Rebel (6 page)

I swallowed a bite of oats, a blip of fear running through me. If that was true, my backup plan of running off with Callum wasn’t looking so good.

“How did HARC get them?” I asked. “Weren’t they armed?”

“Barely. Our weapons are reservation weapons. I wasn’t handing them off to a group of people deserting us. They took what they had, but it wasn’t enough. From the looks of it, HARC sent in a lot of officers. More than they could fight off.”

It seemed like Micah had more than enough weapons to spare. I wondered if everyone at the reservation was okay with him sending Reboots away who were barely armed to defend themselves. “How many people are here now?” I asked.

“A little over a hundred. Maybe a hundred and fifteen. We were a hundred and twenty-seven yesterday before you guys got here, but I’m still waiting for an accurate count of how many we lost.” He jumped to his feet, clearing his throat. “You done? I’ll take you on that tour.”

I wanted to ask why exactly all those Reboots had left, but the way Micah had said they didn’t like the way he was running things made me doubt I would get a full answer. Maybe that was a better question for Riley, or one of the other Reboots here.

We dropped our bowls off to be washed and I followed him through the reservation. He pointed out areas where they made clothes and other necessities, like soap and furniture. They used one tent for school, and he said some of the younger Austin Reboots should start attending again. He was probably right. I’d managed to hold on to a lot of my education, but I’d received nothing after the age of twelve. Maybe a trip to that tent would be a good idea for me, too.

He led me outside and we walked to the edge of their expansive crops. They grew oats and wheat and beans, among other things. A large barn was one of the only permanent structures on the compound, and it was full of livestock.

I had to hand it to Micah. This place was organized and thriving under his command. I had the feeling that if HARC let him into the cities he would clean them up in less than a month and have everyone fed, clothed, and organized.

“Is there going to be enough food to feed everyone with a hundred extra people?” I asked as we started walking back toward the reservation. “I don’t know a lot about growing, but you already harvested everything from last season, right?”

He nodded. “It might be tight, but we’ll be okay. We’ve got some gardens on the reservation, too. I’m working on a plan to make sure everyone is taken care of. Plus we were still producing enough for the Reboots who left.”

He looked sad every time he talked about them, and I felt a spark of pity for him. It must have been a huge amount of pressure, taking care of so many Reboots while HARC was constantly trying to kill them.

“The hunting team should have been back by now,” Micah murmured as he stared at the sky. “They were scheduled to return this morning.”

“Are they usually back on time?”

“Yes, when Riley goes. You know him. He doesn’t deviate from the plan.”

That was true. He’d been an even stricter trainer than I was. He probably would have let Officer Mayer kill Callum without protest.

“Where are they?” I asked. “Can you go look for them?”

“Let’s go see if they got one of the shuttles running,” he said. “They went pretty far, about a hundred and thirty miles north, but it won’t take us long in a shuttle.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. They went that far to
hunt? They must have stripped the land clean in this area. Or did people always have to cover that much ground to hunt? I’d never hunted, so maybe that was normal.

We walked into the reservation and down the dirt roads toward the front gate. Reboots around us were busy erecting tents and cleaning away debris. They’d made huge progress in just the couple of hours I’d been with Micah. It was starting to look like nothing had happened at all.

Two shuttles were outside the front of the reservation. Reboots surrounded both of them, and a few others walked around picking up trash. One of the shuttles was in bad shape, its side completely smashed in, but the other one could have been worse. It was dented and dirty, and missing a small corner on the back pilot’s side, but otherwise wasn’t bad.

We walked closer to the good shuttle and I spotted Callum in the pilot’s seat, his brow furrowed as he fiddled with something on the dash. He had grease on his hands and arms, like he’d been working on other parts as well.

“Does this one work?” Micah asked.

Callum lifted his head, smiling when he caught sight of me. “Yeah. We replaced a couple parts with stuff from the more destroyed shuttles. And I just finished fixing the navigation system.”

Micah gave him a surprised look and leaned over him to examine the dash. “Thank you. Good work. Not that I know how to use the navigation system.” He chuckled.

