“Whoa, whoa!” Texas Harry yelled from in front of us. “Hot metal! Watch your step. I think it’s the gates, but it’s all twisted. Just burnt my fuckin’ shin.”
I slowed and could make out bits of what he meant. It looked nothing like a gate, just twisted chunks of silver debris. My stomach plummeted and my soul cried out in agony. If this was what was left of the gate, and all those people had been gathered at it . . .
I grabbed my knees, coughing. My parents might not have been at the gate. They weren’t easily panicked. What if they’d stayed in the building? I pushed forward, making my way around the debris.
Rylen was at my side. “Pepper . . .”
“Have to find that building,” I said.
“Pepper, look.” His voice was so sad. I shook my head. I didn’t want to hear that.
“No, they’re hiding somewhere.”
“Pepper, look.” He came up behind me and took me by the shoulders, pointing me in the direction of the building. Through a swirl of dust and smoke, I could make out the remnants of one partial wall. “It’s gone.”
“No!” I yelled, and broke away at a sprint. I fell twice over rocks or ruins, but never saw a single body. When I got to where the metal wall stood, it gave a creaking shudder and fell to the earth with a whoosh. There was nothing. Chunks of stuff that was probably cots or something. And my skin was so hot. The ground was hot, like it was on fire. All I could smell was char and cinder.
“We have to get out of here—”
“They’re here!” My head pivoted from side to side. Each wisp of smoke was like Mom walking toward me, Abuela reaching out her arms for me, Dad waving to let me know he was fine. I was numb to the burning of my skin.
Rylen bent and scooped me into his arms.
I struggled and push against his chest. “I need to find them!” He ran, ignoring me, and I pounded my fists against his shoulders. “Damn you, stop!” Sobs rose and I nearly choked as I cried and screamed. “Put me down!” Still, he held tight, and ran.
“Rylen, please, please,” I begged through tears. “I need to get them. They’re somewhere. Oh, my God . . .” My face fell against his shoulder and I bawled against his neck. “Oh, my God . . .” My hands tightened, fisting his shirt in my palms, holding him like a lifeline as my mind threatened to shatter into unfixable pieces.
He never said a word. Just ran.
Apparently, grieving was like being drunk. Whole pieces of time went missing.
I don’t remember making it back to the car. It wasn’t until we were nearly back to the state park that I became aware of Remy’s arms around me, my shirt damp with her tears. And all I could do was look at the brown cloth seat below me and think, This car is really clean. It was the cleanest thing I’d ever seen. Mom did a good job of . . .
All at once my chest ripped open and my insides shattered, like a bomb going off inside of me all over again. An animalistic sound tore from my throat and Remy tightened her grip around me. My own arms, which had already been around her, clenched as if my life depended on holding her.
In the passenger seat, Tater was bent over, clutching his head. Rylen, driving, met my eyes in the rearview mirror. The dashboard lighting made his skin glow in the darkness. But his face was dirty. His eyes red.
Livia.
“Did they find anyone?” I whispered.
“No,” Rylen said.
Remy let out a low wail that I felt on a soul level. Had our parents been at the gates? Based on how they were trying fervently to get out, they had to have known something bad was coming. They must have been terrified. If only we could have gotten there sooner. If only we hadn’t assumed we had more time—we should have tried to break them out right away instead of planning and waiting.
When we got back to our trail area, it no longer seemed like the benevolent, safe, fun place we’d left hours before. Everything looked sinister in the darkness. Trees were Derps with guns. Chirping bugs sounded like they were laughing at us. I tried to help Remy out of the car, but she shook her head and refused to budge. Tater also remained in the front seat. Rylen got out first and I faced him. Something dark was on his T-shirt collar and across his shoulder. Blood? Was he injured?
I went up on my toes and gently pulled the fabric aside. In the darkness I could scarcely make out bloodied marks, like he’d been clawed. I sucked in a painful breath.
“Ry . . . Oh, God, I’m sorry.” I had shredded his skin while he carried me. He gently pulled my hand away and held my wrist.
“It doesn’t hurt.”
My jaw clenched to keep it from trembling.
“I need a minute,” he whispered. Rylen squeezed my hand and let me go to walk into the trees, disappearing. My heart constricted.
