end when we win.”
She shook her head, looking angry. “But that’s a stack of lies. Besides,” she looked over at me, “if you’re supposed to save the world, then that means the world was supposed to be all shunted up like this in the first place. It means this war, the V-chip, everything—” she paused, and I could tell she was thinking about her parents’ deaths. “Things don’t happen for a reason. If they did, what kind of sick world would this be?”
She sped up again, her face hardening. I kept pace with her, but my lungs were burning.
“Are you sure you even believe in his visions?” she asked. “Can you really handle the pressure of having to be some kind of savior?”
“I’m hoping to have some help,” I said through huffing breaths. I wished I could wipe my forearm across my sweaty brow, but because of the mask all I could do was let it drip down my face. I didn’t like the direction the conversation had taken. “What about the other glitchers we’re going to meet at the Foundation? Do you know any of them?”
“I usually steer clear of glitchers.”
“Are you always this friendly?” My voice was sharper than I meant it.
She laughed. “Look, I feel bad for you guys, okay? They put stuff in your brains, and your powers are a freak side effect. I get it, it’s not your fault. But in the end,” she shrugged, “you’re still just another bi-product of what Comm Corp created. The Rez is fighting so that the world can go back to the way it
The path narrowed, and Xona ran ahead of me. I gave up trying to continue the conversation. We were obviously never going to be friends. Instead I thought about what she had said about the future of the Rez. I wanted to be a part of it, to help people, but there was so much responsibility being put on my shoulders. Everyone had these huge expectations of me. I thought about how Xona had said people expected
I just didn’t understand how I went from being me to being her. Every time someone talked about me being a leader, it sounded like they were talking about someone else. Would I wake up one day and suddenly be that girl, or was I supposed to somehow be actively trying to change myself into her?
The memory of the little blue lights from Jilia’s brain scan flashed in my mind. I was changing all right. I just wasn’t as certain about what I’d become. I imagined the power multiplying more and more until my body split into a million pieces, little blue lights pouring out of me like water from a broken glass.
I yelped in surprise when Xona suddenly stopped in front of me and pulled me down beside her against the tree. “Don’t move. Something’s coming,” she whispered. Her cool confidence was gone.
We hunched down into a space between two fat roots. I heard a distant humming noise that grew louder as it came closer. The noisier it got, the more my heart hammered in my chest. My telek clamored to life under my skin. I squeezed my eyes shut as my forearm began to shake. Not now. If I accidentally let loose right now and was seen, we would all be caught and delivered to the Chancellor. Or killed on the spot.
The mechanical humming got louder and louder until it was a dull roar.
It passed directly overhead. Xona and I both tensed, curling ourselves up as small as possible against the tree trunk. Turning my head sideways, I could just make out a flash of metal through the tree branches. For a horrible second, I thought it was slowing down. But then it kept going.
We stayed frozen for several more long minutes as the engine’s whine became a distant hum again. It didn’t loop back around. They hadn’t seen us.
Xona let out a huge sigh of relief.
“What was that?”
“Sweeper drone, scanning the area.” She put her hand above her eyes and looked upward. “The canopy should have covered us. But still,” she dropped her hand and looked at me. “They don’t usually come this far out in the forest.”
I swallowed hard. “They’re looking for me.”
Chapter 6
I WAS TIRED and about to climb into bed, wondering when Adrien would be done with his shower. We might not be able to really touch like I wanted, but having him beside me last night … for a while it had made all my eddying fears calm into a still pool.
I smiled at the thought of him curled around me, but then I heard the crash of something falling in the kitchen area. Followed by a scream.
I scrambled to my feet and pulled back the tent flap.
No. It wasn’t possible.
Ten Regulators stood in the common area, barely able to fit in the small space. One lifted Xona off the ground by her throat. Her legs kicked in the air, heels banging spastically against the side of the kitchen counter. She tried to reach the weapon holstered at her ankle, but couldn’t lift her leg high enough to get it.
Blood already soaked the far corner of the floor where Jilia lay, unmoving. A Reg lifted his huge metal hydraulic foot from her crushed chest.
Adrien sprinted into the room from the opposite entrance, a towel around his waist. Horror registered on his face as he looked at all the blood.
“No, Adrien, don’t!” I shouted. But he launched himself at the Reg nearest him anyway. I screamed as the Reg’s fist connected with Adrien’s lean frame, slamming him hard into the tent’s struts. There was a crunch of bones breaking when he hit. He crumpled to the floor, and the Reg lifted his leg up, no doubt to crush him like he had Jilia.
“No!” I screamed. A high-pitched buzzing erupted in my ears as all the Regulators turned toward me. I felt the rage gathering in my chest, building until it pounded against my lungs. I couldn’t contain it, and I didn’t want to. My small frame shook until my teeth rattled, and then, with a sudden hard pulse, my power exploded outward. My ribcage cracked and split as the power burst from my mouth, my eyes, my fingertips, my chest. Blue light filled the room and I barely had a moment to look down and see my chest cleaved in two, my insides pouring out right as the last of the blue light left my body.
I felt myself crumble. I couldn’t even scream.
“Zoe!”
It was Adrien’s voice. I looked toward the sound, but he wasn’t there. The entire scene had disappeared. Only a black abyss remained.
“Zoe, wake up, oh god, wake up!”
I blinked and found Adrien crouched over my body, shaking my shoulders. He put his hand behind my neck and helped me sit.
“Regulators!” I gasped.
“No. It was a dream,” Adrien said. “But we gotta move, babe.” I put a hand to my chest, remembering the feeling of it splitting open.
I was whole and solid. But I’d felt the pain, it had seemed so real.
The tent was so dark I could just barely make out Adrien’s face. I felt a storm of relief at seeing him unharmed.
But then my eyes adjusted and I saw that we weren’t in the tent anymore. Or rather, the tent wasn’t around us. The sides had been blown backward and several of the trees were uprooted and had fallen sideways, the enormous trunks still taller than Adrien. The night sky was overhead. Confusion mingled with the adrenaline of the dream, and I looked around in absolute confusion. What was going on? My breath came in quick puffs, fogging up the faceplate before the suit’s defroster hummed to action.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Adrien said. “I woke up to the tent ripping apart around us.”
A loud crack filled the air.
“Another tree’s dropping,” Jilia shouted, jumping over some fallen equipment to get to where we now stood.
