The Ark Plan (15 page)

“This doesn't make any sense,” Shawn said. “What are they doing?”

“Surrender!” yelled a voice I recognized. I went numb as General Ron Kennedy stepped away from the pack, wearing the same thick metal body armor as the rest of the marines. And that's when I knew for certain that we'd been followed. These weren't random rogue marines. These were
our
marines, the marines of North Compound that I had grown up with and worked under for all of my life. We had been followed, and now Todd's village was going to pay the price for our crimes. Shawn went rigid beside me, and I knew he'd just realized the same thing.

General Kennedy walked over to the group of villagers, most of whom were women wearing dirt-smeared clothing and holding shovels and spades. He grabbed Emily roughly by the arm and dragged her into view of the tree houses above. Putting his gun to her temple, he glared up at the trees. “Surrender or she dies,” he
yelled. “I'll kill your women one by one. And when I have no one left to kill, I'll set fire to the trees.” He tightened his grip on Emily, and Todd lifted his bow to shoot.

“He's wearing body armor,” I whispered in Todd's ear. “All you'll do is give away our position. Or, worse, your shot will ricochet and hit your mom.”

Todd lowered the bow, but the look on his face broke my heart. My fault, I thought numbly. This is all my fault. I tried to push aside the sense of hopelessness that was threatening to overwhelm me. I needed to think of a way to save these people who had been kind and welcoming to us. Seconds later, ten bows fell to the ground with muffled thumps. Two of them broke on contact, but the others were gathered by the marines. I looked up as the remaining villagers came climbing down the trees, but the fear and hatred I saw etched in their faces had me looking away guiltily.

No longer being pelted by arrows, the marines climbed the ropes and entered the tree houses. They ran from house to house, guns drawn. A gunshot came from one of the houses and I jumped. Todd's face tightened. A few of the captured villagers screamed, and I saw Emily scanning the surrounding woods with wide, frightened eyes. It didn't take much to know who she was looking for. The marines had their backs to us,
so when she looked our way, I pulled aside the leafy branch we were concealed behind and made eye contact. Her face, already drained of color, got even whiter. She shook her head ever so slightly, and I nodded.

Just then one of the villagers broke from the group and ran for the woods. The marines shouted, and someone screamed as a gunshot rang out. The man crumpled and didn't move. I tightened my grip on Todd's shoulder. Kennedy tucked his gun back into his belt and turned to the villagers. I swallowed hard, worried I was going to be sick.

“Let that be a lesson on how our Noah deals with rebels and traitors,” Kennedy sneered, nodding to the marines standing guard. “Get them into the choppers. If anyone gives you any trouble, shoot them.”

I watched in helpless horror as, one by one, Todd's fellow villagers were loaded into the belly of the helicopters. Without warning, Kennedy snaked a hand out to grab Emily before she had a chance to board. As he roughly pulled her away from the huddled group of villagers, his gun drawn, I felt Todd stiffen beside me. I tightened my grip on his arm.

“This one seems to be the leader,” one of the marines said, shoving Jett forward roughly.

“Good,” Kennedy said, and with his gun pointed at Emily's temple, he looked straight at Jett. “I hope I don't
have to tell you that telling the truth is in this lady's best interest.” Jett nodded, his eyes hard. “We are looking for two kids. A boy and a girl. They are escaped convicts from North Compound. Have you seen them?”

Jett's eyes flicked to Emily's panicked ones. “No,” he said evenly. “I haven't.”

Kennedy nodded, and the marine standing behind Jett raised his gun and slammed the butt of it into the side of Jett's head. Emily cried out, and I slapped my hand over my mouth to hold in my own cry. Todd jerked beside me, and I tightened my grip, my fingers digging into his arm.

“I'm going to ask again,” Kennedy said, this time holding the gun to Jett's head, his eyes on Emily. “Have you seen a boy and a girl? The boy is short, and not very bright. The girl has red hair.”

“No,” Emily said, her voice shaky but firm. Kennedy stared at her, evaluating, and I held my breath. Then with a jerk, he pulled the gun away from Jett's head and gave him a disgusted kick.

“Load them into the chopper with the rest,” he said. Kennedy motioned for two other marines to follow him into the woods. They hurried over to obey orders, and I realized with a jolt that they were heading straight for us. We ducked our heads, and I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood.