I went around the car and opened the passenger door. Tater turned his head up to me, and when our eyes met, I shattered all over again. He stood and enveloped me. This boy, man, who’d driven me crazy my whole life—only he felt exactly what I felt—only he knew exactly what I’d lost. Because he’d lost them too. And they meant just as much to him.
We clung to each other, crying, and I was so thankful he was alive. I didn’t know what I’d do without Tater. When we finally calmed, I looked into the darkened back window at Remy, who was curled up in the fetal position. Without a word, Tater opened her door and climbed in, gathering her into his arms. He kissed her head, and down her cheek, and then gently on her lips, then took her in a hug again. It felt so intimate and private that I left them to be alone.
I felt strangely disembodied as I walked the dark path up to our camp, like a branch without its tree. No roots to anchor me. No trunk to hold me up. Who was I without my mom and dad? That’s not a person I ever wanted to be.
I sat absently on a log while everyone slowly made their way up into the camp. After a long while, we all gathered in a circle. Rylen was the last to join us, coming from the darkness of the trees. He sat a little further back than the rest of us. We were all silent until New York Josh finally relented.
“What the fuck was that?”
Texas Harry huffed air through his nose. “Either the U.S. Air Force is with them, and against us, or they got their paws on one of our fighters.”
“Not just one,” I said. “There were witnesses in Vegas who said two planes dropped bombs there in the very beginning. So, either they’ve had infiltrators a long time, or . . . I don’t even know.” My chest hurt too much to finish a thought.
“So what do we do?” Tater asked.
“We infiltrate back,” Rylen said. His hands hung heavy over his knees, weary eyes lifted up to his longtime best friend. “And we search out others like us.”
Sean stood up and went to his tent. Seconds later he came back out with a small portable radio. “I listen to this thing every night. Mostly it’s DRI propaganda, but sometimes there are actual broadcasts that pop up. They’re usually down within a day, though.” We waited as he turned it on and began the slow search through the airwaves. A voice hit the air loud and clear, and my chest constricted. Senator Navin.
“—safe bases for survivors. I want to personally thank all who have made this a smooth transition. It is imperative that we condense our population to maximize safety while we root out the remaining Outliers. Go to your local police station immediately to find a DRI personnel who can get you to the nearest safe base.”
“Do you think he’s in on it?” Matt asked. “Or do you think he’s being used by them?”
“Nobody’s that stupid,” Josh said. “He’s their leader. Their fucking spokesman.”
“Senator Navin has always been a good man,” Remy said thickly. “I don’t think he knows. I think he believes what he’s saying. Somebody has to be lying to him. He must not know. I mean, it could have been some shady, random, individual who decided to steal a plane and bomb people today—”
“Dude!” Josh said with a laugh.
“Don’t,” I warned him with a sharp glare. “We don’t know. Anything could be possible. Everyt
hing is speculation at this point, and there’s no use arguing when we don’t have all the facts.” I looked at Sean. “Can you keep searching?”
He flicked away from the senator’s voice and was met with differing variations of white noise. He seemed to turn and turn the dial forever until it was quiet, and he paused. Static came again, then silence. Static. Long pause. Static, short pause, static, short pause. After a few seconds of it, there seemed to be a purposeful tempo to the stops and starts. Everyone sat up straighter.
Rylen jumped to his feet and put up a palm to let Sean know not to move it.
“S.O.S.” Rylen said. “Morse code.”
“Holy shit,” Texas Harry said. “You can understand that?”
Rylen nodded, his eyes distant as he listened.
“Yeah,” Matt said. “I know code too. It keeps repeating S.O.S.”
My heart banged in my chest. I didn’t think anyone used Morse Code anymore. Dad said it was sort of a lost art with all the advancements in technology. My stomach dipped at the thought of Dad sitting in his recliner, watching those history shows and spouting random knowledge to anyone listening.
“Wait,” Ry whispered. “Whiskey . . . Oscar . . . Romeo . . . Lima . . . Delta.”
“World,” Matt said.
Rylen continued to concentrate on the static breaks. “Uniform . . . November . . . Delta . . . Echo . . . Romeo.”
“Under,” Matt whispered.
“Alpha . . . Tango . . . Tango . . . Alpha . . . Charlie . . . Kilo.”
