It went perfectly.
Ethan had attacked with twice as many people as I’d hoped, and after some well-placed gunfire by my team in the woods, they’d bunched up around the store entrance like scared puppies.
Ten minutes beforehand, we’d sealed the doors and ruptured the main gas line. When Kyle’s pipe bomb went off, not a single one of them escaped.
Amazing.
Appalling.
I shook my head bitterly, ignoring my own weakness. Sarah’s ambush at the high school had taught me a lesson. We couldn’t hold ground. Not in town, not when they had so many more people than I did. Until we chipped away at their numerical advantage, the best we could do were blitzkrieg attacks.
But that didn’t mean we couldn’t hurt them. Break their spirits. I’d given my followers an emphatic victory. Shown them I was resourceful and remorseless. They’d stick with me now, both out of fear and in their own best interests.
Everything I’d hoped for. The Guardian would approve.
I was perched in the bell tower of Sacred Heart a half block away, watching flames lick the sky. The fire wanted to spread, but there wasn’t anything close enough to dig its fingers into. It occurred to me that burning down the whole town wasn’t the worst idea, but I wasn’t sure we could pull it off. This only worked because we’d been able to set things up precisely.
Plus, they’d never suspected we’d torch all that food. Ethan didn’t know we’d been ferrying groceries out the back door by the vanload for almost six hours.
Something boomed inside the ruins of the store. A ball of yellow arced skyward, lighting up the horizon before landing with a sizzle in the lake. Two more makeshift rockets followed in quick succession, though neither cleared the parking lot.
I grinned at the impromptu fireworks. Oil canisters? Propane tanks? But the smile died as I spotted someone lying facedown in the gutter.
I sat forward and brought up my binoculars—with the added firelight and my enhanced vision, they were more than enough to see. The body was crumpled like a balled-up newspaper, hanging backward over the lip of the curb and into the street. I swallowed. Felt my jaw tighten. I took deep breaths through my nose to slow my heartbeat.
A slack face, wrapped in a wavy tangle of scorched brown hair. Eyes staring up at the heavens, unblinking. She wore a melted letterman’s jacket and tight black jeans. The girl could not have been more dead.
No. Not “a girl.” Her name is Melissa.
That’s Melissa freaking Hemby dead in the gutter.
“So what?” I growled, infuriated by this nagging voice I couldn’t silence. “You heard the Guardian. Eliminating people is the point.” Then I clamped my lips shut and stopped talking to myself like a crazy person.
Melissa’s body was lying in full view of anyone who might look. The secret wouldn’t keep anymore.
Sure, I felt sorry for her. She was on the cheerleading squad. Sat at the table across from me and my friends during lunch. She’d always been nice. Melissa dressed as Black Widow once for Halloween, and all the guys noticed.
But it wasn’t my fault. Not completely. I only killed her this once.
Then my blood turned to ice. I didn’t kill her at all. Someone on my team did. Which meant they’d just powered up.
A rival. But who? Did the bomb blast kill Melissa? I wasn’t sure who the Program would credit for something like that. Or did she get hit during the shootout? If so, which of my teammates had made the fatal shot?
I turned my binoculars east, located the two vans inside the ski resort gates and speeding up toward the chalet. Each was stuffed with the last of what we’d had time to loot before setting our trap. That made eight trips total. Incredible.
I regretted incinerating the rest of the food supply, but the move had to be made. I needed to break Ethan’s hold over our weaker classmates, and his strength was mostly based on cereal boxes and mac and cheese. Without that, how long would people listen to him? Ethan was gone on a reset right now, while his leverage burned. I bet the smarter kids were scrambling, grabbing what they could while the cat was away.
Idly, I wondered where Ethan was at that exact moment. He was going to be so pissed.
I swept the binoculars back to the store, careful to avoid the body. I didn’t have time to fall apart. This was the way it was. No sense crying about it, even if I felt bad.
There wasn’t much else left to see. The destruction we’d wrought was total. I was about to climb down and start hiking home when movement in the road caught my eye.
A girl, running.
I couldn’t see who it was, but she definitely wasn’t with me. I knew my people inside and out—what they wore, even how they moved. This girl had on a blue North Face that wasn’t familiar. I lifted the bolt-action rifle sitting on the ledge next to me and drew a bead on the moving target.
I hesitated. The girl was heading east, not west. Away from town.
Interesting. Going AWOL? Now was the perfect time to jump Ethan’s ship. I didn’t see a weapon in her hand, but that didn’t mean much.
Something . . .
The girl’s flight. It didn’t feel normal. She ran with purpose, but there was nothing over that way. At least, nothing I knew about. Or, rather, the only thing over there was something no one else knew about.
Unless . . .
I made a decision. Taking aim, I fired a shot at the ground a dozen yards in front of her. She stopped dead. Working the bolt, I fired twice more, walking the rounds back in her direction. The girl swerved, dove into the drainage ditch next to the road.
Perfect. I slung the rifle over my shoulder, grabbed the rope I’d tied to the side of the building, and rappelled to the ground.
Stay put. I’m coming.