“Well?” Kennedy barked.

“She was supposed to be here, sir,” responded the taller of the two marines. “Our tracking methods have a very high degree of accuracy.”

“Your methods didn't work.” I could hear the venom and hate dripping from his every word. “Somebody screwed up, Jeffrey. And when I find out who that somebody is, heads will roll.” When I glanced toward Shawn, his face looked just as sick as I felt. Even though Jett had searched us, something we carried with us had led them straight to the Oaks. The urge to rip off my pack and begin going through my things was overwhelming. I felt tainted. Like I carried around something disgusting and dirty. But I didn't dare move a muscle. Not now. Not with Kennedy standing mere feet away from where we crouched.

“Sir,” said one of the marines. “If I may ask, why are we putting so much effort into finding two children? They were probably eaten within minutes of venturing topside.”

“Those children stole valuable government property. The Noah commanded we recover that property,” Kennedy said, his voice dangerous. “Is that not enough for you, soldier?”

“Yes, sir,” the marine said, ducking his head. “Sorry, sir.”

“Go tell the pilots we leave in two,” Kennedy said. The marines hurried back to the helicopter, and Kennedy stood for a moment staring out into the woods, a frown on his face, before finally turning to join them. Seconds later the choppers took off in a whir of thrumming propellers and roaring engines. I blinked back angry, helpless tears as I watched Todd's entire village disappear over the trees.

T
odd stumbled to his feet as soon as the choppers were out of sight, and ran to the fallen man. When Todd rolled him over, I realized it was Roderick, the man who'd helped me with my map. His blue eyes wore a frozen expression of shock, and I turned away, my stomach churning. Todd scrambled to his feet and pulled his bow off his back and pointed it straight at us. “What tracking method was he talking about?” he yelled. Hot, angry tears were falling from his eyes, but I didn't think he even realized it.

“Easy,” I said, taking a few hasty steps back. I felt myself bump into Shawn. I glanced over and saw him eyeing Todd's bow warily.

“You led them here. Why? Why would you do that?” Todd asked, his features twisted in pain and rage.

“I don't know what tracking device he's talking about,” I said, feeling helpless. I looked at Shawn. “Do you?”

He shook his head, a look of pure confusion on his bone-white face.

“Jett's guys must have missed something,” I said, dropping my pack to the ground with a loud thump. “There must be a tracker hidden somewhere that I don't know about.” I immediately began pulling out each of my belongings, going over them carefully, inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter, looking for the telltale bulge of a tracker. After another nervous glance at Todd, Shawn dropped his own pack and began looking over his belongings as well. Todd watched us for a second, and then he took a threatening step toward us, bringing his drawn arrow within inches of my face.

“Where are they taking them?” Todd cried. “Tell me or I'll shoot. I swear I will. This is all your fault.”

“It's not,” Shawn said, looking up from the canteen he was inspecting, and then he glanced at me and grimaced. “Okay. It kind of is.”

“We didn't lead them here on purpose. I promise,” I said, pulling out the few ration packs I'd managed to steal. I couldn't imagine anyone putting a tracker in one
of those, but I looked anyway. “We would never do that to you. You heard General Kennedy. They are trying to find us. He called us convicts.”

“What's a convict?” Todd sniffed.

“A criminal,” I explained. “Which we technically are, since we stole supplies before we left. But I've never heard of the marines going after someone.”

“No one was ever dumb enough to go topside besides your dad,” Shawn muttered, then, seeming to realize that he'd spoken out loud, he glanced at me. “No offense.” He turned to look at Todd. “Why did your mom and Jett cover for us? I don't get it.” I didn't understand it either. No one in the compound would have lied for us.

“Because we're good people,” Todd spat. “Unlike you.”

“Todd,” I said, finally done with my inspection. “I know you probably hate us right now, but I really didn't think anyone would come after us. I never would have put your village in danger like that.” I sighed as I cinched my bag shut again. “And I know you aren't going to believe me, but I still can't find a tracker.”

Shawn looked up at me, his forehead wrinkling in the familiar way it always did when he was trying to figure out a problem. “Maybe it was on the body armor we just traded?”

“Maybe.” I frowned. “But we wore that stuff all day yesterday; we'd have felt a tracker. Wouldn't we?”

