I dive back in. I swim as fast as I can to where she had been moments before, and I slam into something. But there’s nothing here. Just water. It’s a wall. I’ve run into a wall. But how the heck could there be a wall out here?
“What the—”
I hear airships overhead and I dive under water. I can’t see her. I can’t find her. She’s not in the water. She’s not here!
I break the surface again, and shout her name.
Where is she?
I swim to where Ken stands and sit on the mud. My hands cover my face. I lost her. I lost her… It was my responsibility to keep her safe.
I say her name again. Ken tugs at my shirt, trying to make me stand up, to leave.
We do need to leave. But I can’t leave without her. Not without her.
The airships are closing in on us. I feel Ken pull on my shirt harder and say something. I fall onto my side.
“We have to go, man!” He shouts.
“But Eenie—”
“She'll be fine!”
I get up slowly. Ken drags me into the trees by my shirt. We sit and watch as the airships land. The president gets out of the ship, followed by five men and a girl—Lease.
“Find her!” I hear Murkas bark.
The men scatter. Lease follows the president, typing something in her tablet. They speak back and forth and work their way towards the trees where Ken and I are.
“How much longer until she’s unconscious?”
“Approximately two minutes,” Lease says, scrolling through something on her screen. “In five, she’ll be dead.”
“Leave her out there for four.”
Where? Leave her where?
Lease smiles.
I clench my jaw.
“Yes, sir.”
“She won’t know what hit her. She’ll be at the brink of dying, and she won’t even know why.”
I’m out of the trees before he can say another word. I ram my shoulder into his stomach. We fall and I pin him to the ground. My fist is loud against his face in the night. Blood drips from his nose, making paths like a river. Lease is clawing at me, trying to get me off. But this guy has been toying with Eenie for way too long.
Lease stops trying to help, and larger hands lift me off of the beast. They hold me back. I swing my arms around to break free, but the guys holding me find their grips again. One of them squeezes so hard that I fall to my knees, crying out as pain shoots through my body.
The scumbag is up on his feet. He wipes the blood from his nose and smiles at me cruelly.
“I remember you, Peter Hemmings. The boy who was born too early.”
I spit at his feet.
“And I remember you, Murkas. The slug that kicked me out because of it.”
He chuckles.
“And now look at you. Trying to save this troublemaking girl.”
I squirm. The hand starts to squeeze again. Pain shoots through my body and I stop.
“So. Tell me, Peter Hemmings. Where is the Rebellion located?”
“Since you know everything about everyone, you should know that I’m not gonna tell you anything.”
He nods to Lease, and she punches me, hard, in the cheek.
“You still hit like a girl, Lease,” I smirk.
“Tell us, or we will use force,” He smiles.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” I say.
I stand up, the hands still around my biceps to keep me in place.
“Come on,” He says to the goons holding me.
We follow him to the ship. They shove me into a seat and tie me down. Lease sits in the chair facing me. She sits back, smirking, and crosses her arms.
“You don’t know where the Rebellion is, do you?” I smile.
I place my head on the headrest.
She shrugs.
“It doesn’t matter because you do. All we have to do is scan your brain.”
“Ooh,” I cringe sarcastically. “Sorry my brain doesn’t like when people poke around in it. That’s why I never returned to the Domes.”
Lease rolls her eyes.
“You haven’t changed a bit over the years.”
“And neither have you, apparently,” I smile.
She gives me a questioning look.
“You were the rogue.”
She shifts in her seat and smiles.
“Are you sure?”
I nod.
“And what if I am? What if it was me who tipped off the President?”
I smile, close my eyes. I set my head back on the rest.
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
After a stiff moment, I hear her get up and walk away.
Lease has been a part of the Rebellion longer than I have. She was always assigned to the camps. She never got to see the location of the Rebellion like I did. Doug was always worried she’d tell someone. He never trusted her.
Me, on the other hand, I was assigned to training. I picked it up so fast that the next year I was training other people. I was sent back and forth from the complex to the camp to do work and carry out missions. I’d like to think I’m pretty important, but I’m really not. Everyone just knows who I am. The boy who was born too early.
But it’s okay. I’m fine with it. I’d rather not be locked up in that Dome where I’m constantly watched, experimented on, and told what to do. At least out here I have a little more freedom.
I hear someone else sit down.
I open my eyes.
Murkas.
His smile is smug.
“Shoo. I’m trying to get my beauty sleep,” I say.
I close my eyes.
“Your girlfriend has three more minutes before she’s gone forever.”
“It’s been two minutes already? Whaddya know?"
“Two and a half. It would only be one if you told me what I need to know.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
I snort.
“Well, if you want to know where the rebellion is, I’ll tell you. Free of charge,” I smile. “It’s right under your nose.”
“Really? Where?”
“Aren’t you dying to know?”
“Tick-tock.”
I can’t tell him where it is. I can’t let Eenie die. I can’t show him any sign that I actually know where it is. It’ll ruin everything.
“Where do you think it is?” I ask.
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.”
“Hm. Well, I don’t either. So we’re in quite a pickle.”
I look at him. His face is red. I laugh. Good.
“Too bad Lease doesn’t know,” I say, watching him.
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning she has a secret. She works for the Rebellion. She never told you that?”
I flash him a sarcastic smile as he stands up.
He’s mad now.
Good.
I laugh again, and twist my hands to loosen the ropes around my wrists. It works, and I slide them out easily.
I stand up and walk to the door. I see Lease and the scumbag arguing outside the aircraft they shoved me into.
I make a run for it—only to bump into his two puppets again.
“Are you kidding me?” I shout.
The big one grabs me by my arm. I cringe. I twist out of it and sprint to the trees with him on my tail. I jump over logs and through trees to try to lose him.
He’s too fast.
He’s on me before I can make it far enough away. He pins me to the ground, his weight crushing my lungs.
I see a purple face staring back at me through the dark.