Pointing the light streamer at the forest’s edge again, I called out. “We’re not here to cause trouble or do you any harm. We’re refugees, Gebbies from Florian Air Force Base. We escaped, and we’re seeking sanctuary.”
There was no answer.
“My name’s Mireya, and this is Jolie and Ketta. We mean you no harm. We need your help.”
Only the sounds of chirping insects and the night wind answered.
“What if it’s not them?” Ketta whispered. “What if it’s someone else? Hu- mans who’ll report us to the authorities?”
“What if it’s the Retrievers?” Jolie whined.
“If it was Retrievers we’d know already,” I assured her. “Believe me-they’re not subtle.”
Someone stepped out of the woods, squinting and holding one hand up to shade his eyes.
“Shut off that light,” he ordered. “It’s like looking directly at the sun.” Instead of obeying, I pointed the bright beam straight at him.
It was the guy I’d seen before- the one who’d been watching me. It appeared he was alone.
He was a lot taller than I’d assumed when seeing him partially concealed- rather intimidatingly large, actually. He took a step toward us, wearing a scowl.
“I said shut it off, Sunshine, or you’ll be seeing those Retrievers again very soon. It’s dangerous to use illumi-tech out here in the open.”
I doused the light immediately.
Now I viewed the guy by firelight. It was definitely him. Same wavy, dark, shoulder-length hair. Same tan skin and dark eyes.
Those intense eyes looked me over as he stepped closer.
“It is you,” he said in an unhappy tone. “You shouldn’t have come back here. What are you even doing here?”
My heart was darting around my chest like the minnows we’d seen at the edge of the stream.
He remembers me.
This time we were both wearing clothes, so it seemed a reasonable conversa- tion was much more possible. Also, I wasn’t dying of sepsis this time.
“I had no choice. Like I said, we escaped, and we have nowhere else to go. We’re looking for the Haven.”
He blew out a light snort. “The Haven? That’s a myth. Everybody knows that. There’s nothing out here but grass and trees and rocks—and the occasional lost hiker. You’ve wasted a trip.”
“But… you’re here.”
“Yeah? So what? I like camping. This is a national park. I come out here and hike, sometimes backwoods camp overnight. And I’m alone—the way I like it.” I knew he was lying. What I didn’t know was why.
“But you’re our age. You’re a Gebby… aren’t you?” Ketta asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the guy said. “Listen, it’s a warm night tonight, but there’s a storm system moving in tomorrow, and it’s gonna get a whole lot colder and wetter. You might want to get an early start hiking out of here in the morning.”
Pointing back the way we came, he added, “Park exit’s that way. Have a good night.”
Then he turned to go.
I followed him, speaking to his back. “Wait. You can’t just leave us. We need help.”
He whirled on me, looking down to meet my eyes.
“What you need is to leave. And don’t try that helpless little me act. I saw that helicopter come and pick you up last time. Looked like you had plenty of help.”
He started to turn away again, but I grabbed his arm. He lifted one brow and looked down at my hand. I released him.
“Sorry. I just… you’re wrong. They weren’t helping me. I escaped the base before, and the men on that helicopter were hunting me. They’re the ones who caused my injury.”
“Yeah, right. I watched that guy scoop you up and carry you like you were made of pure synthicite.”
He turned away again and started walking back to the woods.
“I was only precious to him as a science experiment,” I said, following the guy all the way to the tree line.
“They took me to Gideon Corp as Apollo Gideon’s prisoner, and they’ll do the same thing to all of us if you don’t help us. They’re going to kill us this time.” The guy stopped. Slowly he turned back around.
“You’ve been inside Gideon Corp? You’ve spoken to Gideon himself?”
Now I had his attention. And he wasn’t acting like just some hiker doing a little camping. His smoky, almond-shaped eyes were intense and alert. “You have intel?”
“Maybe.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by intel, but I had to capitalize on his newfound interest, convince him to give us a chance and take us back to the Haven-which I was now even more convinced was real.
“Look, we’re exhausted,” I said. “We’re definitely not prepared to weather a mountain storm. We only have a couple days’ worth of supplies and nowhere to go if we leave here. Just take us back to your camp with you and we can talk. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
He gave me a wary once over, as if I might have weapon tech hidden under my clothes.
“It’s just you three?”
“We’re the only ones who managed to get out,” I said. “Our friend Luz was hurt during the escape. The rest of the kids back at the base are still brain- washed, but we’re trying to figure out how to help them.”
He looked down his nose at me. “That doesn’t interest me. What does is information about Gideon.”
He made a fist and held his arm out to the side. A group of teenaged boys stepped out of the woods.
Behind me, either Ketta or Jolie gasped, and in my mind I heard Daniel’s little voice singing, “The lost boys, the lost boys…”
They were real-and so was the Haven. Apparently we were about to be taken there-in chains.
Actually it wasn’t chain but a thin cord that one of the guys produced from his pocket. Polycarbonate hyperweave. It was used for lots of things on the base, including parachute cords.
Might as well be handcuffs. The stuff was super strong and nearly impossible to cut, much less break.
At his leader’s instruction, he used it to bind Ketta’s wrists with her hands behind her. Another guy did the same thing with Jolie, pulling her to her feet and binding her wrists behind her back.
The guy who tied me up did so roughly. I yelped in pain as he yanked my arms behind me with far more force than was necessary.
He wasn’t large, but he looked like he had a wiry strength, like the hyper weave cord. And he snickered at my cry of pain.
“You’re hurting me,” I yelled.
“Speck!” The dark-haired leader strode over to him and shoved his shoulder. “Careful. She’s a girl, not a brown trout.”
“Sorry Elias.”
The rangy guy sulked and walked away-not looking the least bit sorry- while the leader-Elias was apparently his name-finished binding my hands. He was much more gentle about it.
Several of the guys gathered our things and put out the fire while one of them used a device to scan us up and down-for traceable tech, I guessed.
“This isn’t necessary, you know,” I growled at Elias. “We want to go with you -that’s why we’re here. You don’t have to tie us up-or be afraid of us.”
He smirked. “I’m not afraid of you, little chipmunk. But you should be afraid of me. You girls have no idea what you’ve just gotten yourself into.”
Well that didn’t sound good.
