Deviants (18 page)

He nods.

I shudder. “You think I can control what I do, but I can’t. I
don’t even remember what happened. I can’t believe I killed a Shredder. I’ve never killed anything bigger than a rat.”

His mouth twitches. “You graduated from rats.”

I wish I could remember more, but what’s past doesn’t matter. I need to regain focus. “Will we find Drake today?”

“Don’t know.” Burn’s voice is back to its normal gruffness. “First, let’s see if Gage comes back.”

“Where did he go?” I look around and then twist to see the top of Burn’s head. “Where are your night-vision goggles?”

“Loaned them to Gage. Figured his plan to look for another door was worth a shot. My plan didn’t go how I hoped.”

“What
was
your plan?”

He shifts behind me. “Thought if there weren’t too many, I could sneak us around them.”

I haven’t known Burn long, but I can’t imagine what I’d do if he’d died. “It was dangerous to head for their camp by yourself.”

“You’re one to talk.”

He’s got a point there, but I couldn’t just sit and hope for the best. The light filtering through our metal cave has grown brighter but doesn’t have the tone or sharpness of yesterday’s sun light. I’m too embarrassed to ask Burn what kind of light’s turned on now. “What if Gage doesn’t come back?”

“He will.” Burn tightens his hold on me, and I’m shocked to realize I don’t mind, even though I’m not cold anymore.

“How long will we wait?”

A gust of wind raises the dust outside, and I raise the edge
of Burn’s coat to cover my face.

Gage crawls toward us wearing his half-broken mask and carrying Burn’s goggles. “I found another door through the wall.” He jerks his head toward the camp. “Shredders here are sleeping. We’ve got to move fast.”

There’s nothing slow about Gage. He disappears in a blur and reappears somewhere else seconds later, repetitively retracing a path ahead of Burn and me as we run.

Gage appears. “Still clear. Can’t you move faster?”

Dust flies up in a trail behind Gage as he runs off again.

“Can you run faster?” Burn asks.

“Can you?” I sprint as fast as I can on the dust, but Burn passes me in seconds.

He stops and I smash into him.

“Get on my back.” He bends over.

“You’re wounded.” I resist the urge to put my hand on his back where that shard of metal sliced into him last night.

“It’s healing and bandaged. Get on.”

My jaw’s tight. I hate that I can’t keep up on my own, but I put my hands on his shoulders and jump. The instant I land, he runs. Air rushes past my ears, cooling my skin against the sun that’s transformed the sky from pale gray to pink and now blue, like some kind of miracle Burn called a sunrise. After he explained the whole earth/sun/moon thing again, I think I understand.

Gage reappears, says it’s not much farther, then disappears in a blur. Burn increases his speed and I hold more tightly to control the bounce. Then, in what seems like an
instant, Gage is back. “We’ve got trouble.”

Burn stops. “What?”

“Comps.”

We aren’t moving so there’s no need to stay on Burn’s back, but his hands grip my thighs.

“Did they see you?” Burn asks Gage.

He shakes his head. “They were close though, right in front of the door. Must have been in the outpost when I was there the first time.”

“What now?” I ask.

Burn drops one of my legs, I swing to the side, and he sets me down. I should feel relieved that I’m no longer under his control, but instead I feel vulnerable and small and find myself standing closer to him than I mean to.

“Can you jump the wall?” After what I saw last night…

“No.” He stares at the massive wall stretching up beside us. “And certainly not carrying either of you.”

“Can’t you grab on to those?” I gesture up to what look like pieces of metal jutting from the wall.

He shakes his head. “They’re booby-trapped with sharp edges on their tops; they’ll slice off your fingers if you try to grab on.” He looks down. “Seen it happen.”

I shudder.

Burn reaches for me and before I can resist, he’s swung me up on his back. “Let’s see what we’re facing.”

Two Comps stand between their outpost and what’s clearly a door through the wall. The three of us hide at the side of the shelter, out of their sight line, with Gage crouching at the corner
of a tall concrete slab, and me on Burn’s back, ready for a quick escape. The Comps have huge guns strapped to their backs—guns longer than their torsos—even bigger than the ones that did so much damage to those Shredders yesterday.

“I’ll go after the one on the left,” Burn says. “You kill the other.”

