As we exited the little house, a low growl startled us, and we spun at the same time to face it. A mangy-looking dog poked its head around the side of the house, its red-stained muzzle wrinkled tightly as it bared its teeth. Another growl joined the first, and a second dog moved out from between the houses.
Reyes took aim and pulled the trigger. Wood splintered off the corner of the house and both mutts jumped, one retreating back between the houses. Reyes swore under his breath.
I aimed my gun at the one out in the open and pulled the trigger. Just as he dropped, I heard the whistle of an arrow and then a dull thud when it found its target. We looked around the corner of the house to find the second dog on the ground with an arrow in the back of its head. I wasn’t sure where she was, but I gave Jin-Sook a thumbs-up.
Reyes gave a low whistle. “She’s good.” He ran a hand over the splintered wood. “And I need more practice.”
“I want a quick look around before we go,” I said. I wanted to know what the dogs had been eating.
Behind the houses, a third dog stood sentinel over a large bone, slaver dripping from its toothy snarl. Bones were strewn around the small yard, some still with bits of flesh and cloth clinging to them. There wasn’t much left of whoever the bones had belonged to, so I assumed the pack must have been hanging around, looking for a way into the house to get at the other body. And Reyes and I had just opened the door for them.
“Looks like it was an older person,” Reyes said, motioning toward a skull with a tuft of gray hair still attached.
I breathed a guilty sigh of relief. Whoever this was, they were too old to play with dolls.
Reyes raised his gun and shot the dog point-blank. It didn’t know enough to run.
Chapter Nine
Jack
The moment I was dreading finally arrived as our caravan departed from the guiding influence of the river and turned toward the setting sun. Provided we didn’t have much farther to go, I was confident I could find my way back to the river. An old city rose out of the sea of trees, its crumbling towers vivid against the red- and gold-streaked sky. I knew what skyscrapers were, had seen plenty of them in the movies. But this was the first time I had seen them for real. They must have been quite something before they were eroded by time and neglect. Under different circumstances, I would be excited by the thought of exploring such a place. However, right now I was just relieved that such a prominent landmark stood as a signpost to guide me back to the river. The prospect of finding my way home was not lost.
We left the foothills and headed right for the city. Within a few miles we came to a well-worn trail, and our ride smoothed out considerably. It wasn’t a straight trail, but rather it weaved around debris and holes in the ground. After a bit of studying, I finally realized the holes were old basements and we were traveling through a pre-War suburb. It was difficult to discern the exact layout of the community because it was so overgrown with brush, trees, and vines.
The closer we came to the city, the higher the skyscrapers loomed. There was an ominous feel to their presence that I was pretty sure I wasn’t the only one to feel. By the look of Naoki and Talon’s faces they were also in awe. The sheer number of people who must have lived there before the War was incomprehensible. I thought our Dome was densely populated, but this... Each skyscraper alone must have housed thousands, which made me think the pre-War population of this city was in the hundred thousands, if not close to a million. Yeah, I knew the earth’s total population was close to eight billion when WWIII broke out, but this was the first piece of evidence I had ever seen that gave credence to that number.
As we rolled into the city, the ominous feel of the place turned to just plain creepy. There were so many buildings, all of them in a state of collapse. Their hollow, dark interiors beckoned me to peer into their depths to see if eyes were staring back. Movement on the top of a half-crumbled low-rise building caught my attention. Hollywood didn’t miss it either. He waved to whoever it was, and within minutes more than a dozen men came out of two nearby buildings to greet our convoy. Hands were shaken, arms slapped, and recruits inspected.
One man greeted Hollywood with a long-lost-best-friend man hug. “Ralph, it’s good to see you home,” he said, stepping out of the hug and gripping Hollywood by the shoulder. “I took care of your wives while you were gone like I promised, my friend. And if any of your sons have my eyes, it’s purely coincidental.” Laughter rose up at the joke, and Hollywood beamed at the attention.