Callum hopped out of the shuttle. “No problem. I can teach you sometime if you want.” He wiped his hands on his pants. “You going somewhere?”

“Our hunting party didn’t come back. I’m getting a little worried.” He turned to me. “Would you want to come? If there’s trouble I could use your help.”

I hesitated, taking a glance at Callum. I wasn’t exactly pumped at the idea of hopping onto a shuttle to charge into trouble again.

“We shouldn’t be long. Back tonight at the latest. And hey, if they’re all right maybe we can do some hunting ourselves.” Micah punched me lightly on the shoulder. “The hunt is pretty awesome. I think you’d enjoy it.”

He might have been right about that. It was probably sort of like hunting down the assignments in Rosa, except deer and rabbits could run faster. More challenging, with no humans barking orders in my ear.

“Yeah, all right,” I said.

“You can come, too, if you want,” Micah said to Callum.

He made a face at me like he’d rather not and I almost laughed. I couldn’t imagine Callum enjoying shooting animals. He didn’t even enjoy eating them.

“I think I’ll pass,” he said. He pointed at the other shuttle. “We were going to work on that one next.”

Micah nodded. “I’m going to grab Jules and Kyle then.” He touched my arm. “You want to wait here for a minute?
I’ll get you some weapons.”

I nodded and he jogged back through the gates and disappeared around the corner.

“Everything all right?” Callum asked, taking a step closer to me.

I nodded, a smile spreading across my face as I glanced down at his grease-covered arms. He looked happy and relaxed. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen that particular expression on his face before. “Good,” I said. I decided not to tell him about Addie and the birth-control chips. It was an awkward conversation, and not one that was relevant to us at the moment anyway.

I closed my hand over my upper arm, where my own chip was. I was going to leave it in, though. Just in case.

“You don’t mind if I don’t come with you, do you?” He grinned. “I think we both know I’d suck at hunting.”

I stepped forward, rising to my tiptoes to brush my lips against his. “I wasn’t going to say that. But yeah, probably best if you don’t come.”

He chuckled, leaning forward to kiss me again, keeping his arms at his sides. I rested my hands on his chest and melted into the kiss, not caring about the Reboots all around us.

“Tonight, when you get back, let’s do this,” he said, pulling away slightly and kissing my cheek. “No more attacking or socializing or hunting. Just this.”

“Agreed.” I ran my hands up to his neck and sighed. “Now I wish I didn’t have to go.”

“I think it’s nice you agreed. If we stay, hunting will probably be your thing here. Hunting and saving people. Your two favorite things.”

I let out a soft laugh. I didn’t know about the latter—he was the only person I’d ever saved—but hunting probably was “my thing.” It was nice to think I might have something I’d be good at here. I’d never been good at anything but hunting down humans for HARC, and that wasn’t something I ever planned to do again.

“Wren! You ready?”

I glanced back to see Micah standing by the shuttle with Jules and a guy I didn’t know. A young Reboot sat in the pilot’s seat, and the shuttle roared to life. I stepped away from Callum with a sigh. “I’ll see you.”

“Bye. Don’t get shot.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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I FROWNED AT THE CRUSHED FLIGHT CONTROLS IN FRONT OF ME,
touching the spot where a button used to be. This shuttle was in worse shape than the one Wren and Micah had just taken off in, but it was possibly still salvageable.

“Need any of these?”

Isaac stood next to the shuttle door, a bag of assorted shuttle parts in his hands.

“Maybe,” I said, taking the bag and plopping it down on the seat next to me. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” He slid his hands into his pockets and leaned against the shuttle door. His tendency to slouch made him look even shorter than he was. “You know, shuttle cleanup
was the job most people were avoiding.”

I smiled as I sifted through the bag. “Probably because we had to haul out some body parts first.” I shrugged. “But I’m pretty good with tech stuff. I thought I might be useful.”

“Very,” he said. “Most Reboots come in without knowing much besides how to punch people.”

I rolled my eyes. HARC and their dumb priorities. “I’m sure.”

