Derrick fired four more times.
The bear roared, rearing up on its hind legs. Then it turned and thundered back into the forest, leaving a red smear on the understory.
“Why’d you do that?” I shouted in a cracked voice. “It was scared!”
My hands shook. The grizzly had appeared out of nowhere, bounding onto the woodland path and snarling at us, six hundred pounds of “you’re screwed, kids.”
Derrick gave me an incredulous look. “You know that bear isn’t real, right?”
I hugged my arms to my chest. “Doesn’t mean you had to shoot it.”
His head flopped sideways. “You know that not-real bear could’ve ripped us to pieces, right? Then eaten us? With its teeth and claws?”
“You don’t shoot at a grizzly,” I clapped back peevishly. “That only pisses them off.” I was being silly, and knew it, but I hated seeing animals get hurt. Even a giant fake one that might kill me.
So Sarah hadn’t been bluffing. That bear was the first animal I’d seen inside the Program. How many were there now? Why would a bear be up and outside its den in the dead of winter? I got a bad feeling about this development. What else had Sarah unleashed?
Derrick was still shaking his head at me. “Is that how you wanna go out, Min? Mauled to death in the woods? I should shoot you, too. For being a jackass.”
My hands found my hips. “Nice gun, by the way.”
He had the decency to blush. “Okay, sorry. I lied. I do have a gun. But you know by now I’m not playing you, so can we please get past this teensy little dishonesty? I’m freezing to death out here.”
We were south of the government land, in a remote corner of the valley. The sun was dipping in the western sky, but still held. Derrick and I didn’t have a plan yet, but the path from the silo had gone this way, and it seemed as good a direction to head as any.
Beyond the silo’s back door we’d found a narrow gravel track camouflaged by trees on both sides. After a mile it reached a tunnel that cut east into canyon country we’d been told our whole lives was impassible. A short debate had ensued.
I’d wanted to follow the road and see where it led, but Derrick wanted no part of that tunnel. Plus, he thought it was pointless. The simulation didn’t extend beyond the valley, he’d argued, so the road couldn’t lead anywhere. Odds were excellent it was somehow “blocked” like all the other paths—maybe inside the tunnel, deep in the dark, where we’d be blind and have to turn around.
I’d reluctantly agreed. So we’d plunged into the woods, angling south. Thirty minutes later, we’d met a bear.
“You’ve had a gun this whole time?” I grumbled, unwilling to just let it slide.
Derrick’s shoulders rose and fell. “Call it an insurance policy. Let’s move past it.”
“Jerk.”
The bastard winked at me. “At times. But I think we should focus on more important things, like not dying of hypothermia.”
He was right. The temperature was down in the teens and, once again, I was in the woods without a jacket. My Nemesis jumpsuit was no match for Mother Nature—the swirling winds cut through the thin fabric like it wasn’t even there.
Still, I was happy to be outside. Anywhere but trapped in that damn bunker. I inhaled deeply, soaking in the alpine scents. Pine sap. Wet leaves. Frozen earth. My eyes watered in the sunshine, and I blinked incessantly. Snowdrifts were swallowing my sneakers, tiny avalanches of ice sliding into my socks. But I was alive, on my own two feet, and free to move about as I pleased. That was something.
Then another icy gust bit through my jumpsuit, as if to remind me not to get cocky. I shivered uncontrollably, cold for the first time in weeks. The silo was always a sterile sixtyeight degrees. Adding days in my head, I realized it was now mid-December.
“Almost Christmas,” I mumbled. “I completely forgot about it.”
“No decorations in town yet,” Derrick quipped. “I’m guessing Santa doesn’t have virtual Fire Lake on his nice list.” Then his voice grew serious. “I keep forgetting you haven’t been out in two months. Things are different, and none of it’s good. Downtown is torn up. Fires a week back burned all over the valley. You hear gunfire somewhere every single night. The place is falling apart. People don’t act like people anymore.”