I jogged down to Main Street and cut left, slipping past the girl and worming into the bushes beyond where the ditch ended. Clawing through the muck with her head down, she didn’t see or hear me. I lay down on the ground and flipped open the rifle’s bipod kickstand. She’d have to climb out right in front of me; I could pick her off, then stroll upslope in time for fourth meal.
I squinted through the nightscope. Seconds ticked by, then a dirt-caked head emerged in the crosshairs. She swiveled and peered back toward the inferno, oblivious to my presence. I had a clear shot.
To murder someone.
I slapped an itch by my ear. Hesitated. Where was she going? There was nothing east of here but the government land. Was she running blind? Or did she know what was hidden in the woods behind me?
Stop playing stupid. Stop ignoring the obvious.
The figure turned back to face me.
The jut of her chin. The set of her shoulders.
My heart stopped beating. I stopped breathing.
It was her.
My fingertips burned with electric fire. I felt a spike of panic at what I’d nearly done, then one of terror at her possible approach. Everything shut down, like a frozen hard drive needing to reboot.
Mind gone numb, I watched Min slither from the ditch and break into a run, heading directly for me. Filling my scope. She had no idea I was there. The rifle was in perfect position. A flick of my finger and she’d be gone.
I had seconds to react. Heard a cold voice inside my head.
Do it. Shoot. Send her away. Never let her get close again.
My knuckle whitened on the trigger. The tiniest pull was all it would take.
A scene emerged from somewhere deep inside. Christmas. Sixth grade. The elementary school gymnasium. Principal Myers was dressed up like Santa Claus and not enjoying it. Min was wearing a purple dress with sleek black buttons. I had on that awful red Rudolph sweater my dad’s secretary had given me.
My father was there, red-faced and owning the room, loudly joking to the other parents that the punch was too weak. Their forced, nervous laughter echoed to the rafters. His new wife clung awkwardly to his arm, my mother barely six months gone.
I’d retreated under the bleachers as soon as the party started, not that my father noticed. I didn’t want my classmates to see me. Then here came Min, crawling through the forest of steel girders to sit with me, smudging her white tights on the dirty hardwood floor. She handed me a sketch of a cartoon Death Star making out with Taylor Swift. I snorted despite myself. I knew it was supposed to be a present for Tack, but I took it anyway. We sat together silently, eating chocolate snow globes. She didn’t make me tell her what was wrong.
I slid the rifle into the bushes beside me, concealing it. Then I rose, drew my Beretta, and stepped from the woods into the moonlight.
Min saw me in the next moment and skidded to a stop. Her eyes darted left, then right.
“I’m alone,” I said softly. Why did my voice sound so strange?
Min licked her lips, still crouching like a coiled spring. “So am I.”
“I know.”
We stared at each other across fifteen feet of snow-covered pavement.
I found I had nothing to say. What could I? The awkward moment grew and stretched, swallowed the whole valley. I began to sweat. Why hadn’t I just shot her and been done?
“That your work back there?” Min said finally, jabbing a thumb back at the flames.
I nodded. “Ethan’s leverage is gone.”
“With most of the food in the valley, I’d guess.”
“Small price to pay.”
The inferno raged behind her, tossing long shadows, creating a mishmashed tangle of dark and light. The fire backlit Min’s face, and I couldn’t see her eyes. But she could see mine. I could feel the weight of her judgment.
I felt exposed before her. The fraud again. A little boy caught being naughty. My anger erupted like a Pavlovian response as harsh truths whispered in my ear. No one had the right to judge me but the Guardian. I didn’t have anything to prove to this girl. She was lucky to be standing there.
You’re stronger without her. She’s your nemesis.
“Where are you going?” I demanded raggedly, though I could guess.
She didn’t answer, all but confirming it.
The silo. I’d caught her sneaking home, which meant Tack must be there.
I’d ignored this issue for too long. There were useful things in those alcoves. Fuel. Vehicles. What about weapons? I hadn’t seen any the first time, but we hadn’t explored the place in depth. Min must’ve by now. She might be sleeping on a crate of bazookas.
I’d been ignoring a potential treasure trove. Once again, Min had leapt to the right answer while I flailed about like an angry toddler knocking over sand castles. Shame burned my ears. But it was okay. I could fix this.
Only two other people knew about the silo, and I had one at gunpoint.
“Where’s Tack?”
A slight hesitation. “Waiting for me.”
I hid my dismay. They’d had weeks. Tack probably knew how to operate the blast doors. He could keep me out indefinitely.
Then I nearly kicked myself for being an idiot. I had Min as my prisoner. The one thing Tack cared about more than hating me. She was all the leverage I needed to get inside. I just had to bring her.
Why did that realization feel like . . . relief?
“So are you going to shoot me?” Min said coldly, but I heard a tremor in her voice.
I flinched. Couldn’t help it.
She didn’t miss my reaction. “What? Suddenly feeling guilty? Didn’t stop you before.”
“That was different,” I stammered, cheeks burning in the darkness. Somehow she’d taken control of the encounter and put me on my heels. “I did what I had to.”
Min shook her head in disgust.
“You don’t know everything!” I shouted, my temper slipping. “I could’ve shot you as you crawled from that ditch. But I didn’t. There’s more going on than you realize, Min. This game isn’t pointless.”