Shawn shrugged, his face clouded and anxious as he busily checked the lining of his bag. “They make them tiny now. Plus”—he shook his head, eyes baffled—“trackers usually need to be close to their home signal, within a mile or two. That's impossible out here. Right?”

“How in the world should I know?” I snapped, and then immediately felt ashamed. This wasn't Shawn's fault. This was mine. If I was angry with anyone, it was myself.

“Even if they had a tracker, they shouldn't have come after us,” Shawn said, considering. Then he looked at the compass hanging around my neck. “It has to be your dad's info plug that they want. It's the only thing that makes sense.”

I nodded grimly; he'd confirmed my suspicions. They wouldn't have bothered sending helicopters and armed men after us for stealing a couple of body armor suits and some ration packs. They would only do that for something big, and it had to be the plug.

“What plug?” Todd asked.

“But they didn't know about that. I never—” I stopped, thinking back to the day of my escape, and my heart sank in realization. I had taken my compass
out of my shirt to see if the plug would fit in any of the port screens. There had been a security camera. Guilt, hard and heavy, settled in my stomach. I turned to Shawn. “Oh, no.”

“Whatever is on that plug must be worth killing for,” Shawn said. “The Noah wouldn't risk sending marines topside if it wasn't.”

“Stop talking,” Todd said as silent tears streamed down his face. I jumped. I'd almost forgotten that Todd was standing there, his huge bow still pointed at our heads, listening to us discuss tracking devices. I swallowed hard at the anger I saw boiling just beneath Todd's skin.

He held out a trembling hand. “Hand over that plug thing you keep talking about.” I looked at his outstretched palm in disbelief.

“What?” I asked.

“You heard me,” he said. “If they want that stupid plug, then I'm going to give it to them and get my mom back.”

“But—” I stuttered. “That won't work.”

“Why not?” he snapped. “You are going to tell me where they are being taken, and then I'm going to hand that plug over to them.” His voice was too loud in the silent forest. I glanced helplessly at a speechless Shawn before turning my attention back to Todd, all too aware
of the sharp arrowhead inches from my face.

My hands went up. “They could be taking them to any one of the four compounds.” I took a cautious step back. Could I outrun one of Todd's arrows? Doubtful.

“Why would they do that?” Todd asked.

“Because humans aren't supposed to live topside. It's against the law,” Shawn said.

“Your laws,” Todd snarled.

“Even if I gave you the plug,” I said cautiously, “the marines still wouldn't release your mom and the rest of the villagers. They may have come here looking for it, but they took those people away even though they knew they didn't have it.”

Todd looked at us for another moment, and then he lowered the bow.

“Keep your stupid plug, then.” He sniffed. “You can tell Roderick over there how important it is to you.” With that, he stormed past us toward the abandoned tree houses. I glanced over at Roderick's still body and felt sick. When I let go of my compass, I saw that I'd been clutching it so tightly that it had left an angry red imprint on my palm. Was Todd right? Should I just give him the plug? I rolled this idea around for a moment before shaking my head stubbornly. Kennedy and his marines wouldn't hand over the villagers for the plug. Not now. I could only hope that Roderick hadn't died
in vain. That whatever was on this plug was worth the sacrifice. My dad had certainly thought so, or he wouldn't have risked my life and his.

When I finally looked up, Todd was halfway up one of the long ropes. I went to follow him, and Shawn grabbed my arm to stop me, shaking his head.

“Give him a minute to cool down,” he advised. “We aren't his favorite people right now. In fact”—he glanced up nervously—“part of me thinks we should run while we have the chance.”

I crossed my arms and glared at him in disbelief.

Shawn sighed. “How did I know you wouldn't be on board with that plan?” As one, we craned our heads back to follow Todd's progress. He was fast, faster than I'd thought possible. Soon he was through the hatch in the floor.

“We need to fix this,” I said as we watched Todd running from house to house, the rope bridges swinging wildly. My heart tugged painfully.

“How do we do that?” Shawn asked.

“I don't know.” I frowned and tapped the compass. “Whatever is on here, we need to get it to Lake Michigan.”

