Authors: S.M. McEachern
Our
child’s future weighed heavily on me. Only twelve short months ago it had been unlawful for bourge and urchins to make babies together, and for a lot of people, a lifetime of conditioning was hard to overcome. I knew it wrong to think of my little guy as a half-breed, but it was difficult not to worry about what kind of life he was going to have caught between two cultures who hated each other so
much they couldn’t even agree on something as simple as naming our city. The bourge wanted to call it something reminiscent of the old world, back before the War, while everyone from the Pit felt it should be named in their honor to ensure slavery was never repeated. So what should have been a minor issue had escalated into the focal point of the bad blood that existed between the Dome and the Pit.
Unbidden, Dena’s words came back to me:
Your child is not a half-breed, Sunny. He’s glorious proof that there is no such thing as bourge and urchin—only people. People who are capable of overcoming their differences enough to love.
If only this world had more Denas in it.
The distant sound of a river shook me out of my troubled thoughts. Had we been walking a few hours already? My growling
stomach told me we had. I scouted out a place to go pee before I had to get back into the raft.
Summer already looked green, and we hadn’t even pushed off yet. Maybe Reyes had been right about the whole mind-over-matter thing.
“Think of it this way,” I told her. “At least in the raft, you’re safe from tigers.”
A glimmer of hope actually reached her eyes. “They can’t swim?”
I thought
about that for a moment. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I
think
they don’t like the water, but then again, I thought bears ate berries, and it turns out they eat us.”
“They swim,” Eli said.
Summer looked at me with mock contempt. I decided to stop talking.
Jin-Sook and Eli offered to take the first shift paddling, and I didn’t argue. Now that I knew there was a risk of actually passing
the recruiting party if we continued at our current pace, I was okay with slowing down. Plus the current was strong enough that Reyes and I didn’t need to power our way through the water. I hunkered down in the back of the raft and gave in to a nap.
It felt like I had only just closed my eyes when a cold wind against my face stirred me. The temperature felt close to freezing, so I was relieved
that the insulating effect of my suit was doing its job. I was surprised to see the sun low in the sky. We had been traveling for a few hours. Reyes was asleep, and Summer looked exhausted.
“Not feeling any better?” I asked her.
She shook her head.
At the sound of my voice, Jin-Sook turned to look at me. “We’re trying to find a place to stop for the night.”
I nodded, even though I would
have preferred to keep going. I’d had a nap and didn’t feel tired, but Summer, Jin, and Eli all looked as though they could use some rest. We continued a little farther downriver until we found a wider stretch of shoreline where we could haul the raft onto dry land.
A bright flash of light in my peripheral vision caught my attention. I was sure it had come from the top of the outcrop looming
over the river valley.
“Did you see that?” I asked. Squinting, I searched the ridge inch by inch, hoping to catch sight of a bear pulling a wagon.
“Yep,” Reyes said, scanning the horizon too.
The outcrop sprang up out of the forest in front of us, its sides mostly jagged rock with only the occasional scraggly tree clinging for life. The top was covered in denser foliage, although the trees
and brush were only beginning to bud after their long winter sleep. “It was probably nothing. A shiny rock reflecting the sun.”
“Or it could be recruiters,” I said. My stomach did a flip at the thought that Jack might be on that ridge. That he might actually be within rescuing distance. I looked at our group eagerly. “Let’s climb up and check it out.”
“You three can get up there a lot faster
than us,” Eli said. “If it’s okay with Jin, we’ll stay with the raft.”
Jin nodded. “We’ll take cover in the trees.”
Considering the time it would take to deflate and fold the raft, I didn’t argue. Reyes picked it up and stowed it behind some brush while Jin-Sook and Eli found suitable cover in a copse of trees.
Summer, Reyes, and I set out toward the ridge at a run and began our ascent
up its rocky slope. It was steep, although not as steep as the old mineshaft we used to climb up and down in the Pit. And with the aid of our exoskeletons, we made it to the top in record time. Before hoisting ourselves over the edge, we paused to listen for any sounds. I thought I heard something, but it was distant.
