I nodded and James slipped out of the barracks. I changed out of my uniform and into Path-issued boots, jeans, and a denim jacket. I threaded a sheathed knife onto my belt, then finished packing. I could feel the minutes ticking by double time.
I reached behind my back until I felt the warm end of Quarles’s gun. I pulled it out and snapped the chamber open. One round left. The thought of having to use it again made me sick, but it would be stupid to leave it behind. If someone got in our way, we couldn’t stop. I closed the chamber and tucked the gun into the small of my back. The last thing I did before I left was stuff my bloody clothes beneath my mattress.
Outside, bells began to chime. I slipped out of the barracks, one eye on the crowds exiting the Lighthouse.
I felt an unfamiliar buzz of hope as I moved into the shadows and ran toward the kennel.
The kennel was quiet when I got there, but it didn’t last long. As soon as I stepped inside, the dogs began to stalk their cages, low growls in their throats. We had to move fast. Once they saw that dinner wasn’t coming, every ear in camp would turn to the sound of their barking.
Bear met me at his gate with a whine. “See?” I said, scratching his snout. “Told ya I’d come back.”
I threw open the bolt to his cage and led him past the cages in the back of the truck and into the passenger seat.
“No more cages for you, okay?”
By the time I got back to the kennel, the dogs had started to bark. The only thing that would keep them from an all-out revolt was food. I grabbed the scraps bucket, but before I could give out the first taste, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned with a start. It was only James silhouetted in the dim glow of an open door.
“Where’s your stuff?”
“Left it by the truck.”
“Great,” I said, dropping the bucket onto the cement floor. Someone would come by the next day and feed them. They weren’t my problem anymore. “Milo come through?”
“Yeah, he was perfect.”
“Good. Come on, let’s get out of here before these dogs bust their cages.”
James grabbed my sleeve and held me back. “Cal, wait. Maybe there’s another way.”
“I told you. If they catch me—”
“I know, but listen, the two of us? Running in an old pickup truck? And we don’t even know where we’re going? They’ll find us. You know they will. We should just go talk to Monroe.”
I took him by the shoulders to calm him down. “You just have to hang in there a little while longer. We can talk more in the truck. Now, come on.”
I started to go but stopped dead before I made it three steps. Two soldiers had appeared in the shadows, blocking the exit.
“Cal…”
I eased back slowly, drawing James along with me.
“Go on,” I whispered, trying to keep my voice low and steady. “Out the back door. Head for the truck.”
Two more soldiers stepped into the doorway behind us. The growls from the pens grew louder, sawing at the air. One hand disappeared behind my back and found the butt of the revolver.
“Get ready to run,” I said.
“You have to talk to them, Cal.”
I turned to James and found him staring at me through the gloom.
“James?”
He took a step toward me. “I told them it was an accident,” he said. “Captain Monroe knows what Quarles is like. All you have to do is come with us and talk to him about it. We’ll get you back on Path.”
“They’ll kill me!”
James took another step and I grabbed him, whipping Quarles’s revolver out from behind my back at the same time. The soldiers rushed forward, sweeping the rifles from their shoulders and clicking off the safeties.
“Wait!” James pleaded with the soldiers. “It’s okay. Cal, just give me the gun and we can talk. They’re surrounding the kennel. There’s nowhere to go.”
I looked up above me and backed up slow into a dark corner, keeping James close. The soldiers eased in, stepping into the main aisle as they converged. Behind me, the snarls of the dogs moved from cage to cage like rolls of thunder.
“When did they get to you?” I said, edging backward. I could feel the far wall get closer. “Huh?”
“Just put the gun down. They’ll listen to you.”
My back hit the wall. Two chains rattled above me.
“I don’t think so.”
“Cal—”
I grabbed one of the chains and gave a sharp tug. The cage doors flew open and dozens of half-starved animals burst into the aisle. The soldiers tried to back away but the dogs were faster. There was a scream as one man went down and then the others began firing their weapons wildly. Rounds crashed into the cages and the walls. A few animals howled pitifully and fell.
I clamped both arms around James and ran for the back door. Reinforcements were already coming in from across the camp. I pushed James into the truck’s passenger seat with Bear and slammed the door. The sentries at the main gate were moving into position. I pulled James’s seat belt over him and Bear and cranked the engine. Shots crackled behind us, slamming into the cages in back. I hit the gas.
“Cal, this is crazy. You have to stop!”
“Put your head down!”
Rounds pinged off the side of the truck as the sentries began firing. When it became clear that I wasn’t stopping, they fired a few more rounds, then dodged out of the way.
There was a squeal of metal as we hit the gate and tore it from its moorings. I kept my foot hard on the gas, and we were through, dragging pieces of torn steel behind us. The highway west was only minutes away.
“This isn’t going to work,” James said. He was pressed into the passenger-side corner, Bear in his lap. “Seriously, how do you see this ending? We can’t—”
Rotating red and blue lights appeared in the rearview mirror, followed by wailing sirens. Military Police. My stomach tightened.
“Cal?”
The lights grew brighter as they gained on us, filling the inside of the truck. The exit onto the highway was just ahead.
“You can’t outrun them,” James said. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, so it’s not like you can lose them. What happens when they get a chopper in the air?”
“They’re not sending a chopper after two kids in a stolen truck.”
“PULL OVER!” an MP announced over his loudspeaker. “YOU ARE UNDER ARREST.”
I swerved at the last second and took the highway exit. The MP overshot it, but as I accelerated down the ramp and onto an empty two-lane road, I heard his brakes squeal. It was only seconds before the MP’s lights emerged in the rearview again. The truck’s engine revved as the speedometer climbed past seventy, then eighty. It hit ninety and the truck began to shake. Still, the MP drew closer.
“Even if we made it to the border,” James said calmly, “no one will let us across. Monroe will listen to you, Cal. I promise.”
“When did you do it?” I asked. “When did you trade Mom and Dad for him?”
“I didn’t,” James said. “I grew up. That’s all.”
The panic that had been fueling me began to drain away, replaced by a buzzing numbness. My foot eased off the gas and the truck slowed. Eighty-five. Eighty. The MP cruiser was moving alongside us now, its bumper approaching my door.
“It’s okay,” James said soothingly. “We’ll go back home and everything will be just like it was.”
Just the sound of that word in his mouth,
