“I hardly remember my parents.” I can’t tear my gaze away from her, bowed over the pieces. “But you remind me of my younger sister.”
She shrugs and gathers up her scattered pebbles, but I swear I see her face soften. “Want to play again?”
CHAPTER 17
THE NEXT MORNING, THE SOUND of whispered voices carries into our cave. I sit up, my hand searching for Howl, who fell asleep behind me.
He isn’t here.
June is a heap in her sleeping bag a few feet away, her eyes open. One hand snakes out to point toward the entrance. I nod, reaching into the pack for the gun. I’ve made sure I was between it and June since it emerged from Howl’s coat. Just in case.
Sliding along the wall toward the cave’s mouth, I let my eyes adjust to the light. It is morning, moments from sunrise. The doorway is masked by a pile of rocks and dead scrub, and Howl stumbling into it was a miracle. But some miracles do happen twice.
There are two forms crouched just outside the opening, hushed voices going back and forth.
With shaking hands, I level the gun at the one closer to me, growling in my best tough soldier voice, “On the ground. Now.”
Their heads snap around toward me, the closer one casually raising his hands over his head, looking me up and down as if a gun weren’t practically shoved down his throat. His hair slicks back from a face that seems to be all cheekbones and chin. Skin pale in the morning light, his black eyes are unafraid as they meet mine.
My eyes flick to the other shape and my stomach drops. Howl doesn’t bother to raise his hands. He just sits there looking vaguely surprised. “Good morning, Sev. Still not sleeping well?”
I keep the gun trained on Cheekbones, trying to mask my trembling hands with the weight of the weapon. “Who’s this guy?”
The stranger smiles, revealing white teeth that look a little too pointy. Like an animal’s. “I’m Helix. I was out on patrol when you attacked the Reds, but I couldn’t get to you until they all cleared out.” Shrugging his shoulders uncomfortably, he glances up at his still-raised hands. “Are you going to shoot me or what?”
Helix. His name sounds foreign, like it came from some ancient language that died long before the Great Wars. Kind of like mine. I wait for Howl’s nod before lowering the gun, but I don’t loosen my grip. Helix’s sharp smile gives me the creeps. “Rebel?” I ask.
“I’m a Menghu.” Helix rubs the back of his neck as his hands come down. “Not a rebel.”
“He’s a soldier from the Mountain.” Howl eyes the gun gripped tightly in my hands, and I slowly relax my hold on it. “I didn’t want to wake you. Seems like the first time you’ve gone to sleep since we got stuck in there. Sorry we scared you.”
Helix’s jacket is grayish green, falling past narrow hips and buttoned up to his throat. His canvas pants are tucked into calf-high brown boots, all with a healthy coating of dirt. The front of his high collar is embroidered with a black tiger sitting on a number four.
“Sleeping with a death squad knocking at the door has me a little jittery, I guess. Speaking of which . . .” I look around. “Why are we outside?”
Helix answers, shooting a shifty look at Howl. “There are still some stragglers, but nothing I can’t handle.”
Something in his voice gives me the impression Helix is a little uncomfortable with Howl. Afraid? But that doesn’t make sense. “Why are they out here?”
“Reds are bringing in a set of reeducation slaves to start digging a new mine.” Helix’s eyes brush my star brand, but he continues without comment. “Gassed the area to take care of any Wood Rats and then combed the outskirts to make sure no one was waiting for them.”
“Why would they do that? Gas everyone in the area?” I ask.
Helix squints at me. “Wood Rats are a bit of a nuisance, even for us up at the Mountain. Stealing supplies, spreading diseases. Compulsions out of control. It isn’t safe to let them run free through the middle of a City operation, I’d think, so they just get rid of them. I wish we could be so tidy.”
The cold shrug that accompanies this account prickles at the back of my neck. Howl, June, and I had to sprint away from that gas cloud, just three more inconvenient presences that needed to be extinguished. But tidying the woods a bit doesn’t seem to bother Helix at all.
Helix’s voice takes on a certain brand of offhanded pride as he continues, “My patrol was close by when you set off the grenade. Dr. Yang asked us to look out for you, so I broke off to bring you in. It wasn’t that difficult to find you after you made all that noise and then suddenly disappeared. There aren’t any other caches this way.”
Howl looks up from tracing his finger through the dirt, catches my eye, and nods to the cave behind me. I look back toward the opening and find June’s wide eyes staring out at us, reflective and catlike in the dark. She edges out, holding my bag of Mantis.
I take it, thoughts in a cyclone around the half-empty bag. None of the Mantis seems to be missing. Did she know I’m infected this whole time? That I had Mantis in my pack, the medicine her family needs? But she didn’t take it and run back to them.
“You’re late on your dose.” She glances at Howl before sinking back into the inky depths of the cave.
Helix’s voice grates like sandpaper. “Wood Rat?” He stops cleaning his nails and looks up at Howl. “We going to keep her?”
“What do you mean?” Howl asks.
Helix shakes his head. “Do you even know which diseases she’s carrying?”
June reemerges, this time carrying the one remaining pack from the City. She drops it at my feet and then stalks toward the trees, tripping over the rock Helix is sitting back against so it topples over, sending him into a heap on the rocky ground.
He jumps up, growling a word I don’t recognize, and reaches for the knife sheathed at his hip. But Howl moves so quickly that my eyes don’t believe it when Helix hits the ground.
“You want to bring me and Sev in, then I suggest you skip murdering our friend.” Howl’s voice is perfectly friendly, but sharp edges underneath are showing through.
“Bring you in?” Helix picks himself up, eyes blazing. His hand grips the knife so tightly his knuckles are white. “What, you get out into the forest and decide you’d be better off with the Wood Rats?”
Howl’s jaw clenches and he looks at me for some reason. But then he returns to glaring at the knife clenched in Helix’s hand, waiting until the Menghu lets the weapon go. Howl’s face relaxes into a cold smile, the tension melting away as he shoulders his pack. “Good choice. Come on, let’s go.”
? ? ?
Only a day and a half’s walk away from the Mountain. The forest seems too quiet, with swells of twigs cracking and birds flying off for no reason as if the whole southern garrison of Seconds really is only steps behind us. All day long, my arms itch with the sense that someone’s watching us, and I begin to wonder if the four of us will live to get to this magical Mountain place at all. Between the feeling that we are being followed and the scowls June is directing at Helix, the chances of survival seem slim.
When we stop to set up camp for the night, Helix’s condescending lesson on correct fire-starting technique stammers to an explosive silence when he pulls two fist-size rocks out from under the top flap of his pack. “Did you do this?” His voice is sharp and quiet, eyes on June.
Silence.
Helix rubs a hand across his stubbly chin, taking a deep breath before catching Howl’s eye. His mouth hangs open for a second, but he eventually just mumbles something about going to find some good tinder. June smirks at his back until he disappears behind a tree. She grabs the four water skins and heads toward the river.
Howl pulls some rope out of my pack, eyeing the tree branches above us. “Nice to see June acting like a real fourteen-year-old.”
“I think we both put rocks in his pack.” A smile catches at my mouth. “Helix just hasn’t found the ones I put in yet.”