Rebel (7 page)

“I . . . I don’t know.” I glanced from her to Beth. “What’s the hunt?”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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I SETTLED INTO A SHUTTLE SEAT AS WE LIFTED OFF THE GROUND.
Micah claimed the big seat usually occupied by a HARC officer, and a big pile of guns sat on the floor at our feet. Kyle One-forty-nine sat next to me, his wide shoulders taking up part of my seat. Jules sat on my other side and I avoided her gaze, worried she would start lecturing me about taking out my birth-control chip, too.

“Do we have enough fuel?” I asked. Last thing I wanted was to get stuck a hundred miles away from Callum.

“We do,” Micah replied, leaning back in his seat. “Although we may take a trip down to Austin soon to get more fuel from those helpful rebels. Seems like the kind of thing they’d be good
for.” He smirked in a way I didn’t quite understand, like he was being sarcastic, and I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. I hated feeling indebted to those humans. I almost felt like I needed to stick up for them.

The shuttle flew through the air smoothly, like there was a HARC officer in the pilot’s chair. “How’d you guys learn to fly the shuttles?” I asked.

“We fixed the ones we shot down and taught ourselves,” he said, stretching his long legs in front of him. “It’s not hard, I teach all the younger Reboots how to do it. They’re made so HARC monkeys can drive them without any trouble.”

The Reboots laughed but an image of Addie’s father, Leb, popped into my head. Not all the HARC officers were bad.

I took a quick glance around. That wasn’t the sort of thing I could say here. I sat back in my seat and everyone quieted down. It was like being with the One-twenties at the HARC facility. The silence was comforting.

“You look better today,” Jules finally said, smiling at me as she pushed her long, red hair over her shoulder. “You seemed overwhelmed yesterday.”

“You did,” Micah said, his voice sympathetic. “I’m sorry. You must have had a hell of a few days, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said with a short laugh. I’d told them the story last night, an abbreviated version of our escape from Rosa and break into Austin to rescue Addie and get Callum the antidote.
It felt like a million years ago, even though it was just early yesterday morning that I’d been running down the halls of the Austin HARC facility.

“You were at the Rosa facility how long?” Jules asked.

“Five years. Since I was twelve.”

“You were shot, weren’t you?” Micah asked. “Riley told me that’s how you died.”

“Yes.”

“Who did it?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.” It was a common question, but not one I could bring myself to care about. It was some drug dealer or shady friend of my parents’, and it didn’t matter now. Chances were good HARC had caught the human who killed me and my parents and executed him anyway.

“Humans,” Kyle said with a roll of his eyes. “Go around killing each other all the time.”

Micah shook his head, running his hand along the stubble on his chin. “It’s like they want to be extinct.”

Everyone was amused by this, but once again, I wasn’t sure I got the joke. I shifted in my chair uncomfortably.

I cleared my throat and pointed to the stack of guns in the corner. “Where’d you guys get all the weapons?”

“We took some from the HARC shuttles that attacked us,” Micah said. “We made some. But we scavenged most of them. Well, I shouldn’t say ‘we.’ They. The very smart Reboots who evaded HARC years ago immediately started scavenging
weapons left over from the war. Even though they’d lost, they were still in battle mode.”

That made sense. HARC had rounded up all the Reboots and killed them after the war, before they figured out they could use the young ones to help clean up the cities. The Reboots who managed to escape would have needed to be well protected.

“HARC was busy with the new cities in Texas and building their facilities and by the time they sent crews out to the old military bases north of Texas, they were stripped bare.”

“Hank used to tell this story about driving a tank right past a HARC officer one day,” Kyle said with a laugh. “He just rolled right on by and the HARC guy never looked twice. They had no idea they’d missed so many Reboots, and they were out there, stealing stuff.”

“And back then, HARC still thought we had limited brainpower,” Micah said. “I actually think the Reboots’ organized plan to strip every military base from coast to coast is what prompted all the experiments HARC does on us now. They realized they didn’t know crap about us. Or what we were capable of.”

“But the Reboots didn’t attack back then, did they?” I asked. I’d never heard of a Reboot attack after the war.

