how powerful you are.”
“You won’t have to do anything right away,” Adrien said taking my hand again. “You won’t be asked until you’re ready.”
My chest tightened so much I could barely get a breath. Adrien knew about their plan and this task force? Of course he did. He’d probably had a vision of it. I didn’t trust myself to respond, so I just shook my head.
After breakfast was cleared away and the others had gone into the other room, I grabbed Adrien. “Tell me about your visions of me. Will I really be able to do this?”
“Zo, don’t worry about it. It’ll all be fine.” He pulled me into a hug.
I clung to him for a moment, but then pulled away. “Are you saying it will be fine because you’ve
His face clouded over. “I haven’t had any visions that make it clear who wins the war, if that’s what you’re asking.” He didn’t say anything else.
“But you’ve seen visions of me? Me being this leader they all expect me to be?”
He was quiet a moment.
“Tell me, please.”
“Zoe, maybe it’s not good to know too much about your own future. I’ve probably told you too much already. No one would have expected you to be some great leader in the first place if I’d kept my mouth shut about what I saw.”
I scoffed. “If you hadn’t told people your visions, they never would have let you rescue me from the Community.”
He nodded, but still didn’t look certain.
“If you tell me what you see, then maybe I can start to believe it too. Maybe it will give me the strength I need.”
He looked at me reluctantly for another moment, but then finally said, “Okay.” He sat back down at the table and I joined him. “There’s this one vision I had. Actually it was one of the first I had of you.” He smiled. “The farther off in the future, the less clear it is what’s going on, and this one was just flashes. In the vision, the sun is shining overhead, but you aren’t wearing a biosuit or breathing mask or anything.”
“How is that possible?” I looked down at my gloves, then at the edges of the mask only inches away from my face.
“I don’t know,” he said. “In the first glimpse I got, all I could see was that you were running toward a house near the ocean. It looked almost like you’re flying, you’re running so fast. And then I got a closer image of your face, and you’ve got this look,” he smiled again. “Like you were determined but not afraid, even though I got the feeling that you were in danger. You weren’t scared.”
The tightness in my chest didn’t ease up at all. I thought hearing about the future would make me feel better, but it sounded like he was describing a stranger. How was I supposed to become this person?
“Were you there?” I asked.
His smile faded. “No.”
“Was anyone else there?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
In the future I was all alone and running into danger. Great.
“But that’s not what’s important. It’s gotta mean we’ll figure out a way around your allergies someday.”
I nodded, but didn’t feel very reassured. “Okay,” I said finally, “will you tell me another one? Maybe one that’s not so far off?”
He looked down. “I really don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Because the more I learn about how the visions work…” He shook his head. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.” The look on his face made it sound final.
Before I could say anything, Xona stomped into the kitchen. She reached down to seal the strap closed on her shoes before hiking her foot up onto the counter beside the coffeemaker.
She noticed us sitting at the table. “Sorry, counter’s got the best height for stretching.”
She looked between me and Adrien like she was gauging the level of tension between us. “I’m going for a run.” She kept stretching, then looked back at me. “You can come if you want. There’s some extra shoes by the door.”
“Really?” I asked. She’d seemed so gruff before, I was surprised by the offer.
She paused to look at me more critically. “Well, if you can keep up.”
Adrien was still holding my hand. “Look Zoe, we can talk about this more—”
“No,” I pushed back my chair abruptly. I didn’t want to keep pressing Adrien to tell me about the future when he obviously didn’t want to. “A run sounds great right now. Besides,” I looked back at Adrien and tried to smile. I felt upset about our conversation, but I didn’t want to take it out on him. “You said I’ll be strong in the future. How else am I going to make that happen unless I train now?”
The early morning sun shone down through the layers of trees and leaves, but a lot of the ground was still in shadow. Only a few leaves were lit up bright green where the sunlight managed to break through.
“I’ve got a route I usually run,” Xona said, jumping up and down a few times to warm her limbs. She looked over at me. “I’m not going to slow down for you.”
I nodded, fixated on all the green in the forest around us. It was still astonishing and unnerving. It wasn’t just green, it was a hundred different shades, from the deeper green of the leaves hidden in shadow to the bright, almost neon green moss that covered the rocks and the bottoms of the trees.
“Ex-drones,” Xona said under her breath with a smirk. “You guys always get so cracked about the Surface.” Then before I could respond, she took off, racing into the forest. I followed as fast as I could, not wanting to lose sight of her in the vast green maze.
It felt good to run. The suit stretched easily with every step I took until I barely noticed I had it on. Running had always calmed me, both in my Community days and in the lab alcove. But running on the Surface was far different from running on a treadmill. On the treadmill, you could lose yourself in thought as the regular pounding of your footfalls provided a hypnotic rhythm. Out here, you had to constantly watch where you were going. The forest floor was springy and uneven, and I kept my eyes trained on the ground to make sure I didn’t trip over tree roots or bushes as we went.
But the exertion did feel good. It was a relief to forget about all the insanity of the past few days and think only about where my foot would land next.
“Thanks,” I said to Xona, huffing from the incline we had just run up. “I really needed a good run.”
She looked at me out of the corner of her eye as she continued jogging, clearly impressed that I’d managed to catch up to her. She didn’t seem winded at all. The path was wider so we jogged side by side.
“Seemed like things were intense between you two back there. Then again,” she cocked her head, “Adrien was always an intense guy. That brooding stare of his used to drive all the Rez girls wild.”
She looked at me like she was waiting for a reaction.
“Yeah?” I asked, not taking the bait. “Jilia said you knew each other growing up?”
“From when he was fourteen. He ran away and joined up with the Rez unit my dad led. ’Course his mom got all crazy when she found out where he’d run away to. She came into the compound where we were staying, yelling and screaming about how he was too young. My dad talked her down. Did his whole, ‘the young are the future of the Rez’ shtick.” She sounded sarcastic as she mimicked her father. “Though from what I hear, you’re supposed to be the real future of the Rez.”
I felt the blood leave my face. If she was trying to get a reaction out of me, she’d finally succeeded.
“If you believe the rumors about Adrien’s visions,” I said, trying to shrug off the comment.
“Well, I don’t. The whole idea of destiny is total piss. No offense. But I’m not going to believe one girl’s gonna save the world just because someone had a vision.”
“Even if Adrien’s visions always seem to come true?”
Xona paused, slowing her stride. “So far, maybe. But saying something is fated sounds just like the lies my mom used to tell me about how it was all gonna turn out okay. How all the bad stuff in life was part of a bigger purpose and that everything happens for a reason. How all the lives sacrificed for the Rez will be meaningful in the
