Gonzalez had been right. Black River was nothing but a contract to the Marvins. Everything Raney had done had been to keep us quiet until the Guard was gone and no one was watching.
A horde of Marvin vehicles arrived with a screech of sirens. They began lining the road that circled the park, like bricks in a wall surrounding it. Once they were all in position, they’d have the infected trapped. They’d only have to load them onto trucks and drive them away. I scanned the crowd, becoming more and more anxious, until I caught a flash of green. Hannah. She was locked in the middle of the mob with Greer and the kids. They were bunched together, hand in hand, making a chain to fight the tides of people pushing against them. They were barely a hundred yards away, but a trio of Marvin trucks sat between us. I looked up and down the line but didn’t see a single break.
A black bus pulled up near the stage. An amplified voice came from loudspeakers on top of it.
“By order of the governor, you are to disperse. Return to your homes and await further instruction. Anyone who does not comply is subject to immediate arrest.”
A door opened in the side of the bus, and dozens of Marvins poured out. They were in riot gear—black body armor, helmets, gas masks. As they advanced toward the crowd, they beat truncheons against Plexiglas shields. The infected retreated at first, but then there was a rallying cry and they threw themselves forward. Another patrol car was flipped onto its side, with a crunch of broken glass. More carnival booths collapsed. Once the infected saw what they could do, they surged even harder. The riot cops were pushed back, but the reaction was immediate. Two of the three Humvees in front of me backed out of their spots and headed toward the center of the chaos. It was my opening. I bolted down the hill.
“Hannah! Greer! This way!”
Hannah turned, and when she saw me, she grabbed Greer’s arm and he started shouting at the kids, turning them in my direction. There were screams on the other side of the park, single voices at first and then a chorus. Fire from one of the burning patrol cars spread to the stage, and flames shot out over the crowd. Silhouetted by the blaze, the infected looked like trees writhing in a forest fire. My stomach flipped and my vision started to collapse, but I couldn’t give in to it. I waved the kids past me and up the hill, then followed behind. By the time we all made it to the top, the kids were nearly hysterical with fear. Not Hannah, though. She seemed almost eerily calm. Her eyes were filled with the same kind of hunted intensity as the first time I’d seen her.
“Did you hear what they’re going to do?” she asked. “They must have been planning it the whole time.”
Behind her, Eliot wailed. “They’re going to split us up. They’re going to send us away!”
“What do we do?” Astrid cried. “What are we going to do?”
Everyone was looking to me. I searched around us, trying to find some kind of out. Somewhere to go. Something to do. All I saw was the dark outline of Lucy’s Promise rising above the town.
“We go back up the mountain,” I said. “It’s our only choice.”
“They’ll come looking for us,” Hannah argued. “Every infected person in Black River is getting cleared out. That’s what they said.”
“Then we’ll go deeper into the woods,” I countered. “Over the quarantine fence if we have to. We stick together and we stay out of sight until people find out what the Marvins are trying to do. There’s no way they’ll let them get away with it.”
There was a roar as another helicopter streaked over the trees toward the park.
“Go!” I yelled. “Run! And don’t look back.”
Hannah took the lead and the kids ran after her. I started to follow until I realized that Greer wasn’t behind me. He had moved to the edge of the hill, his head down, his hands curled into fists.
“Greer, we have to go. Now!”
I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. His gray eyes locked on mine. It was as if time had slipped its gears and turned backwards. It was the old Greer. I stepped back without thinking, my hand falling to the hilt of the knife.
“They can’t do this,” he roared. “Black River is ours! It’s our home.”
Just then five trails of white arced over the heads of the infected. Tear gas. When the canisters landed, plumes of smoke billowed in every direction. The crowd screamed and reared back. People were clawing at their eyes and struggling to breathe. The Marvins waded into them, clubs raised over their heads.
“You want to go?” Greer cried. “Then go! Run!”
He turned away, but I managed to get a hold of his arm and yank him back. The glare he gave me was the same one he’d given a hundred kids on the schoolyard. It had always been enough to send us all running, but right then I refused to back off, refused to wither like I had so many times before.
“Hannah and I need you,” I said. “We have to stay together!”