I thought of the status number blinking on Tack’s pedestal. Tried to ignore the queasiness it caused. “So what do you think we should do? I have to find a jacket right away, and your shoes are no better in the snow than mine.” My stomach growled for the first time in weeks. “Food wouldn’t hurt, either.”
“That’s the biggest problem,” Derrick said, all six-plus feet of him shivering as he tried to stomp the cold from his sneakers. “Barely is any. Winter’s here in full force, and the grocery store is gone, thanks to your psycho ex-boyfriend. And before you ask, I don’t know where Thumbtack is. He might be running with Noah’s crew, though. Two weeks ago I saw him shoot Chris in the back and take his machine gun.”
The sick feeling in my gut grew stronger. “Where’d that happen?”
“Tack shot Chris at the library, then ran to the school. We lost him there.”
I thought a moment. Tack liked sticking to himself. “He’s probably in the trailer park.”
Derrick’s eyes slid away. He kicked a rock. “Yeah . . . I doubt it.”
“What? What is it?”
Derrick blew out a breath. “The trailer park’s gone, Min. After Tack popped Chris, Ethan and Toby went there with a bunch of kerosene and burned it down.”
I swallowed, fighting back tears. “The whole thing?”
Mom’s trailer. The only home I’d ever known. I hadn’t visited it since the massacre at Town Hall—too obvious a place to look for me—but I’d often been comforted by knowing it was there. Her things had still been inside.
Derrick nodded unhappily. “They made sure. Tack wasn’t there. At least, they never saw him.”
Or they burned him alive, I wanted to scream. But I choked it back. Now wasn’t the time. I sealed this new hurt in a safe and shoved it into a mental cabinet. I’d deal with it later, alone. “We need to resupply on this side of the lake, then,” was all I said.
Derrick nodded, seemed relieved I wasn’t going to break down. “From here, the liberty camp is closest.”
I tapped a finger to my frozen lips. “Is anything there?”
Derrick shrugged. “To be honest, we’ve kinda ignored it. Those buildings are all cheap clapboard nonsense, and it’s not close to anything. Place is probably abandoned. But I bet we can find some winter gear, at least.”
I nodded in agreement. “If not, we can keep circling south of the lake, around toward the hillside neighborhoods. We’ll find clothes there, maybe even food.”
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s get going. I wanna keep all my toes.”
We started moving down the path again, eyes peeled for our grizzly visitor. The bear was nowhere to be seen, but the longer we walked, the more I felt a nameless anxiety stealing over me. I glanced at Derrick. His jaw was clenched, his lips moving silently as if arguing with himself. He must’ve felt it, too.
Then it hit me. Birds. I glanced up, spotted a hawk preening on a snow-covered perch high in a longleaf pine. It hopped back and forth a moment, then announced its presence to the forest. Focusing on the sounds around me, I heard other creatures chirping and squabbling.
I began scanning the canopy as I walked. Spotted a heavy brown squirrel skitter across a nearby branch. Sarah hadn’t been kidding. She’d reintroduced animals with keystrokes. The implications were staggering. What else could she do behind that computer? Sarah was playing God, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
But how? How can a player inside the Program manipulate it?
Why didn’t I figure it out?
I was stewing on that thought as we emerged from the woods in the southeastern-most corner of the valley. A mile later we reached the self-proclaimed liberty camp, a ramshackle collection of squatter buildings that had slowly built up over two decades and been grudgingly allowed to remain. Even before Nemesis, the camp had had a reputation for lawlessness and antigovernment hysteria, a den of unemployed drunks without many women or kids. It was a ghost town now.
Derrick and I halted near a beaten-earth circle surrounding a large communal fire pit.
“Jeez,” he said.
“Not much to look at,” I agreed.
Derrick rotated a slow three-sixty, surveying the camp as he blew into a fist for warmth. “You know, I’ve never actually been over here before. Toby used to come by to see his uncle, but I never went with him. It’s even crappier than I thought.”