“Where did you say you were from?” he asked.

“Austin.”

“Never been. Never been to any of the cities, actually. Is it nice?”

I gave him a confused look. “You’ve never been to the cities? Were you born out here?”

“Yep.”

“Oh, were you born a Reboot?” I asked, surprised. Hadn’t they said the Reboot babies didn’t get numbers?

“Nope.”

“Oh.” I waited for more of an explanation, but he didn’t give one. He was holding something back and, given the way he was avoiding my eyes and frowning, it wasn’t good.

I took a quick look at the scene behind him. About ten Reboots milled around, picking up shuttle parts or working on the fence. Some of the somberness of yesterday was gone, but the reservation Reboots didn’t seem to be making much of an effort to talk to the new arrivals. In fact, no one except Isaac had approached me.

I returned my attention to the mess in front of me. I hadn’t approached any of them, either, so maybe we were all still adjusting. I picked out a button and tried to fit it in the hole on the dash. No luck.

“So, Austin,” Isaac said, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s nice?”

I shrugged. “It’s okay.” When I thought of Austin all I could see were my parents slamming the door in my face. All I could hear was the gasp of that man I killed as I wrapped my fingers around his throat.

I closed my eyes, swallowing. Part of me was relieved the memories were returning from the time I’d lost. They’d started slipping back, little by little, last night. Jumping on top of that woman in the restaurant, the smell of her flesh overwhelming me. Waiting for Wren to grab Addie and getting distracted by movement in the next house over. Breaking the door in and pouncing on the man.

I opened my eyes with a sigh. Isaac was staring at me, his face scrunched in sympathy.

“You HARC people are seriously messed up, huh?”

“Probably,” I said with a hint of amusement.

“What’s it like there?”

“Being in the facility isn’t so bad. I got beat up a lot the first couple of days, but then that stopped and it was just Wren kicking the crap out of me and that was sort of fun.”

He gave me a baffled look. “Seriously messed up. All of you.”

“She was my trainer,” I said with a laugh. “She was nice about it.”

“Oh, well, if she was nice about it.”

“The assignments, where we had to go out and capture humans were kind of awful. I’d probably have died in less than a year if I’d stayed.” I sighed. “The humans really hate us.”

Isaac nodded as he took a step back. “Well, they sort of have a point sometimes, you know?”

I looked at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“I’d be scared of us, if I were them. We’re tougher and stronger and most of you can kick their asses, thanks to HARC.”

He did have a point. As a human I’d been more curious about Reboots, but I was definitely still scared of them. I never encountered a Reboot until I became one myself, but I might have run away, too.

Although I could say for sure that I never would have grabbed a baseball bat and tried to bash their heads in. I shivered at the memory of being attacked by humans in Rosa. I had understood Wren’s dislike of them, for a moment.

“Do you like it here?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I mean, it could be worse, right? I could be at HARC.”

“True.”

“It’s not so bad. By the time I got here, most of the kinks were ironed out. They’ve got stable crops and everyone is fed and clothed.”

“I used to work the fields in Austin, before I Rebooted,” I said. “I could help with that here.”

“Nice,” Isaac said, like he was genuinely impressed. “More useful skills. Micah might start liking you as much as he likes your girlfriend.”

I gave him an annoyed look and he snorted in amusement. It faded as he caught sight of something in the distance, and I leaned out the shuttle door to see Beth and Addie headed in my direction, their faces grim. I turned to Isaac again but he was already walking away.

I jumped from the shuttle, wiping my hands on my pants as they approached. Addie was pale and Beth was nervously tugging on her hair.

“Have you seen Wren?” Addie asked.

“She left with Micah.” I lowered my voice, stepping closer to her. “She’ll be back tonight. Is everything okay?”

Beth and Addie exchanged a horrified expression and a sick feeling started to build in my stomach.

“On the hunt?” Addie said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Technically she went to find the Reboots who didn’t come back, but I think they were going to hunt if they could.” I swallowed. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“Did they tell her what the hunt was?” Addie’s eyes were big, worry mixing with fear.