I slumped against the shipping container. “Did you tell him about Ikumi?” I asked in a low voice.
Her face turned bright red. “I mean, just a little bit.”
Anger rose inside me. “Well, isn’t that interesting,” I shot back. “You tell Admiral Appleby’s grandson about Ikumi, and suddenly Admiral Appleby kidnaps Ikumi. What a coincidence.”
Lilli stared at me in horror. “No. He wouldn’t have—”
But I was done. So done. “You know what, Lills? I don’t want to hear any more. Why don’t you go tell it to your boyfriend?”
The hurt rising inside of me was almost suffocating at this point. I needed to get away, to be alone, to think, to process all of it. My sister. My own sister preferred to talk to a complete stranger instead of me—who had been there with her for the whole thing.
“Come on, Ian!” Lilli begged.
But I had heard enough. I stalked over to Yano. “Let’s go,” I told him. “We need to head back to the trash mountain to jump through the world again.”
Yano obediently lowered his wing. I scrambled up the side. “What are you waiting for?” I asked once I was secured.
Yano looked doubtfully at Lilli and Josh, who were still on the ground. “What about them?”
I sneered. “They’ve decided to spend some time alone.”
“Ian!” Lilli’s voice was angry now. “Don’t do this.”
“Already done,” I declared. I grabbed on to Yano’s neck. “Fly. Now.”
To his credit, the dragon did as I asked, pushing off on his hind legs and leaping into the sky. Soon we were soaring over the ruined cityscape again, leaving my sister and Josh in our dust. I felt a little guilty leaving Lilli behind. Okay, I felt a lot guilty. But who could blame me? What she did? It was unforgivable. And it could have been the thing that put Ikumi and her father in danger to begin with.
If she wouldn’t ditch Josh, I would have to ditch her.
“Faster!” I called to Yano. “As fast as you can go!”
Once again, my dragon guide obeyed, plunging forward, skimming the surface of the game world, heading straight to the trash mountain. I kept my eyes locked ahead, not looking down this time. It was still scary, but I was getting pretty used to being scared by now. Also, I was still angry. And being this angry made it difficult to be scared, too.
Finally, we got to the top of the mountain. But we didn’t stop there this time. Now we knew exactly where to go, and instead of jumping, we flew straight down into the hole. Kind of like a fast pass at a theme park, dive-bombing the abyss. Still not the most pleasant feeling, to drop down like that, but at least I knew this time there was something on the other side.
Hopefully someone, too.
After flying, then floating as we had the first time around, we eventually reached our destination. Which turned out to be a completed level at this point. No more grid lines, no more unfinished patches of ground. Just a huge apocalyptic cityscape stretching out in all directions. I had to admit, they’d done a good job. It looked really cool. As long as we stayed clear of the walking dead.
Speaking of zombies… I looked up—way up at the skyscraper we’d been trapped in earlier. The one where we left Starr stuck in a classroom, zombies crowding outside. Was she still there? I couldn’t tell since we were no longer in the same party, since Lilli and I had been disconnected. But I had to find out.
“Take me to the top of that building,” I instructed Yano.
“Why?” The dragon looked doubtful. “That’s not the way to go. I’ve been researching. I know where to go next. We need to get there as soon as possible before we glitch out again.”
He had a point. But still. I had promised Starr I’d come back for her. And friends didn’t leave friends behind.
“Sorry. There’s something I need to do first. Don’t worry—it won’t take long.”
Yano didn’t look happy, but thankfully he complied, flapping his wings to get airborne again, then dropping down onto the rooftop. Once we’d landed, I slid off his back and patted his side.
“Wait here,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”
“No way. I’m not leaving you alone again. Hang on.”
I watched, surprised, as the dragon started to roll his heads, then his necks, in a circle, faster and faster. Until suddenly there was a puff of smoke. And when it cleared…
Yano was mini-size again, like he’d been in Dragon Ops. A tiny baby robot draconite, no bigger than a puppy. He was down to one head again, too.
“Wow!” I cried, impressed. “I forgot you could just change your shape like that.”
“One of the great gifts of being an AI,” he agreed. “I can appear as anything I want to be. Any size, any shape.”
“If that’s true, why didn’t you just turn yourself microscopic and crawl out of the shipping container?” I asked curiously.
“Oh.” Yano looked embarrassed. “That would have been a good plan, actually. Next time I’ll do that.”
I rolled my eyes. Seriously, AIs were so smart and yet sometimes the simplest steps in logic evaded them. Probably for the best, though, if humans wanted to remain in charge of the world.
“Mech Heads! I’m so glad you’re here! I am in need of your help!”
I whirled around, then groaned as I spotted NPC Ikumi, all respawned in her regular spot. She looked at us beseechingly.
“Zombies have taken over the building,” she cried. “I got separated from my parents and ended up here. Will you help me?”
Oh, for goodness’ sakes. Not again.
“Look, we don’t have time for—” I started to say.
But then my mind flashed back to Lilli’s crushed expression as she held zombie Ikumi in her arms. Bleh. I groaned.
“Okay, look,” I told the NPC. “I promise we’ll get you to the
