New World Order (12 page)

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.

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.

“The newest fad,” I said and pointed to their guns. “We’re all friends here.”

Alex raised his gun again and just as he did, I heard the
whiz
of an arrow flying by. It hit the ground in front of him, and he snapped his head up and scanned the trees. “You have heathens with you?”

“Three of the men the recruiters took were from
their Nation,” I said. Deliberately, I lowered my hood to let him see my red hair. Maybe he didn’t recognize me. “And as you know, they have Jack too. We’re all searching for the same people.”

Alex half grinned when he saw my hair but didn’t tell his men to lower their weapons.

Another group of soldiers rounded the bend behind Alex. They broke into a run as soon as they saw us. Alex turned
around, saw them, and immediately whispered
stand down
to his men.

“What’s going on?” one of the approaching soldiers called to us. I recognized Hayley’s voice.

“We found another search party,” Alex called back.

“Hey, it’s Jack’s girl,” Hayley said as she came closer. She stopped alongside Alex.

“Wife,” I corrected her.

Her lips curved into an indulgent smile, but as her gaze swept
over the three of us, her pretty features transformed into a confused expression of distaste. “What are you guys
wearing
? Was there a sale? Did I miss it?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah.”

“Why is there an arrow sticking out of the ground?” she asked.

I directed my answer at Alex. “I guess our friends were getting a little concerned for our safety.”

Ignoring me, Alex said, “They have heathens
with them. Not sure how many.”

Hayley immediately scanned the forest. “Are they friendly?”

“Friendlier than the present company,” I said.

Hayley looked from me to Alex. “What’s she talking about?”

Alex looked a little sheepish. “We were just being careful. You know, with the rumors that have been circulating lately.”

Hayley’s forehead creased. “Didn’t you recognize her?”

He shook
his head. “Nope. Not until you said who she was.”

My gut told me he was lying. And Jack’s wife or not, he had no quarrel with anyone from the Pit and absolutely no reason to hold a gun on us. I tried to remember what, if anything, Jack had told me about him. Although the first time I had ever met Alex was on the range—the shooting range where the bourge sent troublemaking urchins to be hunted
like game. I later learned that Alex belonged to Liberty back before the Dome was liberated. What I didn’t know was if he was a member of the Alliance. Not every member of Liberty had embraced the principles of the Alliance: freedom, equality, and democracy for
all
, including the Pit. The more affluent, traditional members of Liberty had been focused on ridding the Dome of the Holt dictatorship
and reestablishing a democratic government
only.
Those people were still in favor of a strict caste system, and some were even still in favor of slavery.

Turning back to Alex, I asked, “What rumors have been circulating?”

“That the urchins deliberately staged the riot at the Employment Center last week to provoke another uprising,” Alex said.