My rifle was passed around and bets were taken on what price it would fetch, with some guessing it was worthless and others predicting a wife and two bushels of fresh produce from the first spring harvest. Hollywood proudly showed off my jacket, which he was still wearing, and drew their attention to me. I didn’t like the way some of them leered at me, especially in my current shackled state. I only had my legs to fight with, but fight I would if any of them tried to touch me. But then Hollywood told them an exaggerated version of Ryan’s fighting skills and how he, Hollywood, had to shoot the warrior down himself. After that story, no one wanted to let us loose.
Just before the sun was completely gone, another group of men emerged from a crumbling building. This group was different. Some of the men had their hands tied behind their backs. Looking at Naoki, I motioned with my chin in the direction of the group, and he craned his neck to see. As they came closer, I noticed that the cross-shape branded into the cheeks of the men with their hands tied was still raw. New recruits, I thought.
“Hey, Sanjay,” I said in a low tone. The younger man had stayed close to our wagon, remaining apart from the rest of the men. He turned his head to look at me. “What’s with those guys? Where are they coming from?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “One of the mines.”
“A mine in a collapsing building?” I asked. He nodded. “What do you mine?”
“Plastic usually, but whatever we can find of value.”
I shook my head. “I thought you made plastic.”
His eyebrows furrowed together in an are you for real? kind of expression. “You have to have plastic to melt it down and make stuff.”
Naoki leaned forward to give Sanjay a pointed look. “Is that why you kidnapped us? To make us mine for your plastic?”
Sanjay was about to answer him when Hollywood came around to the back of our wagon and opened up the wooden crate. He was humming a happy tune. “We’ll be home by lunchtime tomorrow,” he said, taking out the container of “bear meat.” His eyes settled on me. “And I’ll finally get rid of you.”
I flashed him a smile. “You’ll miss me.”
Hollywood ignored me and motioned Sanjay toward the water bottles. “Give them extra rations. I want them looking strong and healthy when they’re appraised.” He left to tend to the bears.
Sanjay picked up a water bottle and started with Talon. It was unusual to see Sanjay with Talon. Phillip usually rushed to be the one to give the younger man his ration.
“Where’s Phillip?” I asked.
Sanjay motioned with his head. “Over there.”
He was at the wagon filled with men and young boys. They were unhooking the prisoners to give them a hygienic break, and Phillip was helping. He seemed very interested in one of the boys and was offering to be his guard during the break.
“Don’t we get a hygienic break?” I asked. Someone needed to keep an eye on Phillip.
“Hollywood says you’re not allowed,” Sanjay said.
“Why not?” Naoki asked.
Sanjay’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You forget what happened last time?” He looked around the camp and then back at us. “The captains of the other rigs told Hollywood not to unhook you from the wagon anymore. We never saw anyone fight like that before. I mean, he ran up a tree trunk and landed right on Jesse and started strangling him.” Sanjay perused all of our faces, his own set in a look of disbelief. “Do you all know how to fight like that?”
Naoki and I exchanged a knowing glance
. “Nope,” I said. “Just Ryan.”
His shoulders slumped. “Too bad. You’d be worth more.” Sanjay finished giving Talon his ration and moved on to Naoki.
It was curious that Hollywood didn’t yell at Phillip for leaving us or call him back to ration duty. In fact, as soon as Sanjay was finished giving us the biggest ration of water and fish we had had since being kidnapped, Hollywood sent him away to go see if anyone else needed help. I thought it was awfully generous of a guy like Hollywood to share his laborers, but when I saw him sneak a chunk of the bears’ food, skewer it with a stick, and put it over the fire, I knew it wasn’t generosity that motivated him.
My bigger-than-usual ration threatened to come back up.
“I guess we should be happy we’re almost there before we end up on a stick,” Naoki whispered.
“Who says we won’t once we get there?” I asked.
“True,” he said, nodding. “At least there are no cats tonight.”
I had become so accustomed to their growls that I hadn’t noticed when they weren’t there. “Yeah,” I said.