I looked up as Todd began lowering cloth bundles down on ropes. The first three were light and appeared to be nothing but rope and thick fabric, and I wondered what Todd wanted them for. The last bundle was
heavy, and when it landed in my arms I felt a warm weight that made my heart sink. It was a body. A small one. I laid it down gingerly, too scared to open it. Todd soon followed, a large pack strapped to his back and his bow over his shoulder. He was holding three shovels.

“Anyone up there?” I asked.

“No. Come on,” Todd said. “We need to bury Roderick before scavengers find him.” He bent down and gingerly picked up the heavy bundle.

“I'm so sorry, Todd,” I said. “This is all my fault.”

“No,” Todd said, laying the bundle down beside Roderick. “It's my fault. I should have never brought you to the Oaks.” I flinched as he began digging a hole. He was right; he shouldn't have helped us. Roderick would have still been alive if he'd let that T. rex eat us in the meadow. Todd had trusted us, vouched for us, and we'd betrayed him in one of the worst ways imaginable. He would never trust someone so completely and easily again, and it wouldn't matter that our betrayal was by accident. Shawn and I picked up the shovels and helped dig. Soon we had an acceptable hole, and Shawn helped Todd carry Roderick over. Todd walked over to the other bundle and threw back the wrappings to reveal Tilly. She could have been sleeping if it weren't for the neat bullet hole in her head. A sob
caught in my throat, and I turned away as Todd laid her down next to Roderick.

Shawn stood staring bleakly into the hole. “I never thought I'd be sad to see a dead dinosaur.” He turned his face away, and I saw a tear glistening on his cheek before he wiped it away. “But this is awful.” He picked up his shovel to begin covering them with dirt, but Todd held out a hand to stop him. He reached down and removed a leather necklace from around Roderick's neck and put it around his own. On it hung a simple silver circle. I looked closely and recognized the old pre–Dinosauria Pandemic currency: it was a quarter. It had a hole punched through it to allow the leather to pass through.

Todd saw me looking and tucked it in his shirt. “It's a symbol of our village,” he explained. “You don't get one until you turn eighteen, but as I'm the only free villager left, I didn't think anyone would mind.”

“I'm sorry, man,” Shawn said. “Not everyone in the compound is like Kennedy. He's as mean and nasty as they come. I'm sure the Noah didn't authorize him to shoot people.” He glanced back down at the hole and swallowed hard, and I knew he was thinking that the Noah probably
had
authorized the marines to shoot dinosaurs. Todd just grunted, and we finished burying Roderick and Tilly in silence.

The job done, Todd walked back over to the pile of packs we'd left by the base of the tree. I noticed that there was something about the way Todd moved, a wary edginess that Shawn and I lacked. His eyes flicked this way and that as he took in the surrounding woods. Every now and then, his head would snap in the direction of a noise, and I'd see his hand jerk involuntarily toward the bow that never left his back. Shawn and I had left ours sitting in a pile next to the packs. Not good. I hurried over to sling mine on, not that carrying it was going to do me much good. I had no clue how to use the thing.

“What is all this?” I asked, pointing to the remaining bundles Todd had lowered from the tree houses.

Todd picked one up and tossed it to me. “They're tree pods.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“What's a tree pod?” Shawn whispered to me.

“No clue,” I muttered, “but say thank you.”

“Thank you,” Shawn said obediently. Todd ignored us as he secured his own tree pod to his pack.

“If you don't sleep in a tree, you're as good as dead. This lets you do that without breaking your neck. My mom wanted you two to have them. Of course, she didn't plan on you getting our entire village kidnapped, but you won't last one night without them.”

I looked around, my heart jumping into my throat. “Wait, where's Verde?”

“Verde is staying here. She's too small to come with, and I don't want anything to happen to her.” He glanced back at the freshly dug grave and frowned. “It's lucky she was out. I left enough food for her to last a few weeks, so hopefully she won't try to follow us.” He readjusted his pack and glared at us. “Are you ready to go?”

“You're coming with us?” I asked, and as I said it, I realized it's what I was hoping he'd do. Our chances of making it to Lake Michigan alive were much better with him along, and he was my only hope of learning how to use the bow strapped to my back.

“I'm not going with you,” Todd said as though this should have been obvious. “You're coming with me. You have to help me find my mom and get my village back. I have no clue where that stupid compound of yours is, and it's your fault they got taken.”