She looked away. Did she know the truth?
Then her gaze sawed back into me. “Why didn’t you shoot, Noah?”
Words escaped before I could vet them. “Maybe I don’t want to be the one who puts you out.”
A definite reaction this time. Had she seen Melissa’s body in the street?
An icy breeze swept off the lake and stirred her mud-caked hair. Min hugged her sides and shivered. She looked ridiculous, standing in the gloom, covered in drying sludge from head to foot. Except she didn’t look ridiculous at all.
Something stirred inside me. Feelings I’d thought murdered for good on the steps of Town Hall.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Min said suddenly. “You’re not a machine.”
I shook my head, annoyed. “This crap, still? Let’s just lay our cards on the table, okay?”
“Fine,” she spat through clenched teeth. I realized she was furious, and barely holding it in check.
You shot her in the back, you moron. Did you think she’d forget?
I hardened my emotions. I was facing an enemy, and had to act accordingly.
“Who didn’t reset?” I demanded, hoping the question would throw her off balance.
Min hesitated a moment, then, “Devin Carver. Those bastards had been shooting him for sport. But the last time his body didn’t disappear.”
My eyebrows rose in surprise. “How do you know? Did you see it?”
Crossing her arms, she didn’t say more.
I tried to hide my confusion. And alarm. Devin had been part of Ethan’s gang—was Min working with them somehow? The idea seemed impossible, but . . . who could you really trust?
The question rose to my tongue, but I found I couldn’t ask it. I didn’t want to hear the answer. The idea of Min working with Ethan bothered me so much, I didn’t want to test whether it was true. What was wrong with me?
“Now you,” Min said coldly.
Still thrown, I hedged. “You must’ve worked it out already.”
“I want to know what you’ve seen.”
I swallowed. This was stupid. I was the one holding the gun. But then I heard myself say, “Piper Lockwood didn’t reset a few days ago. I buried her in the woods.”
Min’s hand shot to her mouth. She took a step backward. I still couldn’t see her eyes. Why had I told her the last part? But I kept talking, only half aware of my words. “So I guess we’re down to sixty-two. Sixty-one, actually. Melissa Hemby didn’t reset after the blast.”
Sixty. But Zach was my secret alone.
“Listen to yourself!” Min exploded, storming a step closer. A sliver of moonlight caught her face, electrifying her gray eyes. They glistened with rage, and horror, and unshed tears. “We went to preschool with Piper, for God’s sake! You kissed Melissa at the eighth-grade dance. But now you’re talking about their deaths like it’s a fucking video game!”
I stared at her in honest bafflement. “It is a game, Min. Melissa died five weeks ago, same as you and me. We were gassed by men in Hazmats suits, remember? We live inside a computer program now, which means we have to follow its rules. Why is that so hard for you to accept?”
“Why is it so easy for you?” she fired back, chest heaving, her hands balled into fists. “Killing for sport! Hunting people you’ve known for years. Friends. It’s disgusting! And you don’t even know why you’re doing it.”
My anger erupted to match hers. “You don’t know everything, Min! Jesus, it’s like you want to just ignore what the Guardian told us, and hope it all goes away!” I almost screamed that I’d spoken to the Guardian only hours before, but managed to hold off. Instead, I took a deep breath. “Don’t you get it? There’s limited space for the next phase. Do you want to make it or not?”
For a minute, Min said nothing, but her shoulders quivered. Then her head dropped and she spoke in a low, shaky voice. “Maybe not. Not like this. I don’t want to become an animal just to survive. That’s the difference between us, I guess.”
I stared. Felt my resolve crackle and break apart inside me. I tried frantically to stitch it back together, but the pieces melted in my hands. God, was she right?
Then Min’s head rose, her smoky eyes flashing like chips of ice. “Sarah was right about you. You are weak. It wasn’t your fault growing up. I know that. But you shook free of Dr. Lowell and had a chance to find your own way.” Her lips formed a sneer. “A handful of words from the Guardian was all it took to enslave you. You’re a coward. You really do need someone to tell you what to do. I don’t know what I ever saw in you.”
“Shut up.” The barrel rose. One squeeze would banish her to a far corner of the valley. “Just shut your mouth. You have no idea what I’ve been through.”
“Don’t I?”
And even that was true. With her, I had no defense.
I racked the slide. Her legs began to shake, but she didn’t run. Or cry out. Or curse me. She just stared a hole through my head until I wanted to hide.
The gun lowered. I wiped my eyes, disturbed to find my cheeks wet.
“Let’s go,” I ordered.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Min snapped.
A harsh little laugh. “I doubt that’s true. I really will shoot you if I have to.”
“Shoot me if you want, Noah, but I’m not going with you. I’m headed for the silo. To see Tack,” she added awkwardly.
His name burned like acid, killing something inside me. I shoved my emotions into a box. Schooled my face to stillness. When I spoke again, it was like a different person stood before her. “A task I’ve neglected too long myself.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
I stepped aside. Pointed the gun at her chest, then motioned into the eastern woods.
“You’re in luck. We’re headed to the same place.”