“No, the numbers were too small. They just stockpiled the weapons for protection. When I moved everyone here out to the open, we brought them all with us.”

I opened my mouth to ask why he would move everyone into the open, leaving them vulnerable to HARC attacks, but the shuttle started to descend and Micah walked over to the pilot. He sat down in the passenger’s seat, pointing at something to the east as he murmured to the driver.

“They’re right in front of us,” he said with a smile, turning to us. “Looks like everyone is okay.”

I slid forward in my seat to see a few figures below us. The flat earth that surrounded the reservation was gone, replaced by huge stone structures, almost mountains. It was like someone had carved a random huge hole in the middle of Texas.

“You should see the one farther north,” Kyle said, catching my expression. “Makes this canyon look tiny.”

There was a river not far away, and the land was dotted with trees. This area seemed much nicer than the location Micah had picked for the reservation.

The shuttle landed softly on the ground. Kyle handed me two guns—a shotgun and a handgun—and extra ammo. These Reboots really didn’t take any chances. I had to admire them for that.

The door to the shuttle slid open and a burst of anticipation zipped through my chest. I didn’t know how to act around Riley outside of HARC. I might have counted him as a friend, but one who barely spoke to me.

I stepped out from behind Jules, scrunching my face up against the powerful wind that slammed against me. Less than
a day, and I was already entirely annoyed by the wind here. I’d never felt anything like it.

Micah climbed out the door behind the short Reboot pilot and raised his hand at something in the distance. I squinted, lifting my hand to block the sunlight.

Four, no five, Reboots were walking toward us. Two bikes were behind them, one of them toppled over in the dirt with a busted tire.

A guy at the front of the group was walking a bit faster than the rest: the leader. His hair was longer than last time I’d seen him, almost a year ago. The thick, dark blond strands tickled at his neck. His eyes were a light, piercing blue. It was Riley One-fifty-seven.

“Hey, Micah,” he called as he got closer. “Sorry, we—”

He stopped short, his eyes widening as they met mine. “Wren?”

Micah chuckled, turning to glance at me. “Surprise.”

“Wren?” Riley said again, with a hint of laughter. I lifted my hand to wave but he was running toward me and I froze, unsure what he intended to do. He scooped me up in his arms, my feet almost leaving the ground. I stiffened. How odd. Riley never touched me. His blank, emotionless demeanor had been my favorite thing about him. We’d been the same that way.

He released me, his face more excited than I’d ever seen. He was almost as tall as Callum but wider, although he was slightly less muscular than last time I’d seen him. Working out
had been the only thing Riley enjoyed at HARC.

“How are you here? What happened? Did Leb help you?” His words came in a rush, and by the time he got to the last question I wasn’t sure he wanted me to answer the first anymore.

“Yes,” I said slowly. “Leb helped me. I . . . uh, escaped.”

Riley laughed like that was the funniest thing he’d ever heard and pulled me into another hug. What was happening? Since when did Riley hug? Since when did Riley
laugh
?

“She forgot the part where she rescued every Reboot in the Austin facility and brought them with her!” Micah called over his shoulder as he headed toward the other Reboots.

Riley frowned in confusion. “Austin? What were you doing in Austin?”

“It’s a long story,” Jules interjected, giving me a sympathetic look. She gestured to the bikes. “What’s going on there?”

“Tire busted on one of them,” Riley said. “We were trying to patch it up well enough so we could all ride back. It’s not working out.” He peered behind me. “Is that a new shuttle?”

“Wren rides in style,” Jules said with a grin.

Micah knelt down next to the busted bike. “We can put this one in the shuttle. Two of you can ride the other one back.” He straightened, scanning the area. “Hunt didn’t produce anything this time?”

“Sorry, man, we couldn’t find them,” Riley said.

Micah pointed to the east with his shotgun. “I just saw them right over there. You’re losing your touch, friend.” He nodded
his head at me. “Wren, with me. Jules and Kyle, follow on the south side.” He looked at Riley. “You guys stay here and watch the shuttle. Get that bike loaded.”

I took a step toward Micah and stopped as Riley wrapped his cool fingers around my wrist. Most of the happiness drained from his face, the blank look I knew so well plastered there instead.