Hollywood guffawed. He was at the fire roasting his dinner only ten feet away from our wagon. “That’s because your friend slowed them down.”
He was such an evil, ill-tempered little man, and my lip curled up at him. “And no doubt enticed them to come looking for more, especially when they get a whiff of whoever you’re cooking.”
Hollywood spun around and glared at me. “This is rodent!” he said, pointing to the meat on the stick.
“Sure it is,” I said.
“You little asshole!” Hollywood yelled. “I’m so fed up with you.” He reached for his bow.
I braced myself for the impact of the arrow, although I wasn’t afraid of dying from it. If taking three in the chest all at the same time hadn’t killed me, I was pretty sure one on its own wouldn’t do it. But the effects of the drug were nasty.
“What are you doing, Hollywood?” Sanjay asked.
“Teaching this little scorchedlander freak a lesson,” Hollywood said.
Sanjay put his hand on Hollywood’s arm to prevent him from nocking the arrow. “He gets appraised tomorrow, and he’s worth nothing dead.”
Hollywood’s sneer grew, crinkling his nose, but he dropped his hand and returned to cooking his “rodent.”
As the night wore on, I wished he had shot me with devil’s blood so I didn’t have to witness their debauchery.
Chapter Ten
Sunny
Summer and Eli both had weapons drawn when we returned to the raft.
“Well?” Summer asked anxiously.
“Four houses, and they all looked like they had been ransacked. We only found two bodies,” I said, walking up to Summer. I gave her a fierce hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Have I ever told you that you’re the strongest person I know?”
“On occasion,” she said suspiciously.
“Recruiters were here,” Eli said. “I found a couple piles of cat dung. The rain last night didn’t wash it all away, and it was close to a tree gouged by claws.”
Summer, Reyes, and I exchanged glances.
“Cats?” Reyes asked.
“There were dogs,” I said. “We killed all three.”
“Dogs don’t scratch trees,” Eli said.
We were still skeptical. How could a cat kill all those people?
“The bodies you found, were they torn apart?”
“One was,” Reyes said.
Eli nodded. “That’s the work of cats. Those little dogs are scavengers and can only tear meat off the bones, not pull bones apart.”
Summer turned to him, wide-eyed. “I’m thinking we’re not talking about the same kind of little kitty Heidi snuck in to Klara’s house.”
“I’ll be honest, I don’t know who Heidi or Klara are,” Eli said. “But I’m not talking about a little kitty. The tigers I’m talking about are as big as the bears. Years ago, when I was forced to work for Ryder, I saw one male that I swear was almost as tall as you, Reyes. Scared me so bad, my heart almost stopped.” Eli’s eyes grew big at the memory.
“Tigers?” Reyes asked, echoing my own confusion. He raised his eyebrows. “You mean big orange cats with long, sharp teeth?” Eli nodded. Reyes turned his attention to me. “I think he has his continents mixed up.”
Eli frowned. “No I don’t. Tigers have been around forever.”
I was about to agree with Reyes when it occurred to me that tigers had existed on our continent before the War. “Maybe not,” I said. “Tigers were common in zoos and in circuses, and I remember reading that some people kept them as pets.”
Eli shrugged. “I’m not sure where they came from, I just know they’ve always been around. And cats like to shadow recruiting parties, looking for handouts and anyone careless enough to stray away from the group.”
My mouth went dry. “Handouts? You mean like...people?” I asked, desperately hoping I was wrong.
“No, I mean like bodies. Not all recruits make it to Ryder’s city.”
My gaze flew to Jin-Sook. She was better than me at hiding her feelings, but I still saw the worry in her eyes. “Our men are strong,” she said. “They have a better chance than most.”
“She’s right,” Eli said. “Our people are well-fed and have an advantage.”
“If that was the work of recruiters,” Reyes said, thumbing back toward the houses. “Then it’s been a few days since they were here, judging by the body in the house.”
“I think I found some tracks,” Jin-Sook said. “I don’t know for sure.”
