blood.
Ayn dropped his bags of supplies, racing towards the rocky embankment on the opposite side. The sharp edges cut his hands as he climbed; he ignored the pain, gasping for breath as he reached the top and ran forward.
“Amber!”
His voice was whisked away by the powerful wind that was blowing across the bare earth, and he took a deep breath, screaming for her again. Panic raced through his veins with each passing second, his heart thumping loudly in his chest.
“AMBER!”
He strained his ears, trying to listen for a response. The wind was too loud, and he shielded his eyes against the sun, desperately searching through the clouds of dust that billowed through the air.
Then, a moment later, he stopped breathing.
A tiny figure stepped into the middle of the road up ahead. Ayn let out a cry of relief as tears filled his eyes, his feet flying as he closed the distance.
“Amber!”
†‡†
ONE WEEK LATER
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
John glanced up at the sky, watching as the stars began to fade in the wake of the coming morning. He had been walking all night with his mother and father to make the journey to the resource center, and excitement filled his heart as the sun peeked over the horizon. Center 82 was only a few miles away now, and he picked up his pace.
It had only been a little over two weeks since the day Amber had left Settlement 109, but he missed her more than he thought possible. Despite how much he had been dreading this day and beginning his new job as a keeper, the hope of seeing her overshadowed his anxiety, and he couldn’t wait to talk to her. She was the only person in existence who could understand what he felt.
John ran his hand through his sunbleached hair, shielding his eyes as he reached the top of the last small hill that stood between him and the resource center. He could see the facility in the distance, and he glanced over his shoulder at his parents.
“Hurry up!” he called out impatiently. Sweat dripped into his eyes, and he wiped his face as he waited. They were taking forever, but to his relief, they waved him on.
“Go ahead, John,” Kendra called back. “We’ll meet you at the ration auditorium!”
He didn’t need a second invitation, and he sprinted forward as fast as his legs would carry him.
The area outside the ration auditorium was already packed with people, and John navigated through the crowd until he reached the door. A gust of cool air blasted him in the face as he stepped inside; he paused for a moment, letting his eyes adjust from the blinding sunlight outside to the dimmer environment. His lungs instantly stopped heaving in the oxygen-rich room, a sudden but welcome relief from the thin air outside, and he made his way towards one of the dozens of desks that were lined up around the room.
“Hello,” he greeted the ration officer. “I’m looking for a friend of mine, she was brought here a few weeks ago and I told her I would visit.”
The ration officer didn’t even look at him.
“That isn’t permitted,” the woman said, dismissing him with a shrug as she typed. “The residents of the facility aren’t allowed to interact with outsiders.”
“Will you please just check?” he asked. “Her name is Amber Ordell, she’s expecting me.”
The woman’s hands paused over her keyboard; she raised a brow, finally glancing up from her screen.
“Ordell, huh?”
John nodded.
“I’m from Settlement 109—John Haft, we grew up together. Please, can you check?”
The woman chuckled under her breath.
“It’s definitely impossible, young man,” she told him. “Go wait your turn, you can’t see her.”
“But if you could―”
“Now!” she bellowed, pointing for him to leave. “I don’t have time for this, we have hundreds of people waiting!”
“Is this one giving you problems?” a gruff voice called out, and John turned to see a guard approaching. Fear raced up his spine, followed by a quick flash of confusion. He cocked his head; something about the man seemed familiar.
“I don’t think so,” the ration officer answered, giving John a long look. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Come on,” the guard snapped. He grabbed John’s arm. “You heard the officer, you need to go.”
“I didn’t mean to bother anyone, I was just wondering about my friend―”
“You and I are going to have a conversation about your behavior,” the guard hissed, and panic instantly surged through John’s veins as he was pulled towards a small booth in the corner of the room.
“I’m sorry!” he gasped, his eyes wide. “I wasn’t trying to cause trouble, I was just asking―”
“About Amber,” the guard quietly finished as they reached the booth. He turned around; the threatening look on his face had vanished, and his voice lowered even further as he leaned in close. “You’re John Haft, I’ve been keeping an eye out for you.”
John swallowed hard. He remembered where he had seen the man before.
“You…you came to the settlement, didn’t you? You and your friend came to get Amber.”
“That’s right, I did. I’m Darren.”
He held his hand out, and John slowly returned the gesture.
“Nice to meet you.”
John spoke the words as more of a question than a statement, and he couldn’t help the twinge of nervous dread that rose up in his heart.
“Amber told me about you,” Darren explained, almost as if reading the question on John’s face. “She told me that you were her best friend and the only person she trusts.”
“We grew up together,” John cautiously replied. “I’ve known her my whole life.”
Darren pursed his lips.
“She gave me a message for you. She said to tell you that she and Ayn made it.”
John�
��s heart seized in his chest.
“How…how do you know that name?” he choked out, his voice cracking with terror. “What did she tell you?”
“That’s it. She didn’t say anything else.”
John breathed a sigh of relief—he should have known that Amber wouldn’t have told anyone that he knew her secret.
“So what does it mean?” Darren prompted after a long moment. “She said you would understand.”
John’s fear faded to bewilderment as he shifted his focus to the message, and he furrowed his brow, trying to think. It must mean something important…
His eyes grew wide as a sudden realization dawned on him. The part about Ayn didn’t make any sense, but there was only one thing the rest of it could mean. He glanced up.
“She’s gone, isn’t she?”
The look on Darren’s face confirmed it.
“You knew what she was planning, didn’t you?” the man asked. “You know where she went?”
John hesitated for a long moment, considering his next words carefully.