“Maybe Wren could stay here?” Riley asked.

Micah rolled his eyes. “You’ll have plenty of time to catch up, I promise. I told her she could hunt.”

Riley’s gaze flicked to mine as he released my wrist and I frowned, confused. I couldn’t read the expression on his face. Was he . . . worried? I hadn’t seen him worried about me since he was my trainer.

“Let’s go!” Micah said. He winked at me. “It’ll be fun.”

I cast one more glance back at Riley as I followed Micah, but he just stared at me blankly. Weird. I was going to have to ask him what that was about when we got a moment alone.

We walked through crunchy dead grass, the trees sparse around us, and Micah adjusted the shotgun strapped to his back and clicked the safety off the handgun. A handgun seemed like a weird choice for hunting, but he knew more about it than I did.

“You ever think about revenge?” he asked after we’d been walking several minutes, his voice low. “On that human who killed you and your parents?”

“No. I’m sure HARC already caught him anyway. I don’t think he was subtle about killing us.”

“But if they didn’t? Would you go back and kill him?”

I shook my head. “I really don’t care. I don’t feel anything when I think about my death. Or even my parents’ death.” I looked at him quickly. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that last part. That would have horrified Callum.

But Micah nodded like he understood. “Yeah, your parents would have rejected you once you Rebooted anyway.”

I thought of the look on Callum’s mother’s face as she stared at her son. Micah was right about that. My parents could barely stand me as a human.

“I admire your ability to separate out your emotions like that,” he said, carefully stepping over a rock and offering me his hand to help me. I ignored it. “I’m not always good at that.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, but he didn’t elaborate. I thought about what Callum had said to me once, about the numbers not mattering. Was I less emotional because I was a One-seventy-eight, or because I was just me?

The prospect of it being just me was worse.

We walked into a thick patch of trees, Micah leading the way. I could see a hint of the river in front of us, and Micah took in a breath as he stopped behind a tree trunk. He reached for his com.

“In position?” he whispered into it.

“In position,”
Jules replied.

He tucked the com into his pocket. “Ready?” He nodded in approval at my handgun. “Adults get one in the head. Anyone who looks young enough to Reboot gets a few in the chest. Got it?”

I froze.

Micah turned away, stepping out from behind the tree with the gun pointed straight ahead. My fingers crept to where my shirt covered my scars.

“Anyone who looks young enough to Reboot gets a few in the chest.”

We weren’t hunting animals.

The screams pierced the quiet and I jumped, almost accidentally firing a bullet into the air.

I stumbled out of the trees to see Micah taking wide strides toward a small band of humans, squeezing off shot after shot. They were running in every direction, splashing through the dirty water of the river as they tried to escape.

Jules and Kyle emerged from the trees opposite us, picking off the ones Micah missed.

There was no return fire. They weren’t armed.

My eyes flicked over the scene. Tents. A fire. Abandoned food. No sign of HARC gear. They were simply regular humans, living here.

“Wren!” Micah turned to me, a happy-crazed expression on his face. Was this the emotion he was talking about? Delight in killing people?

“Go for it!” he yelled.

I lowered my gun with a slight shake of my head. I wasn’t killing these unarmed humans.

I wasn’t that much of a monster.

Micah rolled his eyes in exasperation as he turned back toward the humans. There were only two left.

Maybe I should have saved them. Maybe I should have stepped in and attempted to take on these three over One-twenties by myself.

I didn’t. I stood there, frozen, as Micah shot the last two humans in the chest. The boy was so young I had to turn away. The other one, a girl, was probably about my age.

“Is there a problem?” Micah asked as he lowered his gun. He cocked an eyebrow at me. It was a challenge.

“They were unarmed,” I said, choking back the urge to yell it at him.

He walked to me. He didn’t seem mad. In fact, he looked sympathetic. He placed a hand on my arm and I shrugged it off.

“I know it’s weird at first,” he said softly. “But just because they weren’t armed right now doesn’t mean they wouldn’t kill us the first chance they got. Just because we made the first move doesn’t make it wrong.”