Summer Ruins (18 page)

It’s finally third count, and as I pass Reese she simply puts down her tool and falls in beside me. Eula sees the whole thing but says nothing. Tommy and Jas are in the empty corridor waiting, and they each grab one of Reese’s hands when they see us. There’s no time to panic; they have less than four hours to get her to Station One and back here with the first lady. I think her name is Ruth.

The remainder of the day drags, and as it ticks toward an end, nervous sweat soaks through my thin clothes. It gives me shivers so bad I have to heat up again to dry off, then the cycle starts over again. I’m starting to worry that something happened when Jas’s dark head darts toward me from the far end of the tunnel.

She doesn’t stop as she passes me but gives me a sly smile and a thumbs-up. My eyes jerk up, this time finding Tommy and, behind him, an older woman with graying auburn hair. There’s no light in her eyes and the skin on her face sags, but when she finds a spot big enough to squeeze into, she picks up a tool and starts working.

No one says a word. They said nothing about Reese’s disappearance and they say nothing now, but this part isn’t what worries me. I think I was scared they’d get caught somehow away from the Main, that the Others would toss them out in the cold and I’d never see them again, never know what happened.

But Tommy and Jas are back, and I’ll see Reese tonight.

I climb to the top of the elevator bank ahead of everyone and slide wearily into the rider with Carrej. We stop to pick up Lucas, the way we do occasionally if he’s working somewhere that’s on our route home, and I give him a relieved smile. Our hands find each other on the seat between us and I squeeze hard. He squeezes back. The worst part is over.

***

The next day it’s Pax’s turn. He says everything went fine, that Leah and the Monitor left after third count and never returned. He never saw Tommy and Jas because he was afraid if all three of them left the North Main that someone would report it. I remind them both that people switch stations. Leah used to be here in One with Emmy but they moved her. So there’s at least a good shot that no one will say a word.

After dinner we wait in our furnicar. We left before the meal announcement, making sure we were in the front of the line, and scarfed down our cheese and bread in record time. I couldn’t even tell you what produce I ate. There was milk, though. That was different.

Emmy, Leah, the Monitor, and Reese are supposed to meet us here after they go about their normal evening routine. They’ll arrive before the furnicar locks and they’ll have to stay the night. Emmy says she’s bringing one other person we can trust. It makes me nervous.

My paranoia resurfaces, tugging at my confidence about involving Emmy in this plan. “Lucas, are we sure we can trust Emmy? I mean what if she’s only pretending not to be mad that it’s our fault she got sent here? What if she’s going to betray us to the Wardens?”

He grabs my hands, stopping me from drawing more blood around my cuticles, and waits for me to look at him. “First off, it’s
my
fault she was sent here, not yours or ours. Secondly, we all agree we can’t do this alone. Those kids in South Dakota are counting on us to come up with some kind of miracle, and we need help. We didn’t know them, either, when we chose them, but we have to trust that they’re good. Emmy, too. She’s not going to betray us. Even if she’s still angry, she’s not veiled anymore. She knows everything—including that the Others are to blame for her being stuck in this place.”

I take a deep breath. “How do you know all that? You haven’t even talked to her.” My shaky smile lets him know I’m giving him a hard time.

He shakes his head and drops my hands, turning back to the desk and taking a seat.

“I agree with him. Just because Deshi betrayed us doesn’t mean everyone’s going to. We have to keep some kind of faith in people, otherwise we’re no better off than them—the Others.” Pax paces near the tent opening, peering out every couple of minutes.

It seems to me that there’s something more to his behavior than anxiety. He keeps trying not to smile and wiping his hands on his pants as though his palms are sweating. I catch Lucas’s eye and tip my head toward Pax, my eyebrows raised in a silent question.

He gives me a wicked grin, then stands and pulls me tight to his side. When his lips brush my ear, the tickle of his cold breath makes my knees weak for a second. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to him touching me. I hope I won’t.

“He likes Leah. They’ve been talking more than is probably advisable.”

I take the opportunity to lean toward him and whisper back, letting my breath tickle his neck and enjoying the reaction it gets. At least I’m not the only one affected by the sparks between us. “How do you know?”