With no tracks immediately visible, we fanned out, staying within sight of
each other, and searched the area for any sign of recruiters. Fifteen minutes later, Summer spotted something.
“Not recruiters,” she said, pointing to the ground.
As I stared at the familiar bike tracks, I blew out a disappointed sigh. It wasn’t Jack. “I’m guessing Hayley and Alex,” I said unnecessarily. Of course it was them. Who else would it be? I looked around to see if they were still
in the area. The ridge we were standing on really wasn’t all that wide and eventually tapered to a point. “What were they doing up here?”
Summer shrugged. “Same thing we’re doing. Looking for recruiters.”
“Probably,” I said. “Maybe we should get back to the raft and push on tonight. Find a different spot to camp.”
“I’m all for that,” Reyes said.
Summer groaned.
We walked back to the edge of the ridge and were about to begin our descent when movement by the river caught our attention. Three people crouched low with guns drawn were
sneaking up
to where we’d landed in the raft. The setting sun glinted off of one of their bikes parked in some brush.
“Jin and Eli are down there,” I said, a note of panic in my voice.
Reyes curled his
lip back enough to show teeth. “Freakin’ bourge!” he snarled. He started backing away from the edge while at the same time pinching the material of his nanosuit first under one arm and then the other, pulling it down into wings.
“You’re not seriously going to try to glide down,” I said.
He didn’t respond, just kept backing up while he stared straight ahead.
“Reyes, that’s not a good idea.”
No one had tried it yet, Reyes included. We were all too scared it would fail.
“It really isn’t, Reyes,” Summer said.
Teeth gritted, he ignored us and continued to back up until he had enough room to make a good run. He pulled his wings taut, took a deep breath, and started running. I couldn’t stop him. All I could do was watch in horrified shock as he pushed off the edge with a giant leap
and spread his arms.
Summer slapped a hand over her eyes.
I stood closer to the edge, heart hammering, and peeked over, praying the impact resistance of the suit was capable of absorbing the shock of the fall. But Reyes was in the air, arms outstretched.
“He’s gliding!”
He was. Not exactly gracefully, but anything was better than doing a faceplant onto the rocks from this height. I
looked toward the shore to see if the bourge had noticed him, but what I saw was more disturbing. The bourge had taken cover behind some brush and were shooting into the forest. Arrows flew from the trees, landing just short of the brush. The soldiers were out of arrow range. Jin and Eli needed help.
A cold sweat prickled my skin as I started backing up. My suit was so formfitting I didn’t think
there was enough material to make wings, but its suppleness easily flowed into shape. My breath came fast, and my mouth had gone dry. “How do you think Doc was able to make the suit do this?” I asked breathlessly.
Don’t think about the last time you jumped off a cliff and nearly died!
“Oh, no,” Summer said, shaking her head at me.
“Jack said there’s an urban legend about nanotechnology being
gray-goo,” I said, looking down at one of my wings. “Do you think there’s some truth to it?”
A couple more steps back and I should have a good run.
“Are you
insane
?”
Probably, but when Reyes landed, he would be facing three armed Domers, and I couldn’t let him do that on his own. I took a deep, steadying breath.
Hey, little guy
, I thought to my belly.
We’re going to go on an adventure. Try
not to freak out.
I put one foot in front of the other, the hydraulic thrust of my suit helping me gain speed as I headed toward the edge. I stretched out my arms and leaped.
The initial force of pushing off the ridge propelled me forward, not downward, and for a second I didn’t drop. Then gravity pulled at me, and I started to fall. My stomach lurched, and my palms and feet became slick with
sweat. I stretched my arms, moving them into a
V
shape until I felt the wings catch the air current. Treetops, their points suddenly resembling daggers, stared up at me. They looked a lot denser from this height than they had on the ground.
Reyes was well ahead of me and almost clear of the forest. His trajectory had him heading directly for the shoreline. The bourge had caught sight of him
and were shooting.
A gust of wind pushed me in the opposite direction from the way I wanted to go, blowing me backward, and my instincts told me to lean into it. I shot up higher. My stomach did a somersault, and I tightened my muscles against the sensation. In a moment of sheer panic, I flapped like a bird, and for a few flaps I actually hovered before I started dropping like a stone.