“Me neither.” Though my body was almost completely numb from the cold, I wasn’t eager to rush into any of the buildings. The camp had a distinctly creepy vibe, like some fake Old West town at a cheesy robotronic theme park. “My mom always wondered why Sheriff Watson never cleared this place out.”
Derrick nodded, his face scrunched. “My parents, too. Everybody always worried about Fire Lake’s rep as a tourist wonderland, but this freeloader camp was cool? How’s that work?”
My teeth started chattering again. Creepy or not, I had to get inside somewhere. I began sizing up which shoddy tenement looked most likely to contain a jacket. “Don’t forget, Watson worked for Project Nemesis, which meant the conspiracy probably made the call. I guess they preferred this area be undeveloped. And the people who lived here would never talk to any authority, even if they saw something weird. Makes sense when you think about it.”
“Doesn’t matter now.” Derrick pointed in two directions at the same time. “Which disaster should we try first—the saggy barn with all the propane tanks, or that gem down there with a crate nailed to its side as a basketball goal?”
I shrugged. “Whichever’s biggest, I guess.”
Derrick clicked his tongue, removing his pistol from his pocket. “Saggy barn it is.”
I frowned, then reluctantly did the same. Even took a moment to check the Beretta’s magazine. Five rounds. Ammunition was going to be a problem soon, too.
Derrick waited until I was ready, then slunk toward the building’s only door. I followed a step behind, listening carefully, one eye on the buildings surrounding us. Derrick reached out and tried the knob, then turned to me, eyes narrowing as he mouthed a word. Locked.
My pulse accelerated, but I took a calming breath. Could mean anything. Could mean nothing. I mimed a kicking motion. He nodded and took a few steps back. Derrick rolled his shoulders. Cracked his neck. Then he sprang forward, unleashing a long leg in an improvised karate kick. The heel of his shoe slammed into the knob and the door rocketed inward.
A shout from within, quickly stifled.
I dropped into a crouch. Teeth bared, Derrick pointed at me, put two fingers to his eyes, then aimed them at the camp behind us. I nodded, pivoting to watch our backs. Gripping his pistol tightly, Derrick sucked in a deep breath and rushed the doorway.
“Don’t shoot!” a girl shouted.
“Hands!” Derrick thundered, his voice carrying from inside. I gritted my teeth, wanting to help him, but he’d been right. Someone had to make sure we weren’t ambushed.
“Okay, okay! Just please don’t shoot!” The girl said something muffled, then, “Put it down, Aiken. Don’t be an idiot. Derrick, it’s not even loaded!”
Aiken. Which meant the girl must be Anna Loring, his forever girlfriend. I hadn’t seen either of them since everything started. Had they been hiding here the whole time?
“Drop it, Aiken.” Derrick’s voice was ice cold.
A moment hung in the balance, then I heard something heavy hit the floor.
“Keep watch out there!” Derrick shouted at me. Then, “You two alone?”
“Yes,” Anna said. “I mean, no. We’re alone in this building, but not the camp.”
That got my attention. I took cover behind one of the tanks beside the door, began scanning the other buildings for signs of occupation.
“Don’t tell him anything,” a male voice snarled. Aiken Talbot for sure.
“Who else?” Derrick demanded in no-nonsense tone. “Don’t mess around, guys. I’m not getting shot today, but you might if you play this wrong.”
Not being able to see them was killing me. I slid closer to the open doorway, keeping my eyes on the rest of camp. Nothing moved anywhere. If there were others hiding, they’d chosen to stay that way.
“You’re . . . you’re not here to shoot us?” Anna said.
“Of course he is,” Aiken spat, his words laced with venom. “Ethan’s thugs are shooting everyone. Just do it already, you beanpole prick. We can take it.”
Derrick spoke with as much patience as he could muster. “I’m not with Ethan anymore, and I have zero plans to shoot you. But that can change right quick if you don’t answer the damn question. Who else is in this camp?”