“Who are you? How did she know you?”
Darren shrugged.
“I didn’t really know her, she was only here for about a week. She took a bunch of supplies and left.”
“She must have trusted you if she told you his name,” John said, raising a brow. “She wouldn’t just tell anyone that.”
“Whose name?” Darren asked. “I don’t know who that is.”
John sighed.
“Just forget it,” he answered, shaking his head. “Thanks for telling me about her.”
He turned to leave, then glanced back over his shoulder. Darren’s face was etched with worry, and John tilted his head.
“She’ll be fine,” he said quietly, trying to make himself believe it as he spoke. “Don’t worry about her—wherever she is, she’s fine.”
“How do you know?” Darren asked. “You just said you didn’t know what she was planning.”
“Trust me,” John told him. “She’s resourceful.”
Darren took a deep breath and nodded.
“Don’t tell anyone I told you,” he whispered. “They’ll kill me if they find out I said anything about her to an outsider.”
“I won’t say a word,” John promised. He turned on his heel and hurried away, a wave of emotion surging through his heart as he tried to make sense of what he had just heard. Amber had told him how dangerous it would be for Ayn if anyone had discovered his secret, but her family had gotten a full harvest. It didn’t make any sense…
“John!” his mother’s voice called, startling him from his thoughts. She and his father were standing by the doors, and he set his jaw, forcing himself to calm down as he walked towards them.
“Come on, we need to check in,” Terry told him. “We have a long wait ahead.”
The three of them walked up to the same ration officer John had just spoken with.
“Haft, Terry. 742.”
He pointed at John and Kendra, and they each gave their information as the woman scanned their arms.
“The wait time is close to nine hours,” the ration officer told them. “Come back about thirty minutes before then, I’ll call your number when it’s your turn.”
The officer dismissed them with a wave, and John followed his parents outside to wait. He ducked into the shadow cast by the facility and sat down, staring at his feet as he pretended to ignore his mother’s questioning glances, but she cleared her throat as she settled in beside him.
“Well?” Kendra prompted. “Did you find out anything about Amber?”
John forced a disinterested shrug.
“They said I can’t see her, mom. It’s not allowed.”
Terry grunted knowingly.
“I tried telling you as much. You just didn’t want to listen.”
“I had to try, didn’t I?” John shot back, barely managing to stifle the annoyance in his tone. “I mean, I promised her I would.”
His mother reached out and patted his shoulder.
“Well, you kept your word, son, and that’s all that matters. She’s starting a new life here, it’s best to just forget about her and move on.”
Terry muttered his agreement, and John rolled his eyes. He could never forget about Amber, not in a million years, and he sighed with confusion as he crossed his legs underneath him. Something serious must have happened if she had shared Ayn’s name with the guard, that much he was sure of, but he couldn’t begin to imagine what.
The hours passed, and it was almost nightfall by the time their ration was brought out to them. John’s heart skipped a beat as he watched his father speak to the ration officer; he knew he should join them, but he couldn’t seem to force his legs to work.
Terry turned around a moment later.
“Well?” he prompted, beckoning impatiently, and John finally managed to move.
He gulped, cringing as he took the rope and looked the ration over. It had dark hair, just like Ayn, but it was considerably smaller, and when John caught sight of its eyes, he couldn’t help letting out a quiet gasp. Its irises were rimmed in a band of dark blue, the inner edge gradually lightening to the color of the afternoon sky before fading into bright gold flecked with bits of vivid green. As the ration blinked in the sunlight, its eyes seemed to undulate between all three colors―it was both mesmerizing and unsettling, and John had to force himself to look away.
Terry handed two bags of supplements to the ration, giving John a hard look.
“You’re the keeper now, son. It’s your responsibility to make sure the ration drinks its water on the way back.”
“I know, dad,” John answered. “I will.”
“Let’s get going,” Kendra sighed, glancing up at the sky. “We have a long way ahead of us.”
Night fell as they headed for home, and John held the ration back a little ways, intentionally letting his parents pull ahead. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts, but as he listened to the ration’s quiet breaths beside him, he couldn’t focus on anything other than the guilt that had risen up in his heart.
He glanced at the ration and sighed.
“I can’t help you,” he whispered, shaking his head in regret. “It won’t work, I already tried.”
A lump appeared in his throat as he stared down at his feet, the words he had planned to tell Amber spilling out of him.
“I thought it was a good plan, I thought the supplements just had to wear off, but I guess Ayn was different. Ayn was like a real person, but our ration couldn’t talk even after I took the supplements away. It didn’t understand that I was just trying to help, so I guess…I guess I can’t really blame it for trying to attack me. It was just scared, I think.”
John sighed again, his heart aching as he looked up at the stars. The moon shone bright high above him, and he whispered a prayer, hoping that Amber was staring up at the same sky somewhere safe. The alternative was too much for him to bear, and as if on cue, his mind instantly conjured the image of her starved body drying up the sun. He cringed, holding his breath as he tried to force the thought away, but he knew he would never know for sure.
“I hope she’s okay,” he said mournfully. “Her message said that she was with Ayn, but he’s dead.”
Frustration mingled with his sorrow, and he clenched his teeth as he muttered a curse.
“Dead, just like our last ration—just like you will be. I can’t save you, you’ll just try to kill me like the other one did. I’m sorry, ration.”
“Caiam.”
John’s heart stopped in his chest as his eyes grew wide. He slowly lifted his gaze; the ration was staring at him, a curious look on its face—no, his face.
The ration took a deep breath.
“I am Caiam.”
†‡†
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