I must have drifted off, because when I open my eyes, I see Harper smiling over me.
“Wake up, woman,” she says. “I found a flag.”
“Really?” My voice sounds like a truck driving over gravel. Nice.
“Yeah, hop to.” Harper moves away and rouses everyone else. I wonder if her waking me up first is her attempt at an apology. I decide to think it is, and accept it as an early-morning gift.
“You found a flag?” I hear Jaxon saying over and over. The pride in his voice is evident, as if Harper’s success is partly his own doing. He lifts her up and spins her in a circle.
She shoves an elbow into his chest. “Let me down or I’ll aim lower.”
He sets her on her feet. “You’re sexy when you threaten me.”
“You disgust me,” she retorts. But I don’t miss the blush that brightens her cheeks. Harper looks at me and Guy, and attempts to hide her reaction to Jaxon’s words. “It’s this way.”
Guy glances at me, and I notice his skin has become even bronzer in the desert. It’s like his body is made to withstand any situation, while the rest of us wither like dried cranberries.
I hate him.
The corner of his mouth quirks upward.
Or love him.
Jaxon checks on Olivia, who mumbles that she’s still in pain, thank you very much. And keep your idiot Pandora away from my other fingers. He seems pleased that the girl is well enough to be difficult and nods to Harper that the two are ready to travel. Caroline puts an arm around Dink and signals that they’ll follow.
Harper straps her canteen across her chest. “Great. Let’s get going. We can have RX-13 catch us some breakfast after I show you where the flag is.”
Oh, the anticipation.
It takes about a fifteen-minute walk before we get to the blue flag, which lies lifeless against the tall rod. My fear that we’d trudge through a windy desert every day was obviously unfounded. I bet RX-13 hates days like this, when she has to beat her wings often in order to fly. Then again, maybe that’s the fun part. Who knows.
“Why didn’t you take it down, champion?” Jaxon asks Harper.
Harper shrugs.
“If I were you, I’d strap that baby around my head like Rambo.” Jaxon looks at Guy. “Have you ever seen Rambo? It’s an old throwback action movie where —” He pauses, and his face brightens. “Hey, that’s it. Let’s be the Rambos. Yeah, we’re totally the Rambos.”
“That’s the worst one yet,” Harper says, her eyes trained on the flag.
Jaxon looks at me. “You like it, right?”
“Actually, I kind of do.” And it’s the truth. I could totally sport a flag around my head and Rambo out if someone threatens us. “Maybe we should vote on —” I stop when I notice Guy bending down a few feet away. “What’s going on?” I ask. “What do you see?”
“Footprints,” he answers.
Caroline moves closer, leaving a red-faced Dink behind. Harper is nearest Dink, though I don’t expect her to offer support. Watching her shy away from the boy, I wonder again who she’s here for. She and Dink are the only ones of the old group who haven’t volunteered the information. I move next to the kid and wrap my arm around his shoulders. He leans against me and makes a low, guttural noise. Something dies inside me when I hear it.
“Maybe the prints are from Harper,” Caroline offers.
“No, there are different sizes.” Guy sweeps the sand with his fingers and looks over his shoulder at Jaxon. “Did you come here last night? Did you follow Harper?”
Jaxon holds his hands out. “What am I, some sort of stalker?”
“You’re totally stalking her,” Olivia mumbles from atop the elephant. We’ve had to move slower since EV-0 is carrying the girl, but I’m just thankful we can get her across the desert. Though I wonder how long the elephant will be able to continue with the extra weight, especially if we travel in the heat.
“There’s nothing wrong with a little infatuation.” Jaxon raises a single eyebrow at Harper, and she pretends not to notice.
“If someone else was out here, they would have seen the flag,” Harper says. “And they would’ve taken it.”
Guy’s shoulders drop. He stands up and glances at me, then at Madox. “Maybe they weren’t interested in the flag.”
“Oh snap.” Jaxon tugs the flag off the pole, wraps it around his forehead, and ties the ends behind his head. “The Triggers tried to jack our Pandoras. But never fear, the Rambos are here! Am I right?” A huge grin stretches across his mouth.
Guy shakes his head at Jaxon, then looks back at me. “It may not be him.”
But we both know it is.
“Just in case it is,” Guy continues, “we need to travel through the day.”
“But we’ve hardly slept.” Caroline eyes Dink with worry.
“And they probably haven’t, either.” Guy looks around the desert like he’s already searching for the next flag. “Which means they’ll be stopping soon to rest.”
“It’s the only way we can try and lose them,” Harper says, finishing his thought.
Guy nods to himself. “We agreed to go north after we headed east, but this flag was directly east. So what do we do? Continue east or head north?”
I glance up into the sky and locate the sun. It’s the morning, which means the sun is currently east. Which also means … I look in the northern direction. On the horizon, I see something. Squinting, I can just make out a different sort of landscape. It appears almost darker. “Look,” I say, pointing. “Do you guys see that?”
Everyone stares into the distance.
After a moment, Jaxon looks at me like I’m crazy. “Uh, yeah. It looks like sand.”
Caroline shakes her head. “I don’t see anything, either.”
“That’s because there’s nothing there.” Jaxon takes a drink of water from his canteen. “You people are dehydrated. Seeing visions and shit.”
“No, farther out,” I say. “There’s something there.”
“I see it, too.” Harper steps toward the blurry shape as if that’ll help.
Guy starts walking. “We head north.”
I look at Caroline. She shrugs and takes my place next to Dink. “I guess we’re going north,” she says.
Getting in line behind them, I pray what I’m seeing is something worth pursuing. Otherwise, I could be the reason we perish in this desert. But right now all I’m worried about is getting as far away from those footprints as possible.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
After trudging through the sand for half a day, we find another flag. I gloat. I point fingers in people’s faces. I tell anyone who will listen that I know this desert like the back of my hand.
Harper almost slaps me.
I don’t blame her. I almost slap me.
I’m just so happy what I saw pointed us in a direction that didn’t lead to certain death. Then again, there’s still a ways to go before we reach the thing I discovered, which has more or less turned out to be rock formations.
“So we just keep on heading north, right?” I ask.
Guy nods. “We keep heading north.”
“And why is that?” I twist side to side, a huge grin splitting my face. “Because we found another flag?”
My dark-haired, blue-eyed, bronze-skinned muscle man rolls his peepers so hard, they nearly fall from his head.
“Okay, but we’re going to stop once the sun sets.” Caroline places a palm to Dink’s forehead. “I mean, we have to.”