“Not with Ethan?” Aiken scoffed. “Then who’s outside?”
“Min Wilder.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’m here, Aiken!” I called. “And we’re not here to shoot you.”
“That’s her.” I heard the surprise in Anna’s voice. “No way she’s working with Ethan, Aik. I think they’re telling the truth.”
“Glad you’re finally on board,” Derrick snarked, his irritation plain. “Now, pretty please, tell me who the hell else is out there.”
“It’s just Hector,” Anna said over Aiken’s grunt of protest. “He’s not even armed.”
Hector Quino. I relaxed a bit. Hector was the nicest kid in our school, even ran the youth group. I couldn’t imagine him hurting anyone.
Most of the tension had left Derrick’s voice. “Okay. All right. Just you three?” There was a pause where someone must’ve nodded. “Then let’s get him over here, please.”
It took a minute to figure out how best to accomplish this. In the end, we all walked over to the basketball-goal house. Derrick kept his gun out, just in case. As we approached, I spotted a shadow by the window. A moment later the door swung open. Hector stepped outside with his hands up, breath misting, brown eyes wide.
I glanced at my companion. “Put it away, Derrick. Hector’s not the type to play murder bait, and we’re not here to cause trouble.”
Derrick nodded, shoved the gun into his jeans. Everyone eased a bit. “You guys been out here the whole time?” I asked Anna.
A sour-faced girl with short red hair and beady doll’s eyes, Anna never really seemed to smile. “Mostly,” she said. “This hellhole is as far from everyone else as we could get.” Her hand found her boyfriend’s. “Those jerks already attacked Aiken once.”
Anna and Aiken were Fire Lake’s slacker power couple. Short, slight, and sarcastic, forever in his cherished jean jacket, Aiken had greasy brown hair grown long during the months of isolation. He’d mouthed off to Toby early on—back in the church, before everything truly went to hell—and had taken a vicious beating for it. Add in Hector, who abhorred all forms of violence, and we’d found the trio least likely to ever side with Ethan and Sarah.
Aiken pointed an accusatory finger at Derrick. “You’ve been with them the whole time.”
Derrick looked down at the ground. Shuffled his feet. “Well, not anymore. Not after . . .”
Hector surprised everyone by speaking. “After that?” He pointed west.
Derrick didn’t look, a lump forming in his throat. “Maybe,” he said quietly.
Silence fell. I glanced from face to face, then peered in the direction Hector had pointed. Didn’t see anything. “What’d I miss?” I asked finally.
Anna tugged on Aiken’s arm. “Let’s just get insi—”
“You didn’t hear about Starlight’s Edge?” Aiken spoke loudly, clearly needling Derrick. “Your new pal didn’t tell you what he and his buddies did at the summer camp?”
Derrick shouldered past Aiken. He opened the door to Hector’s building and stepped inside without looking back.
I turned to Hector. His eyes were glassy.
“Murder,” Aiken growled. “Toby and his jackboots stormed the place in the middle of the night, shot everyone living there, and then burned it to the ground. We could hear them screaming from here.” Anna’s shoulders began to quiver. Aiken wrapped an arm around her, glaring at the door Derrick had used. “Who knows, maybe Stretch in there led the charge? Those guys are monsters, Min. Nowhere is safe.”
“Enough,” Anna said, wiping her nose. “It’s getting colder. We can talk in Hector’s place.” She pulled on Aiken again, and this time he relented. They headed toward the house.
I glanced at Hector. “You should stay with us,” he said. “We don’t have much, but it’s safer than the alternatives. There’s nothing out there but death now.”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Didn’t know what to say.
Hector seemed to notice my jumpsuit for the first time. “What are you wearing, by the way? God, you must be freezing. Come on, let’s get inside. We’ve got an incredible array of bad sweaters for you to choose from.”
Hector held out a hand for me. I hesitated, then took it. We followed the others inside and shut the door firmly behind us.