“He told me. We do talk when you’re not around.”

I’ve come back here to find the two of them laughing and talking, and they always go to the showers together. They’ve become friends as well as guys with a common foe during these cramped weeks, but I didn’t realize they talk about girls and… things.

That means they might talk about me. Aside from that, the idea of Pax and Leah twists dual reactions of protectiveness and optimism through me. I want Pax to be as happy as I am—he’s my friend. What I don’t want is for him to get hurt.

“What are you two whispering about?”

Lucas pecks my cheek and moves away, laughing at Pax’s suspicious look.

“Nothing, I just—”

The tent flaps part right then and Emmy and Reese step through together, interrupting my excuse. It takes me aback for a second to see them side by side, the way they were when they disappeared from chemistry block in Danbury. They both seem relaxed, which makes me feel better about their allegiances.

“Hi,” Emmy says to me quietly. “We did it.”

“We couldn’t have done it without you, Emmy.”

She smiles and glances around. “Where should we sit?”

“Anywhere is fine.” I catch Reese’s eye. “Thanks for doing this.”

“It’s better than doing nothing,” she replies, settling on the desk.

Emmy sits in the wooden chair, and by the time they’re settled a boy I don’t recognize sticks his head in, spots the girls, and steps inside. He sweeps his eyes over Lucas and me, then they land on Pax, whose mouth falls open.

“Wes?” Pax crosses to the new guy in a step, sticking out his hand and pumping as though he’s trying to wear it out.

“Hey, man. I wasn’t sure you’d remember me.” The boy—Wes, I suppose—has a nice voice. His thick, brown hair is wavy and his eyes are a lighter blue than ours. He’s handsome in a way that probably all girls find appealing—it’s not really a matter of opinion.

I shift toward Lucas, both of us nearer to Pax, and wait for the rest of the story.

“Of course I remember. You only saved my life.” Pax turns to us, his eyes sparkling. “On an outing in Atlanta once—to the reservoir. You know it, Lucas?” When Lucas nods, Pax continues. “Anyway, my parents weren’t paying attention and I wandered into the water. I almost drowned but Wes pulled me out.”

“You’re not supposed to go in the water. It’s not Acceptable,” Emmy says, intoning the phrase as though she’s a Monitor.

Reese giggles and Wes winks at them. “I know. But I saw him flopping around out there and no one else moved. I mean
no one
. It was like they were frozen for a second, then everyone went back to what they were doing. So I jumped in and dragged him out. He said thanks, and it was like… I almost forgot what happened the next second.” He claps Pax on the back. “But then this craziness happened and I got sent here. Everything came back, crystal clear.”

“Well, thanks for coming.”

“Of course.”

“How’d you end up here?” I ask. He turns my way and I straighten my back a little. “I’m Althea, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you. I guess… I don’t know. Ever since I was a kid I saw things most people didn’t. There was an accident next door; a kid I was friends with burned himself helping his mom cook dinner. The Healer came and the next day he was gone. Everyone was talking about how the Wardens came to his house, but it wasn’t the Wardens. It was a Healer. Anyway, I asked about it a couple times during different blocks and that was all it took, I guess.” He shrugs, oddly good-natured about the fact that he used to be brainwashed and now lives in a terraformed bubble at the end of the earth, mining metal for aliens.

Pax shoves him a little. “You never were all that smart.”

“Guilty.” Wes moves toward the desk and flops next to Reese, who moves over to make room, her dark eyes shy.

Leah arrives then, stepping through the furnicar entrance without anyone noticing but me, and the Monitor slinks in behind her. We meet in the middle of the room and hug, her wild black curls tickling my face. “It’s good to see you, Leah. Really.”

“You, too. I mean, Pax said you and Lucas were fine. But I’m glad we figured something out.” She smiles at Emmy and Reese. “Good to see you guys again, too.”

Lucas comes up behind me, bending way down to embrace Leah as well. When they step back, she reaches out a hand to the Monitor. “This is Rita. You remember her.”