“Let’s go have a look,” Eli said. He cast a covert glance at Summer and then said, “We might want to go on foot for a while anyway since the water gets rougher past the lake.”
Summer looked relieved.
We deflated the raft, packed it up, and set out into the forest with Jin-Sook and Eli taking the lead. Because of all the exposed rock, the trail we found was intermittent and hard to follow. Twice we found good, solid-looking wagon tracks and once a boot print. We found more cat dung too.
We had walked less than an hour and were in the process of working our way up a steep section of forested terrain when Jin suddenly stopped, stood very still, and cocked her head to one side. We all came to a halt and listened. Then I heard it. Voices.
Using the hydraulics in our exoskeletons, Summer, Reyes, and I practically leaped to the top of the rocky hillside and crouched behind some dense, leafless brush. We pulled our hoods up for extra cover while we scoped out the area. Peeking over the brush, I surveyed a roughly woven path across the rocky woodland floor. Three people were walking on the path headed in our direction. They were far enough away that I couldn’t see their faces, but I recognized their uniforms: Dome soldiers.
Jin-Sook and Eli caught up to us.
“What are you people?” Eli whispered.
“Fast,” Reyes said.
“Ted told me before I left that there was a search party out looking for Jack. That’s probably them,” I said.
Summer shrank behind the brush. “Then let’s leave them to it and go our own way.”
“See the ground?” Eli said, pointing to an area of the trail close to us. “Those are bear and wagon tracks.”
The three Domers were getting closer. They were examining the trail they were walking on. I flicked my head toward them. “We should find out what they know.”
“I’m not working with bourge,” Reyes whispered. Jin bit her lip, looking from Reyes to me. I could tell by her expression that she was torn.
“If we join forces, it makes us all stronger. They could use our help too,” I said.
“Do you think we can trust them?” Eli asked.
I waited for them to come closer and was pretty sure I recognized Alex, Jack’s friend. I didn’t really like him, but Jack seemed to trust him.
“The one in the lead is Alex, a friend of Jack’s. I’ll go meet him,” I said and made to get up.
Reyes grabbed my arm and pulled
me back down. “Sunny, working with the bourge is not a good idea.”
“I told you last night, not everyone from the Dome is a bourge.”
He blew air out of his nose as his lip twitched into a brief sneer. “Yeah. I remember.”
My teeth clenched at the memory of his accusation that I had walked away from my own people. “Stay here then.”
I stood and scrambled over the side of the ridge. Alex and the other two soldiers stopped in their tracks and raised their rifles. I heard someone behind me and turned to see Reyes and Summer on my heels. I wasn’t surprised to see Summer.
“You’re coming?” I asked Reyes.
“Unless you’re no longer carrying that special cargo, I have to,” he said dryly.
“That’s far enough!” Alex called. They all had their guns aimed at us.
I raised my hands, palms spread, on either side of me. “Hi, Alex,” I called back. They advanced, weapons still aimed. “No need for guns.” They didn’t lower them.
“What are they doing?” Summer asked in a low voice. We exchanged an uneasy glance. “Wait!” she said. “Our suits! We must look like aliens.”
She was right. The suit had become comfortable enough that I had forgotten I was wearing it. “We’re from the Dome!” I said in a louder voice. We were all close enough to fully see each other, and yet they weren’t backing down. I was getting worried. “Where are Jin and Eli?” I asked under my breath.
“Doing their heathen thing,” Reyes said. I took that to mean they were in camouflage mode, probably with weapons drawn. The People had even less trust for the bourge than we did.
Alex came to within six feet of us and stopped. He lowered his rifle, but the two soldiers behind him kept theirs trained on us. “Wearing those glasses, I’d say you’re from the Pit.”
I didn’t like the tone of his voice. “Dome is short for biodome. I didn’t think I needed to make the distinction,” I said.
“What the hell are you wearing?” he asked, using the barrel of his rifle to gesture at our suits.
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