I tense on his back.

“Me?”

“Same way you took out that Shredder.”

“Good plan,” Gage says. “I’ll open the door while you kids take care of the Comps.”

Acid rises in my throat. They’re right. We need to get to that door. While I have no idea what’s on the other side of the wall, I do know what’s on
this
side—certain death. But what Burn’s suggesting…Even if I did kill a Shredder last night, I acted because it was about to kill Burn. That’s different than killing this human just doing his job.

“I don’t know how I did that last night, or if I could do it again.”

“You can do it.” Burn shifts me on his back.

“That’s not the point.” My heart pounds in my ears. “And what about their guns? They think you’ve kidnapped me. They might shoot first, ask questions later.”

“You got a better idea?” Burn’s voice is low but tense. Beneath me, his back expands and contracts like he’s trying to exhale impatience or frustration, and I want to do my part for the team but I don’t want to die—or to kill.

“Why don’t we wait until they go back inside?” I like my plan. “They’ve got to sleep and eat sometime, right?”

Burn grunts.

Gage straightens and turns toward us. “I’ll get their attention, then run. They’ll follow me. You two head for the door.”

Burn nods.

“What if they shoot you?” I ask Gage.

His mouth slides into an awkward, forced smile, and he puts his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, darlin’. I can outrun bullets.”

I doubt that’s possible, but given how fast he moves, he does have a chance of avoiding the Comps’ aim.

“How will you get out?” I ask Gage.

He runs a hand through his hair. “You kids leave the door open behind you.”

Without a word of debate, Gage dashes off. At the other side of the outpost, he stops and yells at the Comps, “Is this the way to the Hub?”

The Comps leap from their relaxed positions and point their guns, but Gage disappears in a flash. A blast strikes the other side of the building—probably where Gage was standing—and concrete fragments fly. Another blast strikes a few hundred yards farther away and I duck.

Burn runs and the Comps follow Gage as predicted. He appears again, taunts them, and they shoot. By the time they pull their triggers, he’s moved again. At least I hope so. I didn’t see him fall.

We reach the door and Burn drops me to the ground. He winds up and kicks the door hard with his boot. The sound vibrates my stomach. The Comps don’t turn, but the door doesn’t budge.

“Find me a rock. Something.” Burn kicks the door again and I glance around, pawing at the dust, suddenly wishing I’d put my mask back on. Although it’s just slung around my neck, there’s no time, not right now.

I uncover what looks like a block of concrete but I can’t get it out of the ground.

Burn crouches beside me. “That’ll do. Back off.”

I let the block go and fall. Dust flies up around me and I scramble to put my mask on as Burn easily pulls the huge chunk of concrete from the ground. He lifts it high above his head and brings it down hard on the keypad lock on the door. The block breaks in two and the keypad sparks; a piece falls off.

Burn kicks the door again. This time it swings open. He reaches down and pulls me off the ground and up onto his side in one motion. My body slams into his and then we run through the door, leaving it open for Gage.

The entire world bounces to the beat of Burn’s gait, and I struggle to take in my surroundings. Just like inside the wall, the ground is covered in dust and riddled with ruins and obstacles, but I have trouble comprehending the distances stretching before me. To the left, the ground rises up, and I wonder if that’s another wall or the edge of the world.

But no. I know the world is round and couldn’t end there. It’s like the earth has some kind of ridge or bump, and I remember reading stories that spoke of hills and mountains.

Ahead and to our right, the entire horizon’s filled by a long strip of dark green. It can’t be a building, at least not like any building I’ve seen.

Burn slows and looks behind us toward the wall. “Keep your eyes on the door. We’ve got to make it to the forest.”

I nod—even though I don’t know what
forest
means—and keep watch for Gage, or any Comps, while Burn runs. It’s hard to focus with the bouncing and my mask’s visor.

Something flashes. The door closes. “Gage got out,” I tell Burn. “At least I think he did.”

The door bursts open again and a Comp steps through. “Gun!” I shout.

Burn drops me then flattens himself on the dust, draping his arm over my back. Ahead of us, a block of concrete explodes, scattering dust and debris.

“Stay down,” Burn says and he’s not going to get any argument.