We all murmur and nod, quiet in the presence of this woman who used to be a source of authority. At the moment she doesn’t seem capable of raising her eyes for more than a half second at a time, and she doesn’t respond to any of us. She looks the same as I recall—mousy brown hair a bit longer than I recall, and limpid green eyes—but none of her bright enthusiasm remains. She’s much skinnier, too.

“She’s scared. But she knows how to help,” Leah explains quietly.

After the Monitor—Rita—refuses to sit, Pax snags Leah’s hand, dragging her to his bed and settling next to her. Lucas and I sit on the mattress on the opposite side. Everyone’s looking between the three of us, and obviously we’re supposed to know what to do, where to go from here.

But getting us all together was the extent of the plan. From here on out, I’m depending on our combined brainpower.

First things first, though, so I tell them everything we know about the Others and how they change the makeup of an atmosphere, how the planet won’t be able to regulate itself after they go without the three of us and Deshi. How the Others need this neodymium to survive and that it’s abundant in earth’s crust. And I tell them about the kids back home, at the cabin in South Dakota, who are working on the same problems.

“What do you think
we
can do?” Wes doesn’t say it in a mean way, more of a this-all-seems-kind-of-hopeless-and-out-of-our-hands way.

“Well, you’re the only ones who have worked with this element. I thought maybe you’d have some ideas of how we can alter it, or trick them into sending the wrong substance back home, or… I don’t know.” All of the ideas sound kind of silly coming out of my mouth. “We’re hoping to find a way to use it against them.”

“Also, you guys are more familiar with the layout of this island than we are, and if there’s any way at all to get on and off without the Others knowing about it, that would be awesome,” Pax interjects.

“The only way on and off, as far as we know, is the portal in the Prime family’s tent. I told you that.” Leah smiles at Pax, her pale cheeks pink. “And we haven’t figured out how to get in there.”

“It’s not the only way. Goblert powder works, too,” Lucas mentions.

The rest of the kids turn confused eyes his direction, and he shrugs. “Never mind. I’m guessing that’s not too easy to come by.”

We’re silent for a while, but even the sound of more than three people breathing in here warms my middle. Lucas, Pax, and I need help, and if nothing else, gathering like this will make the humans feel as though this fight belongs to them, too.

“I don’t see how we could alter what they collect at the end of the day,” Reese offers in her quiet voice. “I mean, we’re just breaking off chunks of rock and ice and soil.”

“It’s the soft metals that thread through a lot of it. But we don’t have the tools to extract it ourselves. The best we could do is give them less, but with only the four of us working at it, we wouldn’t make a difference.” Emmy shrugs. “I’m not trying to be discouraging, but it’s true.”

Wes has been silent the whole time, staring off into space. Maybe he’s thinking of something brilliant, but I’m starting to wonder if Emmy’s decision to include him has more to do with his handsome exterior than any potential ability to help. Or perhaps it was just because he knew Pax and she felt sure that he wouldn’t betray us.

He’s strong, at least. Wes will be good in a fight.

“If you could extract it… if you
could
, you could deconstruct it.” Rita’s voice has changed since her days instructing our Cell courses in Danbury. It’s soft and shaking, and her eyes flick around the room too fast, the way Mrs. Morgan’s did before she Broke.
As
she Broke.

“This is what we’ve been discussing,” Leah adds. “She has good ideas of what we would need to do if we ever got out of here.”

“Need to analyze it first, find out what it is, take it apart, put it together—”

“Hold on.” I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to make sense of what she’s saying. It’s manic, her speech, and it runs together sort of like Kendaja’s.

But most of the time Kendaja makes sense, even if finding her train of thought sometimes hurts my brain. “Emmy said you don’t think they’re mining neodymium exactly—or if they are, they’re changing it chemically before ingesting it. So, we need a sample and we need equipment to do… what?”

“To reverse engineer it,” Leah pipes up when Rita appears to lose interest in our conversation, her gray eyes sparkling with anticipation. “Create our own version, so we can alter it at a subatomic level. And make it kill them.”

We all go silent. It might be the answer.

Chapter 19.