The truck jerked over some smaller rocks that hadn’t been cleared, forcing Anya to grab the door handle to steady herself. Dom gripped the steering wheel hard, his knuckles turning white. His stern gaze was fixed on the opening to the valley.
Anya was worried, too. Nobody knew what might be waiting for them. Jacob had sent his reprogrammed orb out to check the landscape an hour ago. The orb had returned with footage that showed it to be empty. But an hour was plenty of time for Praesidium to make a move. Anya looked up to see the orb zipping ahead of their truck, but without a monitor to see what it recorded, it was useless.
She sucked in a quiet breath to steady her nerves, hoping Dom wouldn’t hear it. She wanted to be strong for him, but the idea of returning to the city put her on edge. It wasn’t that long ago that she’d been the Collective’s prisoner.
But they had to go back.
Dom slowed when the truck neared the entrance to the valley. He leaned forward, trying to get a better look.
‘Should we check on foot?’ asked Anya. It would only take a minute.
‘No.’ He leaned back. ‘If there’s trouble, we can move faster in these things.’
He inched the nose of the truck out. Anya craned her neck, not seeing any large diggers or Copies waiting for them. She released a breath.
‘Maybe they had other things to do,’ she said, settling in the seat.
Dom frowned. ‘Maybe.’
He flashed his rear lights, signalling to the others behind him. Then, he rolled the truck out.
The orb zipped overhead as the last of the trucks exited the valley, heading out a short way before returning. It kept close to the truck that Jacob was in. The two wolves galloped alongside him. Her and Dom’s truck rumbled over the dirt landscape. Evidence of the recent fight lay strewn across the battlefield. A few Copy corpses remained, alongside two digging machines the rebels had dismantled.
Anya frowned at the scene. ‘Why didn’t they reclaim their dead?’
It was a stretch to call the machines dead, but to the Collective these once-living beings were their creations. It must want them back. It had gone to a lot of effort to take Jerome and Alex, both children of the city.
‘I don’t know. We don’t know anything.’ He shuddered as his narrowed gaze assessed the scene. ‘Let’s just be glad they aren’t waiting for us.’
Their truck sped past the broken machines that had turned parts of the landscape into a mini junkyard. The other trucks followed. Rover appeared at Anya’s window, keeping pace with them. His eyes were set ahead and his tongue lolled to the side, as though he were enjoying the run. Next to him was a second, smaller wolf that Anya presumed was female. During the battle, Jacob had cut her connection to the Collective. When she’d come back online, she’d listened to a new voice. She and Rover were inseparable.
Anya felt better knowing the beasts were on their side.
Dom was concentrating on the route ahead. She did the same, hoping the wolves would alert them to any approaching danger. The city wasn’t far, maybe fifty kilometres away. By truck, and with the weight they carried, they’d be there in an hour.
Ω
It didn’t take long for the city to come into view. Nothing but flat land lay between them and it. Ahead, an arc of buildings marked its perimeter, making it look like an oasis in its desert-like surroundings.
Dom stopped the truck. Being exposed like this made Anya shiver. The other trucks staggered their stops behind theirs. One truck drove up next to them. Charlie rolled the window down. Vanessa was sitting beside him.
‘What now?’ he said to Dom.
‘I don’t know. Any idea if the barrier is still down?’
‘Jacob might know. But I think he’ll suggest we try it for ourselves.’
Charlie got out of his truck. Dom did the same and they walked to the window of another one. Anya watched the pair in the mirror as they spoke to Jacob. Jacob shook his head. Carissa next to him perked up, eyes wide. Her gaze flicked between Charlie and Dom, then to the city.
Their limited choices caused Anya’s pulse to hammer in her throat. The girl had gotten them out once. If the barrier was back up, there was a chance she could get them back in without them having to ram it. But, as they’d discussed, it was more likely the Collective had already changed the frequency codes and the girl was no longer aligned with it.
Dom and Charlie returned to their trucks. Dom slid into the driver’s seat next to her while Charlie stayed by Dom’s window.
‘Jacob says there’s no way of knowing from out here if the barrier is still active. He says it gives off a weird shine when it is, but today’—Dom pointed up at the overcast sky— ‘it’s not that easy to see it.’
The city looked ordinary to her, not shiny at all.
‘Then we drive at it. If the barrier’s up, it will stop us,’ she said.
Charlie raised one brow. ‘It’s not the worst idea.’
Dom appeared to think about it. He looked at Anya. ‘You think it will work?’
She grimaced. ‘I have no idea.’
Dom gripped the wheel and looked ahead of him. ‘That’s good enough for me.’
Charlie climbed back into his truck.
Dom said to him and Vanessa, ‘I’ll try it first. If I make it through, the rest of you follow me.’
He turned to the grill separating the cabin from the back of the truck and ordered the soldiers out. Turning to Anya, he nodded at the door for her to do the same.