I twist my head to see what the Comps are doing. They’re pointing their guns to the left of us, and then something explodes. A blur of gray and green flashes between us and the explosion. The next instant, dust flies up around us and Gage is next to us on the ground.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” he says.

Burn twists to look back. “Stay low.” He creeps forward on his belly and I do the same.

Gage gets up, disappears again, and returns a few moments later. “I’ll draw them away, if I can.” He disappears and a blast hits the dust about thirty feet to our left—the same direction Gage ran. Ahead of Burn and me, a ruin rises out of the dust. It might shield us from gun blasts, but crawling like this, the Comps will overtake us first. And assuming that long, green strip is the forest, we’ve got a long way to
go to get there.

I hope Burn’s got another plan that won’t lead to our being shot in the back.

The ground trembles.

Aftershock
. Decades after the earth died, we still get them.

The Comps stop coming toward us and race back to the wall. I spin the other way. A metal monster is heading toward us.

“What is it?” I ask. It scared away the Comps. That can’t be good. Plus, it’s causing the trembling I mistook for an earthquake.

There’s panic in Burn’s eyes. My heart almost stops. Burn doesn’t panic. The expression disappears and he moves his head near mine and whispers, “A tank. A military vehicle from BTD.”

“What will it do to us?” It’s rapidly moving on what look like wide bands of articulated metal plates, crushing every obstacle they encounter.

“It won’t do anything.” Burn lifts an arm, waves, and the tank monster stops. “But what’s inside it will.”

Men emerge from the top of the tank, dressed in dull, dark green clothes with irregular spots of other shades of green and gray, and they’re all carrying guns as big as—some bigger than the Comps’.

My first thought is relief. We’re saved. But Burn frowns. His jaw is tight.

“Follow my lead,” Burn says before they get close. “Keep your mouth shut.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

^“O
N YOUR FEET
!” a man yells and kicks dust. The dust settles over us and the man’s boots. He’s obviously the leader, flanked by two other men, and their clothes don’t look like anything I’ve seen inside Haven.

Burn slowly rises and I do the same, keeping close. In the distance past the tank, Gage appears, but when he spots us, he shakes his head and takes off.

For an instant I’m angry—he’s deserted us—but it’s not like he could help. These men have guns, not to mention their big metal machine that Burn called a tank. Loss tugs inside me. Will we ever see Gage again? His bandages need changing, and I wonder who’ll help him and how he’ll survive out here on this own.

“Masks off,” the man yells. We obey, holding them at our sides.

Pockets cover the men’s clothes, and what look like
metal caps sit on their heads. Like Burn’s, their masks only cover their mouths and noses. The eyes of the man who spoke are angry and bloodshot. Fear builds inside me. Sparks threaten the backs of my eyes. I drop my gaze to the dust.

“You come from in there?” The man points to the wall. “Did you escape from those dome people?”

“We were never behind that wall or under that dome,” Burn answers quickly. He spreads his stance wider and crosses his arms over his chest, letting his mask dangle from one hand. “My wife and I came up from the South.”

I snap toward him at the word
wife
but keep quiet. I have no idea where South is either, but Burn seems to have a plan and I certainly have no idea how to deal with these people, or their guns. Their existence confirms Burn’s earlier claim that people exist in the world beyond Haven.

“You traveling alone?” The man narrows his eyes.

“We heard there was fresh water up here,” Burns says. “Everything’s gone dry down south.”

The man shifts his gun from one hand to the other. It makes a crunching sound that sends shivers through me. I’ve never seen a gun so close.

“Why were they after you?” He nods toward the wall, and I glance back to see the Comps head back inside. Clearly they don’t want to tangle with these men and their big metal tank monster. A shudder traces through me. Are these men worse than the Comps?

“Those men spotted us taking water from the big lake.” Burn lies so easily. “We ran around that wall and thought
we’d lost them, but then they came out of that door and surprised us.”

“Sarge,” the man on the right says. “Permission to execute. Him, anyway—there’s not much meat on the girl.”

Meat?
Fear ignites my curse behind my eyes, so I keep them cast down, not wanting to use them as weapons. Not yet. Even if Burn’s right and I did kill a Shredder, even if I could bring myself to kill a human, I could only kill one of these men at a time. Chances are we’d be shot before I got started.