“Attack.” Matt swallowed.
“Oh my gosh.” Remy reached for my hand.
Rylen leaned closer to the radio. “Delta . . . Papa . . . Golf. Hotel . . . Oscar . . . Oscar . . . Alpha . . . Hotel. DPG Hooah?”
“Hooah!” The Army guys shouted and jumped up to smack hands and chest bump and every other celebratory thing. The sound of the word hooah even made me smile for a second.
“Sh!” Sean ordered. Everyone settled down and looked back at the radio, but all that came out now was uninterrupted static.
“Whoever it was shut down signal,” Sean said. “Trying not to be detected.”
“DPG is a base,” Josh said. “Dugway Proving Ground.”
“Utah,” said Tater and Matt together, then they fist bumped.
Texas Harry pulled out a map and spread it open. “We’d have to go northwest to get there. Probably seven or eight hours by car. No way we have enough gas, though.”
“Let’s break into that gas station and see if we can get the pumps working,” Tater suggested.
Everyone nodded, and I bit my lip.
“How are we going to drive to Utah without being caught?”
“Back roads,” Rylen said. “Desert routes. DPG is in a desert region. We keep someone in the lead car on lookout with the binoculars.”
My insides twisted with fear at the thought of leaving our safe haven, but the thought of being with others like us—uniting with allies and trying to stop whatever the hell was going on here—that desire was so much stronger than my fear. I didn’t just want answers anymore. I wanted action. I wanted to stop these bastards and end their lives for what they’d taken from us.
World under attack.
We’d been under attack for the past month, but those words felt so loaded. Like they knew something. Like they knew exactly who was attacking.
“Let’s leave now,” I said. “We can drive through the night.”
“Hooah.” Texas Harry spun a finger through the air like a lasso. “Round up, boys.”
I looked at Rylen, Tater, and Remy, at their smudged faces and dusted clothes. But mostly I looked at the sorrow in their eyes reflecting in the moonlight.
“We have to stick together,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “I can’t lose any of you.”
The four of us came together in a sort of huddle, a four-way embrace.
“We got this,” Tater said.
Tears were already streaming down Remy’s face, and I fought back another wave of my own. I swear, I wasn’t usually this weepy, but I felt like we were living in Hell and could not find the exit.
Rylen gritted his jaw and closed his eyes like he was holding back a flood of emotions.
I took a deep breath. “Let’s break down the tents and get out of here.”
It was time to leave the Mojave and all its nightmares in the dust.
Look for UNREST, book two of the UNKNOWN series, in winter 2017
First off, thank you for reading. You keep me going, book friends. Hugs all around!
To Gwen Cole: *fist bumps* *chest bumps* *squeezy hugs* Your early excitement was exactly what I needed! And huge gratitude to my next beta readers, lovely author Cindi Madsen, and fellow readers Meredith Crowley and Jill Wilson. I would never have the nerve to publish without your valuable feedback first.
Major props to the girls at Perfectly Publishable for their editing and formatting skills and timely professionalism.
Jennifer Munswami, I love, love, love your cover art and graphic teaser work. I don’t know what I’d do without you!
As always, I could not chase my dreams without the full support of my family. Nathan, Autumn, Cayden, my parents, in-laws, and siblings, and my wonderful friends Courtney, Brooke, Ann, Jo, Nelly, Holly, Hilary, Christine, Dani, Carol, Meggie, Kristy, and Val. I am so freaking lucky and blessed. God is good.
And to the boy who I spent four years head-over-heels in love with from the 8th-11th grades, but who treated me as a sister and was completely clueless of my affections until I finally kissed him, thanks for the inspiration.
Photo Credit: Anastasia’s Photography Eastern Shore
Wendy Higgins received her degree in Creative Writing from George Mason University, and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Radford University. She taught high school English until becoming a mom and full-time writer. Wendy is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sweet Evil series and The Great Hunt duology from HarperTeen, along with her independently published Irish fantasy, See Me. Wendy lives on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with her veterinarian husband, daughter, son, and their lil dog Rue.
Feel free to contact Wendy at [email protected]
Website: www.wendyhigginswrites.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WendyHigginsWrites
Twitter: @Wendy_Higgins
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