Reyes
was almost to the shore, his body horizontal to the ground and his arms in a
V
formation.
Mimicking him, I brought my arms out on either side, straightened my body into a horizontal position, and pointed my outstretched hands until my fingertips were almost touching. My wings caught the current.
As soon as Reyes had passed the forest, he pulled his arms in tight to his sides and dropped down
to the ground. It was a long drop. A scream hovered in the back of my throat, but he landed on both feet with a steadying hand on the ground in front of him. Then he stood and marched directly at the Domers firing at him.
“Reyes!” I screamed. But all the gunfire didn’t seem to slow him down.
A bullet whizzed past me, and I tucked my arms in. Without the resistance of my wings catching the
current, my body dove through the air with greater speed. Now I was getting the hang of gliding. I positioned my arms out on either side and sliced through the current, steering myself toward a clear patch beside the river.
Something hit my side. A bullet? I flicked a panicked glance down at my side, but nothing was there. No hole. No blood. If it had been a bullet, the impact resistance of
the suit was doing its job.
I tucked both arms in close to my sides and pushed my body into a vertical position. The ground came up fast, and I cringed. My feet landed with a thud, and I automatically bent my knees, reaching down to the ground with one hand to steady myself. As soon as I had my balance, I drew my gun.
Reyes had one hand wrapped around Alex’s throat and was dangling him in
the air. I spotted a rifle on the ground, bent in half. Alex was clawing at Reyes’ hand, his face turning blue. One of the two soldiers with Alex jumped on his bike and took off. The other stood his ground, staring at us in horror. “What the hell are you people?” he screamed.
He looked up and focused on something behind me. I turned around and saw Summer making an ungraceful approach. The soldier
made a run for his bike, but an arrow shot out from the woods and landed two feet in front of him. He stopped in his tracks.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” I said to him.
Somewhere behind me I heard Summer land and utter a few expletives.
The soldier looked from me to Reyes, eyes wide with terror. I realized it was kind of hard to convince him we meant no harm when we were, in fact, doing
harm. I put my gun back in its holster.
“Reyes, put Alex down,” I said.
“Give me one good reason why,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Okay. You agreed before we left that I was in charge.” He gave me a sidelong glance, teeth still clenched, and for a moment we were locked in a silent battle of wills. Reyes made a guttural noise and dropped Alex. He crumpled to the ground, raised both his
hands to his neck, and gasped for breath.
The other soldier pulled his rifle in front of him and took a shot at me. The bullet harmlessly ricocheted off my arm. “You’re a slow learner, aren’t you?” I motioned for him to go over by Reyes and Alex.
“Don’t tell me this bourge is worth saving,” Reyes snarled, looking at Alex.
“He’s not worth saving. But he’s not worth killing either,” I said,
thinking of the time I had accidentally killed my supervisor in the Pit. She was a mean old thing who had deserved to die, but that hadn’t made killing her any easier for me to accept. I couldn’t even remember what she looked like, but I remembered her last breath like it was yesterday. “Besides, it’s hard to get answers from a dead man.”
“Why were you sneaking up on us with guns, Alex?” I asked,
coming to stand beside Reyes. Alex didn’t even look at me. He stared at the ground, still gasping for breath. I turned my attention to the other soldier. I read out the badge sewn onto his jacket. “Sims. It looks like your commanding officer is a little out of breath. Maybe you can answer my question.”
The look of terror hadn’t left his face. “I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “I was
just following orders.”
“And what orders were those?”
“To come here,” he said, talking fast.
“Come here why? And don’t tell me it was a social visit. We watched you from the ridge sneaking around with guns in hand.”
He shook his head again, this time a little more rapidly.
Reyes reached for him. “Maybe some air time will help him out.” His hand closed around Sims’s throat.
“Wait!”
Sims said, grabbing Reyes’ hand in both of his own. “We came here to disable your raft.”
Reyes kept his hand around the man’s throat but didn’t lift him.