231.12.11 | 10:46 a.m.
It was only Thomas’s second time on a Berg, and the first he could scarcely remember.
At first he hated it—his stomach bouncing and churning, waves of nausea filling his mouth with saliva—but when he got used to it, he kind of liked it. Then he hated it again. Being inside the large flying beast was exhilarating, unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Living in such a ruined world really made you appreciate something so powerful that even gravity couldn’t keep it down.
Teresa hadn’t come, staying back to do her part in testing the long-range abilities of their implants. Every day they grew more distant. She buried herself in WICKED and their mission, and Thomas sometimes hesitated to tell her what he was thinking. But they needed to have a talk—a big talk. Soon.
Thomas looked out one of the viewing ports set into the floor of the Berg. He watched countless landscapes flash by below him, in complete and utter awe. Despite the devastation that had been wreaked on his planet, it remained beautiful. Breathtaking. Greens and blues and oranges mixed with lots of pale brown. Of course, this high up, you couldn’t see the details. You couldn’t see the Cranks and the starvation and the poverty and the terror.
No wonder back before the sun flares, every kid wanted to be an astronaut.
“Hey.”
He looked up and saw Brenda, who’d been busy with Jorge prepping all their supplies for the Crank city expedition. They were also delivering a bunch of equipment to the Scorch for WICKED, for reasons no one shared with Thomas.
“Hey there,” he said back. “You guys about ready?”
She sat down next to him. “As ready as we’ll ever be. Jorge made me check everything about a hundred times. He likes to be prepared.”
“When are we supposed to get there?” He knew almost nothing. But the land below had already started to look like a desert, various shades of red and orange and yellow taking over the palette. There were almost no signs of life, or that life had ever been there, for that matter.
“I think a half hour or so.” She rubbed her hands together, and her expression looked strained. “Man, I’m getting nervous. This all sounded like a fun adventure until about ten minutes ago.”
“What’s there to be scared about?” Thomas asked. “A postapocalyptic city with no government or security, surrounded by a desert and swarming with Cranks. I mean, come on. Don’t be a sissy.” He flashed the girl a quick smile to let her know he was joking.
Brenda rolled her eyes.
“Or…,” he said with exaggerated chagrin, “it could be scary.”
“You should be nicer to Teresa, you know,” she said after a long beat of them staring down at the wasteland, the hum of the Berg’s engines so soothing Thomas suddenly wanted a nap.
“What do you mean?”
“She obviously feels strongly about you. And it just seems like you haven’t been that nice to her. Sorry if it’s none of my business.”
Thomas thought about it, a topic he usually tried to avoid in his own mind. “No, it’s okay. She’s my best friend. We’ve been together for more than half our lives, and we can talk to each other…like no one else can. Without even speaking sometimes. Maybe that’s why it seems like I’m not nice.”
Brenda nodded as if that made sense to her. “Just friends? After all this time? I’ve never seen you two holding hands or kissing or anything. You’re one slow mover.” She laughed at the last part.
“It’s complicated,” Thomas said, surprised at this conversation, the things it was making him think about. “She means the world to me, and nothing will ever change that. But it’s kinda hard to be romantic when you have a dying world outside your home and your friends are stuck inside an experiment.”
Brenda seemed disappointed. “Yeah, but come on. People love, Thomas. Best of times, worst of times. People love. You should make sure she knows how you feel. That’s all I’m saying.”
Thomas felt a surge of emotion he didn’t understand. He thought of his mom, and his dad, and his friends. And it all just welled up inside him and tears began to leak from his eyes. He didn’t know what he needed in life, or what he was meant to accomplish. Friends were what he had, and they were all that mattered. Somehow he had to save them.
Brenda noticed his tears, and her face melted into something so soft and full of kindness that Thomas shook. She pulled him into a hug, and he hugged her back, felt like he was hugging everyone who’d just flashed through his thoughts. They stayed that way, pressed together, until the Berg tilted to the right and started its descent.
They’d arrived at the Scorch.
WICKED had sent armed guards with them, and they spilled down the open ramp first, to the dusty, blistering-hot ground below. When they gave the all clear, Thomas walked down with Brenda and Jorge, all three of them squinting against the blinding brightness of the sun.
“Good glory,” Brenda said. “Imagine what it was like down here when the flares actually hit.”
“You sure you don’t want to come with us, hermano?” Jorge asked. “We’re going to have ourselves quite the party.”
He and Brenda both laughed, but Thomas had a hard time finding anything funny about it. This place was terrible.
The Berg had landed surprisingly far from the Crank city, and the technicians Thomas was supposed to work with were gathering their things as if they intended to go in the opposite direction. He saw nothing that way but a wasteland, which made him more than a little nervous. He found himself anxious to head back to Alaska, and hoped the tests they wanted to run didn’t take terribly long.
Thomas shielded his eyes and looked toward the city. It appeared to be several miles away. Dirt and rust and shattered glass made up half of it. Ruined skyscrapers reached for the sky like broken fingers. It was hard to believe anyone could live there, even Cranks. Beyond the devastated city, mountains rose. The sun flares might have taken some of its plant life away, but the stone and soil seemed to call out, “We’re still here. What else ya got?”
Thomas tore his eyes away from the scene and saw Brenda staring at her soon-to-be new home.
“You sure about this?” Thomas asked. “You sure you want to go into that place?” He’d meant it to be a little lighthearted, but he knew how serious it was as it came out of his mouth.
“If we had a cure, a lot of people I love would still be alive,” she said, gazing unwaveringly into the distance. “People like my mom and dad, people like my brother.”
“I know, I know,” he murmured. “Believe me, I know.”
“That’s why Jorge and I volunteered,” she continued. “Not just in general, but for this.” She nodded toward the broken city in the distance. “I have to do my part.”
“Yeah,” he said.
Before he could add something nicer, Jorge yelled that his group needed to get going. He wanted to be in the city well before the sunset.
“Be careful,” Thomas said, trying to communicate with his eyes that he was sorry. That no one else should have to give up their life for this sickness. “Seriously. Be careful.”
“I will,” she said. “Hard to believe they’re going to bring your friends out here next, huh? Poor guys. Well, see you later, alligator.”
She gave him a feeble wave, then hurried after Jorge.
“Wait, what did you say?” he yelled.
She didn’t respond, running farther away.
He stared at her for a long moment, noticed the sands shifting beneath her feet.
“What did you mean?” he whispered.
